#and grian feeling lonely making the other two lonely and

[1-marigold-1]

An AU thingy that umm, please listen to my ramble I beg you :[

Hello!!! Had this AU in mind for a bit too long decided to dump it all here :] sorry if it's all a bit messy I'm bad at organising those stuff hghghgghg <-- delusional (explanation and story below the images)

So:

I call it the FMN AU [Forget-Me-Not] and it's set in a fantasy world of course, in a great Empire of Heremitaran.

Because of how big the Empire is, it's divided in two, with two rulers: Ren The King of the North known for his bravery, plenty of victories, feared by those outside of his Empire , and the other one in the Sout is ... well... Mumbo.. (yes he's a king because his father died, he sucks at it tho, can't help but be that wet poor cat and not knowing what to do).

And that's when we come in with Grian and Scar.

There's a crown, to be specific, called the Vacivus Halo which is safely kept in Ren's vault , away from the rest of the world. It's the most powerful thing ever known, and Watchers are ready to fight for it against Listeners, who are worshipped by most of north people and Ren himself. The war those two spiecies of angel-gods started over a crown has been going for many centuries and now when Listeners has had it for themselves for so long, Watchers start to fear that they might use it against them to finally get rid of the enemy.

The crown has been under Watchers' control for some time too, that's when they tasked Mumbo's father with protecting it, but he died at war, crown got stolen, landed in Ren's hands and now all they got is Mumbo... They quickly realized that he's definetely not... well.. worthy? So they give the task of getting it back to an orphan living near the palace. He's a poor chicken keeper until he meets one of The Watchers disguised as a snake, asking him for help, the snake promises him everything he wants. So he agrees.

He gets powers such as:

Manipulating others' minds [putting images and memories that never existed before into anyone's head ]. It's his most powerful ability that he uses by just looking into their eyes, yet there's one thing about it: he can't make people forget the things he puts in their heads.

Flight, he has a cape that turns into wings when needed.

He can see what his snake sees whenever he wants, so he can use it to spy on people.

With those abilities he fools everyone at the palace into believing he's Mumbo's new guard and personal assasin, so he can be always close to the ruler who should be visiting the North very soon... he also makes friends with the young king, they get along pretty well.

Meanwhile Scar has a simmiliar story, though he was an assasin and Ren's guard before Listeners chose him. Ren is still in a good shape and probably will still be a good protector of the crown, but they felt like they need more than one If Watchers ever plan on getting the crown back, so they chose Scar by appearing to him as a cat, they wanted to tell him that they are ready to give him anything he wishes for but he was like "KITTY!!!!!!!! HELLO YOU SO CUTE!!" and agreed right away, just to have a scarf that turns into a cat...... he likes cats alright, he's been feeling pretty lonely recently too...

Scar's powers are:

Super speed [he got it with the boots]

Sensitive Hearing

Completely silent walking

He also got his cat [he named it Jellie because it's semi-transparent like a jelly when in not-scarf form lol] that can transform into a tiger like creature sometimes.

Yeah guess what.

They meet. Grian and Scar. They. Meet.

And they uhhh kinda make friends with eachother and don't really think that they might be enemies.

Watchers don't know that Scar is Listeners' servant, and the other way around, Listeners don't know that Grian is Watchers' servant.

Things escalate from here...... and that's where the story starts!

I have plans on making short comics and stories to tell you the lore piece by piece, but be aware that updates won't be very often, I'll try tho!

ASK ABOUT ANYTHING I WILL ANSWER THE QUESTIONS

Also

Just wanted to add that I made this AU long time ago and Jellie is a fundamental thing in it, very important, as much as she was important to all of us, may she rest in peace <3

[mochiwrites]

This is probably one of the weirdest alliances Joel has ever been in. And he’s been in some pretty weird alliances before. The Red Banners are the first to come to mind on that one, with Ren’s weird accent and all that.

But The Bad Boys might just take the top spot.

Upon first glance, his alliance with them seems pretty well put together. Joel has partly teamed with Grian before, back on a world where he seemed to be chained to the red mist, blood thirsty and out for whoever he could find. It had been fun, when Grian was also red and they ran around together.

So he knows how Grian operates, how he thinks and functions. He’s a good ally, loyal and eager.

(Joel pointedly ignores how nearly every ally Grian has ever had has died permanently due to his own hands.)

And then there’s Jimmy and well… Jim is Jim. In a good way, whatever that means.

The fact of the matter is, they’re a good team. With their Bread Bridge and then Bread Bridge version two in the sky. The Sadder Badder Ladder podcast. Joel likes teaming with them.

But this? This is a bit odd, even for him.

They’ve pushed their beds together. It’s hard to cuddle on a singular bed, and well, Bad Boys call each other babe and all that. Joel isn’t going to shy away from snuggling with Grian and Jimmy, especially when Grian fits against his side so easily, and Jimmy can easily wrap them both in his golden wings. Grian’s sleek cat tail tangles with Joel’s own (perks of being a wolf hybrid and all that), and sleep is quite peaceful.

It doesn’t start out that way though.

“Griaaaan, come on!” Jimmy whines as they all settle in for the night. They’re on the dry part of the mansion’s roof, the moon high in the sky above them. It casts them each in its soft blue glow, illuminating their figures. “You did it last time!”

Which is why Joel can see Jimmy’s pout so well.

Grian hums nonchalantly, kicking his shoes off and laying back in his bed. His ears twitch. “You willingly offered last time, Timmy. And now it’s actually my turn.” He shrugs.

“Because you had a rough day!” Jimmy points out. He’s kneeling on his bed, body angled toward them both.

Joel himself is already laying down flat on his back. He’s waiting.

“If you wanted your right and proper turn, you shouldn’t have given it up!”

“Griannnnnn!”

“Timmmmm.”

This is something that happens every night. The three of them get ready for bed, and Grian and Jimmy bicker over who gets to listen to Joel’s heartbeat. Honestly, Joel doesn’t get it. He knows it’s related to some kind of thing that neither Grian or Jimmy will actually tell him about. He’d ask, but asking feels… wrong, almost. Like if he does, Grian and Jimmy will stop.

So he doesn’t really question it, instead letting it happen.

Even if it’s weird. It’s such a weird habit, but none of them ever talk about it in the morning. In fact there’s not even any mention of it when they wake up.

(In retrospect it isn’t that weird. It’s normal to listen to your partner’s heartbeat. But what’s weird is it’s Grian and Jimmy wanting to listen to his. His? Joel’s? The red, lone wolf?)

A head on his chest makes him pause, and he looks down. He sees two fluffy ears and ashen blond hair. “Hello Grian,” he greets, watching as the other snuggles close.

“Hi Joel.”

“Comfortable?” He lifts a brow.

“Quite.” Joel can hear the smile in Grian’s voice.

He looks over at Jimmy, finding the other pouting as he lays down beside them. Without a moment of hesitation, those golden feathery blankets are settling over the pair, drawing a content purr from Grian.

But Jimmy is still pouting, most likely bothered that he lost to Grian. Which honestly, did he expect anything different? In a match between Grian and Jimmy, the winner is already decided.

Joel sighs, “Here, Jim.” As per usual with their weird little routine, Joel holds his wrist out to him as he wraps his other arm around Grian’s waist.

Jimmy’s face brightens as the pout leaves his face, and he holds Joel’s wrist in both his hands, fingers pressing carefully against his pulse. Joel feels the tension leave his body almost immediately as Jimmy relaxes against him. “Thanks.”

“You’re welcome.”

He then hears Jimmy make a curious trill, “Grian? Are you asleep yet?”

“Yes,” Grian answers, even as he pops an eye open to look at Jimmy. “I’m the sleepiest lad you’ve ever seen.”

“He’s a sleepy lad, boy,” Joel jokes, making Jimmy choke on his laughter.

“Stooop!” he exclaims, but he’s smiling.

Grian laughs, “We better stop, Joel. Wouldn’t want Tim to become a mad boy.”

“Or a sad boy.”

“Stop, stop it! It’s sleep time!” Jimmy laughs again, Grian and Joel’s own laughter joining him. After a moment or so, Jimmy calms down and he looks at Grian, expression turning bashful. “G can I… erm…. can I have your wrist?” he questions.

Something in Grian’s expression melts, his gaze turning soft and empathetic.

(There’s another thing Joel will never understand about Grian and Jimmy. Whatever the connection is between them. The silent understanding, the way they take one look at each other and just seem to understand what the other is thinking. Upon first glance, you’d never expect that from their dynamic. Not when Grian is so set on being a menace to Jimmy. But Joel gets that special look when it’s just them. He gets to see the way Grian is always touching Jimmy in someway, the way he presses against him, almost like he’s clinging to him. The way Jimmy will tuck Grian against him, and hold him.

Joel feels honored, not just to see it, but to be included in it. Like he’s been given a special sort of trust that no one else has. Not that he’ll ever tell either of them, of course.)

Reaching over Joel, Grian offers Jimmy his wrist. And Jimmy takes it in one of his hands.

Humming quietly, Jimmy pressed his lips first to the skin of Grian’s wrist before doing the same to Joel’s. “Good night,” he chirps.

Joel feels Grian’s lips through the fabric of his shirt, the contact leaving him warm and contented. “Night, Tim.” He feels Grian’s tail tangle with his own, and his purrs are soft, soothing.

Though it’s a little difficult, Joel reaches for Jimmy, pressing a kiss to his head before doing the same to Grian. “Night.”

The Bad Boys are certainly a weird alliance, but Joel is an expert in weird at this point. It doesn’t matter all that much to him, because he’s given both Grian and Jimmy a piece of his heart anyways. Weird or not, it doesn’t change the fact that these two are his. And every wolf protects their pack.

