#more eridan bc of course

[velvetcnidarian-gems]

Was gonna add the cape and scarf but i kinda like it more without

[caligvlasaqvarivm]

Not to be uhhhh annoying, but Karkat's theme and Eridan's theme from Alterniabound at the very least have to do with each other.

Both of them start off with a melody, but switch it up at around 0:06 seconds. Then once again another switch at 0:52 (almost perfectly in sync).

At around 1:06, Eridan's theme goes slow and sad, and on the other end? Sounds of tediousness(TM). Barking, Super Mario ghost oooohing that sounds like rolling your eyes, and vaguely digital soundbites.

And THEN, at around 1:23, Karkat's waltz resumes, and Eridan's theme also becomes a waltz (more or less at 1.25x Karkat's speed).

Karkat's music ends at 1:57, WOULDN'T YOU KNOW IT Eridan's theme kicks up. And then a "Hey!" is heard at 2:03/2:04, a couple of seconds after Karkat's theme actually ends. Quite literally: "Karkat pay attention to me. Hey. Karkat. Karkat. Karkat." lmao.

And guess which theme also loosely follows this pattern? Terezi's. A canonical crush of Karkat's (A lot more out of sync, though). Kanaya's theme doesn't, however. Much less Vriska's, or any other theme in Alterniabound's album.

Of course all of these songs follow a pattern, and they're made for the same [S] Pages. Karkat and Eridan's, though? Almost completely in sync.

I dunno, maybe I'm trying to fit triangles into square holes, but it seemed worth mentioning. I genuinely tried listening to both at the same time in two different tabs but I couldn't get much out of it.

(This is nosyDetective btw, I just can't send asks from this blog bc it's not my main 😔)

Unfortunately, the similarities seem pretty superficial - eridan's theme is mostly in 4/4 (2/2 technically because its a march) and karkat's is in 3/4 the whole time - but still, here's the two 3/4 parts mashed together for your listening pleasure, hahah.

[starsnores]

Can i present the idea of a reluctant sugar baby karkat with a manipulative sugar daddy gamzee to you and ask how that sounds? I just picture karkat eating tasty foods, wearing pretty clothes and trying to hang onto his resentment while gamzee eats him out on a tornup $30,000 couch because gamzee will buy whatever feferi or eridan say is nice but he doesnt give a fuck what happens to it.

actually one of my favorite things is sugar baby karkat. one of my favorite things about their dynamic that i think is somewhat underutilized is the difference in their status, bc gamzee is basically nobility, at least that's sort of how the caste system works in my head. and he's the descendent of the grand high blood, who seems to be a pretty big deal? idk that depends more on how you hc ancestry stuff but to me it seems important. and he's trashy! trashy and rich and of course he'd spoil karkat given the opportunity. and karkat would half hate being spoiled like that and find the way gamzee just doesn't care about throwing his money around annoying but it's difficult when gamzee acts like such a dope sometimes.

[dingodad]

I have been thinking about you saying of course Karkat the misogynist would say of troll society "We don't think about or care about genders on Alternia and making me think about that is culturally insensitive" but then oh geez everyone just believed that. and im having a laff. Because I remember being a teenager going like "Hm...karkat's attitude toward terezi and the general narrative weight around kanaya's lesbianism plus eridan's deal with feferi would imply similar gendered oppressions as real life. but trolls don't have those problems...weird!"

and then just stayed confused about it forever. like maybe the contradictions just meant karkat lied. i just didn't think he would do that.

disclaimer: i'm not sure i've ever expressed this exact sentiment? so it's possible you're thinking of someone else and i don't want to take full credit if that's the case LOL. but karkat's misogyny and the way things on alternia are never as benign as they have been painted by readers in retrospect are certainly themes i have frequently and recently touched upon.

to that effect, though, unless there's something i'm majorly forgetting, my position is moreso that i don't think karkat DOES ever imply trolls don't care about gender? certainly it's from karkat's mouth that we get the most vivid image of how unfriendly alternia really is to girls. and yeah, he gives us the "HOW IS THAT [HOMOSEXUALITY] EVEN A THING?" which was presumably the kernel of the idea that led to trolls "reproducing bisexually", but the way i see it "trolls are bisexual and therefore don't care about gender AT ALL" was only ever wishful elaboration on the part of a vocal and influential minority of readers.

i think it's good that you bring up how you never considered that karkat could be lying, because i think the fact that we go into a story assuming that characters will tell us the truth - or rather, more importantly, that what they say will have some meaning to us - is a convention that homestuck dedicates a lot of thought to. that's the whole reason scratch has his arbitrary "i don't lie" rule. so i think you or any reader are totally justified in hesitating to believe karkat would just lie to you! and i think the key here is that "lying", per se, is not really a tool in karkat's repertoire. being deeply misled and chronically biased, on the other hand, definitely are. and once we dispense of this misconception that karkat must necessarily be a "nice guy" (and the planet he's from must necessarily be a "nice world" in some way, no matter how desperately small) it becomes a lot easier to read this bias for what it is, which is not necessarily truth, not necessarily lies, but necessarily informative about the world he lives in. bc that's what a story about stories is really talking about, right, not whether someone is telling the "truth" but whether they are peddling a "narrative"

[eridoodles-daily]

uhhhh

what do you think of my fav ship:

EriDaveTav

(3-way matespritship )

[5/29/23 Day 148(50)]

Not a bad ship!

I personally don't click as much with Eritav, I like them as friends but ship-wise I just never felt that strongly with it. I just think Eridan gels better with other characters

Eridave, I very much do like, but I prefer them in a more pitched scenario [with vacillation which depends on the au.] mostly bc of how much dave would aggrevate Eridan [See: the fact that Dave is hard to read for Eridan, as well as how Sollux and Dave are extremely similar given how they act and how they copy each other's dialogue.] and Dave would find Eridan fun [and easy] to annoy but also a dick and such [See: Eridan and Karkat being similar, and paralleling each other with how they handled their girl crushes, Fef and tezi, being interested in other guys, Sol and Dave]

And finally, Davetav. I think it works, and I think they could be funny. Plus of course, canon merit given they were very clearly going for some sort of davetav and rosemary parallel early on before Tav got killed off. Not a go to ship, but definitely solid.

All together they sound like an interesting trio

[churro-lord]

so what are your gripes with erivris?

Oh buddy what isn't there to have gripes with?

For starters, there's the elephant in the room that 1. Their ancestors were in a relationship and at least to ME that makes me prefer them in a sibling context [esp in humanstuck] and 2. In canon, they are exes so there's already a basis to them not being together. BUT that doesn't automatically mean that they aren't viable to get together, it's just something I felt is important to mention.

For the sake of everything though, I'll be shelving the first elephant simply because of how technically incest isn't a thing or whatever in troll society [even though this just feels like an excuse to make things weird in some respects due to Hussie having a tendency to focus on incest stuff BUT I DIGRESS, this isn't the time or place for that it's just something to be mentioned] and how not everyone sees this stuff as the same as me. We're going to be looking at this from a purely "these two have no relation to each other" type of way

My first and biggest argument is just....how Vriska is to people. ESPECIALLY in terms of the pitched quadrant. Look at how she treats Tavros, she bullied and abused the hell out of him to the point she PARALYZED him and continued to berate him for not being able bodied all just to "toughen him up" [I put this in quotes as this is what she believes she's doing, when this is just making shit worse.]

Vriska picks and prods at someone's weak points, berating them under the impression this would make them stronger. She's a horrible pitched partner in general if the person she's trying to help were to have self esteem issues. Which, we clearly see Eridan DOES as we see him going to Feferi and fretting about how he worries he's not a good enough partner for Vriska because she got BORED OF HIM.

This brings me to my next point: Vriska stops talking to Eridan WHEN THEY ALREADY HAD PLANS out of BOREDOM. Now this could be seen as Eridan's nerves, which is fair, but the fact still stands that she ignored and didn't tell him anything and just blocked him while they still had plans going.

