#real Martyn day

[sprinklesharkie]

this is the greatest april fools to ever april fools

[andr3w-the-d0dgeb4ll]

The parallel of the Martyn vtuber lore and Grian watcher lore in terms of eldritch horror is something I want to mess with more..

Like with Grian, this is the horror of being elevated to a higher being than you were ever meant to be. Comprehending more than your mind was built to comprehend, given divine madness by beings who do not truly understand that they are ruining something already perfect.

Going back home, returning to the being you once were, but no longer able to enjoy your old life. Everything is meaningless now, your friends and family a mere speck in the vastness of your new mindscape.

Truly, this would be hell.

But on the other hand, Martyn. What was once a higher being, viewing this smaller world through a screen, he is now one of them. Shoved into a new body, made to pretend he is exactly like these beings so beneath him.

Your vision has been narrowed, your hearing limited. Your body is no longer yours, now it is a part of the game. Divine madness is your new curse, but in a complete opposite way. You ARE divine. You are a God of this world, why are you now TRAPPED in it?

I wonder what they'd think of each other, Grian and Martyn, if they both knew the truth of each other's existence? Would they envy the other or pity them?

Or maybe I'm just talking out my ass and none of this is true-

[chocolatechipscones]

I'd like to submit my ideas to the council

[charlieslimeciclereal]

criminally low number considering the amount of thumbnails they're... um.. featured in. together.

[tango-but-everywhere]

Cheering on the Dungeon Master (and the Champion)!

Etho, Hermitcraft 9 episode 13

[ID: a minecraft screenshot from hermitcraft 9, taken in the lobby and scoreboard area of Decked Out 2. Gem and Hypno are hanging out in the scoreboard itself, where Cub, Bdubs and Tango are standing on the ground. From left to right: Gem’s turned to the left of the image, standing or perhaps jumping on Grian’s head on the scoreboard. She’s wearing a mix of diamond and netherite armour with emerald and amethyst trim, and an elytra. Cub is standing in front of his own head on the scoreboard, but he’s looking to the right toward Tango. He’s in full netherite plus elytra, trimmed with copper. Hypno is standing on his own head on the scoreboard, facing the viewer. He’s only wearing diamond boots and an elytra. Bdubs is crouching close to the viewer but turned away, toward Tango. He’s the only one not wearing an elytra, instead wearing a netherite chestplate along with a mix of chainmail and netherite, trimmed with diamond and gold. Finally, Tango is armourless, missing even his dungeon master hood. All he has is an elytra. He’s holding something, but the view of what it is is obscured by Bdubs. He’s facing the left of the image but looking more toward the viewer. Finally, the very edge of Etho’s hand is visible in the bottom right corner of the image. End ID]

[widows-alliance-but-everywhere]

[shroomlightruins]

NOO WAYYYYYYYY OH MY GOD

[sadagios]

Icarus, and the Sunflower

A Desert Duo/Scarian AU about an avid player meeting his favorite, comfort character in a death loop video game.

I can’t write a fic, nor have time to draw comics like i used to, so we are doing bullet points on a tumblr post

PART ONE: BEFORE THE ALPHA TEST

PROLOGUE: PART TWO

2.1k words below the cut

SOME BEGINNING NOTES: - This AU is only character shipping, and references a lot outside the life series events (evo, hermitcraft, empires, etc). This is not meant to ship the CC’s themselves and if anything alludes to it, it is purely unintentional. - This is not canon-compliant ermmmm i do what i want and i will put every idea i have into this - Tags for this part? Game dev AU, Grian is whipped for Scar, some characters are real and some are fictional, this is only the prologue, absolutely not beta'd i only have one impulsive braincell

A. Gria

Gria is a single man in his late 20s; he works at a game company called E.V.O. Games (Entertainment Virtual for Everyone). He was an architecture graduate who dabbled in game dev in his spare time during his undergraduate studies. Although he didn’t pursue that path, he utilized his skills in level design. He used to work in several indie game companies, one of which was a company founded with friends, before he was hired by E.V.O. Games. He was excellent at his job, and his ideas and inputs always improved whatever project he worked on. Because of this, after a few years, he was promoted to creative director.

