#and xephos has no idea about any of that really

[robotleech]

magic

[strifesolution]

ask response + rambling abt mcyt, dont want ppl mistaking this as me disliking new age stuff so im putting it under the cut

i KNOW part of it is nostalgia blindness 100% honestly. i poke fun at dreamsmp’s popularity (despite now watching it myself and having a toe dipped in the fandom) out of??? jealous i guess? no other minecraft fandom was really like it, no matter how popular yogs/ah/mianite/team crafted got at their prime, none of them had the *fandom* culture it had. yogs had it special thing on tumblr, but it never reached cross platform. hermitcraft too, is still very popular, but hasn’t reached the same level dreamsmp has, and honestly, good! i really think it’s going to stick around *because* it’s not crazy popular.

 but the amount of fanmade content is INSANE compared to any other mcyt fandom. it’s unsurprising with people in quarantine having the time to watch long livestreams and produce it, and the fact that twitter is the norm for that fandom... you get the idea. and it just makes me, deep down, sad yogs never got an animatic that got 10 million views. 

but the THING ABOUT THIS IS i think that’s WHY it’s not the same! thinking back, im relieved old mcyt fandoms arent as main stream, god knows the alternate timeline where xephos getting confirmed gay trends on twitter. there was comfort (and still is) in them being small. even at its height the yogs fandom was condensed, ppl knew the names of most big fandom blogs, the drama wasnt often *between* fans, more between creators and fans, which is why the relation was distanced. 

im jumping topics here without rly finishing them, but also, on canon stuff. one thing that i care a lot about with yogs is that... nothing and everything is canon? the “lore” we were given was so vague and randomly thrown out ppl could pick and choose what they wanted. i really still appreciate what rythian and zoey acknowledged when they released the blackrock plot, abt how the story is ours now. w/ a lot of dreamsmp lore, ive noticed, yeah, it’s cool that stuff becomes canon and lore is validated, but then someone’s headcanon they made is inconsistent with what’s made canon, and bc of fandom pressure, they can’t rly express that headcanon without backlash or at least ppl explaining why its not canon

with yogs, i can say “hey, i headcanon nano and parvis as siblings!” and no one cares! but with dreamsmp, if i say “hey i like (x) and (y) as siblings” someone might say “actually, canonically (x) is the sibling of (z)”

dont get me wrong, i HAVE seen plenty of people super chill about personal headcanons! this is more just how by making certain things canon and not canon, the series looses its “its minecraft nothing is canon or non-canon” uniqueness to it.  ON YOUR SECOND POINT.

man. man. yeah. do you have any idea how bad i want server god dream lore on the smp??? that would fuck. something about the way the fandom characterizes admins is SO cool and im sad its just...not acknowledged on dreamsmp? same w other certain game mechanics, ppl getting kicked/banned, respawning, mechanics. remember how theres a lore explanation early blackrock about why modpacks change when servers change? THAT SHIT IS SO COOL. 

for my own personal reasons its hard for me to consume certain ghostbur content, but the whole “3 lore deaths” is cool in concept! but the dark comedy implications of respawning will always be more fun to me. ya dead ya dead was such a fun idea of hardcore mode as well. 

summery of this part: to some extent, old mcyt fandoms couldnt thrive without minecraft itself being popular, while dreamsmp just uses minecraft as its launching point

anyways, this is long and rambly and NOOOOOTTT consistent, but again, i like a lot of dreamsmp stuff, genuinely, but the general feeling and energy of it is VERY strangely than a lot of other mcyt fandoms. anyways its 5am im sorry if nothing makes senseaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

[yogurtyogitup]

I realized I had to update my Lalna clone theory, so here it is, under the cut. It’s a lot of text. Lalnable was an old friend of Xephos, and so when Xephos decided to open up a laboratory to study the odd occurrences in the world system connected to the SOI planet by a space-time rift, he invited Lalnable to join him and Honeydew. Lalnable started out much like the Lalna we see in the early episodes of Duncan’s laboratory–quiet, intelligent, and with very little regard for human life. At Yoglabs, he founded the cloning branch. Hector was the failed clone (for once, Xephos was telling the truth!) we see in this episode of Yoglabs, and was the product of early clone testing. Technically, both “Lalnable” and “Hector” are Lalnable Hector, but I’ve chosen to split their names for ease of identification. As time went on, Lalnable started to get unhappy with the way Yoglabs was doing things. Irritated with the sudden resistance from someone who was previously very compliant, Xephos locks him away (in the mirror room we see in Hypercubed) and replaces him with “Lalna 1a,” a clone that Lalnable had actually made himself but had no real use for. Lalna 1a is presented to Honeydew as the true Duncan (the collective name for all forms of Lalna) and sent away under the pretense of it being his own free will. Lalna 1a settles on “the Old World,” and starts his own lab. He and Sjin blow up the world and he is obliterated. Xephos replaces him with “Lalna 1b” on the new Tekkit world. Lalna 1b works on the Jaffa Factory and his lab at the same time, but when Jaffa Factory ends he moves permanently into his castle. At some point before the start of Blackrock’s main arc, he creates Teep. Then Kim falls from the sky and he forgets all about Xephos and Honeydew, instead becoming the Flux Buddy we all know and love. Upon realizing that Lalna 1b has left for his castle, Xephos creates a new Duncan to stay with his adventurer clone and Honeydew. This is “Lalna 2a,” or Dunc, and he takes part in all of the main channel series, like Moonquest, Hole Diggers, and the miscellaneous one-offs. Back at Yoglabs, Xephos decides he really needs a Lalna around. He creates Lalna 2a, but runs into some difficulties. Lalna 2a, or Lividcoffee, really isn’t a scientist. He also is not super jazzed at all the unethical science going on. He likes being in charge, sure, but all the abominations around skeev him out. So, he leaves, but Xephos makes sure to erase any possible details of what went on at Yoglabs. Lividcoffee settles at Chaosville and teams up with Sjin. Sjin has no idea this isn’t the Duncan he knew in the Old World or interacted with at the Jaffa Factory. They move to the Yogscast Complete Pack world to form the magic police, and then move again to become the time cops. In the Flux Buddies 2 world, a clone of Lalnable infiltrates the base to steal Nano’s hair. Fluxedbuds has great lore for this lalna, who they’ve named “Reverb.” In my sketchbook from early 2018, I’ve named him “Random clone who pretends to be Duncan.” And now on to generalities: All of the Lalnas who are not Lalnable or Hector have false memories. They all believe they are just a normal scientist person, who cares if they don’t remember their mother’s face? She had a face. She definitely existed, right? None of them remember the things Lalnable remembers, like abuse or murdering their mom. Lalnable is a Duncan, and that means he’s actually pretty friendly. That can be seen in Hypercubed, where he’s perfectly affable. I took that to mean that’s before he realized what happened to him and subsequently went batshit. Or he was just biding his time before he escaped. Unfortunately, since Hypercubed didn’t have a proper end, we’ll never know. Time is pretty weird in the Yogs universe, so I haven’t totally figured out which series happen at the same time–especially with SOI and Yoglabs. I’ve always imagined that SOI happened, and then Yoglabs, with continuity of Xephos between them, and the adventurer Xephos we see in the rest of the series being a clone who preserves the good heart of SOI Xephos. Coming up with explanations for the clones is difficult because different members of the Yogscast have different takes. There are contradictions, retcons, and desperate deus ex machinas (a la Deep Space Mine). I favored explanations coming from the Flux Buddies and Flux Baddies series, ignoring those coming from series like Hole Diggers. Yoglabs is tricky because the first Lalnable Hector episode claims he’s a failed clone. I assume this was, technically, the Lalnable Hector we see in every other appearance, and that he was just retconned to be the original. Personally, I’m glad, since him being the original is so much cooler. I still stuck Hector in there as a nod of sorts. So that’s it! So much text >_

[radioactive-mouse]

MY PERSONAL TAKES ON YOGS TMA ALIGNMENTS BECAUSE THEYRE MY HYPERFIXATIONS AND I SAY SO

Xephos: Eye Aligned / Vast Fear Meal

ok this one’s funky because like, as much as I love him pretty much all of xeph’s worst instincts can be traced back to beholding. he constantly needs to know and understand in order to feel in control, even when that knowledge comes at the cost of his own or someone else’s well-being. he doesn’t know when to stop asking questions, doesn’t know how to walk away, and even in his better moments he gets very fussy and needs to know what’s going on with everyone around him or he might combust. he’d also be a real scrumptious meal for the vast because not only did he, yknow, crash from space which he for sure has trauma from and then proceed to fail three fucking moon landings, he also just hates the concept of his own insignificance, hates the idea that he can’t control some things, and he gets so pressed about it that he does evil fucked up science to cope.

