#ashmats

[unknownartiste]

yeah

[relaxxattack]

hihi im going to dump about auspisticism in your askbox because i feel like the people here would appreciate it

anyways i feel like auspisticism would be less touchy feely than the other quadrants. like moirails are like that, and obviously matesprits are going to be affectionate, and even kismisesess are going to be affectionate l. but auspisticism doesn't have the same sort of immediate physical relationship.

i think that auspisticism more than other quadrants is definitely very individual to the people involved. because its a mediation. it kind of has to be tailored to the people involved because what stops one person from doing something stupid encourages others.

because the role of an auspistice requires so much understanding of others, often certain people will be shoved more into that role (i.e. kanaya). it requires you to know a lot about relationships and the specific people you're auspisticing

in the culture it's definitely seen as the least glamorous relationship. it's still important, just harder to sensationalize. the most widely represented auspisticisms are either subversions of the typical relationships or focus more on the relationships within the auspisticism rather than the auspisticism itself.

this is also reflected in the color choice. red is a color of passion, black is intense, pale is soft and childlike, but grey is just sort of meh. honestly it's kind of the troll equivalent of beige. which represents the most necessary, and yet the least sensational romance.

popular gifts for ashmates would include clovers (because of course), The Get-Along shirt, and anything that involves understanding. a journal explaining your thought processes, an art piece representing your relationships. auspisticism is about coming to an understanding, at the end of it all. an understanding of who you are as people, and your relationship.

honestly i wish people explored auspisticism more in fanfics. it can get complicated, but it's really interesting to explore!

RAAAHH AUSPISTICISM MENTIONED ‼️‼️♣️♣️

hell yeah we definitely love that stuff over here!!!!!! and yes auspisticism is for sure not the most glamorous, but it’s really important because it keeps other relationships from not falling apart. it keeps friendgroups from imploding and it maintains some social order to prevent murder or vengeance cycles and shit like that!

it’s about keeping other people in check. that’s important!

though i’ll admit i dont have the eye for auspisticism like i do moirallegiance and kismesissitude

[quadrant-query]

Hai!!! I’m l00king f0r advic3 0n h0w t0 subtly signal t0 my ash3n crush3s that i’m int3r3st3d in c0nciliating f0r th3m!!! I’m n0t s0 g00d with w0rds, s0 i’m l00king f0r advic3 0n b0dy languag3 and 0th3r n0nv3rbal cu3s!!! Thanks!!! I n33d all th3 h3lp i can g3t!!!

You've come to the right place!

Ashen body language is definitely a thing, even though with so many trolls and variables involved it can feel difficult to pick up on occasionally.

Try positioning yourself between them! This is the most easy, obvious choice, because it suits the dynamic exactly and is also the main dramatic ashen scene in every single movie. Simply standing between the two of them, especially if you have to shove or force yourself in there, says a *lot*.

"Woahing", which is kind of a stupid word people sometimes use to refer to mass shoosh-pap behavior. This involves holding your palms up to people, gently swatting their weapons away, making yourself a physical stop sign, along with making soft sounds that could be described as "Uh-uh" or "Woah"-- like riding a musclebeast.

Holding them from behind. Although being held from behind is just a sign of trust in general and in most quadrants, specifically holding onto your ashmate's hands or wrists from behind can give the allusion that you're *holding them back*, or even handcuffing them, which is fairly explicitly ashen.

[cloudbattrolls]

Blood in the Cut

Gliese Benral | Present Night

Gliese gritted her teeth as she walked through the forest. The weather was nice; cool with just a hint of humidity, and she could hear the distant sounds of construction. A few bugs zipped through the air.

“You always know when I’m close.��� She muttered. “Somehow.”

“Not every time.”

Came the voice she’d expected from behind her, but she still jumped a little as she turned to see the false maroon.

“Yeah, okay!” She said with a bark of laughter. It merely tilted its head, expression neutral.

She sucked in a breath. 

