DISCLAIMER: HOMESTUCK AND ITS CHARACTERS ALL BELONG TO ANDREW HUSSIE. LORD HAVE MERCY ON HIS SOUL FOR KILLING OFF OUR FAVORITE CHARACTERS, ANYWAYS, I ONLY OWN VARA AND ANY OC'S THAT COME TO MIND.
"I can't work with him anymore! I quit!"
Nashir was at his wit's end. That was the 12th human to quit in the past week. He rubbed his temples in barely controlled frustration. "Mirthful Messiahs – Signless!"
The highblood's moirail and secretary began to shush him before he decided to strangle his descendent. "Don't worry, I'll post another add in the paper tomorrow morning. Why don't you go for a walk to rest your nerves?"
The highblood sighed. "You're motherfuckin' right," he agreed, "I need to calm the fuck down before I up and kull my descendent." The indigo blood took one last look at a younger version of him leaning back in his chair with a sad expression before he left the radio station.
Nashir found himself in the park sitting on a bench, watching the world go by as he drank from a bottle of grape Faygo. His large frame took up almost the entire bench as he tipped his head back to get a better view of the cloudy sky. The highblood would never get used to the fact that he could go out during the day and not worry about dying in the blistering heat, for unlike Alternia, Earth's sun allowed trolls to be out during the day without going blind or dying from a heat stroke. The usually tireless troll gave a tired sigh.
"What's got you so down?" a light voice asked the highblood. The troll's brows furrowed. It couldn't have been a troll that addressed him because they would have mentioned his title, and most humans were too scared to approach the intimidating troll.
Nashir brought his head up to see what human was insane enough to address an indigo so casually. He had to look down, even when sitting, to find a young human female with blood red hair, wide violet eyes, and tan skin. The highblood sighed, "My descendant is driving me up the fuckin' wall. He has talent and potential but I can't find a human that can stand him for extended periods of time."
The human gave him a sympathetic look as she sat down at the edge of the bench, the only spot left available, "Well, why is that? He can't be that bad."
Nashir laughed humorlessly, "According to the humans, he's unbearably retarded, but they're just ignorant motherfuckers."
"What makes them think he's retarded?" the woman asked.
Nashir paused, eyeing the redhead cautiously, "They think he's retarded because they don't look into what he says. It comes off to them as worthless ramblings, but he's trying to get a good discussion going on."
"What are you doing? Is it some kind of project to get humans and trolls to get along more?" she asked with furrowed brows, the corners of her lips pulling down in thought.
The highblood sighed and rubbed his eyes tiredly, "Something motherfuckin' like that. I'm trying to set up a radio station with both human and troll broadcasters."
The redhead's eyes widened at the thought, "I can't say I've heard of anything like that, but when you manage to get it off the ground I'll be sure to tune in."
For the first time in a long while, Nashir gave a genuine smile, "At least somebody has faith us." Then, as if lightning struck, the indigo looked down at the little human woman in a new light.
"What's your motherfuckin' name?"
A brow disappeared under her hair line as she smirked at the taller troll. She held her hand out with a smile, "I'm Vara Afolter, pleasure to meet you…"
"Nashir Makara," he answered before getting straight to the point. "How would you like to up and motherfuckin' meet my descendant?" Vara gave him an unsure look. She may have been brave enough to approach a highblood, but that didn't mean she was stupid enough to go off with a stranger. Seeing her expression, the troll gave her a pleading look, "Please sis, do a motherfucker a favor."
Vara sighed and reluctantly agreed, "You think with you being as big and scary as you are that that look wouldn't work."
Nashir gave her a satisfied grin, "I didn't up and hear a motherfuckin' no." The highblood hopped off the bench, nearly knocking the smaller human girl over. He waited patiently for her to collect herself before he began to lead her down to the radio station.
Needless to say that Signless was surprised to find his moirail walking through the doors sooner than expected, let alone with a young human woman in tow. Vara waved awkwardly at the troll as she passed, hurrying to keep up with the taller trolls longer stride. "He should still be in the control room," he said excitedly. He soon ducked into the room wear a young troll with a striking resemblance to Nashir sat with a sad expression and a faygo in hand.
