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#i usually watch from shubbles pov
hermitcraftx · 4 months
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gay people go here
james/icarus/patroclus | he/it/they + she sometimes + neos! switch it up
18 | traumagenic system
blog is rated 16+ interact at own risk
follows and likes from @faggotcowboys | alter blog: @lowresolutionboyfriend
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hi! wewcome to my bwog uwu i am a longtime tumblr user moving blogs
i mostly post hermitcraft/trafficlife but i dabble in some other stuff too <3
i am a fan of the dream smp but i dont post about it and i have most of the fanbase on here blocked from ye olden days. i dont like interacting with the fandom other than fanart so dont expect that from me if ur blocked nothing personal just how it is
i'm a writer. in theory. mostly i liveblog and shitpost and reblog art but occasionally i will upload my own art or writing
i do not tag for shipping mostly because i am absolute dogshit at remembering. i am an adult and i don't shy away from reblogging suggestive or the occasional nsfw post, but usually they're tagged under #suggestive or #nsft.
i am a beginner artist! please be nice to me :') i use krita
for hc s10 i'll be maining grian, joel, scar, and etho, but as of right now i am also caught up on mumbo, iskall, gem, zombiecleo, and i'm trying to slowly work my way through other people's povs
i main grian and joel! i go apeshit insane over scarian and smalletho, but i also enjoy gribeans/joelian and smallidarian/badboys content. treebark fan by osmosis. outside of trafficblr i watch a lot of content creators but ive been a fan of slimecicle and jschlatt for a while
used to be a wilburian. still like c!wilbur, disappointed and ignoring the actual guy. support shelby shubble and victims of abuse
i dont tag things as duo names i think its dumb as fuck i portmanteau their names or use "ship names" even if i dont care whether its romantic or platonic. if that bothers you block button
i dont believe in dnis but if you are a fan of dreamteam vivziepop jkr matpat or brendon urie i am probably going to block you. no terfs no swerfs no maps no zionists no racists or anti-semities and i am NOT pro-endo but i dont really care?? as long as you dont cause syscourse ur welcome idgaf
i <3 heart weird problematic labels like boygirl fagdyke mspec butch lesbians bi lesbians bi gays cisgender het aros furries neopronouns xenogenders objectum and if any of that bothers you. well. block button
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anonymous-dentist · 2 years
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So you want to get into Empires?
With two seasons and an active Hermitcraft crossover, it might be a little daunting! Worry not, because I am going to provide the Idiot’s Guide to the Empires SMP so you can hop in and join the fun!
One: What is Empires?
Empires SMP is a multiplayer vanilla minecraft smp where each member basically takes a biome or a patch of land and makes an empire. Sometimes there is even lore, but that depends on the pov you’re watching.
Season One aired last year, and the current season is ongoing. They are basically entirely separate from each other unless you’re Pixlriffs or MythicalSausage. They aren’t like other girls.
Every member puts out videos and some stream. The season hasn’t been going on for too long and every episode is more or less 25 minutes, usually less, so it really isn’t that hard to catch up.
Two: Season two members
Ignoring the Hermitcraft members that isekai-d their ways into the server, here are the main server members and a brief overview of their Lore:
Smallishbeans: the 11 foot self-titled God of Lore with a slight inferiority complex and a god complex the size of Mount Rushmore (he would probably put himself up there with them)
LDShadowlady: definitely a human and local crime cat lady with a kingdom of sentient animals but again she is a human definitely
MythicalSausage: he’s like this guy okay but he has a tragic backstory that legit can’t be summarized in a sentence or less but also he keeps traveling dimensions in a sudden and alarming way and also he gives wood and strips :D
Solidarity: he is the Sheriff and he is Not A Toy, but he is currently going through a divorce and there are rumors he’s corrupt but c’mon he’s just a little guy c’mooooon
GeminiTay: she’s a princess :D
Katherine Elizabeth: she’s a princess (emo)
fWhip: a goblin in a goblin cave with goblin tendencies, and a lawyer, and a deputy, and a divorced man girlbossing his way into the sun
Joey Graceffa: yes that Joey Graceffa, but now he’s Pirate Joe and he’s bisexual and sad and kind of an incel tbh
TheOrionSound: so he joined late but actually this man fell out of the sky before the season started, killed the enderdragon, and got stuck in the end credits for years until he got out and found out the world had been settled by some real weirdos, and he’s even a “bard”
Scott Smajor (we know who he is): not gonna lie I don’t know his lore but he has some llamas and a black market and I think that’s all you need tbh
FalseSymmetry: she’s an amnesiac steampunk motherfucker from another world wearing a dead person’s clothes and she’s currently battling it out with her hermitcraft self For Some Reason (slay!)
Shubble: a swamp witch in a cursed swamp with a really cool hat, and she definitely knows what she’s doing all the time definitely
Pixlriffs: he’s the lore man with the lore in that he’s literally just Pixlriffs From Real Life but chilling in a world of larpers and freaks
Three: But what about lore?
Well, that depends on the person! I personally watch Joel, Jimmy, Sausage, and Oli, so I know their lore more than I know, say, Katherine and Gem’s lore.
Lore in this series isn’t like it is on, say, the Dream SMP. Think of it more like dungeons and dragons in minecraft. Everyone has their own thing going on and so it’s really easy to hop in and figure things out at your own pace. There has been one big server-wide event since episode one, and that was the Rift Festival.
