#my headcanon here is that Joel became a god to find Lizzie and lost his memories in the process

[emberwings-last-wish]

also on ao3!

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Joel was sixteen when he was crowned. When he was still waiting on a growth spurt to shoot him up past six feet, when the Mezalean palace still stood tall and proud, when the death of Mezalea’s old queen was still a sharp, piercing pain his his heart.

Some things have changed since then, since an uncertain prince struggled to don the mantle of monarchy. Joel wears the crown much more comfortably now, most of the time. He is still five foot five, but it bothers him much less than it used to. The palace is split down the middle, crumbling spires and shattered balconies a stark reminder of the destruction that struck every kingdom in the land. The grief at his mother’s death is still there, quiet and worn at the edges, and it’s been joined by grief for so many more. Rulers he didn’t know well, or even pretended to dislike, but whom he still mourns. His own people; while Mezalea was much better off than many other empires, there was still death and suffering as the land shook itself apart.

His wife.

Joel stands at the edge of what was once a glimmering sea. Waves should be lapping around his knees where he stands, tugging at the sand under his feet. Now there’s just a cliff down to the exposed sea floor, great expanses of dry sand stretching away. And off in the distance… well.

He can’t look at the once-a-palace for long. He wants to remember it how it was – magnificent, shining, perfect, prismarine and quartz and shell – and he doesn’t want to remember it at all, because it hurts. Because the goddess he loved more than life is gone.

He would have given up Mezalea for Lizzie.

He knows it makes him a selfish king. He should put his people before all else. But if he could have let his kingdom be destroyed and his life be taken in exchange for his wife’s, he would have agreed in a heartbeat.

Joel is far from perfect. He knows it. He knows he’s made many mistakes in his fairly short life. He’s not been the greatest king. But he’s done his best. And ever since he married Lizzie, she was his other half, she smoothed out his edges and filled in his cracks, she made him so much better than he ever could hope to be on his own. She was everything, and without her, he feels like nothing.

The rebuilding efforts in Mezalea are going well. The kingdom suffered a blow, but they’ll pick themselves up and continue without too much trouble. Not like the ocean kingdom, drained dry as a bone, ruler dead with her realm. Not like the Grimlands, their capitol and count blown to dust. Or Gilded Helianthia, consumed by bloodvines, the queen withered away. Or Rivendell, reeling in the aftermath of a godly battle and their king’s worldshaking sacrifice. The Codlands, dried and dead. Crystal Cliffs, magic gone amok and the head wizard missing. No, Mezalea is very well off, all things considered.

Joel looks out across the empty ocean, and wonders why it matters.

Being king is more exhausting than he’d ever imagined, when he was a boy. The physical weight of the crown is nothing compared to the mental and emotional burden. Joel’s survived six assassination attempts in his time as king, power-hungry people seeking to permakill him and take the throne for themselves. Joel didn’t think they’d be so eager for it if they knew the true weight of the crown.

But he bore it, and for all his shortcomings and failures, he thinks he bore it as well as could be expected. Mezalea was prospering. Coming into a new golden age of trade and international reach. It was glorious.

Then the world shook, and Joel’s world ended.

Now he turns away from the once-ocean, walking back toward his horse and, further off, his palace. No doubt there are plenty of people searching for him by now, seeking guidance, instruction, approval, mediation. Being king isn’t something that goes away just because he’s lost the love of his life.

It’s late one night, several weeks later, when he finally gets the chance to comb through the libraries deep under the palace. He’s been working himself to exhaustion and then well past it, throwing everything he had into the rebuilding efforts, into reaching out to other empires and organizing relief and aid efforts, into working himself so hard he didn’t have time or energy to dwell on the pain eating his heart from the inside out. Yet it wasn’t enough, was never enough-

Joel forces himself to focus on the task at hand. He’d told his advisors he was going to bed, and he was not to be disturbed under any circumstances. They’d agreed immediately, grateful that he was finally getting some rest.

