#this is specifically from her last death at pearls hand.

[moomoorare]

A wife to death, rebirth and mutilation. The axe's blade comes down and down again, a nightmare done, gone and then the light throws you on the dirt of a new world, fighting for your life and victor's cup yet again. Will you win?

Reblogs <3 are my best friends

[shaytheantagonist]

My Roman Empire is how the life series writes itself. Here are some coincidences that I think about frequently:

1. Every person who has ever won a life series (Real Life included) was paired with another winner in Double Life (Grian & Scar, Scott & Pearl, Martyn & Cleo)

2. Several members had patterns in their deaths in Secret Life (All of Grian’s deaths happened while a large portion of the remaining server members were present, all of Scott’s deaths were arranged & he let whoever killed him kill him, all of Etho’s deaths were from Scar killing him, all of Jimmy’s deaths were from mobs of increasing strength (drowned, dragon & warden), all of Mumbo’s deaths were because of poor walking (walked off a ledge, walked into lava, walked into his own fence posts) & all of Martyn’s deaths happened in different dimensions)

3. Jimmy being out first 4 times in a row

4. Grian winning 3rd Life & then being dead last in the VR recreation of 3rd Life

5. Mumbo always having his final death moments after Jimmy’s final death

6. Pearl & Scar winning their seasons after being the underdog the entire season & having it the hardest

7. The first interaction Etho & Joel had in the entire life series was while they were in boats

8. Every time Scott is in the final two, whoever loses dies to a mob they didn’t know was behind them (Ren in Last Life, Scott in Real Life)

9. Jimmy always cursing at least one of his allies to do horribly each season (3rd Life was Scott’s lowest placement ever, 10th. Last Life: both Mumbo & Impulse were in the bottom 4. Double Life: Tango played poorly and was responsible for 2/3 of their deaths. Limited Life, Joel was out third & The Bad Boys died A LOT. Secret Life: Martyn was the first yellow AND the first red despite literally winning the previous season. EVEN REAL LIFE, Jimmy teamed with Grian, Joel, Scar & Impulse, who were the first 4 to be eliminated.)

10. Since Double Life, Pearl has wanted her allies to win the current seasons, she has outlived all of her main allies every season since then (Big B in Limited Life & Mumbo, BDubs & Joel in Secret Life)

11. Joel literally & metaphorically being the reason Lizzie was the first one out instead of Jimmy in Secret Life (Lizzie only died because she was trying to kill Scott to help out with Joel’s assassin task, by the time she tried to kill him & died in the process, Joel had already failed his task & just hadn’t told her yet, so if he had told her that he had failed, she wouldn’t have taken Scott to the end & fallen into the void & Jimmy probably would’ve first out again. Also when they were hosting an early funeral for Jimmy, Joel opened the grave & told Jimmy to “Rise”, I think this was Joel unknowingly breaking the curse.)

12. The fact that Gem’s final death is always her coming 3rd & dying in a 2v1 situation.

13. Joel’s first death in Last Life was fall damage, his first death in Secret Life was also fall damage. The reason Joel ended up on red life in Last Life was because of the Boogeyman curse (both times), in Secret Life, he because red because of being killed by a Boogeyman. In Last Life Joel’s final death was at the hands of Scott, causing him to place 5th, in Secret Life, Joel’s final death was being killed by Scott, causing him to place 5th. I’m leaving out one of Joel’s Last Life deaths, specifically when he died to Mumbo in self defence, but that’s mostly cuz there are more deaths in Last Life than Secret Life

This isn’t even all of them, there are so many more!

[whorbidmore]

okay, so, I've fallen victim to the leon kennedy brainrot steadily overtaking me, following me from Tumblr to Pinterest, to Instagram and even the absolutely fucking dreaded application of TikTok. I don't even use it that often??? and the algorithm is just like 'wow, yeah, this little fuckers gay as hell send in the 40 year old meow meow!!' and having watched Death Island fairly recently, I'm gonna have my opinions on what this dude would be like. Cus my brain loves to rationalize shit and think ab 'what if this mf was someone real?' so... fuck it.

Leon Soft Kennedy Headcanons

SFW

accidentally bigoted. - im sorry but let's be so fucking real here. he's a 40 something year old man who spent the majority of his life in either the military, a police training academy in the 90's, or otherwise working under the U.S Federal System with minimal/no time between missions to unpack absolutely everything he's got going on... the guys gonna have some problematic tendencies. Obviously that doesn't mean he means any of that or is incapable of change, etc. etc., but I know for damn certain this dude would laugh a little at Bill Burr's borderline to blatantly misogynistic material and has probably chuckled unironically at the attack helicopter jokes. But, he's not a complete dick, and would definitely become more critical of those kinds of jokes if it's pointed out to him.

honest to God, Dad Without Kids™ - it's not simply enough for me to leave it at 'but it's the vibes!!' so, I'm gonna break this shit down. Leon is absolutely Gen X incarnate. I can fucking guarantee you that on his off days he accidentally ends up dressing as an undercover cop; I'm talking cargo shorts, light blue button up, those fucking standard issue boots cus "they're perfectly good shoes" and those stupid ass sunglasses... you know the ones I'm talking about. Let's say you're living with him, right? And you're... you, and you wanna watch something on TV. This dude would strain himself getting up like a turtle fallen backwards on its shell, stand up, walk right in front of the TV screen and stand there with his hands on his hips. It doesn't matter that he had to piss, he needs to get a better look of what's happening! Does those really loud, obnoxious coughs and sneezes, absolutely blows his back out doing one at least five times a year.

Only watches British Reality TV - Considering he's canonically a film buff, I'll say that this is purely for whatever he gravitates towards on general streaming services. I honestly don't see him being the type to regularly tune in to standard American cable TV, or only does so under specific circumstances like American Ninja Warrior or maybe Forged in Fire if there's absolutely nothing else. It's not something that's exclusive to Americans, — I'm from New Zealand and I do this too, — but Leon absolutely falls into the category of watching British Reality and Game shows purely because of the accents. I'm talking Jeremy Kyle, The Big Fat Quiz of Everything, Taskmaster, The Great British Bake Off and so on and so forth. It doesn't matter that baking isn't his forté or a passion of his, if Josephine curdles her buttercream by over mixing, his hands are in his hair in utter disappointment. 100% tries to mimic their accents too. We all do it, don't lie.

Has... very dated music tastes - I don't know if you could guess, but the last paragraph included me calling myself out and name dropping some shows I watch anyway or grew up watching, and I'm just saying that this is gonna be no different. If anything? This'll be worse! Since I'm very passionate about the music I listen to and have the inability to keep my interests separated from the other, of course my love of particular bands will bleed over into my interpretation of Leon's character! Anyway, all that for me to say that Leon fucking LOVES 90's grunge musicians, specifically Pearl Jam and Soundgarden, as well as early nu metal bands like Korn (their dubstep phase did not happen.), TOOL, and Rage Against the Machine — and no, he unfortunately doesn't see the irony of him being a fed and listening to Rage, — but would also have a soft spot for psych rock, post-punk and shoegaze. My man's definitely laid awake at night, sobbing without expression as he struggles to accept that Ada never really wanted him like he wanted her while listening to fucking Slowdive. My hottest take here is that he doesn't really listen to Deftones. Like he'll occasionally blast My Own Summer, Change, Bored or Rosemary, but anything outside of those? He just didn't listen to 'em. My second hottest take is that he does NOT like Slipknot, which kind of pains me 'cus I do, but I fucking bet you this dude would actually adopt one piece of "Gen Z lingo" or whatever just call them cringe. Though admittedly he would've been jamming the fuck out to Psychosocial and The Devil in I when they came out. Went off the deep end in Vendetta, obviously, and drunk-cried himself to sleep on the couch listening to Linkin Park.

Very confusing spending habits - On one hand, we all understand that Leon came from money, — he was implied to have been born into a mob family from my understanding? And I doubt he'd ever really had to worry about being fully, irrevocably broke, — but I'm sure that growing up in the U.S Foster Care System made him at least a little more cautious of where his money comes from, where it's going, what he's spending it on, etc. So, on the one hand, he's apprehensive to spend recklessly, particularly on perishables. But also, if he can drop over $100,000USD on a motorcycle that got absolutely fucking cheese grated into the road, and spend a perceived, metric fuck ton of money on designer leather jackets and massive watches, it's gonna be hard for me to call him 'financially conscious'. On one hand, he gets apprehensive on spending more money than he needs to on food since he's "just gonna shit it out later", but if he sees a cool watch or a nice suit in a shop window? Money's suddenly not an issue! Not because he's materialistic, but because the one thing he really maintains a sense of control over in his life are his possessions and the way he dresses. The D.S.O can call him in for another months long mission whenever they please, and all he can realistically do is allow the government to tug on his leash and put him where he's needed. He may as well spend their money on things he wants!

Gets out... enough? But also, not really? - So, personally I've pegged Leon as more of an introverted person, — amateurly typed his MBTI as possibly ISFJ? — so he doesn't really feel the need to go out and meet new people or really hang out with anyone. If somebody invites him out? Sure, he'll go. Otherwise, it rarely occurs to him to meet up with friends or colleagues at a cafe or anywhere. I think he'd prefer to just go there alone, mostly for the sake of having somebody else cook for him as opposed to actively seeking out the atmosphere. It's pure convience in his mind. And remember when I said in the beginning about him accidentally being at least a little misogynistic? Yeah, that was me trying to say that he regularly tries to hit on younger waitresses. Not because he actually wants anything to do with them, but simply because it's an ego boost. He likes that he can make girls half his age blush or offer him their numbers, because it tells him that he's still desirable, and ultimately, that gives him the power to reject them politely and go about the rest of his day. If they don't reject him first, of course. Admittedly, Leon's audacity towards women peaked during Infinite Darkness.

