idontevenknowhowtolife

[idontevenknowhowtolife]

a gilded cage is still a cage (take your gold and shove it) (5172 words) by Idkhowtodothis Chapters: 1/2 Fandom: Life Series | 3rd Life SMP Series Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Scott Major | Smajor1995 & Pearl | PearlescentMoon, Martyn Littlewood | InTheLittleWood & ZombieCleo, Martyn Littlewood | InTheLittleWood & Scott Major | Smajor1995, Scott Major | Smajor1995 & ZombieCleo, Martyn Littlewood | InTheLittleWood & Pearl | PearlescentMoon, Pearl | PearlescentMoon & ZombieCleo Characters: Pearl | PearlescentMoon, Scott Major | Smajor1995, ZombieCleo (Video Blogging RPF), Martyn Littlewood | InTheLittleWood Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Double Life SMP References, Kidnapping, Captivity, Pearl | PearlescentMoon-centric, Pearl | PearlescentMoon Needs A Hug, I would like to preface this by saying none of these four are bad people, but they do some well intentioned but harmful things, Angst with a Happy Ending, Recovery, Complicated Relationships, Scott Major | Smajor1995 Has Ice Powers, Platonic Soulmates, Soulmates Summary: In one world, Pearl is freed from her cage after being forced to sever her bond with Scott to save them both. In another, she is freed from one cage only to be returned to another she escaped long ago. Scott and Pearls bond may still be intact, but as they meet again years after Pearl ran away, they find their relationship is still in tatters and fixing it is not quite as simple as opening their cages.   Inspired by and set in the world of "how to growl and bare your teeth" by Odaigahara

@droidofmay - Hope you don't mind me tagging you in this!

[idontevenknowhowtolife]

The fastest gift exchange around. Objectively a bad idea. 48 hours of hyperfocus.

Schedule: (All times in EDT)

Tag Nominations Opens, Discord Opens: 0:01 August 14

Tag Nominations Closes: Midnight August 20

A03 Sign Up Opens 0:01 August 21

A03 Sign Up closes: Midnight August 27

Creation Phase: Noon EDT August 30 - Noon EDT September 1

Treating Week: September 1- September 8

Discord Closes: Noon September 8

Everybody admires everyone else's work: September 1 - Ongoing

Rules

The exchange is multifandom, and open to artists, writers, web weavers, and podficcers. Fandoms do not have to have a canonized Ao3 tag to participate.

You must be a member of the Discord, for communication purposes.

Once assigned, participants will have 48 hours to deliver their gift.

Artists are expected to deliver a decent sketch on unlined paper, Writers and Podficcers have a 300 word minimum, Web Weavers are expected to deliver a 5-element or 3-element weave, depending on their style of web weave.

No AI-Generated content.

This exchange will be operating on DL:DR when it comes to what the mods will police and what we ask you to respect in terms of other people’s requests. The single exception is RPF, which has additional rules. 

RPF is allowed. Persons nominated for RPF must be famous in their own right and over the age of 18. Persons famous chiefly for their participation in facist regimes or as serial killers will not be considered for nomination. Mods reserve the right to reject RPF nominations in poor taste.

Original Work is allowed. Use the "Original Work" fandom. If it is important to you that a person within a specific pairing is a specific gender, make that clear within the tag, for example "Middle-aged King (M)/His Loyal Bodyguard (NB) (Original Work)".

As this is a 13+ exchange, there is no NSFW allowed, even if you’re sure that both you and your recipient are adults. This applies both to sexual content and to extreme (e-rated) gore.

To increase matching options, tags must be seconded (nominated twice) to make it into the tag set. Because of this, tag nominations will be collected through a google form.

You can nominate tags for up to ten fandoms, with up to twenty tags nominated in each.

You will have one week to submit relationships and characters to a tag set, one week to write your prompts, and 48 hours to deliver your gift.

