#this is about all the Last Life dynamics with a yellow/green and a red

[kingofdandelions]

Something something about Last Life red names, and how Last Life was the only series were red names were actively exiled and feared, how there was both a fear of the red names themselves, and of becoming one of them.

Something something about watching a person you once cared, or maybe even still care about rise from their grave for the (most likely) last time, watching them decide whether to make you join them, or slip away to madness without you.

It must be terrifying to see the person who used to be, no, still is trying to be your friend, with a look in their eyes that reminds you that you're in a death game, that you cant let your guard down if you like having a beating heart.

Failing to see the laughter and humanity they always had, and wondering if you should start mourning even before their name turns grey.

[brucewaynehater101]

i challenge you to try and make me cry with dick and tim angst.

Hmm... alright. Let's hope this mini fic works

Dick was tired. He had the Titans, but he didn't have a family anymore. Bruce had made that clear when he told him to drop off his key with Alfred. All the young adult wanted to know was why Bruce didn't tell him about Jason. That was his brother. That was one of the reasons he even bothered to go to the Manor anymore. That was his baby brother.

And Bruce had lowered his body into the ground without informing Dick. Dick didn't even get to hold Jason one last time. He didn't get to kiss his forehead for one last wish of peace. He didn't get to say goodbye to the kid he was just getting to know.

That was his brother, and he found out about his death accidentally through a computer screen.

He just wanted to ask his dad why he never bothered to tell Dick. Instead, his father hit him, swore he would've just fired Jason anyways (as he did to Dick), and basically told him to never come back.

So, Dick didn't have a family. He was an orphan again, but this time through willful abandonment. He was tired, but what other choice did he have? Even if he missed Alfred, he won't go to Wayne Manor. It's not home.

At least, that's what Dick kept telling himself. At least, that's what Dick thought until a child with bright eyes corned him at the circus.

This child, Tim, kept rambling on and on about how Dick needs to drag himself back to Wayne Manor to save his "father." Dick didn't have a dad. Dick didn't want to go.

The traitorous part of him worried about the man who raised him. He squashed it down ruthlessly.

No.

That's not the part of him that dragged him back emotionally kicking and screaming.

It was the kid, Tim, who looked so much like Jason. Although his hair was pin straight in comparison to Jason's wavy hair, the look in his eyes were the same. Determined, starstruck, and wanting to help.

Dick wants to scream.

If he had it his way, the child would never know what it's like to fly across Gotham's rooftops, bite out a witty remark, or punch a goon in the face. Tim is clever, though, and refuses to tell Dick how he knows their identity until the older man talks to Bruce.

Dick's face aches at the thought.

He doesn't have a choice. Tim knows their identities. Others could as well.

Even though a small part of Dick despises Tim for forcing him to go back, most of him never wants the child to set foot into those halls. If Tim is right, Bruce has only gotten worse. Dick doesn't think Bruce would hit a child, but he didn't think Bruce would hit him either.

Still, Dick drags Tim back to the Manor, gets into another screaming match with Bruce, and prays there won't be another child in red, green, and yellow.

When Two Face captures him and Bruce, Dick thinks he'd rather be dead than see Tim in that fucking uniform. The uniform Alfred had let that child steal.

It seems there's no choice. Tim's going to be Robin.

The last part of Dick's hope holds onto the irrational belief that changing his dynamic with Tim, being a better brother, might save the teen from the same fate as Jason.

So he tries. He takes the kid out for ice cream and train hopping. He teaches him how to be Robin (how to be safe) and is silently grateful that he doesn't live with Bruce. He takes Tim out for patrols, introduces him to the Titans, and listens as Tim tells him about his life. He watches Tim slowly drop his guard, slowly open up more, and slowly trust the Dick is truly his older brother.

And then Dick calls him Jason.

[bad-traffic-smp-ideas]

Before double life happened, I thought grian was just evolving on the same concept instead of doing new gimmicks. My Idea in that vein was to make all the colors distinct mechanically. Call it caste life.

Last life rules but:

Dark green: no threat at all. Can’t fight. at all. If attacked, their only choice is to run or hide behind a lighter ally.

Light green: no worries. Standard rules, can’t attack with intent to kill unprovoked, but can fight back when they or their allies are attacked, or are attacking. Basically, allowed to join in on a fight that’s already started.

Yellow: Proceed with caution. Can attack unprovoked and with intent to kill, but only when standing on their own territory. A yellow Bdubs can always attack when inside his castles, for example, but forced onto the back foot in the wilds. Or heaven forbid, enemy turf. (Reds have no claim on territory, if the makers of a base are all red names, you can claim it as your own with no issue. (Not from the rules at least, red names don’t need much outside protection, so their blades might disagree regardless.)) The yellow name’s goal is still to survive, not kill off other players, so they’re still safe, as long as you don’t poke at them too hard.

Red life: Danger. As normal; can and must kill other players no matter the circumstance. Hostile, and only care about survival because they can’t keep killing if they’re dead. If they’re the only player left, taking their own life is their ultimate reward.

The idea behind yellow lives was how often in last life people had others walking into their house and looting their stuff, and how they couldn’t stop red lives from just walking through the door.

This would still happen to green lives, but because it would be a feature, not a bug, it would be dramatic instead of kinda awkward.

The more secure you are, you become conversely more vulnerable. And every time you die, you become chipped, jagged, fragile and dangerous.

It would also encourage ren and Lizzie’s sort of dynamic. Dark green royalty, gentle, healing and nurturing. And their golden knight, dangerous but protective, keeping their charge safe at any cost, and in the case they lose their life in the process, being brought back from the brink to continue to stand guard.