Another point of contention: the fact that the whole thing they had going on was a business arrangement, and a way to emulate their ancestors. We know their flarp characters were EXPLICITLY named after their ancestors as well, Mindfang and Dualscar. Their ancestors were in a pitched arrangement, which the duo learned from Vriska's ancestor's journal, so it was more so they were emulating their ancestors instead of well...actually being in a stable relationship.

Of course, that doesn't mean they didn't get emotionally invested, clearly Eridan still cared a lot about it since he would later try and prod Sollux and Rose to be his new rivals to piss her off. Also the self esteem stuff mentioned above.

But the point still stand that it's built off the idea that they have to be like their ancestors, which we can clearly see is unhealthy for BOTH of them, and I mean in general not just with their relationship.

And again, the fact that it was also specifically an arrangement that was meant to feed Feferi's lusus and Vriska's lusus.

There's also confirmation in the author's commentary as well. Although I should say that author commentary should always be taken with a grain of salt given the fact that Hussie's author commentary can be inconsistent, blatantly false or just downright awful and unnecessary. So take it as you will:

I think though that this does line up enough with what we're seeing in canon.

Now, there is a case to be made that they could be in a different quad. Which I mean, fair enough you do you. There's canon evidence that Vriska did at least care about Eridan or DID like being around him on some level.

Firstly, when pre-retcon Vriska on the pirate ship says she wishes that Eridan wasn't prototyped as Erisolsprite bc he would have loved being on the expedition. Along with how she defended Eridan's worthiness of living to Terezi in post-retcon.

Although, we never actually get a chance to hear what Eridan would potentially feel about her like...post dead and stuff. So it's hard to exactly say if he'd feel the same.

So at the very least to me, I feel they could at least be friends, but just because Vriska still seems to be ok with the idea of being around Eridan, doesn't automatically mean I'd wanna throw them in a quad.

But yeah, those are kinda my bigger reasons as to why I don't like Erivris. I can tolerate it at least I suppose, as it's not one that I consider to be the 3 ships I will internally go hater mode at haha. I'd just side eye it and go =.= ok I suppose haha. Again, at the very least I like them as friends[or siblings in humanstuck], albeit with some distance.

[charliesinfern0]

can u telll me about some of ur fav ocs i wanna know allll about their stories and looks and everything… if u get a chance

YES OMG YES OF COURSE!!!!

ok so there might be some minor spoilers for Homestuck='Citrus' but i dont think itll matter because most of the plot stuff is on my blog already lol

(rest under the cut)

Page Cambell is the main oc in HS='Citrus'. She lives in Oregon with her Uncle (real name Paul). She's a Prospit dreaming Mage of Rage, and her planet in the medium is The Land of Nod and Thunder, with her denizen being Marsyas. Her associated item is Gold and her classical element is Electricity. Her patron troll is Tavros, and i am toying with the idea of PageTav being somewhat canon, but i dont really want to focus on shipping stuff til we get to that bridge lol. but also i accidentally made Page and Rose parallel eachother in some ways (Seer is the active couterpart to Mage, i interperate Rage and Light being similar but opposite in some aspects, yellow (Page's main color) is opposite to purple on the color wheel, and then they palletswap when they godtier, in greek myth Marsyas was killed by Apollo, the god of Light) sooo <_< >_> (their ship name is Purple Prose ^u^). Oh i also wanted her to interact with Karkat, Sollux, Aradia, Vriska, Equius, Gamzee, and the Alpha Kids and Calliope (and maaayyybe Doc Scratch) in some way bc i think their dynamics would be fun to work with. I wanted Page's planet quest to have something to do with a tempest, and i wanted to connect it in some way to the other kids' quests, but i dont really have any concrete ideas right now. After [S] Cascade, she ends up on the Prospitian Ship with John, Jade and Davesprite and they travel through the fenestrated wall together. For her looks, I have alot of ideas for her alchemized dresses that i will draw up at some point, but right now ill just tell u their names and the recipies for alchemizing them (apologies if i get any of the alchemy wrong):

Yellow Pages Dress (Lemon Shirt && Big Old Phone Book || Old Dress)

Wired Lime Dress (Yellow Pages Dress || Mp3 Player)

Apollo Ad Agio Dress (Lemon Shirt Outfit && Apollo 18 Record && Blanket)

(Faerie's) Kissmet Gown (Yellow Pages Dress || 4 Billiard Ball (&& Butterfly Wings)

Lemon Button Up (Lemon Shirt || Old Button Up)

Im not sure if all of these outfits will show up in Citrus, but i do wanna draw them all :) Also i have drawn up all the weapons she gets if u wanna check those out

Then theres Wyllin Cennos, my troll oc that shows up in Citrus. She lives with her Babirusa Lusus in her opera house-esque hive (H!s ty?!ing qu!rk !s that they re?lace Ps and Is with exca!mat!on ?o!nts and quest!on marks). They are a Derse dreaming Thief of Blood (made her derse to kind of balance out with Sollux having two dream selves so it makes an even 7 on derse and 7 on prospit), and his planet in the medium is The Land of Pillars and Crowns, with her denizen being Talos. Their strife specibus is Hatchetkind. Initially i wanted WylKat to be kind of canon, buuut now im more leaning towards she and Eridan having some kind of relationship, but im not really sure. Her Ancestor is The Composer, who was a very influential musician in her time, using her music to spread the word of the Signless and his message. Rennoa Cennos is her Dancestor, and she is a Derse dreaming Page of Blood. She wanted to live out her dreams a rock musician, but her status as a low blood only kept her being coddled by highbloods and she never truly left her shell.

This is all i have right now without spoiling too much! Youll just have to wait for future upd8s if you wanna know more ;)

(also i might make a part 2 for my hiveswap ocs if u want me to ^_^)

[pumpkinofthedale]

a theory i entertained: kankri at the christmas party but he thinks it's the norm for humans to wear multiple layers of clothes for christmas. but see, hes Evil. dude carefully avoided porrim so shes not there to force him into sweaters, so he wears several layers of pants instead and unintentionally strikes horror into all who gaze upon him. is oblivious to this bc of course he is everyone there is participating in cultural appropriation except uhhh, him, obviously. he tries to find cronus to tell him he's wrong for throwing a human holiday party without consulting sensitivity groups but can't find him, so he accidentally gets wasted on the eggnog and drunkly bitches to whoever's adjacent instead. possibly this includes marvus at one point who is like "damn man, whack" before leaving him there to keep suckling down eggnog like the miserable wreck of a man he is am i warm or cold???

Honestly not far off. He doesn't get toasted on eggnog though because soporifics are hedonistic and if you partake in them you are willingly lowering your inhibitions making you more prone to behaviors that could hurt others. Also drinking alcohol could upset recovering alcoholics and cause them to fall back on their old ways blahblahblahblah

However roxy 100% gave him a weed brownie to chill hte fukc out dude which he was at first very upset by because he is a righteously angie boy but its christmas and you cant turn down a gift but he also isn't about to eat something in public because that could trigger someone with an ED so he will have it when he goes home. However he still rants to every single person who will sit still long enough for him to waddle his way over to in his 50 layers of clothes which he is sweating profusely in in that 80 degree house. He definitely tries to tell off Eridan and Cronus but Vriska and Terezi dunk on him whenever he gets close to their friend group so he tried to find Cronus

He ends up complaining to mspar who patiently listens to him rant

[godtier-haven]