[zebarius]

Now that Scar's won, it's that time when everyone comes together to choose the winner's motif/symbol.

Grian is the Sun, Scott the Stars, Pearl the Moon, and Martyn is Mars.

Now what of Scar?

I definitely like the idea of Scar being the Earth, as many people have proposed.

I've also have seen some people propose Pluto.

However, I'm not a big fan of this one.

My reason for not agreeing with this option is pretty simple. Pluto, while sharing some similarities with Scar (like loneliness and being an outcast), doesn't really have enough meaningful connections or parallels for it to be used as a motif.

I think that since Scar's theme is so full of flowers this season-- Sunflowers, Poppies, and Lilacs-- this naturally connects back to the Earth, which also ties to a lot of other symbolisms as well, making it the better option out of the two.

So I've decided to throw my vote in for the Earth as Scar's symbol.

I think it just fits, in the end.

The Sun and Moon are both in close relation to Scar, with Pearl and Scar being each other's foil, and the Sun being vital to the Earth (desert duo aaaangst!!!). And the fact that all three are stuck in each other's orbits is perfect.

And on top of all this, is that the Earth is lonely. Just like Scar was this entire season.

The Earth is the only planet we know with such an overflow of life. The only one in this solar system that is covered in plants and animals and people. There is no other planet like it. It is alone in its uniqueness. And just like the Earth is alone in the solar system, Scar was alone in the game.

I think that loneliness, paired with Scar's flower themes, and the relation to the Sun and the Moon, is what makes the Earth such a perfect symbol for Scar.

I feel like any other symbol would leave out important aspects of his character and his story.

Anyways, what are your opinions on the matter? I'm curious to hear your thoughts. Don't hesitate to mercilessly poke holes in my argument. It builds character.

[bidoofenergy]

in the middle, alone

based on this post by @quaranmine

(825 words)

Grian can never really deny Jimmy and Joel. He goes along with the big things— teaming up or handing over his time or fighting with Pearl and BigB over that fucking frog—and the little things—their matching jackets or their sunglasses or their fucking name—and minimally complains about it the whole time. Their bed situation was a medium thing; it wasn't going to kill him, but gods did it make his days that much worse.

Joel somehow both overheats and has the coldest toes known to man. Jimmy sleeps curled into himself but stretches his wings out, sticking feathers into Grian's mouth. They both kick. They left him the middle. He hates them for it.

At the end of the day, he makes a show of leaving with Pearl and BigB, back to their towers and frogs. Being alone makes you easy to pick off by any of the other roving groups of Reds. BigB throws an arm over his shoulders and Pearl bumps shoulders with him, both comforting him, both making him stumble.

It's only as they pick their way across the lawn, avoiding pressure plates because no one can quite remember where the TNT is, that Grian realizes he might actually be spending the night there. That's not the worst thing in the world. He'd probably get his own bed, away from other people. But something about the thought of sleeping on his own, not on the destroyed roof of the woodland mansion, makes something settle in the pit of his stomach. Makes things feel a little too final.

"We'll take care of you, Grian!" Pearl tells him, with that bright, sharp smile she only wears in the games. BigB rummages through their chests but in the end only turns up with a single piece of wool.

"Sorry, man," he tells Grian and he sounds like he means it.

"Don't worry about it," Grian tells them. "I'll just sneak back through the forest to the mansion and meet you guys in the morning." For a moment the other two hesitate, glancing at each other, and Grian watches them do the same math he just did: no one's in the forest, the TIES and Clockers have both gone home, he definitely has good gear at his base that he could bring them.

"Stay safe." BigB tells him and he sounds like he means it.

"Don't let the bed bugs bite!" Pearl sings after him, already heading up the ladder.

Grian makes it back to the mansion, perfectly fine except for being damp all over again—why did Joel flood their whole base? He's tired, wrung out from the chaos of the day, and crawls into bed, armor still on. He pulls his sheets up to his chin.

It's too cold. Joel runs so hot and curls in so close that most nights Grian woke up well before he wanted to, drenched in sweat. Grian rips the blankets off the other beds and pulls them over himself. There's no one here to yell at him for it anyway. It's not the warm bulk of two friends, of a set of wings layered over his own.

It's too quiet. Jimmy loves to talk when they go to bed, rambling on about the day or some joke Martyn made or that fucking frog. Joel snores and snuffles into his pillow and is generally just as noisy asleep as he is awake. Now, all Grian can hear is the wind rustling through the wheat.

It's fine. Grian likes sleeping by himself. He hates being in the middle of their ridiculous dog pile—the "Bad Boys Bed Bundle" as Joel had called it, which didn't even make sense. Just this morning, he woke up spitting mad because Jimmy's feathers had found their way into his mouth, again. He's not upset to be sleeping alone for the first time since the games had started. It is not too cold or too quiet or something truly ridiculous like too lonely.

It is perfectly normal for him to be in bed, alone. Two nights ago he threatened to move up to his bread house, he was so annoyed, and Joel had yanked him back down with hands around his chest while Jimmy clung to his middle and apologized and begged in the same breath. He stayed on the rooftop, because he can never really deny them anything, and stared up at the mess of bridges that cut across the sky, Joel and Jimmy still clinging to him.

No one is clinging to him now. No one is on either side of him now. In the morning, he will go meet Pearl and BigB and neither of them will lean on him the way Joel and Jimmy did so easily. He's in the middle of nothing now. He's in the middle, alone. The thought settles in his stomach like a lead weight.

They're dead. They left him in the middle, alone. He hates them for it.

[ivys-garden]

OK, so (dam I say that alot) False won the Poll for most wanted Lifer, but I've been thinking

What would it be like if she was there from the start?

3rd Life - She probably just stays out of any teams, like most people in 3rd life. At some point though I imagine she'd join Dogwarts, fighting with them when the war starts. I don't imagine she'd win in this season just due to the fact no one knew what to expect this season to be at the time.

Last Life - due to the boogie man and all the traps around the server it's likely that False would be Overly paranoid for most of the season, her pillars of safety would be all over the world (a Boogie Man would probably fishing rod her off one at some point). I imagine she'd probably end up joining the Faerie Fort, probably having a rivalry with Cleo when they leave (or maybe B kills False instead of Cleo and the Faerie Fort stays together until the end, unlikely, but possible) I could see it going either way for False winning this season, she'd definitely be more prepared but she'd also be constantly paranoid, so idk

Double Life - now, for this one I'm going to say one of the people who didn't return from Last Life did return, I'm going to go with Lizzie just because I think that's the most fun option. I imagine the two of them would come up with a lot of “Devious Plots”, they'd probably be helping or Enlisting the help of The Mean Girls for most of them, maybe The Homewreckers too.

That being said if they didn't find each other by the end of session one and they ended up at Martyns lil soulmate game I could easily see the two of them and Pearl sticking together as a team (not that it would change much, Pearl would still do what she did, but still)

False probably doesn't win the season, Martyn or Pearl would be straight for Lizzie in the final fight

Limited Life - I honestly can't see False going with any of the teams. If you forced me I'd say probably Nosy Neighbours but it's more likely that False is a lone wolf (though she'd definitely ally more with The Clockers and Neighbours than Bad Boys or T.I.E.S) I feel like the is the season False has the best chance of winning, she definitely make it to the end and could back stab Martyn while he's killing Impulse.

Secret Life - I imagine False probably goes with Team Besties. Maybe she even convinces Scar or Lizzie to join. She'd definitely be one of the survivors during the zombie task (or she'd die and help the Zombies succeed in killing everyone. She's not Etho she would kill Grian and Cleo). I don't imagine the result would change the season either. It's very task dependent. False might inadvertently get Scar killed with the rest of Team Besties (or she might kill him herself), meaning it's Pearl vs. Gem in the finale, but that's about it.

[frozenjokes]

what is everyone’s love language/how they best express their affection…..iirc you’ve talked abt this in a fic or a post (scar is touch, cub is qualitt time, i forget grian) but i want to hear it Again!!! this has nothing to do w any fic planning btw :3 i am a normal guy w normal thoughts and behaviors all the time

(side note — if we genderbent/hit all of them with the lesbian ray, would you be chill w that? don’t wanna write stuff abt them and then you just feel weird abt it 🫶)

life would be so much better if they were all girls because then grian could call other women cunts and I wouldn’t have to erase it (enthusiastic yes)

Scar is huge on touch, yes he is the ultimate guy Big Toucher. A lonely Scar will be down on his luck in a fight, say ‘hey what if we chose love instead’ and get his nose broken. If you’re a fan approaching him you are going to Get Hugged. If you’re anyone he remotely knows you’re going to Get Crushed. I imagine the strongest of his hugs are reserved for cubfan135 and skizzleman. I don’t even know if Skizz has been mentioned by name in these fics but he’s there. To me. He does love to bother Grian but he is a little more wary because of the one time when Grian first met Micah (alter ego) Grian told him he has bad hands and Scar has been thinking about the /derogatory/ ever since. Scar does actually have differently textured skin but it’s mostly subtle and probably only something someone who knows him well and/or someone in the middle of a deep extremely autistic mental health crisis would notice. Oops! Grian has no idea btw. He doesn’t even remember saying that. It’s safe to say actually he doesn’t remember most of that night. Quality time is also big for him. He just likes being around people. He probably also enjoys giving gifts, but more in the way of just Paying for stuff. Buying lunch. Stuff like that. It’s mostly a thoughtless gesture because he is aware of One Thing and that is that he has A Lot More Money Than Most People, but something he enjoys. Also making stuff. He likes to make things and he does NOT make them for himself he makes stuff to be Validated. On that grind for ATTENTION. this applies to coworkers as much as it applies to friends and lovers.

