#homestuck speculation

[101leshavefun]

I'll follow you backstage and listen to your ramblings.

ALTERNIAN CULTURE ANALYSIS: APATHY AS ANTITHESIS. AN ESSAY ON TROLL SOCIETY'S UNDERSTANDING OF EMOTIONS

listen to me. it only makes logical sense that trolls would have a strong understanding of the idea that the opposite of "love" is actually antipathy; having no strong feelings whatsoever. I know what you're saying, "but the quadrants have love and hate as a dichotomy, they clearly think of hate as love's antithesis-" no. wrong. the quadrants are obviously not representative of every emotion a troll can have, the quadrants are a concept of ROMANCE. see there's the keyword here. love and hate are both integral parts of this romance, they do not exist in opposition to each other as in one cancels out the other, they are two sides of the same coin. having quadrant feelings for someone regardless of alignment is indicative of caring about them, of being passionate about them. I know those words typically have purely positive connotations when used about human romantic understandings but disconnect that for a second. basically it comes down to a slightly warped version of "horseshoe theory" (where supposed opposites, in this case love and hate, are actually closer together than the middleground). I think this concept is firmly supported by canon, examples off the top of my head:

from the quadrants explanation;

"The relationships each quadrant describes tend to be malleable, if not volatile,"

as stated with the pitched/flushed vacillation and the canon examples of pale/flushed, but also I think it is implied (though less so) that it applies to every quadrant and there are many ways unexplored in canon that every quadrant can bleed into another.

this famous line:

"It should be noted that in troll language, the word for friend is exactly the same as the word for enemy."

this quote being on the page where equius pesters gamzee, citing that he does so with regularity and thus considers him a "friend" (but that's not the whole picture). this adds to the notion of these relationships not being considered opposite but stemming from the same root idea of investment in a person.

I think it's very interesting because I believe the authorial intentions of incorporating hate as an integral part of troll society and culture is meant to contribute to the idea of them as a cruel and violent society, and while that may have some truth for the ways in which individuals treat each other peer-to-peer in average situations I actually think the real overarching effect it has is trolls coming off as a more emotionally honest society at the cost of simplicity and peace.

the implications of hate being considered on equal terms with love to me paint an image of a society that encourages embracing all emotions to the fullest extent, a society that might even consider the worst thing you can be not as someone who is filled with hate but in fact someone who does not care at all. I'm reminded of the conversation between vriska and aradia in hivebent:

vriska calling her a "miserable soulless witch" followed by repeating she hates her and "only regrets killing her cause it made her so BORING!!!!!!!!"

of course we also see plenty of times that "not giving a shit" is a thing that trolls are naturally inclined to do because you only have so much emotional resource to devote to a finite amount of things. moreover that alternia is a society that encourages emotional "balance", to embrace the love and the hate both with the same passion.

again as karkat rants to vriska also in hivebent:

"A WELL BALANCED PERSON IS GOING TO HAVE A GOOD DISTRIBUTION BETWEEN HATE AND THE VARIOUS PITY HUMORS."

you may also recognize this conversation as the same one where karkat claims this (rather infamously imo):

"PITY IS OF COURSE JUST THE TONED DOWN VERSION OF THE CENTRAL EMOTION, HATE."

(adding more to the "trolls believe hate and love come from the same emotional source" pile even if the manner of it is slightly off-center here)

and vriska's response to karkat's ranting:

"Did you learn this crap from your awful romance movies?" "THEY'RE REALLY INTRIGUING SOCIOLOGICALLY."

I hope this presentation makes it clear but for the audience in the back: karkat's interpretation of emotional composition of trolls is most likely complete bullshit and not at all factual nor, in my opinion, should be taken as biological information about trolls. for that reason I believe the reference to humoral medicine is completely intentional, invoking the imagerey of bullshit pseudoscience. just in the same way as I don't think it would be reasonable to make any similar claim about the nature of human emotions (and anyone who does is trying to sell you something). in A6A615 dave even states that "both humans and trolls are emotionally versatile sentient beings that can feel many hells of different things".

