Nepeta Leijon, also known by her Trollian handle, “arsenicCatnip”, is one of the trolls. Her associated zodiac sign is Leo (♌) and she has horns shaped like cat ears.
Her typing quirk consists of preceding every line with “:33 <”. “:3” is generally used as a smiley reminiscent of a cat face, while “33” is the atomic number of arsenic. Arsenic is also used as rat poison, which is funny because of the stereotype that cats hate rodents. It can also be used as green wallpaint, and it is linked with cancer which could be a reference to her crush on Karkat. “:33” also represents the face of her two-mouthed feline Lusus. She occasionally changes these to form different facial expressions. She replaces syllables of words with feline-related homophones, such as “purrmission”, “refurring” or “pawses” rather than "permission," "referring" and "pauses", respectively. Instances of doubled-e in a word, such as "sleepy", are replaced by doubled-3 (“sl33py”) but she otherwise does not use letter substitution. She also tends to type in actions between asterisks, though this is a result of her constant roleplaying rather than a quirk like the other trolls.
She was invited by Terezi to be on the Red Team, but her Moirail demanded she be on the Blue Team.
Etymology
Nepeta's name was suggested by Music Team member Tenebrais. Her first name is derived from the scientific genus of Catnip, and Leijon is taken from the surname of Anna-Greta Leijon, who was a Swedish Minister of Immigration in 1976 and victim of a kidnapping plot dubbed Operation Leo. The Swedish word lejon ("leijon" is the archaic spelling) means "lion", and is pronounced LAY-on. Also, the Finnish word for lion is leijona.
Biography
Hivebent
Nepeta leaning against Pounce de Leon
She held conversations with Terezi Pyrope in which the two of them roleplayed. Nepeta roleplays as a two-mouthed feline anthropomorph (similar to Jade's fascination with furry fandom). Her feline hunting roleplays are linked to real-life events, as her cave contains dead animals and drawings and splatters on the wall of blood and soot.
Nepeta also has an interest in drawing comics on her wall depicting tales from her hunts, as well as stories involving her and her friends. One wall is her Shipping wall, where she keeps track of potential and confirmed relationships between her friends (including herself). The wall is categorized with card suit symbols, hearts representing love (Matespritship) and diamonds representing friendship (Moirallegiance). As shown on her expanded shipping wall after entering the veil, Nepeta does seem to have at least some interest in the Blackrom quadrants (Kismesissitude and Auspisticism), though there only seem to be a few specific relationships in these quadrants that she is interested in.
Her 'daily routine' was for her to go out in the wild and kill beasts with only her 'sharp claws and teeth'. As such, Nepeta uses the clawkind Strife Specibus.
Nepeta brought Aradia into The Medium as her server player. She was for a time one of the few to know that Aradia had died.
Post-Hivebent
Nepeta pouncing at Gamzee after seeing him kill Equius.
Her dream self was stabbed three times, kicked to the floor, and blown up when Jack Noir attacked Derse. Since then she spent most of her time with Equius, until the events of Seek the highb100d
. After witnessing the death of her moirail, she promptly executed a pounceavenge on Gamzee who managed to catch her hand mid-attack. He used her claws to inflict three long scratches across his face before dropping her on the ground and proceeding to walk towards her, honks in the background. She is beaten to death off screen, temporarily turning her into Schrödinger's Nepeta in which for several pages the story focuses on other characters, leaving a period during which her fate was unknown (though most fans preemptively declared her dead). When Terezi is talking with Dave about bringing Vriska to justice, she discovers Nepeta's body face down in a pool of her own blood. Even though no "DEAD" tag is shown, she is most likely dead since in Flip, Nepeta's severed head is seen lying on the jury table next to Gamzee, accompanied by Feferi's, Eridan's, and Equius's heads. It was later confirmed in Hussiebot's death chart, where she, like the other confirmed dead characters, is crossed out with a red X.
After Death
After her death, Nepeta (or at least some instances of her) is seen in multiple dream bubbles. In Roxy: Sleepwalk, a dead Dream Nepeta was seen standing next to a dead god tier Karkat in a dreambubble. They were on LOLCAT and both were smiling, which suggests that Nepeta has finally found happiness with (a) Karkat. This is an allusion to her conversation with Jaspersprite, where she surmises that she'll have to die in order to be happy with him. She also appeared in Caliborn: Enter and Ministrife. At some point her moirallegiance with Equius inspired their Beforan counterparts to start a moirallegiance as well.
Nepeta's body as smelled by Terezi.
