#strifesolution

but basically i am very adamant about alien strife and xephos, and the fact that strife went to college with sips is incredibly funny and under appreciated. i feel many different emotions about them being a dumb college trio.

so strife and xephos were roommates in college who started dating like, probably their sophomore year, and sips was their mutual friend that lived a few doors down and was in strife’s Evil Corporate Overlord class. (it wasn’t actually even called that, it’s literally just a business course. calling it that is an old joke between them that stuck even if no one gets it)

Very unfortunately for everyone involved, mid sophomore year is also when Strife started to get really into blood magic. The thing about how I hc blood magic is like, not only is it morally fucked up as hell, but it’s also incredibly bad for you. No matter how careful you think you’re being your blood isn’t even your own anymore, replaced with witches’ and villagers’ and it might make you powerful but it’s cold, feels alien beneath your skin, and quitting is nearly impossible. your altar is what sustains you, keeps you alive even if it leaves you feeling dead on your feet, and it always wants more. im getting long winded but my point is blood magic fucks with you.

it’s nearly a year before strife tells xephos that he can’t live like this anymore. he’s tried to quit and he can’t and it hurts, letting his altar run dry makes his blood feel like it’s boiling and there’s no way out. and xephos tugs him in close and kisses his forehead and tells him that they’ll find a way.

they can’t exactly just look into it, blood magic isn’t the most talked about thing, much less how to quit it, but if there’s one thing the yogs can fall back on its explosives. and sips is good with them, too, because listen i KNOW the meta reason why they had red matter is because sjin spawned it in but the idea that sips accidentally made a wormhole-creating hell explosive is the funniest shit to me. but long story short they blow up strifes altar and it hurts, it hurts like hell but for once the magic isn’t pressing in on him, begging for him to hurt someone, and such a relief that he almost forgets that he feels like he’s dying.

there’s a solid two weeks of recovery, the first of which had everyone genuinely worried that strife might be dying, being cut off from his altar, but he’s fine. he feels like shit, but he’s fine.

(A really similar sequence of events happens with parv post-blood and chaos which i WILL go off about if literally anyone would like to know)

from then on they’re pretty much in the clear for the rest of college being dumb kids trying to graduate, as strife recovers from all of That.

that is, you know, until xephos crashes his ship on minecraftia during his flight school final and is presumed dead.

strife and sips do try to stay friends, but the only person strife’s developed a close relationship with just vanished into thin air and xephos going missing sends sips spiraling into a depression that leads to him dropping out and running off to minecraftia to start a fucking dirt business. strife finishes college alone and gains 1000 more trust issues and functions pretty much on his own until solutions in chaos.