#catchup posts

[tenaciouschronicler]

July 13-15 2025 2010

It should be noted that in troll language, the word for friend is exactly the same as the word for enemy.

Equius likes structure. Theres expectations he follows and outside of that hes unsure how to navigate his emotions. I feel like part of that is his innate need to keep his strength in check. When he gets angry its harder to excert his already tenuous control so clinging to the rigid idea of blood caste systems is a grounding method.

CT: D --> You will stop

TC: WhOaAaA, i WiLl?

TC: hOw Do YoU kNoW tHaT?

CT: D --> No, you don't understand

CT: D --> It's not a predi%ion, it's an order

CT: D --> I command you to stop

TC: Oh, AlRiGhT bRoThEr.

[...]

CT: D --> No

CT: D --> This is una%eptable

CT: D --> Ok, let's start over

[...]

CT: D --> Don't you understand that you're better than me

CT: D --> Can you please act like it

CT: D --> That's not a command, it's just a polite request I guess

As we can see in this conversation with Gamzee, deviating from that is to some degree distressing especially when faced with an individual who has a much looser grasp on the rules of society.

CT: D --> Honestly I'm confused by the social order

TC: mAn, Me ToO. i DoN't KnOw WhAt Of FuCkIn WhAt CoLoR iS wHaT, sO i DoN't BoThEr WiTh ThInKiN oN tHaT mOtHeRfUcKeR.

CT: D --> See, that's what I mean

CT: D --> How is it possible for one of your distin%ion to be so ignorant

CT: D --> And loathesome

[...]

CT: D --> I find these striking ju%tapositions perple%ing, and I confess strangely into%icating

Even still he likes it. He doesn’t want to like it but he does. Without order, without rules how can he conduct himself in the correct manner. Even still theres a draw from not having to follow those rules that he cant help. We see this after his conversation with Vriska. In it we learn that present for Aradia was made by him and more about how little the two trust each other. “You naturally will doublecross your accomplice, just as you assume she has plans to doublecross you. You assume she is assuming the same of you. Business as usual for blue bloods.” Exhausting business isnt it?

Heres where Equius starts to toe the line.

How ironic that someone of your blood purity must work to win the favor of the lowest sort of peasant. Humiliating. Strangely titillating, even. But in the end, class order will be restored.

You don't know what to make of the feelings she stirs. For one like you to entertain thoughts of attraction for such genetic filth would be utter depravity.

Exquisite, delectable depravity.

We can see the full extent of Equius’ issues from this reveal of robo Aradia. He has problems reconciling his feelings with the need to follow class structure. I think he is mixing his genuine feelings with the seductiveness of breaking the rules. Its similar to the addictiveness of breaking his bows. He doesn’t want to but it feels good because its out of his control and just a small way that he can excert power that he tries to reign in. Its not healthy.

But worry not. Your heart will pump no more of that despicable red sludge. You have been given a new heart. You can be taught the ways of the class you were always meant for. No one is beyond redemption.

A gift for Aradia it might be in an objective sense, but from this we can see its just a way for Equius to gain back the control hes ‘losing’ by not sticking to the class structure. He sees no wrong in this move beecause thats just how it should be, the upper class dictates what the lower one does and should be. So wrapped up in his fantasy, he punches one of the nearby robots out of the hive and down onto the doomsday device below (which I just made the connection to with the game Trouble). While the device itsself doesn’t explode it does break the chains sending down onto the spider below. Aurthour is an unfortunant casuallty.

Back with Terezi for a moment we see a conversation between her and Vriska.

GC: TH3 TRUC3 W4SNT 4BOUT NOT PL4Y1NG G4M3S TOG3TH3R DUMMY

GC: 1T W4S 4BOUT NOT ST4BB1NG 34CH OTH3R 1N TH3 B4CK 4NYMOR3

GC: 4ND STOPP1NG TH3 3NDL3SS CYCL3 OF R3V3NG3

GC: 4ND 4BOV3 4LL NOT US1NG YOUR POW3RS TO HURT P3OPL3 WHO DONT D3S3RV3 1T!