what I'm mainly getting at here using these quotes is that there is a cultural precedent for the claims he is making. karkat did not spawn these ideas about emotions out of thin air or scientific research, he got them from watching romance films. which particularly, as presumably low-culture media in much the same fashion as our own, would in fact make them excellent case studies on the general cultural attitudes of the society that consumes them. and that society, as karkat observes, makes indications that a) emotions of hate and love stem from the same source and b) trolls ought to have a balance of negative and positive emotions, where apathy is considered more undesirable.

so what I mean to say from all these observations, my formal opinion: to trolls there can exist this nebulous feeling of being emotionally attachment to someone, to desire any kind of relationship with them. and with that the average troll has a far better understanding that the most devastating response possible is actually none at all; to be completely unaffected by them.

so what am I saying with all this? it is my idea that in troll culture, trolls have a concept of relationships and emotions that can exist as a nebulous idea of just being *passionate*, of caring about something or someone and the distinction between negative or positive is merely a nuance rather than an opposition, and the actual socially reviled opposition to this feeling is being apathetic.

for example a troll rejecting another for a particular desired quadrant is heartbreaking (or diamondbreaking, spadesbreaking etc), but as there exists a desire for connection generally by virtue of the desire at all, it would be less devastating and possibly could become just as fulfilling for the connection to exist as a different quadrant, even on the other side of red/black. the most devastating possible outcome of a rejection would be that of total apathy, of the idea that one inspires no passions, no emotions of any kind in a person.

and with that established now we can get into my ideas about how alternian media rating systems work, such as a troll equivalent to rotten tomatoes where movies/books/films etc are rated on 5 different scales (also possibly two different modified 3 scale versions) in addition to a simplified two-scale version where the measure of "good" is based on "how much did this work inspire emotional reactions in you vs how much did you not give any shit at all"- the cane hooks me by the neck and pulls me off stage

[elenamillefiori]

one thing that makes me particularly hopeful about june's transition in beyond canon is that in all likelihood we are going to get TWO distinct storylines out of it: one for meat june and one for candy june.

the last update had laid down the foundations of candy june's transition by putting on fragrant display her unwillingness to face her actual life as an adult who has to decide for herself who to be and what to do, as someone who has a personhood rather than a role to play and responsibilities rather than a quest to follow. she is so attached to the comfortable oppression of sburb that not only has she let it alienate her from everybody who was dear to her, she even reacts with palpable RELIEF (bordering on the villainous) at harry giving her an excuse to get back in the game, even if it's because he's decided he would rather fuck off into a hellhole adventure rather than have to deal with her.

meat june, on the other hand... is a corpse. this obviously puts her in a way different position, but it's ironically one that has a much clearer path to her coming out. despite being 20 years younger, this june has reached the logical endpoint of her candy counterpart's hyper-identification with the sburb narrative and has been consumed by it, getting killed in the progress of fulfilling her predestined role. her only hope for coming back to life is as a sprite in the new session, a literal sburb game piece; being thrust into this new state of being could very well be the triggering event for a serious, much-needed identity crisis. in addition, there's the matter of what she's been up to as a corpse: we don't have much explicit information about what the furthest ring/afterlife's like these days but presumably it now contains the noir city where catnapped and the hyperbolic helltier chamber take place in (the sprites who were left in the incipisphere are there, vriska reaches it through a pinhole in calliope's black hole, jasprose's fenestrated walls are connected to it...) so that also offers another avenue for meat june's personal journey to develop, especially given the connection between the problem sleuth characters living there and the vision of the table-and-chair from when ace dick played the game of life in death's bubble.

part of the reason i hope it turns out this way is that candy june's transition seems like it's shaping up to be a delicious mess, a story about a deeply traumatised trans woman cracking out of her egg right as her dysfunctional coping mechanisms have turned her own family and friends against her and are threatening to push her into a villainous role as dirk's counterpart, nominally benevolent yet just as destructively attached to the narrative, but it's also one that given the state of media discourse and the fandom would VERY easily be read in VERY bad faith ("oh snap john is transitioning but she's EVIL that will surely show all those trannies june truthers classic hussie trolling"), so showing off a more sympathetic transition narrative right alongside it could give the team enough cover to explore it fully.

