Ticky Mikk (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
dichotomize) wrote2013-03-05 01:43 am
dichotomize) wrote2013-03-05 01:43 am
Question Meme
I AM GOING TO BE AWOL FOR VACAY, but I would like to post at question meme stuff while I'm gone so!
ASK ME QUESTIONS AND THEN I ASK YOU QUESTIONS AND THEN YOU ASK ME QUESTIONS, AD NAUSEUM.
Decollage - Ticky, King/Davesprite
Aather - Elliot
Thoughtformed - Hal Strider/AR
Soul Campaign - Hal Strider/AR
ASK ME QUESTIONS AND THEN I ASK YOU QUESTIONS AND THEN YOU ASK ME QUESTIONS, AD NAUSEUM.
Decollage - Ticky, King/Davesprite
Aather - Elliot
Thoughtformed - Hal Strider/AR
Soul Campaign - Hal Strider/AR
no subject
Hal with a body HAS A LOT OF FEELS. He still tends toward the Strider end of not showing them really overtly, unless they are positive and emotions he is comfortable with, but he's also not a good liar so if he is feeling a thing it's really obvious. The thing is, Hal as a computer ALSO HAS A LOT OF FEELS but they are never in control of him and he never has to show them. In fact, expressing his emotions would take MORE effort, because obviously conveying emotion through text is generally a thing you try to do, and as a super intelligent computer, he only says what he intends to. So it's really easy to watch himself and not let his feelings on, and it would be much harder for him to express himself as a computer. As a human it will be PRETTY OBVIOUS basically all of the time.
This won't necessarily change his feelings on anyone. Like, I guess you could say HE WILL CARE ABOUT DAVE EVEN MORE NOW THAT EMOTION DOMINATES MORE OF HIS THOUGHT PROCESS, but really it's the same amount of caring, just being more swayed by it. But how will things change when Hal's friends have an emotionally reactive, caring, helpful, nosy, involved, and really easy to read Dirk Strider on their hands? IDK 8D; HOW LONG CAN DAVE RESIST THE HUGS. WILL HE LET HAL KISS HIM? WILL VRISKA CONCEDE TO CUDDLES?? WILL KARKAT LET HAL TOUCH HIS NUBS?? WILL HAL GO ON DATES? WILL HE FINALLY YELL AT DIRK FOR BEING A DICK? WILL HE MAKE OUT WITH DIRK?? who knows \=D/ It will be exciting.
Talk to me about Vriska's feels on Hal =3c
no subject
Vriska basically has a lot of feelings about Hal. Like I got stymied on her hearts reply to him. He's the ONLY one I've gotten stuck on so far. Vriska rarely ever talks about her problems. The only time we see her do it in canon is when she is backed into a corner and literally has no one else to turn to but an alien she's known for less than a day. She's freaking out so hard she can't handle it by herself and has to submit her actions to judgment by someone, let's be real, she barely even knows! But it was the only option left for her in a moment where she absolutely needed a listening ear.
That's the sort of circumstance that will make her reveal what she really thinks and feels. Hal got that situation out of her during the truth event. And true to canon, it sort of made her develop a bond with him. He didn't fuck her over, try to blackmail her, judge her, make fun of her, tell her she was weak, or really do any of the bad things she might otherwise expect. (Vriska's opinions of her friends aren't always favorable. She assumes a lot of bad shit out of self-defense.) Hal did something really extraordinary. He started to convince her she's worth something, more than her powers, more than her bravado, more than her legacy. She, the girl herself, Vriska, as an actual fucking person, might be worth something. Contrary to almost everything she's ever been told by everyone that's known her. (Most of the trolls show her derision if not outright fear or hatred in canon. Her few positive relationships are things that she poisons herself and ends up losing anyway.) That just totally blew her away. She's been so horrible and so scared her whole life and is so used to being blown off or teasing or just not, you know, making a big deal out of things. When people actually invest in her and try to work with her it becomes this massive thing for her. (Hence John, and everything she feels about him.)