Honeydew: Buried Aligned / ???? Fear Meal

this is really self explanatory to be honest. diggy diggy hole he is digging a hole, also the closest i could think of for what entity would want to eat him is the eye but that doesn’t feel terribly accurate? honeydew is literally just vibing too much for cosmic horrors to get their hands on him

Lalna: Eye Aligned / Stranger Fear Meal

yeah, this one is. yeah. obvious enough. this is just a general rule for most lalnas with a few exceptions. lalna is really interested in obtaining knowledge but not so much using it to actually help anyone around him at least until Nano shows up and makes him stop being a bit of a prick and he like, for sure has some desolation tendencies in there somewhere. stranger-wise the clones kind of speak for themselves, lalna hates the idea that someone else could swap in and replace him at any moment, and really hates the amount of people running around with his face. also quick shout out to lalnable and eternal lalna’s flesh and slaughter alignments on top of all this. 

Rythian: Lonely Aligned / Slaughter Fear Meal

rythian’s real fuckin depressed. like, he for sure has some of his own desolation tendencies as well, but ultimately that stems from the fact that when he doesn’t have other people to keep him grounded he starts flailing for stability and even further back he spent his entire childhood unable to connect with anyone, find anyone that looked like him and that’s Why He Is The Way That He Is. i don’t doubt that both the slaughter and the desolation would get a pretty good snack out of him, because he has tendencies towards both but ultimately he’s scared that the people he cares about are going to get hurt and he wants to keep them safe. 

Zoey: Corruption Aligned / Slaughter Fear Meal

mushrooms! zoey needs to be surrounded by life and other people who care about her to be able to function. she’s also touched a little bit by the web like, in the way that martin seems to be? she doesn’t like it but she did play the red and brown mushrooms off each other, she’s not going to use it to hurt people but zoey is somehow the best and worst liar on the planet. she’s a slaughter/desolation fear meal in the same sense as rythian but like, 100 times more, she’s very set on being nonviolent and just wants to vibe with the people she loves without anyone messing with them. 

Sjin: Web Aligned / Hunt Fear Meal

sjin is a manipulative little bastard sometimes! everyone (including me) seems to forget about that one arc of jaffa factory where sjin’s like,,,, been puppeting a talking head?? to tell sips what to do???? which was fuckin weird but anyway thats most of my reasoning here tbh. in the same vein as that sjin absolutely hates any kind of comeuppance for his actions and is the most avoidant dude on the planet, anyone coming after him specifically scares the shit out of him.

Sips: Buried Aligned / ???? Fear Meal

ok i promise i have more reasoning other than Dirt Man but its via like,, a weirdly specific sips backstory that im not getting into and i cant think of anything that would particularly want to eat him im sorry king i did you dirty

Nano: Corruption Aligned / ???? Fear Meal

nano is TEXTBOOK corruption. she wants love! so bad! she’s literally being corrupted because mother offers her the first familial relationship she’s ever had in her life! she wants to be fully consumed by what loves her!!! i can’t think of any entity specifically that would want to eat her 

Parvis: Slaughter Aligned / Lonely Fear Meal

again parvis is TEXTBOOK slaughter. he doesn’t care where he directs it, but he needs violence to make himself feel powerful, he needs to be in control of something and the best way to do that is to prove you can choose when someone lives or dies. but more than parvis needs to be in control he needs to be feared, he needs someone to see him, and the lonely’s brand of fading into obscurity would fuck him up big time.

Strife: UHHHHHHHHH Aligned / End Fear Meal

okay the thing is. if we’re talking an actual tma AU? i’m of the opinion that strife stays stubbornly unaligned gerry-style no matter how many entities make grabby hands at him. but listen, strife rolls up and the extinction, the desolation, the lonely and the eye all get into a knife fight over who gets custody of this bitch ass business boy. but strife would absolutely fear the end, the one thing no amount of money or power is going to let him outrun is death, dude’s got some real issues with mortality and it shows. 

[fluxedbuds]

can you go off about lalnable

ugly bitch idiot becomes a serial killer instead of going to therapy

But seriously, my take with Lalnable has always been more on the ‘fuck this guy’ side than the ‘poor sympathetic monster’ side. I don’t like seeing this guy woobified, especially because it tends to go some really concerning directions. I won’t get into it, because that’d be like slapping a label that says ‘come have discourse at me’ on my face, but let it be known, this guy ain’t got any excuses.

I’m not touching Lalnable’s potential childhood, because THATS a whole mess with no canon answer, but I do think he started out as pretty much a regular Lalna. Keep in mind, even the nicest, softest Lalna, FB Lalna, thought it was completely fine to repeatedly dunk a live bird in molten metal, because it didn’t die. And I think it’s pretty much still the state he’s in when he gets hired into Yoglabs.

Now, this is where you might start to think, ‘well gee, tumblr user Fluxed Buds, wouldnt it be easy for Yoglabs to twist that lack of moral understanding into something worse? wouldnt it mean its not his fault?’ And you’d be like, five percent right! The thing is, though, even Bird Torturer Lalna wouldn’t be any kind of okay with the kind of shit Lalnable ends up doing- there’s no boiling the frog situation possible, because there’s NO easy transition point into being the kind of person Lalnable becomes. At least one Lalna has quit Yoglabs because it was too evil, theres no reason Lalnable wouldn’t have been able to do the same, or at Least escape somehow. What I think happened is Yoglabs provided an environment where Lalnable could get away with doing horrible things extremely personally, and Lalnable took that and RAN.

There’s no evidence that Honeydew, Xephos, or any of the testificate scientists end up doing the shit Lalnable does. This isn’t an environment that’s forcing people to become like Lalnable, it just doesn’t provide many roadblocks. So, like Xephos lying about Lalnable being a clone, he’s lying about why he got locked up. Employee death is just an inconvenience. Lalnable got locked up for disagreeing with how cloning should work. I’ve had a post about this in the works for a while, but my theory is that Lalnable thought clones should be a brainless workforce, mostly because he Absolutely Could Not Handle the idea of another him running around without being under his control. Which, yknow, isn’t super weird of a hangup, pretty much every Lalna has it, and I’d wager a lot of real people would have similar objections. The problem is, Lalnas are stubborn little fucks, and when Xephos wouldn’t listen, Lalnable went ballistic and started fucking Everything up. So, stick him in a cage, pry him for info until you don’t need him, then put him in stasis for stable DNA.

So, the one thing Lalnable is justified about is being pissed about all that, because Xephos was a jerk and betrayed him, and also fuck Yoglabs. And thats one of three times Lalnable has ever been right in his whole life!

So, yknow, once he’s out of Yoglabs, he’s super got no excuse to kill/kidnap/enslave entire towns and whatnot, so any chance of him being sympathetic is long gone. Dude’s a piece of shit and won’t wash his goddamn clothes. But he does have some interesting psychology I can pry apart at this point!

So, first off- the name and aesthetic change, the color contacts, the voice changer- He’s trying to force control over the clone situation. He knows he doesn’t have any hope of controlling his clones, so he tries to fix it for himself by trying to make it so there aren’t copies of him running around, because he’s now different from all of them. But that sort of evolves into hatred of his original self, his real voice and name and appearance. So, that’s a little sympathetic, but he could’ve decided to be like properly goth or something so I don’t feel bad for him he looks like an idiot

Lalnable doesn’t care about justifying his actions, which does mean he’s a lot more powerful than some other yogs villains. He’s got nothing holding him back, his only setbacks are directly caused by other people fucking with him. Lalnable is legitmately a scary threat! It’s easy to forget that when we get to see so much of him being a complete failure idiot, but he’s good at what he does, and what he does is crimes and evil.

He’s also excessively focused on revenge, which I think is kind of why he ends up abandoning it in the end. He was so focused on the concept that he didn’t even realize how generally impossible and ill-advised it is. Besides the obvious issues of time loops, after he creates Five, if he actually succeeded, he’d delete Five. And for once, he doesn’t Want to destroy someone. FB4 really skipped over so goddamn much of his development, and thats REALLY annoying, but it doesn’t seem like a wholly illogical endpoint. He’s kind of driven by an impossible goal- control over everything about how the world sees him. At some point, he probably realizes that destroying every single one of his clones wouldn’t bring him any more joy than just torturing the shit out of some rando! Or, at least, it’s not worth more to him than Five.

