#we know how kankri talks about his mutation and we know what happened to the signless and we know who karkat is and we know feferi

[why-is-it-always-autumn]

The Beforan ancestors are so...

We know nothing about them. We know exactly who they were. Not one of them has ever spoken a single line in anything even canon-adjacent. Everyone can agree that He Would Not Say That. We know their full legal names. We don't know what anyone called them in adulthood. We can make some pretty solid predictions about their interpersonal relationships. We don't know which of them were even alive at the same time. We only know they exist because of a bunch of parodies of 2012 tumblr.

[cupid-tune]

Hello, I really want your opinion about the rejection of Beforius, and how he influenced society. We learned from Openbound that the high-bloods take care of the low-bloods. And many have the theory that the Highbloods basically cull other trolls when they have a disability, or a mutation that makes them unable to live on their own, and take on the responsibility of caring for them. Pretty good idea if it didn't have a lot of downsides. What do you think, could Kankri be "rejected" on the beforius, what influenced his character in the future:? or he also initially concealed his blood color, and only during the session he stopped concealing it:? If you think about it, then Rufio is also a kind of mutant, but when he grew up, for some reason he hid in the forest, away from settlements, like cities, as if afraid of someone:?

Apologies in advance for the disturbance :ззззз

YOU DON'T KNOW HOW HAPPY THIS QUESTION MADE ME

I've been thinking about this just recently!! I enjoy looking for content that tries to fill the gaps in between the experience of Beforus, whether it be dialogue or fan stuff. It upsets me that we weren't given too much insight into things, but the fun part is making do with what we have. This post is mainly focusing on mutants on Beforus, but I think this could apply to lowbloods and trolls with disabilities just as much.

Long post ahead!

A lot of what I could gather about the culling on Beforus was from Kankri's dialogue, which peaked my interest the most reading through it. In any other instance, I would take his remarks in the intended humorous manner, but if we really want to dive into this, taking what he says more seriously is a big help.

Kankri describes the problems of Beforus as more underlying and insidious, which makes perfect sense with everything else we have. Feferi was the ruler on Beforus, and as such, was likely a kind ruler with a much more peaceful system in place. The problem is, utopia can't really be achieved, no matter how hard you try. What we're seeing is a flawed system, with trolls who, despite their peaceful way of life, still behave similarly to that on Alternia. You're going to have bad people with bad intentions, and they will most certainly take advantage of the system in place because it's so easy to do.

The theory that highbloods will cull lowbloods and mutants the same amount that it happens on Alternia sounds about right, even if their version of culling is near opposite. Mutants are pitied in such a society, and will be treated like fragile beings who are in need of help. Beforus and Alternia are both bad on opposite sides of the spectrum. One cares too much, the other cares too little. I think a good comparison for this would be the foster care system and how much corruption lies within it. Though, I'd rather not dive into serious real life matters like that while trying to talk about fictional trolls, so it's just good to keep in mind for future reference. Highbloods can take in mutants to care for them, and that seems to be about the extent of context we get. We could go different ways about this and guess whether or not their treatment of these mutants is monitored, or they are left to their own accord and simply trusted.

Coddling seems to be a big deal for Kankri, as one of the only times we see him flaring up in defense is when Porrim shows him coddling-like affection. This could be taken as pale or motherly, but either way, it's upsetting for him. Again, this is probably written to be lighthearted and entertaining, but seeing as this is the only time we see Kankri aggressive, I consider it a trigger of his. Touching, in general, I think is another trigger of Kankri's, which might also come from his culled upbringing.

Kankri pulls away from Porrim a lot, seeing as he directly insults the sweater she gave him but continues to wear it regardless. There is sentiment there, but Kankri shows conflicted behavior. Another alternative could just be that Porrim forces him to wear the sweater, since...Yeah, that pant line. It's understandable. When it comes to Kankri and his relationship with his blood color, the sweater could represent his pride and will to show off his blood now that he's no longer on Beforus. Kankri might've hid his color back then, or was encouraged to wear more neutral colors by his culler like Karkat does.

