Genuinely curious question: why do you draw the trolls' horns going from a gradient of their blood colour to yellow/solid blood color/multi-coloured for the (assumedly) mutants?
The different horn colors I do are tied to troll headcanons I have, and whether they're solid stripes or a plain gradient, heavily depends on my mood for the day, but solid colors aren't exclusive to mutants!
In reality, all trolls have yellow/orange horns since hatching, their blood color starts to "creep up" as they age, creating a gradient look. This leaves a problem for mutants, as you can see how vibrant their horns start to look, which makes them much more visible.
So my solution was to have some mutants paint their own horns for survival. (You can see early signs of this headcanon with looking up an old fantroll, Ichigo Kasfes. He was essentially Troll!Itchy depicted as a lime blood posing as olive.)
Karkat does this, and since he's super antsy about others picking him out, he goes the extra mile to COVER his horns with a casual hat.
Ultimately, in a vacuum, this action would technically leave them open for targeting, as now ppl can simply point out the painted horned mutant. But this also means OTHER trolls catch on and also paint their horns, whether out of solidarity, rebellion, or just plain simple fun.
Not a confession, but a question(s) for people who are likely best paced to have theories about troll biology
Are trolls like biologically intersex, and male/femaleness just a vibe thing - so they transcend the need for birth assigned gender? Or is it troll boobs = female, cos I’m pretty sure only female trolls have “rumble spheres”? Cos if I remember homestuck right male and female trolls both have nooks and bulges, so it’s gotta be something else that they use to decide if it’s not vibes? And I assume they do have to have the same equipment cos how else do any-gender pairs produce valid slurry for the mother grub?
I like the idea of it being vibes based, but like if it is vibes based, is it that fuchsia trolls are biologically hardwired to feel female, which feels weird in a vibes based world? If it’s the secondary characteristics thing, then i guess you could have a dysphoric fuchsia troll. Idk.
But I feel like a homestuck smut blog is gonna have enough people who know the lore that I can get a consensus?
Bonus question
Are nooks and bulges just vaginas and penises? I’m 99.9999% sure that’s the case. But idk if I’m missing something.
Bonus bonus question
Do trolls have balls, cos I think beyond canon/HS2/the epilogues implied they don’t? But maybe that’s just Gamzee? Or maybe I’m mixing up homestuck with some smut that I read lol.
alrighty pulls up my years of thinking about troll anatomy. to answer your first question, no, they aren't 'biologically intersex'. i think what you mean is sexual monorphism. trolls do have sexual dimorphism, but it is very minor. the only known canonical difference (thanks to hiveswap) is that female trolls have nipples while males don't. the reason for this is unknown.
before pupation/puberty, trolls are sexually monorphic. the sex characteristics they develop is based on their lusus's pheromones, though sometimes they will experience a different than expected puberty, similar to being intersex with humans. (this is the case with cirava!)
the reason why most fuchsias develop female is because they all have the same lusus.
to answer your bonus question with what most people agree on, nooks are kind of similar to vaginas, but they have a sleeve inside them that houses the bulge where the clitoris would be. bulges are usually depicted as tendrils the colour of the troll's blood.
to answer your bonus bonus question with what i've inferred from the comic, trolls don't have external gonads like testicles, they have them up inside and are called 'shame globes.' not quite sure what they do though, maybe that's where the genetic material comes from?
also bonus answer trolls also have a thing called a seedflap, which what i like from what i've read in fanfictions is that it's similar to a cervix, as it's at the end of the nook, but it doesn't lead to a uterus or anything it's just a small kinda pocket for genetic material of a partner to be stored in, probably left over from before trolls had buckets.
I wanted to include as many canon-implicit details as possible; That they have very "just a gray human" silhouettes, noses, eyebrows, hair, nails, regular-ish anthropomorphic figures, etc; while also making them very obviously Fucked Up Bug Aliens.
Who said that trolls can't have exoskeletons AND an external skin layer? Just have them wear it over the exoskeleton like a fucking animatronic, silly--
Hey! Could you write romantic hcs for Barb? Female reader if you don’t mind!
🎸 BARB X FEMALE! READER! HEADCANONS! 🎸
If you are a rock troll -> Other than trying to unite the world under one music she definitely did it to impress you. Constantly hovering around you and asking for your ideas while you practicing for the big night when the rock trolls come back victorious from their world tour.
If you are a pop troll -> Took awhile for her to realise her the feelings that you made her feel wasn’t anger or resentment and it was actually her forming a crush on you. Beating herself up about liking the enemy until she finally gives in and accepts her feelings confessing to you.
Introduces you to everyone she meets. “This is my girlfriend dont fuck with her or else.”
She takes you out on fancy dates in symphonyville but doesn’t dress for the part. Usually just cleaning up her makeup and hair and shes ready to go. You have to force her into a dress/suit for those special occasions.
She tried to do that and ended up being lectured by you for ages as you picked out an appropriate outfit almost missing your booking.
She has threatened alot of people about being careful with you whither your watching or not. She just wants to make sure her pipsqueak girlfriend is safe! can you blame her?
she usually calls you babe, bae, love ect! mainly love she barely calls you by your actual name so when she does you know you fucked up. To tease you she calls you her rock zombie.
