#But at least he feels bad about it. And at least Bdubs got him to red! :D

[krashlite]

Opinions on secret Soulmates? (Saw you made the millie animatic so im curious) /light hearted

(Bass boosted sigh)

Short answer, I love this duo and they’re one of my favorite toxic yaois in this fandom however comma during DL they’re definitely unethical and I’ve already gone through all the the intricacies of how DL went badly

Long answer

I think they’re fascinating because they both tend to idolize the other while both using the other as an excuse to avoid their problems and dooming the both of them in the process. When they’re around each other they’re usually only Positive and any Negativity is very jarring (especially from Grian’s perspective, who sees B as a safe person). Introducing negativity there is like being tagged when you’re on base- it shouldn’t be allowed they don’t know what to do with it

Except it’s somewhat unbalanced

BigB keeps finding himself in situations where he’s the failsafe for Grian’s poor decisions. In 3L the Blue Sword Boys were all but planning a rescue mission for Grian midway through the war. In DL obviously Grian ran away to BigB when Scar was his soulmate, then again in LimL Grian ran to him when the other two Bad Boys died

In all three of these seasons, you can argue having this connection got BigB killed! In 3L BigB was still reaching out to Grian as Scar and Bdubs cornered him (then he turned on Grian but shhh), in DL Grian killed Ren, BigB’s soulmate, and in LimL Grian got the Nosey Neighbors into SEVERAL scenarios that cost them time

Again, they idolize each other but BigB has the understanding that Grian brings danger into his life. Yet he still ultimately views Him as a positive thing. In fact, I’d even argue that the added danger is what BigB idolizes him FOR

And that’s because BigB is scared of getting into dangerous scenarios. He usually bases alone, he develops an alter ego to run from the consequences of killing Cleo, he has to psyche himself up for Any type of physical attack on someone and when he does strike he’s screaming “AAAAAAA” the whole time!

Grian doesn’t need to do that, it comes naturally to him

Then on Grian’s side of things- he’s a coward too! Except he’s constantly masking it with his thrill seeking, trying to be the scariest thing in the room not just to feel strong but so that everyone else Leaves Him Alone. In fact, Grian ALSO tends to base alone! Or at least he tries to, until some group comes along and tosses him over their shoulder like a sack of potatoes. He makes secret alliances to save his own skin (yes, alliances plural, there were Several), and is usually the first to run when trouble comes his way

And all that running is Tiring.. it’s so, so tiring

So him idolizing BigB is him idolizing that “safety” he sees BigB having. Grian has never had a direct interaction with one of BigB’s risks, nor does he have any reason to see BigB as a threat in the same way other people are “threats.” He runs off to BigB over and over again because he sees BigB as someone that can save him, maybe even the Only person that can save him

Except again, what ends up happening is Grian gets BigB killed

Also couldn’t find a way to fit it in here but iirc BigB is the first person Grian actually built a grave for and I’m so normal about that

#move ASIDE desertduo I have a new toxic yaoi #trafficshipping #I guess #that’s a solid I guess #I don’t even know where I stand on shipping in this fandom anymore #but I like them narratively and that’s what matters to me #bigbst4tz2 #grian #trafficblr

[dmwrites]

Sleeping arrangements in the team TIES base was a little precarious, to say the least. They hadn’t actually planned an area to sleep in, too busy trying to survive and fortify, so they mostly just plopped themselves down wherever there was room. Skizz usually fell asleep on top of the table, cuddling whatever was nearest to him (chairs, a furnace, Tango whenever he was feeling lonely). Tango slept in front of the furnaces like a cat, usually curled up on his sleeping bag, also like a cat. Etho slept amongst the crops and animals- he said he liked the earthy smell, but Impulse was pretty sure that there was also an escape tunnel in one of the water holes. And Impulse slept in a small alcove tucked away in the wall of the staircase.

It was cramped and odd, but it worked for them. Impulse didn’t mind his spot, meant he could watch people come and go, slip away unnoticed if he needed to. It wasn’t as soft and warm as his sleeping arrangements in Double Life, his brain would sometimes unhelpfully remind him when he was tossing and turning on sleepless nights, but it was good enough.

——

It was one of the sleepless nights, with Impulse tossing and turning in his sleeping bag and trying to just will himself to sleep. He could hear Skizz and Tango snoring, a badly tuned symphony of mouth sounds, and the gentle lapping of the ocean against the land.

There was a sudden soft slap of flesh on wood, and Impulse cracked an eye to see a glowing red one looking back at him. It was Etho on the stairs, and Impulse raised a couple of fingers in a lazy wave.

Etho just looked at him, and Impulse looked back. It was hard to read Etho’s expression in the dark- hell, it was hard to read Etho’s expressions period, what with the mask he kept on. Impulse raised an eyebrow, a silent question. Where are you going? Etho glanced up the stairs, then, after some kind of mental dithering, it seemed, he held out his hand to Impulse and raised an eyebrow. Want to come with me?

Impulse took Etho’s hand and got to his feet. He followed him up the stairs and out into the ocean. The water was still warm from the sunny day before, and it felt nice on his skin. Impulse followed Etho onto the land, and up the water elevator to the second floor of their tower base. Etho pulled a small bag out of a chest, then went and sat on the edge of the balcony, legs hanging off the side. Impulse sat next to him.

“Want some berries?” Etho proffered the bag to Impulse, and he saw it was full of bright red berries. “I like to keep them up here for a nighttime snack.”

Impulse chuckled and took a few. “Thanks, man.”

They ate in silence for a while. All was quiet on the horizon, just some hostile mobs walking about in the dark. Impulse glanced at Etho from time to time- it was odd, allying with Etho. Etho had always been such an enigma in Impulse’s mind, quick-witted and sharp as a tack, calculating and smart. And he was all of those things, but also just kind of to himself, always fidgeting with redstone and wires. And there was this kind of friction between him and Etho, just in short glances and the odd joke. The standard procedure was to let the old series go, leave old emotions in the past. But no one ever really forgot, not completely, anyway.

Etho looked out towards the janky clocktower near spawn, and it wasn’t hard to figure out what he was thinking about.

“It’s weird to not be… there.”

Impulse somehow knew that it wasn’t a place that Etho was talking about.

“Yeah.”

Etho turned to look at him. “You and me. And Cleo. We know…” he trailed off, looking back towards the clockers tower. “I used to think of all of you as my enemies. Especially you, because you’re so…” Etho sighed. “You were really good to him.” His eyes crinkled slightly. “As much as I hate to admit it. You loved- love, you love him like I do. He never said a bad thing about you, even when I goaded him. And you… it was, is, clear that you adore him.”

Impulse chuckled. “Well, that’s Bdubs for you. You said it yourself. You, me, and Cleo, we just know… I don’t know, man, it’s the Bdubs effect or something. I will never know him like you do, and that’s okay, but I get it. I understand.”

Etho gave him a funny look, eyebrows furrowed, looking at Impulse like he’d never really seen him properly before.

“You’re a pretty great guy, Impulse.”

Impulse bowed his head, a blush coming to his cheeks. “Oh, stop that. You are too.”

They sat in silence for a while longer, lulled by the waves. Impulse kept thinking about what Etho said, or, more specifically, what the silences between his words had meant. It felt good, being here with Etho, like someone had smoothed out the wrinkles of the fabric of their friendship. Impulse wasn’t sure what would come next, no one ever did in these life series, but he felt a little more confident that he would follow Etho until their timers ran out of life to give.

——

Additional lore I couldn’t fit into the story:

Skizz will grab anything while he sleeps. Like, you know how if you give a baby something they'll wrap their fingers around it? Yeah, that’s Skizz. He’s grabbed Tango, Tango’s sleeping bag with and without Tango in it, furnaces, crafting tables, chairs, blocks from the floor, Etho once when he was passing by to get a drink of water. Impulse, when he can’t sleep, will sometimes peer around the corner to see what Skizz is holding this time (and save Etho if he’s there). He and Etho have def played a game to see what Skizz will cuddle if they hand it to him.

#limited life #team ties #impulsesv #ethoslab #long post #going back to my roots- writing about ppl going to the tops of structures and talking at night

[happy-hermit]

HI GUYS I'M BACK ON MY BULLSHIT <333

Have some Scar angst featuring Clockers comfort :) Enjoy!!!

-------------------------------------

Scar kills Cleo.

He doesn’t mean to do it, doesn’t mean to break the rules, doesn’t mean to hurt his own ally. It’s still a shock that he even has allies — it is still something that hits him all over again, every time he opens his eyes and they're still there. 

But Scar kills Cleo. They won’t be there for much longer. 

“You dropped it right on her head,” Bdubs says, solemn, and Scar feels sick. His heart is skipping in his chest, his breath is frozen in his lungs. His hands feel like they’re being assaulted by pins and needles. 

He’s made a mistake. He’d known, of course, that it was only a matter of time, but. Well. Sometimes he likes to pretend. 

He can’t anymore. Not now. Not after that. 

And Cleo didn’t even seem all that mad, is the thing. She hadn’t yelled, hadn’t even frowned, really. She’d been quiet though, at first. And she’d laughed after, but— But people could laugh and still be mad, couldn’t they? And Bdubs had seemed pretty disappointed. 

Scar can’t do anything right. If they hadn’t known that before, they certainly did now. 

Scar kills Cleo.

 That night, he packs his bags. 

It’s not at all hard to sneak out, which is a fun change of pace. Cleo slept like, well, like the dead, and Bdubs had fully mastered the art of sleeping at this point. Nothing short of breaking the bed was going to get him out of it. So Scar just… walks by. He’s got what little possessions he’s collected stored safely in his bag, and the rest he’s left for them. They’ll make better use of things than he will, he’s sure. 

The night is clear and quiet, the same stars as always hanging silently in the sky and watching him while he walks. Those little twinkling lights have been witnesses to every misstep and mistake he’s ever made. He was a bit surprised that one of them hasn’t yet taken it upon themselves to fall out of the sky and end his misery. Though he supposed that might’ve been the moon's true motive. Maybe it had been rude to avoid the inevitable crash. 

Tonight, though, the stars stay where they are, and Scar does not. 

He walks by the Bad Boys burned mansion, the earth around it scorched and bare. He looks up towards the roof for a while, thinking. He almost wants to go up there and find Grian, because at least Grian makes sense. At least Grian hurts him in a way that he is used to. 

