#scar on his red life was about to die so grian gave up one of his so that he wouldn’t be mcfucking 100% dead

[hopepetal]

for the writing prompts, pearl getting hug-bombed after double life <3

Hiii Wren

Yeah this isn't all that great but here ya go

--

PearlescentMoon joined the game.

<GoodTimeWithScar> where is she

<GoodTimeWithScar> looking through her base. she's not here

<ImpulseSV> Doesn't look like she's near boatem at all

<Xisuma> One moment, please.

<Xisuma> She's at spawn.

<Grian> Makes sense

<Grian> I'm near spawn, I'm heading over

<MumboJumbo> I'll grab some blankets and water, can someone grab potions?

<ImpulseSV> I got you

<ImpulseSV> Scar, where are you

<ImpulseSV> Scar?

<Xisuma> He's flying.

<Grian> At spawn

<Grian> I see her

<MumboJumbo> I'm heading over with Impulse, we have supplies

<GoodTimeWithScar> Don't bring golden apples

<GoodTimeWithScar> bring potions or anything else but not golden apples

<GoodTimeWithScar> Grian is she okay

<GoodTimeWithScar> well obviously not but

<Grian> She's got some pretty bad scars

<Grian> And she's not really... Here

<Grian> Mentally, I mean. She looks pretty shaken

<Xisuma> I'm coming to spawn. I'll see you all there.

--

Pearl's feet touched stone before the rest of her followed as her knees gave out. She didn't even register the familiar heaviness on her back from her wings, coming back into existence after being suppressed during the death game. Her ears still rang from the explosion, her left eye forced shut from the stinging pain seared into scars on her skin.

She had to get up. She had to– had to pull herself together, had to reorient herself or else she would die, and death meant more pain and suffering and loneliness and...

“Tilly,” Pearl heard herself cry, sounding as though she were underwater, “Tilly darling, where are you?” Her vision was too blurry for her to see far, and the complete darkness in her left eye terrified her. If she couldn't see, then she was in danger because anyone could sneak up on her and hurt her or kill her.

She was about to call out for Tilly again before she remembered.

Pearl remembered pain.

She remembered fighting.

She remembered betrayal, and killing, and blood and the screams, and she remembered dying.

Pearl... remembered dying.

Pearl thought she was crying, but she couldn't tell through the haze of blood and death and pain and victory, bitter tasting victory. She didn't even flinch away when gentle hands reached out and cleaned the blood and dirt from her face, brushed the knots from her hair, bandaged the new scars she bore from the final explosion.

She saw red at one point and flinched away, and the red was replaced with green and brown and a kind, concerned voice asking if she was okay. Pearl wanted to laugh at that. Wasn't the answer obvious? She wasn't okay. She didn't think she ever would be okay again.

She was sitting on something soft now, wrapped in blankets (when had she started shivering?) and in a room that was both familiar and strange to her. Her ears had stopped ringing but she still felt as though she was underwater, everything muffled and moving in slow motion. Something soft– bandages, maybe– covered the left side of Pearl's face, keeping her eye shut. She was still on edge about not being able to see on one side, but it was something that would heal in time.

Unlike her heart, which still beat sorrowfully in her chest, shattered into one thousand pieces. She felt... numb, numb and tired and hurt and scared.

Pearl didn't even know she had spoken until the background noise of unintelligible conversation stopped. For a moment, she was confused, before looking around at the people she thought she should know.

“Pearl?” And his voice is so startlingly familiar it pulls her back to Earth, and Pearl found herself gazing into Scar's eyes. “Pearl, are you with us?”

Somehow, Pearl found it in herself to crack a smile and attempt a joke. “Looks like I am.”

Scar blinked, and his eyes filled up with tears. “Oh, Pearl...” He threw his arms around her and hugged Pearl tightly, shoulders shaking as he started to sob. “I'm so glad you're back...”

One by one, the others in the room– they were in one of the houses closer to spawn– murmured a 'welcome home' and carefully joined the hug. Mumbo, Impulse, and Grian, who wrapped his wings around the entire group.

Pearl's throat closed up as she practically melted into her friends' arms. The gentle touch after spending so long alone practically burned, and Pearl was unable to hold back tears. She broke down sobbing, clinging to Scar.

And maybe, the hug helped to mend a piece of her heart, stitching the parts back together with threads of love.

And maybe, just maybe, it gave Pearl hope that one day, things would be okay.

[sulatni-flerida11]

wild life session 3 (cleo, tango, and scar's povs)

SNAILS SNAILS SNAILS SNAILS SNAILS OH MY GOD I LOVE THEM DEARLY they're all designed after the CCs :') i know they're deadly as HECK but genuinely that was stressful and entertaining and wow i am still in shock

JIMMY WHY WOULD YOU TAUNT DEATH BY CREEPER JIMMY WHY WHY WHY -

(about jimmy's death) "what moron would die to a creeper?" tango,,, oh tango,,, *double life and prev. wild life session flashbacks*

alright who gave tango some gifts of prophecy -

scar & lizzie thinking they're safe underground followed by lizzie's snail just BREAKING INTO THE SPAWNER ???? please you can hear it in their voices they're panicking 😭😭

4Gs (was it impulse that said it first) saying they're like snowbirds as they try to base closer to the rest of the server,,, more avian headcanons -

bdubs and scar's snails :') they DO look similar but bdubs has the wide grin and scar has the smirk that's so good - (more clockers brainrot but what if they were twins (cleo & etho i think say scar's the older one on stream so i'll roll with that))

impulse and pearl's deaths 😭😭 please a part of me wishes they get back to dark green next session but another part REALLY wants them to go red because,,, y'know,,, they do the stabbing and scott & cleo do the sweet talking,,,

etho and cleo showing each other their snails was a nice moment :') (sorry i'm a cletho girlie love me some divorced besties)

5Gs just doing a snail race from the forest up to the bamboozlers mountain :') they're like "yeah they can kill us but we can have fun with it :>"

etho walking up to impulse going all "i'm a tough guy !! >:] you don't want to try me !! >:]" and then cleo cuts in to his face with a diamond sword then goes "don't mess with my team mate" to ETHO SQUEALING ???? THEN GOING "i'm a tough guy i swear !!" HAHSJSJSHA man he's actually afraid of cleo 😭😭 your honor you were literally teamed with her in secret life calm down i thought it was a bit he does but really didn't mean it but no - (i like to think he got flashbacks to when cleo accidentally stabbed him with a sword in one of their secret life intros but this time they're not allied anymore so etho's genuinely like "oh they CAN stab me")

CLEO SCOTT AND IMPULSE WITNESSING ETHO BLOWN UP BY A CREEPER AFTER THE PREV 😭😭 LMAOOOO

TANGO BURNING BAMBOOZLERS BASE THEN JIMMY'S "TANGO NO I THOUGHT WE WERE FRIENDS!" as he tried to stop him,,, farewell ranchers love loses

SKIZZ KILLING SCAR BECAUSE JIMMY KILLED SKIZZ NOOOOO

SCAR WANTING TO END IT ALL WITH SCOTT AND LIZZIE PUSHING HIM AWAY FROM HIS SNAIL PLEASE this is the first wild life ep. i've seen from scar and he already sounds so done and wanting to kill skizz

TANGO WHY DID YOU JUST JUMP OFF THE TREEBARK BASE TO 1 HEART TANGO WHY WHY WHY - (i know i just said ranchers love loses but god these two are the CEOs of self-sabotage hey yall meet mr. "don't wanna die first from canary curse" and mr. "dies accidentally and unceremoniously ft. a bit of tnt")

"where's my snail -" *dies* *replays moment twice in video* tango i am cackling

"he's adorable and i hate his face" tango just summed up how all the lifers feel about their snails

joel's snail jumpscaring joel 😭😭

i know martyn told scar that he was thinking of brewing potions and etho told cleo, scott, and impulse about the trip to the nether but i didn't think they'd actually,,, brew potions and throw invis at a snail (see: eSCARgot)

scar helping jimmy with kills throughout the session,,,, turns out SCAR needs the kills more because he's frickin red now -

grian frantically typing in chat "END OF SESSION" the moment he realizes scar just went to red because his snail is invisible while skizz & tango are also red,,, (ngl i thought jimmy would be one of the red names but y'know this is way worst)

love cleo posing with their snail at the end of the session <3

fave snail designs: cleo, bigb, lizzie, scar, bdubs

[cryptidorchid]

I’ve seen a lot of people call out Scott’s lack of care for Jimmy’s life in Third Life. (Usually, this is part of their explanation for why they think flower husbands is toxic) And I think these points are interesting but kind of miss that the lack of care is reciprocated by Jimmy.

In Scott’s case, the moments I see pointed out the most are the two times Scott treated Jimmy dying like it was a spectator sport. Like when Jimmy got attacked by the enderman or Jimmy played the Tango’s lava minigame and Scott was like “I’m just here to see if Jimmy dies” and when he told Grian that “once our husbands die, we can be free.” 

I will play devil’s advocate for a moment here and say that in all of these moments, regardless of what Scott was saying about it, he took action to try to keep Jimmy alive. In the first two instances mentioned, he gave Jimmy advice to help him survive and in the last one with Grian, he suggested Jimmy should stay in the bunker so he could be safer. But I will admit that Scott acts very apathetic about Jimmy dying.

In Jimmy’s case, he’s less verbally apathetic but his actions seem strange for someone who should want Scott to stay alive. Like that time where Grian and Scar let their enderman free to attack Scott and Jimmy scolded Scott for killing the enderman because it upset Grian and Scar. And even when Scott was being attacked, Jimmy’s response was just yelling that he wasn’t the one who looked at the enderman and then watching as Scott gets attacked. And there was that time when they found the enchanting table outside of Renchanting and Jimmy (correctly) guessed that it might be a trap so he told Scott to mine it.  For the second one, Jimmy says it’s because he’s just died so he doesn’t want to die again which would be fair, except neither of them have any motivation to mine the enchanting table in the first place, so the reasonable response would be “it might be a trap so neither of us should mine it”

Which made it really weird when the Dogwarts confrontation happened and suddenly, they’re all protective over each other. Suddenly, they’re like “Jimmy, don’t go near the scary red name!” and “Scott, what if they sacrifice you on their altar?” 

What? Where did this come from? At least in Scott’s case, I can guess it was because Jimmy’s now a red name so if Jimmy dies, it’s permanent. I don’t know what was up with Jimmy in that moment.

And, as far as them continuing to be protective after that? On Scott’s end, he was pretty consistent and explicit about wanting to keep Jimmy safe after that (except for him being weirdly happy about the idea of being a widow, don’t know what was up with that). 

On Jimmy’s end, after this, as far as I can tell, he went back to using Scott’s green life as an excuse to ask Scott to take risks. He finds a cake unexpectedly in his house, thinks it might be a trap, and asks Scott to eat it and tell him if anything bad happens. When they're in a fight with Dogwarts, Jimmy tells Scott that he should "get in there" because he’s a green name. Honestly, I don’t think these are that bad because Jimmy was on red and Scott was on green, but it is a big difference from him burning the Dogwarts banner over just the possibility that they might try to kill Scott (and it implies that Jimmy sees Scott's life as disposable which while pragmatic, is not very kind). Anyway, my main point is that I can’t remember Jimmy ever really being worried about Scott’s life outside of the one moment with Dogwarts.

