#why are martyns tags so hard

[otselotus]

"We can hear you too, you know?" Wild life spoilers kinda Not really

[earendilsass]

I've finally finished my life series art yipee

Im so proud of these considering i've never tried anything that looks like stained glass

Theres also a Cleo one in the reblogs

As usual click for better quality

Flat colours (and me yapping about them) under the cut

These are also not edited for better colours just straight from the art file, idk i can never get colours just right so i usually edit them in my gallery app lol

The line art colour match the characters vibes they're not really lore based but you know what is

The poses. Obv grain is looking at the camera (and has eyes) cuz he's a watcher but also scott and martyn are looking to one side cuz they were happy about their win and pear and scar are looking to the other cuz they were sad/confused

None of them really have facial features cuz like they're players in a game come on why would they ever have an actual identity other than 'player'

Also look at scotts bow and scars cane please i put way too much detail into them

Okay enough yapping now (i lied theres more in the tags)

[ebby172]

“I made you a scarf,” it tells Martyn. Both Martyn and Jimmy turn to Three. It holds out the scarf. It’s red and green. “Do not get Watcher blood on it. It is not designed for that, and it feels as though it would harm the gesture, if blood like mine was on it.”

Little fanart for chapter 8 of @theminecraftbee 's fic "solving counting sheep" because it's consumed my thoughts and I just had to draw Three handing over the scarf in the middle of that argument

I also used cutiemonster and seawaveleo's designs for the fic (or as close as I could get) because their own art were absolute bangers

Anyways go read the fic pls it's very good

[goldenpinof]

.

[firekit21]

Double Life Good Place AU

Hear me out. The Divorce Quartet as the main four. They all canonically torture each other.

Pearl is Eleanor. She is a morally bleak ball of chaos who hates her soulmate and wants to make his afterlife as painful as possible.

Scott is Chidi. Just this ball of anxiousness who had dedicated his afterlife to making sure Pearl doesn’t get discovered by Michael.

Cleo is Tahani. I feel like she fits the vibe of ‘good actions morally grey intentions’.

Martyn is Jason. Process of elimination and I just find it funny.

Grian as Michael. This would make the demons Watchers. He is this immortal entity created to cause pain and destruction, then gets blackmailed by a wet cat and her fellow divorcees.

[pearlescent-poppies]

I’m sick and tired of the Flower Husbands discourse. Like really truly it is just making me so upset now. They are my comfort ship. They are. My first tattoo is a poppy with the ESMP1 quote. I want to hold them in my hands and give them all of the good things in the world. When I see people calling them toxic and abusive, it really hurts me. And there’s not a tag to filter out all of it, not all of them tag “toxic flower husbands”. I get it, okay? I do. I get why you might see them like that. But if anything? If we’re going to see Flower Husbands as the most toxic duo, take a look at every other relationship Jimmy has in the Life Series (with the exception of Tango) and you’ll find the same thing. He’s the butt of the joke. He’s the canary they all poke fun of in his cage. He doesn’t care. But Scott does care. If Desert Duo never left the desert, Scott never stopped crying at Jimmy’s grave. Did you watch his series all the way through? Did you see his ideal afterlife? That Jimmy welcomed him home because that is what they had together? Did you hear the way Scott’s voice got sad talking about how quiet and weird it was not to have Jimmy with him? Have you not watched as Scott uses every single opportunity possible to bring up Flower Husbands? He misses Jimmy with every fiber of his being. Jimmy misses Scott too. Did you watch Last Life? Do you know what Martyn did to make Jimmy give him back the life? He promised a life together, Martyn says it himself! That it was all romantic promising to run away just the two of them. How Jimmy was so hopeful. So naive because this was the beginning, he’s not got all of the hope anymore. Jimmy has had to move on. Jimmy made himself move on. 30 seconds. Do you not imagine him turning away from that interaction resigned to his choice a single tear rolling down his face before he rejoins his boys in their shenanigans? Cause I do. That was a man he had devoted his life to. And yeah, maybe it was because of a joke and a silly a poppy. But do you know what a poppy means? Remembrance, dreams, death, and hope for a peaceful future. Do you know what the white daisy, blue cornflower, and red tulip meant at Jimmy’s grave? Purity, life, reanimation, hope, and true feelings. Do you think a character who conveys a message like that capable of the abuse you accuse him of? Scott’s general air of cattiness is just his character. Hard edges that once you’ve chipped away at, reveal someone who is extremely dedicated and fiercely loyal even and especially to his own detriment. Scott will make jokes about finally being free once his husband dies to the war, but I really think that’s just him preparing for the inevitable. Jimmy was going to die. Canary or not. They all were. So why not make a joke out of being lambs in a slaughterhouse. Isn’t that one of the main ways people cope? Scott loved his husband. Still does and will continue too. Jimmy is the same. But he let go. Had to. He would never have forgiven himself for dragging Scott down with him. How many times do you think that man apologised to Tango for dying first. How many times do you think that man apologised to Tango for dying first before they even lost their third life in the first place? I honestly think Scott himself sums this up best: “I don’t always put myself first and sure I’ve made plenty of mistakes and I’ve hurt people. But I’ve always done my best.”

So next time you wanna call them toxic, rewatch the series and think about this post.

[mbirnsings-71]

SOBS DON'T ADD TOUCH STARVEDNESS INTO THIS THAT'S ONE OF MY FAVORITE TROPES STOPPPPPP SCOTT HE WOULD LEAN INTO SCOTT'S ICY TOUCH AND JUST MELT STOPPPPPP I'M ILL JAYYYYYY- HE'S ALL ALONE WITH HIS ANIMALS UNTIL A CERTAIN CANARY RESPAWNS I'M ILL-

Scott, with his natural resistance to fire: mmm I'm gonna kiss both my partners' hands, as a Treat :D

something something having a new hyperfixation and now having several new WIPs about it AND just starting to draw certain characters from it just yesterday uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh yeah-

[kaihuntrr]

remember my previous post with my Scott designs? I said I would draw full bodies, so I used my lineless style! I also wanted to design Secret Life Scott, aka; Glitz!

Life Series: Scott! (take two)

The lore is still the same, I just changed up and added things to the previous four so they can be as detailed as Glitz!

Since I’ve talked about the previous Scott versions, I’ll only talk about Glitz and his design origins <3

Secret Life: Glitz

Teamed with his bandmates, Glitter (Gem) and Glam (Impulse), he makes a fun presence with his rocking sweet attitude with a hint of sass. Fulfilling his tasks might be a bit hard for everyone, but he seems to fly by them quite quickly! A charming guitarist with a sense of fashion and the spotlight.

I wanted to keep a harpy theme for Gem & the Scotts, I think it makes sense since they have a music-themed name plus they live high up! I made him a peryton so it matches with his previous lives with their additions of horns and antlers!

this is the part where I ramble about a story idea (and why there’s a particular ship in the tags)

SO. I was talking to @mewhoismyself about a secret life au with rockstar Scott with budding feelings for rascal/ upcoming artist Jimmy! Listen it could also be a Scott/Jimmy/Martyn situation but I have a whole other fic for Majorwood (gestures at the Sea Prince) but music au Flower Husbands… DO YOU HEAR ME??

I may think of the au more in the background,, I just LOVE how they all turned out and the potential to use Glitz’ design more really excites me- but what do you think? Whose design is your favorite of the five? I personally love how all of them look, my sweet darlings <3

[blicketdabest33]

FINAL CABIN PLACEMENTS I DON'T WANT TO EDIT IT AFTER THIS

So many of y'all had so many good ideas (and since a lot of these i came up with without any real reasoning) here's my updated version that i think fits A LOT better

#1 Zeus Cabin: Jimmy, Joel Jimmy: He's a Zeus kid, but everyone somehow forgets about it. Joel: He's competitive and strong. Also, because Jimmy is his half brother through godly parent, i get to make a fun bit about him dating Lizzie. And one of his origins in Afterlife SMP was a thunderborn

#2 Hera Cabin: Scott, Impulse, Ren Scott: Scott's whole thing is loyalty. Hera is the goddess of marriage and is insanely loyal to Zeus. However, I feel like Hera should get at least one affair. So now Scott can use peacocks as weapons. Impulse: According to @dawnfire7 Impulse is known for loyalty, which i did not know. He's also known to hold grudges. Perfect Hera kid. Ren: He's apparently known for loyalty (and i didn't really like his Nike placement anyway)

#3 Poseidon Cabin: XB XB: Something about water temple guardians

#4 Demeter Cabin: Sausage, Shelby, Bdubs, Stress Sausage: This man built Sanctuary in a jungle and has flowers in his hair. He sells wood. There is no other place to put him. Shelby: Mushroom gnome, spooky mangrove witch, powerful storm witch, i need not continue. Bdubs: Moss man. Stress: SHE HAS FLOWERS

#5 Ares Cabin: Martyn, False Martyn: His planet is Mars, which is the roman version of Ares. He ended Limited Life in such a violent way, i can't help it. He was also red for the majority of Secret Life. False: I just feel like False should get to kill people more often.

