Fanfic / Warbound Widow

Warbound Widow is a Homestuck fanfic written by SkilledWarriorKiwi.

This fic mainly features Jane Crocker as the protagonist and follows the SBURB players experiences ten years after the end of the game. It also is based upon a romance between Jane and Gamzee, in which the two got involved on Jane's birthday. The timeline is slightly shifted, with Jane's birthday being six months- instead of a year -from the start of her session of SBURB, which meant she was romantically involved with Gamzee for six months before the climax of SBURB.

It also follows a slightly skewered version of the Pre-Retcon timeline, with Aranea not making an appearance; Gamzee did steal the Ring of Life in this timeline but instead he gifted it to Calliope, who then confronted Caliborn and killed him in the ensuing fight, but died of her injuries soon after. Gamzee then returned and while Jake was using his Hope powers to KO Jade, Gamzee managed to grab onto and subdue Jane however he was later kicked off her by Terezi like in the Retcon timeline and she killed Jake in the ensuing chaos (however like in the Pre-Retcon timeline he resurrected). This caused Gamzee to beat Terezi to death in retaliation before he restrained Jane again.

Before the other characters could react to this, the Condesce herself arrived and attacked them and the remaining Godtiers successfully killed her in the ensuing fight. After this occurred, SBURB reset and restored the planets, merging the Alpha and Beta sessions together and resurrecting the dead players and guardians.

While the humans initially search the globe for the trolls they eventually come to the heartbreaking conclusion that SBURB restored them in their own reality/universe and they won't meet them again. Despite this, Jane sends Gamzee's inactive trollian handle a message every day, then every week, then every month as the years roll by, giving him an update about what her family is accomplishing, including the fact all eight of the human godtiers still retain- more of less -their abilities, such as Jane still being a healer capable of raising the dead.

Then everything goes to smash on the tenth anniversary celebration of SBURB, when a horribly familiar red space ship enters the Earth's atmosphere and, when Jane contacts it, turns out to be the Condesce. After a blistering exchange between the two women, the Condesce gives the orders and the Alternian Empire invades Earth, thus beginning an all out war between the two species.

The author also further explains and talks about the universe within the fic, as well as answering questions any might have towards the characters on her tumblr, where she's expanded extensively on the original world building.

Warbound Widow is currently the longest Gamzee/Jane fanfiction, being over 220k in length with it still being an ongoing WIP.

There are also an independent fanfiction series called The conquering of Earth by an invading troll army, written by TheLadySyk0 which are all set within the Warbound Widow universe.

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Tropes:

• Action Survivor: Every one of the SBURB survivors obviously.
• Agony of the Feet: Jane gets the skin on the soles of her feet melted off at one point.
• And I Must Scream: The helmsmen, being psionics who've been turned into living batteries while still being aware. Both Roxy and Jane was utterly disgusted when they encounter the Observer, and in the Chapter 28 we're introduced to husks, who are portable psionics who've had their legs and arms completely removed, making them mobile power units.
• Alien Invasion: What kicks off the plot.
• Alone with the Psycho: Jane becomes this when she's captured by the Empire and left with the Doctorturer Abutor Vulnus. Naturally, he lives up to his job description.
• Asshole Victim: Vriska, in Chapter 17 when she's captured, mutilated and tortured by the Church until Gamzee successfully mentally breaks her. Of course, it's a bit hard to work up tears since she spent all her time after getting off planet trying to emulate Mindfang via constantly mindcontroling her whole crew and being a pirate slaver. However her genuine panic and hysterical screaming when Gamzee wraps her up in nothing but unending darkness is pretty disturbing.
  Trapped inside her own head, Vriska screamed and screamed and screamed and no one cared enough to listen.
• Authority Equals Asskicking: All the SBURB kids hold positions of immense authority in the affairs of humanity; Jane in particular is the CEO of Crocker Corp, which is a planet spanning super power and is the most hardcore of the kids however all of the SBURB players are One Wo/Man armies in their own right, and usually are sent out on extremely hard missions or to provide much needed relief due to their sheer power and ass kickery.
• Ax-Crazy: Pretty much the entirety of the Empire.
• Badass in Distress: Jane when she was held prisoner.
• Bathtub Bonding: We get one with the Gamzee/Jane reunion. Jane mainly just wanted a bath to wash all her own dried blood off of her, but it also dissolves into an intimate scene between the two.
• Brick Joke: A mild one in Chapter 8, when the SBURB crew are speculating if the troll Jane encountered really is Gamzee from the game and Roxy makes a joke about him being from Turkey instead, referring to the fact 'Gamzee' means 'Dimple' in Turkish.
  Dave: She thought it was actually him? From the Game? Creepy Sasquatch clown Gamzee?
  Roxy: No, the Gamzee from Turkey.
  • Another, more gruesome one happens when Jane tears her own hand off; it's the left hand, which is the same as the one Gamzee is later revealed to have bit off of Karkat in Chapter 29, meaning two people Gamzee had previously been in quadrants with have lost the same hand in shenanigans relating to him.
• Break the Cutie: Happens to Nepeta when she's captured by slavers. By the time she's finally rescued she's extremely removed from her usual bubbly and friendly self, acting immensely sullen, paranoid and cold.
• Body Horror: All of the helmsmen, who have had their bodies cannibalized by their wiring but are still self aware. Also the husks, who have all their limbs removed.
• Cold-Blooded Torture: Jane is subjected to this.
• Cosmic Retcon: SBURB does this once the kids beat the Condesce, restoring the troll and human universes with a few tweaks; most noticeably is the human universe is now a fusion between the Alpha and Beta world whereas with the trolls they are now missing the Green Moon (due to lacking the need for a First Guardian.) Alternia is also missing Gl'bgolyb, due to Doc Scratch not gifting her to the troll race in the restored universe. Instead the Vast Glub became a psychic power Heiresses gained when they kill the current Empress and take her place.
• Combat Medic: Jane is this, due to having mad healing skills and being one of the hardiest combatants out of the SBURB crew.
• Conditioned to Accept Horror: Happens with every troll in the Empire. Most don't even blink over the awful things they do to each other and other species; those that do speak out about it are killed.
• Cry into Chest: Jane does this to Gamzee at one point. Then again this is just after she's been tortured, so it's understandable.
• Dead Guy on Display: When Vriska investigates a Carnival. She's rather repulsed and disturbed by the Bleeder Vats, and the sheer amount of dead bodies everywhere. This is a theme for the Church; whenever they show up, be prepared for gore and rampant corpse desecration.
