slashmagpie

[slashmagpie]

there were many glitches in session one but the hole in the world border (and Ren's response) were my favorite

[slashmagpie]

I’m inlove with the new life series I had to draw pearls skin

[slashmagpie]

Came to a realization about Life Series Gem:

Because she goes into every series with the assumption that she is a target and that everyone wants her dead because of her supposed “reputation”, she can justify literally anything she does as being on the defense. She can lie and steal and manipulate and it’s fine because surely the people she’s doing it to want her dead. She can declare people enemies over minor infractions, claim to be the victim in situations where she or her team struck first, and it’s okay because she is already a target, right?

She’s also so obsessed with the idea that there must be rules to this thing. Someone else just posted something about this but Gem creates this idea of what’s supposed to happen in a Life Series (how alliances are supposed to treat each other, how enemies are supposed to treat each other, how to play a social game, how violent a different player should be based on how they played the game before **cough cough Pearl**) and even when literally ever other player don’t follow her ‘rules’ and don’t live up to those expectations, she’ll act like that’s a failure on their part. Clearly she’s playing the game the correct way and everyone else is crazy or pathetic or something.

And then there are the moments when she breaks ‘character’ and openly admits that she knows that some of what she’s saying doesn’t make any sense. The two biggest instances of this are with Pearl in Secret Life and then Pearl again this last episode. In Secret Life, Gem admits that she knows Pearl and Scar were allied and that she wasn’t actually that mad about what Pearl did. But she has to hold that grudge because they’re Gem and Pearl and in Gem’s mind they were supposed to be allies above anything, right? So how could Pearl pick someone else? Even someone who was a member of her main alliance, someone who hadn’t been responsible for 2/3 of her deaths like Gem. Who cares that Gem had killed Pearl twice? Isn’t Pearl supposed to be loyal to Gem no matter what? And frankly Pearl does nothing to dispel that accusation because yeah, she was loyal to Gem even after Gem killed both times. If anything, she was her most loyal directly after joining the Boogey Army and after Gem brought her to red life (which is when murder camel happened). But Gem acts like she already expects that of course Pearl won’t be mad at her, she’s Pearl! So when Pearl then turns around and DOESNT let Gem take her third and final life, it’s breaking the rules. And again, Pearl doesn’t exactly prove her wrong when she spends the entire next series begging Gem to team up with her again, which Gem refuses because Pearl broke her rule and Pearl isn’t behaving the way Gem thinks Pearl should act (based a misconception of Pearl on a season Gem wasn’t even there for).

And then in this first episode of Past Life, Gem expressly says to Grian that Pearl will of course join them no matter what because she’s always willing to team with Gem. But when you watch Pearl’s pov, Gem later interrogates Pearl about whether or not she thinks their alliance will go well and seems unsure and insecure when Pearl insists that it will because Gem is always loyal, especially to her and Gem always wants to be on her team (we have a whole season of this not being the case but okay). It’s like Pearl is kinda projecting onto Gem there. And while Gem hums and haws, she doesn’t outright reject what Pearl says. Of course she kept none of that in her own POV which is very interesting, but it still signals to me that Gem is bluffing about how great she is at manipulating Pearl. She is so close to admitting that Pearl isn’t under her control, that she keeps breaking ‘the rules’ in a way Gem can’t predict.

YES ding ding ding we have a winner!!! gem’s desire to control the circumstances surrounding her and how everyone else perceives her (COUGH COUGH c!scott parallels COUGH who said that). she sets certain expectations and “rules”, as you said, that put her in a favourable light, and expects others to conform to them.

and you’re right about the fact that gem is self-aware that she is creating a situation where it’s her way or the highway, like in SL when she unreasonably expected pearl to ally with her, and then holds this over pearl’s head for all of WL so suddenly pearl is the one in the wrong.

of course pearl is the most obvious example because those two have a toxic and manipulative relationship (as god intended and may it never end), but this shows up in her interactions with other people. she makes etho scared of her and acts puzzled when he does, making it seem as if he just suddenly decided to be terrified of her of his own will. with people like imp and skizz, who are sort of fatherly figures to her, there’s this implicit “you have to be nice to me”. i don’t think gem dares to try it with cleo that much, but as we can see from her getting an ingot from cleo in session 1, gem’s building a foundation to ensure that she and cleo have an Understanding. and she basically already had scott wrapped around her finger, especially in WL, which technically means SHE is on top of the social game and not blue hair man as if popular opinion.

back to pearl, we know gem expects pearl to basically do everything she says. she’s not entirely wrong for this, because pearl… does… basically do everything she says. gem explicitly tells grian “pearl will join if i ask”, showing her awareness of her power over pearl which we’ve been knowing since WL (WL!gempearl was so deliciously toxic i loved it), so when pearl is an independent entity that doesn’t immediately agree to everything gem says (which happens rarely because my girl is down bad), gem’s anxious to overcompensate.

[slashmagpie]

/ past life spoilers , life series spoilers

Just a few guys in a hot tub

[slashmagpie]

seeing bdubs in his old skin always makes me think of this

[slashmagpie]

They like to call themselves the villains

[slashmagpie]

- I. The Magician -

Ability, action: Willpower.

-----

wizard gem my beloved..

[slashmagpie]

opportunistic gluten

(reup)

[slashmagpie]

Just villains doing villain things!

[slashmagpie]

emo pearl thank you for existing

[slashmagpie]

hot tub teleport

[slashmagpie]

WE'RE SO BACK WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO YEAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH (doodles while watching!!)

[slashmagpie]

Bearing the knowledge that if life series was some Amazon original or sth it would get a French dub and I need desperately to know who would dub who

[slashmagpie]

ough past life you are already so dear to me

[slashmagpie]

And they’re not even five feet apart!

[slashmagpie]

“Are you… an elf?” Gem prompts, not bothering to hide her curiosity.

Grian’s head snaps up to stare at his teammate. It’s been about an hour since they started the new game. Time’s still twisting and settling, impatient, but frozen for the moment. Grian almost doesn’t remember what she means.

He reaches up, somewhat self-conscious, and puts a hand on the tips of his ears. Pointed and long. It’s been a long time since he’s occupied this form.

“Maybe,” he says defensively. “Why?”

“Maybe?” she repeats, voice cracking slightly. “What do you mean, maybe? Shouldn’t you know what you are?”

“No,” Grian replies nonchalantly. “I stole this body. From a hero, if you must know.”

“What?”

He forgets how young she is sometimes. Not much younger than him, but still. Young enough. He sighs dramatically.

“Things are more malleable in beta,” he explains, tugging on his long ears. “It was pretty common for people to copy the forms of heroes. Y’know, legends. People we thought were cool. Before we really settled on being ourselves.”

Gem tilts her head, scrutinizing his look. Despite the answer he gave Gem, he does actually know he’s not an elf. He knows the ancient race he studied. He knows their deities and abilities. He knows the fate of the hero he chose. But it’d probably confuse her further, so he leaves it at that.

“Huh,” she says. “And Pearl…?”

“That one’s all her,” Grian snorts. “She’s quite proud of the simpler look.”

“I think it’s nice,” Gem says carefully, surreptitiously glancing around to make sure Pearl’s not in earshot. “What’s up with Joel?”

Grian barks a laugh. “Trust me, you don’t want to know.”

[slashmagpie]

"Oh, Pearl looks so emo in her old skin!", brother, listen. She could've chose her EVO skin