Fanfic / A Lullaby For Gods

Written by SociopathicArchangel, A Lullaby For Gods is a Homestuck/Marvel Cinematic Universe crossover. After a rift strands the kids on Marvel Earth, the Beta kids end up sharing an apartment with none other than Loki Silvertongue. As time goes on, the kids and Loki start to adapt to each other, and to the new world that both parties are all-too unfamiliar with.

Over time, their humble apartment gets turned into New York's (second) safest place, shenanigans ensue, and the kids start drawing the attention of SHIELD. Meanwhile, Mutant kids have mysteriously started to go missing...

Beware of unmarked spoilers!

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Tropes in A Lullaby for Gods:

• A Boy and His X: The Safehouse Crew ends up taking in a lot of strays. In particular is Moxie, who takes a shine to John, and Kevin's dog Buster.
• Aliens Speaking English: To Tavros' ears, the Vanir tongue sounds exactly the same as the bronzeblood Alternian dialect, while Nereus and Giorno speak fluent Italian. Justified in that civilizations in a successor universe tend to inherit various cultural details from those in the predecessor's.
• Alliterative Name: Eidendre Eldrisson and Alverdine Ardinia.
• Angelic Abomination:
  • Part VII is rife with them, as angels acting as harbingers of the end begin attacking New York.
  • Hope players themselves count as this, as their true forms leave them magically indistinct from regular angels.
• Be Careful What You Wish For: During Team Chaos' original session, the Heir of Blood struck a bargain with his denizen in a desperate attempt to spare his twin's life as the Anathema Point. It doesn't work out so well.
• Because You Were Nice to Me:
  • The reason Steve makes friends with Jade, and doesn't rat them out to SHIELD.
  • The reason Eridan lets Anshu stay friends with him at first is because the helpful fish retrieved his glasses when they fell off the reef.
• Big Fancy House: The Angeles estate, where the Pissdrinkers and most of the noncombatants are sent to lay low during Part VII.
• Bigger on the Inside:
  • The Safehouse. Tony, understandably, nearly has an aneurysm trying to figure it out.
  • The Blueberry, Team Chaos' spaceship and base of operations.
• Blind Seer: The Seer of Void.
• Bloodier and Gorier: A given, with the Heir of Blood as an antagonist.
• Bodyguarding a Badass: Hal and Saph.
• Came Back Wrong:

• Anshu in Part VII has this done to them twice. First when they're brought back as a ghost, and then again when her body is tossed into sprite to serve as a tool for the Heir of Blood's denizen.