(This was not meant to be nearly this long or poetic, I honestly have no idea what came over me.(you can literally see me steadily become more pretentious as the ask goes on))

This is SO cool WHA- I'd read fics about that...

[fountainpenguin]

Actually, thinking more about Secret Life Session 7 in-universe (This time drawing inspiration from the Limited Life Clockers dynamic):

- Bdubs is still living at home with Etho and Cleo (and Grian, a cousin to someone in the family if we use LimLife canon) - Scar moves out to start a shop and live on his own (and tbf, considering how chaotic the Clocker dynamic was in LimLife, I don't blame him. Live your life, you funky sunflower dude) - Scar rushes home asking Etho for villagers (For human contact? Help?? Safety in numbers???) - Scar is the first one targeted by Gem's boogeyman infection - He survives!! - Gem singles out Bdubs, backs him in a corner in a tiny cave, and kills him instead - Gem builds her army (3 dead, several injured) and all this time, she doesn't look like a threat because she's just a Yellow hanging out with a scary Red and fellow Yellows - Gem loops back to Scar with a bigger army - Scar runs home, pursued by Gem's army (including his own brother), and dies on Etho and Cleo's front lawn - While all this is going on, Etho killed Grian's pet and is trying to salvage the situation sldfjk - Later, Scar returns home and kills Etho in the lake in front of the house, pretty close to where Scar himself died - Etho insists he will not kill Cleo despite being infected with the curse - Cleo cuts ties with everyone (including Grian, the other surviving relative) and she hunkers down. Last Green standing. - Grian says good-bye to his beloved(?) pet magma cube and runs off on his own - Special shout-out to Impulse asking if he can be the DJ of the boogeyman army because I think it's funny - Etho, who is Yellow and clearly using that to his advantage, rushes towards Joel shouting "Let's group up! Let's group up! Boat Boys forever!" - Honorable mention: Joel shouting over his shoulder, "I know you're one of them, Etho!" He expertly avoids death for a while before turning back to yell "Etho! It's not worth it, Etho!" as Gem cuts him down - Grian makes a stand at home base. He escapes! - Bonus points to Gem stepping in front of Scar as he shot an arrow at Tango sldkjf - Cleo hides out while Etho, Bdubs, and Scar have her on their checklist to kill. Several more dead, many injured. This neighborhood is in ruins - Cleo drowns. She does not get infected by the curse - Also worth mentioning that Martyn, who in LimLife canon was godfather to Scar and Bdubs, gets left alone by the army for the entire session because he's already Red, so he's very much awkward monkey puppeting in the background and that's hilarious

Just a big Clocker fam yikes all over skldjf

[And it was all for what? In the end, the whole army had to press Fail... The chaos. The destruction <3]

[respectthepetty]

So, I saw your post about the JoongDunk, PondPhuwin, ForceBook ultimate gym bros bl. And I had a very important question.

If, hypothetically, gmmtv were to actually make this a thing. What would you want their color coding to be like? Even, how would you want their color coding to change as the fall in love?

Feel free to be as specific or generic as you like! I'm just very curious about the idea 👀

I have eighty million things to do, Anon, yet here I am, excited to answer this question, immediately! *pushes all my responsibilities to the side* There are no pictures because I'm being wild today and doing this from my WORK COMPUTER!

First, the premise of my Gym Bros BL, tentatively called

Flex Appeal

*I'm using the actors' names, but this is about their characters, not them. Force owns a gym. He has trainers Dunk, Joong, and Pond. Book and Phuwin work together at a food marketing company, so they eat a lot of snacks throughout the day. Phuwin wants to start working out and drags Book along. Dunk and Joong are super competitive, but it's all really them flirting with each other. Pond instantly likes Phuwin, but Phuwin thinks he is nothing but a meathead until he realizes Pond is super smart and kind. Book likes Force and starts bringing him tasty treats from the office during the workout sessions since he notices Force never leaves to eat properly. We could have cameos from other people who workout or companies trying to market their food. We could have Force trying to keep his business open, and Book helping him with marketing. WE COULD HAVE GYM QUEERS!

Now for the colors:

Dunk and Joong - Red Rascal and Green Guy. Dunk has the Red Rascal look aka beautiful. His character would always be up to some tomfoolery, and Joong as the chill Green Guy would always be down to join in on the shenanigans. I call them my troublesome tykes for a reason, and I think their natural personalities would easily lead to characters who are the matchmakers of the group too. Like constantly setting up situations for the other pairs to fall in love while unknowingly falling in love themselves.

Pond and Phuwin - Pond is a Blue Boy in this imagined series. He falls quickly for Phuwin and is devoted to winning him over. He is good with his hands and very intelligent when it comes to building, like say for props for an ad that Phuwin needs help with. Phuwin on the other hand is a Yellow/Orange Oddity. He is creative and works in the visuals area of the marketing department. He likes to talk and Pond likes to listen even if Pond doesn't understand it all. He wears glasses.

Force and Book - Give them the dark versus light dynamic. Force is a Brooding Boy, in black most of the time because his life has been rough, which is easy since it'll be black tanks, black shorts, black car. Yum. Then, Book is the Happy Human in his cream and white cardigans with khaki pants or some basic boy attire. Force will teach Book to take risks, and Book will open Force's heart!

Cameos:

Mix works at the company with Book and Phuwin, but he is a higher-up who we see three times. He mentions his boyfriend goes to this gym nearby, which gives the boys the idea to try it out.

