#boy dorn

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how did i forget to post this Very Important Oddball Lore

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Do you have any more lore surrounding Tukaphri the youngest? Loyal servant of the eternal empire myself, so I desire more details of how the little prince wound up with the gang. Love the tidbits you’ve been drawing!

DO I HAVE LORE ABOUT TUK. As if all my ocs don't come with a novel's worth of ideas always slkdfjls Gonna preface this with I haven't read a ton of necron stuff so some of this is subject to change/handwaved explanation till I get a better hold on things but:

Tukhaphri the Youngest of the Ayamarna Dynasty

Yeah so Tuk! Lil Tuk. my lil tuktankhamen. he is the youngest, was the youngest, actually, of seventeen! Such a prolific dynastic line had no need for a seventeenth heir, and tuk was very little when the biotransference happened, and so he was kept as like. a permababy. He's functional of course, for the c'tan, and he has some personality, as a royal, but he's more of a pet than a person.

He was transferred into a bespoke ‘child’ frame which also locked his engrams, a limiting factor that affected how and how much he could process things, essentially freezing his mind at the age of 5-7. He’s a baby for basically all of necron history, and spends most of his time on his mother’s lap being treated like a beloved pet and a symbol of the dynasty’s fertility and power up through the big sleep.

Now, there was a clever protocol enacted by the dynasty as a security measure. Namely, in the event of the death of the overlord, the command protocols for the crown world are transferred to the next available heir, right on down the line. With sixteen adult heirs, spread across the dynastic strongholds, this means gaining control of the crown world is pretty impossible unless you were somehow able to get them all at once.

So anyway someone murders the dynasty in their sleep. It’s a surefire plan, all you have to do is make sure you’re the next available lord in the court records and you’re all set!

Unless you forget that there’s actually seventeen heirs. Because then the dynasty would be dead, the court would be in shambles, and you would not actually have control of the planetary defense systems or the immortals or any of the other soldiers. You didn't forget there were seventeen of them. right? Because if you did, they’re all working for the kid now. And the thing about the kid is he’s stuck being and thinking like a kid, and, when you’ve been acclimated to the same kind of regular and sane courtly drama over the past several million years, kids are fucking nuts.

Have you seen Terran 3rd Millenium masterpiece Home Alone? I want you to imagine that but Kevin has access to real guns, several accomplished assassins, minor temporal miracles, and orbital bombardments.

By the time the Stormlord arrives to claim their fealty Tuk is enjoying his newfound freedom by terrorizing the court nobles, who have not figured out what's going on since Tuk has hidden himself wizard-of-oz-man-behind-the-curtain style, using an adult-frame servant necron as a cover.

Imotekh figures the trick out quickly, but has no idea what to do with like, a whole child. The original limitations to Tuk's mind means that he neither has memories (fake or real) of flesh times nor does he have a full pre-program of necron culture. He is, essentially, a blank slate. Someone (Trazyn) points out that, as he is, in fact, very much like a real actual child, Tuk could be raised as someone’s personal successor and Imotekh and Szarekh start fighting over him, and then someone (Trazyn) has to go and dig up old necrontyr laws about what to do when custody of a minor is contested and yadda yadda, and the two end up with a kind of shared visitation rights agreement, with the understanding that Tuk will choose one of them to serve under when he comes of age properly.

Tuk is a little odd for a necron. A combination of a lack of any pre-programmed personality and culture and the fact that he is, you know, a kid, means Tuk is perfectly situated to love everything the adults hate. He adores uncle Zahndrekh, is completely unafraid of the flayers, and loves to learn about fleshy gross stuff like bodily fluids and decomposition (morty is his favorite primarch).

Trazyn does try to steal him on occasion, but he never quite has the heart to lock him down fully (part of his charm is he’s alive!!! and so weird about it! delightful!!!) and Tuk thinks the jail breaking is a fun game. The kid grows up scarily clever.

