Special stardust is a powdery, candy-like substance believed by some to have magical properties and to be connected to fairies.
Members of Gamzee Makara's religion use the powder as part of prayer rituals
, and Gamzee spoke of visions where the substance rained down onto the faces of elixir-imbibing subjugglators “like a bunch a fuckin fairy powder from religion space” during the Mirthful Messiahs' Dark Carnival. Gamzee's belief in the power of special stardust likely explains the presence of a “lifetime supply” of it in the room of the cherubs Calliope and Caliborn, who are said by Andrew Hussie to eat metric tonnes of the stuff each day to fuel their laughter, but which Calliope says is just “useless sparkly powder” with no real magical properties. Gamzee's suggestion that he would make some from the crushed bones of his friends calls into question the powder's origins.
Calliope uses similar-looking 'wake up powder' and 'rise and shine dust' as part of her “powerful anti-sleep majyyks”, and Vriska Serket uses some as part of her fairy act. Possibly evidencing its real connection to magic, the smell left behind by the flapping of Vriska's god tier fairy wings is said by Terezi Pyrope to be the “faint traces of what you reckon to be special stardust”.
After receiving the ACT 6 ACT 6 “SUPERCARTRIDGE EXPANSION PACK”, Caliborn immediately disrespects it by filling it with stardust and candy corns. This at least proves the stardust's ability to cause severe audio and visual glitches - though it could be assumed that any such disruptive powder would do the trick similarly.
In the Hiveswap Friendship Simulator (Dubiously Canon)[]
A gathering at a clown church blow a powder around the room as they imbibe their wicked elixir, seemingly alluding to Gamzee's prophecies of the subjugglator afterlife.[citation needed]