His latest project was “The Evolutionists’ Portal,” a 3D pixel-style puzzle game in which the player has to navigate the world to find portals hidden in each level, and these portals progress the game. With each portal traveled into, the world becomes bigger and more complicated, making each portal harder to find. However, with multiplayer, this task is easier through working together (and doing fun shenanigans together).

It had a buggy release, especially for multiplayer, but it built a decent player fanbase; the story itself was short and simple, but it was replayable thanks to its multiplayer mode.

For visualization, it’s 3D with a top-down perspective like “Pokemon Diamond/Pear/Platinum” but has gameplay similar to “Stardew Valley”

Gria and his team get along well, and he is quite close to some of them:

Martyn: an audio engineer. This is the first game he’s worked on since he was first hired in the company.

“Big B”: a VFX artist. He and Gria joined the company around the same time and bonded over stressful deadlines and annoying seniors when they started out.

Jimmy: the project manager. Although Gria takes a lot of joy in teasing him, he is hardworking and great at keeping everyone in check with the calendar. Out of everyone, he is the one Gria is closest with. He also works on another game by the company called “Empires.” 

Pearl: an environment artist. She joined the company a bit later in the development. It is her first time dealing with pixel graphics but she did it incredibly well. She also works on “Empires” with Jimmy.

“Empires” is a free-to-play fantasy open-world action gacha RPG. It is the biggest game of the company and their title game. 

For visualization, it’s just “Genshin Impact” and “Honkai: Star Rail”.

Recently, there was a buzz around that their game, “Empires”, will have a collaboration event with another big name. Gria was too busy and overworked to take notice of this, though. 

The fruits of his labor later came as game nominations for “Best Multiplayer” and “Best Audio Design.” Gria was happy their work was acknowledged by players worldwide, even if they didn’t win.

B. Hermitopia

After so long, Gria finally took a week off. It was foreign to have no obligations for even a day. He doesn’t use this time to travel; instead, he sits at home and lurks on the internet to keep up with gaming news and updates. He uses the username “Xelqua” with a red macaw as his profile picture.

He stumbled upon a “Redstone tutorial” post by the user ”Potatonutshell”. Curious and intrigued by how such a complicated contraption is possible in a game (and bored out of his mind), he asked this user what game it was for. Potatonutshell briefly, and over-excitedly, DM’d Gria with a huge wall of text about this game called “Hermitopia 6.”

In the beginning days of his break, Gria spent time messaging this Potatonutshell fella, named “Mumbo.” Mumbo named himself after a character named “Mumbo Jumbo”, who is one of the most skilled “redstoners” in the game. He related heavily with the character and took a lot of interest in the redstone circuitry game feature as he is a programmer in real life. Gria thought the game was interesting, but not enough to install a 36 GB game for $39.99. He changed his mind when Mumbo told him more about the game, especially its base-building mechanic.

“Hermitopia 6: Hermit Civil War” is an open-world fantasy action RPG known for its base-building core mechanic. It is the sixth game in the franchise, and each game starts in a brand-new world. The player and the lovable NPCs are called hermits, a band of humans, fae, hybrids, and other species who live together on an island and work together to live a sustainable life amidst the hostile creatures that roam the world. 

For visualization, it’s like “Skyrim” with “Baldur’s Gate 3” graphics and dialogue UI.

Gria planned to try it for a few hours, only humoring his new internet friend, until he met this beautiful NPC named “Scar Goodtimes” — a human-vex hybrid with scars all over his “handsome face and carved body”, as Gria would personally describe him. He was also a builder who lived near Gria’s very odd underwater base. Throughout the remaining days of his break, and his weekends after that, Gria played Hermitopia 6 religiously.

Scar calls him “GRIAN”, which was a typo error — Gria pressed enter early in the name selection screen and he didn’t realize it until Scar first mentioned his name 3 hours into the game. He can’t be bothered to fix it, though (and he's grown fond of it.)