To get around the engrammatic locks, they need to transfer him to a different frame, but they also wanted to keep it clear that he’s still considered a ward of the state as it were and subject to different laws, so he gets a custom ‘teen’ frame, which is the one oddball knows. (trazyn does keep the baby frame. it's on display. in case you were wondering)

Speaking of Oddball! In Updated Codex, Szarekh and Sanguinius are in fact friends as Szarekh implied (whether or not they actually met during the crusade or a newly returned sanguinius heard this guy was boldly using his name to gain allies and went ‘actually that’s hilarious you sound fun’ is anyone’s guess). They’ve been trying to work on a more solid necron/human alliance but there were too many questions on both sides. When sanguinius’ brothers have kids coming of age that don’t seem to fit anywhere, he gets an idea. Oddball, sorry, ‘Zero Squad’ is an experiment in playing nice with other factions long term.

While Oddball may seem stacked as an Imperial operation at first glance, the truth is much more complicated due to the fractured nature of the human faction, Juno’s parentage, and Tuk’s involvement. In truth they are ‘imperially sanctioned,’ but they are similarly allowed by The Silent King and given provisions in the laws of Ultramar, for example, without actually belonging to any one group. Their later unofficial additions, A-0 and B-0 squads, cover an even broader range in the setting.

But we’re getting off-topic, this is a Tuk post! Tukhaphri is the Oddball’s resident blackstone expert. His time trapping his homeworld means he’s an excellent tinkerer and is responsible for the Oddball’s flagship The Empty having a modified warp drive that uses necron tech to travel without a navigator, as well as the blackstone limiter they use to domesticate Lil Nid. Otherwise he’s a passable fighter and can also lend the strength of his immortals when they need ground troops. He often gets into spats with Ubasti over strategy

but generally is quite easygoing. While he and juno were a bit wary of each other at first, they become the best of friends.

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Oops second ask related to your au. What do fulgrim and ferrus get up too in their down time? Hehehe.

Im imagining konrad falling from a hole in the ceiling mouth stuffed full of gigantic rats landing right in the middle some celebratory luncheon that malcador has tried to organise.

never apologize for oc/personal au asks this is like me catnip.

going to do these backwards:

this sounds completely plausible (konrad does pop up in places he is absolutely not supposed to be frequently and with great enthusiasm)

except malc isn’t around (yet). however, there is another hooded perpetual with weirdly strong psychic powers wandering the palace. this isn’t great for emp’s mental state but who said any of this was great for emp’s mental state.

now that first question. the short answer is ferrus and fulgrim at least start the au by being firmly On Vacation

ferrus and fulgrim, once they’ve spent some time working things out between themselves generally just kinda. hang around? they’re slowly working on undoing the damage they did to their respective legions, kind of leading the charge for emotional rehab here like ‘ok there’s got to be a way to learn these lessons without Dying Horribly. right.’ they are preoccupied with this for much of the plot, in part because unlike most of the other Primarchs, Fulgrim in particular (and Ferrus by virtue of sticking close by to him) is Not Allowed to interact with Juno. At All.* (*until she’s older). In fact he’s top of The List (which is a thing that does exist). (this could be the subject of a whole nother post however, so i digress)

Fulgrim is actually quite upset by this; he’s put some degree of effort into repairing his relationship with Ferrus, and wishes gman would afford him the same opportunity. gman said i don’t owe u shit, which he’s right about, and though fulgrim understands this that doesn’t mean he’s happy about it. especially when it means he’s effectively out of the running for ‘baby niece’s favoritestest coolest most spoil you rotten uncle’ like forever (don’t feel too bad fulgrim. you’ll never guess who juno’s favorite is. none of you ever stood a chance.)

luckily fulgrim has other children to occupy his time.

N’kari was really important to fulgrim post-fall, as a touchstone and companion. The two were still very close even though they had not seen each other for some time at the start of this au, so when N’kari has an unsanctioned hybrid clutch with a khornate daemon and is panicking about it he goes straight to his bestie who uses his imperial-green-card-by-marriage to shelter him from the two angered deities.