“Anyway. I guess…as much as I hate it…I have to admit you were right. I shouldn’t have seen Quilis then.” She said with a grimace.

It nodded.

“It was not personal. I would have turned away anyone who came.”

“Yeah.” She sighed. “Poor Quil…she’s really not the best at standing up for herself or saying no. Girl could use a moirail, or an ashmate, or something.” She said with a shake of her head. “Trouble is finding someone in her age range.”

It nodded again. God, it felt weird to be agreeing with it.

“Anyway.” She said, coming up to it and poking its shoulder. “I wanna fight you.”

It blinked.

“All right.”

She snort-laughed.

“Wow, that was easy. And Quil was so disapproving.” She said with a smirk.

“Not here, though.” It said. “I don’t want to damage the forest.”

Her eyebrows raised. “Damn, just how wild do you get? Nah, don’t tell me, I wanna see for myself.”

“Do you know a good place?” It said. “It can’t be anywhere too close to anyone else. I don’t want to be seen by another troll, if possible.”

Her eyebrows raised, if possible, even higher. 

“Yeah, we can fight in my hedge maze - well, the part of it that burned down a while ago. I still haven’t gotten to regrowing that yet. But if you slice up some of the other bushes it’s okay. I was thinking of remodeling the whole thing anyway.”

It nodded. “That works.”

“My signmate might see you, though.”

It thought about that, hand to one cheek. “As long as there’s some cover.”

“Great, time’s a-wasting, let’s go.”

She walked back to her waiting lusus, not bothering to turn around and see if Eileit was following, then jumped on the hare’s back, looked around, and -

-hey, where did it go.

She shrugged. Either it had lied to her or it hadn’t, and it seemed to be able to hide and reappear really easily for whatever reason.

She made her way back to the burned-out part of her maze, several dozen square feet of bare earth between the green hedges bordering it. Sure enough, a minute or so after she arrived and got off her lusus…

…there it was when she turned around, looking at everything with interest.

She shook her head in wonder.

“Man, what the fuck are you.”

It either didn’t hear her (doubtful), or it didn’t want to answer, much more interested in chasing a grasshopper it had found. Haredad watched it a moment, then retreated so that he was away from the fight. 

Gliese smirked. Well, if it wanted to be caught off guard…

The blueblood took out her scythe and ran for it.

It leapt into the air, spreading great metallic wings that hadn’t been there a few moments ago. Gliese switched to her gun, aiming at the bladelike ‘feathers’ as it dodged and flipped, evading most of her shots. The few that did hit didn’t do much damage; they warped a few feathers, but it seemed unbothered.

She whooped in the joy of a challenge, and it dove for her - she took out her scythe and jabbed it directly through the neck as she ducked just in time.

Red liquid leaked out, but not nearly at the rate a troll’s blood would, nor did it seem to bother the creature. It splashed to the ground and on her, and the hare troll grinned in excitement as her foe wheeled away and she swapped out her flamethrower instead, waiting for Eileit to get close enough for a good blast.

Which of course is when it disappeared.

“Oh, you bitch.” She said, mildly annoyed but mostly fascinated. It had just sort of…shimmered out of existence.

The rush of air as it flew by again was just enough to warn her to duck, but she knew as soon as she fired that she’d missed it.

Then she found herself picked up and carried into the air, cold wind streaming past her ears and face and making her eyes weep as it held her firmly, visible once more. Its wingbeats were steady and quieter than they should’ve been, she realized - how?

The gash on its neck was open…but there was no real flesh beneath it, no veins or muscle. Just…synthetic gray stuff she recognized from her fleet training, structures that were model-perfect but nonfunctional. It was creepy as hell, but also fascinating.

Gliese put her flamethrower away and took out a knife instead, jabbing at Eileit’s eye.

It let the hit happen, and simply looked at her a moment before pulling the knife out of its face with its free hand and putting it away. The eye had lost its light, cracked like a screen, but began repairing itself as she watched. Creating small metallic and crystalline lines of…cells? It couldn’t be, could it?