Also the Hermits are here, but don’t worry about them
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june-on-the-moon · 4 months
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HI im sorry this took so long!! So the undergrove, I will admit i know a little less about it as opposed to some of the other empires but its still v fun to play around with! this isnt as in depth as my gilded helethia rant partically because i am really tired and partially because i know less, i might flesh it out a bit more at a later date though.
I think it's a lot less established then many of the other empires. Not less established as in ramshackle but more as in rather empty. There would be some gnomes that made it through the portal with her but for the most part its populated by forest animals who decided shrub was a friend and the occasional person who didnt want to stay in any other empires.
Shrub became the ruler of the undergrove after she founded it when she led the remaining gnomes to empires from their old world (i havent watched shrubs pov so take that with a grain of salt) She never thought she deserved the title but she ended up taking it anyway.
The culture would be rather different as opposed to many other places, they forage rather then farm. Only a few things are grown or imported. Status is almost non existent and everyone knows everyone. People do many things together, work, eat, sleep. A lot of their traditions revolve around community as a way to get back what they lost after the destruction of their home world.
For cusine and clothing (my favourite parts) i think it would all be rather rustic. Clothes are handmade from animal furs and fabrics imported from other empires. Theyre usually quite loose and practical, lots of pockets and easy to move around in. Colours to match the mushrooms are favoured so many people where white/grey with pops of warmer colours. This does cause a bit of contrast within the forest though so clothes for things such as hunting and foraging are usually made in darker shades of brown and green.
Food is usually made in large batches, big pots of stew, massive loaves of bread, etc. Despite the gnomes smaller size they do this so they can share food and also so it lasts for longer. Many people carry around 'snack pouches' in which they will carry berries, dried meat and other such things to eat throughout the day.
Animals are treated as equals and often have their own homes, if they are the companions of certain families or people they will wear pieces of cloth tied around their legs or necks to show that. Wolves are somewhat revered as holy animals and it is forbidden to ever harm one lest you become cast out and ostracized.
Thats about all i got rn im afraid i need to go to bed, i hope you enjoyed my hopefully somewhat comprehensible rant that i am not bothered to spell check
That was so awesome to read! Tysm!!
I love the undergrove and I am so normal (lie) about shubble characters
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a-sky-of-diamonds · 2 years
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This was originally a reblog, but I’m putting it into post form instead so people can see it and any likes don’t go on the original post.
Re Scott ‘cheating’:
...No. Guys, please no. I don't usually engage in discourse, but seriously. Consider the importance and context of the events you're talking about.
Firstly, Scott didn’t try to hide Owen, or pass the Ace Race run off as his own. How is that cheating? And, more importantly terrible consequences will happen if someone else comes second in a single game on his account? Apart from, hey, raising another hundred pounds for charity, like others have already discussed (there was a bet between Scott and Owen that if Owen managed to get top 5, Scott would donate another hundred dollars to the Trevor Project).
Because even if this is about making things 'fair', this MCC is NON-CANON, so the scores will NOT COUNT. It's a charity event, so if anything was the case, raising more money would be more important than winning, right? And it's not even like that got Yellow into Dodgebolt or anything, in which case I'd potentially -- potentially -- be more sympathetic to people who think he shouldn't have done this. But, even if the MCC was canon, MCC is just... a block game tournament. For fun. With no prizes or unlocked opportunities or drastic, life-altering consequences.
I do wonder if these people have actually watched Yellow's POV, or if they just heard something about that, and subconsciously jumping onto the Scott hate train because 1) Owen got a high place, which wasn’t even a certainty when they made the bet, and 2) it's Scott Smajor. Because Shubble and Wilbur did the exact same thing, without the bet I believe, and there's no negative discourse from anyone about that.
And, while we're on the topic of hating on Scott, especially for MCC related actions, please can I take time to remind you that withiut Scott we wouldn’t even *have* MCC? And we wouldn’t have this event raising over a hundred thousand dollars for the Trevor Project, which saves LIVES, and on a much more insignificant scale, we wouldn't have ANY of the teams you were cheering for, whoever those may have been. If you feel angry, sure, you can’t control the emotions you feel. But that anger doesn't have to, and shouldn't, be taken out on others, especially when they already get a lot of unjust hate (for what, exactly?), especially when they're a big force behind ORGANISING the thing you care so much about, and ESPECIALLY when you don't know the *context*.
So please, take time to learn about what you're reflexively criticising, and consider the actual consequences (or lack thereof) of the actions you're condemning -- as well as the harm hating on people like this can bring -- before jumping onto the cancel culture train.
I'm sorry if I was being uncivil, and I'm sorry if I made assumptions that were wrong, for example, that people who are part of this actually did watch the whole of Yellow, and did consider everything Scott's been doing for this event and the LGBTQ+ community as a whole. I also know other people have replied to this post addressing some of the issues I brought up, and thank you very much for that -- I'm just putting this in the form of a reblog because I feel like it's a wider issue with the community that has reared its head before, and needs to be addressed. And, to clarify, this is not a personal attack in any way, so please don’t take it as such, I just don’t support unjustified hate or mobbing online.
So I beg you, everyone, to just *think*.
(I’m really sorry about this whole thing if you see this, Scott. You've done so much and don’t deserve any of the hate whatsoever, I don’t know why it’s always directed at you, but it’s definitely not right. And most of the Tumblr community (I don’t have Twitter) do really appreciate you, we think you’re awesome.)
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nerdyenby · 2 years
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HOW DID I MISS MCC TEAM ANNOUNCEMENTS??!!?!!!!!