Earth is the boyfriend who shows up occasionally at the gym. He never speaks. I just need to see his back tattoos.

Fourth and Gemini can play baby interns at the company who just randomly pop in with the wrong orders of coffee and the wrong mail for people.

Neo is an asshole from another rival gym who is a meathead and Phuwin's ex (see what I did there people who have been around since Neo x Phuwin?).

Louis works in the IT department, and we see him exactly once when Phuwin has to go ask for help with his work computer, and Louis notices an old picture of Phuwin with Neo on it.

Papang is the guy constantly getting hit on at the gym. It's a running joke throughout the show, but in the second-to-last episode, his HUSBAND shows up to drop off his phone since he left it at home, and it's revealed to be Mark, who appeared earlier in the season as an up-and-coming baker who the company is trying to woo, which is why Papang works out all the time since he loves his man's baked goods. Neither wears the ring because rings should not be worn when working out or baking.

Book convinces Mark to come out with a line of healthy after-workout snacks, Force is used as the model, and his gym sees a rise in customers since his gym is the only place to get these snacks, and EVERYONE WINS!

I have spent a lot of time thinking about my gym bros bl. I need it like I need air. These men are too built to let it go to waste. Film them in a gym. Just let the camera roll and half of the footage would be just them bs-ing with each other. It's a win-win for everyone involved including the audience.

[katalyist]

I have this theory about the life series (and I don't know if someone has said it before) but I think as more time pass and the life series has more seasons the Watchers become more... bloodthirsty?

We start with third life that are the base of all of this, the first trap deaths are from the trap that Grian set in an attempt of making Scar do more red things (probably also his watcher instincts just wanting to feed on the emotions the chaos will bring but I'm just ranting about that) and from then it when down a cliff, cactus ring and all of that emotional damage caused.

And then we pass to last life where thing get a little too wild. They have more lives now and the dynamic of the "Boogeyman" is introduced, someone in yellow or green that has to kill a player before the end of the session or they would become red. People treat it like a sickness, the rampage and need of blood that the reds have infecting someone that if doesn't give up to the instincts they'll go full red. This gives everyone more freedom to kill, to save themselves or to defend themselves from a Boogeyman/red name. Alliance got broke by this, the drama was everywhere and you couldn't trust your teammates because in any moment they could betray you.

Now double life wasn't focus on killing that much people because dying was actually more easily and it wouldn't be that entertaining, the emotional drama was the one that give the watchers a good meal, the divorce quarter, the cheating, the ranchers. Mostly has if the Watchers where trying to discover what cause the players to have strong emotions to get the most out of it.

Finally, we are presented to Limited Life where we have the 24hrs twist and yellow people now can kill greens. They are leaving reds, yellows and the boogeyman to kill, which is insane. It was the season where more deaths happened, with more traps and explosion. Really the watchers had a banquet with this one, the alliances lasted until the end which made the deaths of the members of every one more sad or angsty. When people where turning yellow it seems like the end of one of the seasons, it was chaos, everything for the 'yellow peace'.

I know that Watchers feed from human emotions but in canon not really know how they work, but I think they are learning, experimenting what makes them sad or anger, but also being careful to not burn out the players too much because then there is no entertainment if no one plays.

But yeah, that's my rant, thank you for coming to my talk, not take anything I say seriously.

[fluffypotatey]

ok so to explain the nosy neighbors, i have to explain the limited life smp. here goes!

the limited life smp was the 4th season of the life series, and took place about a year ago.

the gimmick of this series was that every player had a 24-hour timer ticking down in the bottom right corner of their screen, and once that timer hits zero, their series is over. when your timer is above 16 hours, your name is green, yellow names have between 16 and 8 hours left, and red names have under 8 hours on their clock.

dying will lose you an hour of your time, and killing someone else will add 30 minutes to your own timer. (yellow names are allowed to kill green names, and red names are allowed to kill everyone)

there is also an extra mechanic recycled from the Last Life series (season 2) called the Boogeyman, in which one player with a green or yellow name is randomly selected and basically turned into an assassin- if they don’t kill another green or yellow name before the 3 hour recording session is over, their clock is set to 8 hours and they will be a vulnerable red name.

okay now for the actual nosy neighbors:

the nosy neighbors alliance was made up of two players: pearl (ign Pearlescentmoon, i’ve done a 101 on her before), and bigb (ign bigbst4tz, i don’t think i’ve mentioned him)

this is them:

^ they also had a cat named froggy btw

the nosy neighbors teamed up and built a little tower decorated with frog faces in the middle of most of the other bases (all the better to spy on their neighbors with)

these guys were Extremely silly and also rather goofy, except bigb has some trust/loyalty issues (reputation for being a loner + backstabbing his allies), and pearl was still kind of coming down from double life

so their definition of silly involves a lot of ruining their outside relationships

like every time they form an alliance with another group on the server they go out of their way to antagonize that group

bigb does this little thing where he Loves lying to ppl’s faces and confusing them. so he’ll do something, and then if someone asks him about it he proceeds to casually lie to their face while still Actively Doing It. (and other such hijinks). this pattern drives away most potential allies and has only ever ended badly for him, but he keeps doing it because he’s an impulsive guy! (i for one think he should keep doing it. god forbid sillyguys do anything) (where “anything” means “actively gaslighting your friends for shits and giggles”)

and then pearl keeps switching between being serious and wanting to protect and help bigb (because she’s already won and would rather help him out than watch another teammate die in front of her), and ruining her own outside alliances sillygoofy style (making deals with other teams and then immediately going back on them, or making a trade and turning around to steal the item back)

also both of them are kind of wary of each other and have a healthy dose of trust issues, so their own dynamic is half helping each other with those issues and half enabling each others self destructive habits. AND 100% SILLY GOOFY. AND THEY CARE EACH OTHER

we love toxic friendships that enable their self-destructive tendencies

[mcytlin]

Concepts for new Life Series mechanics

along with why I’d like to see each mechanic being used

(this is just my way of coping with this week’s session kjsdlfka)

under the cut bc it gets kinda long i think?