Cub is absolutely quality time, you pinned that well. He loves a good *sit in the presence of my friends in complete silence.* parallel play? you’ll kill him with that. I don’t think he or Grian are fantastic at cooking or anything, but Cub enjoys being talked at while he’s making dinner while Grian’s sitting at the kitchen table or vice versa. Just thought about them all doing a puzzle together and how much of a disaster that would be. Cub isn’t nearly as bad of a control freak as Grian is but he would start foaming at the mouth when witnessing Scar attempting to shove two pieces that obviously didn’t go together into one. I think Cub and Grian would get competitive about puzzles. NOT a relaxing activity when they’re doing one together. You know how with cats they each have the Same Food in different bowls but they just HAVE TO KNOW what the other is eating because it MUST BE BETTER. them with different parts of a puzzle. but both of them have resource aggression. They’re having fun. Get them two different puzzles and they’ll play nice. The puzzles can’t be the same piece count thought because then they’ll start racing to finish them first. Both of them know this very well.

Cub isn’t a psych major but I feel like he also expresses that Weirdo Autistic Psych Major Affection with the piecing people out and puzzling out all the different aspects of their personality into boxes and lists. He is studying you. This fuck isn’t just ’spacing out in your direction’ he is looking directly at you and wondering what your fucking problem is. The only exception to this is Grian, only because he’s known Grian for so long that doing this is literally just exhausting. He’s given up. ‘hi, my boyfriend saw you from across the bar and was wondering what the fuck is wrong with you’

Grian I think also has a quality time thing going on but it falls under more of a line of Shenanigans. Guy that LOVES to make a scene. The CuteGuy and HotGuy dynamic appeals to him so much because it’s just drama and fun. Guy that loves to be sneaky with his friends. do. do crime. Start a funny cult with his good friend mumbo jumbo and party alllll night but EVIL. He should really make ocs and start rping with mumbo. Scar would be shit at rp despite spending all of his life playing different character versions of himself he would be so bad. Cub. I don’t know. It doesn’t Quite seem like something he’d be super interested in, but he would listen to Grian talk about his ocs. Shenanigans can also mean arts and crafts. He loves a good arts and crafts. It’s one of the only ways to stop him from being so competitive. Indulge him in his interests and he will kiss you on the mouth. Type of 30 yr old at the sleep over pajama party to suggest prank calling random numbers. Or truth or dare. This cunt would be ALL OVER truth or dare oh my god. He makes me sick. Fun fact, if you want a fun rp idea, putting your whole cast together and making them play truth or dare is Really great. It gets old, but it’s a fantastic once in a while thing.

it’s been an hour help

[nekodere07]

Grian being a naturally born half Watcher and Grianpop HC AU

This was my take on Shadverse’s Grianpop AU, which is basically Grian’s dad who’s the first Watcher

This is also accessible on AO3 already!

Grian has always been an awkward boy. He distances himself from the kids his age and watch them from afar, enjoying themselves while they run around the park looking dirty but the huge smiles on their faces tells him everything that they’re happy. But he’s not jealous. Not fully. One time, his mother asked how he was at school and he could only shrug casually like it didn’t concern him. School was weird, the classrooms were weird, the teachers were weird, and most of all, the kids were weird. Especially the kid that brought that stinky fish with him the whole time and the lanky one with bunny ears kept on hiding behind fish boy.

They talked to him, sure, but it didn’t mean they were friends. His mother kissed him by the forehead and leans forward to how warm and soft the touch is, listening to her gentle voice as she tells her about making friends and how they will accompany him when he’s lonely and help him grow to become a better person in the future. At first, he’s reluctant to do it but goes to follow wherever those two kids go and as time goes by, he kind of like the company.

There are times when Grian wakes up to two muffled voices yelling at each other from downstairs but drowns them with his pillow and goes back to sleep (at least try to), like it doesn’t concern him. Hopefully his two siblings aren’t awake from the room across (he knows they are but if he tries to go and comfort them, their parents will notice that he’s awake and mother might say mean things to him again—worse, she might hurt them this time). Hopefully Taurtis has a new fun story to tell him tomorrow to keep him awake and not fall asleep on class again.

The arguing gets worse as well as their mother’s attitude towards him. At least she’s still loving towards his two younger siblings. He ignores it and tries to convince himself that she’s just stressful from work. It’s nothing to be worried about. It’s not like his mother meant what she told him about being… It wasn’t true, right?

One day, his father called him to the living room and asks Grian to sit with him on the sofa. All of a sudden, his father’s heavy hand lands on his blonde hair and ruffles it gently as he smiles and tells him about meeting someone who will truly care for him and he should cherish them—be with those people and never betray them. He’s quite confused but he nods as he mirrors his father’s kind smile that for some reason, doesn’t quite reach his ears like it usually did. His father then stands and turn to walk towards the kitchen to cook for dinner.

Is it just him or father’s eyes glowed purple for a second or was it lighting messing up with him?

Grian should have said something about it. He should’ve said something about why his father’s signature cheeky grin didn’t feel quite right. He should’ve said something, anything!

That talk is the last time he would ever get to see his father again.

His mother sends him to Tokyo Soul a few weeks after his father apparently left and reunites with her boyfriend, which is his siblings’ biological father, since she’s apparently unable to support his financial needs and has to earn it himself. At least all he needs to pay was his living expenses and she still pays for his school so there wasn’t much of a problem.

Then Tokyo Soul, which is the name of the town he’s staying for the rest of his high school years, happened.

Because of his horrifying experience there, Grian learns how to survive like a soldier in the middle of enemy territory and pull the trigger without batting an eye. He’s not sure which is worse, almost dying from a car crash and getting shot by various people or being threatened with a knife multiple times by your own best friend. He’s not sure if he even wants to survive this long after that hellscape, to be honest. Does it even matter? Everything in his life is a lie. He followed every advice that his parents gave him, yet all he receives are pain and suffering.

Even after meeting new people from different worlds and co-founded one of the most famous fantasy worlds in the universe, he still feels empty inside. So, he says his goodbyes to his co-founders and friends, leaving that world behind and goes to a new one.

That’s when he meets the Evolutionists.

It’s like a big slap to the face but in a positive way.

Instead of expecting the same outcome with them, they destroyed his world and proves it to him that there is still hope in humanity. Even after isolating himself away from civilization and build his own empire, people still go out of their way to visit his base and pay their regards. They even compliment his build even though it’s not even that impressive. He’s always been told by his mother that his love of building was a waste of time and resources and should focus on something more practical.

When he accidentally told Martyn about it one time, suddenly he exploded and started an hour-long rant about how amazing Grian was. For some reason, his heart flutters and cheeks hurt, even now that he’s only reminiscing it, only to realize he’s smiling so much. Ever since then, every Evolutionist will come and compliment him. Some like Netty will bring him a present like a pot filled with a delicious meal.

At first, when he stumbled upon his siblings who are living with the rest of the Evolutionists, he was reluctant whether to interact with them since they might hate him for leaving them and not writing even a single letter, but they easily jumped to his arms and cried how much they missed him. That’s when he decided that he will hang out with them more and take care of them like a good brother this time.

Living with the Evolutionists is the happiest time he has ever been his whole life.

Until mysterious structures with bedrock and the Watchers appear, that is.

Everything crumbles right before his eyes, both literally and metaphorically, after he defeats the dragon and is taken from his friends—his real family. He can only watch in dread and cry his heart out as the world slowly deteriorates from the inside, leaving everyone to die but not him.

Why? They don’t deserve it. Everyone has been so kind of him and all he did was take, never giving the same kindness in return. He should be the one to sacrifice his life for them so they can live a happy life without him. This always happen. Whenever Grian is around, he destroys everything he touches—everything he ever cares about.

When the Watchers do their worst to him, he didn’t resist even once. It’s weird when all he did in his whole life was exactly that. They gave him wings, too many eyes for a human being, and knowledge regarding magic that he doesn’t even care about. Can he even call himself that after all the things he did? He quietly obeyed when they ordered him to watch over worlds he’s unfamiliar with, those specifically that are reeking with blood and smoke due to unending wars that they were manipulating from behind the scenes.

He quietly followed the orders of taking out any individuals or organizations that might get in their way with the help of his years of experience back in high school. He did everything like a dog awaiting its master’s orders. It feels like it doesn’t even matter anymore. It’s like the strings that keep him moving all this time have finally been cut off, leaving his husk for a body to drop lifelessly to the cold, hard ground, available for anyone to use however they please.

Just when Grian thought all hope is lost, a peculiar Watcher keeps on appearing right before him wherever he goes, casually making a one-sided conversation with his porcelain teeth expose through a cheeky grin. Even if he never responds to their obvious bait of making him talk, they still went out of their way to hang out with him everyday without fail, even if it's only a few minutes or seconds before Grian is summoned by the higher ups.

What is this guy plotting? Because he’s not buying it. Not anymore.

He does everything in his power to avoid meeting up with them at all cost, causing them to chase him all around the base the second they spotted him. Of course, he won’t let them do as they please and he hides at the places someone will least expect it, using his magic to avoid any detection even with their eyes. But for some reason, they always found him like it’s nothing. At one point to another, their weird chase has turned into a weird hide-and-seek of some sort and surprisingly, he kind of likes it. He enjoys how the breeze brushes against his cheeks and how fast his heart beats from the thrill.

