by ohthewhomanity

“Trolls are a very angry and violent race. Some are more hot-tempered and dangerous than others, to the extent that if left to their own devices, they would present a serious threat to society, or even to themselves. Such trolls will have an instinctive pale attraction to a more even-tempered troll, who may become their MOIRAIL. The moirail is obliged to pacify the other, to function as the better half.“

Equius and Nepeta are the poster children for moirallegiance. Equius, strong in muscle and in temper, is balanced out by his cheerful green-blooded moirail, Nepeta.

Before I go on, I should mention that I am very, very biased here. Meowrails – Nepeta<>Equius – is my OTP. But it’s undeniable that Meowrails works better than any canon moirallegiance. It works because Equius and Nepeta both want it to.

Equius and Nepeta are each willing to put in the effort required to make their moirallegiance work. Equius, in spite of his classism, is willing to stay in contact with an oliveblood, a troll several castes below him, and protect her from other highbloods. Nepeta is willing to placate a bossy highblood who everyone else finds insufferably weird and tolerate his numerous frustrating qualities, including his excessive sweatiness. Neither of them are trapped in this relationship; as Nepeta says, Equius “cant ACTUALLY tell me what to do”, but she obeys anyway. They have chosen to make it work.

Both of them have very simple reasons for wanting to play their respective roles. Nepeta sees it as her duty, as her introduction says, “…someone has to keep him pacified. If not you, then who? Everyone has an important job to do”. Equius wants the moirallegiance out of a sense of necessity. He is very aware of his own violent tendencies and knows that he needs someone to keep him in check. “I udder to think what I might be without you, Nepeta,” he says.

But despite their desire to fill the roles slated for them in the moirallegiance, neither Equius nor Nepeta has crushed themselves to fit. Both have interests that go beyond their relationship, which is very healthy. Nepeta hunts with her lusus and roleplays with her other friends, while Equius builds and spars with robots and has “a great appreciation for the fine arts”. Although they argue about which of them “e%ercises distasteful practices”, each has a STRONG enough personality to hold firm. Nepeta won’t give up her playful antics for Equius, and Equius won’t give up his classist beliefs for Nepeta. Neither is afraid to give the other a hard time for their “unsavory” behaviors, but neither ever pushes the other too far, and neither ever threatens to walk out on the relationship over a disagreement. They are in it to stay.

And they stay because central to their relationship is pure caring. For all their griping about each other’s habits, Equius and Nepeta care deeply about each other’s well-being. From the beginning, Equius forbade Nepeta to participate in the FLARP games, to keep her safe from Vriska. Nepeta is steadfastly supportive of Equius’s relationship with Aradia, because she wants him to be happy, and she comforts him after Aradiabot explodes. During the Sgrub game, Nepeta stuck by Equius’s side and – if you consider Paradox Space canon – taught him how to hunt. When Equius learned that he failed to protect Nepeta from Gamzee, he was overcome with guilt, the only negative emotion that ARquiusprite ever felt.

One more thing I like about Meowrails is how their relationship developed over the course of the Sgrub session. As Equius and Nepeta adventured together on the Land of Little Cubes and Tea, they came to understand each other more and become much warmer towards each other. This progression is clear if you compare their first in-canon pesterlog to their final scene together on the meteor. Looking at that first pesterlog, you could hardly expect that squabbling pair to one day “have the most poignant and heartfelt feelings jam in the history of paradox space, or piles of things”. Equius calls Nepeta foolish for her roleplaying, and Nepeta makes fun of him for going out of his way to put “100” in words. But later, Equius holds an entire conversation with Nepeta through roleplay, and Nepeta tells him that she loves how he says “b100”. Where they still have qualms about each other’s habits, they respect each other’s feelings enough not to bring it up. On the most part, however, they have come to find each other’s quirks endearing, as they became closer overall.

Also, they’re just plain adorable. I mean, come on, just look at the smile on Nepeta’s face when she first sees Equius on LOLCAT. And remember how touched Equius was when Nepeta gave him her hat? Purrecious! :33