In conclusion, neither of them seemed to be super concerned about the other one dying (Scott said it. Jimmy acted like it) until Jimmy went to red. Which I think mostly had to do with the fact that they both knew the other had more lives to spare. They really lived their lives like “me and my husband who couldn't care less if I live or die.” My dysfunctional faves.

[mcybree]

On 3l!Jimmy and guilt and FH and various tangential things: a post that got out of hand and morphed into something completely different by the end. Enjoy?

I read a good Jimmy analysis post a while back on how important Jimmy’s pride is to him, and how he’ll back himself up when no one else will, often to his own detriment. And this is such a key part of his character, right. Jimmy doesn’t often withdraw or get all nervous and shy when bad shit happens to him, he gets louder and angry and all riled up about it. He projects his insecurities outwards and then picks battles over anything he perceives as an insult.

So it is strange how that seems to be… almost missing in third life. In that series specifically, he withdraws more often than not, he fears making independent decisions, and he makes concessions he typically would rather make a stupid hill to die on than consider:

Joel and Martyn tell Jimmy they feel lied to, and Jimmy is quick to ask how he can make it up to them, agreeing to give them cows for free. Jimmy is threatened by Grian and Scar into giving up his diamond chestplate and he folds easily, then goes home to tell Scott he just “wasn’t thinking.” Jimmy gets blown up by Grian’s tnt trap and says the walls around the flower valley need to go up, he says he’s never leaving his house again, and after it’s all settled he’s afraid to even walk home without Scott.

Honestly the only time he ever picks a fight in true Jimmy fashion is in Episode 1 with Martyn over some stupid sign placement, and then with the red army negotiations when he burned the banner— but that, notably, wasn’t a personal pride thing! It was a very Jimmy way to go about it, but he got defensive because he thought they were going to hurt Scott, and spitting in their faces was the best way he knew how to protect him (as this is how Jimmy typically protects himself).

He’s just very tame, overall. Defanged. He doesn’t stand up for himself like he usually does.

And yknow. If I had to take just. A personal guess as to why that is. I think the difference primarily stems from 3l!Jimmy’s tendency to take on personal blame for things that aren’t even his fault. A Jimmy character feeling bad about the things he’s done isn’t new, he often does do regrettable things, but what sets 3l!Jimmy apart is that he excessively self blames for what are often unsubstantiated reasons.

Grian’s tnt trap triple kill (emphasis on Grian’s) is the most dramatic example. After Jimmy accidentally activates it, he repeatedly stresses just how bad he feels about it, and apologizes to skizz directly, telling him he feels like he’s “ruined everything.” Jimmy blames himself entirely for this incident, to the point where it allows for him and Scott to team up with desert duo, who DIRECTLY SET UP the trap and OUTRIGHT TOOK CREDIT FOR the kills, in the next episode without even a mention of caution or bitterness. This is irrational; if Jimmy were to ask any given person if they genuinely think the deaths were ENTIRELY his fault, I don’t think anybody would seriously say that it was.

Except for Scott. Scott would say it is, and that’s the issue. He did say it, actually, first implying it (“Jimmy I told you that we needed to shoot it from a distance!”) but then outright telling him (“You killed two people!”)*. Scott later backpedals a bit, telling Jimmy that it was Grian and Scar who gave him the loaded gun, and it wasn’t him that brought it. While nice, that sentiment was seemingly too little too late.

* (both of these are said in the scene at about 25:33, ep4 of Scott’s pov in case anyones curious. assuming my timestamps from a year ago are correct if theyre not lmk. I also have rough timestamps for like everything else referenced in here in one big document so if anyone needs them feel free to ask)

This is all to say: I think Jimmy’s self blaming tendencies and, by extension, his unusual lack of self confidence this season are a result of his relationship with Scott. While the TNT trap incident was the catalyst for those feelings being brought so front and center, I believe that Scott created an environment which normalized Jimmy taking on personal blame for things aren’t his fault beforehand, or at the very least disproportionate amounts of it (so when he legitimately fucks up and makes a disastrous mistake, it’s the only thing he thinks to do). Primarily because Scott, himself, blames Jimmy for a lot of things, but also because Jimmy doesn’t understand the motivations behind a lot of how Scott treats him, and has to retroactively fill in the blanks with what makes sense. Full transparency: I am staking this ladder claim on both his undying admiration for Scott seen throughout the entire series that would require a thought process like this to support, and one (1) interaction between him and Martyn in episode 1. However, I’d still argue it’s a significant interaction.

MARTYN: I just seen you get slapped around, like what’s- what’s going on?

JIMMY: I just- Y’know- just. well we’re living opposite each other…

MARTYN: Are you happy living with Scott?

JIMMY: WE’RE LIVING— We’re living opposite each other! And he builds fantastic. And mine just looks like- I’m just not a builder, y’know? Just not a builder.

And. Personally. To me. Answering “What’s going on?” with “I’m just not a builder” in regards to Scott pushing him around implies that Jimmy made a connection between him being a bad builder and Scott’s reaction. In reality, Scott “slapped him around” because Jimmy showed up too early for a deal that he didn’t know about. But Jimmy doesn’t accept that as the reason, and instead traces it back to a personal fault, something he will go on to make a habit of until he dies in the desert.

After all, it becomes very easy to explain away various mishaps and misfortunes as “oh I’m just not a builder” or “oh I must not have been thinking,” when Scott’s favorite activity is implying Jimmy is incompetent and can’t be trusted to do anything on his own. (Some fun scott quotes being “why do I let you do things” “as long as we dont let jimmy do anything we’ll be fine,” and most directly, “see that’s why I said, ‘I dont trust Jimmy with anything’ because he’s incompetent”)

And it’s funny, right? Because Jimmy isn’t one to just let people put him down like that. When other people in other series tell Jimmy that his house is ugly, Jimmy will defend it with pride and stand up for it twice as much to compensate. But when Scott calls his house ugly, he tells Scott to stay put while he quickly runs to try and fix it, and then hurries back to ask if it’s better. Because he admires Scott, he never stops admiring him, he’s always expressing that (“you’re good at everything” “you’re full of good ideas, aren’t you?” “how are you such a good builder?”). And he doesn’t get defensive when Scott says these things, not in the same way— He tries to, but it comes across more desperate than anything (“say something good about me!”) because he places Scott on such a high pedestal and yearns for that approval. Scott is different.

This is how, despite all odds, it gets to him. And it changes how Jimmy perceives himself. Scott doesn’t trust Jimmy not to fuck up any given task, so Jimmy doesn’t trust himself in later episodes, especially post-Dogwarts explosion. The cake scene, while admittedly a very cute moment (so I do hate to cite this here but it’s a good example), works because Scott left a cake in Jimmy’s room without saying anything, and knew that the first thing Jimmy would do is get scared and come get him. Because that is the first thing 3l!Jimmy thinks to do when he’s scared! And it’s entirely unsurprising how it got that way! In the very first episode, Scott tells Jimmy that if it wasn’t for Scott finding him in the beginning, he would’ve been the first to die. It’s generally a joke to point to fh and go “Jimmy is like Scott’s pet lol, Jimmy is like a lost puppy without Scott” but there really is some truth in that, and I find that to be somewhat haunting considering Jimmy takes so much pride in his independence usually. Jimmy’s hesitance towards making independent decisions can also be traced back to Scott finding Jimmy’s independent decisions inherently frustrating but that’s already part of the FH dissection essay I have in my drafts and this post is long enough already. There’s also a whole other discussion to be had about how Scott’s say is the final say no matter what and Jimmy knows that which further deincentivizes independent decision making (REPEATEDLY POINTS TO “I’ll try and sweet talk him, but if he starts hitting me, what can I do?”) but that is also for the essay

I dont know where I was going with this. I think I made my point in the third paragraph but I feel lots of things about these characters and have lots to say so as I kept writing I got more and more emotional and now I think I’ve driven my little block people shaped autism car into a brick wall. I think I’m going to go throw up and then let the earth reclaim me. yeaj that sounds good

TL;DR: girl I dont even know

[pseudocyance]

so here is the fic I spoke about last night

Takes place near the end of 3rd life and middle of season 8

Ah shit I copied it from Google docs and it didn't save my paragraphs fuck noooo I have to fix it

Ok read if you want

-

“I can't believe you scammed another person out of their armor” Grian called to Scar, exasperated.

“Hey, Etho got his reputation points and I got some new pants. They're shiny!” Scar's voice echoed across the sand. He seemed to skip towards the edge, red eyes darting over the expanse of the desert.

“Can you believe all of this is ours?”

“No, not really” Grian glanced back up at the building he was designing. The supports gave the hint of what Monopoly Mountain would one day become. Something about building was just so… perfect to him. His favorite style was rustic but this small castle seemed fierce. It was a monument to defend.

He was jolted out of his thoughts as a crack of thunder rang across the sand.

“SCAR?” Grian's head whipped around. He was alone on the top of the mountain.

“No, nonono. He can't be-” a ping sounded on his communicator. A message from Cleo glowed on the screen reading “did anyone else just hear that? Did someone lose their last life?”

No. Scar couldn't have died. They had just made a life here in the desert. They were settling. Grian rushed to the edge of Monopoly Mountain and looked down, expecting the worst.

And there Scar was. He had fallen off the edge onto the staircase that wound along the side of the cliff. His body lay, limp on the sandstone. Grian fought back tears.But something was off. His skin was no longer the dull silver it had become as a red-life. He also wore no armor. Instead, he had a long, red coat and a small hat of the same shade.

Grian rushed down the stairs. “Scar!”

He reached his companion's body and kneeled down. There was definitely something different about him. Was this what happened when someone lost their last life?

Gaaasp

Scar eyes flew open as he jolted awake, gulping for air. His irises seemed to glow a pure green like sunlight shining through leaves.

His gaze focused on Grian.

“What happened? Did I die again?” He paused. “Why are we in the desert?”

“I think you might have died again, but that doesn't make sense. This was supposed to be perma-death.”

“What? Perma-death? What do you mean?” Scar looked perplexed. “Wait, wait, wait. Grian, why are your eyes green? Where's that hazel I've gotten so used to staring into?” a cheeky smirk appeared on his face.

“Why- why are my eyes green?” it was now Grian's turn for confusion. “My eyes are green because I'm a green.” The two stared at each other.

“You're not my Scar, are you?”

-

Scar had no idea what had just happened. One minute, he had been falling into the Boatem Hole, and the next he was in a desert he didn't recognise and missing all of his items.

Grian kneeled at his side. His brow was creased and his gaze darted around.

“What do you mean, your Scar? Wait, that means you aren't my Grian”

Grian's mouth opened to respond, but something caught his eye on the border of the desert.

“Shit,” he muttered. “Ren's crew is coming.”A red banner bobbed through the trees. “Act natural. You're my red, and if they know there's something wrong, they'll attack.”

Scar didn't know what to be more shocked about - Grian calling Scar “his red” or Grian swearing.

“Why would Ren attack us? Did you do anything to annoy him?”