I enjoy the Lalnable-Five father daughter dynamic a lot (because it’s literally canon Lalnable says he’s her father dont TRY me), but it takes a while to really get to that point. When he first makes Five, he’s making her like any other clone he’d make for spying. She’s just another tool, a frail attempt to steal Nano from a clone who doesn’t deserve to know her.

Oh yeah, the second thing Lalnable has ever been right about! He seriously thinks Nano is cool as FUCK. Which she is! It’s not a romantic interest for sure, I’m pretty sure Lalnable hasn’t thought about romance in like 10 years, it’s more of a fascination. I don’t think he’s really interested in friendship, but he wants that kind of power on his side, he wants to see how it works, and most of all, he doesn’t want some clone getting to even be near it. Five offering the side-switch deal to Nano was something both the Baddies agreed on.

Anyways, back to Five. While she starts out as a tool, they do end up growing closer, and for once, Lalnable isn’t a total bitch idiot about it. Unfortunately, he does spend a lot of time pointing out how Five is better than Nano because he made her, and through that making Five obsessed with Staying better than Nano, because if she’s not, Lalnable might abandon her. So, he’s Dad, but he starts out as a truly awful dad that should be dropkicked. I think Five’s confusion and fear over how absolutely focused he is on destructive and impossible revenge is part of what makes him reconsider too, although I guess we’ll never know for sure. They’re both still comfortably evil as all hell, but it’s settling into a weird sort of manageable space for the buddies, and thats probably the best we’re gonna get. Lalnable has no desire to be a good person and he never will.

The last thing Lalnable is ever correct about, is loving and appreciating Five for who she is as herself.

And then he wears those sunglasses and he stops being correct for the rest of his life.

TL;DR: serial killer develops identity issues, gives daughter identity issues, trades identity issues for a second daughter and disgusting sunglasses

[getallemeralds]

really, really long rambling

i forgot how i got onto this tangent but on the car ride home i ended up thinking about Speed The Collapse, or. actually that’s just the first fic in it, i dont think the setting has an overall name. uhhh. WELL it’s the yogscast fic/RP setting i started years ago and evolved into atomiclalna/getfluxd/wellcatchyou. and it evolved into being pretty weird and im thinking about it again so here’s an explanation of all the characters while i think abt writing more STC

(some of this is specifically rp-verse that later got welded into fic canon, to make things extra confusing. especially with Atomic and Digger. fantastic)

Lalna “Lal/Atomic” Coffee is the “main” Lalna. he’s an AU of Flux Buddies that got... really convoluted bc of him originally having a bunch of different rp verses and then i accidentally slammed them together and had to try and reconcile em. he’s an omnidisciplinary scientist but mainly likes rockets, nukes, and blowing things up. and reckless use of thaumcraft, obvs.

he got de-Fluxed in one rpverse with the help of Circuit (a friend’s OC), and then when the verse-fusion happened it got kind of weird because Nano (who also got de-Fluxed in the same rp) stayed Fluxed but Atomic didn’t, so he’s just... kinda weird. but with the like, non-rp verse, i think it ended up being that he just burned all the surface-level Flux off but Nano had progressed so much that it probably would’ve killed xem to do the same, and then once the whole like.. dark realm stuff happened, his Flux resurfaced like how Nano’s got worse. I DUNNO i kinda started writing him before i was even caught up on flux buddies prime while 2.0 was over halfway through so :,)

either way he ended up with intense scarring on his face & hands, on top of miscellaneous scars he had from various near-death experiences, and it kind of became his “identifying feature” both in-universe and out. he’s also a cyborg just to keep himself alive because he’s Very aware that he doesn’t have respawn (unlike pretty much everybody else) and with how reckless he is with his own safety + his expertise with machines it felt like a logical conclusion to him. he’s also very casual about his own injuries bc he can just patch it back up later, no big deal. it grosses Nano out.

Lal’s very scatterbrained, bad at talking to people, and horrendous at taking care of himself. he’s also super disaster gay and was dating both Circuit and Nilesy in the rp verse (as well as like, whatever’s going on between him and Nano in both fic and rp). he sees Xephos and Honeydew as basically his adopted parents, although his relationship with them has faded due to lack of contact; he’s usually very casual about people going in and out of his life, but it started to wear on him and he gets pretty lonely.

he’s very distrustful of other Lalnas because of everything with Hector and MP!Lalna, although he doesn’t go on the attack immediately unless he feels threatened. his memories of YOGLabs (i think the “YOG” was supposed to stand for something but i never actually sorted out what it was) are of working on the respawn system before getting suddenly fired; in actuality, he’s the master clone that got kicked out after Hector proved to Xephos that the Lalnas were too dangerous to keep around. the side-effect of this is he has a weird bug where he ends up with memories of various other Lalnas, and sometimes has trouble keeping track of which Lalna he is without someone being there to ground him. this really doesn’t help with Nano’s mistrust of him

his timeline goes: Voltz -> Yoglabs -> Duncan’s Lab -> Blackrock -> The Apprentice -> Flux Buddies series

Lalnable “Hec” Hector is... complicated. he’s the original Lalna, who according to Xephos went insane and had to be locked up in YOGLabs; several of his breakout attempts failed, only for him to finally bail out successfully and go on the run. his main goal is to bring down YOGLabs, believing that Xephos has put all his morals in the trash in search of power & immortality, with a side hobby of trying to figure out what the hell is up with the Specimens, seriously it shouldn’t be this hard to clone somebody even if they’re full of eldritch goop wtf

all of the Lalnas are trans btw. Hec has voice dysphoria, both bc he has a case of the genders and also bc he hates the idea of being mistaken for another Lalna (although he’s tried to play that in his favour a couple of times. it usually backfires. sup, Tungsten); he feels like the Lalnas are unstable inferior knockoffs, and really doesn’t like seeing reflections of himself walking around. usually this means he goes out of his way to avoid them, but he started directly clashing with Atomic after they ended up in close proximity to each other and he took an interest in Nano.

he’s like... he plays up his edgy side to try and seem intimidating, but he’s honestly pretty pathetic. not that he can’t be dangerous, but he’s just kind of a paranoid guy with a whole lot of brain problems. has a lot in common with Atomic but does Not want to admit it. Hec is also very desensitized to blood and death bc of his work at YOGLabs (Atomic kinda is too but it’s not as prominent), but if he’s actually eaten anybody it’s probably it was probably out of curiosity. WAIT THAT SOUNDS REALLY WEIRD. i do think the like, cannibalism thing is something he got a reputation for without really comitting to it, but the nickname stuck and he’s like “sure, that’s edgy and scares people, i guess” and started going by Hector and then Five makes fun of him

he kinda suffers from badass decay but in an entertaining way bc its more like Lal & Nano learn more about him and are like, okay he’s pretty threatening, but he’s also a Lalna and they’re all idiots

his timeline is: Voltz -> Yoglabs -> Flux Buddies series

Livid Coffee is where shit starts getting REALLY weird and complicated. his deal was established in a rp arc on Atomic’s blog, where like... it was getting close to the end of Flux Buddies 2.0 in-universe, and Hector was testing out the Time Gate with the idea of like, going back in time to YOGLabs, before everything went wrong, and beating the shit out of Xephos. Lal saw something was up, went to go check it out, and got captured; Nano got suspicious once he didn’t return, and Hector has zero foresight or critical thinking skills and kinda panicked. he was only able to get the incomplete Time Gate open for a few minutes at a time while testing it, so he kinda... just. grabbed a Lalna. and sent him on his way back to the base and hoping Nano wouldn’t question it too much or that xe’d think he just had amnesia or something.

unforseen problem: the Lalna that Hector had managed to time-theft was Livid, his past self from when he still worked at YOGLabs.

im gonna be real i still have NO IDEA how this arc goes down in fic, if it does at all, but it does establish a whole lot of important things while also getting REALLY convoluted. i made a lot of decisions in dp that i definitely wouldnt today :,) BUT the gist of it is that Nano easily puts 2+2 together and rushes to rescue Lal only to get captured, and meanwhile Livid learns about everything. about Lalnable, about the failed clones, about getting fired, about how everything ended up the way it is in Lal’s time period. and he freaks out, but realizes he has a chance: he can try to stop all of this. he can go back to his original time period, and tell Xephos to shut the project down, and stop Lalnable from ever existing.

so some pretty cool stuff happens: he stages a rescue mission, rushes back through time while the baddies are distracted by the buddies, and sabotages the Time Gate in YOGLabs Deep Storage so Lalnable isn’t able to get there (which leads to baddies&buddies being scattered through time once they go through). he then runs to talk to Xephos, warn him about everything, because surely he can fix all of this, right?

