Tropes Media Browse Indexes Forums Videos Ask The Tropers Trope Finder Media Finder Trope Launch Pad Tech Wishlist Reviews Tools
Cut List New Edits Edit Reasons Launches Images List Crowner Activity Un-typed Pages Recent Page Type Changes Changelog
Tips
Creating New Redirects Cross Wicking Tips for Editing Text Formatting Rules Glossary Edit Reasons Handling Spoilers Word Cruft Administrivia FAQ
Tropes HQ
About Us Contact Us Advertise DMCA Notice Privacy Policy Report Bug
Go Ad-Free Changelog
  • Show Spoilers
  • Night Vision
  • Sticky Header
  • Highlight Links
 

Follow TV Tropes

Following

Fanfic / Herding Cats

Go To

Herding Cats is a Homestuck Fanfic 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, herself included 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 permanently 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 immediately 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 Nepeta Quest 2012 is one of the longest Homestuck fanfics out there at 31 chapters and nearly 500,000 words. It's length is justified because while Nepeta is the main character, all 12 trolls have important roles to play, and all 12 of them will have all 4 of their quadrants filled. This means no fewer than 22 different relationships (6 moirallegiances, 6 matespritships, 6 kismesissitudes, and 4 auspistices) will be explored in this Door Stopper of a tale, with only one of them - the moirallegiance of Nepeta/Equius - stable from the start. According to the author, there were just two epilogue chapters remaining, though the story has been marked as 'completed' since 2013.

In 2019, in response to The Homestuck Epilogues, childishGambino rebooted the story under the name Herding Cats All Over Again.

All regular personality tropes for the 12 trolls apply here until they no longer do.

Both: Have tropes

    open/close all folders 

    Original and reboot: have tropes in common. 
  • 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.
  • Arc Number: Nepeta is typically associated with the number 33, and there was planned to be 33 chapters once the fic is finished.
  • Ascended Extra: This is one of many fan works that takes Nepeta, described by her own creator as an "expendable character", and makes her the main character.
  • Fix Fic: A Homestuck where the trolls manage to get their relationship shit together.
  • The Matchmaker: Nepeta's task.
  • Title Drop: In Chapter 26 in the original, Chapter 1 of the reboot.

