tentacletrainer | Chapter 3; [Video/Action for Cherrygrove]

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Current Location: Cherrygrove

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Chapter 3; [Video/Action for Cherrygrove]

[Video]
[[The feed flicks on to show Rose, flushed from the cold, standing in one aisle of the Pokemart. On her one shoulder is perched a Pidgey, who seems to happily be sleeping there, while on her other is a familiar looking Hoothoot. Tick.]]

I have reached Cherrygrove, and am now restocking my supplies for the trip ahead. I will be finding John, and hopefully leaving as soon as possible.

Dave, Tick arrived fine as you can see. Thank you for the books. Would you like me to send her back on her own, or bring her with me?

[[And so ends the transmition.]]

[Action]

[[Leaving the Pokemart, Insufferable Prick in tow, she glances around the chilly city. It certainly was a quaint city, as had been described to her. A day to rest would be nice, but she didn't want to risk the weather getting any worse and stranding them there in Cherrygrove. She begins her hunt for John and a certain Mr. Ryuzaki, in hopes the fore is prepared and the latter is possibly still around.]]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I plan on leaving today, Karkat. Rest assured that whatever time we take, it will be spent during travel.

Good. At least you have your priorities in order, though it pisses me the fuck off that somehow any of you humans are more competent than us. God. You fucked up your session and here we won ours until you ruined it at the end.

Gamzee even did the most damage against the Black King, fuck if I know how that happened, and yet here he's been screwing around Cherrygrove for fuck knows how long, looking for Faygo and sopor slime he's never going to find!

[So frustrated. Can you tell, Rose?]

[[Oh yes, she can tell.]]

From the sounds of it, that fact has aggravated you a while. I take it you don't exactly have an outlet to vent this frustration, do you? Either that, or your outlet isn't the most useful of ones.

What is sopor slime, by chance, and why is he insistent upon finding it if it isn't here? Does he know that?

I train my Pokémon and shit or bitch at Soul or bitch at them for being so stupid, but it only does so much. Especially when they keep it up like a bunch of retards stuck on some fucked up autopilot for morons.

[Sigh.] It's this green slime that fills recuperacoons, which are these pods we sleep in instead of beds. The sopor slime keeps us from dreaming about death and carnage and shit, and you're not supposed to eat it, but he makes pies with that stuff. He was like, constantly high on the stuff.

If he's constantly high, that would lend itself to his behavior. I am not sure if this slime acts like narcotics do on Earth, but certain drugs that get you high can cause serious, permanent damage to your brain, and therefor your thought process. It is likely that is what has happened with him.

I also believe you should explore for other outlet options. It would be better if you had one that is actually useful, rather than one that simply fuels the fire, so to speak.

No fucking shit, Lalonde. You think I don't know that? Still pisses me the fuck off because I'm apparently his "best motherfucking friend" and have to be the one to try to steer him even when he's bound to forget shit not five minutes after I tell him.

I don't even know where I should fucking look. Shit pisses me off right and left here. Maybe if I had a moirail to calm me down but considering I'm the one who has to guide reckless fuckasses around all the time, it's not too likely that I'm going to find one. More like I'd be the one doing it for any one of them, ugh. Just what I need--more idiocy to deal with.

[He rubs at his face.]

I wasn't sure, and was simply offering a suggestion as you seemed confused about his behavior. [[Here, have a shrug.]]

Moirail? I take it this is another troll romance aspect, like Kismesissitude, correct?

[Grumbly noise, and a face, but he says nothing to that. Romance is good, though. He can talk about that without too much rage.]

Yeah. Kismesissitude is concupiscent black romance, like I said, but moirallegience is the diagonal opposite of it: conciliatory red romance. It's the pale quadrant, denoted by a light pink diamond, where kismesissitude is the caliginous quadrant, marked by a black spade, to review. Concupiscent romance involves mating fondness, and black romance is hate-based; moirallegience involves neither of these things.

This would be better if I just explained the whole thing from the start, but whatever.

So anyway, moirallegience is where one more level-headed person reigns in someone more reckless or dangerous. That aspect of looking out for the person is the conciliatory part. Then, it's red romance - concerned with positive emotions - because you want to make them a better person, keep them from making an ass of themself, et cetera.