So Hal's reward for talking with her is her devotion and her loyalty. Which coming from her means a great deal. She was working under the table with Magneto on the body thing until Super New Moore - now she'll probably strike out on her own. But she will pull however many strings necessary to make it happen. Simply put: Vriska adores him. She doesn't quite think about it that way, but she adores him and trusts him more than almost anyone else on the island. To an extent, she relies on him. He can't calm her down like John can, but he can help her see things in ways she hadn't thought of before. He helps her see herself in a new way that ... actually makes her feel less like shit about most of her life? It's kind of amazing. CR I never knew I always wanted, tbqh. He has a fairly profound affect on her that I could never have predicted in advance. (Ngl, I think it is partly to do with the fact that he is a supercomputer. That is, he doesn't let emotional hang ups get in the way - so it's easier to see what he says as some sort of truth or plain-stated fact than opinion, even though it's more like both.) Hal makes her want to try harder, in the same way that Karkat makes her want to. She wants to be that person he seems to believe she can be - someone who surpasses her ancestor by being different, by being better. She wants to live up to that ideal very badly.
Reverse. Tell me Hal's feels on Vriska.
no subject
Hm. the importance of that can't really be understated. Hal has a lot of hang ups regarding the Alpha kids that he doesn't and probably never will articulate. He genuinely and without exception loves them, but none of them have ever really been fully aware of what he is, and it's hard to think of people as friends with they kind of blithely don't consider basic facts about your existence. The closet person to a friend he had before this was Roxy, but Roxy, he is sure, was in part just treating him nicely and like an individual as an emotional outlet for her Dirk feelings. And he doesn't hold that against her! Because he loves her and would do anything for her. Because he understands she's a lonely teenager in love with a gay boy who sometimes fails to provide her any kind of emotional support. But... the fact remains he is something of a Dirk Substitute, without realizing he is actually Dirk Fucking Strider, the same person who knew her years before his creation.
So. He's never had a friend. He's also never had something that is his own, because even if the Alpha kids were his friends, they were really Dirk's friends, and all of AR's feelings are always going to hung up on his origins as Dirk, and parts of his life that he didn't really exist for and doesn't really have any claim to.
This is part of why he's been all over the place and up in everyone's business. Being able to establish relationships that are purely his own is amazing. And Vriska was the first person he felt really connected to, and also the first person he learned he could really care for and empathize with! BTW. HAL ALSO NEVER KNEW HOW SOCIOPATHIC HE WAS 8') Because all his emotions had foundations in Dirk, so he didn't know if he could care about something that Dirk didn't care about. When he saw Vriska struggling with herself he realized he could, which is part of what lead to 'I want to help' and also 'I want to be her friend'.
THAT WAS ALL CALCULATED BTW. He decided that before even talking to her. So. Still manipulative super computer 8') But!! Good intentions, and his caring is genuine.
THAT SAID. HAL IS STILL DIRK STRIDER. His feelings are unapologetic, if perhaps muted or sideways, they are absolute and unrelenting. He likes Vriska a lot, would do just about anything for her because that's what friends do and ESPECIALLY what Dirk Striders do. He really appreciates that she is always straight and honest with him because he knows it is a meaningful thing coming from her. Basically she validates him a lot of ways he's never had before and it's pretty awesome =|a And because he respects the fact that she is so open with him, he makes the conscious effort to do the same. He hasn't told ANYONE else about his intentions to get a body, and he's told her a lot of other things about his feelings and his experience that he wouldn't tell others. He absolutely feels she's earned it, though, and doesn't want to repeat Dirk's mistakes of locking out people by trying to be everything alone. So a lot of his talk with Vriska is kind of... experimental? And frankly will probably never go beyond her. But it is intentional that he is more honest with her. And he hasn't regretted that at all so far.