“I'm a green. That's enough of an issue for him. Oh, and you're going to have to take all of that-” he gestured to Scar's flamboyant outfit "- off. You should be wearing armor, not a waistcoat.”

“Only my Grian can tell me to take my clothes off,” Scar smirked. Grian's cheeks became as scarlet as Scar's jacket, which led Scar's smirk to become even deeper.

The green stuttered, “I- uh, get some armor on. Looks like we're going into battle.”

[angeart]

hmtb quotes i'm collecting on my reread (pt 1??)

chapter 7 - Lighthouse In The Storm:

He feels off-balance. He feels like he’s standing at the ruins of a desert castle and their lives have a set countdown and he has to try to make sure nobody can hurt them.

chapter 8 - Relying On You:

Maybe it was Grian’s touch and presence that finally made him doze off—the knowledge that he’s close-by and safe and that, if necessary, Scar can jump up and protect him. He’s not even fully aware of how similar that feels to Monopoly Mountain, when they slept near each other, ready to face any threat together. All he knows is that it’s familiar and comforting and easy to slip into.

chapter 8 - Relying On You:

Why did he think Mumbo might be a threat to Grian? Mumbo cares so much about him, and Scar knows it, he does, he just, he—he—

His thoughts fail to spin up a reasonable explanation. 

Maybe it was this room? The red? The light purple? The scent of flowers and sand—

No, no, there is no sand here. It is all made out of wood and copper and right out the window, there are lush green trees and mountains, nothing akin to sandstone and desert in sight.

chapter 9 - Safety Is But A Feather, And Feathers Burn So Easily

He turns to look and he sees Scar’s face, relaxed in a way he just doesn’t see when Scar is awake. He’s glad to see him calm and at peace, because he’s haunted by the look he gave him when he said Grian, please, no—back at the top of Mumbo’s mountain—the way he tipped backwards in the way Grian’s hands dictated, the look he gave him falling over the edge… That’s the thought his mind kept going back to while Scar avoided him. And now here he is, so close, so calm, so unafraid, and Grian’s heart hurts.

chapter 10 - Fever Dreams And Diamond Swords I

He can feel it again, crawling across his skin—that urgent need to push all threats away from Grian, to make it just the two of them against everyone else, to not rely on anyone’s false promises and tricks and—his head is full of a sprawling, cacti-outlined desert and life countdowns and TNT covered by grains of sand.

chapter 10 - Fever Dreams And Diamond Swords I

“You know, he’s kinda unhinged lately.”

“Mm.” Grian’s fist curls into bedsheets where Scar was, the fabric still warm. He closes his eyes. “It feels familiar,” he mumbles sleepily. 

“Familiar?” Mumbo raises his eyebrows. “You make it sound like a good thing.”

Even with fever and exhaustion, pain and vulnerability, Grian’s lips curl into a cheshire smile, and he opens one eye to look at Mumbo. “It feels like hot sun and sand and the edge of a guillotine.”

chapter 11 - Fever Dreams And Diamond Swords II

“You have a fever,” Scar explains to him gently, “so things might not make sense now. But you’re safe. Okay? Nobody’s going to hurt you.”

With trembling hands, Grian points the sword at him.

Scar lets the tip touch his chest. “Grian, if you hit me once, I’ll die,” he tells him in that same, gentle tone.

He isn’t afraid. He isn’t thinking about the impending pain of respawn, with all its horrendous consequences—no, the only thing he’s thinking of is Grian, and making him feel safe, and if Grian doesn’t feel safe with him there, he allows him to remove him.

Grian blinks the tears from his eyes. He isn’t moving.

“You can kill me, if you want,” Scar offers like he has a death wish.

Something flashes in Grian’s eyes at those words. And in that instant, they're not on the hardwood floor surrounded by petals anymore. Water laps at their legs and their eyes are red and Grian’s sword points at Scar and—with absolute intensity and clarity, Grian knows he doesn’t want to kill him, but then—but then there is the ring of cacti and the blood on his knuckles and—

The sword clatters out of his hands and he’s pressing his palms into his eyes, breathing raggedly at air that refuses to fill his lungs.

[dmwrites]

2023 fic roundup! Thanks for reading my stuff this year!

Below is all of the fic links, summaries, and any additional notes (in chronological order) from yours truly:)

NPC Bdubs: an in-game explanation to why Bdubs didn’t upload his Limited Life pov- Cleo notices that Bdubs is acting a little weird, almost like some kind of non-playable character.

The Coral Kids’ Keeper: Martyn and Scott live out on a island on the sea on the Limited Life server, and a sea creature that calls himself xbcrafted take interest in them. He protects them. He is here to protect them, right? (Dm note: oh my goddd I love this one still I love the horror at the end [I may just be biased to xb tbh lol])

Impulse’s post-death affirmation: Impulse got second place in Limited Life, and Skizz is so proud of him.

Clock Full of Love: Impulse gave Bdubs a clock in the beginning of Limited Life. At the end, Cleo adds her own touch to it.

Grian and Scar’s punishment: It all started when Grian and Scar touched his (Doc’s) redstone (tunnel bore). Their punishment? Zombiecleo scolding them.

Talks of Adoration on the Tower of Team TIES: Etho and Impulse have more in common then they think, and reflect on it all one sleepless night in the Team TIES base

Big and Handsome God Has A Big Sad: the empires s2 server can’t be empty, right? Sure, Joel hasn’t seen anyone in forever, but people still love him, surely, right? They wouldn’t all leave him. They wouldn’t. Right? (Dm note: this idea wasn’t executed as well as I would have liked, but I really like the crumbling reality vibes of this one)

Cuddling with the Homies: Grian, Impulse, Scar, and Skizz playing Sons of the Forest. They get one tiny-ass tent to all sleep in. It’s if the “only one bed” trope was four dudes being idiots in the woods in a tent.

I know how to keep you warm;)): the new life smp folks wonder if Chillager Martyn will freeze up if he gets flustered. Scott is up to the task. It’s all silly.

Copper Pearlo takes on The Button (2): Grian and Mumbo stumble upon copper golem Pearl

One Year Later: Double Life ended one year ago (when I posted this fic lol). Impulse makes Bdubs another clock

The CuteGuy Who Stepped Up: Scar needs a CuteGuy sidekick, and Grian does not want to be a sidekick in the slightest. Enter Joe Hills from Nashville, Tennessee. (Dm note: the CuteGuy main character was decided by a poll. This is also my second most-liked fic of 2023)

The Slime Code: Gem is a slime in New Life! She calls Jevin on Hermitcraft to ask about any slime rules she now needs to follow

A Dream of Pink: Joel has a dream of showing a pretty girl with pink hair (who roasts him) his hardcore world builds. She seems familiar…

3rd Life x NightVale: the radio transcript when Cecil Palmer from the town of NightVale interviews a strange man with a red sweater and split knuckles and keeps talking about something that happened in a desert. (Dm note: love this one, definitely caters to a very specific audience, but this one shows up in my notifs almost every day. I think I did a good job at the ad breaks and such.)

Sacrificial Impulse: Grian, Scar, and Skizz died while hunting ghosts with Impulse. Impulse wants to bring them back, no matter the cost. Also, EvilNotion is the ghost hunters’ boss.

xB’s Revenge- a Blood on the Clocktower story: based on the first session of hermitcraft’s BOTC, Iskall accuses xbcrafted of being the demon, and xB becomes the first innocent to die. But xB sticks around after death, and wants the sweetest revenge on Iskall. (Dm note: this one is long as hell but man the concept was so good. Drowned!xb is so good.)

Bdoubledown? How Cute: a brief conversation between Impulse and Skizz about Impulse’s brand new soulmate in Double Life

GIGS gets another G: Gem is jealous that Grian, Impulse, Scar, and Skizz are hunting ghosts, and wants to join in. Pearl, local odd woman, has a way. Possession is fun among friends! (Dm note: this is the most liked fic of this year, which is definitely not what I expected lol)

The Dungeon Is Hungry: Hypno thinks all the superstitions around the Decked Out 2 dungeon are stupid. That is until everything goes sideways and Cub is covered in sculk and pointing a sword at him down in level 4.

The Impossible Task: Martyn gets a very simple, two-word task in Secret Life: find RenTheDog. But Ren isn’t here… right? (Dm note: when I thought of this idea I literally said “ouch!” in my head lol)

GIGGS Hunts a Ghost!: the GIGGS crew gets called on by Zedaph to find and capture evidence of a ghost he claims he has seen haunting hermitcraft. (Dm note: the b-plot grian and zed rivalry is so funny to me idk why I decided they hate each other lolll)

A Moment of Peace: Martyn and Cleo are estranged soulmates in Double Life, and they take a moment to drink some tea and talk about what soulmate they’d like to have if they had a choice.

It Feels Different Now (and that’s a good thing): Pearl has to hurt people on the Secret Life server as part of her task, but she takes no joy in it now. She harkens back to what has changed between Double Life and now.

Jimmy’s Grave: Cleo made Jimmy a grave before he died in Secret Life. He did end up dying that very day, and a mourner comes by his grave when it’s all said and done.

Red: Pearl’s favorite color is red. She is made to be a red name, even when she’s not.

Becoming the Villain of the Server: (secret life) Scar digs up Jimmy’s grave to take his spine, to sell it to Joel, pretending that it’s Lizzie’s. Hey, what else is a man to do? (Dm note: this one fucks so hard, i love how fucked up the idea of it is, what Scar would have to do to make it happen. Eating this.)

From One Lonely Winner to Another: Scar wins Secret Life. Sunflowers grow from his skin to be with him as he goes to succeed the final task. (Dm note: another one I love, I just love the aesthetic of it all.)

[errorryx]

blood moon – part two

read on ao3 | read part one | gemcyt / life series, 2.5k words

An AU-within-an-AU of the wonderful gemcyt AU by @chrisrin, and the fic series by @sixteenth-days!

This part introduces two more characters, Mumbo and Lizzie, but since they're Homeworld gems, they don't use those names yet, and Lizzie doesn't use she/her pronouns yet. All that will change in the next chapter, but in the meantime, Mumbo is Peridot and Lizzie is Rose Quartz.

—

“I can’t believe this,” Grian said, looking at Pearl with a new eye. Now that he knew it was his old friend, he could see the resemblance, though it was mostly in Pearl’s expressions—her new form bore no resemblance to her previous one. “What are you doing here?”

“Looking for you, obviously.” Alex gave him a gentle bump with her shoulder. It hurt a lot less than usual now that she was only twice his size.

“I have so many questions.” Grian tried to organize his thoughts, but it was a hopeless task. “Why do you look like a pearl? Should I be calling you Pearl now, or Alexandrite? And why are you red?”

“I don't care what you call me, Gri. I’m just glad I finally found you,” Pearl said. “The pearl thing started out as a disguise, but I have no idea why I'm red. I was actually hoping you’d know.”

“I've never seen a gem change color before.” Grian landed on Alex’s shoulder and took a closer look, poking her arm in curiosity. “Maybe Scott or Cleo would know something, but I haven’t got a clue. Is this the first time it’s happened?”

“As far as I know. We landed last night, but I didn't leave the ship until morning because—”

“Hang on,” Grian interrupted. “Who’s ‘we’?”