They probably wouldn’t be too happy if they knew he is creeping around in the Archives. He is king after all, he can do what he wants, but it isn’t worth the fuss they’d make if they knew he is still up. Ridiculous. Three hours of sleep in five days is all he needs, really. The palace archers can take care of the phantoms.

Joel combs through shelves as the hours pass, as his scratchy eyes droop and unfocus. But his grief and determination are stronger than the exhaustion clawing at his bones, and he forces himself onward, following a trail of meticulously and confusingly labeled scrolls and books farther into the depths of the Archives than he’s ever been before. His lantern is burning low, but he forces himself on

Finally, as above ground, the sun casts its first rays through the faintly ash-hazed air, Joel reads and rereads the ancient, archaic writing on a scroll held in his shaking hands. His reddened, bleary eyes scan the writing again and again, the words sinking into his mind; with a gasp of something between relief and agony, he clutches the paper to his chest.

Gods cannot die, it tells him. Gods cannot die. They are tied to their realms, and may suffer pain, loss of power, even failure of memory, if their realms are harmed; but they cannot die.

Lizzie. She’s still alive. She’s out there somewhere, she’s alive, he didn’t want to believe it because it would hurt too much but this is confirmation. His wife is alive, and she may not remember him and she may not be here and he’s going to find her no matter what it takes.

He keeps researching, after that, keeps searching as the weeks pass, spends long nights in the Archives piecing together a plan born of desperation and longing and love. A plan that will cost him his crown, his country, possibly his very self, yet he’s willing to sacrifice anything on the small chance that this will work. Because what is his life without her?

So that’s how he finds himself standing on a balcony outside his room one morning, as the sun is just rising. The air over Mezalea is clear, and each dome is painted brilliantly in the sunlight. King Joel looks out over his kingdom, and knows that this is the last day he’ll ever be able to call it his.

There’s a letter, sitting on his bed, held down with the Mezalean crown, explaining some things. It’ll never be adequate, he knows. He’s done his best to make this as easy as possible on his advisors and his people; he’s appointed an heir, he’s smoothed out most of the bumps in the road, he’s tried to do what’s right for his people. And yet what would be right would be to stay, to swallow his thoughts and his feelings and do his duty to his empire, but he’s too selfish for that. So he turns from the balcony, he passes through his room quickly and quietly. He’s wearing the simple white garb of a servant, and it’s enough to get him through the halls without attention. Down to the Archives, where he collects his small bag with the few scrolls essential to his plan. And down, farther through the tunnels, deep into the belly of the palace and out the other side, through the narrow tunnel that led into the streets of Mezalea’s capitol city. And away, through the city he’s lived in all his life, the buildings he’s grown up around, the streets he ran down as a boy, the people he’s spent his life serving, the empire he’s abandoning.

Because there’s only one way he could possibly chase a god. Only one way he could possibly follow his love into the divine realms and beyond, and that is to become a god himself.

He doesn’t even know if it’s truly possible for him, but he has to try, because he can’t give up, because no matter how slim his chances he will search for his wife into impossibility and beyond again.

“Hey, Lizzie,” Joel whispers to the air as he sets off, past the ocean that has puddles of possibility forming in the dips in the sand, past the crumbling prismarine palace in the distance. “I’m coming. I’m coming for you, I promise.���

Joel should have known better than to make a promise he couldn’t keep.

;=;=;=;=;

Joel has been a god for, oh, nine centuries? Ten? He’s not really sure. Doesn’t matter, though. Doesn’t matter that he can’t remember who he was Before. Doesn’t matter that his dreams for the last millennia have been the same, and that he has never been able to remember then when he wakes. Doesn’t matter that he doesn’t know who he is, just as long as no one else questions him.

Joel’s built himself an empire, floating above the clouds. He’s not their king, he tells himself with fierce certainty, he’ll never be their king. They can worship him, they can pray to him, but he’s not their ruler, never will be, don’t think about why he tells himself this so surely. He just wants to be respected for the god he is, okay? He’ll be happy, once he has all the respect and adulation he deserves, once he…

...once he…

There’s a child. He was in the fountain. He has golden hair and sky-kissed skin. His eyes are a shade of blue that Joel knows for a reason he doesn’t think about, same way he doesn’t think about how the child’s smile makes Joel’s heart break into a million pieces that he doesn’t understand.

