Fance

Art by @FanceKnight

Fance is a Strider Hybrid who currently lives in Eret’s castle. Their main job is organising the castle’s barrels and chests and making sure everything is easily accessible. They are very curious when it comes to things about the Overworld, since they haven’t seen much of it yet.

## Life

### Pre-SMP

Fance grew up in a small lavapool of a warped forest, surrounded by greenery and a cave which was hidden behind a lava fall. Their family had built roads and paths of blackstone all throughout their territory, making travel from one lava ocean to the other a lot easier and prettier. They also had managed to build an Overworld portal a couple of generations ago, giving them access to resources and materials most other Striders didn't have. They mostly used this to get more types of wood and stone, decorating their home in the prettiest colours. The young Striders of Fance's family were often told to never go too close to the portal. Sometimes, their elders told them, beings and monsters from the other dimension would come through and might end up harming the little kids.

So Fance, along with a couple other kids their age decided to do what teenagers do and disobey the rules. The kids snug up to the portal to inspect it. None of them had touched obsidian before and they were surprised how smooth yet sharp it was. Then, one of them expressed the wish to go through the portal to see what lay on the other side. This wish turned into a dare and ended with one of them carefully sticking his head through. It only took a moment before he lost his balance and fell through completely. When he didn't come back for over five minutes the kids that stayed behind began to panic. They agreed that some should go get the elders while others should stay behind in case their friend would return.

As time dragged on, Fance, along with another kid, couldn't stand the endless waiting any longer and decided to follow after their lost sibling. What greeted them on the other side was a landscape neither of them had ever seen before. They were in a dense forest, somewhat like the one at home, but the trees had brown barks and weren't glowing at all. It was cold. It was very cold. Was there any warmth in this world at all? Just a couple meters from where they emerged they saw a stream of a strange, clear-blueish liquid, flowing faster than any lava stream they had ever seen. A couple of rocks poked out beneath the surface. The rocks led to a little island on which their lost sibling sat, crying. They called out to him as they made their way to the edge of the flow. "Stop!", he screamed with a panicked voice. He then pointed at the liquid. "That shit hurts! It's so cold! I thought it would be funny to jump over the rocks when I accidentally touched it and now I'm too scared to go back. What if I fall in?"

Fance and their sibling tried to build a bridge for their younger brother to cross. They grabbed any twig and branch they could find and carefully placed them across the rocks. One of the branches Fance placed slipped out of their hands and fell into the stream below, causing splashes to touch their hands. When they saw the droplets heading for their skin, too late to react, Fance mentally prepared themselves for the oncoming pain. But instead the only thing they felt was a cold tingling sensation. Together with their sibling, they managed to complete the bridge and bring their brother to safety. The elders later berated the kids for how foolish they had been. For how much danger they got themselves into and had them promise they'd never do it again. But the only thing Fance could think of was the tingling of their fingers in the blue liquid.

Many years pass by and Fance is an adult. They can choose to do whatever they want. And they want to go back. While the elders of their family have a rough knowledge about the Overworld's day-night cycle and the kinds of resources to find there, they lack all knowledge of civilisations, species and about anything else one could think of. To their credit, they didn't need to know those things. But it was now many years since Fance's ancestors had built their portal and they thought it was about time someone ventured out to seriously learn about this strange world. So they packed up their bag, wished everyone farewell, and stepped through the portal.

### Early days

At first Fance was overwhelmed by the sheer amount of creatures that lived in the other dimension. Then they were overwhelmed by the realisation that there was no roof. They saw creatures flying hundreds of meters high up in the air. And then they saw the stream again. The clear liquid flowed between rocks and soil just the way they remembered it. And then, finally, finally, Fance leaned down and carefully scooped up a little bit with their hand. The liquid was cold, it tingled and made their hand feel numb. Fance loved it. They reached down to grab a bigger handful. But as they shifted their center of gravity too much, the warped mushrooms their parents had given them for their journey began falling out of their backpack and into the river. Hastily, Fance tried to catch as many of them as they could, but some were already so far ahead that they had to sprint after them.

The river flowed around a corner, did a little 'S', around another corner, scattered on some rocks, fell down multiple meters, then around another corner again. By the time Fance had managed to catch all the mushrooms, most of them now soggy, they found themselves standing in front of a van, abandoned, in the middle of two rivers. Fance carefully looked around to see if they could find anyone. They were here to learn about other peoples' customs after all! And indeed, on the other side of the van there were multiple people sitting around a campfire, talking about freedom and tyranny and victory and... a revolution. They were planning a revolution.

### L’Manberg era

When in Rome, do as the Romans do or something like that. Fance joined the so-called L'Manberg. The humans, as was their species' name, apparently didn't put as much emphasis on family. But that was alright. Fance wasn't here to find a new family, they had one at home thank you very much, they were here to learn. Fance ended up fighting in the big L'Manburgian war for independance, which, at its time, was only known as 'The War'. The fifth battalion, their unit was called. And, oh, what a unit it was. They fought hard and bravely. Looking at their resources and the resources of their enemy Fance suspected that the forces of the DreamSMP were holding back. Were they fighting them seriously, they would have overwhelmed L'Manberg's forces easily already. And then it happened.

Eret wasn't someone Fance had paid much attention to before. He wasn't particularly important to the overall planning, often absent from big meetings. But other members of L'Manberg told Fance later on that Eret had been the main supplier of resources and that he was the one who had built the beloved and impressive black and yellow walls surrounding their land. Eret wasn't someone Fance had known before but now they knew to hate him. When L'Manberg declared its independance proudly from the top of the htodog van, they too sang the anthem full of pride. Their family at home would never believe the kinds of adventures they were having here. And it had only been a month!