anyway this is how grimdorks can still win (candy june and rose bond over being shunned and over their shared attachment to The Narrative so they get together; this development weirds THE FUCK out of the other characters and also generates absolutely radioactive wasteland levels of discourse from the worst people you can imagine)

[eldritchkraken]

so now that we know the omega kids are supposed to be playing the game im going to throw my hat into the classpect speculation ring.

i don't have much of a bead on most of the kids yet, but for yiffy in particular i feel pretty certain she's a bard of blood. a bard invites destruction with their aspect, blood is the aspect concerning bonds and relationships. i know the bard is normally a male aligned class but stick with me.

yiffy has sledgehammered pretty much all the interconnecting relationships between rose, kanaya, jade, and vrissy. note that she didn't actively do anything to accomplish this, her mere existence was enough. she's also the one that took the initiative in getting the kids to join vriska, severing the connection between the kids and their parents. it will be interesting if the kid that's had the least amount of speaking lines is going to take a leadership role

[touringtanuki]

My guesses of what the Candy/Omega Kids' Classpects will be

Currently, we lack information on both the classes and aspects of all the new BC-original characters. But since they all seem to be entering the game, and Vrissy in particular has been confirmed to have a god-tier outfit, it's safe to assume that they'll have classpects.

A theory that's been common since the original launch of ^2 is that the Candy kids will have the Classes & Apects which remained unused by the Beta & Alpha kids. I agree with this, as continuing the pattern would let the team examine the less explored parts of the classpect system, and help separate the Omega kids from their parents. Furthermore, I think that the new kids just represent the unused aspects very well. So, as for which person I think goes which which class & aspect, I believe the following: Yiffany "Yiffy" Longstocking - Sylph of Rage Tavros "Tavvy" Crocker - Bard of Doom Harry Anderson Egbert - Mage of Blood Vriska "Vrissy" Maryam-lalonde - Thief of Mind

I have considerate faith in my aspect guesses, though less so in my Class guesses.

As justification for Yiffy being Rage, I am simply going to post this excerpt from Page 562 and the EZ Rage description and let them speak for themselves.

As for her being a Sylph (with sylph meaning "understands their aspect"), I think her attitude of thinking she understands everything about how the world works fits that description.

(Alternatively, she could be a Bard because her muteness and the orderly bullshit she's dragged into [like being held captive or, even worse, private boarding school] prevent her from showing her rage at all times [in a similar manner to how Gamzee's sopor, Kurloz's sewed lips, and dirk's overthinking suppressed their aspects]. Not to mention, her love of watching shit get destroyed. This class has a blatant issue, which is that she shares it with Gamzee, which is why I have my doubts on it despite it lining up so well with her character.) As for Tavvy, I say he's Doombound because of him being the Crockercorp CEO's son. Being in that position, he's been put onto the side of the organization/empire that's brought most of the suffering and conflict currently encapsulating Earth-C. Tavvy's whole attitude also has an aura of 'doom and gloom,' to it, even in comparison to the original Tavros Nitram. Also, it should be noted that him being Doombound would be an interesting subversion of Jane & Meenah, the previous Crockers, being lifebound.

I say he's a Bard because he goes against the Doom-full situation he's been stuck in, albeit in minor ways. He's allied with the resistance, and is dating the daughter of one of the main resistance leaders. And despite him not being the most optimistic, he doesn't let it show too much. Harry and Vrissy were a bit harder for me to decide on. Starting with Harry, he's described as a "social climber," in the patreon commentary of the page where we saw his phone, works with others for musical plays, and appears to be the person who's most into the celebrity-esque role thrust onto him by his literal-son-of-god status. He also appears to be closer to his parents than the others are, or at the very least talks about them more. Being bloodbound would give yet another candy kid an inversion of their parent's aspect, as he's the opposite of John's Breath. Lastly, I want to add the anecdote that when Vrissy makes fun of Tavvy for his genocidal parent during the pre-hiatus run, he's the first person to say that it's not cool to bring Tavvy down for that.

Mages are a... confusing class, and one with very little to work with. My personal (and admittedly unpopular take) is that it's the Active equivalent of either Heir or Maid. Since the role of popularity is something which has been thrust onto him more than note, and because he gets dragged along with his parents' feelings consistently, I think it fits.

