#which uh. OOF. not touchin that rn

[catman-draws]

In regards to the Lusus ask I actually have a headcanon around that! Trolls must be really self sufficient even as grubs. Because they are the ones who design their Hives and instruct the carpenter drones. (Maybe the drones are made with low bloods who had psychic capabilities to communicate with them????) I feel like they mostly must take care of themselves when it comes to cleaning/eating/moving around and that the Lusus are actually for protecting them from the harsh environment of Alternia. They protect the trolls from other non guardian/more monstrous Lusii. The lower your blood the weaker your Lusii and chances to live and the higher your blood the crueler your Lusii is but also teaches you your place. Like Feferi has to constantly hunt and feed her lusus training her to be good Empress (except Eridan did it lol) even Terezi’s Lusus could kill off threats psychically since we know it’s aware. The only truly stupid design I believe is Sollux’s lusus. Poor fucking guy chained to the roof his whole life.

- Trash

Eh-

I dunno. Canon describes it as a mutualism where the lusus cares for the troll as a guardian while the troll cares for the lusus as a zookeeper would.

I sorta agree? Trolls do seem to be relatively self sufficient- but I doubt they come straight from the caverns Fully Ready To GO. Like I guess that makes sense for Bugs, but eh. If it was all about protection rather than care, I don't think it would be a lifelong relationship.

I think it's sorta more dependent on lusus species, rather than caste. IE, species that tend to care for their young vs species that typically don't; plus just individual personality and environment and whatnot.

And like yeah, they have to design their own hives and stuff but uh. They're aren't actually very good at it. Idr who, but someone (Vriska?) definitely says that that's stupid and they hate their design.

Plus, it's the lusus that chooses their troll. It feels kinda weird that they would choose to take care of a baby and then. Not really do much to actually care for it.

I don't really like the idea of caste deciding the inherent cruelty of a lusus, though. That just sorta leaves a bad taste. Like, The Hemospectrum 2- This Time It's Animals

Like Gl'bgolyb did demand constant feeding- but that wasn't out of cruelty? She was just enormous and needed to be fed to keep her voice down (she WAS a horrorterror) so everyone on the planet didn't die. It's just that that ended up being a very hard task for Feferi to do alone, thus why she had Eridan kill lusi for her (which is what ultimately kept her trapped in that horrible moirallegiance). (iirc, i'm pretty sure Feferi even says her lusus was very nice, just misunderstood? something like that)

And I think the most Pyralsprite could really do (pre-hatching) was communicate psychically- I don't remember her being able to do much more than that from the egg.

And I think maybe my biggest thing against this is goatdad and Gamzee. In canon (i think Karkat says this?) it says that Gamzee started eating sopor (and joined the clown cult) because goatdad wasn't around to tell him not to (or interact with him At All really. Gamzee spent most of his time waiting for him to come back.)

TLDR; Protection as a Main Thing makes sense to me- but I don't think it would be the Only Thing.

Even with the apparent self-sufficiency of trolls, lusi are still their guardians, and there's too much of an emotional connection for me to not to think there must be more. (Especially with their many comparisons to the human guardians)

But most importantly, yeah, that poor fucking bicyclops.

What was the deal with that guy?