Selfish, he thinks, shaking his head and turning away. Grian never meant it; he isn’t cruel. Scar just tends to awaken in people the need to get away, is all. Like how all anyone ever thinks about when carrying a heavy object is a place to put it down. 

Scar wanders for a bit, dodging mobs as he stumbles through the darkness, until finally the sun starts to rise. Scar drops his bag down at the bottom of a hill and sits down heavily beside it, as dim light transitions to golden rays. He’s not going to build on a mountain, he resolves. Not this time. Not when he’s trying not to be noticed.

He eats a quick breakfast of steak and bread,  heavy silence sitting like a cloak on his shoulders, and then he starts carving a hole into the hill. He spends the rest of the day like that, hollowing out a home as hollow as he feels, ignoring the buzz of his communicator in his pocket. Either someone was trying to get a hold of him, or no one had noticed at all. He’s not sure which he would prefer, and so he doesn’t look. He doesn’t look, and he tries his best not to think about it, either. He builds a new base of stone and brick into the hillside, and then he shuts the door behind him and lies in bed and doesn’t sleep. 

There is the steady and faint noise of water leaking through the roof across the room, single drops of water falling in intervals into the bucket he’d placed haphazardly before crawling under the covers. There is the crackling of the oven a few feet away, still warm from the steak he’d cooked earlier. There is the quiet howling of wind from outside, as it tugged on grass and trees and at his door. He can hear himself breathing, can hear it hitch as soon as he becomes aware of it. 

He’s cold, and he shivers, tugging the blanket up further as he stares at the ceiling. There’s moisture stinging at the corners of his eyes, and there is a lump in his throat, and even though there is no one around to hear he still can’t quite break the habit of crying silently.

He wakes up to birds singing, and dried tear tracks on his cheeks. Scar sits in bed for a moment, lost, and then he grabs his hoe and wheat seeds, and he goes outside. 

There are a few pigs on his hill that he spends an hour herding into a pen, and then he finds a good stretch of land and gets to work tilling it. By the time the seeds are planted and watered, it’s mid afternoon, and Scar jumps straight into cutting down a few trees for wood. His muscles are sore and straining, but still he swings the axe. As evidenced by the unintended brutal murder of his pretend mother, he really doesn’t know when to quit. 

At least now with no one else around, there is no one else to hurt. It’s just him. Which is fine, really, because he’s done it before. He knows how it goes. This is how they play the game. 

So Scar is not expecting anyone to come after him. Which is probably why he almost takes Bdubs’ head off with his axe when he’s suddenly just there.

“You’ll clear out the forest at this rate,” Bdubs says casually, very close behind him, and Scar yelps in alarm and spins around mid swing. “Maybe you— Hey, watch it!”

It’s only thanks to Bdubs short stature and quick duck that his head remains on his shoulders, and in the aftermath they stare at each other with wide eyes and heaving lungs.

“Bdubs,” Scar manages, strangled and high-pitched, and then he rapidly clears his throat, pasting on a smile. “You— I didn’t see you there! Not that—”

“If you’re going to make a short joke I will stab you on the spot,” Bdubs grumbles, and he tears the axe out of Scar’s slack hands, throwing it to the ground a few feet away. “I’ve been out all night looking for you, I hope you appreciate the lack of sleep I’ve had to endure.”

Scar stares, awkward smile slipping a little as his mind sluggishly attempts to comprehend the conversation. 

“Why?” Scar asks eventually, interrupting the other’s unintelligible grumbling as he smooths his clothes. “Did I forget something? Or— I didn’t take something of yours by accident, did I?”

Bdubs goes still and looks up, brow furrowed slightly and eyes unreadable. “Did you— You forgot to say goodbye, for one thing!” Bdubs crosses his arms and glares at him. “And didn’t tell us where you were going! And didn’t answer our messages! You— You disappeared!”

He seems angry, or at least frustrated, and Scar’s heart beats a little faster. He doesn’t— He’s confused, is all. He’s not sure what this is about.

“Oh! Well, I thought— I thought it would just be easier, you know?” Scar says, and shrugs like it's no big deal, like his chest isn’t constricting. “So you didn’t have to say it.”

“Oh what are you blabbering about?” Bdubs scowls, but can’t quite hide his confusion. “So we didn’t have to say what?”

“Just— You know.” Scar looks away in defeat, because now Bdubs is gonna make him say it. “So you didn’t have to ask me to leave.”

“...What?”

Bdubs says it like he has no idea what Scar is talking about, like he’s talking nonsense, and something desperate wells up in his stomach and crawls into his throat. He has to make him understand.

“Look, I’m— I may be clueless, but I can still read a room,” Scar says, quick and shaky and filled with false bravado. He tries for a smile, and it sits on his face like a wound would. “Trust me, I know when people have had enough. Just— Let me leave with my dignity this time?” Scar chuckles, like it’s a joke, but it’s a sad little sound, and he can’t look Bdubs in the eyes. “You don’t have to… ask. It’s fine, really. It’s better for everyone like this.”

There’s a long moment of silence, and Scar almost thinks Bdubs already left. But—

“You’re right,” Bdubs says, and something about his voice is strange. Strained and soft. The words land like a blow, but Bdubs isn’t finished. He comes up next to him and touches his arm. Scar closes his eyes. 

“You are clueless,” Bdubs says, still in that gentle, choked tone, and Scar gasps as he’s pulled into a hug.

His hands hover aimlessly over Bdubs’ back for a few long seconds, tears stinging at the back of his wide eyes. His heart is beating fast, and his chest aches, and for some reason, Bdubs is hugging him. Tightly, like he’s not planning on letting go. Like it’s not a goodbye. 

“I killed Cleo,” Scar chokes out, because his throat hurts and he doesn’t really want to say it, but he has to make sure Bdubs knows, even though there’s no way he doesn’t. 

“Yeah, you did,” Bdubs replies easily, and squeezes Scar’s middle pointedly. “She thought it was funny. She’s not mad.” He pauses, and continues a little softer. “We didn’t want you to leave. We don’t.”

Scar lets his hands rest carefully against the other’s back, like he’s not sure he’s allowed. “Please don’t be lying,” he says.

“You called me out for being the Boogey, Scar,” Bdubs says, a bit of amusement returning to his voice. “You know what I sound like when I’m lying.”

“You’re bad at it,” Scar says weakly.

“Exactly. So are you.”

“We make a good team?”

“We do,” Bdubs says, and finally pulls away. His eyes are a little puffy, and Scar blinks in shock. Bdubs grins. “Come on. Let’s go home.”

—-----------------------------------------------------

Their clock tower raises high in the distance, and as they approach, Scar spots Cleo standing outside of it, tapping their foot and checking her communicator. He doesn’t realize he’s stopped walking until Bdubs calls his name in question. 

“She’s really not mad,” Bdubs insists, tugging at his wrist lightly. “Well, maybe that you left, but not about the killing thing.”

“I don’t know, Bdubs,” Scar says, nerves making his voice waver. 

“That’s because I’m in charge of knowing right now,” Bdubs scolds, and Scar finally relents and starts walking again. “Just don’t run away again.”

About halfway up the mountain, Cleo spots them, and her shoulders sag. In relief? 

“It’s past your curfew!” Cleo calls out, and has their hands on their hips when they finally make it to where’s she’s standing. She raises an eyebrow at Scar, who shrinks a little beneath their gaze. ��Where have you been?”

It’s like they’re upset that he left, that he wasn’t there, that he was gone, and Scar— Doesn’t know how to deal with that. It is so far outside the realm of his recent experiences that he’s struck speechless, for a moment. Bdubs seems to take pity on him. 

“He thought you were mad,” Bdubs says, nudging Scar forwards a little. 

“So you left?” Cleo asks, as if that’s not the rational conclusion that Scar thinks it is, and he swallows hard, avoiding their eyes. 

“Well, I thought—“ He wrings his hands into his shirt, heart pounding. “I thought you… wanted me to leave?”

Cleo’s face falls, almost imperceptibly, and Scar winces. 

“Why would I want that, Scar?”

His mouth is dry, and right now he really does feel like a little kid in trouble with his parents. 

“I killed you,” Scar says, quiet and ashamed. He’s studying the ground beneath his feet with rapt attention. There is dog fur stuck in the cracks. 

“Yeah.” Cleo shrugs, and Scar glances up in bewilderment. “And Grian, and Jimmy. It was amazing, actually.”

Scar stares, and something in his face must give him away, because Cleo’s softens. 

“I told you I was proud,” Cleo says. “I did mean it, you know.”

“But—“

“Why is it so hard to believe?” Cleo interrupts, voice suddenly commanding, and yet still gentle. It’s something only she can pull off. “Why is— Your first thought is that we want you gone. Why?”

“Because no one wants me around,” Scar snaps, finally fed up, some overwhelming and burning emotion building in his chest as his voice raises. “You know I— All I ever try to do is make allies, but no one ever— Only one person has ever stuck by me, but it was never because he wanted to. He had to.” Scar makes a grand sweeping gesture, manic smile breaking under his trailing tears. He lets out a shaky laugh that’s more of a sob, and he lets his hands fall back to his sides. 

“Everyone leaves,” Scar says eventually, after a few seconds of oppressive silence. “And maybe it’s— maybe I’m made for it, but I don’t—“ His voice breaks, and he closes his eyes. “I don’t want to be alone.”

It’s not something he’s ever admitted out loud. It’s not something he ever really felt like he deserved to feel. 

“Then stay,” Cleo says, and her hand appears on his wrist, cold and careful. “We have a choice, and we want you here.”

“What’s a little death between family, anyway?” Bdubs pipes up, and takes Scar’s other hand. “Just brings us closer.”

Scar doesn’t realize he’s crying again until Cleo lets out a soft sound. 

“Oh, Scar…”

Scar lets out a watery laugh, wiping fruitlessly at his eyes. “I don’t want to leave,” he says, small and tired. “I want to stay.”

Cleo pulls him against their chest, and he buries his face in their shoulder and his hands into their clothes, and his shoulders shake. 

“Good,” Cleo says, sounding a little shaky herself, as Bdubs tucks up against his side and sighs a little in relief. “So do I.”

The sun has long since set, and Scar can feel his eyelids drooping as his emotions finally catch up with him. He feels hollow, but in a good way. Like there’s finally room for something better to take its place. 