• SCAR AND RANBOO??? AAAAAAAAAAA!!!
- I also adore Jojo and Gem, I am so freaking hyped for this team
- also Scar on his token straight arc lol
• Impulse is in again! And he went from being on purple team to being teamed with purpled lol
• the “h” in hermits is for H, I’m excited for yellow, too!
• AIMSEY AND SHUBBLE MY BELOVEDS <3333
- haven’t watched Sylvee but I adore Hannah too
• Jack has a pretty good chance this MCC and I don’t know how to feel about that /lh
• I think Punz and Sneeg do stuff sometimes? But I haven’t seen content with any of the duos from teal but I am extremely hyped
- I don’t know what to expect from the Sneeg and Jimmy dynamic but I am incredibly excited to see what happens
- and Jordan :)
- putting two of the most pg streamers out there with SNEEG??? Ok lol (he can do it, I believe) (also I’m pretty sure Punz swears a considerable amount but I don’t watch him so idk)
• Cyan seems so lovely :)) none of them are povs I usually watch but they’re all people I’m happy to see so I’ll probably watch them too
• Simmers <33 feels like it’s been a while
• oh purple is gonna be so much lol
• SNIFF SNIFFERISH MY BELOVED!!!! And with Phil!!! And TapL?!!! Absolutely superb team, I am ecstatic
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imeengoldberg · 3 years
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joeynoth my beloved
/lh /lh /lh 
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!! PROGRESS !!
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smaidjor · 3 years
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i know they're losing (Chapter 1)
hi mothers and fuckers of the jury, this fic is a hot mess but so am I, please appreciate it. Also, obligatory disclaimer this is about the characters not the people, all that important stuff.
Some important notes:
1. You will probably hate Scott just a little at points. He has chronic dumb bitch syndrome and there's a whole lot of bullshit going on in his life that you don't see in this fic because it's not his pov. That being said, he's still a bit of a jerk.
2. This has a lot of lord of the rings lore. A LOT. You may be kinda confused if you're not a lord of the rings fan. It's fine, Jimmy's confused too, and all of it will be explained at some point.
3. The chapter titles are from the Last Goodbye from the Hobbit films. The general title is from I Bet on Losing Dogs by Mitski.
4. General content warnings: there is a little blood, and a little violence, and a lot of mentioned death and morbid jokes. If you don't do well with themes involving death this fic is probably not for you. There is also possibly going to be referenced emotional abuse and generally unhealthy ways to raise children, though that will be talked about much further down the line. I will also put specific cws at the start of each chapter, don't worry!
5. The alternate title for this was '10k words of flower husbands being sad'. You have been warned.
Title: i know they're losing
Chapter Title: under clouds, beneath the stars
Current Total Wordcount: 3740
Content Warning: referenced/past character death, very frank discussion of death.
Snippet:
Scott whirls to face him, robes spinning behind him. “I’m fading, alright? I’m dying, now leave me alone!”
Jimmy feels like he’s been smacked in the face, the words hitting him with all the force of a well-thrown trident. Dying? “You- what- but elves don’t die, right?”
“We do. From poison, from swords, from arrows through the throat-” Jimmy’s hands fly to the scar on his neck, the one that matches Scott’s own- “from grief.”
AO3 Link
Actual fic under the cut
Scott’s hands are cold. That’s the first sign, the chill that’s uncharacteristic of an elf.
Scott’s chest hurts. That’s the second sign, the bone-deep ache he can’t seem to quell.
Scott is weaker than normal, and that’s the third sign, the one that confirms what’s happening beyond a shadow of a doubt. He’s fading, Scott thinks as he leans against a wall, trying to stop his head from spinning. He can’t say he’s surprised, not after all he’s been through; in fact, he’s more astonished it took so long to start.
-
In another world, it happens like this:
Scott’s hands are cold, and Shubble notices as he shows her around the nether. It’s worrying, a bit, how icy his skin is even in the boiling dimension, but Scott’s empire has always been cold, hasn’t it?
Katherine notices how long it’s been since Scott visited her, one of his few allies, and she worries, a bit. But Scott has always been distant, hasn’t he?
No one notices or worries enough to go check on him, and Scott fades away to nothing, cold and alone in his icy empire.
-
What actually happens is this:
Katherine has gotten word of the demon that haunts the server, and amongst all her worry, one of her thoughts is ‘has anyone checked on Scott?’. The answer is no, and next time she has a free day, she sets out for Rivendell. It’s not a long trip, not with elytra, anyways, and soon she’s at the doors to his keep.
“I need to see Lord Smajor,” she tells the guards.
“He’s not taking visitors right now.” is the response she gets.
“It’s a vital matter to the safety of both our kingdoms.”
They let her in.
Katherine spends far too long looking around the elegantly decorated downstairs and storage area before she realizes he must be up the spiral staircase in the corner of the room. She’s never been upstairs in Scott’s house before, which makes her a little nervous, but… this is an urgent matter, so she presses on into what turns out to be a very pretty bedroom. Decorated with bookshelves aplenty and gorgeous lanterns, it practically screams Scott.
The man (elf?) himself is harder to spot. At first, Katherine’s worried he isn’t there at all, but eventually she realizes that he’s still in bed despite the fact that it’s a quarter to one, only his pale face sticking out from under the covers.
“Scott?” She asks, cautious. “Lord Smajor?”
He blinks at her tiredly. “Hi, Katherine.”
“I came to talk to you about some empires stuff, but, I mean, if this is a bad time, I can come back later…?”