Lastly for the Omegas: Vrissy. One class and one aspect remain: Thief and Mind. Firstly, I would like to mention that Vrissy has not once been shown bearing the Scorpio sign. It's nowhere to be seen on her outfit, and when she texts someone her face is used instead of any symbol. As such, there's nothing tying her to Light, Despite Vriska and Aranea both being Lightbound. Considering that this story has gone out of its way to never associate her with Light, I believe her aspect is something else. My best guess is Mind. I say this because unlike Vriska, who's usually going straight into things without a plan, Vrissy consistently comes up with a plan before taking a step forward, though given that she's still a Serket, this usually results in her arguing with her friends while trying to make said plans. Finally, Vrissy being Mindbound makes her a Serket with the Pyropes' aspect, while her being a thief shows some inheritance from Vriska.

The previously mentioned arguing is also why I say she's a Thief. She's the one making her partners go through impulsive shenanigans for her, may it be to hide a body or to crawl through a window for a makeout session. Also, her improved Vriska mind control abilities enable her to literally steal minds.

Aaaaaannndd that's it. I was originally going to conjecture over the Deltritus kids as well, but I'll save that for another post since this one has gone on long enough. Just as a bonus: Harry, Vrissy, and the Satyrs (Dirk's Species) are Prospitan, while Tavvy, Yiffy, and the Nymphs (Rose's Species) are Derse. Why? Because it came to me in a dream goodbye

[davekat-sucks]

while i know the comic doesnt do a good job at explaining everything itself, i recommend people to look up classpect inspection and analysis blogs, pages and posts as they help analyze, explain, theorize, guess, speculate a lot of class and aspect stuff and can help at least give an idea of some of them in both what they are and what they could be. there are a ton of them so its not like you can run out either.

There really are lots of posts and blogs that have their explanation about the aspects and classes. Some explain it better than I ever could have and were around longer during Homestuck's run. And considering that Hussie only made them by the fly, there's a higher chance that the fanon will probably be better or make more sense than what may actually be canon by Hussie, WhatPumpkin, James Roach, or HICU may come up with.

[hopskippen]

I remember seeing somewhere on the wiki (even tho I can't find it anymore) that a possibile definition for the Seer class is "one who gives up their aspect to learn more about it" and honestly I think that's a super cool concept

A Seer of Void could start the game with basically nothing, having a "void" in their life, but as the game goes on they gain more and lose that "void" in their life, then learning about what being "void" means.

A Seer of Heart could start the game as one of the kindest people in the session, but slowly lose their "heart" as the game goes on and becoming more cruel, spending all their time looking into the meaning of "heart" instead of upholding their relationships and keeping those bridges from burning.

A Seer of Space could start the game pretty isolated, having way more than enough "space", but as they game goes on their life gets more and more crowded as they lose their "space", but in turn learning more about what "space" is and how to use it to their advantage.

A Seer of Life could have a pretty good "life" before entering the game, but their health slowly declines throughout the session and they die, learning more about the "life" of them and their allies in the dream bubbles.

In conclusion Seers are swag as hell

[cringefail-clown]

post-canon/epilogues au, in which kankri, through paradox space shenanigans, gets revived and comes into his ultimate self, gathering knowledge from all of his past and future iterations - including the signless. now hes on a one-man mission to stop ult dirks plan to start another session of sburb in the bud

[cupid-tune]

Sometimes I get curious about the alpha troll session, how much we don't know about and can only speculate on. I really enjoy the interpretations people come up with, the multitude of possibilities there are.

I'm especially interested in the events already talked about, I want to know exactly what happened and what caused them. There's so much left in the dark about Mituna's accident, how much of it was an accident, how much was planned.

With the ties Kurloz and Damara have to Lord English's arrival, I'm sure there was a lot of planning that went through to the other sessions.

But an Heir of Doom would've been too dangerous for their plans, able to snuff out the preparations and prepare everyone for battle before they even knew of English's existence.

He had to be stopped before that, it wasn't worth the risk.

So I wonder if Kurloz had anything to do with the actual accident, or he really was just a bystander happening to witness that fated moment.

