The shipping wall in Nepeta's hive.
The shipping wall was a tool that Nepeta Leijon used to keep track of her friends' relationships. It was organized into a grid and has a simple drawing representing each pair of trolls. Above each prospective relationship is either a heart to symbolize a matespritship or a diamond to symbolize a moirallegiance. She circles
whichever relationships are confirmed as correct and crosses out incorrect or changed relationships. She also makes notes about certain relationships, such as Gamzee ♥ Terezi: "probably not!" Nepeta displayed her desired matespritship with Karkat Vantas on the wall with "oh yessssss!" scrawled underneath a panel depicting them together. She also disliked Karkat ♥ Vriska having wrote "oh noooooo" underneath the panel depicting their hypothetical relationship. Whether this was because of the idea of Karkat in a red romance with someone besides herself or because of a particular dislike of that pairing is unknown.
Presumably spades and clubs symbols would symbolize kismesissitude and auspistice, respectively, if they appeared on the wall, but Andrew has stated that Nepeta is not interested in black romance for the purposes of her shipping. The relationships capped with a heart are separated from those capped with a diamond by a white line, indicating that Nepeta keeps her wall organized into the two categories of red romance.
Nepeta was serious about the accuracy of her wall, noting that she “should probably recolor all the Aradia panels so she looks like a robot”.
The origins of the wall most likely come from the Disciple, Nepeta's ancestor, who lived in "monastic savagery" after the death of the Signless and "[transcribed] all of his scripture from memory on the walls in the blood of slain creatures".
Relationships Shown on the Wall
- Karkat ♥ Vriska: "oh nooooo"
- ??? ♥ Aradia
- ??? ♥ Terezi
- ??? ♥ Tavros
- Karkat ♥ Nepeta: "oh yessssss!"
- Aradia ♥ Equius (circled)
- Gamzee ♥ Terezi: "probably not!"
- Kanaya ♥ Tavros
- Karkat ♦ Gamzee: "hmmm!"
- Sollux ♦ Aradia: "
♥???" - Equius ♦ Nepeta: "DURRR!" (circled)
- Kanaya ♦ Karkat
- Vriska ♦ ???
- Kanaya ♦ ???
- Terezi ♦ ???
- Tavros ♦ ???
Return of the shipping wall
In Equius: Seek the highb100d, Nepeta had drawn a new shipping wall. On it she now ships both black and red romance and focuses on pairings of interest to her rather than organizing all possibilities in a grid.
On one section of the wall, she depicts some potential matespritships. Unlike previously when she was determined to reflect Aradia's new robotic nature on all the panels of her wall, she is now unmotivated to update the wall because the necessity comes from the death of the individuals involved, acknowledging that she has "grown accustomed to seeing [her] ships get sunk. But not like this." Here she shipped:
On another section are some ships that seem to be of special interest to her: They are significantly more detailed than the previous section's, and are in fact larger than life. Here she shipped:
- Karkat ♦ Gamzee: She notes that given the current situation with Gamzee, though still viable, the roles in this ship may have to be significantly reversed.
- Terezi ♠ Vriska: She finds it frustrating that nobody else seems to notice the caliginous nature of this relationship, though Doc Scratch would later refer to it as a "rivalry".
- Jade ♣ Karkat and Karkat: Nepeta is grateful to Jade for helping Karkat stabilize the situation with his past and future selves, and feels that now he may be able to consider other romantic possibilities, such as "noticing someone nice over there in that bright red corner, who has been there all along. ;33"
- John ? Wizardly Vassal: "Human Romance sure is weird!"
- Karkat ♥ Nepeta: Nepeta attempted to hide this ship behind several crates. She included several visual cues as to her strong emotional investment in this potential relationship, most prominently labeling it as "OTP" ("one true pairing", meaning the ship preferred above all others).
Trivia
- Her ships were confirmed by Andrew Hussie on his twitter to not necessarily be accurate, debunking longstanding fan speculation that all of her ships (at least, all of the ones in Equius: Seek the highb100d) would come to pass.