Gria continued to play the game in his free time, slowly falling in love with the game as he kept on playing. He also kept talking to Mumbo, who he fanboyed about the game with. He found out that Mumbo lived close by too, so they hung out frequently and bonded over the game.

Gria: I genuinely thought you had a big mustache, y’know, like Mumbo Jumbo. Mumbo: I do too! It’s... it's there! [he shows his very faint mustache] It's there! Gria: sure.

Xelqua started off as a lurker, to an active Hermitopia fan account. He was interested in the base-building aspect of the game and shared his designs online.

Hermitopia is not a dating simulator. There is no romance mechanic in the game. Anyway, Gria installed (and tweaked) a romance mod because no one can stop him from flirting with his fictional vex boyfriend.

Mumbo: Grian, if I hadn't met you personally, I would've pictured you as a crazy Scar fanatic. Gria: Wha— How— I’m not crazy. Mumbo: You downloaded a romance mod just to flirt with Scar and commissioned an artist to draw a scene from it, and now you have it framed on your bedroom wall. So, Grian, I think that’s crazy behavior. Gria: … I do what I want, Mumbo!

Gria's love for the game and Scar grew more as another hermitopia game was released (Hermitopia 7). Then, he, as Xelqua, became a notorious name because of a supposedly harmless poll about the sexiest character in the game. He was known as the insane Scar fan.

He's got every Scar merch, though there isn't much Hermitopia merch released in general. However, if someone posts about a new Scar fan merch, a certain username might appear in their notifications, like a hound trailing a scent. Haters and trolls are also dragged to hell and back because, if they aren't regretful after being berated by this insane man, they will not be able to surf through the web in peace as long as Xelqua holds a grudge. 

As insane as this Xelqua person is, Scar had become a popular character within the fandom, compared to his old status as an underrated sweetheart without much attention or fanfare thanks to Xelqua constantly (for years without missing a day) talking about him. Xelqua also organized or helped some Scar fan events and constantly supported merch creators with hermitopia merch (especially if it involved Scar.)

User Xelqua, about Scar: He is my little sunshine, my precious sunflower. He might’ve killed some men, but he was hot while doing it.

C. The Collaboration Event

Back to Game dev stuff, Gria isn’t open about his current obsession with his coworkers. When the collaboration event with the “Empires” games was finally announced, two representatives from the other company came to visit. “Skizzleman” has been a writer for Hermitopia since the 3rd game. A character from Empires, Gemini, will become a new character in the next Hermitopia game, and there will be a DLC that will add a new small map with many biomes and new materials. In Empires, Hermitopia characters will be featured in a limited-run gacha banner and a limited-time story event. 

Now a Hermitopia fan, Gria tried to interview Skizzleman about the game (while making it not obvious how obsessed he is with it). Skizzleman was the one who wrote the lore for “Impulse” as well as most of his dialogue throughout the games.

Another representative for Hermitopia, the lead designer Joel, came to visit for the collab event. He is a fanatic of Empires and a diehard “Shadow Lady” fan, which is why he is so excited to work with E.V.O. Games for the collab.

Accompaniment art for this here: link

Gria was never into gacha games, but with a mix of Pearl and Jimmy convincing him to try the game they worked on (not to mention the fact that it is free-to-play), and showing him an initial sketch of what some hermitopia characters will look like in the game (this isn’t allowed, but Jimmy and Pearl found the thought of their serious coworker playing a gacha game amusing), he finally caved. Little did they know, showing a topless concept art of Scar is more than enough to reel him in.

When the collab update was finally released, Gria grinded Empires just to get Scar. He practically paid his own salary back to his company just to get Scar to max level and his additional skins. (He loved his new “HotGuy” skin the most)

With the release of “Hermitopia 8: Moon Collision” and the introduction of co-op multiplayer mode, Gria invited Pearl to play with him with the excuse that they're only going to see how Gemini looks in the game. Gria successfully got Pearl hooked on the game.