“Not smart, Gliese, what if I dropped you?”

“I have skeletons to catch me.” She said smugly. “Besides. I can tell you’re waaaay holding back. You won’t drop me.”

It shook her gently. She let her head bob around for the gag.

“Ah, uh oh, my thinkpan, it’s dying. Medic.”

It snorted. “I think we’re done for now.”

“What, nooo.” She whined. “This is fun.” 

The blueblood wiped her eyes, because damn the wind was getting to her - aaaand down they went, Eileit gently depositing her on the ground as its wings folded back up and disappeared. Somehow it had manifested them over its clothes, as far as she could tell.

“Why didn’t you use your magic?” It asked, now a few feet away from her.

“Why didn’t you go all out?” The mage said in return. “I was testing the waters. Plus, it’s a bad idea to get too reliant on the stuff. I coped without magic for sweeps, I don’t want it making me sloppy.”

It nodded.

“If I went all out it would kill you.” It said bluntly. “As you can tell, I was designed for combat.”

“No you weren’t.” Gliese retorted, point-blank. “I dunno what exactly you were made for, but it wasn’t that, though yeah, I can tell you’re no slouch. You don’t act like a real killbot. 

Your tactics are more diversionary, meant to isolate and capture, geared toward concealing you. You could’ve had me instantly and you chose to let me fight. You could’ve restrained me with both arms or had a blade to my throat. You could’ve snuck up on me from the first go. 

I don’t believe you don’t know how to do those things; I think you intentionally chose not to.”

It was silent for a few moments. “Quite the theory.” It said.

She grinned. “I know you won’t tell me anything. But I know this shit, I’m ex-fleet. Fuck those bastards, but I did learn some things there.”

It turned away.

“Why did you leave?” It asked.

“Cause fuck ‘em.” She said bluntly. “I was conscripted, I tried to cope and make the best of it, but…it sucks. It all fucking sucks, for everyone who’s part of it. Lowbloods most of all, but all of us. Every single blood color shoved into that miserable fucking machine.”

She paused.

“Uh. No offense.”

It laughed, sharp and amused as it turned back to face her.

“None taken.” It said, sounding genuine if deeply entertained.

“Wow, good, cause I was about to feel like, robot casteist.” She deadpanned. “You’re not a robot, though, are you?”

“No.” It agreed.

“Not gonna tell me what you really are, are you?”

“No.” It said again, amused. “I haven’t even told Quilis, not that they’ve asked. It’s safer that way, for me and everyone else.”

“Ah, so you aren’t imperial, huh. And they don’t know about you.”

It went silent. The pause stretched as its expression became unreadable.

“Please keep that to yourself.” It said softly. “If you do nothing else, please keep that to yourself.”

“Ah, another secret for our pile. Yeah, don’t sweat it.” She said, patting its shoulder. “You aren’t so bad, huh? Funny freaky toaster.”

It made a ding noise as a real toaster oven would and Gliese cracked up.

“That is hysterical.” She said, between fits of laughter. “Holy shit, how many noises can you do? No, wait - can you like, mimic voices?”

“Can you like, mimic voices?” It said back to her, the imitation of the necromancer’s tones nearly perfect.

She clapped her hands. “Oh, we are going to pull so many pranks. You, me, bothering people. You cannot tell me that wouldn’t be fun.”

“I’ll help you with a prank if you tell me something I’d like to know.” It said, placid.

“Yeah, sure, what is it?”

“Where can I get real maple and marshmallow flavoring?”

She blinked.

“You don’t eat, do you?”

It shook its head.

“No. It’s for a friend. They make candies.”

She grinned. “Aw, that’s sweet. Literally.”

It looked at her, and she raised her hands in defeat. “Hey, my moirail likes puns, bad humor’s contagious.”

“I have died. Badly.” It deadpanned. “Cause of death: being pun-ished.”

