So I've had this idea in my head since 2019 when I got into Homestuck, but never fully realized it until now. Evident by my name, I ship John and Nepeta (good friends or matesprits whatever) and this one piece of wiki trivia has been knocking around in my thinkpan for years.
Now, despite it being there for years, it's pretty much false. It points toward a pattern by adding up the digits of the kids' birthdays like (4 + 1 + 3 = 8), for their respective patron trolls, hence why Vriska is John's in the main comic. The problem is that this doesn't add up for the other kids aside from Jade, who's birthday adds up to Karkat. Pretty much, the patron troll calculation is bogus. It's really whoever talks to you the most.
Regardless, I wanted to think of a world where Hussie chose not to make Homestuck in flash and instead opted for GIFs again on the original April 10 release date. There's a bit more to it than that, so it's not just John but he landed 3 days earlier. Everything is ever so slightly different and yet very different at the same time.
The cool part of Beta John's profile is that he virtually has none whatsoever because his journey was cut short. We can assume everything would be the same except he's 3 years younger, but that's boring. This is an equally as naive, but less jaded version of teenage John who's at the peak of his interest in magic tricks. Everyone is also 10 years old for clarity's sake.
He never changed his chumhandle in this universe, so it remains as ghostyTrickster. His favorite movie is Deep Impact, partially for reasons we'll get to later, but also because he may have not discovered the genius of Con Air yet on his first viewing. Either that or his tastes are slightly different.
Forgot to mention, but he's also vulnerable to cat puns now. Thanks Nepeta.
Never wrote my own Homestuck dialogue between two characters, let alone characters that never met, but I think it would be something like this. John likes to roleplay his favorite movies and Nepeta is enthralled by the movies' characters and relationships. If you want to be a master prankster and magician, doing a bit of roleplaying is a crucial element to entrance the audience in your world.
Whether or not Vriska is still relevant in this universe is something to think about. We're practically about to make a whole other story with this next image.
Thank god for the decade old surplus of classpecting Tumblr blogs.
(Link!)
Maybe not magic not in the literal sense, but magic as in good things are surely in store for you.
Does this whole AU hold any weight behind it? Is everything accounted for to make it work within Homestuck's established rules? Hell no. If we want to go the extra mile and include the other beta kids, this is them and their patron trolls.
I also made some mock-up BETA versions of the other kids. The rhyme or reason for the patron trolls? Not much of a reason besides using the birthday pattern that's inconsistent with John's. Either way, I think this is an interesting cast of relevant trolls, at least based on what we've seen their relationships are like with each other in the comic. Whether or not the other trolls are just as relevant to be in a cohesive story or killed off like 413 is something we can all think about. Nepjohn was pretty much the main focus of this whole tirade.
And that's pretty much all I've thought of for this AU, I guess. Obviously, designs, ages, and personalities can be the same and it would still be interesting. John being an Heir of Hope instead of Breath is something I'm still not sure about. Just a spur of the moment movie reference. It's a glorified "What if" that I just wanted to share.