D. The Watchers Studio

Before Gria properly applied to a game company, he developed small-scale games with his high school friends. They called themselves “The Watchers.” He met them in a small art club and they bonded over their favorite games. Gria’s favorite game growing up was an old zombie game with a title he can no longer remember.

One of their unfinished games was “The Life Game.” It was a battle-royal death game where the players had to gather resources and have limited lives.

Two of their old friend group recently reached out to Gria to catch up. They said they wanted to work on “The Life Game” again and wanted to ask Gria if he wanted to join again. Of course, Gria already had a job himself, so he declined. However, he hung out with the two and checked in with their progress, nostalgia hitting him as they relived their old game ideas.

The two invited Gria to do an alpha test and asked him to invite any friends who might find it fun. Gria invited Jimmy, Pearl, Martyn, and Big B, as well as Skizzleman and Joel who he’s been acquainted with. He also sent an invite to Mumbo, who was unfortunately busy with his job at the moment. 

To Gria’s surprise, the two had turned their game into a VR game. All seven of them played in a medium-sized studio, and although the game was fun, it was nausea-inducing, especially for Joel. They all lost to the Computer-AI characters, which concluded their Alpha Test.

After the meetup, the two lent them their CD copy of the game with the VR Headset they used (which was suspiciously generous of them).

Skizzleman liked the game a lot and asked if they could do it again sometime, which Gria relayed to his two old friends. Pearl shared the same sentiment but is too caught up with work which makes her unable to join their next session.

The gang kept discussing the game they played and its potential to become a hit with a little more polish. This made Gria feel proud of his old team and his past self, reminding him of the time he was passionate about making games despite his lack of experience. 

With limited coding knowledge and a little help from Mumbo, he made a server to host “The Life Game” online instead of LAN. He sent copies to Mumbo and Pearl in case they’d join later. According to the two, the game had more improvements to it since the last time they played it, which was months ago.

Gria had a small voice in his head telling him this was a bad idea— well, he did get a bit sick in the last session, but everyone had fun. So, he ignored the warning bells and hit “Join World.”

This marks the End of Prologue Part One Next Chapter > PART TWO: UNFIXABLE ERROR

ENDING NOTES: I've been brainrotting and hyperfixating on the idea for a while now, and I don't know how to let it all out so I'm going to try out this format. Hopefully I could add more to this! Thank you if you've read this far into the post. :) Made a spotify playlist too in case anyone is interested (I'm still working on this though)

[inkedinserendipity]

oh my god this session is unhinged. that session of wild life was CRAZY. for so many reasons. oh my god???

- mumbo and skizz killing grian. he brought them back to the series! and they KILLED HIM!!

- martyn having listener powers. I put my phone down and cheesed so hard. martyn! the listener!!! CRAZY!! absolutely could not believe that was random. still can’t believe it.

-bdubs’ bed ability was PERFECT it was so good. love that for him. i think he should have authority over the day and night always.

- skyblings real 💕 grian and pearl having the ability to fly 💕💕

- grian trying to fly in a life series killed him 💕💕💕

- still going feral about that last one actually because of the common headcanon that he loses his wings for the life series. and then he gets back and icarus-ass falls out of the sky? dies from it?? remember his last death in third life?? CRAZY

- spanners back together!!!!! going for tango!!!! love it love them. love the reunion even if grian would not stop fucking killing them

- even if they got him first 💕

- scar’s little “grian stop [killing people] every time I think you’ve died :( “ desert duo real. desert duo real?

- scar’s superpower being protective…something something watcher grian giving him a power that would keep him safe…keep other people from attacking him…desert duo REAL

