#but nothing beats mezalea

[vanya-mortis]

King Joel of Mezalea 🌺

[theminecraftbee]

As far as fic ideas, I’ve always found Joel to be particularly compelling as the POV character in fics and I wish there was more of him, so I’d love to see that!

For something more specific, the idea that Joel stayed behind after everyone else fled the world at the end of season one of Empires was always compelling to me, but I don’t know how much you deal in Empires work specifically, so— like, any sort of end of the world themes go really hard imo.

OH SO LIKE. i can direct you at ocean blue, which is written by oh_no_bells based on a very similar idea i had at the end of empires!

but also... i think about. the mezalean king watched his kingdom crumble and died of sadness. a lot. and like joel's whole thing in season one involved not really being affected by the main storyline, marching to the beat of his own drum, which is part of why i think the king of mezalea appealed to me so much, for some reason? because it wasn't, as much as we joked about it, that he didn't do lore at all, it was that his lore was that the lore didn't affect him. and like, that's wild.

and i think that's why, yeah, it hits different when you have stuff about how e1's ending affected joel. because joel was so unaffected for so long, but e1!joel, he also DEEPLY loved. he deeply loved jimmy, and he deeply loved lizzie, and he really loved his kingdom, and basically nothing else in the entire storyline was of any importance to him. stubbornly so.

but he can't avoid this one. not really.

...what is he even going to do about that?

the mezalean king dies of sadness. e2!joel tells this like it's a joke. i don't think it is one.

[memryse]

more thoughts about the last life time dilation headcanon (to summarise the original post: the 3rd life and last life servers exist out of time. all of those weeks equate to barely a millisecond in real time - it's a space between moments, maybe as they were hanging out with friends, maybe as they were alone in their homes. to everyone else, it's like nothing happened.)

there's a specific reason why going past the border makes you take damage: your body can't adjust to the changes in time. while you're within the border, you're experiencing a millisecond as several weeks. if you leave its confines, your body is suddenly subjected to experiencing time much, much faster; your heart is beating enough for a month or two, each second. it can't cope. it will kill you and very rapidly so. now of course this makes no scientific sense and our sense of time is subjective and can readjust, but 1) with the extremity we're talking about here i think some physical effects can be expected 2) i can do what i want. thanks.

of course, the universe, the gods, whatever the creator may be isn't going to sabotage its own game, so it's all fine if you enter and leave the game as and when you should. but try to leave early by going beyond the barrier? you'll die. painfully.

timeline-wise, for the hermits 3rd life occurred sometime either just prior to or just after the update to s8, as they were moving over to a new world (i'm leaning towards it being just before). for empires, it's already established that 3rd life was a past life, so it can be said that it took place literally any time before empires began. last life, though, is mid-season for both series.

lizzie and joel were on a date; a romantic moonlit stroll through mezalea. the next thing the onlookers knew, the ocean queen has her trident pressed against their king's throat. she's yelling at him through tears about someone named cleo.

boatem were mid-way through a meeting. it... got adjourned quickly. the five of them fly out of the boatem hole, hardly saying a word; despite his outward confidence, scar is shaking so much that he loses control of his wings and falls. nobody laughs or helps him recover his things.

cleo was alone at the time, working on part of the castle. by the time joe next sees her, anyone else would think cleo was the same as always. especially the "quick to make threats" part. but joe isn't anyone else; he knows cleo well enough to spot how much more tightly she's gripping her weapon. the sudden glint in her eye when he gets close enough. she's not telling him anything, but he can see that something happened to her.

[pandawithawand]

Joel woke up with a start. It was Saturday morning and everything was calm in Mezalea. It was always calm on Saturday mornings but for the past few weeks, waking up came with a panic, a rush. Almost a haze. 

Joel blinked, trying to clear his head and heaved himself out of bed. He wandered to the great wardrobe and changed into his black robes royal purple garb. Settling the gold crown onto his head, Joel walked to the balcony and looked out over the lush streets of Mezalea. The Mother Tree’s clones buzzed about in the streets as the morning sun beat down on them. 