• Cannibalism Superpower: Later in Part VII, Karkat develops the power of analyzing a person's blood via consuming it, as well as copying any abilities and weaknesses genetically written into that person's DNA.
• Can't Hold His Liquor: Hal while controlling Electric Love, on account of being so new to having a body that responds to stimuli that he's never had time to build up a physical tolerance to anything.
• Connected All Along: Various background characters throughout Parts I-V tend to have mysterious origins or motives, often in a way that happen to subtly influence the plot in some way. Turns out that these were all members of Team Chaos, nudging events from behind the scenes.
• The Chessmaster: Team Chaos in general. Special mention goes to the Heir of Doom, however, as they are responsible for, among other things, assigning the kids to their teams based on group and classpect dynamics, carefully setting up opportunities to steer the timeline in the direction the Team wants, and helping to keep track of everyone's movements throughout the Nine Realms.
• Consummate Liar: The Heir of Doom.
• Cool Old Lady: The landlord, Mrs. Harrison.
• Deal with the Devil: William Angeles making a pact with his denizen in exchange for the Heir of Doom's life.
• Defrosting Ice Queen: A male example with Loki, earlier in the story. Alverdine Ardinia also counts as this to Jake and Tavros.
• Eldritch Abomination: The Heir of Blood. Specifically, the Heir of Blood's denizen, who's controlling his body and his powers to brutally massacre and destroy any and all foreign elements within a universe by any means possible, including ending said universe itself.
• Expy:
  • Kevin and Cecil Palmer are explicitly based on the Welcome To Nightvale characters of the same name.
  • Mrs. Harrison and her husband Anthony are based on Aziraphale and Crowley from Good Omens.
• Friend to All Children: Loki becomes this among the refugee kids.
• God Guise: Davesprite, to a bunch of seagulls.
• Go Through Me: Cecil tells Dave that New York will do this if someone tries to hurt them.
  Cecil: If SHIELD comes looking for you, New York will not let them take you.
• Hospitality for Heroes: Various places will help the kids out as thanks for the shelter they provide.
• Iconic Item: Members of Team Chaos and their recruits all tend to be equipped with a crystal teleporter necklace made by the Mage of Space.
• Meaningful Appearance: Cecil and Kevin are associated with Derse and Prospit respectively. This is not lost on the Beta Kids.
• Meaningful Name:
  • Sapphrel and Ruben, from sapphire and ruby.
  • Anshu, in Alternian, means 'hope'. Her full name, Anya Jaeger, falls under this as well. Anya can have a variety of different etymologies, including "God has favoured me" (Hebrew), "gracious" (Russian), or "resurrection" (Sanskrit). Jaeger is a German surname that means "hunter".
  • The Ancestral Session, in droves.
    • One of the many possible readings of "Haruka" is "infinity", keeping with the theme of her aspect.
    • "Icarus" is taken from the mythological figure who flew too close to the sun.
    • "Diosci" is the shortened form of the Dioscuri, another name for the twins Castor and Pollux, upon whom the myth of gemini is based on.
    • "Sabera" takes her name from the saber-toothed lion.
    • "Aethra" is taken from Aether, the primordial Greek titan of light.
    • "Themis" is the Greek goddess of law, order, and justice.
    • "Lycosi" is short for Lycosidae, the taxonomic name of the wolf spider family.
    • "Arione" was a divine black horse in Greek mythology.
    • "Alecto" is the name of one of the Furies; specifically, the one presiding over insatiable anger.
    • "Nereus" is a Greek titan god known as the Old Man of the Sea, the father to all nereids.
    • "Giorno" is taken from Giorno Giovanna, who has a similar ability to Giorno's magic.
  • Triton Peixes, Giorno's ancestor, is named after the mythological son of Poseidon and Greek god of the sea.
• Not Growing Up Sucks: John, in Chapter 7.
• Older Than They Look: All godtiers' bodies are frozen at the age they originally were when they died. As a result, the Beta and Alpha kids still respectively look thirteen and sixteen despite being in their twenties, while the members of Team Chaos are billions of years old yet still don't look a day over twenty.
• Only Known by Their Nickname:
  • The Safehouse Crew all start as this, with them being known only as Palmers #1 and #2, Mrs. Harrison or Mrs. H, Mr. G, the pool master, and the pool master's best friend.
  • The Pissdrinkers, Hal's online friends, start as this as well. They are only known by their screen names until Part VI.
  • The helpful fish Eridan meets in Part II, who he later names Anshu. Her real name is Anya Jaeger, though they still continue to go by Anshu because they like the name that Eridan gave them.
  • The members of Team Chaos all choose to go by their godtier classpects rather than their regular names. This is because they prefer not to become overly attached to the people they meet, as the nature of their mission means that there's a high chance of the people they help dying, and that they eventually must leave behind everyone they know every time they move to a new session.
  • The seers in Part V, with the exception of High Priestess Eleutheria, are all referred to based on a unique element of their clothing. Eventually averted for Haldis and Caelum.