“Me and Peridot,” Alex said. “Oh, and this rose quartz we picked up on the way, but he ran off the second we touched down. Haven't seen him since. He was such a ditz, he probably tripped on a rock somewhere and shattered himself.”

She laughed, but Grian didn’t join her. His days of considering quartz soldiers expendable were over now that he knew some of them personally. If anything happened to BigB, he’d be inconsolable.

“How did you convince Peridot to come with you?” he asked. “I figured he’d never leave Homeworld again after hearing that I disappeared.”

“He’s currently refusing to leave the ship,” Alex admitted. “But he came because he had to, Grian. We both did. We couldn’t just not look for you, knowing you could still be out there.”

A horrible thought occurred to Grian. “This isn’t a Homeworld mission, is it? You’re not reporting back to them or anything?”

“Course not. We left the main ship three solar systems away and took an escape pod here. They can’t track us.”

Grian breathed a sigh of relief. If there was one thing Alexandrite was good at, it was hiding things from the diamonds. He should have more faith in her. “I thought I’d never see you or Peri again,” he said. “I still can’t believe you’re just here.”

“I’m here,” she said. “Come on, bring it in.” She spread her arms open, and Grian moved forward to let her hug him. He could actually sort of hug back this time, since she was smaller than usual. “I missed you so much, Gri. I wish I could have come sooner.”

“I missed you too,” Grian admitted. “Living with Scar is kind of a nightmare. Makes you seem level-headed and rational in comparison.”

“Me? Level-headed?” Alex laughed. “I get it, though. Peri’s been driving me up a wall with how much he talks about you, but I can’t blame him. We were so worried you’d been shattered, but I kept telling myself, Gri’s a survivor. He’d never just die on an alien planet like that. And I was right!” she crowed. “He’ll be thrilled to see you.”

“You think if we’re both there, we can convince him to leave the ship?”

“Who cares about that? We can catch up on the way back, right?” Alex said, her red eyes shining. “Come on, Gri, let’s get out of here!”

“Wait, what?”

Grian stopped dead, replaying the conversation they’d just had in his head. Alex had been glad to see him, she’d been shirking her responsibilities to come find him, but she’d never said anything about staying—in fact, the first thing she’d said to him had been the exact opposite.

“We’re going home, silly.” Pearl tilted her head in confusion. “Don’t you want to get out of here?”

Maybe if she’d come earlier, Grian would have jumped at the chance to get off this planet and return to Homeworld. But now, he’d gotten used to the freedom of doing whatever he wanted, whenever he wanted to do it. He couldn’t imagine returning to his old life just to have the Diamond Authority constantly breathing down his neck.

“I can’t just up and leave,” he told her.

“Why not? We’ve already come up with the perfect cover story.”

“That’s not the problem,” Grian said. “I’ve got a whole life here now. I’m making new friends, fusing, working on this base—” He gestured behind him. “I just put in a chimney. You don’t even know what that is! I don’t even know what that is, but I’m not going to find out if I return to Homeworld.”

Pearl just stared at him. She clearly wasn’t getting the message. “So…you’re not going to come back with us?”

“No,” Grian said firmly. “I’m not going back to Homeworld.”

“Oh.” Pearl stepped back, her eyes going blank. “Okay then.”

“It’s just—” He sighed. “I thought you liked it here. I thought this place would be right up your alley.”

She shrugged. “It’s alright.”

“I was hoping you’d want to stay.” Grian couldn’t blame Pearl for having reservations. He’d had plenty of his own, and it had taken him a while to shake them. “I know it sounds insane.”

“It does,” Pearl agreed. “I’ll have to think about it.” Her voice was flat and unconvincing. She was upset, Grian realized, and trying not to show it. She took a few steps back, glancing off in the direction she’d come from.

“You don’t have to decide yet,” Grian said. “I know it’s a lot.”

“I get it,” Pearl said. “I’ll just—I’ve got to work on some things. I should go.”

“You’re not going to tell anyone from Homeworld that we’re here, are you?”

“I wouldn’t,” she said, sounding offended. “We’re still friends, Gri. I’d never get you in trouble.”

“Or anyone else,” he insisted.

“Or anyone else.” She started walking away, but stopped after a few steps. “You’re not going to blow my cover, are you?”

“You mean tell them you’re not really a pearl?”

“I am a pearl,” she said, but faltered. “I mean—yeah.”

“We’re still friends,” Grian echoed her. He still didn’t know why Alex was in disguise, but he’d get it out of her eventually. “I won’t tell anyone.”

Pearl nodded. “I’ll see you tomorrow,” she told him, and left.

—

Pearl’s return to the ship was concerning, to say the least.

When she left, Pearl had assured Peridot that she’d be back with Gri at her side. Not only was Gri nowhere to be seen, but Pearl had somehow managed to turn herself an entirely different color.

It may have been a trick of the light, but Peridot wasn’t willing to leave the ship to get a closer look. He hit the button on the wall to deploy the landing bay so she could come in.

“Don’t just stand there,” Pearl said, gesturing for him to join her. “Get out here.”

“I thought you said I wouldn’t have to leave the ship.”

“Change of plans.” Pearl crossed her arms, fixing him with an exasperated glare. “It’s perfectly safe, Peri. I’ve been out here for hours now without a scratch on me.”

“But—”

“Do you want Gri back or not?”

“I don’t want to change color,” Peridot said. “Can’t you just come in here?”

“Nope. You’ll be fine.” She walked up the ramp and grabbed him by the elbow, pulling him down with her. “See? Look, you’re still the same.”

Peridot winced as his foot touched the ground, but nothing happened. Pearl had told him the truth. His usual shade of green had gone a little dull from the dim light, but it was nothing like Pearl’s dramatic shift in hue. “Goodness,” he said, staring down at the earth beneath him. The soil was obscured by a thick layer of organic matter. “What is this stuff?”

“Don’t scan it. You can’t access the database here,” Pearl reminded him.

“I know, I know.” His arms stayed in place, his fingers tapping nervously against his elbows. “So what happened?”

Pearl let out a loud noise of frustration, making Peridot jump. “It went horribly,” she said. “I don’t know what Gri’s problem was. I showed him my gem and everything, and I even told him you came with me, but it was like he didn’t even care.”

“Even though he knows I’m here?” Pearl nodded, and Peridot pulled his arms a little closer around himself. “Oh,” he said softly. “I see.”

“I asked him to come back here with me,” Pearl said. “I told him you were waiting for him, but he refused. He wants to stay here, Peri. He doesn’t care about us anymore.”

Peridot didn’t think Pearl would lie to him, but he couldn’t bring himself to believe that Gri would have rejected them so harshly. “There must be some kind of misunderstanding,” he said. “Maybe he was just upset over something else. We can’t give up after getting all the way here.”

“I’m not giving up on him,” Pearl said. “That’s why I called you out here. We’re going to march right back over there and get this sorted. He can’t say no to us both.”

Peridot stared out into the darkness. Other than the light from the ship, their surroundings were rather dim. If he were to follow Pearl to wherever Gri was, he might risk unwanted contact with all manner of unseen creatures. “Can’t we wait until morning?” he asked her.

“I told you, there’s nothing to be afraid of. Besides the other gems, I haven’t seen a single motile organism since we arrived.”

Right as she finished speaking, something began rustling around in the greenery close by. Peridot immediately ran up the landing bay to hide inside the ship, but Pearl didn’t move. Instead, she drew her gem weapons, a pair of curved blades as long as her forearms, and held them aloft, ready to strike.

“Reveal yourself!” she shouted. “Who’s there?”

“What are you doing? Don’t draw its attention over here!”

“Guys, relax! It’s just me.” A few more branches snapped, and the bushes parted to make way for Rose Quartz, dirty and disheveled but no less chipper than the last time they’d seen him. “Did you find your little friend yet?”

Peridot had never met Rose before this journey. The only reason Rose was here was because he’d overheard Pearl and Peridot discussing their plans. Instead of ratting them out, he’d asked to join them, and they hadn’t had much of a choice but to agree.

“Where have you been all day?” Pearl asked Rose, letting her weapons vanish.

“I was looking around for other gems,” Rose said. “I followed the sun like you told me, but then it disappeared, so I turned around and came back.”

Pearl pinched the bridge of her nose. “Rose, I told you that the previous mission landings were in that direction,” she said, pointing east.

“You said they were towards the sun,” Rose said. “And the sun moved, so I followed it.”

“Are you like this on purpose, or are you really just that stupid?”

“Hey!” Rose crossed his arms. “Don’t call me stupid!”

“I’m glad you’re safe, Rose,” Peridot said, trying to steer the conversation away from an argument. He couldn’t make sense of why Pearl was acting so hostile. Until now, she’d had no problem being kind to Rose, keeping all her frustrations with Rose’s cluelessness between the two of them.

“Oh, I’m fine,” Rose said with confidence. “I’m a lot stronger than I look. Hey, Pearl, why are you red now?”

“That’s not important,” Pearl said. “What matters is that I saw all the missing gems today, Rose. None of them were shattered.”

“Wait, all of them? Really?”

“I cross-referenced every gem I saw with the reports of gems that were lost on Life. Everyone was accounted for.”

“What about Pearl? Where’s Pearl?”

Peridot pointed at Pearl immediately, only to find that Pearl was also currently pointing at herself. Rose laughed, waving them off.

“I know about that pearl, don’t worry,” he said. “I’m talking about Pink Pearl.”

“Wait, that’s who you’re here for?” Pearl asked. “Not one of the quartzes?”

“You know,” Peridot reflected, “maybe it would have been a good idea to ask that question before we let a random gem join our illegal top-secret mission.”

Pearl ignored him. “What do you want with Pink Diamond’s pearl?” she asked Rose.

“Erm.” Rose looked stumped. “That’s…classified?”

“We’re not playing by Homeworld rules anymore,” Pearl said, drawing her gem weapons once more. ���You agreed to be a part of this mission, so you’d better tell me the truth.”

“Hey, woah, no need for violence!” Rose threw up his hands in surrender. “I kept seeing Pink Diamond really sad without his pearl, so when I overheard you guys talking about Earth, I figured I’d come too! That way I could bring the pearl back and make my diamond happy.”

“You didn’t tell anyone, right?” Pearl asked, stepping closer. “You’re not in contact with anybody from Homeworld?”

“No, no, of course not! Nobody knows I’m here.” Pearl took another step forward, undeterred, and Rose began backing away. “I’m telling the truth, I swear!”

“Pearl, what are you doing?” Peridot asked, his voice betraying his panic.

“Come on, Peri. You don’t find it suspicious that Rose is here for a diamond’s pearl?”

“I suppose, but…” If he was being honest, Peridot thought Rose’s story made sense. He’d never seen Pearl like this before. “I don’t think this is going to help. Please just put the knives away, Pearl, you’re—” You’re scaring me.

“Fine.” Pearl rolled her eyes and let her weapons dematerialize. “But if I find out you were lying, Rose…” She gave Rose a death glare, and Peridot shivered.

“Well, I’m not.” Rose briefly met Peridot’s eyes, but all Peridot could offer him was a helpless shrug. “I just want to find my—my diamond’s pearl. That’s all.”