    Herding Cats: Have further tropes 
  • 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. Terezi later starts helping her out.
  • Ambulance Chaser: Eridan tries to claim that he's the Alternian maritime equivalent, a "submarine chaser". No one buys it.
  • Ascended to a Higher Plane of Existence: As in Homestuck, dying on your quest bed results in ascending to God Tier, coming back as a near immortal. Since this fic takes place soon after the events shown in Act 5 Act 1, Vriska's already done this at the start of this fic. By Chapter 31 all 12 trolls have ascended to God Tier.
  • Axe-Crazy: Gamzee goes through this, but unlike the Alpha Timeline, he's calmed down before he can kill anyone, thanks to Tavros' epic slam poetry.
  • Bolivian Army Ending: Downplayed and inverted. At the end, after Nepeta ascends to God Tier, she looks out over the Battlefield to see Eridan's Angels, Prospitians, and alternate Aradias conquering the final Dersite stronghold, but nowhere does she get involved.
  • 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 all too well, resulting in the Karkat/Terezi kissmesitude.
  • Brick Joke: In Nepeta's first Shipping Wall memo, Vriska at her bitchiest declares that if she ever finds herself making a cat pun, she'll hang herself. Instantly Terezi "FIVE DAYS FROM NOW" shows up on the memo and asks for Vriska's neck size. Kanaya gives it and Terezi leaves. Five days later, at another Shipping Wall memo, a now successfully shipped and much nicer Vriska offhandedly makes a cat pun. Terezi promptly presents her with a cat collar to wear instead of a noose.
    • After they become matespirits, Kanaya and Vriska explain an 'absence' as having to fight off a sudden basilisk attack. Later, Karkat and Kanaya are attacked by basilisks for real. Kanaya is killed, and ascends to the God Tiers.
  • Butt-Monkey: Equius seems to take a lot of abuse, particularly from Gamzee. Tavros gives him a lot of crap too until they enter into an auspistice together with Eridan mediating.
    • Even then, he still gives and takes a lot of shit from (and to) them.
  • 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? that's what she claims, but it turns out she just wanted to be Sollux's moirail all along) and Vriska (who wants to be his kismesis).
    • Terezi is also having this problem in trying to become Aradia's moirail. She gets better at it.
  • Character Development: The trolls are able to improve once they have matesprits and moirails.
  • Chekhov's Gun: In Chapter 15, after Equius' "The Reason You Suck" Speech towards Gamzee, Feferi responds by typing three hearts. By Chapter 27, they have become matesprits.
  • Chick Magnet: Sollux seems to be one of these. Lampshaded by several characters who think that the way he treats the women in his life also makes him a bit of a Kavorka Man.
  • Chivalrous Pervert: Everybody, but Vriska and Kanaya take the cake.
  • 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.
  • Decoy Trial: No one seriously believes that Nepeta was trying to murder Eridan as charged. They're just trying to get her to admit that she and Eridan are now kismeses.
  • Deus ex Machina: Psyche, keeping this doomed timeline from being destroyed.
  • Did They or Didn't They?: Did Feferi get into a threesome with Sollux and Aradia? Feferi insistently denies it while Sollux and Aradia lather on the innuendos and winking emoticons like this: " ;)" .
  • Driven to Suicide: Sollux when the Aradiabot explodes. This leads to:
    • Goodbye, Cruel World!: Sollux says these words sarcastically, knowing it's a cliche, but still fully means it.
    • Interrupted Suicide: Interrupted by Aradia no less!
    • Happily Failed Suicide: Since the troll who saves Sollux from killing himself is the same person he was committing suicide for in the first place.
  • Eagleland Osmosis: Feferi has the witnesses cross examined, which is pointed out isn't done in Alternian courts. Feferi does it anyway "because I say so!" (Also it resembles the type of trial we're familiar with.)
  • Everybody Lives: Seems to be one of the main goals of this fic. No one's died so far at any rate. (Well, not permanently.)
  • Evil Counterpart: Eridan becomes this for Nepeta, the blackrom shipper to Nepeta's redrom shipping.
  • Exit, Pursued by a Bear: Mentioned by name (sort of) by Eridan in chapter 13.
  • The First Cut Is the Deepest: Eridan for Feferi, Karkat for Terezi.
    • In the end, Terezi for Karkat as well. Their failed flushed feelings for each other results in their kismessitude.
  • Foreshadowing: Quite a lot of it, to the point where it isn't much of a spoiler which couples are paired off as matesprits, moirails, and even kismeses. The main suspense is seeing how they all get there.