Further into the coddling nature, Kankri rejects any kind of form of endearment, since his view of it is that it feels belittling and condescending. I think this idea comes from the fact that he experienced similar treatment from whoever was taking care of him on Beforus, which he had grown to dislike either back then or came to realize during the game. He's even willing to take insults if it means not using "wiggler nicknames," which further shows just how much he dislikes this treatment.

Analysis out of the way, the theories of culling on Beforus can go many different directions. Kankri was culled on Beforus, yes. He didn't hide away like Karkat, he wasn't able to in his circumstances. As such, he was raised by a troll, a highblood most likely, who treated him as though he were a prized possession. Kankri could've been pampered and spoiled, which may explain his entitled behavior, but this kind of treatment comes with a lot of downsides. His culler may have been too protective of him, not letting him socialize normally like other trolls and keeping him isolated, or instilling this idea that he needed to be watched over, that he wasn't capable of living a life on his own because of his mutation. This could've been a common practice for many cullers, manipulation and conditioning in order to keep their culled troll under control. Of course, this is a darker way of looking at things, but realistically, this is a very likely reality for many mutants on Beforus. Like I said before, the nature of trolls are a constant, and that means bad people willing to take advantage of a bad system. The only reason I'm willing to take this route is because of how defensive Kankri gets about being treated like a wiggler, and why he strives to know more than others and stand above them. His upbringing shaped who he is now, and one could think that when those kids finally entered the session, Kankri was a free troll.

With Rufioh, he probably had a much easier time escaping the culling system. His wings sprouted later, so he wasn't immediately culled upon birth. He made a life out in the forest with other lowbloods, which allowed him to live relatively peacefully, at least outside of society. Things could've been a lot different for Rufioh had he undergone the same treatment Kankri did, but we can only guess how he would react under those circumstances. Rebelling sounds about right, but who knows how far he could've gotten with that?

Rufioh's behavior is very passive, and he seems pretty content with his life as a mutant. He treats it normally, while Kankri on the other hand hates terms like "mutant" and sees it as a more derogatory term than anything. This is just a Kankri thing, but this could very well be why it's a Kankri thing. I like to think the two have somewhat bonded over being mutants in the past, and Rufioh knows the extent of the culling system and its effects. It's a good thing he ran away while he could, whether it be intentional or not. Rufioh's relationship with his mutation is because he was able to grow up in a setting that didn't shame him for it, allowing him to be carefree and treated like any other troll. This is what Beforus should be, or what the ideal was meant to be.

Beforus culling can be just as bad as Alternia culling, in the way that the victims of it suffer the effects for the rest of their lives. Many culled trolls might even die early on, either because of natural causes in mutations or other health issues brought upon them from the culling treatment. Kankri was conditioned to believe that he shouldn't exist, but to be thankful that he was taken care of anyway. If the people of Beforus were under the impression that culling was an honorable responsibility to take up, caring for the life of another, the ones who were culled are less likely to get help in their situations. His distaste towards the caste system and its inequalities is justified, and that seems to be where a lot of his priorities lie, on educating others about that underlying hierarchy. He's pretty ignorant on other subjects like Porrim's arguments about gender roles on Beforus, and refuses to learn more about it. Which, is not a good thing of course, and is definitely on the list of things he needs to work on, but there are explanations. A lot of what I think are Kankri's personal triggers came from his upbringing, though we can only speculate. Stuff like this is why I enjoy digging into canon, speculation and theories are something I'm not able to indulge in often.

But in conclusion, damn.

[ukeealyptus]

crocker corp arg day 14 & 15 recap!!! These are kinda long ones so im gonna put them under a read more :)

DAY 14

((sollux i love u even tho u only talk at 1am for me ily and im glad u liked our tea party  )). He can still read all of the channels in this server but is being polite and only talks in his and usually only answers the questions we ask in his channel, unless they're urgent, funny, or just seem to stick out otherwise. 

