Seapunkification: A Bloodswap AU's Beta Trolls
Happy 413, esteemed Homestucks! The troll lineup for this bloodswap AU of mine is two years in the making... and it's finally done! ✨
alternate version + artist's notes + backstory under the cut~
Alternate Versions
As usual, the alternate version shows Karkat without his violetblood disguise.
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Artist's Notes + Backstory
(warning: backstory contains spoilers!)
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Feferi Megido (she/her)
Feferi Megido, the Catacomb Cuddler, looooves ghosts! She thinks that they deserve better than to be stuck haunting the mortal world, and so takes it upon herself to let the ghosts into her body and help them finish their unfinished business. She enjoys hanging out in places with a lot of death, and when she meets the Heiress, she travels to even more! (And maybe finds some love during it!)
Feferi is also the President of Cronusitis, a.k.a. the Bandlead Troubadour (Cronus Vantas) Fan Club, archiving the works of her favorite crooner. (That's why she wears 1950s-style clothes!) She'd do anything to get even the slightest scraps of Troubadour material, even travel to places full of death and danger (this is also how her ghost communion psionic powers and possession hobbies come in handy, she can be a medium that interviews dead Cronus-fans... though she wishes she could find the ghost of Cronus Vantas himself).
When Eridan Vantas told her that the Troubadour and the revolutionary Signless were one and the same, she decided to make it her goal to undo Imperial propaganda that separated those two figures and reveal the truth. At least to her fan club... but every big change starts with a small step!
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Vriska Nitram (she/her)
Vriska Nitram was supposed to be under Imperial watch for being the descendant of the rebellious Corsaire (formerly Summoner, a.k.a. Aranea Nitram), but the Beguiler Dualscar/First and Grandest Orphaner (Kankri Ampora) had a soft spot for the Corsaire. Thus, by the grace of the Beguiler, she was spared the awful surveillance of most descendants of seditious trolls. She doesn't know this, though.
Also I made her taller. Sorry to all the short Vriska truthers 😔
Vriska is drawn with practical and casual clothes. This is just what she wears during VLARP-ing (Virtual Live Action Role Play) with Nepeta, Sollux, and Tavros (it was called "hyperrealistic TTRPG" in that old post :p), which she did after she stopped FLARP-ing.
Since Seapunkification is rather cyberpunk-y, with Makara Tech as the megacorp and the violetbloods as the Senatormentors that rule the Empire, VLARP-ing is seen as a more high-class, tasteful alternative for highbloods than FLARP-ing. After all, highblood lives are "more precious", unlike lowbloods who are so high in numbers they're "expendable" and so can just FLARP and die.
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Kanaya Captor (she/her)
Kanaya basically wears Cyberclown attire without actually being cyber or clown, simply because she's Equius' assistant/errand girl/probably moirail.
She is weak in telekinesis and electricity, but extremely skilled at it from a lot of practice. Her psionic strength lies in precognition, which gives her a disability in form of constant hallucinations of visions of the past, present, and future.
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Eridan Vantas (he/him)
Despite being the descendant of the Signless and the last surviving limeblood, Eridan is free-ish from Imperial watch, because the Signless Revolution's spies are protecting him. Moreover, his own limeblood illusion psionics is unwittingly shielding him and the people he cares about (Terezi and Kanaya) from Imperial surveillance.
While Kanaya is weak-but-skilled in physical psionics, Eridan's got no skill to wield his. In terms of raw power, he beats everyone else, but he isn't allowed to train himself by the Signless Revolution after accidentally burning someone to death in his wrigglerhood. That's why Kanaya has taken it upon herself to train him.
The Signless Revolution gives Eridan the task to fulfill the Fateseer's prophecy that the Signless' descendant will unite every troll across the hemospectrum. This task is to recruit at least one troll from every caste before he is exiled from the home planet in adulthood.