The blueblood put a hand to her chest in mock agony. “Oooh, that hurt. You and Nan can never meet, I’d wind up stabbing myself in the eye.”

“Objective acquired: meet Nan.”

She squinted at it.

“Okay, now you’re just fucking with me.”

“Data not found.”

The hare troll pushed the false maroon, who toppled over rigidly for the bit and played a cartoon coconut thunk noise, and it took a while before Gliese stopped laughing.

[aita-alternia]

aita for asking my auspistice to hunt me for sport? my quirk is masked for like, privacy or whatever, but i (gold) thought it would be really hot to be hunted for sport. so i asked one of my ashmates (teal) to hunt me for sport. it was, like, all going well, until its moirail (bronze) stopped it and called our other ashmate (jade). i don’t really get why they’re like, mad, because getting hunted was so hot, and i didn’t even get culled!!! so

[earth-alternia-culture-exchange]

Hello, Grumblr! We’re the 3 mods of the Earth/Alternia Culture Exchange blog! We are two Earthlings and one Alternian in an ashen relationship (Sauce is the top leaf, Bow and Beats are the bottom leaves) and we decided that making a blog would be fun, especially because we can fill a niche that we haven’t really observed on this website before. This post will be pinned for our intros and text colours, so people know who we are!

MOD SAUCE 

Pronouns: He/it preferred, they/she also accepted

Species: Human

Occupation: Full-time auspistice, part-time dishwasher, part-time grocery store cashier

Classpect: Seer of Hope (Derse)

More About Me: Hi! Just call me Sauce if you want. I spend most of my time at home or with my ashmates, except when I’m working. I am autistic, and I like learning and talking about stuff like xenoanthropology, but that’s not my main special interest. I’m not quite used to the whole quadrants thing, but I’m doing my best! If any trolls would like to tell me more about their culture or ask about Earth stuff, I’d be more than happy to interact!

MOD BOW

Pronouns: Whatever’s most convenient for the conversation, really.

Species: Human. Allegedly. For tax reasons.

Occupation: What are you, a cop? I don't have to tell you.

Classpect: Heir of Mind (Prospit)

More About Me: I like to learn about speculative biology and cook food. I enjoy hanging out with my ashmates and talking about things I like. I don’t really read much, but I like writing. If you want to chat, just ask. I’ll probably be making spreadsheets and overanalyzing video games that I like. Ask me about human media or tell me about Alternian media.

MOD BEATS

Pronouns: They/them only

Species: Troll (goldblood)

Occupation: Drummer, part-time chef

Classpect: Knight of Life (Derse)

More About Me: I’ve been learning about humanz for a while now. They’re really weirdz, but the ones I’ve met are zuper nice. Earth has really good video gamez I think. Azk me about quadrantz and caztez or zomething. I like to compete with Bow when we’re both cooking ztuff for others. Zauce uzually functionz az referee/judge between uz when we’re juzt doing it for fun though. I have a mild pzionicz-related mutation that givez me pupilz with the coloured eyez. I’m juzt trying to avoid getting murdered, honeztly. Taken in all quadz.

We're all very excited to become a part of this community!

[treetownconfessions]

i dont vape especially because im ashmatic but i want the tidepod vape now.

LMAO

[hskinhome]

kinfession -

i am so starved of pale content for me n gamz, like theres barely any of it to begin with, and then most of it is pitch?? cmon guys. give us ashen. at least.

i may be just a bit jealous of travos. just a bit. how come you get all the sweet fuzzies with the beloved purple clown boy when i barely get any?? >B|

-a dave strider who misses his moirail/ashmate so sso so much

.

[trueoffmypusher]

qm) i used to have a palecrush on my now ashmate

[ashfanclub]

excuse me but....LMAOOO

This person is a genius 🧠

Thanks for making me laugh out loud with this pun @lunaromantic 🤣🤣

So I am indeed an ASHmatic ~~~ 💙

[raitrolling]

(Full log under cut)

its rai - Vil would be less relentless questioning her since she’s been p much cleared of suspicion, but he might be more demanding to know about Gliese if he finds out what happened to Ji

Cloudbat �� For better or worse, Ullane would not really protect Gliese, for myriad reasons, so she would tell Vil everything he wanted to know.