Everything was calm. Everything was normal.

Then why was his heart thundering in his chest? Joel scratched his long beard chin and sighed into the morning. His mind still raced, filled with images of a house on a bridge, Lizzie’s surprised face as an axe hit her, tnt falling onto a mossy roof, and a hut, home to a wizard. But all was forgotten as fast as it came.

Nothing was making sense. The world spun and Joel stumbled, crashing into the balcony rails. Despite the noise of the empire, magic mountain Mezalea seemed silent in his ears, replaced buy a high pitched ringing.

Joel stared between the railing, down at the street far below. A fall like that could kill him permanently wouldn’t hurt in his netherite gear. So why was he so cautious? Why did he feel the need to hold a water bucket just incase? And why did he need to kill someone?

Joel needed to clear his head. He left his palace behind, and travelled though the streets of Mezalea towards the docks. He took a small row boat out, until the shore was a distance away, and all he could hear was seabirds and the salty wind blowing in his ears.

His twisted, red gold crown was far too heavy. His cloak jacket was too hot. 

Where was he? There isn’t an ocean biome in this map.

The worlds he knew blurred, and the King gazed round at last life, as the Red wizard grinned at Empires.

But what if the King and the Wizard swapped places?

[theminecraftbee]

what's joel doing in the empires earth au?

i think joel (and mezalean) does as joel does: promptly assumes that a contingent of weird people in flying machines with explosive weapons are like, an extension of the whole demon hoax, and promptly ignores them for the things he cares about, like his palace and what he's going to get lizzie for her birthday.

and for a time, this almost works, because mezalea has always been mezalea. they march to the beat of their own drum, and frankly no one in the history of the twelve empires has ever been able to make a mezalean do something they don't want to or acknowledge something they don't like, so. joel has decided he's not acknowledging the outsiders are real? sure. maybe it'll even work for him the way the demon thing does (although lord knows how that works).

except... it doesn't.

gods function on belief. the deer gods of other empires have no sway in mezalea, because in mezalea, nothing is real that you cannot build or touch with your own hands, leaving exor's champion powerless. people, however. people don't work like gods.

it's a sunday when joel's otherwise perfectly lovely day is interrupted when, quite against his will, a plane collides with several of joel's trader balloons. irritated, but still unwilling to believe in the outsiders, he goes to deal with the problem, and maybe also apologize to pixlriffs for being late on the delivery of terracotta again.

instead, he finds the pilot, floating in the ocean, having bailed from his plane when the props were ruined by the balloon.

joel does as ANY strong and powerful king should do: he panics and calls his wife for help.

after that - well, joel and mezalea still largely keeps to the sidelines, but to his irritation, joel realizes he's going to have to pay more attention, since those outsiders were apparently real. last time he paid attention to geopolitics was... uh... well, he's not going to start now, is all he's saying. he's still going to stubbornly be joel. but look, ever since he found lizzie on shore, he's been trying to pay a bit more attention to the outside world, even if he won't admit it, in order to be a proper husband, and because he's beginning to realize that even if he doesn't care, it does help explain when jimmy goes on one of his things.

so he pays attention, and then loudly and stubbornly goes back to acting exactly how he did before: mezalean to the core, regardless of what the rest of the world is doing.

(hey, just because he's paying a little attention doesn't mean the mezalean king will change. the mad king of mezalea, changing? now that would take more of a miracle than people from across the desert could possibly provide.)

[leopardmask-ao3]

NHH Fictober Day 20: Resurrection (Til Death Do Us Part)

Day 20 of the NHH Fictober Challenge. This one takes place in Last Life and was written a day or so before the most recent session - so there are no major spoilers if you're otherwise caught up, and the current standing at the start of this fic is Lizzie with 3 lives, and Joel with 1. Alliances shift constantly in and across many worlds. But one union will stay strong, despite the magic that threatens to pull it apart. Characters: Lizzie, Joel, Ren Words: 790

"Shadow Lady, I heard something," Ren growled, raising his sword and looking toward the thick canopy of the fairy circle. The trunks of the dark oak trees made a formidable barrier, but they had learned that the barrier could still be climbed.