Common/Shared Life:

at the start of the season, all players are randomly placed together in teams of 3-5 people (depending on the amount of players that season). Each team shares a “pool of lives” so to say, meaning that when one member of the team dies, everyone experiences a loss as a result (they don’t have shared health bars though - the players don’t die, they just lose a life). For example, Grian, Martyn and Scott are teamed; they share a pool of 9 lives (bc that’s the amount of lives they theoretically would have put together. 3x3=9). If Grian dies, their pool of lives would be reduced to 8 lives. Martyn and Scott, who’ve been chilling in the nether in this hypothetical scenario, don’t die, which means they don’t have to run all the way back to the spot they died to get their stuff, and can instead go home the normal way.

This goes on until the pool only has the same amount of lives left as members of the team. Following that, the team functionally dissolves, each member being given one of the lives and placed on Red. Using the past example, if Grian, Martyn and Scott had four lives in their pool, and one of them died, the team would dissolve and they all become Reds. They’re not tied to each other by any game mechanic anymore only their emotional bonds if they have any lol

Why I want this mechanic used: mostly just to see more dynamics tbh. At this point in the Life Series, I feel like most of the dynamics/team-ups are starting to repeat (see Cleo and Scott, Cleo and Bdubs, Bdubs and Etho, Team BEST and Team TIES, Grian and Jimmy, Grian and Joel etc). THAT’S NOT A BAD THING IN ANY WAY! After all, this series is first and foremost about them having fun with their friends, so it makes sense they gravitate towards the people they. y’know. are close friends with. But still, one of my favorite things about Double Life is that it caused interactions and dynamics we probably wouldn’t have seen otherwise. I’d love to see all of the members interact more with one another, be it through team-ups or simply being dependent on each other bc of the game mechanics.

this mechanic, I think, would have a similar effect, but still allow the players more freedom in how they react to the team dynamic. In Double Life, the consequences of your soulmate dying were harsh, so even if you weren’t teamed with your soulmate, you’d still want to make sure they didn’t get both of you killed. But with this, while you probably still wouldn’t want your pool to lose lives, i think the consequences are less severe. you won’t have to go through the hassle of respawn, and in the end, no matter what, your last life belongs fully to you.

So, in conclusion, would bring forth dynamics we wouldn’t get otherwise, while still allowing enough freedom to do your own thing.

Targeted Life (name pending)

at the beginning of each session, a Hitman and a Target are randomly rolled (similar to Boogeyman. It’s also only Greens and Yellows). The Hitman has the task of killing their Target until the end of the session. If they succed, they recieve a life (kinda like the receiving time mechanic from Limited Life). If they fail, they automatically become next session’s Target.

The Target doesn’t know they’re the Target (unless, of course, they were last session’s failed Hitman). There will be, however, a third role each session; The Spy. The Spy will be informed of both the Hitman’s and the Target’s identity when they’re assinged their role. They can choose what to do with that information; tell the Target, sell it to the Target, blackmail the Hitman etc.

Why I want this mechanic used: it’s like the time-stealing mechanic of Limited Life, just with the chaos being more... contained, I guess? It’s also similar to the Boogeyman curse that you are *forced* to make the kill. However, it also introudes the concept of a pre-determined victim - great for heartbreaking betrayals between allies or for panicked planning bc your Target is much better than you at PvP

It also has mafia vibes, which I think most of the fandom would eat right up lol

[braxiatel]

So what are these minecraft life series? Is it a whoever lives the longest thing? or whoever builds the coolest stuff?

Hi!! I will try my best to answer concisely but I am very excited you asked so I might get a little carried away 😂

The life series is one series, though rather confusingly, it changes name every season. It’s semi-roleplay and when you see me talking about it I am talking entirely about the roleplay parts.

The premise of the first season - 3rd life - is that 14 people are living in a small world where they each have three lives. Once they die three times they are gone for good and out of the series. The catch is that people on their third life (“red names” ) are hostile towards people on their first and second life (“green names” and “yellow names”). The goal is to be the last person left alive.

Because of this 3rd life turned into a sort of battle royal where factions formed and an all-out war broke out. Iconic battles were fought, people got married, kings were crowned, and at the end a winner was found.

There has been three further seasons - the last of which is currently ongoing - working with that same basic concept. The same people are (usually) involved every season, playing the character they present across different minecraft series (there’s some canon implying they come back because some god-like beings forcing them to be in these deaths games).

In the second season - last life - they were given between two and six lives, and it introduced a curse that made green names and yellow names turn on each other for an episode. It gave it a sort of hidden role game aspect where players had to constantly question whether they trusted their allies not to turn in them under the curse.

The third season, double life, was, I kid you not, an honest to god soulmate au. Players were linked through a soulbond where they shared health and lives. It was such a wild ride. A little bit like if the characters in a romcom all wanted to murder each other and also they all lives on top of the home of a monster out of a horror movie.

Limited life is the current season. In this one they are all given exactly 24 hours to live. Dying makes them lose an hour, but killing others gives you time back. Whether you’re a green, yellow, or red life depends on how much time you have left. They also brought back the curse that makes you turn on others, and introduced a rule that yellow names are now allowed to turn on green names. This has naturally led to a lot of deaths this season.

