#They're so messed up in such fun inverted ways

[aingeal98]

Something about older Jason looking at the child version of himself, the innocent victim, and feeling the need to defend and avenge him the way no one else will. They'll call him reckless and try to pin the blame for his death on some unique failure of his personality, the problem isn't Robin the problem is he was just a bad fit for Robin! And then older Jason coming back to life and spits on their twisted grief. Fuck you, that innocent child deserved more. You took his memory and ruined it to make yourselves feel better. If no one will give him justice then Jason will take it himself no matter who he has to kill to get there. It's the only way he can move forward.

Something about older Cass looking at this child version of herself, this innocent who has no idea what she was doing when she was tricked into killing, and finding her irredeemable. She will forgive everyone for everything if they need a second chance but she cannot forgive that innocent child. She spends ten years wanting that child to die for their sin, a standard she holds no one else to. And in the end she does have to die. She can never forgive that child until the price has been paid and the guilty, tormented, suicidal mess of a girl is dead and never coming back. Only then can Cass live on. Only then can she smile without feeling the weight of her kill on her back. If no one will give that child the justice they deserve then she will have to do it herself. It's the only way she can move forward.

[autisticlancemcclain]

fic rec friday 47

hello and welcome to fic rec friday! where, on friday, i rec five of my favourite fics.

Damnit, Pidge by spirkylurkey

Pidge has some top-secret-classified-don't-tell-Keith-info that she accidentally lets slip to, you guessed it, Keith. Lance is an embarrassed mess. Keith isn't faring much better, to be honest.

this one made me LAUGH the way that this all pidge's fault and she's literally like. well. you shouldn't be so gay then. and she's right!! they're so dumb i love them

2. Operation: Faking It by @writeonclara

“What the hell, guys?” Pidge squawked, wrestling away from Matt. “Why are you pretending to be a couple?” Or: Matt and Lance pretend to be a couple because Shiro and Keith are clueless as hell.

do you guys remember shatt?? i remember shatt. adashi will always have my heart but shatt will literally always be funny bc ofc thats ur fic name. anyways. this fic is mostly klance but the entire concept is just so ridiculously goofy that u have to laugh. do you like lance and matt? do you like fake relationship to real relationship? do you like inverted tropes? do you like pining? do you like comedic jealousy? then this fic is well and truly for you because it has all that and more

3. all's well that ends well to end up with you by @coruscatingcatastrophe

Keith's jacket gets ruined, so Lance decides to be a good Samaritan and give him his. This is the beginning of the end.

megan's fic literally make me want to eat cement i'm so serious. i've read and been obsessed with TONS of her stuff but this one???? this fucking one???? oh god the slowburn kills me. the blossoming realisation that oh god we've been dating this whole time huh. the CHIVALRY...............a romance novel in the truest of senses and i am going to fry

4. as long as it won't separate you from me (i'll be fine) by @coruscatingcatastrophe

A little intrigued—not that she’d ever admit it—Pidge begins to climb the stairs. But before she even reaches halfway, the door—slams shut. All on its own, or so it seems. Pidge pauses, brows creasing in confusion, as she turns to look down at her dog. “Did you see that?” she asks. Peculiarly, she notes that Bae Bae’s fur is bristled, and he growls at the door before barking twice. That’s weird. Bae Bae never growls. Turning back to the door, Pidge feels unsettled, but she tells herself not to jump to ridiculous conclusions. There’s a logical explanation for everything. Maybe there was a gust of wind from the air conditioner, or the doorframe isn’t level. Whatever it is, she’s going to figure it out. - Or, a Beetlejuice au (kind of). Pidge isn't a fan of her new house, Lance and Keith are the ghosts haunting her attic, and together they hatch a plot to convince Shiro and Adam to skedaddle out of the house. There may be demon summoning involved. But seriously, Adam. Getting your hair set on fire really isn't that bad.

HAPPY (late) HALLOWEEN!!! ive been thinking about this fic all october and finally let myself reread it. ive never loved beetlejuice more than when i read this. it's so fun!! so interesting!! pidge gets a chance to shine!! klance are so!!! the way it had the story of beetlejuice but adapted well!! im!!

5. never thought i'd see the day in my life by @coruscatingcatastrophe

But Keith has somehow gone even paler in the short amount of time he’s been at the table, and he shakes his head. “No, something is . . .” His gaze flickers back to Lance, and he’s startled to find that Keith’s eyes are purple. They’ve got to be contacts. Ridiculous. As if the mullet and gloves and personality weren’t enough. Keith pushes away from the table abruptly, looking incredibly put-off now. “I, uh—gotta go,” he mutters, before angrily gathering up the backpack he’d dropped into the chair next to him and storming out of the cafeteria. “Huh,” Hunk says. “Well, that introduction could have gone a bit better. Don’t take it personally though; sometimes Keith’s just like that.” - Or, a Twilight au starring Lance as Bella, Keith as Edward, and the rest of the Voltron gang as themselves. Lance is insufferable, Keith is awkwardly trying to figure out why Lance is the way he is, and along the way they fall in love, or something. It's probably, definitely the best love story since Twilight itself.

now ive never read twilight and i refuse to on principle. but i didn't find this one creepy and instead it was super fun and dweeby and lance is indeed a ray of sunshine, thank you megan for noticing, and it turns out when the story isn't a hetero mormon wet dream it's actually a good time!!

that’s it for today!! i’ll see y’all back next friday for the next fic rec post!!!

[daisybell-on-a-carousel]

Hi hi hi, I would love to hear more of your Dan thoughts! I'm intrigued!!!

>:]!!!!!!!!!! >:D!!!!!!

Ok ok so I've never really tried to put my thoughts into words before so this might be a bit of a mess usually I'm just rotating him in my mind but yes yes yes I have Dan thoughts I want to share my Dan thoughts

I only focus on agit at the end so this is pretty spoiler free for that I think maybe. Thumbs up emoji

Dan is a fun character because despite only having one episode we can still tell alot about his personality and such, as he's rather bold with it and is a fusion of two characters we do see alot, and it really shows! I flip between saying Dan or more Danny than Vlad and saying that they're basically equal in the fusion, but I think a good way to describe it is that he takes different aspects from them, for his appearance and memories he very much takes after Danny, but his personality and how he acts n talks oozes Vlad. Yknow??? If I'm saying the right words here. Dan works so well as a fusion because he also manages to feel like his own character as well

Dan is made from the two's ghost halves, so I'm a fan of the theory/thought I do believe I've seen before that he's based on the ghost halves. Like. Vlad used his ghost form and powers for scheming, attacking, gaining power, and so on, I'd easily imagine he doesn't use it nearly as much as Danny. Danny had to use his ghost form mostly for fighting other ghosts, very frequently, and also used his powers for his own benefit as well, though not nearly as extreme as Vlad. As Danny was in his ghost form more, and as it was more connected to his ghost form (phantom just being an inverted Danny VS Vlad's completely different from himself ghost form, even down to body type) it makes sense why Dan would be more Danny focused, especially in terms of his relationship with others and memories. Vlad's things don't matter to him nearly as much. I mean, he seemingly couldn't find Vlad's new hideout that was under a Welcome to Wisconsin sign, and its ghost zone entrance behind a football

"The only remaining portal, the one my idiot cheesehead archenemy has? As soon as I find it that's going too."

