#Not the Mechalor swap from before though

[desultory-novice]

Marx Day!!

Marx Day Marx Day Marx Day!!

[desultory-novice]

I like the shifting gold veins. Its like his splintered body is ever-shifting, barely holding itself together. Great contrast to a more static Clockwork Mags.

...! I like that, actually! Let's go with that!

You're right about the parallels/contrast with Clockwork Mags too. Didn't even think of that when drawing them but it's clever!

Speaking of, their friendship dynamics have swapped sides too...

-

Mechalor still loves to shock people without remorse. (Sometimes literally "shock.") And he lies, like, all the time. "KIRBY, DID YOU KNOW... <tells blatant falsehood with a straight face>?" types.

Marx...doesn't really like to mess with people that much anymore. He finally knows what it feels like to hurt and be hurt and it turns out, that's not fun at all. That and, at least from Marx's perspective, his Master Crown scars defeat the "harmless, innocent" facade he used to use to get away with everything. (No one actually minds them, mind you, but to him, it ruined a part of his gimmick.)

As a result, he's now the one who puts a damper on Magolor's unending stream of hijinks and bad ideas.

Mechalor finds this change in his friend a little dull ("WE HAD SO MANY PLANS. WHAT HAPPENED TO YOU?") but he keeps up his reationship with Marx despite their new differences because...

...Marx was the only one who knew him really well before the Nova incident. Unlike the apologetic Main Game Magolor, Mechalor has failed in his attempts to make a serious apology/gain real friends. (Kirby cares about literally everyone, but Mechalor can't seem to bond with Taranza or Susie or Bandee or the others...) When they're all together, he's treated somewhat like "the annoying team robot that no one can turn off." (even though he's more like a cyborg.)

To his surprise, this doesn't actually bother him! But that's because he seems to be losing touch with his humanity. That Marx is the only one who insists on calling him Mags/Magolor despite Mechalor's attempts to get him to stop pulls a wire in Mechalor's clockwork heart that he just can't bare to cut loose. So lets himself share with Marx the kinds of thoughts he's...not sure how to tell anyone else. 

(Meanwhile, Marx, when he's not resting off the pain, talks to him about this new dream he's got to se up The Grand Marx Circus.)

--

As for their status as a potential couple in this AU, they probably were boyfriends - in the past. They're something else now that they can't quite figure out. To Mechalor relationships are very "???." He can't even process how he might be Marx's boyfriend again like this. (But that's just part of the whole "losing himself" up above.) Marx also knows they can't just "go back to before" but he can't forget and will still come up with reasons to nuzzle up to Magolor.