tushanshu | 002 ♋ VIDEO (backdated to the 15th)

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002 ♋ VIDEO (backdated to the 15th)

[Karkat appears on screen, looking like he's taken some efforts to make himself presentable, though his hair is as hopeless a mess as ever. That thing does what it wants. It's a monster. His expression is serious, though, and his tone is pretty sedate as he begins to speak.]

So I know I'm not the only person making this kind of post recently, but I kind of need to do this, so here I go adding another to the pile:

I need a job. And unlike a certain self-absorbed tool I'm not here to name - [Eridan, he means you.] - I'm not going to demand one on simple grounds of "I want one, so give it to me."

[Ahem.]

For things I've got experience with, I am a capable leader who led a team of twelve moronic and frustratingly stubborn trolls to victory in what has to be record time. In the interests of proper disclosure, this was not without some mistakes, but I learned from them and fully intend not to repeat their causes.

I'm experienced with sickle fighting and have taken down a ridiculous amount of creatures with them, both individually and while working with others, ranging all over the scale of size and power. I helped defeat something that should have been able to kill my team with voice alone, and that's without listing all the other stuff that made it ridiculously fucking powerful.

I'm good at coding viruses, but I somehow doubt that's going to get me a job, so whatever.

I like books and movies, so if there are any book stores or movie stores - does this place have movies? - I'd be open to those.

I've also got experience doling out romantic advice. Fair warning that this primarily revolved around the topic of troll romance, but I do have fair knowledge of the comparatively simple and stunted form that is human relationships, and am open to learning the intricacies of other systems. That's not even a job thing; it's downright fascinating and I am not here to receive arguments to the amount of "hurr hurr, you like romance!"

[He rolls his eyes, then returns to the serious look.]

Lastly, I'm not above more menial work if it comes down to it. So long as doing the job won't grind my think pan down into a fine paste to be extruded through the tiny holes of my auricular sponge clots, consider me open to the suggestion.

If you have questions, want details, shit like that, then go ahead and ask.

(OOC edit: In light of the plot development, I'm backdating this to yesterday, the 15th.)

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I see.

[Silent a moment, Bryn makes a few more notes, his phrases, her interpretations, before looking up again.]

It's a lot more structured than I ever would have expected romance to be but I can see the usefulness of having things clearly defined like it is. I imagine people come and go but at least in these situations you'd always be aware of what role you fill and the likelihood of being entirely alone is far less than for those who prefer monogamous relationships only.

[She taps the pencil against her lips thoughtfully before they curve up into a smile.]

I appreciate you taking the time to explain it all to me.

[His turn for confusion as towards the end of her reply his expression scrunches up.]

Monogamous what? What exactly are you talking about there?

There's more to explain too, by the way. I didn't get to quadrant vacillation or some other stuff yet.

Monogamous relationships in which people prefer having one partner and one partner only at a time. The closest dynamic would be those in the ah, matespritship quadrant? Not that it's the only way it works but it's the most widely common.

What's quadrant vacillation though?

Okay, uh--troll relationships are generally one partner per quadrant, barring auspisticism like I said, but a troll can and is ultimately supposed to have more than one quadrant at a time. For reasons I'm not getting into, when our society still existed properly you would be killed if you couldn't get a matesprit and kismesis both at the same time.

Anyway, quadrant vacillation is when given trolls swap between two quadrants. Say one troll has flushed feelings for another, but that second troll feels caliginous for the first. Instead of giving up on a viable romantic partner, one might swap to match the other's feelings - say the first decides to go black. But that doesn't mean the original flushed feelings have disappeared, and they may resurface from time to time, flipping the relationship back to red. But that also doesn't kill off the hate. And so things flip back and forth, from matespritship to kismesissitude and so on. Things might settle into one eventually, or they could break up, or they could keep going for a while; it depends on the trolls and surrounding social situation.

Sometimes, in fact, it's not just two trolls. Say a troll has a matesprit and a kismesis both, but events in their life happen such that they start to feel pity for their kismesis and wax flushed. If that quadrant vacillates, it's bound to piss off their matesprit, so they may flip to black in turn. You can get longer chains like this depending who has what feelings and how well they can change, though of course it gets more chaotic and harder to maintain with higher numbers.

I'm sorry, that vacillation makes sense, I actually get how that works within the rules you've explained but...did you just say that people were killed if they didn't have a matesprit and kismesis at the same time?

[Surely she misheard that bit. Especially the part where that's what would happen if their society was functioning properly.

The rules of their romance are complex, yes. Highly structured. Surprisingly so. They can even seem strict despite the openness of how many others it can include in a single person's life...but to be killed for not having partners seems not only extreme but something that would work against them in the long run. After all, killing off trolls would mean less trolls to fill the quadrants of others, right?]

[He pinches at his nose a bit.]

Yes, you heard me right. It's like this.

[The hand lowers.]