 Sollux is still kinda adament about remaining stuck in his position; he fears anything he does ends in death (we get it, you're a doom player). Dirk is still the same. Sollux visits him often because the AGT chamber is a pretty secluded area, and his coworkers are. . . annoying. Dirk proves better company. He can't tell us what Dirk's powers are being used for. 

 Concerning their own god tier powers, Sollux tells Daven't that "if we decide that you would be a good candidate we will be in contact". They know all of our classpects, not just 16. Sollux knows them because he has access to confidential information that only Condy has. 

 He deflected talking about the current AI or Felix by questioning why we love him. ((sucks to suck dude we genuinely like you.)) Apparently there used to be a worker named M who we would have really liked, but he's essentially dead now. Something happened to Mituna- he fucked up and isn't there anymore. Sollux constantly reminds himself that what happened to Mituna could happen to him.

 Sollux gave Felix leniency because he is pretty young maturity and brain development-wise. Felix is a brain copy of a troll, just the same as the current AI. He was really surprised to hear how Felix is doing now, and thinks it's amazing that he can comprehend emotions and love!!! Sollux will contact Felix and ask us to let him talk to other people when he's ready. 

 Sollux doesn't remember the outside world or his past. He knows CC merged human and troll society. He won't look at Jane's file, only knows that she's powerful and important. He won't look at his own file for fear that another IT guy will see him or it'll be a trap.

Although he can't remember much, we can remind him of the things that he loves. Like his lusus, the mind honey, and bees! Bees are soft and he loves them! Bees are an animal! Sollux has a friend who is always talking about animals!!! Tavros went into his office once to try to get information about Tinkerbull, which was blacklisted for him. Sollux is gonna show him bees :) 

Sollux isn't allowed to use his psiioniics unless there's a life-threatening corporate attack. He's not really aware of how caught-up in the timeloop he is, but he doesn't remember having that conversation before. That could be a good thing. Sollux stopped by again last night! Here's the news: 

 Sollux showed Tavros bees and he loved them!!! 

We can now trade mun embarassing videos for discords, so we've gotten tavros's discord! I don't believe he's responded to anyone yet, but it's there. 

Sollux loves bees. He also likes cats!!! We showed him pictures of our cats and he said they were cute and their purring is cute and cuddling is awesome.

 Sollux let us ask about troll biology!!!!! Trolls have naturally sharp nails on hands and feet that are a darkish orange (the same color as the tips of the horns) They also have fangs, with seadwellers having the sharpest. Height isn't correlated to blood color, sollux is just Really Tall, but physical strength is correlated to blood color, though sollux can Lift.  Body temperature is also dictated by blood color- lowbloods are very Warm. 

 Now for society: mutations used to be culled but now they're discriminated. These can include physical deformation, too many/not enough horns/eyes/limbs, and certain blood types (for example candy red or a mutated bronze with psiioniic powers) . These stopped being cullable offenses after integration with human society. 

 Vriska makes fun of Tavros for his stutter. Highbloods give Karkat shit about his blood. Sollux doesn't really know Karkat, just knows that he works in filing. Kankri got demoted for talking too much. 

 The ai's are made of brain scans just so that there's less opportunities for coding era and it's easily reset. It's also a punishment for some trolls, where they are completely rewired, cloned, and made digital. Both Finn and Felix are likely reversed scans of Mituna- this explains why Felix's god tier is a Witch of Life, the reverse of Mituna's Heir of Doom. 

 Wiped memories are kept in the database. They can be retrieved and returned. 

JANITOR KANAYA WITH A BENDY STRAW CANON WE DID IT FOLKS 

 Sollux can send a message to Dirk for us. Tell him that we love him and we're working hard. 