#6 Athena Cabin: Grian, Pix, Owen, Xisuma Grian: This sums it up pretty well

Pix: Smart man. Archeologist and definitely a nerd. I wanna see him skipping out on training just so he can read history books. Owen: He likes to explore and discover new things in Pirates. In Rats, he's a tinkerer. In New Life, he's an explorer who wants to study hybrids. In Empires, he's a Llama who's curious about how humans work. Just a very curious character overall. Xisuma: Admin. I'm not elaborating.

#7 Apollo Cabin: Oli, Lyarrah Oli: MUSIC. MAN. Lyarrah: She writes the captions for the hermitcraft recap.

#8 Artemis Cabin: Pearl, Gem Pearl: Y'know, Artemis could've just like... had a kid, even though she took that oath. It wouldn't even have to be with a guy. Gods can change to whatever gender they want. Anyway, Pearl gets to be an Artemis kid because her symbolism is moon, she loves dogs, and will commit murder and hunt at night. Gem: Someone really wanted these girls to be sisters, and I think Gem and pearl should get to hunt at night and be fierce together. Oh, and she's got the whole deer aesthetic.

#9 Hephaestus Cabin: Doc, Mumbo, Tango, Zedaph, Fwhip, Iskall Doc: Redstone Mumbo: Redstone Tango: Redstone Zedaph: Redstone Fwhip: Redstone AND has a red scarf (don't ask me how that's relevant) Iskall: Redstone

#10 Aphrodite Cabin: Keralis, Skizz, Bigb Keralis: Okay, I don't know why, but Keralis gives me the vibes of a very charming person. His voice is nice to listen to, so imagine how useful it'd be if I gave him charm speak. Skizz: Person in the tags said he was really charming and you can't help but love him. I agree. He's here now. Bigb: Smooth talker. Someone (i think it was Scott) said in one of their videos "It's hard to kill him while he's talking". Charmspeak. Ma man, go do chaos.

#11 Hermes Cabin: Scar, Etho, Joe Scar: Trader Scar, scammer extraordinar. Etho: All i must say is Shady-E's. I get "jack-of-all-trades, master of none, often better than master of one" vibes from him. He's funny, he's mischievous, it just works. Joe: Comedy man. Excellent delivery. And, yet again, i look at this man and go "That right there is a multi-talented man with a habit for mischief."

#12 Dionysus Cabin: Joey, Beef, Cub Joey: *points at his season one empires theme* i need not say more Beef: Idk, food. I don't really have a reason. I don't know too much about Beef. Cub: Someone said Cub was really laid back, i liked this idea, he's here now. C'mon, go make ur empire.

#13 Hades Cabin: Zloy Zloy: Zombie man. He writes the Hermitcraft recaps in the dark at 2am with nothing but pure spite.

#14 Iris Cabin: Katherine Katherine: SHE. HAS. COLORS. and also I couldn't put her in Demeter cabin because Shelby is already there and i am NOT excluding Nature Wives from this au

#15 Hypnos Cabin: Wels Wels: @dingdinghq said something about sleeping during S6 and i completely agree

#16 Nemesis Cabin:

#17 Nike Cabin:

#18 Hebe Cabin: 

#19 Tyche Cabin: TFC TFC: Man goes mining and gets really lucky. That's it.

#20 Hecate Cabin: Lizzie, Cleo, Jevin Lizzie: Witchy vibes. Also, Arson. Cleo: Arson. She uses her magic for Arson. Jevin: He's a magic slime. Also, Arson. All Hecate kids love Arson.

[thecoolerliauditore]

I really liked your analysis on the discourse around flower husbands and I would like to give my personal perspective from someone who’s been here since the end of third life.

The fandom was 100% still reeling over from negative effects of no shipping in the hermitcraft fandom. The majority of life series fans came from hermitcraft as well, after all nearly all of the players in third life were hermits. You could joke about treebark and maybe scarian being gay but I remember seeing a lot of homoerotic art being tagged “THIS IS NOT SHIP ART ITS PLATONIC” and later on a few of those artists would post shipping art without fear. If you had a romantic interpretation of a relationship in third life, you would quickly chalk it up to being friends. Shipping was still uncomfortable territory for many. Maybe because they didn’t like shipping themselves and weren’t expose to it or maybe they did but was still feeling the effects from others in 2019/2020.

Flower husbands you couldn’t chalk it up to just being friends. If you didn’t like shipping you can make everything platonic but you would look like an idiot trying to say that they were “good friends” or “roommates” in third life. No, Scott and Jimmy were known as husbands, they did it themselves. Not the fans, the creators themselves. Yes there will be dramatic and angsty ship art of the two. For everyone else? Not really. Like I said, people would have to explicitly say it wasn’t ship art between Ren and Martyn or Scar and Grian. If you didn’t want that type of art you just wouldn’t look at Scott or jimmy’s tags. Simple as that.

As time went on I would say around double life shipping had coursed its way back into the fandom. Having a romantic interpretation of Treebark was fine, just properly tag it and everyone was chill. Same with Scarian, hell, I would say the shipping lens started taking over more than the platonic one lol. And with double life having soulmates, that gave the shipping culture a big boost. You don’t like it? Well it’s gonna be hard to avoid Bdubs or Impulses tags when they’re making “honey imm home!” jokes or BigB and Grian literally in their own words “cheating on their soulmate for their secret soulmate” Grian saying “I’m gonna take your man” is just fuel to the ever growing fire. If you didn’t like shipping then buckle up because double life was fruity as hell with nearly all of the creators. Mother fucking Joel Smallishbeans made a ship called “The Relations” and put Etho’s face on his skin’s shirt. You couldn’t avoid shipping at all when the creators are also the ones doing it.

So shipping is wild spread now and more accepted. As for flower husbands well you couldn’t really make the ship more than “tragic gays with fluff and angst”

Scarian you could make it toxic, you could make it healthy, you could make it whatever you want because it was never “canon”. Flower husbands was built in a time where shipping was uncertain and a lot of their early day works was either them being fluffy husbands together or tragic yaoi. To make one of them toxic it was out of the question.

I however could not tell you why it’s only Scott being the “toxic” perpetrator in flower husbands. Could be an individual’s bias and own experiences, could be how they view the creators, maybe a bit of projection or maybe they have only been exposed to toxic!scott that branching out to toxic!jimmy, something that’s extremely rare, might be hard and they don’t want to put the work in to make it themselves.

In conclusion, flower husbands was the only way you could ship in early days of the life series because you couldn’t ignore the romantic relationship Scott and Jimmy portrayed. If you did with other relationships it could easily be chalked up to being friends and if something could be seen as shipping you HAD to disclose that it wasn’t. Flower husbands was allowed but dear god if you said a king and his hand was tragic yaoi you would have been sniped.

People are attached to a ship that was the “acceptable” ship so having a negative interpretation can be viewed as bashing the ship or worse one of the creators (most often Scott) but now that it’s more open to other interpretations people are rightfully be a bit protective.

Also also if you have found any posts interpretation Jimmy being the toxic person with his relationship with Scott please do share. I haven’t seen any posts like that and I’m quite bored of toxic!scott within flower husbands shipping. I need a little bit of spice in my life you know? Anyway, have a good day.

Yeah this is pretty much what I assumed, ty for the peer review 💪

I think I didn't make my point about Jimmy clear, my bad -- my point was that making FH toxic was always discourse that reflected back onto Scott, instead of Jimmy. I don't think it's the Jimmy fans up in arms was what I was trying to convey.

I personally see Scott as abusive towards Jimmy and have held this view since my first watch of Scott's 3L POV. I feel like it's almost hard not to arrive at this conclusion if you approach it in the same way you approach other ships. i.e. I've never seen someone storyboard the "go back and get the sugar cane!" sequence from episode 1 and have it not read as anything other than that (btw if anyone knows any way of making this scene not horrifying I'd be genuinely curious)

As for toxic jimmy posting, I'm not the biggest fan of these interpretations because I operate by a different school of thought when it comes to this series and I've found some arguments for Jimmy being toxic in the past a little uncomfortably reminiscent of irl victim-blaming but that being said who am I to get in the way of people making stuff they enjoy. I'm not the FH/Scott maintag 🤷‍♂️

There's this guy who's posted a few things in the FH tag that I find fun.

Their posts range from the usual FH fluff to Jimmy cheating on Scott and Scott leaving Jimmy for someone else.

This one's a personal favourite.

