BLOOD: the aspect of obligation

Includes: Karkat, Kankri, the Signless

The manifestation of Blood almost feels like a physical thing, as physical and solid as any aspect can be. It stains the hands and gets under the nails and leaves a copper taste in the air. For those who harness its power, it is a thousand tethers, all pulling with a collective force more inexorable than gravity. Every time a Blood player locks eyes with someone, there’s a ripple. Every time they depend on another person, there is a ripple. Every time they feel the weight of expectation on their shoulders, there is a ripple, and they know just how to turn all of it into a tidal wave. While other aspects may be looking through the rulebooks, examining the ones-and-zeroes, trying to learn how the world works, to the Blood player none of that shit matters because they know how to make people do what they want, and that’s not the kind of laws writ in a script, be it stageplay or code.

Blood is heavy. It only works if the player is subsumed in it. Love is hard to let go of, but hate is all too easy. And the thing about forgiveness is that its a favor, and Blood players know when they give it, the forgiven is now obligated to be better. Blood players are fucking terrible liars (except to themselves) and their greatest weakness is trying to handle a good liar. There is no greater villain than someone who cannot be trusted. But boy, will the Blood player make sure no one trusts that villain either.

Team Blood and Team Vantas is a circle, and all of them are so fucking tired. Kankri is arguably not very good as a Seer of Blood, but their main obsession is trying to examine the bonds that connect people and to diagnose the problems in them. The Signless was a more successful iteration of this, seeing not only the bonds that tie people together but seeing the potential of what they could be if everyone got their heads out of their collective chutes. Karkat, though, was a Knight of Blood and was such able to use his connections to everyone to keep them all from killing each other for an over 600 hour campaign. He knew exactly who needed to be riled up and who needed compassion, and dragged his team to victory entirely and completely in spite of themselves.

Being drenched in Blood is not easy. Compassion is an unusual sword to wield. Those who use it are hard to defeat.

Talismans: Soft power, defusing situations, having a temper with a looooong fuse, the Dad/Mom Friend, driving the car, needing to turn off their phone every once in a while to refill their stamina. Kind Is Not Nice.

You may be Blood if… you’ve ever told a friend something like “I think you know that’s a bad idea” and rather than getting mad, they sighed and agreed with you.