#greyrom

Concupiscent quadrants are about genetic contributions - improving the species and securing your partners’ genetic legacies by reintroducing the best genes you can find into the slurry.

Conciliatory quadrants are about social contributions - improving the species and securing your partners’ living legacies by ensuring their ability to do great things without getting killed first. Flushed is the only quadrant that is not at all about improving your partner. Red Pity is “oh dang that troll is unfortunate. they’re not going to make it long, and no one else would give them the time of day, but gosh there are a few real gems hiding in that genome. it would be beneficial to the species for that to make it to the next generation, and if some of my genes beat the odds and get glued to those good ones, all the better for my descendants. But the odds of the good genes rolling rather than the bad ones are low, so better to flood the gene pool with a ton of these suckers and let nature filter out the good ones. Helping your partner get better won’t make their genes better, and it’d be a waste of your time and resources anyway. Heck, if they improve too much they’re likely to be able to get those genes into the mother grub without your help, so it’d be time to move on if they did. And doesn’t matter too much if they die; so long as you’ve gotten something in the bucket you’ve fulfilled your drive and it’s time to look for another hidden gem.

Blackrom is about those good good genes. Dang, that troll has some fine genes. You definitely want to attach yours to that; they’ll make good strong babies likely to survive. Worth putting a lot of effort into. Worth keeping them around for a while so you can get as many shots at that gene combo as you can while putting as much investment into each as possible, since you’re sure they’ll do well. But putting that much time and effort and resources into someone is risky if it turns out down the line that they weren’t as strong as they seem. You need to keep fighting and testing their strength and looking for weak points. Bonus if it keeps them alive longer to keep up with you. But if they can’t keep up it’s time to drop them like a hot potato. This is an investment and you need the best around for it to be worthwhile. 

Moirallegiance is about making your partner the best they can be. Wow, that guy is messed up, they have some serious problems, but you can also see that they could really do some good in the world. They could be really strong and useful, and troll society would benefit from their input, but they will absolutely fall apart without help. They’ll get chewed up and spit out and you would be sad. A hilaribad combo with your own genetics though, it’d just cancel out all your strengths. But alive, they are like the yin to your yang; you know exactly what they’re lacking because you’ve got it in spades, and you have the skills and desire to fix them. You can see where they’re going wrong and can break them down and put them back together, and for the bits you can’t fix outright you can at least help them compensate and shore them up behind the scenes. They’ll be at their very best, healthy and strong with no unseen pitfalls to trip them up, and fully able to give the very best in all the ways they shine.   Ashen is about knocking the hard edges off of your partners, thus making them more fit for society. You’ve found someone who can add something to trollkind, if only you can get that focused enough to be useful and keep them in line enough they won’t get offed.  "You are the most annoying person I have ever met. You are grating and terrible and you've got no posse to back it up. You are ruining the fabric of society and the worst thing about it is that deep down, you're not wrong. You have some good ideas, some good skills. You'd make a good troll if you weren't so terrible at other stuff. It's important that people like you are in the world, but whoah dang are you going to brush up against the wrong person and say the wrong thing and get yourself killed. Or get irritated enough to start a chain reaction that kills everyone else. You're an absolute moron, but I value your contributions and don't want you dead. Problem is, being around you makes me see red and make terrible decisions, and the same is true for you. We are a terrible explosive combo but I can't seem to walk away from you. If we had a buffer though to cut off our worst tendencies, we could work well together and get more done as a team. As a unit we'd be solid and dependable and able to focus, and once we settled into that dynamic enough we don't even need the third person present to know when they'd be telling us to knock it off. Bonus, you can get a lot more done in troll society if you've got a couple other trolls watching your back and helping you shove your way through. I can chip at your most annoying habits over time and instill some more patience for those of others, so you navigate society better even alone, but I'll also be there to intervene if things start escalating with random joes too. You'll never not be terrible, but we're the only ones allowed to be jerks to you about it."

I feel like ashmates are the most likely to spend most of their time together, and might also be the most inclined to live together non-disastrously. Black and pale are too intense, making everything into a contest or learning opportunity, a daily grind that would be exhausting if you had to live in close quarters all the time. Red meanwhile would be too indulgent of all your bad habits. All good in generous doses but not quite so functional or comfortable when sharing a room or apartment on a permanent basis.