They’re still hugging, still standing in the dark in front of their cobbled-together clock tower, and somehow, Bdbubs starts snoring. He’s fallen asleep, leaning against Scar’s side, still standing up. 

“I think it’s time for bed,” Cleo says, laughing quietly, and Scar cracks a genuine smile for the first time in a while. He carefully feta goes himself from Cleo and scoops Bdubs up in one smooth motion, heading for the door. It’s missing something; maybe a doormat. 

When he turns to check on Cleo, she’s still standing where he left them, but she’s staring at the Bad Boys mansion with a stony face and clenched fists. It’s almost like she’s angry at one of them, for something. Scar can't think of anything recent that would’ve justified her anger now. 

“Cleo?” Scar calls, uncertain, and they jolt a bit, turning to look at him. “Are you coming?”

With one last glance at the mansion, she sighs and follows him inside, ruffling his hair on her way by.

“Welcome home,” she says, and Scar feels something in his chest piece back together. 

And, well. That would be a pretty good thing to put on a doormat.

#hi i love the clockers and i'm not sorry #limited life #limited life smp #goodtimeswithscar #bdoubleo100 #bdubs #gtws #zombiecleo #cleo #clockers #the clockers #j writes #traffic spoilers #limited life spoilers #<- not the most recent session but. the one before that one #and i guess a very small thing from the recent session is mentioned

[verdantglow]

Read a little of a fanfic last night where Etho worked at a mall & I was aghast at what store they had him working at (won’t say where ‘cause the point of this post isn’t to put the author on blast) & now I’m thinking of a Traffic smp AU where folks work at the same mall & I just…

- Etho, Tango, & Mumbo are all geniuses at the Apple Store. Impulse is a genius admin.*

- Joel, perpetual former emo boy, works at Hot Topic. He’s probably like. A key holder or assistant manager or something.

- Scar also works at Hot Topic. Because he needed a job desperately & Grian convinced Joel to get him one at his store. So now he’s the location’s token normal guy. But hey, they carry a lot of Disney stuff now, so he’s not too upset about it.

- Lizzie & Gem work at Lush. They always smell amazing & are always covered in glitter.

- Pearl works at Aveda. She also always smells amazing, but is not covered in glitter.

- Grian & Martyn work at Game Stop. Grian is very begrudging about this, putting in minimal effort unless something specific piques his interest, while Martyn will happily chat with any customer about pretty much any game.

- Jimmy works at like. Abercrombie & Fitch or Hollister. (He knows nothing about fashion & very much got the job for being tall & handsome. Like he literally was walking past the store & they offered him a job.)

- Scott is the manager at Express/Express Men. He does know a good bit about fashion & especially is good at picking out clothes that accentuate people’s best features.

- Cleo manages the Starbucks inside the Barnes & Noble.

- Ren works at a table top game store as assistant manager & runs in store ttrpg sessions for people to try out different systems. (He runs these sessions off the clock; his friends are appalled by this.)

- Bdubs is assistant manager in charge of visuals at Pottery Barn.

- BigB manages the Cinnabon. (Currently. He’s actually worked almost everywhere in the food court & knows the dirt on every single one.)

- Skizz is a full timer at a cell phone provider kiosk. He’s been employee of the month at least six times in the last year, ‘cause he’s so friggen genuinely friend that it’s really hard to ignore him while walking past. You just have to stop to say hi because otherwise it’d be rude & you’d actually feel bad about it.

* genius admin is the person who goes through paperwork & payment with you on return of repaired items. Other duties include: maintaining the store’s repair database, all part inventory handling, managing the repair queue, & generally being in charge of the repair room.

#trafficblr #traffic smp #life series smp #traffic series AU #because I have more thoughts about this #& I’m gonna want to fined this post again. #guys help me I’m supposed to be working on a specific art project #& instead I’m using my many years of mall retail experience to put blockmen into The Most Mundane Situations. #verdant rambles #prosaic wonders au

[nix-writes-mcyt]

For request, could I please have some Xisuma fluff

It's a little later than my plan for yesterday, but it's here!

Flight Mishap

Oneshot Contains: Fluff :) ------------------------------

"Well well well.. what do we have here?" Normally at this point you'd feel relief, but not right now. 

You're not known for being the best at flying on the server.  In fact your skill rivals Scar's. 

You've never been able to get the hang of elytra's. Every season you try, and every season you crash, crash and crash some more.  More than once you've had to call your fellow hermits to your aid.  Either to retrieve your things, or to help you out of sticky situations.  Much like the one you're in now. 

You were getting some practice in with your wings, Doc's perimeter the perfect place to do that.  Well, mostly. 

Other than the uneven bedrock ground below. 

For someone who's not great at flying how you even managed to get in here is a mystery.  You're completely surrounded in the unbreakable material, no enderpearls.  You could attempt to fly out, but you're already on half health and don't fancy losing your gear to Doc's giant hole in the ground.

So you had called for backup.  A quick message to all those in the vicinity asking for someone to come and pull you out.  It's not the first time you've had to do this. 

But you can't help but feel embarrassed, as the one that's come to help you out is your long time friend, Xisumavoid.

Xisuma crouches down in front of the gap you can see out of.  You're stuck in a 2 by 3 wide hole, that's 3 tall, with an extra block above the exit just to really make things difficult.

"However did you manage to get in there?"  You roll your eyes at X, who chuckles. He knows how you got stuck.

"We better get you out of there then, I brought an ender pearl. I'll throw it in." Xisuma says.  You hear the little blip of the pearl, purple particles filling up the little chamber you're stuck in. 

"Well that wasn't what I planned to do." You turn slowly, Xisuma standing in the small space with you now. He's staring up out of the entrance, probably weighing in his chances of being able to fly out.  His chances are higher than yours, although by his lack of attempt you'd say he isn't willing to try

"I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but I only grabbed one pearl." X says, taking off his helmet and placing it on the ground. He brushes his hands through his hair, letting out a long sigh.

"Can I borrow your communicator?" X asks, "I may have also accidentally left mine up there." He points at the only way out.  "Sure." You reply, handing it over. 

X sends out a message, handing you the communicator back. After a few minutes of waiting he takes a seat on the ground, staring out of the only exit.  You join him, feeling awkward stood up by yourself. 

"You know, it's not often I find myself in these situations. It really makes you think, doesn't it?" You nod, eyes never leaving the slither of blue sky you can see.  Silence falls upon the two of you once again, it's hard to ignore where it normally isn't. 

Usually when you and X are in silence you're building, helping each other out.  But this time that's not an option. 

Time ticks on by, your Bdubs original clock slowly changing from day to night.  Although given that it's getting dark you probably don't need the clock. 

"We may end up stuck in here all night" X mumbles.  You shrug. "There are worse people I could be stuck with." 

X lets out a quiet chuckle "That's true. Don't get me wrong I love spending time with all the hermits, but some of them I just wouldn't want to be trapped in a small space with." You nod.  "Exactly my thoughts."

You think about the other hermits, where they are and what they're doing. You think about just about anything other than X. Or at least you try to.

But your mind goes back to him with every thought path. You just can't help it, especially as you begin to tire. You glance at him, not wanting to look too long. It's dark, but you can still see him. Just about anyway.

He's looking up and out of the one exit, eyes tired, but his expression is otherwise blank.

You wonder what he's thinking about. Probably getting out of here.  You wouldn't be able to blame him for thinking about that. 

The next thing you know you can hear rockets in the distance.  Opening your eyes you realise it's lighter than you remember.  Much lighter. 

The brightness dips a little as a pair of legs appears in front of the hole.  Then a face as that person crouches down.  The initial emotion on Doc's face is amusement. 

Well, that doesn't change, only seems to increase as his eyes dart around the small space.  Only then do you realise that not only is it lighter but Xisuma is cuddled into you and still fast asleep. 

Doc smirks, "I'll come back later." "Don't you dare leave us in here." You whisper shout, not wanting to wake Xisuma up.

"I'll come back, don't worry." Doc chuckles, shooting off a rocket and flying away. You grumble, feeling Xisuma stir beside you. 

"What time is it?" He asks, voice full of sleep.  "I don't know." You mumble.  X groans, stretching as best he can in the tiny space. 

You take the chance to shuffle away from him slightly. "Where are you going?" Xisuma asks you, a small frown on his face. "I didn't think you had an issue with me holding you, I'm sorry if I crossed a line."  You're a little dumbfounded by his apology. 

"I, it's not that. I just didn't think you'd want to continue in case it was just something that happened while we were sleeping." The relief on X's face makes you feel that little bit better. 

He scoots over to your new place and puts an arm around you, pulling you into him.  "I could get used to this, you know" he says.  "So could I." You look up at Xisuma who smiles down at you. 

"When we get out of here we should go do this." You nod in agreement.  "When Doc comes back we will." Xisuma looks puzzled at your words. 

"Doc was here? Why didn't he let us out?" You shrug.  Doc is someone who works in ways you will never understand. You don't even try to. 

"While we wait how about we get to know each other better?" X asks.  "I'd like that." You answer, X taking that and running with it. 

The things the two of you talk about are great, but not as great as the feeling you get when Doc returns and frees you both.  Sure enough the first thing you and X do is go find a better, more comfortable, place to cuddle.

#xisuma x reader #xisumavoid x reader #hermitcraft x reader #mcyt x reader #xisuma #xisumavoid #fluff #oneshot #hermitblr #mcytblr #cute #docm #docm77 x reader #doc x reader

[mxmarsbars]

when impulse permakills bdubs, it doesn’t feel good.

it’s supposed to. after all bdubs put in through, it should feel fucking fantastic. but it doesn’t.

he doesn’t feel free or avenged or okay again. he just feels bad.

he doesn’t get to revel in his revenge like skizz and tango did, doesn’t get to feel a weight lift off his chest, doesn’t get to feel like his own person again. but he does get to feel like a piece of shit.

he wanted this. he wanted this for so, so long. he’d bragged to people about how he’d kill bdubs the moment he could, rip him to shreds, make him feel the pain he was forced to endure. he wanted to hurt bdubs ever since he felt a blade pierce his chest and an arrow lodge in his heart. that betrayal changed something in him, and it wasn’t for the better.

it should feel good. impulse deserves to feel good. he’s gone so long biting his tongue, holding himself back, being the bigger person whether he wants to be or not. after all he went through, the least he deserves is the sweet taste of revenge.

and yet he doesn’t get it. instead of feeling liberated and empowered, he feels guilty. because he shouldn’t have done that. he loved bdubs, and you’re not supposed to kill people you love.

the irony hurts.

impulse got his fill of that, he should get to be on the giving end now. he should get to reign judgement day down on bdubs. bdubs is a horrible person, and he deserves this, and it’s been a long time coming.

so why does he feel bad?

maybe because it was so sudden. bdubs had no idea what hit him until his bits were splattered across the clock tower, bloody and burnt. he was completely unaware of the fate that would befall him. that’s cruel, isn’t it?

impulse seems to forget the same happened to him when he blindly ran to bdubs back in third life, fully intent on saving him, on getting out of there with the two of them alive and well. impulse’s death was sudden, too. he had no idea what hit him. it just did, and he couldn’t do a thing about it.

so they’re even. it’s over. he’s done.

but it isn’t that easy, and impulse knows that.

he didn’t win. this isn’t a victory he’s long deserved. it’s just more blood on his hands that he’ll be scorned for later. he’s not a hero, not even for himself.

he’ll never be free.

