Herding Cats
is a
Homestuck Fan Fic by
childishGambino.
Nepeta has completed all of her tasks in her portion of the game and goes to confront her Denizen, Psyche. Psyche declines to fight Nepeta, but offers instead to give Nepeta an important task. As the Hero of Heart, Nepeta must ship all 12 of her fellow trolls (including herself) until they each have a
matesprit and a
moirail. Psyche reveals that they're in a doomed timeline, but offers to keep the timeline from being destroyed like the other doomed timelines while Nepeta completes her task, and that this timeline can even exist permenately if Nepeta succeeds. Psyche has 3 conditions: 1) Nepeta must only use her heart powers to guide, not force, her fellow trolls into relationships, 2) she must tell no one why she's doing this, and 3) she must save the matespritship for herself and the boy she loves, Karkat, for last, and tell no one of her feelings for him until it's time.
So Nepeta posts a memo she calls "The Shipping Wall".
Vriska immedeately shows up to mock and laugh at her attempts to ship everybody, saying Karkat would go ballistic over it. But Karkat shows up and actually approves of the idea, mainly because he's spent a week having to put up with everybody's relationship problems, and is so sick of it he's more than eager to foist the task onto Nepeta. He even orders her to ship Vriska first, mainly to keep every memo from devolving into
Vriskachat.And so Nepeta starts her epic shipping quest!
Hilarity Ensues! Complications arise! Trolls become pale or flushed for each other! Black rom and ashen even enter the picture! This promising WIP fic is shaping up to be a Nepeta Quest 2012, and updates fairly regularly (usually a new chapter is added between one and two weeks). It's currently on Chapter 14, and is nearly 150,000 words long.
All regular personality tropes for the 12 trolls apply here until they no longer do.
>Story: Have tropes
- Adorkable: How Terezi feels for Eridan.
- Alpha Bitch: Vriska, of course, but only at first.
- Alternate Universe Fic: With the in-universe explanation of alternate/doomed timelines. This story takes place in a doomed timeline, that may not be so doomed after all.
- Amateur Sleuth: Aradia. She knows this is a doomed timeline, is mystified by why it isn't being destroyed, and is determined to find out the truth.
- Ascended Extra: This is one of many fan works that takes Nepeta, described by her own creator as an "expendable character" and make her the main character.
- Axe Crazy: Gamzee goes through this, but unlike the Alpha Timeline, is calmed down before he can kill anyone, thanks to Tavros' epic slam poetry.
- Bi the Way: Nepeta's equal opportunity in suggesting matespritships of the same gender. Among the other trolls, the one most Bi is Vriska, who even after happily becoming matesprits with Kanaya, still has some flushed feelings for Tavros.
- Equius is a subversion. At first, he wants Nepeta to ship him with Gamzee, but that's only because Gamzee is a highblood. Equius admits he likes nothing else about Gamzee.
- Break His Heart To Save Him: In a way. Terezi is being deliberately obnoxius and insulting at Karkat's outburst mainly to try to get him to stop being flushed for her. It works.
- Can't Spit It Out: Sollux is like this in all of his relationships, which is especially frustrating for Feferi (she'd be just as happy to be his moirail or matesprit, but which is it?) and Vriska (who wants to be his kismesis).
- Character Development: The trolls are able to improve once they have matesprits and moirails.
- A Day in the Limelight: The "Sidelines" chapters are notably Nepeta-less.
- Death Is Dramatic: Discussed and deconstructed by Vriska, of all people, who argues that killing off characters doesn't necessarily make a story more interesting.
- Deus ex Machina: Psyche, keeping this doomed timeline from being destroyed.
- Everybody Lives: Seems to be one of the main goals of this fic. No one's died so far at any rate.
- Evil Counterpart: Eridan is shaping up to be this, not only in trying to be Nepeta's kismesis, but in his fascination in black rom, sowing the seeds of discord between Kanaya and Feferi.
- The First Cut Is the Deepest: Eridan for Feferi, Karkat for Terezi.
- Fix Fic: A Homestuck where the trolls manage to get their relaitionship shit together.
- Heel Face Turn: Vriska's much nicer once she becomes successfully shipped.
- Both Mindfang and Dualscar in "The Death of Spinneret Mindfang".
- Heterosexual Life Partners: The moirails. So far we have Nepeta/Equius, Vriska/Tavros, and Gamzee/Eridan, with hints of Terezi/Aradia, Sollux/Feferi, and Karkat/Kanaya for the remaining couples.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Eridan really does care for Gamzee and Karkat, and he manages to win over Terezi by being nice to her.
- Loving a Shadow: Eridan for Feferi.
- The Matchmaker: Nepeta's task.
- Mood Whiplash: Chapter 12 is largely a memo celebration of the matespritship of Eridan/Terezi. Everyone (except Sollux) seems to be having a great time...and then a heartbroken Karkat shows up with his outburst.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Both Nepeta and Eridan feel this way when they realize how much Karkat was flushed for Terezi.
- Official Couple: Vriska/Kanaya, Tavros/Gamzee, Eridan/Terezi. The future couples are hinted at being Equius/Feferi, Sollux/Aradia, and Karkat/Nepeta.
- OT 3: invoked Vriska ships Mindfang/Dolorosa/Summoner. In the context of her FLARP session's post-Heel Face Turn Mindfang, anyway.
- Vriska would also like to have this with Kanaya and Tavros.
- OOC Is Serious Business: When Nepeta drops the cat puns (and in the pesterlogs/memoes, her :33< s), it means she's REALLY upset.
- Porn Without Plot: Not this fic, but Nepeta once wrote one of Feferi/Vriska.
- Shipper on Deck: Nepeta, of course. Terezi becomes a black shipper of Nepeta/Eridan after reading Nepeta's "The Reason You Suck" Speech.
- Show Within a Show: "The Death of Spinnaret Mindfang" FLARPing session.
- Suspiciously Specific Denial: As Eridan is waiting for Nepeta to get back to him while she chats with Feferi, he complains they could be writing a fanfiction in the time that it's taking them. The first thing Nepeta says when she gets back is, "There was no fiction involved!"
- The End... Or Is It?: Vriska insists that despite appearances, Spinnaret and Dolorosa were not killed when they walked the plank.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Nepeta gives an EPIC one to Eridan on why he and Feferi were such lousey moirails and why they'd be even worse matesprits. This not only inspires Eridan to become Nepeta's kismesis, but even to start black shipping everyone else.
- Karkat delivers one to Vriska at the start.
- More recently, Tavros gave one to Sollux for the way he's been treating Vriska.
- Take That: Vriska's deconstrucion of the Death Is Dramatic trope could be seen as a Take That at the darker tone that Homestuck has taken.
- Took a Level in Badass: Nepeta, pawbviously. Also Tavros.
- Unrequited Love Switcheroo: Karkat (wrongly) fears this is happening between him and Nepeta. Initially, he figured out her feelings for him, but he despised her at the time, and so did nothing about it. Now, after he's seen her take a level in badass, he's flushed for her, but fears she no longer feels the same way about him.
- Vitriolic Best Buds: According to Terezi, this is ideally what a kismessis should be. It certainly looks that way with Nepeta/Eridan, but for now the Feferi/Kanaya blackrom seems mostly just vitriol.
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