roach has a little time off from being a badass weldmonster, and my brain is actually functioning for once. it's pretty great. :D
I'm so glad you guys are both getting a fucking break! The fact that we're getting Kintsugi Storytime is the icing on the cake c:
Bel, you're telling someone who...doesn't really see himself as a troll because feral (anymore than he might feel about a helmsman being a troll which is why this Galley hatelikes him)...and was socialized by lowbloods that he doesn't understand anything because he's royalty. I love you babybel, and granted you don't know about this, but the borderline pitch whinge is not a good look on you.
captain aspera is in a really weird spot, privilege-wise, and knows it even if he does mope about it and it's even kind of something he mopes about. he's been spared culling and given (forced into) a position of power in the fleet because he's royal, but he's in extreme disgrace because he's a weird uneducated disgrace whose sympathies lie with the lowbloods who raised him. and he only got messed up and feral ANYWAY because he went and bothered the emissary to see if she'd be his new lusus, because he's royal. it's a mess, and i think he identifies primarily as a fuckup because he doesn't feel like he actually belongs with any caste of troll at all. ferals are a little bit like anchorites, i think, they're outside society by definition... he's an alien who feels alien, haha. so like yeah he KNOWS he's royal he KNOWS he's got access to power and privilege no one else does but it still doesn't actually make him feel any BETTER about his life, so he gets pretty annoyed when he's already stressed out and frustrated with himself and someone comes along like 'hey but you're a seadweller, your social and emotional problems are insignificant compared to how anyone else who was like you would be killed for it'. like YEAH COOL HE KNOWS THANKS, THAT DOESN'T HELP AT ALL. and of course even though he's doing a lot better than his teenage self, he's still only in the equivalent of his mid-late twenties, he's barely even started sorting any of his feelings out about all this. he doesn't really have the emotional literacy to coherently articulate, even to himself, why so much of his life makes him so upset.
And then Bel gives Erskin the body horrors. ALL of the body horrors. Aahahahahahahahah. Pobre disaster boy.
Spoiler Ok Erskin's take on Murfey is hilarious and seems spot on but I am really curious about what he was going to call Bel before Erskin stopped himself :D
Just reread all the boat trolls archive, time to dive into the blogs to catch up on the rest before it gets to Kintsugi forum :3
oh man i was just listening to a song that reminded me of boat trolls and then i was like "hmm, it's been a while since i was on Kintsugi, i should go check to see if by any chance there's new Boat Trolls" and LO AND BE FRICKIN HOLD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
i had a thought about tiny Bel and big Erskin on the same ship: Tiny Bel might end up asking for advice on maintaining a ship. Erskin has a lot of advice very different from mainstream troll society, eg, water coolant instead of a worse toxic coolant, maintaining gardens etc on board the ship to provide for food, etc etc.
Using the gardens for filtering and cleaning grey water, and using the gardens to provide air too (Erskin's so very, justifiably, proud that the Sunslammer is 100% independent when it comes to its oxygen supply these nights!), and what to look for in meteors to use for water or minerals for repairs.
