Part 1- The Orphanage

IT BEGINS WOOOOOOOO this was meant to inform ppl of the lore in tpn for the sake of the au then it got out of hand helpme

Designs | Part 1 | Part 2 (End)

actually while i’m on an analysis and also bigb train i want to talk a little about the bigb/cleo relationship because. it’s VERY EASY to just read it as “bigb betrayed cleo that one time three seasons ago and cleo has never forgiven him for this” but there’s way more to it than that and it’s so fascinating i want to shake them around like maracas.

like, okay, the initial betrayal is as much a failure to communicate as it is an actual betrayal. cleo says that if bigb had just TOLD HER she would have let him, and I believe this (loyalty is an extremely consistent cleo trait). however JUST EARLIER THAT SESSION she’d also been talking about how she wouldn’t trust someone with the boogeyman curse and can’t believe someone would betray their allies. bigb heard that, decided he couldn’t tell cleo (because she’d hate him for it), and panicked himself right into a corner where he ended up doing the thing that was WAY WORSE for that relationship. also left out is that part of why cleo got that mad wasn’t even bigb’s fault; she was ALSO mad because lizzie and ren sided with him over her, and she felt betrayed by everyone at once. which she then pinned on bigb. meanwhile, while bigb apologized, he never let go of the idea that he'd had no other choice, and never really addressed the unstated hurt of 'cleo also felt like her friends had been turned against her', so it never rang as sincere to cleo. so like, more going on there than just a betrayal!

but like, let’s talk about their relationship after that, shall we?

on cleo’s end, she’s a character who tends to hold on to relationships across seasons, for better and for worse. the widow’s alliance basically never ending; martyn and cleo and their inability to be normal about each other; cleo and etho’s quiet understanding; and, as one of these important tentpoles, bigb and cleo being unable to trust each other. she carried that hurt with her into the few interactions they had in double life, and that in turn helped to color everything else. see, cleo doesn't just hold on to relationships; she holds grudges, and bigb is the ultimate target of that. unlike some of her potential grudges, she's never had a scenario where she and bigb were on the same side in order to temper the grudge. she's also never gotten the boogey curse herself, making it even harder for her to temper it and understand.

so, even after things like limited life where she's started to be less Immediately Angry the moment she feels betrayed (thank you scar for being kind of a moron and getting cleo that lesson), she still holds on to the last life version of bigb in her head. also, because of that, it makes it easy for her to just... continue perpetuating that. she shuns bigb and assumes he has some reason she needs revenge again. that, in turn, pushes bigb to doing another thing she needs revenge for, so she tries to get it, so they keep spiraling downwards in a cycle of mistrust, because cleo has also made herself untrustworthy to bigb.

meanwhile, on bigb's end... he tried to apologize and she wouldn't take it! she sees all of this as an irrational grudge on cleo's part, and there's been very little to discount that. but also because bigb has a tendency to go off and do his own thing and hold himself apart from people, he has made very little effort to meaningfully fix this. in fact, because he assumes cleo will continue to hold a grudge, he continues to treat her a bit like an enemy, continuing to provoke her at multiple opportunities.

he can't make that relationship WORSE, after all, so there's no reason NOT TO continue to mess with her. she'll never trust him, so there aren't real consequences if he keeps burning her, because the only consequence is that she'll just continue to never trust him, right? it's a simple relationship! and in some ways it's comforting, even; cleo is someone he can never mess up with, because that bridge is already burnt.

and ironically? this makes their relationship surprisingly stable. they will KEEP ON sticking knives in each other, of course. even when they don't have a good reason for it, cleo will assume bigb must have done something and bigb will assume cleo will hate him anyway. but in turn, i think they VERY MUCH know where they stand with each other. and tragically, that means neither of them have an incentive to try to fix this. they're both very, very entrenched in how they see each other now, and either of them will see any attempted olive branches as another place for everything to go wrong. they're cleo and bigb, who don't trust each other because bigb killed her one time, forever. that's who they are. that's how they see each other. and it's not just because that happened; it's because they keep reinforcing it, over and over and over again, in a way that makes communicating that they could stop nearly impossible.

that and i think cc!bigb and cc!cleo out of character really enjoy continuing to have their cubitos have a stupid irrational grudge on each other because they think it's funny but that's unrelated to the character analysis,

love that like literally everyone in double life has referred to their soulmate romantically at least once. except grian. grian referred to his soulmate romantically BEFORE he knew they were scar and then NEVER AGAIN

This will only make sense to the very small percentage of you who know both TMA and the life series but I present to you: distortion Grian

okay so the high school au might have gotten to me

- all of the soulbounds are partners for a project in home ec. (they are all juniors/in their third year of hs. i don’t know what the FUCK british people do for secondary school so uhh. you can figure out the equivalent.) each of the groups have eggs, and they need to prevent them from cracking for the entire semester. they have three chances (three lives).

- when tango gets his egg, he immediately drops it. jimmy was absent that day, so he didn’t even know.

- there is a groupchat (the text message sound can be a horn) for the class, and they keep on excluding jimmy from the chat. in retaliation, jimmy and tango make the text sound for each other a cooler sounding horn.