She’s your biggest fan. Loves watching you preform throwing her hands in the air whenever your part comes on.
Barb is really overprotective and since she is a queen she can make anything borthering you go away with a snap of her fingers.
She’s a sleep cuddler and she’s embarrassed about it. At night you will goto bed on each of your guys side of the bed and wake up with her arms wrapped around you or her arms tangled with yours. Feeling her chest rising and falling as she silently snores away with you in her arms.
[Kind suggestive] Barb definitely gets jealous alot pulling you away from any troll who she deems to be getting alittle too friendly with you. Or when she feels feisty she will strut up to you snake her arm around your waist and pull you into an overly dramatic kiss. Giving the troll a smug look as you melt making sure to make a sicking pop while releasing you before walking off like nothing happened.
Loves when you dress up watching as you give little fashion shows with the new outfit you just got her eyes never leaving you with a dopey smile on her face as you explain every outfit in detail to her.
Sometimes does it to you too though she’s usually wearing the same outfit all the time so it’s usually new accessories she made/bought showing off how ROCK it is to you.
LITERALLY HEAD OVER HEELS IF HER DAD APPROVES OF YOU! He is her idol so her idol loving her girlfriend boosts her ego so much and shes showing you off 24/7.
She’s definitely a flirt [only with you ofc] and loves seeing you flustered she knows she can get you blushing with a few touches and words.
If you aren’t a rock troll, you dressing up as a rock troll makes her go crazy. Seeing you in fishnets, spikey jewelry, messy hair and black eyeshadow/makeup makes her so flustered. Practically ready to pounce on you at any moment.
Shes not scared of alittle PDA but she gets so embarrassed whenever you try act lovey dovey in public like she’s okay with sticking her tongue in your mouth to assert dominance with others.
i’ll give you my entire left tiddy for some more mspar alien difference fluff. written or drawn, with mallek or marvus or pretty much anyone else. warm blooded/cold blooded cuddles with marvus. mallek purring and being embarrassed abt it. mspar not realizing they’re being flirted with til someone spells it out to them. just any troll/human (??) difference shit or any of your hcs please i’m starving
Starve no more!! I'll feed you AND me cause I honestly fucking live for alien differences between trolls and humans like? Omg...I'll try to sneak some Mallek and Marvus for ya since you seem to mention both of them (and I'll throw in some other ones for more comparisons >:])
So for general troll temperature headcanons, let me tell you, you'd better enjoy being cold/not be too bothered by it cause the higher on the spectrum, the colder the blood you're touching and cuddling. The warmest a troll will ever be is if they're a mutantblood, the closest thing to getting to normal human body temperatures and the ones with any real warmth to them. Rust bloods being the lowest on the hemospectrum that aren't mutants don't have as much warmth but still tend to run warmer than other blood types on the hemospectrum. Not exactly lukewarm, little bit warmer than that. When we hit the goldbloods, that's when it starts getting lukewarm temperatures. Smack dab in the middle of the spectrum, the Jades, aren't very warm or anything, but it's a few hairs away from being able to consider them cold feeling. Anything above the jades is when things start getting cold.
Teals you could say are cold, maybe not unpleasantly so, you could feel such a difference that you would no longer feel any real warmth. Cerulean is when the temperatures could be so stark as opposed to human warmth that coming into direct skin to skin contact with it could definitely shock your skin and make you flinch initially. Purples are. Man. Remember how I said you'd better like being cold? This is where the cold could be the brink of being unpleasant for some who can't handle it very well, it really starts setting in the longer you choose stay in physical contact with them. Violets, I'd argue, would be downright unpleasantly cold to the touch, like, you know how if you go outside in the snow and your body feels numb and face would be stinging? Like that.
With that general stuff of how perceive the coldness of some trolls established. Um. Mallek and Marvus :} I'm going to apologize in advance, Marvus is a character I've always been intimidated by in terms of writing. I feel like I just don't get him enough, and I'd hate to mischaracterize him :(( but I'll do my best!! (Putting a break here cause I type a lot)
Marvus and Mallek I feel like have a tendency to be mischievous little shits sometimes, once becoming aware and acquainted with the warmth Mspar emits and how cold they are in comparison they like to have fun with it. Mallek likes to do that thing some people do, ya know, where people take something fucking cold like a thing of ice cream or an ice cold drink and fucking PRESS it against your skin and it makes you scream? That. But no ice cream, it's his hand touching their bare skin (which still makes them shriek and jolt in surprise). They turn around and playfully smack him on the shoulder in retaliation.
Marvus likes doing the same thing but for him GOD FUCK the cold feels so much worse than Mallek. Bitch IS the ice being pressed against your skin. He doesn't even need to use his whole hand, he could press a finger to them and get a reaction. Punching doesn't do much to Mallek anyways, trolls and their thicker skins, but Marvus doesn't have a lot of squish to begin with. It's weird punching someone who feels so..solid? Not to say he's got absolutely no squish, but he has very little of it.
