Heinoustuck is a Homestuck fan adventure by a user known as Yorsh. A very, very dark Homestuck fan adventure.
It takes place in a world where kids have to go through a rite of passage known as "transmutation" when they turn thirteen, a process that mutates them horribly, is implied to be painful, renders people immortal, takes four days to complete and, in some cases, alters their personalities. John is, understandably, terrified of it happening to him and avoids his dad throughout the story to make sure it doesn't happen - but the handy manual shows us that it's inevitable.
The comic started when its author decided to draw the Alpha Kids in a creepy manner on a whim and kept going from there. Eventually, she managed to mutate all of the kids, guardians and trolls and eventually made a fan adventure out of it.
Can be read here
, but please know what you're getting yourself into. Alas, it has been discontinued in 2014, but some information about the plot are still available whether they're archived or are still lurking in one of Yorsh's old blogs.
Tropes
- Abusive Parents: Dad, Mom and presumably Bro and Grandpa are... to put it mildly, a lot less nice than they are in canon. So far we've seen Dad toss a knife at John and Mom strangle Rose with her tentacles. Additionally, Becquerel looks a lot more angry and feral than in canon.
- Adaptational Jerkass: Jade, due to her newfound omnipotence, is a Mood-Swinger Spoiled Brat in this AU.
- Adaptational Villainy: Many cases, due to the transmutations.
- Dad Egbert, a loving guardian in Homestuck canon, is much more violent towards John here.
- Mom Lalonde, similarly, is portrayed as aggressive and violent towards Rose, which clashes with her flighty but well-meaning portrayal in canon.
- Becquerel, a Big Friendly Dog in canon, is now a feral, aggressive Hell Hound.
- All There in the Manual: Yorsh provided a lot of info about the fan adventure (the designs of characters who haven't made their debut, the characters alternate personalities, etc.) on her blog. However, since she changed her blog (twice), this information is now really difficult to find.
- Bird People: Dave was horrifically mutated into one of these.
- Body Horror: For reference, this picture◊. And that's just the Beta Kids, Alpha Kids and Trolls. There's more where that came from!
- Combat Tentacles: Rose, her Mom and likely Feferi.
- Darker and Edgier/Dark Fic
- Dem Bones: Aradia, who has a ram skull for a head.
- Demonic Dummy: As if Lil' Cal couldn't get more terrifying, here he's fused with Bro Strider and later Dirk! Meaning that Bro is more-or-less turned into a supersized Lil' Cal.
- Ear Ache: Becquerel's ears were chopped off and sewn onto Jade's head.
- Eye Scream: Post-transmutation, John will have one of his eyes hanging out of its socket and coated in green slime. Equius, meanwhile, seems to have had his eyes gouged out entirely and Terezi's eyes appear to be on fire, Sollux 1 and 2 have their original eyes gouged out, sewn shut and received a huge eye right inbetween.
- Giant Enemy Crab: Karkat.
- Glasgow Grin: Rose has one. She can't frown because of it.
- Hell Hound: What Becquerel has turned into.
- Humanoid Abomination: Rose, her Mom, Roxy, Jade and Feferi due to their respective transmutations involving something eldritch-y.
- Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Dave (with a sword), Tavros (with a lance), Jane (with a double-ended trident) and Equius (with several arrows).
- Laughing Mad: According to
Word of God, Dirk is prone to randomly doing Lil' Cal's evil laugh post-transmutation. - Little Miss Almighty: Jade.
- Monster Clown: Dad, post-transmutation. And boy howdy is it terrifying.
- Mood-Swinger: Jade, due to her omnipotence messing with her brain a little.
- Multi-Armed and Dangerous: Jade, Vriska, Rose and possibly Feferi.
- Multiple Head Case: Sollux is bisected down the middle, has two heads and his halves are connected by his psiionics.
- Narcissist: Kanaya, according to Word of God.
- Not Himself: Played with. The transmutation alters all of their personalities, but out of the Beta Kids, only Rose has really changed. Dave, Jade and according to Word of God, John are actually more flanderized.
- Nuclear Mutant: Jade, due to having Bec's ears and tail forcibly stitched onto her body, has gained his powers and with it came a severe amount of radiation. She's also grown a bunch of arms.
- Plague Doctor: Dave has what looks like a plague doctor mask sewn onto his face, completing his freakish man-bird look.
- Reality Warper: Jade and Bec. So far Jade has been shown to be capable of remotely turning on John's computer despite being miles away from him.
- Spiders Are Scary: Vriska has spider legs, fangs and eyes.
- Stepford Smiler: Nepeta and Feferi.
- Winged Humanoid: Dave, who has giant crow wings. Terezi and Kanaya too, having dragon and moth wings respectively.
- With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: Jade. While "insanity" might not be the right word, Word of God states that Jade's newfound omnipotence has made her a bit of a spoiled brat.