What have you found is the best method for deciding your own classpect? More than just read stuff and think about it, bc that's already a given

that's a tough question bc i still have trouble with my classpect tbh! it's hard to find one title that fits you perfectly all the time, and of course as people change over time their classpect wouldn't stay the same really

but! that aside, personally i read like every aspect analysis ever and then played around with classes until i found one that fit almost perfectly, but even then i still question it (usually bc i get tired of whatever class/aspect I picked lmao)

also!! i wrote down some things i noticed ppl do when thinking about their own classpect, and then I realized they can be grouped into some aspects/classes:

mind players: usually switch between classpects constantly bc of of their quickly-changing personality and interests, theyre always double checking their classpect again and when they find something that doesn't fit PERFECTLY they throw the whole title out and consider a new one, also tend to be the people who do deep dives into different titles and characters

blood players: usually relate very closely to karkat, and they just stick with that and don't do too much reconsidering lol

light players: are usually pretty into classpecting already, and they pick their aspect easily and they make sure everyone knows they're a light player; are often the types to ask others to classpect them for them

void players: tend to not be that into classpecting at all, usually they pick a title that looks cool to them without really thinking deeply about it and then they keep it/forget about it (god i wish i could just pick one like yall)

heart players: either people who relate to dirk or people who just ~vibe~ with the heart aspect immediately, usually id as an heir at some point, ive also never met a heart player who hasn't been pretty into roleplaying haha

rage players: you rarely see them!! bc they usually try to classpect themselves but can't pick one so they abandon classpecting completely, and they usually don't like for other people to classpect them

life players: surprisingly they generally leave it up to other people/tests to pick a classpect, im sure there would be more ppl identifying as life players if more people liked the life aspects color palette

breath players: never get invested enough in classpecting to title themselves lmao, they usually take the test once and whatever they get their reaction is always "huh. ok cool i guess" and that's that

time players: they usually just really fucking love dave or caliborn

space players: ask people about classpects to confirm that they're space players but not to figure out their entire title. they usually have it figured out already but they just want confirmation from ppl that know more about classpects than they do

doom players: the cryptids of the aspects. the only doom players i can think of have never read homestuck

hope players: take a test, get a title, tell everyone when they ask that they're a hope player and that's all they know

witches: either id perfectly with one aspect or never id with an aspect at all

thieves: more people would id as thieves if they weren't labeled as problematic and difficult so idk

princes: almost always relate super closely to dirk/eridan or they think the prince class/whatever aspect they pick is cool and don't care about anything else

mages: they don't like the aspect that fits them best but they wanna be honest with themselves so they pick the mage class

seers: never met a seer who isn't a rose lalonde kinnie snfxjfsnfxmgs; usually super comfy with being a seer and they love their aspect

sylphs/maids: i grouped these two together bc they're essentially the same way about classpects. they either don't know anything about classpecting and they let people title them or they know everything about classpects and they work to find the perfect title

pages/rogues kinda: they like being told about their aspect/class but they won't look into it themselves

heirs: vibe

knights: they either aren't sure about their title so they don't get into classpecting or theyre a dave kinnie lmfao

bards: id as something else at first, but slowly start to relate to the bard class, usually can never pick an aspect

i did a terrible job of answering this sorry zjfxjfjfzkgkg

thank u for the ask!!!!

[doomsdaydicecascader]

:fire: pixel art in indie video games

there are so many angles to approach this one from. like okay this is a homestuck blog and i’m making a webcomic where i do art on a canvas meant to be viewed without any magnific8ion or up-scaling but for like. 3 years before this i was a full-time indie dev, and one of the things i took the most pride in was my pixel art - i still love doing pixel art but it’s hard to find places to put good pixel art into a homestuck comic. 

last year i put together a game for a game jam where i spent most of the time in the week i was working on environment art (@janederscore killed it on character animations) and the final score was, in terms of graphics, #5 out of 114 entries.

check out witch machine if you have the time, sound of the summer.

i’m personally really proud of this shot of the curtains in the dining room. 

all this to say, i feel like i’ve got a non-zero amount of skin in the game, with this ask. and the skin in the game is, i feel like pixel art is an EXTREMELY devalued medium, especially in the context of indie games, like. i can think of exactly one holistic pixel artist, where like, their work exists as its own thing and not as an extension of a game’s aesthetic, and that’s fucking paul robertson. 

you may know him as the guy who did all the pixel-pushing work in gravity falls - both giffany and the street fighter parody were his art. and that dude bites. that dude made graphic fan art of custer’s revenge, you know - the game that exists to be pointed at in gdc talks where the late-20s, early-30s dsa member says “we have to do better than this”. and they’re right, that game sucks. 

and even then, his work is only really holistic because the scott pilgrim game got fucking. unpersoned, and if it was still around he’d be the scott pilgrim game guy. even homestuck has homages to that dude’s work in it - eridan and sollux’s fight is in that exact style. 

thats a tangent but heres my feeling: the prevalence of pixel art in games is like a thing that has to be done in every other artistic medium, that is - you have to make a fucking choice, about what your game is, about what your narrative is. 

i wrote a whole blog post last year about what i was doing with the game i was working on at the time, box game, since i spent ages doing a pass on all the art in-game, redrawing things and reshaping them to be more visually coherent, less bad, and why i made those choices, and i stick by those to this day but here’s a less masturbatory example:

one of my favorite pixel art games, visually speaking, is space funeral. space funeral is a game about MOON, an artist who saw the CITY OF FORMS, a perfect city based on the platonic theory of forms and after being driven mad, destroyed it. over the course of the game, your goal is to defeat moon and restore the city of forms. 

at the beginning, phillip walks in weird ways, like the animator just drew some frames without really knowing how they fit together, the tiles are all given this black outline that’d be horrifying to ship, since there’s this pixel art concept known as “jaggies” - when drawing lines, there’s certain kinds of curves that you follow to create the illusion of curves and almost always, it’s on diagonals. 

the difference between these two lines is palpable, no? it effortlessly creates the illusion of amateur pixel art. also it is amateur pixel art, for as heady and interesting as thecatamites games can be i wouldnt put “pixel art quality” at the top of their merits. its still gr8 but you know. 

anyway, it starts out with this really comparatively desaturated look, using lots of neutral versions of colors. but........

as you approach the city of forms, it grows garish. the only colors that arent blown out are the yellow of leg horse and philip’s skin. as you approach moon, and restore the city of forms, restoring this “perfect model city” and restoring the world as it was known, the whole game’s aesthetic shifts again. 

to the RPG maker default tileset, something so thoroughly soulless that the only place you would ever see it in 2020 is in this context, a melancholy ending as the unique world you just spent the whole game exploring, is stamped out for a world that conforms to the very assets its packaged with by default. 

(youll also find them in hentai games on steam, where they bring out big bucks for busts of their buxom babes but barely break a babys bank over things like tilesets, though trying to talk truthfully about that seems thoroughly tedious) 

all this to say, i feel like you cant just have a take like “:fire: pixel art in indie games” because its like. “whats your opinion on art in comics”. “whats your opinion on acting in films”. its just a medium and there are good and bad examples of that medium and i think its kind of unfair to judge a medium by its terrarias when its also got games like deltarune, gato roboto, and hyper light drifter 

and again this is just in games, pixel art is a medium unto itself which is a whole other topic but i dunno how much i can get into that, just bc i dont have the experience

[hstbc]

Do any of the mods have homestuck kins? If so... do tell

Mod Pink:  my main kin is Nepeta, she’s like a selfhood! but i kin davepeta as well. i have a whole list of other kins, you can ask about if you’re interested! ~<3

Mod Red:  i have no kins bc im boring

Mod Orange:   i dont have too many homestuck kins but for trolls its gamzee, karkat, sollux, and equius. for humans its dave, roxy, dirk, karkat, and jake.

Mod Yellow:  i do not kin myself, tho i do have a few characters who i strongly relate to, but i respect all who do kin <3

Mod Green: Uh so Fun Fact, I literally found out what kinning actually is on the Discord like 2 days ago. That being said: Dave, Dirk, Karkat (Although that’s mainly every Homestuck character quiz assigned), Gamzee, Rufioh, and of course MSPAReader. 

Mod Teal:  im kinda Afraid of adding my joke list but it would be june jade jane jake rose roxy dave kanaya karkat tyzias gamzee and 1/2 of equius

Mod Blue:  Just like every other transmasc I kin the strider boys, Dave a little more tho. Maybe Karkat or Eridan? Idk, I'm pretty new to kinning so I don't really have a long list.

Mod Purple:   i strongly identify with Dave, but i wouldn't say i kin him

Mod Grey:  Sorry y'all but kinning just ain't for me.

[adam-is-suffering]

What I know of the trolls (pt 2)

TEREZI PYROPE

- Deadass? I thought at first these were just her eyes and not glasses and I was about to up her on the ranks of “best of the best” 

- So she likes to interrogate? Thats interesting.