He could never, never cast this child off.

He names him Hermes. He and Sausage adopt Hermes, make him their own. Give him love and life and homes to stay in. Hermes is happy.

Hermes loves the fountain. He plays in the water. He splashes in rivers and jumps in lakes. When Joel and Sausage took him to the beach the first time, Hermes looked out at the ocean with such wide, wondering eyes, with such clear awe on his face, it nearly broke Joel’s heart.

(why? did Joel once look at the ocean the same way? if he did, it was long ago. the ocean just makes him feel sad. maybe it’s because there’s so much emptiness and not enough praise for Joel. surely that’s why.)

There’s a cat. She talks with purrs underlying her words, she gets distracted by rays of sunshine, she builds with amethyst and speaks with animals. She wears a mask. Joel stays away from her. Something about her voice… her mask… it makes his insides go all funny and he hates it. It must be the strangeness about a talking cat, it puts Joel on edge, instinctively unsettles him. That’s all.

Joel builds, and laughs, and doesn’t think too hard about things. He pokes fun at some of the emperors around him. He raises his sunshine child. He cries in his sleep. Every now and then, he realizes there’s some hole in his thoughts, something he doesn’t remember, but. There’s always a sacrifice to be made for godhood. Whatever he lost in exchange for this power was surely worth it. For what mortal would have had something better than godhood?

;=;=;=;=;

Somewhere deep in a place out of reality, two figures roam.

One is tall, her skin the color where the sky meets the ocean, her hair hued coral and sunrise. The other is short, wearing a uniform of purple and green, and a crooked, colorful crown just a bit too big for his head.

They never meet. Their paths never cross. They wander, in a place where matter is nothing and time doesn’t exist, waiting meaninglessly for someone to remember who they used to be.

[prismadog]

Found Family AU character facts (part 6)

okay yeah, these are more like backgrounds than anything else so idk why I keep calling them "character facts" - but I've already come this far and am therefore too lazy to change them [used to be a time when my OCD kicked in real bad and wouldn't leave me alone until I changed everything to better fit. thank the minecraft gods I don't have that problem anymore - still got OCD but I'm able to ignore it more]

oh, these are also kinda my headcanons for the characters - like Sausage is a dwarf, Pearl a Harvest Guardian, etc. I'm still thinking of writing one-shots about the characters before the actual AU's beginning (ya know, focusing on the background characters more) and I think I might just go ahead and do that, but only after I finish these posts - got two more to do, this one and one with Joel & Pixl.

also, these ones are kinda long but you're just gonna have to live with it because I'm really tired of trying to condense them down, plus, I don't think I can with these two? there's a lot going on

this one features our beloved seablings Lizzie and Jimmy! [I got a one-shot idea for Jimmy's mostly fleshed out in my head] anyway, here we go!

Lizzie

Lizzie is the firstborn of the Ocean Empire, heir to the throne, and elder sister to Jimmy. their mother is Queen, commander of the seas, and their father is King, but also Mr. Trophy Husband (he does not mind this in the slightest). Even from her birth, she has known that one day, she'll be Queen, and has trained extensively to be the best fighter, the best ruler, the best Queen.

she was about 5 when Jimmy was born and she loved him from the start. he was always too small compared to her so she took it upon herself to watch over him and protect him. when she was older, she taught him to fight since their parents were too worried about him getting hurt.

she would go with her father to represent the Ocean Empire, sometimes Jimmy would join but usually he stayed at home. she met other children but never really got to know them because they were scared of her - except one kid named Joel, Prince of Mezalea. he would follow her around and talk her ear off about building, she liked that he was so fearless.

for the next several years, the empires of Mezalea and the Ocean would make visits to each other. Lizzie and Joel got to know each other more and Joel got to meet her brother - Lizzie was nervous that they wouldn't get on but she didn't need to worry, Jimmy accepted Joel easily and Joel called him 'brother'.