#impulsesv #bdoubleo100 #clock duo #limited life #limited life smp #my favorite hobby is just psychoanalyzing traffic!impulse #and making him sad #I took him cutting the past betrayals and deaths out of his episode and RAN WITH IT #WHAT DO YOU MEAN HE FELT BAD?? #trafficshipping #kinda sorta probably

[silverskye13]

“Playing a dangerous game, aren’t ye, laddie?”

Ren hangs the anvil BDubs had bestowed upon him over the throne. It’s a heavy, dangerous thing, meant to represent the weight and power behind his responsibilities. Or at least, that’s what he figures BDubs was trying to get across when he hit him with it.  BDubs is a little hard to decipher when it comes to these things sometimes. Ren thinks maybe all the moss has gotten to BDubs’ head. At least this time the infection just instills a sense of adventure, instead of dragging him off into the jungle like his last plant-based infestation. 

Ren’s spent the better part of a hour replacing the diorite floors and wall of his new throne room with deepslate tiles. It matches his colors better. Red and white is a palette he’s been intentionally avoiding, though not hard enough, apparently. He catches his reflection in the polished deepslate tiles. They’re too dark to be a true mirror, but the massive form of The Red King is unmistakable. His blood-soaked legacy sticks to the bottom of Ren's shoes like a shadow, always following just a step behind.

"I don't know what you're talking about," Ren sniffs.

"I notice you've neglected a proper crown this time," The Red King continues, undaunted. "Ye fear being a target even still. Even among friends."

"I was among friends last time," Ren answers defensively. "It was just a game. Besides, this is Hermitcraft."

"Aye."

"Aye."

"Yer wars here are bloodier."

"They're not." Ren steps back from the throne, nodding to himself when he decides the anvil is hanging straight. "And even if they were, they're more inconsequential. All anyone will lose is, what? A few hours and a few levels, maybe some gear if the pranks get crazy."

"The magician kens not what he asks of ye," The Red King insists. "Ye are falling for the same pitfalls ye did before lad. Was not Dogwarts the product of wishful thinking?"

"Why do you care?" Ren snaps. He's losing his patience. "You hate me, remember?"

"I'm trying to help ye, Rendog." The Red King's voice growls low, a whisper that feels like it comes from the depths of the earth. It fixes Ren in place like a knife to his throat, like a threat. The Red King's voice is beside his ear, like instead of speaking from a reflection in the tiles, he's standing right behind him. "Heavy is the crown bestowed on the unwilling, lad. Or the unworthy."

Ren tries to find his voice. Tries to come up with some digging reply. He could point out this is just another trick to make him feel bad about himself. See? You think I'm unworthy. Drop the facade of help and care. But he can't speak, because The Red King's voice begins again, so low Ren almost can't hear it over his own breathing.

"A good King rules in the interest of his people. He makes the hard decisions so they aren't burdened with them. He commands, because he is just. He revives peace in the corners of the world where it struggles to breathe."

The room is suddenly silent. Ren feels stiff, like he's locked in place. He's still staring at the anvil over the throne, but it looks less like an anvil and more like an axe head.

"Do you have what it takes to be a good king, Ren?"

Rockets sound overhead, and the freeze in Ren's limbs melts like a candle under dragon fire. Doc swoops onto the landing pad, beaming.

"Ren! There you are! Bro, oh my god, you've got to see what me and the hivemind came up with." Doc slaps his hands together and offers a maniacal grin. "Operation Skyfall on that Pesky Bird is ready."

Ren laughs nervously. Doc tells him about a death machine he's made like a kid discovering a new candy store down the street. This doesn't have to start a war. That's what they've said for the past three seasons. And even if it does start a war, there's no real loss.

He tells himself this as he flies after Doc, watching the red and white flash of metal and redstone grow closer.

#the barking writer #The Red King Hels #Rendog #The Red King #yeahhh we all knew i was gonna write something

[tunastime]

for the ask game!!

"It's true, isn't it?"

“I don’t think so,” Etho shakes his head. He looks into his hands, picking at a chip in his nail. “I still loved you. Still love you.”

“Sure.” Bdubs doesn’t sound truly convinced, but he says it in a gentle voice that Etho’s only heard when Bdubs is making sure he’s okay when he hurts himself, a voice he heard a lot in the death game. But it doesn’t bite any less. Etho sighs.

“Why are you here, Bdubs?” he says, finally turning to him. “When there’s a perfectly good version of you asleep somewhere, alive.”

“Because you’re dreaming about apologizing to me, your brain’s stuck on hallucinating me,” Bdubs says, furrowing his brow. “Because you feel bad.”

“I don’t...I don’t think I feel bad.”

The shape of Bdubs’ face finally comes into view, the one he knows from outside the games, unbruised and awake.

“You sure?”

laurie belaurie only you would choose this fic and it means so much to me that you did!

this is from Night Swims (previously called You're My Favorite Ghost), and it takes place right after Hot Tea! gosh, this fic was so fun for me, I really dived right into how ethubs works as characters and tried my best to analyze etho without having bdubs there.

through this entire fic, etho's guilt and despair manifests physically as the "ghost" of bdubs, who follows him around his modded world. tldr: he can't sleep, and his guilt makes it worse! I originally got this idea after a beloved mutual (nightbug! hi!) sent me an ask curious on how etho dealt with the loss of bdubs post last life, and honestly. until that point, I don't think I'd realized that etho just. doesn't really go back to hermitcraft after last life. not in his videos, not really. he jumps straight into modded. and so I started writing!

this scene in particular is really interesting to me, because etho isn't really good at dealing with complex emotions, to me--he can, but he's a lot more likely to just pretend they don't bother him all that much. he's real easy going, real cool and chill, and I think there is a point where things get to him, but when they do, they really get to him (something I talked about in Spacer!). he tries hard to keep it at bay by working harder ("With no left over time for thinking too hard. With no left over time to mourn. Right.") but there comes a breaking point (this section) where he's forced to confront his feelings.

it was purposeful to have etho confront his feelings in a way that wasn't internal--that is, bdubs' ghost being the reason he "can't keep doing this" and eventually sends a letter to bdubs. so while he's trying to work and trying to put it off, those feelings get to a point where he's forced to do something about them, or risk making himself miserable in his condition. I think etho, alongside tango, are two characters that put big, difficult, complex feelings aside to deal with later, only to never come back to them. at least I think so!

this fic is actually titled after the half alive song Night Swims, chosen in post. the song is more of a spoken word piece, and I think it's descriptions of needing to shed feeling and take a break from the world, and from yourself, is really pertinant to what etho was experiencing. he's suffering through grief and self-doubt and anger with himself and isn't able to fully realize it. instead of facing those feelings head on, he takes a break, and in doing so, accidentally makes that grief worse by feeling like he's running from the source. it's only in Back Around, the follow up fic to Night Swims, that etho feels strong enough to face those feelings and return to hermitcraft, to season 9.

anyway! i'm still insane about ethubs to this day. i always meant to write another half alive inspired ethubs fic...

(x)

#ask #ethubs #text #fics #ask game #HIII LAURIEE HIIII EHEHHEHE #i'm so glad you chose this fic.. i love this one a lot :( #definitely one of my flop fics lmao <33 cult classic if you will #i had no idea you actually read it tbh #fun fact i wrote the bit about etho building a house for no one first <3 #it was what inspired me #anyway ty laurie!! <33

[ilexdiapason]

(link to the original story!) | (universe by @liloinkoink, but it’s my nissan micra!)

-

Well, Martyn’s really and truly fucked it.

It’s all well and good to say you’re living in a fantasy world now, time to seduce the king and shoo off his fiancé, get moving, but actually getting in there and trying to do it had been another story. He’d had great difficulty steering Scar in the right direction with all the restrictions of his palace guard position, he’d constantly had to excuse himself to Skizz about his strange disappearances and slacking behaviour, and worst of all he’d managed to cock it up to the point that Bdubs veered straight off into the Etho route and ran off with him before Martyn got the chance to do anything about it. Which he had really doubted would be possible, given the number of interactions they’d actually had by that point, but apparently it was enough.

He just - he feels like he’s a bad judge for these things. It’s easy when you’ve got a nice big visible bar at the top of the screen to let you know how close you are to being able to smooch your man of choice, but now that this is Martyn’s reality…

Either way. Doesn’t matter. Etho’s used the last of his power in Dogwarts to orchestrate the assassination of the Red King, and it’s all come crashing down.

At least, he assumes that that’s what happened, given that he can’t see an assailant, but Ren’s just been shot in the chest anyway.

Quicker than Cleo’s preferred method, at least, he tries to reassure himself, kneeling and applying pressure to the King’s wound as much as possible, although he knows somewhere deep within him that it’s not gonna work. God, he hasn’t - he’s not played Etho’s route through enough times to keep track of how they bumped the King off, but he’s pretty sure it involved a remotely-detonated mechanism. Something to keep the blame off them scot-free; something Etho would only have the time and inspiration to invent if you unlocked enough special scenes of him forging shirtless and sweaty in the workshop or whatever. If you didn’t, he wouldn’t have the skills, and he’d get the gallows for it instead.

“Who,” Ren croaks from beneath him, “who - who did this?”

“Shh-shh-shh-shh-shh,” Martyn tries fruitlessly to reassure him. “Sir BigB’s run in the direction of what- of whoever it was. Don’t tire yourself out, my lord. Just let me take care of this. You’ll be fine.”