Xephos listens, but then decides he doesn’t care about the risk and orders Livid to go through with it anyway. when Livid refuses, he’s locked up and his brain is fucked with to try and wipe his memories of the event. he finishes CloneSec on Xephos’s orders, only for everything to click back into place and the betrayal+paranoia causes him to lash out and try to kill Xephos, which gets him rebranded as Lalnable Hector. so it’s a time loop, basically.

as a side note, there’s a backup Livid of sorts-- in case of failure break glass, basically. somewhat literally, bc the clone is hidden in the YOGLabs reflecting pool in a glass box, far away from where anyone would stumble across him. he’s the closest clone to the original (meaning he doesn’t have any physical deviation like the other Lalnas eventually develop over course of experimentation & the master clone template), and has all of Livid’s memories up until the time travel nonsense. he never got to make an appearance outside of the original Livid in Distant Past, but interestingly one of the first times Atomic experienced clone memories in rpverse was something that happened to this guy.

his timeline is: Voltz -> Yoglabs -> Distant Past (fic) -> Hypercubed

while most of the Lalnas were fired or disposed of, with the exception of Hypercubed bc he’s in a frickin box, there was one that Xephos held onto. im gonna be real, im not totally sure how Moonquest fits into everything; honestly im kinda tempted to say it might be a case of a spare Xephos, even, considering he’s not like.. maximum bastard like Yoglabs Xephos is. either way, a single Lalna got picked up by Honeydew & Xephos and they decided to go to space together because why the hell not?

he doesn’t really have a unique nickname yet, because i haven’t done too much with him-- the most Moonquest stuff i wrote was actually an AU, with like. multiple system alien Lalnae, and he never crosses paths with that clusterfuck up there so Atomic only knows about him via clone memories & a very weird encounter with a clone-of-a-clone. who knows what he’s up to nowdays, considering Deep Space Mine never got anywhere.

his timeline is: Voltz -> Yoglabs -> Jaffa Factory -> Moonquest -> Hole Diggers -> Deep Space Mine

AND NOW WHO YOU’VE ALL BEEN WAITING FOR, THE MAN, THE MYTH, THE LEGEND: DIGGER

Digger is... he’s something. while all of the other Lalnas listed here (minus original!Livid) are respawn clones, Digger is instead a “shell” clone-- basically just an empty, expendable shell someone can temporarily dump their consciousness into if they want to do something dangerous/stupid or just need to quickly hop somewhere. so, like, basically not a Lalna in the same sense as how the other Lalnas are basically like.. twins but a large number of. he’s also a reject, due to Honeydew screwing around while the shell was being constructed and accidentally mixing in some of his own DNA. because shells have DNA for some reason? they’re weird, they’re like... i think Digs got described as being made of “fake meat particles” once. doesn’t even have a pulse. or like, blood, or viscera, because any damage done to him cracks the shell.

ANYWAY so Digger was initially just a defective shell but the Hole Diggers didn’t get rid of him bc they thought he was funny in concept and also were too lazy to do anything, so he just got parked somewhere in the space station to be forgotten about. then there was a glitch with the sync chambers while Lalna was swapping to a shell, and suddenly Digger was like. aware. he basically got a copy of Lalna’s consciousness downloaded into himself. cue distress and dissociation once he immediately realized he was Stuck in an incorrect shell. THEN Honeydew accidentally blew the space station up to fuck, and Digger-- along with everyone else-- got sucked into a black hole.

ive been kinda vague about where exactly in time&space he ended up, but he basically took over some ruins he found and dug out a huge complex underground base and raids a nearby village for supplies while he was getting his feet. this is how he found a thaumonomicon, and he got himself deep into thaumcraft out of curiosity. he got himself heavily warped, and normally it would be pretty concerning but he’s rather calm about it

ive kinda gone back and forth on how he sees himself, so: he definitely starts out thinking he’s Lalna Prime but in a shell, but then learns about Other Lalnas and his memories are confusing&incomplete so he starts questioning himself and has a big ol crisis. he picks up the nickname “Digger” and ends up developing in his own direction somewhat, becoming his own person despite being a shell. having to accept the fact that he’s permanently a shell has been... difficult, and he tries very hard to ignore it because he feels like he’s super fragile if he thinks about it for too long. by the time he showed up in rp stuff, though (like showyourenergy and the corruption saga) he started owning it as like “yeah!! this is me, i guess!! if you look down on me for it ill shoot you with a very big gun!!”

his opinion on other Lalnas is that he’s TERRIFIED of them. like, pretty much convinced he’s going to get hunted down and killed if the original Moonquest Lalna finds out about him (once he learns that he even exists). that, combined with his warp, means he has paranoia to rival Hec’s; it only gets worse in rpverse when he’s managed to make a Lot of enemies. he does have a very close friend, though, potentially the only person he trusts completely: Drei, aka Specimen Echo 3-B, one of the failed Specimens that Hec created. there’s like this whole thing where Nano & the two surviving Specimens are like, a trio representing various forms of thaumic corruption? Nano is Flux, Five is Taint, and Drei is Warp! so Drei met Digger when he got himself warped to all hell, and they’re basically siblings.

i also rp’d him for like 3 days on here during the jsab corruption saga bc for some reason i doodled a leo!lalna instead of using RR

his timeline goes: [Voltz -> Yoglabs -> Jaffa Factory -> Moonquest] -> Hole Diggers -> ?

[yandere-highschool]

as far as i know you're one of the few blogs who aren't a part of the "headcanons and aus are horrible and shippers should go to hell" gang and i thank you for that

Honestly at first I made this blog because haha kinda canon url why the fuck not relive an old fandom for a few days, but soon after I discovered two things, one this fandom is really fun and creative with lots of interesting ideas and concepts, and two, there is a severe problem of people being intimidated and threatened by those ideas and concepts because the fandom as a whole, is militant and toxic, and I didn’t want to just, give up this blog anymore like I had planned, it’s comfy here and someone needs to be a blog for people like you who want to create, who want stories, but are being denied.

Honestly the entire fact this is a thing is just, so new, I cannot be vocal enough that this behavior is not the norm and its NEW, I’ve been in lots of fandoms, team crafted, the pack, yogscast, aphmau, achievement hunter, cupquake, etc, and this has never been a thing to police, it just has never even crossed anyones mind to not do these things. None of these policers would survive in those fandoms.

For instance one my current big fandoms is The Yogscast, and do you know what it’s like being in that fandom? It’s the exact opposite of this one! People ship freely and its expected! People write aus, headcanons, stories, we talk about stories, we talk about lore, we talk about the characters, we take these characters, honeydew the dwarf, xephos the spaceman, lalna the mad scientist, and we breathe life into them, we give them stories, backgrounds, identities! It’s free game for basically everything! And you know what? the people in the yogscast don’t give a shit beyond maybe making shipping jokes or poking a bit of fun! Hell I’m literally in a discord chat with an ex member and am actively encouraged to write fic and create with there minecraft persona! Creating fic and making headcanons is fucking normal, it is in literally every fandom that’s not this one. things like fanfic and fanart and headcanons are VITAL to a fandom’s survival, it entices people, gives them more reason to join! No one remembers the fandom with no fanfiction or headcanons or shipping, everyone remembers the fandom with hundreds and thousands of stories

Hell even in the hermit community if you don’t like shipping? then you aren’t allowed to watch the recap because Zloy FULLY ENCOURAGES it! https://askzloyxp.tumblr.com/post/184503863759/hey-chief-whats-your-opinion-on-people-shipping here is a link right here to his blog where he says so, if you fandom police these things, you can’t interact with the recap that’s the rules!

I remember being 13 and getting into merome, this was before I realized I was asexual and panromantic, this was some of my first experience with gay relationships in media, the work from it gave me some of my first purely positive interesting exciting loving queer rep, and was definitely a big part of normalizing these kinds of relationships and showing me these kinds of feelings are fine and normal and par for the course. It gave me an outlet for feelings I didn’t understand yet, it made me feel normal and it showed me healthy relationships you don’t get on daytime tv, and I don’t want to take that kind of rep away from a 13 year old who does the same with mumbo and grian. People don’t headcanon people as gay or ace or pan for no reason, they do it because they’re searching for representation, they’re searching for something where they can go ‘they are like me’ and that kind of rep is valuable and should be protected not ridiculed to threats of violence. And you know how merome affected mitch and jerome? It didn’t, all they did in response was make jokes about the ship and make ship tease animations because it was not a serious issue.