[...]

GC: W3 W3R3 SUPPOS3D TO B3 L1K3 4 V1G1L4NT3 DUO D1SP3NS1NG JUST1C3

GC: 4ND YOU COULD T4K3 TH3 B4D GUYS HOM3 4ND F33D TH3M TO YOUR STUP1D SP1D3R

GC: BUT 1NST34D YOU JUST F3D H3R 3V3RYBODY!

GC: 4ND L13D 4ND L13D 4ND L13D

A flashback to shortly after the FLARP accident gives us more context to what occurred on the Tere/Ara side. At some point in the Clouder session Vris’ mystery white text friend managed to appear much to the confusion of the girls. More importantly my confusion. I’ve likened this guy to the exiles but this shows hes not only known by some of the other trolls but actually able to make direct contact in the current plane before the game even starts. That will have to be touched on in the next post since I feel like the reveal is gonna be crazy. The page link taunts me. (Also I realized the second voice in my pinned post is very reminisent of this guy. That was totally accidental. My second voice is not a douche.) But with how recent the incident was to this log the emotions are still very fresh.

GC: 1 HOP3 YOUR3 NOT TH1NK1NG OF DO1NG 4NYTH1NG 1N R3T4L14T1ON

GC: 1TLL 3ND B4DLY

GC: YOU SHOULD L3T M3 H4NDL3 1T

AA: im n0t scared 0f her

AA: she cant c0ntr0l me

This story is all about cycles. We’ve seeen many of them repeating and self fulfill. Weve seen them being created and destroyed. Weve seen them reach conclusions that are both good and bad. “An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.” What Aradia decides to do next, against Terezi’s advice, is just the starting domino in a string of bad choices. Using her powers, Ara summons the spirits of the dead trolls fed to Vriskas lusus. A ‘physical’ representation of Vriskas actions. White Text’s chat bubble appears slow, a bright beacon in the sea of grey but just as haunting and dangerous.

Aren't you going to kill her?

AG: Who????????

Your friend.

The one who summoned the spirits.

AG: Will that make them go away?

Does it matter?

She brought them here to torment you. This obviously warrants revenge.

You know you're going to anyway. You won't be able to help yourself.

AG: I don't have to do shit!

AG: May8e I don't mind ghosts. May8e they'll 8e gr8 company once I get used to them!

[...]

I will go.

But maybe you're right. Maybe you are a person with free will and you won't kill your friend.

What do I know?

Enjoy your haunting.

Througout this conversation all I can get is a sense that WT is toying with Vriska. Not necessarily because he finds enjoyment in it but more so like a cat toying with prey. Doing it because he can. Doing it because seeing the struggle is more facinating than the final kill. Hes essentially dangling his own power in front of Vriska tempting her to prove him wrong. But she cant. Shes not strong enough, in character, in will, in bravery. But is it against an adult authority? Against fate and predestination? Against the cycles Skaia orchestrates?

How about this guy? Unfortunately, you can only control him about half the time.

Then again, that should be all the time you need.

AG: Arrivederci, Megido.

[tenaciouschronicler]

July 1-7 2025 2010

AA is a strange individual. Why is she she introduced in this different art style?

apocolypseArisen a.k.a Aradia Megido

Once had an interest in archeology which is what brought her to the Mystic Ruins. Which she destroyed out of boredom. She is another character that hears voices but hers are specificly those of the dead and her ancestors. Comparing this to Rose and Terezi we get some interesting connetions. Terezi and Aradia are aware of this power, with it being a norm before the game begins. Rose and Terezi communicate with a single being directly, while Rose and Aradia communicate with multiple (the gods/dead). Rose and Aradia have the greatest connection and understanding of the games workings though at different stages. We do know that Rose did have a subconcious connection to the dream scape/ doomed self. This connects with the knowledge we gained about how kerenels are drawn to the dead and doomed. Perhaps Aradia’s game powers are adjacent to thoses of a Seer? Are Seers drawn to Doom and the other drawn to Death?