He’s not gonna be fine. God. Shit.

One shot and he’s fucked it.

“This is -” Ren attempts to reach for the arrow lodged between his ribs, but his arms can’t quite coordinate the movement “- too serious. Who -?”

“Don’t,” he insists. “I promise you’ll be okay,” he lies. “Just stay still and I’ll - and help will come.”

The King doesn’t look convinced. The reality of his death appears to be setting in now. He moves instead for the half-moon glasses that sit askew across his nose, nail hitching on an encrusted diamond, pushing them back into place. “You’ll have their head for me, won’t you, soldier?”

“Of course, my liege. Stay down.” Ren needs this, Martyn thinks - in a world where his last hope for love has abandoned him, loyalty will have to do. And Martyn’s going to snitch on Etho for this, for all the good it’ll do. He has to.

“I want them to -” he starts coughing violently, then, and Martyn begins shushing him again, still pressing on the wound, because for all he’s meant to be a knight he’s never actually been taught first aid and he’s just kind of running off the vague memory of hearing that you’re not supposed to pull the knife out.

“Of course.”

“To suffer,” Ren finishes weakly.

“They will see justice, my lord. The hand of Dogwarts will not be kind to them.”

Etho’s gonna fuckin’ pay.

Martyn closes his eyes and listens to the sounds of the castle - to the quiet muttering among the other knights in the room, and the distant noise of celebration, as yet unaware of the fate that’s befallen their King. Today is a holy day, from what he’s gathered, and not one Prince Bdubs was ever in the mind to celebrate. They’re probably halfway to Centuria by now; something about crossing the river in the night, and looking into each other’s eyes, and Etho removing that bandanna for only him, because Bdubs is the only one he trusts enough to show his scars to. Sickening, really. Etho’s killed a man tonight, and all him and Bdubs are thinking about is how pretty each other’s mouths are. Martyn doesn’t want to dwell on that any longer than he has to - but he also really, really doesn’t want to watch the light drain from Ren’s eyes as the search party turns up cold and the Red King dies in his most useless soldier’s arms.

Martyn lets his head drop onto the King’s torso, eyes dry but heart entirely numb. He’s fucked it, and he’s going to have to live with it.

This is his failure. This is his legacy.

When the cold, smooth marble under his knees turns to rough-worn fabric, it’s enough to shock him into sitting up. Except he doesn’t sit - he pitches directly out of an unsteady hammock and on to the planks of the ground, and hold on a second -

Someone barks out a startled laugh. “Woah, man, you good?”

Skizz. Martyn picks himself up and pulls away the blanket that’s tangled around his shoulders and he’s back in the soldier’s quarters, somehow, apparently.

“Don’t tell me you’re already hungover,” says Skizz, and claps him on the shoulder, and isn’t this what he - “C’mon, the engagement party’s tonight! You don’t want to be out of commission before it’s even started.”

“The - tonight?”

But that was - but he’s -

Martyn’s -

“Jeez, man, what did you get up to last night? Yes, that’s tonight, it’s Saturday. I know time flies, but -”

“Sorry, Skizz,” Martyn interrupts, because he’s getting a second chance, and the gleeful truth of it is rising in him like a tsunami, “guess I just lost track of time. Right - engagement party. I’m on it now. Don’t stress.”

“Good,” laughs Skizz, “I already covered for you when Etho came through, but I dunno how I feel about running around after you all night.”

Martyn raises an eyebrow. “Pretty sure you’d do it, no questions, no complaints.”

Of course Skizz has no idea where Martyn gets that impression from, and certainly doesn’t realise that it’s because Skizz already did do that last time, but he still rolls his eyes and smiles. “Yeah. But that’s just ‘cause you’re my dude, and we gotta stick together! Now c’mon, we’re late already. We should head down and get suited up.”

A second chance. Another shot at saving the Red King from the tragedy that is Prince Bdubs’ fickle heart and careless decision-making. Martyn’s got experience now, and he’s gonna learn from his mistakes, and he’s gonna get it right.

Dogwarts can only do so much on her own. It’s looking like she’s gonna need a Hand to extend her reach, to help her keep her king alive and happy.

He barely pays attention while he’s putting on his armour this time, much more occupied by thoughts of what he’s going to say when he finally runs into Ren.

#treesekai #treebark #trafficshipping #joining the parade of ppl who are writing for this au because its so dumb but so appealing #ilexworks

[liloinkoink]

I know you're suffering, but personally I love bad dating sims and I'm having the time of my life. and I'd love to know more about the game and/or isekai's hypothetical plot

one, please know this is how this cut off in my notes.

two, yes of course. i would love nothing more

i’m putting this under a cut actually

the game plot i think i mostly got most of the information out in asides and can be pieced together in the fic—player starts at the engagement party, picks a love interest, and then does what they can to get rid of the villain and get a happy ending. most of what i came up for as far as routes and endings goes is in the fic itself, since Martyn took the entire party to just throw out ridiculous and annoying amounts of exposition, as is isekai standard. i honestly had a lot of fun coming up with those—i did bounce the game plot around in a gc, so they’re not 100% mine, but i thought what we came up with was pretty clever

stuff about the game i couldn’t fit because there was no reason to even come up with it, but would influence martyn’s actions if this wasn’t a oneshot, includes like. the way the game works, you only pick one person at the party, and the rest of them sort of drop off out of the plot. if the player picks, say, cleo, then impulse goes home to his kingdom, etho is standoffish and you don’t talk much to him, and Scar will mostly avoid genuine conversation on account of committing so much crime. there are opportunities to change your route later—impulse will write you a letter somewhere mid game, maybe, or you have a random encounter w etho or scar—but switching from your chosen love interest mid-game greatly increases the chance of getting one of their bad ends

Martyn doesn’t actually know the endings that well. he knows the parts of the game Ren is in pretty well, but the good ends? not so much. had i written more of this, that’d probably have caused him problems—there’s probably crucial information on character motivations and such in those—but eh.

(i sort of wanted to include some neutral ends, but that seemed like too much work)

as for the rest of the fic’s hypothetical plot, there were actually two!

we did actually come up w some ideas for if the fic proceeded as a normal isekai, mostly in that we all got wildly invested in isekai treebark. personal favorite message in that particular part of the conversation:

Ren is genuinely a compelling character in this fic to me (the hardest part of writing this was truly trying to pretend he wouldn’t be deeply beloved in fandom tbh), like. again, i alluded to a lot of this without directly saying it or said it in parts, but Ren’s pretty lonely/insecure here in this piece. he’s trying to do what he can for his kingdom, have a relatively pleasant marriage with someone who could at least be a friend.

and yet. who are bdubs’s romance options, to Ren? the captain of the guard who is supposed to be trusted to keep him safe? the financial advisor who is supposed to help keep his country afloat? two foreign powers who he’d want to keep the peace with, who could lead armies to his door? his fiancé colluding with any of these people is a horrifying prospect, especially if he doesn’t know it’s ‘for love’—it could just as easily be purely a bid for power. and really, it’s not paranoia if they’re really out to get you. he goes from sort of uncertain about the whole thing to his trusted people suddenly turning on him, accusing him of being a villain and keeping apart true love while he’s simply trying to follow the life set out for him to be a good king. when he loses that path he sort of just. loses his mind. listen ren has not done anything wrong i’m an AtPM Ren apologist listen—

speaking of ren apologists. Martyn was also a pretty lonely and an entirely purposeless person before meeting the micra, which. he wouldn’t directly address or acknowledge it, but this familiarity with what Ren is feelings is a large part of why he wants to see a happy ending for Ren so badly

so Martyn stretches out the hand he couldn’t admit he wanted someone to offer, and Ren falls in love instantly. this actually makes Martyn’s entire goal easier—Ren is no longer interested in playing the villain in Bdubs’s story. he wants to be the love interest in Martyn’s. had a few ideas abt that particular desire, ranging wildly from really cute (i cannot stop thinking abt smth Beans said abt Ren seeinf Martyn across a garden and the wag of his tail being audible under his cape) to crushing to my soul (he’s a lonely guy, Ren is. thinking about how isolated he feels and how much Martyn is a light in the dark for him kills me dead)

the ending of the actual isekai plot was going to involve Ren faking his fucking death so the two of them can run away together. personal favorite conversation that never was would be Ren telling Martyn he should be dead (as lead up for proposing to fake his death and elope) and Martyn, who has been trying to avoid that for weeks, being like Ren for fuck’s sake—

i don’t have so much for the timeloop because i literally refuse to flesh it out to avoid temptation. however, a dating sim is a game where one is encouraged to play over and over again until they get the desired ending (or even just to see what will happen). Martyn’s own canonical third life lore is that he’s been playing in death games a while. it matches up pretty damn well, i think, and if i were interested in running with it, i imagine something interesting could be done with it

also, Martyn would be meeting Ren for the first time again every single loop. which is a fun detail to me. i want to be tragic about it—Ren repeatedly forgetting about him should be angsty—but i genuinely cannot believe he wouldn’t fall in love over and over again tbh. it’s love at first sight every single time, simply because Martyn cares about him too much not to show it and Ren will be swept away by that every iteration

that said, if you’re interested in the idea of an isekai timeloop, i genuinely recommend Surviving Romance. it will feel like a bit too much at parts bc it does have maybe Too many premises. but keep going, it’s worth it

also, bonus trivia. i need you to know there was so much stupid shit we came up w abt Martyn before being isekai’d that i couldn’t fit because Martyn didn’t think it was noteworthy enough to mention. that man owns an ita bag. he has downloaded mods to romance Ren and deleted them due to bad Ren characterization (too much Cool Sexy Evil Villain, where is the sad and lonely cringefail dogboy who Martyn fell in love with??)

#oink asks #medusasresfridas #treesekai

[arospecsyourblockdudes]

Last Minute

A collection of final thoughts, emotions, and actions

-----------------------------------

Giddy excitement turned sharply into panic. Jimmy fell, feeling any chances of survival slip through his fingers.

He had just less than an hour still! It’s not fair! It’s always him! Why can’t it have been Scar or Etho or someone else this time?

Then panic dulls into acceptance. It’s always the same. 

---

It’s a lovely night to die. The stars shine above him and Skizz can smell the salty sea air, even up in Windsor. 