Trolls don't bear their own young like humans do. Instead, we have this thing called the Mother Grub that lays eggs, and we hatch from those. Remember how I said concupiscent quadrants are the ones related to reproduction? Matespritship and kismesissitude, those ones, right there.

So when you're an adult, at certain times this thing called the Imperial Drone comes to collect genetic material via filial pail, which it will then bring back to the Mother Grub to combine together into an a slurry, which it uses to fertilize the eggs. We don't have brothers, sisters, parents, whatever like you do, and they're impossible to trace because any one troll has countless people who contributed this or that part of their genetic code.

But if you don't have a kismesis, or don't have a matesprit, or if you outright lack both, then the Drone kills you on the spot. Yes, it is violent. Yes, it is probably weird for a human to hear, even one from not-Earth. But it's how we operated and it ensured we had productive members of society contributing to the furtherance of the species. There were a lot of things like that, reasons you could be culled for not being quote-unquote good enough for the species.

[He clears his throat.]

And last, I should mention that trolls don't distinguish between gender in partners the way you do. "Homosexual" - [He makes finger quotes.] - is not a concept we have. It doesn't matter what your partner is, and it's still bizarre to me that humans care in the first place.

[She's going to attempt not to judge here. She's growing as a person and attempting not to judge the practices of another culture that seem unnecessarily barbaric. It works differently, once upon a time it apparently functioned properly and Karkat seems okay with this so she is just...going to nod and keep her mouth shut on that.

Even if she does think that it's awful and horrible that someone could be punished for something like lacking a matesprit and kismesis at the same time. One's death hinging on making connections with others seems an alarming amount of risk to live with on a daily basis.

So yes. Nodding. Not judging openly and keeping her mouth shut on this subject.]

It could be something that's not just cultural for us perhaps but...part of what we are. I mean, it makes sense that gender wouldn't matter for your quadrants because they hinge on different criteria entirely. However our methods of reproducing are different and so of course our ah, labels and means of categorizing things would differ.

[She shrugs.]

And if that's the case, that it's something that's wired in us, perhaps it's the same that some of us are born already predisposed in one direction or another.

[If she were to judge, he'd have things to say she might not expect, but he keeps them to himself for now. His role is explanation, not commentary.]

I don't know how it would be for you - inborn, chosen, whatever, because it's all pretty bizarre to consider in the first place. Cultural stuff is bizarre when you get down to it.

[He shrugs.]

But anyway, unless you have more questions this is probably the part where you can start explaining that stuff about your culture you mentioned before.

No, I think you've covered everything quite...comprehensively actually.

[She flashes a smile, trying to focus more on the fascinating aspects of more defined roles in romance than...the motivation for such frantic quadrant-filling.]

As for my culture, I suppose that depends on what you already know about human relationships. You mentioned earlier you'd already learned a little about how it is with us?

I've seen a number of human movies about the subject along with having human friends who have told me some things. That's for Earth humans and their culture, though, not Asko... how do you say it again? Your planet.

You brought it up when you asked about whether a troll can have more than one matesprit, so I'm guessing whatever stands out about your world has to do with whatever you were thinking then, because I've got no idea.

You're on the right track. First of all, it's Askoupur, but if you don't remember that's fine. I ought to preface this by saying that I can't say entirely how much of what happens in my country overlaps with the cultures of other worlds. So far as I can tell, the world that I'm from and all of the countries in it don't exist in any of the places people here are from.

For my country though...we tend to take a rather flexible approach to romance and sex. [A small shrug.] Everyone has their preferences of course but there's a very "to each their own" attitude about the whole thing. Most often you'll find relationships involving two people only. A man and a woman, two women, or two men. The most successful ones seem to mirror something close to the one shared by two matesprits, but rather than based on pity I think most would say their relationships are formed on mutual interests and affection. There's equality in the relationship usually, or at least some sense of balance between the two people. I think all of this is fairly common in other human cultures, yes?

[Karkat listens attentively as she explains. The name he commits to memory this time, not wanting to forget. The rest is nothing odd; he nods to her question.]

At least for the humans my team are responsible for, yeah. If there are other variations here I imagine I'll learn about them sometime.

[She nods before moving on.]

The variations are where my country excels, I think. Mostly in the endless combinations of people that we all find ourselves in.

[Bryn shrugs, a sly little smile on her face.]

I could have one husband. Two. One wife. Or three if I were interested in women. A wife and a husband. A wife, a husband, and a slew of lovers. I could have a husband, and we could both have our own, or perhaps one or two we spend time with together. I could marry three people or...really whatever pleased me. So long as everyone else is happy with the arrangement, the options are limitless.

As I said before most of the relationships resemble something closer to matespritship, especially in arrangements where there's commitments made, such as marriage vows, but on occasion there are other relationship dynamics. Things that are friendly but not romantic. Or no romance or friendship at all and just...incredible hate-sex with someone who just gets under your skin.

[Karkat listens studiously to the whole of it, but as she goes on, his eyebrows raise. It's not quadrants, that's for sure. It's not anything like them.]