Aradia was part of the LARP accicdent we keep hearing about which killed her lusus making it a catalyst to why shes at the ruins. Here she found the MYSTERIOUS TECHNOLOGY that brings the destruction of the trolls, the Great Undoing, which shes a-ok with starting for some reason. Shes tricked Sollux into cobbling together SGRUB, which from the comment is SBURB but bad. Which I think isnt fair. One was created by a dedicated team of programmers and the other one (1) guy with nothing but translated glyphs.

Her sylladex is a ouija board, which is actually a really great way to compare the alphabet to, you know, our English one. And from the way it is shown is written from right to left. And I guess flipped. The numbers, however, are exactly the same as our Roman ones, so.

Hey, we know this computer! Somehow, it must have gotten here from Spades Slick since its stated it was found in the ruins. Grim is messaging Aradia, which brings the most amount of emotion to her that we have seen since her proper introduction. I think in general Aradia is a very apathetic person. Obviously she hasn't been like this forever. It was just that recent accident that caused this change. I don't wanna say she has depression, but a lot of her mannerisms are similar to someone who has gone through or is in a depressive state.

Grim is trying to convince her not to go ahead with letting Sol start the game, but obviously that's not gonna happen. So someone did know what the game was actually about, but not the guy making the game?

I do find it interesting that 'tick tock' is on the same page as Aradia staring at the Felt computer. There's a connection there and I'd need to know what it is.

We get another convo with Arachnid, who is a confirmed she. Don't know why she's got to be a secret though, it's kinda random. She's much friendlier with Aradia, still steamrolls, but with how Aradia is, it rolls off so easily with not a blink. Serious, though? Why was it shown like that? Every other time we either don't get visual or we just get a screen name. Like the next page is a complete visual of Arachnid. She's got glasses with an eye patch, I guess? Unless it's like a broken pair of sunglasses for some reason. A spider web wallpaper, robot arm and horns that kind of sort of remind me of a scorpion. You know, like one is the claw, and the other is the tail. Fitting for someone with a Scorpio sign.

Sol comes back from his freak out revelations that Aradia dropped to apologize and jump right into playing. Aradia is having none of that.

We get to see perhaps how Aradia was able to manipulate Sol, getting him to the window and knocking him out with psychic powers. We then time skip alongside him to right before his own meteory death. Unfortunately for him, he is the last to enter. He does, however, do some behind the scenes (dreams) groundwork, semi similar to Jade. More bad news is he's eaten the mind honey, which I guess overpowers his psionics and kills his lusus.

We skip back to the cave girl!

arsenicCatnip a.k.a Nepeta Leijon

Caves can apparently also be hives. Nep is not fond of dangerous rp, so is not part of the group involved in the accident. Like Dave, she draws comics but more personal slice of life.

Her lusus is a cat which works great with her Leo sign. And she has just the coolest Wolverine esque gloves! Probably the most insane thing about her introduction is seeing Ponce De Leon buried in cave rubble.

Her computer is reminiscent of Jade's Pictionary modus, but does not function as such. Karkat happens to be trolling at this time. I love the duality of the grouch who goes along with the weirdness of his friends. He's gonna gripe the whole time, but he's gonna try. We get to see the red teams lay out in order of entry: confirmed- Karkat, Terezi, Gamzee, Tavros. Pending Nepeta, then Grim, if mystery man allows it.

We don't have to wait too long to find out. Jump to this guy that everyone has seemed to have a problem with, much like Arachnid, is shrouded in darkness. We don't get a payoff for him however. Mr. Mystery is the engineer troll or centaursTesticles.

I have mixed feelings on this guy.

On the one hand there's a weird imbalance to the dynamic where CT comes off as an overbearing, controlling, stick-in-the-mud, obsessed with blood (and I guess manners) but for as frustrated as she gets Nep, doesn't take it to heart. In a strange way they complement each other which ties into her intro. Nep says she pacifies him, which can be seen when she gets him to break from the crazy serious rants, and he grounds her as seen in Nep's convo with Tav. CT is the reason Nep wasn't part of the larp group accident. There's obviously something in the dynamic we are missing much like before we met Dave properly.