- She’s the one who people ship with Nepeta

- Aaand I remember her from a convo with my sister’s gf about her horns I think

- The server is obsessed with Terezi, they have all right to be

- Know what else is interesting? Apparently she hangs her stuffed animals out the window and I strive to be that chaotic as a child

- God she fights with her walking stick? Goddamn respect, I’m gonna guess she’s blind then

- Apparently she licks things to see? Power move.

- She has the biggest dick energy I’ve ever seen

VRISKA SERKERT

- Does she even need a take on her character? I’ve heard the discourse, I probably read it unknowingly before, I know how she works.

- I was shat on because I said Undertale’s Megalovania was from the game, and a Homestuck came up to me like “pussy, its Vriska” so yknow

- But I will sum up what the discourse said:

- She killed a few people, some are mad. But apparently others are apologists because of her upbringing and importance to the comic. And how she solves a big problem at some point to help others? But then she also killed, so yknow. I have no idea what to say about her until I read it, so I’ll keep this post fucking absent of opinion before I get mauled by hungry and starved Vriska discoursers.

EQUIUS ZAHHAK

- BRUH WTF IS THIS

- Who the fuck uses this as the first image after searching for his name YOU ABSOLUTE BASTARDS

- So this was probably the worst thing to happen so far and I havent even started. Fucking goddamnit.

- So this is saggy tits, he was the first character I was introduced to on the server. Best friends with Nepeta, the diamond thingy.

- God great just fantastic

- But imagine I didnt see this, then I would assume he just loved being strong and playing with his bow and arrow. I saw a few pieces of fanart, and his dad … his dad is hot lemme just tell you

- Man.. fuck. Did he trip? Is that how he died?

- Well at least I don’t know when this happens.

GAMZEE MAKARA

- Well youre crazy

- Or either you just got hurt, and you’re just trying to assure everyone that “I’m fine it doesnt hurt” in which case, of course, Gamzee. You look just fine.

- But I still think you’re a little crazy.

- And a clown (though probably a juggalo by the looks of things)

- Apparently clowns rule the government so hey, got that going for yourself

- I first thought he had a cow theme but was corrected of course

- This is a fave character of a few people, I think, while the others.. don’t like him? Understandable. Idk where I stand though.

- But I did read smth cursed on his character which I will not say bc even if I suggest this blog to be 18+, there’s still limits

- He also likes juggling

- Obviously what else did I expect from that? That he liked politics instead?

- And I think he drinks too goddamn it, theyre all alcoholics

- Someone is very passionate about making Gamzee seem less of a crazy troll but hey, I’d read that if I didn’t want to be spoiled more

ERIDAN AMPORA

- Okay who told you it was okay to ride a seahorse and hold a gun in the middle of a thunder storm while also being a fish who resembles that one guy from Danganronpa?

- A loser is what lol

- Nah real question, how are you even holding onto the seahorse? Like I get the saddle and the ropes, but the way its placed just seems like you can slip off at any given moment.

- Also people are putting him in dresses, idk if thats his interest or just a thing the fandom likes to do

- Honestly you never know tbh

- He’s literally just a hipster fish I’m not sure what else there is to say

- He gives douchebag energy? Is that what you want?

- Man, one of the tags on the search just says “Sad” are you okay fish Eridan? Do you want to talk about it?

- Oh and his brother Cronus? I just watched a video of him dancing shirtless and I haven’t been the same since

FEFERI PEIXES

- She can breath underwater, I can see that

- She also looks like she’s cute but hiding her trident behind her back ready to stab a bitch, probably thinking you won’t see the blatant weapon

- Thats what the evil look is for

- Maybe she’s that “im kind until ill stab ya” kinda gal

- Yknow, the usual

- I do like her skirt though, I think she’s the most colourful here. Everyone else is emo, especially Karkat

- Aw the squid in the back is cute tho

- Also why are you swimming with clothes and shoes in the first place? They waterproof?

- Idk much about her. Like there’s nothing at all. Why is there minimal info and art of this one lol?

[vespiiqueen]

List 5 things that make you happy, then put this in the ask box of the last 10 people who reblogged something from you (if you want !! 💛💖)

Wow I rambled a lot with this but i can't add cuts bc I'm on mobile rn DHSISHSJ sorry :"))))

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1. Ik Ik "haha how cringe are you" of me to say, but honestly? Homestuck. Homestuck helped me in a time of need and when i so desperately wanted something to latch onto. Finally, I caved into my friends telling me to read it-- and it's been a blast!! The epilogues / hs^2 make me feel kinda sad though, because so much of what I loved about the original was yeeted through the nine circles of hell and into the trash. I love Y/ffany's (I call her Yippi tho) design, the art is really pretty at times, Harry is a major dork, I LIVE for seeing Vrissy bc honestly?? Her design is 10/10, very early 2000s emo style and I also live for that. Tavros is cute and a nerd and I think that's swell!

But in terms of story and how any of this happens, it makes me sad to see it happen. If Vriska could return as Vrissy, why not OTHER beta trolls? Where's my Eridan fish man, writers?? Give me the boy or perish by my fury.

2. Also super "haha how cringe are you" but,,, murder cats (Warriors), esp the early 2005-2015 amvs and stuff. I remember watching Flightfootwarrior's "I Will Not Bow" Scourge amv for HOurs and having no clue what was happening, but all these edgy kitties were KITTIES! It's introduced me to a lot of music I still listen to to this very day (Imagine Dragons, Young/the entirety of Hollywood Undead, Breaking Benjamin). And yknow what?? This new arc is absolute chaos, but in the good way.

I'm an "OG Fan". I prefer the first arc, The Prophecies Begin, to almost any of the other arcs. I just could never get into the other arcs-- not to say I haven't read them, I HAVE and the Fire Scene was probably one of my favorite moments beside grumpy Jaypaw, god complex Lionblaze, and fear the gods Hollypaw. I thought the build-up for it was SUPER satisfying. Gray Wing is my baby and I fully embellish in the Gray Wing is Silverpelt theory.

This new arc is definitely something new for the universe. While I didn't read aVoS (but I may do that if i can find the files for it), and so I don't know the major events of it other than what I've seen M.A.P.'s (Multi-Animator Projects, for clarification,,, bc unfortunately that term is also something disgusting). There's fucking cat possession and all the Clans questioning their belief system, yo. Shit be on fire.

Also the Imposter is 100% Ashfur, that's canon now, yeah??? Also im sorry but fuck Root x Bristle that's the dumbest shit I have ever seen. Give me Root x Shadow or face the wrath of my dragon plushies.

RiverClan is my Clan and my gov assigned warrior name is Fireshell 🌟🌟

3. As much as I hate the author,,,,, Harry Potter. It's been a major part of my life for as long as I can remember. I can never really remember why, but I've always just loved it- the movies, the books, the extra little merch that would pop up in my local Walmart. Of course my favorite character is Draco Malfoy. I could go on and on and ON about how I think his character arc was SHIT and JKR didn't have the balls to make him a confident gay man that was always implied through the text (at least, my lesbian ass thought it was implied but i may just be projecting, idk). I could ramble about Draco for HOURS and what I think his character SHOULD have been and how his parents are horrible (more specifically, Lucius bc Narcissa [?] Actually showed a few good moments), and a child should never have to pay for their parents sins.

Oh noo, Draco's a villain because he's a victim of major abuse and peer pressure? He's a villain because a literal child can be horrible and they'll always always always stay as a horrible little fiend?? Fuck that. He's a child.

Unlike manchild grease pan Snape, who was a racist piece of shit and shouldn't have became a fucking school teacher but it's okay because he was ~~~in love~~~. No, fuck you, he was a creep. James Potter n Co may have been a little posh bitch to you, Snape, but that's no fucking excuse to continue to bluntly be a little cunt all the way into adulthood. You're an adult who flatly changed your PATRONUS to imitate Lily's. You have no excuse. And Harry went and named his child after you LIKE JESUS CHRIST, DID RON'S SISTER NOT HAVE A SAY IN THE NAMES TOO?????