Gwen: (but mostly this was justification for continuing it after he'd realized it had started)

ihasa: (which, I honestly thing the huss ain't great at depicting. it was even less interesting on the vriska/kanaya front imo)

Gwen: FR

Gwen: next up on ships to fix: Vriska-Kanaya

ihasa: also? give us some canon examples of ashen workning?

ihasa: yes

Gwen: truth

ihasa: poor sad neglected ash

ihasa: with a bit more to dig our teeth into their might be more ash fic in the fandom

Gwen: so OK

Gwen: the MAIN problem with Vriska-Kanaya is

Gwen: we are TOLD that Kanaya is too flushed for Vriska to be an effective moirail to her but they're still in a moirallegiance on purpose they both know about but Kanaya is pining

Gwen: provide effective consequences or threats to Vriska whatsoever, to make Vriska modify her behavior and be a better person; meanwhile Vriska literally has no clue that Kanaya is her moirail

Gwen: this is, uh, terrible

Gwen: improvement: Kanaya is Vriska's court-ordered probation officer, /TH3 COURT is terezi

ihasa: it is Kinda interesting that Kanaya is the one trying to make it work. she obviously thinks that vriska needs papped (and oh gosh does that girl need to be thrown in a pile), even if she's terrible for the job. but we just don't get much pale action at all

ihasa: and it certainly does not curb vriska one bit

ihasa: I can't tell if that dynamic would be cahoots, ashen, or some kind of semi-pale threesome

ihasa: which is kinda great, especially if that confusion was made explicit

Gwen: that is Terezi hooked Kanaya and Vriska up pale.

Gwen: vriskas perspective: UGH if it will get you off my BACK about the whole murdering our friends thing then FINE

Gwen: terezis perspective: There is no way I can handle Vriska without stabbing her but Kanaya is reputedly excellent in the conciliatory quadrants and says she wants to try her hand at moirallegiance

Gwen: kanayas perspective: I have sworn off the ashen quadrant. for good. Terezi says she has the perfect match for me in pale. Oh shit it is EXTREMELY clear from this conversation that they need an auspistice. ...Addiction is a powerful thing.

ihasa: yes, that would be much better

ihasa: also? entirely possible that they might end up stably grey

ihasa: I can definitely see that

ihasa: and it would be the BEST if it was vriska who actually made the first grey move

Gwen: then Terezi successfully avoids interacting with Vriska for quite some time and Kanaya is like

ihasa: butterfly_pigeon meme: butterfly is labeled "repeatedly intervening between Vriska and Tavros"

ihasa: is this a moirallegiance?

ihasa: lol

that might work too

Gwen: Yeah and then Terezi and Vriska get right back at it soon after

Gwen: and Kanaya is like Surely Trying To Mediate Between One Troll And The World Is The Very Definition Of Moirallegiance

Gwen: and Eridan is like Yeah or youre just an ashen slut

ihasa: I can just imagine terezi, vriska, and kanaya as the snarky trio that talks over and annoys eachother and slaps eachother upside the head every now and then. my gosh. I think this is the first ship dynamic with vriska that I have actually LIKED!

ihasa: amazed

ihasa: definitely it is a more domestic ship than vriska, kanaya and tavros would be. that one's cooking with fire

ihasa: but if those two WERE to be ashen leaves in the same quadrant, one WOULD DEFINITELY want someone experienced and overactive in the auspistice role

ihasa: and kanaya would then have a passionate and epic romance on her grid

Gwen: Terezi: Why is the court-ordered probation officer intervening between the court and the criminal

Gwen: Kanaya: Objection. Is a moirail not an advocate as much as a restraining influence?

Gwen: Terezi: An advocate for the defense... an intriguing concept. Her Honorable Tyranny refrains from devouring the proposer of such an outrageous legal theory, out of curiosity.

Gwen: Kanaya: ...Thank you. I think

Gwen: Vriska: Oh look, more meddling from Fussyfangs! How unexpected!

Gwen: Karkat to Nepeta: Is this... This looks like...