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Terezi Leijon (ey/em/eir/eirs/emself)
Terezi is an assassin, who fashions emself as someone who reaps the souls of the damned (a.k.a. people who are against the Signless Revolution's values). That's easier said than done, however, since eir clients mostly want the opposite of what ey wants.
Oh well. In the meantime, ey trains with Eridan and Kanaya in preparation for the glorious revolution.
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Sollux Maryam (he/him)
As the descendant of the Architex, Sollux is under Imperial watch. So he decides to escape the brooding caverns and constantly moves around, attending online school under a pseudonym, living off empty hives and selling the stuff in said hives. But this is not sustainable. And puberty makes him dysphoric. So he has to come out of hiding and find enough money to transition socially and medically. He also doesn't feel like he can live in isolation forever.
Here comes Tavros Serket with a golden ticket to gender validation.
Like Nepeta, he is under the employ of the ceruleanblood. He learns how to GM and uses VLARP-ing to find people that Nepeta can blackmail. He pursues Aradia Peixes - the Heiress - in a relationship of ambiguous quadrants to extort her, but unfortunately, Aradia knows that jadebloods are "not supposed to" have bifurcated horns... this is a distinctive trait too, like that one rebel called The Architex (a.k.a. Mituna Maryam). She used this information against him, but Sollux will definitely retaliate. (That's why his horns are cut off in this image, as this is Sollux post-"The Maryam Makeover".)
Also I decided to give Sollux short braids. Because Sollux with long hair (like in the VLARP art from 2023) is probably best saved for his adult self. *vibrates excitedly about the hypothetical Seapunkification friendsim*
Also Sollux hacks his own government files to legalize his and Nepeta's transition. Trans icon.
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Nepeta Pyrope (they/them)
Nepeta Pyrope's more of a sheltered kid than Nepeta Leijon, so they wear cute and impractical clothes. The tail is decorative. They wear a lot of purple because of Equius, their moirail and benefactor. They only became Equius' "meowrail" to extort him and get closer to the Makara Tech fortune and secrets to bring the megacorp down and avenge their ancestor, but he doesn't know that yet.
Nepeta is under Imperial watch for being the descendant of Meulin Pyrope, the Neophyte Orphaner (the first and only teal-blooded Orphaner ever). The Neophyte was hated by the Empress for colluding with Kankri Ampora in turning the Empire into a violetblood hegemony - later, they got executed by Horuss Makara for their crimes. So, Nepeta tries their best to seem like a law-abiding citizen. (Somewhat. They decide to join Tavros Serket's criminal empire to get money for transitioning.)
They also avoid the Orphaner Corps at all costs - only violetbloods can be Orphaners now, sure, but they also don't want to work there in an administrative capacity, either.
Sollux and Nepeta are both ~ HACKERMAN ~, but he's more about having fun and Nepeta is more of the data analysis stalker who blackmails people for secrets, favors, and money by knowing their "weak spots" (friends and quadrants and other associates).
When not studying Imperial law, trying to avenge their ancestor, or committing organized crime, Nepeta is an avid roleplayer and fanfiction reader. Their favorite author is one VioletProse, a seadweller with a penchant of writing complicated love dodecahedrons and quadrant-mixing, complete with schedules and charts. They wish to meet VioletProse someday and talk about writing.
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Tavros Serket (she/her)
Tavros pays for Nepeta and Sollux's transitions in exchange for a large cut of their profits. As Sollux and Nepeta undergo bodily changes and become happier and more euphoric, Tavros finds herself feeling Some Sort of Emotion.
Vriska, who is also a trans girl, decides that she'll hatch Tavros's egg, no matter how ready the cerulean may or may not be. She'll teach her the ropes! It'll be great!
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Gamzee Zahhak (he/him)
Gamzee, as the descendant of the Salvation (Kurloz Zahhak) - the original inventor of the clown religion - is constantly under Imperial surveillance. He's basically a ward of the Cyberclown Church, living with Equius as a long-suffering fellow churchgoer.