He doesn't respect Vlad in the slightest or seem to care about him. Danny found Vlad's portal almost immediately. So either Dan simply couldn't remember things Vlad liked well enough to guess, and/or, he truly couldn't care less and didn't bother too hard with the search. Both makes sense, and since Vlad is fully human that very likely adds to the contempt and not seeing him as threat enough to find the portal quickly.

Something interesting, is the fact Dan knows Vlad had a portal at all, Dan partially destroyed Vlad's castle after being formed and its clearly in a different location now, unless that cave Vlad is in streaches all the way to his castle's basement Dan hasn't bothered checking? Which is. Unlikely. Which means Vlad had to make a new one. And Dan knew he did. Much to think about there I believe.

I do also think Dan actually doesn't remember his past terribly well. I know I know I just said he's focused on Danny's memories and life, and he is! But also. Its a bit separated from him, the episode itself actually points out him forgetting things about his family several times, it really does feel like they're trying to stress to you, really hammer it in that he's forgotten them some way. It's mentioned offhand like 2 or 3 times.

When Jazz confronts him and admits she knew about his ghost powers he says "You knew?" So??? Softly???? Like PLEASE listen to that line especially after hearing how he usually talks oh my GOSH??!?!!?!?!?! AUGH. slamming my hands on the floor I could make a whole separate thing just thinking of that interaction alone. God. He never knew she knew, it took him by genuine surprise for a moment. And just????? Augh??!???!?!!?!?! He had one family member always in his corner and secretly looking out for him, she believed in him and knew he was trying to do good and she had been waiting for him to reveal it to her in his own time but that time never came because she'd died and haiabsjahasguaaaai u ghjjfhdhfjshauhghhhhh

When Danny enters the future Valerie immediately thinks he Dan, she doesn't question it in the slightest, or question him saying "I have really bad feeling im the one responsible". Before attacking she says "You can't fool me this time Phantom". I take this as either meaning Dan has disguised himself as a young Phantom before, or Valerie is so used to his tricks and and finding new powers that him suddenly looking younger doesn't phase her in the slightest. I do like the idea him disguising as a young Phantom before more. It seems very probable considering he can be Danny Fenton. But this interaction also makes me wonder if Valerie knows, or ever learned that Fenton is Phantom, the trick from before easily could've been Fenton. "The explosion at the Nasty Burger, you, Tucker, Danny's family- and it was all your fault!" She's points her blaster at Phantom while saying that last bit. It makes me wonder if her saying "Danny's family" is showing how she doesn't know he's Danny. There's still other options like her knowing but not admitting he's Fenton, or her knowing he was Danny once but isn't anymore, hence saying "Danny's family" instead of something like "his family". Honestly, her knowing or not are both equally likely. As I said in my tags before, Dan seems to like to get a rise out of people, to get a reaction, he very easily could've told her in an attempt to anger or devastate her, and at the same time he simply could've not bothered at all. I think I prefer the option of her not knowing personally

I don't think I could describe Dan more concisely than I did before, he likes to get a rise out of people, revel in reactions. He twists the past to credit himself for the Nasty Burger explosion after he more than likely blamed himself for it as Danny. He likes to seem in control. He's dramatic. He hates being insulted. Hates losing. He's very casual about alot of things he does.

He caused destruction in both the human and ghost world, the first thing he did upon entering Amity was completely destroy the ghost portal, with plans to destroy Vlad's. I'm not sure what his plan in the end was, but after destroying both portals, I must point out that Dan has the power to summon his own ghost portal with ease, a power I believe is quite rare, I think other than Dan only Wulf has it, though do feel free to correct me on that. So he would've been one of the only people who could go in or out

He was actively trying to/did ruin the lives of the ghosts he knew

Powers. Ohhh boy powers. When I started my DP rewatch my initial plan was to actually take note of every power Danny uses to know what he can do, and by extension Dan. I didn't. Oopsies. So most I can focus on here are what Dan shows in the episode, other than the obvious

I do like thinking on ice powers, and what that means with Dan, obviously he's never shown to know them as they're not introduced until season 3, the writers themselves didn't know it'd happen lol. But in universe, that's something to chew on, Dan never met Frostbite, so if he ever unlocked this power he would've had to figure out the problem and train it on his own, and then there's the potential that Dan never learned, and the ability for ice powers eluded him due to fusion. The ghost sense is a result of his ice powers after all, and Dan's ghost sense isn't a breath of cold blue air, so that could be a sign of this power being one he doesn't have

But moving onto more straightforward powers

Dan destroyed Amity Park in a very short amount of time, all on his own, as while the Fright Knight had been there after the shield went down, he's simply never seen again after that, makes me think Dan just ordered Fright Knight to chase Valerie to Fentonworks and leave after

Related to Amity Park, while there are other destroyed buildings around, the land surrounding the ghost portal is a completely barren wasteland, no doubt from Dan's attempts at destroying the forcefield over the years, and simply scaring residents.

One could argue Dan was the reason lighting was striking around the forcefield, weather manipulation I wouldn't doubt is in his wheelhouse, especially since he's shown to have electrocution powers, at least it looks that way to me

Dan has fire powers, at least immunity to fire. Fire rises after he enters the lab through the cracks he put in the floor, and when he's thrown into truck it bursts into flame. Both instances of the fire happening I suppose you call coincidence, but his immunity to fire at least is undeniable

Dan can force Danny to detransform, and shorted out Danny's powers while holding onto him. This is also the moment where it seems like mild electrocution

Dan can suspend people in ectoplasm, Sam and Tucker also seem frozen completely for a scene, and in a later scene move their heads n such around

He can use a time medallion to enter the exact time and place he needs/where Sam and Tucker went

He specifically used the word fused to describe putting the amulet in Danny, which I find interesting. Entering something while intangible seems to be what causes fusion. Though more to it than that since ghosts can possess other ghosts (or was that a special case since the only example I know is Poindexter possessing a still half ghost Danny🤔)

Dan can form ropes of ectoplasm that can wrap around and trap people, as well as using ecto energy to cover people's mouths to stop talking

Dan is very resilient, I mean, he literally flys through a light pole non-intagabily and doesn't even react. He, while injured from it, did pretty much tank 1 ghostly wail, and still got up after the second, but was weak enough after to be sucked into the thermos

Dan seems to have minor technology powers, nothing major, but like, he does make himself appear on Valerie's watch so he can tell her about the ghostly wail

