3 things: thunderstorms; food allergies; troll lifespans & population estimates
1. I like thunderstorms. I like them a LOT. But I like them best when I am safely warm, dry, and indoors -- though if I must be caught outside during a wrath-of-god downpour, at least it's better to be walking home than walking to work. At home, I can promptly change into warm and dry clothes. :-)
(This brought to you by the two thunderstorms that have graced Ithaca with their presence over the past twenty-four hours.)
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2. If I take a Benadryl beforehand, I can safely eat a single BLT sandwich despite my allergy to raw tomatoes. However, I cannot also drink milk with that meal, or even within a couple hours after the fact. Something about that combination either negates the effect of the Benadryl or sets off a weird combination effect that mimics a mild allergy attack that no amount of further Benadryl will fix.
I know this. It has happened twice before. And yet for some reason I decided to drink milk to accompany a cookie shortly after finishing dinner this evening. *headdesk*
I really hope the third time is the charm for learning this particular lesson.
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3. Apropos of nothing in particular, I have been thinking about troll lifespans in Homestuck, and I have reached the conclusion that a Fibonacci-style sequence is the most elegant pattern for them to follow. For example, say Aradia's highest potential lifespan is 20 sweeps (or 43.3 years). If we then posit Tavros at 30 sweeps, and Sollux at 50, you can go on from there via simple addition: Karkat at 80, Nepeta at 130, Kanaya at 210, Terezi at 340, Vriska at 550, Equius at 890, Gamzee at 1,440, Eridan at 2,330, and Feferi at 3,770 (or 8,168.3 years).
(Note: I am assigning Karkat what I assume would be a typical limeblood lifespan, since that is his position in the trolls' internet contact list and therefore in the zodiac. Given cherub blood colors, I think it's not too farfetched to assume candy red blood is a mutation specific to limebloods, and, weirdly enough, may have helped him survive his childhood given that all actual limebloods were wiped out on Alternia.)
Anyway, you can tweak the numbers a little, maybe start Aradia out with a longer potential life. For example, put her at 30, Tavros at... hmm... 40, Sollux 70, Karkat 110, Nepeta 180, Kanaya 290, Terezi 470, Vriska 760, Equius 1,230, Gamzee 1,990, Eridan 3,220, and Feferi 5,210 sweeps (or 11,288.3 years). The main constraint I can see is that jadeblood lifespans need to be long enough for the Dolorosa to still be in decent shape by the time she becomes Mindfang's slave, while also allowing time for Mindfang to grow up and establish her reputation as a gamblignant in a world where the Sufferer's story had been pretty thoroughly erased (and I doubt that erasure happened overnight; people cling very tenaciously to inspiring stories). But I think the basic pattern is sound.
Those lifespans also make obvious just how much the population must be weighted toward trolls with rust, brown, and yellow blood. Actually, you can Fibonacci sequence population levels in reverse: for every 1 troll born with tyrian blood, there are 2 with violet, 3 indigo, 5 blue, 8 cerulean, 13 teal, 21 jade, 34 olive, 55 lime (except actually none), 89 yellow, 144 brown, and 233 rust. Except I think you'd have to cube the numbers to get a reasonable population size. That would mean that for every tyrian troll born on Alteria, 12,649,337 rustblood trolls would be born, 2,985,984 brown, 704,969 yellow, 166,375 lime (except actually none), 39,304 olive, 9,261 jade, 2,197 teal, 512 cerulean, 125 blue, 27 indigo, and 8 violet. Which comes to roughly 16.4 million trolls born every sweep (not counting the missing limebloods). Presumably most tyrian grubs don't survive to find their would-be lusus, either because they fail the trials or because the custodians of the birthing caverns cull them until the current Heiress fails to overthrown the Condesce.
These are very rough estimates at best, since I think jade is supposed to be a fairly rare blood caste, and there are now canonically trolls with blood colors in between the twelve who play Sgrub, but I think they're a reasonable starting point if nothing else.