Gliese for one doesn’t care. She didn’t want to be found out, but her hive has a protective hedge maze around it, she is ready and prepared to defend herself and she doesn’t give a shit.

its rai — Vil would mostly want to know A. Who is the troll matching the description, B. What connection she has to Eichio and why she would want to kidnap and presumably kill his lusus, C. Where he would find her, and D. Should he theoretically want to confront her, what should he be aware of? 

He’d also make it clear he has no intention of killing her, but he can make no guarantees if something else happened to occur :)

Cloudbat — Ullane, calmly answering. 

 Her name is Gliese Benral. A cerulean/cobalt cusp of 9 sweeps, legally cerulean, ex-fleet troll conscripted at a young age due to her bloodline’s extremely strong psychic mind control potential. She burned herself out to leave the fleet after a sweep or so and in the process, flipped her psychic powers from control of the living to control of the dead. 

Ullane would mention that she knows this because she treated Gliese for burnout following the incident. 

As far as Ullane knows, Gliese did not know Eichio well, but seemed to both sympathize and be frustrated by him and his subservient attitude. 

Ullane shakes her head as she does not know where Gliese currently lives. The woman guards the location well, but she has mentioned it is surrounded by a protective hedge maze and near a mountain forest. 

Ullane gives Viltau a serious look. Gliese can raise the dead and undead to serve her, zombies and ghosts alike, hungry for troll flesh. She has fleet training and she’s an expert with guns and her war scythe, as well as the deadly plants she cultivates. 

She does sometimes experience seizures at random or due to overuse of her powers.

its rai — Vil finds it curious that someone would go so far as to kill the lusus of an acquaintance out of sympathy, but that proves his theory that the culprit must not have been a close friend is correct 

He also now understands why Jamie asked him about his opinions on the undead. How annoying, he could not possibly go up against an ex-Fleet member, and there’s only so many bullets he can carry to put down the undead. And while locating a hedge maze in a mountain forest is doable, with the planet being as large as it is he might as well be looking for a needle in a haystack. Perhaps there would be a way to draw her out and confront him on his turf instead? Any potential bargaining chips he could play?

Cloudbat — looks at Nancor

Just one

But Ullane would shake her head. She doesn’t know of any; she knows Gliese has an ashmate, but she’s never seen him. She doesn’t know her well enough to know of her other friends; she’s treated her and had to work with her, but they’re not close.

its rai — Vil sighs a little. It sounds like she’ll be a tough trail to follow, and for what? A dead lusus? 

In regards to her treatments, how often does she visit this clinic? Would it be too out-of-the-ordinary for you to request she comes in for a check-up?

Cloudbat — Ullane looks at Vil. She is not using her clinic to bait a fleet-grade psychic who could hurt her other clients.

its rai — Vil says that if she’s attending the clinic under the guise of a professional check-up, she would not be on edge and expecting anything else, no? And it is not as if she cannot be subdued if needed. You can set the date any time in advance if necessary as to not arise suspicion, he could wait for as long as possible if required, but it would still be quite cruel to keep Eichio in the dark about what happened, don’t you think?

Cloudbat — Ullane looks at Vil more. He does not understand. She doesn’t blame him; it’s almost impossible to understand unless you’ve seen Gliese in action or witnessed the aftermath. But while she will help him if possible, she will not have her clinic be part of it.

Ullane, who has seen the aftermath of Gliese burning up hundreds of zombies with her mind and the aftermath of Gliese and Tuuya bringing down an insane fiery asshole: nope.avi

its rai — Viltau understands that he is very much going in blind, so if his strategy is not viable, then what does she suggest?

Cloudbat — Ullane sighs. She doesn’t know where Gliese is…but she knows someone who could find her. The problem would be convincing him to do so, as he’s afraid of her.

