Just be glad it's not Lux Langley II.

Our Lux's father, the old Archduke, was many kinds of corrupt. In leadership style, he was cruel—except for his spoiled child, his servants rightly feared for their lives and the streets around his palace belonged to the rats. On his gates, the uniforms of the guards were lavish, but did not escape the dust that settled and betrayed the ugliness within the overdecorated walls. Lux II never left them.

He worked slyly from within, in one room, beneath a veil changed several times a day to hide the other way he was corrupt: his appearance. Whenever a misplaced corner of the drapes traced one of the growths, a servant died; such was the humiliation that fueled his temper. His magic-lashed body was a sluglike thing no longer recognizable as human. The blob devoured his legs and crippled his arms, his bones becoming splinters floating in jelly; silt. All that kept the king from doing something about him was pity, and this only made Lux II angrier.

All portraits of a younger Archduke had been long since destroyed, but they say he was beautiful once, even if he did have a vocal tic of rattling off a whole thesaurus entry when one word would suffice.

He was there once. The young one, whose existence is thanks to Rule 36, was told that Lux II had been killed by the accidental discharging of seven guards' guns simultaneously. He believed it.

Now imagine a lonely adolescent with an entire palace to themselves, including a cellar full of beer from around the world and a royal jerkass's example to draw from. Just for the record, imagine that the child is one who coughs up slime every morning. Someday, someone is going to say "no" to Lux Langley III for the first time ever, and considering the enemies made by the young Archduke's predecessor, with something sharper than words.

But for now, he's here to stay—by which I mean remain. To help, so to speak.

Meanwhile, he is mainly watched over by his captain of the guard, Kenichi Zeppelin, who may or may not wake up at the exact same time someone in another world goes to sleep each night. Well, sorta. As much as he lets Kenichi; there is only so much he can do.

In any case, Kenichi entered into the possession of the nobility both by birth and by luck. Though he was born into the vast gene pool of the Tomitas, the great line of Snofflandish retainers, he may never have been discovered if not for a serendipitous encounter with a Duchess in the west. This woman was the infamous Rowena Rowena, the Atlantean/normal hybrid who...let's say she was soon to be known as the Human Bomb. The naive child met her only eleven days before her termination. Despite his inexperience, Kenichi's will to stay with the tortured girl despite the psychic assault on whoever came near endeared him to her younger brother, who worked to keep him among the aristocracy as a chosen Tomita.

To this day, Kenichi insists that his initial deed was fueled not by strength but by stupidity. In any case, he has grown up. Little does Lux III know, Kenichi, who never lost a certain youthful belief in others, is the only person under his influence who takes him seriously, at least for more than a miniature caricature of his father in shades. Kenichi attributes this to the same old stupidity.

As neither of them actually knows how to rule, they mostly occupy their time by playing catch with the Idiot Ball, seeing what they can get away with and with one-sided Ho Yay in an episodic manner.

Recently:

Lux III has got it in his head that his people will take him seriously if he learns more about the environment outside the palace—the stretch of western chaparral, the bordering mountains and the Desert of Nowhere to the north. To this end, he had Kenichi research it, who has spent far too much time reading about a mountain cryptid called the Green Man, a self sustaining humanoid that reportedly appears when one's chances of survival are reduced to nil. Also, releasing paper airplanes in the wind tunnels.

In the middle of this seemingly normal endeavor, however, a disturbing piece of news reached their ears—the death of Lux II had been more complex than assassination. Nothing is yet known of what really happened, but it involved him giving up his position as archduke before he died. It is completely possible that no one even knows that Lux III is is there; the palace could be stormed at any time. Lux urged Kenichi to research what to do in the worst case scenario, but Kenichi, who had found out first, had already got drunk off his ass and was in the wind tunnels with the cats. They punished him severely.

Lux was last seen daydreaming about what he would do if he were emperor, Kenichi was his scribe and his position was secure. How do our daydreams manifest themselves in other worlds? Kenichi was last seen corresponding with a geographer of questionable repute for his research—he swears he's talking about something useful, but then yacks for hours through that earpiece of his about the Green Man. Could he be gathering survival tips from an urban legend? In the nearby city of Iosethep, a childlike, wild-eyed wielder of double machine guns has killed three superheroes so far. What the hell do you need to know that for?

The comic duo return at 20X!