#ashlley writes

[firequeenofficial]

Borth!

Let's do this thing! Today (26/11) is borth so I'm opening this up! I'm only gonna do a few, so if you send me a request and I don't do it, then it's not you, it's me.

But anyway, send me an ask with any number and any Life Series pairing/group, and I'll angst it up real good >:D

20 random prompts :p

come and get them while they're hot 🥧

"stop treating me like a fragile piece of glass"

2. "you were never supposed to see this"

3. "i can't imagine what the world is like at your size"

4. "what were you thinking?"

5. "why are you still afraid of me?"

6. "i'm sorry, i can't hear you"

7. "you have no idea what this is like"

8. "why was this your first idea for a hiding place?"

9. "what aren't you telling me?"

10. "please let me help"

11. "what is it going to take to get you to trust me?"

12. "i'm sorry, i had to"

13. "please don't leave, i don't want to be alone right now"

14. "stop gawking at me"

15. "i know you're there, so..."

16. "very funny, now put me down"

17. "who did this to you?"

18. "in my defense, i wasn't planning on getting caught"

19. "you're cute like this"

20. "your heartbeat is so loud..."

run with them and be free, tag me if you decide to use them! <3

[firequeenofficial]

Couldn't find the original post, but this is Ranchers. To me.

[firequeenofficial]

Team Ranchers Week Day 1 - Hybrid Love and Courtship

Jimmy paced up and down inside the ranch house, wringing his hands together. He’d sworn to himself long ago that when he was ready, if that day ever came, he would do this. He’d sword to himself that when the right person came along, he’d make sure they knew. 

He had thought, once upon a time, that Scott was that person, but when he tried to tell him, the other man had just laughed and called him cute and hurried off to go see Grian. That was why he was hesitant to try again. 

What if Tango laughed at him, too? What if he didn’t feel the same? What if Jimmy had imagined all the looks and touches and fond smiles? What if, what if, what if… 

He’d lived his entire life caught up in what ifs. He wanted to stop, he wanted to be free. Tango helped with that. He was wild, and impulsive, and brave, and smart. Jimmy doubted he’d ever thought the words, “What if?” in his whole life. He wanted to be like that. He wanted to spend forever with Tango, learning to be more like him, learning to live like him. 

In the distance, a familiar, wonderful, laughing voice called out his name, and Jimmy straightened, steeling himself. He would do it now, before he could back out. He wouldn’t let the what ifs stop him. Not this time. 

*

Tango ran into the Ranch, feeling the weight of home settle over his shoulders like a warm blanket as he passed through the gate. Adrenaline was coursing through him, making him half-hysterical. He’d just barely survived an encounter with Joel and Etho, and he couldn’t believe how lucky he was to be home, and alive. 

“Jimmy!” he called, laughter bubbling up, the thrill of the chase pulling his lips into a smile. “Jimmy, you here?” 

He skidded to a stop outside the ranch house, forcing himself to calm a little. Jimmy always worried so much, he didn’t want him to worry even more by appearing overly frantic. On the other hand, Joel and Etho might be out for his blood now - he was never sure with those two - and he knew Jimmy would want them to prepare for the Boat Boys to attack, just in case. 

After taking a calming breath, he pushed open the door to the ranch house and stepped inside. There was Jimmy, looking stressed as usual, and somehow managing to also look amazing even as he chewed on his lip and shifted his wings and fiddled with something between his fingers. 

“Hey, buddy,” Tango grinned. 

“Tango, where were you?” Jimmy demanded. “You were taking damage all over the place, are you okay?”

“I’m fine!” Tango assured him. “Just a little run in with Etho, no big deal.”

“No big deal?! What happened?” 

“Eh, I may have… borrowed some of their sugar cane.”

Jimmy looked like he might pop, though Tango got the distinct impression it wasn’t because of his recklessness. “Why? We have our own!”

Tango shrugged. “It’s funny watching Joel get riled up!” 

Jimmy sighed. It looked like he was trying to gather his nerves for something. 

Tango took the moment to add, “They may be a little upset with us now. You might want to keep your gua-”

“I need to talk to you,” Jimmy interrupted him, speaking very quickly. 

Tango’s smile faltered, but didn’t fall entirely. “Uh oh. What is it?”

“Or… well…” His Rancher hesitated. Took a deep breath. Twitched his wings. Pushed on. “I actually have something to give you.” 

He held out his hands, flat to show what was lying on them. A single yellow feather on a looped string. He licked his lips and gave Tango a look that made it very clear it was important to him that Tango liked it. 

So Tango beamed and took it. “That’s really cool! Is it one of yours?”

“Yes.” Jimmy was giving a lopsided, uncertain smile now that the gift was given. His wings had stopped twitching every second, and his hands had stilled. 

Tango laughed happily. “I love it!” And, even though he wasn’t exactly a jewellery guy, he pulled it down over his head so it hung around his neck, the feather resting against his heart. He took a second to admire it once more, this piece of his Rancher that he could keep with him forever, then looked back up at Jimmy and said, “Now, what do you want to do about Joel and Etho?”

*

Jimmy could feel himself deflating. Tango had laughed. He’d skimmed over it. He’d changed the subject. 

But he’d still put it on. He’d still held the feather like it contained the world. He’d still looked at it almost the same way he’d looked at their first diamond. 

Tango was still talking, rifling through their chests. “I think Etho will probably just laugh it off. He’ll accept they couldn’t catch me and move on. I don’t know about Joel though, I don’t know him that well.”

Jimmy made a distracted, noncommittal noise in his throat. 

“Well, you know him best, what do you think?” Tango pressed. 

Jimmy tried to force himself to focus. “Uhh, I guess he could go either way. Depends- depends on his mood, I guess.” 

Tango turned back to him, frowning. “Are you feeling alright, Jimmy?” When he straightened, Jimmy noticed he was fiddling with the feather, and it hit him. 

Relief bursting through his chest, he said, “You don’t know what it means for an avian to give something their feather, do you?”

Tango's face coloured, his hair burning a bit brighter. “Does it mean something?”

“It means-” Oh crap, now he had to explain. Jimmy could feel his own cheeks turning red to match his Ranchers’. “Uh. It’s a way to show…” He swallowed. This was a lot harder than he’d ever thought it would be. “It's the same as… as humans giving rings, I guess.” 

*

Tango knew his face matched Jimmy’s in its deep red. He knew his hair was burning so bright and strong they were at risk of losing their ranch house again. But he didn’t care. Because the words that Jimmy had just spoken…

“Did you just… propose to me?” Tango clarified. He couldn’t believe it. He couldn’t believe that this funny, creative, caring ball of feathered stress could care enough about him for that. He couldn’t believe that he could ever get that lucky, that he could rest forever beside someone as amazing as Jimmy. 

“Um.” Jimmy’s wings took up their rustling again. “Yes?”

Tango just stared for a second, then his face broke into a grin. “In that case!” He walked over to Jimmy and wrapped his arms around him. Tango was a bit shorter than Jimmy, so he could easily rest his head on the other man’s shoulder, and Jimmy instinctively wrapped both his arms and his wings around Tango in return. Tango pulled back a little, just enough to look up into his Rancher’s face. “Yes.” 

Jimmy blinked, like he couldn’t really believe it. “Yes?”

Tango was beaming, happier than he could ever remember being. He lifted up onto his toes and kissed Jimmy, the first time he had ever dared to do that. Jimmy didn’t even hesitate before pulling him closer, kissing him back. When they pulled away, Tango rested his forehead against Jimmy’s and breathed softly, “Yes.”

He was pumped full of adrenaline again, but this time, there was no danger involved. This time, it was the thrill of a different chase setting him ablaze - no pun intended. As Tango’s hand closed again around the feather, this time knowing exactly its significance, he felt pure bliss settle over him. Maybe there was something to this death loop thing, after all.

[firequeenofficial]

Team Ranchers Week Day 2 - Fire and Ice

Winter did something strange to Tango, Jimmy had noticed. As the weather got colder, he got warmer, until it hurt to touch him. And, as Tango got warmer, his hair got brighter, until it was nearly impossible to look at him. Tango had told him, when the weather started to turn, that often most of his friends avoided him in the dead of winter, as well as the weeks leading up to it and afterwards. 

Tango had told him that was why Team BEST had fallen apart so quickly - the snow fort made him unbearable to be around. Not to mention, he kept melting it just by existing. When the team had finally fallen apart, Tango had been thrilled, because he could melt the darn thing as much as he wanted. 

Jimmy was determined not to be like that. He would never push Tango away for something he couldn’t control, no matter what. 

So he found solutions, because that was what he did. He overthought, he found solutions for every problem except the important ones, he did his best for the people he cared about, and he fought tooth and nail for his Rancher. 

He made sure they both had water buckets in their inventories at all times. He wore two pairs of sunglasses Ren wasn’t using to protect his eyes. He borrowed a pair of thick redstone gloves from Impulse. He covered the bed with a protective lining Grian used when building with flammable materials. He found several blinkers in Bdubs’ chests for the horses and cows - he had to adjust them for the cows - so that Tango didn’t have to stop working. He stockpiled insane amounts of wood, much of it repurposed from other bases and chests, in case they needed to rebuild any part of the Ranch.

Every time he appeared with a fresh smile and a fresh solution, Tango told him he didn’t have to. He told him it was fine. He told him he was used to it. But Jimmy wouldn’t take no for an answer. He was sticking by Tango’s side, and he sure as hell wasn’t letting his Rancher pull away over something stupid like this. Ranchers stuck together, no matter what. 

What Jimmy didn’t know was that when Tango was alone on the Ranch, because Jimmy was off finding yet another fix to a problem that was barely a problem or fighting battles that didn’t need to be fought or dying on trivial hills, he couldn’t help but cry, because no one, ever, had done so much for him in the winter. No one had ever cared enough to try. 

But Jimmy cared. And he refused to let Tango forget it.

[firequeenofficial]

Tw: death (obv)

There are four people left on the server. By some miracle, Lizzie and Jimmy are half of them. To no one's surprise, Joel and Gem are the other half.

Each team was at their base, gearing up.

"We're not walking away from this fight, Lizzie," Jimmy murmured.

They were sitting shoulder-to-shoulder on the bed Scar once shared with Grian, only a few short days ago. It felt like lifetimes.

"We could do this," Lizzie assured him, but she didn't sound as confident as she normally would.

What if they just didn't go? What if the Toretto's stayed at their stupid car and the Bamboozlers stayed on their hill and nothing happened? Would the world itself bend over backwards to get them together? Would the next wildcard start picking them off one by one?

It wouldn't matter anyway. Joel would never just give up a win, and Gem couldn't resist getting a kill. They would come, and Jimmy and Lizzie would be the ones who paid for it.