The ghostly wail of course, which is naturally much stronger than Danny's version. Can destroy nearly all glass in future Amity Park, destroys all the ghost shield towers one by one in a line, makes the Fentonworks building fall down when directly hit. Flips tanks and makes helicopters lose control. Destroyed Ember's vocal cords somehow

He can duplicate himself very easily, and become one again with the same ease. He turns into to a gas form to dodge Valerie's grenades

---

I don't have the time to focus on his behavior in AGiT rn, but it lines up with my thoughts. I do like the confirmation that Dan wanted Danny to suffer as he had/didn't think it fair for Danny to get a second chance to save his family. And it deeply trapped by his own emotions and just unwilling to admit it. I can still skim the book to think about powers. I put AGiT powers in this own little section to be skipped if you don't want spoilers

-He 100% has fire powers no doubt about it now

-I should've described his ability to suspend people in ectoplasm as telekinesis

-Can make shields, usually briefly and by swiping his arm

-When Dan emerges from the rubble, he briefly turns it into lava, and then water, I cannot be sure if this is because of having Clockwork's powers, or just his own at work

-His powers seem to turn blue rather than green, but its hard to tell for certain. But we do know his fire is blue so it's not completely out

---

In conclusion I'm very normal about him and have watched TUE a reasonable amount of times thank you amd goodnight <3 (lying voice)

[baroquepopcorn]

Leprechaun Romance, a thoroughly meandering headcanon/evidential analysis of speculative webcomic xenoromantics

As one bound to the aspect of light, I have a tendency to seek forbidden knowledge. Yes, this information has been cruelly hidden from us for too long. However through a combination of inference, thematic analysis, and vague in-comic information I have put together something. So sit back and allow me to:

Display my leprechaun romance headcanon!

Okay, I know, it was a stupid joke making fun of homestuck's worldbuilding and info-dump exposition, and that it was based on lucky charms, and Hussie himself probably hasn't even come up with an answer, but I Don't Care. This still seems like something worth examination. I’ve found that some of it just fits so well that it makes me think there's more to this than meets the eye. So allow me to be your exposition fairy and lecture you at length.

first of all the easy part:

Hearts <3 : confirmed to be equivalent to human love/matespritship. Maybe instead of admiration or pity, it's based on a mutual sense of humor, pleasant surprises, and inside jokes. Activities could also consist of friendly card games or comedic exchanges.

Diamonds <> : having the same diamond shape it is most likely equivalent to troll moiralligence, a romance centered around two platonic soulmates with the social purpose of balancing eachother out and preventing one of them from going off the rails. Maybe with leprechauns, diamonds have the social purpose of preventing people from going too far with pranks and getting too full of themselves. Maybe they use japes, jokes, and chicanery to calm eachother down, or minor pranks to dissuade them. It is right at the center of the chart, suggesting a strong association with moderation and neutrality.

Now for the hard part:

I feel like we can actually infer a lot of the deeper meanings of the charms via their shape. Think about it. Kismessisitude's symbol, the spade, is an inverted heart. Both it, and auspisticism have those "thorns" at the bottom, maybe indicating negative emotions, the fact that it is an inversion of another romance type, or acting like those lines on the bottom of 6s and 9s so you know which way is right side up. The Auspisticism symbol is the same as the Kissmessisitude symbol, except there is a third node (third party) interfering and splitting it apart. This concept of shape theory could be invaluable in the interpretation of certain charms

Balloons O< :

Now in the "inaugural death of Mr. Seven" paradox space comic (which while one may say the paradox space comics are of dubious canonicity, this particular one was written by Hussie himself so the world mechanics and lore must be at least canon compliant even if these events never happened) crowbar walks into clover and itchy doing a dance (which probably has the same dirty implications that buckets do with trolls, and snakes do with cherubs):

He mentions that they're all wrong for balloons (indicating he would be open to ballooning around with them but recognizes it wouldn't work out). The balloon symbol has that blackrom thorn, it may be based on negative emotions and it looks similar to the kismessitude symbol, but it's also rounder, redder, less pointy, more --- jovial. Now my headcanon for balloons. It's like kissmessitude but with practical jokes. The two balloons are engaged in a constant prank war, egged on by feelings of annoyance, spite, revenge, schadenfreude, and humiliation, but also a subtle and mutual undercurrent of enjoyment. Where it differs from kissmessitude is it is less of a rivalry, more of a two-sided bullying situation, maybe it's a bit more patronizing, teasing, pitying. Additionally it's a lot more lighthearted, there's a certain understanding that a balloon is all in the name of fun and japes, and like with kissmessitude, you never actually want to get rid of the other person, just mess with them. As such, it may be an inherently delicate charm; when one balloon takes a prank way too far and seriously hurts the other, the relationship could "pop" and the charm would be lost. If one of the members loses interest and stops pranking back, or has an especially long losing streak, the balloon could "float away". When interpreted like this, it becomes obvious why Clover and Itchy are "all wrong for balloons". Since Clover is extremely lucky (that's his power) any prank attempted on him would either fail or backfire. He also is very good natured and probably not smart or malicious enough to pull off effective pranks. As balloons require effort and humiliation from both sides, it would be impossible to solicit him with this charm. Itchy is very irritable and snarky, he probably would take a prank way too hard and go too far with his own, so while he'd probably get quite into balloons (and would be quite a skilled prankster because of his super speed), he would be a serial balloon popper, not the kind of leprechaun you’d want to have a long-term balloon with. Crowbar, by contrast is very competent, measured, and methodical, he would definitely try and seek revenge if his stoic image was humiliated and would probably takes immense pleasure in setting up pranks and seeing the payoff, additionally, he's pretty annoyed with most of the felt (implying a mild ballonic crush) Although he is quite serious, he seems quite interested in this charm, maybe it's the only way he can really let loose and joke around. That’s not even where poor crowbar’s romantic troubles end.

Horseshoes C¦ :

We actually see this charm quite a lot in the infamous hearts, stars, horseshoes trove:

Gross! Clover! get a room!

And here, after Karkat beat him in a fight and hog-tied him.

This post:

from compulsiveAnalyst explains how the fight may have been interpreted by Clover to be a solicitation/courting dance. Thus being bested in a fight by Karkat was not a faliure of his luck, but rather some good old fashioned horseshoeing which clover was really into

We interpret this trove by seperating its components. Obviously there is an element of hearts (love), and I have a seperate theory for stars that we'll get to later, but there is also an element of domination, of power, of subjugation, of kinkiness. Caliborn just conquered a planet, Karkat beat clover's ass, and the horsehoe itself has connotations of kicking, domestication, and ownership. And let us not forget about Equius the Horse guy, who literally commands people to command him, while getting very sweaty, and died submitting to Gamzee because he was into him choking him to death. So it is my interpretation that horseshoes represents kinky masochistic stuff. What I mean by that is that a horseshoe has two distinct roles; the master and servant, the dominant and submissive, the "kicker" and the "kicked", which leads to a sort of asymmetric romance, similar to how the auspistice between two would-be pitch lovers is the only one who bears the ashen feelings of exasperation and peacekeeping, or how the two moirails take on different roles as the pacifier and the violent, the "kicked" and the "kicker" could take on seperate but interelated aspects of the horseshoe relationship. Regardless, the point is the kicked would have a thing for getting kicked and rejected by the kicker, and would actively pursue them in order to satisfy horseshoe desires. The upside-down horsehoe is also commonly a symbol of bad luck, making it the perfect opposite to the shamrock charm.