END OF DAY 14

DAY 15

We have a lil more information on seadwellers from yesterday. Apparently CC has two sectors that are completely underwater. Seadwellers use waterproof laptops, which are "like the laptops everyone else uses, but wet." Condy most likely has two offices, one above and one below the water.

lotta new discords today!!!!! We can now talk to Tavros, Nepeta, Vriska, Terezi, Feferi, and Jake. thanks to everyone who subjected themselves to public humiliation for this   

 While most of the characters havent been online yet, Tavros talked to a few of us earlier!!! He's extremely sweet. As far as information goes, there were a few new discoveries.

 Tavros is very kind and trusting, he trusted me enough pretty much right away to tell me about Sollux showing him bees, which he had been told not to share. He even blocked Ardent pretty much automatically when Isi told him to. 

 Sollux refers to Tavros strictly by his ID, even though we know that he knows his name. Tavros says Sollux just does it to be respectful. They are good friends, and Sollux told Tavros about bees!!! 

 Humans are ranked higher than bronzebloods within the CC heirarchy; they hold roughly the same rank as jadebloods. 

 Terezi tends to take the heirarchy pretty seriously, and seems suspicious of how we managed to contact her. She works in paperwork (writing and filling it in), and draws with sharpies in her spare time. She likes the other tealbloods she works with and also likes the janitors, especially Kanaya. 

The tiaras almost absolutely have some type of healing/sustaining power- Tavros's legs were broken, but they magically healed.

 It seems that Dave, Rosaline, and Rose still have yet to return. 

Lastly, daven’t and i are now official invitees of the tour, as a few members of the og16 elected to step down.

 END OF DAY 15

[botgalhs]

@achromaticbibliophile requested a fic where Kankri was crushing on Rufioh, either red or black. Went with black. I will be honest... I honestly don’t know how to write Rufioh for shit, but I tried my best. I’m sorry if it’s not quite what you had in mind, hope you might like some part or other of it regardless.

Also I didn’t want to deal with typing quirks and such, so I just wrote them typing as if trolls write normally.

It all started out as a chat. Nothing more, nothing less.

Kankri was just in the midst of yet another one of his rule-breaking forays on the internet while his culler was away. He was in the midst of searching for some bit of information or another, if pressed he really wouldn't be able to recall just what it was. Then, out of the corner of his eye, he saw the little chat client application tab that he had minimized begin to blink.

Someone was attempting to message him.

He pulled up the window to see who would be messaging him, but his brow furrowed when he saw their trolltag. It resounded some form of familiarity or other in him, but for the life of him he couldn't remember what or whom. Still, he was curious, and  decided to try for the risk anyhow. He set his fingers to the keys to respond to the initial message.

AT: Hey, you're Kankri, right?

CG: … This is he. Can I ask who I'm speaking to? I don't think I know your tag.

AT: Oh, right. Sorry. I guess we didn't talk much when we first met. My name's Rufioh. Rufioh Nitram. I'm a friend of Meenah's. I think we've been part of group chats a few times?

That did sound somewhat familiar, thinking back. And the name 'Rufioh' wasn't all too unfamiliar, now that he saw it typed out.

CG: I see. Well, I apologize for my hesitance. Can I help you with something?

AT: Well, not really help, I guess? It's more of a... more of a question, really. I mean... you're culled, right?

His fingers lifted from the keys for a moment, mouth thinned. Well, maybe he should have expected these sort of question sooner or later, with half his friends being highbloods, and the rest assumedly able-bodied enough to make it on their own without a culler. Still, it sent a bit of a sting into him that was unavoidably heavy.

CG: … Yes. I am. Why?

AT: Oh, well, sorry if I offended you or anything. I mean, man, I really hope I'm not insulting you by asking this, but... what's it like? Being culled? Is it good? Bad? Do you like it?

Kankri couldn't help curling his fingers up to his palms, biting his lower lip between his teeth. He shot a look over his shoulder, as if expecting his culler to be right there, looking over his shoulder. She was not, of course. She would be out for another couple of hours at least. Still, his fingers trembled a bit as he slowly typed out a reply.

