#2392

STOP SEE VER https://medium.com/@cleoenfaserem/pictorial-for-a-naked-eye-adult-2bd71e20b6de

Humans have only one form of romance. [...] A single, linear concept. A concept usually denoted by a single symbol.

Looks like the playing-card symbolism is pulling double duty. Let’s see if we can predict what each suit means. 

The club contains three circles, so I think it represents the only relationship which involves three parties by default. In other words, it stands for auspisticism. 

Therefore, the spade is the other blackrom relationship - kismesissitude.

The heart is a traditional romantic relationship, which trolls call a matespritship.

That leaves the diamond for the ‘paler’, less romantic moirallegiance. 

Now that that’s settled, how are these terms formally defined?

RED ROMANCE, comprised of the flushed and pale quadrants, is a form of romance rooted in strongly positive emotions. BLACK ROMANCE, with its caliginous and ashen quadrants, is rooted in the strongly negative.

I thought that blackrom might be a combination of love and hate, but it doesn’t seem as if love is involved at all. Knowing that, I’m not really sure how it qualifies as ‘romance’.

I guess you could argue that it’s still ‘romantic’ in the Byronic sense, in that it’s a sad, cynical type of relationship. 

Those quadrants which are CONCUPISCENT, the flushed and caliginous, have to do with facilitating the elaborate reproductive cycle of trolls. Those which are CONCILIATORY, the pale and ashen, would be more closely likened to platonic relationships by human standards.

It sounds as if the concupiscent quadrants are the ones which involve physical intimacy. 

Considering the nature of the caliginous quadrant, this seems more than a little troubling. Should we really be encouraging trolls to pursue intimate relationships with people they hate?

There are many parallels between human relationships and the various facets of troll romance. Humans have words to describe relationships of a negative nature, or of a platonic nature. The difference is, for humans, those relationships would never be conceptually grouped with romance.

Ah, I think I get it. 

A lot of these relationships aren’t meant to fit the human definition of romance - because on Alternia, ‘romance’ is defined more broadly than it typically is on Earth.

Most humans, looking at a moirallegiance, would parse it as fully platonic. They’d see that fact as contradictory to its romantic nature, and they’d be correct - but only according to the human definition of romance. 

A troll would agree that it’s fully platonic, but would fail to see the contradiction. That’s because to a troll, platonic and romantic aren’t mutually exclusive. They’d say that a moirallegiance is a platonic variety of romance. 

 Establishing those sort of relationships for humans is not driven by the same primal forces that drive our tendency to couple romantically. But for trolls, those primal forces involve themselves in the full palette of these relationships, red or black, torrid or friendly. Trolls typically feel strongly compelled to find balance in each quadrant, and seek gratifying relationships that each describes.

It seems as if trolls are biologically driven to seek out all four types of relationship. It’s not enough to have a matesprit, or even a matesprit/kismesis - you’re still ‘single’ in the other categories. 

Hello, Anon! So many things, sososososo many things that you get a bullet list:

How to write.

How not to write.

That writing Dystopian AU's is, in fact, heart-wrenching (shocked pikachu).

That time is a construct, because while I'm sure that you, the reader, feel like it's been forever since I updated it, I, the author, feel like it's been no time at all, what with this universe being rich and very much alive (inside my head).

That there is always a right time for a story. When I started this one, I hadn't done a lick of creative writing since high school, and it showed. It was a big idea for a little noob. Luckily, I feel better equipped now...

...which is how I've cleaned up the outline, tied up loose threads, and now finished 3 more chapters of it, and am very pleased with it's direction. Sometimes letting things breathe is exactly what they need, and while perfection is the enemy of the done, done can be the enemy of happy. The latter works best for me.

Thanks for the ask!