Thinking. I've seen theories that trolls pick their gender based on their lusus', but I think it makes a lot more sense the other way around. Alternian mammals are confirmed hermaphroditic (so technically they couldn't be mammals because fully-functional hermaphroditism doesn't occur in mammals but whatever they're close enough for government work) and it's apparent that trolls do have dimorphism, as the wiki explains: Chromosomally speaking, what appears to be going on from my point of view as a zoology graduate is that the trolls we see walking around are "male" in that they produce small mobile gametes (the slurry) and the Mother Grub is the female which provides the empty egg cells in which troll genes combine; troll gender dimorphism appears to be more like the difference between soldier and worker ants than the difference between male and female humans. I'd assume that those with hermaphroditic lusii do the troll equivalent of anthropomorphising and assign a gender to the lusus, in the way little kids will do with androgynous cartoon characters or toys.
:quietly slides in here: i mentioned in the positivity thread before, but since it's starting tomorrow wanted to give a heads up in here as well. Stridercest Week is running starting tomorrow (A SFW one and a separate account for the NSFW/18+ Only one). If you just wanna participate on tumblr, or wanna avoid it more thoroughly, please be aware we are using the tags #stridercestweek and #stridercestweeknsfw to be applied and used as per your personal jam. If you're just peeking I'd recommend just checking the main blog/s instead of the tag in case of the usual bouts of spammers and such so you're not stuck wading through things that aren't content.
I'm creeped out by the idea of having two sets of effectively identical characters in one setting, so I really want to just run with pre-introduction-of-their-kid-selves bases for the adults but I feel like now they've been "introduced" I can't because they'd effectively be OCs >:(
Thought; I don't want to make Prospit a total utopia in my fic, that would be boring. Should I go with it running like Beforus does while Derse runs like Alternia?
is it being run by carapaces? i once saw a version i liked where, Derse is full of underhanded sneaky backstabbers and a party doesn't get properly started until at least one corpse has been tossed on the dancefloor... but Propsit is full of guileless chumps, who are quite happy to just follow along with whatever they're doing and trust that it'll work out, or won't - remember, they're the ones that just accept that their king will be killed and their armies brought to ruin and That's Just How It Is. so they won't do anything or take new and bold actions, and if someone shows up like 'oh hey i need your crown to give to a Dersite' they'll be like 'yeah ok seems legit.' they'll stick with a game plan to the ends of the earth, even if it puts them at a disadvantage or doesn't make a whole lot of sense.
Hm - I don't know how I feel about the idea that Prospitians are gullible and unwilling to take risks or change the game plan in order to try and get a better outcome. They're fatalist, definitely - they know that they will lose the war and that there's nothing to be done about that, all that they can hope for is to delay the inevitable. But they're also aware, in the upper ranks at least, that even the slightest delay in how long it takes for Derse to win is a victory; every minute they hold out for, that's a minute the heroes can use to be more prepared for when it's their turn to take to the battlefield, and it's a minute that might make the difference between whether or not the heroes can win. The White Queen and King don't give up their crowns because they go "okay, sounds legit" to PM's request. The White Queen is the one in charge of strategy, from the looks of it; the King is in charge of battlefield tactics. She's the one who gives the nod to PM's request and decides to start the ball rolling on this plan, and it's pretty explicitly because she knows that something is going to go down that alters how fast Prospit loses this time - and if she can't delay that, she can at least see what can be done to try and give the heroes even the slightest bit more of an edge. If it hadn't been for Jack getting the ring, the abdication of the Prospitian Royals might well have thrown a spanner into the wrench for long enough that the kids could have had a chance - certainly, they'd still have had the bulk of the Prospitian army willing to rally behind them at that point and they might have been able to sway some of the Dersites too; I headcanon that WV is as much a part of every session as Jack and the Royals, but he rarely manages to make significant headway in his attempted coup because of the Black King - the beta kids' session may well be unusual in that WV survived the rebellion there.
