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personalapocalypse(Crossposted to tumblr. As much to get my own thoughts organized as anything else.)
"Please, stop this senseless fighting!"
---
If you've watched Western animation for any length of time you've seen a scene like that. It's the scene where two parties are fighting, and a third person jumps in yelling something about how they don't have to fight, they have to stop, everyone can just get along. And usually that person usually either ends up ridiculed, or beaten up by the fighters before they go back to fighting each other. It's a very ridiculous concept, the idea that this guy might actually want them to stop fighting and that he (since it's usually a guy, but not always) actually could get these two very angry people to back down just by saying that they shouldn't fight.
An auspistice isn't like that, because in troll culture, the person who jumps in between the two people telling them that they shouldn't fight anymore? Actually can tell them that, and can back it up. It's more like the old fighter who jumps between two young bucks when they start seriously getting into a fight, who never starts fights but who has absolutely no problem ending them if they have to.
The other big difference is that this person doesn't do it out of any sort of kindness or friendship or even pity. Whoever this is, they're doing it because they hate the fighting so damned much that they can't just stay out of it. They have to stop them from fighting, because otherwise they're going to go INSANE from having to be anywhere near it. So they end up in the middle of it, and both sides hate them for it, because honestly, what business is it of theirs? They hate the newcomer enough that it distracts them, at least a little, from their hatred for each other. Sometimes they unite, at least a little bit, against the third party, and sometimes they don't, but they pay enough attention to the new threat that they can't really concentrate on their own rivalry. Either way, it keeps them from getting too into their rivalry, and it makes them back down from each other enough to keep the third person satisfied.
So according to the comic this is mostly meant to prevent "widespread black infidelity," implying that trolls would leap at the chance to have a hatemance with anyone who sneered at them. (And yes, that's a massive generalization/stereotypeand Eridan only wishes it was true.) I also like to think that it's a pressure valve for trolls that hate each other too much - it's frowned upon in troll society for one to kill one's kismesis, for good reason. If a troll kills her kismesis before they can fill the pail, that coupling never comes to anything. Kismesissitude is at least as much about showing restraint as it is about hating each other, and auspisticism is partially about forcing restraint on blackrom relationships where the trolls involved don't have it, and at the same time keeping them out of concuspcient territory, because restraint and self-control are important for a society that is at least partially built around hate. It's not a necessary thing to find every time one finds a new black partner, because it's meant to keep the undesirable kismesissitudes from continuing, not the ones that are (by troll standards) healthy. It would also serve to head off the relationships where one troll hates another troll that doesn't hate them back - I'm still trying to figure out how that would work, exactly, since you wouldn't get the strong three-way hate that I feel would make this quadrant really work well.
Every troll would have their own style of ashen romance, much like everyone has their own idea of what a relationship is (and some are healthier than others.) Of the three I've played with so far, one is basically very direct - kind of an "I don't like you, you two don't like me, and you sure as hell don't like each other, but I'm not going to let you two kill each other so you'd better motherfucking get all up out of each other's grills and get to working this business out" sort of relationship. One is very physical - a third person physically getting in the way of the other two having a chance to fight it out - while another is very cerebral, using words to shame and embarrass and outwit the people she's pushing apart. Some styles are going to work to keep some rivalries under control; others aren't. I think that the aspect of troll serendipity that is associated with ashen romance is essentially finding an auspistice who can perfectly understand your anger and simultaneously feed it and redirect it, and keep the hate between the three of you simmering at an acceptable level. This is what I think would be the perfect outcome for the ashen quadrant.
Unfortunately I imagine it's hard to find - I imagine that it usually ends with one party giving up on the relationship and the other two either becoming kismeses, or one trying to convince the other that they should be kismeses. Or else one person ends up pitying one of the others and begins some sort of red relationship, which means that they can't mediate the relationship properly, and it either falls apart entirely (the third person going their separate way) or blows up (the black feelings between them end up getting bigger, and possibly someone gets hurt or killed.) Or the three of them just give up on the relationship entirely. There's any number of possibilities.
