unprompted, but I’ve been thinking of the best way to describe the difference between a subjugglator and a laughsassin in my mind.

i think it’s best to see the different military prongs you can get into (threshecutioner, ruffianihilator, laughsassin, etc.) as, like, courses you might get into in a school. anyone can get into basically any one, but obviously you’re expected to have the sufficient skills required to participate in that course.

the subjugglators are a sort of brotherhood entirely separate to that. you can be a subjugglator and a ruffianihilator, or a subjugglator and a laughsassin (note that Gamzee clearly already is involved with subjugglator cultism, but still aspires to be a laughsassin). it just happens that a large amount of subjugglators are laughsassins, which leads to a large subjugglator influence in laughsassin ranks. as such, if you’re a laughsassin, you’re more likely to be caught up in subjugglator affairs, and might be assigned to more service to subjugglators.

to bring in a comparison to sparta (can you tell i’ve been studying it at school), the military prongs are like messes. once you’re in a prong, you are part of that prong, and expected to participate in comradery with other members of that prong, as well as contribute to its upkeep (i.e. with contributions of foodstuffs and other resources, and participating in the prong’s actual military assignments). failing to do so would see you cast out of the prong, and essentially fucked as far as anyone else in the empire’s concerned.