- everyone keeps on grabbing jimmy’s egg and throwing it around.

- pearl is switching schools after the first semester, so she doesn’t care about how much trouble she gets in, so she keeps on dropping the eggs nonchalantly, and scott has to dive to catch them.

- grian had the biggest fucking crush on scar for the entire first year of highschool, and the whole school besides scar knew about it. the entire class (except ren and bigb) is in a betting pool to see if they get together by the end of the semester. grian doesn’t want to think about scar, so he leaves notes in bigb’s locker instead.

- impulse and bdubs are on the school announcements, and also run the school newspaper, and they totally talk shit about everyone else.

- martyn keeps leaving heart magnets on cleo’s locker, but instead of valentine’s day hearts they’re anatomically correct hearts. cleo is both disgusted and impressed by the accuracy.

actually hold on there’s enough poll options for this.

every single soulmate pair in double life had some crazy twist of fate attached to them in some way. from teammates in past lives to people who’d never spoken but were perfect matches.

to be abundantly clear. this is not your Favorite. but the one that you look at and go “literally WHAT god put those two together”.

Ren feels his Q— the Shadow Lady’s presence before he sees her; there’s an aura of dread that precedes her and draws his attention. He frantically signals BigB to prepare for an incursion; hates the way his heart still leaps when he actually catches sight of her. He gets himself in a good defensive position, perched up on the roof. His bow is held loosely in his hand, not yet drawn; he doesn’t want her taking it as a threat, though he knows the odds of this encounter not ending in violence are low. BigB takes the position in front of the door, his sword out and ready. 

The first thing the Shadow Lady does is compliment Ren’s defenses, and all he can think is But they weren’t good enough. He doesn’t know if he means to keep her out or to keep her safe. Her voice is soft, friendly, and it frightens him— why does she still sound the same as she always did?

“I think you know why I’m here,” she says, and he dips his head in acknowledgement. The heady scent of vengeance is in the air, just as strong as the dread the Shadow Lady brought with her, and a part of him thinks he probably deserves it. The other part of him grits his teeth and swears he will fight until his last breath, because he wants to win.

And then she says, “But not you, Ren,” and he nearly loses his grip on his bow, and she says, “You were a loyal knight to me,” and he cannot breathe. 

His Queen has always been merciless, so why is she showing him mercy now? He drove her out of her own court, forswore his fealty, and she calls him loyal.

While he’s having this crisis, his Queen has turned her red-eyed gaze on BigB. “But you,” she says, and Ren should be drawing his bow, he should be preparing for the attack that he knows is imminent. 

And yet, he cannot bring himself to do it. He wants to move, he wants to help BigB— his ally, his brother in arms— but he swore. He swore he’d never lift a weapon against her and for all his faults Ren is a man of his word. 

Until the end of the server, he’d promised. And the server has not ended. 

Later, when he thinks back on it, he knows his Queen was even more merciful than she could have been. She still holds his name— even the rules of the game separating reds from the rest cannot override that pact. She could have made Ren kill BigB himself, letting him suffer the same fate of dying at the hands of an ally that had first set the Fairy Fort on the path to ruin. But she did not, and though Ren knows it was probably only his Queen’s red bloodlust, he is still grateful. 

And now he is alone in the Shadow Keep.

Since the ending of the season has been confirmed… and nobody new joined this season, it’s possible someone new is joining s10! So…

a serious alternative to the other poll. I think some of these have a pretty low chance of happening, but I chose options that are at least possible (i.e. the hermits know them). don’t take this too seriously, i’m just curious on what the fandom thinks is the most likely option

fool me three times

“Oh my god.” The pain in his head was nothing in comparison to the pain in his chest; Scar knew that was the beginning to his end.

And he accepted it with open arms.

“Hello, my old heart.” Scar said cupping Grian’s face. The avian smiled, taking one of the hands from his cheeks and leading Scar to their home through jungle and birch trees.

“Hello, Scar.” He said in a whisper – like a secret, like a promise –, while rushing his footsteps with the downing of the night.

Scar never liked those – nor secrets or promises.

• • •

They were safe inside their tall and sturdy birch walls and yet Grian was still on guard at his every breathing second. Yet, somehow, Scar took him by surprise and by the hand in a lofty motion.

“Hello, my old heart.” Scar said bringing the hand in his to his lips.

Grian only smiled like you would to a child playing hide & seek – you don’t say anything but your eyes can rat out the entire world; a tell-tale secret.

The only answer given to him was the avian taking his hand out of Scar’s grasp softly and proceeding to stare at his pinky finger raised to the air; a feeble-minded promise.

• • •

“Hello, my old heart.” Scar said in an oh so defeated sigh.

Grian – at BigB’s side –, didn’t react at all.

Scar never liked secrets or promises – secrets never lasted long and promises tended to endure even less than that, he would know.

Oh, he should’ve known better by now.

