I think what's driving me insane about this specific arc for qcharlie is watching him slowly become more and more horrified at what's going on with the infection. he keeps brushing it off, and saying he's just going to let it run its course, and that if he has to change to be happy and to keep the people he loves safe, he'll be whatever he HAS to be.
but over the course of this stream, he's become increasingly aware and afraid of what's happening to him. his memory goes fuzzy when his body glitches out. he noticed the infection had spread even more, on his own, and quietly said "oh no." he spoke to maximus about the infection, and jumped from being relatively open about it to scrambling to change the subject when baghera asked what they were talking aboug. he started freaking out when all the glitching and the binary spread to the very land he lived on, and struggled to calm himself down.
and I think, after talking to maximus, he's realizing how much worse his infection is, even if maxo and etoiles have had theirs longer. I think, in the back of his mind, he KNOWS what's happening to him is codeflippa's fault, and that thought scares him more than the infection itself.
denial is something that charlie is very good at. but he's at the end of his rope. he has been for a long time. so I wonder how much more he can withstand before all of this just breaks him.
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Making a full post for my Fuuta Ballet AU because I actually had more thoughts about it hehe (Ballerina Girl)
+ a version of the au that's more general to the whole cast, with Es as the protag here!
As mentioned in the art, he’s exactly the same as canon except his life now revolves around dance. He’s in a very cliquey company (The Dark Pas de Trois?), surrounded by friends who are very similar-minded. Even though they're not in dance competitions specifically, they're constantly striving for better reviews/reputations than the neighboring companies. Fuuta struggles with stage fright, but doesn't let on to the others -- he just pushes through every time.
They visit a company rehearsing Nutcracker, and one of the snowflake dancers does something problematic backstage. Fuuta blasts him on social media for it, gaining popularity for his own account/dance company. Auditions and things go a bit smoother for them now that they’re internet famous.
There’s a scandal with the dancer playing the demon sorcerer Rothbart in Swan Lake, and Fuuta catches it on film. The video goes viral, once again boosting Fuuta’s popularity and ego. He’s praised as both a hero and talented performer. His friends are also soaring with this newfound fame.
Then, he catches a young background dancer in Sleeping Beauty doing something he deems worthy of a callout. He exposes her all over his social media. Rather than the usual social backlash, the girl is harassed in person. A crowd takes things too far, and an accident results in an injury that ends her career just as it was beginning. She will never dance again.
Facing his suspicious friends (and overcome with his own guilt), Fuuta flees the company. He plans on quitting dance for the rest of his life as well. Instead, he gets a mysterious invitation to the Milgram Dance Academy. He's never heard of them before, and the internet doesn't turn up much on them. Left with few other choices, he shows up for the first lesson.
The first thing that strikes him is it's a boarding school. He must live there and follow their rules in order to attend. They take his phone and restrict outside contact, much to his horror. The school solely focused on the arts -- no competitions, no big shows. There are three major shows they are planning, but Fuuta couldn't find any venues/tickets/advertisements, despite mention of a "global audience". The program is rigorous, and the instructor decides at the end of each semester if their final performance passes or fails.
The only thing more concerning than the sudden restriction of his phone is the strange group of residents he'll be spending his next few years with. His instructor is a mere child, no more than fifteen and very cryptic about their past training. His other classmates range in age and personality. He starts off dancing just as confident as usual, trying to show up the other students and make a strong first impression.
However, he fails the first semester. The grade list is made public to the whole academy, and Fuuta finds himself the subject of watching eyes and condescending whispers. Becoming sensitive to prying stares and audiences, he falls back into his usual stage fright. He endures (emotional) attacks from the passed students, although in his distraction he screws up some cues and gets injured.
Regarding the actual choreography -- as much as I love the classic shows (I mean, just look how cute he is as the nutcracker ;-;) my brain has been going brrrrr picturing ballet adaptations of the mvs... 🎹 / 🎹 / 🎹 / 🎹
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I hope it's still okay to talk about traffic!Mumbo
A lot of the times,it's either Grian or Scar or Martyn that's popular within the life series fandom,but Mumbo's my favourite character so I'm glad that you like him a lot as well!
I just love that Last Life kind of started so good for him,with the Southlands,the aha jokes,the base and farms,but then he and Grian had that moment on the bridge and would only be red with Grian,who wanted him to join him SO BADLY,if he killed Mumbo fair and square.
Then Mumbo turned red and went INSANE with the end crystals.He was forced out of the Southlands (I think),he was trying to attack so many people,and didn't hesitate to push Impulse off of the SAME bridge that Grian tried to kill him on.He still joined up with fellow reds but he kept moving through different people,until he met up with Jimmy,a fellow Southlander,and died in his home,by the hands of one of his closest allies.