Since I'm planning on posting more NSFW headcanons for this guy, — and more NSFW kinds of posts, — here is the obligatory Minors DNI attachment. For your own safety, I don't care if what I have to say is tame so far, you can hold it off I promise.

[fountainpenguin]

Secret Life finale highlights for me:

- "My strategy: Kill Skizz and Tango. Will happen at some point... Or, just maim them and watch them die in a corner." - Scar

- Scott on Grian's loyalty: "I have never seen a man drop a pair of sunglasses faster in my life [than last season after Joel died]."

- I think I reblogged someone's speculation weeks ago that at the dawn of final session, everyone's task book would just say "Win Secret Life." Congrats to them for Apollo's gift of prophecy.

- Martyn's beat of pause before saying to Joel "Welcome to the Out of Context video."

- At the start of the season, Etho said Joel was the first one he wanted to kill because "He's cheeky." When Joel is asked who he wants to kill, he says "Etho." Glad you're enjoying your rivalry, boys, smh...

- Joel, once again giving into his Shrek origins, watching Bdubs' wool globe go up in flames and chirping "My world's on fire; how 'bout yours?"

- Tango does not break his "pathetic death" curse. Just blipped out of existence. Love that for him.

- Spitting, crying... BigB panics and flees into his creepy backrooms for safety. Immediately vanishes into the tunnel maze. Scar pursues and skids to a halt because he hasn't seen it yet and is thoroughly creeped out.

- Scar coming up to surface and trying to describe how BigB disappeared. Martyn looks down at where they're standing and is just like "Oh, that's the backrooms." Mental image of Scar as that meme that goes "The. what."

- Scar describing BigB as a sneaky squirrel. "Squirrel" was the name of BigB's horse in Double Life.

- Joel's anxiety about entering a Nether portal on the final episode, specifically because of how he and Etho perma-died in Double Life

- Whatever was going on with Martyn flinging ender pearls up the ladder seconds before he died

- Additionally, people in the background commenting that they think Martyn's teamed up with Cleo and the only reason he was near them was an attempt to bear down and kill them

- Scar to Bdubs, watching Cleo and Etho from a distance: "Look at this- Mom and Dad are bringing their new ugly stepson to meet us, Bdubs." /camera pans to the warden chasing them

- Bdubs tells Scar that Cleo said he was her favorite son and Scar IMMEDIATELY, without responding or even waiting for Bdubs to finish his sentence, jumps a wall and books it to Cleo to confirm... Mental image of him swinging dramatically over it with one hand, his shawl billowing behind him

- Scar chases Cleo while they're both being pursued by a warden, asking her if he's her favorite son. Doesn't let up until she assures him she "just said it to keep Bdubs happy." what is wrong with the Clocker family.

- Joel somehow pulled off a beautiful PVP kill on Skizz despite having only 2.5 hearts

- In earlier episodes, Joel had people say "The florist sends his regards" on his behalf before striking. Before killing Skizz, he says "Scar sends his regards" since Scar really wanted to kill Skizz but bequeathed the fight to Joel instead.

- Scar trotting up to Etho and Cleo, who are watching him from a cliff, and announcing "I am not up to anything nefarious!"

- Scar's weird spiky wall design is really pretty

- slkdjfskldjfsklj?!?!?!? I had a bullet point on this list that said "Honorable non-finale mention to Scar getting both the Green and Yellow kill on Etho this season" but now I see I need to correct that:

- Shout-out to Scar killing Etho - in Etho's front yard - THREE TIMES this season. Etho rushing back to his base, tripping over his feet and saying "I'm going home, everybody- I'm dying at my home-"

- Scott to Scar: "I went down to BigB - to get him - and I see what you mean; he does just talk his way out of things so you feel bad; you just leave him." / Scar: "That's why you don't let him speak. You just inner monologue. You start talking about Star Wars so you can't hear his charms."

- As Scar drives his sword into Cleo, he says "Good-bye, Mom- This is for you telling Bdubs [he's your] favorite." Geez, dude. Scar killed both his parents; this family is a mess. Bonus points for Joel fumbling in the background like "Oh my gosh- Scar, you savage-"

- I watched multiple POVs until I was caught up to the standoff between Gem & The Scotts vs. The Mounders... So picking up from there with Scar's POV b/c his is the one I randomly started with today: I love how Joel basically went "I am once again throwing caution to the wind and charging into battle with a murderous Red rage in my eyes and no one behind me" like he ALWAYS does.

- Bdubs and Scar decide to back him up... Amazing.

- Scar has gotten 4 kills (Tango, Etho, Cleo, Impulse) and he was super close to getting BigB as well before Scott sniped the kill. Geez... The man is vicious today. During Limited Life, Grian made a comment that went something like "Of course Scar is only destructive / successful when I'm not on his team" and honestly? Yeah...

- Pearl begging Scar to kill her- Pearl warning Scar that if she perma-kills Gem, she'll go up 10 hearts- Scar refusing, insisting that he doesn't want to turn on her because it feels lame...

- Scar got Gem, he got Gem... GeminiSlay is DOWN!

- SCAR SWEEP WITH THE BOW!!

Oh my goodness, I saw his episode title ("Can Villain Scar Win?") and the words that went through my head were "Welp, that's a spoiler that he's dead." I see I was wrong.

GG, SCAR WIN!!! Man who wanted so desperately to have friends, only to trip and fail time and time again... GoodTimesWithVictor!!

My heart, Scar letting that zombie knock him down to half a heart... playing up like he didn't just watch the lightning bolt mark Pearl's demise. He wanders, calling out to Pearl, asking where she went... quietly giggling and muttering to himself as that zombie pushes at him... GG, Scar. GG.

My goodness, is this the only time we haven't seen the winner die in their perspective? Scar slams that success button for winning the game, gets 5 hearts, turns back, and that's it... That's the game. End scene.

What a LAD!!

[licorice-tea]

You’re An Angel When You Sleep

Pairing: Trafalgar Law x reader

Content: angst, drowning, a little “off-screen” violence, hurt/comfort, near death experience

Word Count: 1.5k

A/N: literally wrote this in between classes so hopefully it doesn’t feel too rushed! not edited super closely yet, the grammar might be a little off. inspired by the song “Around The Bend” by Pearl Jam, specifically the last verse <3

Edited 2/28/24

Law is sinking, and there’s nothing he can do.

People call it “The Curse of The Sea.” They say that “she” turns her back on you when you eat a devil fruit. It’s simply the price to pay for such immense power.

And he has never had to worry about it before. His devil fruit ability affords him the security of being to prevent trips into the ocean. Not that he ever would fall- Law is far too careful a man- but he has plenty of crewmates and friends/allies that could somehow knock him overboard.

How sickening, that the first time it actually happened was at the hands of an enemy. And how disappointing, that it had only happened because of his own pride. A foolish disregard of taking caution while standing close to the railing on the enemy ship, when one of his opponent’s underlings threw something that didn’t even really hurt, but sent him overboard. In the midst of a battle where everyone was expected to hold their own- Law could expect no help as he plunged into icy waters.

It’s cold enough as it is, and his curse does nothing to help. He tries his hardest to stay conscious- perhaps he can still use his power if he thinks hard enough. People awaken their devil fruits all the time, so there’s no reason why he can’t do it now. But, no matter how badly he wants to simply teleport back to the deck of the ship, he can’t. The feeling of impending doom only serves to weaken his resolve, and soon enough Law is unwillingly giving up and giving in to the sea.

He’s about 10-12 meters down now. The weight of the water makes it feel nearly impossible to hold his breath for longer, so he lets out an exhale ever so slowly.

But no one is coming, and it’s time to accept his fate. “This is it,” he thinks, “just another pirate lost to the sea. That’s how it ends for me.”

He takes a moment to reflect on life up until now. So much pain and suffering, but in the end he just can’t stop remembering what little good there has been. His crew, who, no matter how much they bothered him, were his family. His blood family and Corazon, who he hopes to see again soon if there is any sort of afterlife. Then there’s you- with your uncanny ability to make him smile and laugh, your clever personality and friendly nature, all your strength and intelligence, and seemingly unwavering good morals. Law feels he barely deserves to have known you in this life, let alone fall in love with you as he has. Which is why he never shared his feelings with you or anyone, in all the time you’d been on his crew. Before this moment, he’d at least had the comfort of knowing there would always be the future, and therefore more time to open up to you figure out his feelings.

“How foolish.”

Law is just about to close his eyes- at least then it might be a more peaceful demise- when there’s a splash that breaks the surface of the waves. His eyes shoot wide open as he tries to figure out what it is, as it’s rather difficult to see clearly with his vision blurring and on the verge of losing consciousness.

All he can be sure of is that it’s a person. The light from above the waves surrounds their silhouette giving them an angelic halo, but simultaneously blocking out all their features from his view.

Law wonders, “Are you here to seal my fate? To ensure I don’t find some way out of this?” If he could, he’d ask that they do it quickly. Still, that painfully hopeful little part of his mind can’t help but come out in what are more than likely his last moments alive. “Or, are you here to save me? Are you gonna give me a second third chance at this? I don’t deserve it, but I will accept it. I’ll use it to do more; work harder, fulfill every goal. Confess to y/n.”

And that hopeful streak seems to take over his body as he uses his last iota of strength to reach upwards. Law’s angel continues swimming downward, but he can’t hold his breath long enough to see them reaching out to him, too.

His last thought is of you. He swears he can see your face on this mystery person as they get closer; your pretty eyes and lips, your hair swirling around your form underwater. Could it actually be… No, he doubts you’d even seen him falling overboard. But maybe he’s already dead, and you really are an angel. Law doesn’t get the chance to fully consider either reality though, as he finally blacks out.