Lizzie didn't know until later why there were so many visits - her and Joel's parents wanted to unite their empires through marriage. she found out and went to Joel and talked to him about it, they were 16 at the time so it was too early for them to wed but they promised when they were of age. they talked to their parents about a future marriage and their parents were glad - Jimmy loved the idea as well.

two years later, their father was traveling to another kingdom, to the Crystal Cliffs, when he was slain by unknown people. his remains were returned home and a funeral was held to return him to the Ocean. their mother carried on for some months after but the grief was causing trouble for the empire - there were constant storms that made travel near-impossible.

Lizzie went to her mother and they had a long talk, by the end of it, the Queen gave up her crown and her thrown in order to return to the sea, to her departed husband. a ceremony was held for the Queen as she joined the ocean, and a few days later Lizzie was crowned Queen. Jimmy and Joel were at her side through it all, and Joel's visits became longer and longer until he was practically living with her - not that she minded, she loved the company.

Lizzie and Joel married nearly two years later when they became of age. they had two ceremonies - one Mezalean and the other Oceanic, the wedding itself was held in Mezalea due to different customs, and a smaller ceremony was held in the Ocean Empire. Jimmy was Joel's best man.

life was fairly peaceful for a time, Joel became a trophy husband (like her father, Joel didn't mind). if there was a Gathering, Lizzie would either go with Joel or Jimmy, a few times even both, though she did worry about her brother - he wasn't nearly as strong as her and he liked to get into trouble, when he wasn't hiding behind her that is.

a sickness hit Joel's kingdom that wiped out a decent amount of Mezaleans, including his parents. Joel had to return home to run the kingdom while they were bedridden, Lizzie provided as much aid as possible without endangering her empire too - he insisted she stay in the Ocean. his parents, like many citizens, had their lives taken and he became King.

visits had to become commonplace again and the couple were apart more often than they were together, but Lizzie and Joel made it work. Jimmy often traveled for them, sending messages and gifts for them - he didn't mind.

a few years later, when Jimmy had become of age, he came to her asking her permission to let him travel - really travel, not just between the two empires. she worried for his safety and wanted to keep him near but knew it would only hurt him in the end - so, she gave him as many blessings as she could, as did Joel, and they parted ways. Jimmy promised to write often.

a year later, after a few months of no word, Lizzie got a letter from Jimmy about a small settlement in the swamps that boarded the ocean. she went out immediately with Joel and they visited Jimmy, she lectured him about worrying her then doted on him for a time. she came to find that there had been a storm and Jimmy had washed up in the settlement (literally), the people helped him heal up, and they accepted him into their community when he wished to join.

Lizzie spoke with the elders about the settlement and her brother's role. an agreement was made where Jimmy was declared the ruler of the Cod Empire and they would be allies with the Ocean Empire. she doted on her brother more but eventually returned home.

at the next Gathering, she greeted Jimmy as a ruler, and found that he decided cod heads were in fashion. she kept on eye on her brother - who still liked to get into trouble - and more than once came to his rescue when things got out of hand - some of the other rulers liked to pick on him. things only went too far once and she showed fWhip and Sausage the true might of the Ocean Empire - they never went too far again.

Jimmy

Jimmy is the secondborn to the Ocean Queen & King, prince of the Ocean Empire (though, there's no chance for him to rule), and younger brother to Lizzie by about 5 years. he was a fairly weak child, smaller than what was normal, but he didn't let that stop him from getting into trouble.

he was doted on by many of the adults around him and picked on by many of the noble children - but he thought it was all in good fun. Lizzie watched over him like a hawk, doted on him as well but she also taught him how to protect himself. he learned how to fight and defend from her, even though their parents didn't like it.