Of course there are things you shouldn’t do, but that’s true for everything, normal fandom protocol is tag your ships, keep it out of the main tag if asked, and don’t shove it in the creators face or demand they make your ship canon or anything, that should be frowned upon, not shipping and aus and stories in general!

I am a writer, I write minecrafter fanfic, I ship minecrafters, I make minecrafter headcanons, and I will never stop because a 14 year old tells me its problematic, and I will protect the rights of others to do the same, and you know what? They can’t stop us! The only control they have over us is what we give them! They can never stop fanfiction from being created, they can never stop shipping, they can never stop any of it, they only can if we let them get into our heads, and if we go ‘fuck you I’ll do it anyways’ they lose

These people are choking out this fandom with restrictions and baseless and unenforceable rules, take back your power from them, don’t let them destroy this fandom, do what brings you happiness, and if its drawing grian and mumbo making out, or headcanon mumbo with anxiety? I fully support you and I will never shut up

[nolalsalalled]

13/10/18 So, Miss Evans has a new Comic Page out, and boy does it make me excited to see the explosion. Yes, another explosion. Are you even surprised? It’s Yoglabs, come on. On to the theory, friends.. and others. And, as always, Spoilers. ;3

Okay! So, in the latest page, we see that it, unlike one of my previous assumptions, is not Rythian OR Lalna that annoyed Doctor Coffee by appearing, as neither of them are nearby. Instead, we do not get to see what really set him off, but with the reaction of Lalna and Rythian during their very interesting conversation (That will probably get an entire theory on its own let’s be honest), that they’re also interrupted by something. Seeing as Rythian says in the space below the page:

It means it was probably something to do with an explosion (as well as the colours in the last 2 panels showing something that could be guessed at as light from an explosion here.

(Also I find it great that Rythian’s eye scarf ALSO looks over at it. Such detail much scarf.) He looks over his left shoulder, and we see earlier in the page what’s over his left shoulder: 

Strife Solutions tower. Which, by the way, looks strangely as if it’s.. off? I mean, you can clearly see some lights on at the top, but in other pages you can see that light’s usually a lot brighter. 

(Page 85)

(Page 84)

(Page 82) All of these are at different times of day, and all of them look brighter than the current-page building! But, come now, you really think I would make a theory based on only the evidence of Rythian turning and looking in that direction! I mean- probably- but let’s continue! We can see in the background of Page 87, the Strife building whilst both Kim and Doctor Coffee have their discussion.  The building is also to Doctor Coffee’s left as it was to Rythian, as seen here:

And when the two of them get disrupted from their conversation, same as the other two, he looks over his left shoulder, also in the direction of Strife Solutions tower.

As seen here! However, there’s something else I was barely able to catch upon looking back on the page after reading Page 88! If you look carefully at Strife Solutions tower..

Right there, it’s like.. well, to  be perfectly honest it’s most akin to the glint in Lewis’ eyes he gets sometimes, except not Red. And after this glint appears, Kim gets cut off (or cuts herself off) And Doctor Coffee looks over at that time as well. But, who would do such a thing? What kind of mean, terrible person would commit such a heinous act of villainy, against poor- yeah, okay, I’m not fooling anyone. We all know it’s most likely Xephos let’s be real folks. Hell, we even have some evidence for that too, and the evidence is on the same page as one of the photos of Strife Solutions Building I used earlier! How convenient!  Hell, the entirety of Page 82 can be seen as pretty damning evidence against Xephos for this- and it’s a good thing our good old local Wizard Batman was there. The man’s Paranoid about Strife, and if Strife knows anything, and he’s talking to his best buddy Lal (A great idea I’m sure). But, the most obvious piece of evidence is at the very end of the page, when Doctor Coffee asks him a simple question.

“You’re the Control Freak, you tell me... what are you going to do about it?” What, Xephos having some sort of control over Strife at some point? Now, when would he have had the opportunity to do any sort of controlling over Strife? I mean, that’s totally crazy, we’ve only seen one interaction and- okay yeah this is getting old here’s the evidence stuff.

With the documents transferred over, there’s no reason for Strife Solutions to be kept around anymore, at any rate. We’ve seen Xephos controlling Strife before, ala their fight and these events afterwards.  Hell, like I said, the glint on the tower’s even the same as the glint Lewis’ eye gets, although that may just be stylistic choice. I just hope poor Strife got himself and his employees out safely before whatever’s going to happen.

[violet-fire-cat]

Okay! You wanted to see more of my lumian ocs? Well most of you probably didn't but @cyanidas seemed too and I've never really drawn this lot properly so it made a good excuse. But yeah, here's Xeph's family! His three siblings, and his parents. Xeph's the oldest, he's just short x) Well, for a lumian he is, the others are all over six foot, or close too it, whilst Xeph's only about 5ft7. He's smol in comparison. Plus I messed up his anatomy a little so he looks shorter than he probably should but oh well!

I don't really have names for his parents over on the far left, but his siblings do have names! To the left of Xeph, is Ryul, and then on the right is Luzana and Enylnn, the twins. Below the read more is, well, some info about this lot, and some more of my lumian headcanons, Cy said that I should just write as much as I want, and that's something I can do, so, yeah, massive info-dump below the cut, enjoy I guess if you're willing to read it x)

I have five more lumians that I'm going to draw too? Well, four and a half. So watch out for those as well! :D

Okay so, where to start? x) Well, i think a good thing to start with is that my lumian's home planet is called Lumi. A very technologically advanced and vibrant planet, the majority of the life there glows just like the lumians themselves do! It's quite a dark planet, fairly distant from it's stars (yes, stars, it's in binary star system), but it's climate is still rather temperate in most places, and filled with lush forests where there aren't cities and towns. Rainstorms are common for much of the planet, snow is very rare, except in the coldest regions, which aren’t really inhabited. They have ways of regulating the weather in big city areas though. Keeping rain and other bad weather out and maintaining a steady temperature. This made adjusting to Minecraftian weather rather tricky for Xeph and Will. 

One year on Lumi is roughly the same as about 3 or so years on Minecraftia/Earth. Lumi’s orbit isn’t much bigger than Minecraftia’s but it moves slower, which results in it taking longer to make it’s way around the stars. Lumian’s live for a very long time, their lifespan is easily double if not triple that of the average humans. Which, does, sadly, mean that Xeph and Will outlive the majority of their friends on Minecraftia. 

Despite how long they live though, lumian’s are quite fragile compared to humans. Without the advanced medical tech of their home planet, an injury that would take a few days to heal on a human, could take a week or more for Xeph or Will, which annoys them, but if nothing else it prompts them to be more careful. Healing magic has limited success when used on them, only the most powerful of spells with have a great effect. And healing and regeneration potions make them sick, so they can’t drink them without promptly throwing it back up again.

The next important thing is probably that my lumians are a single-sexed, genderless/androgynous race. Meaning that they don't have male and female like humans do, so I will be referring to all my lumian ocs with they/them pronouns, since they've had no exposure to human ideas of gender. And masculine and feminine terms and pronouns don't even really exist in the Lumian language! Xeph and Will choose to ID as male and use he/him pronouns once they're living on Minecraftia, as that's what they prefer when it comes to the human language and how they view gender and such, though generally they're not too fussed by it.

Okay, what stuff applies to the Brindley's here. Hm. What about some societal stuff? That's pretty important with Xeph's family actually.

In the big Central Hub cities where Xeph (and Will) grew up, social standing is very much tied to the colour of your eyes and blood. Lumian eye colours are incredibly varied, they can be pretty much any colour! A lumian’s blood colour matches that of their eyes, though is usually a few shades darker. When healthy, a lumian’s blood will glow slightly too.

The colours are usually split into three groups though, which in those big cities are often used to describe a person, and are very much linked to social status; Primary Blood (red, blue, yellow), Secondary Blood (orange, green, purple, pink), and Other/Muddy Blood (browns, greys, particularly dark shades of any colour really).

Unfortunately, Lumi isn't the futuristic paradise Xeph's friends seem to want to think it is, at least, not where Xeph and Will grew up. It's not uncommon for an individual to be treated differently by their peers purely because of the colour of their eyes. This came about after a relatively recent event, that is now just outside of living memory. But it has been around long enough, and has become so ingrained into these city-dwellers lives, that there's a distinct pattern amongst the groups in the cities, and it's unlikely to go away any time soon.

