What does it mean to be queer in Alternian Society?
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This is a weird question to some people, who will obviously point to Kanaya being a lesbian, all of the other trolls being some flavor of pansexual seemingly
My issue with that reading is that Alternian Society does not care about gender or sexuality in a meaningful enough way that would give credence to homo/lesbo/bi/panphobia being A Widespread Massive Thing and example of such a thing are very few and far between (Sorry Porrim)
So what does it mean to be queer in a society where us human’s definition of queerness is the norm, well it comes down to a simple statement:
Alternian Society is a Puritanical Fascist Nightmare where there are literal empire sanctioned ways you are supposed to love each other.
The Quadrant System itself is alien heteronormativity
Now does that mean that quadrants are bad? Does that mean that everyone needs to stop using labels to define how they love/hate someone? No! Of course not
Clearly these labels work for certain trolls, having a definition for something can be really helpful and comforting and that is OKAY. What isn’t okay is the fact that the government and society is built not only around the idea that there are only four distinct kinds of affection that NEVER cross over, but the addition that any bleed or cross over between them is DISGUSTING AND WRONG.
PDA is disparaged in troll society as we see a couple times in the main comic but also any kind of complicated feeling between two quadrants as simple as matesprits having an argument is called out as a perversion
“Vacillation”
That word is used to shut down any kind of emotion that is outside the four walls of a quadrant. You are a disgusting weirdo for having emotions outside of the ones you’re supposed to have.
I believe it’s one of the many tools the empire’s propaganda machine uses to keep people apart to stop critical thinking and emotional development to keep all of the worker bees in line and disgusted with any outsider to the societal norms
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What this mindset does is drive people towards on direction: Shameful Obedience
Being told you’re wrong and being forced into a box will break a spirit and have them keep their head down and keep their feelings inside, as the empire would want
The few that rise up, that ask questions or choose to define themselves outside the norm (The Signless and The Disciple) are dealt with the same way the empire deals with any insurrection, they are culled, or the lucky ones, likely highbloods, will face being socially ostracized, and if all goes well for the empire they will shut up and follow the status quo like they’re supposed to, and if they don’t?
I’m sure the empire isn’t likely to give second chances.
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So what does it mean to be “quadqueer” “quadbreakers” or “quadsmearers” what does it mean to be more
It means that you don’t feel comfortable in a box, it means sometimes you feel more than hatred more than love or pity you feel so many things a rainbow of emotion.
It means your relationships don’t need names (unless you want to give it one, a special name or general indication) you just have people you care for, instead of quadmates you just have, mates.
And to reiterate doesn’t mean that liking the label of quadrants is wrong, it’s okay to want to have a definition for your feelings. Labels are not the problem, the government using labels to stomp out the unconventional is the problem
Everyone's all "ohhh 2026 bring back physical media" until I start talking illuminated manuscripts and then suddenly we're not on the same page anymore
Noufri's first and second bullet points are where his/my username come from btw. I took it for my main because it wasn't taken and it was satisfying to write :3 "auspicious" has to do with his interest in mysticism, divination and the metaphysical, "causticity" comes from lye aka caustic soda which is used to make soap.
I can also imagine that Pyrrha and Lunwen used to argue online a lot. Not in a blackrom way because Pyrrha never hated Lunwen back, she just liked annoying him (and simultaneously exposing him to thoughts besides terminally online discourse). And then Lunwen stopped hating her after discovering that They Are Not So Different After All. So they eventually became friends
...Lunwen definitely used to have a pitch crush on Pyrrha tho but had to suppress it because she already had a stable kismesissitude with someone whom she hated much much more than she could hate Lunwen even in theory
Lunwen would not be personally involved in lowblood infighting on troll social media but his brain would be noticeably rotted by constant exposure to takes on the level of "a bronze dating an olive makes the bronze a caste traitor and the olive literally worse than a subjugglator" or worse. They've begun to grow out of it about a sweep ago, to be fair. Still an asshole though (affectionate). And a bit of an edgelord, considering that this blog's URL is Lunwen's canon username
I imagine Lunwen's lusus has 2 heads. I am very reluctant to play into the Hiveswap-compliant "every goldblood has a duality theme" thing, but alas it happens to be thematically appropriate for him. The two heads don't get along unless they're swooping someone (usually Lunwen). One of the heads tends to be quiet but physically aggressive, and the other rarely attacks living creatures outside of hunting and swooping, but tends to yell a lot and damage its surroundings. It's why Lunwen has bars on all the windows that keep it from pecking at the glass.
I also feel like from a stranger's point of view it would just look like an overprotective parent, because it doesn't attack Lunwen if someone else is nearby. But if Lunwen is alone, it will attack him instead. It's so territorial that its instincts transform the mild annoyance it experiences from having someone else around (even a grub it chose to raise) into "RRRRRAAAAHHHHH kill this thing Now"
Lunwen needs a proper reference sheet and I'm gonna give them so many janky scratcher tattoos on their legs when I get to it (I do use both "he" and "they" for him btw)
Also his lusus is going to be an amalgamation of the most infamous traits of the Australian magpie (swooping) and the hooded crow (stealing things) which actually matches Lunwen's personality very well and wAAAAAIT A MINUTE
not this right after I gave Lunwen his (my own lol) accent. I'll take that
I ended up changing his design because the alternative outfit I came up with for the fantroll contest fit his lore (that I made up mere hours before submitting lol) much better
He's still missing an eye out in the real world but wears a prosthetic so no one finds out
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