The troll Vara assumed to be Gamzee turned his big sad eyes towards his ancestor. His sorrowful eyes lit up at the new arrival in both recognition and poorly concealed hope. She couldn't physically see anything wrong with him. All she saw was a troll around her age wearing a black shirt with Capricorn star sign in indigo, dark grey pants with lighter gray polka dots, purple converse, and the face paint that indigo blooded trolls were known for. "I motherfuckin' know you!" he exclaimed happily.
Vara was taken aback by this information, "Really?"
"Yeah! You're the miracle girl from the café!" he was practically shouted in joy.
Nashir looked between the two's expressions of confusion and excitement with a raised brow, "How do you know lil mama?"
"She was singing at the café last week on slam poetry night. She sounded like a motherfuckin' angel," Gamzee said with a slightly dazed look, unaware of the way Vara was attempting to hide herself behind her red bangs. He soon returned his attention to the girl standing next to his ancestor, "So have you always up and performed on stage or was that like a motherfuckin' in the moment kind of thing?"
Vara's blush traveled down her neck as she sputtered for a reply, "I lost a bet, so my friends made me go sing. Of course, that was my first time singing in front of so many people since I was a kid."
"What was the motherfuckin' bet?" the troll asked curiously, unaware of his ancestor slowly slipping out of the room with a smug grin.
If possible, Vara's face became an even deeper shade of red. "I bet that I would miss something on one of my tests, and Dirk bet that I would get an A+. Low and behold come Friday, the next day I received that A+. The loser had to do whatever the winner wanted them to, and Dirk being Dirk wanted me to sing at the café."
"Don't up and motherfuckin' take this the wrong way, but I'm glad you lost that bet. You sounded like a motherfuckin' miracle," Gamzee mused. Unbeknownst to the remaining inhabitants of the room, Nashir had put them on air and their conversation was being broadcasted all over the city.
Vara gave the troll a small, embarrassed smile, for being called a miracle by a subjugulator was the highest compliment one could receive. "Thank you Gamzee. Hey, you think it'd be okay if we have some music in here? I can't stand silence," she requested.
"No motherfuckin' problem lil mama, all the speakers in the building are hooked up to my husktop, so I can up and play anything you want," the young highblood explained. Gamzee simply pulled up his playlist and pressed play, hoping the red head would appreciate his taste in music.
Vara closed her eyes and readied herself for whatever music the indigo liked to listen to. She wasn't very surprised to find that he liked Hip-Hop and R&B, she just though him the type to like that genre. "You've got great taste in music, Gamzee. I've noticed that you have some slam poetry mixed in. Would that be your planet's version of rap music?" she inquired curiously, having never directly interacted with a troll for anything except a class assignment.
The troll nodded in confirmation, "Yeah, there were some good slam poets back home, but I've found that there are a lot mutherfuckin' more of them here. Not a lot of trolls think slam poetry is all that fuckin' great. A lot more of them are showing up because now they can make money. On Alternia, slam poetry is more of a hobby than anything else."
"Don't indigos have natural artistic talent?" Vara asked curiously, wanting to see if the rumor was true.
Gamzee gave her an amused grin, "Nah, lil mama, we all have to practice equally hard to get better. Some are better at certain fuckin' things than others, and you have to up and find that talent."
"Huh," Vara mused, "trolls aren't that different from humans, so why is there so much hostility between our species? I mean, I can understand how most highbloods abide by the old ways and see humans as mutants and lowbloods, but there is so much hate going around. What do you think the problem might be?"
"Woah," Gamzee breathed with wide eyes as he thought it over, "that's a deep motherfuckin' question."
Vara's eyes widened at this, "Oh, I'm sorry, you don't have to answer that! My friends always tell me I think too much." She was quite embarrassed that she asked such a question to someone she just met, and a troll no less.