Her body, along with the corpses of the other trolls, was preserved by Gamzee, and in the pre-retcon timeline she was later revived as half of Fefetasprite, along with Feferi. After the sprite's fefetasplosion, she returned to the afterlife with Feferi, appearing on Vriska Serket's pirate ship and donning the appropriate pirate apparel. Later, when Tavros leaves Vriska's pirate ship after a short fight about the rings, Nepeta departs after him with Feferi and Sollux, leaving Vriska's ship and remaining crew behind. When Vriska tries to protest, Meenah and Aranea remind her that she gave Nepeta a higher authority in the ranking on the ship, and has no power over Nepeta or Feferi. Vriska is distraught and not used to everyone defying her, and tries to oppose them, to no avail, as Nepeta continues to abscond.
In the post-retcon timeline, Jasprosesprite^2 prototyped her head into Jake's kernelsprite, creating Nepetasprite. Jasprose briefly took her on a date before Davesprite showed up. The two greeted each other with a handshake, and this caused him to tier 2 prototype her, creating Davepetasprite^2.
Personality and Traits
POUNCE! :33
Nepeta likes friendly roleplaying (which was said quite a while ago), though not the dangerous kind that caused a certain accident to a couple of people. She has a naïve view of everything. She lives in a cave and hunts and eats animals, then occasionally wears their fur and paints with their blood. In fact, she uses this blood along with soot and ash to create wall art, such as storyboards for a comic and her Shipping wall.
Nepeta seems to have a lot of similarities with Kanaya, which may or may not be significant. Both of them are - despite Andrew's noted lack of perfect analogues - the most similar to Jade of the trolls. Both of them are also green-blooded middle-caste trolls with friends on either side of the blood spectrum whose relationships are observed and moderated to some degree (Kanaya is the meddler, and Nepeta keeps a shipping wall while being generally agreeable to everyone). Nepeta was the one to see Aradia and Equius's kiss, and Kanaya was the one to see Vriska kiss a helpless Tavros. Although Kanaya reacted with shock (due to her mating fondness for Vriska), Nepeta just updated her shipping wall.
Once in the veil, she recreated her shipping wall to a larger scale, but doesn't want to update it to accommodate the grisly developments of late.
According to Jasprosesprite^2, Nepeta's interest in shipping stems from her own loneliness as it makes her feel less alone. Shipping might have been her coping mechanism, since she lived isolated from other trolls and had an unrequited flushed crush. It's unknown how Jasprosesprite^2 knows about Nepeta's feelings, however Nepeta and Jaspersprite openly talked quite a few times and it is possible that Nepeta confessed it during these conversations.
In her first conversation with Karkat, he called her autistic. Nepeta carries many traits which are both stereotypically and genuinely linked to autism, such as doodling a cat avatar next to her Pesterchum messages, biting her hat in frustration (stimming), living in social isolation, adoring cats altogether, creating the shipping wall as a "special interest," and generally being seen as unusual by her peers, Equius once having described her as “unfit” for the role the Mother planned for her which perhaps referenced neuroatypicality. However, whether or not Karkat's statement is accurate or just him being his usual abrasive self is unknown. Additionally, it's difficult to diagnose a character from a different species with a human trait.
Relationships
Karkat Vantas
Nepeta expressing frustration with Equius
Nepeta has a strong interest in various relationships. Her shipping wall hints strongly at red feelings toward Karkat Vantas, as the ship between the two has a "oh yessssss!" scrawled under it, but their relationship ends there, as there are no signs of red romance that Karkat shows toward Nepeta, and the ship between Karkat and Vriska Serket is underscored by an "oh noooooo". A large portrait of Karkat and Nepeta making out is seen on her revised shipping wall followed by a large "OTP" (One True Pairing, a term often used in fanfiction to refer to a pairing of characters preferred by the writer/reader). Upon inspecting this, Nepeta says “No one must ever s333333333333333!!”. Karkat, however, seems to be aware of these unrequited feelings, and has apparently been trying to avoid them for some time. Nepeta's feelings for Karkat parallel those of her ancestor The Disciple, a troll who had a relationship with The Signless, Karkat's ancestor. The relationship between them [“went beyond the four quadrants, transcending the grid entirely”]. When she was spared by the E%ecutor, the Disciple hid in caves and used the blood of animals to write the scripture of the Sufferer from memory on the walls (which is possibly the origin of Nepeta's shipping wall). In Sleepwalk, a version of her dream self is seen with a god tier Karkat, and it seems she has finally found happiness with (a version of) him.