He's just kind of a tragic character that's different to the usual angst of the life series,somebody who wanted friends but lost them all and went insane and bloodthirsty because of it.
This might not make sense,or just feel like a basic explanation of Mumbo's Last life journey,but still,it was nice to talk about him and I love your art of Mumbo!
Yes yes yes YES!
I absolutely love traffic!Mumbo because the more you rewatch his povs, the more tragic he seems to become.
Like you said, it started out great! He got a group of friends, he got 4 lives, jokes - everything was perfect! But then the Bastion happened, and he lost his first life. Okay, that's scary! He hadn't died on hardcore before, so it's weird and was definitely a lot more terrifying than if he died on Hermitcraft.
He calls for help in chat, asking if someone, anyone, can come help him get home and protect him. He buries himself underground, waiting for Martyn and Jimmy to come back for him. No one comes, though, leaving him to wait. He's completely alone for the night, terrified to go out in case a mob hurts him and kills him again.
Mumbo's rightfully upset at them, commenting how the "aha" is traumatic to him now and how he can't do it due to not having a spyglass anymore. Meeting up with Grian, Mumbo makes a jab at himself about burning and dying, clearly still upset.
Then he dies again at the hands of, again, lava, but this time it was because Scar poured it on him. His friend from another world, killing him just like that, not really caring. He respawns, but he stays burning. Mumbo tries to jump into the water, trying to distinguish the weirdly non damage taking flames, but they don't disappear no matter what he does. The others don't comment on it, as if they can't see it. He's still burning. It's still warm.
and THEN THE GHAST BRIDGE?? INCIDENT HAPPENS??? Mumbo only heard talks about red names and how they can't team with non reds, only seeing Joel act that way. He's never experienced this. So it's incredibly distressing when he watches his best friend die in front of him, going down to red. He leaves a sign at the bottom, saving Grian's stuff and pleading for him not to hurt him, because hey! I saved your stuff! I'm your pal!
The whole conversation makes me sick, because Grian clearly isn't fully trying to kill Mumbo off. He wants to be friends with him, of course, but he can't kill him. Grian resorts to making pathetic attempts to drop him, but of course it doesn't work. He backs off the moment Mumbo tells him that he will join him if he kills him fair and square. Mumbo wants to join him, he wants to stay friends, but only if Grian does it fairly. Grian doesn't. He can't.
I'm skipping through everything to when Mumbo turns red because MUMBO ON HIS RED LIFE IS CONSTANTLY ON MY MIND BECAUSE OH MY GOD. This man is not used to this amount of bloodthirst. He's a killer, of course he is. His middle name is Killsalot god damn it! But he's not used to it being this much. He immediately goes insane, not hesitating to hurt, to explode, to push the limits. Seeing how Ren and BigB were scared of him if he even went NEAR them with something explosive, it filled him with power. "I like having this power!" he says, absolutely ecstatic of how he can do what he wants.
All this power comes with a cost, of course. Mumbo coming back to the place he called home, meeting face to face with Grian and Impulse. He shouldn't be here. They tell him that in the face. Mumbo tries to protest, to talk about about how he somewhat already was exiled already, but his voice gets quiet as the realisations hit him. He cant come home. Grian exiles him right in front of him, telling him that he should leave. He does, but not without doing what red names were meant to do. Destroy. Scare.
Back on the ghast bridge, Impulse and Grian are there. Mumbo doesn't hesitate to push Impulse off, laughing. Grian's upset, yelling at him while Mumbk tries to explain himself. Mumbk tries to do Grian's old tricks of breaking the floor beneath him, but he can't. Grian can now, though, not afraid to protect himself as he starts scaring Mumbo. All Mumbo fan do in turn is to apologise repeatedly, saying "sorry" over and over as if he didn't mean to do ehat he did, running away.
He keeps burning the flame. He keeps making the flame larger and larger and larger until its too much, until he burns himself down to ashes. He flies too close to the sun as he watches Jimmy die in front of him, realisations crashing over him after hitting his best friend of what he's done now, running away before turning back, hoping that he didn't follow. Grian did, though. He always does.
It ends with Mumbo getting stabbed in the chest as he feels himself dying. Not dying in the way that is on Hermitcraft, the way that it is back home. No. He's dying.
Mumbo has a constant theme with burning in LastLife. His first deaths relating to burning in lava, coming back permanently burning due to a glitch after his second one, his third happening right after exploding an end crystal right in front of him, his love for end crystals in the first place...
I like to associate him with a burning candle flame that just got too big, slowly burning himself down until nothing but a puddle of what once was remained.
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