  • Friendly Rivalry: According to Eridan and Terezi, this is what the relationship a troll is supposed to have with their kismesis. Terezi even uses these exact words to describe it.
    • Nepeta/Eridan, Vriska/Sollux, Tavros/Aradia, Kanaya/Feferi, Equius/Gamzee and Karkat/Terezi have all been confirmed to be kismeses.
  • Friends with Benefits: Or " 'rails with pails" as Vriska calls them. It's happened with Eridan/Gamzee, Vriska/Tavros, and Terezi/Aradia, and may or may not have already happened with Sollux/Feferi.
    • ''->"CC: But t)(en, t)(at is )(ardly t)(e ONLY TA I've forked in t)(e past couple of days!!" As of this suggestive line in the beginning of chapter 26, it is fair to say that Sollux/Feferi is explicitly implied. In explanation, Sollux's trollian handle is twinArmageddons, and is shortened by the chat client to TA. A "TA" which Feferi has apparently forked.
  • Gender Flip: Possibly Eridan and Terezi; at one point they refer to each other as "Miss Ampora" and "Mister Pyrope" though whether this actually has any meaning remains to be seen. Later implications are that they're just both into crossdressing.
  • Heel–Face Turn: Vriska's much nicer once she becomes successfully shipped.
    • Both Mindfang and Dualscar in "The Death of Spinneret Mindfang".
  • Heroic BSoD: Nepeta experiences this over realizing she's hurt Karkat in shipping Terezi with Eridan.
    • She's Back: After a little hate snogging and mock trial from her new kismesis and his matesprit respectively.
    • Karkat also goes through one of these after Nepeta is unable to respond positively to his flushed advances.
  • Heterosexual Life-Partners / Platonic Life-Partners: The moirails. We have Nepeta/Equius, Vriska/Tavros, Gamzee/Eridan, Terezi/Aradia, Sollux/Feferi and Karkat/Kanaya. The moirails of the same gender (Gamzee/Eridan, Terezi/Aradia) are HLPs, while the moirails of different genders (Nepeta/Equius, Vriska/Tavros, Sollux/Feferi, Karkat/Kanaya) are PLPs.
  • I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Inverted. Eridan tries to pull this mostly for Karkat's sake rather than Terezi's.
    • Played painfully straight with Aradia in regards to Sollux.
    • And Equius to Aradia - he breaks up with her because he knew neither of them were really happy and he wanted her to be happy.
  • If You Ever Do Anything to Hurt Her...: Apparently when a troll gets a matesprit, it's their moirail's duty to give the matesprit this speech.
  • It's Not You, It's My Enemies: Sollux gives this speech to Feferi, and spends several chapters trying to use this to drive Vriska away from her.
  • 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.
  • Just Friends: Given the specific quadrant take. It turns out that, pre-game, Tavros was flushed for Aradia while Aradia was pale for Tavros. And even though, thanks to Nepeta, Tavros now has a matesprit and Aradia now has a moirail they're both happy with, they still have partial flushed/pale feelings for each other. It's the frustration that arises from these incompatible feelings that's one reason they are now kismesis to each other (see Took a Level in Jerkass below for the other reason).
  • Kangaroo Court: Nepeta is on trial for the attempted murder of Eridan when Tavros leaves, accusing the others of holding a "kangaram court". He's correct, but everyone else was just trying to get Nepeta to admit her caliginous feelings for Eridan, not actually prosecute her.
  • Leeroy Jenkins: Tavros takes this attitude at the start of the Chapter 23 FLARPing session. The results are just as good as you'd expect.
  • Loving a Shadow: Eridan for Feferi.
    • It also turns out this is why Sollux wouldn't commit to what his relationship was with Feferi. Sollux had been flushed for Aradia all along, but thought she was now unobtainable after she got killed and her spirit possessed a robot. Feferi, with her cheerful, friendly personality, reminded Sollux of the way Aradia used to be. So he was trying to become flushed for Feferi and become her matesprit. It wasn't working.
  • 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.
    • Chapter 19 has a lot of this. It starts off as an adventure where Nepeta and Feferi travel to Derse to retrieve Aradia's dreamself, goes to heartwarming as Sollux and Aradia (still in robot form) reveal their flushed feelings for each other, turns to horrific when the Aradiabot explodes and Sollux tries to kill himself, switches back to heartwarming when Aradia rescues Sollux and he gets both of his red quadrants filled, and ends on kinky.
  • My God, What Have I Done?: Both Nepeta and Eridan feel this way when they realize how much Karkat was flushed for Terezi.