Primaries are often wealthier, but have a bad reputation amongst other groups for mistreating them and using them. Secondaries are mostly middle-class, darker colours are often warier of them, though perhaps not as much as Primaries, many Secondaries are treated roughly by Primaries, some are mistreated if their colour is too close to a Primary, but still noticeably Secondary. Lumian's with brown or similar coloured eyes, are often treated quite badly by higher groups, especially Primaries, lower-class lumians in cities. They generally live in smaller towns, where they're often much better off, as the majority of the discrimination takes place in these bigger city areas. Especially the Central Hub cities (which is made up of the biggest cities on Lumi, including the main Capital). Away from these cities, you'll find considerably less, if any, of this blood colour discrimination, and lumians, regardless of blood colour, can generally work together without any hassle.

Unlike humans, lumian’s really do not care about what colour someones skin is. The only part of someone’s appearance that is deemed even remotely important by most, is the colour of their eyes.

Xeph, from a young age, realised that treating other lumians different because of the colour of their eyes was stupid! And despite his parents efforts, stuck with that ideal. Whilst living on Lumi, he did his best to be nice to people that most others of his blood colour would mistreat. He's perfectly aware that he has Primary Privilege though, that he can get away with things purely because he's blue. And that people will treat him differently, for better or worse, because he's blue. And he hates it. But there's not much he can do about it, as much as he wishes he could.

Will knew from a young age that he wanted to run a business! But his family was worried about that right from the start. It's very much an industry run by Primary blooded lumians, especially in these big cities. And they didn't want the baby of their family to get bullied by cruel Primaries! Will was determined though, and never let anything stop him from doing what he wanted to do. Early on, he did have to deal with a lot of lumians looking down at him or not taking him seriously, purely because he was a young green. But he built up his reputation, and is now fairly well-respected on Lumi.

A little about Xeph's family?

Xeph comes from a rather wealthy, Primary upper-class family. His parents are a very strict pair, and they're both very typical Primaries in that they have no interest in, and will gladly mistreat, lumians of other 'lower' colours, purely because of the colour of their eyes. They always wanted their eldest to find a nice blue lumian and settle down with them, so they were unsurprisingly unhappy when Xeph settled with a green he met at university.

Xephos is, well you all know who he is. He's the oldest of the Brindley kids, protective big brother. He gets along pretty well with all three siblings, but doesn't get along with his parents, and never really has done. He doesn't hate them, but he does dislike their attitude towards the world and how other lumian's should be treated. Xeph studied chemistry and technology at university, where he met Will, before joining the Lumian Military as an engineer a little while after his graduation. He loved the job, getting to travel through the stars was a dream come true for him, and he was doing very well. Until his ship crashed, and his life on Minecraftia begun.

Ryul (Rye-ul), or just Ry for short, is about two years younger than Xeph. They're a bit of a joker, playful and energetic, but do sometimes miss when they should calm down and be more serious. They've always been rather close to Xeph, and there only being a couple of years between them probably helped with that. They’re very tall and skinny, even for a lumian they’re tall, especially for a digitigrade lumian, who are usually shorter. They like to tease their siblings, especially Xeph, since they’re all shorter than them. They don’t mean any harm though, just messing around.

Ryul loves to travel, whenever the family went away somewhere when the kids were young, Ryul was thrilled and excited by it! Though now they’re an adult, their parents wish they’d just settle down. There’s a lot to see on Lumi though, and not many city-dwelling lumian’s really travel far from their home cities to see what else is out there, not unless they have too anyway. Ryul however, wants to see the world! And they travel around with their partner, and any friends they can convince to go with them, visiting different cities and enjoying themselves. 

When Xephos’ ship crashed, and he was believed dead. The Lumian Military informed Xephos’ parents, rather than Will, who was his partner at the time, about what had happened. Xeph’s parents didn’t like Will, had never liked him and thought that their eldest deserved much better than some green who got lucky. If they’d had their way, they would never have told Will what had happened to Xephos. But Xeph’s siblings did like Will, and they did want him to know what happened, rather than leaving him to think that Xephos had simply disappeared. But it took a long time for them to be able to tell him. Eventually though, Ryul managed to get the message across to Strife, who didn’t believe it at first, but was, of course, devastated once he realised that Ryul was telling the truth. He was angry that he hadn’t been told though, and had showed up at Xeph’s parents house and shouted at them for not telling him sooner, for trying to hide it from him..

Luzana (Lu-zar-na), or just Zana, and Enlynn (En-Lin), or Enny, are about six years younger than Xeph, and are identical twins. Though in personality, they’re fairly different. Luzana is quite calm and mellow, compared to their siblings, whilst Enylnn is rather hyper, cheerful and a bit silly. They both get along with their older siblings pretty well, despite the age gap, though Enylnn is perhaps a little closer to Ryul than Xephos, since their shared hyperactivity goes together well- or at least, it does to them, maybe not to everyone else.

Enylnn loves tech and computers, gadgetry fascinates them! They very much share this love with Xephos, and the two of them could very easily chat about tech for hours if you let them. Luzana on the other hand, loves fashion and design. And is very good with makeup- though some of that is thanks to Xephos teaching them when they were younger. This gives me an excuse to talk about clothing, but then I’ll wrap this up x)

Clothing on Lumi, or at least in the cities where Xeph and Will grew up, isn’t massively complex or fancy. What you see here is a pretty good set of examples of what city-dwellers are likely to wear. Slim-fitting, high collars, dark colours, covering all but their faces, hands, toes, and tails. Lumian’s are very private people usually, no showing skin in public! Well, unless you’re like, going to a night club or something, then you can get away with something a bit more revealing. (But even then, it’s often no more than shorter sleeves, lower neckline, simple stuff like that. No short shorts here!)

Some lumian’s do wear lighter colours though, Luzana kinda prefers pale colours to the darker shades that most other lumians wear. Darker shades are more common though, since lumian beauty is as focused on the eyes and freckles and their colour and glow as the rest of their society, and darker clothes help to make bright glowing eyes stand out- or at least, that’s the idea.

Metal jewellery worn on the ears, fingers and tails to those that have them (though in this styling I leave tail-rings out for the most part) is very common too. Most of the time the only lumians that won’t wear jewellery are those that simply can’t afford it. Earrings that match the colour of an individuals eyes are common, and many also wear an earring matching their partners colour. Most are silver or gold though, once again, worn to show off a lumians eyes and freckles. Reflecting their glow, and seeming to sparkle.

Lumian’s wear makeup too, it’s very common, though it’s usually only worn around the eyes, not wanting to cover and hide freckles. Darker shades of their eye colour are what is usually worn, making their glowing eyes stand out. Glitter is common in makeup too, as it adds a little extra sparkle around their eyes when the light reflects off of it. Xeph and Will would often do each others makeup before going out of an evening, Xeph had quite a talent for it, and helped to get Luzana into makeup and fashion when they were young. Nail polish is common too, city-dwellers generally keep their claws trimmed and blunt, since keeping them sharp isn’t needed, so they can have them unsheathed without risking hurting anyone, and lots of lumians will wear sparkly or even luminescent nail polish on their claws, though the latter is a little more common amongst young lumians out partying and the like.

The majority of city-dwelling lumians keep their hair short, they’ll style it however they want, but it’s rare for them to grow it out very long. Most lumian’s can grow facial hair, but for the most part it’s only older lumian’s who grow it out at all, and even then, anything more than scruff or stubble is fairly uncommon. Xeph and Ryul are younger but still have a bit of scruff going on. Though that’s only really ‘cos Xeph’s a rebel and Ry’s a mess. x)

Okay- okay I’m gonna stop now. I think that’s everything I wanted to write here and more? Might have missed something, oh well. Will add it to the next one x) There will be two more posts like this, my lumian OCs for Cy to see, plus headcanons and shit. If you have questions about anything, be it related to this or some other headcanon thing, feel free to drop them in my ask box! Seriously, I love having a reason to talk about my headcanons! :D But yeah, that’s this. Sorry that it got so long, but it was fun to draw this and write all of this out! So that’s something at least x) ><

[excrucian]

Hypothetical Yogscast Chuubo Campaign: Xephos Lifepath

(Link to main post)

Ah, hello there. You've come from a very long way. If I'm correct, your name would be Xephos, is that correct?

Yes, and I'm male.

My name's Xiphas and I'm a lady alien thank you very much.

Yes, and... did you really think aliens subscribed to your human binary?

Actually, my name is something else..?

You've got it all wrong! I'm a dryad called Martyn Littlewood!

I believe you crashed your spaceship on this barren land, right?

Yup.

Actually, this is a really intense full experience vacation. I got beamed down here, and I'll get beamed back up... eventually... I hope...