How do you make it work? It's so disorganized. And how do you not get jealous of each other?

And the other thing--you do act on hate?

Well that's the major challenge of it all. I mean, some people may start out thinking that they only want one person, may even tell the person they're with that it's what they want. And then it's possible someone else may come around and they want them both. Or sometimes person A and B may get along, and person A and C get along, but B and C don't get along. It happens. A lot of relationships with multiple people tend to take that much more work, but they can also be that much more rewarding when all parties can make it work. It takes a lot of give and take.

[She shrugs.]

As for hate, well. Some do. It depends. Hatesex isn't really unheard of. Usually people don't engage in longterm things with someone they hate. It's one of those instances usually where they can't help themselves or...god, any other number of situations really. It happens but it's not as common for us I think as it is for your culture. I think more common is people engaging in relationships that are purely sexual in nature than involving any negative emotions.

[He is getting such flashbacks to that time he tried to arrange a time table for quadrant vacillation with Terezi, Dave, and him. What an embarrassing, godawful mess. He pinches at the bridge of his nose, rubbing it some.]

No shit it would take more work.

[His hand drops.]

But see, that's what gets me. It never seems like you humans can wrap your heads around how emotionally fulfilling a proper hate can be. Cultural differences, blah blah, I know, and I don't really expect you all to change your minds just because of me. It's just weird to observe.

[He's got it right of course, blah blah, cultural differences indeed. She nods with understanding and shuffles some of the papers in her hands.]

I get that, I've been there before with other people at least on other matters. But okay, as someone who isn't inclined toward letting a good, proper hate into my life, what is it you think I'm missing? I mean, is it something about it specifically that you like or is it that it sort of serves as a counterbalance to your relationships that don't involve hate?

[SHE WILL KEEP AN OPEN MIND OKAY.]

It's both. What's the point of all those divisions and categories if they don't balance each other out? Hate and pity, concupiscence and conciliation - it goes for both of those.

But kismesissitude itself... It's a rivalry, like I said, the kind that's really worthwhile and fulfilling to pursue. If it's healthy, it makes you better. It pushes you that much more to be better than your kismesis, so you can get the upper hand and show them your hatred that much more thoroughly. There's the satisfaction of beating them, and the way your hatred pulses stronger to have them beat you. You push each other and value how they grow from it, because it means they're worth it, that they are good rival material. That's why the relationship - so they're yours to hate, so you're the main problem in their life, not anyone else.

[All this from someone who's never actually been in a kismesissitude, but shh. He's not bringing that up.]

[It's funny. Bryn's spent most of her life not really challenged by anything or anyone. Her family has encouraged her, challenged her to learn things but no one has challenged her as a rival. As a competitor. Her family has supported her. Her friends have encouraged her to enjoy life with them, to travel, to experience things. No one's pushed her to do more or accomplish things or make something of herself, anything other than what she was content to be. And maybe she'd come to build the Brazen Turtle and she was managing it, but it hadn't been so ambitious with again, the support of those around them.

And maybe the lack of someone in her life to push her, to give her that sense of hunger or hatred to spur her on has made her complacent.

The look on her face is rather telling that she's had an epiphany, that having a kismesis might be more than someone to just get under your skin and have hatesex with.]

I see. I mean, I know I'm just saying that but I get it. As much as I can anyway, not having had something like that before.

[It's incredible, the way her outlook has broadened with this conversation.]

So do you have one? Or anyone in your quadrants?

[Karkat looks curious at first, seeing that look on her face, hearing her words. Does she, really? Maybe he could talk about it more, see if she really does--]

[But then she asks her questions, and his mouth goes flat. Why look, look there! That's a ruddy tint rising to his cheeks.]

What does it matter? I didn't ask if you're human-dating anyone.

[No. The answer is no.]

[Did she strike a nerve there?

It's entirely unintentional and she manages to look at least a little sheepish about his reaction.]

Curiosity, sorry. Was thinking of asking you about your experiences but it's none of my business.

[There, have an out, Karkat.]

Yeah, well.

[Ahem.]

Apology accepted.

[His experiences are mostly embarrassing, sooner or later.]

Do you have any questions about other stuff?

[Glad she hasn't done anything more than make him uncomfortable in passing, Bryn smiles and and shakes her head. She has a lot of thinking to do but for now...]

I think I'm good for the moment. You've given me a lot to think about and I'll have questions later likely but...this is a lot to digest for now. Do you? Have any other questions, that is?

[He eases further. Awkward moment averted!]

Not right now, no. Here: if you have any later, you can contact me, and I'll do the same for the reverse.

Alright, well, thanks again for explaining everything. Good luck with the job situation, alright?

[With a smile and a wave, Bryn leans forward to prepare to cut the feed.]

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crabmunicator - 2014-01-17 02:18 (UTC) - Expand

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002 ♋ VIDEO (backdated to the 15th)

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