Who knows if there really was any danger, if Mituna's incident really was something heroic that saved the others.

Or if Mituna played right into the tricks, and Kurloz only created a threat to make him and the others feel better. To give reason to his accident.

I do think he would still feel guilt about what he did, but it had to be done regardless. It's the same with Meulin, Kurloz didn't mean to cause this much damage, nor was it part of the plan. He's shrouded in mystery to the point that no one knows how he really feels, his actions don't align with his grief. It must be frustrating to know all the harm you caused to those closest to you was all in vain, that with the loss of everything you worked so hard for, you really are just a bad person at the end of the day.

[kabutoden]

making up spec bio homestuck bug facts for fun!!

[madjazzed]

Intro to Alternian Biology: respiratory pigments

Like the blood of most species on Earth and Alternia, trolls' blood derives its color from metalloproteins used to transport oxygen. Unlike most species on Earth and Alternia, troll blood contains multiple types of oxygen-transport proteins--five in total.

HEMERYTHRIN is the primary oxygen-transport protein in the blood of seadwelling trolls, and is also present in significant concentrations in purplebloods. It is violet-pink when oxygenated. Much Alternian sea life uses hemerythrin as its sole or primary oxygen transport protein, as do many Earth marine invertebrates.

HEMOCYANIN is the primary oxygen-transport protein of landdwelling highbloods (blue and purple) and present in significant concentrations down to olive. It is dark blue when oxygenated. Hemocyanin is also found in the blood of many Earth mollusks and arthropods.

CHLOROCRUORIN is present in very small quantities across the hemospectrum, and in high concentrations in greenbloods; it was the primary blood pigment in limebloods, which are now extinct. Chlorocruorin is a dichromatic compound which appears light green in dilute solutions, including normal blood, and red when highly concentrated; an uncommon mutation causing extreme overproduction of chlorocruorin thus results in bright red blood. On Earth, chlorocruorin is mostly found in worms.

COBOGLOBIN is an important oxygen-transport protein in low and midblood trolls and is most highly concentrated in goldbloods, the only caste for which it is primary, with significant concentrations occurring in every hemotype from rust to teal. It is yellow-orange in color when deoxygenated. Coboglobin is the only Alternian blood protein that does not occur in Earth biology.

HEMOGLOBIN is the primary oxygen-transport protein in rustblooded trolls. The highest concentrations occur in burgundy bloods, and it is present in significant quantities in all blood castes up to olive. Fuschiabloods also have hemoglobin in relatively small but still significant quantities, notably more than in any of the other high blood castes. It is dark red when oxygenated. Nearly all Earth vertebrate species rely on hemoglobin for oxygen transport.

Additional notes:

The gray color of trolls' skin comes from black eumelanin and blue-gray carotenoproteins in the skin cells, the concentration of which increases with age. The yellow color of trolls' irises comes from yellow carotenoproteins. These are present in most troll tissues, but their color is usually masked by the darker skin pigments or the more vivid blood pigments. They do, however, contribute to the color of yellow blood, the only hemotype dominated by a transport protein which is colorless when oxygenated.

High concentrations of chlorocruorin are correlated with conciliatory impulses. Sopor slime is a highly oxygenated fluid containing significant concentrations of chlorocruorin, which give it its green color and are believed by many to contribute to its dampening effect on sleep rage and daymares, though the mechanism is not known. No surviving castes have as much as 50% chlorocruorin, while the now-extinct lime bloods had just over. Trolls with the rare cherry red mutation, however, have over 90% chlorocruorin, twice as concentrated as any other surviving caste.

It has been theorized that the cherry red mutation is a throwback to a now-extinct subspecies of troll which relied solely on chlorocrourin for oxygen transport. There were many subspecies in Alternia's evolutionary past, some more successful and widespread than others. In prehistory it is thought that none used more than one oxygen transport protein, as is typical in most planetary ecologies including Earth's. However, early hybrids benefited from the adaptive advantages of diversifying oxygen transport, and the mixing of subspecies through kleptogenetic reproductive strategies eventually resulted in the distribution of diverse respiratory pigments seen in the modern hemospectrum.