Stars <X :

Same basis as above. When we seperate love and kinky shit from the hearts stars horsehoe equation, what are we left with? Awe, devotion, admiration --- stanning. When someone is faced with a celebrity they deeply admire, they are said to be startstruck (shown in emojis and cartoons as stars in the eyes). Thus stars could represent a sort of celebrity worship of another person but as a form of romance, which again would function asymmetrically. One person in a star relationship idolizes another, puts them on a pedastal, and constantly praises them with a fervor bordering on the religious. On a deeper level, the “star” could be a figure one aspires towards, encouraging self improvement. Activities could include pranks, jokes, and gifts intended to make "the star" notice them. The star hearts horseshoe trove is then revealed to be a sort of kinky, subby, romantic relationship, one a loyal servant may feel towards his master, with the master reciprocating the emotions with displays of dominance and distant affection. It also would be a sort of fifty shades of grey situation, with the hearts providing a basis of love, the stars providing the admiration and submission, and the horseshoes providing the masochism.

Alas, we have analyzed every charm that has been mentioned in the story. Everything from here on out will need to be filled in purely by headcanon. So let's take a step back and observe that 9-square chart along with the familiar quadrant diagram

The 2 by 2 column has a specific function, dividing the quadrants based on their properties. concupscient on the left, concilliatory on the right, redrom on top, blackrom on bottom. There is a clear logic here. Thus, there must be some logic behind the way the charms are arranged as well. Well what does our 3 by 3 array look like?

An alignment chart! lawful good to chaotic evil. Using our current datapoints we can get a feel for what "lawful - chaotic" and "good - evil" actually mean. hearts is lawful good, basically what we'd expect. diamonds is true neutral, again, it's platonic --- feels about right. But what about the other ones? balloons is lawful evil, stars is chaotic good, horseshoes is chaotic neutral (which also feels about right). Along the top we have two forms of intense red rom (matespritish hearts and parasocial celeb obsession stars). At the bottom we have what seems like a form of black rom (balloons) and in the middle we have diamonds and horseshoes. Now horseshoes mixes pleasure and pain, submission, fear, and grovelling. It definitely does feel somewhere in between red and black rom, but moirallegence is considered red rom, so then, shouldn't diamonds be in the top row? Wait. Didn't Aranea specifically say that "There is no division 8etween 8lack or red, concupiscent or conciliatory." Maybe instead leprechans have a similar concept of malicious intent behind the charms (tying in with the cherub concept of benevolent/malevolent), with diamonds being understood as a charm somewhat motivated by a sense of duty and social obligation instead of pure interest in another's wellbeing, it is still based on red emotions, but the underlying function is different. Maybe leprechuans, being a less violent race, have a different social purpose for their moirallegence; preventing their fellow diamonds from destroying not through just violence, but through reckless, careless abandon. Maybe the way these species organize their relationships into charts are more of a cultural construct that obfuscates a deeper underlying universal theory of romance... We're getting off topic here. The point is, in the context of this chart, good = benevolent, evil = malevolent, and neutral = mixed intentions, perhaps purely carnal or obligative in nature. notably, this concept is distinct from the redrom/blackrom divide, as while a moirail has positive feelings towards their palemate, the underlying reason for the relationship (beyond feelings) is not "I want to bring this one up" or "I want to take this one down", but instead "I want to stop this one from killing people" The lawful to chaotic axis may by contrast represent the concept of "activity" a nebulous concept familiar to all those well-versed in classpecting, best described as the dichotomy between a passive benefit to all, vs an active benefit to one. Reciprocal, balanced hearts and balloons that seek to improve both parties and lack a certain ferocity behind them (lawful), diamonds with their two distinct roles, and a sense of obligation to protect the world from a person (neutral), and asymmetric, one-sided, and somewhat vitrolic stars and horseshoes that only one person seems to derive enjoyment from (chaotic). With this newfound context we can begin tackling moons, shamrocks, rainbows, and pots o' gold.

Moons U :

neutral good. It must be a form of benevolent romance, and as a neutral relationship on the lawful to chaotic axis, it is a mix between active and passive. Now, when we think of moons in homestuck, there is one thing that should immediately come to mind and a place where this symbol shows up very plainly:

That's right! The moons! Dreamself pajamas! And specifically prospit. Mayhaps some exotic culture has an inverted form of moons, much like how kissmesistude is the inversion of matespritship, that looks like grunkle stan's hat symbol from gravity falls and is colored derse purple. Regardless, this only seems to strengthen the active/passive divide as it is literally representative of the polarization between prospit and derse. I think our best angle to analyze this is in the context of the prospit moon, and dreams themselves. Maybe this form of romance consists of a longing ache directed to another individual, a deep abiding sense of importance and fate that one attaches to another. It could be the feeling of locking eyes with a beautiful stranger on the bus, and then running into them again and again. moonmates could be the key to the other's destiny, the intellectual obsession, the muse, the one who lives in their dreams. Now this feeling is seperated from hearts by subtle nuance. While hearts make the heart ache, and they seek to get as close to eachother as possible, passively basking in eachother's embrace, and stars are an extreme celebrity worship contingent on one party actively seeking the light of another, moons could be more like an observance that can't be cleanly divided into active/passive, the sort of awe and wonder one might feel at a beautiful night sky, but redirected to a person. And above all else, fate (The moon symbol is also seen on the just half of the godtier death clocks) Mystery and secrets could be vital to this charm as moons represent the confluence of light and void, often riddles and queries could be exchanged as a sort of intellectual probing. Indeed mind games could be central to this charm as a way of simultaneously trying to get into the other person’s head and preserving that intrigue. Moons could frequently act as eachother's creative muses. They might tend to follow cycles of waxing and waning interest and activity with the moongazers shifting between positive and negative emotions, or active and passive behaviors, but always centering around the central idea that "this person is important to my fate and I must know more about them".