Jimmy couldn't help but suggest, "Maybe we could hide? We could lie low until they kill each other from frustration."

"That wouldn't work." Lizzie always had to burst his bubble. She was as bad as Grian with spoiling his perfectly good plans sometimes.

"The Bam-bunker is pretty secure!" Jimmy pushed. "We could stay there, they'd never find us!"

Lizzie gave him a small chuckle. "If Etho can find us in there, Gem and Joel definitely can."

Jimmy sighed. "D'you reckon they're already in their way?"

"I would say, almost definitely."

Before Lizzie had finished speaking, the chat lit up:

Smallishbeans was slain by a skeleton

Lizzie gasped. "Joel!"

"Yes!" Jimmy crowed, leaping to his feet, all his previous doom and gloom forgotten. Joel was out.

"That still leaves Gem, though," Lizzie reminded him.

"We can take Gem! There's two of us, she can't fight off two of us!"

"She was fighting off five of us before she was even allowed to kill. Now-"

"She wasn't fighting." Jimmy wasn't used to being the voice of positivity when it came to a fight, especially against such an overpowered opponents, but he was riding the high of Joel's demise. "She was just running, then, so we couldn't reach her. She'll be trying to fight us, now, so she'll stay in reach."

"Yeah." Slowly, Lizzie started to smile as well. She joined him in standing. "Yeah! We got this!"

"We got this!" Jimmy echoed.

They're celebration was cut short by a voice from the stairs. "Oh, do you now?"

Gem.

They both stopped jumping around, freezing like a pair of deer in headlights.

"Was that just a normal skeleton?" Lizzie asked.

"Yes!" Gem threw her arms up (shield on one, sword clutched in the other) in exasperation. "A normal, natural spawning skeleton!"

Jimmy burst out laughing. "Ha! That's what you get for messing with us!"

"He didn't even mess with us, Jimmy," Lizzie sighed.

Gem started walking towards them, and both siblings put up their shields, instantly nervous. Without warning, Gem lurched towards Jimmy.

Jimmy shrieked, panicked, and ran. He could hear Gem's laughter as she chased him, Lizzie's shouts as she chased Gem. He tried to leap over a chest, hoping to duck behind the piled chests beside it to catch his breath, but his foot caught on lid, sending him crashing to the ground with a yelp.

Jimmy rolled over so he was on his back and hefted his shield up just as Gem descended on him.

"You're gonna die, Jimmy!" She was still laughing, grinning, breathless, her eyes alight with the thrill of the kill.

"No!" Jimmy gasps, waving his sword uselessly at her.

Gem lifted her sword, ready to plunge it into him, and-

Stiffened.

She looked down, her grin frozen on her face in shock. Jimmy followed her gaze to see the tip of a sword sticking out of her chest.

His eyes flicked over her shoulder to see Lizzie standing there, tears in her eyes, her hands shaking in the hilt of her sword.

"Don't touch him!" she ordered, though with the fear in her voice, it sounded more like begging than anything else.

"No, no," Gem whispered. "It can't end like this."

"Oh yes, it can," Jimmy told her.

Both women gasped as Lizzie yanked the sword out of Gem. Jimmy didn't have time to move before Gem landed on him.

He yelped and scrambled to the side, away from her.

"Jimmy!" Lizzie scolded, hurrying to his side.

She turned Gem over so she was lying on her back.

"I'm so sorry!" Lizzie told her.

Gem met her eyes, and died.

Just like that, they'd survived fighting the Torettos. Just like that, they were the last two.

"Jimmy, we did it!" Triumph was already tinging her voice, like that was it, like it was all over now.

"Well, you did it," Jimmy conceded, unable to feel the same victory as her.

There was still one enemy left.

With a heavy heart and trembling hands, he drew his sword.

Lizzie frowned as he stood up, following him. "Jimmy? What are you doing?"

"There can only be one winner." He didn't want to do it. Hell, he really wished there was any other way this could go. But there wasn't.

"Oh." Lizzie picked her sword - the blue stained red already - up off the ground. "So. How do you want to do this?"

"I guess we just... fight."

"I guess we do."

Neither of them wanted to make the first move. Neither wanted to attack the other player. Jimmy went first, swinging at her with a grunt.

Lizzie squealed and blocked with her shield, and the fight was on.

Surrounded on all sides by bamboo, on soil that they had tended themselves for weeks, months even, Jimmy and Lizzie fought.

Jimmy could see, he could see so clearly how it would go, how it had to go. But still, he fought. He fought to win. He fought to kill his own sister, just like she was fighting to kill him.

And then, as he backed away to try and preserve his final heart for one second more, his back hit a tree.

Time seemed to slow. Lizzie was staring at him through tear-filled eyes as she swung her sword for the final time.

It made a strange sort of sense, Jimmy thought, that this was the way it would go. She had broken his curse - she deserved this win. And yet, he couldn't help the grief for himself. He was so close, so so close, to a win, only to have it snatched at the last second.

He tried one final attack, his sword missing Lizzie by inches, before her sword reached his chest.

This was a sensation he was very familiar with. He'd always been good at dying, at living out his days to their end. He supposed he was lucky he'd had this many, this time around.

He watched from above, one of far many ghosts, as Lizzie fell to her knees beside Jimmy, hugging him tight to her chest.

For the first time, the Canary signaled not the start of the danger, but the end.

Shoulders heaving, Lizzie took her sword and shoved it through her own stomach, freeing herself from this prison.

The world breathed a sigh of relief as the killing stopped.

"Jimmy should die third"

"Jimmy needs to win this season"

No youre all wrong. He needs to get second place. Think about how funny that would be.

[firequeenofficial]

Okay people, this post of mine has been getting notes, and I did NOT expect it to, and it is amazing, and you're all amazing!

SO

As a reward, I'll put this out there: if it gets to 500 notes, I will post one of the (rather angsty) wips in my docs, and you get to choose which one!

Your options are:

1. A Third Life Desert Duo one in the cactus ring, with flashbacks to show their journey and exactly what it means for the two of them to be here now, fighting to the death, after everything.

2. A Third Life/Last Life Martyn/Dogwarts one based on this post, where Martyn feels the ramifications of the Black Altar long after Third Life finished.

3. A Double Life Ranchers one where they learn to open up, trust each other and believe that the other actively cares for and wants the best for them for reasons outside the soulmate bond.

Once again, love y'all lots, you're all amazing, thank you so much for (checks the post) 398 notes?!?! That means I think 3 more just since writing this post?!?! Everyone loves Pangolin Etho apparently xD. So thank you all so much!!!!

[firequeenofficial]

He knew it was coming. From the moment he saw that warden running at Mumbo, who was running at him, Jimmy knew it was the end.

That didn't stop him from trying to run, of course. That didn't stop him from fighting to stay. That didn't tamper down the terror when the warden blasted him into the hole with a heart and a half standing between him and death.

It never really did, did it?

Cowering in the hole, Jimmy tried to block out the screams of his friends, the shouts of Mumbo somewhere nearby. He tried to block out every other sound, until only his gasping breaths and pounding heart remained, desperate to come up with a plan to make it, to get out of here, to live.

Too slow. He was too slow. His brain exploded with the warden's furious roar, and Jimmy couldn't hold in his scream as he curled in on himself, scrunching up his eyes and covering his ears, trying in vain to protect them.

No matter. He was dead before the pain even had the chance to settle.

Silence fell. A strange combination of warmth and cold brushed his skin, the whispering of still air soothing his still-ringing ears, the poignant scent of nothing filling his nose. Before he could relax, however, his skin pricked and all his hair stood on end, like he was caught in a lightning storm.

Slowly, hesitantly, Jimmy sat up and opened his eyes.

He was surrounded by bodiless shadows, all looking at him with eyes that glowed purple. Beyond the shadows, a harsh white light, or a tight black void, or a gentle golden landscape.

The shadows just looked at him. They didn't say a word: they didn't need to. Jimmy knew what they wanted.

He got shakily to his feet. One of the shadows held out its hand. It looked vaguely familiar, shorter than the others, with wings on its back and head, with eyes pure as the void Lizzie died in.

Jimmy reached out, ready to take the shadow's hand and follow it into what comes next, when a different hand grabbed his and shoved him back.

Just like that, the calm seemed to shatter, and his still mind started running as Grian stepped in front of him, looking a very Grian-like combination of angry and terrified. He was wearing a black leather jacket and had sunglasses rested on the top of his head.

"Stop this, Tim," Grian snapped.

Jimmy opened his mouth to gasp Grian's name, reaching out to take his arm, but his voice refused to work. No sound came out. His voice wasn’t working. Why wasn’t his voice working?

Grian went on, "Leave them alone. You can go back! You don't need to go with them."

Back. Back to Secret Life. Back to the fighting, the fear, the lying, the desperation. He could go back. But what for? The shadows were still watching him intently, silently inviting him to go with them. Something about them started to calm his mind again, despite his body’s initial reaction to them. It would be so much easier to move on. He couldn't win, anyway. What was there to go back to?

"People love you, Jimmy!" a new voice said, shattering the calm even before it took root, and Jimmy turned to find Tango standing to his right.

Tango was wearing a sort of cowboy outfit, or... or a rancher outfit. Yes, that's what it was. Why did he know that? Why was Tango here, too? Why was Jimmy so damn happy he was? What was going on? Why couldn’t he speak?

"Admittedly, some love you more than others, but-" Tango was glaring at someone behind Jimmy, and he turned to see Scott, who was holding a poppy in both hands like it was the only thing keeping him tethered to the world, just as he interrupted Tango. 

"I may not always be the nicest to you, Jimmy, but that doesn't mean I don't want you around!" Scott said. 

Jimmy swallowed. He had no idea what either of these two were talking about, or why he couldn’t ask them, or why they were here, or why he so desperately wanted to stay with them. But...

Again, he felt his gaze pulled to the ever-watching eyes of the shadows. The shorter one still had its hand outstretched, patiently waiting for Jimmy to make the choice it knew he would.

"Remember what you were fighting for, lad!"

Jimmy jumped and looked back to Grian to find Joel standing beside him in a matching (but sleeveless) leather jacket, his sunglasses resting on the tip of his nose.

"They-" Joel gestured at the shadows behind him "-want you dead. But you don't have to listen, lad. You hate them, remember? You have to remember!"

He hated them? That didn’t feel right! They were so calm, so safe. It was these guys, Grian and Tango and Scott and Joel, that were flooding his mind, making it difficult to think clearly, making any sort of decision-making impossible. If only he could-

He turned, not fully knowing why but somehow knowing who he would find, and saw Martyn standing behind him, his Big Dog ears pulled back. "The way back is obvious, Jimmy. It's easy. You could come back to me."