Participants are required to request at least three fandoms (with associated prompts), and offer to create around at least three fandoms.

To help your creator out, you must offer either a list of likes or prompts that contains at least one element that works for each art form that you have opted into. If you opt into art, you must give at least one art prompt or art like in your signup, and the same for fic, podfic, or web weaves.

Please include anything you absolutely don't want to receive (Do Not Wants) in the Optional Details field in your AO3 signup. Only DNWs in the Ao3 signup will be enforced, and mods will not enforce DNWs that are overly restrictive, unclear, or used to box a recipient into a specific gift (i.e. "nothing gross", or "I don't want anything that isn't a space au with the mc's other major love interest dead off screen".)

This exchange uses Ao3's matching algorithm, and as such, you need an Ao3 Account.

Make sure the email attached to your AO3 account is one that a) you check regularly, and b) are comfortable with exchange mods seeing. You can verify your email here: archiveofourown.org/users/[your ao3 name here]/change_email

As per Ao3 and Discord’s TOS, you must be at least 13.

Links

Ao3 Collection Here

Tag Set Here

Nominate Tags [form available in the discord]

Tag Nomination Rules Here,

Discord Here

Things We Do Differently Than Other Exchanges Here

Web Weave Rules Here

Intro to how to sign up for an Ao3 Exchange Here. Variant using a gifter letter here. A note on what Solo tags mean in practice here.

Sign up for Ao3 Here (there is a waiting queue.)

Additional Challenges (just for fun):

One Day: Fulfil your gift within 24 hours.

Word Count: Write or Podfic 5k or more on a single gift.

Art: Produce a fully-rendered and coloured (lined if that's your style) art piece with at least two characters, or a 10-panel comic with clean pencils or simple inks, within the 48 hours of the exchange.

Web Weave: Produce a 20-element weave.

Multi-media: Fulfil gifts that meets gift minimums for two different gift forms— art, fic, web weave, and/or podfic.

Multi-fandom: Make gifts that meet gift minimums for 3 or more fandoms.

FAQ:

Why? Because it seemed like a terrible idea.

How do I sign up/How do I format tags/Are you using OR matching: Signup FAQ on the Ao3 collection Here)

Further Questions? Join the Discord Here

[idontevenknowhowtolife]

lol i didn’t even think to look at ur profile I was just scrolling the tag!

I have a double life royalty au fic i’m currently in the middle of but maybe I’ll have to look into a little oneshot of my own once that’s done

ok sorry I WILL be overanalyzing this Secret Society because ITS IMPLICATIONS ARE DRIVING ME INSAAANEEE

ok so like. this is also going to be very heavily based in fanon so take it with a grain (ha) of salt this is me jumping back into the deep end of my Wattpad book Hermitcraft Nonsense type rambling

so my gut reaction is that the Secret Society is a stand-in for the Watchers right. Grian's avoided calling anything directly related to the Watchers since Evo ended (VERY strongly calling it the "Secretkeeper Statue" with the [inverted] Watcher symbol, while he's made mention of Evo (especially in Past Life now) (except for when he stole the obsidian and called it the Watcher symbol GRIAN WHEN I CATCH YOU-) it's "Secret Society" now. But like if you know you KNOW.

Grian was hard-coded to be one of the Secret Society members for fairness that he knew the mechanic was coming (which is good! but also meta and I'm ignoring meta) BECAUSE WHAT IS GRIAN ALSO? ALREADY A WATCHER! HE'S THE WATCHER THAT PLAYS THE GAMES

and who exactly is being inducted into this Secret Society (the Watchers?)

Ethoslab. And GeminiTay.

Etho, the ancient enigma, who was the master of these ancient worlds when they were brand new. Neither man nor myth, both genius but unknowable and unknowing. Etho knows so much of these ancient worlds, but not at all of the cosmic forces who he's now talking to. He doesn't seem to know anything of the Watchers- maybe just the name in passing, a story his friends told of an old server. He has so much knowledge and yet no idea the lion's den he's entered into.