• Death Seeker: Gamzee falls into this after the end of SGRUB and later attempts to commit Suicide by Cop via refusing a bucket for the Drones, in the hope they'll kill him.
• Dreaming of Things to Come: Apparently happened a lot to Rose before the actual Invasion, due to her latent Seer of Light abilities. In most cases her dreams and gut feelings resulted in things like building the mass underground cities for humanity and an alien invasion siren. All of her 'feelings' are spot on the money.
• Earth Is a Battlefield: The entirety of humanity is swept up in the invasion, and thus the trolls are trying to kill humans where ever they can find them.
• Eye Scream: Vriska is subject to one while Jane narrowly avoids this.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Surprisingly the Condesce, whose grief over the previous Grand Highblood's death in the Summoner's rebellion is what caused her to ban all adults from Alternia.
• Every Scar Hasa Story: Turns out while the Godtier ascension rebirthed their bodies- including getting rid of poor eyesight and restoring lost limbs - the Godtiers keep the scars from things that killed them, such as Jane having a faint scar on her stomach where she was impaled on the Red Miles and a stab scar underneath her left breast from where Jack Noir assassinated her back on Prospit. Dirk is also mentioned to have a jagged line around his throat, from where he decapitated himself ingame.
• Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": The Observer and though the author revealed that her name is actually Compes Lector, in universe everyone simply refers to her as 'the Observer'. Others include the Overseer who is, you guessed it, the overseer for the Empire slave trade. Same could be said for the Ancestors as a whole.
• Berserk Button: Insulting Gamzee within earshot of Jane is a sure way to draw her ire.
• Flash Step: Used by all the characters at some point during fights.
• Finger in the Mail: Terezi gets a nice one consisting of Vriska's severed arm.
• Formula-Breaking Episode: Chapter 28 which follows Zhanna Cuffes, a blueblood and Descendant of the Overseer of the Empire slave trade.
• Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: Gamzee and Jane are this after the timeskip. Gamzee is now fourteen feet tall, while Jane is little over six feet.
• I Die Free: The Observer, as she sends out one last message when she's killed.
  01000110 01110010 01100101 01100101 00101100 00100000 01100111 01101111 01101111 01100100 01100010 01111001 01100101 00100000 01001101 01101001 01110100 00001010
  When Roxy translates this, it is revealed to say 'Free, Goodbye Mituna'.
• Ironic Nursery Tune: When Vriska is a prisoner Gamzee sings The Itsy-Bitsy Spider to her, while subjecting her to a Mind rape.
• Interspecies Romance: Gamzee and Jane, obviously. Also past Rose/Kanaya is mentioned.
• Insane Equals Violent: Rather zig-zagged with Gamzee, who is confirmed to suffer from strong symptoms of late-stage psychosis. However when he's not running off killing vast amounts of hapless aliens he's friendly and talkative, even automatically comforting Jane when she starts crying. Jane outright worries about what the ten years of Church has done to Gamzee, since she notes Gamzee had strong traits of psychosis even back in the game yet he wasn't violent at all.
• Large and in Charge: Gamzee, who is over fourteen feet tall as an adult and holds the title of Grand Highblood. Word of God confirms he's the largest troll in the fleet.
• Meaningful Name: Pretty much all the trolls introduced have names relevant to what they are, such as Abutor Vulnus, whose name literally means To Abuse/To Wound and The Observer who resembles a helmsman but made for Empire-wide spying than a power source and her real name is Compes Lector, which translates to Chained Reader.
• Monster Clown: The entirety of the Church of the Mirthful Messiahs are this.
• Noodle Incident: Roxy wound up crashing a zeppelin into a pyramid at some point.
  • There is also a rather amusing message from an Admiral to his crew about the dangers of Earth fauna as he apparently lost quite a few of his crew to them.