So aside from their legions, Fulgrim and Ferrus’ downtime is largely occupied with assisting N’kari and Skarbrand raise their menace twin girls: Deimos and Phobos! They are somewhere between 7-10 years younger than Juno, and idolize her greatly, though she mostly knows them as these annoying kids who follow her around while she’s exploring the warp in her early twenties. Anyway that’s where all of Fulgrim’s ‘childless lesbian double income auntie at christmas’ energy goes; he spoils those brats rotten.

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Okay big ask: happy Mortarion? Whatever that looks like for you. An AU, if you need to/want. And thank you so so so much for all the good food 🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻

Im actually a huge fan of the Isha Switch for a morty return arc, but that's only partially canon to Updated Codex because my ideal happy morty does not get rid of all the nasty stuff. He's a farmer, like a real farmer. He's sloshing through muddy fields and fertilizing the earth with stinking dead fish and letting the insects drawn to decomposition do their work. Exposure therapy works, in doses; he cultures vaccines and grows sumac in the house. He's left alone but he's not Alone.

I like to think the night lords have figured out his beetles clean trophies quicker than they can, he's got a pretty good commission system set up.

I also think he was happy, for a time, on barbarus. or something like it

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Can you tell us a bit about Melwas?

jumping the queue since i've had a few asks about him. mel. melwas my baby adorable darling baby boy,,,

Melwas DuLac was born to a peasant family on a feudal world. He and his friend, a noble son named Lanzlet Amphios, were selected as part of a tithe and entered into the ritualized Aspirant trials being run on his planet. Both of them survived the trials and the Dark Angel's tests, and became neophytes.

Melwas is not particularly good with a blade, preferring the standard bolter, and he is as psychic as a rock (he gets lost in forestwalk if he doesn't hold someone's hand), but he is doggedly loyal and doesn't ask questions, something that the older Brothers like. Mostly, he followed Lanzlet as his friend climbed the ranks. The two of them grew very close over the course of their education, and they spent most of their off-time in each other's bunks, reading old calabanite poetry and historical epics. Melwas, who had been barely literate previously, greatly enjoyed this new form of entertainment.

Once ascended, Lanzlet got himself into a good position very quickly, and he took Melwas along with him as a subordinate. This was how Lion noticed Mel. Mel has the anxiety side of the DA paranoia gene, and often Knowing alarming facts like chapter secrets freaks him out. He would rather Not Know, thanks. Much of his behavior reads as 'quiet' and 'unobtrusive,' and he is a bit of a people pleaser, something which can aid in smoothing rough edges between his proud brothers...at the cost of his own social status. He's seen as a bit of a wimp, for lack of a better phrasing, and most assume he's so close to Champion Lanzlet in part out of sentimental pity on Lanzlet's part...which is not entirely untrue. Despite his apparent cowardice, Mel is completely devoted to the Dark Angels, believing their purpose to be like that of the chivalric heroes in the epics. As such, he's got a very strong sense of devotion, and ethics (skewed as all space marine ethics are), and he tries his best to follow that through.

This includes his devotion for lion. Lion is having trouble. He's trying to fix things with the Fallen, he is, and he's trying to handle his Risen, he's trying to wrangle his Unforgiven, and he's trying to figure out what a primaris is and why guilliman invented one, and oh hey at least dad's back but he's not. saying anything really and he's grown a little sure but the imperium has also gotten significantly more politically complex since he was last awake and. and !!!!

Lion sees this kid, who isn't power-hungry, who is very devoted despite being generally looked down upon and largely ignored, who tries his best, and it's very obvious his best is all he can give, who just thinks the world of his primarch and his brothers, whos more socially aware than a lot of the others and who usually tries to use that to aid his chapter, not himself. he's the platonic ideal of chivalric servitude, a perfect storybook squire, content to carry the knight's sword and hold his horses forever and ever. which is very pleasing to a guy who's surrounded himself with what amounts to be nobles, who want to be rewarded with access to secret knowledge, who are motivated to keep their own secrets and be paranoid bastards about the whole thing, who end up taking matters into their own hands because nobody in the entire legion knows how to Use Their Damn Words, so Lion just kinda,