Gem, the rogue force. Canonically a shapeshifting world hopper who KNOWS what she's getting into. She ENTHUSIASTICALLY joined the death games, ready to play all parts of it! And specifically she joined in Secret Life; where the Watchers first made their major reappearance. But she didn't just play the game- no, she made them her own. Scar may have won there, there's no doubting that Gem was an equal and opposite force to rival him. Where he had no allies, she was in the midst of gathering an army. She used her own eye to complete the End portal- showing the power she holds within her, rivaling the Watchers who control the portal. Scar gained Pearl because Gem lost her. In Wild Life too, she befriended the snail that could instantly end her life, and danced around the Wildcards while others cowered in fear. She's laughed in the face of the Watchers. It's no wonder they've set their eyes on her.

Both would make FANTASTIC Watchers. Much more so than Martyn and Jimmy, who were candidates and acolytes of the opposing party. Jimmy is too niaeve, he's better a puppet than the puppeteer. And Martyn is too headstrong, he won't bend the way the Watchers wanted him to.

And Grian- the master of the games, the Watcher of the group. He himself is an unpredictable force of the cosmic order he is claimed by. He tricks and disobeys the Watchers, but entertains and organizes the Life Series for them. He scoffs and rolls his eyes and ignores any direct question relating him to them, yet grins giddily at the power that he holds within the games.

It's just- SUCH an interesting dynamic. Grian softened the blow, putting being recruited by the Watchers as "joining a Secret Society." It's enough that if you know, you know- a quirked eyebrow from Gem to Grian, his eyes flashing purple in a nod with a smile to confirm it. Gem is much less resistant to joining after seeing how Grian gets away with things. Meanwhile it's a complete introduction to Etho, who thought he knew everything there was about these ancient times and is about to learn there's far more out there than he thought.

[idontevenknowhowtolife]

OP why would you hide this in tags??

I smell fic ideas

ok sorry I WILL be overanalyzing this Secret Society because ITS IMPLICATIONS ARE DRIVING ME INSAAANEEE

ok so like. this is also going to be very heavily based in fanon so take it with a grain (ha) of salt this is me jumping back into the deep end of my Wattpad book Hermitcraft Nonsense type rambling

so my gut reaction is that the Secret Society is a stand-in for the Watchers right. Grian's avoided calling anything directly related to the Watchers since Evo ended (VERY strongly calling it the "Secretkeeper Statue" with the [inverted] Watcher symbol, while he's made mention of Evo (especially in Past Life now) (except for when he stole the obsidian and called it the Watcher symbol GRIAN WHEN I CATCH YOU-) it's "Secret Society" now. But like if you know you KNOW.

Grian was hard-coded to be one of the Secret Society members for fairness that he knew the mechanic was coming (which is good! but also meta and I'm ignoring meta) BECAUSE WHAT IS GRIAN ALSO? ALREADY A WATCHER! HE'S THE WATCHER THAT PLAYS THE GAMES

and who exactly is being inducted into this Secret Society (the Watchers?)

Ethoslab. And GeminiTay.

Etho, the ancient enigma, who was the master of these ancient worlds when they were brand new. Neither man nor myth, both genius but unknowable and unknowing. Etho knows so much of these ancient worlds, but not at all of the cosmic forces who he's now talking to. He doesn't seem to know anything of the Watchers- maybe just the name in passing, a story his friends told of an old server. He has so much knowledge and yet no idea the lion's den he's entered into.