- i was so stressed for grian trying to kill on red in the last fifteen minutes

- mumbo became a BEAST out of nowhere that was so funny i love that for him

- martyn being so down to lose a life if it meant causing chaos. good for him

can’t wait to watch the other POVs they’re gonna be so good

[ty-bayonet-betteridge]

i think my favorite thing about Pearl is the way her arcs always come back to simplicity. over and over she rejects glory in favor of just living her life. she ends HC8 by losing everything she has, diving into the void with nothing but her friends to accompany her. in Empires her kingdom was defined by farming - the very symbol of a peaceful life. in HC9's Empires crossover she actively rejects being referred to as Santa Perla, saying how absurd it would be for her, a simple cleaning lady, to be a god. even when she does remember, she doesnt make a scene out of it. theres no dramatic shouting to the room or swearing vengeance for her kingdom having been burnt - the only outward sign she gives of her memory returning is her telling Sausage, a soft word to an old friend from across the room. then she goes right back to her simple job keeping the server clean. and then there's Decked Out - she doesn't win, and she doesn't get any recognition in the final day ceremony except for a brief sentence, but she's okay with that - because she knows, and the Dungeon knows, and Tango knows, that she's the one who really understood the Dungeon. in Double Life, her entire motivation is to not be lonely - something she only manages at the very end, when she, Cleo, Martyn, and Scott are a real team, and she ends her season with the act of forgiveness as her final words. in Limited Life and Secret Life, she states outright that she doesn't want to win - she makes her goal to have good friends and to get one of them to win. over and over and over again all Pearl wants is a nice life and a few friends to share it with.

[bc-jpeg]

Thoughts on Grumbo?

I would kill for them. I think they might be the biggest hyperfixation ship in my life, I don't remember this level of insanity with any other fandom before.

I guess it’s not that visible from me, because I prefer to keep my socials blogs kinda clean from rebloging stuff*, AND I don’t draw them so often because I have so much projects on me and no time, it’s kinda sad.

honestly, if I had started, there would have been a huge lecture about grumbo, they have had so much going on for several years, and all the details fit so perfectly into an incredibly interesting dynamic that includes not only the interaction between the two of them, but also the essence of each of them, some character traits, daily habits, traumas and etc.

I'm going to say something that really upsets me. the problem of grumbo's non-popularity is very much based on the fact that their ship does not lie on the surface. it’s not as accessible as other popular ships in this fandom, and this is extremely painful, considering what their history really is.

grumbo are built on much bigger things than just silly interactions between characters that you might notice in episodes, even bigger than scripted lore moments on hermitcraft and life series. everything goes from their very first collabs to this day for several years already, and some micro fragments/clips from their videos are simply NOTHING compared to the context of the whole story. and just a disclaimer: I'm talking about the characters here, not about real people, the whole story only falls on their characters.

I often see that people may not understand grumbo’s ship dynamic at all simply because they watch only one pov (mostly grian). in this case, I beg you to watch both povs, you miss a lot if you watch only one person. in general, you can also watch third-party people with them! last life grumbo are also built on martyn's pov, for example.

I am so happy that their story started spinning again at the end of the hc s9 due to mumbo’s return, now in hc s10 + WHATEVER IS GOING ON in life series (especially in life series, because mumbo has NEVER had such possessive moments about grian before).

“forget the cactus ring, the desert i'm stuck in is sahara”

* I often reblog things from @mwapollo because he can put everything into right words MUCH better than me, especially when we discussing it all on a daily basis together, so we literally have the same vision about grumbo. I just really want all of his thoughts to be seen in this fandom. ykw I would turn it into shout-out, GO TO @mwapollo’s blog I DARE you. if you’re a grumbo fan, his blog is my first recommendation to go to.

[orangeocelotmartyn]