HOW DOES VRISKA FEEL ABOUT MINDFANG SINCE HER CHAT WITH HAL.
no subject
was vriska also the first person to say out loud that hal was her friend? i forget where she said that. maybe to jake? IDK BUT SHE STAKED HER CLAIM.
I do sort of love that she and Hal share the irons and fires schtick, though he is infinitely better at it than she ever was or could have been. I don't know if she notices he's more honest with her, though - she doesn't stalk his other conversations unless they happen in a space she's already in or they would supremely interest her for some reason.
ANYWAY YOUR QUESTION. Mixed! Very mixed feelings. Vriska has always respected Mindfang so much. Headcanon says that prior to finding Mindfang's journal Vriska was a very serious and somber child. Not that she wasn't prone to emotional outbursts - she was and still is - but she wasn't precocious or cocksure or ridiculous. Not right out the gate. It's my pet theory that she was quite serious and thoughtful, but also terrified of her lusus - that bit is canon. But finding Mindfang's journal was like a how-to guide on living life - and so, utterly enamored and with a head full of romantic dreams (romantic for a troll, anyway), Vriska put on a Mindfang persona, plotted out a Mindfang life, charted out a Mindfang course, and never looked back. Eventually she became the mask she wore, especially as she had to steel herself against the oceans of blood she had to spill to survive. Mindfang also becomes her Flarp character, of course, as an expression of this. It's a sign that she's growing up when the Mindfang mask starts to slip on the meteor and she becomes quite reflective and sober and proves surprisingly deep in her later conversations with John.
In my mind, this is Vriska's arc. She is mature and thoughtful and serious as a child - but, finding a coping mechanism that is basically defined by grandiose bullshit, pulls a 180 and becomes this ridiculous piratical spidery bitch who basically does whatever she wants. And then as she emotionally grows up, some of that thoughtful disposition begins to return.
Mindfang is the mask Vriska always wore. And like I said, Vriska also became that mask - she IS that person, bitchy and a murderer and conniving. There's no part of the person Vriska is in Hivebent that isn't authentic. But it was also created, deliberately. In many ways the person Vriska became was her conscious choice to become.
So imagine doing everything you can to become this person you admire. And at first it works! You're fucking awesome, you gain all the levels and you sail the high seas, you have a kismesis and red ambitions and a moirail and look at you, aren't you doing so well! God. She thought it was serving her. But then things started to go fucking haywire, her demands turned into destruction, everything just went to shit and in the end she was alone. Trying to live her dream, be the person she had to become to survive, ironically ended up destroyed her life.
And then Hal comes along and .... just. Says all those things. Tears down Vriska's expectations and thoughts and beliefs so throughly it is fucking devastation of the highest order. Vriska never cries in canon that we see. Not once. That the things he said to her during the truth event made her cry is monumental. To tear down Mindfang is to tear down Vriska herself. Girl literally does not have any fucking clue who she is without Mindfang.
So reclaiming a sense of identity in the wake of that conversation has honestly been really hard for her. Vriska feels this intense disdain for Mindfang now. It was honestly like flipping a switch. Shit went from "8EST ANCESTOR EVER" to "... ugh, fuck that." literally overnight. ENTIRELY because of that conversation. Mindfang has come to represent in Vriska's mind everything she ever got wrong about her life. (Including her own sense of self.) Mindfang is all the danger and murder and solitude that are now so prohibitive to her. It all sounds very romantic, but to actually live it would be pretty terrible. If anything, Vriska sort of resents Mindfang. Then again, Vriska is always looking for ways to project her issues onto others so as not to take blame herself, so it could just be that Mindfang the Mythological Figure is just a convenient target for her misplaced self-hatred.
That isn't ALL Vriska feels about Mindfang - it's hard to shake off a lifetime of hero worship and she will definitely happily acknowledge the ways in which Mindfang was also this incredibly awesome powerful badass - which she totally was! In those respects she was not the most horrible role model. (Just, you know, close.) So there are ways in which Vriska still respects and admires her and thinks she's gr8. But it sings in dissonance with her simultaneous distaste.