What I love most about it is the fact that every character’s perspective of the fans is uploaded on the player’s individual youtube channels, making it a really unique way of telling a story. It uses the idea of every character being the main character of their own story and shows in a really fun way. You can watch from one character’s point of view and understand the story did the most part, but the more POVs you watch the more details of the story you’ll gain.

If you’re interested in watching I recommend starting here - 3rd life from the POV of Grian.

Or, knowing your interests, if you’re particularly interested in double life I recommend starting here with Pearl’s POV of that season.

Double life is definitely more fun if you’ve watched season 1 and 2 first, though, as it builds a lot on established character dynamics and history.

Hope that explains it! :D

[castysandthedeep]

This concept has been eating through my brain like acid: life series Joel and Grian having insane bloody feral sex when they team as red lives, and then awkwardly mostly avoiding each other on green and yellow (I forget what fic said this but there’s a Joel-centric fic that described it as “that green life clarity” that I thought was so funny).

I’m thinking either primal top Joel x brat Grian or some kind of stricter gleeful dominant Grian with a still feral submissive Joel who’s doing his best to obey. I love your Grian from insatiable who’s theoretically a brat until he brats too hard by accident and ends up punting his partner into subspace. And then he’s a dom. Oops. And I love your Grian from lovegame who’s ever so frightening and everyone is TERRIFIED of him going red.

Also Joel like a tamed wolf etc… going insanely feral as a red life and being desperately, devastatingly loyal to whatever teammates he can scrounge up vs Grian who sees his allies as necessary sources of power and leverage but also as ultimately temporary, who is fully ready to strategically abandon his teammates as soon as it becomes advantageous to do so.

Anyways. Dynamic of: Joel being absolutely feral with bloodlust but trying so hard not to kill Grian and be the best teammate he can so that Grian doesn’t abandon him VS Grian who knows logically that he should drop Joel as soon as it becomes too costly to keep him as a teammate but who keeps instinctually protecting him + accidentally getting too fond of him anyways. Because one-sided devotion my beloved.

Sorry for the long and clinically insane ask. Just wanted to let you know. All my love!

this ask could not have found me at a better time. i'm in exactly the right mood to talk about insane red-life sex. (little sidenote, lovegame chapter 5 is about to drop very, very soon!)

i've written joel/grian before, both in a published fic where grian was afk and an unpublished fic i actually forgot existed until this very moment, but both of those fics were set in limited life, and this kind of dynamic feels straight out of last life to me. if i were going to write this (and i'm actually quite tempted, but i won't make any promises as my WIP pile is ridiculous right now), i'd definitely want to set it in last life. joel killing grian because he's lonely and desperate for a friend? the two of them wreaking havoc on the server together? it's perfect.

also, to me, the version of grian that's actually cold enough to hold joel at arm's length could only exist in last life. in every other season, it's clear that grian thinks he's the type of person to prioritize his own personal victory over taking care of his team, but he keeps getting emotionally attached anyway. he may pretend otherwise, but he always reveals his hand in moments of panic. i can see him overcompensating in last life and stringing joel along with the promise of companionship, putting off any actual vulnerability until it's too late... okay, i'm definitely doing a last life rewatch now.

as for the dynamic between them, i have a heavy personal bias toward dombottom grian as well as an undying fondness for joel getting his shit wrecked (and loving every second of it). that being said, i don't think joel would take it lying down. if he were on green or yellow i'd just call him a brat, but we're talking about red joel at his most violent and out-of-control. whether he'll actually successfully flip the script on grian remains to be seen, but the underlying possibility is always there, and grian is very uncomfortably aware of it.

so yeah, thanks for the ask! i didn't expect to get this enthusiastic about it, but i'm all in on the insanity bandwagon now. i can absolutely see myself writing this. the only real problem is that i can't see myself finishing it, because if i've got this much to say about it from the get-go, i could end up with another lovegame-sized project, and i've been incredibly busy with real-life things, so my writing progress has been moving at a snail's pace. if only i lived in a perfect world where i could sit around and write minecraft roleplay porn all day...

[wheelercore]

The Rainbow: Socialization and Conformity in Stranger Things

Becoming very obvious once S3 came out, Stranger Things utilizes the color of the rainbow very often to symbolize how characters have been affected and/or influenced by society around them. Main characters are often switching in and out of clothes primarily colored with blue, red, and yellow (primary colors) with green, orange, and purple (secondary colors) often used to symbolize combinations and relationships.

Personally I believe each primary color symbolizes a theme or an effect societal expectations have on a character in the story. It's not a coincidence that the symbolism started to become more pervasive once our MCs hit puberty.

And nowhere is it more obvious than with the concept of the rainbow room

This is the play room that Brenner had set up for his test subjects. It's a miniature society, a place for El and her "siblings" to play, to interact, to bully each other- particularly the people who do not fit in. In this case, El because she was not as good as the others.

Even as these children were shielded from the world and raised in a lab, they still formed their own dynamics and hierarchies. Brenner fed into this- pitting these children against each other to test their abilities. No doubt, if Henry wasn't already radicalized into destroying the world, his experiences in this lab might have done it. Away from the "outside" world, but humans (children) still find a way to be mercilessly cruel to each other.

And how do you get rid of human cruelty?

Get rid of humans.

That is the UD, a barren wasteland with no human life and poisonous air that kills all that it touches. A parallel world that has a Hawkins, but with none of the Hawkins residents.