Martyn calls Iskall to ask to join Vault Hunters

transcript under the cut

Martyn: So, I-I don't know what I'm going to do now. I've got (coughs) a lot of time between now and when Rats SMP starts, um, in October, so…we gotta figure something out. My gosh. I tell you what, actually, I do have one idea. Let me…let me make a call real quick, hold on. Let me see what I can do…there we are. (Discord beings ringing) Martyn: Give me a second. (call is picked up after ringing a few times) Martyn: Hello. Iskall: Hello? Martyn: Hello! H-how are you? Iskall: Hello? I--wh--I thought we agreed not to ring each other on Discord. Why--how have you managed to get my Discord to send me a notification-- Martyn: Look-- Iskall: I--this is so cursed. Martyn: Look, we don't need to go into the semantics of it, okay? Barry and the Belbs, they've got a lot of programming knowledge, they know how to break things, um. Iskall: It's the one guy, its the one man, it's the--I knew it. Martyn: It's always Barry. Iskall: It's always Barry, yeah. Martyn: When you ask how, its always Barry. Um, so, this is a random call. My calendar has just opened up, uh, for-for the forseeable future, I got nothing till I have to go back to Paris, um, so I was wondering if I could join Vault Hunters? Iskall: Oh! Uh, I mean that's starting in eight days-- Martyn, hopefully: Yeah? Iskall: Uh, and your schedule cleared-cleared up (clears throat) Do you not know--this is, this is not how you join an SMP. You don't just call your friend and ask if you can join. You have to call your friend, give them a bribe, and then you can join. Martyn: Okay, wh-what bribe, what bribe do you want? I-What--what do you need? Iskall: I-I. Now I have to think about it. Martyn: Yeah, cause I was going to say, whatever you were gonna say, I don't have it. But what I do have is desperation, and uh, pluck, and puns. And that's all I can really bring to the table. Iskall: You know what, I-I-I d--okay, will you be-its a difficult server-- Martyn: I heard there was an okay, I heard there was an okay! C'mon! C'mon! I'm in! Iskall: I didn't say okay yet! Martyn: You heard-I heard 'okay!' Iskall: We gotta do the interview! Okay, we gotta do the interview. Martyn: Oh, okay. Iskall: Okay, here we go, okay, here it is. Are you an enjoyer? Martyn: Sometimes. Iskall: It--"sometimes," okay. I, uh, hold on, let me note that down. (clears throat) "Sometimes." Have you played before? Martyn: Played what? Uno? Yeah, I played Uno before, yeah. Iskall: Okay, 'Uno' is good, yeah, Uno is good. Martyn: Cool. Iskall: That-that's a pass, there, okay. Uhh, lets see here, uh its not that I'm coming up with questions, I just, I've got a terrible headache today-- Martyn: It's fine, its all good-- Iskall: --and slowly reading the script that I have for like, new members to the SMP-- Martyn: You know what I heard, I heard pity is the best medicine. Iskall: (small pause, snorts to himself) Martyn we'd love to have you, we'd love to have you. Martyn: Yeah!!! Vault Hunters SMP here! We! Come! Iskall: Heck yeah! Martyn: Let's do it!

[cherrifire]

Not sure if this has been asked before, but why did Scar and Martyn choose the cutie marks they did for their pony disguises? Or did they not choose them? :0

RIGHT! Now I can talk about the fake cutie marks! So everything I said about Martyn and Scar’s cutie marks before was a LIE >:)

So Martyn’s cutie mark, if you recall, was of a log and twig. I said it was to represent the fact Martyn is a wanderer at heart, but that's not true.

Simply, when Martyn ran away from the hive, he had to come up with a permanent disguise and fast. He had to blend in to not scare the ponies of the first town he ran into, but he couldn't just pretend to be someone else since he hadn't had enough time to spy in on somepony and properly get into character. So he improvised and made his cutie mark a log he passed while running.

Then it just sort of stuck. He made up the name (Littlewood) and started wandering from town to town. Then when he got hungry, he'd steal somepony's life for a day, eat their love, then move on. Rinse and repeat until he makes it to Dogwarts where he meets Ren and accidentally becomes the element of laughter. This is where he gets a bit more confident, wanting to be a little honest with his new friends, and tells them part of his real name, adding "Martyn." Making his name "Martyn Littlewood." Permanent.

And as for Scar's, instead of picking one immediately and sticking to it, Scar's cutie mark changes CONSTANTLY.

One of the bits I intended for Scar (which some people have already picked up on) is Scar is sort of like Derpy? In a sense where if this was an actual show with animation, Scar would end up with a good amount of "animation errors." He's supposed to be an earth pony with the coins + bag + top hat cutie mark, but sometimes he's... animatied wrong.

Sometimes he's a pegasus, sometimes he gets a unicorn horn. And his cutie mark keeps changing. One time it was a bundle of coins, another time it was just the top hat. Once it was just a grey and white cat! Sometimes the colour to his mane is wrong. Etc. Etc.