He knows the boys will be upset about it, but it has to be done. Twenty minutes won’t get him far, and a half hour will be more useful to Etho than to him. It’s practical. 

He hears Etho swing the axe. Not a bad way to go.

---

Joel thinks he’s hyperventilating. Blood is rushing in his ears and he can’t bloody hear anything except a clock ticking. He can’t look at his time, it’ll just drive him more mad. His heart’s about to bust out his ribcage.

He presses back against his wood pillar. There’s some comfort. And there’s Grian, on Bread Bridge, crafting something. More TNT, he hopes.

It won’t work. It’s pointless. But he needs--

---

There’s some sorta fight going on. Bdubs just knew Scar had wanted to spawn camp poor Grian and then he’d killed Cleo and Cleo’d killed him which was pretty funny. 

He stood back, firing at Grian as he tried to retreat past the wall. Little risky for ol’ Bdubs, amount of time he had, but what is he if not a little reckless? This is nothing for him.

He turns to say something to Cleo, but a chill down his spine stops him. He glances upwards. 

---

It’s over before it began. 13 minutes. Tango doesn’t have the time to check his clock but he feels it ticking down. 

Scar is right there, no one would begrudge him a little revenge, and the way Scar’s shouting he’s almost dead. Well, Tango’s almost dead too. It’s a race to the end. One he has to believe he won’t win.

Tango’s foot slips or the dirt shifts or there’s a sudden drop. He falls, not even a dramatic distance. Over before it began. 

---

There’s panic and shock and anger mixing inside Scar. How could Grian when his back was turned? You can’t do that to a man! 

Well, it’s Grian. It’s something he would do. Scar dumps Mrs Puffy and runs. He can make it. It isn’t too late. 

It is too late. At least Grian will have to look at him when he dies. 

---

What’s there to lose? Cleo charges in, ten minutes left if she’s generous with rounding up. At the very least she can try to kill Grian. Get time back. Get revenge for her team.

It’s almost there. But there’s backup and suddenly she’s the one outnumbered. But she tries.

She’s almost got it. Almost out. For a moment she’s certain she’s got it. 

---

BigB had been running on borrowed time. He was dead already.

It’s going to be Scott’s arrow or his sword or his axe that does him in, BigB knows. He should’ve died when Martyn killed him behind the border. Should’ve let the timer run out or let Pearl kill him for extra time. He panicked. He’s dead already. 

Still, he swims across the river. For what, he doesn’t know. Scott’ll get him. He knows that. He’s dead already. But he’s still panicking. 

---

It’s a long fall from the top of the sky, but not long enough for Grian to unscramble his brain. He needs a bucket of water or an enderpearl or the ocean or...or a boat for crying out loud, anything! Not like this!

A pool of water comes into view. Bad Boy Manor, they were above their manor! Grian twists as he falls, trying to aim himself at the water, but the cobblestone rushes up too quick to try.

God, Tim was going to have a proper go at him.

---

It was kinda hopeless. Etho was trying. It was Scott and Martyn coming at him and Pearl was somewhere on the ground and Etho was afloat on the wreck of Bread Bridge trying to shoot them down.

They just kept coming back up to get a shot on him. They wouldn’t fall. Maybe he should go, but no. There’s time to be had. That hunger shoots through him. He’s under an hour. He needs their time. 

It’s an arrow and a slip and he’s falling. 

---

Her lungs burn. Pearl had been so close to getting Martyn, so close. She glances around for an escape but there’s none.

Just Scott, bloodthirsty as them all. It isn’t fair. She tries to swim to the surface, then tries to inhale water quickly. If she drowns, no one gets her time. She’ll be that petty. 

Then a sharp pain and the water is clouded by blood. Her blood. Hardly stood a chance. 

---

Scott panicked at first, but accepted it quickly.

It was Martyn. Bloodthirsty and time-hungry but it was Martyn. And Scott had already won. Martyn deserved it. 

He watched Impulse running and grinned with bloodied teeth. He wouldn’t get far like that. 

---

Not like this. Not like this. Impulse had made it so far. Not like this. 

He has no armor on and no weapons and no time. He’d made it so far. His boys had tried so hard and they had done so much for any of them to win. Can’t let them down like this.

Well, not win. Top three. He can claim that, at least.

---

The hour goes by slowly. Martyn knows exactly what they’re waiting on and he won’t give it to them. Grian had grieved and Scott had resigned himself and Pearl had fought but Martyn? Well, he won’t do jackshit. 

He spends some time at the Coral Isles, has a little victory dance. That was fun. Climbs up Skynet and laughs so hard he gets dizzy. Wanders the lengths of the sky bridges. Visits the frogs. Rummages through chests and takes shinies. Whatever. It’s a game. He’s not going to be upset at winning!

The final seconds tick down as he lays on top of Bad Boy Manor watching the clouds. He has a last bite of bread before his clock runs up. Not a bad way to end it.

#limited life #limlife spoilers #limlife smp #limited life spoilers #ive had smth like this in mind for basically all the seasons #a little montage of last moments #why not do it now that i have the perfect title for it ykyk

[errorryx]

the synonym of companion

read on ao3 | 3rd life/double life, grian & scar, 2.5k words

a while ago, i took an english vocabulary test that was circling on tumblr, and this question stuck out to me a lot. i finally got around to writing the fic it deserves. grian and scar's relationship is up to personal interpretation.

fool

Scar wants to take control of the entire desert, and for some reason, he’s chosen Grian to help him. Grian has to drag him all the way across the seed to get his point across: the desert is far too large for them to defend it. They’d be better off going after dark oak. Smaller, he’s sure, and easier to defend.

“What if we just mine it all?” Scar asks.

Grian just laughs at him. When he gets back to the village to meet with the group that’s settled there, he recounts Scar’s hair-brained scheme to them. They all have a good laugh at his antics.

It’s what Bdubs says before that, though, that sticks with him. “Is Scar your jester?” he asks, and Grian looks behind him to see Scar perched on top of his chair. Smiling widely, just waiting for Grian to turn around and notice him.

It’s easy to laugh at Scar when he never stops smiling. Every insult thrown his way is water off a duck’s back. Nothing sticks to him, and nothing can dissuade him from a bad idea if he’s got his heart set on it. It’s what makes him fun to be around at the best of times, and it’s what makes him dangerous at the worst.

In a game like this, Scar is a very dangerous friend to have.

“Scar!” Grian shouts. “I think you’re my soulmate and you’re too busy chasing fairies!”

If Scar hears him, he doesn’t show it. He keeps swimming after his allay, not a care in the world. Joel listens, at least—he hits Scar again, the final nail in the coffin. Grian screams in frustration as he takes damage in perfect tandem with Scar, knowing he’s doomed.

Somehow, Scar misses all of it. Too focused on his stupid allay to pay attention to his real soulmate right in front of him.

It’s second nature to tell Joel and Etho not to clue him in. It’s a great joke, watching Scar run around without a clue that his soulmate is right beside him the whole time. But as time drags on and Scar misses hint after obvious hint, Grian’s irritation keeps growing. Finally, he gives in and goes to find Scar in the jungle, surrounded by pandas.

The first time he tries the trick with the dripstone, Scar turns his head away at the last second. Even though it takes a good chunk of their shared health, he doesn’t move from his spot, waiting patiently for Grian to get to the point.

How can you be this stupid? Grian wants to yell at him. If Scar doesn’t think Grian’s his soulmate, why would he stand where Grian asks him and let his guard down so completely? What does it say about Scar that he would trust Grian with his life when Grian’s already demonstrated his willingness to hurt him?

What does it say about Grian that Scar will do all this, but won’t even look at him?

“Look at me,” he says, and breaks the dripstone again. Scar looks.

“Oh my gosh,” he says, and Grian laughs, mainly out of relief. They’re more than half dead now, but at least Scar finally knows they’re together.

mirror

In the morning, Scar stares at him with green eyes.

Grian stares back, feeling sick. This can’t be a repeat of the desert, he reminds himself, not when they’re a matched pair. They’ll kill and die together.

Grian’s spent all this time chasing after Scar that he doesn’t know what to do with him now that he has him. Put him in an obsidian box with stacks and stacks of food, maybe. Throw some pandas in there and he’ll even be content with it. That way, Grian can go about his business without having to worry about Scar’s wellbeing.

He doesn’t need the trouble that Scar brings with him in spades. Even if it makes his heart rush, even if the adrenaline is addicting and it worms its way inside his head until he can’t think about anything except blood. The bloodlust is Scar’s thing, and this time around, Grian is above such notions. He wants to build a house. He wants to get his gear enchanted and build up defenses and keep them nice and safe. He wants to win.

He doesn’t want to look at Scar and see everything Grian’s trying to hide written all over his face.

Grian’s on green and Scar’s on red and there should be an ocean between them, but the deal isn’t off. Grian’s just thankful that it hasn’t occurred yet to Scar that he could satiate his bloodlust right here, right now, on someone who’s contractually obligated not to fight back. He watches Scar pace around the site of his second death, muttering to himself.

“Scar, I won’t kill for you,” Grian says.

Scar looks up. “Well, of course not, silly. You’re not red. You don’t need to.”

Need? Is it really a need? Judging by Scar’s frantic movements, he might just be telling the truth.

But killing was one of the first things Grian did in this game. It’s what got him here. He feels it even now, an urge he ignores most of the time, but not always. Grian kills when it pleases him because it’s what he knows, and there’s no room for that in a place where lives count for so much. He ought to know better. He ought to be able to stop.

Grian is a green life, and Scar is red. They have far too much in common.

They kill together, of course. It comes as no surprise when they die the same way.

entrapment

Scar keeps all his pandas in a tiny hole in the ground. While building the walls of their keep, Grian peeks over at them sometimes. They're always moving, twisting and writhing in their tight enclosure as if it’ll help them break free.

He’s constantly tempted to jump down there and break a block so they can escape. It’s not as if they’ll have enough time to wander away before Scar gets done with the panda sanctuary, and Grian can always blame an enderman or another player for releasing them.

He doesn’t free the pandas. He shouldn’t be wasting his time feeling sympathy for a bunch of mindless animals.

He builds his layered walls up higher and higher. Once he’s at the top, he looks up at the sun, no closer than it was before he started. At his freedom, no closer than it was in the desert. At Scar in the distance, hard at work constructing a much nicer prison for his pandas to live out their days. Soon Scar’s enclosure will be finished, and he’ll lure his stupid animals over with the promise of bamboo, and they'll follow him helplessly. They don’t have a choice.