I also fully adore the idea that Muggles can run into Hogwarts and their patronus can 100% be a made up, fantasy creature. Imagine you learn the patronus spell and suddenly fucking ARCEUS comes from your wand. Imagine learning the spell and CHTULU (i did not spell that right but im so tired) comes from your wand-- an entire ass fucking Lovecraftian, Eldrith horror is just the embodiment of you. What if it was a fucking Homestuck character like Vriska? How fucking METAL would that be?? Hskajssowjjsjs get on it fandom.

4. Hee hee very evident by my url but Pokemon is another major thing of mine. While vespiquen isn't my favorite (that title goes to Hydreigon), it is definitely up there!

I've ALWAYS enjoyed the idea of Pokemon. You run around, training up these fight monsters and collecting them. I remember playing my sister's Ruby version on her flip-up Gameboy. I couldn't even read but I ran around catching god only knows how many of the same pokemon wherever she was. Apparently, I had fought for hours in the same area and leveled her Blaziken up to lvl 50 something and left her lvl 30s in the dust LMAO.

I got my first game when it was Pearl/Diamond. It was Pearl, and it still holds a very fond place in my heart. I could barely read, I could barely write-- I had named my Turtwig something along the lines of "MmorpHy" and my player boy "ZbsibJ". Yes I remember the names slightly. I really didn't get far-- I barely got to the first gym but I was just so happy to play it.

I eventually lost the game, as a 5 year old would do, but I can still vividly remember what was happening when the game arrived. I had just came back from the dentist and was quite tired from fighting the dentist bc I was super scared. Mom suddenly handed me a box and said it was mine-- my overseas (at that time) dad had bought me Pearl and my sister Diamond, because I lost my shit about it when he visited one time.

Well, tdlr, I played it for about five minutes while struggling to stay awake against the loopy gas they made me take. I fell asleep listening to Twinleaf Town's soundtrack. Every time I play a rom of Pearl and I get to where the player's house fades in and I hear that first tune of the song, I get a huge smile on my face and cry-- as.. Weird as it sounds.

A few years later, I had gotten Pokemon Black bc I liked Reshiram on the cover. Now, this one I could actually READ when playing, but I don't remember a lot of things about it. I probably lost this one too, as a 8/9 year old would do. I DO remember, I chose Snivy and my sister chose Tepig (hrmm there's a theme here of grass/fire goin on......) and vibing to the music. I was so amazed by the sprites moving, I just kept getting into encounters to see the sprites move (oh boy, no one tell younger 7-9 y/o me about Zelda......oh wait....)

Playing Pokemon NOW, as a 17 year old """gifted""" chick, I stil have very fond memories. I recently beat Pokemon Black again and GOD the OTS SLAPS. I fucking adore the soundtrack-- the track that plays when you battle a trainer, the low health dings being turned into a legit song that also slaps, the battle! gym leader themes-- and oh my gOd, the legendary theme is amazing? It really tells you just how glorious these pokemon are supposed to be. It's not intimidating like Groudon/Kyroge/Rayquaza's themes. It's not action packed like Palkia/Dialga's is, it's not filled with tension like Giratina/Arceus's is-- but it radiates the GLORY that the beasts portray. And I live for that. (Also, Kyurem's version is my favorite because it glitches in the beginning and that's rly cool)

P/D/P and BW/BW2's stories, imo, are some of the greatest ones. Yeahhh, US/USUM's is cool and I haven't played XY nor SwSh-- but the ones I can find memorable are PDP and BW/BW2. I love N. I love Barry. They're my sons. Ghetsis is fucking terrifying, Cyrus needs a hug. Giratina scared the piss out of me when I was younger, which was NOT helped by Giratina and The Sky Warrior.

I think my favorite movies are the gen 4 ones. The Rise of Darkrai having a tear-jerking theme for such a mysterious pokemon (i still tear up when i hear Ocarion), Giratina being spiteful is a mood and Shaymin was cute, Arceus being angry is also a mood. Yeah, Pokemon 4Ever made me cry my eyes out over Celebi, Mewtwo Returns made me again cry because Mewtwo accepting who he is, I remember how vastly different the BW movies are-

I just. I have a lot of memories with the series, even if Gamefreak and Nintendo kinda do the series dirty a lot (your top-grossing thing and you made That monstrosity for the Switch? How dare you.). It's comforting to be stressed and pull up my roms for the games and to play them. Mystery Dungeon is incredibly fun to play, Pokemon Ranger is really fun with the concept (Shadows of Almia continues to kick my ass to this very day and FUCK the Jungle Relic, I hate the Water Challenge fucking gyarados bullshit). I remember the pokemon I got for MD (I got Time, my sis got Darkness) was Mudkip, if that is any help.

I love my little fictional pixel monsters.

5. Yup, someone told tiny 7-9 y/o me about console games. The legend of Zelda. My first Zelda game was Twilight Princess on the Wii and BOY did I play the fucking SHIT out of that game.

Honestly, looking back and looking at playthroughs now-- I still love TP. Twilight Princess is still one of my top favorite Zelda games-- yes, even after playing OoT, Majora's Mask, Wind Waker, Skyward Sword, the anniversary four swords edition for the DS where you could play by yourself (Nintendo pls bring that back, I don't have friends to play it with ;-;), Phantom Hourglass- ect.

Something about Twilight Princess grabbed me by the head and yeeted me into the world. I can remember playing it for hours with little to no breaks. I, a tiny 9 y/o, had gotten the hang of the controllers and managed to get past the tutorial quite easily. And then, I was launched into the game and I wasn't stopping for NOTHING. Mom and Dad would have to force me to save and get off to go and eat dinner. THAT sucked.

I had done everything on my own up until the first temple, the forest temple. Not where/when you saved the dumb kid, but when you were saving the spirit's light. Theeeeeeennn I got stuck on the fucking Forest Temple for deadass six months straight. I'd play for hours, running around in circles, unable to figure out where to go, and because I didn't grasp the temple's purpose of being that way- I'd get angry and get off. It wasn't until dad looked up a walkthrough and talked me through what I was supposed to do that I learned how to get through temples.

I had gotten to the last little fight with Ganondorf before the Wii broke and i could no longer play. Despite the Wii being broke and we got rid of it, I was ADAMANT on keeping the game, and I kept that game for YEARS. It was an original copy out of a sealed box, and I eventually lost it when I left it accidentally at my now ex-friend's house.

She had a Wii and I went "hey I have a Wii game!" And I brought my Zelda over. Worst fucking choice of my goddamn life. Mom called me to come home and said I couldn't sleep over like the original plan was, and that was it. My ex-friend stashed my Zelda and I never saw it again. And, even if I wanted to-- I couldn't get it back, which makes me upset. We had a BAD falling out. She likely doesn't even remember it's there, or sold it to the local game junkie kid who buys ALL games.

But I still love the game. Midna was amazing, and I loved how snarky she was and she has a very cute design! The game's OST is fucking phenomenal. Midna's Desperate Hour makes me cry bc goddamn it really sells how serious that situation is. I love Hyrule Field's theme in this game. I love the Twilight Realm's song. Zant was fucking hilariously scary. Ganondorf's design in this game scared the piss out of me when I was younger.

Midna and this game's Link and Zelda are def my favorites. Yeah yeah, Sheik is cool and all I Guess but dhsushwishs Midna holds the special place in my heart. She was totally my gay awakening BUT

For other game antagonists, I adore Ghirahim-- let's go you funky little queer-coded villain. Skull Kid was great, I love the entire dynamic of him. Prankster lost soul stumbles upon Majora's Mask and the mask makes him act out due to powers-- which, I actually took very heavy inspiration from for one of my OCs. The moon falling to Hyrule was a fucking terrifying looming threat.

But the game series holds a place, and I've yet to be able to play BoTW-- although, I'm fairly certain I'll like it. The playthroughs I've watched of it are all fairly decent! I just. Gotta save up enough money to buy it haha.

Dang guess I gotta go watch a Twilight Princess playthrough again.

Honorable Mentions:

Avatar: the Last Airbender, specifically Book 3

my OCs definitely make me happy, they're my children and I'd ramble A LOT longer if given the chance WHEEZE

My friends, but I didn't add them here bc it's more fictional stuff, I presume

Baking. I love to bake cupcakes.

