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fantroll-purgatory · 6 years

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I wanted to create a sort of brief guide to lunar sway and aspect personality traits, because I know a lot of people have trouble figuring out where to place their characters!

This guide cannot tell you what personality to give your characters entirely, but it can give you some general rules that apply to each category to help you work out what you want out of your characters- whether you want them to start that way or whether you think they should develop into that category.

I won’t cover titles here (if you want some more information about all of that you can head over to classpeculation) because that’d get too cluttered and we still don’t have TONS of canon information on that.

Now let’s get started!

LUNAR SWAY

PROSPIT: Flexible and relatively optimistic, reactive, intuitive. They’re very in-the-moment, don’t worry much over the past or future. Impulsive, make gut decisions, let their emotions and feelings towards people influence the choices they make. Creative and good at finding alternate solutions.

Not as prone to rebellion- they tend to find ways to adapt and live within a world, changing themselves rather than trying too hard to change the nature of things. They like having rules and a sense of order, though they may all operate by differing sets of rules.

They tend towards trusting. They don’t like hiding themselves and are often bad at it, might not even consider doing it. They project who they are openly. This doesn’t mean they can’t have doubts or shame- they can worry about what others think, too. But they’re not the kind to smother who they are.

As TR often points out, they have a strong focus on destiny. Characters that want to follow a path will probably lean towards this Lunar Sway.

DERSE: Dissatisfied. Whoever they are, they are in some way displeased with themselves and/or the world around them. They want something to rail against, and depending on the character this can range from silly to serious (as the extended zodiac puts it: whether they’re rebelling against a fascist dictatorship or the most recent trend in casual footwear).

Tend to feel disconnected from the world around them. Unlike Prospit dreamers, they try very hard to project a particular image of themselves out to the world. They have a tendency towards masking insecurities in many differing ways.

They try to control how they are seen in the world. They’re more pessimistic, but more rational. They’re not as likely to charge into decision-making emotions first. Not as trusting and more closed off. It takes a lot of effort to get a Derse dreamer to open up. But once you’ve got them, they’re very loyal. They also tend to fixate on the past or the future- what things they did wrong or how they’re going to continue to manage in the world.

ASPECTS

BREATH: Flexible and driven. They’re the aspect of the Quest, the Journey. They have a mission and they’re very dedicated to Being On It. They’re highly independent and can be kind of hard to bind to a group, as they mostly want to do their own thing.

However, they’re really good at weaving themselves into the story on accident. The pursuit of their own goals can draw other people in. They’re a leader without meaning to be, a massive influence and a pillar to everyone who meets them. This can be kind of confusing and surprising for someone who is so wrapped up in their own interests.

They’re motivated and always trying to move forward.

BLOOD: The spiritual leader. They surround themselves with others and the more bonds they have the more responsible they are. They’re motivators and advice-givers. They tend to be more grounded.

Though they might not always be the Most responsible themselves, it’s something they should strive to, and they try to motivate others even when they’re not in the best positions themselves.

They’re committed. If they’ve dedicated themselves to something, they’re on board all the way down. And they’ll probably do their best to give faith to everyone else to see it through as well.

They can be hard-headed, but they’re very good at drawing people together.

LIGHT: They Wanna Know. That’s the best way to describe them. They aggressively seek knowledge. They’re interested in finding more, always finding out more. Unearthing secrets is important to them. Hidden mysteries are no match for the might of the light player.

They’re good analysts, too. They find connections between information like no one else. They explore and combine and figure out, like the world’s most magical detectives. They can be so driven to find knowledge that it will bother the people around them (and can lead them to dark places, cough cough grimdark).

They also don’t care much for rules. The light-bound will find ways to work around things, even if they have to be sneaky and underhanded to do it. It’s also notable that they’re associated with luck.

VOID: Masters of secrets and of empty spaces. They’re not scared of dipping into the unexplored. Though they may often be found on the borders of people’s perceptions, that doesn’t make them any less important or any less active in the group. They can be key players just by being there to do a little obfuscation- they want to develop the unique and new and aren’t afraid of a fresh slate.

They’re skeptics by nature. They’re not prone to believing what everyone else does and will call things into question if they think they’re bogus, or will try to make people rethink their positions.

However, they don’t desperately seek new information to fill the void (haha)- they’re fine with living with a little uncertainty- they know that it’s always going to be there.

TIME: They’re the fighters. They’re not happy to just let bygones be bygones, to let anything lie. It is in their nature to want change and want it now. The world can seem a little against them sometimes, but they’re also very against the world, so that’s just fine, sort of.