"Hmm," Lizzie murmured, looking in the same direction. "I heard nothing, but I trust your ears- oh!"

A figure dropped down in front of them, dressed all in red, with a dull crown. Ren tensed, stepping forward to stand slightly in front of Lizzie, his ears pinned back. "Ah. It's Joel. What a surprise."

"Are you here to kill us?" Lizzie asked with forced casualness.

"Well, I came here to kill someone," Joel explained, just as casually. "I wasn't exactly expecting it to just be you two, though. Where are the others?"

"This is my land," Lizzie pointed out. "It's not actually the home for our whole alliance. The others are... elsewhere."

"My Queen, is it wise to-" Before Ren could finish his warning, Joel was at his throat. Ren hastily retreated, trying to block a blow.

"She's my Queen," Joel growled. "If you-"

"Oh my gods." Lizzie facepalmed and quickly stepped over to put her hand on Joel's shoulder. "Come off it, will you? The red magic must be clouding your mind. Ren is my liege, not my king. You will always be my king. Especially once we are away from this game and back in our empi-"

Joel pulled away with a shout. Ren just managed to parry the unexpected attack. Lizzie flinched away.

The resulting fight was quick and efficient. Joel had the slight benefit of surprise, but the rage manifested by the red magic dulled his strategy, and he was unused to fighting a left-handed opponent. His next blow hit Ren's shield as Ren turned to meet it. Taking advantage of the stuck blade, Ren lifted his shield high and stabbed his own sword into Joel's exposed side. Joel made a startled sound and collapsed.

Lizzie immediately dropped to Joel's side. She knew, conceptually, that deaths here were no more permanent than anywhere else. But seeing the red life fade from Joel's eyes still felt too real, somehow. If he died here, they wouldn't see each other again for some time. Lizzie was aware of how silly it was, but... suddenly, she didn't want him to go.

Her heart skipped a beat and breath caught in her throat. Sparks of green light erupted from within and around her, turning red as they settled onto Joel.

Joel stirred. His eyes widened, and he sat up, testing the former stab wound in his side. He looked to Lizzie, and noticed her now-yellow eyes. "Did you grant me a life?" Joel realized.

Lizzie sat back on her heels. "I guess I did, yeah."

Joel shook his head. "It would have been fine, you know that. I would have been back in Mezalea, patiently awaiting your return. Now I'm... I'll be back under the red curse for a while longer. I almost would have killed you, Lizzie. I'm probably going to try again as soon as the magic hits me full force again."

Even as he spoke seemingly lucidly, Joel was reaching for his sword again. Lizzie backed away, but waved Ren down when he tried to advance again. "Um... I'm sorry. I didn't quite mean to, I just panicked!" As she stared into Joel's red eyes, she had an idea. "But... what if you weren't red, though?"

Joel's expression hardened. "You're on yellow. Don't you dare."

But Lizzie was already determined. Her heartbeat paused again and more light flowed from her to Joel, this time starting and ending yellow. Joel gasped involuntarily at the return of focus and life. He caught Lizzie as she stumbled. Lizzie looked up at him, her eyes now a vibrant, crimson red. She smiled. “Too late.”

Joel dropped his hands as Lizzie stood up straight. “I suppose I should thank you for that... but I’m not sure we’ve really solved anything here.”

“Hmm, you’re right...” Lizzie mused.

Her eyes flashed and a smile spread across her face. Joel stepped back, recognizing the signs of the red magic influencing her actions.

“I do have another idea,” Lizzie said thoughtfully, taking out her sword. “Red-life bloodlust mostly points us toward those who aren’t red yet themselves. So, for us to be together... maybe we should both be red.”

Joel winced and drew his own sword. “I was hoping you wouldn’t say that.”

Ren watched the ensuing battle for a moment, then nervously returned to guarding the gate to the fort. He had sworn to protect Lizzie... but he had a feeling that this was an encounter in which he would rather not be involved.