An Archive of Our Own, a project of the
Organization for Transformative Works
@madam-melon-meow
"Hang on, Momo!" John shouted, snapping his glider open with a practiced flick of his wrist. Karkat looked on with only a little bit of jealousy, and a whole lot of longing, as the younger boy showed off both his bending skills and his physical prowess, leaping into the air and zooming towards the cage that held not just their flying lemur companion, but also a trio of rather plump hog monkeys.
Karkat's stomach grumbled in protest as he watched his crush, the bridge between his world and the spirit world, free several game animals without a second thought. He reached for his water pouch on his left hip, feeling the way the water sloshed eagerly within the leather. It called to him, not as strong as the ocean back home, but still enough to make him smile as he took a sip.
"We could have used those," Rose complained, his nonbender sister cocking her arm, boomerang raised as she watched the hog monkeys scamper away. "I understand John's dietary restrictions, but would we not have an easier time preparing his portion of the meal if we were able to forgo consuming some of his rather small nut pickings?"
Chapters: 6/6
Rating: Explicit
Archive Warnings:Ā Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Underage Sex
Category: Ā M/M
Fandom: Homestuck
Relationships: Eridan Ampora/Karkat Vantas
Characters: Karkat Vantas, Rose Lalonde, John Egbert, Eridan Ampora, Terezi Pyrope, Sollux Captor, Freedom Fighters (Avatar)
Additional Tags:Ā Alternate Universe - Avatar (TV) Fusion, John Egbert is Aang, Karkat Vantas is Katara, Rose Lalonde is Sokka, Eridan Ampora is Jet, Terezi Pyrope is Smellerbee, Sollux Captor is Longshot, Rose Lalonde and Karkat Vantas are siblings, POV Karkat Vantas, Trans Karkat Vantas, Internalized Transphobia, Dubious Consent, Songfic, Dom/sub Undertones, the freedom fighters are war babies, Implied/Referenced Sexual Assault, Minor John Egbert/Karkat Vantas, karkat is pining, Hate Sex, Kinda, Choking, First Time, Bringing childrensbookstuck energy to the songfic function, Vaginal Fingering, Not that Karkat wants to call it that, Vaginal Sex, Trans Male Character, Air Nomad Genocide (Avatar), Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Drowning, sorry the sex tags and the plot tags are kinda shuffled together, attempted handjob, Virgin Karkat Vantas, Stealth Karkat Vantas, Blood and Violence, War, Misgendering
An entrant in the Homestuck Fan Author Coalition's January 2025 Competition: Bard.Ā
For ATLAstuck, I usually go with Jade as an earthbender, Rose as a waterbender, John as an airbender, and Dave as a firebender
I usually go Jade-Earth, John-Air, Dave-Water, and Rose-Fire!
Now I know what youāre thinking,Ā āBut Rose has a lot of water symbolism going on with her and Dave is basically constantly surrounded by fire imagery!!!ā
And youāre right! And you know what? They HATE IT. Dave says explicitly that he hated LoHaC, and Rose DESPISED LoLaR. Dave hated Texasās oppressive sun and heat, he hated the lava, he hated being surrounded by things that were hot and sharp and dangerous, he didnāt want any of it, and he really only found peace after he was removed from situations where excessive heat and fire were the daily grind. Rose might not have had anything in particular to say about the river that ran under her house, but we know that she didnāt like her planet, that she eventually wentĀ āFUCK YOUā to the idea of playing the rain and blazed (that was a pun) her own trail. Her really, truly big moment was when she created the Green Sun, a GIANT BALL OF FIRE, and it was that giant fire that allowed her to FIX things, to forge (that was another pun) a path that she foresaw as fortuitous, sheās a Light player and their symbol is the sun which is also fire, Rose has a fieryĀ personality. Dave, by comparison, is much more willing to go with the flow (pun), and water is also an element that is heavily associated with healing, especially in the ATLA universe. Rose needs healing too, but I tend to think of her personal needs as closer to melting her icy heart that was embittered and frozen over by her upbringing, she needs to be loved, to be warmed, to let her inner fire shine. Dave is someone who needs to be soothed, to be gentled down, his healing is more focused on washing away the pains of the past and growing anew.
Anyway I literally think about this SO MUCH so I got kinda long winded there whoops.
Good analysis! I still like Dave as a firebender, though I imagine he wouldn't enjoy bending--given that in this AU, he would be raised by a firebending guardian who still 'trained' him vigorously--but I could see him maybe starting to recover, rekindle that fire inside himself. Or he could be like Sokka and just use a boomerang. Rose, I just associate the turbulent tides of the ocean with her, though her being a firebender also makes sense!
Rose being a wild ocean storm does have itās appeal I will defo give you that. Dave getting an aversion to firebending like how Dave got an aversion to time shenanigans in canon is aā¦ good ideaā¦ that is some tasty angst right there. Dave with a boomerang is also a GLORIOUS mental image and I would like to thank you for that.
teensy question what's your headcanon for the trolls in atlastuck
that is a really good question because i hadnt thought of it???? til now??? So now let me just type up all of the ideas that come to me off the top of my head!