Me? Drive a spaceship? I stepped through a magical portal that suddenly opened up and it closed behind me!

I was kidnapped! Nearly sold into slavery! But I escaped and now I'm here!

The point is that you're stuck here. Stranded! And there's something that sets you apart from everyone else, something that makes it clear that you're not From Around Here, something very visible. It might just be one of these, but it could be more than one. What is it?

Glowing eyes

Pointed ears

Vestigal bug wings that can't fly

Stalk eyes

Horns or antlers

Colourful or rocky skin

... something else?

In any case, here are your abilities:

Superior Spaceman 2 - This skill helps you with knowing about space and alien cultures, and sets you apart from normal people, with spooky glowy eyes. Crafting 2 - You're decent at putting things together and making things from scratch. Tinker 2 - You're good at messing with machines.Swordsmanship 1 - You're handy with a sword. Surviving 1 - You're hardy. Adventuring 1 - You’re not bad at not getting lost while adventuring.

[[Sidebar: If you turn out to be Martyn Littlewood instead of being Xephos, then you get to replace Superior Spaceman with Superior Seasonal Dryad. You could also swap 1 from Tinker to Superior Dryad, meaning that you're pretty good at being in tune with nature and the seasons.]]

[[Sidebar: You could also be the leader of a shadowy government corporation called Yoglabs, which means that instead Crafting 2, Tinker 2 and Surviving 1, you have Science! 3 and Leadership 1. Or you can rephrase Leadership with Bossy.]]

In a mundane game, you'll have these - a Bond is something you can invoke to help you do things, while Afflictions are always true. Bond (2): Always Discovering New Things Affliction (0): Not From Around Here

In a miraculous game... I think you have Called Away 3 with Israphel as your Shadow and the Desert of Ruins, Minecraftia or Yoglabs as your Chancel. What this means is that you have a secret realm that you can summon, one of those three choices, and you can find strange and wonderful treasures there, but you have the dread Israphel standing over and corrupting this place. This is a Sickly Otherworldly arc, which means that while you're advancing this, thanks to Sickly your life is a sorrowful and tragic thing.

[[Sidebar: Martyn Littlewood has his Winter self as the Shadow, and possibly the Twilight Woods as a Chancel.]]

You could be advancing Called Away, or you could be starting a new arc. I think you might be starting Gatekeeper 0, with the Unexplored as your Other - this means that you have easy access to information about the Unexplored, and later on this arc you can capture the Unexplored and draw power from it. Gatekeeper is a Frantic Bindings arc, so if you're advancing this, Frantic means that you're going to be in trouble a lot but you're going to draw power from that trouble.

Your basic quest is something along the lines of advancing new theories about the world that you live in, and your XP Emotion is Fist-shake. When other players shake their fist at your machinations or boasts or ideas, then you get an XP point!

And I think that’s it for you, valiant adventurer.

[authorforhire]

Music Lesson (Xephlez)

((Tfw you stalking @doctorbethanysartblog and find your new otp))

“It’s not bad, Xeph.” Kim argued, waving the record for emphasis.

The alien rolled his eyes. “It’s a mess. I’m new to the whole “music” concept, and even I know isn’t following any of the rules Dew taught me.“ He said, pulling off the headphones.

"What does Honeydew know about music?” Kim replied. “Plus, it’s pop. It isn’t as specific with the technicalities he’s teaching you.” She said, quoting the word “teaching” with her fingers.

Xephos put the headphones back on the shelf. “I’m just not a fan.” He shrugged.

Kim sighed and shook her head. “I’m gonna buy it. Maybe you’ll develop a sense of taste in your lessons.” She said, putting the record in her bag.

Xephos stuck his tongue out playfully before skimming through the record labels. Music was a foreign concept to him. His home planet wasn’t know for its cultural advances or art, only it’s advanced technology. So when he and Honeydew went over to visit their fluxed friends and heard a strange mixture of words and instruments, Xephos yearned to learn more.

Kim had taken him to a record store to educate him a bit more and get a new portable record player. He loved the really old songs and he loved jazz and classical. Alternative was loud, but he enjoyed it nonetheless.

However, of all the things he had heard and listened to, pop had to be the worst.

He drifted his eyes around the store, taking in all of the records. Humans devoted so much time to this art, it was almost silly. But who couldn’t devote this much time? Every song was different, lyrics coming straight from the heart and rhythm that came out of thin air combining to make a symphony of just sound. Beautiful, unique sound. It was one of the things he loved about this planet, the uniqueness of everything. No two things were the same here. There was only one Xephos, and that Xephos had his group of unique friends.

His lamplight eyes finally caught a name that caught his attention. He swuinted and read the name again, just to make sure he read it right. When he was sure his English was correct, he began to chuckles slightly.

“Captain Sparklez?” He laughed to himself. “He spelled it with a ‘Z’ too.”

“Might’ve been a mistake one night at a bar.” Someone chuckled behind him.

Xephos turned around to see a man with black hair and a simple black tee. He had these small reading glasses with red frames that Xephos found to be quite handsome.

“Oh, no doubt. Who is he?” Xephos asked, turning back around to keep the blue glow off his face.

The man laughed. “I’m surprised you haven’t heard of him, he’s pretty popular. What’s your name?”

“Xephos.” The brunette replied, shrugging a bit. “I’m a little new to this whole music thing.”

The man nodded in understanding. “Jordan.” He smiled, holding out his hand. Xephos took it and shook it firmly.

"So,” Jordan continued. “New to music, huh?” He asked, leaning against a shelf.

Xephos shrugged again. “Yeah. But I’m desperate to learn more, I love it all so much.” He explained, gesturing around.

“I could teach you!” Jordan said, a little too quickly Xephos noticed. The man cleared his throat nervously. “I mean, I know a lot about music and stuff. I can teach you everything you need to know.”

Xephos blinked before beaming. “Really? That’s wonderful!” He exclaimed. “I want to be able to create my own music.”

Jordan grinned. “Yeah. Sounds like something we can do. I’m pretty good at that.” He said, a little flustered.

Meanwhile, in the back of the store, Kim and the store clerk watched the scene unfold with shocked gazes.

“He has no idea who he’s talking to, does he?” The clerk asked.

Kim sighed with frustration. “No, not the faintest idea.”

[lionofstone]

I was tagged by @lostlastsforever756! thank you, this is a fun challenge! 

I’m going to tag: @captaindicks @redxheart and literally anyone else who writes who wants to do it!! I’m struggling to come up with urls at the moment but I know there are lots of you!! 

rules

List the first lines (or paragraphs) of your last 20 stories (or however many you have altogether). I shared 15! 

See if there are any patterns.

Then, tag your favourite authors

ON AO3:

“It was a common misconception— that’s what happens when stories get passed down through word of mouth and rumour— but Merlin never attended Hogwarts. He hadn’t needed to, not when he was a naturally gifted sorcerer, who dealt with an entirely different branch of magick. He minded his business, he never strayed too far from Camelot, and he never paid any attention to the strange castle in Scotland.” -- from don’t let me hold you here (i’m not sure i want you to stay), an Arthurian Legend/Harry Potter fusion. 

“He didn’t mean to become immortal. It wasn’t premeditated and it wasn’t his birthright; it was a promise. Over the years since, he’d been offered ways out, handed silver daggers and steaming cups and magick spells that all promote relief, escape, death— but Merlin has never once broken a promise.” -- from the earth will hold me here (until you decide to stay) a continuation of the above.  