I would also love it if I could summon this anon for you I think you guys could workshop smth together

But other than those specific examples I have definitely seen more vague posts that imply Jimmy mistreats Scott, you might wanna hit up the Scott/Tango shippers? Snowbugs, I think their name is? Lots of memes in there about just ditching Jimmy lol

[raccoontho]

Promise to the Moon

A @mcyt-valentines gift for @paradoxlemonade :D! Read the fic here, or on AO3.

Words: 1,077 Characters: Rendog, Martyn Inthelittlewood Tags: Hurt/comfort, Werewolves, Werewolf turning, Sickfic (technically), Ambiguous Relationship

Summary: With how well Martyn and Ren have gotten to know each other over the course of 3rd Life, things were bound to get a little… wild. Especially if werewolves are involved. The two face the consequences of their actions, getting closer than ever before.

“Martyn…”

“I’m fine.”

Martyn didn’t look fine. He was pacing across their base, going from task to task with seemingly no goal in mind, so it was tough to see just how big the bags underneath his eyes were without standing still. How pale he looked. Opened an enchantment book. Put it down again and walked up the stairs. Plucked a few handfuls of wheat. Back down the stairs again. Martyn’s brows were furrowed, eyes slightly sunken. Eyes that were more amber-coloured than they looked before.

“Martyn…”

Attempted to trade with one of their villagers again. Gave up halfway through and started to make the beds instead. Dropped their pillows to the floor. Gripped the sleeves of his shirt with clenched fists. Walked back up the stairs to peek over the walls. Back inside to check their supply of lapis.

Ren knew this specific kind of restlessness. Usually, if he knew ahead of time what he was in for, he could go with it and let himself shift and avoid the pain altogether. But Martyn, well, he…

“Martyn, please stop this. I can almost taste your stress, dude.”

“I’m not stressed!” Martyn threw his hands in the air. “I’m doing fine! I’m taking care of things!” He spun back around to go do something else. Ren strode up to him and put a hand on his shoulder.

“Ren—”

“Listen, man. I’ve gotten to know you a little more over these past few weeks. Maybe even a little too well. And I know that this isn’t like you.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Martyn said through gritted, sharpened teeth.

“You’re holding something back.” Ren peered into Martyn’s eyes. Martyn responded by gripping Ren’s wrist to break away from his hold. Ren let him. Sharp nails dug into his skin. 

“I’m just saying, seeing you pace around the place like this, like it’s your territory…”

“Ren, please, don’t—”

“It’s highly likely that you’re turning into a werewolf.”

Martyn winced, shutting his eyes. When he opened them again, they were even more golden than before.

“That’s not the thing I’m worried about. I mean—”

Martyn rolled his eyes.

“—It’s that you’re denying it.”

“You’re seeing things. No offense, my Lord.” Martyn pulled back his collar to show off the wound. It had healed, since, but especially now, so close to the full moon, Ren saw the thick, blond fur that had started to spread from it.

“A bite’s just a bite. It wasn’t even a full moon,” Martyn says with a confidence that almost has Ren believing him. “It’s nothing. I’m fully capable of defending our land as I am.”

“Dude, you’re barely able to focus on anything for more than thirty seconds.” Ren picked up the pillows off the ground and fluffed them up back on the beds. “I know it’s hard, but with how much you’re resisting it, why don’t you try to lie down for a moment?”

Martyn shakes his head. His hair looks tangled and thick. “If I lie down then there’s nobody to watch over you. If I lie down, then… then I can’t distract myself.” He walked off again, at that. Ren jumped up and grabbed Martyn’s hand, feeling the growing claws dig into his skin as he squeezed it.

When Martyn turned back around, tears brimmed in his eyes.

“Oh, Martyn…”

They easily fell into an embrace. Ren hugged Martyn close, one hand in his blond hair, scratching softly at his scalp.

A sob wracked Martyn’s body. “This’ll blow over, right? It’s just a flu. A werewolf flu.”

“I’m so sorry, Martyn.” Ren squeezed him tighter. “I should have known better. I should have known.”

“It’s not your fault.” Martyn nuzzled into Ren’s neck. “I think, somewhere, I even wanted, or hoped…” He hummed. “It’s just that it’s…”

“Happening a little fast?” Ren felt Martyn nod. “I know. I’m right here with you.”

That part he meant in multiple ways. Ren would be right there through Martyn’s first full moon shift. He’d guide him as best he could, for he himself would turn into a wolf all the same.

When Martyn loosened himself from their embrace, Ren winked. That got Martyn to smile, a little. He let himself be guided back to their beds, at least. A little sluggish. The moon always demanded a lot of energy, which would only find its way out properly when it was at its highest point in the sky.

Ren tucked Martyn in, smiling at the way his fully wolflike eyes made him look like a big puppy.

“Don’t worry, dude. Sleep, first.”

Martyn nodded, eyes drooping slightly.

“What will the others think? It’s barely even been a month.”

“Who cares what they think??” Ren grabbed Martyn’s hand. “All that matters to me is that you’re okay. Which you’re not. I’ll be here to teach you everything you need to know. I know it’s terrifying, but it’ll be okay. I’m here.”

Martyn nodded, eyes suddenly squeezing shut as another sob wracked his body.

“It hurts,” he growled.

“I know it does.” Ren brushed the palm of Martyn’s hand with his thumb. “I’ll get you some potions to help. But you have to see it through. Think about what comes after! We’ll get to run underneath the moonlight together! Terrify any zombies and skeletons and other people!” Ren’s tail started to wag at the thought. To fully wolf out, with Martyn, just the two of them…

“Wait, the walls—” Martyn tried to sit up, but Ren gently held him back down. “We have to—”

“Shh, what’d I tell you? Rest now, we’re safe. I’ll take watch tonight.”

“Mmm.” Martyn let himself fall back into his pillow. Ren gave him a soft smile.

Then, before he knew it, Ren was pulled in under the covers as well. He held Martyn until he fell asleep, listening to his breath. Feeling his muscles relax, more fur slowly creeping in. 

Ren would get him a few regen potions and food ready, if only he could escape from Martyn’s grip.

Martyn let out a sigh in his sleep. He was finally allowing himself to rest, which meant that he was allowing himself to change. He wasn’t denying it anymore. Ren let himself relax in Martyn’s grip. With it, he felt his own fur creeping up his back. He was quite exhausted from holding back his shift, too, he realized. 

He yawned. Tomorrow. Tomorrow they would continue worrying. Right now they’d sleep.

.

[smileygoth]

21. Aspen (Inspired by Another OC From The Challenge, Month of Darkness 2024)

This is possibly the most terrifying prompt to post, because it means sharing something based on the work of a total stranger! I've been following the #monthofdarkness tag on Tumblr and X, and the OC who caught my interest came from the X account of @OffbeatWorlds. I hope I did your character justice! It's so hard when you only have limited information about them!

CW: None.

Image from @OffbeatWorlds. They also do awesome fantasy, D&D and Critical Role art and they have a calendar coming! Check them out!

Find the Masterlist here!

She dozed, and her mind wandered. Memories of Cesario became memories of so many others, and then memories of places she had been, memories of America….

A random gas station out in the middle of nowhere, while she’d been travelling from one city to another. There was so much open space between cities in America. The tour bus had needed to refuel, and it had been just a few hours past sunset when it pulled into the gas station, so Christina decided to get out and stretch her legs. She was hungry, but the idea of feeding on some poor random schmuck in the gas station toilets did not appeal to her. Instead she did a slow circuit of the station, wandering just inside the circle of light it threw while her driver and roadies went in to pay for the fuel and load up on snacks. Martyn had joined them, craving Redvines. He’d become almost addicted to them while they’d been over there.

Theirs was the only vehicle in the gas station, so once all the roadies had disappeared into the store, it was very quiet outside. Christina had stood still, closing her eyes to listen to the night. The road was quiet and all she heard for a few moments was the sounds of the insects chirping and the rustle of the wind in the trees around them. She didn’t get to hear this very often. In England all the spaces remote enough to be this quiet were rumoured to be home to -

A twig cracked, heavily, not far away. Christina’s eyes snapped open and she turned in the direction of the noise. It had sounded deliberate. She found herself staring into the dark eyes of a woman standing in the treeline who looked about the same age as her, wearing practical but worn clothes and carrying a bulging backpack on one shoulder. Her shoulder-length brown hair was tousled and had a couple of leaves tangled in it. She was staring directly at her with an intense and angry glare. Christina extended her senses toward the woman and immediately found out why. The scent and the aura that came off of her was unmistakeable, even though she had only encountered it once or twice.

Werewolf. Shit.

A wave of fear came over her. She had no chance of besting a garou in a one on one fight. Slowly, she took a step back, further into the gas station’s circle of light, and raised her hands in a gesture of peace. The woman in the treeline didn’t move, but her eyes followed her.

‘I’m just passing through,’ Christina said. ‘That bus over there? That’s mine. We just stopped for gas. I’ll be gone in five minutes, maybe ten.’