Grian finally decides to give in to their peculiar Watcher and let them “find” him, sitting on the edge of one of the many floating islands as they laugh and catch their breath. It’s been a while since his face and stomach hurt from having so much fun. He thinks it’s a great thing every once in a while, for him to take a break from everything… but not too much. He doesn’t want to expect something like last time.

He turns to his side to watch how his companion is doing so far, only to exclaim as he sees a grinning face being too close for comfort. As he places a hand to his drumming heart, they burst into a fitful laughter and he doesn’t hesitate to punch them by the shoulder, stopping their laughter and whines about painful their shoulder apparently is. Grian huffs at how childish this creature acts, staring at their bright expression. Their eyes are a beautiful shade of purple, glinting like the twinkling stars all around them and his raven fringe slightly covers them, acting like a black backdrop as it highlights them more.

The Watcher’s teasing comment snaps him out his thoughts before they point out that they didn’t quite catch his name. With a whisper, he tells them he’s Xelqua, like he’s ashamed of it. He is. They shake their head and reiterate that they want to know his real name. He jolts at this, realizing that this individual approaches him like he’s one of them even after knowing about his reputation. Isn’t he disgusted of his existence for being an artificial Watcher?

With a gulp, his jaw hangs as he contemplates whether he wants to reveal his true—past name or not. After a shaky breath, he utters the name that he hasn’t used in a very long time. He pronounces it awkwardly like it’s a foreign word and not his name. He can feel a heavy hand patting his back gently, rising his head to meet this peculiar Watcher’s eyes, only to see a smile so tender that he’s afraid he might cry. No one has ever looked at him that way since… that day.

Before Grian realizes, he feels warmth wrapping around him and sees them through a blurry vision that they’re hugging him. The one thing Watchers never do in their entire existence is to show what is similar to humanity. In fact, they would rather die a million times over than show kindness and empathy towards their fellow Watchers or other creatures. But this Watcher in front of him did the impossible. Suddenly, his chest constricts as the tears won’t stop flowing and he can’t contain his sobs any longer, so he can only grasp at their robe like a lifeline as he cries his heart out.

After his embarrassing crying session, they let go of each other and stare at the black horizon beyond them in comfortable silence. Then, they introduce themself and says that their name is currently Charlie and uses he/him pronouns. Grian wonders why he never heard of their—his name despite being in the same division. Charlie replies that it’s his human name and it’s his most favorite one, muttering “she gave it to me” whilst his smile falters ever so slightly before going back into a cheeky grin. Grian is a bit confused about that whole thing but decides to shrug it off.

Since then, the two of them are hanging out more, telling stories about their lives with humans. As it turns out, Charlie really likes humans despite being a Watcher. “Like” as in not the same as the ones the Watchers use to justify their horrible actions, but “like” as in actually how Grian used to feel towards his friends. Apart from hearing him from time to time about how he missed his previous life with humans, Charlie rarely tells any stories about his personal life. Sure, he has a lot to talk about other planets, adventures, new discoveries, and more, but they were rarely about him. Even if he was, he only acted as a spectator of some sort. Wow, he really is a Watcher (compared to majority of them).

Unfortunately, Grian doesn’t miss the fact that they’ve been hanging out less and less, always being summoned by the higher ups the second they thought they finally have time for themselves. He knows and certainly Charlie knows as well that they’re purposely preventing them from seeing each other. The missions are getting harder and harder to fulfill and worse, becoming crueler. The image of an innocent crying baby’s life being snuffed so soon with his own hands keeps looping inside his mind, lurking and pouncing at every second he lets his guard down.

He can’t do it. Not anymore. He’s meant to keep this a secret from Charlie but after one of the missions, Grian slips up and starts breaking down the second he sees him, beginning to apologize profusely about how he can never make it up to that child.

And that’s when everything changes.

(Inspired from “7 Years” by Lukas Graham and Nanatsu no Taizai scene about Meliodas given a future illusion by Chaos about everyone dying except him due to immortality)

(I made this idea during early March last year, but I got bored from finishing this, so I’ll leave this idea here)

[wooshofficial]

Martyn makes his way back to Baxter after the end of the session, only for there to be ghosts at his house.

Not the good ghosts, either- he saw Jimmy and Lizzie chasing each other around the Secret Keeper earlier, and Mumbo hovering around Grian as he called time. No, these are the wrong ghosts.

Three people sit on Baxter, staring down at him with glances ranging from pity to mania. Martyn holds a staring contest with the three before someone speaks up:

“Oh man, the lone wolf makes it back home, everyone! How do you guys think he’s feeling right now?” The voice that pipes up comes from the ghost on the right. They’re not human—a mouse, maybe a rat?—and they’re wearing a maid dress, which isn’t the weirdest part of this whole situation.

“I don’t know,” says the left ghost, lounging on Baxter’s ear and jingling bells on their jester outfit with the movement, “probably…alone. Angry.”

Martyn scowls at the clown and rat, building his way up to be level with the ghosts. “Who the hell are you?! What are you doing at my house?”

He gets no direct response, because of course he doesn’t. Because of course the Watchers would try to drive him insane with ghosts commenting on his current mental state and him unable to give his two cents. Instead, the right ghost looks at the left, who has continued to spread out on Baxter and make some very annoying jingling sounds.

“Angry is a definite. Guilty, probably. Hating himself, absolutely.”

What? No. This is a death game, people are going to die. Martyn knows this. He doesn’t blame or hate himself, thank you very much! He opens his mouth to debate, but-

“Oh, be nice to him, Rat. He just lost his buddies!” The middle ghost finally speaks up, swinging her legs and staring directly at him. She’s got orange skin and what looks like an anchor strapped across her back, which Martyn is confused at- both the fact that it’s there and the fact that he knows what it is. “Remember how I felt up until what, two months ago? Because of you, might I add.”

“I told you Lux, I didn’t know he would get permakilled!”

“Still-“

“I apologized!”

“Would you please get back to talking about me while you’re sitting on my goddamn house?”Martyn says, still at eye level with the three frankly absurd ghosts arguing in front of him, once again to no response. Anchor ghost—Lux—leans over and slaps the right ghost—Rat—straight across the face, and this is where Martyn would stop paying attention to the nonsense, except Rat just pulled out a monstrous looking scythe; and Jester Ghost is scrambling across Baxter’s head to be at their side with a similar weapon in their hand, jingling the whole way there; and Martyn is now checking his wrist tattoo to make sure his between-session immunity is working so he doesn’t die from this.

“Rat!” Lux ghost shouts, looking over towards Martyn, pity still in their eyes, “you’re scaring him!”

“You slapped me!” They follow Lux’s gaze to double the amount of staring in Martyn’s general direction, and Jester Ghost follows suit, with a manic smile on top. Rat ghost puts the scythe away with a sigh. “We’re getting off track. Lone wolf over there is exactly what it says on the tin. Lux gets that feeling, and I don’t because I am basically god.”

Martyn chooses to ignore that. Lux ghost just rolls their eyes.

“But,” Rat says, and Martyn is now sure that these ghosts are simply choosing to ignore him because he’s suddenly locked in another stare off, “what I know-“

“We all know,” adds the clown-

“-is payback. Sweet, beautiful, over the top payback.”

Lux nods. “And he knows it too, doesn’t he?”

“Everyone on this server knows payback,” Martyn mutters, mostly to himself. “Even Scar knows payback. Damn good at it too.”

The jester makes a tsk sound towards him, and that’s when he knows that the ghosts are definitely pretending he’s not there, besides the whole all-three-of-them-are-staring-directly-at-him thing. “Ah-ah, but there’s a difference between how they do it and we do it. When they do it, it’s very…”

“Vanilla?” Lux ghost supplies.

“Boring?” Rat ghost drawls.

The jester ghost ponders a moment, that manic grin still on their painted face, before answering: “Simple. This server only knows simple payback. Us, on the other hand, we’re grand. Dramatic!”

Sure, like Martyn could be more dramatic than spawning three withers, or blowing himself up to kill someone else, or breaking a truce to go on a murder spree and win the game entirely. Like that’s even possible. Like the Watchers would allow that sort of thing on top of all the curses.

“So?” Martyn chides, about two seconds away from leaving and just moving bases entirely. “What do any of you have to do with this?!”

“So,” Rat says, and they have finally stopped ignoring him, “be like us, Martyn. Don’t just go to war, be the war.”

“Fight like nothing else matters.”

“And revel in the catharsis when it’s done.”

And then all three of them start laughing, filling the air with the sounds of bells and chaos and violence before disappearing in the blink of an eye. In their place, a single stick of TnT, with a note tied to it:

A pipe bomb for your troubles :)

Martyn throws it across the mesa, and promptly goes to sleep, deciding that even if lonely, he’s damn glad that he’s not whoever the hell those ghosts were.

[angeart]

I always want to hear abiut the ghost Hunter Grian & ghost scar au. Hello

Hi hello! Right. So, consider this.

Scar is a ghost. He lives in an abandoned, decrepit house. (It used to be nice once. He built it himself.) The house is famous for being haunted. This attracts two types of people:

One is ghost hunters. They're either amateur ones who fool around, or professional ones that are jaded and know what they came for. In and out, always. They come, they pretend like they care, get their content, pack up and go.

The second one is young people who come in because they've been dared to by their friends. Thrill seekers, cowards pretending to be brave, etc. You know the lot. They don't care about the ghost that's there. They care about spookiness and fear spikes and proving a point.

Now, Scar is as jumpy as we know him to be. Half the time he scares people, it's because he got scared first. But sometimes, he does it on purpose. Sometimes he likes to scare others. For a laugh. Just to cause mischief. To amuse himself.