Jimmy often stayed home when their father had to travel to the other kingdoms - usually for the Gathering - and Lizzie almost always went with him. he spent most of that time either by himself or with their mother who taught him different things about ruling - in case he either married into another kingdom or founded his own.

after each Gathering, Lizzie and their father returned home, and Lizzie told him all about the event. she brought him gifts and food, and stories about the other kingdoms. she also told him about another prince - Prince Joel of Mezalea - and how she wished they could see each other again and that it'd be nice for Jimmy to meet her new friend.

after a few of these talks, Jimmy decided to help his sister out. he went to their parents and asked them about an alliance between the Ocean Empire and Mezalea - let it be known that he can be fairly intelligent when he wants to be, even though at this point he's only about 7. their parents talked with the rulers of Mezalea and soon, there were visits. Jimmy tried to stay out of the way the first few visits to give Lizzie and Joel space, but his sister always managed to drag him into the middle - Joel accepted him pretty quickly and welcomed his company.

some years passed and there was talk of a future marriage between Lizzie and Joel - Jimmy was more than happy about their decision and already felt like Joel was family. then their father died and a funeral was held for the King of the Ocean Empire. Jimmy took it upon himself to try to keep his mother and sister in good spirits - Lizzie was relatively okay, sad, but okay; their mother was different though, she grieved almost continuously and was torn between keeping Jimmy at her side and not wanting to see him at all - he reminded her so much of her husband but Jimmy never held it against her.

then one day, Lizzie had a talk with their mother about her grief and how it was damaging the Empire - travel had been all but halted and the people were suffering. he wasn't there for the talk, only after when they had to say their goodbyes to their mother - she decided to step down and return to the sea to be with her husband. Lizzie became the next Queen and he stood at her side like always.

Joel visited more often, so often that Jimmy just suggested he move in - even though only a few months had passed. he and Joel often got into some trouble but it was all harmless fun. some time passed and his two best friends - Lizzie and Joel - became of age and Jimmy officially gained a brother.

he didn't really like to go to the Gatherings - there were always too many people and sometimes the other nobles would tease him. if he did go, he liked to wear a mask. otherwise, he usually stayed at home or explored the ocean around the palace.

a sickness hit Joel's kingdom and he lost not only a good number of subjects but also his parents. Joel had to leave the Ocean Empire and take the throne, something that saddened both seablings but more so Lizzie, though she didn't like to show it. Jimmy acted as messenger between his best friends once all was well within Mezalea - Lizzie didn't want him in the thick of it in case he got sick too.

when Jimmy became of age, he decided that he wanted to explore the oceans. he'd always dreamed of exploring but he never thought he was strong enough, that and he had to be here for his sister. but he was an adult and seeing as the throne only goes to the females in the family, there wasn't really an official place for him in the palace. so with Lizzie's permission and many blessings, he set out to see the world around him.

he traveled for quite some time, sending letters when he could, except for one time almost a year after leaving home. he got caught up in a mighty storm that battered him towards the shoreline and washed him aground. he found himself days, maybe more than week, later on the shore of a swamp settlement surrounded by fish-hybrids that looked a bit like cod. he was injured and dehydrated and they took him in and cared for him.

he sent a letter to his sister when he was well enough, which was a couple weeks after waking up in the swamp, and was soon visited. Lizzie lectured him and doted on him and wanted to take him home but he turned her down - he had a debt to repay. a small meeting was held with the elders and Jimmy came out of it as the unofficial-official ruler of the swamp. the people accepted him well enough, he was just another member of their community and he thanked them for that.

he quickly adjusted to his new life, though being closer to their average humanish height took some getting used to - the Ocean royalty are usually about three times as big as the average human, and normal Oceanic people are about twice the size as a human. he started dressing in long sleeves and pants, and he donned a cod-head - all to better blend in with his new people.

at the next Gathering, he was introduced as the Codfather, King of the Cod Empire. a couple of the other rulers - fWhip and Sausage - started to tease him, all in good fun at first then things slowly escalated until one time where he got injured and bedridden from one of their traps. Lizzie wasn't happy about that and put them in their place.

he also found, during the Gatherings, that the ruler of the elf empire, Elfking Scott of Rivendell, hated him, but he also teased him? Jimmy tried to give the elf gifts, to appease him, but nothing seemed to work, he just couldn't get the elf to like him.