Hmm. Based on those figures, I should go back and change the blood colors of the nameless Flarp players in "Sing a Song of Sixpence."
*makes note*
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(This brought to you by the two thunderstorms that have graced Ithaca with their presence over the past twenty-four hours.)
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2. If I take a Benadryl beforehand, I can safely eat a single BLT sandwich despite my allergy to raw tomatoes. However, I cannot also drink milk with that meal, or even within a couple hours after the fact. Something about that combination either negates the effect of the Benadryl or sets off a weird combination effect that mimics a mild allergy attack that no amount of further Benadryl will fix.
I know this. It has happened twice before. And yet for some reason I decided to drink milk to accompany a cookie shortly after finishing dinner this evening. *headdesk*
I really hope the third time is the charm for learning this particular lesson.
-----
3. Apropos of nothing in particular, I have been thinking about troll lifespans in Homestuck, and I have reached the conclusion that a Fibonacci-style sequence is the most elegant pattern for them to follow. For example, say Aradia's highest potential lifespan is 20 sweeps (or 43.3 years). If we then posit Tavros at 30 sweeps, and Sollux at 50, you can go on from there via simple addition: Karkat at 80, Nepeta at 130, Kanaya at 210, Terezi at 340, Vriska at 550, Equius at 890, Gamzee at 1,440, Eridan at 2,330, and Feferi at 3,770 (or 8,168.3 years).
(Note: I am assigning Karkat what I assume would be a typical limeblood lifespan, since that is his position in the trolls' internet contact list and therefore in the zodiac. Given cherub blood colors, I think it's not too farfetched to assume candy red blood is a mutation specific to limebloods, and, weirdly enough, may have helped him survive his childhood given that all actual limebloods were wiped out on Alternia.)
Anyway, you can tweak the numbers a little, maybe start Aradia out with a longer potential life. For example, put her at 30, Tavros at... hmm... 40, Sollux 70, Karkat 110, Nepeta 180, Kanaya 290, Terezi 470, Vriska 760, Equius 1,230, Gamzee 1,990, Eridan 3,220, and Feferi 5,210 sweeps (or 11,288.3 years). The main constraint I can see is that jadeblood lifespans need to be long enough for the Dolorosa to still be in decent shape by the time she becomes Mindfang's slave, while also allowing time for Mindfang to grow up and establish her reputation as a gamblignant in a world where the Sufferer's story had been pretty thoroughly erased (and I doubt that erasure happened overnight; people cling very tenaciously to inspiring stories). But I think the basic pattern is sound.
Those lifespans also make obvious just how much the population must be weighted toward trolls with rust, brown, and yellow blood. Actually, you can Fibonacci sequence population levels in reverse: for every 1 troll born with tyrian blood, there are 2 with violet, 3 indigo, 5 blue, 8 cerulean, 13 teal, 21 jade, 34 olive, 55 lime (except actually none), 89 yellow, 144 brown, and 233 rust. Except I think you'd have to cube the numbers to get a reasonable population size. That would mean that for every tyrian troll born on Alteria, 12,649,337 rustblood trolls would be born, 2,985,984 brown, 704,969 yellow, 166,375 lime (except actually none), 39,304 olive, 9,261 jade, 2,197 teal, 512 cerulean, 125 blue, 27 indigo, and 8 violet. Which comes to roughly 16.4 million trolls born every sweep (not counting the missing limebloods). Presumably most tyrian grubs don't survive to find their would-be lusus, either because they fail the trials or because the custodians of the birthing caverns cull them until the current Heiress fails to overthrown the Condesce.
These are very rough estimates at best, since I think jade is supposed to be a fairly rare blood caste, and there are now canonically trolls with blood colors in between the twelve who play Sgrub, but I think they're a reasonable starting point if nothing else.
Hmm. Based on those figures, I should go back and change the blood colors of the nameless Flarp players in "Sing a Song of Sixpence."
*makes note*
You can also read this entry on Dreamwidth, where there are currently (
comments)