  • Oh, Crap!: The unanimous reaction between Terezi and Vriska when they realize that A) Aradia and Tavros are starting to have sloppy hatemakeouts and B) that said makeouts are being livestreamed to everybody else.
  • Off the Rails / Gone Horribly Right: Vriska's plan to get Kanaya and Feferi to admit their black feelings for each other by 'innocently' flirting with Feferi starts going wrong when Feferi works out what she's doing and starts taking it into her own hands.
    • This also happened in Chapter 23. The end goal of the Team Charge Reunion FLARP session was to get Tavros and Aradia to admit their black feelings, but it all happened a lot quicker than Eridan anticipated because Vriska, who was the only one Locked Out of the Loop, messed with the drops.
  • Official Couple: The matesprits: Vriska/Kanaya, Tavros/Gamzee, Eridan/Terezi, Sollux/Aradia, Equius/Feferi and Karkat/Nepeta.
  • OT3: 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.
    • And it may or may not have happened with Aradia/Sollux/Feferi.
    • A caliginous one occured between Vriska and Sollux/Aradia.
      • And now Sollux/Aradia have another one with Tavros.
      • Another has happened as of chapter 26, with Nepeta, Eridan, and Terezi.
    • It seems Aradia and Sollux are trying to spread this to everyone, with a moirail/matesprit version too.
    • Eridan is asked if his Auspistice sessions with Equius and Tavros result in this. He replies, "Not all of them."
    • Chapter 28 leads to BOTH a threesome AND a foursome that are discussed in more detail in Chapter 29.
      • The threesome is Kanaya/Vriska/Feferi.
      • The foursome is Gamzee/Equius/Tavros/Eridan.
  • O.O.C. Is Serious Business: When Nepeta drops the cat puns (and in the pesterlogs/memoes, her :33< emoticons), it means she's REALLY upset.
  • Out with a Bang:
    • Sollux's eyes explode during a round of hatesex with Vriska. Subverted in that he's brought to his Quest Bed and then ascends... and then they get right back to it.
    • Feferi accidentally kills Equius during sex because they were trying erotic asphyxiation and he didn't use the safe-word. Like Sollux, he's taken to his Quest Bed and ascends.
  • Penultimate Outburst: From Tavros in chapter 15 when they hold a trial on Nepeta. The others were just trying to get her to admit her feelings, therefore making the trial a mockery that rightfully irks Tavros, the one presiding it.
  • 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 lousy 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.
    • Eridan calls these things a "calliginous diatribe". He gives one to Nepeta that's only partly this trope, but is mostly about why kismesis is an essential part of the quadrants.
    • Aradia and Tavros make these to each other just before the hatesnogging.
    • Nepeta and Karkat give Terezi and Eridan a major one for engineering the Road To The Undoing FLARP session in order to get Aradia and Tavros together as kismeses, and completely ruining the fun night out both players were expecting to have.
  • 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.
  • Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Invoked in Chapter 23's FLARP session. The players are granted bonus Experience Points for insulting each other, but if either player dies, they're both sent back to the previous checkpoint.
    • Given that Tavros was flushed for Aradia, who at the time of the session was Sollux's matespirit, and Aradia was pale for Tavros, who at the time of the session was Vriska's moirail, the situation went downhill very fast.
  • The Eeyore: Both Sollux and Aradia in the earlier chapters. In Homestuck their pessimism is fully justified. Here it's not for long.
  • Took a Level in Badass: Nepeta, pawbviously. Also Tavros.
    • Future!Karkat (all three of them) at Nepeta's mock trial.
    • Eridan has gone from a whiny, heartbroken, pathetic douche to a confident, happily shipped, successfully blackrom-shipping douche.
    • After Gamzee sobers up, he starts, with Tavros' encouragement, heaping piles of abuse on Equius, who for the most part stands still and takes it. After a while, Equius grows a spine, stands up for himself and starts giving Gamzee shit back.
  • Took a Level in Jerkass: Tavros in the later chapters. None feel this more strongly than Tavros' former friend Aradia. This is one reason why Tavros and Aradia are now kismeses for each other (see Just Friends above for the other reason).
    • In chapter 24 he is called out on this by Vriska and Gamzee of all people, with Vriska admitting that she had dropped the ball on her part.