But underneath it all? He's watching his house crumble around him, people who know nothing about him keep telling him (or more like, telling each other; very little of the conversation is usually aimed at Scar) that he's scary, that he's evil.

Scar can't do anything about any of it. He can just be.

It's the only thing he has left.

And he's so, so lonely.

Let's throw Grian into the mix. In a way, he does fall into one of the categories - he is a ghost hunter. But it's not as much for content, as it it for the sake of his own curiosity.

So when he's in the house and he tries to talk to Scar? It... feels different. Something about it is shifted. Maybe it's the questions he asks. The way he looks around. The way he speaks into the silence of the house, without knowing if there's anyone to listen.

Scar is there, and he listens.

And he tries to talk to him. It's hard. It's not easy to communicate when you're a ghost, starved and lonely and sad. But he tries. For once, he makes a proper effort.

Grian picks up on it, and maybe they have a halting, broken conversation through various tools. Staticky radios and flickering flashlights and taps on the wooden walls.

Once Scar finds out that Grian's trying to really listen and understand, instead of jumping to conclusions and putting words into Scar's mouth that he never intended to say, Scar tries to say so, so much. Words tumble out, but words are no longer his language, and they refuse to come across the way he shapes them.

He grows scared, then.

Because here's this one person who is trying to understand him, but just like everyone else, he's bound to leave, too. Right? So Scar panics, and he uses his powers to lock the house. He traps Grian inside, if only until the dawn.

At first, Grian freaks out.

This makes Scar panic too, and he strings up apologies and tries to somehow show him that he's not going to hurt him (it's hard. it doesn't work.) - but he's too desperate for company, for understanding, for someone to be there. For someone to act like maybe deep underneath all of this, Scar is still a person.

And maybe Grian catches on, after a while. And maybe they try communicating again.

And maybe it goes better this time.

And Grian comes to understand that this ghost is just lonely and sad.

He makes a deal. He promises to come back to visit again. And Scar... lets him go. He lets him go and he hopes.

It's all he can do.

(Here are supplemental thoughts of how the rest of it could go:)

(Grian does come back. Each time, the communication is easier. Scar tells him how upset he is with the way people come in and treat him. And the way his house is falling apart at the seams. And how everyone acts like he's this evil, demonic thing. How they scare him sometimes. How he doesn't want to deal with it anymore.)

(He doesn't beg Grian to stay again. But he wants to.)

(Now consider: what if Grian ends up buying the house. What if he ends up renovating it with Mumbo. What if they move in. What if they bring in potted plants that Scar offhandedly mentions liking. What if they bring in a stray cat (Jellie). What if down the line, when they're all settled and know each other fairly well, they just start messing with each other like the menaces they are. For entertainment. Always making sure to know where the boundaries are and what lines to not cross. Always making sure to check up on each other if something goes too far or wrong.)

[happy-hermit]

Stuck on a long car ride and took it as an opportunity to write post-last life scar angst <3 (dedicated to @stiffyck who expressed a need for scar centered angst and I wholeheartedly agree. hope you don’t mind the tag aldkdj)

Anyway hope y’all like it!! :D

Part Two

———

They appear all together when the game ends. They pop in at spawn, a cacophony of noise and apologies and panic, phantom aches from their final deaths shooting through their bodies. Scar can still feel the arrow that had pierced his chest. Wonders if anyone had even noticed, when he died.

He sits up, groaning, eyes automatically falling to his chest, half expecting to see blood. There’s none, of course, and somehow that seems equally as disturbing as the alternative. He’s wearing his Swaggon outfit. It feels a little too cheerful. It feels like it doesn’t belong to him. He’s grown used to the weight of a heavy cloak around his shoulders; he’s off balance without it.

The others are all in front of him, some standing and some still on the ground. None of them look like they know what they’re supposed to be doing, all of them eyeing each other as they attempt to gather their wits. It’s the second time this has happened, for most of them. It doesn’t really make it easier.

Scar pushes himself to his feet after a few seconds of assessing if his legs are able to carry him, and though he stumbles, he doesn’t fall. Good thing, because he’s not sure anyone would catch him if he did.

He’d spawned in on the edge of the group, and he scans the area in front of him to make sure that everyone who was supposed to be on hermitcraft is there — that no one had been left behind. He relaxes a little when he realizes everyone is accounted for. Bdubs and Tango are closest to him, standing a few yards away having some sort of playful argument, Etho standing nearby and watching. He catches Scar’s eye and shrugs a little, like what-can-you-do?

Scar cracks a little smile, and he wants to go over there. He wants to talk to someone. He wants to not be alone.

His feet don’t move. His heart crawls up his throat and curls into a tight ball. His voice wouldn’t work, if he tried to use it.

Farther away, Grian leaps at a disoriented Mumbo and hugs him. He looks like he’s mouthing apologies. Scar knows what Grian looks like when he’s apologizing. He knows what Grian looks like with bloody knuckles and sandy hair. He knows what Grian looks like when he has to kill a friend.

Impulse claps Mumbo on the back, smiling. A few hermits gather around Pearl, checking on her after her first time in the games.

Scar could go over there. He knows they wouldn’t kick him out, knows they would talk to him.

He can’t make himself move. He has grown too used to being alone. He doesn’t know what to do, now that he doesn’t have to be.

(Part of him blames them. None of them had offered companionship before, why should he offer it now?)

(There’s a louder part that blames himself. Maybe if he’d been different. If he’d tried harder. Maybe he had deserved to be lonely. Better alone than a burden.)

Fireworks go off in the distance as the other hermits come to greet them. There will probably be some type of celebration, to catch up and welcome them home. It’ll probably be fun.

Scar is at the edge of the crowd, and he slips away.

———

There are no lights on in the Swaggon when he gets there. Dust particles float lazily in the rays from the setting sun, and his hands are cold. His chest hurts. He’s not sure anymore if it’s residual respawn pain. He just wants someone to touch him, or hug him. He can’t ask.

The ladder creaks as he climbs it, and it’s loud in the suffocating silence. Normally, Scar would be filling it. He’s afraid to try to speak. Afraid of what will happen if he can’t.

His room is exactly how he’d left it. Messy bedsheets, half-pooled on the floor. Partially drawn blueprints on his desk. Top hat sitting on a shelf.

Jellie on the bed. She’s stretching, back arching and already purring. She makes her way to the end of the bed nearest to him, and she meows. Where have you been? I’ve been waiting.

Scar stumbles forward and falls to his knees next to the bed, reaching out. He’s not breathing. He can’t. Jellie gingerly sniffs his hand for a few seconds, and then she rubs against it, meowing again, purring louder.

Scar doesn’t realize he’s crying until a tear drips onto his hand, and then he laughs a little, quiet and sad. Jellie meows again, almost accusing.

“Sorry,” Scar says, and his voice cracks, barely above a whisper. He’s afraid he’ll break more than silence if he talks any louder. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to leave.”

He pets her for a while, long enough that the sun goes down and the stars come out. Long enough that his tears dry on his face and his eyelids droop. It’s quiet. He can hear an owl hooting outside, distantly. He doesn’t really feel like he’s come home at all.

Eventually, he picks up his cat and gets into bed, letting her curl up top of him. Her purring eases the phantom pains in his chest, and he sighs shakily, tension bleeding out of his muscles. His hands are still cold. He falls asleep anyway.

[siunytoons]

guys guys guy

(reblogs r appreciated btw)

What if the life series went backwards

Enter secret life:

tame, people just milling about, doing tasks and stuff, making friends (except scar). The watcher, the secret keeper is the surrounding aspect. The closest the watchers have EVER been to the players.

People start dying, starting with a girl with no allies and a pumpkin themed house. Falling into the endless void. She can't share her secrets there.

Alliances stay steady. People begin killing each other, until only 4 remain. Two out of three of a band with no songs, one who lost everyone, and one who had nobody until the end.

Scott, inherently loyal, thinks "gem deserves this win more than I do" and sacrifices himself.

The two defeat the final band member, a note of melancholy in the air as they stare each other down. How could they betray each other?

Pearl, having lost her alliance, her mounders

Scar, who never had anyone

Both finding kinship in their loneliness

Pearl falls, scar wins

The villainy he was forced to commit means nothing now. What's the point of being victor with nobody else to celebrate

The clock strikes twelve, and suddenly

Tick tock

Everyone wakes up with a clock in their heart and only enough hours to get them through a day.

Scar remembers. Of course he does. How could he forget the secret he kept? How could he forget that it got him nothing?

He joins a family, their namesake becoming the very thing that ticks, every second inching towards their doom. The clockers.

Scott, who sacrificed himself, has a vague feeling in his heart. A feeling that maybe something came before this, before this endless tick tock.

Martyn comes along, they band together. Become the 'mean gills'. Martyn, who tried to kill him. But Scott is ever forgiving, isn't he. Always kind. Perhaps that's why the watchers do not like him. How could he have sacrificed himself previously? It makes no sense, this was a death game! He didn't follor the rules of red.

Strange how martyn and Scott teamed up, the one who was all bark and bite in a previous life, and the one who's final act was one of loyalty.

TNT falls from the sky, raining down like almighty retribution. Alliances are strong, and yet so subject to change.

Kaboom

And then there were three.

Impulse, the band member who perished before he could help his friends.

Scott, the fourth placer, who sacrificed it all for another

Martyn, a man plagued by visions of watchers. Whispering in his ears. Telling him secrets.

Scott calls for sentimentality

Martyn has another idea

And then

Tick tock

And then there was one

The tug of a string, hearts tied together.