Shamrocks 88 :

I had a hard time with this one. the first thing you think about when you hear shamrocks is good luck, right? But when you look at the symbol itself, what do you see? hearts facing opposite to eachother. And with what we've talked about on how romance symbols in homestuck can encode meaning, I feel this is too important to pass up. Also important to note is that Auspisticism (Another clover-based romance form) is primarily concerned with breaking apart a kismesitude. Four-leaf clovers are things you pick when you see them, and keep to yourself to bring luck. It also is a neutrally-aligned reciprocated (lawful) feeling, suggesting a passive mutal benefit. In both places we've seen it (little sebastian's heart shamrock crush and clover's heart, shamrock, pot o' gold trove with trace) it is paired with hearts. What I'm guessing it is, is a sort of mutual recognition of the other's role as a "lucky charm" (puns!), with a desire to keep them to themselves through jealously fending off suitors, and perhaps even teasing the other person to keep them from straying (thus the hearts opposed to eachother represent how shamrockmates will push off the percieved romantic advances of other people in order to preserve the shared luck they bring to eachother.) It is also directly opposed to horseshoes, and wouldn't you know, upside-down horsehoes are a symbol of bad luck. Maybe the difference is: "this person is good for me and I want to keep them by my side", and "this person is bad for me, but I'm gonna keep chasing them because I want the pain". Making the neutral band a sort of trio of lucky pleasure, balanced obligative moderation, and unlucky pain. They may also consist of playing together in games of chance, vs horseshoes playing them against each other (for kinky purposes?) and shamrocks could be the ones you enter competitions with. In the context of the story as seen above, lil sebastian may heart clover a lot, but also shamrock them, want to keep them as their "charm" so that they may benefit from their luck.

Rainbows ((( :

A malevolently focused activity neutral charm. I'm actually pretty happy with the theory I came up with for both it and pots o' gold, based on a potential relationship between the charms. Rainbows, stars, and moons are all celestial objects one can never reach. In the case of stars, its a wistful pining from afar, though you know you'll never come near. With moons, it's a little closer, more involved, you can really study it, and though it takes some work, you can eventually reach it (landing). Even with balloons, if you're not careful it can float away from you and you'll start losing to your prankster-partner bullymate. The fundamental nature of rainbows is that you can chase one, but you'll always fall behind. I envision a rainbow relationship as a sort of adverserial mentorship, with one person (the rainbow) being well versed in a skill, or just engaging in an endless stream of one-upmanship against the rainbow-chaser, who seeks to meet and surpass the rainbow's skill level. Because it is active-passive neutral, the charm can have both selfish (the chase of rivalry) and mutually beneficial (self improvement) elements. Imagine the feeling of someone continually beating you in checkers, or getting better grades than you, and no matter how much you try to improve, they always remain one step ahead (much like the symbol itself, with one end of the arc always behind the other). It could be strongly based in games of skill, strategy, or luck (as some are naturally more lucky than others), but invariably would end up in the chaser losing but getting better. It's probably a very exhausting charm for both parties, but a very rewarding one. With moons and diamonds it seems to form a trio of improvement (moons: improvement of the mind/light/spirit, diamonds: improvement of the heart/rage/emotions, rainbows: improvement of the body/life/practical skill).

Pots o' gold C]: :

Last but not least, the pot of gold charm. Occupying the malevolent active portion of the quadrant, it strikes me that it's symbol is similar to balloons but flipped and filled with stuff, indicating a material gain element. In relation to rainbows, the pot of gold is supposedly what one can obtain once they reach the end, with the leprechaun having to give up their gold. I'd imagine when the rainbow-chaser finally bests their rainbow, the charm flips to pot of gold as an achievement. Mayhaps they even get to literally take something the rainbow finds valuable, maybe it's just social clout. In this case, the ex-rainbow would become mad with rage; jealous, vindictive, and greedy, with the central goal of taking down the gold pot and regaining whatever the gold represents. Imagine if someone has something you want, so you try to get it from them however you can, through pranks, through tricks, through mind-games, through straight-up attacks. An example would actually be saturday morning cartoons and cereal commericials, in a leprechaun's eyes, the roadrunner and wile coyote, or bugs bunny and elmer fudd are committed gold pot charmmates, as are the kids and lucky the leprechaun. A common scenario in leprechaun romance could be the pairing of rainbows and pots of gold, with the chaser going after the rainbow not only to finally best them, but to win back the fated pot of gold and have the relationship flip roles.

Lastly, we come to the most fascinating element of leprechaun romance: the troves. Unlike humans, and trolls, a relationship can be defined by more than one emotion at once, even if they seem contradictory. Their union creates a unique relationship, with each of the charms representing certain aspects that the charmmates can shift between. As such, the leprechauns can (and ultimately desire to) share as many charms with their charmmate as possible. A leprechaun would look at a vaciliating troll relationship with confusion, why couldn't they be eachother's matesprits and moirails at the same time? Why must they flip between black and red if they can potentially harbor both feelings related to each quadrant with someone? The electicism and unpredictability is the point. In fact, a relationship often isn't taken seriously and isn't considered a trove unless it has at least three charms (three being the most common), with exotic charm combinations being the subject of much swooning. A one-or two charm relationship is often seen in the context of a crush, or a relationship just starting out, with the partners gaining and discovering more charms as the relationship develops and the nuances reveal themselves. (I doubt though, that the order the charms are displayed in matters, unless it represents how prominent a certain aspect is). And as Aranea said, though some charm combinations are more conducive to reproduction, all charm combinations are capable of lending themselves to concupiscity. A dance solictiation is mainly focused on one charm at a time, depending on the partners' moods, though it can easily switch charms in the middle of the dance.

Now, armed with knowledge, let us tackle this:

It looks like the felt are getting to know eachother, how sweet! let's take a look:

matchsticks and crowbar are in moons-stars, U <X, characterized by both extreme admiration and fated importance. Wait, didn’t crowbar say he “didn’t do moons”? What the hell happened here?!

Itchy and die are in horseshoes-pot of gold , C¦ C]: which considering itchy's snarky irritability, and die's ... weird ... die-ness, feels appropriate. Maybe itchy is the gold pot and the kicker

doze and clover are in balloons-rainbows, O< ((( doze is probably working very hard to try and catch up with clover's luck and speed, with plenty of lighthearted pranks on behalf of clover along the way.

And trace and fin are in hearts and diamonds, <3 <> a mix of matespritship and moirallegiance (our two sharkbois are in love, nepeta would have a field day)

Horshoe-balloon-pot o gold. C¦ O< C]: , That's kinky pranks with a greedy chase undertone. Oh gosh, clover's a real masochist. And it looks like, considering we have two forms of malevrom paired with horseshoes, my theory actually fits quite well with this apparently being a pretty kinky trove.