    • As it turns out, more than a few trolls take some levels in dickery, such as Terezi (in regard to Karkat), Karkat (in regard to Terezi and Eridan), Gamzee (in regard to Equius) and Kanaya (in regard to Feferi), though they do occasionally get better.
      • All of these examples result in a kismessitude. There's even a bit of a pattern for most them: Troll gains a new matesprit and/or moirail. Troll gains confidence from new relationship(s). Troll's confidence leads to arrogance. Troll's arrogance arouses the ire of another troll, leading to a kismessitude.
    • Terezi and Sollux take several levels of jerkass in regard to Karkat. Sollux in particular becomes a real arsehole, such as when he mocks Karkat for actually being upset and worried that Sollux threatened to and attempted to commit suicide.
  • 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.
  • Victoria's Secret Compartment: In chapter 11, because she's flarping with Vriska, Terezi, and Eridan, Kanaya has to invoke this trope due to her getup's lack of pockets.
  • The Watson: Terezi is this to Aradia's investigation as to why this doomed timeline isn't being destroyed.
    • Inverted to the point that Terezi/Aradia's investigation bears a closer relationship to Nero Wolfe/Archie Goodwin, where Aradia/Goodwin does all the investigating while Terezi/Nero comes up with all the solutions. Terezi even says at one point, "Elementary, my dear Megido," implying that it's Aradia who's the true Watson in this investigation.
  • What the Hell, Hero?: Both Aradia and Feferi chew out Sollux for trying to kill himself even though both of them had told him that Aradia had not died when her 'bot exploded.
    • All the other trolls (even his matesprit and moirail) do this to Tavros in Chapter 24 for becoming a jerkass.
    • Karkat gives one to Terezi for threatening to reveal his blood colour, because she's a blueblood and she has no idea what it's like to live as a mutant.
    • In the Chapter 31 Re-Cut, several trolls chew out Feferi for forcing an unwanted French kiss on Karkat.
    • Feferi again got called out earlier for her tactics in trying to incite a pitch romance with Kanaya- she publicly declared that Kanaya has a "dysfunctional and abusive relations)(ip wit)( Vriska" in chapter 28 and Kanaya angrily calls her out in the next chapter for spreading such damaging lies about her pale relationship and for implying she's an abuser.
  • World of Pun: All of Feferi and Equius' interactions. All of them.
  • Wrong Genre Savvy: After becoming Vriska's moirail, Tavros becomes more confident and assertive, but also more egotistical. He outright tells Aradia that he's the Dogged Nice Guy who fell for the Alpha Bitch (her) who constantly rejected him in favour of a Jerk Jock (Equius) who she later spurned, but after becoming a confident, handsome guy in his own right, he's over her, and she's pining after him. Everyone pitches in to tell him that in fact, he's the former Nice Guy who became a Jerkass, while Aradia's the old friend he fell for who he's now blaming for refusing to fall for him. Tavros isn't convinced, until they point out that a Nice Guy wouldn't try to blame Aradia for his spine being broken.
  • Yank the Dog's Chain: This is what Sollux feels is what happened when the Aradiabot exploded just after they had kissed.
    • In chapter 26, Karkat finally declares to Nepeta his flushed feelings for her only for Nepeta to be unable to respond because of her promise to Psyche. He doesn't take it well.
  • You Are Better Than You Think You Are: Nepeta tells this to Equius in Chapter 27. It's an essential part of getting him to finally let go of the hemospectrum.

    Herding Cats All Over Again: Contain more tropes 

  • Easily Forgiven: Denied in the case of Vriska and Tavros's ship. Rather than their contentious relationship resolving into a moirallegiance immediately as in the original, the two of them decide that they're just not compatible for each other.
  • Mythology Gag: Some of the story directions from the original are mentioned in the first chapter, such as Nepeta's shipping sweeps, and Chapter 2 has Aradia straight up dump the fact that they're in a doomed timeline rather than spending half the story investigating it.
  • Tamer and Chaster: One of the reboot's objectives. childishGambino felt that at times the original story got a little too smutty, considering that by the end of it all of these troll kids - worth reminding that the equivalent human age is 13 - were casually talking about having sex and listing all their kinks.

Previous

Index

Next

  • Show Spoilers
  • Night Vision
  • Sticky Header
  • Wide Load

Important Links

Ask The Tropers Trope Finder Media Finder Trope Launch Pad Tech Wishlist Reviews Go Ad Free!
Crucial Browsing
Resources
Top