These "animation errors" would get brushed away for a bit as just Scar being Scar. The pony sadly getting all the errors in this show. But this is where Scar is a little different from Derpy, because in the end it's revealed he's a CHANGELING and all those "errors" were intentional foreshadowing.

On Scar's end, he simply just keeps switching appearances because 1. He thinks it's funny and 2. He just can't decide what he likes! He wants to try out every appearance he can and can't decide on what's the best! Yeah, Cub keeps telling him to "stick to one disguise," and "we're going to get caught if you keep doing that," and "Scar where did you even get that cat???" But Scar really likes messing with the little details! He wants it to be perfect :(

[izelthewashbear]

Life series theory / analysis

// SPOILERS for Wild Life finale!

Okay so I have a theory about the winners and their character development throught the series:

Is it just me, or is Joel the only winner who had a positive character development through the series?

Just so that we're on the same page: Character development refers to cultivating certain traits in individuals that help guide their behavior. That means positive character development cultivates positive traits in a person, and negative character development (yes it's a thing) cultivates the negative traits. I was thinking about the finale of Wild Life and all of the winners and honestly? Joel seems to be the only one with positive character development. Also, I'm only talking about the characters, not the content creators, just so that there are no weird insinuations.

Let's go over the winners first, shall we?

Grian - the creator of Life and the one establishing the rules - immediately goes on to break them with an unprovoked green-on-green kill on Scar. Not to mention the toxic codependent yaoi these two developed on the desert and still can't leave behind.

Scott - the guy who was seen as one of the most loyal, ended up winning while avenging all of his fallen allies - learning that even alliances are fleeting and he can't keep himself too tied to anyone. The moment the next game starts, he almost immediately bounces from his goverment assigned soulmate and isn't really keen on making things even between them. Even at the end, the decision to sacrifice himself for Pearl is his and his only.

Pearl - do I even have to say it? Being rejected by the one person who was supposed to have her back, she turned on everyone and seemed better for it. Her trauma was not her fault, and neither was the negative character development - but it did occur.

Martyn - I could write a whole essay on LimL!Martyn and one day I shall do that. The guy that lost his therapy dog for 24h and proceeded to make enemies all across server, gain one (1) ally and backstab him at the final moment. Like cmon.

Scar - the somewhat oblivious, but kindhearted social butterfly (U think I can call him that?) decided he's better on his own and withdrew from the others, slowly turning into the villain of the server. Every time he had allies, he ended up worse for it - but this one time, even he couldn't believe "How did the guy with no friends win?"

Cleo - okay this one is a bit murky, since Real life was so short (and some people even consider it non canon but I digress). I'd just say that it was so short, they didn't really have any time for character development - but if you saw something interesting, lemme know.

And then there's Joel. The guy who struggles with keeping alliances and the moment he turns red, he only sees red. But the one time he starts depending on his family, the one time when he tries to keep himself out of red for as long as possible and doesn't fully give in to the bloodlust after turning red - he wins.

Anyways thank you for coming to my TED talk, if you noticed anything interesting lemme know Also this is like not very serious, I haven't watched all winners POVs so sorry if I accidentally mixed something up

[xino-writes]

Life Series Seasons are based on THEIR WINNER. As in, that season’s winner. Sure, it obviously fits the previous winners, obviously, but. Y’know. They gave their winners an advantage with the ruleset in some manner.

3rd Life.

Grian wins the first game. The beginner game. Befitting of it’s creator to win it first. After all, he’s more acquainted with it, he’s willing to bend the rules and fight tooth and nail to the end. He gets bent to Scar’s will, but that’s what kept him alive longer. He is like the older sibling palying a board game against their younger sibling(s) and beating them.

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Last Life.

Scott is someone who values his allies lives over his own. The ability to give and receive lives clearly reflect this. If given the chance, he’d have given an ally a life just to keep them around longer. The Boogeyman, a way to break alliances, the whole reds can’t ally with non-reds, they’re ways to combat this. And still, he could thrive.