Also, apparently concillatory quadrant-switching is as much of a thing as concuspcient switching? I mean, judging from canon, it seems to happen all the time in the ashen relationships that we've seen so far. I'm mostly thinking of Kanaya and her ashen relationships involving Vriska, who is also her morail at the time that they start. It's also worth noting that we know that one of those relationships was a complete failure, and that the other might not exist outside of Eridan's head; it's really hard to tell, since Vriska doesn't seem to have any remaining black feelings for him at all.
So it's possible, but it seems to not work out well, and most of the trolls who engage in it would rather be in one quadrant or another. That's the angle I'm going with in my fics, anyway - Nepeta intervenes between Equius and Aradia when they go black for each other because she feels like she needs to, to keep the peace, and because she's angry enough with them and hates what they're doing to each other enough that she's driven to get between them; when the couple starts to pity each other again, she goes back to her usual pity for Equius; that is such an important part of her life that she doesn't want to give it up, and neither does he. So it's a temporary switch, and Nepeta's able to put aside her pity for long enough to deal with the problem - and it probably would work, in my head, but ONLY because Aradia and Equius pity each other as often as they hate each other (if not more often) and therefore they don't always require her to keep the peace. It would, at most, be an occasional thing. Kanaya, on the other hand... well, someone always seems to hate Vriska, or wants to hate Vriska, or is being hated by Vriska. So Vriska would pretty much always require someone to be her auspistice. And I think Kanaya is only willing to do it out of duty; she does it because she feels like she might be the only person who understands Vriska well enough to actually keep her in check when she has to. But the relationship fails, because Kanaya pities her too much to really have enough hate for what she does - or, at least, she can't put her pity aside when it's necessary not to pity Vriska, for her own good. She wants to be her auspistice and her morail (or matesprit) at the same time, and that just isn't working for them.
Also, eventually I want to write the sort of ashen relationship that doesn't involve quadrant switching, that is basically three people who hate each other (or each other's behavior... I'm honestly a bit fuzzy with that in this quadrant) and like hating each other and aren't going to stop hating each other. I do have an idea for that, but it's very much AU and I'd need to write a couple of things to set it up before trying to post it. (Although I do think Past!Karkat/Jade/Future!Karkat would be a perfect example too...)
Anyway. Another thing - I've seen a couple of fanworks (most notably Hemostuck) that talk about ashen romance as if it's a coupling - that is, the idea that a troll has an auspistice-partner who takes care of most of their social issues, at least among the higher levels of society. If an undesirable black romance happens, this is the person who takes care of it for their partner, and vice versa. It's an intriguing idea, but I have trouble writing it that way, because I see the relationship as being between the three people involved - both of the rivals and the one who's trying to keep the peace - and it basically makes the third person less important. My bias, let me show you it. (Also, what happens if two trolls who each have an auspistice have a conflict? Who mediates?) But thinking about it as a triad relationship has its own difficulties, because what counts as filling the quadrant? If a troll is auspisticing between two trolls, and in a rivalry with someone else that is being kept under control by a fifth troll, do you have two ashen relationships? Or does it only "count" as a filled quadrant for the auspistice? The latter is what I'm inclined to think, but I'm not sure - does that mean that you can be in as many ashen relationships as you want, but you can only keep the peace between two trolls, according to societial norms?
They're interesting questions, and ones that aren't really gone into by the canon (considering that everyone's 13-16, not a surprise,) which is why I think this is my favorite quadrant.
On a side note - after re-reading some of this I'm starting to get the impression that the idea that the same troll can't fill multiple quadrants of another troll is roughly equivalent, socially, to the Western belief that one person can't have a real romantic attachment to more than one other human at the same time. In other words, a statement socially accepted as the "norm," true for some, but challenged by others. Interesting idea to play with, in the context of looking at what troll society would've been like if Alternia hadn't gone boom.
[ETA] Oh, and one other thing.