Oh boy, chaotic. It's hard to tell who's feeling what for whom, but we can pick out some particular troves.

die: moon-horseshoe-clover, rainbow-heart-balloon

eggs 1 and 2: hearts-balloons-pot o gold, diamonds-rainbows-star, star-shamrock-moon, diamonds-rainbows-stars

biscuits: rainbow-heart-balloon, star-shamrock-moon

clover: moon-horseshoe-shamrock, pot o gold-diamond-horseshoe

Now, if we pair the leprechauns with the same troves, we get

die x biscuits, rainbow-heart-balloon, ((( <3 O<, a loving yet adversarial, prank-based relationship between rivals

eggs x eggs, diamonds-rainbows-stars, <> ((( <X, emotional moderation but based in asymetric competition and deep respect (seems fitting for a relationship between you and your future/past self)

eggs x biscuits, star-shamrock-moon, <X 88 U, deep respect, admiration, and a sense of the other's great luckbringing and fated importance. Considering these two are almost always seen with eachother, I'd say they're going pretty strong

Lastly, let's leprechaun ship the kids. Rose and Kanaya are a very strong example of hearts-moons. They're in love, yes. But there was always that intellectual intrigue, that admiration, that sense of fate and destiny that permeated the relationship ever since they first met (along with a lot of light iconography). Terezi's trolling would be interpreted as a balloon solictation to most leprechauns. Nepeta and equius could be a diamonds-shamrock, as they are moirails, yes, but equius also deeply values nepeta as someone he is lucky to have, also seeing nepeta as lucky to have him, and he tries to keep her around him and prevent her from joining the red team, being quite possessive of her. And again, the reason Equius let Gamzee kill him and was smiling is because he had a major thing for horseshoes (horse guy, submits to highbloods, into AEA, makes sense)

If anyone else has some conflicting theories or other examples of leprechaun-romance heavy panels, I'd love to see it, feel free to ask away. Hope y'all enjoy

[cognitosclowns]

AB seems like such an easy guy to mess with lmao any headcanons about Myc pranking our favorite robot?

AAAA FUCK <333 THIS IS SO UNBEARABLY CUTE SMDNSMD

SFW BELOW JUST

NO YOURE CORRECT HE'S SO EASY TO FUCK WITH. He's such a prideful little bastard and Myc (+Andre tbh he’s not missing out on this) take FULL ADVANTAGE OF THIS

HE'S JUST THIS SCOFFING, SCOWLING, GLOWERING LITTLE FUCK. HE THINKS HE'S ~SOOOO~ SMART AND POWERFUL AND BETTER THAN ~EEEVERYONE~ ELSE. CAN’T STAND BEING MADE FUN OF. FUCK YES THEY'RE GONNA MESS WITH HIM, ARE YOU KIDDING?

YOU’D THINK THEY’D TONE IT DOWN ONCE HE BECOMES MOBILE, BUT NOPE THERES NO ESCAPE FROM THESE CHUCKLEFUCKS

Andre does some messing around when he's asleep and reroutes some wiring. Left is right and right is left and AB is stumbling around like a newborn deer

he goes to extend his left hand and,, his right one goes out?? AND HE JUST STARTS SHAKING WITH RAGE BECAUSE GODDAMIT HE KNOWS EXACTLY WHAT THEY FUCKING DID-

HE GOES TO LOOK LEFT TO GLARE AT THEM HIS HEAD GOES THE OTHER WAY??? TAKING A STEP FORWARD MAKES HIM MOVE BACKWARDS?? HE'S NEVER SWORN SO MUCH IN HIS FUCKING LIFE

lunging at them but forgetting they inverted his directions and he instead slams his head into a wall <3333 the moment he gets himself sorted out they're getting minced

SPEAKING OF MESSING WITH HIS CODING THERES SO MUCH THERE

Messing w/ his base language so that he can Only Speak French. Because french is the least intimidating language in the world and they can't stop laughing at how fucking Goofy he sounds <3333 (alternatively making him speak backwards smndsnmd)

reworking some stuff in his eyes so he can only see in infrared - he doesn’t see why they would do that, until these two get some Thermal Cloaking Outfits from the science labs </3

OH OR EVEN JUST MILD INCONVENIENCES?? Kinda like upping smbs mouse sensitivity - everything is just a Little Off so AB keeps knocking shit over and he can't place whats wrong but he KNOWS THEY DID SOMETHING, GIGI >:(

Gigi, mind you, is sitting back watching the chaos bc she swears to God these three barely qualify as adults smdsndsmd <3333

TLDR MYC AND ANDRE MAKE AB'S LIFE ABSOLUTE HELL <33333 THANK YOU FOR THE CUTE ASK

[keyenuta]

Ramshackle Dorm Among us Headcanons

Overall headcanon: when ramshackle members play imposters it's one of the few time they are truly darn near evil

(Again i have to thank @shaine26 for this amazing art!)

Zoroaster:

As a crewmate: he'll do tasks like normal but he really gets into it during debates, like he becomes Batman almost. Laying traps in words, and grilling people as best he can. Basically he is a troll, but someone who is looking for any sign of someone sus. Basically the Sherlock of the group who often times winds up getting killed first or everyone thinks they're sus instead.

Someone: he's asking too many questions, seems Sus to me

As an imposter: he is annoying, mostly because He's that player that winds up flipping the suspicion on you, and then laughing maniacally as they pick people off. He is great at throwing a wrench into discussions, tripping people up and casting or leading people into blaming someone else. Puppet master imposter pretty much

Though if it's a game outside the ramshackle dorm, an achilles to him is Riddle. Those two often wind up exposing the other through teases or fights, and it's hilarious. Plus since they know the other's quirks so well they can take aim at the other without a doubt.

It wouldn't surprise me if Riddle makes a rule where Zoro can only speak for a few seconds. Mostly to mess with him, and partly to limit him.

Regis:

As Crew-mate: Regis is a task Blitzer, he wants to finish his tasks as fast as possible and herd back into the group. Safer that way, but this also leaves him exposed a lot. In discussions, he often gets mistaken for the imposter way too much, his stuttering and already skittish nature makes him seem really sus. Especially if they grill him hard. Even though he isn't the killer his stutter is too sus.

As Imposter: Weirdly enough, as an imposter, it's like he inverts. He becomes a straight lion, patiently waiting and preparing to pounce on a target, tries to memorize everyone's route and attacks the most vulnerable person. Since its a digital experience he really can break past his skittishness. Though for interrogations, he's not so good, when hes put of hunting, he'll still stutter like normal

Theodore:

As a Crew-mate: Theodore is that person who'll stick to someone like glue, despite their tasks the boy just sticks to the whole crew, which often leaves him on the chopping block for the imposter cause somehow they always stick to the imposter in some way. Though it's useful for finding out the first imposter, bad for Theo good for everyone else. If he manages to live he will yell and defend everyone the most. Spiking everyone's headphones.

As an imposter: freaking vent, ninja, he knows every vent, how to attack from them, and then probably self reports, putting on the water works like how could someone hurt their friend, meanwhile behind the mute, he is cackling so hard you'd think the wicked witch returned

Dorothy:

As a Crew-mate: he's the guard dog of the group, always watching somebody with a trigger finger for when report pops up. He'll do his tasks (like the dorm mom he is) but he is always looking for one sus slip up. Amd of he sees it, oh you know he's sprinting to emergency meeting. And speaking of a meeting, he's the crew mate who is always throwing out accusations or getting riled up.