Thinking about that one au which is semi based on rainbow rocks but more specifically the subtle Jimmy/Martyn in it

All because Screw the nether and how do I craft this again exist in that universe and Jimmy teases him about it despite being told to repeatedly shut up. Martyn goes tomato colour red every time Jimmy brings it up. But at the big finale instead of Martyn just soloing it at the start Jimmy joins in, Sharing lines with him. (Tbf Pearl and Grian share lines too but it’s more special for them, also Pearl and Grian are siblings)

Also they’re both listeners so they’re just vibing while Pearl and Grian are Watchers and BigB is just there trying to figure everything out. Can and will elaborate

honestly still the biggest personal tragedy of session 5 is that when grian joined gem in the tower building. in gems episode, there were almost a solid 10 minutes of just that. them hanging out, calm, peaceful, no danger, away from people that could hurt them . and guess what ? grian left LESS THAN 3 MINUTES OF THAT IN HIS EPISODE dbjksffejw

I wanted to finish the next chapter of Everything Stays today but it really got away from me. It might take a couple more days.

But have a preview!

Session 5 was a big loss for polyamory, but it got me thinking what would have happened if it wasn’t? If Ren and Bigb hadn't gone red session three and gotten back together and moved away from their other partners session four and then died session five? 

Ren and Grian wasn't going to happen. Grian was not trying to expand the relationship he was trying to Steal Ren’s Soulmate and was specifically positioning himself as competing with Ren, so they probably wouldn't have made up. But Ren started the broken hearts club and Scar is... sort of, independently, also part of the broken hearts club? Or his “screw our soulmates” club with Pearl and Ren’s broken hearts club with Martyn and Pearl have some overlap, at least. So maybe, if Ren hadn't gone red maybe Pearl would have invited Scar to (or Scar would have stumbled upon) a broken hearts club meeting. Maybe Scar and Ren would have formed an alliance with each other, since they both have soulmates making food for another man. Ren... I’m not entirely caught up with Ren’s episodes but I heard he didn't know who Bigb’s secret soulmate was? Scar definitely knew Grian was with Bigb specifically but he also tends to not bring up information like that as if it's common knowledge, and from his perspective it might make perfect sense to ally with the soulmate of the man Grian’s flirting with.

And Grian and Scar obviously are part of each other, they don't break up. This level of nonsense is normal for them. Scar knows Grian is cheating on him and will complain to anyone listening but Scar also knows he can rely on Grian for pretty much anything. Their relationship is a stable sort of mess and remarkably resilient.

Basically what if Grian and Scar and Ren and Bigb ended up in a stable four-way alliance but no one involved knew that all four of them were together (except Scar, who wouldn't bring it up not because he’s hiding something but because he doesn't realize no one else knows). What if that had happened.

I have a vision. I'm imagining a future in which Grian woo's BigB, and Scar, feeling cheated and underappreciated by his soulmate, teams up with Pearl to cause mildly concerning but mostly annoying torment towards their soulmates together

I am BARELY resisting going full red-strings-corkboard on this season. And by barely resisting I mean not resisting at all here is an extremely long list of the events those pins would be marking out.

BigB getting a Task that was a different color than everyone else's. It's not just a randomly assigned Hard Task, bc Scar rerolled for a Hard Task and his was also just a white envelope. It's fundamentally different.

That task taking BigB away from socialization, and seemingly being an incredibly time-consuming and dull request. Of profound disinterest to any watchers.

The phrasing of his Task!!

Dig a big hole. All the way down. At least 3x3. Make it your base if you want.

Everyone else's are direct and formal - the only one with more than one sentence was Skizz's, with the rule clarification of "One attempt only." Bigb's Task is four short abrupt sentences. It is also the only Task to contain extraneous information, 'Make it your base if you want.' The requirements (at least 3x3) feel like an afterthought to mimic the numerical/specific demands of the other tasks.

Evo symbol on the face of the Secret Keeper statue.

The fact that there's a statue at all; the fact that there is a physical representation of what is assigning tasks that everyone must complete, when previously everything was always handled via commands and unseen RNG.

Grian talking to the statue, and (bc of his Actual Role as game organizer) acting as a mediator for the impartial decisions handed down, speaking for it.

Grian making one last bad joke and saying he doesn't know if it counted or not- depends on whether we the audience laughed.

Grian asking for task recommendations from the audience. The watchers are making the tasks. The Watchers are making the tasks.

Again I could be off-base, and I'm not usually even that smitten with bringing in Evo lore. I don't want a Big Bad really...but. It feels like something very unusual and intentional and cool is happening in this series. And I'd guess we'll know if theres something going on once we have more than one data point.

My largely unfounded suspicion is that there is another being (maybe Listeners, maybe something else) trying to reach out to the Players via decoy Tasks, and BigB was the first recipient. Get them alone, make them of disinterest to the watchers, and tell them something we don't get to know.

Because that's the really, really fucking cool part (if my wacky theory is remotely right): We're the bad guys. We're the ones giving out tasks - hell, we're the ones actively brainstorming harder and crueller tasks in Grian's comments!

If they actually made a story where the Players have to keep secrets from us I will be delighted. Bc that is the same genius bullshit that made Evo Watcher lore so fun

it is time for jimmy's one hundred and fifteen jesus christ epiodses of evos baby. i WILL be putting them on 1.25 speed because i am not a fool.