### The election

Then the election rolled around. The election was the first event Fance tried to actively make suggestions at. Instead of merely following orders, Fance offered ideas of what could be changed in the country. Given, when the time came they missed the actual vote as they were trying to grow warped fungi in the Overworld. But when the results were read. OH, when the results were read. The fact that the difference was only one percent made Fance feel especially guilty. Would their vote have made a difference? But over the last weeks they had grown loyal to the former president and thus left the nation with him.

Then came the second time Fance had ever heard of Eret. "You have been betrayed, I can help you!" Oh, the lion, the witch and the audacity of this bitch! Fance shared Tommy's resentment and continued to follow the duo to their new home in the middle of nowhere.

Pogtopia was dark. Not only was Pogtopia dark, it was also so much colder than the surface. And it was moist. While Fance enjoyed the tingling sensation of water on their skin (they knew what it was called now), they didn't enjoy that sensation 24/7 on all parts of their body. Especially not when they were trying to sleep. Speaking of sleeping, Pogtopia didn't have beds the way L'Manberg had had beds. Laying down anywhere was the most uncomfortable thing one could imagine. The only spots that were at least a bit soft were the patches of moss that were scattered around the ravine. But guess what, those moss patches were fucking moist!

So, reluctantly, on Fance's second night in Pogtopia they had to leave. But where to? The now renamed Manberg had cast out any L'Manberg supporters and DreamSMP had been their enemy from minute one. Then they remembered the traitor's words. Ok. They thought. Let's see if you actually can help us.

### Life in Eret’s Castle

Eret's castle was gay. That wasn't an insult, that was a fact. The windows were rainbow-coloured, the beacon was rainbow-coloured and on top of the highest tower? Yup, you guessed it, rainbow flag. But when Fance looked around the castle to search for the so-called king, Eret was nowhere in sight. After a while they found him underneath the castle, expanding their potato farm, talking to a business of ferrets that continued to follow him wherever he went. This was not what Fance had been expecting. They were expecting an arrogant, self-centric, ruthless king. Instead they found someone caring. Almost like home.

Fance was allowed to live in the castle. Apparently, they weren't the only one who was looking for a new place to stay after the election fallout. Fance began to reorganise the chests that Eret had laying around and soon they were fully employed in the castle's staff. Fance would often take an item, think 'we have a chest for that' and then instantly forget about it, causing their pockets to always be at least 60% full.

When Eret was thrown out a lot of the castle's staff left with him. Fance intended to stay behind only a while longer. They had just found a full double-chest that was completely unorganised and wanted to sort it before leaving. In the meantime, they tried (and succeeded) in making 'king' Gerorge's life a living hell together with the other staff members that stayed behind. However, by the time Fance was done fully sorting out the double-chest, Eret was already reinstated as king. This was a development Fance was very pleased with, as it meant they didn't have to move away.

When the castle was attacked by Mexican L’Manberg, Fance was saved from the incoming explosion by Void, which caused them to develop a crush on the former dragon. This however was entirely one-sided as Void seemingly never noticed Fance's interest.

During King Eret's great absence Fance contemplated moving to Foolish's place. They had been there a couple of times and loved how warm the desert was compared to the rest of the Overworld. However, when Foolish one day offhandedly mentioned that he despised all Striders, Fance swore to never set foot in the desert again (a vow they broke pretty soon after- the desert's heat was too difficult to resist).

### The Egg

The Egg shared many similarities with normal stuff from the Nether, so Fance would often confuse its vines with crimson vines and bring them into the castle. This quickly led to Fance becoming infected and acting as the Egg’s agent within the castle walls.

During the Egg's era, Fance often tried to convince other staff members to become familiar with the Crimson, with varying degrees of success.

Fance was defeated by Void during the Egg's final battle. Void then carried them to Church Prime, where they submerged Fance in the pool of holy water, causing their first canon death and freeing of the Egg. This caused the staff to insist on Polymer becoming Fance's service animal.

### Museum Duties

While Fance wasn't part of the regular museum staff, they would help out Eret during times with lots of donations. Fance would either sort the items and relics brought into the curator's office or help move donations from the donations chest into the main area.

## Appearance

Fance has dark red skin when warm and grey-purple-ish skin when cold. Their skin gradually changes colour based on its current temperature. Their hair is relatively short and combed back. It’s a warm platinum when warm and a cool platinum when cold.

Fance wears a green jacket that was woven out of warped fungi fiber. It has a fluffy collar and a vine-like pattern at the bottom which is meant to symbolise the place where it came from. Underneath, Fance still wears the white shirt and cravat from their L’Manberg days, complete with the red belt. Be abuse of the cooler temperatures, Fance can also often be seen wearing mittens they were able to borrow from the castle. The mittens have little crown symbols sewn onto them.

## Relationships

 Polymer
 Runi

## Gallery

First concept of FanceFirst character ideas of FanceFance's Election OutfitSketch of Fance's excitement for The CrimsonCommission by @y\_van\_ on TwitterCommission by @Winnie62123994 on TwitterCommission by @celiajeeen on TwitterCommission by @koffeekam on TwitterCommission by @zaraistg on TwitterCommission by @poolbranch on TwitterCommission by @backwardmind on TwitterCommission by @me\_o\_wy\_ on TwitterCommission by @yyuuraii on TwitterCommission by @friccafracc on TwitterCommission by @kyutsii\_ on TwitterBy @MightBeMOD on Twitter in exchange for 3 Netherite IngotsCommission by @prartzel on TwitterArt by @oKeiBeans on TwitterCommission by @MightBeMOD on Twitter