It's all a bit complicated by Aranea being around. And Aranea is rambly and ridiculous and about a bazillionty times nicer than Vriska herself and Vris doesn't know how she feels about Aranea yet.
So basically it's all a big goddamn mess. I can't stop tldr'ing, Aviy, why did you link this.
Hal's thoughts on Dirk, current and after getting a body. How does he feel about "himself" now that he's got an actual social circle and an actual life that is purely his and not a hand-me-down of Dirk's? Also and relatedly, what does he think of Bro?
no subject
Ugh god, let's see if I can answer this before I crash. YOU ONLY GET THE FIRST QUESTION THO CUZ I CAN NOVEL JUST ON THAT. YOU CAN REASK THE OTHERS LATER. ALso cuz i need to sleep and then get on a plane.
AR... LOVES DIRK. But it's really complicated. In general he is unhappy with Dirk's behavior as of late. He can't really help but judge him, but he doesn't, hm, hold it against him much? He's always sympathetic and trusts that Dirk is doing the best he can! But AR is still A Dirk which means he has high standards and gets frustrated when he disappoints himself. New Moore is a golden opportunity for Dirk, but Dirk is reluctant to take it. He really wants Dirk to get out and meet other people and maybe date a boy who is not Jake English. He basically wants Dirk to stop being such a teenager and get his shit together and find some happiness for himself! But he also understands that it's a process and he's a super computer so he can actually be patient.
Then there is all of the, stuff where Dirk basically owns him and he's always tried to help Dirk, though Dirk constantly doubts him because he doubts himself. It is painful! To constantly be mistrusted by the most significant person in your life, but AGAIN, AR understands why that is and can be patient. He is also inclined to not be too honest with Dirk for a number of reasons, so he accepts the shittiness and just... waits, for Dirk to grow up a bit, to learn and do better.
His feelings after getting a body won't be different, just more fraught because he'll actually be subject to his emotions. When Dirk is a jerk, it will HURT, and he'll be resentful and lash out. When Dirk is nice, he won't know what the fuck to do with himself because THE VALIDATION HE'S ALWAYS WANTED THE MOST OF ALL??? Dirk will continue to totally own him and it will be a lot more obvious that Dirk is capable of yanking him around by his feelings unlike anyone else. But again, things he's always felt, just now it would actually be obvious, and he'd actually have to deal with his feelings in SOME capacity instead of just idling them.
If/When he gets a body, there are a lot of ways it can go. If Dirk continues to just HIDE OUT, AR will keep giving him his space, and in a way it'll also be his own space because if he's not hanging around Dirk, Dirk will fuck with him less. If they actually talk, though, Dirk is likely to fuck up on a few occasions and mess AR up 8') How things go can depend on a lot, though.
VRISKA'S PALEMANCING FOR JOHN. GO.
no subject
Oh man. Have I mentioned that's my favorite question ever? WHERE DO I EVEN START ON THE TOPIC OF VRISKA PALEMANCING FOR JOHN. Sit your ass down, it is story time. Story time that involves MAD HEADCANON THAT STARTS WIIIIIITH:
So, immediately after her death, Vriska ends up in a dream bubble that involves the dead doomed John that Terezi managed to blow up. Vriska presses John throughout that initial conversation to see if he'll remember her, but eventually seems to give up hope that he will. He still manages to surprise her by picking up on things she'd thought he was too oblivious to get, and basically just being John, but, let's be honest. He's not her John. This is not the boy she raised to god tier, this isn't the kid to whom she turned in a moment of deep personal crisis who walked her through it despite being totally freaked out by her alien ways. This is not the boy who wished her luck, and asked if they could talk one last time. This isn't the boy who she asked out on a date, having apparently waxed flush for him over the course of their hours and hours of talking. This isn't the boy, in fact, that she absconded deep into the meteor to avoid all others just to talk to - to the exclusion of literally all others, at least as far as her pesterlogs go. This boy, in fact, barely knows who she is, and has to get to know her all over again. That might not be so bad, if it weren't for the fact that some bonding experiences are a one time only deal - like trusting an alien to put you to sleep, and waking up a god. You can't do that over.