He takes up engineering so he can go to the academy of Makara Tech and away from Equius' "friendship", enlisting the help of one Vriska Nitram (thus the bronze-colored tools in his hands).
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Equius Makara (he/him)
Seapunkification presents to you our Short Equius Agenda.
Equius is basically ordered by his ancestor to proselytize people, including and especially Gamzee.
His ancestor, the Mirthful Messiah/the High Prieste% (Horuss Makara), stole and bastardized the Salvation's religion. The Salvation and his adherents dressed as clowns with tearful face paint, which mourned the Signless' death, using a clown persona as an homage to the Signless' pre-rebellion performer image. His adherents were supporters of the Signless and/or limebloods who were trying to escape the purge.
The Mirthful Messiah (with the help of the Beguiler and the Summoner) destroyed the Salvation's original clown church and turned it into a cyberclown church where adherents replace body parts with cybernetics in an act of mirthful creation. All the clown stuff is kept as a mockery of the rebellion.
Equius is intensely jealous of this violet-blooded fanfiction author that his meowrail constantly gushes about.
On the other hand, he longs to meet the descendant of the Beguiler and idealizes him, since Kankri and Horuss were besties when the former was still mortal...
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Karkat Ampora (he/him, she/her)
Oh, Karkat Ampostor, they can never make me hate you.
Like Nepeta, he is a fandom-goer. He isn't a roleplayer, but he writes meta and fanfic. Under his pen name "VioletProse", Karkat is somewhat of a BNF in the fandom of "The Concupiscent Auspistice", a series of doorstopping corny semi-seditious quadrant-fucking romance novels.
I'm always drawing Karkat in a beskap, fake horns, and face paint/makeup now, at least when he's taking his disguise seriously. And since I'm already dressing him with an Indonesian attire, I think he can have a keris (dagger) as the Hallowed Sword he inherited from his ascended ancestor (who is wearing clothes inspired by Central Javanese wedding attire). The wavy shape of a keris is like his sign too!
Karkat's pants is an inner swimsuit like Aradia's (see below), except he uses adaptive, stretchy protective "shoes/socks" for his toes because like hell he's showing those red ones. The golden part is actually a knee brace with some modifications! He also wears gloves with finger splints, which are also gold. His classmates definitely notice that Karkat suddenly has a taste for makeup, jewelry, and fine clothes instead of just T-shirts like before his mutation.
Karkat's belt has nothing to do with a beskap-style attire, it's moreso a "pirate" aesthetic (he and Aradia wear belts with each other's caste colors~)
Also, if the Hallowed Sword is a keris, I would make his cane a lightsaber. Sorry, I make the rules here. Seapunkification is pretty cyberpunk, at least in my head. I'll work on it more! (I kinda wish that this AU was more worldbuilding- and- xeno- than character-driven sometimes xD)
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Aradia Peixes (she/her, they/them)
Aradia has always been drawn with a kimono-style top that is folded incorrectly (as in, the way a corpse's clothes - not a living person's - are folded). At first, her skirt is longer and more layered, but I like the stingray look with the wide top and narrowing tail... and it's more fitting to Aradia's adventurous character to have practical clothes that let her run around and have fights.
I don't know how to work her arm-fins, so I ignored it for now xD I also removed her makeup because I don't think she'd wear it. But I added a bun, to make her look more princess-like. Her arm tattoos are horrorterror vibes, one is the deep ocean with eyes, and the other is the tentacles.
Now, her inner clothes! I decided she can wear stirrup pants-style diving-suit material, since it's athletic and also lets her swim (and is very princessy/ballerina-y, which has a classy feel). The open toes is actually because in Seapunkification seadwellers will have webbed feet and hands underwater.
The whip is two-sided, one side is a grappling hook and the other would be like, laser-style. It works underwater of course, Karkat's does too. Yes. I'm pushing it. >;D