...steals him? for this personal mission. and the mission is like this:

guilliman, among other things, has this kid of his own you see. and she's A Little Weird. and guilliman himself is A Little Weird right now, almost like he's not part of the imperium proper anymore but don't pay attention to that. and his Weird Little Daughter is grown up and getting this...experiment squad. There'll be others there, other xenos, chaos-touched creatures...no no it's all sanctioned don't worry about it. now terra is already sending a representative, but we're not really entirely trusting of terra proper now are we? no, of course not. so i need someone on the inside. just. just in case. because lion knows, if he doesn't have someone trustworthy watching this little group, he will drive himself Fucking Insane not knowing what they're up to.

not that Lion actually explains all this in so many words, he basically just throws the kid at oddball and tells him to write him if anything Heresy-ish is happening.

so Mel drops everything, leaves the Dark Angels, leaves Lanzlet, on his primarch's command, goes to join a group of xeno-princes and daemon-primarch-spawn and the Heir of Ultramar, who is, by the way, his new Co, his new Co who he has to SPY ON, whose movements he's writing in reports sent back directly to the Lion without her knowledge, a betrayal of trust that sits ill in his chest as the honorable, devoted creature he believed himself to be, completely unlike the brave stories of monster-slaying swordsmen in shining armor, and he has to learn to live with that. and surely it all turns out fine and his new (ultramarine-raised) Co is nice to him because ultramarines and dark angels don't have a long and storied history of having the exact mix of mental illnesses designed in a lab to Piss Each Other The Fuck Off. right. he's fine, right. juno you're nice to the baby right, he hasn't even had his carapace for that long. Juno you're not being mean to him right? right juno?? juno 'mini sicarius' 'taught by hesperax' 'avenging temper' guilliman yOU ARE BEING NICE TO THIS BOY, RIGHT???? (she is not)

So there Mel is, sending letters back to Lion and feeling guilty that he has to, and feeling equally guilty that he's guilty about it, and kind of putting up with juno's shit because he feels like he probably deserves to feel bad about Feeling This Bad since astartes aren't supposed to do that, and you have to understand, this whole time oddball is Getting Up To Significant Shit and generally experiencing All The Best that the setting has to offer, so half his letters read like

Dear princess celestia Lord Primarch Lion, Today we learned about the angels vermillion. I would like to unlearn about the angels vermillion effective immediately. i'm pretty sure they are not supposed to be doing all that. anyway, can you call lord sanguinius? thx, -Mel

It's worth mentioning i think that Mel is the Actual Youngest member of Oddball's command squad. Juno is 22, Ubasti is 20, Boy is almost 40, and Tuk is. Tuk. Melwas is fully like a whole 19. he is BABY. and he is also the only one not Completely and unrealistically kitted out with primarch-god-powers (or command of a tomb world, in tuk's case)

And the thing is, mel is like. he’s meant to be lion’s eyes and ears over there. because otherwise lion would drive himself crazy trying to watch not just juno but tuk and ubasti as well. that’s why it’s such a sign of respect that mel was chosen, lion is literally being like ok. be my judgement over there.

the problem being lion has not like. Said any of this to mel. in any capacity. the conversation has kind of gone like this:

lion talking to mel: u will report to me at these intervals. you will watch the rest of the squad carefully. you will be responsible should their actions turn in favor of the enemy. am i clear. mel: y-yessir ;~; lion talking to sang and magnus and dorn and guilliman: i am handing you my best son of this new batch. he’s very polite and well trained. i trust your wards will treat him appropriately in return. if anything happens to him people will end up in the torture dungeons i don’t have.

so Mel is under the impression that he's been chosen for this mission because he is Expendable. New, not very impressive by Astartes standard...if the DAs had to willingly lose a brother he's a very low-cost option for them. He is also aware this is true for Oddball as well; he hardly stacks up against Boy 'told a warp god No. in his sleep' Dorn, nevermind the rest of them.