  • Mod M, a blogger who was trapped in NYC at the beginning of Part VII. Several fans have collaborated to create an increasingly ridiculous full name for them.
  • The Sun God and his siblings. When they aren't being referred to by their deific domains, they all refer to each other by their birth order (One, Three, Seven, etc).
• Opportunistic Bastard: Sapphrel, with their deep understanding of group psychology and penchant for using it to their advantage. This becomes especially important in Part Six.
• Oracular Urchin: Several. Cecil and Kevin are of the usual type (albeit older than normal). Rose Lalonde is also considered to be this by many of the college-age refugees as well, thanks to her Seer powers. Alverdine Ardinia and the nameless völur child who Thor meets in Vanaheim also count as this.
• Out of Focus: Throughout the early chapters, most of the Safehouse Crew are barely even touched upon despite being main characters in later parts, and it can be easy to forget that some of them even exist. This is to the point that throughout the first few parts, we are never even given their names. This is later revealed to be justified in-story, as the Safehouse Crew are all alternate versions of Team Chaos and keeping them out of narrative focus prevents them from drawing the attention of the Heir of Blood.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: Particularly solid red eyes for those who are being possessed by the Heir of Blood. This also counts for the sprited Anshu in Part VII, whenever the bloodleech half of her is in control of her body.
• Rage Against the Heavens: In Part VII, Eridan makes this quite literal following the death of Anshu.
• Sacrificial Lamb:
  • Anathema: A spell that takes an Heir of Doom and makes them an Anathema Point, forcing them to take on the collected doom of a universe in order to stave off its death. When an Anathema Point dies, all the doom they've collected lashes out on them, leaving the universe intact. This is later Played For Angst when it's discovered that Saph is this universe's Anathema Point.
  • Anshu, in Chapter 116.
• Seers: Vanaheim is an entire planet of seers, though under normal circumstances only a part of the population can manifest these abilities.
• Secret-Keeper: Steve, for the Safehouse Crew.
• Sent Into Hiding: Most of the noncombatant members of the cast are sent to Night Vale to weather the storm once cataclysmic events start happening in NYC.
• Shout-Out: Lullaby, much like the [[Webcomic/Homestuck source material]] it's based on, is absolutely chocked full of them.
  • In Chapter 81, Hal references the 2019 Area 51 Raid as an event that happened in his timeline.
  • Chapter 117 sees Cronus puttering around Sicily, disguised as the Heir of Doom's human nephew and slowly growing into himself as he studies magic and practices with the Full Moon of Derse, which is stated to sometimes appear as an 1860 Liberty dollar. Now: a tall, dark-skinned young man who does coin tricks with a moon disguised as a Liberty dollar, temporarily living in a small isolated town under the cover of being the nephew of someone known as the Gallows-God? That sounds awfully familiar...
  • In Chapter 123, the audience is introduced to the world of Kisaragi, named after the urban horror story Kisaragi Station.
    • People who follow the author on social media might experience some déjà vu reading about the gods of Kisaragi. This is because they're from one of the author's planned projects, Homestuck: Internet Plays Canon.
• Spanner in the Works:
  • The Safehouse Crew to a number of plots, like freeing Bucky Barnes from HYDRA.
  • Word of God states that the characters will eventually have to face down the Heir of Blood, Lord English, Bec Noir, and )(er Imperious Condescension.
• Speaks Fluent Animal: Eridan speaks fish. Davesprite speaks bird.
• Together in Death: In order to reverse the end of the world and make sure that nobody can misuse the powers of a Sylph of Hope again, Eridan and Anshu sacrifice themselves with Eridan stabbing a sword clean through both their chests.
• Trauma Conga Line: Pretty much the entirety of Part VII, as the end of the world begins in earnest and characters are forced to do as much as they can to survive and stave it off.
• Vagueness Is Coming: The earlier parts of the story are absolutely steeped in it. Understandable, given the Heir of Blood's cognitohazardous nature.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: Hal and Sapphrel.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Invoked in-universe by Loki, who wonders at how his life would have turned out if he'd been around other mages as a child.
  • Much, much later in the story, it is revealed that the whole timeline is a what-might-have-been, with the Safehouse Crew being made up of alternate versions of Team Chaos.
• Wrong Assumption: New York thinks that the kids are mutants. They're actually Gods.
• You Are Number 6: The gods of Kisaragi all refer to each other by their birth order, with One being the eldest and Thirteen being the youngest, though we only ever meet One, Three, and Seven.
• Your Worst Memory: What happens to the people who get pulled into the rifts, forced to relive the worst moments of their life for months on end while only days pass by outside.