Painting is fun. I'm an artist and goddammit im going to use painting as an excuse to make a mess.

Fire. I rly like fire, down to a pyromaniac level. However, i hate the fires that happened to my home town, the Great Smokey Fires of 2016-- THAT pissed me off. How dare you burn mountain landscapes to the ground. Perish.

History. I'm a history nerd.

I'm also a science nerd.

But fuck math, I cannot comprehend math to save my life.

For some reason, I rly like learning how the human body works??? like did you know, organs are actually sticky when touched by a bare hand?? Did you?? How fucking cool is that.

Bakugan. I love Bakugan, esp the DS game. I love my Darkus Leonidas. Give me back the online world, you peasants-- I want my Darkus Dragonoid. (Also fuck all my friends from when I was in kindergarten- my theory that Alice was Masquerade was somewhat correct.)

[interrogatormentors]

Event Twelve: Underhanded Tactics

Eridan woke up in the medbay, a common occurrence these nights. His whole head throbbed, and he slid his tongue along the roof of his cotton-dry mouth. He cracked open an eye only to screw it shut again, head panging again as a jolt of fear rattled through his gut. The phantom scent of antiseptic teased at his memory, the sound of hair clippers and the saw discordant and lingering as the Empress crooned at his side. You are my confidante, she’d said. You must keep my secrets close, locked tight so no one can pull them from you. Stop crying, guppy, brain surgery ain’t so bad. 

He took a deep breath through his nose, gills flaring as he struggled to avoid hyperventilating. The past couldn’t hurt him, initial panic notwithstanding. His arm itched, a faint movement confirming the IV needle sunk into a vein. He felt around for the needle, ripping it out of his arm and clamping his hand down to stem the resulting spurt of blood.

“Sir!” Eridan ignored the alarmed squawk of a nearby mediculler, sitting up on the medical platform and peeling his eyes open. “You should be resting--”

“I didn’t give nobody permission to bring me in, Icrusa,” Eridan said, voice a rough croak. He cleared his throat, replacing his whole hand with his index finger to put pressure on the IV site instead. The mediculler swallowed hard, shrinking back as Eridan shot him an icy glare. “Told you this the last time.”

“You keep passing out, sir,” Icrusa said. His ears flushed a brilliant yellow as Eridan glowered. “You really shouldn’t be drinking so much, not with your pan in such a delicate state.” Icrusa stopped speaking as Eridan gripped onto the side of the medical platform, highblood strength twisting and warping the metal frame.

“My pan ain’t delicate,” he said. “I’m no different than I was a sweep ago. I’m not some delicate pissblooded helmsman. I can handle it. And the next time you try an’ give me some holier than thou bullshit regardin’ my drinkin’ habits, I’m setting you out the airlock. I didn’ ask for you to give me fuckin’ unsolicited health advice an’ you’d fuckin’ do well to remember that.” He reached for his glasses, shoving them on his face. His finger skipped over the false slap of skin at his temples, hiding the new port for a biowire. His stomach rolled, and he shoved it away. Don’t think about it. Don’t feel. Shut off your emotions, guppy, like a husktop. “I can’t get work done in the medbay. Sign my release form.”

Icrusa hesitated before bobbing his head, scurrying back to his office. He knew better by this point than to point out that yes, actually, it was his job to give health advice considering his status as the ship’s official mediculler after the last time Eridan woke up hungover in the medbay. Eridan watched him the whole time through narrowed eyes, foot tapping at a near frantic pace as he waited. He left the medbay even before the mediculler left his office, lifting the cape folded at the end of the platform and swinging it back around his shoulders. A sweep ago he would have felt childish, wearing a cape again, haunted by wiggler memories of immature games and lofty aspirations he could never hope to reach. But the Empress had given it to him, just for him in her color, gold woven into the hem with his sign etched into the embroidery, marking him as hers. 

He went to his block, avoiding the stares from crew members as he swept past them. He didn’t need their concern or their pity to do his job. The moment he entered he snatched a half-empty flask from his desk, draining the rest of it and sighing as his throat burned. Nothing beat a hangover like a bit of hair of the woofbeast, and a few minutes later his panic faded back into the background. Everything was okay. He was fine, everything was normal, and he could get to work.

Eridan sank into his chair, fumbling around for a bottle of soporific and refilling his flask as he eyed a desk drawer with distaste. He sucked in a breath before opening it, picking up the squirming biowire pinched between his index finger and thumb. He gritted his teeth before flicking the false flap of skin back, putting the wire to his temple. The biowire squirmed and sank into the port, and Eridan flinched as pain shot through his brain. The Empress had assured him the procedure was safe, convenient, but every time he hooked up to a computer Eridan felt like death clawed at his pan. He didn’t have psionics, he didn’t have all the electric pulses constantly thrumming through his body and shortening the neural pathways so the biowire could work efficiently. The biowire twisted his thoughts into agonized tendrils, every transfer of encrypted data giving him a migraine for hours. 

Still he hooked himself to his computer, taking another draft from his refilled flask as he opened up his alerts and tasks for the day. A download automatically started-- a security update for the ship itself, procedures for lockdown in case of a hijacking. The rebellion kept forcing the Empire’s hand, this latest security update a response to the more frequent hijackings by the movement that drew closer and closer to the heart of the fleet. Eridan bowed his head as the details wove their way into the meat of his pan, sinking into the hardware and locking themselves away. His hands shook, and he had to take a few minutes before focusing back on his tasks. His duties as Head Admin hadn’t ceased. Supplies needed ordering, personnel needed allocating, and patrol routes needed vetting. The duties never stopped, they never stopped piling up, and the notifications at the bottom right of his husktop screen with the sheer number of them seared their image into Eridan’s eyeballs.

Eridan leaned back in his seat, scrubbing at his eyes and then staring at the ceiling. Turn off the emotions. He could do that, he needed to do that, in order to keep going. He couldn’t waylay the demands of the Empress, and he had a responsibility to his ship to keep it running. Wasting time freaking out about the lack of time and lack of autonomy held him back. Besides, he never made good decisions for himself in the first place.

The intercom crackled on his desk, and Eridan snarled as he depressed the call button with his finger. “The fuck you need, Shakes?”

“Uh. Sorry to bother you, but we got a docking request,” Shakes said. “You good?”

“Not relevant. The BC Condescension is a galaxy over until the end of the perigee, so tell whoever we ain’t dockin’ for shit.”

“No, no, boss, this ain’t just any old request. It’s, uh, an interrogatormentor cruiser?”

Eridan lifted his head where he’d been resting it on his hand, blood crystallizing into icy shards of fear. “What? Why?”

“Beats me,” Shakes said. “They’ve got all the required security codes all lined up neat for me. I couldn’t get a bead on the helmsman either-- It’s like they don’t even have one. Do I let them dock?”

“It’s th’ bloody interrogatormentors. Do we have a choice?” Eridan plucked the biowire from his skull, shoving it back in his desk and smoothing his hair flat once again. “Let them on. I’ll let the Captain know.”

He met the interrogatormentors in the docking bay as they disembarked their tiny cruiser. The two purples stood out, towering high above the third, weedy troll between them. Eridan had to shake himself as he took in the yellowblood, the image of the decrepit Helmsman superimposed over the far more muscled and smooth-faced interrogatormentor in front of them. The fact the interrogatormentor clearly had helming experience didn’t help, his skin riddled with resealable ports that shone in the overhead lights. That explained the helmsman, then. Of course Shakes wouldn’t be able to get a bead on a helmsman with interrogatormentor training. Eridan cleared his throat, straightened his posture, and approached.

“Are you the captain?” The yellowblood cocked his head an inch, looking Eridan up and down. Something in his tone indicated he already knew the answer to his question, and his lisp niggled at memory in the back of Eridan’s pan.

“No. I’m Head Admin Ampora. State your business and I will fetch the captain for--”

The female purple to the side of the first interrogatormentor held up a hand, cutting him off. She wore no face paint unlike her companion. The male purple in question stared at Eridan openly, twitching as he heard Eridan’s name. It took Eridan a moment to register Gamzee aged as he was, gone through his final adult molt and towering above him. He met Gamzee’s eyes for only a moment before tearing his gaze away. He couldn’t risk Gamzee opening his mouth. He only wondered how Gamzee had landed a position alongside an interrogatormentor squad considering how Eridan faintly recalled outing his rebel connections upon first meeting the Empress.