The woman continued to stare. For a moment Christina thought she wasn’t going to reply, and steeled herself to run. The she blinked and shrugged. ‘I don’t give a shit,’ she replied. ‘This isn’t my land. I’m just passing through too.’

‘Okay.’ Christina took a deep breath. Her mind whirled as she groped for something to say. ‘You need a ride?’ she asked eventually.

The woman snorted. ‘Not from the likes of you.’

Thank fuck for that, Christina thought. Aloud she said, ‘Fair enough.’ Glancing over her shoulder, she looked into the store and saw that her companions were still browsing the aisles. Could they not hurry up? Looking back, she saw that the woman still hadn’t moved. She forced a friendly smile onto her face. ‘I’m Christina.’

The woman’s eyes narrowed, and she tilted her head as if expecting some trick. She seemed to come to some decision, and her expression relaxed a little. ‘I’m Aspen.’

‘Pretty name. You going far, Aspen?’

‘Yeah.’

‘On foot?’

Aspen shrugged again. ‘I like hiking. You’re British?’

‘Yes, that’s right.’ Christina nodded toward the bus. ‘I’m over here to tour. I’m a musician. A singer.’

Aspen frowned. ‘I thought you lot had rules against leeches getting famous or whatever.’

Christina forced a laugh. ‘Don’t worry, I’m not that famous. And I’ll manufacture a disappearance of some sort before people start wondering why I don’t age. We have our ways.’

‘Uh huh.’ Aspen paused, considering. ‘Sounds exhausting, having to hide yourself all the time. Follow all those rules.’

‘I have to, if I want to stay alive.’ Christina saw Aspen’s eyebrow raise and smiled. ‘So to speak.’

‘Or what? The other vampires come and kill you?’ Christina nodded, and Aspen snorted. ‘Wow. That sucks.’

Christina’s smile turned bitter. ‘Yep. Not a lot of vamp solidarity going on. Not in my area, at least.’ She cast a cautious glance at the werewolf. ‘I hear it’s very different for your, uh, people. Close knit packs, lots of freedom? Must be nice.’

Aspen’s expression clouded, and she looked away. ‘Something like that,’ she replied. ‘I should get going.’

‘Of course, don’t let me keep you,’ Christina said as she turned away. ‘It was a pleasure to meet you, Aspen.’

‘Whatever, leech,’ Aspen replied as she walked away, skirting the light of the gas station to keep in the treeline. ‘Have fun our your tour.’

The bell over the store’s door gave a tinny ring as Christina watched the woman disappear into the darkness. The sound of the roadies chatting and laughing among themselves broke the silence, which had gone from serene to tense and oppressive. Martyn came up to her side and put a hand on her shoulder. ‘You okay, Chris?’ he asked, following her gaze. ‘Hey, who was that?’

Christina shook her head. ‘Just a hiker,’ she replied. ‘We should go.’

[fountainpenguin]

I love your exploration of Minecraft mechanics in pixel imperfect it's so clever and they all make sense I want to microwave it all in my brain lskekeke is there any mechanics you have thought of but haven't had a chance to put it in a fic yet?

Thank you so much <3 I worked really hard on my worldbuilding and I'm so happy with how it came together. My strengths are in magical realism, bizarre twists and turns to attempt canon compliancy, and incredible commitment to the bit sldkfj. I'm really enjoying writing for this world and I can't wait to do more.

[ Pixels Imperfect series on AO3 for context ]

#Dog's Life spoilers + minor spoilers for Criminal Experience, but the tags probably hinted at it anyway.

---

Here's some stuff I haven't had the chance to delve into yet:

Soul Traits Flaring On When Flustered - I've shown Etho going into his fox traits a couple times in Dog's Life Chapter 8 (talking to Lizzie about feelings) and in "Canadian Idiot" (chewing on Joel's hand to reduce aggro urges, anxious about getting caught). His soul tail comes out and his soul ears go up. Joel's firefly soul traits also went up when he was scared during his fight with Etho in the latter story.

Usually soul traits come out under the mob-strengthening glow of the full moon. They'll also pop out when you're really flustered, startled, alert... etc. And since player souls were synced up in Double Life, that means we get gems like:

I'm working on a Traffictober piece about that actually, where Grian slips into his parrot mindset and his influence over the soul wings is so strong that every flap knocks Scar over and he keeps tripping and fumbling while fleeing mobs, so Scar's just having a great day of feeling loved and remembered all around <3

Shower Houses - It's been hinted in Dog's Life, but Grian's the only one in the New Star Station portal hub who showers regularly. Pixel people don't sweat or collect a lot of stink, so they only wash when they need to deliberately remove dirt or mods or something. Grian just washes out of habit.

People wash so rarely that there are public shower houses in New Star Station because they weren't built directly into the apartments. This is also why there have been two private conversations in Dog's Life that were held in the shower house... it's just a convenient place to go where most people don't hang out.

Onsen - This one got hinted in "Canadian Idiot," but it's funny to me... Bdubs keeps inviting Etho to the onsen. In the Pix Impf universe, you can take your skin off to show your soul underneath (so you're considerably more undressed than if you'd just pulled your regular clothes off). Bdubs and Martyn, who are both huge fans of souls, enjoy going to the onsen. Etho, who does not change his skin, keeps turning them down. Although maybe someday, because that would be a fun one-shot.

I also want to point out that most of the coupons Etho keeps on his apartment counter are fake. Bdubs makes them for him because Etho has a shopping addiction and hoards them, but... they don't have a firm currency system in New Star Station because they live in a perimeter sealed in bedrock. Bdubs just makes them because Etho likes them and sometimes he can sway Etho to do stuff with him because "Your coupons are about to expire."

Testing Positive - Tango's wife once said she "tested positive" with no context and Grian congratulated her on her pregnancy... not realizing she meant she got whitelisted on a server. It was very awkward for him. Grian fumbles around with a lot of the vocab in the Pix Impf universe but he does his best.

Soul Slots - This one came up in Criminal Experience, but hasn't shown up in anything else yet. The Between dimension's gimmick is all about souls, and in that dimension, you get one "soul slot" you can equip items to. This item will teleport to you when you move a chunk away and it will even follow you when you respawn.

Impulse has a soup thermos equipped to his soul slot. He decorates it in stickers. Every time it regenerates, it respawns with a new type of soup. Also he uses it to take out traps because he'll just hurl the thermos at things and it's big and metal and if it's open then it's full of hot soup and no one ever expects to get clonked on the head with it and it's funny to me. Sir he is literally just a guy.

In Crim, he told Mumbo he carries another thermos that's full of souls. In modern times [Crim is set about 1,000 years before Dog's Life], Impulse does favor the soul thermos over the soup one. He can't risk moving far from it, though, because it'll reset to empty if he's a chunk away from it.

Grian's Watcher Status - It is canon in Grian's lore that he became a Watcher when he left EVO; it was his way of stepping back from the series. I don't draw from Martyn's personal Eyes and Ears lore though because I wanted to put my own spin on it. In my 'verse, the Grian who was born in the Pixels Imperfect universe got swapped with the Grian who was born in my Neighborhood Watch universe, so they're both socially awkward as they fumble around each other's worlds.

[ This is also why in my image above, Grian has purple soul traits instead of blue. In the NW universe, Grian's the only one who bleeds blue instead of purple... Soul swap ]

In Dog's Life, we've seen Grian struggle his way through conversations, most recently in Chapter 11 when he kept insisting to Joel that Hermes is "just an armor stand" (while we were in Joel's POV and could clearly see that Hermes was walking around like a functioning person).

Also, Skizz literally registers as a massive jumble of code in Grian's eyes and he can only see him when he's looking at his reflection. Most of the modded players are hazy to him (Joel and Jimmy aren't much because their physical forms are still close to their soul forms, but BigB's pretty blurry). Skizz is the worst because his transition from enderman to angel is so extreme and he's got hundreds of mods on at all times. Skizz looks like a biblically accurate angel but only Grian knows it. Impulse may be just a guy but Skizz is just a winged, flaming wheel.

Grian can sort of force his vision to a lower level, which lets him see Skizz clearly enough that he can see something Skizz is holding or wearing, but it takes effort so he's gotten used to having a friend who's just... a living alphabet tornado. Grian has a very hard time fighting Skizz head on- he'll blink and shake his head and falter a lot unless he takes the time to adjust his eyes, and even then it takes a lot of his energy. He'll usually back off when he's going head to head with Skizz.

Server Defaults - By default, servers are set so that everyone has their hybrid traits and hybrid abilities (Ex: Skizz may be a modded angel, but he has an enderman soul and natural silk touch).

Server admins can adjust that, however, and scale those down or disable them almost completely (i.e. setting a server to vanilla rules, which puts everyone on an equal playing field with minor exceptions. Using Skizz as an example again, on a scaled-down server, water would still be very hot to him, but it wouldn't leave burns on his skin).