You give them advice, and more importantly make them listen to it even if they don't want to hear it or bitch at you because it's for their own good. And considering I'm apparently such a dumbass that I spent I don't know how many memos during and after Sgrub arguing with my past and future selves, and then thought trolling you humans would help the situation when it was a stable fucking timeloop that got us stuck in the Veil like that, I need someone to keep me in check. I'm not violent like some others but just--everything pisses me off and it hate it.

[[She listens in silence, taking all the information in with obvious interest displayed.]]

So this means you need to find someone capable of reciprocating the advice and guidance that you give to them, who is also able to insure you follow said counseling, which you have yet to do. None of your troll acquaintances fill this role?

It's not reciprocal so much as one does the looking out for the other, but otherwise yeah. And I've got troll friends and stuff, but none that I think I could feel pale for like that. Even my best friend mocks and argues with me half the damn time. Like I said, in pretty much any case I'd have to be the one giving the advice for them.

Ah, I understand now.

Have you ever thought to venture outside of them then? Surely if you were able to find Kismesissitude in Dave, you could possibly find a Moirail in someone other than a troll?

I didn't exactly plan on that with him.

[Nevermind he tried to go for John first.]

I don't even know where I'd look. I've got a couple friends I've met here and some other humans I know, but they don't fit. Soul's cool for one, but he's still like, just my friend, you know?

Well, if your relationship with Dave was unexpected, perhaps you shouldn't look for a Moirail, and let it come to you?

Hah, like that'll happen. Even if it was unexpected with Dave, I was still the one to initiate it. And then he shrieked like a girl and hid in his room, and then things were really really awkward and I didn't even want to see him, but we fought again and somehow it happened.

Humans don't even have moirallegience, do they? So it's not going to happen.

We don't have Kismesissitude either. [[Have a smirk, Karkat. Just for you.]]

The closest to a Moirallegience I can think of in human terms would either be a sibling in some instances, or certain 'best friends' in others. As I'm sure you know, however, not all best friends are like that. In fact, most aren't, but there are those few.

I'm not replacing my best friends anytime soon, whether I get a moirail out of it or not. And that's the whole point. I had to explain it and go through like, fucking hoops and emotional turmoil and shit before it even happened and it fucking surprised me when it did.

I don't have your weird human siblings either.

I never suggested replacing anyone, simply mentioning that those would be the closest human feelings you could get, unless you find someone who better understands your quadrants.

And Karkat, it still did happen. Meaning that, as unlikely as Moirallegience with a human is, it still could happen.

And...you don't?

[Sigh.] Fine, fine, whatever. I'll keep my options open, but if this backfires in my face, it's you I'm going to take it out on.

And no, I don't. I mean--we're sort of all related anyway? We come from the Mother Grub and then the genes just mix again for new eggs later - and don't ask me the details because I am not going into it - but we don't really have brothers or sisters or whatever like you do.

Then again, the twelve of us remaining are all paradox slime clones anyway, which makes things weird.

Point is, no siblings.

I give you full permission as long as you actually follow through with that.

No parents either, in that situation then. Interesting. Were you left to learn on your own then?

[[She pauses here, obviously in thought, before continuing.]]

I'd also like to make a side note in reference to a statement you made earlier. Whenever you feel up to it, I would not mind hearing about the last remaining quadrants within troll romance.

[[Karkat, you are like a living representation of one of her favorite genre of books! You please her so!]]

No parents. A troll is raised by a lusus naturae, or lusus for short, which holds the role of custodian for them. After a young troll makes it through the Trials in the Brooding Caves, a monster adopts them, you see. Mine was this big badass crab thing - he was taller than me, even.

But if you want to hear the full details on troll romance, I'll lay them out right now. I can make a diagram afterward if you want, too.

Alright. Some of this you already know, but bear with me.

Troll romance is commonly known as the Quadrants, because it's divided into four of them by a pair of axes. The primary axis is that of red and black romance. Red romance, or redrom, concerns positive emotions - namely the various forms of pity - while black romance, blackrom, revolves around hate. This first axis would run vertically, redrom at the top, blackrom at the bottom. The second axis, would go horizontal, divides red and black romance into concupiscent and conciliatory types. Concupiscent romance, on the left, involves feelings of mating fondness, whereas conciliatory romance, on the right, essentially deals with making sure one or more people don't make asses of themselves.