Gamzee waved a hand at her dismissively, "Don't worry about it lil mama, it's a really good question. I honestly don't motherfuckin' know the answer to it though because there are a lot of reasons that humans and trolls don't get along. I think it's because of how some highbloods don't want to give up the power they had over lower blooded trolls when the old ways were still in order. After we took the Condesce out of power most trolls were okay with the hemospectrum being destroyed, fuck, even the lime bloods, who we thought to be extinct after Condesce had the subjugs destroy them, are showing up again, but that caused a problem for the Condesce's followers who agreed with her fucked up ways. I mean the lady literally forced a matespritship on another troll by chaining him up and using him as a power source. But then there's the motherfuckin' question of humans, you guys had segregation long before we arrived and while we've been waiting for change and accepting of it, humans are more underhanded about how they show their dislike of different races. Though the open-minded humans I've met who are like you make my day worth motherfuckin' something because it gives a lot of trolls hope that something would change. I have to say coming here was definitely for the better of our species. Feferi is a great Empress that everyone loves, and Meenah is taking the business world by fuckin' storm. All my friends are living better lives than ever before and I can't help but think that we're pretty fortunate to have found this planet."
Vara was nearly speechless by the end of the highblood's thought provoking musings. "Wow Gamzee, that was pretty deep. I don't know about any other human being, but I'd like to meet the trolls of different blood colors and cultures. I mean every human in the world had questioned if aliens existed. The trolls landing here was a humbling experience, that taught us how arrogant we were to think that we were the only planet out there with intelligent life. Now all I have is curiosity as to how you used to do things on your home planet and what it was like," she said wistfully.
"Maybe we can help each other out. If you decide to up and stay here to help host the show, I'm sure you'll talk to trolls from all over Alternia. You can teach me about human culture, or at least the cultures you know about, that way we'd be up and motherfuckin' educating each other," Gamzee offered.
Vara fell silent for a bit. One part of her was screaming for her to take the offer, while the other was second guessing, wondering what her parents would think about her working with trolls considering they didn't exactly have the best view of them. However in that moment, all she saw was great opportunity to learn something valuable, so forgoing all thought of her parents, Vara gave the juggalo a large grin, "I think I like the sound of that, just tell me when's our first day on the job."
"You already had your first day," Nashir said as entered the room and took them off the air. "While you two were talking, I had you broadcasted all over Louisiana."
"You were that confident I'd say yes?" Vara asked irritably, thinking about how awkward it could have been had she said no.
The highblood had the decency to look sheepish at his actions, "I had a fuck-ton of hope that you would – Ow!"
The highblood whined as a clipboard met the back of his head. Squeezing past the huge troll in the doorway, Signless glared at his moirail for tricking his descendent and a girl he found on the streets into hosting a trial run. "You're lucky Vara accepted Gamzee's offer otherwise you would have had a hard time finding humans to take her place." The mutant shook his head in exasperation at his close friend's troublesome ways. He had tried multiple times to end the feed, but Nashir picked him up by the scruff of his neck and sat him back in his seat, simply telling him to watch how they interacted. Though he was skeptical, Signless had gradually saw what Nashir was trying to get him to see. For the first time, he saw a human treat Gamzee with respect and talk to him like he was a regular person. Everyone else who'd stepped into the room took one glance at the troll and treated him like a child, not allowing him to do anything and monopolizing the entire room. Vara didn't do that, she simply let Gamzee work how he did best and held the most thought provoking conversation out of the hundreds that'd been in the room with him.
At first when the highblood told him how he met the small human, he began to truly wonder if his moirail had finally lost the last of his sanity, but as he watched the conversation continue, he found that it was the most Gamzee had spoken in all of their test runs. He didn't miss toothy grin that grew on the young troll's face when Vara accepted nor the worried look he had when she thought the offer over.
"Who cares? We finally have someone who can work with my descendant. This calls for a motherfuckin' celebration!" Nashir cheered with a happy honk.
"I second that motherfuckin' motion," Gamzee agreed eagerly before turning to ask the red head for her opinion. "What about you lil mama?"
Vara shrugged with a small smile, "I don't see why not. Tomorrow's a Satrday anyway."
All heads turned to the stern looking mutant blood, who's hard eyes softened at the sight of the pleading looks sent his way. "Fine, but you're paying," Signless relented with a playful glare at his moirail who smirked in triumph.