Between is a soul-themed dimension, so you're stuck with traits and can't toggle them off. Some people like to play on servers with the default settings turned up to max. There are definitely days the crew just romps around and plays with their full traits out and they just straight-up fight "all natural" because it's fun, but that's very low-stakes.

They don't do that in the Life series. Even though it's meant to be chaotic fun, it wouldn't be possible for some players. Ex: Bdubs and Martyn are phantom hybrids who have to eat souls. If you threw them in the Life series with their hybrid traits maxed out, they'd be forced to either starve to death or break the rules by attacking while they're green. Not really possible in a series with limited lives.

Phantom Feeding - Impulse (who lost his ability to pull souls out of bodies) can't play at all on servers that force those kinds of soul trait defaults unless he has someone who's willing to feed him (i.e. pull a soul out of a body and bring it to him), so he generally just doesn't play there. Skizz feeds him while they're in Between, but Impulse can't hang out in that dimension without Skizz unless someone else is there to help. If he didn't have Skizz or another feeder, he'd probably hang out around the phantom spawn temple because he'd be stuck in a starvation death loop anyway.

Phantom hybrids are flock-oriented, though, so there's usually someone to feed him... he just feels awkward asserting himself and it's easier to ask Skizz. When Skizz knows he'll be away, he'll usually prep Impulse's soul thermos. It's just awkward to do in advance because it inconveniences other people if they get left in the thermos too long. Can't get cycled back through the portal hub if you're not getting digested, y'know. It's more of a weekend prep situation, not so much an "I'm gone for a week" situation.

Bdubs does save souls for Martyn on days that Martyn's hunting ground is empty. Martyn and Bdubs may fight a lot, but they're still flockmates and Bdubs does care.

Default Trait Shift - In the Between dimension, the phase of the moon you respawn under influences how much you show your hybrid traits (a nod to the game mechanic that strengthens mobs under the full moon). Ergo, this snippet of Etho getting his ears:

There’s a rattling noise in the kitchen. Scar leans back. It’s the doorknob that leads into the apartment hall. The door slams inward a second later. A fuming, scrawny fox hybrid man looms like a silver wraith in the dark. For half a second, Scar’s not sure it’s even Etho. This figure’s got the same puffy tail, but he’s also got fox ears that stand quivering and tall on his head. Then he remembers Etho just got his vessel reset. The moon is waxing; the percentage of visible hybrid traits he shows is higher now than it was the last time he spawned.

In the example above, Etho respawned with his arctic fur, but it's fully possible for him to respawn as ginger instead.

iJevin is the poster child for this- he looks a lot like a slime because he was last respawned on a full moon night (as opposed to someone like PiglinMyNose who's also a slime hybrid, but shows drippy face traits and not the natural slime coloration). When Jevin respawns, he can come back as either blue or green, and he'll come back looking more humanoid unless it's a full moon.

Cleo's most common form is a waxing moon spawn. She gets more stitches, decorative injuries, and flowers during the waxing and full moon, but if she respawns under a new moon then she defaults to her "HumanCleo" skin. Still a zombie, just comes in various flavors of "freshly undead and basically human" to "oh, they're a corpse who falls apart easily."

Soul-Sharing - Soul-sharing is a nod to Season 8 of Hermitcraft when Mumbo ate Grian's soul (and is apparently still sharing it since he's been wearing the soul-sharing skin throughout Season 9 and even in his non-Hermitcraft content).

In the Pixels Imperfect universe, Grian is a parrot hybrid and Mumbo is a wandering trader. When they blended souls, Mumbo started growing wings and getting hazy glimpses at things that Grian's Watcher eyes can see (so he can sort of understand how blurry Skizz is, but not to the same degree Grian sees him).

Grian got wandering trader robes, the ability to make binding deals, and a bit of inventory space (something you don't normally have in Between).

During Dog's Life, when Grian and Etho were smuggling SnifferMyFeet across the portal hub, they put Sniff in wandering trader robes and Etho's like "I'm afraid to ask why Grian has Mumbo's robes in his closet." They actually weren't Mumbo's- they're Grian's half of the soul-sharing. Sometimes Grian wears them; I just haven't found a good place to show it yet.

Impulse and Skizz are soul-sharing for medical reasons. My short story Criminal Experience opens with Impulse as a phantom hybrid and ends with him getting his soul wrecked because he'd do anything for Skizz, even at the cost of himself. Skizz would do anything for Impulse, including sharing his soul to keep Impulse alive <3

Imp and Skizz's bond is even tighter than Grian's and Mumbo's, and it's a reference to their Naked & Scared series where they regularly share hearts. Impulse and Skizz constantly feel each other's pain and they have to manually turn off their heart-sharing when they join new servers. Sometimes they forget (or just don't want to) and continue sharing.

Skizz was actually secondhand soulbound to Bdubs during Double Life, but he can't bring himself to talk about it with Impulse (a nod to IRL Skizz talking about how he hasn't watched Double Life because he knows it would wreck him emotionally). Mumbo was secondhand bonded to Scar, but he didn't feel it as intensely as Skizz did.

Impulse's soul is in tatters right now. He can't really do phantom things anymore (like pull souls out of bodies... although he can eat them if another phantom hybrid brings him one), so Skizz keeps them fed when they're in the Between dimension. Skizz [born an enderman hybrid] can filter feed from the void and he can also eat souls now. If he hadn't modded giant angel wings on himself, he'd have phantom wings.

"Can't Impulse just eat the soup in his thermos-" Not in Between; he's naturally an anivore, so when he's in the soul-themed dimension, he can only get nutrients from souls.

"Then why does he have-" Because he's petty, next question.

Since sharing with Skizz, Impulse can't tolerate water or eye contact as well as he used to, but not to the crippling degree it used to affect Skizz. He also got Skizz's ability to toggle silk touch on, but only when he's on-server (since you can't move blocks in Between unless you follow certain worldbuilding rules like having a command star or teaming up with a dragon) and only if that server allows it.

Also, Impulse sleeps in the same bed as Skizz and his wife and they literally just have to deal with this because he gets agitated and doesn't like sleeping alone... He curls up at their feet and we'll see this in the opening chapter of Dog's Life Session 3.

I also have a Traffictober I'm working on - "Like Newlyweds Do" - where Impulse tries to adjust to sleeping in the same bed as Bdubs during Double Life (and Bdubs, the king of comfortable sleep, is horrified that Impulse doesn't like pillows). Not a very cuddly wedding night... but they still love each other sdfklj.

Impulse doesn't sleep well alone (even worse when Skizz isn't on the server) and he'll usually try to sleep on someone else's bed instead of by himself. I definitely remember him respawning in Bdubs' bed instead of his own during the Soup Group rebellion arc, which is hilarious. Oh to be a clingy yet touch-averse guy who has issues being married to a man who betrayed him in a past life but also you just crawl into his bed so you have somewhere safe to sleep.

For Hermitcraft 8 and 9, Impulse's go-to person to sleep on is Pearl (or Gem when Pearl's away for time zone reasons), but he's not picky. He just struggles to be alone because your soul flares up when you're asleep and he doesn't have a full soul, so it sends his body into a panic unless there's someone nearby he trusts.

I like to think these bed-sharing habits also influenced how he played 3rd Life and why he successfully schmoozed his way into so many alliances. You can absolutely confuse Martyn into thinking you're a close ally if you sway him into letting you sleep on his bed "for medical reasons." Scar probably let Impulse stay with him one time, but Grian would have thrown him out so fast, ha ha.

[ More under the cut <3 ]

Corrupted Player Souls - Scar has a lot of soul dysphoria over whether he's an allay or a vex, because when he looks at himself in the mirror, he can't tell. He usually identifies as a vex, but I'm working on a Traffictober piece where he turns to Grian for comfort and Grian's flustered because he has no idea what Scar wants to hear. Awkward desert duo attempted comfort, my beloved.

Sniff has a bit of dysphoria over his corruption too, but his is more along the lines of feeling so glitched out and weightless that he regularly forgets he has a physical body (which we saw in "No One Likes the Opening Band" where he slammed into a wall thinking he could go through it and died from kinetic energy). Speaking of-

Cam Accounts - There's a distinct difference between what camera accounts can biologically do vs. what players can biologically do. Cam accounts can go into spectator mode, defy gravity, pass through blocks, and they can see colors that players can't. TwoMuchGrian likes to hover over Grian without flapping his wings just because he likes to brag about how little energy it takes to float (while Grian is forced to flap to stay up). However, cam accounts can't use commands (so they can never have command stars) and they can't create their own servers.

The IRL free-cam mod lets you pass through blocks, but in the Pixels Imperfect universe, only cam accounts can pass through blocks. Player accounts can enter free-cam by roaming around in their glowy mob soul form, but they still have to go around blocks (Tango, for example, has a specific path he has to take in order to get inside Decked Out and watch people). Player accounts aren't able to go into true spectator mode, and any time they do (such as when they're ghosts watching people at the end of the final Life series episode), this is interpreted as them being in free-cam.