So it's my personal belief that Vriska was always a little bit disappointed with dead doomed John. They obviously ended up dating, and I think it's likely that in any timeline or formulation, Vriska and John are probably going to get along. They have the same taste in movies and their senses of humor mesh surprisingly well. He's just enough of a douchebag to match up to her bitchiness, and she can calm her ass down enough to match his more neutral/kinder/goofier moments. She finds his dorkiness endearing, and he seems to trust and respect her game knowledge and her capabilities. They just get along. But I think the fact remained that, to Vriska, this was never the boy she actually asked out. And I think maybe he knew it, too. Isn't that kind of weird? To date the dead version of a girl who apparently asks you out but you never get there and maybe never are really sure why? She eventually tries to explain it to you, but she's embarrassed by all the candor she showed in the heat of the extended moment that was the beta session, and ends up phrasing things a littttttle more favorably in her favor. The sum total being that it never sounds quite the same, and doesn't make as much sense as it did the first time. Somehow, it just never clicks like it might have.
Eventually they break up. It's completely amicable, with no bitterness to speak of, and they remain friends. Maybe there was a make out or two in the interim. Probably. But all along it never felt quite right and they're ultimately happier as friends. What happens after that is hard to say. Vriska obviously, eventually, leaves. John is killed in Lord English's assault, something about which Vriska later seems to be pretty well informed. Was she there at the time, but managed to escape? Had she departed willingly some time ago? Unwillingly? Who knows. I always used to think that one day she just woke up to find herself in this vast desert wasteland, alone, and John was gone, and that was that. I still sort of hold to that, though obviously I remain open to jossing and/or contradiction.
So events of the alpha timeline move forward, she gets turned into The Abominable Spritemonster, travels around the furthest ring with Tavros, etc etc etc. Then she finally runs into John again! Awesome! They have a great talk, catch up a little, it's pretty great. And, of course - despite that fakeout by Hussie, because fuck you, Hussie - they remember each other perfectly well. It's a good meeting. It's from very shortly after that meeting that Vriska turns up in Thoughtformed. And hey look! There's John again. Only now there aren't conniving sea bitches getting in the way and she can actually get to know him. Not just over the course of a couple of hours or a conversation here or there. This is alpha John, the boy she actually got to know, and she can spend as much time with him as she wants. They hang out in person. They talk. They joke and mess around and do stupid shit in school (even though she ends up in detention and he doesn't, because she always takes it too far, usually when he's not around). Mistletoe happens and they kiss and it's weird but kind of nice. The truth event happens and John is the one to show up when Sherlock makes her admit to bunches and bunches of murders and he's the one to calm her down. He's the one that meets her atop Genosha and just talks to her, not yelling or judging, just talking. Valentine's happens and John's the one to turn up all stupid and adorable and heroic and rescue her from Scratch. And she watches him flail and act a little nervous, they watch stupid explosion-filled movies and laugh their asses off, and then she, probably, possibly, plants a sloppy kiss on his cheek and admits in a terrible rush that she's painfully pale for him.
If you asked her if she hadn't thought about the flushed aspect of things, she'd be lying if she told you no. Hanging out with John, being with him, the boy who remembers her, the boy who rescues her and cares about her and laughs with her and loves her in his own way, has reminded her powerfully of all the reasons she went flushed for him in the first place. But there is, of course, something mentally holding her back. And that something is loud and shouty and almost exclusively ornery. That something is Karkat. Karkat, bless his twisted black little heart, who has gone to bat for her several times, defending her when he didn't have to and didn't need to, sticking up for the fact that she seems to be trying to turn over a new leaf. His defense of her has won him her loyalty. And it's because of that - because she loves John and cares about Karkat - that she's sworn to herself not to fuck them up. That, more than anything, has been a driving, motivational force for Vriska. She's fucked up so many good things she cared about in her life. She knows that in the timeline where she fights Jack, it's because Terezi and Karkat died. She doesn't want to fuck up the things she cares about anymore. She's aware that her chances for fucking things up have basically run out. And because she actually cares about these two stupid idiots, she actually wants them to be happy. So, yeah. The thought of getting another shot at John has crossed her mind. But she would never take it, not even if it were (for some insane reason) offered, because she wants him and Karkat to actually be happy and refuses to be the reason that gets fucked up.