“No, no, stay.” He waves at the sole chair in the room, which is near-enough to the bed. “I can muster the energy for a meeting, just don’t ask me to get up.”
Katherine takes the seat hesitantly. “I came to talk about the corruption on the server, but- are you okay? Are you sick?”
Scott laughs, a little bitter. “In a way, yes.”
“What do you mean?”
“Take my hand.”
She obeys, confused, and finds that Scott’s hands are like ice despite the warmth of the room.
“Elves don’t get sick like mortals do,” Scott says. “Nor do we die of old age. But we get...heartsickness, you might call it. We call it fading in our tongue- the cold hands are a symptom of that. Our souls are fragile, and the grief of the mortal plane can be overwhelming. If an elf is too struck by it, they fade away and die.”
She gasps a little.
“It usually happens to old elves, world-weary,” Scott continues. “Those who are tired of existence. But any elf who has experienced enough grief is at risk.”
It takes Katherine a moment to process everything, and once she does, she stares at him in horror. “You’re- fading? But doesn’t it usually happen to old elves? Wait, are you old?”
“I’m fifty-five.”
“Is that old?”
That gets a laugh out of him. “Fifty is the elven equivalent of eighteen for humans, the age of maturity.”
“Oh.” She struggles for words for a moment, settling on “How can you be so calm if you’re dying?”
“I’m tired, Katherine. The world tore me away from the people I loved, and..I’m tired of fighting it.”
Try as she might, there’s nothing she can say to that. “Is there a way to reverse fading- to fix it?”
Something pained and raw flashes through his eyes. “Technically, yes. If an elf recovers enough emotionally, it’s reversible. But whatever caused them to fade the first time can- and often does- cause it again.”
Katherine nods seriously, absorbing the information. “We’ll just have to reverse it, then.”
“That’s sweet, Katherine, but I’m dying.”
“No,” she tells him firmly. “You’re not going to die. Now come on, you can show me your empire while I fill you in on what’s happening on the rest of the continent.”
Scott stares at her for a long moment, but eventually he takes her outstretched hand. “Alright.” His hand is frozen cold in hers. “We can try.”
Katherine lets him lead her around Rivendell, pointing out the sights. He’s done an impressive job decorating, like her, and an even more impressive job at uniting the elves and building an empire from the ground up. The people of Rivendell are weary and battle-scarred, for the most part, elves who have seen too much, but the children are bright and happy, and the cyan and gold banners wave proudly in the wind.
As they walk, she also tells Scott about the demon, Xornoth. “The demon’s already visited a lot of people, I think. Gem and Shubble for sure, and Fwhip and Sausage. That’s not even mentioning the corruption that’s been spreading.”
Scott nods. “There’s corruption in Rivendell too. Likely Xornoth’s work. And given that Jimmy still has Vilya- well, I haven’t been able to do much.”
“Vilya?”
“A ring of power. My inheritance from the Noldor.”
“Why does Jimmy have it?”
He doesn’t answer that one.
Katherine leaves feeling unsettled, with more questions than answers. She has new resolve, though, and a new goal: keep Scott from fading. He’s a good friend, though they don’t know each other that well yet, but more than that, he’s a powerful ally. And Katherine can’t afford to lose allies. So while they’re both rulers and busy in their own right, she promises to visit and drag him outside at least once a week.
“I’ll hold you to that,” Scott jokes, but his laugh is weak.
Katherine vows to hold herself to it.
-
The plan works for three entire weeks before Katherine has a week that’s so busy there’s no way she can find the time for a trip to Rivendell. Worse than that, because Scott is so isolated, he has almost no other friends, and many of Katherine’s allies are busy too. She’s a little short of options, to be honest, which is how she finds herself on Jimmy Solidarity’s doorstep that Sunday afternoon.
“Hello?” Jimmy asks as the door swings open. Katherine can see why Lizzie calls him the sweet swamp boy- his confused head tilt is frankly adorable.
“Hi! I know we don’t talk much, but I could use a favor,” she says.
“What can I do for you?”
“I need you to visit Scott.”
Jimmy looks beyond startled. “What- I mean, he doesn’t even like me! I couldn’t possibly.”
“Please?” She wheedles. “I promised him a visitor every week, but I have meetings all week this time.”
He shakes his head, hesitantly at first and then stronger. “No, Katherine. He’d just throw me right out again. I’m his enemy, for goodness sake!”
“If he hates you so much, why do you have his ring?”
Katherine knows she’s won, watching emotions flit across his face too quickly to catch. Grief is what he settles on, and she feels a little bit bad for the ring comment when his voice comes out wobbly.
“I guess I should return that, huh? Alright, I’ll go.”
“Sorry,” she says.
Jimmy brushes it off, saying there’s no need to worry, but he fiddles with the ring on his finger all the more. It’s on his left ring finger, Katherine notes. She wonders if that truly means what it implies.
“I’ll visit him tomorrow,” Jimmy says.
“I’ll hold you to that!”
-
Jimmy isn’t sure why he agreed to this at all, to be honest. Scott may have given him this ring in another world, another lifetime, but that doesn’t mean Scott doesn’t hate him in this one. What other explanation is there for how all his gifts have been rejected, how cold the elf is? Jimmy would be surprised that Scott’s never tried to take his ring back if it wasn’t for how thoroughly Scott avoids him nowadays. Getting the ring back would require talking to Jimmy, something Scott has made it very clear that he doesn’t want to do. Jimmy doesn’t have another use for it, and try as he might to forget flower fields and warm hands in his, he can’t bear to throw it away. So it’s remained on his hand all this time, a painful reminder of someone who used to love him.