“the first time she called the winter soldier a good man, she meant a good shot, a good trainer, a good soldier. she meant good in the way of the red room, in the way of her twisted moral compass, and she was sure that he understood. but he blinked at her, twice, fast, an unfamiliar action, and she thought that maybe she'd scratched the surface of something more.” -- from (i’m gonna) give my secrets away, a buckynat mcu fic

ON TUMBLR: 

“‘She looks like death!’ She hears someone whisper as she passes them on the street, and curves her pale lips into a smirk as she wonders what her sister would think of that.” -- from pestilence 

“She’s a frail thing. A tight waist, count-the-ribs through her dress, jutting collar bones and knobbly knees, sunken cheeks and a long neck. Her breath comes out in jagged gasps and her speech is always in forms of future tense and tears. Hunger. Back breaking, stomach aching, completely insatiable hunger. That’s her nature.” -- from famine

“Some would say she has blood on her hands, but she prefers to think that she carries it in her mouth. Deep red and thick, the blood of revolution and monarchies. Blood mingled with words that she releases at just the right moment to make a perfect impact. It stains her tongue to the point that kindness is near impossible, friendship is all but forgotten. She is scraped knees and red eyes, whispers and shouts, all of it timed to the exact right moment. She carries words in her mouth, passion and fury, triumph and defeat, the thrill of a battle cry, personal and impersonal. And blood. So much blood.” -- from war 

“She is the oldest, in terms of eternities, and yet she follows behind her sisters, the last to arrive at any of their events. (She has no power over the souls that have already passed or the ones who are still living. Her power rests in those on the brink, the ones who have not yet passed, but have just given up life, these are the souls that she takes up carefully in her hand and send whichever way is necessary for that particular being.) Death has never been one for watching the living. She just never cared.” - from death

“maybe this is what you get for loving the divine. the taste of blood in the back of your throat and eyes itchy from crying, a mess of a bedsheet and your sister running her fingers through your hair because you’re too tired to fall asleep.” -- from this, an unfinished scrap of an idea

“They had always been seen as different. With a name like Xephos, they were bound to stand out. A name that every substitute teacher mispronounced, that was never on those bracelets or mugs or signs sold at farmers markets and souvenir shops. A name that they had to spell every time they said it because apparently saying ‘zee-fuh-OO-sss’ wasn’t enough for most people.” -- from xephos, one of the name-based prompts I did last year

“Morgan was thirteen when she fell in the lake.” -- from morgan, another name-based prompt

“She is quiet. She has always been quiet, and yet, you know so much about her. When you first found her, covered, somehow, in golden light and song, in the garden behind your house, she had only told you her name. You figured out the rest on your own.” -- from an angel captived watching a kids nativity and getting really close to the stage

“Imagine the heroes. Imagine victores in bello, the celebrated veterans, the newly made winners. They’re the first of their kind; the first to experience war and the first to win it and the first to be broken by it. The fraction of the Host that both stood with Heaven and made it through the war alive is smaller than it should be, smaller than they like to focus on, but they’re here, and they’re alive, and that’s worth celebrating.” -- from imagine michael 

WIPS/UNPOSTED: 

“She has friends outside of work. Or, she tries to. She has acquaintances-she-calls-friends that she goes to church with who she occasionally talks to about her life, mostly to tell stories of the antics people at work get up to.” -- from so what does that make god (to the girl that you love), an unfinished Lucifer/Ella Lucifer fic 

“‘Find another ghost hunter.’ Katy’s voice cut across the front lawn, her hands shoved in her trouser pockets, her usual trench streaming behind her in the wind. Noah trotted along behind her, his little paws silent against the pavement. Payton, who’d been sitting in the car, rolled down the window at the sound of Katy’s shout.” -- from the katy quinn adventures, a (potential) series about a ghost hunter named katy, her girlfriend payton, and their dog noah. 

“The first thing he did when he landed was go to a diner. It was called The Greasy Spoon and it stank of cheap meat and burnt gravy. The food tasted worse than it smelled. He didn’t care. He felt as though he hadn’t eaten in a thousand years. In all fairness, he hadn’t. It hadn’t been a problem before.” -- from luciferous, my creative writing coursework this year 

I didn’t specifically notice any patterns, but I guess I always try to start with something startling?? Like, ‘he didn’t mean to become immortal’ or ‘morgan was thirteen when she fell into the lake’ are both statements that make people stop?? they’re unexpected, I guess, or at least I hope they are! And when I start with dialogue, which is rare, it’s the same thing: ‘she looks like death!’ or ‘find another ghost hunter!’ 

also I’ve noticed this before about myself but I don’t like revealing character’s names right away?? I will almost always try to obscure it until later on in the piece. I think the only one here where I don’t do that is the katy quinn adventures but that’s because this story would be one of the later in the collection. 

an interesting breakdown (at least to me): ten of these are about women, three are about men, one is in second person with an unspecified gender, and one is about someone who’s genderless. 

[shadow-tea]

Hidden Lies

(Couldn’t think of a good title:/)

Xephos and Honeydew sat down in the convention center, in the best seats for the ‘best’ company in the whole server. Then, Xephos left the table to talk with the people who deemed, the same, and worthy of his time. Honeydew sat alone, watching people talk. He suddenly leaned forward in his seat. A short woman, in a white dress, rimmed with a beautiful shade of blue, was walking toward him. Her was cropped short, golden earrings adorning her pointed ears. 

Honeydew stopped. Pointed ears?

She came over to him, smiling. Her eyes were a beautiful blue as well. “Your dress compliments your eyes, miss.” Honeydew spoke as he slid out of his chair. “Why thank you, old friend.” She responded. the small dwarf rose an eyebrow. Old friend? Her face instantly soured. “Seems like he...” She muttered. Her face smiled. “How are you fairing today?” She asked quietly. “I’m...” Honeydew sighed. “I’m worried.” She cocked her head to the side. “How so?” She asked. 

Should he tell her? 

“Xephos...he’s hiding things.” Honeydew said. She nodded. “Oh? He is?” She asked. “And this...military get up! He looks like a damn Naz-” She rose up her hand. “Then-you simply need to be careful of him.” She stated firmly. “And...call me. I know how to handle him.” She reached into her bag that he did not notice she was carrying. She opened it, taking out a business card. He took it, and read it.

“Illusive Company. Weapons division.”

She chuckle softly, and walked away.  Honeydew watched her. She was simply...mesmerizing. “Simon!” Xephos yelled, causing him to flinch. The man with blue, red pupils, stormed up to him. “Who was that?” He growled. “I-I didn’t get her name!” Honeydew started. “The card. Give me that card!” Xephos bellowed. Honeydew gave the card, and watched as Xephos bear his teeth. “Do YOU know who this is?” Honeydew asked. “I don’t. Not anymore.” Xephos spoke. “You don’t speak to her. Ever.” Honeydew crossed his arms. “You don’t tell me what to do!” He exclaimed. “I don’t want you to know.” Xephos growled. “I don’t want you to know who she is.” 

“Let us start the dinner!”

Xephos sat down at the table, crumpling up the card. Honeydew sat next to him. “This is another secret you aren’t telling me.” Honeydew hissed. “Who is she?” Xephos looked at the stage. Strife stepped up to the stage, and tapped the mic. He started to speak, welcoming the fellow scientists and companies to dinner. Though, Xephos didn’t listen. 

“Welcoming, the newer branch of Strife Solutions! The Illusive Weapons Divisions leader, Julie White!” 

The same women in the beautiful dress walked up to the stage, and hugged Strife. She went up to the microphone. 

“Thank you, for welcoming me, dear friend.” 

She smiled. It was too similar to Xephos’

“I for one, love a good dinner. With friends...family...new people...” 

She chuckled. 

“And I’m ready to start working hard for Mr. Strife. He has been gracious to me, to giving me a new job, after I was thrown away.” 

Then, she laid her eyes on Xephos. Their eyes met. 

“I will be a good scientist for him. Thank you for having me.” 

She stepped off the stage. William Strife began to speak again. Xephos slid out of his chair. “Come.” He said. Honeydew got up as well, and they walked quietly away, into the hallway. 

“Where are we going, Lew-?” 

The woman stood before them, eyes giving off a strange glow. Her gentle face was hardened. Xephos reached into his coat, and she reached under her dress. 

“What-”

Both of them drew pistols. Quickly, they readied to shoot. She grinned devilishly. “Well, well, well.” She said. “I was wondering how long it would take you to realize that I am here.” Xephos scowled. “You shouldn’t be here.” He stated. “You shouldn’t have thrown me out.” She retorted. “I am the boss. You listen to me!” Xephos exclaimed. She lowered her gun. “We were partners.” She growled. “I TRUSTED you.” 

Honeydew crossed his arms. “How do you two know each other?!!” He exclaimed. “You two pull out damn guns for no apparent reasons-and then you two start arguing about...throwing each other away, being a boss-” Xephos grunted, and both the woman and Xephos looked down at the dwarf. The woman gave a creepy grin, while Xephos scowled. They looked like the opposite sides of a coin. These two creeped out Honeydew. Both deranged looking somewhat. “Couldn’t you tell?” The woman asked. “Don’t you dare.” Xephos hissed. “Xephos and I...” He looked away, wanting to strangle her, but he kept under control. 

“Xephos and I are twins.”

(So...um. I’m not sure what to say. But, here? I kinda tossed around the idea of your version of Xephos making sure of erasing any ties of family he had. But, he could not kill his twin. He would be in pain. Mentally. He cared, really, but she denied using weapons against defective clones. 

I’ll take it down if I must.)

For @fighteramy