"Just... humour us," Grian pleaded, and Jimmy whipped around to see him holding out a hand, his pose identical to the shadow behind him. Jimmy shook his head, trying to clear it, feeling like he was seeing double, struggling to keep his mind together. "Come back with us. You don’t need to die"

People died every day. Jimmy knew this. He was very, very familiar with this fact. Some, because they simply do not see any other option.

He glanced at the shadows, and for just a second he saw Scott kneeling at Gem's feet, a desperate sacrifice.

A blink, and time flipped on its head and turned inside out, and he could see a different dog-eared man kneeling in an identical position at Martyn's feet. He didn't know the man, he didn't know the circumstances, he didn't know if it was the past or the present or the future, but he knew what was happening. A sacrifice just the same, but made out of determination rather than desperation, strategic rather than impulsive.

The scene changed again, and next thing he knew, he was looking at Scott and the dog-eared man caught in battle, sword against sword, both blades blood stained, both men splattered with the stuff, not fighting to the death, but fighting for life, both for the exact same reason they let themselves die in the previous images: to win. Victory was a cause worthy of both life and death.

Maybe... maybe it was also a cause worth living for. Maybe it was something he could reach for. Maybe he could… maybe he could fight for it like the others. Maybe, just maybe…

Or maybe it was something he could die for. If he was dead, that was one less person standing between Martyn and a win. If he took that shadow's offer, his Big Dog could win this game for the both of them.

Jimmy turned around to meet Martyn's eyes. The other man could see his decision in his eyes, and shook his head.

"No. No, you do not mean so little that this is all you have to offer. You may not be perfect, you may not be whole, but that doesn't mean there is nothing you can do."

"Mate, if you die, I'm going with you," yet another new voice said. Jimmy didn't have to turn far to see Mumbo standing between Martyn and Tango before Mumbo gestured at the shadows. "They don't just want you - once they get you, they will take all the rest of us too. And I'll be first in line."

"And what about me?" Tango asked. "What am I without my Rancher buddy?"

Jimmy turned to him and tried again to speak, to say something, anything, because Tango looked so afraid, so desperate, and Jimmy hated it, hated seeing Tango like that, though he couldn't remember why, but he couldn't so much as hum!

It was Scott, ever the call to action, the one who seemed permanently unsatisfied, who ordered, "Keep fighting, Jimmy. Don't give up like this! This is the coward's way out."

Maybe he was a coward. Maybe he was scared, and tired, and ready.

This time, when he turned his attention back to the shadows, he recognised the big one behind the shortest one in the front: the Secret Keeper.

He hated that thing. He hated the way it had turned all his friends against each other. He hated… he hated the way they had all followed its every order, practically tripping over themselves to fulfil its wishes, like it was some kind of-

"You may hate it," Grian said, like he'd heard Jimmy's thoughts, interrupting their already shaky flow, "but it gave you direction. You don't have to like it to go back. You can go back raging if you want! I don't care. That thing gave you direction, it gave you reason, it gave you something to connect over. And you can like that! You can use that."

"You're not alone, Jimmy," Tango reminded him in a voice that managed to smile even as it was tinged with sadness. "If you grieve, grieve with us. If you're scared, be scared with us. If you hurt, hurt with us."

Joel added, "If you're hurt, use that hurt, lad. Make it a weapon. Make it dangerous."

"Love can be just as dangerous," Scott mentioned.

"Love can heal, too." Tango was glaring at Scott again. "You shouldn't be afraid of that." He nodded in Martyn's direction, and Jimmy turned to his fellow Big Dog, who was grinning at him and nodding along. "It can lift you up, carry you. And you know what? You're actually the one who taught me that."

Jimmy lived in grief, these days, even if he didn't know who or what he was grieving, just that he was. Every day, every hour, he could feel it changing him, weighing on his every decision, making him doubt every thought and feeling, and he was ready for it to end, ready to stop feeling anything at all.

But others' words... Could Martyn really help carry him to a win, or at least a better position than second last, and could he really trust his friends to help him with this unexplainable weight and let them heal him, instead of tear him down, and could he learn to use his fear and pain to his advantage and could he-?

It was a nice idea, the thought of that connection, that warmth, among the chaos, it felt... perfect. It felt really, really amazing, and he wanted that, he wanted it more than he could put into words.

That was when the shadow said its first words, bypassing speech and throwing its voice straight into Jimmy's head. Its voice seemed hauntingly familiar.

TAKE MY HAND.

The voice was emotionless, and yet the air simmered with the sort of quiet rage that refused to be weathered. The others showed no sign of either noticing the fiery electricity in the air or hearing the shadow's quiet, booming voice, even when Jimmy whipped around to face the figure again to find its face just as blank and its form just as motionless as before. 

YOU HAVE NO REASON TO STAY. IT IS FEAR THAT HOLDS YOU TO THAT PLACE. YOU LIE TO YOURSELF AND YOUR FRIENDS AND THEY KNOW IT. THEY DO NOT WANT YOU. THEY WANT YOU TO SUFFER AND YOU ALLOW IT BECAUSE YOU CRAVE THEIR APPROVAL AND PRAISE. YOU HIDE AWAY WHEN THEY LOOK AT YOU AND WAVE YOUR ARMS WHEN THEY DO NOT. WHY FIGHT THIS. WHY CLING TO FRIENDS WHO NEVER WANTED YOU IN THE FIRST PLACE.

TAKE MY HAND.

Jimmy thought of his friends. He thought of the way Martyn constantly sought out others. He thought of the way Grian always leaned toward Scar rather than him. He thought of the way Joel would shower Lizzie in gifts and scoff at him in exactly the same breath.

Slowly, Jimmy's hand reached again towards the shadow.

"Jimmy, mate, stop!" Mumbo shouted, putting a hand on Jimmy's shoulder to stop his movements as Grian ordered, "Don't listen to them, Tim! Just think about this."

Jimmy didn't know what to think. There was so much, far too much, and it was all building up and it was all fighting for his attention leaving his mind lost and confused in the chaos and he just wanted it to stop and it was too much and-

"Do not give in!" That was Joel, though Jimmy was struggling to keep up with way too many voices coming way too fast from way too many directions and it wasn’t stopping and he needed to think!

Joel was still talking. "Don't let them win. Whatever they've told you, it isn't true."

"You may not be able to see any reason to keep on living, but that's not true!" Was that Scott? He didn���t know, he couldn’t tell, he could barely see straight

Beside him, Tango took Jimmy's still-outstretched hand and turned the canary to face him, forcing his gaze away from the shadows. Jimmy noticed his vision was blurred, and he struggled to focus. His world tunnel visioned, until Tango was all that existed. Jimmy's hand was placed over Tango's beating heart. Tango's burning red eyes refused to leave Jimmy's. "If you don't see any reason, then find one. Find one, and hold on tight."

Unconsciously, Jimmy's fingers curled up in Tango's vest, clinging to it. Tango's lips twitched.

And then another new voice spoke, shattering the moment of calm, of safety.

"If you die now, then I died for nothing!"

Jimmy whipped around to see Lizzie standing on Joel's other side, arms folded, just barely recognisable by her pink hair. As soon as his eyes left Tango's, the cacophony of sounds and colours returned and threatened to slice through his brain and shred his ears and crush his eyes and, and, and. 

"I was trying to help people like you, like Scar, like Joel, get further by taking out Scott! When I died instead, I thought at least there was one less competition for you. Are you really going to waste that? Are you really gonna waste my death like this?"

"Listen to what's happening in your heart!" Tango was trying to get his attention again, but it was too late, the damage was done and there was no going back, so his words struggled to register on Jimmy's scattered brain. "Listen to that call to life! To love!"

Someone else picked up the slack, following Tango’s line of thought, and Jimmy decided it was probably Martyn, and he had no idea what was up and what was down. "You are breathing, Jimmy. They want to steal that from you - you just need to keep fighting them. Are you just gonna let them get away with this?"

Scattered memories were filtering in, screaming bright colours, making it all the worse. A flash of red petals, purple jewels, orange flames, golden wheat. And each memory brought with it a rush of emotion: fear, hope, betrayal, joy, guilt, love, grief, triumph, all flooding him at once, making it all that much harder to focus on anything at all.

A flash of light shone from the direction of the shadows, and Jimmy's gaze was pulled, irrevocably, towards them.

Five people were standing there, their colours muted, each with the outline of a crown surrounding their heads like shattered halos.

Grian, a poncho thrown over his usual sweater and blood on his curled fists.

Scott, with a pink axolotl curled over his shoulders and a sword held high above his head.

Pearl, with a red cloak clasped at her throat and a pair of hoes hanging at her sides.

Martyn, a red-and-white flag hung from his belt and coral growing over his skin and hair.

The fifth was cast in shadow, almost resembling the figures still beckoning Jimmy towards them, but Jimmy could make out a black cloak lined with red and purple flowers, and a bow hung loosely from scarred hands.

In unison, each of them held out a hand towards him, perfectly echoing the short shadow's pose.

The others started speaking over each other, haggling for his attention, and he couldn't think, he couldn't hear, he wanted it to stop, he had to make it stop, why wouldn’t it stop!

And then the shadow spoke again, mixing in with his friends instead of drowning them out, just another voice shouting at him and blocking his thoughts and making any kind of rationality impossible.

YOU WANT FAME AND ADORATION.

"It's not worth it, Jimmy!"

YOU WANT MORE THAN ATTENTION, MORE THAN LOVE.

"Lad, don't listen to it!"

BUT YOU KNOW BETTER THAN THIS. TAKE MY HAND.

"You're worth so much more than you think!"

STOP TRYING TO BE MORE THAN YOU ARE.

"You're my Rancher! You mean the world to me!"

YOU WANT TO KNOW WHAT I THINK. I THINK-

"No one asked you!" Grian shouted, directly at the shadow.

That was the last Jimmy heard before everything finally built up to be entirely unbearable. With a silent shout, he dropped to a crouch, hands over his ears, but if anything the racket just got louder, more painful, and he couldn't breath, couldn't think, he just wanted peace, he just wanted to feel safe and warm, he just wished all these voices would GO AWAY-

The world went quiet. Every single voice became background noise. Every ounce of terror faded. All that was left was a cheerful whistling from above.

Shaking, Jimmy looked up, past his friends, past the shadows, past the crowned figures. There was a yellow bird, a canary, flying overhead, swooping in a sky that barely existed. It soared over each of his friends in turn, and as it did, memories rushed in.

The canary flew over Grian and Joel, and Jimmy remembered golden wheat and a pathway in the clouds and endless encouragement.

