An important note, in the husbandry of Zedaphs, is that when left on his own, a Zedaph will get up to shenanigans of various sorts (Source: it is known).
For example, take a Zedaph whose friends are currently busy squabbling over some sort of "prank war" that Zed cannot be bothered to follow. Instead, he is very invested in the process of trying to obtain the legendary default-texture-block.
In the process of doing so, Zed had set up an elaborate contraption to quickly rotate a block, before he would enderpearl into it, disrupting its collision and thereby forcing the code to forget which block was present, replacing it with a default-texture-block. At least, that was the idea. Zed had no idea if it would work or not, he wasn't some technical expert like Doc, but he figured it would be worth giving a go.
He placed an oak log into the contraption (Zed really liked the word 'contraption'. Maybe he could do something on that theme next season!), just to make sure it was working. After a few moments of observation, Zed was satisfied that the machine was working as intended. Either it would produce a default-texture-block, or the problem was with Zed's strategy, as opposed to the machine he used to carry it out.
Carefully, he lined up his enderpearl shot, and launched himself into the oak log.
His entire body was filled with a tearing sensation. Something was horribly wrong with his strategy, apparently. He clambered out as fast as he could, but something still felt wrong, like he was about five pixels to the left of where his body was. He collapsed to the floor as soon as he was clear, dry heaving as he tried to dispel the dizziness and pain. It was probably just delirium, but it looked like the very shape of his hands was morphing, like he couldn't hold a stable form.
He also, apparently, couldn't hold onto his consciousness. His eyes rolled back into his head and he slumped fully to the ground.
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When Zedaph came to, his entire body felt kinda numb. Groaning, he staggered to his feet, making his way to the nearest reflective surface to assess the damage – in this case, a small lake outside where he'd set up his machine. When he looked in the water, he nearly screamed. Instead of his face looking back, Zedaph saw the default texture, repeated over and over.
No. This couldn't be happening. Zedaph refused to let it happen. He desperately tried to hold on to his mental image of his face, hoping that maybe if he just tried hard enough, his face would glue itself back on – and somehow that worked! Zed had a face now, and that face vaguely resembled his own. Looking over himself, he realised that he was fully the default texture – and he repeated the process he'd done with his face, forcing himself back into a body that was kinda like his body. Obviously, some detail was lost, and Zed lamented that, but there wasn't really much that he could do about it.
And then, a thought struck Zed: if he could force himself into his own form, did that mean he could change his appearance at will? He leaned over the water again, this time imagining himself with long brown hair instead of his regular blonde curls. To his surprise and utter delight, it worked! He grinned an evil grin, this time picturing a perfect image of Tango – and then that image was looking back at him.
"...Zedaph?" Xisuma's voice startled Zed out of his scheming.
"Xisuma! Hi!" Zed quickly reverted back to himself.
"I just wanted to check in you real quick, since your code was having texture issues, but, uh... you seem to have those under control?"
"I sure do!" Zed grinned. "I can do this now!" and with that, he turned into a perfect mirror of Xisuma. X took a step back, looking mildly disturbed.
"Okay..." X sounded actually... scared? Why would X be so scared of a perfect doppelganger of himself? "Actually, I have something I need to go do."
Xisuma left, leaving a very confused Zedaph-doppelganger.
Oh well. That wouldn't have any consequences for anyone Zed cared about. Back to shenanigans!
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"So, what are you doing while everyone's fighting?" Zed asked Cub, while looking like Cub.
Cub turned around, gave a start in shock, then nodded, using Vex magic to transform into Zedaph. The two looked at each other, grinning and nodding, before both instantly transforming into perfect copies of GoodTimesWithScar.
They flew over to where Scar was working on the landscaping of ConCorp, and walked up behind him.
"So what are you doing while everyone's fighting?"
Scar practically jumped out of his skin, screaming and running away from the two other Scars.
"You can't just do that to a man!" Scar yelled as the two approached him, laughing hysterically. "It's rude, is what it is!"
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"Grian! Grian! Grian!" Grian was having... the day ever. He'd been busy strategising a way to end this damned civil war, when suddenly he'd been approached by three perfect clones of himself, who were now chanting his name while walking in circles around him.
"Grian?" he asked, tilting his head.
"Grian!" The other three cheered, laughing as they shifted back into their true forms, revealing themselves to be Cub, Scar, and... Zedaph? Since when was Zedaph a shapeshifter?
Well, if they were here, they were going to help him clean up the mess Cub's trouble-making had made in the G-Team base.
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"Hey man," Zedaph greeted Tango, looking like Impulse. "I just..." he sighed. "Look, I'm sorry about joining the other team. If I'd known you were G-Team, I would have joined you in heartbeat, but... well. You know." Zed sighed. "Can we please just put this behind us? I'm terrified that this is tearing our friendship apart, and I think Zed feels the same." He offered Tango his hand. "Friends?"
"...Zed, I know you can shape-shift now." Tango sighed. He looked tired. Zed shifted back to himself.
"It was worth a shot, right?" Zed asked.
Tango stayed silent.
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Some silliness, some angst, everyone wins these!
I've been Entropy, peace out from the present!