They want action and they don’t want to just sit back, even if it’s dangerous. Think the young Handmaid choosing to fight Doc Scratch even when it meant being suffocated in space.

They’re not likely to focus on the Method to getting there as much as they care about getting to where they Want to be, tactics be damned. You can probably find a lot of people with a “the ends justify the means” mentality falling under this aspect.

SPACE: In contrast with time, the space-bound are big-picture thinkers. They aren’t as likely to jump to action immediately, but that doesn’t mean that want to passively sit back and accept things. They just know that it’s sometimes necessary to play the long game. “Rome wasn’t built in a day” and all that.

They like to see what they learn along the way. They do want to get where they’re going, but they’re not in any rush. They know that every step along the way is just as important as the final goal.

They love to recycle and renew. They’ll take the old and make it fresh, building up something beautiful where once there was trash. They’re creators by nature.

LIFE: Empaths at heart, they have a tendency towards being able to understand deeply what others are going through (whether or not they sympathize, of course, is... up to the character). They’re considered healers, and this can be both physical (think of how Jane is able to create life, or Feferi changing the state of life by making the dreambubbles available to her dead pals) or emotional.

Sometimes they can give tough love, though. They’ll tell you what they think you need to hear even if you’re not particularly interested in hearing what they have to say. They’re interested in Progress, though the idea of what counts as progress largely depends on their social position.

They do tend to put the needs of others before their own sometimes, but they can easily trap themselves in a cycle of embitterment if they make themselves the Therapist Friend.

DOOM: They are victims of inevitability. Turmoil repeatedly finds them in unfortunate places and they’re voted most likely to die A Lot, or otherwise come into quite a bit of harm. Still, this makes them interesting folks. They’re great shoulders to lean on and are great listeners.

They can be a little frustrated with how the world treats them and might seem like the cranky sort. But they’re still great to have around and they can be pretty wise.

They’re not necessarily martyrs, but it wouldn’t be unexpected to find them in a position where they have to sacrifice their well-being for their team, A Lot, whether they like it or not.

HEART: Passionate. They’re a self-focused bunch. The heart is all about the self and so the self is what tends to dominate the life of the heart-bound. They can be fixated on themselves, though they’re not necessarily vain. They just want to know who they are.

They’re very interested in a cohesive identity. Funnily enough, though, this fixation does often lead to a splintering of self. They play around with alternate versions of themselves. Through roleplay or writing or creating AI duplicates, they put on masks and try to create a very specific narrative of their lives.

They fall under the impression that other people care as much about their identities as them and that can strain relationships somewhat- but it’s still possible for them to care deeply about their friends. It’s just that the battle of trying to figure out who they are and trying to work everyone into their little self-built world can be... taxing, for relationships. Still, when they come to terms with themselves they can be steady and confident and reassuring.

MIND: Mind over matter! The mind-bound don’t care much about their cohesive identity as those who fall under the banner of heart. What matters to them is the action, the rationality and the working things out. Who they are at the moment depends on what makes the most sense to them, not necessarily on what’s the most “In Character” (which is something their heart-bound buddies might worry about).

They think a lot. A lot a lot. A lot a lot a lot. This often means that they find themselves overwhelmed with thought, paralyzed by how many routes and options and choices there are. Still, when they make a decision, you know it’s one that’s been hard-battled in their mind and they’ve already figured all the details out.

Their focus on rationality can sometimes make them a little emotionally careless, though.

HOPE: They have strong convictions and that’s the best thing you can say about them. They have a bit of black and white thinking about what’s right and wrong. They have hard and fast rules that they live by and they think everyone else should live by them, too. They follow these rules because they think they’re Right. This can be a little troublesome when their view of what’s “right” is very distorted from what is generally morally acceptable.

They’re willing to do whatever they have to do to make it happen, too. Even though they’re conditional optimists, they understand that sometimes you have to break a few eggs to make a cake. Getting their hands a little dirty isn’t off the table for the rougher of the hope-bound.

They think a lot about imagination and fantasy. They like believing in the truth of Potential and the idea that they can wish an ideal world into existence if they just try hard enough.

RAGE: Similar to the hope-bound, they have strong beliefs about how things should be. More specifically, they believe that the true nature of things needs to be exposed. They believe that if something is distorted or a lie, it inherently needs to be torn apart and destroyed. They believe that truth outweighs the good. Of course, their idea of truth is Inherently Subjective.

