For those not in the know, Paradox Space (PXS) was a series of that ran from April 13th, 2014 to April 13th, 2015. They are stories that may or may not be canon or “dubiously canon,” as the MSPA wiki likes to put it. There was a print run of PXS, split between two books. The PXS books included exclusive stories, including one titled Fiduspawn in the second book, going from pages 61 to 75.

Fiduspawn is a comic written by Mary Borsellino and drawn by Incineraptor (no website found). Fiduspawn follows Tavros, Aradia, Nepeta, Sollux, Karkat, and Gamzee going on a tour of the Fiduspawn planetary headquarters. Throughout the story, Sollux, Karkat, and Nepeta engage in ashen flirting, with Sollux and Karkat quibbling while Nepeta acts as their mediator.

There is a lot of body language and visual composition that clocks this as ashen flirting throughout the comic, even without being explicitly mentioned. In their first appearance, on the second page, Karkat and Sollux are drawn with their backs to each other, with Nepeta appearing between them from the perspective of the viewer. This instance could have been coincidental, but their final appearance on the last page in the comic, where Sollux and Karkat are arguing with Nepeta between them and a black club above her head, is anything but unintentional. This is a textually ashen interaction.

A comic panel of Nepeta, Karkat, and Sollux. Nepeta is in the foreground from the shoulders up. She has an annoyed expression and is holding up her claw weapon. Next to her claws is text reading "SNICKT!" Between the first and second claw, Karkat can be seen in the background. Between the second and third claw, Sollux can be seen in the background. Above all three of them are two speech bubbles from Nepeta reading as follows: "and purrlease try not to fight any more. i don't wanna end up with ashen f33lines about you two."
Isn’t Nepeta adorable here?

That said, it isn’t purely an ashen affair. On the eleventh page of the comic in a panel that reads as both conciliatory, threatening, and adorable to me, Nepeta admits to not wanting to have ashen feelings for the two of them. This is likely due to her canonically confirmed flush crush on Karkat (Homestuck, page 3438). So, while I personally think this is a cute ship, it would be incredibly unlikely to ever pass as an official relationship, even within the continuity of this particular comic.

Overall, I really like the portrayal of auspisticism in this comic. The comic itself also has a lot of really good compositions that I love and it actually shows a clear understanding of what auspisticism actually is.

Thanks for reading, please feel free to leave a comment!

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