Blocking that out in her mind has only done so much good. Her feeling for John had to go somewhere. And her whole heart ended up pouring into the pale quadrant because she found herself, more than anything, wanting to return the favor he kept doing her of calming her down, being there for her, and taking care of her. Whatever label you choose to put on it, Vriska loves John dearly, maybe more than anything else she's ever cared for in her life, and she wants to protect him. To raise him up. To make him great! God, she's already done that, but she wants to keep doing it. She wants to be his best friend, the person who has his back. And Dave, you know, fills that role, of course -- and that's not precisely the role Vriska wants to fill anyway, which is probably a good thing for everybody. There's other aspects, I think, to a moirailship than just being someone's best buddy, and for Vriska it does go deeper. He's saved her life now, after the superhero event - in her mind, they're effectively even. And with a relatively clean slate she wants to ... be his moirail. Take care of him, look after him, spend time with him, whatever the hell that means. She's so pale for him it's fucking absurd and it makes her feel kind of stupid and ridiculous sometimes, especially because he's human and doesn't really get it. (She finds it simultaneously weird and gratifying that she can apparently bitch to Karkat about it and he just rolls with it. Not only that but perfectly understands and bitches about it too.)
Ugh ugh ugh John is that one person Vriska would do literally anything for. She's not the most giving of people and it's not really in her nature to be kind or thoughtful. Hell, being thoughtless and impulsive is kind of what gets her into most of the serious trouble of her life. And just being plain thoughtless and a touch cruel and vicious is how she drives so many people away. But John (Stupid Sexy) Egbert inspires her to be better. He's one of the reasons she's trying so hard to stop being so ... awful. She wants to be a good enough person to actually BE his moirail. She wants to be someone he can rely on, not someone he has to be wary of going off and, you know, killing people or ruining lives or whatever. She's finally self-aware enough to realize the ways in which her old habits would make her a FUCKING AWFUL moirail and cleaning up her act is a big effort on her part to be worthy of filling that quadrant for him. She's just this huge awful bitch in so many ways but John makes her want to be a good person. John IS what makes her a good person. It's when she's a good person on her own that she'll have actually changed, but for now maybe the pretending is enough. It's starting to work, anyway. (As people like Hal have seen.)
tl;dr Vriska loves John stupidly, is stupidly pale for him, and is changing so much of her life because she wants to be ~worthy~ of being his moirail. It's stupid, this is stupid, sob, she just has a lot of feelings and SO DO I. DO YOU REGRET ASKING ME THIS QUESTION YET?!
sigh. siiiiiiigh. ok. thing i've been curious about. on the hearts meme hal basically said he's not sure he could do or be all those things for Vriska that dating would entail. Why? Because of Dirk's sexual orientation, which he's meant to inherit I'm sure, or something else? Could he actually end up wanting to date her for realsies?
no subject
You have so many John feels. It's cute.
OKAY SO.
It's largely not a matter of sexual orientation. Hal is bi! Bodies are just very different to him than they are to Dirk, so while he's still male leaning as far as attraction -- particularly romantic attraction -- he could get it up for a lot of people, regardless of race or gender.