[slavhew]

i like ms paint but i like mspaint-esque pressureless brushes more.

exclusive never before seen art process snapshot under cut.

this is what it actually looks like in the canvas. it was a warmup for a larger thing and took way too long so my frustration is justified i think

[thewertsearch]

GC: 4ND FOR MY FR13NDS, TO PROT3CT TH3M FROM TH31R T3ND3NCY TO UND3R3ST1M4T3 TH3 POW3R TH31R CONFUS1ON H4S OV3R TH31R F4T3 GC: TO K33P TH3M OUT OF TROUBL3, D4V3 >:] TG: is that what you were doing just now GC: M4YB3 1 W4S! GC: YOU N3V3R KNOW, S33RS 4R3 NOTOR1OUSLY CRYPT1C 1N TH31R W4YS

They might not even intend to be cryptic.

If you have a class which lets you intuitively understand a certain Aspect, then you're probably going to have trouble explaining your viewpoint to those who lack your advanced insight.

GC: 1 KNOW TH4T YOU W3R3 ON TO SOM3TH1NG WH3N YOU S41D LUCK W4SNT 1NVOLV3D W1TH TH3 CO1N FL1P […] GC: […] LUCK 1S 4 V3RY R34L TH1NG! GC: FORTUN3 1S TH3 3SS3NC3 OF L1GHT, 4ND 1T SH1N3S ON THOS3 WHOV3 M4ST3R3D 1T

Light is the aspect of luck, then. Vriska's abilities now make perfect sense - and come to think of it, so does the name of her Land.

What is treasure but a fortune, waiting to be found?

GC: BUT 1 KNOW SOM3TH1NG MOR3 1MPORT4NT TH4N TH1S GC: 1T 1S 4 B1G S3CR3T GC: M4YB3 TH3 B1GG3ST 4ND MOST 1MPORT4NT S3CR3T OF 4LL GC: LUCK DO3SNT 4CTU4LLY M4TT3R >8]

For all her posturing, Vriska's luck manipulation has a rather limited scope. Sure, she can make bad things happen to people, but those are still Alpha Timeline events. Her 'luck' doesn't change fate - it facilitates it.

It's decisions that can change fate, careening you into a new, more dangerous timeline. And Terezi is the master of decisions.

[gltzgghln]

headcanon ive had for a bit that trolls are fleshy neotonic morphs of the mother grub, which evolved from a skeletal moth/mantis creature. arthour comes from a related clade with accessory glands adapted for lactation. Ignore the part that says "honeydew" idk what I was thinking

so most of the traits that make alternian trolls and centaurs ""bugs"" are on the Inside except for the mother grub

i think ive always considered kuprum's lusus to be a horseshoe crab. they communicate psychically. It Just Works.

[freackthejester]

It's going to be so cool when John literally turns into Vriska this April

[aj-jesterdude]

deltritus worldbuilding theorypost...^2!!!

so!! homestuck beyond canon has ended it's first act and according to the reddit q&a that happened right after, it seems Act 2 will finally, *finally* show us those beautiful beautiful deltritans. i made a post a while back attempting to theorize about what the worldbuilding of Deltritus could look like. but after some recent conversations i have realized i could've gone much more in depth...tackled not just the societal implications but also the biology...so...ahaha...here we go