The canary flew over Lizzie, and Jimmy remembered a thick ring of trees and a triumphant prediction and a fairy queen.

The canary flew over Scott, and Jimmy remembered flowers and home and a treasured peace offering.

The canary flew over Martyn and Mumbo, and Jimmy remembered laughter and spyglasses and statues.

And finally, the canary flew over Tango, and Jimmy remembered. He remembered love and support and warmth and loyalty. He remembered goat horns and horses and a ranch and a warden that didn't want him dead. He remembered Tango at his side, in his arms, watching his back, petting his hair, preening his wings. He remembered days when the sun shone and tinged the world in gold, days when it rained and the world was alive with the water's singing, days when it snowed and the world sparked, and at the centre of it all, turning the dreary into beauty, was Tango. He remembered his ranch, and he remembered his Rancher.

He wanted that back. He wanted his Rancher back.

But his Rancher died with him, back then. There was only one way he could be with him forever.

It was a strange sort of paradox, this desire to live in a whole new way, coupled with the need to die. But he saw the truth: he knew what he wanted, and he knew how to get it. He didn't want a pounding heart or gasping lungs or running legs or fisted hands. He wanted peace. He wanted rest. He wanted safety. He wanted his Rancher. And to get it, he needed to give up everything he knew.

Most people could go their whole lives without experiencing that clarity, without seeing the certainty in the paradoxical. So many die without reaching this conclusion, still questioning if there was any meaning to life and death. Still more act like they did see it, like they knew what they were living for, and kept that uncertainty to themselves, where it hid away and festered forever.

Jimmy was grateful he had the chance to see, and to make a decision.

THROW AWAY THE FEAR.

Jimmy stood up.

REACH FOR WHAT COULD BE.

He walked forward.

WHAT AWAITS IS BEAUTY.

He reached out.

THE WORLD HAS NOTHING TO OFFER YOU.

He paused to look back at Tango.

YOU HAVE NOTHING TO OFFER THE WORLD,

And, with a smile on his face, Jimmy took the shadow's hand. 

[firequeenofficial]

Sunflowers can really spread far in seven months. They now covered the whole server, from one corner of his prison's borders to the other.

Never one to sit still, Scar had repaired his house, then the others' as well. The Scotts and Tots' base looked better than ever (in his opinion), Bdubs' world was back to how it was before he'd burned it down (he really did love it, he'd always admired Bdubs' work), he'd even rebuilt Grian's stupid egg, even though the man had only lived there for a short while.

He spent more time than he'd ever admit at that egg. Something about it, about being surrounded by something Grian had made tickled something in the back of his mind. He'd felt it since the moment he'd arrived in this world - and something told him he'd felt it before, more than once. Like he was missing something, like he'd forgotten something, or someone, important. Some part of him thought if he stayed here, in Grian's egg, where the sensation was strongest, maybe he'd be able to remember it.

---

Grian missed him. He had his own Scar in Hermitcraft, of course, but... it wasn't the same. There was something about the death loops, the urgency, that made his time with Scar feel different, somehow.

But that was gone now, and wouldn't come back for a while. The latest loop had taken a lot out of him, and he needed time to refresh before he could set up the next one. He knew that time was important, he knew the best thing to allow it to come sooner was to rest, to focus on Hermitcraft and his friends there. And yet, he felt himself drawn back time and again.

Finally, after a long session fishing - which was working wonders for his power regeneration, by the way - he gave in to the urge. What harm could a small jump do? It wasn't like he was making a whole new world for this excursion, and he was only going to walk around a little bit, maybe lie down in his, Etho's and Cleo's base, perhaps he'd even sit in the Secret Keeper's shadow for a moment.

It wouldn't take long.

---

Scar spent a lot of time, when he wasn't building or farming, screaming at the Secret Keeper to let him out. It never listened, of course. Only stared with that cold, uncaring face, the symbol carved into the stone glowing slightly. No matter how many times he hit the succeed, fail or reroll buttons, it only ever gave him the same result - a task book reading, "Win Secret Life". And no matter how many he insisted that he had won, that he'd killed the few allies he'd managed to keep, that he was alone and scared and he wanted to go home, wherever that was, it never cared. It never changed.

That was where he was now. Curled up against the fail button, throat raw and eyes red. And always, always, that knowledge that something was wrong, that someone who meant something wasn't here.

He was just preparing to get to his feet, ready to trudge back to Trader Scar's - what a laughable name that was now - when that cursed symbol started glowing a bright purple.

Scar yelped and scrambled back, heart pounding. The glowing grew and grew until he was blinded. And with the glowing, a pulsing sound that pressed in on his ears like the air pressure had suddenly skyrocketed. He clapped his hands over his ears, groaning.

Whatever was happening, he was sure it couldn't possibly be good.

Then it stopped. The glowing, the pulsing, everything. Scar tried to blink the blackness from his eyes, tried to shake the ringing from his ears.

Just as he started getting some hearing back - but still very little sight - a wonderfully familiar voice said, "You're still here?"

---

Grian should have known it was a bad idea. He should have known better than to return to the scene of his latest crime. The other Watchers would have his wings if they knew he'd done this, but until the very moment he arrived, he hadn't cared.

Then he saw Scar.

He looked so much worse than when he'd last seen him - or this version of him. His cloak was torn and wrapped around his waist, revealing a half-open shirt that was simultaneously dirty and sun-bleached. His shoes were gone, his trousers clumsily hacked off halfway down his calves, leaving his feet and ankles bare and unprotected. He'd lost his beloved hat during the loop, yet Grian still pictured Scar with it; it was still gone. In it's place were flowers - sun flowers, the same as the plants that stretched as far as they eye could see. At his waist were more flowers. Not sunflowers. Poppies and lavenders. And every part of uncovered skin - which was quite a lot - was bright red. Grian hadn't seen Scar this sun-burnt since...

No. He wouldn't think about that. He couldn't think about that.

Looking at him now, it was clear Scar had given up caring. Of course he did, why wouldn't he. There was no one left to care for.

Scar was blinking blindly in his direction, not seeing him, and rubbing his ears like they hurt.

The question fell from his lips before he could stop it. "You're still here?"

Stupid question. Obviously he was still here.

Grian felt sick. It had been months. Stars, Scar - playful, cheeky, funny, amazing Scar - had been here, all by himself, for more than half a year.

This was his fault.

He should have turned around and left before he could do something stupid. Instead, he found himself rooted to the spot, staring at the man who had once meant so much to him, the man he had missed so much more than he could ever admit to anyone, even himself. He couldn't move, couldn't leave. Couldn't do anything other than stare.

---

It hadn't rained since he'd killed Pearl. The storm that came with that final lightening strike was over quickly, and the sun hadn't stopped shining since, except when the moon that usually brought some sort of comfort came out to stare uncaringly down. There were never any clouds, any wind was a light breeze at best, and the nights were almost as sweltering as the days.

Something about that was familiar - just on the edge of memory, on this side of forgetting. And yet, he couldn't reach it as hard as he tried.

He'd tried to bring rain. He'd died so many times since he'd lost Pearl, but the lightening never struck, the rain never came. He just woke up in his bed, as dry and burnt and alone as ever.

And now that voice. That damned voice. It made his heart stop cold, even as it soared.

What was he doing here? How did he get there? This shouldn't be possible. He couldn't be here. Not after so long. He was just imagining things, his desperate mind making up the one person he wanted to see more than anyone else.

And yet, as his vision finally started returning, there he was. Grian. Staring at him like he was seeing a ghost, a pair of large coloured wings at his back, his sweater whole and clean and not at all like the tattered thing he was wearing when Gem had killed him.

(He'd never tell anyone that he had saved that sweater when he'd buried Grian alongside all his other friends.)

But still, even looking so different, there was no denying that this was Grian.

That stupid feeling pushed forward even further. He was missing something. It was starting to drive him insane.

Finally, he found his voice, "Grian?"

"Scar," Grian breathed.

Scar felt like he could cry. He'd been alone for so long, and he felt like if he made the wrong movement or the wrong sound, Grian would disappear again. He didn't know if he could abide any more isolation, not after even this short moment of companionship.

But then his body took over, and he was crawling, then heaving himself to his feet, then running. He threw his arms around Grian, picking the smaller man up and spinning him around, so relieved to see someone else that all restraint went out the window.

Grian's wings flared as he let out a yelp that was almost more of a squawk, and Scar hurriedly put him down.

"How are you here?" he asked. Now that he'd made the first move, all the fear of doing or saying the wrong thing went out the window.

"I-" Grian just blinked up at him, unable to form a full sentence. "I don't-" He swallowed, then tried again. "It's... a long story."

And Scar found he didn't care about the non-answer.

"How- how have you been?" Grian asked, then pulled a face, like he knew it was a dumb question.

Scar thought about that one, wanting to give the most honest answer he could while still making light of the situation. He couldn't say he was good or fine or alright, because he was far from all three. He couldn't say he was coping, becuase he didn't think screaming at a statue could be classed as coping. He couldn't say he was busy, because he'd finished all the work there was to do. Finally, he settled on, "I'm alive."

Grian flinched, like he'd hurt him.

Something was off.

---

"I'm alive," Scar said.

And Grian couldn't help but flinch. Because he still saw Scar dead at his feet when he slept. He still saw splashes of red whenever he saw sand. He still struggled to even punch Scar while acting normal.

He could only be grateful Scar couldn't remember that. A small comfort, knowing Scar would never look at him and hate him for that moment that made Grian hate himself so often.

Scar was looking at him like he was trying to figure something out. His everpresent smirk seemed strained. Finally, he admitted, "Something's wrong."

"What is it?" Grian asked, because he couldn't think straight enough to come up with a different response.

"I don't know. That's the problem." Scar started pacing up and down in front of him, seemingly unbothered about the Secret Keeper staring down at them, listening to every word. "I've just had this feeling ever since Pearl... since I won. Like I'm missing something. Someone. From a past life. But I don't know who."

Grian's heart clenched.

Scar was right. Something was very wrong. Scar should have been transported back to his own world after he won, just like all the others. But besides that, he shouldn't have been regaining his past memories like this. He was only supposed to retain the memories of this loop, not the others.

He shouldn't have been able to remember Grian, even if he didn't know it was Grian he was remembering.

He tried to think of something to say, but Scar pushed on, like he'd been waiting to say this for a while.

"I can't remember who it is, I can't remember anything about that, but I know they were there. I know they're not there anymore. I lost them, and I should remember but I can't. I can't remember their laugh or their voice or their smile or their face or their clothes.

"I don't even remember what they were to me! Were we friends? More? Less? Did we hate each other? Did we even know each other? We must have, right? We must have known each other, for me to feel like this, but I don't know!"