Grian wonders which part of this is supposed to be the bamboo.

He misses his wings. He suspects it wouldn't make a difference if he had them. He could fly up and up and up, and never get any closer to the sun.

It's his fault.

Scar dies and it's his fault. Grian can repeat until he’s blue in the face that he didn't do it on purpose, but it's still his fault and there's no getting around it. Scar looks at him with yellow eyes and Grian looks back and feels nothing but fear.

He's not afraid of Scar. He's afraid of being stuck with Scar. It's that fear that pushes him to accept the duty of keeping Scar alive, despite the fact that no one, not even Scar, seems to expect him to take it.

That's why he's here, isn't it? To confront his worst fears? He's been running from things he can't face for years now. Pledging himself to Scar is hardly the worst fate he can imagine, as much as he likes to pretend otherwise.

“I’m legally obliged to be with him,” Grian says to anyone who will listen. The rest of the greens laugh like they don’t believe him. But Scar, with his yellow eyes and his unshakable smile, accepts Grian’s word at face value, and that makes it much easier for Grian to accept it too.

This alliance lasts as long as the green in Grian’s eyes, and no longer. He could fling himself from the top of this sand dune right now and it would be over. That knowledge ought to comfort him, if it were true.

The longer Grian survives, the less he believes his mantra that he’s here because he has to be.

He owes so much more than a life in a death game. He will owe more than he's worth for as long as he continues to hide among normal players. His debtors want his satisfaction, and they want his pride.

It's his fault. Scar is yellow, and undeserving of the debt of scrutiny Grian carries with him.

Grian’s pledge to try to keep him alive is not motivated by kindness. It's the height of selfishness. At the cost of Scar’s safety, he doesn't want to be trapped alone.

partner

It’s him and Scar against the world.

It always has been, even when it isn’t. Now that they’re red, all their enemies are temporary allies, but that lasts as long as the yellow names do. Soon it will be Grian and Scar against everyone else.

Scar antagonizes people, especially on red. He puts himself in danger and only ever makes it out through sheer luck. His violent tendencies don’t stop when he’s green or yellow, but he’s worse when he’s red, reckless and paranoid at once, a dangerous combination. Grian is never safe with Scar on his side.

Scar reaches for his hand, and Grian lets him. He’s never been safe with Scar, but somehow, on red, feeling two pulses in perfect unison, he’s never felt safer in his life.

It’s him and Scar against the world.

It’s been this way since Scar first became red and maybe even earlier. Maybe as early as when Grian stood in the ashes of that godforsaken creeper crater, unwittingly hatching a plot to tie the two of them together. 

It's far from the first misguided scheme to blow up in his face.

Regardless of his many failings, with Scott’s death, there's no one else left in which Grian can put any confidence. Just him and Scar against everyone else. The thought should sober him; instead, it fills him with a sick excitement. Scar has nowhere else to turn. He's dependent on Grian to keep him safe.

He thinks the rush of battle might be the best feeling in the world. But he's proven wrong when Scar kills him and he wakes up red, when he gathers his things and goes right back to Scar’s side. It's him and Scar against the world, of course, and when the world is just Bdubs, it's an easy victory. The red rage is so strong, and he's so weak. He could burn himself to ash so easily this way. He could kill and die without remembering to care about any of it.

It’s just him and Scar at the end of the world, and Grian isn’t ready for the world to end.

Grian’s world ends abruptly, anticlimactically.

At first he's furious, robbed of the ability to see his feverish plans come to fruition. There's no joy in dying to another one of his own half-baked murder plots. His red life is gone, and with it, all of his delight, all of his righteous anger, all of his strange priorities and stranger dreams.

Scar's heartbeat is gone from his chest. Grian didn’t want it in the first place, but its absence is a thousand times more painful than its presence ever was. He's never wanted anything more in his life than the very thing from which he spent the whole game running.

Scar is dead and it’s Grian’s fault.

Scar is not an idiot. He's not some living reminder of every mistake Grian’s ever made. He's not a punishment from the powers that be. And while he may call himself Grian’s from time to time, he is not Grian’s to keep.

Grian has been denying Scar personhood for as long as they've been playing this game, in an effort to relieve him of the guilt from which Grian suffers. He's kept Scar in the dark, and worse, he's used Scar’s obliviousness to his benefit, all under the guise of protecting him. Never once considering that Scar, given the choice, might not choose Grian’s idea of salvation.

It paints him in a deeply unflattering light. The soul bond itself wasn't enough, apparently. It took this cataclysmic loneliness for him to come to the realization that Scar is just as deserving of autonomy as Grian. It seems he’s incapable of learning his lesson until it's been thoroughly beaten into him.

He's preparing to throw himself a pity party when Scar finds him. Two ghosts meet each other's gazes, and Grian finds nothing that he deserves in Scar’s colorless eyes.

“Well,” Scar says breezily, as if the heart Grian craves doesn't lie still in his translucent chest. “Not a very fun ending, but we gave it our best, didn't we?”

Grian did not give it his best. Grian hasn't given anyone his best in a long, long time.

“Scar,” Grian says, “if you knew something so terrible that just knowing about it hurt, and it affected someone else too, would you tell them?”

Scar’s unshakable smile slips. Just for a moment it slips, and in that moment, Grian swears he can feel Scar’s pulse as his own. But it's too fast to be sure, and Scar goes right back to smiling like he’ll never stop, not even for the end of the world.

He never stops smiling. Not when Grian lands the last blow, and not when his eyes roll up behind his sockets and the back of his head hits the sand with a miserable finality. Scar is dead and it's Grian’s fault and he never stops smiling.

“Maybe you should ask them whether they want to know or not,” Scar suggests. His smile is audible in every word he speaks. It's never felt like such a slap in the face.

He's right, of course. Grian despises how right he is. “Do you want to know something that will hurt?”

Scar tilts his head and fixes Grian with a very genuine expression. Like he knows already. Like he doesn't know, but it won't hurt him to find out, any more than it hurts him to stay in the dark. “It's you and me against the world, right?” he asks. “If that's true, I think we're better off both knowing what we're up against.”

He can almost feel his wings on his back again. When he jumps, it's like flying.

“Let's get out of here,” Grian says. It’s like falling from a cliff when he takes Scar’s hand, in the way that it’s like flying. “Let’s get out of here, and I’ll tell you everything.”

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

#desert duo #scarian #trafficshipping #my writing #i don't usually post full fics to tumblr just ao3 links #so hopefully this is formatted well #my stuff

[fogwitchoftheevermore]

gimme your most impulse lyric 😃

you got one of the guys i have a whole playlist for (and specifically a playlist i really like) so you get the whole playlist link BUT ALSO a lyric. this is specifically life series impulse by the way cause it’s the guy i’m most familiar with/have the most emotions about.

from disloyal order of water buffaloes by fall out boy:

and i’d promise you anything for another shot at life/and perfect boys with their perfect lives/nobody wants to hear you sing about tragedy

impulse has talked about the fact that he (especially in secret life, but throughout the series) will often sacrifice content, sacrifice a story, to try and win, hence “i’d promise you anything for another shot at life”. impulse has always been at least top ten, and other than two Bad For Him seasons (and honestly secret life wasn’t that bad) he’s been top 5 and died because he had the wrong allies, trusted the wrong people. he trusted bdubs would choose him over scar and grian, and he didn’t. he chose to trust joel, etho, grian, and scar over scott, pearl, cleo, and martyn. by the time it got down to him, scott, and martyn, impulse knew he was screwed because he’d been their enemy the whole season, and tried to go out on his own terms, offering his life up to martyn so he could win. but martyn and scott promised him a fair fight, and he believed them, and that trust was his downfall. he sacrifices a good story because he wants to win, because when he doesn’t sacrifice a good story, when he sticks to his allies and his morals, he gets an axe or an arrow or a sword in the back (or in martyn’s case, the chest).

as for the second part, every life series character obviously has their tragedies, it is a death game after all. and there are certainly characters less popular than impulse with their own tragedies very much pushed to the side (cough bigb cough lizzie cough) but idk maybe it’s just the corner of the fandom i exist in but i feel like i really never see people give impulse the time of day. nobody wants to hear you sing about tragedy.

#space rambles #impulsesv #sure i’ll main tag this why not it’s got links so it probably won’t appear anyways lol #fall out boy #< for blacklist

[joyrose-fandomer]

I had a dream that team rancher went completly feral

Like, 

Released two wardens at the cake fort, two withers at the box, two withers at Impulse and Bdub’s base and One wither at Martyn’s bleeding heart base, type of feral

On top of that Jimmy when full villan mode on Scott and Pearl specificly,

From what I remember he brought Pearl over to “torture” Scott in exchange for food, but instead of using powder snow he full on simulated being attaqued by a swarm of mobs in the nether

At some point Pearl voiced her consern about actualy dying in the process and Jimmy just answerd “Good, if you’re scared then Scott is to”

Pearl laughed and made some kind of joke about Scott stress eating

Once they where done he did warn Pearl that he was planing on doing the same thing to Scott later and when he would type the code word in chat she had to eat here golden apple (the code was something stupid like “don’t call me timmy” and Pearl answering “yeah Tilly is better” when she ate the apple)

Later in the sesion “Smajor1995 was killed by SolidarityGaming” appeared in chat and no other death message followed it

Well not really since Tango blew up Scott right after, along with Cleo who came to check on him, effectively taking down 4 people at once and permakilling Scott

Later, Pearl, now on red with no soulmate, threatened the ranchers who took that as a good excuse to fill her base with wither roses and pushing her to her death

Her death was probably the sadest of my dream, she was looking at her dog while still withering away, telling him that she was sorry for leaving him and thanking him for being her soulmate before finally dying off

I remember one of the ranchers saying “I feel bad now”

(Yes! You should!)

Oh, yeah, and boat duo got killed due to one of there chest being riged to explode by someone on the server

Anyway it meant that only sand duo and rancher duo was left on the server (pretty sure sand duo had still at least two lives left)

And I woke up

I couldn’t fall back asleep after that so I guess the bets are up on who won in this imaginary timeline

#I'm noticing a pattern with me getting stressed out and the little solidaritygaming living in my head going absolutly bonkers #double life smp #trafficblr #tangotek #jimmy solidarity #pearlescentmoon #scott smajor #mcyt #don't question my dreams I don't know what happened

[smileymoth]

The Reunion

So guys we did it, i finally finished a piece of writing. It is about Etho meeting up with Bdubs again after Bdubs returns from the Rift. Very fun 1k fic. They hug 👍

***

After the rift had opened, many of the hermits had decided to join Grian on the guest of finding out what resides on the other side — which is how half the server had become a ghost town for Etho. 