-

“Gimme gimme gimme… a man after midnight…”

This is how Law taught you to do CPR on someone whose heart had stopped. Years ago, when you were struggling with keeping count of 100-120 beats per minute, he told you to “think of a song with the same count.” Most everyone’s go-to CPR song is “Stayin’ Alive.” But, you prefer the classic ABBA song. You pause every 30 compressions to administer 2 breaths, and as you remove your lips from his, a thought crosses your mind. “He looks so peaceful like this.” And even while unconscious, he’s handsome… angelic, even. Nevertheless, you’d much rather have an alive and annoyed looking Law than a dead and calm one.

“Is there a soul out there… Someone to hear my-”

Law coughs suddenly, and shoots up into a sitting position, gasping for breath.

“Law!” You throw your arms around his neck, nearly knocking the man back over.

And though he’s still catching his breath and coming to his senses, he lets you, and puts an arm around your back. “Y/n,” another cough, “what happened?”

You release him (much to his disappointment) and explain how the fight had ended soon after the crew lost sight of him; their captain. And, while the others quickly overtook the enemies, you dove overboard where you’d last seen him. It was pure luck, though guided by your intuition, that you found Law beneath the surface.

“Then I swam over here-“

“Which is where?”

You nod in the direction behind him. “Just around the bend from the harbor. The Polar Tang and the enemy’s ship can be seen from there, so I thought it’d be best to hide while you…”

“While I was dying.”

“Don’t say it like that,” you scold him with a frown, “you’re alive.”

“But I could have died.” Law says with very little pride. He sounds a little out of it, which makes sense considering the circumstances. “I could have died, and you saved me.”

“Well, any one of us would’ve, Captain-“

“Thank you, y/n.”

You shake your head bashfully. “It was no problem, really.” That’s a lie, and you both know it. The water in this part of the ocean is freezing, but through some incredible resolve that you hadn’t been aware of before, you pushed through it. For him. “So… We should get back to the fight, yeah?”

You move to stand up from your place on your knees, but Law stops you. With his hand on your shoulder, he pulls you back down to his side. “You said the fight is over?”

“Mhm.”

“Then let’s just… stay here, for a moment.”

He leans toward you hesitantly, though you’re not sure if it’s because he feels weak or he just wants you to hold him again. Either way, you wrap your arms around him and rest your chin on his shoulder. You hold onto each other with gentle force, and you feel him exhale deeply.

“I need to tell you something.” Law mutters.

You pull back enough to see his face. “Right now? Can’t it wait, Law-“

“I can’t want any longer.” And he really can’t. He’d tell you about how he had mistaken you for a living, breathing angel another time. For now, he just needs to fulfill his promise to said angel (to you?), and confess his love for you.

“Ok… What is it?”

Law is very straightforward as he says it. “I’m in love with you.” And he makes it impossibly hard to return to the battle when he asks that you never leave him in this life, like so many others have. Which you promise not to, of course, though it’s not exactly your decision. You tell him that you love him too, and in turn demand that he doesn’t die on you, either. Law nods against you.

The two of you stay there a while longer, in each other’s arms around the bend.

[minecraftbookshelf]

Life Series Scarring Headcanons: Part 2

All the disclaimers and explanations are on Part 1, so if you haven't seen that one yet, I recommend hopping over there real quick.

Some of these do get a bit...graphic? Specific? Something along those lines. I kind of split the middle ground between Video Game and more realistic injuries. (Did I spend way to long thinking about specifics of murder and death for this? I plead the fifth.)

This one is Grian, ImpulseSV, InTheLittleWood, and LDShadowLady

Lessgo!

Grian

Third Life: In my mind's eye Grian has always turned to look at the sky after his leap from the cactus ring, so the death blow was to the back of his head.

Last Life: Scott killed him when the late-game reds banded together to hunt down Grian and Joel. The other members of the alliance dealt damage, but Scott got the final hit in. Grian was fleeing at the time, so the scar is on his back, above his wings.

Double Life: Because sonic booms don't leave external evidence so much as they remove your insides from anything vaguely approaching a solid state, there isn't a scar as such from this death. There is a mark though, mid-mass. (it is not concentric circles, that's just what I put on the diagram to mark the location)

Limited Life: Fall damage again, based off the "camera angle" the general vibe I got was that Grian could have tried to catch himself on his hands as he fell. From that height, it was futile and there are faint marks on his wrists where the bone poked through as well as the actual death blow to the side of his forehead. Bird Man needs to stop falling off things fr.

Impulse

Third Life: Bdubs shot him after Scar gave him a clock in the most infamous backstabbing in the series to date. Usually when Bdubs shot someone I place the mark a bit lower, but they were on a bit of a hill at the time.

Last Life: In what was something of the fashion on the Last Life server, Scott shot him. He was trying to flee when he was shot, so I placed the mark at the base of his skull. (If only they were able to wear helmets)

Double Life: Pearl killed Bdubs with a blow to the front, so Impulse has a fainter scar from that death.

Limited Life: In the new contender for most infamous backstabbing in the series (poor Impulse has some rotten luck here) Martyn pretended to go along with the "disarm and fight it out" plan only to turn on them and seize the victory. Impulse wasn't wearing his armor, so the final blow was a sword through his torso that severed his spine.

Martyn

Third Life: Martyn died in the Battle of Dogwarts, to an arrow from Scar. Due to how helter skelter the melee was, I opted to have it be an off-center shot that tore the side of his neck, so it is not a clean mark. (It mirrors Ren's on the opposite side)

Last Life: He was blown up by his own end crystal, (probably triggered by a potion Scott threw) which was placed level with the top half of his body and he was literally right next to it facing it. He didn't even have time to try and shield himself with his arms.

Double Life: He died when Cleo took fall damage while fleeing from Pearl and her dogs. This is one where I took some creative liberties and opted to have the fall damage interpret as a tree branch that Cleo landed on with the full force of their own body weight, impaling herself by accident.

Limited Life: Whether going with his time ran out or Grian smote him, either way it is a death by lightning and the scars are lichtenberg figures down his chest and arm and a little bit his back. The smitey-lightning always goes for the heart, so he and Scott match now. (it also leaves a mark on the sole of the foot when it exits the body and enters the ground, but that doesn't show on the diagram.)

Lizzie

She has only perma-died in one season, even though she has technically been in two. In Last Life she ultimately died to fall damage while trying to fight back and escape from BDubs when he betrayed the other reds. Her scar is hidden by her hair.

-

Part 1

Part 3

[piglinmyfeet]

YES please pretty please talk about your historical life series au

So, the setting is roughly late 1900s to early 1910s. Pre-war era England. London to be specific, though I am looking for a specific year to set this in (partly for the sake of character design)

The au contains all members of the life series, but some don't have set roles yet and I'm open to input on those, as well as ideas for characters who already have roles

The central characters are Joel and Scar (and to an extent, Grian), though the story is more from Joel's perspective overall.

Joel is an artist, as a reference to his empires s1. He was raised by his aunt and uncle in Yorkshire, along with his cousin but moved to London at a young age to pursue his career in art.

Scar is an American nouveau riche car manufacturer (a reference to hermitcraft S8) who recently moved to England and is a new patron of Joel's art.

Ren is Scar's old money neighbour who has a suspiciously familiar manservant. Spoiler but Ren is also the legitimate brother of Joel.

Martyn was the second son of an Earl and highly respected officer in the British army, however he died recently. Another spoiler, he faked his death and is disguised as Ren's manservant.

Grian is another neighbour of Scar's, though his family's wealth goes back much less far. Grian grew up with Martyn and Ren but has a deep hatred for the two of them and is determined to find something to ruin their reputation, such as an illegitimate sibling or the truth about a suspicious death.

Gem is an officer in the British army who replaced Martyn after his death. She has been disguised as a man since joining the army and is widely disrespected due to her age, despite how strict she is with the troops, rivalling many other officers.

Etho is an older army officer and the only person who knows Gem's status as he was the one who helped her make her way into the army.

Cleo is Martyns so called widow, making her a dowager. Don't ask why there was so much alcohol at her husbands funeral, a woman may cope however she pleases.

Scott is Cleo's new fiancé after the death of Martyn. He is a bankrupt noble due to a series of bad investments at the hand of his older brother and has agreed to marrying a wealthy dowager (Cleo)

Lizzie is Joel's ex-fiance who went missing a few years ago. Yet another spoiler, she got heavily involved in the suffragette movement (theyre the violent ones, the suffragists were the more peaceful ones) and is on the run from the law and under Cleos protection.

The two with less fleshed out roles at the moment are Jimmy, Joel's cousin he was raised with in Yorkshire, and Mumbo, a mechanic who works for Scar, so they need to be further developed

Then there's Pearl, Impulse, Bdubs, Skizz, BigB are Tango who I honestly have no clue where to fit them in here so please give me ideas 🥺👉👈 i literally love using that sequence of emojis its so silly

Places I took inspiration from for this are: A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder (Musical), The Unexpected Heiress (Visual Novel) and The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue (Book Series)

The last one is set in a completely different time period (1700s), however I took inspiration from it's mystery aspects (this also only applies to the first two books in the series) (it also has no relation to GGLAM, ignore their similar names, and the fact both have main characters who go by Monty)

(By the way, don't expect perfect historical accuracy, this is not the time period I've studied the most extensively. The one I have studied is not really suitable for Minecraft fanfiction, however I am still a history lover.)

[softlymaximoff]

Own My Mind

18+ ONLY! MEN & MINORS DNI (blank blogs will be blocked you do not have my permission to republish my work onto any platform.