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Double Life.

Pearl. The lonely one wins the series where the entire point is you will forever have an ally. Your lives are linked to another player and yet Pearl is still alone. And she won for good reason. After all, if another pair made it to the end, there can only be one winner. In the end, we would’ve had another cactus ring situation, and Pearl won instead. She was the winner curated for this season.

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Limited Life.

Martyn winning the time-based season suits him. (.. i haven’t watched LimLife. I can’t say a word on this.)

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Real Life

Cleo won the joke April Fools season. She won the season where everyone was in a new situation and was thrust into the game with VR. It was full of jokes and gags and truly befitting of The ZombieCleo. She won the season where everything was new and she prevailed. She knows how to take advantage of the way that people work with new situations. (We see this with the Crastle especially. The entire series was new and she used Bdubs’ surprise at being allied with the Desert as a way to rein him in from doing something he may regret. [targetting the desert, etho, anyone who hurt the crastle, etc.])

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Secret Life

Scar won this season for good reason. In past seasons he would go on short side-tasks and return to his main task in the end. He was isolated for good reason, too. He’s a good player. Such a good player, and yet he’s always died before making it to being a winner. But being isolated helped him see his potential as a winner. And he won. It’s also ironic that the series that ends the curse starts with the man who started the curses in the first place. (Grian’s Widow Curse, his alliances led to the Canary Curse, etc. etc.)

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Wild Life

Joel. Oh, Joel. The wildcard. He is wild on red and wild on green. He thrives in the wild and that’s how he won. He is known for his wildness and the series based on it is clearly the reason why he won this time. There is no other way fitting for him to win. He was reined in, yes, but that’s also how he won. He wasn’t as wild as before because there was already a way to be wild. The Wildcards. Competing with the gimmick of the day would result in his death and there’s got to be reason for his wildness in the end. He isn’t like this for no reason, after all.

[tibby-art]

what is the convexian hitman au?

To sum it up, Cub and Scar are hitmen that work for the local government, the NHO. Once human, the two made a pact with a mischievous fae entity called the Vex in exchange for power. They were once the most dangerous criminal duo in the city, until they were finally caught. They were given two options: work for the government as hitmen, or life in prison. The vex can make pacts that cannot be broken, so they have to do what the NHO says (but they find loopholes at every given opportunity).

The NHO was a group from hermitcraft season 5 and consists of Bdubs, Doc, Etho and Beef. It stands for the New hermit order and they manage city affairs and try to maintain peace (emphasis on try to).

Grian (who uses he/she pronouns in this au) is a university student studying architecture, and has a pretty normal life. That is until one day, when he comes in contact with an ancient artifact while out studying ancient architecture ruins. He gains the powers of a Watcher - eldritch beings so mysterious they were long considered to be a myth. She gains new sixth-sense abilities that are incredibly overwhelming. The NHO swoops in before Grian can hurt anyone or herself with her new powers, and takes Grian to their base, where he is studied by their best doctors and scientists for months.

The NHO deems Grian’s new abilities too powerful and unpredictable to allow him to return to society as a normal citizen, so Grian is also brought into hitmen work. Her new abilities- once she gains better control over them- can be used to help keep the city safe. Grian is handed off to the ConVex hitmen duo to be trained as a hitman abd to aid them on their missions.

There are more minor characters I’d like to introduce to the au as well! For example, Martyn is a youtuber and internet sleuth convinced that Watchers are real. No one really believes him, until Grian comes in contact with him, asking for any information about the Watchers…

I think my main inspiration behind the au was that Watcher!Grian is often depicted as this omniscient, all-knowing powerful demigod, and I thought it would be interesting to explore a Grian who has Watcher powers, but they’re brand new to him and he has no idea how to use them. Also I just like convexian as a trio lol

I want to make an organized masterpost eventually when I have time, but for now I try to keep everything in the #convexian hitman au tag! You can read a lot more about it there, there’s plenty of doodles, writing snippets and general yapping. Feel free to send asks about it :P