The more Scar spoke, the more frustrated he became, and the fast he paced.

"I don't know if they were a man or a woman or something else! I don't know if we spent every second together or only a few! I don't know their name or how they looked at me or how I looked at them! And the more I think about it, the more it makes me mad!

"And the more I think about it, the more I think... someone took them from me. Not just the person, but the memories. Someone stole my memories of this person, of a lifetime I know I had but can't reach. They're there, they're right there, I can feel them, but I can't get to them and it's driving me insane! I want them back! I want my memories back! I want my person back!

"All I remember is waking up in the stupid world with everyone else, but there has to have been something before that, right? That can't be all there is! But I can't remember, and I want to, but I can't!"

Scar paused for breath, and Grian took the moment to whisper, "No. You don't."

Scar stopped short. He stopped pacing, almost stopped breathing.

He saw the moment the words registered in Scar's brain, the fear and confusion and desperation, and the beginning of anger.

"What do you mean?" Scar asked, his voice trembling and uncertain, like he wasn't sure he wanted to know the answer.

Grian looked away, not meeting his eyes. He turning instead to stare up at the Secret Keeper.

Why? He silently asked the statue. Why would you do this to me? Why are you punishing me like this?

The Secret Keeper, of course, remained silent.

"What did you mean by that, Grian?" Scar pushed.

Without turning, Grian said quietly, "Those memories were taken for a reason. They're not... you don't want them. Trust me."

"You took them." It wasn't a question, and Grian didn't know how he'd made the leap, but he didn't ask.

Instead, he just looked down, his back still turned away. "Yes."

And then Scar was screaming. "How could you do that?! How could you do that to me?! I thought we were friends!!"

"Exactly. I- I didn't want that to change. I didn't want to lose you. If you knew everything I'd done... I couldn't do that to you."

Grian couldn't see Scar's face, but he could picture it just fine, just like he could picture all of Scar's expressions. He could see in his mind's eye the way Scar's eyes widened, the way his smirk fell as he bared his teeth, the way his eyebrows furrowed. He could see the way Scar unconsciously curled his hands into fists and the way he rose up onto the balls of his feet. He wished he didn't know all of this as much as he did. He hated himself for deserving it.

"Give them back!" Scar shouted. "Give them back, they're mine! You have no right to take them! What, just because you were scared?! Because you couldn't face whatever tiny mistakes you made?!"

"They... they weren't exactly tiny. I had to wipe everyone, it was the only way. If you remembered... it would have been too much for you. I was trying to protect you."

"Look at me," Scar ordered, his voice dropping to a growl. When Grian didn't move, he went back to screaming. "LOOK AT ME!"

Slowly, Grian turned, letting Scar see the tears in his eyes, the way he couldn't lift his gaze off the floor, the way his hands and feet and wings were never still for longer than half a second. It didn't seem to alleviate his anger at all, of course not. Grian hadn't expected him to.

"Give them back," he snarled. "I don't care what you did, or what anyone else did. I want to remember." His voice broke. "Please."

And finally, finally, Grian met his eyes. Swallowed once. Twice. He didn't want to hide anything from Scar, but the thought of what the other man would do if he knew everything, if he remembered what he was to him... it terrified him. But the sight of Scar like this hurt him even more. So he whispered, "I'm sorry," and raised a hand.

---

It was so overwhelming, having so many lifetimes' worth of memories rush into his mind all at once. He staggered back, gasping, and the back of his legs hit the reroll button. He grasped the stone the pillar letting it keep him up as images flashed across his eyes.

A desert. A mountain. A bamboo sanctuary. A clock tower.

A bee. A horse. A giant cat. A llama.

Grian in a poncho over a white shirt. Grian in a torn sweater with a necklace of hearts around his neck. Grian with sugarcane in his shirt pocket. Grian in a black leather jacket and sunglasses.

Grian. Everywhere. Everything. He was... everything.

Grian. This whole time, it was Grian - his Grian - that he was missing.

Grian standing in the desert. Grian standing at the foot of a tower. Grian standing at the top of a wooden cake. Grian standing at the end of a wheat-covered bridge.

Grian with bloodsoaked hands around Scar's neck. Grian with an extra life he'd stolen from Scar. Grian losing both their lives for nothing. Grian shoving his sword into Scar's back.

Grian telling everyone not to trust him. Grian seeking him out for fights. Grian cheating on him with BigB. Grian breaking their alliance.

Grian turning on his over and over and over again.

And yet.....

Grian taking care of him and protecting him. Grian seeking him out to hang out with. Grian trying to keep Scar alive and healthy. Grian choosing him and his family to ally with.

Grian smiling at him. Grian laughing with him. Grian holding his hand as they ran from enemies. Grian giving him their resources to trade with. Grian patching him up after a battle. Grian's voice. Grian's face. Grian's hands. Grian's clothes. Grian's wings - Scar remembers those now.

"Do you see why I wanted to keep these from you?" Grian whispered.

Scar looked up at him - oh stars, he hadn't realised just how much he'd missed him - and saw him refusing to meet his eyes again.

He didn't know what to think. All those horrible things Grian did. All those amazing things he did. How was he supposed to weigh them against each other? How could he know which was bigger? Which was more important?

"There's one more thing," Grian breathed, closing his eyes like he couldn't bear to see Scar's reaction to the next revelation. "I- It's my fault. That you're here. That everyone keeps coming here. These loops... they're my fault."

Scar's heart sank. Oh. "Why?"

"I just... I wanted to see you all." Grian admitted. "I wanted to... I don't know. I wanted to see you. Not just like in Hermitcraft, but... it's different, here. I can let myself care a bit more, because it's only for a short time, and everyone's just going to forget anyway. It doesn't matter."

"It doesn't matter?" Scar thought of the desert, their desert. He thought of his Jellie-panda sanctuary. He thought of his mountain house and his clock tower. He thought not only of Grian, but of Joel, of Pearl, of Cleo and Bdubs and Etho. His friends, his family. And now that he remembered them, he missed them even more than before. Maybe that was what Grian meant when he said he was trying to protect them. But... "How can you say that? Of course it matters! We matter! You can't just erase us and pretend it never happened!"

"I could never pretend it never happened! Trust me, if I could, I would! If I could wipe my own memory, make it so I couldn't remember any of it either, I would do it in a heartbeat!"

That took Scar back. He hadn't expected that at all.

"You think it's fun, seeing my friends die, over and over again in my sleep?" It was Grian's turn to go on a roll now. "You think it's fun not being able to go in a desert again? You think I want to feel like I'm going to be sick every time I see a panda, or a spyglass, or a long field of wheat, or a path in the sky?

"I wish there was another way to get you all together that doesn't end in all of us dead, but there isn't! At least this way, we respawn. At least this way, we can keep seeing each other again.

"I tried another way - trust me, I tried. I just barely managed to shut it down in time, before They destroyed it. I came this close to losing everyone permanently. I won't risk that again. This is the only way."

He trailed off. It almost sounded like he was trying to convince himself, more than Scar.

"Who are They?" Scar asked softly.

Grian stiffened, then glanced over his shoulder at the Secret Keeper. Scar looked too. Did its symbol glow brighter? Was it humming softly? Did it seem almost... alive?

"Let's get out of here," Grian said instead of answering.

"Oh." Scar just stood there watching him for a second, his mind whirling too fast for him. Eventually, he managed to offer, "We can go to my base."

"I actually meant a little further." Grian managed a small smirk. "Are you ready to go home?"

The words were like the finest music to his ears. He glanced over his shoulder at the massive sunflower field the world had become, then grinned. "I'm so ready."

---

The Watchers would have his wings for taking this punishment for the crime of caring and making something good from it, but he didn't care.

Scar knew who he was. He knew what he was. He knew what he'd done. And he didn't hate him. He still wanted to be his friend. Maybe, with time, he'd be willing to attempt more.

But for now, Grian was happy with this.

He took Scar's hand, his heart soaring at the smile the other man gave him, and flapped his wings, dragging them both through the multiverse.

Back home.

~

This turned out a lot longer than I originally planned it, but man was it fun. Thanks to the wonderful @kays-artstuff for the idea and for deciding I was worthy to give it life! Everyone go check out the amazing animatic that inspired this! Scar's appearance came from Hoffen's wonderful skin after Scar posted the tweet that altered my brain chemistry, go give them some love too!

[firequeenofficial]

What if I did this? What if I choose a few days (maybe 8-10ish) and did this? What if I made myself do this? What if?

If I decide to do this, I'll probably put up another poll to pick which days I'll do, but we'll see. I already have a few I definitely do and probably don't want to do, so we'll see how it turns out.

Mark your calendars! DoubleHearted-vember is coming!!

To celebrate the 2 year anniversary of Double-Hearted (DDVAU) on November 4th, a group of us fans have put together a drawing/writing prompt list for the whole month of November!

What is Double-Hearted (DDVAU)?

Double-Hearted is a comic created by Doody (@kitsuneisi) and Maruu (@xmaruu11) based off of Hermitcraft and the Life Series. It follows the adventures and misadventures of Scar and Grian as they navigate their double lives—one as the beloved celebrity hero Hotguy, the other as popular vigilante Cuteguy, both unaware they're coworkers at the same university.

Where can I read it?

Here’s a link to the masterpost!

Who are the awesome people who made this list?

That would be @rebelrenee36 (me!!), @liloinkoink, @kowore, @deedolldrawz, and @anpanbun

Can I start working on it now?

Of course! We wanted to give plenty of time so people can start preparing now to help avoid burnout. Feel free to participate as much or as little as you’d like as well. Late uploads are also a-okay!

What if I'm not an artist?

We tried our best to make most of the prompts writer-friendly as well with the exceptions of Day 22 and Day 30, but feel free to use those as two more free days instead!

What's up with the bonus Day?

At the request of Maruu themself, we've added a bonus day at the very beginning for the first completed arc of Double-Hearted! Since the Mother Spore arc takes place on October 31st, it’s only fitting.

What if I have more questions?

Feel free to send me an ask and I can answer any questions, offer suggestions, or link any other resources!

[firequeenofficial]

Team Ranchers Week Day 3 - Platonic Ranchers

They’d been soulmates for all of one week, and Tango had never been happier. Every second spent with Jimmy was one spent laughing and smiling. He told the best stories, and his grin could light up the whole room, and his eyes held worlds, and he was so, so gentle with everything and everyone around him. Tango had never known anyone like him in his life. 

But now was the best moment so far, when he wasn’t saying a word, when his eyes were turned away and his lips just barely tilted up. They were sitting together on the porch of their new Ranch, watching the sunset. Or rather, Jimmy was watching the sunset and Tango was watching Jimmy, unable to tear his eyes away. 