But for all of Vriska's hm. Bluster about not needing anyone and being really independent and all that, he just strikes her as very monogamous! Like. Someone who deep down wants that FALL IN LOVE AND FLUSHED HEARTS FOREVERRR type of person. Factually she would need someone very stable, and statistically polyamorous relationships take a lot of openness and thoughtfulness and personal stability and accountability. BASICALLY he thinks she is the kind to become really dependent. That's fine! And he doesn't at all mind people being dependent on him! But races that tend to be primarily monogamous, and to uphold AT ONE TRUE TWO-PERSON PAIRING AS THE IDEAL, tend to also be de-stabilized by anything that infringes on that.
Hal is almost definitely polyamorous by nature, mostly due to shit like. BEING A COMPUTER REALLY CHANGES HIS PERCEPTIONS OF THINGS? I think Dirk is more monogamous with Exceptions (I.E., Dirk would be monogamous for Jake but Dave would always be an Exception to that, but he would be ok with turning down just about anyone else and be super loyal) whereas Hal is far more explorative and less inclined to conflate loyalty with exclusivity. Additionally, he just sort of, will be REALLY EMOTIONAL to start, and really into having his emotions and embracing them!
So on one hand, yeah he could fall for Vriska. I'm not sure if he could FALL IN LOVE PERFECT WAI WAI FLUSHED LOVE. But he genuinely cares for her and loves her already, he could also come to love to spend time with her, cuddle her, and be attracted to her, and sacrifice for her. It would never be as, hm, passionate as some of his other relationships (particularly like his one with Dirk), I think since he would likely be the more emotionally dominant member of the relationship and thus she'd be less likely to trigger his neediness. But he can still feel a lot of things and could go really far for her!
But he's always be worried that that isn't what she really wants =|a And that he can't be a very good flushed partner to her, or to anyone, who wants a matesprit. If we are defining matesprit in the same ways that humans tend to define the ideal 'love' from romance movies. He's just way more likely to be close fuck buddies with a lot of people than become anyone's boyfriend. Not even because he would be totally against promising to only be one with one person! But his heart wouldn't really be in it, it would be a personal sacrifice for someone he cares for, and he's aware enough of himself and others to know that no one actually wants that, so he wouldn't really put it on the table =|a
SO YEAH BASICALLY. It pretty much boils down to he assumes Vriska is monogamous and that is likely something that is important to her? Even if she might agree to something else, to give it a try, he doesn't think she'd really be happy with a compromise on that front. And he doesn't want to ask her to make it! So he's really be more likely to encourage her to find someone who she's flushed for who can be dedicated to her in the way he thinks she'd want.
But if she really wanted to try he would totally go for it '-'! And if they decided to break it off because it wasn't working, he'd probably be fine with that. But TBH, as much as a part of Hal will be like SEX AND RELATIONSHIPS AND FLIRTING, AW YEAH. He can be made PRETTY FUCKING HAPPY with just cuddles and handholding and closeness. Vriska is HIGHLY LIKELY to get that regardless.
And rereading your question I realize that was all very long winded talks about LOVE AND DEDICATION AND FOREVER for a question that was actually about dating but 8'D HE'S A SUPER COMPUTER HE THINKS LIKE INFINITE STEPS AHEAD and then works his way back to decide if that path is even a good one to take. He thinks IN THE LONG RUN that it won't go anywhere that Vriska really wants to be, so he's rather see on a path that WILL take her there. But in a purely 'would he enjoy dating her/is that a thing he could do', absolutely!
But that is all just, what Hal presumes. So I guess my question is RESPONSE? Is Vriska monogamous? Would she always be? Would Hal being in relationships with other people bother her?
no subject
To start, I had to think through what would happen if Vriska actually did go flushed for Hal. And of course the way it would happen in RP, if it did happen, would almost certainly be different than anything I can picture on my own. Which is one of the great things about roleplay! Some of the most wonderful and awesome things I've ever played out are the things I could never have planned in advance, even if I tried. So this comes with a disclaimer of "for all I know shit could go completely differently." But anyway. Thinking about it, I mean, I can see her going for him. He gets a body, and not only do they keep talking, but they hang out. Vriska becomes defensive of him, worried about the emotional overload he seems to experience, wanting to protect him to some extent. But he's still the more emotionally savvy of the two of them (SOMEHOW, mostly because Vriska is just a repressed asshole) and still sneaks under her guard emotionally and mentally, even if physically he's the one who's all new to things. Him being in a body and having a physical presence, a voice, a particular human warmth to go with that intellect that's won her over, I can see her falling for him hard. And doing what she does, which is to just abruptly take charge one day and kiss him and see where things go from there.