Cuddling... ahehhehehe cracks knuckles.
Since I'm already talking about Marvus lemme get to him already. Since he is a freezer, it'll take a bit to get fully comfortable laying against him. Warmth can overpower or balance out a trolls temperature, this is something that's very hard to do with bloods higher than indigo. Something like either them or Marvus wearing a good amount of clothing to separate makes it to where they don't feel immediately uncomfortable with the chill of his skin. Marvus I feel like is kinda finicky when it comes to touch or laying for long periods of time?? It's kinda funny, you could hug him, and he'd allow it for just a few seconds before he'd wiggle his way out of it, a playful look to his eyes. Or allowing you to rub his skin for a bit before pulling away. Only when he's tired or is ready to be settled in completely is when you can really, for real, cuddle him without him squirming out of it.
Now Mallek? Umpfh. Touch starved. Mspar too actually, I headcanon that they are a touched starved person themselves. So how about two touched starved people help another out..by cuddling. And everything else that involves touch under the moon really.
For him, he kinda loses it when he's in physical contact with them. It's the warmth! It really gets to him, and it makes his brain go nuts. He used to fight the overwhelming urge to wrap them up really tight in his arms cause ya know. Snake brain, cold, friend/flushcrush is warm, curl around the warmth. He didn't fight it anymore when they actively sought out physical touch from him themselves and was actively encouraging him and letting him know it was okay to search for it back.
It was through being around him that they discovered the most surprising thing they never thought of a troll doing. Purring.
They have never heard of a sound as soft as purring coming from a troll.
Trolls only purr in the presence of those they feel the utmost comfort with. To feel the safest with, to trust them the most, and to be at your most vulnerable with. It's super intimate stuff in troll culture. Hearing that anywhere out in public could make trolls snap their head in that direction and make them flush in the face. Get a room!!
I imagine it was one of those many days where they stayed over at his hive. They had just decided that they were done playing video games and it from leaning against each other in silence while the game systems powered off, then it transitioned into Mspar coaxing Mallek to lay on then while they had their back laid down on his lounge plank. His weight against them was comforting to them.
They were just nuzzling his shoulder and rubbing their hands all up and down his back and sides, all with no patterns to it. He had his face pressed against their chest, his arms pushed underneath them to wrap around them. They could feel his smile against their skin, and they were all smiles and happy, too. Then they, well, they felt it before they heard it.
It was something they didn't even notice at first, the rumbling, the small vibrations emitting from his throat and chest. When it was growing stronger and the purring became audible, they still didn't question it at first. They were just so comfortable, and the cuddling was just so nice, his purring could put them to sleep and...wait. Purring?
When the realization of Mallek purring hit them, they temporarily halted their hand movements. Mallek stayed put for a bit before his purring stuttered a little, and he cracked an eyelid open to gaze at them, wondering why they stopped. He finds them kind of staring at him, their hands still under his tank top just stopped on his back.
"you okay;"
This snaps them out of it and they and they lean in to kiss his forehead, Mallek snorts in response and immediately relaxes against them again.
They kindaaa wanted to point it out at in the moment but ultimately decided against it so that he didn't get embarrassed or shy and stops. They think it's SUPER fucking cute.
As for general differences between troll and human romance? Cracks fingers. Obviously it depends on what quadrant a troll is interested in having you in. I'll go with red romance for now unless someone later wants the other quads too lol.
I talked about purring before and purring is a BIG one. Purring is how trolls communicate that they feel absolutely safe and comfortable in their partners presence along with purring being a form to heal when their partner is hurt or isn't feeling well. It leaves them very open and vulnerable and so it feels very intimate for most trolls. A troll purring in the presence of human they're interested in a human may not pick up the significance of it so they just see it at its simplest until explained. Some trolls may feel a little hurt when their human partners don't pick up on their purring and they don't purr back in response, again, until explained that humans aren't capable of making sounds such as purring. Make no mistake though! Troll purring does not sound like how a cat's would. It's sounds like how you would imagine an insect purring would sound like.
Sleeping in the presence of a person you're interested in or around your partner is another big thing trolls do. Sleeping near other trolls is again, a vulnerability thing. To sleep near someone? To be so open and let your guard down like that? To trust someone that much? Wipes sweat from brow. Humans being able to do this with trolls they're even a little comfortable with is absolutely flabbergasting to most trolls.
Okay there's sleeping when someone is nearby...then there's sleeping WITH someone. No not like that ya nasties. Sleeping with someone, in their recuperacoon, it's a vulnerability thing again woo boy. It's the HIGHEST form of trust a troll could show their partner! The significance of this can really go over a human's head, they truly don't understand the gravity of trust at play here.
Here's something not sleep related. Scent marking. This one is more subtle than just. A partner wearing their sign or typing the way their typing quirk is. This one is when a troll leaves something, take a shirt or their socks or something, at their partners hive. It leaves a bit of them, their scent, there and it's meant for their partners + any other trolls that are over know. Humans tend to also seek their partner's scent/how they smell (think stealing your partners clothes), it's another thing that means more deeply than they originally think about.