Soulmates

People begin searching immediately. Searching for the one they've been bound to by the threads of the universe.

They all find each other.

"but why didn't pearl stop taking damage?"

Scott wondered. Why should he be with someone so careless? He would be vulnerable! And she had no regard for his own safety when she paraded around the server. She didn't even look for him!

Scott ran off with martyns soulmate. Perhaps there was some lingering resentment towards the man. Lingering from what? Scott didn't know.

Pearl was lonely. Pearl was so, so lonely. Ostracized by her soulmate, and the rest of the server, she became the 'scarlet pearl'. A witch who lived in a tall tower, torturing her soulmate who had cut ties with her all but literally (the string of fate still wrapped around them, their health symmetrical).

Pearl finds some solace in Scar, who's soulmate, a strange bird man named grian (who always introduced the games. Why was he always doing that?) ,was cheating on him with another. Two lonely people.

One with an alliance that fell apart.

And one with nothing at all

Strange how the roles had reversed since a previous season.

Scar still remembered.

The ranchers were out first, it seemed that after Lizzie died that first season, a canary named Jim took the brunt of death's grasp. He was out twice in a row first! In double life too. That's got to mean something, right?

Chaos followed that. People dying left and right, pairs of them.

And then there were four.

Cleo, a zombie who's soulmate wasn't her favourite man.

Scott, a man who felt uncared for by his soulmate, and cast her out, condemning her to loneliness

Martyn, a man who remembered his previous life, who messed things up with his soulmate after being the cause of her first death

Pearl, a lonely, slightly crazy woman who's only friends were wolves. They were her soulmates, she said.

Pearl was ruthless, killing martyn and Cleo with her army.

Scott was heartbroken. His soulmate, his true soulmate, Cleo, had died to the hands of his literal one.

Heartbroken, disguising his squalor with a self sacrifice, lit the TNT below him

2nd place again. In double life. How funny was that.

Pearl only saw the tnt until it was too late.

"tilly death do us part" and ode to Pearl's first wolf

Kaboom

Pearl awoke. She remembered everything. She remembered scott, how he'd sacrificed a win. For her. Maybe, she thought, maybe he still cared for her back in a previous life.

Maybe he could care for her in this one

They teamed up. Scott felt a connection to pearl, a melancholy one. It was as if she was literally tied to him by a string. Weird.

Scar followed another path of loneliness. Perhaps his family back in the land of ticking time was a fluke. Perhaps his was a face only a mother could love.

With 6 lives under his belt, and nobody to call a friend.

Martyn joined the southlanders, their name quite literal, having built their base in the south corner of the map. He was still plagued by the watchers voices, telling him what to do. They spoke in riddles. They spoke of Scott, a previous ally, of grian, his latest one.

Last Life was the bloodiest of them all. With so many lives to lose, people began treating them as a resource. Trading them around, destroying them.

A wither here, steady alliances crumbling to the ground. Blood, betrayal. Even greens and yellows weren't safe, having been inflicted with the curse of the Boogeyman.

And then there were 4. There always seemed to be. Limited Life was an exception. It always seemed to be.

Perhaps Scott knew in his heart that this had happened before. Perhaps he was tired of sacrificing himself for others. His closest ally was dead, and he had nothing to lose and everything to gain.

And he finally won.

Only to be taken out by an otherworldly force

The same one that plagued martyn. The one that told him to kill, that told him to destroy. The one that spoke of Scott with venom, as if he had wronged them.

And then came third life.

Scar was prepared for another lonely season. Of course he was. It would be no different to anything else. He was cursed to remember all the games.

And then grian, the one who had stolen his first life in Last Life. His soulmate in double life. His (lame) gang member neighbor in limited. Grian, who ran the games, who always treated scar strangely.

He killed him on accident.

Swearing his loyalty, grian promised to be in scar's service until he lost his first life.

They went to the desert, and monopoly mountain was born.

Scott teamed up with the resident canary. Perhaps it was pity, perhaps it was love. He wasn't sure. But maybe Jim wouldn't be out so early.

Pearl wasn't there.

Martyn swore his undying loyalty to a king.

Scar died a second time. Grian did not.

And so grian served the first red life on the server

Scar and Grian quickly became the villains. A lifestyle scar was woefully familiar with. It reminded scar of his time during the first season. The one where he was dragged along by a statue into becoming the villain, only to win.

Death after death after death. Red winter. The desert blew up. grian blew up. The flower husbands died.

Soon enough, it was only Scar, Grian, and Bdubs left.

Bdubs had killed someone for a clock. Perhaps it was for old times sake. Something about bdubs holding a clock reminded him of the bdubs he once shared a brothership with. Perhaps that's why he killed grian, knowing he wouldn't be fast enough to grab the 'no kill slip'.

He murdered bdubs soon after. Brothers by everything but blood. Blood that now stained the sword he held.

Grian was livid. All that time serving scar, and for what? To get murdered by him over a piece of paper?

"you may slay me and take the enchanter"

But he couldn't. He couldn't just do that.

The two walked to the desert.

A ring of cactus.

Scar was tired. He had won once before

He pulled his punches, bumped into the cacti on purpose.

And in the end, covered in poppies and lilacs. Just like the beginning.

Grian wept.

Scar smiled. He died smiling. He died knowing that grian would win.

The desert winds whipped at grian's face as he buried scar. The poppies and lilacs at his grave, a testament to his partner.

The desert winds that accompanied him on his fall down monopoly mountain.

And thus the cycle begins.

[ilexdiapason]

plz i beg of thee, more mushtyn & property police 🥺👉

(the original mushtyn post)

It doesn't come to a head until Limited Life begins.

Because there was always going to be another game, wasn't there - fate is one of those funny things that you can never truly shake, something Jimmy knows better than anyone. There’s a reason he’s got fledgling canary wings still growing on his back, wings that he still has to clip under his elytra for them to be of any use, wings that move a little too stiffly as Martyn’s membranes creep across his shoulder blades and up towards his pinions with every death-respawn. Fate cannot be stopped, no matter how hard you push, no matter which way you shake it.

The hermits cross over; the emperors follow. There’s Christmas celebrations, but it altogether feels like a bit of a feeble attempt at reciprocity. And then the portal starts to close, and all Jimmy can do is squeeze himself through the one-block gap that’s all that’s left before he’s trapped in a world where he doesn’t belong, before he can truly go home.

There was always going to be another game, and so when Jimmy - when Martyn - when Jimmy-and-Martyn finds himself standing in a circle of familiar faces, informed abruptly that he now has twenty-four hours to live, he’s honestly not surprised.

The Canary Curse is not so much something that Jimmy finds himself crying over as it is an inevitability that he’s resigned to by now. If there is a game, if there are lives to be lost permanently, Jimmy will lose them, and he’ll lose the final one before anybody else. He’s a harbinger, albeit a reluctant one; the only way he’s found to escape that fate is to be the admin in charge of the lives himself, an experiment for which poor Eloise suffered instead.

Martyn, though, has no such ideas about resignation. He is Jimmy’s Listener, now; he is Jimmy, in a way, after so much painstaking entwinement, after weeks and months of protection, of listening out for the threats that Jimmy can’t catch on his own, isn’t sharp enough to notice without Martyn’s supernatural expertise.

Martyn, fresh off the starting plate, when everybody else has run off to punch trees and collect resources, declares that Jimmy’s going to win. Martyn will make sure that Jimmy wins.

Jimmy laughs, nervous, the electric signals of Martyn’s determination sparking down his spine. He can’t just say that, right? Can’t just up and decide to not just evade the Canary Curse, but totally upend it. Can’t just elect to outrun fate like it’s no skin off their back.

Martyn, something fierce and set in Jimmy’s shoulders, doesn’t care what fate has to say.

They see Joel on the shore, muttering some insult about using non-bio, and sail right by. They see Scott, settling in the ocean, and they mull it over. He tries to hand Jimmy a pufferfish, falling back on old emotions; Jimmy takes the free weapon, turns down the offer to team.

Jimmy-and-Martyn strikes out on his own.

(He’ll hear, in the hours that follow, how the teams hashed out. There’s Team TIES in the west, and the Clockers established on Entertainment Mountain, right in the thick of spawn. Scott has built a little Coral Isle, but it’s a lonely one without that alliance he’d been angling for. Grian, Pearl and BigB have become the Nosy Neighbours, pledging to always Watch the goings-on of other teams; Martyn turns up his metaphorical nose at that one, asserts that there’s much more satisfaction to be found in Listening instead. Joel is alone. Joel is usually alone, though - it’d taken him a literal soulbond to not be alone last season.)

Two boogeymen roll through without incident. Grian, ever one to make sure their games are an appropriate spectacle, calls for a third.

Something glitches. Something sticks.

Martyn, threaded into Jimmy’s skin, begins to burn.

It’s not hard, after that, to secure their victory. The heat of the curse doesn’t fade, no matter how many kills they get, and no matter how many times Grian tries to reroll it or reset it. Anybody coming close to his hideaway in one of the deeper caverns of the world (central, because getting too close to the border makes Jimmy-and-Martyn start to vibrate just the wrong side of comfortable) is quickly shown back to spawn the quickest way he knows how, with a rejuvenating sixty minutes hewn back into his timer every time. In time, the people learn to leave Jimmy-and-Martyn alone.

Their communicator buzzes, eventually, to tell them that Skizzleman was slain by Etho, and that he is the first one out of the game.

Jimmy’s blood might have run cold, if he could feel his nerve endings any more. If the curse wasn’t quite so constant of a simmer.