So, one, it's possible. But two, the actual nature of it, is what's been so hard to figure out. She does, after all, come from a culture where not one but four romantic (or romantic-enabling?) partners are the norm. Only two of those quadrants are actually fruitful - read: intimate - but all four are necessary for romantic entanglements to work. And one troll can be in multiple quadrants for other trolls! A given troll can be one person's kismesis and another's matesprit. And auspitices exist to keep that from getting nasty or overly jealous, etc etc. But basically, I think the idea of Hal dating other people would be at once familiar and foreign to Vriska. It would sort of slot very naturally into the idea that trolls by their own natures are also polyamorous. After a fashion! But what would challenge her mentally and emotionally is the idea that Hal's other romantic pairings being also positive in nature. That's pretty strange. Right? At least it would be, in her mind.
I think troll culture also doesn't likely support the idea of super monogamous long-term lovey dovey relationships like human culture does. It wouldn't seem to make sense, given how violent the culture is (meaning your partner could easily be dead the next day and you have to move on and find someone else or risk culling yourself) and how quadrant vacillation is a thing. Then again, she's the one to canonically break with troll culture and ask John out on a date, even though that doesn't make a lot of sense with respect to troll dating. So, basically... I think like with a lot of things with Vriska, it would just be Very Complicated. She can indeed be very possessive of what she perceives to be hers, and anyone messing with that - aka Hal's other romantic interests - could be perceived as a threat! But at the same time, it depends on how she views those people. Dirk might get a free pass. So might Jake. Anyone outside of that, I honestly have no idea.
BASICALLY let me sum it up. I don't think she's necessarily monogamous, just very possessive, and the two aren't necessarily synonymous. Her views could change depending on how the situation is presented to her, certainly. Hal's already managed to convince her of something huge, which is that she doesn't need to live up to and can in fact surpass her ancestor. If he could convince her of something that ridiculously life-changing, he could potentially sway her on the whole polyamory thing. Hal being in other relationships is dependent on who he ends up with aside from her more than anything.
Part of her thing is, if she did fall for him and his response was to try and convince her to go after other people, she'd get mad! She doesn't like being told what's best for her, whether the person telling her so is right or wrong or just opinionated. She knows what she wants and she goes after it, and would be deeply insulted he did not believe in her capacity to decide for herself. (Leaving aside the fact that many of her own decisions have been shitty ones. Not all of them! But the shitty ones have been spectacularly shitty.) But also important is just how much attention he'd pay to her and in what capacity. If he gave her what she needed, I think she'd be pretty happy despite the other stuff he had going on. She wouldn't necessarily understand it, but I think she'd roll with it. Not to mention the fact that she's likely going to end up with Meenah in her caliginous quadrant, so she wouldn't really be in a position to talk to Hal about multiple romantic partners. (Going back to the bluh bluh culture bluh thing.)
ALL OF THAT SAID to go back to a specific point, no, I don't think he'd work out as a matesprit for her. But considering the fact that she asked John out in canon when he could never have filled that roll himself, being human and all - it would have necessarily ended up defying troll definitions of things, I think, much like John and Karkat's current relationship defies those things - I'm not sure that would actually be a problem for her, and wouldn't know until we actually played it out, if it were to come to pass.
BASICALLY I think it could work, but there are too many unknown factors for me to say for certain just going from this point. For what it's worth, I think it at least has potential.