As an imposter: he's not successful, if he does kill someone he's not that good at lying and if he's accused he's too easily rilled up making him seem even more sus. Though on other occasions he may challenge his victim to a duel, can they dodge him fast enough of will be get them. Which if he loses he just revealed himself to someone.

Fiyero:

As a Crew-mate: Fiyero is honestly pretty lazy with his tasks, he does them but it's pretty slow. He's just vibing no biggie, but for interrogations, that's also strange since he's so chill he'll often just listen in without saying much. Making himself sus. Cause

Group:why haven't we heard from Fiyero in so long. He's probably the imposter!

Fiyero: huh-wait, no I'm not don't wo- Fiyero was ejected

As an imposter: he's definitely the trapper kind, waiting in rooms where there's an emergency happening, and right before you finish fixing the problem he's there in the shadows, killing you before you knew what was happening. Though his favorite move is sabotaging oxygen, when everyone scrambles to get it, he's there with kills or sabotages ready to slow everyone down until the time runs out

Solon:

As a crew-mate: Solon as a crew-mate is one of the two people in the dorm that keeps everyone in order during the negotiations. He is one half of the order back bone for discussion, he's that player that hears everyone out and keeps the team focused on the objective. Though with him, hes also the most compassionate and understanding, which leaves him vulnerable to deception and manipulation by the imposters.

As an imposter: He usually doesn't get imposter, rng hates him that dang much, he's always the crew-mate. Often behind the mute he's so close to shouting about how come I'm never an imposter why does RNG hate me

Yuu:

Last but not least we come to Mickey mouse, the perfect of Ramshackle

As a crew-mate: as alluded to earlier Yuu is the most calming presence during an interrogation like Solon, they are also the most efficient in tasks, literally thinking of ways to do the most effective and useful path to do tasks to avoid being killed. Though much like their namesake, if they are cornered by the imposter Yuu is the best at giving them the slip, ducking and sprinting around every corner to avoid the imposter. But with being able to keep everyone together Yuu will often be double teamed by the imposters and killed off.

As an imposter: Yuu is straight evil as an imposter, they're freaking scary efficient at killing people and striking when they're at their safest, often using the vents or shadows to hide. They are also one of the best liars of the group, often using their trustworthiness and ability to keep everyone running efficiently against the group. And then swinging their support against someone else who isn't the killer

(What's next is a random scenario me and a friend discussed)

First few seconds of dorm leaders playing among us

Zoroaster: I vote we kick Azul out each round

Azul: e-excuse me?

Zoroaster: I mean given his track recprd and with how he can lie, it makes sense

Azul: oh, you wound me Zoroaster, i am simply here to play a game, although. You are not a saint yourself, you've lied before as well

Zoroaster: yeh, i did, but that was for personal reasons, not a game

After a minute of debate

Riddle: enough! Here's what I think may end this argument, at the start of each game...

Zoroaster: Riddle, you wouldn't

Riddle: we eliminate them both

You can just see riddle smirking through a screen while Zoroaster's just there like you bitch

Zoroaster: Riddle, you little

Leona: heh, not a bad idea for a herbivore, im up for it

Vil: fufu as am I

Kalim: can't they both just play, don't ya think that woukd be more fun?

Everyone ignores kalim

Idia: 👍

Zoroaster just trolls riddle while he's eliminated, like say he manages to distract him enough to get killed by the imposter

While riddle's escaping he just gets a ping on his phone, and all it says is shrimp

[baroquepopcorn]

Leprechaun Romance

Welp, I hate to admit it. I'm a cringe degenerate who likes homestuck. But I also hate it! Unsatisying ambiguous conclusions! Wasted character arcs! Bad social commentary! Inconsistency! Overcomplication! But I also can't resist it. So I'm going to do something immensely tumblr right now:

Display my leprechaun romance headcanon!

Okay, I know it was intended as a joke making fun of homestuck's worldbuilding and based on lucky charms and that Hussie himself probably hasn't even come up with an answer, but I don't care. This still seems like something worth examination. And some of it just fits so well that it makes me think there's more to this than meets the eye. so first of all the easy part:

Hearts: confirmed to be equivalent to human love/matespritship. Maybe instead of admiration or pity, it's based on a mutual sense of humor and inside jokes. The dance could be vigorous and passionate, yet gentle and slow, somewhere in between ballroom and tango

Diamonds: diamond symbol therefore its most likely equivalent to troll moiralligence, maybe the diamonds prevent eachother from going too far with pranks and getting too full of themselves in addition to balancing out eachother's tempers. Maybe they use japes, jokes, and chicanery to calm eachother down. The dance could be a sort of mirrored peanuts-esque jig ending in a hug

Now for the hard part:

I feel like we can actually infer a lot of the deeper meanings of the charms via their shape. Think of it. Kismessisitude's symbol, the spade, is an inverted heart. Both it, and auspisticism have those "thorns" at the bottom, maybe indicating negative emotions. The Auspisticism symbol is the same as the Kissmessisitude symbol, except there is a third node (third party) interfering and preventing it from being kissmesitude.

Balloons:

Now in the "inaugural death of Mr. Seven" paradox space comic (which is of course typically of dubious canonicity, however this particular one was written by Hussie himself so the world mechanics and lore must be canon even if these events never happened) crowbar walks into clover and itchy doing a dance (which probably has the same dirty implications that buckets do with trolls, but less traumatic because no one's getting culled):

He mentions that they're all wrong for balloons (indicating he would be open to ballooning around with them but recognizes it wouldn't work out). The balloon symbol has that blackrom thorn, it's based on negative emotions, but it's also rounder, redder, less pointy, more --- jovial. Now my headcanon for balloons. It's like kissmessitude but with pranks. The two balloons are engaged in a constant prank war, egged on by the feelings of annoyance, spite, revenge, schadenfreude, and humiliation, but also a subtle and mutual undercurrent of enjoyment. Where it differs from kissmessitude is it is less of a rivalry, more of a two-sided bullying situation, maybe it's a bit more patronizing, teasing, pitying. Additionally it's a lot more lighthearted, there's a certain understanding that a balloon is all in the name of fun and japes, and like with kissmessitude you never actually want to get rid of the other person, just mess with them. As such, it is inherently a delicate charm; when one balloon takes a prank way too far and seriously hurts the other, it is "popped" and the charm is lost. If one of the members loses interest and stops pranking back, the balloon "floats away". When interpreted like this, it becomes obvious why Clover and Itchy are "all wrong for balloons". Clover is extremely lucky (that's his power) any prank attempted on him would either fail or backfire. He also is very good natured and probably not smart enough to pull off effective pranks. As balloons require effort and humiliation from both sides, it would be impossible to solicit him with the charm. Itchy is very irritable and snarky, he probably would take a prank way too hard and go too far with his own, so while he'd probably get quite into balloons (and would be quite a skilled prankster owing to his experiencing time slower powers), he would be kinda toxic and frequently pop them (maybe pitch is more his speed [get it, speed]). Crowbar, by contrast is very competent, he probably takes immense pleasure in setting up pranks and seeing the payoff. Although he is quite serious, he seems quite interested in this charm, maybe it's the only way he can really let loose and joke around. Shame his team is full of idiots and indelicate brutes. I'd imagine this jig to be slower paced, the two ballooneers approaching eachother reminiscent of west side story, ever so often making lunges forward to get the other to flinch

Horseshoes:

We actually see this charm quite a lot from the infamous hearts, stars, horseshoes trove:

Gross! Clover! get a room!