A/N: listen to the song, lyrics are in italics

Summary: Wanda is one of the many supernatural beings hiding out in the outskirts of town. Ranking her position as a female priest in the community church, she gets a surprise visit from an enemy who slowly becomes her new favourite religion.

Characters: Dark!Priest!Wanda, Gn!Reader

Warnings: religion talk both good and bad (?), mentions of death, magic play, mind control, mind manipulation, semi-dubcon (if you squint), dumbification, branding, fingering (r receiving), choking.

Word Count: 1.5k

You had never really considered yourself to be a religious person. You father always telling you that the only religion you’ll be practicing is hunting down those supernatural beings. For years you had been praised for your captures and relied solely on his constant affirmations. There wasn’t ever a time where you thought you would become the captured. The hunter became the hunted.

It was the particularly odd shaped cathedral-like shelter, a little off the grid from everyone else that reeled your curiosities in. At first you thought nothing but an abandoned church, you know the usual old stained glass panels, a few of them cracked from the soft kisses of the unforgiving weather. Marble floors that had a pearl shimmer all throughout and last but most certainly not least, a single candle lit up at the altar.

“You shouldn’t be snooping, hunter” the voice was cold, shallow and grey. “No, I'm not even superstitious, but I'm feeling you're something vicious” you replied in a similar tone and chills littered your skin. “What’s a hunter doing in an outcast zone” a brunette came out into the light and the first thing that caught your eye was the small cross dangling from her neck. Something not uncommon to the supernatural. A yearning for sense of normalcy fell upon most of these beings and who were you to judge honestly. Feeling a little cocky you decide to stalk her further into her little hiding spot and mumble out a snarky remark. “Well, I don't know your secrets, I'm no visionary, I don't know your story, but I like what I see”

“Oh you’re quite the talker? Say have you ever been on your knees for the lord above?” Her green eyes glimmered in the fractured light and your breath hitched. “I’m a hunter for things like you. I don’t believe in religion. Things like you shouldn’t exist” you mumbled and stepped back as she finally came out in a strip of pink and red stained light. “Oh but we do. We have been for years. On the contrary, things like you shouldn’t exist. What kind of human finds the desire to hunt another living being. That surely isn’t a being of our father” she eyed you predatorily and you stumbled back.

“Come here Sundays and you’ll see just what you’re missing out on. That truly is Gods creation. Meet me by Lucifer’s statue at the back of the cathedral, Sunday at 9” she finished off and exited the room, her eyes casting you one last red-hued glance.

That was seven months ago.

By now you had been coming every week to entertain this community and things had been tense in the beginning. Three weeks after joining community hall, your father had gone missing and not once had the woman -you now knew as Wanda- mentioned your father. It shouldn’t have raised concerns as the two of you never really spoke about family until she had mentioned a specific detail that made you freeze.

“You what?!” You whisper yelled as she shushed you with a hand over your mouth. “Shut the fuck up and don’t act all surprised” she growled and pulled you out of the busy community hall. “Wanda you can’t just tell me this and expect me to be okay with it!” You ripped yourself away from her hold and pushed against her chest. Her eyes narrowed and turned their deep red as you fought against her. “Calm down. Let me explain” she threatened and your mind loosened it’s grip on reality a little bit.

This was another thing she had slowly begun doing as you hung out more with these communities. Every now than again she would turn your mind just that little more dumb and you couldn’t help but submit under those velvet orbs. “Y/n, Y/n, Y/n, you might be the answer to the sinner in me” she traced a delicate finger along your arm and you shuddered. “Your father was getting awfully close to figuring us out. The supernatural doesn’t have to be feared. Our father above loves us for who we are, not for what we aren’t” she stilled her voice her eyes turned a darker red.

“Wha- Wanda no. That’s not how life works you can’t- you can’t just kill someone because you don’t like them!” you replied incredulously and she brought her hands up to your neck, resting one along your jaw and one behind your head. “Oh but we can. You see, in our world, it’s survival of the fittest my angel. You father just wasn’t fit enough” she shrugged innocently and tangled her fingers in your hair, leaning down to plant a chaste kiss on your neck.

With her magic slowly seeping into your mind, your knees buckled against hers and she kept you up with the hand around your neck. “So easy to tease. Little toy has such a sinners tongue. Tell me what you've been missing darling” she sucked her mark below your jaw and you whined throwing your head back for easier access. “You, always you” You whimpered when you felt her magic toying with your clit. “Do I own your mind Y/n” she pushed further and your mind was quite possibly going blank.

“Own my mind, yes, always please, Wanda” you were helpless as she continued her ministrations and you were so far in a haze that you didn’t realise her hands were burning a brand onto your hip. “Beautiful toy. All mine. My mind, my body, my pussy. All mine” she pulled back and admired the little crown symbol she seared into your skin and it was only when she ran her thumb over it you realised her work.

That was the first time she has ever mentioned you being hers. You had just found out about your father’s miseries and here the killer was making you completely submit to her. With a burst of confidence and slight anger towards the woman, you shook your head and pushed off her. “Wanda we can’t- I’m still new here” You heaved she she shushed you again, her eyes returning to their natural green. “I won’t let anyone hurt you. You’re mine Y/n. Whether you like it or not”

It took months for you to get over the initial shock of it all. How can a religious being, let alone the position of a female priest be such a sinner in the walls of the cathedral. It didn’t make sense to you but the moment you stepping in the marble room on Sundays, your mind slowly began to slip away. You knew it was all Wanda, it was always Wanda. You were captivated by her presence, her soul, her magic. She was your angel in a dark and twisted realm. She was entirely yours and as much as you hate it, you were completely devoted to her.

Sooner rather than later, you looked forward to Sundays and actually stayed longer to learn about all other supernatural entities that used the church-like building to entertain their own higher power. “Quiet down or I'll make you" her voice was low and breathless as you choked back a few tears. She had edged you on for hours during this particular Sunday morning in the church and now she was finally finishing you off in the confessions box. Nimble fingers ever so slightly dancing in the air as her spell went straight to your cunt. No one paid any mind to her magic as this was the usual supernatural practices.

Years and years of shallow hiding and sneaking around brought you to this very moment. Witches, Lycans, Vampires and other supernatural beings all gathered around community hall to say their prayers to their higher power. So yes, magic hands? Nothing unusual, nothing mind shattering. That was until she locked eyes on you your first day partaking this weekly event and completely took over you from then on.

"Wanda please" You whined as she once again ghosted her fingertips just over your clit. "Oh baby, I'm prayin at your altar if you know what I mean" she smirked and kissed your clit quickly, the action causing you to snap your hips up. “I wanna hear you say it" she pouted and continued her teasing assault on your cunt. A rough cry of frustration escaped your lips as she pulled back completely and stood up to face you. "Do I own your mind Y/n" she murmured in the silence of the church.

Your knees buckled as a hand came around your neck and applied just enough pressure to get your mind hazy. “You know I just gotta have it, I'll make your body a habit, you know there's some kind of magic" she spoke quietly at the shell of your ear and sucked a deliberate mark along the bottom of your jaw. "You own my mind, Wanda, always, always forever and always I- Wanda please let me cum" you screwed your eyes shut and she slipped two fingers in at your confession and gave you the okay.

Yeah, maybe Sunday wasn't made to be the day for rest. At least not in this town, Sundays are to dance with the devil and kiss her on the lips.

[flowers-for-the-grave]

Curse of Victory

Scott sat in his house, perched on his bed, with a book in his lap and a pencil in his hands. He turned to a blank page, then gazed pensively out his window and at the view.

He tapped his pencil against the corner of his lip.

In the past, he'd written about his allies and the chaos of the server. He'd documented the advancements made to the base. He recorded silly, useless details that had potential to become useful in the future.

Mostly though, he tried articulating his memories.

Other players - specifically the ones who hadn't been cursed blessed with victory - had poor recollection of past games. The memories were still there, they would still reappear from time to time, but mostly they lurked in the dark recesses of their minds until called upon. Those memories were old. They had no purpose to them other than to have them keep playing; the reward for victory, after all, was to remember.

Grian remembered everything. Scott knew that he remembered throwing himself off a cliff, cheating on Scar, his slow yet steady loss of his fellow Bad Boys until he had been left alone.

Pearl remembered everything, too. She knew about the trio he, her and Cleo had been in the past; how she had been abandoned by her soulmate yet still came out on top, and Scott took his life so she wouldn't have to suffer in that world longer; how she had at first been in a duo in the Nosy Neighbours, which soon became a trio.

Martyn remembered. He had been the Red King's Hand, his loyal soldier and servant who'd had the burden honour of taking his king's life. He, too, was left by his soulmate and had spent weeks trying to undo his wrongs and get back in her good books. He had been Scott's only ally in the last life game, loyal and devoted, and had taken the mantle of victor.

Scott knew what they remembered, because they had told him. In the cold, empty Void, awaiting the next game as they sat alone with no company but each other, they didn't have much else to do except share what they remembered.

He remembered flower fields with Jimmy, a poppy tucked behind his ear and a wedding ring of twine around his finger. He remembered his allyship with Pearl and Cleo, which split into a duo in the life game afterwards. He remembered the fish tail that had swished behind him and still half-expected it to be there at night.

Most of all, they all remembered the pain.

Scott had tried articulating his thoughts, writing them on paper to go over later. It didn't work, predictably. But the sentiment had been there.

Martyn and Jimmy were Red Lives now.

It was an odd thought. Jimmy had never had the best luck in the games, always being the first one to be eliminated from the game. He had been a terrible ally - always so accident-prone and clumsy - but he'd also been joyful and kind. He had been as vibrant as the colour of his canary wings, and burned as bright as the sun.

It seemed sensible that Jimmy would go down so quickly.

Martyn, on the other hand...

Martyn was vicious. He was ruthless and cunning and quick. In the heat of battle, his sword always struck true. He was a fighter, from birth to death. He did not die easily.

