Reread log. 97

Last time the story was focused on Terezi attempting to recruit her team for “the game”. This attempt was going poorly as her friends all had excuses to delay any commitment to the game. But Karkat wanted leadership of the team so Terezi just gave it to him. We then got a look into a future where Karkat is already in the medium, his home was covered in paint and modified by Terezi’s blind gaming.

We go back to a time prior to this skip to when Karkat was about to confront the crabby neighbour living below him. He had dropped a vault through his floor which was no dough upsetting to the one living below him. He faces a giant white crab monster.

He mentions this is his Lusus Naturae and Custodian. I assume that the custodian is the relationship between the trolls and these creatures, and a Lusus is the creature? Lusus meaning “freak” and Naturae Meaning untamed. This creature apparently raised Karkat. Trolls do not have parents. Karkat describes that imperial drones carry Filial Pails (based on websters this is just a bucket relating to offspring. I’ll leave that to your imagination. This bucket is tossed into a slurry by the Mother Grub who produces thousands of eggs. Those eggs hatch into larvae which metamorphosis into the more humanoid-like forms. After some trials in the deep underground a lusus may adopt them to raise on the surface. They use droids to build a hive, then once adults, they leave the planet. It makes sense that the Trolls we’ve met are only “teens”.

Anyway this fight isn't met with a cool animation sequence. We are given a bit of a cool track from Toby Fox but just told to imagine how cool the fight was. I guess someone was feeling tired that day. We are told that Karkat ended the fight by feeding the lusus. He describes the relationship as being codependent as he is protected by the creature but must also care for it on some levels.

Then we’re introduced to the next troll. We’d seen them as twinArmageddons [TA]. We had seen them before helping grimAuxiliatrix [GA] with her computer. We get the intro explaining how cool he is, almost Dave likes his coolness. But he is also moody as hell. We the readers are told to F#%K off. If I had to guess, the character's obsession with duality is some sort of split personality or bi-polar disorder.

Anyway we are introduced instead to a cat-troll living in a cave? Nope GA changed his mind and decided it's his turn.

His name is Sollux Captor, He confirms his bipolar disorder. He’s a computer wiz as we already know. He claims he can hear the voices of the dead with his mutant brain, or see visions of the the future? He knows this game he has adapted will somehow be necessary to save his people but he doesn't know how.

He apparently doesn't need an inventory modus as he has psionic abilities. In demonstrating his psionic abilities he manages to slice open one of his Beehouse Mainframes with a giant ninja star. This seems to be a server made out of a large beehive. Obviously slicing it in half made the bees unhappy. But he just makes them sleep with his power. He mentions the mind honey that came oozing out should never be eaten. He uses this to feed his lusus.

Sollux contacts Terezi. He has picked her as the leader of one of the 2 teams he’s planned for this game. He decides 2 teams will optimize their chances of success. Terezi is on board with this idea but isn't really sure about the whole world ending thing. Sollux points out he isn't the only one with this vision as apocalypseArisen [AA] had also had this. He also predicts before he dies he too will be blind like Terezi. Though everyone dies in his vision his death is the most brutal. Terezi thinks that Sollux might still just be a little melodramatic. She’d confirm with AA but she finds that AA is not fun to talk with these days.