#when grian keeps trying to tell him im a little insane

[tinyplanetss]

WHYYYY did grian decide to make THAT panic noise when scar was like i found my soulmate!!!! he made A Noise like a middle schooler whose crush got discovered. king??? im obsessed

[stitchthesewords]

hey hi hello first of all I am sending u the biggest hugs rn <3

but also *pulls up a chair* you've got me in the portal AU brainrot real bad right now tell me about. the robits.

I've been Thinking about like. repair and body augmentation for them as an act of trust and intimacy and. how much grian is maybe involved in that/wants to be involved in that. does he ever help?? does he know *how* to? what does it take for them to....trust enough for that to happen????

GODDDDDD youve touched on something that drives me INSANE [Positive] w portal au. Okay so theres this chelldos art where the caption is 'system maintenance as a love language' and it has stuck w me since I saw it. So like, let us discuss-

So Mumbo is the one who engineered the android bodies. One BIG difference between PDICTP and Portal is that ScaR is not necessarily intelligent in all things and does actually depend on the personality cores to handle a lit of the tasks around VonCorp. They all filter through him, he has the final say on all Tasks tm but thats how it works for him [as opposed to GlaDos who fully runs the show on her own.]

In terms of like, repair and augmentation that is also on Mumbo. ScaR has both aesthetic and 'real' scars on his android body; im working from the idea that ScaR's construct had cracks and stuff on its surface and ScaR finds presentation to be the most important thing so of course he would keep them. The real scars are from damage he sustained when their longfall...feet? Failed, along with trying to run his own test chambers. ScaR, once again, has the final say on any changes made to either body and the robots theyre using to run test chambers in Grian's absence.

Grian, admittedly, doesnt know a lot about how to repair an android. He doesnt really know anything about the android bodies at all, tbh. All his expertise is in destroying the constructs and turrets - but heres the thing. Eventually, probably in this next ch, ScaR is going to set him up w a little sort of bedroom situation in Mumbo's workshop, and Grian is nothing if not a learner. So he's gonna pick it up and, eventually, he'll want to help too. But i dont know if the moment he wants to help and the moment they let him aligns

Grian and Mumbo have a lot less tension between them than ScaR has w either of them. So I think if anything, the first person Grian helps IS Mumbo - in my mind its the most likely. Where ScaR and Grian are dancing around each other and refusing to outright state anything about their feelings, Mumbo and Grian are more quietly being in each others presences. Finding softness in forgiveness. So i think Mumbo is more likely to trust Grian first and THEN ScaR.

ScaR and Mumbo ALSO have their own relationship with this going on. After all, if Mumbo is the one who knows how to repair the bodies and augmetn them, then ScaR has to be able to trust him to do that. And, well, they both tried to kill each other AND they both nearly succeeded. So its like - the trust isnt there at all but also theyre both ignoring it for the sake of their own goals. Abd eventually thats gonna butt heads.

Hhhhhhh the robots,,,,@made-nondescript feel free ti add any thoughts too

[screachogreilige]

I'm so normal over 3d life desert duo tbh

like. just feel like, in my humble opinion, everything in one way or another went down from there (in a way kind of sort of)

Like in 3d life Scar & Grian were. well. u know. they

were 3d life Scar & Grian (aka inseparable doomed by the narrative a tragedy from the start duo. I want to put them in a jar and shake them) like tahts when everything STARTED too. that's the roots where it all began.......

in last life (I DONT REMEMBER THIS ONE VERY MUCH..😔) the southlanders fell apart, and Scar was alone, but in one way or another those 2 were like. circling each other kinda?

In. err. In double life... fate and destiny did it's thing, but it was like crazy. cus they were stuck together but also hurting each other kinda, like the Scar snow powder thing, and the Grian bigB thing.....

Then in LIMITED LIFE.. both of them had a stable home basically, Grian the bad boys and Scar, the clockers. But. But. They were still, AGAIN, in one way or another still, like always, circling each other (I KNOW I ALREADY SAID THAT PHRASE BUT IDK WHAT ELSE TO SAY 😭) in the burning down the mansion, becoming cousins, GRIAN KILLING SCAR, the whole thing is just a mess, really

Then u look back at 3rd life. In 3rd life, they were "perfect", in that sad, sad way. Like 3rd life was the beginning of it all and it never really let them go. Like it was always like afterwards, Grian was afraid of really really trusting people (coughScarcough) and never got too close, and when he DID get close it ended badly. Like he knew it’d end badly, so he was trying to stay kind of away from everywhere he thought he could hurt, so it wouldn’t be as painful when it ended badly. And after 3d life, Scar seemed to like… not be vengeful really, I can’t explain it but after 3rd life he always seemed to have like; some sorta essence of 3rd life? Like it rubbed off on him and changed him kinda?????? God that man is too much for me to dissect UGHH (but I hope u get what I mean at least a little. ..)

verdict. They are a Greek tragedy mixed with ballroom dancing mixed with poisoning each others drinks mixed with more Greek tragedy

(btw.:. So sorry for the rant I just went crazy for a little and idrk anyone else Normal about desert duo /pos so I had to tell u.. hope u understand 😔 if u want me to stop tho pls pls pls pls pls pls tell me!!!!!!!!!! Alsoo if u want to add anything onto this PLEASE DO… I don’t analysis gtws enough to know The Things about him and I can’t rewatch the life series or I cry(

im gonna throw up (in an insane way)

god yeah no yeah erm yeah this is my thoughts as well gheughiagorjdghnnnkm THEY SUCK! WHY DO YTHEY DOOOO THIS......... Anyways... Yeah.......

it feel s like TO ME... scar really wants that moment back, like all of the things they had in the desert, even if it was just the 2 of them really it didnt feel that lonely and they were happy w/ each other !!!!! and he is sad. and sad..... he just wants his buddy back he has no hard feelings (of the cactus r [explodes])

but grian is MISERABLE he's suffered severe emotional damage after . yknow.. and he just keeps killing scar over and over and over again and each time hes so so sorry but he keeps doing it! the way it happened in limited life though is so very interesting to me because he really didn't have to there were plenty of other people and yeah maybe scar was easy pickings for having his back turned and being so vulnerable but also why. maybe so it didnt hurt as bad the longer it went on with the 2 of them alive hahahahahhaha anyways what are we talking about

[asexualzoro]

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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