The whole world was quiet, the air was steadily cooling and the falling night smelled fresh and new. Jimmy was a master at seeing the beauty in the world. Tango was more clinical, seeing the details, nitpicking every little thing he saw and breaking it down into its constituent parts. Jimmy, on the other hand, saw the whole beautiful picture, the way it all fit together and worked perfectly, like it was a master painting. Tango wished he could see the world through his eyes. The best he could do for now was to see it reflected in them, the golden sunset tinged brown in his irises. 

Tango shivered involuntarily, the chill getting to him. Without looking, Jimmy stretched out one wheat-coloured wing and draped it over Tango’s shoulders, and just like that, Tango didn’t need the covering anymore. Suddenly, he was far too warm for comfort. 

“Thanks,” Tango managed to say, barely remembering himself enough to pull up his voice. 

“Hmmm,” Jimmy hummed. He leaned back on the bench, tilting his head upwards and closing his eyes. “It’s nice here. I like it.” 

“Y- yeah,” Tango stammered. 

“I wish it would last forever.” As Jimmy said the words, his wing wrapped tighter around Tango, keeping the cold breeze off him entirely. 

I couldn’t agree more, Tango thought. Out loud, he said, “Yeah.”

And, as he sat there, the man who was rapidly becoming his best friend sitting beside him, his wing around his back and his smile lighting up the world as the last of the sun’s rays failed, Tango thought this was how the world was supposed to be.

[firequeenofficial]

Team Ranchers Week Day 4 - It's Over. Go Home.

When Jimmy wasn’t with the rest of the Empires crew going home, Tango was the only one to notice. 

He brought it up to the others, who shrugged it off. 

“The lad probably headed home early,” Joel told him. “He doesn’t do well with goodbyes.”

“Right,” Tango said. “That makes sense.” He tried not to let it hurt that Jimmy wouldn’t even come see him before leaving. When that didn’t work, he settled with trying not to let it show just how much it hurt. 

“Cheer up,” Impulse said, clapping him on the back. “We can do another one of these some time!”

Everyone made excited noises, agreeing that it would be a good idea, and Tango joined in, but his thoughts were a million miles away, in Tumble Town, where his Rancher was undoubtedly doing all sorts of official sheriff-y things. Some part of him, a much larger part than he’d ever admit, wished he could be there with him. But he knew this was his place, with Impulse and Grian and Zedaph and all the other Hermits. 

After a final round of farewells, the Empires crew went home, and Grian announced, “Who’s hungry?”

A cheer went up from the Hermits, and they all started to follow him to his base for a feast, but Tango hung back. 

“You coming, buddy?” Impulse asked, pausing to wait for him. 

“I think I’m gonna pass,” Tango said nonchalantly. 

“Oh, come on, Decked Out can go without its dungeon master for a few hours!” Zedaph protested. 

“I won’t be long,” Tango assured them. “I just need to do some maintenance, no big deal. You guys go ahead!” 

Zedaph just shrugged and hurried after the others. 

Impulse wasn’t convinced. “If you’re sure,” he said slowly. 

“Hey, I’ll be fine! I’ll catch you guys up later.” It was a lie, and both of them knew it.

“Fine.” Not looking pleased, Impulse turned away and flew in the direction the others went. 

Tango watched them go for a minute, before flying in the opposite direction, to the Deepfrost Citadel. 

It was strange. He’d spent so many frustrating hours among his noodles, and far too many times emerged feeling like he wanted to pull his hair out, but it was still his happy place on the server. It was a sort of safe haven, somewhere he was in change and in control, where he knew exactly what was going on at any given time because he’d made it that way. In here, when his mind was full of redstone and calculations, nothing else mattered because there wasn’t any space for anything else to matter. In here, nothing could hurt him. 

In here, he could pretend he didn’t miss his Rancher so much it hurt. 

As he ducked under and stepped over and dodged around the scarlet powder, he took a deep breath, pushing out all those feelings. Instinctively, his eyes took everything in around him, checking for anything out of place, making sure every tiny component worked exactly right. The thinking took over the feeling, and he could already feel himself calming. 

A twittering sounded above him, and he glanced up to see his yellow bird flitting through the higher boughs of his noodles. A smile tugged involuntarily on his lips. He’d found the bird shortly after returning from Double Life, and hadn’t been able to resist taming it and bringing it home. He wasn’t sure when it had gotten into the Citadel, but he’d never complained. He enjoyed the company. He hadn’t trusted himself to name the creature just yet, knowing he’d probably choose something sappy, so it had stayed as “his yellow bird”. 

He started climbing towards the bird, expertly following familiar paths and avoiding shifting the redstone dust. It flew further into the redstone, and Tango climbed faster, trying to catch up. 

It ducked out of sight, and Tango scrambled to find it again, partly enjoying the chase and partly panicking that he’d lost his yellow bird. 

That was when he heard the giggle under the bird’s singing. 

Tango froze. He knew that laugh. He knew it well. It was in every dream, in every silence and in every call of his yellow bird. 

There was no way. 

Tango moved faster than ever, cresting a high point in the noodles, and in the valley that followed, he saw him. 

The golden hair. The bright yellow wings. The hat hanging from his neck. The laughter that lit up the dark innards of his Citadel. The hand reaching up for his yellow bird to land on it.

His Rancher. 

“Jimmy?” 

His voice was quiet, but his Citadel had a way of amplifying it, of echoing its Dungeon Master’s orders around the entire structure, like it wanted to be sure everyone heard it. 

The Canary looked up, shocked at being caught. 

“Oh. Hi, Tango.” He looked nervous. 

“You’re still here?” It was all Tango could think to say. “The others are all gone already.”

Jimmy looked down at the bird curled up in his cupped hands. “Yeah.”

“I- I thought you left without saying goodbye.”

Jimmy looked back up at him, face open in surprise. “What? Why would I do that?”

“Joel said-”

“Don’t listen to anything Joel said,” his Rancher told him with a scoff. “He loves making my life difficult.” Then he cracked a smile. “So, what’s next on the roster?”

“Jimmy…” Tango said, the sadness coming back full force. He wanted more than anything to go down to him, but he knew it was a bad idea. He knew if he came close enough to touch him, he would lose all the restraint he was trying so hard to hold on to. “Jimmy, it’s over. Go home.” 

Jimmy’s face fell again. “Why?” 

“If the rift closes while you’re still here-”

“Would that be so bad?”

“You don’t belong here, buddy,” Tango told him, wrapping his arms around himself. He sank into a crouch, the closest he would let himself get. “You have to go home.” 

“Tango-”

“No, Jimmy, you can’t stay!” 

Tango felt like his heart was breaking all over again. This was the hardest thing he’d ever done, but he knew he had to do it. “Please don’t make this harder than it has to be.” 

Jimmy took a step forward. “I want to stay here! With you!”

“But you can’t.” 

“I don’t want to lose you again!” Jimmy shouted. 

“And I don’t want you to do something you’ll regret!” Tango shouted back. “You don’t belong here, Jimmy! You know you don’t!”

“And you know I don’t care!” Jimmy stretched out his wings and pushed himself into the air, landing only a few feet away from Tango. 

Tango shot upright and took several steps away. 

“Please, Jimmy! Please, just go home! It’s what’s best for both of us!”

Jimmy sucked in a breath. “B- both?” 

Tango closed his eyes and turned away. “You can’t stay.” 

Jimmy’s footsteps came closer, and Tango’s heart seized, but he couldn’t bring himself to move away. The Canary took his hand just as his yellow bird landed on Tango’s opposite shoulder. “Don’t push me away, Tango. Please.” Jimmy’s voice broke. “I miss you.” 

Tango opened his mouth to say something else, to force him to leave, to snap something scathing that will make him want to leave. What came out instead was a quiet, “I miss you too.” 

“So why do you want me gone so much?”

“Don’t you get it?” Tango pulled away from him, twisting around to face him. “We’re not meant to stay together! Grian told me - we’re not even supposed to remember Double Life! The longer we’re together, the more we fight for this, for us, the more danger we’re in! 

“You need to leave, Jimmy! It’ll just hurt more the longer you stay! I can’t be the reason you stay! I can’t be the reason you get hurt! Not again!” 

His fire was burning bright. The redstone around him was flickering, affected by his anger, his fear, his pain. He hated this. He hated that look on Jimmy’s face, like a kicked puppy. He hated that he’d put it there. He hated that he’d had to put it there, that it was the only way to save him. 

Finally, Jimmy asked softly, “Did Grian say anything else?” 

Tango swallowed. “He- he wouldn’t tell me what would happen, but he said it would be bad. He said… he said it was dangerous even just us being together for this short time. He didn’t even want me to see you. He tried to stop me from going, tried to convince me to not let you come here. And he said- he-” Tango had to stop to collect himself, the fear stealing his voice for a second. “He said as long as you’re here, you’re in far more danger than me. He said it would be my fault if you got hurt while you were here. I can’t let that happen. Please, Jimmy. Please.”

For a moment, Jimmy just looked at him. Then he opened his mouth and-

Doubled over in pain with a shout. 

“Jimmy?!” Tango gasped, rushing forward to grab him, supporting him as he sank to the ground. “What’s happening? What’s wrong?”

“The ri-” Jimmy’s voice was cut off as he flickered purple, disappeared, and reappeared a split second later, gasping and panting. 

“The rift is closing!” Tango realised. No, no, no, no! “Can you fly?” 

Jimmy just groaned, then shouted again as the pain flared. 

“Just hold on, buddy! I’ll get you back!” 

Tango wrapped an arm around Jimmy’s back. He was so much smaller than Jimmy that he was barely able to cup his hand under Jimmy’s opposite arm, so he shifted so they were chest-to-chest and wrapped both arms around his Rancher. Then he opened his elytra and launched himself into the air, startling his yellow bird. He couldn’t bring himself to care. 

As soon as the pair flew out of the Citadel, Jimmy glitched again. Tango was moving so quickly that by the time Jimmy returned, he had already flown too far for Jimmy to reappear in his arms. The Canary screamed as he fell, in far too much pain to think about opening his wings. 

Tango dove, catching Jimmy in record time. He didn’t even hesitate before flying towards the Rift, more determined than ever before. He was going to get Jimmy home, even if he had to kill himself from exhaustion for it. He would not let anyone hurt Jimmy like this, never again. 

The glitches got more and more frequent the more the Rift closed, and each time Tango had to double back and dive to catch the falling Canary. But he never gave up. He couldn’t. If he flew just a little too slow, or paused a second too long, his Rancher would die, and it would be his fault. 