Maidel suddenly feels a disturbance in the force

And a desire to take a vacation to another planet

He too knows Gliese (long story) and he also is of the nope.avi opinion

Tip to Vil: use Gerrel to convince pangosheep

its rai — LMAO poor Maidel 

Vil would ask what would be needed to convince him to help. Does he require money? Some sort of deal? Perhaps a friendly chat over dinner? Whatever it is, he’s willing to do it

Cloudbat — Ullane snorts and says Vil should just ask Gerrel. He’s friends with her.

And Maidel is very jumpy around indigos thanks to having been trapped in a circus for sweeps.

Ullane met him when he was in the circus, is how she knows.

its rai — Works fine for him LMAO 

He’s probs heard of Maidel through Dismas, and also knows there’s no way in hell he’d be able to convince Dis to let his matesprit get involved in something potentially dangerous 

He’d thank Ullane for her cooperation and time

Cloudbat — Ullane nods. She hopes this can bring Eichio some peace.

its rai — Vil has no idea if it will, but at the very least Eichio won’t be stuck not knowing who killed his lusus. 

Ignorance may be bliss, but knowledge is power, as they say

[relaxxattack]

do you have any more thoughts on alternian fashion culture, like in the 'pale fashion' post?

i have a few!

my additional imagines of quadrant-specific fashion were shown in this post here, but to go a bit more into detail about it i think in general alternians want to wear clothes that are easy to move around in and easy to fight in. being able to wear clothing that's big and flowy means you are either stupid or incredibly powerful; it's attention grabbing either way. man, now i'm just thinking of doing drawings of alternian fashion trends...

i don't remember if i mentioned it in the tags of that post or not but my thoughts on caliginous fashion is that you would wear shit that's seductive but at the same time warding, like for example, a crop top with barbed wire at the ends. something that says "ooo i'm so hot and you want me" but at the same time, "you can't have me and if you try to touch this you will get painfully injured." it's a bit of a mockery and a challenge. that's why their top in the drawing says "i dare you to touch me", that's very much the "essence" of pitch fashion to me.

ash fashion involves a sportier look, something for your average troll trying to go do their gogdamn paperwork. it's nice, because you are dressing up for your ashmates, but it doesn't stand out too much; because in the end you're not trying to impress anyone. you're there to get down to business and sort some people's shit out. obviously it's also inspired by popular (earth) fall weather fashion, since the ashen holiday is in the fall.

there are also a lot of chains incorporated into the ash outfit as jewelry... the idea of chains being a popular form of ash symbolism comes from @visionaryparacosmos! i think it's a really cute and charming little way of saying, "hey you're stuck with me and i'm going to keep your grounded".

i hope that gives you a small idea of my thoughts! (sorry this took so long to answer you would not believe how busy i have been)

[quadrant-query]

wut r sum kute niknames fr ur ashmates???? X3

A couple of cute nicknames for ashmates are:

the ball and chain

trouble and strife

the odd couple

fallen leaves

lean and mean

[cloudbattrolls]

Shout out to @prince-liest, gone from tumblr fantrolls but not my heart unu or my OC lore, generous enough to talk through how Gliese’s ashmate/twin and best friend would react to when her place is marched on

(and I’m going to make a post about how fun that will be so Rai and Lard know and can plan accordingly)

[aita-alternia]

[recording begin]

take like a really long stick and tie one end to each of your ashmates waists so they can't touch each other. absolutely no way this can go wrong slash sar

[recording end]

IM GONN^ FUCKING H^VE TO ^T THIS POINT!!!!! THESE FRE^KS C^N NOT GO ^ WEEK WITHOUT INCIDENT.

IM B^FFLED. TWO FUCKING BIT HER, ^NON. SHE FUCKING BIT HIM!!!! THIS IS WIGGLER BEH^VIOR!!!

[coleopteranspark]

My ashmates are sO fuckIng stupId.