And more people die, and more, and more, and more, and Jimmy is not dying, and Jimmy is not dead, and phantom wings would strain against his back if they weren’t bound from flying in this life, and Jimmy is still not dead, and Martyn listens to the world as it goes quieter and quieter and quieter until they’re close to being the only people left.

When Jimmy-and-Martyn resurfaces, there are two people left. He can hear Scott and Impulse laying out the parameters for their final fight, an honourable thing.

He hefts a sword and a lava bucket, and he seeks them out through sound alone.

The screams are delicious. The time is delicious.

(Scott wondered, over his 24 hours, what brought Jimmy to this point; why he’d given up on making the game the game. He’d decided in the end that it must have been the grief of losing Martyn that drove him to depression, to isolation and self-destruction. Then again, Scott never actually tried approaching Jimmy in his exile. If he had, he might have believed the rumours that it took off twice your time to meet his blade.)

(Impulse wondered, in the last few seconds before he was slashed to gory pieces, what on earth had happened to Jimmy’s skin; why it seemed jaundiced and hollow, like a thin film of something else stretched over muscle and bone. He wondered about the woodenness of Jimmy’s step, and the little yellow particles that coated Jimmy’s sword. But, most importantly, he wondered why it looked like such an unfamiliar fighting style for the Jimmy that he’d known not so many games ago, and so much more like Martyn’s hack-and-slashing.)

The Watchers are not pleased. Martyn does not care. His champion - his host - has beat them at their own damn game, has lain silent in the coalmine and awaited his redemption, and it has worked.

And Jimmy?

Well, he doesn’t think much of anything any more. He just Listens to Martyn.

[mochiwrites]

Do you have anything officially established in the hot n cute au? :D

oh beloved anon, rather than telling you what I have established... allow me to show you 👀

A lone figure squats down on a rooftop, the feathers of his wings fluttering as his eyes scan the streets below him. His brows are creased low and close together in concentration, breath all but silent as he stares. As he watches.

The streets are empty this late at night, quiet. There isn't much happening, as most of the city is fast asleep in their homes, resting or unwinding from a long day.

He does not have that luxury, though it isn't something he minds very much. This is all voluntary, it isn't an obligation, not quite. He's doing this willingly, because his heart beats with a need to help, to extend a hand to those in need and offer them a tug out of the dark.

But tonight he has his eyes on a certain someone, someone he's been chasing for a few nights now. They're no one special or important, at least not in a world of super villains or criminals. No, they're quite unimportant to most. Yet they've caught his eye, and that is a very stupid move. For them that is.

His ear twitches, hearing a noise down below.

"Gotcha."

A wild grin stretches out across his lips, heart picking up in speed as he prepares himself. Standing up from his squatting position, he turns his back to the street below, staring at the star lit sky that wraps around him. The moon shines brilliantly as the wind breezes through his hair. He holds his arms out on either side of him, and with casual movements, he leans back.

Gravity takes him, pulling him down and over the side of the building. The feeling is exhilarating, the wind rushing in his ears, in his feathers. His heart pumps in his ribcage, excitement rushing through him. Behind the mask sitting on his face, he shuts his eyes and lets himself fall.

His name is Grian. And he is a hero.

Seconds before he can hit the ground he beats his wings in one, two, big flaps, catching the wind on his feathers. Swooping up to right himself, he spots his target of the night and lands elegantly on the ground. His heeled boots land silently on the ground, and Grian sets a hand on his hip.

He tilts his head to the side, watching the other for just a moment. His target tonight is a serial burglar, he's been all over the news as of late, and Grian thought he'd be the perfect guy to go after to start off.

And even better, he's caught the guy right in the act.

The man is fiddling with the lock on someone's house, muttering curses as he wiggles with something in the door knob. "Dammit, where's that lock pick?"

There's a tap on his shoulder, and he pauses to look to the side. "Here you go." The man blinks as he stares at the lockpick he had been looking for.

"Oh... thanks," he says, taking it. He takes the lock pick and fits it into the lock before his brain catches up with him, and his head whips to the side. "H-Hey, hang on a moment! Who the hell?!"

Grian offers him a smirk and a wave, "Hey there! Lovely night, innit?"

The man yelps in fear, taking a few quick steps back before turning and running off. He leaves his bags behind as he tries to make a break for it, and Grian sighs. "Why is running away everyone's first instinct?"

Quick to follow after him, Grian flaps his wings and flies right after him. It doesn't take the avian very long to catch up, considering how fast of a flier he is. With ease, he's flying right alongside the criminal, "You should know that you can't outrun me, pal! This isn't going to be a very fun game of chase for you."

"W-What the hell?!" the man shrieks, and Grian lifts a brow at him.

"What? Never seen an avian before? C'mon mate, we're living in the twentieth century! Get with the program," Grian huffs, shaking his head. Seeing as the man is frozen in either shock or fear, Grian spreads his wings out wide, making himself appear larger. Just for extra intimidation. "Now, we can do this the hard way, or the easy way. Which one would you pre--"

"HOTGUY!"

There's a voice shouting from above, the sound of an arrow whizzing past his ear, and before Grian can even finish his sentence there's something heavy falling over him, making him squawk loudly in surprise. The sudden weight sends him down to his knees, which is rather painful considering the concrete that lies beneath them.

From behind him, he hears the sounds of feet hitting the ground, and a smooth, velvet like voice follows, "Good evening, criminal! Wow, you guys sure are getting bolder, doing your criminal stuff out in the open street!"

Two black booted feet enter his vision, and Grian isn't sure if his heart drops or if it lodges itself in his throat. It certainly skips a beat, that much is for sure. "Not to worry, dear citizen! The criminal has been apprehended."

He'd know that voice anywhere. He's spent months hearing that voice in interviews, in compilation videos on the internet. It's a voice he's always wanted to hear in person, except he had never considered it possible, never considered it a reality.

But now he's hearing that voice in person.

Entering his vision is none other than the city's very own hero, Hotguy. His brown hair is pulled back in a small pony tail, a black mask outlined in orange and blue sitting on his face. He holds his bow in one hand, an arrow in the other. He wears a tight fitting black top, sleeves short. There's an insignia on his chest, the right side orange and the left blue. The edges of the insignia curl up toward his chest, almost mimicking that of an arrowhead.

On his hands are black fingerless gloves, though his left arm has an arm guard on it.

Seeing him in person rather than on a television screen is... whoa it's doing something to Grian's heart. Focus!

Hotguy walks over to the burglar, who for one looks nervous out of his wits, clapping the man on the back. "You're safe now, sir! You should head home before anyone else tries to sneak up on ya. Good ol' Hotguy won't always be around to swoop in and save the day!" He winks.

The man blinks at the hero, "R-Right..."

Grian wants to scream. Or let the ground swallow him whole. Either option works. Maybe even both. How is Hotguy reading the situation so wrong? The guy's literally dressed head in toe in black! He's even got a ski mask on! How is he missing this?!

The hero looks between Grian and the burglar he had been trying to apprehend, blinking. He crouches down in front of Grian specifically, setting a hand on his chin, "I don't think I've ever seen you around before! A new up and coming villain, perhaps?"

Despite his own admiration for the hero in front of him, all Grian can feel is annoyance. "Try up and coming hero, actually!" he snaps. He was so close to catching him too! All that work… ruined by a single net. “You’ve caught the wrong guy!”

“Hero? Wait wrong guy?!” Hotguy questions, looking between Grian and the burglar behind him that’s now not so subtly trying to make a run for it.

He pauses as both heroes’ eyes land on him, and he lets out a noise of fear before breaking out in a hasty run.

“Annnnnd now he’s getting away. Great,” Grian sighs in frustration before struggling to get the net off of himself. There's a small pout on his face as he mumbles, “There goes days of work flushed down the drain.”

“Oh,” the taller hero says, staring at the spot where Grian’s burglar was once standing. “Oh! Oh gosh, I’m so sorry about that!” He looks back over to Grian, wincing at his frown. "H-Here, lemme help you out!" He sets his bow back into the holster on his back as he drops his arrow back in his quiver. He then hurries to help Grian out of the net.

“It’s fine,” Grian grumbles as the net comes off. He stands to his full height, looking at Hotguy with a frown as he flexes his wings. He grabs the net and shoves it into Hotguy’s arms with a huff. “With any luck I’ll just catch him trying to break into someone’s house again.”

Honestly there's nothing fine about any of this. Here Grian was, trying to do a good thing, a good deed, only to be humiliated. By someone he looks up to, no less! Caught in his net. Because Hotguy thought he was the criminal here. He's embarrassed and frustrated because he put a lot of time into cornering that burglar, and now he's back to square one. All because of some careless mistake made by someone else.

By Hotguy of all people.

Thank goodness for his mask, because his face feels like it's on fire. Every part of Grian is screaming at him to make some sort of quick escape, and that's exactly what he's planning on doing. He really doesn't want to stick around for a conversation, not after that.

"Well, see you around!" Grian calls out before spreading his wings. He inhales softly before shooting up into the air.

"W-Wait!" He hears Hotguy calling out to him, but Grian doesn't stop to stick around.

He'd very much like to go home and shove his face in a pillow.

What was the saying, never meet your heroes? Well, Grian can understand why.