Gwen: Nepeta: Shut up and make us another batch of popcorn

ihasa: yes good

Gwen: they make it through their whole session this way

Gwen: Rose brings it up in conversation over dinner their first night on the meteor

ihasa: OH MY GOSH THAT IS AMAZING! that they would need a human to tell them what's up for them to realize, and that it would come up immediately after in-person introduction

Gwen: Rose: I must say, I understand the ashen quadrant so much better after seeing the interactions of such a successful example today. ...I hope my voyeurism isn't crossing any cultural boundaries, of course.

ihasa: yes gooood

Gwen: Karkat, while Kanaya, Vriska, and Terezi are all choking: WE DON'T TALK ABOUT THE TEREZI-KANAYA-VRISKA AUSPISTICE

ihasa: it's working too well to risk touching it

Gwen: Nepeta: I think it's cute

ihasa: I can see a lot of fashion-related dates in their future. They have such.... disaparate approaches

Gwen: the T-K-V conversation immediately devolves into Terezi and Vriska blaming each other for giving Rose the wrong idea about Kanaya's and Vriska's moirallegiance, while Kanaya mediates

ihasa: lol

ihasa: I was imagining more shocked/horrified silence as they each realize that that's exactly what's going on

Gwen: that was what the choking was for

ihasa: and then they still proclaim it a moirallegiance? that's hilarious

Gwen: are there any three characters in Homestuck who would move so quickly from "horrified realization" to "total denial" if saving face in front of each other and indeed in front of Rose is at stake?

Gwen: actually no i take everything back, edit it slightly, and then lay it back onto the table

Gwen: Rose isn't the one to make everything awkward by announcing how helpful observing the TKV auspistice has been in understanding the ashen quadrant

Gwen: Dave is

ihasa: YES

ihasa: YES HE IS

Gwen: Rose for some reason thinks understanding troll quadrants is important to their continued survival getting along with everyone on the meteor

Gwen: Dave thinks it's all extravagant bullshit that must under no circumstances be indulged, but... he lost a bet, and so

ihasa: I WAS GONNA SAY THAT BUT I THOUGHT THAT YOU MIGHT BE GOING FOR THE STEREOTYPICAL FANON ROSE AND DID NOT WANT TO INTERRUPT

ihasa: also dave pays a lot more attention than he lets on

Gwen: for sure

ihasa: gotta actually understand the stuff to be able to ironically fail to understand the stuff properly

Gwen: he is explicitly resistant in canon to learning about troll quadrants even though he immediately deduces the number of them

ihasa: well i mean that's just english

Gwen: chiding John for not making the name connection even as he insists that he refuses to think about them at all

Gwen: so yeah Dave susses out that TZ is in an ashen relationship with the goth vampire troll and the obnoxious pirate spider troll that John's into

Gwen: probably in the middle of Karkat rhapsodizing about how auspistice is the most complicated of romances and definitely not one that humans would understand with their weak human thinkpans

ihasa: definitely

Gwen: and Dave's like nah it's easy if you got a good example like Terezi and Rose's girlfriend and John's girlfriend here

Gwen: the movie that caused you to start ranting because I said I didn't get it just sucked

Gwen: and TKV flip out at the same time as Karkat does

Gwen: as if they weren't playing ashen footsie through the entire movie

Gwen: (Kanaya sat in the middle. Terezi and Vriska tried to kick each other repeatedly. Kanaya periodically stomped on both their feet at once to make them subside, for a while.)

ihasa: hee

Gwen: and I don't think any of this would get in the way of the dramatic confrontations and conflicts later, either

ihasa: oh for sure

Gwen: when Feferi doesn't need Eridan's orphaning abilities, she can finally drop this charade of a pitch romance that he's obviously not feeling either

Gwen: putting up with him and his emotions and his stupid three-dimensional-chess pitchflirting tactics hasn't kindled the pitch fires of rage in her for a long time... just exhaustion

Gwen: with Sollux, sometimes he means a couple things at once, but he doesn't hide what he feels and make things confusing!

Gwen: Terezi's worried for a long time that Vriska was too much for any one troll to handle, and Kanaya mistakenly thinking that Terezi needed handling at the same time was bound to end up in disaster. It's a shame that Vriska has gone so comprehensively rogue, but now she has to be stopped for good, and Kanaya's in no state to do it.

ihasa: also I see your stable middle leaf there, with kanaya in the middle. but also? kanaya deserves being meddled with too, and imo the most fun thing about a more domestic ash romance is that it can roll:smile: kanaya and terezi get in an argument and vriska pretends like she's actually the mature troll of the trio, look how you two are squabbling, and they break it off to target her for a bit. vriska and kanaya start going at it and terezi puts them both on trial for disrupting the peace.

ihasa: What I'm saying is that ashen footsie goes the same no matter who's in the middle:smile: