#another monopoly this time on cactus

[scaravoid]

something something grian winning when he teamed up with scar in 3rd life and scar winning when he refused to team up with grian in secret life

[mochiwrites]

hi I'm still not over third life and the way it all ended and do you think up until the cactus ring scar never had the courage to tell grian he loved him? at least, not directly anyway. I think he said it plenty of times beforehand, but never out right confessed.

let's make a monopoly in the desert i love you

I stole stuff for us i love you

you can kill me i love you for everything you've done to keep me alive i know you love me too

I'm so sorry i love you

do you think he waited right up until the very end, with his final breath, to tell grian that he loved him? he knew he wouldn't have another chance to do it. for all his acting, for all the death he caused, deep down, scar was scared. holding people close to his heart was dangerous (look at pizza). so in one last moment, one last act of true bravery, of throwing the mask aside, he looked grian in the eyes and told him he loved him--because he had nothing left to lose

[fatehbaz]

British ships carrying plants and seeds from around the world arrived in Botany Bay on January 20 1788. This story is overshadowed by convict ships and Royal Navy vessels, but the cargo on board also had a lasting impact. Colonists, convicts and Indigenous Australians were all affected [...]. Some of these plants [...] were food sources [...]. Others were attempts to expand the British Empire. Could the new territory be exploited as a tropical plantation? In the parliamentary debate over destinations for convict transportation [considering potential locations for sending prisoners], Sir Joseph Banks and James Matra, both members of James Cook’s 1770 expedition [to the South Pacific], spruiked the potential of the new colony as an extension of the empire. Matra claimed the colony was “fitted for production” of “sugar-cane, tea, coffee, silk, cotton, indigo and tobacco”. Banks claimed Botany Bay was an “advantageous” site, with fertile soil [...].

Two plants carried by the First Fleet stand out as examples of botanical imperialism: prickly pear cactus (Opuntia) and sugarcane.

Banks, as head of the Royal Society of London [and as a close adviser to King George, and also as a plant-collecting botanist who turned the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew in London into the world's leading botanical garden], selected these species as experiments to compete with European trade rivals. His goal was to break a Spanish monopoly in producing fabric dye and to expand British cultivation of sugar outside the West Indies.

Prickly pear cactus was imported because it is the preferred food of the cochineal insect.

Dried cochineal were crushed to make a vibrant, colourfast scarlet dye for textiles. Discovered in the New World by Spanish colonists, cochineal replaced kermes, another insect that had provided red dye since antiquity. Cochineal dye was ten times stronger than kermes or vegetable dyes.

From cardinals’ capes to British officers’ red coats, cochineal was a product for elite consumers signifying power, wealth and prestige.

New Spain, based in Mexico, had a monopoly on cochineal. Banks wanted to break the stranglehold on the scarlet dye by establishing production in New South Wales.

Plants infested with the precious insects were imported from Brazil in 1788. The project soon failed when the cochineal died, but the cacti survived. Colonists used cacti as natural fences and drought-resistant animal fodder.

Without insects to feed on them the plants spread, uncontrolled, to cover more than 60 million acres of eastern Australia by the 1920s. Poison, crushing and fire failed to stop the cactus. [...] Opuntia cacti remain an environmental hazard. [...] The roots of these early imperial projects are deeply embedded in Australian culture and history, with an enduring legacy.

---

All text above by: Garritt C. Van Dyk. "The botanical imperialism of weeds and crops: how alien plant species on the First Fleet changed Australia". The Conversation. 25 January 2024. [Some paragraph breaks/contractions added by me. Italicized text within brackets added by me for clarity and context.

[blueish30]

3rd life Scarian fluff

500~ words

implied death at the end

Please feel free to look at my pinned post for boundaries and leave writing requests in my asks ^^

——

Grian never intended to stick by Scar. That’s what he told himself every time he was subject to watch the man run around the desert with a bee in tow.

Scar is nice company though, Grian recalls late nights sat on monopoly mountain, the sandstone making for quite an uncomfortable seat. Grian remembers Scar’s hand slipping around his shoulders, gently pulling him closer and closer, and when Grian looked up at Scar, the pale-skinned man would just beam down at him. That became a nightly routine and it was no different tonight.

Grian ached, after the countless battles with Dogwarts (the worst faction in his opinion, I mean, who has a dog for a king, it’s ridiculous!) he’d surely pulled at least 10 muscles. Grian carefully lowered himself to sit on the sandstone steps, and after a few moments Scar walked out of their base behind him and sat beside Grian. Most of the server was visible from up here, beyond the cactus wall and treeline small flickers of orange dotted the horizon, and the built up walls of Dogwarts stood proud on a Stone Mountain. He wondered what their nightly routine was, did they all try to pile into a few beds pushed together? Did they sleep alone, feeling the chill of the stone? Or perhaps they were in pairs, feeding off of one anothers warmth. In Scott and Jimmy’s hobbit hole, did they cuddle eachother to sleep, pretending to be husbands even behind the walls? Or did they sleep separately, some invisible force between them. He thought about Joel, maybe his dogs would climb into bed with him, embracing the lonely man in a warmth that was so close yet so far from being human. The crastle, Grian wouldn’t be surprised if they all actually did sleep in one bed. He felt Scar’s eyes on him, and before he could lock eyes with him Scar spoke.

“It’s a bit cold, isn’t it?”

When Grian looked over, Scar wasn’t watching him anymore, rather he was facing forwards with his head tilted towards the night sky. Grian shrugged.

“I’m not that cold.”

He always just seemed to run warm, unlike Scar who constantly complained of cold fingers despite them living in the desert. Without warning, Scar placed his palm on Grian’s bare forearm, green eyes widening.

“You’ve like- stolen all the warmth!”

Their eyes met, and Grian’s face split into a grin.

“Get off me, you’re so cold!” He laughed but made no move to push Scar’s hand away. Grian felt Scar’s arms loop around him and tug. He fell backwards into Scar with quite the undignified noise, small wings giving a surprised flap. He found himself pressed against Scar, who was trapping him in a hug. Grian for once, didn’t protest, and after a bit of shifting, even relaxed. They stayed like that until they fell asleep, and would wake up sore but embraced in eachother.

The desert would soon be littered with red and bones, and moments like these would be scarce but the memories would be fresh in their minds, memories of a time they could sleep.

[mimefish]

From the desert to the valley, his bases and alliances, Scar has always been the earth, wreathed in flowers and undeniably human.

In Third Life, Grian, the sun, swears loyalty to him, and together, they settle in the scorched desert. They build their monopoly atop a mountain, a sandcastle despite all the sand slipping through their fingers. Scar dies in a ring of cactus to his first ally, and his body is wreathed in lilacs and poppies, and the sun steps off the edge of the mountain and sets over the desert.

In Last Life, Scar is alone, but finds his purpose, finds solace, in crystals. Charms plucked straight from the ground, enchanted to aid whoever wields them. He builds atop another mountain, this one decidedly magical, but nonetheless, dies in the wrong place, at the wrong time, after stumbling across an old foe. The stars shine on.

In Double Life, Scar is drawn to a past ally. The sun finds him among new companions in a grove of bamboo and proves to him that they are, again, together, irrefutably and without room for protest. The gravity of their bond doesn't stop the sun's attempts to escape it, however, but Scar shrouds himself in a sanctuary of bamboo. He plants a safe haven. The roots of the bamboo take hold and keep his pandas safe for as long as it can, but Scar dies outside of it. The safety the bamboo promised was not enough to combat the rules of the game, but the moon wins by breaking them.

In Limited Life, he finds a family on a new mountain. The Clockers keep careful track of time spent in their dysfunctional relationships, and Scar builds the foundations of a clocktower on the entertainment rock, stone and cobble bricks to protect them. It doesn't work. He dies at the base of the mountain, betrayed by his first true ally, stabbed in the back and out of time. He never even saw it coming. A final betrayal wins the series.

And in Secret Life.

In Secret Life, Scar adorns himself with sunflowers, settling in a valley of plants and fortifying it with dark walls to protect the flowers within. He greets the moon in sunflower fields with the name of a past life, startling her. Despite the warmth of the sunflowers, however, he is isolated, and the server's assigned villain. He reacts by shifting from the flowers pointing to the sun to the lilacs and poppies that once decorated a different alliance, one with the sun himself, embroidered into a black shawl, one usually suited to a funeral, one that cloaks him in past memories. And when the moon embraces him into her orbit, he follows. Scar joins the Mounders, if temporarily, the group dedicated to their silly hills and dirt bases, and when they fall apart, the moon remains with him. Throughout it all, the moon stays, reflecting the sun's light, and when she dies, knocked down to earth, to a ravine by the valley of sunflowers, Scar lives. He keeps living, and he finally succeeds.

Scar wins, mountain after mountain, rock after rock, crystals and mounds and sand and cacti and flowers and bamboo and plants. Inhospitable biomes turn to growth. The plants enwreath him, and guide Scar to victory. From the barren desert sand to the flowers that herald the sun, Scar grows. And finally, he reaps what he sows.

[nerdyenby]

Third Life playlist

This is an explanation for my song choices for the Third Life segment of my Traffic Series playlist

Bang by AJR: this whole song is very much giving the same ‘Something’s going to happen but I don’t know what, thanks for coming along to find out’ energy as I get from the start of Third Life. Something’s going on, it’s not gonna end well, but we’re not particularly bothered, not yet at least. I also like to go for a double meaning and interpret the “bang” as Scar’s first death.

High Up by half•alive: “Behind your back a cold surprise, in favor of the third degree. I took a breath and took the knife, no I won’t defend the killer in me.” After accidentally killing Scar, Grian offers his own life to the man, vowing to do whatever Scar wants. When all Scar wants is company, the two establish Monopoly Mountain together and Grian comes to enjoy living with Scar. “Sitting on the mountain now I’m high up, never wanna come down. When you look at me, I’m lifted.”

Say It, Just Say It by The Mowgli’s: This song goes out to all the Third Life duos. “I will take your side, you make me feel like I’ve been waiting my whole life. And I could die to find that simple kind of love you can’t deny.”

Kamikaze by WALK THE MOON: I was familiar with the term “kamikaze” but wanted to clarify what exactly it meant in this context. According to Cambridge dictionary, a kamikaze attack is a sudden and violent onslaught, usually by an attacker who knows they will not make it out alive. I find this very fitting to 3L!Grian as he went mad causing death and destruction early on with no regard for his own life. “Going down with my wings on fire, guess I’ll see you in another life. Stepping out of body, you can tell everybody I’m a kamikaze.”

Sweet Nothing by Taylor Swift: Even after Grian dies and the terms of their deal are satisfied, he still goes back to Scar. It was barely a choice. “They said the end is coming, everyone’s up to something, I find myself running home to your sweet nothings.”

Fight for it by Joy Oladokun: “You’re sticking with me tonight for life, I’m sticking with you.” People dying left and right, Grian and Scar stick together, fighting for their lives.

The Great War by Taylor Swift: “All that bloodshed, crimson clover, the bombs were closer. My hand was the one you reached for all throughout the Great War. I’ll always remember the burning embers. I vowed not to fight anymore if we survived the Great War.” Final deaths raining around them, they leaned on each other heavily, relying on each other until it got to the final three. Scar was the one to bring Grian to red. “Somewhere in the haze, got a sense I’d been betrayed,” only for Scar to offer him his final life and the crown. Grian watched awestruck as Scar later down his life, giving the other complete permission to kill him.

Graveyard by Halsey: “It’s crazy when the thing you love the most is the detriment.” This song can be from either Grian or Scar’s point of view of how Grian keeps being the one to hurt Scar the most. They keep running back to each other, hoping it will change, but it never does. Whether it’s Scar’s first death or his last, it’s Grian. It’s always Grian. “When the hand you wanna hold is a weapon, and you’re nothing but skin.”

Gladiator by Waterparks: This is about the final fight in the cactus ring and all the forces pushing them into it: the ghosts, the Watchers, and us the viewers. “And what it comes back to is gladiators. Make them fight to the death. And they would cheer on a gladiator, but the whole time the gladiator wasn’t fighting because he liked fighting[…] he was fighting completely for survival. And his whole survival completely relied upon a stadium full of people.”

Getaway Car by Taylor Swift: After killing Scar, Grian reflects on how they met. “I struck a match and blew your mind, but I didn’t mean it, and you didn’t see it.” Their bond was formed from destruction and guilt. They were never going to end any other way. “Don’t pretend it’s such a mystery, think about the place where you first met me.”

? by Tate McRae: “It’s crazy to me because you grow up, you lose friends, you’re suddenly scared of things that you were literally never scared of before. And when I was younger, I used to think I could fly.” Grian’s final death: the fall.

Finale by AJR: Grian winning the Third Life and having to make Last Life. “Congratulations on your bit of success, we can’t wait to see what you do next.” The speaker can be interpreted the Watchers or us the audience (if you interpret them as distinct). “They wanted heaven from me, I gave ‘em hell. Now they want something bigger, I’m overwhelmed.”

[errornameredacted]

you haunt my waking thoughts(you dry my resting tears)

again based on the mafia server m'lao

Set D5 After Scar's Death ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The wind swept up the loose grains of sand, lifting them off the ground and up into the air. Despite it being the tail end of the day in the middle of autumn, it was always melting in the desert. Another day had passed, another person had died to the Hands, and one was killed by the Town. Today it was Scar found dead. Well, they found him almost dead. But he died pretty much the second they found him. There was no point of him being alive, only to add to the pain. And it already hurt. A lot. At least, for Grian it did.

His feet made no sound as he walked through the desert, alone. It all felt so surreal. He'd been through all this before, many times. But this time was different, he guessed just a little bit of him hoped that this time, they could live together. No reds, no Hands, just Grian, Scar and the endless dunes of the desert. Of course, that tiny spark was extinguished once he approached him this morning. The only thing he could see was the thousands of cactus spines sticking out of his body. It was all too similar, the way he knelt down by his corpses and wept for the lover he lost. It was all his fault.

He reached Monopoly Mountain, but he didn't begin the climb up to the house. He didn't want to go in alone, to try and resume life as normal when it would never be the same again. Jellie should be in the house, sleeping on her pillow as she always is. She'd always wake up when Scar arrived, looking up at him with those beautiful emerald eyes. Grian didn't want to think about her eyes. They reminded him too much of Scar's. He was at the door to the sandcastle. Grian didn't realise he'd been walking up to it. His brain must've autopiloted it's way up. Grian swallowed his pride, and opened the door.

It was quiet in the castle. What was Grian expecting? That Scar would just, waltz down the stair like he always did? He's gone, and he will never come back. And who do we blame for that other than the innocent Cleo. Just another life lost. Grian really should be used to this by now, the haunting silence that was always there when he failed, when he hurt the people that trusted him. How many times he had felt this way, Grian doesn't know. But it's enough that he should be used to it. He was the widower every time, yet he always lost himself in the grief.

Grian dragged himself to the mat he called his bed. Scar slept their too. He won't need it anymore. Grian's wing spread over the mat like a child's blanket. They were probably full of dirt. Scar would preen his wings every night, carefully picking out every last grain of sand, going on and on about how he'd kill for wings like Grian's, how he'd kill for Grian. No more would he share these little moments with his partner. The chance was gone, he was alone.

Slowly, he began to pick away at the wings, removing the few noticeable specks of brown or beige. Grian wasn't going to go into detail with this. If he did, high chance he would cry, and he really didn't want to get the ‘bed’ soggy.

Once the colours were almost restored to their natural colour, Grian realised he was absolutely wrecked. He curled up into the mat, pulling the ragged sheet they used as a cover tightly to his body. It smelt of sand. It smelt of home. It smelt of Scar. Gods, Grian was a mess.

Grian fell asleep dreaming of the day he'd see Scar again, the day he'd hug him tighter then he ever did before.

The day he'd hold his hand and never let go.

@p-011-yn @justaleksey <- people who played desert duo

@audriandae <- to keep you happy

[rosmerie-sleeps]

Incorrect Quotes!! (For omega strikers!)

Rune: Zentaro, can you help me? All my clothes keep disappearing for some reason. Zentaro, wearing a hoodie that’s seven times his size: spooky

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Estelle:I’m not being weird. Am I being weird? Luna: yes and that’s coming from me

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Asher: when Ramsus gets Daiquiris he gets into how beautiful he is. Ramsus: hey I dare you guys to dare us to make out Luna: Hey Ramsus, you do know that’s a mirror, right?

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Luna: school sucks Atlas: I know, but you have to do it so you can get a job Luna: what are jobs like? Atlas: they suck

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Estelle: GET BACK HERE YOU DUMB FUCK! Kai: LET ME RUN FROM THE CONSEQUENCES OF MY ACTIONS!!!

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X: can we go to a haunted house? Era: what’s wrong with the one we live in? X: Wh-what? Era: Goodnight, X.

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Juno is hugging Luna Asher: Hey! It's my turn to hug Luna! Asher: grabs Luna Atlas: kicking down the door What do you mean, "yOuR tUrN"? We agreed now is my time slot! Juno: No, It's still my turn! Luna: suffocating Guys, I love you, but just because I'm the smallest doesn't mean you can be hugging me constantly! Asher: But we need the moral support! Juno: And you're small! Which is cute! Atlas: If I don't hug you right now I think the depression will kick in and my body will stop functioning. Luna: close to tears Well- I, I guess.

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Ai.Mi: jail is no fun. I’ll tell you that Zentaro: Oh, you’ve been there? Ai.Mi: Once. In monopoly

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Kai, texting: X, will you please go to sleep? X, texting back: What makes you think you didn’t just wake me up? Kai, yelling: I CAN HEAR YOU CLAPPING TO THE FRIENDS THEME EVERY TWENTY MINUTES SHUT THE FUCK UP AND GO THE FUCK TO SLEEP! Kai, texting: Just a hunch :) You goin’ to sleep soon? X, texting: I’m trying Kai, yelling again: TRY HARDER I HAVE A 5:45 AM MEETING TOMORROW BITCH Kai, texting: Okay, don’t stay up too late or you’ll be cranky :)

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Atlas: Last night I found out Dubu is a sleep talker. Drek’ar: Oh, really? Atlas: “Dubu!(The mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell)." Right. In. My. Ear. At 3am.

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Estelle: I have met a lot of pricks in my time, but you, Kai, are a whole fucking cactus.

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Dubu, to Drek’ar: Dubu?(When was the last time you let someone hug you?) Drek’ar: thinking Drek’ar: 2012. X: 2012…? Drek’ar: Yeah. I almost died and it really freaked Atlas out so I let him hug me.

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Zentaro: A mosquito tried to bite me and I slapped it and killed it. Zentaro: And I started thinking. Zentaro: Like, it was just trying to get food. Zentaro: What if I went to the fridge and it just slammed the door shut and snapped my neck? Ai.Mi : Are you ok?

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Kai: I need to dye my hair. Juno: … Kai: Or get another tattoo. Juno: … Kai: Or a new piercing. Juno: Why? Kai: To, you know, appease the mental breakdown gods.

[infinititia]

I mean it's super easy to do it to desert duo.

⚠️ spoilers ⚠️

A group of friends trapped in a game with only 3 life's, the 3rd one being hostile?

One man named grian, attempts a dangerous prank, making another man, named scar, lose his first life.

In his guilt he becomes Scar's servant, until grian's own first life is lost, for him to be treated as a friend.

Over time and time again, as scar quickly loses his 2nd life, become hostile, the two stick together, becoming a deadly duo.

Through a war in fire, between king crowned in blood, grian loosing is 1st life, stuck by Scar, reasons never specified.

As they destroy the red winter king and his lackey the two and their allies celebrate.

Eventually, it comes down to the final toss, after bribing bdubs with a clock, it's 3 left.

Grian

Scar

Bdubs

Scar is choose as the decider of the damned, though grian is only on his 2nd life.

He tosses a life pass and bdubs catches it

Grian dying, in rage, running back to grab his stuff and kill scar in wrath, coming back to the death of bdubs.

Grian swings for scar in anger just to be met with scar kneeling (crouching) in a pond

"for everything that you've did to me to keep me alive this long, you may slay me and take the enchanter" -scar

Grian became sorrow as he begged for it not to be like this.

But the dead wanted blood

They head back to their home,

The desert,

The resting place of their dearest pizza,

Fighting in ring of cactus and flame

Grian appearing out the victor, seemingly crying as he killed his friend.

Being the winner of a lonely world made him a victim, as he jumped of monopoly mountain, landing and ending 3rd life.

Bitches will create the MOST DEVASTATING STORIES KNOWN TO MAN out of 2 besties playing Minecraft together what the FUCK did they put in the water why are people making work about GoodTimesWithScar and Grian as if they’re Penelope and Odysseus the boys really saw a silly comedy and said no not sad enough we MUST fix this

[marzghost]

Ok so I just recently watched all three life series from scars pov again and I've come to a horrible realization...Scar doesn't hit grian once after third life and if he does he never shows it. When grian steals his first life in last life sure scar goes after him swinging but he never actually hits him just barely missing him every time and when he was the boogeyman and had the perfect chance to kill grian he simply doesn't. In double life it was grian who hurt scar to show him that they were soulbound. It never crossed scars mind to test grian like at all. Like he just accepted that grian was helping him out by giving him food whenever he was low on hunger and worrying about his life when he was low on hearts out of the kindness of his own heart. He was one hundred percent ready to accept that grian was going to be on his side without even being soulmates in a death game. He didn't care about who his soulmate was at all in double life but accepted grian as an ally right off the bat. And when he finally realized who his soulmate was via dripstone ,as pay back for grian not telling him sooner, he doesn't hit grian ,no, he punches a jellie panda and hurts himself. Everytime he wants to hurt grian he never physically hits him it's always him hurting himself. Grian on the other hand...in last life grian isn't afraid to hit scar. After stealing his life and running into Lizzie he takes out his sword and swipes at scar the moment he jumps down to their level but misses and he shots arrows at him willingly when he's on yellow and when on red despite not wanting to. On double life grian is the one who hurts scar physically. When showing him their soulmates he uses dripstone and when their hiding from the reds he uses dripstone to prank scar which almost kills them both. It's wild. Plus in last life scar is the only one with a cactus in a world without a desert and it's mumbo and grian who trades for it and in double life they make another monopoly on sand and somehow manage to find the only cactuses on the server to hide out by when on the run. Yeah they never left the desert but Scar never left monopoly mountain and Grian never left the cactus ring.

[quaranmine]

Grian doesn't know how not to be loyal. He thinks it's sneaking off, seeing another. Yet there he stays, by Scar's side. He claims it's for self preservation, nothing more. Yet he builds them a home, where they covet sand and sugarcane. It's sand that haunts his dreams. Unable to get rid of it, coarse and uncomfortable memories.

The thing about sand is that you keep finding it where you don’t expect it. Have you ever been to the beach, only to find sand still in your shoes weeks later? 

Sometimes Grian feels like he never left the sand in that old desert behind. 

It seeps into the cracks of his memories where he doesn’t expect it. He thinks he’s the only one here who remembers it all properly; he’s not sure why, but all the others seem fuzzy on the details of the past games. He doesn’t want to remember. He doesn’t like it when Scar looks at him and doesn’t remember bloody knuckles and desert cactus, but he hates it even more on those rare occasions where Scar looks at him and does. 

But Grian is nothing if not stubborn, and despite all of the universe’s efforts to link him with Scar, he says No. I’m not going back to the desert. 

So he goes to BigB instead. He builds a heart, leaves a note, whispers secret soulmates? and hands over valuable, valuable sugar cane. It’s fine. He’s only cheating, but maybe Grian’s never been good at accepting things that are picked out for him by otherworldly forces. Maybe he wants to choose for once. 

BigB’s always been one of his closest friends. They have less painful memories together. Not all good ones, of course–they haven’t always been on the same side in these death games. Grian knows he’s hurt BigB before too. He’s hurt everyone, even himself. But it’s nothing like Scar, and that’s exciting, and Grian feels a little thrill at sidestepping fate. 

If only fate didn’t have a way of sneaking around, too. 

Sand in his boots. Scar behind him, laughing. Those stupid Jellie pandas.

Grian wishes he didn’t turn around every time, but he does. He wishes he didn’t scream after Scar and grip his shoulders after every near death experience, but he does. He wishes he doesn’t build them a nice safe base, and nice hidden farms. He wishes he didn’t genuinely care about Scar’s safety, despite all his efforts to claim it’s just for his own self-preservation. He wishes he doesn’t glide into that painfully familiar habit of being the wingman to Scar’s scamming tendencies. 

Sometime later Grian finds himself with sand in his shoes again. It’s not the same as last time. This time, most of the sand is in the river, and Grian’s hair is drenched wet and plastered to his face. This time, the sand is finite. He can actually achieve a monopoly this time. For the first time, maybe. 

It’s only natural to bring Scar in on it. This is, afterall, the natural state of things. And as soon as Scar is finished yelling at Grian for taking so much drowning damage, Grian reveals his sand monopoly plans, and then suddenly the mischievous glint is back in Scar’s eyes, and Grian definitely didn’t miss that at all. 

Grian dances behind Scar’s back and meets with his secret soulmate more. BigB is on red now, but that’s okay, Grian has experience with being a green to someone else’s red. 

Scar finds out about the secret soulmates. Grian’s not sure how much he heard, but he knows. And yet, whenever Grian turns around, Scar is still there. He’s there when Grian’s fishing rod game gets a little out of hand and ends in Joel and Etho’s deaths. He’s there in the panda sanctuary trying to calm Grian’s nerves. He’s there on the platform above their base when they’re being surrounded. 

Maybe he’s still there because Grian is still there, too. 

The small patch of sand and cactus by their new base–their fleeing-secret-carved-out-of-a-hill new base–seems fitting for the two of them. Grian reaches out and brushes the spines with his finger. It pricks him lightly. 

Grian knows Scar feels the pain too, just like the sand in their boots.

[raichett]

what a wicked thing to do

AU where Third Life was nothing but a dream, and none of the people in it were ever real - except Grian, the dreamer. Can also be found on AO3 here.

1. Grian wakes up. He’s not expecting to.

He’s in a hospital bed - white walls, beeping, a bit chilly - it’s unmistakeable. There’s a woman by his side: Pearl. 

That’s my sister, he thinks, numbly. He’d forgotten he had a sister. He’d forgotten what a hospital was, and most of the machines that he now recognises.

He forgot a lot. And what he remembers is tainted with blood and sand.

2. “You’ve been in a comatose state for the last eight weeks, Miss Griande,” the nurse tells him, using his deadname but since he’s not out publicly he lets it slide. It also shakes him a bit: no one there called him anything but ‘Grian’. 

“Eight weeks,” he repeats, numb. His voice is too high, too breathy, even though it’s strained with lack of use. It feels wrong. It doesn’t sound like how he thinks he should sound, how he’s used to sounding.

“There was an incident with the lighting equipment,” Pearl tells him gently. “It crashed down on the stage while you were on tour - no one died, but several were badly hurt, including you. Your agent has already hired lawyers - they’re suing, but don’t worry about any of that, it’s all in hand.”

Grian looks at her, feeling overwhelmed. I died, he thinks. Three times. 

“I’m glad you’re awake,” Pearl says, happy tears at the corners of her eyes. 

Grian, suddenly, horribly, wishes he weren’t.

3. Grian goes home with Pearl after a few days. He struggles to sleep through the night; Scar isn’t there to hold him. His bed is too empty, the place by his side too quiet, and - 

Scar’s dead. Grian killed him. But Scar wasn’t ever alive in the first place, and now it’s all tangled in Grian’s head.

“Who’s Scar?” Pearl asks him one morning as they sit at the breakfast table. Grian’s still struggling to eat, and not all of it can be put down to having been on a liquid diet for the last few weeks.

Grian freezes.

“He was...” Grian struggles to say it. How does one describe Scar? The man was larger than life, despite not owning one. (Or despite owning three, and losing all of them.) “From my dream,” he settles on. 

“From your coma?”

“... Yeah.”

4. The fans are clamouring for his attention since it was announced that he awoke from his coma. Grian can hardly look at Twitter, at the constant begging for some sign of life from Ariana’s personal account. There’s an official one, run by his team, but it’s the personal Twitter and Instagram that people are spamming. He doesn’t think he can stand the thought of opening his inbox.

No one wanted him this badly there. Except Scar, perhaps, but even Jimmy and Scott - both gone the same way as Scar, disappearing into nothingness, existing only in warped memory of fragile dreams now awoken from - hadn’t been so attached that they hung on his every word.

Finally, Grian types out, Physical therapy isn’t very fun but I’m doing well everyone! Please be patient with me xxx and posts it. On his Ariana Griande Instagram, he posts a selfie of himself in front of a window, smiling cutely and holding two fingers up in a victory sign.

Most of the fans gobble it up, but Grian, scrolling through the comments like he knows he’s not supposed to if he wants to keep his sanity, sees a few people noting that he looks thin, pale, not himself. They’re worried, and probably right to be.

I don’t feel like myself, Grian thinks. I feel like someone else.

What is the space between who you were and who you have become? When did the transformation occur? Or can you only come out the other side and say that you survived? If you did, of course. Survive, that is.

5. “I want him, I want Scar,” Grian cries into Pearl’s neck as they sit on the bed, Pearl embracing him tightly after another nightmare of the desert and the cactus ring and the cliff of Monopoly Mountain. “I want him back.”

“I’m sorry,” Pearl says, helplessly. Tears wet her pyjama top collar as she holds her brother close, his limbs still weak as he recovers from their atrophy, nowhere near ready to take to the stage again yet. “He’s not - Scar’s not here. He can’t be here. I’m sorry.”

“He was mine,” Grian chokes out. “He was mine and I killed him!”

“Grian,” Pearl says, trying to be gentle, trying to find the right words, but the right words don’t exist, “he wasn’t real. He wasn’t ever real.”

“But I loved him,” Grian whispers, broken and small. He looks up at Pearl desperately, begging his sister to try and understand. She won’t. “Pearl, please, I didn’t - it’s not - but I - I loved - ”

“Gri...”

“But I loved him...”

[skitter-kitter]

His feet sunk into cold sand. Scar blinked once as he looked across the desert he called home.

It was a wasteland. There were deep gashes in the earth; the center of the holes was glass. Had they blown up the desert? Had Grian..?

No. No, this wasn’t his world. He hadn’t remembered right. He had to find his world. He had to find his Grian.

His hands were shaking. He could barely breathe.

Scar looked up to the place their home was supposed to be. There was nothing. Only a circle of cactus and two figures slowly dancing around each other.

In the distance, he could hear sobs.

Scar began to run. He knew how fast executions could be here. He needed to be there before it was too late. He needed to save Grian.

He’d come too late to save his best friend. He’d been gone too long.

The sand was cold, bereft of life. His feet alternated between pushing on smooth sandstone and grainy sand as he climbed up the Grian’s stairs. The explosions had destroyed everything.

Ren must have done it. He must have destroyed Monopoly Mountain.

Fury burned in Scar’s throat. That familiar bloodlust came back to life. His hands itched to hold his sword and push it through the Red King’s chest. He wanted to bathe in his blood.

As he ran up the final steps, he could finally hear what was happening.

“I’m— I’m so sorry, Grian.”

Was that his voice?

Scar paused on the final step, watching in horror as Grian hunched over his other self.

“It’s okay. It’s okay, Scar. Just… close your eyes.”

A moment passed before he went still. It wasn’t long before Grian was sobbing, the sound tearing through Scar’s chest. He didn’t want Grian to cry like this. He didn’t want to hurt him.

Scar just wanted to go home.

He stood there for what felt like an eternity until Grian stood up. The first thing he saw was his gray wings, with their tips dyed red. Scar glanced at the body with the pool of blood around it.

His blood had done that. Grian had… it had to have been an accident.

Scar blinked back tears as he took a step toward his best friend. “Grian,” he whispered, breathless. Those wings, that voice… it was like coming home. “Grian!”

Grian turned to him, tears pouring down his face. His numb expression shifted to one of horror. “Scar?” He glanced to the body. “Sc— Scar?”

Scar felt the same horror wash over him as his eyes met Grian’s red gaze. What had happened to him? Who had hurt him? Ren? Bdubs? Cleo? Scar..?

Grian took a step back, then another, until he was stood near the edge. His friend put his hand over his mouth, holding back sobs. “I’m— I’m sorry.” Scar took a step toward him, eyes wide. Grian inched his foot behind him until it hit the edge of the cliff. “For everything.”

Grian tipped himself back and fell.

Scar ran forward, a scream tearing through his lips. He watched with wide eyes as Grian fell. It felt like an eternity. It felt like mere seconds.

Grian’s wings were spread wide. His feathers, clumped and bloody though they often were, looked… beautiful from afar. As he fell, all Scar could think was: he looks like an angel.

And then, he hit the ground. The crack reverberated through Scar’s body. His legs, his hands, his face. He felt numb even as his tears ran down his face.

He’d just watched Grian die for the first time. He never wanted to see it again.

Below Monopoly Mountain, on the sands they’d first declared home, laid Grian’s body. Still and lifeless.

Scar cried until he didn’t have tears left in him. Then, he inputted World 72 and was torn away from this cold, empty world.

[babygirlbdubs]

Hey spook, do you ever think about the mountains in both 3rd and last life?

Grian and scar have monopoly mountain. It's the place they build together, a home carved from the heart of the desert. Safety in a world that doesn't know the meaning of it, sanctuary for those who've pledged themselves wholy to the other. It's a place alliances are tried and tested, bonds broken and bound. Where two souls are destined for bloodshed but still choose to test fate. It's warm sun and sharp words, soft touches and bloodstained sand.

It stands as a testament to loyalty.

Magical mountain is the opposite in every way. Scar is alone on a cliff top, sand traded for snow and lover for enemy. Again and again he is pushed aside, left to memories and crystals. Do you think he sees grian with the southlanders and remembers a different time, one where the laughter and love played out before him was his own? I wonder as the clouds roll in, does he crave a warmth this mountain cannot provide?

It stands as a testament to loneliness.

Grian seeks refuge as far from scar as he can, surrounding himself with others to distract from scar. Always scar. I wonder though, as he looks out of his tower does he remember the desert? Do high altitudes remind him of wind through hair and surveying a kingdom by scars side? What doesn't remind him of that life would be more useful. Nothing is out of the deserts reach. When the southlands are inevitably fractured, do you think he is brought back to another betrayal? Another death by his hands? Do the lonely parapets echo a different home?

It stands as a testament to betrayal.

Scar and grian are both drawn to mountains and heights. Both clinging (perhaps unknowingly, perhaps not) to a life long lost. Funny thing about them though, in the end they both were alone:)

Anyway sorry for my unintelligible ramblings, it's 4 am and I had a Thought. About scarian and mountains, and- well. Heh

-🍂

HELLO LEAF ANON. HELLO. HI. HELLO. THIS HAS BEEN SITTING IN MY INBOX HAUNTING ME BC I KNEW I WAS GONNA GO INSANE ABOUT IT AND I WANTED TO BE ABLE TO PROPERLY GO INSANE

takes a deep breath

leaf i think about this. all the time. they're drawn to mountains because that was their safety. their home. the mountain was where they had that love that never truly left them. and both of them are seeking out that love in a way, aren't they? seeking out what they had-- or seeking to prevent the inevitable from happening again.

but those mountains... do you ever think they look out from their highest points and see each other's bases and long for the one they shared? do you think scar sees grian's tower in the distance and for a moment sees the watchtower of their sandcastle? do you think grian sees the hut on magical mountain and for a moment remembers how warm it was on those cold desert nights?

even in double life, they're not atop the highest peak but they settle high still. a defensible position. and grian... grian, when he can't have a mountain, builds another castle. another fort. another tower. he starts with stripped birch. builds the mountain up with his bare hands if he has to. a sand monopoly. the one cactus on the server...

something something the mountain was home to scar, and a graveyard to grian. something something scar seeking safety and warmth and hearth by seeking out the mountains-- building a home, a monument to what they had. something something grian seeking solitude and protection by seeking out the mountains-- building a watchtower, a way to keep it secure so he won't have to have scar's blood on his hands again.

grian atop magical mountain falling into habits of protecting scar. being his little lackey. even pointing his crossbow at his own allies when they refused to obey scar's rules. it's so easy to pretend with the chill in the air and the harsh winds and scar's warmth by his side, and maybe for a moment scar thinks he's done it. maybe for a moment scar thinks the mountain has worked. but then grian is leaving again, and it's just him, and he wishes that grian would at least have the courtesy to break his heart with his hands rather than his absence.

.... so uh. yeah i think about this a lot thank you for bringing me scarian brainrot again i'm shaking trembling

[orangelemonsstuff]

Twst incorrect qoutes that pops in my head with no context pt.3

pt.1 pt.2

---

Ortho: Idia, our wifi is back on no--

Idia: fuck, the dinosaur stepped on a stupid cactus again

---

Yuu: i put myself in danger for fUUUNNNN

---

Trein: i did not have a liberal art degree for this

---

Ace: ahaha i ate your tuna

Grim: w-why would you do that tho?

Ace: cuz i wanna make you cry

Deuce: i think Grim is concerned on your health

---

Jamil: one time i told Kalim a crow ate his hamster and now he isn't fond of the headmaster.

Jamil: ...

Jamil: he thinks the headmaster ate his hamster back from when we were children

---

Crowley: *spins on his office chair*

---

Sebek: *screams into oblivion inside of his room*

the whole Diasomnia: WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT!? WAS THAT A WHOLE SHIPMENT TRADING SHIP??

---

Yuu: so don't you dare look back

Ace: keep your eyes on me~

Deuce: toss your dirty shoes into my washing machin- oh thats not the song? alright

---

Sam: i ate way too much papaya now im feeling like a banana

---

Crowley: what weakness do you have that also you call your strength, the one that we can exploit

Crewel & Yuu: what?

---

Crewel: OKAY LISTEN UP YOU MORONS, WE ARE NOT HAVING A LECTURE TODAY BUT INSTEAD WE ARE GOING TO COLOR SELF DEGRADATORY COLORING BOOKS TO SELF REFLECT OF YOUR STUPID ACTIONS AND DECISIONS

---

Crowley: another one of my crows died today :(

Crewel: get a new one

---

Malleus: okay hold on I'm going to call--

Leona: what? your friends? you're going to call your friends? do you even have friends? *wheezes*

---

Idia: i did not kidnap Malleus because he isnt overblotted yet Ortho, and it's not because i am scared of him

Idia at the bathroom pretending he's in a reality show backstage interview: i lied, i am scared of Malleus.

---

Deuce: You're kinda...

Deuce: oven-baked?

Yuu: what

Ace: *slapping his head while the other hand put down a cardboard that says "tell them they're hot"*

---

Yuu: thats weird...

Grim: what weird?

Yuu: there hasn't been life threatening situation for last 2 weeks it's kind of unsual

---

Ace: I DID NOT EAT PAPER TOWELS BACK IN KINDERGARTEN

---

Azul: hey guys~ try this new sauce for 100 madols

Floyd: whats in them?

Azul: malice and bad intentions

---

Riddle: i called pest control at Ace yesterday

---

Ruggie: Think before you act

Rook: Act fast think later

Cater: Duality is a thing, so act now and think what and why the hell are you doing this with your life

---

Ruggie: Ooh, a dandelion must be the last ones this season *chokes on dandelion*

---

Floyd: God thats so sad *starts to beatbox*

---

Kalim: i am the greatest sunshine of the history, also the dense one who gets hated by everyone and gets betrayed by the people i lo--

Yuu: alright, that's enough self introduction for Monopoly

---

Crowley: before you go, do you have any--

Yuu: *goes into the mirror portal without hesitation not letting Crowley to finish*

---

a/n: Deuce listens to Mitski (very real) and yes there's a camp camp reference. and the reason why its short is because i actually have no clue what im doing

[rosaacicularis]

Nonono keep making the connections. I am listening.. sitting down in ur inbox and listening very patiently I would like to hear about the scarian and Sappho connections pls

okay in no particular order, here are the quotes and why i relate them to desert duo <3

“fool, don’t try to bend a stubborn heart.”

what happens when you try and bend something stubborn? it breaks… dl!grian tried to bend his heart away from scar and he broke it by killing bigb anyway… his heart still longed for scar, had since third life… and yet…..

“eros, weaver of tales.” + “eros, giver of pain.”

these are two separate quotes, but i feel like they go so well together (also they might be the same one just translated differently because i have never seen them in the same group) anyway! it’s kinda like the falsification of love bleeding into heartbreak…. unrequited love….. <3

“someone will remember us, i tell you, even in another time.”

the idea of past lives, from landscaping your mind…. but it’s them always finding each other and knowing each other and loving each other wholly <3

“spring’s messenger, the lovelyvoiced nightingale.”

scar is spring, grian is a nightingale, i will take no further questions <3

“you have forgotten me, or else you love another more than me.”

dl!scar </3 you deserve better my skrunkly blorbo

“ ‘honestly, i would like to die.’ she was leaving me, saying goodbye, her cheeks wet with tears, and she said to me: ‘what a cruel unhappiness, sappho, i swear that i leave you against my will.’ “

i don’t have any justification for this one, it’s just them, probably because of the cactus ring but it just radiates them

“you came, and i was mad to have you: your breath cooled my heart that was burning with desire.”

red life scar and green life grian, both craving death, blood, chaos…. but finding peace, love, and calm with each other

“then love shook my heart like the wind that falls on oaks in the mountains.”

dark… dark oak monopoly….. monopoly mountain…. third life….. i’m crying real tears i hate them i love them they make me insane

“since whomever i do well by, they are the very ones that injure me most of all.”

…. the no kill slip….. the cactus ring…. do i need to say more… because i don’t want to because it makes me sad…..