So let's start off with the species. We know that Dirk has created the Satyrs. Satyrs are, according to Greek myth, essentially horse/goat/human hybrids of sorts. And this makes sense for Dirk, he's a horse fan. I theorize that the Satyrs will be only slightly horse-like. Maybe horse legs, but still bipedal...horse tails, ears. I've heard various suggestions of them having puppet-like features but that is...while not impossible, I think it would complicate them significantly. How does death work for them if they are puppets? How does that interact with SBURB's systems? It's a little too messy for my liking, though odds are there is some other complication to them as if they're just half-horse-half-man, that is just a little too simple. I do suspect that they're going to be male-exclusive, and Rose's species will be similarly female-exclusive. For one, Satyrs in Greek myth *were* entirely male, and secondly, Ult!Dirk's whole...masculinity thing he's got going on. This does raise the question of reproduction, and I would humbly suggest mpreg, but if they were puppet-y I could see them just quite literally making new ones. What I do stand by though is that puppets are at least a huge part of their culture. Let's entertain that within the Satyr lands there's a giant golden Lil' Cal statue, yes? I also presume that, like Dirk, they will be makers of machines and whatnot. Creative types. But something I realized I failed to explore with my last theorypost was the influence of two other forces on the Satyrs: Terezi...and *Jake*. Terezi's running the command terminal to shape the societies, and has automated it much to Dirk's displeasure. And what's more, she's been fiddling with it even though she claimed to be done with it. Obviously she is trying to meddle with the deltritans to do something to sabatoge this new session...but what? This I am still unsure about. Perhaps she's stripped out any Time or Space aspects, to try and doom the session? Now as for what that means for the societies, odds are Terezi's made them not as hostile to each other as Dirk was hoping for. I believe the original plan was to have both species compete, and one would lose and be barred from playing the game. However, I think Terezi's managed to work it so both species are still thriving to play at the same time. Perhaps that will cause messy friction between the two different species that will hinder the session's progress? And let's tackle that little juicy implication I put back up there a little while ago. I think while yes, a lot of Dirk's personal traits and flaws have sunken into the Satyrs...I think a little bit of Jake probably got into them too. Maybe this enhances the manly machismo angle of it all? Will they enjoy making movies? Will firearms be their weapons of choice? It’s something to think about, at least. Now let’s shut up about Dirk and talk about the far more mysterious half of the deltritan population, Rose’s species. We have no name for them, but in the circles I’m in, we’ve taken to assuming Nymphs. Yet again another Greek mythological creature, Nymphs were taken as nature spirits of sorts. And this is interesting, Satyrs would often try to chase after Nymphs. So that feels about right. But what would they be like? I highly suspect we’ve already…sort of seen a Nymph already. Odds are that gavageCunctation is one of them. You see, they mention having “buccal mass”, which is an aquatic feature…and we know at the very least that Rose’s species is aquatic, that’s why they moved to the cliffside there. And Nymphs could be water-dwelling and based too. Now, if Dirk’s basing his off of his particular animal of choice, the Horse, then surely Rose’s aquatic species must be based around squiddles/horrorterrors.

But looking at GC’s hands in the only panel we have them in right now…they don’t look or feel too horrorterror-y, do they? They’re gray, and seemingly have some sort of talon or claw on their fingers. You see, I suspect that Rose has gone two-fold. Sure, work in some of that eldritch horror aquatic beast stuff, but Rose Lalonde has always been, in my mind first and foremost…a cat person. I think the Nymphs are some sort of aquatic cat-like race. In my speculative design for GC, I assumed we’d have tentacle hair and cat-like mouths, go check the drawing to see me go a little more in depth there since I’m really rambling too much already on this post. But what about the society? Well, last post I speculated they’d be a more magically-inclined race to further match Rose’s interests, and act as a further opposite of Dirk’s more mechanical/tangible Satyrs. 

But once again I have to ask how another person worked their way into their design…and if Dirk’s was Jake…then surely Rose’s must be Kanaya. Are they more into fashion than the Satyrs? Are they more inclined to meddle? Will one of the Nymphs act quite similarly to her? It’s just so interesting to entertain. Now before I let you go, I wanna put out just a few more quick thoughts. I do hope that we’ll see Vriska guide the Omega kids, and Terezi guide the Deltritans, as that would create an interesting parallel to their little game they had between John and Dave, right? And wouldn’t it be similarly interesting if Dirk himself decided to get in touch with one his Satyrs, and end up recreating a dynamic similar to Bro and Dave’s? Augh. Anyways.

Thank you so much for reading all of this insane rambling. If you have any thoughts or opinions on this as well, please comment them!!! I wanna talk about this so much more!!! See what other people think. Anyways um. idk how to end this so go read homestuck beyond canon if you haven’t yet okay? <3

[trenchgardens-ooc-ooc-ooc-ooc]

I was talking with a friend and considering troll boobs once more, and I think I found an angle that i just straight up love.

Eusocial insects have second, social stomachs which they use to give excess food to the homies a la kirby and his helpers in Super Star. What if troll breasts served a similar purpose!