Players always have to deal with some kind of collision and gravity effect, and it's generally a very bad thing when they glitch through stuff (Ex: Etho was so fritzed out when his fox soul started taking over in "Canadian Idiot" that he glitched through the deck of The Relation for a second before he adjusted).

Martyn Eating Clothes - I did show Martyn eating his sleeves in Dog's Life Chapter 6 (and he makes another reference in Chapter 11), but we haven't really delved into what's going on there. Martyn is a phantom hybrid, but Bdubs [the flock captain] doesn't let him feed on other players' souls very often [feeding meaning "this person's player went AFK so we have to log them out and send them to their offline server"; everyone comes back later and they're fine, but this is what phantom hybrids do].

Bdubs keeps Martyn hungry and gives Martyn a designated hunting ground that's Just For Martyn, which pretty much guarantees that Martyn will always eat people who wander into it. Specifically, Martyn's hunting area is the entire perimeter of New Star Station (as in, the edge rim) so Martyn's always chasing people who try to leave the station.

Martyn's not digesting cloth, but he's eating the code that connects people's clothing to their soul and/or player energy (There's an upcoming scene where he eats Scar's hat, too). If you just handed him an old shirt or a spare skin, he can't eat that because it's not currently attached to anyone and flowing with soul energy. He has to eat people specifically, or else the closest thing to a person he can get, which sometimes means chewing on his own shirt because his own clothing checks all the boxes for "attached to a person."

There are lots of twisted politics involved with Martyn's designated hunting ground being the perimeter... When he's in the Between dimension, Martyn can't gain energy from physical food, so he has to hunt people. He's always hungry and due to phantom flock politics, he has little choice but to play his role in preventing people from leaving the portal hub, which is exactly what Scott wants because Scott's so incredibly paranoid about the portal hub getting discovered by the anarchy players who've overrun outside world.

Cleo, who likes to dig because they're a zombie, is constantly trying to break through the bedrock wall around New Star Station. Huge conflict... because Martyn's insufferably curious. Martyn's constantly fighting the urge to eat Cleo and instead he just tries watching and talking to them. Martyn keeps bending the rules for Cleo because he's a little sweeter on them than he'd like to admit (hashtag it's really important to me that everyone vibes with their soulmates even outside Double Life... soulmates for a reason even if they don't like admitting it).

Which is where we get this upcoming scene at the end of Dog's Life Session 2:

“I don’t care. I have Cleo now.” “S’cuse me?” Jimmy cocks his head. When Scott stares at him, looking insulted, Jimmy says (tentatively), “How… how does that work when they’re blowing holes in your wall? Aren’t you the mayor? Or is the mayor bit just a bunch of roleplay too? I thought it was serious, but I really don’t know anything about politics.” “… When they’re what?” “Oh, that’s someone else.” I’ve messed up; I’ve really messed something up. “That’s someone else, I think. I just saw them. I mean, BigB’s always talking, you know?” “Martyn’s on wall-watch.” Scott says it like he’s holding a knife against a battered Jimmy’s throat. Scott’s staring harsh and furious, like he’d very much like to lunge across the bed, grab Jimmy’s jacket collar in his hands, and slam his head against the wall. “And Martyn’s always hungry; Bdubs keeps him hungry on purpose, just for this. If someone’s trying to find a way through, Martyn would put a stop to that so quick. Martyn wouldn’t… Martyn… Cleo would never ally with Martyn. That’s not… I’ll talk to him, though.”

We love stupidly complicated animal people politics and we love young people in positions of power making decisions out of paranoia and panic <3

I actually have several pieces I want to do about Cleo and Martyn in the portal hub, especially in regards to the bedrock wall, but I keep hesitating over whether that's appropriate for my Traffictober series because... it's not while they're on the Life series server and also it's so incredibly specific to this worldbuilding. But they are one-shots that draw specifically from Cleo and Martyn's Double Life dynamic so I guess that still counts.

I just really love dumb Zombiewood drama and I love them screwing each other over on accident even when they're just trying to hang out and be friends slkdfj. Them...

Creator Bleed / Emotion Bleed / Martyn's Sync - Creator traits that bleed over into the characterization of their little pixel character are called creator bleed. For example, Mumbo has two llamas which symbolically represent Creator Mumbo's love for biking.

Emotion bleed is when our little pixel friends can feel strong emotions through their sync-cords- for example, Joel and Lizzie can sense their creators are married because they can feel strong affection through their sync-cords and figured out it was happening at the same time.

Martyn is unique in that he does not have a sync-cord. He struggles with self-doubt, wondering if he wasn't a fun character to play and his creator abandoned him, so he lives his life constantly trying to be a fun person to play with and he takes it super personally if people don't want to be around him (so the Double Life break-up hit harder than he admits to).

Martyn not having a sync is a reference to Creator Martyn being super involved with lore, with the implication being that Creator Martyn wanted to put his little guy through The Horrors so the sync was snapped to maintain strict emotional distance. In Pixels Imperfect, this also means Martyn can pick up on things most people can't, which is a nod to his Life series episodes where the Watchers speak to him but not to others.

Besides Grian, Martyn is the only character in Pixels Imperfect who knows what kisses are. He's "out of sync" and gets influenced from the universe at large. It's like he fell out of Creator Martyn's boat and can pop his head both above and below the water, as opposed to both of them sailing on the surface together. Character Martyn uses certain words that the other characters don't, so we get stuff like this fun exchange [Dog's Life, end of Session 3]:

“I don’t know, G,” because he’s running out of doors to hide behind. Martyn fidgets with the axe. Grian’s eyes snap over. It’s exactly the chance Martyn needs to drop his gaze. “I mean… You’re forcing it, aren’t you?” “How do you mean?” “You know exactly what I’m talking about. The others aren’t like us. Their natures are ingrained; basically predetermined. They can’t go against their nature. It’s… It’s like BigB and Ren drifting back together like satellites once you’re out of the equation. They paralleled each other long before Double Life, Grian. You disrupted the storyline, but not the code of the game, and they’ll keep circling each other instead of you.” He fiddles with the axe again. He can see from its reflection that Grian’s getting irritated; the purple glow is all he needs. He’d rather not look him in the eye. “I just… I don’t know. If they don’t act on their emotions first, then maybe we shouldn’t flirt with them. They’re just following code; they’re just part of the game.” “We’re part of the game. We have code.” “It’s different. We know things.

Do with that what you will.

Calendars - I like to think that there are multiple calendar systems: one for when you're in the Between dimension and once when you're on server. There's a scene in Dog's Life Chapter 11 where Joel tells Lizzie "It's Wednesday; I'm not going anywhere" and I almost took that out because technically, the on-server Wednesday and the Between Wednesday wouldn't line up so that doesn't make sense.

The official Minecraft mechanic has the moon set to an 8-day cycle. My personal view is that the on-server calendar would have an 8-day week and instead of using day names like Monday and Tuesday, everyone tracks days by the moon phase.

However, calendars are a huge pain not just to worldbuild, but to convey to readers in a way that makes sense and doesn't come across as super info dumpy. I'm probably going to leave it and let them use words like Wednesday and treat weeks as 7-day cycles, but in my heart... in my heart, it's an 8-day week and they have moon day names like Waxnight and Newnight. Maybe someday I'll go back and edit those names in, or maybe I'll just keep that in my pocket for a personal project, who knows...

Admin Inexperience - My draft for "There Are Many Benefits to Being Corporeal" was originally going to cover an adventure between SnifferMyFeet and PiglinMyNose as they try to craft ice cream, which meant going out to get ice (and there was a big discussion about what Pig can and can't touch because he's technically a camera account).

I ended up scrapping all that because it was getting long-winded and it was a little too much effort for these two silly side characters if I wasn't even sure I was going to be happy with it, so... I let them make cake instead, which actually is craftable, so that was much less adventurous and mechanics info-dumpy.