mel is highly regarded amongst the other Lion da’s btw. bc none of them know what the fuck kind of mission he’s on, just that he’s been primarch-picked to handle guilliman’s daughter (presumably with a bolter if that’s what it comes to) there’s a handful that are resentful and an overlapping handful that are afraid of him because he has the direct ear of the primarch. some of the more rigid unforgiven think he’s almost too aligned with lion, but these tend to be the guys that are also harsh about Risen. mel operates on an understanding that there’s a 80% chance of getting accused of heresy anytime he meets a brother, which is less correct (it’s closer to 30-40% depending on how that particular company feels about lion’s decisions of late) and his reasoning is off (he thinks it’s cause he kind of might deserve it and that lion would agree if he found certain things out. in reality if he was taken in for heresy lion would take it as a direct attempt at undermining his power. that’s his handpicked helper!! if he needs to be investigated he’ll be handling that, thank you!!!)

this does have the hilarious effect of some da companies assuming Mel knows things he absolutely does not. they’ll just tell him shit bc they assume he has the clearance. it’s super useful when the oddball squad needs info that the da’s have tucked away but he’s constantly getting hit with the ‘yes so the guy we put in the Heretic Blender said-‘ and mel has to sit there and clamp his mouth shut over thoughts like ‘what is a heretic blender and why do we have it’

Melwas does have his own Watcher who accompanies him, and he ends up working a lot with Lil Nid (they are very similar, both bred to take orders and on a lower rung of the ladder than the other Oddball members). He's a midrange fighter (compared to Boy, the long-range sniper and Juno, miss melee tank) and generally doesn't do much commanding; in a pinch, his strategies mostly default to 'stay alive till someone of greater rank can show up and tell us what to do ;-;' He is generally kind to baselines, largely due to his memories of his mortal family (whom he knows are still out there, somewhere, back home)

in conclusion, please enjoy the saddest wettest most baby dark angel ever made. treat him well Or Else

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i swear i’ll post actual art on here sometime

i also swore i wouldn’t make 40k ocs bc i Knew they’d tend in this direction but i accidentally thought about a pairing for more the 10 seconds so they have a kid now i guess. i haven’t named her yet but meet the world’s smallest blueberry!

-She’s Guilliman and Yvraine’s. Don’t ask me how that worked. Cawl is there, draw your own conclusions.

-bc of the eldar natural birth difficulties Yvraine is like Insanely smug about having carried a kid herself. does not matter that baby is a halfling, baby can do no wrong and is also better than sliced bread and also toasters. However, the baby stays with Guilliman mostly bc mom’s adventures in the warp are not great for baby environments

-not that whatever Guilliman is up to is either but u know. they’re trying.

-when she’s little she sneaks into an ultramarine drop ship and they don’t realize she’s with them until they’re planet-side. Half the party hates being reminded Yvraine exists and want to leave her somewhere to die if not execute the xenos outright, the other half is like but she’s The Primarch’s Kid!! they compromise by teaching her the codex.

-she comes back home like [tiny baby voice] BROTHERS!!! FO THE EMPERAR!!! guilliman is like oh my god ur mother is going to kill me (yvraine does not kill him she thinks this is funny. you know those videos of babies trying to howl along with puppies? that’s what’s happening from yvraine’s perspective. except guilliman is very distressed about the whole thing which is even funnier) baby does also learn ynnead things but she can quote the codex back to front like the best of them and Will get into arguments about interpretation/intent law. She’s Very good at talking her way out of getting into trouble w the chaplains and favors unorthodox readings. she will also argue with dad when he’s being a hypocrite about a rule.

-Varro is favorite brother bc he lets her hide from the other chaplains under his desk when she doesn’t want to be studying.

-when she grows up she absolutely beefs out (finally, proof the primarch genes are in there somewhere!) and she’s essentially an eldar heavyweight bc none of the rest of them have the muscle mass. Her best friend is Boy Dorn, of tts fame, bc weird bastard non-marine primarch kids gotta stick together.

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assortment of oddball hangin with @sorormaior's girls

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slapped some quick colors on the little oddball squad juno collects as a teen, just so i could See them

they'll all get proper portraits and lore posts probably at some point but feel free to ask about them in the meantime