And when El banished Henry to the UD? She chose humanity. She chose life despite having only been treated badly by those around her. That humanity is worth fighting for and there is an inherent goodness in El that exemplifies the human capability to be kind and to progress. She is not the monster.

But she also realizes that she is not a blank slate. That she has (rediscovered) memories and experiences that affected her in different ways, and she is not just what her abuser made of her or what anyone else for that matter. In a paradoxical way, that was her rebirth. Her chosing to reevaluate the last few years of her life with what she knows now- and rather than being rendered a blank white canvas and painted on by force, she is going back on her own to the simple things that are important to her. Friends, family, and self. She is colorless with blooming pink, maybe one day to become a beautiful red.

To put it succently, El has finally developed a sense of intrinsic motivation and self identity.

Other characters often are jumping from color to color also, determined by what they are doing, feeling in that moment, and the pressures that they are under.

Will who is often in red in S3 with some blue and yellows, to bring fully in yellow towards the end of s4 when he lies to Mike about the painting.

Mike who is in yellow when he lies to El (about his nana and in the airport)- like his mother who spends the majority of s3 in yellow-, who's in blue when he starts back at square one by giving a fake love confession to El- like Ted who's almost always in blues with little exception-, who's hellfire outfit is white and black with a bit of red mixed in to show he's being authentic.

El who is in blue when trying to be the girlfriend that she thinks she should be to Mike but sheds her blue over the course of s4 and is reborn in white and pink.

Henry, in Els flashback covered on red blood over a white outfit. His idea of being free, truly free, is killing those who hold him down.

[asexualzoro]

what do you look for in character dynamics? i think you like desert duo a lot but i dont know what their deal is

don’t know what their deal is like you don’t know who they are? desert duo is grian and scar from the mc series third life. it’s a competitive series that turns into improv storytelling which i like to divorce from the game aspect and view entirely as a story, where all the players are actors cast as characters (the actual players do this as well, a lot of them referring to themselves or each other as ‘characters’ or leaning hard into a specific ‘character’ for the game (ren im looking at you))

what draws me to desert duo is the same thing that draws me to a lot of character dynamics i like—deep-seeded loyalty which has been purposely earned or gained, said loyalty based on a promise or formal roles, a leader & right-hand dynamic that is actually mostly equal, fun complementary characteristics, and a compelling test (and, sometimes, break) of that loyalty

anyway you’ve given me an opportunity to talk about desert duo so i’m taking it. gonan examine them against the points i look for in character dynamics. i’ll put it under a read more because i dunno how long it’ll be but i do know it will be long

first session of third life, grian accidentally kills scar with a creeper. everyone in the game only has three total lives (green, yellow, and red), and scar is pretty quick to die even on servers where their lives aren’t limited. losing his first life first before everyone else, in session one, in a game where you want to be the last one standing, puts him at a pretty strong disadvantage. so grian pulls him aside once he respawns and promises his first (green) life to scar. once he’s made things even and gone to yellow, scar’s on his own, but until then grian’s going to do whatever scar says and try his best to keep scar alive

which, check your boxes, ☑️ formalized promise and ☑️ a leader and right-hand!

grian then spends the rest of the next two sessions insisting he’s going to leave as soon as he can. any attempt by scar to talk abt lasting plans is shot down, and any scheme scar starts grian tries to undermine—he has to do what scar says, but that doesn’t mean he can’t warn the people they talk to scar’s trying to scam them (because scar is scamming everyone always in 3L. he spends all of sessions two and three scamming people. it works also. nat 20 charisma on near every role that man made for all of 3L)

all that said, grian’s actively building them a house in the meantime and, by the end of session 3, actively helping with some of the shit scar is pulling (such as encouraging taking a diamond chestplate). he insists when asked he’s going to leave, and often says he doesn’t care what scar is doing because “i have no stake in this,” but he already does

then scar dies. again. falls to his death, complete accident, putting him on red, his final life. red lives operate under different rules—while yellow and green names cannot attack other players or engage in pvp, red lives not only are allowed, but it’s their main goal. scar’s supposed to be attacking other players now. some people in chat float the idea grian should be allowed to leave now that there’s a red name at his base. if grian really wants to leave, he has an out

scar comes back on red and the first thing he does is throw grian flowers and ask “can we still be his friends?” now that he’s ‘scary.’ and grian assures him that yes, he will stay. he has to, right?

(this is a little loyalty test, and a step in building that deep loyalty, but hold off on checking those boxes quite yet) (this also makes me feel fucking insane)

now. grian’s favorite block in the game is tnt. so now that his partner is red, he starts immediately planning traps. grian can’t kill, but he can do it if scar ‘tells’ him to. you can now check off the ☑️ complementary characters box, because we have a fun parallel: a green name player who plays like a red life, and a red name player who plays like a green life. grian immediately gets the largest kill in the series, taking out three people with a bomb left outside the gate of ren, who scar antagonized/threatened when he was on yellow (and it didn’t really mean anything) ((3L ren also makes me insane))

scar talks a lot of game about murder, but he’s not really one for pvp—pretty sure he says outright to grian he’s all bark. grian talks a lot about having no stakes and following scar’s orders, but is the one calling the shots about who and when and how they’re going to get kills (check off the right hand and leader dynamic being ☑️ mostly equal, actually). grian digs his claws in deep with scar by killing a lot of the rest of the server—i think he gets like four kills incl the bomb and contributes to at least one other, from all three other major ‘factions’ on the server—which doesn’t exactly do him any favors when he’s ‘free’ of scar and needs somewhere to go. he still insists hes going to leave, but scar doesn’t acknowledge it. pretty sure the one time he brings it up, scar even says grian won’t actually leave, but i don’t think grian acknowledges that