There was a long, uncomfortable pause before Pearl broke the silence. “I’m taking Peri to see the other gems in the morning,” she said. “You might as well come with us if you want to see Pink Pearl.”

“I never agreed to that,” Peridot said, before he could think better of it.

“Well, there’s always Plan C,” Pearl said. “Where I go out and poof Gri and take him home with us by force.”

Peridot grimaced, imagining Gri’s reaction when he reformed on the ship back to Homeworld. “I don’t think we should try that one.”

“Then it’s decided.” Pearl gave him a dangerous grin, and Peridot shuddered. He was not looking forward to this.

—

<Previous part | Next part>

if you read this all the way through and enjoyed, please consider reblogging!

[frozenjokes]

this one is for you flower husband enjoyers, the thumbnail doesn’t make sense without the rest of the chapter but don’t worry about it

everyone is a dragon, jimmy is not. loserfail king

Scott and Jimmy exchanged a look. “So, what’s your plan with this fort, then?” Scott asked, not looking particularly pleased to be having this conversation either.

“Well, we’re going to blow up the desert.” Grian took their shocked silence as an invitation to keep going, “At a certain marker point beyond the fort, we’re going to hook up dragonflame cacti under the sand, and set it all off once the Red Army crosses into the danger area. Scar and Jimmy will do that part from inside the fort. Too fragile. Hopefully, the invading dragons will be injured enough that you and I can swoop in and finish them off. If not, we have another trap planned around the fort; a moat of sorts. There will be a shallow sheet with sand on top that will collapse into a pit of cacti. I can breathe fire down on them while they’re stuck. At the very least, we can give Scar and Jimmy a chance to escape.”

“Grian, I’m not going to just run away from the fighting,” Scar snorted, framing his comment like a joke, but his eyes were narrowed.

“If it’s hopeless, yes you are. Like it or not, I’m the most expendable dragon here. If you make it out, we can regroup and try again.”

“I don’t like the way you’re talking about yourself.”

“Now’s not the time, Scar,” Grian huffed, unable to hold back his frustration, but before Scar could retaliate, Scott cut in.

“No, Grian’s right. We can die. Sure, if it’s two against five there’s no way we’ll win, but if we can buy you and Jimmy time to get out, it will be worth it. Again, it’s not ideal, but if I’m red after the battle, we’ll all be stronger. We might even be able to take out a member or two of the Red Army and even the match. This could really be good. And that’s only if Grian’s plan fails.” Scott paused, biting his lip, “Scar, you need to promise me you’ll get Jimmy out if things go south. He can’t cross the entire desert fast enough on his own.”

Neither Scar nor Jimmy looked very happy at that assertion. “Scott, I don’t know if I can do this. Just, stay out of the fighting I mean,” Jimmy slid onto Scott’s nose so he could look the Seawing in the eyes.

“Jimmy,” Scott’s voice was gentle, but not patronizing, “You only have one life left. If you’re riding me, there’s no guarantee you won’t get thrown off and trampled or clawed or bit or-“

“I can hold my own, Scott! I did a number on Grian! Dragons underestimate me!”

“It’s not about that,” Scott stressed, but Grian knew very well it was. He must have lingered too long in Scott’s thoughts, because the Seawing gave him a sharp side eye. Don’t say a word. Grian wasn’t planning on it. “Scar is here too, and it’s obviously not because he isn’t a capable fighter. I mean, hell, Scar has probably picked more fights and won than any other dragon in the game. It’s just strategy.”

“But what if you’re losing? What if I can’t see you?”

Scott’s gaze softened, “I’ll stay where you can see me, I promise. I’ll be right in front of the fort, so I’m always in your line of sight. And if I lose, well, I’ll be back. I’ll be stronger.”

“And it’s not like you can’t do anything!” Grian added, forcing a strained smile, “You and Scar can shoot bows, right? Plus, scavengers have been using long ranged weapons against dragons for centuries, you won’t just be sitting around.”

Jimmy relaxed a bit at that notion, Scott following suit. “But you’ll stay where I can see you, Scott.” Jimmy stressed, like this was the piece of the plan he needed to make sure Scott understood.

“Yes. Right in front of the fort.”

“Good. Alright. We should run home and get some supplies then... It sounds like you guys are going to be doing a lot of digging, so I better get a shovel.” Jimmy climbed back to Scott’s horns as the Seawing nodded, standing back up.

“We’ll be back soon. Let’s get this done.”

Grian and Scar exchanged a look. A nervous excitement bubbled in Grian’s talons. “Let’s do it.”

***

read the full thing here!

[all54321]

I didn’t realize that 3rd Life’s anniversary was here until today. So here’s the starting bit of the AU where Scar kills Bdubs and him and Grian ignore the rules and keep living together.

This is a WIP! Meaning there will be more for this one shot. And then I might do a Hermitcraft POV of everyone talking about how Grian and Scar haven’t return. But that’s for later.

—————

Grian takes a shaky step away from the cacti, away from BigB’s newly dead body. He turns his eyes to the two remaining red lives. He tightens his grip on his sword, he doesn’t like this. Especially not with the way Scar is silently staring at him.

“You gave me the clock,” Bdubs says, glancing at Scar, “you want me to do it?”

Grian tenses even more, eyes focusing on Bdubs. He still casts a glance at his partner, “S-Scar?”

“And fire!” Grian barely manages to bring his shield up to block the arrow Bdubs fires. “Fire!”

That seems to snap Scar into action. He quickly pulls out his sword and plunges it straight through Bdubs. Scar’s red eyes glow as he watches Bdubs die, the bloodlust shining through them.

BdoubleO100 was slain by GoodTimeWithScar

Grian doesn’t drop his shield, watching Scar cautiously. He doesn’t know what Scar is planning to do next, not when it’s just them. Promises whispered in the dead of night fill his ears, but on the cusp of winning, what is a few broken promises?

Scar turns his head, red eyes meeting yellow, and- he drops his sword. Grian lowers his shield in surprise. Scar gives him a small smile, the bloodlust gone from his eyes, and murmurs, “it’s just us now.”

“It is,” Grian confirms, lowering his sword. The air is thick with a tension that he’s never felt between them before.

“What now?” Scar asks, voice still low.

That’s the true question, isn’t it? If they don’t kill each other, then what? Grian carefully sheaths his sword, “repair the sandcastle probably.”

Scar looks surprised for a moment before nodding, “yes, that would be a good idea.”

Grian doesn’t even know what he was expecting. This is Scar, how could he ever worry that Scar would betray him. He smiles, “let’s go home.” He starts walking back towards the desert, feeling sore now that the adrenaline is fading. Grian glances over his shoulder and sighs, “Scar, your sword.”

His partner glances back as well, “huh?”

“We didn’t survive all of that just for you to die to a mob because you don’t have a sword,” Grian says, deadpan.

Scar laughs, but retrieves his sword still. “What do I need a sword for when I have you to protect me?”

Grian gives him an unimpressed stare, “I can’t watch you back all the time.” Most of the time he will though. After everything they went through to reach this point, like hell Grian will let Scar die now. Especially with an extra life, he will sacrifice it without hesitation to protect Scar.

Scar retrieves and sheaths his sword before rejoining Grian’s side. He grabs his hand and laces their fingers together. The avian startles briefly before squeezing his hand back and giving him a smile.

“Let’s head back home!” Scar says, grinning and pulling them forwards.

“To what’s left of it,” Grian mutters under his breath, but grins anyways.

Scar shoves him, laughing.

[raichett]

I posted 572 times in 2022

That's 572 more posts than 2021!

69 posts created (12%)

503 posts reblogged (88%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@elytrans

@elytrians

@cocoabats

@the-final-sif

@bdoubleowo

I tagged 572 of my posts in 2022

#mcyt - 431 posts

#grian - 262 posts

#fanart - 252 posts

#goodtimeswithscar - 215 posts

#hermitcraft - 147 posts

#double life - 115 posts

#third life - 90 posts

#hermitcraft season 9 - 86 posts

#desert duo - 79 posts

#lmao - 75 posts

Longest Tag: 140 characters

#the nature of the traffic smps make it so that this kind of greek tragedy storytelling happens spontaneously viscerally and heartwrenchingly

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

Grian is not giving up his flat for anything: not the strange sounds, not for things going missing, not for things appearing that weren’t there before. Nah-uh, not happening. 

Not even for the elven king coming in through his closet. Don’t you know what rent is like nowadays?

129 notes - Posted July 19, 2022

#4

A Special Concert

This flash fic is inspired by a comic strip done by @0xeyedaisy, which can be found here. Thanks for ripping so many people’s hearts out.

The song Ariana sings is Dark Dance by Burn The Ballroom, which is an absolute banger and can be found here. This is my agenda for getting more people aware of this incredibly underrated band.

This flash fic can also be found on AO3 here.

Content warnings: canonical character death, canonical suicide, it’s the Third Life finale, you know what that means. 

---

A SPECIAL CONCERT

Scar’s still alive when Ariana stumbles to his side, falling to her knees in the sand. It’s dry under one knee and wet under the other, the sand turning red as Scar leaks blood in a steady flow, spreading around him. Her trembling hands hurt. She thinks one of her knuckles might be dislocated. Scar clumsily takes one of her hands and she lets him, gripping tight with her bloodied fingers. Ariana’s heart doesn’t feel like a heart where it beats inside her chest; it feels like an empty space rattling about inside the cage of her ribs. Broken, she thinks, distantly. Once, she would have turned that thought and image into a lyric.

She wants to move, wants to close her eyes, block out the sight of Scar – Scar – dying in front of her of the wounds her hands gave him. She wants to be a coward for once in her life as the reddish haze lifts from her mind. It’s a bit like waking up from a nightmare into another nightmare, this one worse, this one real.

She swallows and stays at his side instead, keeping her eyes on his, red on red as red pools around them. It’s the least she owes him. The spectators are still chanting, but quieter, now, their murmurings wordless like how the voices of the crowds from her shows became wordless in the roar of pure overlapping noise. She misses those days, back when her greatest worries were about stage equipment and travel logistics on tours, not – not death and destruction and the curse that has claimed all of them and won.

“Hey,” Scar says, softly. His breathing isn’t right and it’s making his words hard. Ariana can see where her fists broke his ribs by the dents and lumps on his chest. She forces herself not to look away. “Before I completely pass out and die…” It’s so matter of fact, is the thing. A scream burns in Ariana’s throat, unreleased, as she leans in a little to listen to Scar’s last request. “Could you sing me a song?” Oh. “I never… got a chance” – he pauses to cough, turning his head to splatter more blood on the sand – “to hear you… sing…”

Ariana’s grief writes itself across her face. “All right,” she says, forcing a smile as she holds back tears. Her sharp teeth have never made her look traditionally pretty, and most of her old promotional posters had her with a close-lipped smile, but Scar has never flinched at them. It was the first thing she decided she liked about him, back then, when she grinned unthinkingly and he did nothing more than blink and grin back. “A special concert just for you.”

She starts to sing, one of her older songs, the ones she wrote without her agent reviewing them and nitpicking the lyrics. More alternative rock than the pop rock of her most famous hits, but it comes from the heart, and she can give nothing less to Scar to take with him to whatever comes next.