Finally, after what felt like an eternity, they reached the Entity, and the Rift inside. 

Tango didn’t even hesitate. He flew straight through the Rift, holding on as tight as possible to Jimmy, and emerged in Empires. 

“Lad!” a voice called out. There, waiting on the other side, was an incredibly stressed Joel. 

Tango landed at his feet with Jimmy moments before glitching himself. 

The pain was worse than anything he’d ever felt. Even the burn of a creeper’s explosion wasn’t this bad. It was stinging and burning and aching all at once, every kind of agony imaginable at the same time, all over his body. When the glitch stopped, all it left was an unending ache that left his mind completely empty.  He cried out, curling over Jimmy and clinging to him like he could make it stop. He longed for the familiar warmth of his Rancher’s wings wrapped around him. 

“Tango!” Jimmy gasped, pulling away from Tango, only to reach out to him again. 

Tango reached over with a shaky hand and cupped the side of the Canary’s tear-streaked face. He couldn’t muster up the strength for words over the pain, especially as he glitched again. 

Tango couldn’t cry, but he knew if he could, he’d be sobbing. 

“He needs to get home!” Joel said. He yanked Jimmy away from Tango and started heaving Tango away. 

But Tango wasn’t thinking plainly. He wasn’t thinking at all. All he knew was that he was being forced away from the only person he wanted at his side right now. “N- no!” he groaned, forcing far too much energy into the word. 

Jimmy must have been exhausted from the pain, but he crawled as fast as possible towards Tango and Joel. He grabbed Tango’s hand to stop Joel dragging him away, then pulled himself closer to Tango and kissed him. 

“One last time,” Jimmy breathed. He could barely keep his eyes open, but he held Tango’s gaze for one split second. 

Joel made a noise of disgust and, with one final heave, he swung Tango through the Rift. Tango watched his Rancher until the last second. 

The next thing he knew, he was lying on the floor, back in Hermitcraft, and the Rift was shut beside him. 

Tango curled up on the ground and gasped. His hair was burning far brighter than ever before, threatening to overtake his whole body. He felt like he would shake apart. He could barely breathe. The pain was tearing him to shreds, no longer from being on the wrong side of the Rift, but from losing the man who had been such an integral part of his very being. 

He felt something on his leg and managed to lift his head. His yellow bird was standing on his thigh, looking at him with its head cocked to the side. 

Shakily, Tango reached out to it. It landed on his finger, and Tango pulled it closer to his chest, curling around it. It was all he had left of his Canary, and he wasn’t sure it would ever be enough. 

But, he supposed, it was better than nothing. Maybe, in time, he could learn to survive with nothing but his yellow bird. But for now, it was all he could do to lie right there, right beside the closed Rift, as close to Jimmy as he could possibly get now. 

It was better than nothing.

[firequeenofficial]

I'm going to preface this by saying, I am FULLY aware I still owe y'all a Ranchers fluff/angst wip, but it's taking longer than I wanted, so as an apology, I tidied up this Desert Duo wip that I completely forgot about until recently. Enjoy!

For context, BigB and Martyn decided to free Grian, reunite the Blue Sword Boys and get rid of Dogwarts' biggest enemy in one fell swoop. It's almost an au of the Pale White Horse au (if I'm thinking of the right Pale White Horse au, anyway, lol). TW for death and grief.

It started out as a normal day in the desert. The sun was shining, the sand was scorching, and Scar was just barely sane. They were working on their defences when Grian heard a noise in the distance and looked up, on edge. Realistically, it was probably just a sheep or something, but Ren was red now, and he wasn’t willing to take any chances. 

He couldn’t see anything - not a sheep, or a player. But he knew he’d heard something. Which meant whatever - or whoever - he’d heard was hiding. 

“I’ll be right back,” he said softly to Scar, then headed off into the treeline to investigate. 

At first, he just saw more nothingness, so he stepped further in. Something rustled towards his right, accompanied by a muffled, “Shi- sugar!”

Grian whipped around towards the sound, pulling out his sword. “Martyn?”

Martyn stopped crouching, instead standing up straight by the tree he was hiding behind. “Hi, Grian!”

Martyn’s hand shifted, and something moved behind him. Grian spun around in time to see BigB streaking through the trees towards the desert, towards Scar.

“No!” Grian gasped, running back the way he came, Martyn hot on his tail. 

“We’re just trying to help, Grian!” Martyn called after him. 

But Grian was barely hearing him. “Scar, run!” he screamed in his friend’s general direction. 

Almost immediately, he heard Scar’s pankicked shout of, “Ah! Grian!”

Grian could see Scar, now. He was running away, but BigB was so close, and Scar was unprepared. 

He’d let himself get distracted. Martyn caught up to him, knocking his legs out from underneath him so he landed hard on the ground. 

“Argh! No, Scar!”

“Sorry, Grian, but it’s for your own good!” Martyn called as he streaked past him, gaining on Scar and BigB unnaturally fast. He taunted, “Don’t run, Scar, we just want to be friends!”

Bolstered by Martyn’s heckling, BigB joined it. “Yeah, we just want to play!”

Grian pushed himself to his feet, running after the other three, calling for them to stop. Then he saw the hole, the same one that claimed Scar’s second life. They were so close to it, dangerously close.

“Scar, watch out!” he called desperately. 

But Martyn had seen the chasm as well. He swung his sword, striking Scar in the back. Scar screamed in pain, staggered forward, and

slipped. 

<GoodtimeswithScar fell from a high place while escaping IntheLittleWood> 

It was like Grian had suddenly been forced under the ocean. Every sound was muffled, something was roaring, pounding, pushing in on his ears, furious. “No.” He didn’t hear the word over the rushing, only felt it leave his mouth, felt the vibrations in his throat. 

He was vaguely aware of shouting, voices calling out. 

“Martyn, we did it!” 

“Alright! The Blue Sword Boys are back together again!”

“Alright!”

Jubilation. They were celebrating. They had just killed Scar, just taken the one person he had in this cursed world, and they were celebrating. 

The rage came, then. It was loud, and it was desperate, and it was hungry, and it hurt. Everything hurt so much that he could barely breathe. He couldn’t pull his eyes away from the chasm that Scar fell down, the one that had now taken two of his three lives. He needed everything to stop, he needed… he needed…

He needed them to stop. 

“You killed him.” His voice was quiet. It didn’t tremble, didn’t break, didn’t stutter. But it was quiet. Nothing like the screaming that was all he could hear, blocking all thoughts. 

“Yeah!” That was Martyn. He was grinning. “You’re free!”

He finally tore his eyes from the hole and looked up at the two men, people who were once his friends. His hands curled into fists. The shaking started. He couldn’t breathe. 

“You k-killed him.” This time, his voice did tremble. This time, he raised it a little. 

They were starting to notice - finally, finally starting to notice - that something was off. 

BigB was frowning. “Grian?”

Martyn took a hesitant step towards him. “You alright there, man?”

“You killed him!” And there, there was that fury, that screaming, that agony that was tearing his mind to shreds. This time, he was shouting. This time, he rushed at them, sword drawn, seeing red.

“Grian, what are you doing?!”

He went for Martyn first. Martyn, who dealt the killing blow. Martyn, who aligned himself against Grian and Scar from the get-go. Martyn, one of his oldest friends, and now his greatest enemy. 

His sword came down, barely hearing the others’ protestations, but BigB jumped in his way, his own sword raised to stop Grian’s. 

“Grian, stop!” he shouted. “We were trying to help!”

“You killed him!!” That was the only thought that made it through the cacophony in his head. Scar was dead, and it was their fault. 

“Grian!” Martyn shouted. He tried to get in between Grian and BigB, but Grian wouldn’t let him get a blow in at all. “Stop!” 

Grian saw the opening he needed, and shifted. In half a second, his sword was already coming back out of Bigb’s chest. 

<Bigbst4tz2 was slain by Grian> 

“No!” Martyn screamed. “Grian, stop, please!”

“You killed him! That was his last life, Martyn! He’s gone! You killed him!” He could barely hear himself. He didn’t care that he was still green. He didn’t care that Martyn was still green. He was seeing red and nothing else. 

“What are you doing?! Stop! I’m sorry, okay?! I’m sorry!”

But it was far, far too late for that. 

They had fought themselves straight to Grian’s lava barrier. A single flick of his sword was all it took for Martyn to lose his balance and fall straight into the lava. His screams were cut short quickly. 

<IntheLittleWood tried to swim in lava>

Finally, the rushing quieted a little. He could breathe again. 

But only for a moment, before the panic and pain hit in full force. Martyn and BigB had managed to get a few slices of their own in, but he didn’t even feel those. Everything else hurt far too much. 

Gasping, staggering, he made his way to the chasm where Scar had fallen. When he looked down, he saw that Scar’s body was already gone, never to respawn again. All that was left of him were the contents of his inventory. 

A noise that could not be described as human tore from his throat, and he doubled over, nearly losing his balance and toppling in. 

Some part of him wished he could follow Scar just a little longer, just a little further. 

A single word managed to make its way through the sobs. A name. 

“Scar…”

[firequeenofficial]

Grabbing this with both hands and running with it. (Wild Life spoilers to follow)

Scar never left Secret Life. All the other winners died at the end of their series: Grian jumped, Scott got Watchered, Pearl got exploded, Martyn ran out of time, Cleo got creepered. All died and were taken out. But not Scar.

No, Scar was left behind. Why might that be? What possible reasons might the Watchers havre of punishing Scar like this? What would cause them to keep the man Grian would choose over all others trapped like this? Are they really punishing Scar? Or is it perhaps someone else that they're mad at? Someone who's felt less and less Watcher-y as the seasons went on. Someone who's been more human each season. Someone who had far less involvement in Secret Life's mechanics than in the other seasons.

Maybe Grian tried to leave the Watchers. Maybe he tried to defy them. Maybe he was slowly, subtly, shedding the Watcher part of himself like an old skin, hoping they wouldn't notice. But they did.

They noticed, all right. But they couldn't punish Grian directly. No, that wasn't nearly cruel enough. They had to target the ones he loves, instead.

So on top of putting the Secret Keeper in Secret Life to keep an eye on Grian and the others, they also turned the whole server against Scar. They gave him tasks that make him the villain, that ruin his relationships and leave him alone and scared. And they make sure he wins and that he stays alone and scared. No way out, no way for anyone else to get in. No visitors but the occasional Watcher who comes to snack on his despair and make sure he's still there.

And they make sure Grian knows. They make sure he knows what's happening, and that it's his fault. If he'd just complied, if he'd just stuck to the plan, if he'd just embraced this intrinsic part of him, this never would have happened. Scar would be free. And then they tell him the next part: they would keep trapping the people Grian loves until he has no one left, or until he rejoins them fully.