session 7 rolls around, second to last. players are starting to be eliminated here—of the 14, three of them die permanently in this session. grian and scar get into a big fight against an opposing faction. grian dies. on yellow, he runs right back to scar. neither of them acknowledge it. he stays (you can check two points: ☑️ deep loyalty that is hard-earned. ☑️ compelling loyalty test). when grian finally addresses this alone, to the audience, he explains, “i just can’t let him die”

final session is session 8. it’s basically nonstop battle. the others are whittled down one by one—ren and martyn go on a fuckin killing spree and ren takes out three lives, eliminating two players (ren my beloved), then the survivors get into another large fight ending with four more dead (grian says to scar, right before this, entirely unprompted: “is this where we prove our true allegiance to each other and no one else?”). there’s five left, and this is where the betrayals start.

one person betrays someone who had helped him since day one, someone who had sworn his loyalty (the fun thing about improv stories is the thing that become foreshadowing by accident). now there’s four. scar breaks a promise to another person, having him killed. now there’s three. grian, scar, and a third, bdubs: another red name who just betrayed his day one and killed the fourth place winner for scar.

both bdubs and grian are following scer, so scar essentially just says “whoever gets this piece of paper i won’t kill” and drops it on the ground. bdubs get it. scar and bdubs turn on grian immediately, killing him and sending him to red

and that’s another check, there. ☑️ a compelling loyalty break. at the end of it all, grian follows scar to the end, and scar kills him.

but there’s still like ten godamn minutes left! grian hunts scar down, promising to kill him for being a traitor, and as soon as he gets there, scar kills bdubs. he turns around and tells grian “you can kill me, for everything you did to keep me alive this long” and encourages him to win. grian drops the anger immediately and insists he can’t do it

which is already insane enough as a scene. deeply fucking insane. but the people who have already lost insist there can be no double victory, and someone has to win. scar and grian go back to their mountain in the desert, drop all their gear, and fight bare-handed to the death.

something that interests me about the final fight is it’s impossible to tell if scar is throwing or if he just sucks at pvp. regardless, in the end grian wins. the entire fight is just them apologizing to each other. grian immediately turns around and jumps to his death, ending the series with no winners at all

…which is all the detail i’ll give abt the final fight bc i think about it SO much and this ask is long enough without me going into it. suffice to say the whole finale, from scar and bdubs killing grian to the end, is just… fascinating to look at through the lens of their loyalty. grian spends the whole series insisting he’s going to leave as soon as he can, but in the end, his whole life is dedicated to keeping scar alive. and it blows up on him! scar turns on him! grian fails to keep him alive! he kills scar in the end, and then takes his own life. its tragic and i’m obsessed with it

loyalty-based dynamics have always done it for me. Luffy and Zoro, for example, hit all of those points except the loyalty break: start with a promise, complementary characters, leader and right hand (but rather informal), Luffy earns Zoro’s loyalty over a number of important scenes, ending with Zoro’s sacrifice at 485. there’s even other third life dynamics that hit those points that i also really like (ren and martyn).

i find gradual growth and strengthening and tests of a bond/loyalty to be inherently interesting and i always have. watching two characters face adversity against their bond and choosing each other over and over is always compelling to me. the fact only one person can be left standing in third life adds an especially fun layer of flavor on their dynamic bc that loyalty is earned and developed and inherently doomed, it can’t be forever. it’s really fascinating. esp when it’s entirely unscripted improv, evolving like that on its own. the whole story is just so fuckin fun and i like it a lot

if anyone reads this far shoutout to you for being the bravest motherfucker alive. anon thank you so much for asking. if this wasn’t exactly what you were looking for and you want me to talk abt character dynamics more broadly feel free to send another ask, i’d be happy to keep going on this

[officewebmaster315]

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[e-to-the-v]

Was writing you an ask when my tumblr glitched but thankfully i had enough time to take a screenshot:

All the teams are homoerotic in their core.

But what’s interesting is that in the Secret Life, despite being on different teams and Martyn being yellow and red all the time Scott was green, they kept just let the other one go.

Martyn had a task to hit 5 different people with a sword while being invisible in 1 minute. He used diamond(?) sword on several people, panicking that wasn’t enough, saw Scott and switched to use a wooden sword on him. And after that apologized and gave him a heart, so Scott ended up with half a heart more than he started. And other than that Martyn really did not commit to hunt/trap Scott for most of this series.

Scott let Martyn trap the entrance of the Cherry Blossoms base, gave him stuff several times, allowed to use the enchanting table. He just kept doing it for no apparent reason. And I find it so interesting.

They are both very smart. They are both good at fighting. They are both good at surviving. Both Martyn and Scott were in the last 4 standing 4/5 times, which is impressive. They are so alike, but also completely different. Their dynamic is ‘almost, but not quite’, and I really enjoy it.

So if you are even a bit curious, I recommend you to read fics of @.scribbling-dragon on ao3 (i am not sure but i think their username is either that or scribblingdragon in one word). They are my favorite.

I’ll totally look into that! I’ve been looking for more fics to read, smalletho does not update as much as I would like 😢

I haven’t seen much of either Scott or Martyn’s content, and I generally see Scott associated more with flower husbands than any other ship. But all this secret life stuff is kinda cute, thanks for letting me know about it!

I don’t know where I want to fit Scott in my fic right now, but I definitely want to include him.