CG: It's... I don't really like it. My culler is pretty strict. She feeds me and takes care of me well, but she doesn't let me do a lot of things. I don't really go outside a lot without her, and she's really strict on mealtimes and bedtimes. And

He paused again, right before continuing the sentence. His mind was right on the subject of that 'and'. 'And' she put him through a quadrant he didn't want from her, that he absolutely hated and wished she would stop even though she didn't and probably never would. His breath caught in his throat, then was hissed out.

CG: Never mind, forget the last part.

AT: Wow. That, uh... that doesn't sound too good.

CG: Not really.

AT: So... you don't like being culled, then? That, uh... that's good to know.

CG: Why do you want to know, anyway? If you're worried about it, there's not much reason to. As long as you don't get badly hurt or lose your lusus at some point, the highbloods would have no reason to cull you. I'm culled because there wasn't a lusus who wanted me.

Because he was a mutant. Though he didn't want to have to spell that out in particular.

AT: Oh. Well, um... curious, mostly, I guess.

CG: Kind of an odd thing to be curious about.

AT: I mean... Hey, could you keep a secret? I know this is kind of sudden, but, if you really want to know...

CG: … If you wanted to tell me, sure. I could promise not to tell anyone.

AT: Oh, um, okay. Well, uh... You see, the reason I asked was... technically, I think I'm supposed to be culled. Should have been? Something.

CG: Should have been? Why weren't you, then? Why would you have needed to be culled? Are you unwell?

AT: No no, nothing like that. See, the thing is... I'm kind of a mutant.

Kankri felt his blood pusher thump. A mutant? Like him? More text appeared on the screen before he could even begin to respond.

AT: I've got these wings, you see. I think they might have missed me or something when I crawled out of the caverns? My lusus found me and took me away, and I've been hiding them for a long time. I know I probably should've been culled, but I've heard some things about culling that weren't so great. So I wanted to ask you. Since I saw something about you being called in some other chat. I felt kind of guilty sometimes about not being culled like I maybe should be, because of my mutation, sometimes, but I wanted to hear from someone firsthand how it really was. So, thanks for taking a load off my mind. I don't think I would have wanted that, sounds super strict and junk.

AT:... Are you still there? … Kankri?... Kankri?

CG:... Don't ever message me about this again, Rufioh. I mean it.

AT: Oh, man. I made you mad, didn't I? Jeez, I'm super sorry. I didn't mean to make you upset or anything.

CG: Just stop. Please. I have to go now.

AT: Kankri, wait!

CG: Goodbye.

He gripped his hands at his side as he clicked himself invisible on the chat client. His teeth were grinding just thinking about the conversation he'd just had.

He wanted to know because he was curious about being culled? What was that, a fascination? A passing notion to want to know what it was like to live under a highblood's thumb? Why? If Rufioh did have a mutation, something so noticeable like wings, and managed to get out of being culled, why would he ever think that it was something he would want to have happen to him?!

And being so nonchalant about it? As if someone would ever willingly walk into the sort of life Kankri absolutely loathed!

He clutched his hand at his chest, feeling his blood-pusher beating hot under the skin. Just thinking about the conversation he'd just left was making him furious. Still, he sat there, breathing in and out, trying to calm himself down. His culler would be home soon, take things one step at a time. First erase all traces in his chat history that he'd talked to anyone while they were away, turn off the husktop and put it back at the charger where it was before. Then go up to his respite block and try to breathe easy. Couldn't appear agitated when his culler returned.

He just couldn't help it, though. Every time he thought of that bronze-colored text, surely the same as the troll with normal blood but still a mutation to his name, it just got his blood pusher racing again with that dark, burning feeling. He was just so angry, but he didn't know why.

After perhaps half an hour of lying there, he heard his name being called, but finally felt he was calm enough to greet his culler. With a sigh, he pushed himself up from the bed, and made his way downstairs.

Knowing that, even if he couldn't quite place the reason for all the anger he was feeling from their talk, if he ever met this Rufioh Nitram in person, first thing he was going to do was punch him in the face.