Trolls have always had a wierd little thing where we dont know why theyd be sexually dymorphic sense we seem to know that, at least with our established communal canon and all that, theyre all functionally identical on an actual sex level. With humans our modern conception of gender grew out of social norms for our sexes, so what do we even call assigned gender at hatching when it comes to trolls? in humans the gender is assigned based on sex, or just whimsy if the kid iss intersex because fuck this stupid planet. So whats up with trolls, why do some have boobs. If its just a random difference thing, like how some people have cleft chins, then why would people care so much as to have similar misogynistic tendencies on planets like Beforus as we see with Latula? That seems to suggest its something more influential than just 'some people have bigger noses' style stuff.

From a biologists point of view, using modern albeit flawed terminology, the 'female' (read: bearer, or queen) of the troll species is the mother grub, and the trolls are 'male,' (read: donor, drone) ironically if Drones are part of the troll species which i personally love as part of my canon, they would be workers, using ant and bee (and probably termite) terminology, not drones.

This is interesting because drones(real world term) are typically produced through unfertilized eggs which is DEFINITELY not the case for trolls. Though, considering how rare mothergrub turnover seems to be a Rare emergency event, the Matriorb seems to be an unfertilized egg which produces a new mothergrub, and everything else about trolls themselves, id just chalk that up to them being aliens, nothing on our planet will be a perfect analog to them, its convergent evolution, not relationary evolution.

Trolls seem to have this set up in what the real world terminology would consider castes. the greater troll species would have these castes

Queen Mothergrub (comes to be after virgin mothergrub does... Something???? accepts her first bucket perhaps?)

Virgin Mothergrub (Hatched through Matriorb, unfertilized parthenogenesis)*

Drones (unfertilized, lain by Queen mothergrub)

Trolls (fertilized through pails)

His Tyranny (who fucking knows, royal jelly but for drones???)

Through this model the greater troll species would, genetically, be very stable. each generation of mothergrub allows for the only chance of natural selection and all that shit, but the Troll caste would be able to go through tons of generations per generation, like a second, smaller evolution inside your evolution. The only restraint on troll evolution would be remaining genetically compatable with the mother grub, [ assuming im even correct about that being sex, maybe the mother grub is a host for trolls who are parasites, but thats for a post on Wierder trolls. ]

I propose that troll gender is based off of morphs. adding a caste in there for Trolls (c) and Trolls (b). Like major ants or warrior termites, aproximately half of all trolls, though the ratio is skewed towards B due to some caste shenanigans, are C, and the rest are B. Cs are assigned male at... probably pupation, and Bs female.

I propose that troll breasts are a form of social nutrient sharing glands, somewhere between the milk crop of a pigeon, the mammaries of a mammal, and of course, the social stomachs of ants and bees (and maybe termites). I propose that they evolved as a way to share nutrients, and evolved out in Troll(C)s perhaps as a form of evolutionary specialization, think honey pot ants.

This would give a reason for why trolls have gender rolls corresponding with having breasts, it explains why they have misogyny— It Allows For Hormonal Transgender (Transmorph?) Therapies, it explains WHY THEY HAVE BOOBS AT ALL. ALL WHILE FITTING THE THEME.

Misogyny in trolls having the same theming as in humans make sense too, because concepts of nurturing coresponding with having a built in mechanism for nutrient sharing is. just what we have!!! It would give an evolutionary reason for why jades are seemingly either all type B, or just MOSTLY. And that part specifically, Jades being primarily type B trolls, would allow for the all the childhood related idiosyncrasies we humans have around breasts to translate to trolls too! It would explain what exactly the fuck trans trolls are doing, and it would give greater understanding to intersex (intermorph??) trolls!!!!!!

This raises a lot of interesting questions about the notions of... well breastfeeding in troll society. I imagine it would be something mildly taboo, as most of alternian and beforan culture is heavily western and we fuckers are so fucking wierd about peoples bodily autonomy. But it could also be like a Homies thing. I imagine it would be kind of viewed as mildly animalistic or base, probably never said like that, but thats the quiet part im saying out loud.

If you guys have thoughts on eusocial troll breasts and their agabs (agaps?) being based on morphs let me know, i think this is my new canon for all my trolls.