My thoughts with ren/Martyn is for “game Martyn” to be a very intense violent toxic masculinity that kinda breaks any hope of a relationship with ren, but with Joel not following the game path Martyn ends up being more chill and welcoming, which could end up opening itself for some semblance of a relationship with Scott.

I dunno yet, but will look into the fics

[michaels-two-dads]

I keep thinking about (3rd life) Scar and Grian. doesn't matter if it's romantic or platonic, it's just their loyalty to each other they had to each other despite it all. Grian's unwillingness to abandon Scar when he turned yellow and their deal was off. Scar's trust in Grian in general (still trying to understand Scar's brief attack at the end over the paper but still). Just, they trusted each other so much and I go feral everytime when I think about it

Literally Third Life Desert Duo change the fucking chemicals in your brain they’re fucking insane. Grian giving his allegiance to Scar on the very first episode and following him around pretending to be appalled by his silly antics, Grian constantly saying that the moment he loses his first life he’s going to leave Scar, the absolute peak dynamic that is Red Life Scar, who’s just sort of a guy who wants to cause maybe a little mischief but is generally harmless, and Green Life Grian, who is the one actually killing and murdering but pretending Scar is making him do it. It’s the way that the first thing Scar does upon becoming a red life is give Grian flowers and ask “Can we still be friends?”. It’s the way that Grian’s devotion to Scar becomes more and more obvious as the series goes on, up until Grian loses his first life and sticks by Scar’s side anyways because he “can’t let him go”. It’s the way that when Scar betrays Grian, Grian is furious, and completely ready to kill Scar, until the moment he realizes Scar isn’t fighting back. It’s the way that Scar immediately turns on Big B for Grian. It’s the way that Scar was always devoted to Grian, and he’s happy to let Grian win, because all he ever wanted was someone by his side. It’s the way that they stall for time as the ghosts call for blood. It’s the way that Scar makes Grian laugh even as Grian is killing him, the way that Scar doesn’t even try, the way that they both yell apologies to each other in Scar’s final moments.

It’s the way Grian says “I don’t feel good…” the moment he wins, because he hasn’t won at all, because he had to kill Scar. It’s the way that they were the last ones left. It’s the poetic tragedy of it all, the way that the finale feels as if everything so far has led to this.

[unexpectedly-haunted]

Fic Recommendations!

This time, entirely and unashamedly focused on 3rd Life/Last Life Ren and Martyn :D Feel free to add on with your own recommendations! 

Cold Comfort by RedWinterRoses: After the Red King rises, Martyn struggles with remaining bloodlust. Ren refuses to stop trusting him. Words: 2460 Chapters: 1/1

Nothing Gold Can Stay by RedWinterRoses: Third Life AU when the King and Hand are the last two left. This fic had me reading with tears streaming down my face, angst with a hopeful ending. Words: 3581 Chapters: 1/1

The Only Way We’re Leaving... by darkleweather: Martyn-centric Third Life AU, with everyone in a new round. They’ve all forgotten what happened last time, or at least they should’ve- turns out the server is sentient, and plays favourites. Seriously good! Love the idea, and great characterisation. Words: 22239 Chapters: 15/15

Written in Starlight by RookiReads: On a quiet night, Martyn and Red chart the stars. Words: 3361 Chapters: 1/1

Follow Me Home by RedWinterRoses: When a green life kills a yellow life, the game breaks, and Martyn has to deal with the consequences. Very cool concept, and has a happy ending! Words: 9304 Chapters: 4/4

The Last Night by RedWinterRoses: Scott’s death from his, Ren, Martyn, and Jimmy’s POVs. Heartwrenching with a happy ending, with full-blown villain Ren which is fun! Words: 2447 Chapters: 1/1

crown crooked, cloak torn by TheYesterdayShow: Scar and Grian have captured Ren and Martyn, and it doesn’t end well for either of them. Heavy angst no comfort, delightfully painful. Words: 3142 Chapters: 1/1

give me back my heart, you wingless thing by lunarblazes: A series of snapshots from Third Life, with the third chapter being Renchanting-focused. I love how their dynamic is written and the way enchanting is described as an art, it’s wonderful writing overall! Also includes desert duo and flower husbands. Words: 13206 Chapters: 6/6

it could have at least been sunny by RedWinterRoses: Ren celebrates his birthday in Last Life, and it sure is a day! To quote the tags “comfort hurt. happy with an angst ending.” Words: 1709 Chapters: 1/1

5 times Ren died for Martyn and one time he didn’t have to by Waterfall: What it says in the title! Really good, the tone is both light hearted and sincere. Words: 1322 Chapters: 1/1

The Threads That Bind Us by darkleweather: Ren, and making Martyn’s coat. He cares about Dogwarts and her people so much, and I am so totally normal about it. Words: 953 Chapters: 1/1

Boogey Ren by darkleweather: Ren gets boogeyman in Last Life, and Pearl finds him after the day is over. Features some body horror and super interesting idea for the boogeyman as a separate entity! Great hurt/comfort. Words: 1937 Chapters: 1/1

Tend Tomorrow’s Wounds by crowblock: A character study set just after Ren’s first death. Love the respawn mechanics in this, and the characterisation overall! Words: 1810 Chapters: 1/1

Come Morning Light by Napsaur: Martyn can’t sleep after Black Heart altar, and Ren tries to rectify this using his ultimate weapon: puppy dog eyes. Hurt/comfort with a somewhat open ending. Words: 988 Chapters: 1/1

the prince and his dragon by riacte: Ren tries burning his tower, but Martyn won’t let that happen. Short drabble, but I love it! Words: 365 Chapters: 1/1