They’re rebellious and anarchic in nature. They hate rules and regulations and want things stripped to the bare, unfiltered essentials. They’re stubborn and hard to convince and cling to beliefs no matter how bizarre. They dislike stability and like to create confusion and doubt and just a little bit of a mess.

They can be creative and can point out when things are really wrong, but they can also be just a little disconcerting in how much they seek to just kind of... mix every possible thing up.

#homestuck #lunar sway #aspects #resources

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brieflygorgeouss · 6 years

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this place is a shelter

Future has never meant much to Andrew.

The awareness of it comes and goes, mostly. A useless concept. Future is an overused phrase on TV and on the radio, a battered word, a worn out set of sounds. As if plans were important, and arrangements, and deals, as if they were worth the all-around hunt in the first place. And even if Andrew did get swept up in it too, briefly, it was a mistake he is now aware of. A future is not meant for people like him, not exactly. It is for everyone else.

Anyone else.

He learns to put deals and arrangements in its place, instead. As a way of protection for others more than for himself, a safety seal, a guarantee of a promise, everything a future is not. Andrew learns how to use his knifes effectively, if need be, and how to make people back away with a single glance, how to make them not want to come near at all. It is a seamless transition, he likes to think — from a boy with too high hopes to a person with no desires at all.

And then, Neil Josten happens.

He is like a thunderstorm — Andrew notices the first, second, third drop of rain on his skin, and then it turns into a downpour. A flood. Neil makes him feel too many things at once, things he thought he’d buried in a dark and ancient place never to touch again, and yet, there they are, and there he is. Neil is a terminal illness that settles in and festers, he is a heart failure that happens again and again, he is every disastrous thing that exists all at once.

He is none of those things, too.

Waking up to him is easier than most things in Andrew’s life have ever been. Falling asleep as well. Neil’s presence makes the sharpest of Andrew’s edges soften a bit, makes the tension seep away, and the lack of control is both unnerving and unexpected. Andrew watches him like he watches anyone else, and sees — catalogs the way Neil stretches in the mornings before he gets up, the way his eyes shine after a game, how the world seems to just ease in when he’s around.

Andrew was never looking for an answer.

It came to him anyway.

———

Neil assembles his body around Andrew’s under the covers, an inch of space between them, molds himself accordingly. Close enough to feel the heat. Far enough not to set any violent reactions into motion, because they both know they still happen sometimes. It’s like an art project — precarious lines, careful arches, wary changes. A construction. That’s what they are, here in the dark.

Andrew can’t see much, but he tries to, anyway. The wall against his back is cold, solid; Neil, in front of him, is warm and relaxed. His hair creates a stark contrast against the pillow; ink black in the nearly nonexistent light where it should be auburn. His left hand rests between them, outstretched like an invitation. Andrew looks at it until he can almost make out all the scars he knows by heart.

I want to live with you, Neil told him on the roof, earlier, with a twist to his mouth and sunlight on his skin. After. What do you say?

They haven’t really talked about it before.

Andrew would be lying if he said he ever thought of it. That’s what years of suppressing the unnecessary reactions did to him, he guesses — at one point, some of the reflexes just stopped altogether. Weakened enough for him to brush them off as nothing. Future is a stupid place to let his mind wander into, so Andrew doesn’t let it happen. Not when everything he is comes down to tamped down knee-jerk reactions, pieces of the few poorly sewn-together personality traits that somehow no one managed to take away from him. He’s aware of this.

But Andrew would be lying if he said he never thought about it as well.

The thing about Neil is this — when he’s around, Andrew doesn’t need to imagine what could be, in some distant place in a hypothetical time. The images are already there, uninvited but persistent anyway. Andrew can make out the shape of it all even if he doesn’t want to, and it’s daunting. The familiarity he never asked for slides over his skin and creeps into his bones, makes them a little less heavy than what Andrew’s used to. It’s an addictive sensation. Destructive and violent like a car crash.

It’s there when Neil’s making coffee in the mornings and when he steals Andrew’s cigarettes after practice and when looking at Andrew is the last thing he does before he falls asleep and the first after he wakes up, when he watches like he’s afraid that Andrew will vanish between one breath and the next.

Andrew can understand that.

He looks at Neil until his eyelids start to feel heavy, listens to his breathing until the sound turns into a low buzz in the back of his mind. Wonders why a boy who never had anything as much as resembling home now suddenly wants to build one. Why the hell he wants to drag Andrew into it.