Anyway I wanted to point this out because Sniff is the server admin for their server, but he's a newbie account who doesn't know what he's doing, so I had scenes like this:

SnifferMyFeet was blown up by [Admin Inexperience] PiglinMyNose: You okay? SnifferMyFeet: ASDSLKSJF That’s the only response he gets. [...] SnifferMyFeet was blown up by [Admin Inexperience] Sniff lies flat on his back, surrounded by woodchips, puddles, and melon rinds. Pig circles overhead a few times, swooping lower and lower on every pass. He finally lands with a pat on top of the bed. He tucks in the canary and vex wings. Sniff parts his fingers long enough to glower at him. “I don’t understand. This is so unfair. Grian and Joel both know how to use commands.” PiglinMyNose: It takes practice PiglinMyNose: And you’re not Grian and Joel PiglinMyNose: You’re Sniff :)

Sniff references this scene in Dog's Life when he talks about his relationship with Pig and how Pig was there to help him get clean every time he blew up. They're friends. Also we got to see the same vibe of Pig comforting Sniff in "No One Likes the Opening Band" so that was self-indulgent and fun <3

Some other Sniff and Pig highlights from the Corporeal draft include:

“Put me back into camera mode. You’re the admin.” Sniff’s eyes move to the glowing five-point star on the underside of his hand. It’s the command block star, and one Pig has never worn himself. He waits, lightly bouncing on his toes, as Sniff stares blankly at his wrist. “So… so an outside person has to do that to you?” “Yeah. You’re the admin.” “… And it’s all up to me to bring you back if you decide to be a player again? Like, you can do nothing? You might just be stuck as a camera forever if I don’t?” “I trust you,” Pig assures him, which sends fireworks up Sniff’s face. He quickly brushes off the loose pixels, but his hands are shaking. They’re shaking bad. “Um…” Sniff brings a fingertip to each of Pig’s temples. “Pig, I dub thee a camera.” The snort bubbles up before Pig can stop it. “Not like that!” [...] “But doesn’t that take away your voice? I don’t think I can… I don’t know, Pig. That’s a little messed up.” “Sniff, it’s okay.” Pig grasps Sniff’s wrist, guiding his cupped hand to his cheek. “I want to do this.”

[...]

Pig frowns, then projects his thoughts into the space around him. PiglinMyNose: Oh, that’s different “I knew it,” Sniff blurts. “I messed it up! I’ll put you back.” PiglinMyNose: No, no! It’s fine. It’s just that I’m a slime soul PiglinMyNose: These aren’t my slime wings Pig gives them a few experimental flaps. PiglinMyNose: Not that that’s unusual, I guess PiglinMyNose: Slime hybrids absorb traits from those around them PiglinMyNose: This canary wing is from Jimmy. The vex one is from Scar “What the heck is a canary?” Sniff asks, pulling out his sword. He glances around, lip trembling, like he expects some sort of brute to lumber from the undergrowth. PiglinMyNose: It’s a modded bird “What’s a bird?” PiglinMyNose: We’ll talk later PiglinMyNose: Practice spawning blocks PiglinMyNose: You’ve got parrot spawn eggs and stuff too PiglinMyNose: I’ll be back soon :)

Sob... they care so much about each other... I just love the ancient and experienced cam account boy and his new best friend, the incredibly temperamental newbie who has body dysphoria because he got possessed for two weeks sldkfj

Honorable mention to this snippet:

PiglinMyNose: Can you poof? Sniff glances around the area, then back at Pig. “Too scared. What happens if I poof inside a tree? I saw Cleo almost suffocate inside a tree once.” PiglinMyNose: You will respawn :) “You’re not going to even try to rescue me?” PiglinMyNose: I’m a camera “I think I’ll walk, thanks. Maybe later.”

They really are just Like That... Sniff and Pig, my beloveds...

So, those are some mechanics I haven't talked about yet!

Also, here are some of my favorite worldbuilding details that already have made it in (#Dog's Life spoilers up to Chapter 11 + references to my Traffictober one-shots)

In the Pixels Imperfect universe, no one has blood. This means they can't blush. They also can't cry because they don't have tear ducts. Both of these body reactions will make them spark and fritz pixels instead. However, they do have lungs (because breathing is an official game mechanic) and they have spit (because llamas can spit, so therefore spit exists in the game). It's an interesting worldbuilding switch for me because when I write my Fairly OddParents 'fics, the fae have blood and tears but they don't have lungs, ha ha. Massive brain switch I have to do when picking out the body language for these two worlds. Technically they don't have genetics, nor does evolution exist in this world. Why did Jimmy imply blaze and ghast have a common ancestor when he shouldn't have any idea what that means? idk, I was aware of the irony but it was funny to me sldkjf

Not a mechanic, but a canon part of the worldbuilding for the Pix Impf universe is that Grian built a Mumbo shrine on his AFK server. It's a reference to things like the escape room video where he just straight-up built a creepy Mumbo room because he missed him, and also he gets the itch to connect with Mumbo sometimes because they share a soul. I just think it's funny.

Anytime he's in Between (i.e. off a server), Martyn has constant vertigo. He tries to push through it, but it's always kind of draining his mind. This is a reference to creator Martyn's personal lore, where his character is constantly falling until he wakes up in a new Life series.

Joel's hair stripe is coded on. He changes color by tweaking his code (and/or messaging Scott to change his code). If he were to use flower dye, it would wipe out every time he leaves a server because you more or less can't take stuff from on-server into Between. Technically he could take tiny drips of it, but nothing useful (same reason you can still have scratches, dirt, and splinters but you can't take a full wood block).

Calendar times are super messed up. I use the official Minecraft conversions, so each Life series play session is 9 in-game days [3 hours IRL] with a bit of spill over the sides for resource gathering and clean-up. Time moves differently in the Between dimension vs. the Overworld (and that's not even accounting for how hard it is to track time in the Nether and End). When I write my FOP content, I'm incredibly nitpicky over the timeline, right down to making the effort to assign every single episode for all 11 seasons to a calendar day just so my fanfic timeline would be "perfect." It's hilarious to go from that to this where I deliberately make no attempt to match the years up because everyone's personal timelines are scrambled from jumping in and out of servers. I know there are timeline inconsistencies and I just choose not to fix them because I think it's part of the charm of this particular world. Yeah Grian's only been here 250 years, yeah Scar's somehow known him since he got here but also only for 200 years, yeah Martyn arrived after Grian and has somehow been here for 300 years, what's your point? One of them spent longer on-server and one of them spent longer in Between so it screwed up their mental math. Also BigB and Cleo were simultaneously married for 4 years but also 6 years but also less than 24 hours. Yeah Double Life lasted for a year but also for 6 weeks but also the gap between LimLife and Dog's Life is somehow only a few months despite it being a larger gap than Double Life's entire run-time. They literally just live like this. Time isn't real in the Pix Impf world.

The admin for a server will always have a command star on their hand, which gives them the ability to use admin powers. The Between dimension is not a server and the only way to get commands in that dimension is to slay a spawn dragon... or slay whoever currently has the star. Only two people have command stars in Between. One of them is Scott [who has the Allay Dragon's star] and the other is Herobrine [who has the Cluckshroom Dragon star]. My favorite joke is that Herobrine doesn't even do anything in Dog's Life - he's just chilling in the background lore - but there's this creepy reputation associated with having a command star and Scott just has to deal with it. There's this super messed-up power dynamic anxiety in general with "Scott is super on his toes because anyone could just straight-up kill him for his command star, and the Allay Dragon is dead so Scott will perma-die instead of respawning like everyone else" and it's. very dark and fun for me. He literally can't get rid of that command star even if he wanted to because someone would have to kill him and that's too much of a risk.

The characters who are anarchy refugees can use metaphors related to things outside the portal hub (I think Lizzie used syrup once and Etho described SnifferMyFeet as a meerkat). Scar's worldview is much more limited because he's never been outside New Star Station and his metaphors reflect this.

Generally, mobs are referred to as "it" and only gendered on occasion. I actually thought long and hard about sexual dimorphism before deciding that yes, when Jimmy started taking on chicken traits in Dog's Life, he needed hen feathers, not rooster colors, because all the Minecraft chickens are hens. Mobs can come in slightly different colors (Dogs, cats, horses can all have domestic patterns - Lizzie being a calico cat in Empires Season 2 is a good example of this making sense in universe, as is Skizz's mod that makes dogs look like his IRL dog) but something like rooster coloration is too extreme. My Neighborhood Watch universe does have sexual dimorphism, so they breed cows with ravagers and they also have roosters. I actually have to keep words like "rooster" and "bull" out of the Pix Impf universe because no one except Grian would know what those words mean.

BigB used to be an Illusioner before he got moth mods. He lost his ability to see through blocks and he's kind of grumpy about it. I play him as a nosy guy largely because of the Nosy Neighbors schtick he had going on in LimLife, but also because his moth mods give him incredible hearing and he was just plain nosy because of his Illusioner code even way back in the day. It's weird to live 2000 years being able to see through blocks and then that gets taken away from you.

In Dog's Life Chapter 11, Grian brushes loose pixels off the bed and then dumps them in a jar before he comes back to bed. Those pixels can be reused to rebuild your body and it's the same wavelength as what Joel did in "Canadian Idiot" when he cut some of Etho's hair and used it to rebuild his chewed-off fingers.

Also in "Canadian Idiot," Joel talked about how you don't want to use lava as a fuel source inside a tight space or else you'll make your build smell like sulfur. I really wanted to give the characters whose strengths lie in building some things that they knew more about compared to the redstoners, who traditionally prioritize efficiency over aesthetic and comfort. Everybody's smart in their own way.

