Headphone Actor (HS FF) 07/03/2012

I'm shot for ideas okay.

This'll be just a fic I'll update quickly at first (since I'm loosely basing it off the song Headphone Actor sung by Vocaloid IA) and get a bit slower once I start completely going off on a tangent with it. Or, where the song leaves off.

I may even write fics for the rest of the songs in that series, who knows.

But for now, I'm just writing a total bored for ideas kind of thing.

It's pretty AU, set before sburb obviously. Dave is pretty much going to be the only character until I start the other songs and such. I'm pretty much going to play this by ear until I get to where the song leaves off and I can really start building the plot up.

Just as a note, most of this is just talk. It's probably going to end up being a two or three shot with sequels or prequels, aka the other songs in the series.

Maybe after I get this out of the way and a couple more I'll start cementing a plot here.

Who frickin' knows.

So yeah.

Disclaimer: Homestuck belongs to Andrew Hussie and the song and lyrics to Headphone Actor belong to Jin and is sung by Vocaloid IA. I am none of those people.


It was a normal day for me, Dave Strider, as I sat in my Bro's room, playing his console. I had the radio up loud since Bro was out shopping or something. Normal as ever.

I had the radio set on some weird international station, just to listen to the irony of all the silly accents. What can I say, Bro taught me well. I had learned to seek out irony whenever possible.

Suddenly the normal program in like German or something fizzled out and on came some strange announcement. It was going in multiple languages but I could tell it was urgent by the panic in the voices streaming out of the stereo. When it finally got to English I leaned into the sound of the current president's voice.

"It has come to our attention that something very severe is occurring as I speak to you. I will put it as bluntly as possible," I could have sworn I heard his voice crack. "the world appears to be ending."

His words hit me like a ton of bricks. I even broke my ever-stoic expression as I dropped the controller. My hands were shaking so badly I was surprised they held onto the controller even that long.

I quickly shot up, forgetting the game completely and nearly tripped over stray textbooks I left out. I was supposed to be doing homework but I put it off like usual. Yet that was the least of my problems, or anyone's really. I don't think my teacher would count it late since the world was ending and all.

I scrambled over to my room and picked up my headphones, my instincts telling me it was my only hope for any serenity in any situation life would ever throw at me. My trembling fingers placed the ever-blasting headphones on my head. The obscure bands Bro had told me about soothed my pain until that too was interrupted by yet another strange message.

"You want to survive, yes?"

The voice seemed so ridiculously familiar to me, yet I couldn't place a finger on it. It reminded me almost of Bro's or maybe my own, but it was so warped and hushed I could barely tell.

I contemplated the question and in no time at all I had definitely decided on yes. I mean, what idiot wouldn't want to? I was most certainly not that idiot, so I said yes out loud. I have no idea why out loud, but I wasn't really thinking anything through at that point.

It whispered many things to me but I was too focused on the birds outside. They were forming strange patterns in the sky, completely clouding it over and blotting out the evening Texan sun. Even the faint moon was covered just as quickly. I wondered where they went, probably north or something. That's birds for you.

I finally came back to the crumbling Earth and caught the last of the headphone's words,

"If you cross that hill in 20 seconds, you'll know what I mean, for better or worse. Don't doubt, just listen close- go 20 seconds ahead."

The words perplexed me, probably since I missed the better part of the headphone's message. I just assumed it meant the old hill on the outskirts of town since that's the only hill I've ever heard of being around here. And it usually takes about 20 minutes to get there by walking. I assumed the headphones got it's units of time measurement mixed up and went with my idea.

I ran across the hall, headphones still firmly planted on my head. I skidded into Bro's room and grabbed a katana, just in case. I had no idea what could have been out there so I just took Bro's rule of thumb- never be katanaless- and and ran with it. Literally.

I did leave myself enough time to scrawl a messy note in my chicken-scratch handwriting on a piece of paper and stick it on the fridge just in case Bro comes back wondering where I had run off to. I didn't tell him exactly where I was going, he probably knew already through his Bro-Knows-All powers and if he didn't, I didn't want him coming after me looking for a strife. That would be just about the worst thing that could happen to me.

I shot out the door like a cannon and flew down the street, katana at my side, ready to strike. I didn't have much reason to be poised to attack, but again my instincts proved themselves worthy by telling me it was the thing to do.

I barely noticed on my speedy way down the street the chaos ripping at the falling constructs that was once a pretty quiet city. The truth is, it was less that I just didn't notice it and more that I just didn't want to. Under my unnervingly stoic outer shell I'm a pretty scared kid on the inside. And damn, did this whole ordeal really threaten to let him out.

Even my shades wouldn't be able to protect me from that.

I just had one thought on my mind,

Get to the hill.


Well, that was ridiculously short by my normal standards.

Oh well.

This story is going to be short by my normal standards.

Sooo...thoughts?

A review would be much appreciated, you don't even have to press a button anymore. Just type a couple words and bam, you're done.

The nice thing about reviews are that they let me know you're still reading.

Me knowing you're still reading means I update.

You want me to update, correct?

So review. :3

-Mint