    SⱢitherbeasts are stiⱢⱢ venomous! Do not pick up any you find ⅋ try to pⱢay with ⅋/or poke them!

    Croakbeasts have poisonous skins! Do not eat any you find unⱢess you are positive they aren't poisonous!

    Spiders are Ɫikewise a hit ⅋ miss! They may be far smaⱢⱢer ⅋ cuter than we're used to but they can stiⱢⱢ kiⱢⱢ you with a bite if you are careⱢess!

    Even fish can be poisonous! I admit seeing tiny sea-dweⱢⱢing skywhales ⅋ skyhorses is very adorabⱢe but that doesn't mean you shouⱢd just Ɫeap in the ocean without care!

    The toothfish have aⱢready eaten three seadweⱢⱢers ⅋ those big moobeast skywhales ate/mauⱢed a dozen more!

    So don't be careⱢess!

• Offing the Offspring: The Condesce is very eager to kill Feferi and was extremely vexed when her Heiress didn't show for the traditional Duel to the Death.
• Only Known by Their Nickname: Characters such as The Contessa.
• Past-Life Memories: An interesting kind, as all the SBURB/SGRUB players fused with their Doomed timeline selves after the completion of the game meaning they have ALL the memories of various Doomed timelines within them. Most of these memories lay dormant unless sufficiently triggered by something and it can cause quite a bit of confusion and rage among the players as they have strong feelings of Deja Vu which conflict with their dominant memories. Notable examples include when Jane sees the picture of Calliope dressed as Callie Opheee in Gamzee's room and is extremely confused and distressed because she remembers meeting Calilope dressed as Callie Opheee in the Retcon timeline yet her dominant memories of those of the tweaked Game Over-esque timeline where she never met Calliope in person. It also explains why Gamzee went so overboard in punishing Vriska when he caught her, as he remembered her sealing him inside a fridge to suffocate slowly in the Retcon timeline and Aranea's killing of Jane in Game Over.
  • Exaggerated with the trolls, who were fused with their Doomed selves AND their Dancestors along with their thousands of Doomed selves. Mind fuck indeed.
• Put on a Bus: The author got rid of Vriska fairly quickly, essentially adding a chapter simply to show how irrelevant she's become in the fic. The author outright admits to hating Vriska and wanting to get her out of the story as quickly as possible, and saying Vriska will never be important or relevant.
• Readingthe Enemys Mail: Quite a few chapters are just pesterlogs of the stolen Empire information, including gossip sessions and personal logs.
• Rebel Leader: Karkat and Feferi are this to the troll rebellion. Well, the rebels as a whole moreso think Karkat is, despite him insisting he and Feferi are equals.
• Replacement Goldfish: Gamzee seems to be going this way for the Condesce, as he mentions offhandedly to Jane that the Empress has a habit of touching him all the time and hitting on him randomly; she and Gamzee's deceased Ancestor were in mixed quadrants with each other for thousands of sweeps and Gamzee apparently looks just like him.
• Reincarnation Romance: Averted as Kanaya is incredibly pale towards Karkat just like her Ancestor and Dancestor were towards their respective Vantas and has been pale-pining for him for the last ten years after the end of SGRUB. However tragically this will never be reciprocated, since Karkat gained Kankri's immense hate for 'motherly' pale affections and while he does regard Kanaya as one of his dearest friends and closest advisers he will never get into a diamond with her due to that.
• Ripple-Effect-Proof Memory: Only the SBURB/SGRUB players, along with the resurrected human guardians, remember the game.
• Scars Are Forever: Gamzee kept his three facial scars from the end of SGRUB right up to the invasion of Earth. They actually turn out to be what Jane uses to identify him from after the Timeskip. There is some speculation as to why he kept those three scars but Gamzee personally guesses it's because Nepeta literally scratched his soul when she attacked him back in the game.
• Snark-to-Snark Combat: Pretty much the entire interaction between Roxy and Sollux.
• Soft-Spoken Sadist: Abutor Vulnus, who is the head Doctorturer of the Empire. He always remains calm even when enraged and his voice has been outright described as 'sweet' at one point.
• Stop Worshipping Me: Karkat towards the Sufferists, since the cult is so badly fanatical many of the members ground their horns down to resemble his own.
• Stealth Pun: Occhio Mutare's first name means "eye". He's blind.
• Stripperiffic: Apparently many of the Church dress like this, with Zhanna Cuffes even outright complaining about 'why do clowns have to dress so indecently'.
• Super-Strength: Jane, who was capable of getting into a fistfight with a blueblood on equal grounds. Jane was also confirmed as capable of beating John in fisticuffs, making her the most physically powerful out of the SBURB ground. However as a whole the Crocker/Egbert family tend to be the most physically strong out of the humans thus far.
• There Are No Therapists/* Therapy Is for the Weak: Interestingly averted in the case of the subjugglators, where Abutor Vulnus apparently acts as a Church-wide therapist for the purple caste. He makes long, sympathetic notes about his sessions with subjects and expresses concern when he finds out about Gamzee's death seeker attitude and depression. The folder Roxy saves Abutor's sessions is even outright called 'clown therapy.'
• Took a Level in Kindness: Equius, surprisingly. He's very sympathetic and patient when speaking to Rose and takes the time to clearly explain all the trolls new situations- including their new fused mind states -to her. He also apologizes for all the grief his species has caused for the humans.
• True Companions: The SBURB crew all regard each other as family and would die for each other. The Church of the Mirthful Messiahs are, weirdly enough, revealed to be this as well, with the final work of Seshat Fessus commenting that this attitude is what makes the clowns so dangerous.
• What the Hell, Hero?: John gives one to Karkat when the troll admits they deliberately postponed the fight between Feferi and the Condesce.
• Wholesome Crossdresser: Seshat Fessus a male seadweller is shown in the art by the author to wear long sparkly ball dresses. There is also Koiboi Liquor, a member of the Church who wears modest dresses wherever he goes.
• Would Hit a Girl: Gamzee certainly doesn't hesitate to try and kill Jane when he first sees her after their ten years apart. Luckily he stops short of killing her.