And here, after Karkat beat him in a fight and hog-tied him. This post:

https://pixie-styx.tumblr.com/post/142497372552/from-clovers-perspective-the-fight-between

from compulsiveAnalyst explains how the fight was interpreted by Clover to be a solicitation/mating dance. Thus being bested in a fight by Karkat was not a faliure of his luck, but rather some good old fashioned horseshoeing which clover was really into

We interpret this trove by seperating its components. Obviously there is an element of hearts (love), and I have a seperate theory for stars that we'll get to later, but there is also an element of domination, of power, of subjugation. Caliborn just conquered a planet, Karkat beat clover's ass, and the horsehoe itself has connotations of kicking, of domestication, of ownership. So it is my interpretation that horseshoes is all kinky dom sub stuff. What I mean by that is that a horseshoe has two distinct roles; the master and servant, the dominant and submissive, the "kicker" and the "kicked", which leads to a sort of asymmetric romance, similar to how the auspistice between the two would-be pitch lovers is the only one who bears the ashen feelings of exasperation and peacekeeping, or how the two moirails take on different roles as the pacifier and the violent, the "kicked" is the only one that bears the horseshoe feelings. I'd imagine the dance to be very fast-past and violent, involving a lot of kicking, starting off like a cancan or prisyada, but with one horseshoer slowly taking the dominant position, culminating with a victorious kick-stomping on the back of the other.

Stars:

Same basis as above. When we seperate love and kinky shit from the hearts stars horsehoe equation, what are we left with? Awe, devotion --- stanning. When someone is faced with a celebrity they deeply admire, they are said to be startstruck (shown in emojis and cartoons as stars in the eyes). Thus stars could represent a sort of celebrity worship of another person but as a form of romance, which again would function asymmetrically. One person in a star relationship idolizes another, puts them on a pedastal, and constantly praises them with a fervor bordering on the religious. The star hearts horseshoe trove is then revealed to be a sort of kinky, subby, romantic relationship, one a loyal servant may feel towards his master, with the master reciprocating the affection with displays of dominance. Which would fill Caliborn perfectly if not for the fact that cherubs are only biologically pre-disposed to feeling kissmessitude and Caliborn regardless is incapable of any sort of compassion or affection.

Alas, we have analyzed every charm that has been mentioned in the story. Everything from here on out will need to be filled in purely by headcanon. So let's take a step back and observe that 9-square chart along with the familiar quadrant diagram

The 2 by 2 column has a specific function, dividing the quadrants based on their properties. concupscient on the left, concilliatory on the right, redrom on top, blackrom on bottom. There is a clear logic here. Thus, there must be some logic behind the way the charms are arranged as well. Well what does our 3 by 3 array look like?

An alignment chart! lawful good to chaotic evil. Using our current datapoints we can get a feel for what "lawful - chaotic" and "good - evil" actually mean. hearts is lawful good, basically what we'd expect. diamonds is true neutral, again --- feels about right. But what about the other ones? balloons is lawful evil, stars is chaotic good, horseshoes is chaotic neutral (which also feels about right). Along the top we have two forms of intense red rom (matespritish hearts and parasocial celeb obsession stars). At the bottom we have what seems like black rom (balloons) and in the middle we have diamonds and horseshoes. Now horseshoes mixes pleasure and pain, submission, fear, and grovelling. It definitely does feel somewhere in between red and black rom, but moirallegence is considered red rom, so then, shouldn't diamonds be in the top row? Wait. Didn't Aranea specifically say that "There is no division 8etween 8lack or red, concupiscent or conciliatory." Maybe instead we have a similar concept of malicious intent behind the charms, with diamonds being understood as a charm somewhat motivated by a sense of duty and social interest instead of pure positive emotions. Maybe leprechuans, being a less violent race, have a different social purpose for their moirallegence; preventing their fellow diamonds from destroying not through just violence, but through reckless, careless abandon. The one who knocks them on the head and tells them to act serious. Maybe the way these species organize their relationships into charts are more of a cultural construct that obfuscates a deeper underlying universal theory of romance... (next post). We're getting off topic here. The point is, in the context of this chart, good=unmalicious, evil=malicious intent, and neutral=mixed emotions. The lawful to chaotic axis may by contrast represent how balanced a relationship (ideally) should be, with reciprocal, balanced hearts and balloons (lawful), diamonds with their two distinct roles but shared emotions (neutral), and asymmetric, one-sided, and somewhat vitrolic stars and horseshoes (chaotic). With this newfound context we can begin tackling moons, shamrocks, rainbows, and pots o' gold.

Moons:

neutral good. It is a form of red rom, solidly based in positive emotions, and as a neutral relationship on the lawful to chaotic axis, it has two distinct roles but the two members share in the emotion and it isn't quite so polarized. Now, when we think of moons in homestuck, there is one thing that should immediately come to mind and a place where this symbol shows up very plainly:

That's right! The moons! Dreamself pajamas! And specifically prospit. Mayhaps some exotic culture has an inverted form of moons, much like how kissmesistude is the inversion of matespritship, that looks like grunkle stan's old hat symbol from gravity falls and is colored derse purple. I think our best angle to analyze this is in the context of the prospit moon, and dreams themselves. Maybe this form of romance consists of an ache directed to another individual, a deep sense of importance and fate that one attaches to another. It could be the feeling of locking eyes with a beautiful stranger on the bus, and then running into them again and again. It is said that moonmates are the key to the other's destiny, the perfect complement, the one who lives in their dreams. Now this feeling is seperated from hearts by subtle nuance. While hearts make the heart ache, and they seek to get as close to eachother as possible, moons could be more like a passive awe and observance of one to another, the sort of awe one might feel at a beautiful sunset redirected to a person. Mystery and secrets are vital to this charm, often riddles and queries are exchanged as a sort of intellectual probing. Indeed mind games are central to this charm as a way of simultaneously trying to get into the other person’s head and preserving that intrigue. Moons frequently acts as eachother's creative muses. They tend to follow cycles of waxing and waning interest with the moongazers switching roles ever so often. They encircle eachother in a delicate dance to try and get the other to reveal their soul and importance. The dance could be a sort of sweeping, encircling motion, similar to a circle dance but only two people, with the feel of a tentative ballroom, mimicking the motions of the planets

TBC