From the MSPA Wiki:
To which I say, no. The auspistice definitely gets something out of being an auspistice. It might not be the same as what the other quadrants get, but there is something very heady and powerful about being needed and about keeping the peace, and if the auspistices are doing their jobs right then that is exactly what they are doing. They're stopping a fight that never ought to start, and they're the ones who stopped it. They're making sure that a conflict never goes into dangerous territory and they're the only ones that can do it. (Well, technically, maybe not. But in their minds they are, most likely, while the relationship lasts.)
If they didn't get anything out of the relationship, why would it still exist? Not everyone is so selfless that they would stand between a couple of fighters for no gain at all.
"Please, stop this senseless fighting!"
---
If you've watched Western animation for any length of time you've seen a scene like that. It's the scene where two parties are fighting, and a third person jumps in yelling something about how they don't have to fight, they have to stop, everyone can just get along. And usually that person usually either ends up ridiculed, or beaten up by the fighters before they go back to fighting each other. It's a very ridiculous concept, the idea that this guy might actually want them to stop fighting and that he (since it's usually a guy, but not always) actually could get these two very angry people to back down just by saying that they shouldn't fight.
An auspistice isn't like that, because in troll culture, the person who jumps in between the two people telling them that they shouldn't fight anymore? Actually can tell them that, and can back it up. It's more like the old fighter who jumps between two young bucks when they start seriously getting into a fight, who never starts fights but who has absolutely no problem ending them if they have to.
The other big difference is that this person doesn't do it out of any sort of kindness or friendship or even pity. Whoever this is, they're doing it because they hate the fighting so damned much that they can't just stay out of it. They have to stop them from fighting, because otherwise they're going to go INSANE from having to be anywhere near it. So they end up in the middle of it, and both sides hate them for it, because honestly, what business is it of theirs? They hate the newcomer enough that it distracts them, at least a little, from their hatred for each other. Sometimes they unite, at least a little bit, against the third party, and sometimes they don't, but they pay enough attention to the new threat that they can't really concentrate on their own rivalry. Either way, it keeps them from getting too into their rivalry, and it makes them back down from each other enough to keep the third person satisfied.
So according to the comic this is mostly meant to prevent "widespread black infidelity," implying that trolls would leap at the chance to have a hatemance with anyone who sneered at them. (And yes, that's a massive generalization/stereotype
Every troll would have their own style of ashen romance, much like everyone has their own idea of what a relationship is (and some are healthier than others.) Of the three I've played with so far, one is basically very direct - kind of an "I don't like you, you two don't like me, and you sure as hell don't like each other, but I'm not going to let you two kill each other so you'd better motherfucking get all up out of each other's grills and get to working this business out" sort of relationship. One is very physical - a third person physically getting in the way of the other two having a chance to fight it out - while another is very cerebral, using words to shame and embarrass and outwit the people she's pushing apart. Some styles are going to work to keep some rivalries under control; others aren't. I think that the aspect of troll serendipity that is associated with ashen romance is essentially finding an auspistice who can perfectly understand your anger and simultaneously feed it and redirect it, and keep the hate between the three of you simmering at an acceptable level. This is what I think would be the perfect outcome for the ashen quadrant.
Unfortunately I imagine it's hard to find - I imagine that it usually ends with one party giving up on the relationship and the other two either becoming kismeses, or one trying to convince the other that they should be kismeses. Or else one person ends up pitying one of the others and begins some sort of red relationship, which means that they can't mediate the relationship properly, and it either falls apart entirely (the third person going their separate way) or blows up (the black feelings between them end up getting bigger, and possibly someone gets hurt or killed.) Or the three of them just give up on the relationship entirely. There's any number of possibilities.
Also, apparently concillatory quadrant-switching is as much of a thing as concuspcient switching? I mean, judging from canon, it seems to happen all the time in the ashen relationships that we've seen so far. I'm mostly thinking of Kanaya and her ashen relationships involving Vriska, who is also her morail at the time that they start. It's also worth noting that we know that one of those relationships was a complete failure, and that the other might not exist outside of Eridan's head; it's really hard to tell, since Vriska doesn't seem to have any remaining black feelings for him at all.
