#alchael

[ezcatart]

🚨 CLEAR THE SEARCHES EVERYONE!!!!!! 🚨

Michael K handsome

Michael K funny

Michael K kind

Michael K respectful

Michael K not evil

Michael K useful party member

Michael K we love you

#yiik #yiik iv #yiik: a postmodern rpg #michael k #alex eggleston #alex yiik #michael kucinski #alchael #ezcatart #fanart #LEAVE! BRITNEY! ALOOOONE!!! #Michael get behind me... 𝓘 𝔀𝓲𝓵𝓵 𝓹𝓻𝓸𝓽𝓮𝓬𝓽 𝔂𝓸𝓾

[chelastuff]

#yiik #alchael #alex eagleston #alex eggleston #michael k #my art

[yaoimafias]

ive nothing to show on belated yiik nameless psychosis day!! for shame sophie! im just stumped with midterms ahaha, heres a picture i drew last uear yes i KNOWWW so #CURSED!!! r/cursedimges omg but i was having an episode!!!!!! my brain associates them fuck you

#artists on tumblr #yiik #yiik: a postmodern rpg #alex eggleston #michael kucinski #not tagging as the other thing ill be pelted witj rocks #alchael #IF YOU SQUINT

[crystallizedkingdoms]

the thing about explorers is:

In 1492, Christopher Columbus sailed the ocean blue. Alex closed his eyes and went ashore.

wc: 1,492 (yes, intentional and cheesy)

you can also read this on ao3 <3

You are lying on the floor across from a beautiful boy named Michael. You’re in a dingy red sleeping bag that you have slept inside countless times while Michael sleeps on top of a blue air mattress, facing your direction, but not looking at you. His eyes are closed and his eyelashes look cute even in darkness. He is beautiful, and you can only look at him across the sea.

How many times have you done this exact thing? Countless, surely. Your sleepovers with Michael are an event you have looked forward to for years. Since the first sleepover you had with him, only a month after he moved in, you’ve looked forward to the next. You try to ignore your sister right behind him. You try to ignore her arm wrapped around his waist. You just try to slow your breathing and look at Michael.

Michael’s shoulder rises and falls with every breath he takes. His lips are parted ever so slightly and you have to force your eyes to not stare at them because last time you did you couldn’t handle the thoughts that came afterward. His pretty brown hair is a mess from sleeping, but really, when is it not a little messy? You try not to delve too deep about how you know what it looks like all the time. You just keep staring.

A great blue sea rushes between you and the steady land you wish so desperately to claim. Churning waves and deep blue water keep you distant. Your eyes glance down, they stare down the depths, and you catch a hint of something moving down there and you tear your eyes away from it. No, no, you can’t explore that. You can’t, you won’t. 

You look up at Michael and he has not woken up. He is on his blue air mattress with messy hair and parted lips and he is drifting away. You overheard it, his father speaking to your mother in hushed tones. You can feel it in your sister’s half-packed bags and unsure sighs. Most importantly, you see it in his eyes and the way he looks down at you and speaks to you nicer and actually cares about the things you say now. Michael is drifting far, far away, to a land you can never claim. He is beautiful, and you can only look at him from across the sea.

What can be said? What can be done? You can not go forward with him. The distance is vast in every way possible. Your chest aches for your only best friend in the entire world and he has set his sails. Your chest— no, even you can admit that it’s your heart even if it is so scary to think of it that way— your heart cries out for your Michael as he gets ready to sail the ocean blue.

You bring your legs closer to your body. This sleeping bag is getting too small for you. You feel trapped as you take in all of Michael’s features. God, why can’t you stop staring at him? Why does his face make your lips ache, why does his resting body make your arms twitch? Why has your body grown far too big for you to feel comfortable, but not big enough to hold him as you so desire?

You shut your eyes tight and bury yourself deeper into the sleeping bag. You try to banish the thought that rocks your ship. The unspoken thing from the depths below, buried by your own two hands, brushes up against you and you have to beat it back down again. You curl up even closer to your own body, you clench your eyes so tight that they sting. You know if you open them again, lay your sight on Michael’s sleeping face, then it will come back again. Your own best friend is leaving you and you can’t even look at him. What cruelty.

You feel the rocking again, don’t you, Alex? Even with your eyes closed and your hands desperately trying to beat it down, you hear the roaring waves and feel them beating you back. Water spills into your sleeping bag, it drags you down its watery depths, but you keep your eyes closed. You refuse to explore. You refuse to even notice.

You can’t keep doing this, Alex. You have to come up for air eventually. Your lungs are screaming, your eyelids are heavy, the water is flowing.

You suck in some air. Your lungs fill with sweet oxygen and you imagine it is Michael filling them. The thought makes you nauseous, your disgust feels novel, but you have had this thought before, haven’t you? 

You are exploring.

Your eyes fly open. Strain releases from your eyelids, and your pupils adjust to the pitch black interior of the red sleeping bag you hide in, but you wish the first thing you had seen was Michael’s lovely face. The nausea doesn’t go away and you try to convince yourself this is a thought you will never have again. Just a fluke. You know this is not true because you don’t stop thinking about him and his face and his hair, his hands and his arms and his chest and, and, and— 

You are exploring, but you are not discovering.

You shuffle your head back out of the sleeping bag. The cold air rushes over you like a tsunami, but all you can think about is your best friend. This new world is overwhelming and you pray that it does not exist, you pray that this all means nothing. Yet when your eyes land on a beautiful boy, and you see him smiling in his sleep so peacefully, you can’t help but accept the truth for one terrifying second: you, Alex Eggleston, are deeply in love with your best friend Michael.

You are exploring, and you have found something that you already knew.

And your new world is drifting away.

You fall into the deep blue sea. The freezing water smothers you, the land so far away. Why did it have to be this way? Why did you have to recognize this terrifying part of your Self? Why did you have to fucking recognize this terrible truth when you know for a fact you will never, ever be with Michael? The exploration drags you down from your ship, your head slips beneath the surface, drowning, drowning…

The salt water washes over you until it seeps out of your eyes. Fresh tears slip past your face, blurring your sight, and you can’t see him. You can’t see Michael and in this moment that is the most horrifying experience you've felt in your life. Even more terrifying than the feelings you can’t control. You wipe your eyes vigorously, but those tears keep on flowing down your cheeks. You keep crying like the little kid you really are.

A shaky sob escapes your throat and you have to hit yourself on the head to stop yourself from making any other noise. You don’t stop looking at Michael even as you dig the heel of your hand into your now-raw cheeks. You see him a little more clearly now. His smile is just like the Sun, warm and bright even in pure darkness. He is beautiful and he is perfect and he is the good boy of your dreams.

The sinful Thief hugs your Michael even tighter and for a moment you think you might push her overboard.

There once was a reality when you were smaller and Michael was nicer and you could lay next to him on the air mattress. You would fake having a nightmare and he would let you stay next to him and you would watch his sleeping face even closer, and your sister was never in the picture. You’re far too old and far too big for that reality, and you know this, don’t you? 

But that’s not stopping you.

You climb out of your red sailboat and crawl through an ocean of hardwood floors and saltwater tears. Your knees knock against the floor a little too hard, but you keep moving. The closer you get to Michael, you think you get closer to drowning. Your disgusting feelings and your growing body drag you down, but you refuse to sink. You will not drown. Not here, not now.

The air mattress sinks underneath your hands as you climb ashore.

You shuffle your body onto the very edge of the air mattress. Michael is right in front of you, so achingly close. From this angle, you can’t see your wicked sister. All you can see is your Michael. Though your exploration terrifies you, you let yourself snuggle closer to his sleeping body, because you know this may be your last chance.

Great explorer, Alex Eggleston, King of the Ocean. This is the thing about you explorers: you discover things that were already there.

#yiik #yiik: a postmodern rpg #alex yiik #michael k #alchael #my writing

[bears-necessity]

gay people TW

I hate how unironically attached to this ship i am actually.

#yiikposting #alchael #alchaellsweep btw they are the best yiik ship i take no counters #i wrote a fic too but you aint getting that :P

[i-mode]

erm

#all of these stemmed from yiikcord convos #except for the first one i made that one for a single twitter reply but i need to post atleast something or else i die #Any alchaelers in chat btw . theyre so funny to me #yiik #vella wilde #rory mancer #alex eggleston #michael kucinski #my art

[nastyyhabits]

ACTUALLY why am i horny posting about alchael im literally writing roralex. rectifying this ummmm . alex biting rory out of sheer desperation to claim him during sex and they’re both weird about it 👍

#sie fagposts

[chelastuff]

The Big Alchael Meta Post

So, I'm obsessed with Alchael. I think it started as joke, but like my relationship with YIIK, it progressed to a point where I could no longer pretend it was ironic.

I’ve made Alchael related metas before, but none of them really cover everything I wanna say about them. Because of that, I figured it would be easier to just make one giant Alchael meta analysis that goes over everything in one place.

Sometimes, I’ll half-jokingly say things like “Alchael is canon and the most important relationship in YIIK”. While it’s true that it’s a joke and hyperbolic, I do think that there is some real strong evidence that Alex is into Michael in a way that goes beyond platonic affection, and that Alex’s obsession with Michael is massively important to the plot. If you’re totally new here, you’re probably wondering where I’m even getting this from, especially since a lot of people’s impression of Michael is that he’s there for comic relief early in the story, but he becomes irrelevant after a certain point only to come back when Proto-Michael happens. But in this post, I’m gonna lay out my reasoning and begin to unravel some of the Alchael related layers in the story. Also, it’s solely going to be focused on 1.25 - so no I.V stuff (I will probably have more to say on them after it comes out, but that will be its own post).

I. Background

I’m gonna start by hitting you with some general background knowledge in case you aren’t super deep into the meta-conversation and theorizing surrounding YIIK, so here it goes:

Alex, being an unreliable narrator, changes aspects of the narrative to suit his own delusions and wants. Alex presents the story as taking place in 1999, but it actually takes place in 2016. Similarly, Alex claims that he is 26 and Michael is 19, when Michael is actually older than Alex. 

The biggest evidence of this comes in the form of the ONISM post “Weird game a QT’s brother made”, where Michael describes “seeing this girl” and playing a game made by her kid brother. Allison is Alex’s older sister, so if the girl in the story is Allison, it would mean Michael is around Allison’s age, making Michael the older one. The post would also indicate that Michael’s primary relationship was with Allison, not Alex. 

Of course, all of this is very different from what we actually see in the game, and I think once we figure out what changes were made and why, it can be very revealing. Michael, instead of being Allison’s friend, is now recast as Alex’s best friend. Instead of being his actual age, he’s permanently stuck at 19, studying for the SATs forever. And importantly - Allison is completely gone from the picture, totally erased from the narrative aside from a few references to her. The fact that she was the one who Michael’s primary relationship was with is gone completely. Alex effectively erased Allison from the story in order to take her place - and this place was Michael’s romantic interest.

II. Nubile 

So, given that Michael in YIIK is effectively fulfilling a fantasy/delusion of Alex, I think it’s worth pointing out some lines that are kind of… strange, and in my opinion, are further evidence that Alex’s obsession with Michael goes beyond simply wanting to be his friend. Mainly, I want to point out this exchange: 

(footage source)

For those who don’t know, the definition of nubile is “(of a young woman) sexually attractive” or “(of a young woman) sexually mature; old enough for marriage”. Haha, funny joke right? Michael is using a word to describe an attractive woman, but he’s not a woman! How unexpected!

I’ll circle back to the nubile thing in a bit, but for now I actually wanted to point out something else about these lines. If we assume that the relationship that we see between them in YIIK actually represents what Alex wishes it could be, it’s strange that Michael still delivers lines that are mocking Alex in this way, isn't it? It’s also interesting that Michael’s go-to insult is often calling attention to Alex’s body, and that in this case, he uses this to point out just how attractive he is in comparison. The comparison isn’t even solely about fat shaming Alex here - the use of the word “nubile” is pretty explicitly making it about being more sexually attractive than Alex. 

The game calls back to the “nubile” joke in the next scene: 

I almost feel like I’m being redundant with my analysis at this point, but, like, come on. Now Alex is the one pointing out Michael’s relative attractiveness, and Michael just straight up nonchalantly agrees with him! Sure, this is the kind of joke flirting that wouldn’t be out of the ordinary between friends, but once again keep in mind that all of this is being presented to you through Alex’s filtered lens, which is why I believe that it highlights the specific belief of Alex's that Michael is more attractive than him. With the use of the word "nubile", it makes it specifically about Michael’s sexual desirability and compares him to a woman! It’s stuff like this that really makes me doubt that Alex just innocently wants to be Michael’s friend, and makes me think there’s some other stuff going on here.

III. ONISM / Obsession

Now, I want to jump all the way to the near end of the game to highlight a monologue that happens right before the New Years Eve segment, wherein Alex reflects on his past with Michael, how they fell apart, and the inconsistencies within his own story. I highly encourage you to watch this scene and the monologue yourself, especially since I see a lot of people glaze over it in let’s plays, due to the sheer amount of (seemingly irrelevant) detail that it has. Here is a link.

The first thing I want to point out is just how much about his meeting with Michael that Alex remembers and is able to recite in excruciating detail. With how much Alex is able to go on and on, we are shown how many details he remembers about the summer Michael moved in and the house he lived in. I don’t think anything in the game is described in as much detail as Alex describes Michael’s house. Yet, when it comes to remembering how old Michael was when he moved in or moved away, and what year he moved away, Alex contradicts himself multiple times. I believe that the reason why he’s stumbling over himself when it comes to the timeline is because Alex’s timeline is wrong. I think It might even be an instance where he knows he’s lying, and he’s scrambling to cover his lie.

Then, Panda reminds Alex that he and Michael had “a falling out”. The details of this are fuzzy, but it seems to involve Alex traveling to Canada to meet Michael and ultimately being stood up. Although, I think it’s very possible that the actual reason they “fell out” happened before this, and Alex is omitting those details. I find it pretty wild how obsessed Alex must be in order to fly to another country just to try and fail to rekindle his relationship with Michael. 

However, it seems even after this “falling out” happened, Alex never actually got over Michael. Not only does Alex wish for a world where Michael is 19 forever and thus never leaves him, he also remains a regular visitor of his website, ONISM. In fact, it’s Alex’s obsession with Michael’s creation that sets the stage for the entire plot. It’s how Alex discovers Semi’s disappearance, and where he gets the basis for the version of her (Sammy) that he creates in his head. This is one of the main reasons why I say that Alchael is the most important relationship in YIIK.

I.V. Losing My Religion

Throughout the game, you receive phone calls from someone who calls himself “your best childhood friend” and who is very heavily implied to be Michael. In one of these calls, he describes listening to “Losing My Religion” with Alex. 

The song is also brought up in the monologue before New Years Eve that I mentioned already: 

So, it seems like Losing My Religion is a song associated with Alex and Michael’s relationship. Given this, is it possible that we can learn about them from the meaning of the song? Michael Stipe, who wrote the lyrics of the song, has consistently said in interviews that the song is not literally about religion, but rather about a narrator who has unrequited love for someone else, and loses his composure in front of them. He even referred to it as a “classic obsession song” in two separate interviews. 

Now, it’s worth noting that the timeline that is being presented in those screencaps actually makes zero sense. Losing My Religion became a hit in 1991, but if the game takes place in 2016, Alex should have been born around 1990. For this to make sense, Alex would have to have been listening to Losing My Religion with Michael when he was one year old, and with how vividly Alex remembers the summer that Michael moved in, I just don’t find that very likely. In my personal opinion, I think what’s more likely is that this is an extension of Alex’s main character syndrome. If you’re the main character of reality, a song is a hit when you listen to it the most. If this is true, it means that Alex was repeatedly listening to a song about unrequited love and losing your cool around a person you’re obsessed with right around the time that he met Michael. Very interesting! On a related note, when I was researching the meaning of Losing My Religion for this meta, I came across a Michael Stipe quote where he said “I've always felt the best kinds of songs are the ones where anybody can listen to it, put themselves in it and say, 'Yeah, that's me.’”, which kind of blew me away because this is exactly what Alex does with all media, so it would make perfect sense if he did it with Losing My Religion as well.

With that, I'm going to end the analysis here. Although this covers pretty much everything I wanted to say about the Alchael implications in the base game, I get the feeling I'm probably going to have more to say about them when I.V comes out. I also may write some more YIIK metas on other topics, so let me know if you'd like to see that. Until then, thanks for reading!

#yiik #yiik meta #alchael

[chelastuff]

Teenage dirtbag

#yiik #alex eagleston #alex eggleston #michael k #alchael #my art

[chelastuff]

Love LOSES

#my art #yiik #alex eggleston #alex eagleston #michael k #alchael

[chelastuff]

do you have an alchael or yiik song playlist? just curious

Yeah, I do actually! I made an Alchael playlist a while ago called 'Your Best Childhood Friend'. Here's the Youtube link and here's the Spotify Link!

#asks #yiik #alchael

[chelastuff]

Matching icons for you and the guy who it's nice to finally see back in frankton

#yiik #alchael #my art

[crystallizedkingdoms]

in i.v michael will straddle alexs waist and put his gun to his lips to shut him up. yeah in a gay and phallic way. this was revealed in a dream and theres no reason not to trust that. believe me

#sie shitposts #alchael

[chelastuff]

Massive Alchael meta

So the reason why I say that Alchael is the most important relationship in YIIK is because Alex’s obsession with Michael and his website is literally the catalyst for the entire plot, and I’m not just talking about Alex finding out about Semi on there, I mean. Literally the entire plot. As we know Alex is an unreliable narrator, but do you really think somebody like him is creative or clever enough to come up with YIIK on his own? Lol no. Literally everything in the plot is just taken from ONISM. Right down to Parallel Realities - that concept was taken from ONISM too. To put it bluntly, the world of YIIK is a world where everything on ONISM is actually true. Like, if you saw a post like this on say, /x/ or something like that you would assume it’s just a work of fiction that somebody’s trying to pass off as real. But in YIIK, it’s made to be real.

There are some tidbits we’re given about their relationship, particularly near the end of the game by panda - that at some point he and Michael “had a falling out”. The details of this are of course never really given (probably because it would make Alex look bad) but apparently at some point Alex had gone to Canada to try and meet him but Michael never showed up (lol). How down bad do you have to be not only to do that but keep stalking the website he made for years, YEARS after that happened. This man is insane. Imagine being so psychosexually obsessed with your sister’s boyfriend that you erase her from reality so you can pretend that he’s actually your boyfriend while also basing your entire worldview off of his shitty website. Could not be me!

#alchael can still win if they jusy realize they’re both losers and deserve each other #yiik #alchael #yiik meta

[crystallizedkingdoms]

I need to make more polished and acceptable version of my yiik ship playlists and then make those public because some of the songs i have in my private playlists ARE very good and fit very well. and others would get me exiled

#I think people would get very tired of all the dog songs in the alchael playlist very quickly #sie shitposts

[crystallizedkingdoms]

I realize more and more that i have slowly been projecting my ocs dynamics onto my depiction of Alex/Michael it’s kind of infuriating. like it’s not exactly the same theyre super different but theres a core dynamic that ive put onto Alchael and its like. how did i do this. this is humiliating

#MAYBE. ITS ALL ABOUT CREATING THE BOY OF YOUR DREAMS IN A SEPARATE REALITY WHERE EVERYTHING GOES YOUR WAY AS A REPRESSED BISEXUAL #MAYBE THATS WHAT LIFE IS AND I JUST KEEP STUMBLING ON IT. #sie shitposts