It's no choice at all, really. Because Grian is far too human, and far too attached to his friends. He can't risk anything more happening to them. He can't lose any more of them.

After a brief negotiation, Grian concedes.

He spends a year designing the next game, determined to get it right, to prove to the Watchers that he's one of them, that he's not holding back. It's intricate, and fragile, and detailed, and awful, but he can't stop. He can't let the Watchers think he's trying to protect his friends from them, or from himself.

When they get antsy, he releases a small game, one that doesn't take any effort, one that doesn't last long. He's the first to die.

Finally, the game is ready. The Watchers are eager and curious: He's been working on it for a full year, and dropping hints for months now. The game starts, and Grian's friends can tell he's different. Mumbo hears something *other* in his giggles. Jimmy notices a gleam of purple in his eyes. Scar can't help but feel he's being especially distant and hostile towards him. None of them comment on it.

The first wildcard hits, and Etho is taken aback by how blatantly Grian mentions that he knows what it is, by how desperate Grian seems to be for Etho to figure out what it is and how it works. He's different, Etho thinks, and spots the barely visible eyes surrounding Grian. He says nothing.

People start dying, and it's all Grian can do to contain his gleeful giggles, the fear and confusion fueling him. By the time session 3 rolls around, his friends have given him so much power simply by panicking that the snails are almost no effort at all.

And this is when the deal he struck with the Watchers after Secret Life comes into action. He'd had only one condition - or at least, only one he could get them to agree to: the people he loves most couldn't win. They couldn't even come close. Pearl had been dropping steadily, but session 3 was what made all the difference. Jimmy, Scar and Mumbo started losing lives so fast that Grian worried the Watchers were taking them out right then and there (Jimmy was never a worry in terms of winning: the Watchers were furious at him for breaking free from the Canary Curse in Secret Life, and would never let it happen again). Pearl died plenty more too, ensuring her protection. When Mumbo asked for a life, he refused. That would only raise the danger.

The one people Grian was worried about were Gem and Joel. He'd known, from the moment they teamed, that it would be an issue. Alone, both were formidable opponents and more-than-competent survivors. Together, they'd be unstoppable. He had a sneaking suspicion Joel would start taking himself out soon, but Gem... she simply wouldn't die. When the snails didn't get either of them, Grian set the reds and yellows on them. Using underhanded methods Grian refused to admit he was proud of, Jimmy managed to take Joel out, but not one of them managed to get Gem.

He needed her to die. He needed her to stay away from the Watchers' grip, to stay safe. He needed her gone. He didn't care what he had to do, what he had to sacrifice. Fully under the Watchers' influence, he didn't care what happened to him; they were his games, these were his pawns. Nothing could touch him, and when they did, he saw it coming. All he could think about was getting Gem and Joel out of his series. But no matter what he or anyone else tried, Gem was still alive.

He had to be sneaky about this. He had to put her at the ultimate disadvantage.

So he gathered Mumbo and Skizz together in the open and, under the guise of trying to get them an extra life, he explained a plan to him. He didn't know if it would work, and he didn't particularly care. That wasn't his real plan, anyway. His real plan involved the others all around him. The reds and yellows that weren't his teammates, that were just as hungry for death as he was. Without saying a word to them, he got almost the entire server interested.

They all went to Gem and Joel's base. Surely, with so many, she couldn't possibly get away.

And yet, again and again, the attempts on Gem's life failed. Mumbo died. Skizz lost a valuable weapon. And still, Gem wouldn't die.

Until she did.

It was Martyn, Martyn of all people, who managed it. Technically, the kill went to Ren, but it was Martyn who masterminded it, who set it up.

And yet, it was Gem who decided she would die now. Gem died, not because the others were good enough, but because they weren't, and she felt bad for them. She was on the track to winning, Grian's deal notwithstanding, and she felt bad about it.

And Grian hated it. Because it wasn't supposed to go like this. She was supposed to be safe! She was supposed to be left alone! And yet, the Watchers were protecting her, carrying her to victory in the complete opposite way they carried Scar.

And there was nothing he could do. He couldn't risk defying the Watchers again, and he couldn't risk warning her or Joel or anyone else. The only person who had an inkling of what was happening was Martyn, who knew almost as much about the Watchers as Grian himself did. But the Watchers hated Martyn: Grian couldn't be seen being friendly with him!

Grian returned to his base with Mumbo and Skizz, hating the way the day had gone, even though every single person had died at least once by now. The only purely good thing that had happened was Jimmy and Scar giving him an excuse to take them out of the game as soon as possible, and he was itching to take that excuse. If he couldn't protect Gem and Joel, he would do what it took and sacrifice what he needed to protect Jimmy and Scar. Pearl would sort herself out, he was sure of that.

His friends would be safe. He didn't know what he'd do otherwise.

Did grian feel more watcher-like this season to anyone else? Sure he controls what the wildcards are and all that... but did you notice him being more overconfident.

Both his deaths this session was due to him being careless... like he wouldn't be killed. Like he feels invulnerable. (Who else is popularly portrayed as arrogant? The watchers!)

And the canary's curse. He told jimmy he would make sure it comes true. ( Who made the canary's curse? The watchers!)

I feel like the watchers have regained some influence on him. Something gave the watchers more influence on him this season... maybe something in the last life series. Who won the last life series? Scar...

[firequeenofficial]

:0 borth??? happy birthdayyy?? :D

Also what about ranchers with 16 :3c

Borth! Thanks!

Have a cute and silly Ranchers :)

-

Tango arrived back at the Ranch after a moderately successful mining trip, expecting to find Jimmy outside working with the animals or building up the wall. Instead, the Ranch seemed deserted.

Tango frowned and headed to the main house. "Jimmy?" he called, fighting trepidation. He was probably just lost in work or something. Nothing serious.

And then Jimmy rushed out of the door, colliding with Tango just outside. Tango's relief had just a second to live before it was killed by the panic of Jimmy's face.

"Don't go inside!" Jimmy gasped.

That didn't sound good at all. Jimmy's fear was contagious, and Tango found himself nearly trembling. "What? What is it?"

"There's- there's something in there!"

Tango's tail whipped nervously, matching his soulmate's wings' movement. "What kind of something?"

"I don't know. I can hear it moving around under the basement!"

It was a trap. It had to be. Someone had trapped their base. There was a mob under there, ready to jump out and attack the second either of them stepped on the wrong plank or opened the wrong chest. A skeleton, or a creeper, or something. Something that would kill them immediately, even if there was only one of them in range.

If Tango went in there and died, Jimmy would die as well. But... they couldn't stay outside forever. They had to do something about it.

Tango straightened, balling his fists with resolve. "Watch my back," he said to Jimmy.

Jimmy couldn't believe what he was hearing. "What part of don't go inside do you not understand?!" But still, he followed Tango into the house, both of their shields raised. Together, they headed down to the basement.

Immediately, Tango heard it too. Something walking around directly below the floor, on the other side of the room. He tried to figure out what it was, but the sound was echoing too much to be anything approaching identifiable, like the creature was in some sort of chamber.

Beside him, Jimmy was wringing his hands, panicked and trying not to be. "It was Joel," he was saying. "I know it."

"Or Scar," Tango suggested. He was doing about as well as Jimmy at hiding his fear, his flames growing brighter and his tail flicking around like a trapped fly at a window. And yet, he managed to keep his footsteps steady as he started to approach the corner the sound was coming from.

He'd barely taken two steps when the footsteps below got louder. No, not louder - closer. Tango froze, letting out a little squeal. The creature moved nearer and nearer, and Tango started backing away, until he was shoulder to shoulder with Jimmy, their backs against the wall. The thing was between them and the ladder back up to safety, trapping them.

"What do we do, what do we do, what do we do?" Jimmy hissed, his voice rising in pitch with each repetition.

"Um." Tango brain had shut down, too afraid to think. "Uh." He did the only thing he could come up with. He broke the floor.

"Why would you do that?!" Jimmy squeaked, his voice so high now that it was almost inaudible.

"I panicked!"

With the new hole in the floor, they could see the shallow ditch below it. They were one block above what seemed to be a small, natural cave, and hadn't even known it. And now it would kill them.

That was the moment the thing decided to strike, leaping out of the hole and right at them with terrifying speed and accuracy.

Both men shrieked, Jimmy leaping into the air and into Tango's arms, presumably on some avian instict to find high ground. Unfortuntaley, Tango was not very tall; Jimmy was easily a head taller than him. Despite this, Jimmy felt heavy as a feather, and Tango held him easily.

Tango squeezed his eyes shut, bracing for death, ready for the pain then the pull of the respawn that would put them on red.

Nothing happened.

Slowly, Tango opened his eyes.

Standing in front of him, innocently scratching at the stone floor, was a chicken. Just a tiny, harmless chicken.

There was a moment of shaken silence as they both took in the animal in their basement, then the chicken let out a squawk and Tango burst out laughing.

In his arms, Jimmy was going bright red, too embarassed to see the humour in the situation.

"Oh yeah, Joel's really stepped up his trapping game!" Tango wheezed. "We should have thought of that!"

"Yes, very funny," Jimmy grumbled. "You can put me down, now."

Tango did, still losing his mind. If he could cry, he definitely would be now. "I think I need new trousers!" he joked.

Jimmy managed a tiny smirk. "Did you poop a little?"

"I definitely pooped a little!"

And then Jimmy was laughing along, too. "Yeah, I think I did too."

Tango scooped the chicken up under his arm and climbed back up the ladder one handed, using his tail for balance, and Jimmy followed, ready to catch him if he fell.

The chicken made for a delicious dinner that night.

[firequeenofficial]

I'm on a roll today! Have some Desert Duo angst that's been sitting in my wips forever!

The long-awaited Ranchers one will come next, I pinky promise.

(Also, I'm gonna start posting longer ficlets, oneshots and snippets to my AO3. I'll put up my older stuff that I posted here as well, so if you want to find any of that, it'll all be there!)

[firequeenofficial]

So, I saw someone else (@/Pixiemage, if you're interested) do something like this, and I thought it might be fun to stretch my writing muscles a bit, since I haven't done any proper writing since well before exam season. Also, I wanna get into more MCYT writing (specifically hermitcraft/life series), and this felt like a fun way to start.

Pick a mystery playlist, a track and a character/alliance/ship/group/etc. I'll write a snippet for the selected character/alliance/ship/group/etc based on the song, based on vibes, lyrics, or both.

Playlist A - 1-44 Playlist B - 1-71 Playlist C - 1-745 Playlist D - 1-31 Playlist E - 1-9 Playlist F - 1-14 Playlist G - 1-46