Character notes for that old 3rd life timey-wimey au that I dont have a name for based on that one post. A lot of queer themes. (Disclaimer: history is not my thing, and the point of the au is not to explore the realities of the lives of queer people in these eras. They inform the characters' internal struggles, but are not meant to be the focus of the story)
Grian: London, 1893; an architect that stays closed up in his studio working. He is gay, and considering the era he lives in, he is ashamed and afriad of anyone finding out. Reserved, snappy, and a bit of a bastard underneath. He just wants to be accepted, but never believes it can happen.
Scar: California, 1987; former action super star. He's struggling to find work because he is a vocal advocate for gay rights. Optimistic, stubborn, and unwilling to pretend to be something he is not. He leaps without looking and seizes the moment when it comes. He's an incurable romantic <3
Jimmy: England, 1940; soldier, just drafted to join the war effort. He's not a fighter and is afraid of war; he doesn't think he will make it back. Brave (or foolhearty, depending on who you ask), sensitive, and loyal. He is a young romantic who dreamed of a great love and a family, but he is resigned to never having it.
Scott: UK, 2012; vlogger. His brand is similar to irl, based on that on vlog video he did a while back; openly gay. Cynical, sarcastic, and always teasing and poking fun. He is slow to love but loves deeply.
Scar and Grians story is seperate to Jimmy and Scotts. Flower husbands' is a lot sweeter and softer, while Scarian's is a story of Grian finding self acceptance through his love for Scar. They both end, however, in tragedy. Such is the nature of the game.
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Another snippet because why not! This might be the first story I started writing in the empires/hermitcraft sphere, and it's what got me into shipping lmao. Flower husbands will always have a place in my heart.
Anyways, this is from an au where 3rd life Jimmy wakes up in Empires s1 after he dies. It's the opening scene :)
words: 1074
cw: none
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There is a familiar heat beating down on him. Desert heat.
It presses down on his head, his back, his shoulders. It would be unbearable if he weren’t so used to it. The air he breathes is so dry it catches in his throat, and the wind whips sand against his skin, stinging, and buries it in his feathers.
He supposes it is only right that he wakes up here, in a desert. He died in one after all.
(Secretly, he wishes he was somewhere else, where the warmth was a comfort and not danger, where water lapped gently at its shore and flowers swayed in the whispering wind.)
Jimmy opens his eyes and golden sand stretches endlessly in front of him, lapping dunes like a great ocean. The world sways and shimmies in the heat. He can’t see anything on the horizon, no pride rock, no dilapidated bunker. Not even the distant forests that edged the Red Desert. None of the familiar landmarks he is used to. This desert is much, much larger than the one he left.
But there's something deep in his chest, tugging him forward, and he can do nothing else but follow.
He wonders, as he wanders his way north, if he can die in the afterlife. He knows from experience that spending too long in the desert without supplies is a death sentence, but, strangely, he doesn’t really care. He feels a bit distant to his body, like it isn’t quite right or that he’s not fully inside of it.
Well, this is death, Jimmy reminds himself. This body probably isn’t even real.
So he ignores his growing fatigue, the way his throat scratches with every swallow. He keeps walking.
The sun is getting low in the sky when something finally appears on the horizon: a great towering mountain of brown stone. It looks out of place in the endless gold of the desert, but Jimmy’s just glad to see something new. The world has melted into a blur of swaying colors, and he’s not sure if what he’s seeing is even real, but either way, he continues to stumble towards it, his feet dragging and breathing labored.
The mountain continues to grow, taller and taller, until it blocks out most of the horizon. Inexplicably, Jimmy knows that's where the feeling in his chest is guiding him. Maybe it will take him home.
There's a town settled at the base of it. He sees it as he crests the final dune. Tightly clustered, modular buildings made of smoothly carved sandstone. It’s colorful though, not just tan and beige like Scar and Grian’s base was. There are lanterns strung across roads, bright banners hanging from windows, and merchant carts painted with all the colors imaginable. He can hear, distantly, a growing chatter and a snatch of song.
His thirst is back, so sharp it cuts through the fog in his mind. It brings all of its fellow aches with it. His cheeks and shoulders are burning, and his legs and arms and wings are so heavy they drag on the ground. When he takes a step, he stumbles and goes tumbling down the hill.
It’s hard to keep track of what happens after that. He comes to a stop at some point, but the world is still spinning. He tries to stand back up, to keep walking, but his body feels like it's made of wet clay, so heavy he can’t lift it. His ears are ringing, but he can hear voices yelling and it makes his weary heart sing a song of danger.
When hands land on him, he lashes out, though he is too weak to do more than lightly smack at the hands. Whoever is holding him pays him no mind, and they swiftly lift him up. The sudden rocking movement makes him nauseous, and his eyes roll back as his mind swims.
Things are quiet after that.
He comes back to himself much later. There’s something cold laying on his forehead, a dribble of something sweet and cool slipping past his lips. It washes through him like a dip in cold water, and he sighs his pleasure. A soft voice is muttering something far away, but he doesn’t care to understand what they are trying to say. He is so tired.
But he can’t just lay here. In his mind, he sees green eyes, crinkled at the corner. He sees a dimple at the corner of pink lips, and he sees a poppy nestled in soft blue hair. A sharp, stinging longing erupts in his chest, and he needs to get up, to walk.
He has to go home.
His eyes slip open, and it feels like the hardest thing he’s ever done. They sting. His whole body stings, actually, like his skin has been replaced with a blanket of hurt. He struggles to push himself up, gritting his teeth through the pain, but his arms are too weak to hold him up. When he tries again, a firm hand on his shoulder pushes him back down to the bed.
“No,” he rasps, his voice barely more than a whisper.
“You need to lay still,” the voice tells him. He doesn’t recognize it. “You’re in bad shape. You need to rest.”
“No,” he says again, shaking his head. The world is still swimming, a blur of shapes and colors he can’t make sense of. His stomach rolls with nausea. “I have to… go home.”
The unfamiliar voice shushes him and presses something to his lips. He lets the cool water wash down his throat, soothing the dry, burning ache. “We’ll get you home, traveller,” the voice soothes, “but right now, you are in no condition to be moving.”
“I have to be there,” he insists, breath hitching. “He’ll be waiting for me.”
“It will be alright,” the voice assures.
Jimmy wants to protest, wants to push away the gentle hands and leave. He wants to be there when Scott dies, wants to welcome him home, wrap him in his arms and never let go. It’s the least he can do.
But sleep is dragging at his eyes, long fingers wrapped around his shoulders. It’s hard to resist, especially when the voice starts to hum a soft song, soft hands smoothing over the damp rag on his forehead, knocked out of place from his attempts to sit up.
He doesn’t win the fight. Sleep takes him.
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