I was thinking of a not-game AU in which they're regular kingdoms, but this is certainly some food for thought. Emilie Autumn is a legit troll name and I claim her in the name of Derse. Stay tuned for the upcoming rock opera "In Which An Escaped Beforan Cullee Recounts The Abuse She Was Subjected To, During Which She Receives Communications From Her Alternian Self Who Had It Much Worse." Though considering troll gender roles shouldn't Troll Emilie be a guy?
I was just thinking since trolls are ostensibly a matriarchy and her real human self is so heavily feminism-oriented, but I guess a) troll matriarchy's apparently superficial and b) there isn't enough of a difference between male and female troll roles to make a difference. Being a lowblood might work better?
yeah, I was thinking she could still be female, but the kind of things she sings about IRL would translate better if her troll self was a mutant or disabled or lowblood something--after all, Beforus's version of 'culling' is 'oh the poor mutants and disabled and lowblood trolls, they cannot care for themselves, we shall 'cull' the mutants and disabled and give them to a More Capable troll who will care for them, and do our very best to Lift Up our Poor Poor Lowbloods' also I'm in love with the idea of mutant Emilie
Would her long list of mental health issues come under the heading of cull-worthy? She wears a lot of pink, and I'm picturing Troll Emilie wearing tyrian as part of her social protest thing. And her sigil is the little crossed-out heart she uses in her makeup ^_^ I think she's a Virgo in real life, but jade blood might not fit her very well, too high-ranking. Mutated jade instead of Karkat being mutated lime? Can that be a thing? And maybe she's a Heart player? So what are everyone else's fave celebs like in troll form? "Jaykay Rowlin"?
Porrim says that it's only dubiously a matriarchy - from the Empress-down it's a matriarchy, from the violetbloods-down it's a patriarchy? though I think hemocaste would be more relevant most of the time.
She says purple-down rather than violet; I presumed that was referring to the subjugs, who are in favour with Lord English because they worship him. Hemocaste is more relevant, though, yeah.
personally I headcanon that any blood color can mutate--so I'd say mutated jade would be totally acceptable! re: mental health...it seems like most of that is overlooked in Alternian society, but I'm HEAVILY betting that Beforan society would consider mental health issues cull-worthy, but of course 'culling' there is. really not that great. so it likely would just trap most mentally ill or disabled folks in an environment where they're coddled and treated like cute dolls or something, rather than getting better. so like. HECK yes mutated jade troll Emilie Autumn who has mental health issues and wears tyrian as part of her protests!! and YES SHE'S SO TOTALLY A HEART PLAYER. oh man Jaykay Rowlin is totally like, a lowblood who was struggling a lot to make ends meet, and wrote her books in her spare time and managed to get the very first one published and then became massively popular. Hahrry Potter is mutantblood, I think, and he is So Heroic with his friends Hermie Grangr (a jadeblood, who is prim and proper in the early books and very smart and well put together), and Ronald Weezly, a rustblood. Thomas Sandrs is....a midblood troll who narrowly avoided being culled at birth for some mutation that I'm not sure of yet, and narrowly avoided being culled AGAIN later in life for his severe anxiety. he talks sometimes about the subject of culling and why it's wrong, but he also makes excellent and funny videos and is loved by his fans. he never expected to rise to the level of popularity he has achieved, or get the wide audience he has now, which spans the entire hemospectrum. I'd talk about Sean or Mark but I have no idea for them.
Briyan Jacques is probably a brownblood, what with the connection to animals and coming from the Liverpool docklands. Alternian Liverpool actually has something to do with livers. He sailed under the Orphaners but also writes jolly adventure books about talking lusii and is very popular with olivebloods, and he's so very very Prospitian. ETA: Tried to think of typing quirks for him and got "so many food puns".
Rapid subject change, today I had the mental image of Equius with this thing. (Warning for body horror.)
Yeah, see, I've seen fics with the trolls being SCPs before, but never with them using or meeting SCPs and there should be some! There's so much potential there! Lord English versus 682, go!