Scar finally closes his eyes as she gets to the end of the second verse; “I see your face in the firelight, I know that it’s fine,” – she stares right at his face, grey and going greyer – “‘cause in the dark of the dance here, you’re already mine…”

Overhead, the late afternoon sun is blazing down on her back, her shoulders and arms and neck burning even more. She’s already got sunburn, skin peeling at the edges from the lack of care being Red brings, the way it’s everything and nothing, neglect and passion in a double-edged blade.

The chorus escapes her throat too easily, old muscle memory keeping her singing as Scar starts to go still. “Sing with me in the dead of night, a break down beat keeps my heart in time.” She stops leaning over him, slumping her weight back on her aching legs, even as her eyes remain glued to his face, his almost-peaceful face. “I love about what I love about you, angel…”

She ends the chorus with another repetition of its two lines and then, her voice wobbling, finishes the rest of the song. By the time it’s done, Scar’s hand has started to cool in hers. Her fingers trembling, she lets it go, carefully placing it to lie limp on the sand.

And that’s the end of the show, goodnight everyone! she imagines herself saying, as she’s said so many times before, holding out her microphone to her screaming crowd late into the night, body flushed and aching with the high of the performance, trembling with adrenaline and ready to crash backstage from tiredness. Goodnight, goodnight! And have a safe trip home!

She rises to her feet. In a way, tired and shaking and jittery as she is, the murmurings of the spectators surrounding her – one voice louder now, she thinks deliriously – it’s almost familiar. It’s almost like the end of a show.

She raises her head mechanically from Scar’s body to the edge of the cliff, just beyond the cacti ring. She knows just what the final song should be. As she takes her first steps towards the cliff, the spectators get louder, seemingly in agreement with her. Her fingers twitch, her hand curling around thin air as though she were fiddling with her microphone, a nervous habit she developed when she first stepped foot on the stage.

“Goodnight, everyone,” she whispers when she’s on the ledge, staring at the setting sun as its rays bleed gold and orange across the ground. The spectators chant. The imaginary crowd roars applause in her ears. “… Goodnight.”

140 notes - Posted September 2, 2022

#3

with all the excitement about the rift I just feel like we forgot that the entity literally has flesh inside of it far too quickly lmao

149 notes - Posted November 7, 2022

#2

Heartbeat

Here, have some Scarian flash fic. It’s not long enough or developed enough for me to post as a oneshot, but I guess if I collect enough of these I’ll probably make an AO3 series for them.

[tosses this and runs]

EDIT: can now be found on AO3 here.  ---

HEARTBEAT

Scar’s bedside clock is fully into the moon half of its display, maybe close to midnight, and he thinks he might be slowly coming undone. 

The warm dark of his bedroom flitters around him, broken only by the glow of the clock in the illuminated item frame and the spots on his ceiling from the glowstone streetlamps outside seeping in through the gaps at the top of his curtains, and he cannot fall asleep, not with his soulmate’s fingertips touching where they are.

Scar mirrors them, his mysterious soulmate, who he so often feels press against his neck as they are now, checking his pulse. He feels the flutter of their own heartbeat under his fingers, a double echo to his own, naturally faster, and wonders.

Are they both lying like this, in bed, their fingers to their pulse and each other’s heartbeat filling their ears? Or is his soulmate somewhere else, sitting or standing – heck, maybe it’s even day on whatever server they’re on, not night-time at all – and paranoically checking for signs of life as they fiddle away with a redstone mechanism or brew up some potions or stare thoughtfully at a block palette set or do any other mundane thing in their life far away from him?

A skeleton rattles about outside, proof that he’s once again missed a spot when lighting up his base. Scar barely hears it. He breathes in tandem with his soulmate, their lungs expanding and contracting together, breath in their noses and their throats. It’s indescribable to explain how it feels to be breathing together with someone.

It’s probably his fault they check he’s well so often, what with his habit of dying all the time. They must feel it, surely, though, when he respawns with nothing but resigned humour at his own bad luck, or at worst annoyance at the inconvenience or the loss of his items. They would know not to worry too hard over Scar. It doesn’t stop them, though, and often he’s felt their stomach dropping or fear clench inside of them when he has one of his moments. So often, he’s wished that their bond was a different type, like mind-link, or dream-sharing, but then moments like this happen, and he’s reminded why he would never switch the touch-bond they have for any other kind.

Scar feels his soulmate’s fingers smooth over his neck, creeping up to his face – their face, really – and then the unmistakeable sensation of a palm cupping his cheek gently has him aching as he lies there in his bed, staring up at the lights on the ceiling and wishing they were the stars between worlds, streaks of light slipping by as he travels towards his soulmate. His heart yearns.

Scar moves his own hand, bringing it up to his face – but this time he doesn’t mirror his soulmate. Instead, he places his hand over his chin and mouth and nose and kisses his own palm. The twitch and tremble of his soulmate’s fingers against his cheek has him smiling as he does it again, and again, and again. He thinks he can feel their heart flutter in his own chest, rabbit-fast, maybe bird-fast, and he grins against his palm, knowing they can feel the movement of his lips.

A pause, and then the back of his other hand, currently resting on Jellie as she purrs lazily, curled up and dozing beside his hip, has a gentle pressure against it, warm and hesitant, but careful and earnest.

Scar would be a fool not to know that he’s being kissed back.

153 notes - Posted August 24, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

So, I’ve been thinking a fair bit recently about how the Hermitcraft servers, in-universe, actually function on a social and micro-cultural level. 

A list of real life facts:

1. They have unlimited respawns on Hermitcraft. Death is generally either funny or an inconvenience, and pranks resulting in death are very much allowed, even fairly common. Scar, for example, in his Hotguy persona, literally goes around and shoots people with his bow for fun (and it’s considered a little rude to not die if you’ve been Hotguy’d). 

2. Hermits are invite-only and it’s a rather exclusive server; if a (rare) guest is whitelisted, it is only temporary. Many new Hermits are suggested and supported by an already existing Hermit, and there is a phase where a potential new Hermit is researched before any invite is sent. Once you’ve received an invite, there’s no taking it back, and there’s no probationary period. Hermits (and potential Hermits) are not obliged to either accept nor to stay, however! Many former Hermits have left amiably, and some have even come back after missing a season or two, like Keralis.

3. When it comes to server-wide decisions, everyone has to agree or else it won’t happen. It’s quite literally all-or-nothing on Hermitcraft. And everyone has a say and everyone’s voice is weighed the same, no matter how long or short they’ve been there. 

4. Many Hermits are pioneers or big names in their field (Doc and Tango in redstone, Grian and Scar in building, etc.), or else have been around in MCYT circles for a long time (e.g. Etho and Xisuma). This is not true for every Hermit, but there is distinctly an element of this in the line-up as a whole. It is also very common for Hermits to ask for help/opinions from other Hermits whose specialities are different from their own.

5. Mega-builds and mega-projects are the norm on Hermitcraft. It’s generally expected for a Hermit to take months and months on creating a starter base, then a mega base, at least one shop, usually a mini-game or two for server-wide events, etcetera etcetera. Not every Hermit does this, or does this every season, but most do.

6. Hermitcraft has very, very few rules: griefing is allowed, stealing is allowed, etc. No, really! You can do just about anything on Hermitcraft - so long as you’re prepared to deal with the consequences, and to make reparations if you actually hurt someone’s feelings.

7. It does, however, work on what are called “gentleman’s rules”: that is, if you make a mess, you clean it up, basically. If you prank someone, expect a retaliatory prank, which you have to take in good humour. If you destroy (by accident or design) someone’s items or builds, you’re expected to replace/reimburse/help set it to rights. The entire Hermitcraft economy (the shopping district) works on an honesty box design. Good sportsmanship is the name of the game on Hermitcraft. In the words of Grian himself: “We prank hard, but we clean up harder.”

8. As touched on before, no one on Hermitcraft actually has authority over anyone else. Some people have admin access (Xisuma, Tango, Joe Hills, etc.) but everyone’s voice weighs the same, even if some people have stepped up to take the lead when it comes to the engineering minutiae of maintaining a very popular server.

9. Every Hermit in the current line-up (Season 9 at the time of writing this) is an adult. I can only think of one person who was not an adult when they joined Hermitcraft and that is Mumbo Jumbo, who was 16 or 17 at the time, I think. Most of these people have life experiences and careers before MCYT. Some of them have only recently ceased to be part-time youtubers/streamers and change to full time as they quit jobs to pursue it (e.g. Cleo, Impulse, etc.). 

So, what does all this mean in-universe? Well... 

- Death is temporary, and very little weight is assigned to it, save that if you kill someone for a prank, expect to be pranked fatally in return. There is very little angst to be mined here.

- The Hermits’ expectations of other Hermits generally boil down to “good sportsmanship”, “willing to lend a hand/their expertise if they’re open to doing so” and “willingly accepts consequences for their own actions”. If you don’t follow these expectations at least most of the time, you’re not really acting in a way that is considered acceptable to the rest of the server, and you’re not fitting into the community on Hermitcraft.

- No Hermit takes on any particular authority figure role, neither in the sense of a boss or manager who looks after things on a professional level, nor in the sense of someone taking on a parental role for anyone else. Friendships are certainly encouraged, and Hermits have varying social relationships with each other, but there really is no “mum friend” or “dad friend” around, excepting the occasional joke, there really just isn’t. And there aren’t any Hermits who seem to want to take on this role.

- The closest I can describe the micro-culture of Hermitcraft in real world terms is “university/college dorm full of mature students (mature students = people not fresh out of secondary school/high school)”. They are all busy with their own massive projects, and then on a social level are out to have a good, slightly chaotic, time. They’ve generally got a good sense of identity, or are blossoming into the kind of creator/person they want to be, because they’re in an environment that encourages growth and ambition while (contrary now to the university/college metaphor) not punishing failure. 

- Hermitcraft is a place of “healing” only in the sense that it is a place where people have a fresh start to dedicate themselves to massive projects and become a part of an exclusive but generally helpful and kind community. The only expectations are that you take responsibility for yourself and your own actions, and if you dish out something you’d better be prepared for it to be volleyed back to you; all of these are fair, in my personal opinion. Some people absolutely thrive on such an opportunity! Some others do not.

- Hermitcraft is exclusive, and not everyone who visits the server gets to stay there. To be offered an invite to become a Hermit requires you to be a good fit for the server and its community, and for everyone to agree on that. If even one Hermit doesn’t want someone there, they won’t be invited. That being said, the Hermits are mature individuals, and if you’re not a friend, then you can at least be a colleague. But if you can’t even be that... well. Hermits don’t offer invitations quickly, due to the fact that there is no probationary period; you’re either in or you’re not.

- LARPing is fairly common, wars are games, and everyone there is just out to have fun at the end of the day. If you don’t want to be involved in whatever “storyline” is currently being acted out on the server, you’ve got to manually say so and tap out. You can just say “sorry, busy with my mega-build, have fun at the war” and be left in peace. And these play-pretend games are not necessarily server-wide, either. Not everyone wants to be involved, and those who don’t aren’t pressured to be. But they do very much happen, and pretty frequently. 