[hmshermitcraft]

killer rabbit hybrid!reader x polyhernits:

the reader is new to Hermitcraft and more than excited to be in a world with so many other hybrids. one that was so safe and understanding and full of so much creativity.

on everyone’s first day, they’re bouncing around, speaking to absolutely everyone! they get their first few tools with Zed, Tango and Beef, the go caving with Grian, Impulse, Xisuma and Pearl, villager pillaging with Gem, Doc and Xb, go to the nether with Wels, Jevin, Cleo and Joe and a is always in conversation with someone.

when they’re deciding on where to put their starter base though, they get stuck. they knew the hermits were in a relationship and they knew they all had their little groups but now they felt quite outcast. they sat at spawn for a few days, drawing up and scraping every base idea they came up with. more and more hermits were making their bases, setting up their groups for the season and now they’re really feeling the whole “third-wheel to a massive polycule” thing.

then, impulse took a seat beside them, leaning over slightly to try and see their blue prints to a base.

“so… what ya doing?”

reader is obviously startled and instinctively hissed, showing off their bright red eyes and sharpened buck teeth.

“ah! sorry, sorry!” impulse put his hands up defensively, tail straightening.

reader relaxes and apologises, then explains that they don’t know where to set up and how they don’t want to encroach on the couples.

“uh… you’re kinda gonna be surrounded by couples wherever you go, ya know?” impulse teased, “why don’t i go around with you and we can see if anyone wants another neighbour?”

the reader agrees and the two of them go around and it turns out… everyone is happy to have a new neighbours. the issue now was that there were too many choices, and some hermits had been extremely excited about the prospect of neighbouring with the Fresh Meat.

that night the reader, overwhelmed and lonely, begins to burrow into the dirt side of a mountain at spawn, burrowing deeper and creating tunnels. then they realised… they could create a whole connecting system pf burrows to all the hermits’ bases!

they start just poking their head out at random intervals. on a few occasions it causes issues, like accidentally knocking into someone as they suddenly appear from the ground or accidentally interrupting moments between couples but overall it’s incredibly useful, so much so that other hermits begin using them as well.

as the other hermits use their burrows, they learn more and more about the reader. as the season goes on, they become more sure of themself and finds a rhythm with the other hermits.

no one really realises when it happens but they just fit in. they join people on mundane tasks like collecting sand, or help them to create tunnels, or start joining a few hermits on dates and one day the hermits just start kissing them (not that they didn’t ask the reader, the reader fully agreed but no one ever put a label on it.)

eventually it is discussed but everything just continues as is. the reader fits, the reader is meant to be there.

____

uhh i basically just wrote fanfiction here … i am sorry.

The hermits didn't really see themselves using the tunnels until, suddenly, they were. Reader's network had become a hub of activity! People would decorate the tunnel near their base (and even build a burrow to match for Reader), shops have popped up in bigger caverns and it's not uncommon to bump into a fellow hermit whilst going through.

The nether might be faster for those far-away bases, but they just lack something the tunnels have. And it isn't just the nice, cool temperature versus the heat of the nether. Plus, using the tunnels makes Reader happy. It shows that they have a place here, they've contributed and made their mark. The hermits like seeing them happy.

Of course, Reader's true master plan is to use the tunnels for a huge game of hide and seek so they can hunt down their partners! All in good fun, but they should be wary of red eyes in the darkness...

[w0yxe]

I think it’s really funny how the 3 players with the most known curses are a team in this series

Of course I’m talking about the Bad Boys

I wrote this after session 6 so before session 7

Jimmy’s the most popular with the Canary’s Curse and we can already see this play out from how session 6 went. No matter how good he seems to be having it, something will always come up that makes him die first.

Grians is Icarus and him always being the reason his love ones die. This can be seen very obviously in 3rd Life with Scar but also Last Life with Mumbo or even Jimmy.

Joels got the Lone Wolf Curse with him being destined to be alone no matter the series. In 3rd Life he had no true alliance other than his wolves, switching from Red Army to Desert People and in Last Life though he may have had Scar, the magic duo barely interacted and he died due to not having allies. Even in Double Life where the premise is that everyone gets a soulmate, someone to be permanently bound to forever, he gets a guy who doesn’t love him at all.

There were two ways a mixture of all these curses could’ve went. Either nothing changes and everything is inherently worse for the trio or it gets broken, and because them already being an alliance from the start breaks Joels curse you’d assume that to be the case.

However after session it seems to be that the combination of curses only makes them stronger.

I’ll start off with Joels because of the aforementioned “Bad Boys being an alliance from the beginning means he isn’t a lone wolf anymore”.

If you watch all the Bad Boys perspectives you can see that the other two boys don’t care about the alliance all that much. They’ve made partnerships with other people disregarding the team as a whole and generally don’t care about each other. Except for Joel.

This is a recurring pattern seem from Double Life that because he’s used to not having a partner, when he does he will cherish them. Even if they don’t reciprocate the feelings back.

Either way 2/3 of the Bad Boys themselves not believing in the team can only go wrong for them which leads me to believe that by endgame they will go against each other, especially judging how many times Grian has killed Jimmy and Jimmy not being okay with it. Even before an outright kill, when Grian tried killing Joel on SkyNet by pushing him off, Jimmy got upset at Grian while Joel let it pass.

Jimmys Canary Curse was doing alright at the start but came to bite him in the back because of Grians Icarus cursd considering how Grian was the one who killed him the most in session 6. With the ways things are going so far Jimmy will be first out purely because of Grian and that reinforces both of their curses.

[markbannersstuff]

Bites

Summary:

Grian is worried about Joel, who has been returning to base injured. he's really not sure if it was a good idea to meddle in his teammate's business after he found out.

Notes:

this was inspired by THIS post, because it's canon.

English is not my frst language, i'm sorry if some parts don't make sense or there are spelling mistakes

Words: 989

AO3 LINK

Grian likes to believe that he is good at analyzing the behaviors and habits of his allies, It is easy to predict Jimmy almost at the 100%, they have been friends for years and can call him his younger brother without problems.

Joel on the other hand is almost unpredictable.

He is not proud to admit that he tried to spy on Joel as a Watcher, only to realize that his ally did not appear on his radar, that scared him at first, he threw a few hints here and there for a few days, hints that earned him disapproving looks from Tim, but Joel did not seem to get them, he really did not seem to notice how anxious he began to put Grian.

Or maybe he did and preferred not to say anything about it, Joel is that kind of person, notary something and would not say anything if it does not favor him at all, Grian knows that Joel knows what he will ask questions with answers that he can not give, so neither of them addresses the subject, for now at least.

Grian really wants to talk about it, especially now that Joel has started to return to the roof of the mansion injured after going to who knows where, well, I wouldn't exactly say hurt, but it seems that he fought with two lonely zombies and lost because of the amount of bites he has managed to see, look, you can't blame him for looking, Privacy is basically non-existent at the base, they sleep together in a big nest for God's sake.

It is almost impossible not to look when they get dressed in the morning, more impossible not to look at the various bites on Joel's body, actually, they seem to increase with the passing of the days and it is becoming worrying, they started on the fingers, hands and arms, at first he thought he was hurting himself, but they quickly began to appear along his torso and back, and they don't really look like... Those kinds of bites, they were clearly made to damage and draw blood.

Even when they healed thanks to respawn, Joel always returned to the same state in a matter of a few days, he is becoming worrisome and he is not sure he wants to ask, it is also not that he can use his Watcher powers with him, it is really obvious that someone is doing this to him, the first person he thought of could be was Cleo because... You know, being a zombie.

But neither of them is really close enough for Joel to let her do such a thing, or for Cleo to even think about doing something like that, his second choice had been Impulse, they weren't particularly close, but there was a kind of tactical trust between them, but the man has told him that heshasn't been seeing Joel, Sure, he might be lying, but he didn't really find any sign that he was.

He spent days trying to find the right way to once and for all ask Joel when finally found the culprit.

He couldn't help but feel a little surprised, not by the person but by how the person looks, Etho exhibited in a way that looked proud the bites on his arms while cutting wood, actually, he is also a little surprised that it is Etho, both men seemed to hate each other even after the events happened in Double Life so you can't blame him.

Both were the only ones in the small Dark Forest biome while maintaining eye contact, Grian wasn't sure if Etho was uncomfortable or if he was just waiting for him to speak because of his neutral face, so he opened the mouth to speak "So..." This is definitely awkward "So?" And Etho doesn't really help much "You and Joel?" You can't blame him, okay? He is still a little surprised with this new discovery.

The man in front of him instead of answering stares at him for a few seconds, then puts on the jacket previously tied at his waist and proceeds to leave "You can't just leave!" He simply walked away, leaving Grian behind with more questions than answers, when did this start? The first time he saw Joel he already had a lot of marks on his hands and arms.

Maybe at the beginning of the game? Weeks later? Why even do something like that?

"Because I'm a hybrid wolf Grian" Joel replies "Wolves show affection in different ways, from nibbling to howling" That makes sense, or something, and still- "Those aren't just nibbles Joel! They are bites, which, I am very sure drew blood!" He's not screaming, okay? He just raise his voice a little, you can't blame him for even being a little worried.

"It's because they're bitten by possessiveness Grian, look, I won't lie and say I don't like Bdubs, he's a great man and an amazing builder and I like to think we're at least kind of like friends," he says, grimacing with his face "But seeing him being so sticky with Etho even being on opposite teams has started to affect my instincts."

"...Instincts?" Grian asks, this... This isn't what he believes it is, right? "Etho and I stopped being teammates and became more like... mates, since Double Life, Grian"

Oh

OH

"Oh..." "Yeah, Oh." Both are silent again, staring into each other's eyes, he tells himself that this became a little uncomfortable, so he opens his mouth to say something, anything, but he cannot pronounce anything so he closes it again, maybe he should not have seen asked, maybe he should have pretended he did not see anything when he ran into Etho, Grian is regretting having delved into the whole scare of the bites.

One thing Grian learned that day was that sometimes it's better not to see or know everything.