Jimmy tries to avoid looking at it as much as possible, every glimpse bringing back the memory of Scott gently sliding it onto his hand, a faint blush dusting his cheeks and a smile on his lips. Even the faint shimmers in the blue gem remind him of how the starlight seemed to get caught in Scott’s hair when they were out at night. The ring had been one of their most valuable possessions on 3rd Life, the rare silver band and elegant forging more than proof of that. Now, though, the ring has to be one of the least valuable things Jimmy owns; on 3rd Life, they were humble folk in little hobbit holes, their most expensive possessions being their diamond armor and swords, but here, they’re kings and lords. Scott probably has a thousand treasures more valuable in his elven empire, so Jimmy’s not sure why he’s bothering to trek all the way across the world just to return this one.
Then again, it’s not really about the ring, and never has been. It’s about the way starlight used to shine in Scott’s eyes when he smiled, his rare, soft grin that was reserved just for Jimmy, how he gave Jimmy the most valuable thing either of them owned. It’s closure, in a way, giving it back. He won’t have any debt to Scott once this ring is returned, and they can both move on like Scott so clearly wants to.
Shaking off those thoughts, Jimmy slows to a stop in front of Scott’s house. It’s grand, nothing like his old hobbit hole, but still so clearly Scott in the decoration and color schemes. Jimmy would know who built it even if he hadn’t known Scott lived in these mountains.
“I’m here to visit Scott,” he says to the guard stationed outside.
They raise an eyebrow, presumably at the familiar way he refers to Scott. “On formal business or personal?”
“Personal? Sort of? I mean, I don’t have any diplomatic reason for being here.” Truth be told, he has no reason to be here at all, really, but...the ring.
“Then Lord Smajor cannot see you.”
Jimmy grits his teeth, suddenly furious at this whole ordeal. “Then tell Lord Smajor that I need to return his ring.”
“May I see it?”
He sticks his hand out obligingly, and the guard examines the ring, surprise blooming across their face. “I did not realize my Lord had lent you Vilya! My apologies, Lord Codfather, I see the alliance between our kingdoms is stronger than I had assumed. You may pass.”
Vilya? “Thank you, gentle, uh, gentleperson!”
The guard dips their head slightly as he walks by, a gesture of respect that he doesn’t think he’ll ever get used to. He shakes off the strangeness of the interaction, though, pushing open the door to Scott’s house.
The inside is beautiful, exactly the kind of decor Scott loves...and empty. There’s no one in the spacious kitchen, the storage room, or anywhere else for that matter. Jimmy’s seconds from giving up and going home when he realizes that there are stairs up to the balcony above. That’s where he goes, finding himself in Scott’s bedroom.
Which is awkward, to say the least. It’s not like they never slept in the same room when they were married, but now that there’s this awkward, painful distance between them, Jimmy feels like he’s intruding. What’s worse is, Scott’s still in bed, laying on his side with his face tilted away from Jimmy’s awkward entrance.
“Hello, Jimmy.”
Jimmy half-jumps, not expecting that. “How’d you know it was me?”
Scott rolls over to face him, and Jimmy notes that his face is too pale for it to be natural or healthy. “Do you think I could ever forget the sound of your footsteps?” He goes on before Jimmy can answer. “What are you doing here?”
“Katherine asked me to visit, I’m not sure why, but...here I am. Say, why is she visiting every week?”
Scott’s laugh is bitter. “Katherine thinks she can save me.”
“Save you from what?” Jimmy asks, concerned despite himself.
His (ex?)husband doesn’t reply.
“Save you from what?” Jimmy presses, and gets no answer yet again.
Instead, Scott sits up, swinging his legs over the side of the bed. “You should go.” He stands, and immediately stumbles, Jimmy rushing to steady him on instinct. Scott’s hands are like ice when he grips Jimmy’s arm to regain his balance, taking several deep breaths, and Jimmy’s instantly struck by how wrong that feels. Scott’s hands were always warm, even on the coldest nights in 3rd life. Some elven thing, probably, that Scott didn’t want to talk about or have time to explain to a silly human like Jimmy.
“Scott, what is going on?”
The elf brushes him off again, heading for the stairs, but the regal effect is ruined by how hard he has to grip the railing.
“Scott, seriously! Answer me, are you okay? What’s happening?”
Scott whirls to face him, robes spinning behind him. “I’m fading, alright? I’m dying, now leave me alone!”
Jimmy feels like he’s been smacked in the face, the words hitting him with all the force of a well-thrown trident. Dying? “You- what- but elves don’t die, right?”
“We do. From poison, from swords, from arrows through the throat-” Jimmy’s hands fly to the scar on his neck, the one that matches Scott’s own- “from grief.” Scott turns back to the stairs. “Come on. If you’re not going to leave, I might as well show you around.”
Jimmy follows, reluctantly, trying to think of something to say that isn’t incoherent sputtering with a bit of ‘why do you hate me now’ added in. “You can’t just drop something like that on a man, you know!”
“You did ask, to be fair.”
Why oh why is he so stupid around Scott? “I guess so, but- but still, dude.”
Scott pushes open the side door, holding it for Jimmy. “Here.”
Jimmy nods and slips through the door.  “Thank you.”
“Don’t mention it.”
They start along the path, Scott walking far too quickly for Jimmy’s comfort given how terrible the elf’s balance is currently. He nearly has to jog to keep up, irritatingly, but at least they aren’t snapping at each other for a few precious moments.