So it's possible, but it seems to not work out well, and most of the trolls who engage in it would rather be in one quadrant or another. That's the angle I'm going with in my fics, anyway - Nepeta intervenes between Equius and Aradia when they go black for each other because she feels like she needs to, to keep the peace, and because she's angry enough with them and hates what they're doing to each other enough that she's driven to get between them; when the couple starts to pity each other again, she goes back to her usual pity for Equius; that is such an important part of her life that she doesn't want to give it up, and neither does he. So it's a temporary switch, and Nepeta's able to put aside her pity for long enough to deal with the problem - and it probably would work, in my head, but ONLY because Aradia and Equius pity each other as often as they hate each other (if not more often) and therefore they don't always require her to keep the peace. It would, at most, be an occasional thing. Kanaya, on the other hand... well, someone always seems to hate Vriska, or wants to hate Vriska, or is being hated by Vriska. So Vriska would pretty much always require someone to be her auspistice. And I think Kanaya is only willing to do it out of duty; she does it because she feels like she might be the only person who understands Vriska well enough to actually keep her in check when she has to. But the relationship fails, because Kanaya pities her too much to really have enough hate for what she does - or, at least, she can't put her pity aside when it's necessary not to pity Vriska, for her own good. She wants to be her auspistice and her morail (or matesprit) at the same time, and that just isn't working for them.
Also, eventually I want to write the sort of ashen relationship that doesn't involve quadrant switching, that is basically three people who hate each other (or each other's behavior... I'm honestly a bit fuzzy with that in this quadrant) and like hating each other and aren't going to stop hating each other. I do have an idea for that, but it's very much AU and I'd need to write a couple of things to set it up before trying to post it. (Although I do think Past!Karkat/Jade/Future!Karkat would be a perfect example too...)
Anyway. Another thing - I've seen a couple of fanworks (most notably Hemostuck) that talk about ashen romance as if it's a coupling - that is, the idea that a troll has an auspistice-partner who takes care of most of their social issues, at least among the higher levels of society. If an undesirable black romance happens, this is the person who takes care of it for their partner, and vice versa. It's an intriguing idea, but I have trouble writing it that way, because I see the relationship as being between the three people involved - both of the rivals and the one who's trying to keep the peace - and it basically makes the third person less important. My bias, let me show you it. (Also, what happens if two trolls who each have an auspistice have a conflict? Who mediates?) But thinking about it as a triad relationship has its own difficulties, because what counts as filling the quadrant? If a troll is auspisticing between two trolls, and in a rivalry with someone else that is being kept under control by a fifth troll, do you have two ashen relationships? Or does it only "count" as a filled quadrant for the auspistice? The latter is what I'm inclined to think, but I'm not sure - does that mean that you can be in as many ashen relationships as you want, but you can only keep the peace between two trolls, according to societial norms?
They're interesting questions, and ones that aren't really gone into by the canon (considering that everyone's 13-16, not a surprise,) which is why I think this is my favorite quadrant.
On a side note - after re-reading some of this I'm starting to get the impression that the idea that the same troll can't fill multiple quadrants of another troll is roughly equivalent, socially, to the Western belief that one person can't have a real romantic attachment to more than one other human at the same time. In other words, a statement socially accepted as the "norm," true for some, but challenged by others. Interesting idea to play with, in the context of looking at what troll society would've been like if Alternia hadn't gone boom.
[ETA] Oh, and one other thing.
From the MSPA Wiki:
Auspistice... may be analogous to the ancient Greek concept of αγάπη (AGÁPĒ), or "selfless love," since the auspistice doesn't get anything out of this directly.
To which I say, no. The auspistice definitely gets something out of being an auspistice. It might not be the same as what the other quadrants get, but there is something very heady and powerful about being needed and about keeping the peace, and if the auspistices are doing their jobs right then that is exactly what they are doing. They're stopping a fight that never ought to start, and they're the ones who stopped it. They're making sure that a conflict never goes into dangerous territory and they're the only ones that can do it. (Well, technically, maybe not. But in their minds they are, most likely, while the relationship lasts.)
If they didn't get anything out of the relationship, why would it still exist? Not everyone is so selfless that they would stand between a couple of fighters for no gain at all.