Karkat would be a firebender, no qualms about it- hell, with a temper like that I figure that heās got that entire fire breathing thing down like a pro! one idea that comes to mind is that heās a fire nation spy in the earth kingdom but he learns through dealing with customers and other cultures that he really hates how the fire nation does things and instead decides to continue living in the earth kingdom as an unassuming traveling salesman with a cart of books, sending false reports back and struggling with his loyalty to the empire or the want of helping the rest of the world.
Vriska is a waterbender, and hear me out- you figure firebender for her, right? While it makes sense, with her temper and the militaristic society of Alternia, the biggest problem I have with it is that firebending doesnāt really help control minds, and letās face it, Vris couldnāt manipul8 her way out of a paper bag. So I figure bloodbending would be the closest for her, forcing peopleās bodies to move instead. As a Light player, sheās able to manipulate something good, but unlike Roseās god tier which would allow her to assist others (thus embodying the lesser known, good side of firebending), Vriska uses her powers, for the most part, for her own selfish needs, embodying the lesser known, sadistic side of waterbending. She likely happens to be hiding out in the Northern Water tribe, biding her timeā¦. getting irons in the fireā¦ā¦
Nepeta is also a waterbender, embodying the general go with the flow attitude of water, but sheās totally from the Swamp Tribe. Like, thereās no better place to have her be than among people who are basically the backwater hunters of the woods, and she grows up in the Spirit Forest with her fellow benders as a feral wild child, seeing things occasionally and rolling with it. Eventually sheād leave, probably to go help her tribe in some way by making sure Ba Sing Se doesnāt hurt the forest, and goes to the center of the Earth kingdom where we have
Equius, an earthbender. STRONG is in the description for this type of bender, and with his metal working it would be a goddamn sin for me not to add him on as one. I imagine that heās always lived and grew up in Ba Sing Se, trying to one day fulfill his dream as an archer by trying to become as strong as possible and competing in those underground tournaments. This is actually where I imagine heād meet Nepeta, who immediately traps him by bending his sweat into ice crystals.Ā āThis is gross,ā She complains as her fingers wiggle a bit.Ā āThis is indecent,ā Equius hisses as he turns away from the girl clad only in leaves and some cloth. Friendship.
Terezi is a firebender, specifically a Sun Warrior who was chosen as the next high priestess by the dragons. She communicates with them regularly and keeps any unlucky visitors on their toes with her unpredictable antics- in one fell swoop she can destroy or create, and to have her judgement passed is to have been blessed or cursed. Even if the curse is a custard hitting the left side of your face because sheās still blind as hell and senses vague sources of heat around herself.
Aradia would be an earthbender who uses her expertise to go on archaeological digs. Mostly she just runs everywhere all over the world, staying with the locals and eating all of their food and leaving them precious jewels while she takes the only interesting things to her- the artifacts and bones. She finds treasure, and leaves it to the poor while she makes off with the really interesting texts. Because of all the information she holds, sheās both an untrackable source of secrets and a target for any militaristic nation. With the artifacts sheās uncovered, sheās slowly gained the ability to enter the spirit realm, a secret she keeps more guarded than anything else
Tavros would be an airbender- with that general calm demeanor, I feel as if he would adore the pacifist ways of the nomads, and his deep connection with animals means that he would fit right in. I figure that his home would be in the Western Air Temple if this world hasnāt been attacked by the fire nation yet, or in Ba Sing Se. I figure that he communicates most readily with spirits, and can help calm them down if agitated. Then of course heās accompanied by his best friend
Gamzee, who is also an airbender, and the best reason why can be summed up with the wordĀ āairheadā. Also because, as a fairly spiritual person with his faith in the messiahs, I can see spirit projection being his big skill in life, helping Tavros along with the spirits. Of course, being the stronger bender of the two, he takes on the more malicious ones, which doesnāt really do wonders for the mental stateā¦
Sollux would be an airbender, and hereās why; his outlook on life in and of itself is pretty damn unique to air nomads, and heās been left embittered by all the strife and bullshit in the world. He also would generally be connected to the spirits, particularly those of more malicious intent and origins that used to be human, approximating the souls of the imminently deceased. Trying to cut himself off from his temple, he travels to try and escape his heritage and the damnable ways they tried to impart on him.
Eridan is a firebender through and through. Thereās no other way to describe it- the rampant militarism, the want of genocide, the temper and want of power means that heās probably stationed in the fire nation, calling the shots for some part of the army or another and climbing the ranks, training, ever training, so that one day heāll be able to do things no one else had ever done before, like say take over the water tribes.
Kanaya is an earthbender, steadfast as she is- she embodies the elegance that can come with earthbending, being able to turn jewels and stone into delicate works of art and jewelry to be weaved in the margins of silks and clothes, but ultimately is a very powerful person. She chopped a man in half and applied his blood to her goddamn lips- thatās brutal right there, and the thing about Kanaya is that sheās brutally elegant, a contradiction you donāt think would work but somehow *does*! I figure that she lives as a seamstress in Omashu, taking the rides to work and sewing to her heartās content.
And last but not least, Feferi would be a waterbender, both because of her love of the sea and all its creatures but because of her kind, willing to compromise nature and her tendency not to take any bullshit. Sheās as strong as a massive glacier, but pliable, and focuses on the life giving aspects of waterbending. I figure she ran away from the North to the Southern Water Tribe to learn how to properly fight
But yeah I figure thatās what they all are in ATLAstuck!!