In "Shack Up Like It's Summer 2022," Tango accidentally washed plates in an infinite water source block and then he had to spend time getting the crumbs out because... he ruined the drinking water.

In "Dog Biscuits," Ren put a cover on the crafting table before he pushed it down. It had measurements on it and the cover just keeps stuff from splattering when you squish it. Ren's not sloppy; he does his work with attention to detail.

One more detail from Dog's Life to wrap things up, but Impulse has actually been dealing with weird brain influence for more of Dog's Life than he hasn't been... it just didn't get brought to the forefront until Chapter 11 because other people were also having problems. As early as Chapter 4, Skizz noticed he was acting off. Later at Jimmy's party, Impulse stood to the side and kept rubbing his eyes. Over the next few chapters, several people note that Impulse is being "unhelpful" in texts because he's only asking about where Bdubs is. Bdubs even straight-up told Etho that Impulse tried to fight him but they just brush it off because they don't think it's important, and then you get midway through Chapter 11 and all of a sudden it's Very Obvious that Impulse is Messed Up and no one noticed until now, and now everyone is locked in their own servers and none of the programmers can reach Impulse and look at his code, so Impulse is just suffering (TM) for the next month or so that he's locked in offline status. There's definitely a worldbuilding thing going on about why Impulse specifically is suffering, and we'll delve into it later... Idk, I just really like how it came together, with Impulse getting overlooked... I think it's funny. I love Impulse; he's my favorite.

Thank you for enjoying my worldbuilding and my work! I love writing for this series and I'm so happy to hear you like it <3

[anxious-reblogger]

Omg me actually saying something in the body of a post and not the tags? Wow! That doesn’t happen often! But it’s happening here cause I have a lot to say and 50 tags is not enough.

First, I will freely admit to being biased as he is my comfort creator and his character my comfort character. I don’t say this with the intent of manipulating but just being forthright.

Second, earlier this year, I got slapped with a realization while working through my trauma that in turn made me understand c!Scott. Let me clarify that I am in no way trying to convince you about anything or imply anything with cc!Scott, I am strictly talking about c!Scott.

Anyways. Turns out, my abandonment issues runs deeper and influences me more than I thought.

I really don’t understand why some people are so insistent on Scott being manipulative and him sacrificing himself being some kind of power play. To me, it only seems like those people want a villain and Scott is just too easy to villainify. Like OP said, there arent rules about winning a second time, so what would the point of Scott manipulating his teammates to “win through them”? He’s shown to be a powerful ally and a good team player.

In fact, it’s arguable that he’s too good. Here I argue that Scott isn’t good for himself. I argue that he’s good because he cares about his teammates and wants to protect them and help them prepare and just be good enough and show that he’s worth keeping around. You see, this is where abandonment issues can come into play.

Know that I only speak from my own experiences. When you have abandonment issues, you desperately want to show that you’re good enough, that you can still give, that you’re worth keeping around, that you can be useful, you’d give your all just to get the people you love keep you around. You’d give your all until you have nothing left and then still try and give more because if you can’t give anything, if you aren’t useful, than why would anyone want to be around you?

You feel like you can’t trust people to like you for you and that you always have to give something in return, which can also show in more “transactional” relationships. Don’t ask for things, but give all of yourself. So long as you don’t try their patience, so long as you don’t outlive your usefulness, they’re more likely to keep you around.

If giving your all means giving your life? You’d do it in a heartbeat. From my experience, that’s just how it is. Whatever it is they want, or you think they want, you’ll give. And it’s so damn confusing when they say that you don’t have to give anything. You can’t believe it. You can’t believe in something like that. It feels like betrayal in a way. It can feel like trying to let you down gently only so they can walk away from you without hard feelings. It feels dangerous and like a trap and you can feel even more desperate to give something, anything, just say that you like me still, and I’ll be okay.

And for him being petty, yeah, he can definitely be petty and hold a grudge, BUT I argue that part of why he is so is because it feels “safe” in through “transactional lens” that abandonment issues can come with. If someone has wronged him, it feels safer to wrong them back. HOWEVER, if it is his ally, like with Gem in Secret Life or Martyn in Limited Life, Scott spins it on himself somehow. He spins Gem attacking him during the boogiepocalypss as tasks just making people do crazy things and he spins Martyn literally stabbing him in the back as not having it any other way as him being okay with it.

And even if you were to argued that Scott is sacrificing himself to save himself the grief of losing his teammates is selfish, I can’t agree that it is wholly selfish. With his deaths, he still gives his teammates some kind of advantage or boost, he still gives even in his own death.

When he’s alive, he’s so ready to give and provide to his teammates, be it food, potions, resources, whatever, he’s always so ready to take initiative in order to give and show he’s useful and when the end nears and he and his teammates only have so much time left, he gives them his life because he’s almost outlived his use in that game and he’d rather it go to them as a final act of love and belief in them.

Oh my, that was long. And maybe a lil heavy on the trauma talking. But you get my point. I think. It’s fine if you disagree with me, I only ask you don’t call me a bad person or anything like that because of my opinion.

Most of us can agree that Scott helps and sacrifices for his partners out of love, right?

I occasionally see takes that makes Scott's self sacrifice and generosity toward his teammates into some kind of malicious power-play in which he's somehow living through them to win in his own way and trying to rob everyone else of a fair playing field or their own agency.

Which I think is a really odd way of looking at things.

I mean first of all there's no rule against winning twice. If Scott was trying to make some power play to stack up victories, he could just win a second time. Why would he need pseudo-victories through his allies dressed up as wanting what's best for them when he could just as easily turn on them to win himself? What is the purpose of a roundabout victory-through-proxy when there's no real rule against just actually getting a real victory again?

And beyond that, it just doesn't really have a basis in Scott's perspective at all. I haven't watched every pov from every season, admittedly, so I can't claim to know whether he comes across this way in other pov's. But I have watched all of Scott's pov's, and it's very apparent that his self sacrifice and fixation on helping his allies is out of love.

Scott has always been deeply invested in his allies living, in seeing them safe and happy. For the first few seasons when he did outlive them, he was crushed, and every time he sacrifices himself to see them live on its with a lot of kindness. It's never, "They're going to win for me!", it's always "You deserve this more" or "Sometimes you (meaning scott) just have to take one for the band".

Never do I get the impression from Scott that he views people as tools for a proxy win or to make a statement or for a power play. It's just not present in his perspective.

At worst you can argue that Scott choosing to die first specifically to avoid grief is selfish in a way (which i dont necessarily agree with, but its a debate more grounded in reality, at least), but I just don't see the interpretations of extreme malice or manipulation in his sacrifices. They're acts of love, in one way or another.

[illmamnim]

I posted 251 times in 2022

174 posts created (69%)

77 posts reblogged (31%)

I tagged 250 of my posts in 2022

#tinstuff - 112 posts

#mcyt - 62 posts

#grian - 24 posts

#dream smp - 23 posts

#live blogging - 23 posts

#hermitcraft - 22 posts

#tubbo - 19 posts

#gtws - 14 posts

#pixlriffs - 14 posts

#empires smp - 13 posts

Longest Tag: 139 characters

#doesn't help that one of my ocs is like...the same but from 5 years ago and every time i draw him i'm like ''hello there ctu i mean peter.'

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

The L.O.R.E team: the brains (Pixl), the brawn (Kathrine), the comic relief (Oli), and Sausage

607 notes - Posted November 4, 2022

#4

He's trying so hard to resist the urge to resist

612 notes - Posted September 18, 2022

#3

If I had a nickel for every time a mcyt went on exiled and came back to live in a king's basement I'd have two nickels. Which isn't a lot but it's very specific and why did it happen twice.

742 notes - Posted June 29, 2022

#2

Let's play a game of Who's That Mcyt!

This is a guy with a big turtleneck sweater and glasses who flies around.

You say Wilbur? WRONG it's grian

This is a small, blond character associated with the color red, pulling pranks, and sometimes wings.

You say Tommy? WRONG it's Grian again!

This is a powerful, maybe non mortal, bird-like person, associated with gods.

You say Philza? Guess what? IT'S GRIAN AGAIN

789 notes - Posted August 21, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

What if each Life is determined by the winner, a wish they make before they reset.

When Grian won, he wished for every person to feel the betrayal of the red life.

The Listeners heard, and they give them a curse.

When Scott won, he wished to have a home, to be with a person he loved til the end.

The Listeners heard, and connected their souls.

When two winners win, how would they wish?

Would they debate? Would they toss a coin? Would both wishes come true, raising the stakes for the next time they all come together?

Or would Cleo wish and Martyn would listen, as he was meant to do from the very beginning?

1,820 notes - Posted July 17, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

[galaxyofender]

flowers, i remember fields of flowers,

soft beneath my heels