And even after a week, they still hadn’t returned. A majority of his friends were gone, at least he still had Beef to hang out with, but he too tended to be busy. Etho hadn’t seen Bdubs for a while. He wouldn’t hear from him or the rest of his friends for who knows how long. He didn’t want to worry, but the feeling of loneliness had been difficult to forget about. His heart ached in hope that nothing bad had happened to them. He had considered following them through the rift to try and find Bdubs, but decided against it, in case he too would have got stuck behind a malfunctioning portal.

Sometimes he would go back to the monolith and walk up the stairs to Bdubs' bedroom and tidy up the plants, water them, weed them — he always loved gardening, so he tended the greenery with joy. Bdubs hadn’t asked him to take care of his plants, but he had felt like it would be the most logical thing to do. Every day after work was finished, he would walk up to the tree of whimsy and sit underneath it, reading until the Sun started setting before he flew home again. He refused to admit that he missed him, it felt stupid, yet in his heart he hoped that Bdubs missed him as well. 

The moment the rift had been fixed, one by one the hermits started to return from the other dimension, dragging along some people who most certainly did not belong to the server. First thing on Bdubs’ mind had been Etho. Etho, Etho, Etho;  he wished to tell him about the Empire they had built, how he had become a god, how the rift had broken, and he wanted to introduce him to his new friends who had followed through. He was still wearing the shiny glowstone cloak from when he became a god, he shone like an actual star that had fallen down to Earth when he walked around. 

When Etho noticed a spark of light approaching him, he pulled out his sword to protect himself, only to lower it when he noticed a pair of loving sparkly eyes. It was him, he was back. He had been so busy wielding, he had forgotten to check the communicator, he excused himself for not noticing. Before any other thoughts rummaged his mind, he was roughly pulled into a hug as Bdubs launched himself at Etho. "Etho!!! My love!!! I have missed you so!" He cheered, and as he was no longer in the Sun; the light no longer reflected back from him. He always called Etho his love, as he did with everyone else he cared for, and Etho found it incredibly endearing. 

"Bdubs..." he replied silently as he cradled his face into the crook of his neck, eyes closed in relief. "You're okay." 

"Of course I'm okay! Oh it was so much fun, I wish you had joined us." his arms tightened the grip around him. 

"Can you, first, tell me what you're wearing?" Etho muttered, hands racking up the weird textured fabric. They felt like crystals, sequins, like velvet, all at the same time, he was warm in the coldest way, it confused him to no end. 

Bdubs pulled away from him, hands still on the other's sides, "Sit down. This is important, now." he declared with a mischevious grin. 

"Ok..ay" Etho chuckled hesitantly, settling down on the ground, eyes glued to his friend. 

Bdubs' giggled in excitement as he jumped ontop of a nearby anvil, holding his hands and head up, "I became the god of the Sun!" he declared, to which Etho couldn't help but laugh. "What? Do you not believe me?" he sounded offended enough for the other man to close his mouth and stare. "That's what I thought," crossing his arms, he glared back. 

"Can you.. prove it to me?" Etho smiled apologetically, shifting in his position.

"If you insist, my love." He grumbled in a calm tone, hopping down the anvil and kneeling down right infront of Etho, "Now, look into my eyes," he put his hands on his shoulders, waiting for Etho to comply, "Ok, good, now... listen closely." he said, "I am the god of the Sun, and you will. You will, believe me." 

Etho kept holding the eyecontact he usually avoided out of uncomfort, now for sure thinking it was some sort of a joke that Bdubs was pulling on him just to get him to stare into his sparkly eyes. Bdubs knew how much he struggled to not shift his view anywhere but the eyes. His demeanor didn’t seem too promising, he knew him well enough, right? Those thoughts only remained until he was dazed by a warm bright light that hit him like a tidal wave. When he opened his eyes again, everything around him was blinding with light, Bdubs was smiling at him like the happiest man alive. All that he could do was look around in awe, everything shone, the flowers gleamed in gold and the cold warm feeling was overtaking him. But slowly the light around him disappeared, the world now looking dull compared to before. His gaze stopped on the man before him. He was left absolutely speechless.

"Sooo do you believe now?"  Bdubs chirped in joy, tilting his head to the side.

"...How could… How could I not?" He tried to find the words.

"Exactly. Never have I ever lied to you. I would n e v e r."

Etho chuckled at that, nodding in sarcastic agreement, to which Bdubs tugged his hair with a frown. "Ow!" he laughed as a response, furrowing his brows.

"How dare you think I'd ever lie to you." letting go of his hair, he moved over to sit by his friend’s side, wrapping his arms around him for comfort. "Well, as nice as it was without you insulting me, I sure missed this place." he murmured.

"And I missed you." Etho whispered back, feeling weird for saying it out loud. 

Bdubs only hummed happily in response, nuzzling himself against him, "I can't wait to sleep in my own bed again." 

#ethoslab #ethubs #bdoubleo100 #hermitshipping #I GUESS i dont know not really maybe perhaps possibly ?? they just hug and say they miss each other so like idk how romantic that wouldbe #tagging just incase. and again no real people fiction i would die these are obviously rheir characters. bdubs is NOT a god irl #nomatter how much he wishes he was LOL #smileymothwrites #imagine a guy irl with the name ethoslab or bdoubleo #embarrassing for them really #im just resorting to bullying them now in my tags im sorry mr slab and mr bdub #i have proofread this multiple times but i am not a native english speaker so obviously my tense usage is fucked #esp bc i wrote this at 4am and it was in present tense first of all and then i had to fix it to past bc that made more sense and it was- #an entire fiasco because im bad at tenses. i may be c2 level but fuck if i know how the tenses work

[witherroze]

My cannibal hermit hcs under the read more o7

Literally has to cannibalize on occasion because of their species or other reasons and honestly enjoys it and does so more frequently than is actually physically required of them:

- Scar (full fae, half vex half allay)

- Joel (half fae, ogre specifically)

- Cleo (full zombified player)

Literally has to cannibalize on occasion because of their species or other reasons but does not do so more than is required of them physically:

- Cub (half fae, vex specifically. he wasn’t fae before convex stuff so he was just raised to think of it as unsanitary so it kinda icks him out sometimes)

- Stress (full fae, sprite specifically. it just takes a lot of work and she likes the taste of normal foods way more)

Can safely cannibalize but they don’t have to. Does so with the casualty of eating a burger regardless:

- Beef (mans was just a bull hybrid but he got an alien parasite that messed with his code so now he can eat people and it was kinda unnerving at first but now he’s fine)

- Jevin (player slime, less “cannibalism” more just “absorbs and acidically dissolves things”)

- Xb (guardian hybrid, hes mostly meant to eat fish but can eat other stuff including people and can do so easily with his teeth)

- Wels (griffon hybrid, he’s got the sharp talons and teeth for it if he wants and he spent enough time around other cannibals to view it casually)

Can safely cannibalize but they don’t have to. They still do so on rare occasions because they think it’s too much effort or too gross of an experience to do regularly:

- False (avian hybrid, avians don’t typically go the cannibal route even if they physically can but she’s not super sane so it’s fine)

- Grian (he is some sort of non descript beast to me. im personally of the hc that his physical form is a vessel for a less physical weird magic core. either way he’s weird enough that it works out)

- Ren (werewolf, he doesn’t have to eat people when transformed and doesn’t get any urges nontransformed but he gets a weirdly heightened blood lust situation when wolfed out so it just kinda happens)

- Doc (ex-god, he honestly does think it’s gross and too much effort to be worth it 90% of the time but he still does it when he’s in a specific genre of power trip lol)

Could safely cannibalize but doesn’t on the basis of it feeling “wrong” to them in some way (maybe tried once or twice but not in a while):

- Bdubs (when he was in the middle of dealing with his weird jungle situation he did a LOT of cannibalizing but now that he’s out of the weird brain state it had him in, he can still eat people but it makes him slightly uncomfortable. he honestly prefers letting other people eat him at this point)

- Impulse (half demon, he just gets worried that even if someone agrees to let him eat them that he’ll somehow end up hurting them or making them uncomfortable in ways they weren’t planning on and wouldn’t have agreed to)

- Mumbo (half fae, changeling specifically. he thinks it’s kinda gross and is very self conscious about other people judging him for doing it)

Can’t safely cannibalize but has done so anyways on at least one occasion. They became very ill afterwards lol:

- Keralis (nondescript eldritch being. he thought that because his whole situation was already so weird he might as well try and see how he likes it. it wasn’t a bad experience in the moment but the health detriments sucked)

- Zedaph (he had literally no reason to believe he could handle it. he is a sheep hybrid. he tried it anyways. for science. got sick. then tried it at least two more times. for. more science)

Is not physically capable of cannibalizing without health repercussions and has not tried pushing that:

- Etho (arctic fox)

- Gem (deer hybrid + partial fae blood. honestly she wouldn’t get as sick as most others but it still wouldn’t be good for her. she could be persuaded to maybe try it one day. maybe)

- Hypno (another nondescript eldritch entity. he is not like keralis and recognized that if he didn’t have any cravings or indications from his upbringing that eating people was a good thing to do then he wouldn’t risk it lmao)

- Iskall (he’s a human with some cybernetic enhancements)

- Pearl (moth but also some weird eldritch being stuff going on. probably similar to gem in that she’d do better than most but still shouldn’t incorporate it into her diet)

- Skizz (half angel. he actually kinda does want to try but was mostly dissuaded following zeds disaster attempts. still kinda curious though)

- Tango (netherborn. literally never genuinely considered it outside of passing intrusive thoughts and seeing zed only put him off of the idea fully)

- Joe (ghost. he has only ever given himself physical vessels incapable of eating people. but similarly to grian they could do it if they got a body that would let them)

- Xisuma (voidborn. similar to joe and jev in that he does not eat in the traditional sense, is contained to his suit, his suit can not eat people, and honestly I can’t think of a way that he could make it work even if he tried lol)

#jesters ramblings #hermitcraft #cannibalism cw #tw cannibalism