The yellowblooded interrogatormentor cleared his throat. “Doesn’t matter,” he said. His fangs flashed as he spoke. “You’ve been compromised, Admin Ampora.”

The voice finally knocked something loose in Eridan’s pan, unlocking memories of voice calls at midday and filled with shouting wigglers spouting heresy. “TwinArmageddons?”

“CaligulasAquarium,” the yellow interrogatormentor replied, without missing a beat. 

Eridan stared at him, and stayed silent. They stayed at an impasse for a few moments, neither of them willing to out the other's rebel ties without revealing their own as Gamzee kept looking between them as the treasonous icing on the cake. It was as if Eridan had handed the interrogatormentor a grenade, and the yellowblood had pulled the pin while the grenade sat in their joined hands.

The female purple looked to the yellow, who cleared his throat. “I read his file. He read mine.” Eridan didn’t like how easily he lied, terror still prickling at the base of his skull. He scratched the back of his head, trying to ignore the wicked scar there. 

“So. Right. You here to torture me?” Eridan asked. “Interrogatormentor…?”

“Captor,” the yellowblood said. He indicated the female purple, and then Gamzee. “Interrogatormentor Davrot, Security Officer Makara. We’re responding to an alert your ship is harboring rebels and they are attempting to remove you from your position as the Empress’ consort.”

Eridan’s brows furrowed, and he shook his head. “No. You got the wrong ship. I ain’t recruitin’ rebels. Especially none tryin’ to undermine me.”

Captor snorted, lowering his chin in a clear sign of arrogant condescension. He waved a hand and the two purples separated from his side where they’d clung like remoras to a shark’s parasite-ridden gills. “Strange. The report said you’re the one that caught the alert and brought it to the Empire’s attention.”

Eridan stared, trying to knit together the holes in his memory and recall ever summoning interrogatormentors. He did a lot of his work drunk now, true enough, but he had a handle on it and remembered the important information. If anything he only remembered the Empress, a foggy memory of her praising him for his work against the rebellion. Was this what she meant?

He turned as he heard yelling and a distant commotion, but Captor waved a hand. “Ignore this and get back to whatever you Head Admins call work while we deal with your infestation,” he said. “You’ll be updated when we get what we need.” 

He walked away, silent as before as he ghosted after the two purples. Eridan watched him go before shaking himself back into reality, looking around to see a few crewmates halted in their duties and watching him. “You’re not paid to dick around,” he said, baring his teeth. “Unless any of the rest of you want to be investigated for rebel leanings. Might as well make use of the interrogatormentors while they’re here.” The idle crewmembers jumped back into their work, avoiding Eridan’s eye as he left the room.

Hours passed, and Eridan wanted to throttle something. Everyone wanted to know what the interrogatormentors wanted or needed, and he had nothing to give them. He didn’t even know the name of the troll being investigated, and he didn’t care. As long as the interrogatormentors weren’t knocking at his door and asking what he knew of Feferi and her rebellion, he didn’t care.

Someone knocked on his door. Eridan jumped, almost knocking over his flask onto his keyboard and only just managing to catch it before it fell. He swore and stood, opening the door to see the trio of trolls from earlier, Interrogatormentor Davrot dragging a fourth, barely conscious troll behind her by the hair. Olive blood oozed from multiple lacerations across the troll’s face and arms.

“Bricks?” Eridan tried to not sound so betrayed, but his voice dripped with it.

Bricks stirred, groaning before opening an eye. His other eye was swollen shut. “I’m not a rebel,” Bricks said. He yelped as Davrot yanked his hair up, clinging to her wrist for dear life in a feeble attempt to alleviate the pain.  “I’m not. Don’t listen to them-- I just tried to get you help!”

“Help with what?” Eridan’s fingers curled in the hem of his cape, and he let go only when he caught Captor staring at the gesture like a predator eyeing its prey.

Bricks stayed silent, hissing as Davrot forced him onto his knees. She leaned in, grabbing him by the horn and twisting. “No. No no no-- Not again--” Bricks screamed as Eridan caught the sound of horn splintering, grinding against itself. “The Empress! Stop-- She’s killing you, Ampora, can’t you see it? Anyone with eyes can fucking see it, it’s only the rebellion that might care! I don’t give a shit about anything else they do, I just wanted them to get you out of this place before it gets any worse..”

Eridan bristled, hands curling into his fists. Captor moved forward before he could say anything, footsteps inaudible on the metal tile. He put his hand on Bricks’ shoulder. “He sold you out,” he said. “You’re preaching to the choir now.” Bricks blinked, looking from Captor to Eridan who stood immobile. Captor snorted, snapping his fingers. Davrot grabbed Bricks’ hand, linking her fingers with his and holding it high above his head as Captor leaned in and grabbed Bricks by the chin. “It’s kind of sweet, isn’t it? You selling each other out to try and save your own sorry hides. You thought you could get away with this? With trying to snatch the Empress’ consort out from under her?” Captor dropped Bricks’ face and turned his bicolored eyes on Eridan. “You employ soft crewmembers, Admin Ampora. We didn’t even have to press hard to crack him open.”

Captor moved his left hand, swiping it overtop his right. Psionics shimmered in its wake, coalescing into a solid blade of hard light. Eridan could feel the thrum of power from here, hairs on the back of his neck standing on end in the wake of this blatant flexing of psionic ability. Bricks jerked his hand in Davrot’s grip, but she stood immobile as Gamzee grabbed his uninjured horn and kept him locked in place. “Ampora. Eridan. Come on. Who the fuck do you think keeps scraping your sorry ass off the floor every time you pass out? Tell me they’re lying-- You wouldn’t throw me under like this. I know you.”

“You don’t know me,” Eridan said. He couldn’t remember telling any interrogatormentors about an outgoing message to the rebels, or even mentioning it offhand to the Empress. He didn’t know if he wanted to. The Empress gave him everything, she gave him status and gifts and he served as her comfort and her informant. Bricks wanted to take that all away-- He wanted to ruin everything Eridan had worked so hard for and send him back to step one in the dirt with rebels. Rebels that Eridan had burned so many bridges with it might as well be a scrapyard, that had said to his face and beyond that he would never be welcome until he shaped up. He’d shaped up, he’d shipped out into the stars, and crafted himself into something better that neither Feferi nor any of her other cronies could hope to touch. “I… Yeah. I did.”

Bricks’ face fell, only for him to scream as Captor swiped out with the psionic blade and separated the engineer’s hand from his wrist with crunching bone and the smell of seared flesh. The hand skidded across the floor, smearing a trail of olive blood along the floor and landing at Eridan’s feet. Eridan stared down at it as Davrot and Gamzee let Bricks crumple to the ground, clutching his arm and screaming.

He only looked up as Captor advanced on him, schooling his face back into the blank slate the Empress had taught him. A thin line of yellow blood snaked down the interrogatormentor’s face from his nose due to no doubt immeasurable strain required by him wielding that blade. “Keep this close as a reminder to your crew. I trust you’ll do the right thing,” Captor said. He bent down and picked up the hand, and dropped it into Eridan’s. Eridan’s muscles tensed to throw it away, stomach rolling, but he only stared down at it, conditioned by this point to be totally numb as every instinct screamed at him to do something. Instead, he could be good. He could do nothing. The Empress would be proud of him, or at least he hoped as much. 

He snapped back to attention as Captor inclined his head and spoke again. “Long live the Empire.”

“Yeah, ‘course,” Eridan said, straightening his back as he automatically saluted, expression schooled into a blank mask, the drunken flush from earlier banished from his face. “Long live the Empire.”

Captor swiped at the trickle of blood on his face with his thumb and nodded, turning on his heel. The two purples flanked him again, bringing up the rear as they disappeared down the hall.