But, like all of them, he was mortal. And he was human. He was subject to such things as mortality.

Scott scribbled this down as best he could. His handwriting, normally pristine and fancy, was erratic and scruffy. The others would probably think someone else wrote this, but the winners would know.

They always did.

He set down his pencil and lay down, staring up at the ceiling.

His bed felt cold.

He sat up again and rose to his feet. He shuffled to his door, opened it, stepped outside into the cool night air and began to walk. Where, he couldn't say. His feet were carrying him in whichever direction they saw fit.

Scott left behind the plateau on the mountain and approached the open field at Spawn.

He spotted Martyn standing there awkwardly, yawning and dragging his feet along the ground.

"Martyn? What are you doing up this late?" he asked.

"I could ask you the same thing," Martyn replied. His eyes glimmered red, sparkling rubies or flowing blood. Either way, they were beautiful. "Besides, a little Green Life out here, with no protection, and with a Red Life no less."

"You wouldn't try anything."

"Wouldn't I?"

"No." He spoke with conviction. He slowly drew nearer to the Red Life and paused a few centimetres from him. Scott cupped Martyn's cheek, and the Red Life leaned into the touch ever so slightly. There was hesitation in his eyes.

Martyn sighed, taking a step back. "I want this to end."

"You want to go back to the Void that much?"

"No? Yes? I don't know! It's... it's frustrating." He folded his arms and stared at the floor. "I just want things to be clear again. I want to talk to you without feeling the urge to rip your arms off. Hell, I want to talk to people in general!"

Scott grabbed Martyn gently by the arm. Without a word, they both travelled up to Pearl's base. He knocked on the door and was met with the image of Pearl - bushy hair, bags under her eyes - grumbling to herself.

"What?"

Scott, with Martyn in tow, pushed past and into the room. "Wait here," he commanded. "I'll be back soon."

He quickly ran up to the plateau, silently sneaking into his house and taking the bed. He legged it all the way back, using the diving board for assistance. He placed it down up against a free spot on the wall.

Pulling the covers back, he hopped in and patted the space next to him. Martyn nervously crawled in.

Pearl watched them awkwardly. Then she sent out a message via her comm.

"We're having a winners' sleepover." she stated.

Scott nodded.

Grian appeared a few minutes later, with two other beds. He placed them near to Scott's and the other two victors got under the covers.

"To victory, and shitty memories." Scott said, and the others repeated it.

Scott and Martyn tangled in each other's limbs with a small smile on their faces. It felt good, to be like this again. He'd missed it.

As slumber overcame him, Scott had one final thought.

He was home.

[sapphicwhimsy]

Could I have some Pearleo (pearl x cleo) with hurt/comfort perhaps? 👀 or hurt/no comfort if you're feeling angsty

is there truly comfort in this? ill let you decide lol

The life series had ended, and they had woken up back home.

Alone, though the visage of their final death still clawed at their throat and felt as if it was eating them alive at every possible moment. She had been returned to the ground from where she had came, dying in a hole that she wished she could have dug herself back out of again. Alone, afraid, taunts filling her undead ears as the last of her life was taken from her in a fight she had no chance to defend herself from.

And then she had woken up, like it had never happened. Like she hadn't…

It was easy to pretend it didn't happen. It was easy to push herself to working on the castle, to do things that had been put off. To climb out of bed and get going.

But, all the same, it wasn't. Her stitches were lose, and sure respawning into a new server was sure to fix bodily harm, but it couldn't fix ripped clothes or torn stitches holding her together. She had tried, still, of course! Had gotten to her sewing kit and started to stitch and weave and…

And then her fingers were too lose to move anymore.

She didn't like advertising she needed help. Truly, really, she hated it. But Joe wasn't online, communicator unanswered, and. And.

They couldn't very well let themself become a pile of rotten flesh. They needed help, and waiting until whenever Joe might come online wasn't exactly a viable option when the stitches frayed and their body threatened to fall apart before they even finished a single stitch to hold it together any further.

So Pearl sat next to her, stitching her hand back together. Closing the digits into workable hands, holding her so very tenderly that it made her skin burn with the touch. She wanted to yank away. To rip her arm off before she let this continue, because Pearl had been one of the ones hunting her down, had aided Scar so much, and they couldn't even be mad because they had turned on her too, had attacked her dogs. Alliances had burned, like they always did between the two.

Pearl had taken two of her final lives before. In Double Life, she had chased her down, until there was nothing left to chase, and in Limited Life, Pearl had been the one to deal the final blow. It shouldn't have been surprising that Pearl would try to kill her again.

It shouldn't have hurt as much as it did.

"…thank you," Cleo eventually said, when Pearl cut the stitching on her hand and allowed her the chance to wiggle her fingers to test the stitching.

It was good, a wonderful set of stitches that would surely last. And Pearl nodded, looking her over for another spot, before Cleo offered her other hand, even though the very thought of what had happened made her want to run. They hated this, hated this vulnerability. But Pearl was already here, and they could only hide so much of themself with her here, with her ready to help.

They had asked her specifically to come over, after all.

"Of course," Pearl said, and returned to stitching. They were close, so close Cleo could feel the warmth radiating off Pearl's living body. Close enough that they could hug her if they wanted, but they wouldn't. They'd never. "Do you want to talk about-"

"No."

That was always the answer. That would always be the answer. Pearl seemed to know it, because she nodded, and didn't try to continue with what she was going to say. It didn't matter what Pearl was going to ask her to talk about. It didn't matter what there was to say.

"Alright," Pearl conceded, and her attention focused back on Cleo's hand. Cleo knew she wouldn't leave until she was satisfied that Cleo was as stitched up as Cleo would let herself be by Pearl, and even then, she'd likely still linger. There would be unspoken words and glances and fingers brushing where they shouldn't.

But neither would speak of what they had done. Neither would talk about the hurt in their chest, neither would let the other's words penetrate too deep. Pearl was helping her because she was a friend. Pearl was being kind, and that was it. They were friends, nothing more, and in a few days time, they would return to their usual banter.

In a few days time, it would be like this had never happened.

It made their chest hurt to realize such. It made them ache in a way they didn't know how to address, and they knew that if they still had a beating heart, it would likely have drawn a blush to their cheeks. But there was no heart to beat, no heart to long, no heart to hurt. So they ignored the squeezing and looked away yet again, refusing to watch the kindness Pearl poured into each stitch.

It was fine. She'd be fine. They'd be fine.

They could pretend it never happened. Forget that this had happened before, forget that it would happen again. It didn't matter.

None of it mattered.

[hermitcraft-shifter]

Story Idea #2

tw // mental instability (specifically the type that comes with excessive time loops) , psychological horror / torture , existential horror , body horror , a really bad way to find you're not human , self-destruction , inaccurate watcher + listener lore , apocalypse, discussion of suicide + death + fate worse than death (including cannibalism , parasitism , insanity , war , canary curse , death games)

Song Inspiration: EGO OF THESEUS by Ferris

Word Inspiration: Ship of Theseus (a thought experiment about whether an object is the same object after having had all of its original components replaced)

Fanfiction Inspiration: attempt thirty-three (TLDR: Joe is stuck in a time loop that lasts four days. On the fourth, they die in the Moon Crash and get sent back with only a tape recorder surviving. The fic follows their thirty third time loop and how they get through it with Cub, Cleo, and Scar. It's not their last loop.), the only theory they can't prove (TLDR: Zedaph made a machine that creates alternate illusory timelines from the moment people use it. Unfortunately, they all ended in the apocalypse. Even more unfortunately, Joe finds a version— living and now existing —version of Cleo in theirs. They do the moral thing and bring her home.), and Red Tear Run Down Like A River (TLDR: The sculk parasites Cub and uses his scientistic nature to its advantage. Unfortunately for Joe, they're a fascinating specimen. Cue medical torture and subsequent rescue a little later than anyone wanted.)

Joe's been in a time loop that ends in Hermitcraft's annihilation one way or another for way too long.

They've seen Xisuma kill himself in Season 1, Mumbo (and the Convexes) cannibalize, the forest madness, the shulk/'Mother Spore' parasite Grian or any other unfortunate soul (like Cub), the wars, the death games, the Watchers, the Moon Crash, the texture glitch... (Cleo begging Joe to kill her because any other way would be agonizing echoes in their mind. There was a sea of Pearl's hands, sponge made of cow eyes and flesh. Joe wonders if they'll always die alone.)

Luckily, this caused Joe to have a latent non-human presentation (because of how much stress they're in)! It's basically a parasitic version of spectator mode where they peel themselves out of their body at their own detriment to bumble around. How fun and healthy. They immediately use this to start monitoring and nudging people into the 'right' direction— also known as the choices they know won't kill them.

We follow Joe's (potential) last loop and how they broke it by getting people to care about them due to their self-neglect. To be fair, it's hard to miss the catatonia... and the identity issues... and the physical deterioration... and the mental deterioration... and— It should've never gotten this bad.

A dishonourable Watcher is the one who got Joe looping because they had Potential(tm)... obviously. Throughout the loops, Joe got to know Jimmy— well, specifically bits and pieces about his job as an errand boy for the Listeners and the joke of the Canary Curse. If Joe has mimic a letter they've never seen and pretend to have this Canary Curse to get Jimmy's attention in a timeline they've never met just for a chance to save everyone, so be it.

So be it.

At this point, they'd do anything not to see anyone else suffer ever again.