And... yeah, that’s about it. Hermitcraft is a world where a bunch of people are basically running wild and free, able to create huge projects and have fun with their friends (in that distinct adults-who-don’t-have-to-go-to-work-and-are-free-to-be-who-they-wish-to-be kind of way), and while the in-universe reality of any storyline can be up for debate in fandom (e.g. in Season 5, was the jungle actually possessing people or were they just LARPing that?), at the end of the day, most of what happens is in good fun and good sportsmanship. And that is what it means to be a Hermit.

1,107 notes - Posted November 4, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

[allay-uxini]

Ok so there are a lot of thematic parallels and subversions in scar’s ending and I highly doubt I will be able to scratch the surface of all of them but here are the main ones (warning this is a lot):

3rd life parallels

-Before the final dual Pearl asked Scar to take her out for the hearts but Scar refused as he wanted a fair fight which is similar to how Scar told Grian to kill him but he refused

-The final dual was a 1v1 between Scar and Pearl reminiscent of the cactus ring where the loser died from falling from a height however this time scar was the victor

-The person in chat who let Scar know that he won was Grian which can be interpreted as Grian congratulating a former ally and him showing scar his sympathy as they now share the same pain of killing an ally and being left complete alone

-Grian won on a cliff during the day, Scar won in a ravine at night

Double life

-Scar won without any proper allies which is very similar to Pearl’s win in double life where she was completely alone and abandoned by everyone with both of them vilified by the rest of the server and not being in the best mental state because of it

-In double life Scar was the only person who consistently cared for Pearl and supported her in her crazy antics and he never tried to seriously hurt her even after he turned red, sure she did end up forming the broken hearts alliance with you and Ren but only after you both left her. Pearl letting Scar into the mounders alliance feels like Pearl’s way of repaying him back for the kindness he gave to her

-Pearl letting Scar join her alliance can also be seen as her making sure Scar doesn’t go through the same thing as her allowing him to have some form of friends, to not feel so alone like how her victory was even if for a short time and she also let’s Scar have his dual as a way to not repeat Scott’s sacrifice

-Pearl is said to have “left the tower” as she has proper allies now who she loves and is loved by and people are now saying that Scar has “left the desert” as he fought in a 1v1 and won and he never teamed up with Grian finally letting him go. They have left their trauma and can now heal.

-The fact that the final battle was between Scar and Pearl makes the Scarlet Pearl parallels much sadder

limited life

-You and Scar both only won when you weren’t with your 3rd life ally (Ren and Grian) and you both won with the main symbol of your 3rd life alliance (dogwarts banner for you, lilacs and poppies for scar)

-You both defied a main convention of winners in the life series with you winning by not having a fair battle and going insane and Scar being the only winner not to die

-Scar killed both Cleo and Etho who were his “parents” in limited life

-Scar's response to being accepted into the mounders was "so you're saying I have a family now" which is reminiscent of the clockers family which was arguably his happiest and healthiest alliance

Non-specific

-Scar was the only winner who chose to not die in the end and is still alive. He could have died by letting the zombie that was attacking him kill him but he didn’t. Is trapped by the watchers or has he escaped them, is he eternally alone or is he the only one free? Who knows but the fans will go insane about it regardless.

-The first one out, Lizzie, and Scar the winner were both the ones without allies and were completely alone in the series

-The mounders alliance that he joined has Bdubs who was his limited life ally and Joel who was his Last life ally

-Scott didn’t want Scar and Jimmy to team up initially because of Jimmy’s curse and Scar's notorious bad habit of not paying attention to how much damage he taken, out of fear that they'd get each other out but the canary curse was broken and scar won

-Earlier in the episode Scar said "who cares, really, know, at the end? we all just die, and then it's just nothing, after this" however he never died in the end subverting his own line

-Scar was alone and isolated for the whole series yet he has the thematic parallels to 3 out of the 4 winners (I only watched last life in Lizzie’s perspective so I got nothing for Scott)

Rn now these are only ones I can think of. If I missed any then everyone else will have you covered. Inthelittlewood if you have read all of this then I hope this was entertaining. I absolutely loved this series and everyone did such a fantastic job. I hope you have a wonderful day and can hopefully endure the insanity that has descended onto this fandom.

how you feeling about scars ending? there were so many little nuggets of stuff that what really kinda poetic- whether it was purposeful or not

Please elaborate on the poetic bits, I've yet to watch his episode yet. I'm actually clueless as to what happened after I died because life has been none stop for me since that session!

Would be good to have those deets ahead of my lore chat stream in a few days

[ahalliance]

—

There are too many people on his mountain.

It wasn’t too long ago that he would have welcomed the lot of them, but now all he feels is a dull sort of anger at the reminder of what he’d lost. And said anger is at the risk of rapidly growing into a fiery blaze if they don’t start heeding the warning bells that accompany a red life’s very presence.

He watches them through narrowed eyes. Jimmy looks nervous beyond belief, shooting him furtive glances, and pretending not to be. He is failing miserably, but at least he has the decency to be visibly on edge. Impulse has a hand on his shoulder but his eyes are elsewhere, the light green observing something happening down the mountain. Martyn, who seems to be completely uncaring, elbows Mumbo in the side. The dark haired man grins, swatting at Martyn’s shoulder and barely missing as he slips out of the way just in time.

Grian is the only one looking in his direction. It only serves to make the quiet, desperate fury in his heart buzz stronger.

Scar steps out of his hut, from dark into day, arms spread out wide and crooked grin plastered onto his face. His crimson eyes are sharper than ever as they land, one by one, on each of the Southerners. “Welcome! How may I be of service to you today?”

“Right,” his attention snaps to Martyn, who seems to have sobered up and stopped joking around with Mumbo. Despite this, he’s still sporting an easy smile. “Sorry to drop by unannounced Scar, but we were in the area and figured we would try our hand at some trading.”

There’s a pause. Jimmy speaks up, voice hesitant. “Figured you could use the company as well.”

Scar’s sword weighs heavy at his side, tucked beneath his robes. He bites back the urge to draw it and to ruin their day with a few simple slices. Realistically, he doubts he’d get there in time, but god was it tempting. Besides, he’s too close to the edge of the cliff, and he doesn’t trust any of them to not shove him off it despite their usual unwillingness to kill a red life.

He’d been the one to fix the mess of the red lives in the first place. And all he had been gifted in return was a permanent solitude, a burden that only grew heavier each new day spent with it. He’d put so much effort into fostering his alliances, had tried so hard to form meaningful partnerships, but it had all backfired. His contracts were only good on paper — no written agreement could ever bring about the same relief a real friendship could.

And it was unfair. This loneliness was unfair.

“Yeah.” He swallows past the bitter lump in his throat. “I suppose I could. But it wouldn’t be in your best interests.”

“Come on, a few minutes won’t hurt!” Mumbo sounds more optimistic than he looks, and a skeptical stare from Scar is enough to make him flounder a little bit. “Ah— as long as you promise to not do anything, of course.”

“Of course.” It comes out strained, forced out through clenched teeth. It isn’t convincing in the slightest, but by the time they could even think to say anything he’s already moved on. He claps his hands together, attempting another one of his signature grins. He hopes it sticks well enough.

“I have many resources on sale here! Unfortunately, my lives are all currently out of stock due to some unforeseen circumstances, but I can offer a variety of ores. I’m assuming you’d prefer diamonds?”

Scar’s eyes land on Grian, decked out in iron armour. Unlike Jimmy or Mumbo, Grian continues to meet his eyes without flinching, golden yellow crossing ruby red. His anger, coated in the bloodlust of a man of his status, continues to fester.

“Yeah.” Eventually, finally, Grian speaks up. His voice is even, but Scar knows him well enough to pick out the hints of something unsteady that lurks within. “Yeah, I’d definitely need some diamonds. What would you want for, say, two?”

Grian is unlike Martyn as well, Scar realises. Martyn had been bold, almost completely unperturbed by his presence. He’d looked him straight in the eye, smiled, and asked to trade.

Grian’s voice is rocky with remorse. Strands of his dusty blonde hair fall into his eyes, and when he tucks them back behind his ear, the tension in his hand is ever so slight, but just ever so noticeable.

Scar finds appreciation in that, in the balance between fear and indifference. His ire cools into something calmer. His smile is a little bit more solid as he shines it at Grian.

“What do you have on you?”

“Uh-“ Grian raises his eyebrows, a thoughtful expression on his face. “Not sure. I’d have to check my bags.”

Scar thinks he can hear the distant sound of voices, climbing the mountain.

Impulse speaks up, belatedly. He has torn his eyes away from whatever he had been watching before, maybe the owners of the voices. “I have some ender pearls, if they so interest you!” As always, his smile is wide and bright, but Scar has to hold back a sigh as Impulse’s eyes refuse to meet his, the light green landing just a little below where they should be.

He ignores it, and nods instead. “Ender pearls would be of great use to me, Impulse, thank you for the offer. And, uh, how many—?”

“Would three be enough?”

Scar knows he could squeeze out more, could strike a better bargain if he really wanted to. But exhaustion clings to his bones, and he wants to get out of the cold, biting air and into the semi warmth of his home.

The isolation has been gnawing at his last remaining soul. He knows letting the Southlanders leave would only worsen it, but he doesn’t have it in him to care anymore.

He steps forwards, opening the small satchel that hangs around his waist, pulling out the owed diamonds. Impulse beams, pulling out the ender pearls. Grian hasn’t moved, but his expression seems to crease into a small frown. “Hey, Scar, heads up-“

There’s a presence from behind him shouting a teasing, harmless greeting in his ear. His upper body locks up in the terror of the surprise, and before he can process what’s happening and the apparent levity of it all, he’s stumbling backwards, legs on autopilot.

When his foot hits the open air, his heart skips a beat.

There’s a few screams that ring out as he slips from the cliffside, but he can barely make them out over the rush of panic that grips him as he realises he’s mere seconds away from death. His final death.

Red eyes widen in pure, unrestrained fear. His body hits the ground at a horrible angle and agony rushes up his back and neck, limbs shaking from the force of the shock, a gasp of pain beginning to fall from his lips as he-

As he-

As he wakes up in his bed, heart pounding away at his ribcage like a jackhammer. Remnants of green sparks flutter around him before they fade into nothing.

The gasp tears through his throat as he doubles over from the leftover, lingering pain that a respawn always brings. He hacks up nothing but spit and air as he grips the bedsheets tighter, claw-like fingers digging into the white fabric. He breathes in deep once and then bites down hard on his lower lip, shutting his eyes, holding back a whimper.

It takes a few more moments for Scar’s shaking to subside, and when he does he cracks open a hesitant eye, breathing heavily yet with a confused reluctance. He should be dead. Deader than dead, gone, reduced to a lonely ghost doomed to amble through the already blood soaked lands until someone eventually won.

But as he draws in a breath, he is just invigorated with more life than ever before.

His mind takes a few seconds longer to refocuse properly. When it does, his newfound clarity has made him aware of a figure crouching by his side, dusty blonde hair falling into a similar pair of blood red eyes.