Gem, the rogue force. Canonically a shapeshifting world hopper who KNOWS what she's getting into. She ENTHUSIASTICALLY joined the death games, ready to play all parts of it! And specifically she joined in Secret Life; where the Watchers first made their major reappearance. But she didn't just play the game- no, she made them her own. Scar may have won there, there's no doubting that Gem was an equal and opposite force to rival him. Where he had no allies, she was in the midst of gathering an army. She used her own eye to complete the End portal- showing the power she holds within her, rivaling the Watchers who control the portal. Scar gained Pearl because Gem lost her. In Wild Life too, she befriended the snail that could instantly end her life, and danced around the Wildcards while others cowered in fear. She's laughed in the face of the Watchers. It's no wonder they've set their eyes on her.

Both would make FANTASTIC Watchers. Much more so than Martyn and Jimmy, who were candidates and acolytes of the opposing party. Jimmy is too niaeve, he's better a puppet than the puppeteer. And Martyn is too headstrong, he won't bend the way the Watchers wanted him to.

And Grian- the master of the games, the Watcher of the group. He himself is an unpredictable force of the cosmic order he is claimed by. He tricks and disobeys the Watchers, but entertains and organizes the Life Series for them. He scoffs and rolls his eyes and ignores any direct question relating him to them, yet grins giddily at the power that he holds within the games.

It's just- SUCH an interesting dynamic. Grian softened the blow, putting being recruited by the Watchers as "joining a Secret Society." It's enough that if you know, you know- a quirked eyebrow from Gem to Grian, his eyes flashing purple in a nod with a smile to confirm it. Gem is much less resistant to joining after seeing how Grian gets away with things. Meanwhile it's a complete introduction to Etho, who thought he knew everything there was about these ancient times and is about to learn there's far more out there than he thought.

[idontevenknowhowtolife]

if ever there was a ‘love triangle’ where everyone involved just needed to kiss about it, it’s theo/nan/guy on the buccaneers

of all the unbelievable things on this show an illicit 1870s throuple would not even break the top ten come on apple tv come through for me

[idontevenknowhowtolife]

sentencing an actively suicidal and lonely man into exile from his friends for a century and then having him return only to give up his immortality in order to find an "end ticket" that will give his life meaning again just to immediately sacrifice himself with a pointless death where andy could have easily helped him take care of the bad guys is such a boring ending for bookers character im bored

[idontevenknowhowtolife]

Reblog if you're okay with receiving asks for backstory info on any/all of your fics.

If not all, specify which ones in the tags.

[idontevenknowhowtolife]

GRIAN SHOP LIFE MERCH HELLO??!???!???

[idontevenknowhowtolife]

shes mine (you stay away from her) (6506 words) by Idkhowtodothis Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Bet (TV 2025) Rating: Mature Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence Relationships: Mary Davis/Riri Timurov, Momobami Ririka/Saotome Mary, Yumeko Jabami/Kira Timurov Characters: Mary Davis (Bet TV 2025), Riri Timurov, Kira Timurov, Yumeko Kawamoto, Runa Von Ludwig, Chad White, Dori Ahlstrom, Suki Hennessey Additional Tags: Canon-Typical Violence, Violence, Protective Riri Timurov, Protective Girlfriend, trevor from diamond gets too big for his britches and gets put down, HARD, student council solidarity, Mary might be a little turned on by Riri get violent in defence of her, just a little Summary: Trevor from Diamond had always been too cocky for his own good. Thankfully for Mary, Riri was a rather protective girlfriend.

And my Maeriri fic is done!

[idontevenknowhowtolife]

Can you imagine Riri's reaction if Mary and Ryan spread the rumour they slept together?

I think Ryan would receive a visitor he was not prepared for! And then the next night he would wake up in a very different spot to where he fell asleep. There is no one there but it sends a message!

(Mary also gets a visitor but its more along the lines of a yearner then a threat.)

[idontevenknowhowtolife]

The scene where Mary is trying to catch up ti Riri to ask her to help her get back on the council.

My thoughts: at the statt she seems to be somewhat nervous when Mary approaches her, almost as if she is too nervous to talk to her. Similar to like a big ass gay panic like what the fuck this beaitufo woman wants to speak to me? Little ol me? What the hell?