———

Neil takes his own unanswered question, folds it carefully in half and puts away in what seems like the most private corner of his mind, because he doesn’t mention it again for a while. Days that turn into weeks that turn into months.

Andrew wants to take it from him and smooth it back out, but doesn’t. He has an answer now, he thinks, through the hazy unsettlement of uncertainty. Faint disturbance on the outskirts of his mind. But it can wait.

When it comes again, it is a low hum muttered into Andrew’s neck, searing hot touch pressed into his skin, Neil’s fingers splayed against Andrew’s ribs, warmth seeping in through the clothing layers. The question’s not as bold as it was before, Andrew thinks as he tightens his fingers in Neil’s hair and swallows down a feeling dangerously similar to relief, unforeseen and unusual. The syllables of it are cramped together this time, like Neil is hesitating. He bites his lip like he didn’t mean for the words to slip at all. His face is like a puzzle with one piece missing.

”Well,” Andrew says, and the answer feels raw on his tongue. ”Someone has to make sure you don’t run again.”

There is a beat of silence, and then Neil huffs out a breath, of surprise and something else. A smile spills over his features, twists them into something lighter. Andrew wants to tell him to stop. Wants to bottle the moment up and hide it away.

”It’s a yes, then,” Neil says, low.

”It is not a no,” Andrew tells him. It feels tender and vulnerable like a bruise.

The absence of objection is not consent. Neil knows this. He moves away an inch Andrew immediately wants to claim back, looks at him for a long second until Andrew spits out a yes, idiot. It tastes like affinity.

Neil presses the shape of his smile into the skin of Andrew’s neck, then, wide and private, and Andrew lets him. He moves his hands down Neil’s neck, past his shoulders, to his chest. The heartbeat he feels under his palms is almost as rapid as his own.

”I think we’re going to be horrible at this,” the boy who’s never had a home tells him, sweet-eyed where he used to be hollow. The words sound idiotically happy, like he’s already excited about the failure they are yet to cause.

”You are horrible at everything you do anyway,” Andrew reminds him, then kisses away whatever stupid response Neil might think of.

———

Words like home or trust or safety are meaningless to him. Andrew takes his knifes everywhere he goes for a reason, leaves the past behind but doesn’t forget the lessons it taught him. Reluctant survival is engraved into his skin. Home was never a real concept. Future was never an idea meant for him.

And yet, one day Andrew opens his eyes and there it is.

He is twenty-four years old. It is more than he ever expected to be, once, in some twisted, ugly way that used to be the default and now seems grey and stained. He is twenty-four, with his own in-and-out apartment, another key in his pocket, lease he needs to pay. He sleeps with his back to the wall and smokes cigarettes on the windowsill in the living room. Makes space for someone else to fit in beside, in his bed and his closet and his mind. Gives him the second key.

”Another one to add to your unhealthy collection,” he says as Neil carefully curls his fingers around the piece of metal as if it was anything more than exactly that. The light of the street lamp coming in through the window makes the lines of his face look sharp and prominent like battle scars. Maybe that’s what they are. Andrew tells him, lips curling around a cigarette, ”You’re getting fucking spoilt.”

”And whose fault is that?” is the response. Neil sounds like he always does — too real and like he knows something Andrew doesn’t. It’s infuriating. Andrew thinks about the memory of digging his fingers into the skin of Neil’s shoulders until he shuddered. Pushes the thought away.

”Yours,” he says and blows the cigarette smoke out, then turns to Neil. His eyes catch on Neil’s sharp smile and stay there.

The tilt of Neil’s mouth is like a scratch on a glass surface, growing sharper in a way that means it’s special. Andrew knows it’s a rare, brief occurrence. He’s seen, sealed and preserved every single one.

He wants to wipe the smile off Neil’s face. Pin it in place so it stays a little longer this time.

Neil doesn’t say ”That’s a lie”. He doesn’t say ”Half of the keys I have used to be yours”.

They both know.

———

Neil is terribly real. With his patchwork body, hurt etched into his hands and his chest and his face; with his frayed promises and hard-won truths and Exy obsession. Andrew is not used to the infectious feeling of existence Neil carries with himself everywhere he goes, handles it like it weighs nothing. It makes Andrew’s chest feel smaller than it really is. Fills it with something Andrew has yet to properly name.

It is a promise that was made once, Andrew guesses. Something about yes and no and staying. Andrew remembers it word for word. An answer of sorts. Maybe a future, at last.

It’s enough.

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