—

[lunarblazes]

There’s always a strange atmosphere when the sessions end, especially when you’ve managed to antagonize literally the entire server and you and your partner are still on your green lives.

Grian’s always managed to antagonize the entire server by the time they’re red. One thing he’s never managed is to stay green the whole time.

(Last time, he was never green to begin with, not without Scar’s ill-gotten life beating in his chest, and the time before that his green life was forfeit the moment he stepped up to do some real damage.)

And Scar’s never managed to keep his leverage. He runs his thumb over the ever-cool obsidian of the enchanting table, the magic he immediately gave to Grian, though he knows the man’s disloyal. Scar’s disloyal too. They both know they’ve got other people, people they tell themselves are more important. And maybe they are. But Scar’s never kept his leverage this long (a banner, the hearts he sold on his sleeve) and Grian’s never been green on his own, so.

Grian pokes his head out into the open, right next to where the cactus marks the spot. It’s a bit of a conspicuous mark, but Scar’s never been one to stay hidden. He won’t die like a mole. They’re filthy little creatures, he’s been told, much like pandas. He’s already chosen to stake his life on his wonderful Jellies, he won’t be dying like some underground rat this time.

Grian’s nervous. Scar can tell. It’s not exactly like it’s the hardest thing in the world to notice, really, not the way he tugs at his hair and paces and sparks the flint and steel ablaze in his hands. At least this time he’s not fiddling with the TNT.

And the thing is that Scar’s never been green this long. Heavens, no. He went out like a light in the first game, all his fresh lives drained by the man standing across from him.

But that’s in the past, really! Today, they’re supposed to be partners, and Grian just got back from a pool party that Scar hears went terribly and probably made things worse for them. Scar had a great nap.

“You know you’re capable of sitting down, right?” Scar asks.

Grian turns, his expression tense and his hand on his sword. “Mm.”

“Did you not know that?” he teases. “The way you’ve been pacing, I’d believe it.”

“Oh, shut it,” Grian mumbles, going back to staring out at the empty night sky above them. It reminds Scar rather of a cat, its gazed fixed on an unseen point, maybe a ghost. Well, Scar knows there aren’t any ghosts this time, at least not yet, so he really doesn’t understand why Grian’s being difficult about this.

“If you go to sleep, you’ll be able to hear someone sneaking up on us better,” he offers.

Of all things, of course it’s that comment that makes Grian wrinkle up his nose and take his hands off the flint and steel. “What on earth are you talking about?”

“Oh, you know. Just a bit of a Certified Scar Tip for you there! Made extra-special, and more importantly, free, because you’re my soulmate,” Scar grins, “and also because if you keep staring at the clouds like they’re gonna strangle us, I think you might burst a blood vessel, and that’d be unpleasant for both of us, really.”

Grian scoffs, but he sits down. Scar smiles to himself in the dark and leans back in his bed.

“Tomorrow we can focus on fun things! Like moving the pandas in.”

His partner makes a strangled noise that sounds a lot like an annoyed manatee chastising its calf. Scar takes that as an enthusiastic noise of agreement.

The enchantment table and the flint and steel sit near the entrance, an arm’s reach away, as he manages to wrangle the anxious inter-session air into submission. Grian falls asleep within the hour.

[thecoolerliauditore]

IT'S FINALLY DONEEEEEE I CAN DRAW OTHER THINGS NOW?? (this is lies. i will simply draw more life smp fanart. banana rotate)

in celebration, here are some of my favourite shots and me mansplaining the video under the cut *cries* + some unhinged rambling you have been warned

obligatory grian third life parallels that everyone has pointed out.

This season specifically felt really like a successor to the others (third life for grian and scars bickering/scar remembering grian getting mad at him/grian blurting out "SCAR NO" out of habit, martyn's martyn-ness. last life for the return of the boogeyman mechanic and the generally chaotic vibe with more deaths. double life for all the soulmate on soulmate violence). So I wanted to sneak as many of these in as possible lol.

poor etho D:

even though it's all improv i love the character development cleo and etho have gone through lmao. from everyone being scared of them to "useless at pvp" (I like to think that talk with martyn back in double life gave her some confidence back tho) and "washed up".

i want them to hate eachother forever.

last life parallels. i hateship them. i love how their relationship has developed. and all because martyn set himself on fire. i want them to rip each other's throats out. i want them to fight each other to death. i want them to hate one another til the end of time. i want them to be friends again :C and then murder each other again.

i can't draw frogs help me.

weird dog.

maybe a bit of an obscure thing to include but this is scotts fish friend who he freed cus he didn't want him to die with him. idk it was a cute moment. in my head scott's like this manipulative character so moments of kindness like this make me go brr (the same for when skizz almost made him cry)

i just like how this turned out.

LOVE GRIEF LOVE GRIEF

my thought process here's a bit stretchy and gooey but the idea is:

LOVE for Martyn in a kind of fucked up semi-ironic sense. Just cus he's been a series-long backstabber doesn't mean he doesn't get attached to Ren or in this case, Scott. In my head I like to think this is his way of experiencing affection or LOVE cus he doesn't know how to in any other way cus idk traumatic backstory or something idk the lore that well. his love language is murdering you.

GRIEF for Impulse in a much more literal sense. all his friends are dead and he's grieving and now he's even grieving Scott cus he just watched Martyn murder him. It's kinda hard to see but I made his pupils i-shaped cus i thought that would be fun. He's not acting out of any misguided sense of "love" he's simply suffering.

crocs

o it's an analogy!!!!!! look at me big smart brain big emotion go woot.

so yea martyn's always been looking for a chance to pull off what he did here but I like to think that despite that pre-Limlife martyn would still be horrified by what happened even just very slightly. if it was ren I like to think he'd be even more torn up about it.

axe because obligatory red winter axe.

it's kinda hard to see but i also gave him a spyglass cus something something last life martyn, impulse southlanders, something something aha.

SPOILERS FOR ALL OF LIMITED LIFE

hi i make animatic pmv thing.

here's it on youtube too!

[eluminium]

The Life Series, Curses, and One ImpulseSV

Canary curse this, Beansanity curse that. Let me tell you about a much more subtle and less noticed curse haunting the Life series, and also im gonna tell you because I'm not coping with Double Life ending, and I want to make others suffer the same realizations I had.

Let's talk about the Bridle Curse. Let's talk about Impulse.

(Btw if you wanna know why I chose the name Bridle Curse then just scroll to the bottom there's an explanation. But you could also read the post and try to figure it out yourself ;) )

Impulse is, for the most part, a pretty all bark no bite guy. I'm pretty sure he ranks as one of the lowest in terms of kills. 3 kills in 3rd Life, no kills in Last Life (unless you count that time Scar died to the lava trap outside of the Southlands and the assist on the Bdubs Wither kill, then he'd have 1 and a half), and no kills in Double Life. 

(Btw this is more reason for him to GO OFF HIS ROCKER ALREADY COME ON IMPULSE YOU HAVE AT THE MAX 4 AND A HALF KILLS OVER 3 SEASONS. GO CRAZY. MURDER.) 

All in all, Impulse is a chill man, here to fuck around and find out.

But the thing that's fun with him is that in every single Life season so far, he's always had a sort of "purpose" or "goal". Something that defines his entire season, something everyone remembers. 

In 3rd Life, his purpose was to be a mole/spy to gather information for his allies, the Day One Crew. In Last Life, his purpose was to help Grian summon the Wither, going so far as to straight up head to the Nether and get a new skull after he failed at getting the already existing third one. And in Double Life, he was a homewrecker with Bdubs. All of these things are what he is remembered most by, they were his purpose in a way. Of course, almost every single member of any Life season usually has their POV defined by a certain role or goal. But it's here where Impulse diverts from the average.

He always loses his red life soon after his one defining thing can't continue anymore.

Think about it. In 3rd life, he was the mole, the traitor inside Dogwarts. When did he die? After Dogwarts was brought to ruin and (almost) every Red Army soldier lay slain. You can't continue being an inside man when there are no more major enemies to infiltrate. And even then, he had already shown his cards. He was never gonna be able to keep his schtick going, no one trusted him. His purpose was fulfilled, he had served his role. Bdubs betrayed and shot him not long after.

In Last Life, he was part of the Southlands, but his big season-defining act was the Wither. Gathering the skulls, passing them around, and finally helping Grian summon it. When did he die? Right after the Wither was sent back to where it once came. His entire role surrounded the Wither. With it gone, and no chance in hell to summon another one, he had no more use. He got shot by Scott seconds after.

In Double Life, we got him and Bdubs being homewreckers. Spreading gossip, trying to lie, (despite Impulse being just, a horrible liar, especially when put on the spot), and break up other pairs. When did he die? Right after the last attempt of the series to separate a pair. They've escaped, and they're digging a staircase out. And one last time, they try to throw suspicion on someone, by throwing it on Scott against Pearl. It fails, obviously. The Divorce Quartet were too close, ironically, and they're the only ones left. The possibility of Impulse persisting in his purpose was nonexistent. Not long after making it to the surface, they're found by Pearl and slaughtered, with Bdubs accidentally delivering the final blow onto Impulse.

Every time Impulse's purpose is completed or irrelevant (or both), he falls.

BUT WAIT, IT GETS WORSE! THERE'S MORE.

If you pay close attention to the little list I just made, you may notice another pattern. Impulse is not only killed when his role can no longer be played but he's killed by the purpose itself OR by the person who GAVE him that goal.

Who gave him the mole role in 3rd life? Team Crastle. Who killed him in the end? Bdubs, the last surviving member of Team Crastle. What caused his death in Last Life? Two arrows from Scott, who wouldn't be there if not for the Wither, and would not have taken those shots without it. Who gave him the homewrecker role in Double Life? Bdubs. Who killed him in the end? Bdubs.

(Speaking about Impulse's LL death...I mean, come on. What more evidence is there for the universe to want you dead than being killed by someone who broke the rules to do it. Scott wasn't red, and Impulse didn't attack him directly. Scott shouldn't have shot Impulse, logically. I'm just saying, sounds like divine intervention to get rid of Impulse after his purpose was complete. No, I'm not a conspiracy theorist stop looking at my board of red string like that-.)

Impulse is a tool. He's a tool that performs one single thing and is then discarded. He does what he does, and when he has run out of benefit, in the eyes of the universe (and in the eyes of his allies, consciously or unconsciously), he's thrown away. Broken. Never given a proper chance to fight back. Ambushed, caught off guard, and denied a choice. Whether that is to be a man on the inside, to summon an eldritch abomination, or to sow seeds of distrust, it all ends the same. When he can no longer do it, the curtains fall. He's more useful dead than alive.

That's his curse. Cursed to only do one noteworthy thing, and die shortly after, by the very hands that used to wield him.

It's ironic how he didn't pick up horse riding until Double Life. You'd think a one-trick pony would gravitate towards them.

(I called it The Bridle Curse cuz a bridle is the face thing you put on a horse. It's a tool used to steer horses. I couldn't decide if I wanted to name the curse after the tool concept or the one-trick pony concept so I just combined them. And I mean, Bridles are very specific to horses and has like, one purpose...I'M TRYING HERE OKAY COMING UP WITH NAMES IS HARD. Feel free to suggest like, another name if you want.)