Then when Mary is about to walk away, she is blinking very rapidly trying to keep her emotions in control. She wants to help her but she can't go against Kira, she has to choose between the 2 people she cares most about in the world. Either way one will be disappointed in her. (But she always had belief in Mary getting back on council since she 100% kept her jacket)

In conclusion, Riri is the biggest yearner

Riri is the biggest yearner!

I saw someone point out that Riri sits on Kiras right and Mary on Kiras left - which implies that Mary did a lot for Kira. She probably worked with Riri on those things which fits in with her saying they were tight on student council!

In the scene with the finger guillitone you can see Riri in the background and she looks nervous - you can see her slightly flinching when they cut the strings - but also hopeful. That girl seriously wanted her crush back on council with her so that she didn't have to pick between her and her sister!

(Don't think of how both Kira and Mary turn on Riri at the party. Don't think of how Riri did eventually have to choose and she chose to leave with Mary. Chose not to seek her sister out and try and sort things. Its only going to lead to heartbreak)

[idontevenknowhowtolife]

im a year late finishing this but anything to try to dodge this block 🥲

princess rhaenyra & prince daemon for @fkaluis dtiys

[idontevenknowhowtolife]

We got Bet Season 2!!

[idontevenknowhowtolife]

reblog if you’re okay with people writing fanfics of your fanfics and/or fanfics inspired by your fanfics

[idontevenknowhowtolife]

(c!)Grian is still the creator of the Life Series in-universe, as the Watcher in charge of the games. His friends' heightened emotions during the games make for a fantastic food source - his key feeding grounds, in fact.

To him, it's a necessary evil. He needs to feed on emotions to be able to maintain his preferred, 'normal' form. Without sustenance, he will gradually wilt into an eldritch horror still capable of affecting the world around him, but unable to feel anything.

Not the world around him; the warmth of the sunshine, nor the wind against his face. Nor any emotions; the love he has for his friends disappearing, the happiness, anger and grief of his memories fading into just blank acknowledgement that they ever happened. The people and world he holds so dear to him become nothing more than toys in a toybox. It's a frightening thing to be aware of.

He never wants that to happen. It had, once, during S8; unable to quell the sheer numbness and boredom that seemed to slowly consume him after the high from 3rd Life wore off, he didn't think much of causing a cataclysm just to shake things up a little, see his friends' reactions, have some fun... and that was how Moon Big happened. (Last Life was a last-ditch attempt initiated by the rest of Boatem to get him back to his senses.)

Understandably, he wanted to make sure he was always well-fed from that point on... which means more death games for everyone. Unfortunately, emotions are also an addiction for Watchers, so the more they feed, the more their hunger grows, and they need to feed more often, leading to a reinforcing loop.

The 'silver lining', if it can be called that, is that his friends involved in the games are all aware of his motive and needs, and all consented to it. The games are actually pretty fun anyway, and it's helping someone who is otherwise a great friend out, so it's a win-win situation.

Still, they're trying to work on a way to break, or at least manage the emotion addiction. It's not healthy for him, and there's a very real possibility it could get worse. It was once possible for him to exist among his friends without needing to cultivate and harvest emotions to feed on, and that was the long stretch from S6-S7. He's still trying to go back to... however he was doing it back then.

.

[idontevenknowhowtolife]

Can I unload on you my Mary x riri brain rot? I have no one to speak about it with

Go for it! Always love to read others thoughts and brainrot on ships!

[idontevenknowhowtolife]

The anon who asked about your Mary x Riri fic-

Ahhhh thank you so much for the snippet!!! Riri giving Mary her jacket DON’T GET ME STARTEDDDD

It looks so good and I’m so excited!!! I also just finished my exams so I totally get it please take your time and I’m sure it will be amazing 🫶

Thank you so much! I definitely will have some progress on it over the next few days and I’m more than willing to share some more snippets if you wish!

I hope your exams went well!!