Of course, Jimmy has to go and ruin that. “So, uh..are we going to talk about 3rd life?” He has to hear it from Scott’s own lips that he remembers, that it affected him even half as much as it’s affected Jimmy.
“No.”
“Why not? We need to talk about it some time-”
“I said no .”
“It’s literally killing you to not talk about it!”
Scott freezes, face going icy calm in the way Jimmy knows means he’s actually upset. The elf’s hands grip the fabric of his robes tight, his back going rigid. This is a bad idea, Jimmy knows.
He’s in too deep to back out now, though, the pent-up hurt of the past few months all coming out in a rush. “Tell me I’m wrong, Scott! I dare you, tell me I’m wrong! Tell me you never cared about me, tell me you didn’t bother to bury me, tell me it didn’t hurt even a little when I died! Tell me I was just stupid little Jimmy, a toy for an elf who’d live far beyond my lifespan! Tell me whatever, just tell me the truth! ”
Scott breathes out slowly, fury gradually building on his face. “Fine. You want to know what happened after you died? You want to hear about me screaming until my throat went raw? You want to know that I kissed your face and sobbed and begged you to wake up, over and over until I couldn’t speak at all? You want to live with the knowledge that Grian had to physically pull me away from your body? Is that what you want to hear, Jimmy ?”
Jimmy’s name on Scott’s lips punches all the remaining air out of him, sounding so wrong in that angry, bitter tone. Beneath all the rage, Scott sounds wrecked , and the fight leaves Jimmy’s body abruptly. “No,” he says softly. “That’s not what I want to hear, not at all. I’d rather you be happy than love me.”
Silence follows those words, only the faint sound of a waterfall in the distance there to break it.
“I buried you on the hill above our houses,” Scott says finally. “I planted a poppy over your grave.”
“Oh.”
“Grian came over the next day. I didn’t want to see anyone who wasn’t you, but I let him in because I had to. He helped me do the straps on my armor and asked me if he could do anything else to make things easier. I told him to bury me next to you.”
Jimmy swallows hard. “Did he?”
“How would I know?” Scott’s tone softens, just a little. “Grian was honorable enough, though, loyal to his allies. I like to think he did.”
“He was a good guy,” Jimmy agrees. “A little bit bloodthirsty, I guess, but good. I don’t suppose he survived any better than the rest of us, though maybe being bloodthirsty helped.”
“Maybe.”
“Can I- can I ask you why you hate me so much now? I mean, if you mourned me in third life and all.”
Scott turns away again, starting down the path a second time. He’s not looking at Jimmy when he says “I don’t hate you.”
“You don’t?” It’s a shock, honestly, given that this is the first time the two of them have really spoken since the beginning of empires. “But you burned the pufferfish-”
“I didn’t. I kept it.” Scott still won’t look at him. “I never hated you. I don’t think I’m capable of it.”
“Then why do you keep avoiding me?”
“I’ve been kind of busy dying,” Scott says dryly, and Jimmy doesn’t even realize it’s a joke until he looks over at Scott’s wry little grin.
“Scott! That’s not funny!” He scolds, aghast.
“It was a little funny.”
“No!”
Scott must hear the genuine distress in Jimmy’s voice because he drops the act. “Jimmy, I’m an elf. I won’t live far beyond you, but only because I’ll fade without you.”
“So your solution is to isolate yourself and fade now?” Jimmy demands.
“It does sound stupid when you put it like that, doesn’t it? But I lost you once, and I don’t think I could bear it again.”
Jimmy wants to argue, wants to fight him on this, but there’s nothing he can say. Instead, he puts a hand on Scott’s arm to stop him walking any further. Scott turns to look at him, seemingly startled, and Jimmy throws his arms around the elf.
Scott stiffens before slowly relaxing, arms coming up to wrap around Jimmy in return. It’s not as natural a gesture as it used to be, but it’s warm, gentle in a way Jimmy thought he’d never get again. It reminds him of the soft, starry-eyed boy who put flowers in his hair and laughed at him over a cake. Scott will never be that soft again and Jimmy will never be unscarred, but they’re here. They’re alive, that has to count for something.
Scott pulls back, his expression so achingly tender and heartbroken all at once. “I’m sorry, Jimmy.” His voice is raw, a little shaky. “I can’t. Not again.”
“But-”
He’s cut off by Scott shaking his head. “Losing you will destroy me. We dared to love, and now all we can do now is lessen the pain when it all comes crashing down.”
Jimmy’s in too much shock to speak, the ache in his heart returning tenfold as Scott turns back towards the house.
“Goodbye, Jimmy.” He sweeps away, elegant as ever, but stumbles and nearly falls as he reaches the door. Jimmy’s not there to catch him.
Jimmy stumbles home in a daze. It's somewhat of a miracle that no mob manages to kill him, honestly. To be so close to a resolution, to have the person he wanted most right there in his arms, and then to have all that ripped away- he can’t think of anything that could have hurt more. Even his deaths were less painful than this- at least an arrow through the throat is quicker than feeling like your heart is being ripped out through your ribs, Jimmy thinks, a little bitter. He throws Scott’s stupid ring in a pool in the swamp, watching as it sinks to the bottom of the shallow water with hardly a bubble.
Wait.
The ring.
It’s significant, somehow, according to a Rivendell guard, and more than that, it’s an excuse to see Scott again. One last chance to change his mind about the stupid plan that’s literally killing him.