Even still, it's kind of hard to read because so many people have a problem with this guy but we have a character who knows he's a problem, but still finds him okay. I guess those kinds of friendships do exist in real life so it 's not that far of a reach, but I feel like we need to know more about this whole blood system to really understand.

Either way, Nep ends up apologizing to Tav about not being his server player to join the blue team. Tav obviously is the most chill about this. With a reminder of those times we finally flash back to the accident.

We don't get a definitive timeline of when exactly this occurred, but we do get to see boy skylark Tav and the name for EXTREME ROLE PLAYING, FLARP.

From the information weve been gathering Team Charge is Aradia and Tavros while Team Scourge is Terezi and Arachnid. FLARP works as one person campaigns designed by a CLOUDER to create virtual simulations. These simulations however operate in the real environment so any damage to the physical self is real.

Aradia is alot more animated in this conversation which is in line with her own personality change. Theres a brief conversation between the two which informs us that Tavros' costume is probably not a coincidence. Theres been lots of connections between both sessions so of course theres a class in this virtual game that matches Johns.

For reasons still unknown Arachnid really does not like Tav. This game that she has set up is ridiculously hard. Poor guy is literally at the edge of a cliff. There's no reasoning with her, she desperately wants Tav to make a probably stupid decision. Tav on the other hand does have a brain so he tries to get Aradia and Terezi to help him out. Unnfortunately neither one is answering.

Somehow, Arachnid creates a projection of herself right in front of Tav. When she doesn't get her way, she uses a similar psychic skill to Aradia to control him into doing what she wants. And what is that you might ask? To fly. Fly right off that cliff. It's a perverse reversal of the previous panel we've seen of Tav on Prospit I don't know if her goal was to actually kill him, but luckily that fall didn't kill him.

For some reason, he thinks it's prudent to contact Karkat, who oh so eloquently responds with nothing but insults.

So that's half of the accident mystery solved, but now, the other half comes into play. What's going on with Aradia and Terezis side?

Jumping to the semi-present, around the time when Karkat is howling about the toilet, we see a conversation between Kar and Arachnid.

This conversation... it's a lot and I don't mean like it actually has anything to say. It's just a dick measuring contest for some reason with Arachnid really trying to get on Kars nerves and Kar being his normal prickly self. The only things that we get out of it are there's a truce we don't know about and Kar probably hit a sore point about Arachnid's powers.

That out of the way we finally see CT in the flesh.

...

I quickly want to get away from this situation. Why are those posters on his walls?!!?

Narrator saves us and takes us to glimpse the last troll. Here we are underwater with the only things of note being a trident, what looks to be swim goggles and the pisces symbol on a coronet.

[polyjuice-personas]

((Alecto is played by the fantastic @iwontscreaminmyhead))

[polyjuice-personas]

Have you ever thought about teaching at Hogwarts?

Us? In charge of young, impressionable minds?

((OOC: Alecto played by the fantastic @iwontscreaminmyhead))

[polyjuice-personas]

Do you.... Do you have something dead behind you?... What did your mother tell you about leaving dead things in the house?

Amycus: Be stoic, Alecto.

Alecto: Composure, Amycus.

Amycus: But really… what would Mother say?

Alecto: Mother approved of our ability to bring dead things into the house from an early age… as long as her Oriental rug didn’t get stained.

((OOC: Alecto is the brilliant @iwontscreaminmyhead))

[polyjuice-personas]

A Few Extras...

Actual footage of the Carrow twins waiting for me to get my life together and post the rest of the gifs from Death Eater Day.

Alecto played by the incomparable @iwontscreaminmyhead

[entangled-in-magic]

Finding all the quotes in the books from my posts has had me giggling like an idiot :P and reading all my favourite quotes has made me want to read all the books all over again!