Eridan dropped the hand the moment the interrogatormentors went out of sight, skin crawling, but he couldn’t bring himself to so much as whimper. He couldn’t trust his crew. He couldn’t trust his memory. He could only trust the Empress, that she would recognize the dangers pointing daggers at his back and save him, as she no doubt had in sending interrogatormentors to his ship.

He shut the door to his blocks, leaving Bricks sobbing on the floor. He didn’t feel anything, anything at all. Even as he sent the Captain a message about the incident and Bricks writhed on the floor in pain outside his blocks he felt nothing, the tears that finally spilled from his eyes more a physical response to the lingering smell of charred flesh in his nose more than anything. He’d have to do something about the hand eventually, and he wouldn’t put it past a sadistic interrogatormentor to actually make sure he kept the hand on display somewhere. That definitely would not win him any brownie points with the crew, especially with how alienated he felt from them by this point. He doubted even Shakes would give him the time of day after this, with what he let happen to Bricks. Fuck, he needed another drink.

They’d told him in Fleet Academy that space was vast, that space was empty and cruel and cold. But no one had told him, they didn’t warn him, that space was so fucking lonely. 

[amicicidalgambler]

vriskas "canon" sexuality vs how you play her ace

god i wasnt expecting an ooc topic and i have so many words about this

short answer: i interpret canon vriska as being aroace, and have since i was 13. because of this, i always play vriska that way, and i dont see my rp muses being aroace as changing anything from my idea of ‘canon vriska’. more just tacking a bunch of different extra life experiences onto a pre-existing trait

bc like, long answer:

the thing is that vriska has a lot of relationship threads in canon. like, i made a little chart from memory to double check, and as far as i know, the only character that surpasses her in number of relationship threads is mr karkat ‘blood player, friendleader, has to talk to the entire goddamn cast to make the plot happen’ vantas

so relationships are a big part of her growing up journey™! but what is the common thread between kanaya, eridan, tavros, terezi, meenah, john, and nicholas cage as cameron poe in con air (1997)?

she doesnt actually care about almost any of them. (vriska) was able to forge a relationship with both meenah and terezi, but every other instance of romance shown with any version of her is a very shallow level of attraction that either fades into disinterest or was hiding disinterest underneath all along. theres also very few instances of her showing any kind affection and liking it, and several of her seemingly entering things bc she feels like shes supposed to

she has a moiraillegiance with kanaya but constantly complains about her being ‘fussy’ and ‘meddly’ (ie, doing actual moirail things) and does not pick up at all on kanayas vacillation interests. she has a kismesitude with eridan but loses interest before the session even starts, and seems to just be dating him bc mindfang dated dualscar. i havent thought about the finer details of tavros and vriska in ages but we all know that was a mess, and a lot of her actions also feel forced. she seemingly only talked to john bc terezi was flirting with dave. dont get me fucking started about vrisrezi im not touching that worm can offhandedly like this. etc etc

theres other factors in play, of course. but to me, a teen who really felt they were going to end up some ratio of aro/ace, this always read to me as a teen who was also going to end up some ratio of aro/ace. she does not read to me as someone who falls in love under normal circumstances, and absolutely does not read to me as someone who would grow up and be a regular ol’ allosexual with standard attraction feelings

[onlynear]

alright! i’ll admit that this post is going to be geared a little more towards eridan (as d.ualscar’s lore is the one i hate the most and mituna’s life as the psiioniic bears almost no bounds to how he is as mituna), but here we are anyway! what i’m basically doing is shredding canon and picking out the parts i like to make a pretty little mosaic of things i consider truthful to my portrayal. tw for murder, execution, sexual assault, mind control, slavery, death in general.

O.RPHANER D.UALSCAR:

OF COURSE, i’m not a d.ualscar blog. this won’t really matter much in the grand scheme of me writing, but it’s important to eridan, so i feel like it’s worth saying, yk? this is what eridan has learned about since he was a grub, looked up to his whole life. this is eridan’s flarp character too yk? like, it matters to him.

dualscar embraced his status as royalty as soon as he understood what, exactly, that meant (even somewhat before that, too, if we’re honest). he was cruel and ruthless growing up, though not much is known about him before he gained a small following aboard his first seafaring vessel (a dingy little ship that he planned to raid before taking the captives as slaves). instead of submitting to their new ~leader~, they offered their treasure and services as a loyal crew. d.ualscar, not being an idiot, negotiated some very strict terms with the ex-captain of said ship and took the thing for himself. thus, his life as a pirate begins. king of the sea, babey.

there are a lot of stories centred around d.ualscar’s life at sea, most being tales of exceptional villainy and gory fights aboard enemy ships. eridan takes all of these stories as ~canon~ for his flarp character -- even the stories in which d.ualscar loses. loss is important to legends: it makes the story more interesting, and, besides, d.ualscar would always respond to loss twice as brutally, twice as underhandedly as before. 

he’s just a nasty bastard for a living. wields his iconic weapon and kills and steals without much discrimination. he gets his name during this stretch of his legend -- orphaner, thanks to all the lusii he kills. he’s after treasure, slaves, etc -- kid trolls are good as any, and usually more obedient. his crimes against lowbloods are told more often, but rest assured he was awful to everyone! 

m.indfang plays an active part in a lot of d.ualscar’s legends. they were the perfect example of a k.ismesis, after all -- constant rivals, competing for god knows what (even d.ualscar loses sight of what they were fighting about eventually -- his romantic hatred for m.indfang is, quite literally, stuff of legend) all across the sea, taking and relenting with each other for sweeps. i won’t mess with m.indfang’s lore -- consider all the stuff wrt mind control and how she uses her slaves truthful unless it isn’t true in your m.indfang canon. it’s not my place to dictate how far she will or won’t go!! 

after all that bs, d.ualscar loses the romantic hatred he’d harboured for m.indfang and just purely resents her. he attempts to turn her in to the h.ighblood because she’s become an issue rather than a rival -- she’s taking up space that d.ualscar believes to be rightfully his. he also isn’t an idiot -- an attack from him would be expected, right? m.indfang wouldnt expect him to get help -- he’s too proud for that, or so she thinks. here’s where i start to make shit up, folks.

the grand h.ighblood doesn’t want anything to do with d.ualscar, OBVIOUSLY. d.ualscar’s been doing whatever tf he wants and being a c.ondense loyalist this entire time, and he, in turn, is an issue for the purplebloods. he’s betrayed by the grand h.ighblood -- his ship is set ablaze and he dies aboard it. the charred remnants of his ship wrecks on land some time after the summoner leads his revolt. in between m.indfang being killed by the s.ummoner, she finds ahab’s crosshairs and steals it. after her death, ahab’s crosshairs is lost until eridan recovers it.

of course there’s more, and i’ll probably talk about that when it occurs to me, but this is the gist of it! 

THE P.SIIONIIC:

ugh psii how i love you. i like the psii’s backstory as much as i think it sucks for him like... i think it’s coherent and satisfying even though i want him to be alright yk? anyways

the p.siioniic is a mutant used as a slave. he hates it. he’s got a short fuse and is treated terribly as a consequence, but he won’t let himself be beat. the horrors that the p.siioniic went through are more horror stories than legend -- so unspeakable that a lot of people dismiss them as ways to scare other mutants into compliance. 

of course, he meets the signless, who motivates him to break his chains and leave to follow his cause. he quickly becomes devoted to the signless -- he feels indebted to him in a way, and is determined to use his unrivalled power to aid him in any way.

when the signless is captured and killed, as such is the p.siioniic. the condense uses him to power her ship thanks to his power (hence the helmsman), forcing him back into slavery and nearly killing him as he’s used as a living battery.

the condense takes a shining to the p.siioniic, prolonging his life with her powers. this takes a massive strain on him -- he simply isn’t meant to live as long as she makes him, his cause is failed, his friends are scattered and dead AND he can feel himself dying until the condense brings him back from the brink... our man suffers 

eventually, he overexerts himself and dies trapped in the helm, the victim of his unnatural lifespan and his extremely strong powers.

obviously, this is an alternate universe version of mituna, so i’m far more comfortable with writing the p.siioniic than i am d.ualscar, yk? i’m cool to explore the psii in threads bc well i love him