[erstwhilesparrow]

i've been sort of on-and-off poking at scott and pearl in double life for months and months now, and it keeps itching at me that i... can't totally make them work. like, there IS a pretty clear narrative right there: pearl goes off with martyn to the nether, scott is irritated / hurt by her not being around while he's taking all this inexplicable damage, there are attempts both at reconciliation and at further alienation, and all of those attempts fail. they die. such is the death game.

and this is fine? but i think... i haven't seen last life, and despite my best efforts to take double life as Its Own Thing Separate From Everything Else, it feels like there is Something Missing. grian says in his first last life episode something to the effect of "this is all new, what happened last season doesn't count or matter anymore, each of these seasons is standalone" and it just isn't. like, i appreciate the effort, really, but it so is not!

let's talk about martyn? the thing i am particularly thinking about: i watched double life first, limited life next, and then most recently third life. there was a good number of months before i saw third life where i was sitting with the limited life finale going, "??????" about it. it all... kind of almost made sense in exactly the same way that scott + pearl kind of almost made sense. it felt like trying to grab handfuls of sand. there's stuff on the screen martyn is responding to that i get and tracks, but there's also a bunch of stuff that's never on screen in that season that nevertheless is really important to making sense of him and his actions. ren's absence was deeply important! knowing that martyn was Like That in third life was deeply important! martyn was! actively bewildering to me! until i watched third life!

granted, martyn specifically is also kind of dead-set on making the seasons connect, but there are smaller examples. desertduo in double life doesn't work without desertduo in third life. bigb and ren's falling out immediately becomes a richer thing when you know about Blue Sword Boys and Renchanting. i don't think i would have been nearly as compelled by pearl and bigb in limited life if i didn't know about pearl's isolation and bigb's Whatever The Fuck That Couples' Counselling Bit Was in double life, and i'm sure that alliance will become more compelling when i watch last life!!

and so i am arriving at the realization that i have stumbled into a reading of scott + pearl that has this. bizarre gaping hole in the middle of their relationship that i don't know anything about. i am constantly writing and thinking around this gap, and it resists being filled in because The Thing That Happened Is Right There. there is a thing that happened and they know about it but i don't. it is for sure A Flavour of relationship, to have The Thing We Cannot Talk About pulling things into its gravitational well at all times, but it's super interesting to me that it only exists because [i watched the series weird, the series and its medium is Like That enough that i could watch it weird and have it feel like a fine and valid choice that opened up interesting considerations other people didn't get to have, the push and pull between creator and audience where 'makes sense on its own' and 'calls back to previous significant events' need to be balanced For The Content]? that's just. really neat to me.

other people have said this with both fewer and more interesting words, but it's SUCH one of my favourite things about this medium and in particular about the traffic series that even though everyone has kind of have the same touchpoints (i knew about the beheading and the cactus ring WELL before actually watching third life! we all know how limited life ended! "that time the ranchers' house got burned down" and "that time there was a warden on the surface" are phrases that have meaning!) there is also Participation In The Creation Of Story in the sense that who you watch and in what order creates a different story for you than it does for someone else who watches different people in a different order!

i think. i have thought / talked a lot about how audience in mcyt spaces are Really Significantly Part Of The Storytelling before, but it's been about, like, stream chat interactions, or theories on social media being seen by the creators and made true, or the awareness on the creators' end of Having An Audience They Must Tell Stories For. but it's fun to me that it's this, also?

the traffic series is... a closed box, in the sense that you know when you watch it that (1) there were three hours worth of recording that happened for that session, during which time Things Occurred, and (2) that whatever you see uploaded on youtube is in fact The Whole Thing This Particular Creator Deemed Worth Sharing. there's nothing outside those three hours. if all you care about is one person's pov, there's nothing outside those uploaded videos you need to worry about.

but there IS a box and there ARE other things in it, and you can put together such fascinating pictures of What's Going On but you're never going to have the entirety of it, the Everything In The Box, only Many Things In The Box Held At A Certain Angle. and that's a story! one of many! and you can just do that! you did that by watching it the way you did! isn't that so fucking cool?

[fogwitchoftheevermore]

ok so i was gonna draw these but um. i got lazy. so i'm now just going to write up a tumblr post establishing this headcannon so when i eventually post my fic about it i can link to this as an explanation.

so hi gang. back when i first started cosplaying life series characters i wanted to make up a way that allowed me to more clearly distinguish my cosplays in between the seasons, even if it was just something small and for me, and this led me to here.

basically, what happened here is i decided to give each player a little mark/tattoo like thing representing themselves and each season they didn't win. this has now morphed into a headcannon, that all of the life series players have a physical reminder of every game that they don't win from the watchers, to remind them of what they're missing while they're gone, in an attempt to encourage them to come back. (they're not particularly effective, but oh well, the watchers like to commit to a bit). the winners don't get one because they accidentally set a precedent by not giving grian one (they didn't WANT him coming back), and while the same thing applied to scott, they don't quite feel the same way about pearl or martyn. however, it's also just a little bit of cruelty that there's not physical reminder of what you went through if you win. it only lives in your mind, as fickle as your mind can be, especially in these games. it's on brand for them.

i'm throwing everyone's marks below the cut, specifically what they look like post limited life. i will also explain why i chose each of them, because some of them are more obvious than others.

grian: three purple eyes on the back of his right hand. look the watchers are doing this, of course it's a reminder of what he's supposed to be doing instead of playing these games. for him, it's meant to serve less as encouragement to sign up again, but as encouragement to stop. if you hate us so much, why are you letting us give you more reminders of what you are to us?

scar: a (non painful, because it's not real) injury representing the way he died in each season. there's a bruise on his ribs that never goes away, covered by two scars from ren's arrowhead and grian's sword, tinged in a skulk-y blue.

scott: three flowers on the inside of his right elbow. a poppy for third life (duh), a lotus for double life (victorian flower language is "estranged love"), and hemlock for limited life (victorian flower language is "you will be the death of me").

jimmy: four canary feathers clumped together on his left shoulder. no explanation needed.

pearl: the first two phases of the moon (starting with the full moon) on the inside of her left elbow. obviously due to her name, but i think it's also important to note that last life began a few months into s8 and ended a month before the end of s8, so she would've had her first one show up a month before the moon… well...

martyn: three tally marks on his right eyebrow. this one is less representative of martyn and more of his relationship with the watchers. it's a small mark, it almost looks like a deliberate eyebrow slit or a scar if you're not paying much attention. but as time goes on, and martyn's understanding of/connection to the watchers increases, it's harder to mistake. it's harder to hide what's really happening.

ren: three crowns on the left sideburn. also very self explanitory.

bigb: an arrow, a diamond sword, a piece of dripstone, and another diamond sword on his clavicle. each represents the weapon that shows up around him the most in each season. he's killed by a bow and a crossbow across all three of his deaths in third life, he kills cleo with a diamond sword in last life and looses his first life to lizzie's sword, he is killed by mobs only in double life until grian and the dripstone, and bigb is killed by and kills with a diamond sword most often in limited life.

etho: four sticks of tnt behind his right ear. this is less related to his life series and more his general... everything. it's etho, of course it's tnt. the "behind the ear" thing is also very funny to me because it takes etho AGES to figure out where his is- he knows he should have one, everyone but grian has one, but someone else sees it first MONTHS after third life has ended.

impulse: four arrows on his neck, pointing down. his final deaths in third and last life are to bows, and his first (and arguably only, as bdubs looses the other two lives) death in double life is to a skeleton. the limited life connection is a little more sparse but 1. the watchers had already committed to the bit and 2. he killed quite a few people with bows this season, including bdubs and i am nothing if not annoying about those two.

skizz: three hearts on his wrists, one on the front and inside of his left wrist and one on the outside of his right wrist. hearts are the general symbol of the life series, but skizz is also the definition of "heart on his sleeve". in this case it's just on his wrist, cause i think it looks better than his shoulders/upper arms.

tango: lichtenberg scars along on his left ankle that spread farther every time he looses. these are the scars that you get from being struck by lightning. lightning strikes when you die, and tango's deaths continue to be the most frustrating part of every season for him, the part the watchers think he'd most want to rectify. i know the lightning strike on death wasn't a thing in third or double life, but shhhh don't worry about it. i'm retconing.

bdubs: numbers of a clock on his left side. limited life rounded out the 12, 3, 6, and 9. further seasons would fill in the rest of the numbers and the hands. this is also entirely self explanatory.

cleo: four red stitches around her right wrist. (the stitches existed prior to her playing in the life series, but they change colors one by one after every season. were she to run out of stitches, she would either start suddenly generating more on the same area or ones on other parts of her body would start changing color.) for her, it's just something small that she'd constantly be seeing, as she works with her hands often and the red stands out well against both green zombie skin and the more human colored parts. it makes the series stick in her mind, reminds her of what she still wants from it.

joel: four vertebrae outlined down the spine. the bones part comes at the start from his dogs in third life, and then it becomes more of an association with death as the seasons go on. it's specifically outlining his vertebrae because one thing about life series joel is that he has a spine. he is never a coward, even when it might serve him better to be one.

mumbo: one broken heart on his chest. as martyn discussed in his post limited life stream, last life messed mumbo up bad. like, so bad the watchers decided they couldn't put the guy back in. his is very literal- a broken heart over where his real heart is, where he took multiple injuries over the course of last life, for once, in a mostly non malicious way, a reminder that he shouldn't come back. (i say mostly because, hey, nice to give him time to recover, but it's less because they actually care about the guy and more because they know he'd be no fun like this)

lizzie: small fairy wings on her right shoulder. representative of the fairy fort, of course. were she to show up in another season, it would be something else to represent her alliances, because that's always where lizzie thrives in my opinion, with other people (even if fairy fort was a mess, lol).

[offender42085]

Post 808

She refused to look at the man who killed her husband, as he spoke to offer an apology. One of her sons briefly held up his middle finger before one of his brothers pushed it away.....