In this way the qualities combine to form the four quadrants. I'll start on the concupiscent side, since it's simpler and more important from the troll perspective. First, you have the flushed quadrant, matespritship, which is concupiscent redrom. This is the closest parallel to human romance, in which two matesprits feel strong positiver feelings towards each other accompanied by mating fondness. This is symbolized by a red heart.

Second is kismesissitude, which I've already told you about. Caliginous quadrant, concupiscent blackrom, two kismesisses, lots of hate, mating fondness, et cetera. Black spade.

Now, sometimes this gets complicated because one person may feel flushed emotions, while the other feels caliginous. In this case, rather than settling into one stable quadrant or breaking off the relationship, the two will flip back and forth from matespritship to kismesissitude in a mobius double reacharound. Me... me and Dave are kismesisses primarily, but we might be heading for that. I'm not sure yet, and neither's he from what he said, so I'm just going to let it happen.

Now, for the conciliatory side, you start with moirallegience. Pale quadrant, conciliatory redrom, pink diamond - I already explained earlier.

Last, then, is auspisticism in the ashen quadrant, which is conciliatory blackrom. This is the only quadrant to involve three people: one auspistice mediating between two others who hold a feud or rivalry. By auspisticing for them, the auspistice prevents the relationship from getting out of hand. This is especially useful when kismesissitude is undesired for whatever reason, and as such is instrumental in preventing black infidelity.

Now, do you want the diagram, or no?

[[You may not have realized it, Karkat, but she was taking notes while you were explaining. This includes drawing a diagram of her own. She shakes her head, offering the paper to you.]]

I do not believe so, unless my own is mistaken.

[[That notepad may be for Pokemon breeding, but who's to say it can't be used for other various romantic subjects?]]

So, Matespritship, represented here in the top left by the heart, is where two share positive feelings that lead to a more intimate relationship than simply being friends. Kismesissitude, represented by the spade down here, involves two hating each other at such passionate levels that it also leads to a more intimate relationship.

The Double Reacharound, which I've shown as this double sided arrow to the side here, takes place when one side feels more negative feelings and the other more positive, causing a sort of flip flopping between the two quadrants in which they cannot quite decide where they fit, therefor settling with both.

Moirallegiance, found here in the top right of my personal diagram as a diamond, is formed when one side of the relationship needs guidance to help ease their reckless behavior, whether violent or not, and hopefully steer them in the right direction.

I have a feeling both sides likely need a little of it from each other, otherwise you would have an endless chain of Moirails, which doesn't sound quite like what goes on, but those are my own thoughts I suppose.

Finally, Auspisticism, which is represented by the black club on my chart (seeing as there is a sort of theme here, and that is the only symbol missing), requires a third party to help mediate feelings of hatred, aiming to avoid the two mediated from becoming concupiscent for a variety of reasons, each likely unique to the individuals involved.

[[She glances back down at her chart before looking back up at Karkat.]]

At least, that is what I understand. Feel free to correct me where needed.

Fuck, how'd I forget to mention the club? Yeah, that's the symbol for auspisticism, though it's grey, not black.

[But that aside? He actually looks impressed!]

You got most of it right. Moirallegience doesn't really work like that, though. There's no endless chain; it's just two that fit together. There's nothing really preventing them from providing mutual advice, but one is still usually regarded as the more reckless of the pair, and the other more level-headed. They just fit together like that - it's how it works.

You see, troll romance heavily relies on the concept of troll serendipity. Through some series of coincidences that bring about fate, there's someone out there you're bound to meet eventually that's right for each quadrant with you. Someone made for you, you know? Metaphorically or otherwise.

Edited 2011-02-04 01:31 (UTC)

[[She amends her notes on Moirallegiance, nodding.]]

What humans would likely refer to as "fate" or "destiny", though I am not unfamiliar with that term.

Of course you realize what point that brings back and reinforces, correct?

[Karkat... tries to think what point she means, but he just can't get at it. He frowns like it's a personal loss (he really has been insecure in his romance knowledge lately), and sounds grumpy as he asks her.]

No. What?

Chapter 3; [Video/Action for Cherrygrove]

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