Jimmy dives in without thinking, scrabbling around until his fingers close around the smooth stone and thin band. When he pulls it out, the gem glitters in the starlight even under the layers of dirt, and it looks like something special. It looks like hope.
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sideblog-go-brrrr · 3 years
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The Empires SMP
Alright! One of the YouTube series I've been watching recently is the Empires SMP. The premise of the SMP is that each player gets to claim an area of the seed as their "empire" and from there they build up their bases/villages and form alliances among other things. In my opinion, it is kind of like of KingdomCraft with more roleplay aspects to it.
The main POV's I watch are fWhip's, Scott's, GeminiTay's, LDShadowlady's, and Smallishbean's. With that said, when there is important lore stuff going on, I usually watch all of the POV's just to see everyone's reactions. It is also a kind of new SMP, so there isn't an overwhelming amount of content to watch.
If you are at all interested, here are all of the links to the content creator's channels, go watch them! Dangthatsalongname(Scott), fWhip, GeminiTay, Joey Graceffa, Katherine Elizabeth, LDShadowlady, MythicalSausage, PearlescentMoon, Pixlriffs, Shubble, Smallishbeans, Solidarity.
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lmanberg · 3 years
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you're probably done talking about mcc but i wanna send and edited ask I sent to someone else comparing tubbo and ranboo's mcc performances.
Something I find interesting about ranboo's mcc stats is that he has been the highest scoring player in his team 2 out of 4 times and both of those times all of the other players had been in playing since mcc1/2 (mcc16 red with phil, wilbur and tommy and mcc17 yellow with wilbur, scott and shubble).
To me, it's pretty impressive that in his 2nd and 3rd mcc's, he managed to outscore people who have been playing since mcc 1 and 2. Due to joining recently, it makes it hard to compare his stats accurately with tommy and tubbo who have been playing for much longer. I think the best way to accurately compare their skills would be to take season 2 results only. It's more reflective of their current skill ranges and whilst previous events can show tubbo and tommy's potentials more, some games have been changed so much that those stats aren't really correct anymore.
Teammates also make a huge difference when comparing placements.
Tubbo has teamed with sapnap (an S tier) for the past 2 mcc's and before that with Fundy and TapL (both considered A+ tiers) so his scores can be brought up by this (and this is not me trying to talk negatively about tubbo's achievements at all, I actually watched his pov for mcc's 14/15/16/17 and he absolutely is cracked). Whereas ranboo has never been teamed with an S tier before, the closest being TapL in mcc15 with tubbo.
This is really cool when you think about how tubbo's team averages closer to 4th and ranboo's to 3rd. Tubbo's teams seem to have an S tier (or A+ tier) + a 'nerf' (which is kinda harsh but its mcc terminology). Gumi and sylvee were the 'nerfs' with sapnap in mcc's 17 and 18. Then I guess in mcc14, the A+/S tier was vikk (although vikk was kind of a wild card) and the nerf was niki. In mcc15, the A+/S tier was probs meant to be TapL and ranboo was the nerf (since it was his first mcc).
Ranboo's teams on the other hand are more so teams with equal players rather than one big stand out, 2 average/good players and one nerf. In mcc 16 all players placed within 8 positions. In mcc 17, it was within 11 positions and in mcc 18, within 7 positions. If anything, ranboo is usually expected to help improve the team's score, rather than hinder it. In mcc17, wilbur mentioned that someone on the reddit said that 'how well their team does overall is almost entirely dependent on how well ranboo does'. Ranboo excels in movement games like tgttos and hole in the wall (having come in the top 5 in both and even 1st in hitw in mcc17) but his pvp skills and communication in team-based games are great. In mcc18, he actually got 48% of his team's kills in battle box (12 out of 25). The only person who placed higher than him in terms of % of their team's total kills in bb was sapnap who got 50%. And he also has the 8th highest buildmart average placement in the whole of mcc. Ranboo and tubbo both have the same lowest placement, 24th (tubbo in mcc's 9 and 10 / ranboo in mcc16). Its really impressive that despite it being ranboo's lowest placement, he was the highest placing in his team. He also managed to get 9th individual despite getting a total of 0 coins in skybattle, which is essentially the same as being logged out for the whole game. Dude has just killed it in mcc so far and I know this mainly focuses on ranboo but I find it incredibly interesting to study his growth and performance as a new player. (Unlike tommy and tubbo, he's still rather unpredictable)
I've rambled too much but my point is that ranboo and tubbo are pretty evenly matched but I do believe that in the future, ranboo is likely to overtake tubbo (and tommy for that matter) as he just practices more. The highest performing players are almost always the ones who practice (and review vods) the most (apart from fundy, he's an anomaly). A dream and tubbo team is definitely possible. A dream and ranboo team is definitely possible. A dream, tubbo, and ranboo team is 100% impossible.
(also illumina i think mentioned that a fruitninja will never be paired again as they managed to get to dodgebolt with two simmers so it is incredibly unlikely that dream and sapnap will be allowed to be paired with two simmers)
^^^
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smaidjor · 3 years
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and i pay for my place by the ring (Chapter 1)
Hey guys! Welcome to another angsty fic by yours truly, provider of flower husbands pain.
Some things you should know before you jump into this:
1. This is a companion fic to my fic "i know they're losing". You can understand it without having read the other one, since it's the same story from two different POVs but I think the overall experience is better with both!
2. The overall title of each fic is from the mitski song I bet on losing dogs. Chapter titles are from the Last Goodbye from the Hobbit films.