Logan Sinclair, Ohio inmate A694623, born 1994, incarceration intake in 2017 at age 22, sentenced to life with possibility of parole, scheduled for parole consideration on 11/17/2065

Murder, Robbert, Assault

The widow of a Parma, Ohio gas station owner who was killed during a botched 2015 robbery attempt at his store told a judge that the man convicted of killing her husband was "evil."

Kimberly Sposit sobbed as she stood behind a lectern before Judge Brian J. Corrigan, surrounded by her three sons, and recounted how Logan Sinclair ripped the future away from her.

"I hate that he's still breathing," she said of Sinclair. "I want him to feel pain everyday that he's in prison like my family feels. I want the rest of his life to be just pure hell. He owns this."

Corrigan sentenced Sinclair to life in prison with the possibilty of parole after 50 years for killing Robert Sposit on Nov. 28, 2015 at the Pearl Road Sunoco, firing at another customer inside the store and robbing a convenience store minutes earlier in Cleveland.

A masked Sinclair went into Pearl Road Sunoco about 7:30 p.m. in the evening, pulled a pistol and demanded money, prosecutors said.

Sposit pulled his own gun and shot Sinclair during the robbery, then stood over Sinclair, held him at gunpoint and ordered two regulars at the store, who happened to be deaf, to call 911, prosecutors said.

When the deaf men gave no response, the store owner turned his head and Sinclair pulled out his gun, shot Sposit and ran from the store, prosecutors said. He turned and fired off one last round that missed the two customers, Cleary said.

Sinclair drove to a home on West 46th Street, where they found the getaway car and saw blood in the front seat, prosecutors said. A SWAT team surrounded the house and Sinclair surrendered. Sinclair tried to remove the bullet from himself instead of going to the hospital, prosecutors said.

A jury convicted Sinclair last month. He and his lawyers, Jeff Richardson and James McDonnell, argued at trial that, while Sinclair did rob the stores, he only fired after Sposit shot him.

Logan faced a minimum of life in prison with parole eligibility after 20 years. But Corrigan handed down life with parole after 30 years on an aggravated murder charge, and imposed consecutive sentences for the robbery of the convenience store. He also tacked on several firearm specifications bringing the base-minimum prison sentence to 50 years.

Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Michael O'Malley issued a statement after the sentence was handed down calling business owners "the backbone of our community."

"We are reminded all too often these hard-working people are targeted by cowards," O'Malley said. "Today justice was served, but the sentence will not fill the void of this family's tragic loss."

Sinclair will be nearly 70 years old when he is released.

Richardson had asked Corrigan for leniency on Sinclair, citing what he called a "stereotypical background" for young men who run afoul of the law.

Sinclair spent a portion of his childhood in foster care because one of his parents was incarcerated, Richardson said. And, aside from a few misdemeanors, the then-20-year-old Sinclair had no criminal history when he robbed the two stores that day.

Parma police said that Sinclair said during questioning that he had been fueled by a drug addiction.

"You have before you a young man who, in the span of about 30 minutes, managed to ruin his entire life," Richardson told Corrigan.

Assistant Cuyahoga County prosecutor Dan Cleary implored Corrigan to sentence him to the maximum, because Sinclair had continuously refused to take responsibility for Sposit's death.

Cleary said that the first thing Sinclair said to investigators after his arrest was that Sposit had shot him before he opened fire, and that he only started crying after he learned that Sposit had died and he realized he was going to prison.

"There are no tears of sympathy for the Sposit family in that video," Cleary said. "Not once, at all, has he said 'I shouldn't have been robbing that store. It's my fault.'"

But Sinclair did just that when it was his turn to speak. Sinclair, in an orange jumpsuit with his hands cuffed behind his back, turned to Kimberly Sposit and her sons in the back of the courtroom and apologized for what he did.

"I can't take it back. It was nobody's fault but mine," Sinclair said, his voice shaking as McDonnell held a letter in front of him. "It's just not fair to have to come back to court on top of all of it just to hear me say I'm sorry. It's just not fair."

Kimberly Sposit refused to look at Sinclair as he spoke. One of her sons briefly held up his middle finger before one of his brothers pushed it away.

Sinclair also apologized to his own family.

Corrigan noted that, if Sinclair had no intention of causing any harm, he could have unloaded the gun before the robberies or taken an airsoft pistol into the stores.

"We wouldn't be having this discussion here today if that were the case," Corrigan said.

3j

[killed-by-choice]

Carmen Rodriguez, 31 (USA 1970)

New York legalized abortion before Roe v. Wade, killing many women and young girls along with their unborn babies. One of these pre-Roe v. Wade legal fatalities was Carmen Rodriguez.

31-year-old Carmen Rodriguez underwent a 14-week legal abortion in New York. Lincoln Hospital used the saline method, which chemically burns an unborn human alive by filling the amniotic sac with a dangerous high-concentration salt solution. Then labor would be induced to remove the corpse from Carmen’s uterus.

Carmen had a medical history of rheumatic heart disease, but she had given birth twice before and been fine. There was no evidence that a third birth would have had a different result. Saline abortion, on the other hand, had long been documented as potentially causing heart-damaging electrolyte imbalances—even in a perfectly healthy person. It was reckless and negligent to attempt a saline abortion on a person with a chronic heart condition.

Like so many before and after her, Carmen was killed by her legal abortion. The saline entered her bloodstream and caused acute pulmonary edema. During the abortion, Carmen was observed as having trouble breathing. It was later discovered that Carmen’s heart condition was not noted on her chart and that somebody had assumed her respiratory problems were from an asthma attack. (Carmen did not even have asthma and a simple glance at her medical history would have shown that.) The treatment administered was appropriate for an asthmatic patient but could be lethal to a patient with a heart condition. This made the already-dying Carmen even worse.

Carmen slipped into a coma and soon died on July 19, 1970. Her husband and two surviving children were left to mourn the loss of two family members.

After Carmen was killed, a Puerto Rican activist group called the Young Lords sprang into action. They spread Carmen’s story far and wide, pointing out that the staff of Lincoln Hospital were warned that Carmen had heart problems and failed to take proper precautions.

The Young Lords distributed leaflets near Lincoln Hospital, denouncing Carmen’s death as murder. The group also occupied an administration building connected with the hospital for 12 hours, denouncing the hospital as “a butcher shop that kills patients”.

The Young Lords weren’t the only ones alarmed over the amount of women killed by legalized abortion. New York City Chief Medical Examiner Milton Helpern expressed fears that ill-equipped and poorly-staffed freestanding legal abortion facilities were posing a danger to women. (Of course, abortion was still unsafe when done in a hospital, but facilities specifically existing for abortion were even worse.)

But supporters of abortion didn’t seem to care about the preventable deaths of women and girls. Merle Goldman, who was the spokesperson for a pro-abortion organization, still insisted that abortion was safe and stressed that the group was publicly lobbying against proposed health department regulation of abortion practice.

Carmen was not the first mother or the last to be killed by legalized abortion in New York. Others included but were not limited to Pearl Schwier, Barbara Riley, Maria Ortega, Margaret Smith, Carole Schaner, Pamala Modugno, Lisa Marie Hoefener and at least 19 “Jane Roes” (unidentified women and girls) who had fallen for the “safe and legal” abortion lie between New York’s early legalization of abortion and Roe v. Wade.

Abortion supporters tend to bring up the maternal deaths from abortion before Roe v. Wade. They typically don’t know or don’t want to admit how many of these deaths were from fully legal abortion.

MARYSVILLE OG JOURNAL TRIBUNE July 22 1970

"Abortion Death Reported by City," New York Times, July 21, 1970

"Health Board Defers Action On Abortion Regulations," New York Daily News, July 22, 1970

"3 Abortion Deaths Listed Since Start of New Law" New York Daily News, July 22, 1970

"Lincoln Docs Firm in Walkout," New York Daily News, August 27, 1970

[faffodil]

everyone in empires au season 2!

Here we go again! For people who haven't seen this before, I've basically sorted a whole bunch of mcyt/adjacents into all the empires in s2, and provided headcanons and reasoning as to why theyre in that empire :D

As always i am open to suggestions/ideas for reasons/changes - just send me an ask!

Similarly, if you want me to add someone who's not there, you can also send me an ask!

Currently includes: Hermitcraft (specifically Season 9), Dream SMP, Bear SMP, Origins SMP, a few of the afterlife guys who arent already in empires, Traffic SMP(s), and a few other misc. mcyts

This will be edited as new information about empires names comes out/i add more people ^^

Key:

Local = person who lives nearby/in what could be considered part of an empire

Citizen = someone who is legally registered as part of an empire

Visitor = somone who is staying there temporarily/does not live in the empire

Inhabitant = lives in an empire but is not yet registered as a citizen

First person in every section is the ruler, but will have their specific title rather than one shared title (updated as the ccs tell us)

Archaeologists arent categorised in the same way as they are nomadic

---Stuff in [square brackets] is referring to an as-of-yet unnamed empire ---

Evermoore:

Shelby - (ruler) - Witch

Boomer - local - frog man :]

Tina - local

George - local

Charlie Slimecicle - local - slimey boi. Literally just a sentient slime. No-one's really sure why he and jevin are sentient but shelby thinks it was probably because the last witch to be sent out here was doing illegal magic (she thinks they were bored to death by the surroundings)

Jevin - local - swamp lad, sentient, see above

Petezahhutt - inhabitant - curious about the sentient slime rumours, wanted to know if they were like him (slime hybrid) they weren't but he stuck around to help them find their feet (literally because they were having trouble keeping a humanoid shape for long periods of time)

Dream - inhabitant - heard about the magic qualities of evermoore and moved there. Shelby thinks hes very brave to be studying the fog, and dream often gets stranded far from home bc the mist is feeling unhelpful

Sanctuary:

Sausage - (ruler)

Ivory - inhabitant - bc shes running away from something

Sniff - citizen - builder

Martyn - inhabitant - sought sanctuary and then proceeded to move in and annoy cleo to no end

Cleo - citizen - has lived here her whole life but is seriously considering moving. Joe is the only thing stopping her. And the fact that snake hair isnt exactly normal y'know

Joe Hills - inhabitant - moved from Stratos but only cleo knows this. Everyone else thinks hes normal :)

Tumble Town:

Jimmy - Sheriff - do i need to say more?