Equius Zahhak
Nepeta is Equius Zahhak's moirail; she considers herself his pacifier and likes to calm him down. All of her conversations depict a sense of playfulness, and when interacting with Terezi she tries to pacify her rather than fight back. She insists on consulting Equius before joining the red team; her procrastination in doing so leads one to believe she was well aware that he would refuse and insist on her joining the blue team. Regardless of their 'fighting' it is clear that they have a deep understanding of each other, that they care for each other quite a lot, and that they both truly believe that the other is "lucky to have me keep an eye on you". In a conversation with Tavros Nitram, it is hinted that Equius actually kept her from joining the Flarp session that caused several players severe injuries. In LOLCAT, Nepeta seems very happy to see Equius and greets him with a friendly pouncegr33ting! Nepeta's moirallegiance with Equius may be based on the good compatibility between Leo and Sagittarius.
Terezi Pyrope
Nepeta is good friends with Terezi, and the two frequently roleplay together, although Terezi says privately that her RP'ing is meant “f4c3t1ously”.
Tavros Nitram
She gets along with Tavros, though he has to pretend he's not allergic to cats in order to roleplay with her. She seems genuinely sorry she can't be his server player, and he seems to understand.
Aradia Megido
Nepeta seems to have been good friends with Aradia and is one of the few trolls to get along well with her after her death. As her server player, Nepeta is one of the first trolls to discover that Aradia has, in fact, been dead the whole time.
Feferi Peixes
The two seem to have bonded after they were fused into Fefetasprite, as well as mutually messing around in dream bubbles as the "joke ranks" of Vriska and Meenah's armada. They continue to behave as one person, indicating that they enjoyed being a single sprite and may want to carry on that way.
Eridan Ampora
Nepeta is not particularly fond of Eridan as suggested by her line “if you are talking about mr ampurra, he has always given me the cr33ps anyway!” In Kanaya: Return to the Core, Eridan also states that she rejected him, despite his being her server player. However, during her date with Jasprosesprite^2, she says “:33 < i mean... he could be kind of a jerk sometimes but that is still a shame :(( ” in response to learning he died, which could mean that she still thought of him as a friend.
Vriska Serket
She tries to interact friendly with Vriska and attempts roleplaying with her, but is usually put off by Vriska and her Spidersona always doing “terrible things”. She also tells Equius that she is “plenty scared of vwiskers”.
Jade Harley
According to Alterniabound, Nepeta has stated that Jade is her favorite human and has tried to make friends with her, but Jade thought Nepeta was just teasing her. She decides to keep trying.
Dave Strider
While there aren't any interactions between Dave and Nepeta that we see, in Past Karkat: Wake up. when she talks to Terezi, she calls Dave Akwete Purrmusk. It seems she and Dave had a friendly relationship where they would RP. She says that “:33 < he is pretty cute” indicating that she found him attractive, but she had no romantic inclinations towards him.
Jaspersprite
Nepeta also enjoys talking to Jaspersprite, since he reminds Nepeta of her lusus. Jaspersprite is able to communicate with Nepeta through Rose's old laptop.
Lusus/Kernelsprite
Nepeta's Lusus, Pounce de Leon
Nepeta's lusus, Pounce de Leon, is a small feline creature with two mouths, and is “pawssibly the cutest and purrhaps the bestest kitty you have ever s33n!”. She and Nepeta often went on adventures together to search for the “fountain of cute!”, taking turns riding each other.
Pounce de Leon was crushed when Nepeta's hive caved in for unknown reasons, likely related to the meteor shower. Pounce de Leon's name is a reference to Juan Ponce de León, the Spanish explorer who discovered Florida while (supposedly) searching for the fountain of youth (though historians now dispute this).
Trivia
- Nepeta is the only post-scratch troll who was never shown with a "Dead" tag. This could possibly be a reference to Schrödinger's cat.
- The fact that Nepeta's hive is in a cave is a reference to lions, hence her zodiac sign Leo.
- Her aspect, Heart, may be a reference to the fact that the Catmints in the genus Nepeta have heart-shaped leaves.
- It can also be a reference to Leo's key body part being the literal heart.
- Nepeta is the "Knight of Wands" in the Homestuck tarot card deck, as the Knight of Wands tends to be dedicated to their goals no matter how silly they are, and tend to be well-liked, much like Nepeta herself. Nepeta can be seen with most of the pre-act 6 cast on the "Five of Wands" card.
- Karkat has called Nepeta an “AUTISTIC GIRL IN A CAVE” on this page
which implicates that she may be autistic. However, this could just be Karkat being rude as usual and using the term as an insult. - Nepeta is the only character to be prototyped into two different sprites: Roxy's sprite in the pre-retcon timeline, and Jake's in the post-retcon timeline.
- Nepeta's title, Rogue of Heart, could be a reference to cat burglars.