Tango - citizen - owns a ranch outside town :]

Billzo - inhabitant - took refuge from one very angry joey (who thought he was part of skeletrons army) and met eryn. Decided to hang around and cause mischief

Eryn - citizen - family has a farmstead near Tumble Town. Troublemaker

Schlatt - citizen - works in the saloon

Quackity - inhabitant - works with Schlatt

Sapnap - citizen - Eryns brother. I don't quite know why my brain decided that but it has.

Etho - citizen - works on tangos ranch. Used to be an outlaw but tango offered him a job when they met in the sherriffs office. Likes the peace outside of the town.

Sneeg - inhabitant (because no-one knows hes there) - builds little tunnels throughout the terracotta hills

Goblands:

Fwhip - (ruler) - goblin time (is short)

Skeppy - citizen - ore golem, can camouflage himself well in the cave. Fwhip found him in the deep dark and made him a citizen

Bad - inhabitant - from Eversea originally

Impulse - citizen - bc dwarf

Iskall - citizen - bc he's got a cave base this season

Pearl - citizen - she do be skrunkly

Guqqie - citizen - an alien who is desperately trying to blend in with the humans. On one hand no one's gonna notice in the Goblands, but on the other, they're gonna pick up some weird habits from the gremlins

Cub - citizen - chaos Chaos CHAOS

Mumbo - inhabitant - railway expert and infrastructure guy :] which is desperately needed bc Fwhip keeps making dangerous minecart tracks to everywhere

Eversea:

Joey - Captain

xB - citizen - bc guardian hybrid (lives in the lake w the mermaids

Niki - citizen - mermaid, sometimes follows puffy around to the other empire's ports

Puffy - visitor - another captain who frequents the bay. Trader?

Neptune - visitor - on puffy's ship (yes this is the same as last time. If it's not broken don't fix it)

Scar - inhabitant - sells magic crystals at the market. Certified scammer but is allowed to get away with it because he helps design new buildings for joey sometimes.

Micheal(mcchill) - citizen - runs a radio station from the top of one of the mountains overlooking the lagoon. Very rickety and unstable path to get up there but the broadcast can be recieved from any empire

Hypno - citizen

Animalia:

Lizzie - Mayor - Definitely a person. Elected apparently?

Antfrost - citizen - cat.

Ren - citizen - dog. Advisor to lizzie. Also bc last life the beloved

Hbomb - inhabitant - cat. Runs a cafe to draw tourists in! Theres nothing weird about this empire! :3{  <rubbing his hands together maliciously. Favourite pastime is bullying fundy whenever he walks past the cafe

James Marriot - citizen - employee of the cat cafe

Fundy - citizen - fox (and yoghurt :D)

Zedaph - inhabitant - resident scientist. Originally from off the continent but was welcomed into Animalia by lizzie because 'having a scientist proves we're as advanced as the other empires!' Hasn't caught on to the fact that the majority of the kingdom's citizens are straight-up animals and thinks theyre all hybrids like him

CPK - citizen - fox. no relation to fundy but does bond over thier shared dislike for the term fox-load because they can carry more than one block thankyouverymuch lizzie

Aimsey - inhabitant - showed up and was promptly adopted as Animalia's pet human

Archaeologists:

Pixlriffs - in charge of the team, was sent bc none of the other archaeologists wanted anything to do with the rulers over there

Xisuma - a spirit that collects cool bones to live in. Pix discovered him while unearthing an old temple and he's just kind of following the troupe around and being amazed at the world (was sealed in said temple)

EX is also trapped in a similar temple but X is doing everything he can to steer pix away from finding it/unleashing his hurricane of a brother. spoiler - it doesnt work >:D

Ori - a mildly unnerving citizen of Stratos who decided to tag along

Karl - original member of the team - keeps correcting Pix's pronunciation of the long-dead languages, and knows where finds are (or should be) long before a dig starts 👀

Skizz - original member of the team, very enthusiastic

Jack Manifold - intern who's following them around for work experience. Originally from Chromia

Chromia:

Scott - (ruler) - strange strange man

Ranboo - citizen - ive tried to put him elsewhere like four times but brain keeps saying chromia. Will update once i figure out a reason (also now i want ranboo and xornoth to talk) update: have not figured the reason but. hes staying so

Xornoth - backup leader - they found scotts empire and moved in, to his initial chagrin. Still backup ruler despite this because scott didnt trust the llamas to rule in his absence. They like looking after the llamas but kinda just hang around mostly

Wilbur - citizen - colourful language, creative

Stress - citizen - head of the flower industry (that then gets turned into dye for exports)

Beef - inhabitant - in charge of designing colourful fabrics and tapestries, originally from Sanctuary where he learnt banner-making

Hannah - citizen - works in flowers industry

Lauren - citizen - one of Scotts chief advisors, have known each other since they were little kids

[Falses]:

False :) - (ruler) - Her empire is pretty small considering its the newest but its one of the most closely knit communities as they all have to work together to improve the kingdom

Phil - citizen - hardcore survival things seem to fit here. First person to move here. Originally settled a little further downriver but ended up flying to False's area for materials and conversations anyway, and so, later moved into the centre hub of her empire to help her out and save time. DadTM

Tommy - citizen - turned up one day and false was just like well if you want you can build over there, strange bedraggled kid. Tommy did and false immediately regretted it because *cobblestone tower* Phil and False eventually managed to convince tommy to let them make his house look nice but it took a good couple of months.

Bearbubb - inhabitant - False isnt quite sure if hes a person or a literal bear as hes never spoken to anyone, but he seems polite, and built his own house so she let him stay. Although she has firmly decided he doesn't get citizen status until he asks for it. (Bear is just awkward, he'll talk to people eventually)

Sam - citizen - used to wander the server with doc because not many empires were open to hostile mob hybrids living there, then offered to help with a redstone project (an improved iron farm that was being finnicky) as he was passing and decided to stay. Tommy also took a liking to him and he built a base at the bottom of the cliff

Doc - citizen - was traveling with sam, same situation, neither of them wanted to stay in Sanctuary, where they started off, because they were tired of the new inhabitants walking on eggshells around them for months before they got used to them. His base is a pit all the way down to bedrock, affectionately known as The Well (due to its tendency to flood). There are levels all the way up with different redstone machines and storage cupboard on.

Glimmer Grove:

Katherine - princess

Beau - citizen - figured out where princess katherine was sneaking off to at night and made her agree to let beau help fight or she'd tell

Punz - inhabitant - moved from Sanctuary because he heard rumours that mercenaries might be needed. (Was only staying for the pay originally but got a little too invested and asked katherine if he and purpled could stay and help rebuild the empire too. (Will end up as head of defence for princess Katherine in the future but shhh)

Purpled - inhabitant - moved from Sanctuary.  Mildly annoyed that he had to leave his home in sanctuary, but at least the empire matches his colour pallette

Moonzy - citizen

Jonah - citizen - served Glimmer Grove before it fell, is at the forefront of the campaign to get it back to its former glory under princess Katherine

Megan - inhabitant

Dawn:

Gem - princess - fae of some sort

Fruitlegs - citizen - bard

Ponk - citizen - lighthouse keeper

Tubbo - citizen - bee boi

Techno - citizen - oversees the food production and makes sure everyone has enough and works out how much they can sell/export that week.

Welsknight - on Gems Council, in charge of defence against the deep dark

TFC - inhabitant - by proxy, lives in the ancient city and fixes the messes left when players visit. Sculk-grandad. Actually hes literally the opposite of Dawn, lives underground constantly. Warren of tunnels extends underneath all empires but people who try to explore them get lost. Nobody's died there yet bc TFC put a ward on the exits to draw people toward them and not the ancient city

BigB - citizen - baker, he makes bread and cookies from the farm produce

Stratos:

(Extra note here: citizen is someone who has been in the empire since it was founded about a hundred years ago when joel was exiled and/or has grown up there since. Inhabitant is someone who's come more recently from another empire)

Joel - an exiled god - adamant he is still his tall powerful self. Regarded as the leader of the empire nonetheless. People moved under his islands originally to be a part of the 'great god's empire' but a lot of them stayed even when they realised he was a wet rag/affectionate

Foolish and Jr and Finley - citizens - Foosh is an architect who helps Joel. He chose to live in the mortal realm but moved to Stratos when he heard about Joel's exile because he can sympathise with not living in the god's realm and wanted to help out. Hermes ends up playing with Jr and Finley when Joel's busy building

Eret - citizen - was one of the original settlers but somehow is still alive a hundred years later.... oh well, they knew living near a god would have its benefits

Grian - inhabitant - creator of the entity? check. vaguely eldrich horror? check. Was exiled? (very heavily encouraged to leave his hometown) after the entity ate someone by accident, and then he ended up here? Check.

Bdubs - citizen - look into those eyes and tell me he wouldnt fit right in with joels build style. He made a monolith, hed be a great addition

Callahan - citizen - maintains the temples to joel

Thanks to @scribbling-dragon for some of the suggestions!

Keralis - citizen - have you seen him?

Edit: OLI DO BE A BARD :D uhh if he makes an empire ill do a bit of rejigging and move ppl around but until then the skrunkly is just a wanderer

Phew done! :D