3. There is a lot of lord of the rings lore in both fics, and I mean a lot. You may be kinda confused if you've never read tolkien's works. It will all be explained eventually, though!
4. With the fact that it's a companion fic and a lot of people came here from Jimmy's POV in mind- this is a lot heavier of a fic. The content warnings are heavier and the angst is more intense. You have been warned.
(Obligatory disclaimer that this is about characters, not ccs, and do not ship real people, as always!)
Chapter Title: to these memories i will hold
Chapter Wordcount: 4000
Content warnings: suicidal thoughts, self-esteem issues, panic attacks, past death, very frank discussion of death. (In general, if suicide or death are triggering topics for you, this is probably not the fic for you. Stay safe and take care of yourself!)
AO3
Actual fic under the cut:
Scott didn’t expect to survive 3rd life. No one did, he thinks, but especially not him. Clever, clever Scott, who knew his fate too well for his own good. He could have chosen his allies carefully, he knows, could have played on their emotions to make them think he was loyal until the moment he turned on them to win. He knew who the strongest factions and warriors were, the most cunning and intelligent participants in this death game they were forced into. Instead, he chose Jimmy. Sweet, dopey Jimmy, who had the personality of a golden retriever and only a handful of braincells at any given time. Jimmy, who was worth more than all the stars in the sky to him. Who made him feel alive . No, Scott didn’t expect to win. Not when it was Jimmy by his side- when it was Jimmy by his side, winning didn’t matter. All that mattered was Jimmy’s blush when Scott pressed a kiss to his cheek, the way his hair looked like gold in the sunlight and his smile lit up Scott’s whole world.
After Jimmy died, Scott stopped wanting to survive 3rd life. What was the point? The stars can shine on without the sun, but all life on Earth would wither and die. The same happened to Scott’s broken, bitter heart, he found. Jimmy was the first person in years to love him truly, wholly, with no strings attached; it was terrifying how quickly Scott fell for the first person to look at him and not expect him to be anything but what he was. Scott’s world, which used to be mountain peaks and endless blue sky, narrowed to warm brown eyes and a grin like sunshine quicker than he could comprehend. Jimmy, Jimmy, Jimmy, it all came back to him. What was Scott without Jimmy? The unwanted twin, the unloved child, the un-elven elf. Because who cared if he was a good shot with a bow or good at organizing teams or building pretty little houses? He would always be second-born, second-best.
It was fitting, really, that when Scott died, he died alone. Some might find it ironic that the man who knew enough people to fill the roster of a championship held by a god every month died without a single person to witness it save his enemies, but in the end, it was always going to be like this, Scott knew. He hadn’t been there to see Jimmy die, he hadn’t been able to hold him in his final moments and soothe the agony of death. Maybe this was his punishment. He wouldn’t be surprised; the gods of this world did not smile on him and never would. Why should they, when he had failed the only person who had ever found him good enough?
When he woke up in Rivendell, he was almost disappointed. Almost. He considered ditching the rest of the elves, up and leaving to somewhere that didn’t make it feel like the noose of immortality was slowly tightening around his neck. If nothing else, Noxite would let him crash at the MCC server for a bit until he found somewhere to go. And yet, in the end, Scott’s stubborn sense of duty won out. The elves needed a ruler. Xornoth had disappeared to god knows where, and though they had been braver, wiser, better in every way, Scott was the one who had stayed. Who was willing to take up the crown that weighed so heavily on its bearers. So Scott, who no one ever expected to rule, took up the burden of leadership.
Now, he tries and fails to get out of bed and wonders what the point of that even was. He’s fading, and worse than that, he’s fading over a human. His ancestors are probably rolling in their graves. Rivendell will be leaderless within a decade, and this time there are no heirs to take control. Not even a ‘spare’ like Scott used to be. What a mess.
There are footsteps on the stairs. They’re unfamiliar, meaning they could be a threat, but he’s too tired to bother sitting up. If he dies, well- it’s inevitable, really, in the same way watching the mortals he loves dies is.
The person comes around the corner, and Scott realizes with no joy that he won’t be dying today after all. Katherine looks both curious and concerned, but her voice tilts towards the latter when she asks “Scott?” and then, more hesitantly  “Lord Smajor?”
He blinks at her, exhausted. “Hi, Katherine.”
“I came to talk to you about some empires stuff, but, I mean, if this is a bad time, I can come back later…?” She sounds so thrown off by his state that Scott almost feels bad.
Whatever it is, it must be important if she’s come all the way here, though, so he gestures her to a chair. “No, no, stay. I can muster the energy for a meeting, just don’t ask me to get up.”
Katherine takes the seat. “I came to talk about the corruption on the server, but- are you okay? Are you sick?”
Nothing about the question is funny in any way, but Scott laughs regardless. “In a way, yes.”
“What do you mean?”
“Take my hand.” He offers it out, knowing the unnatural cold is unsettling no matter if you’re elven or not. Katherine does as he asks, the concern on her face only growing as she grips his icy hand.
“Elves don’t get sick like mortals do,” Scott explains. “Nor do we die of old age. But we get...heartsickness, you might call it. We call it fading in our tongue- the cold hands are a symptom of that. Our souls are fragile, and the grief of the mortal plane can be overwhelming. If an elf is too struck by it, they fade away and die.” The words taste bitter on his tongue, a frank reminder of the slow and painful death that awaits him.
Katherine gasps, and Scott knows he’s alarmed her.
He goes on, though. “It usually happens to old elves, world-weary.” Ironic, it’s ironic that he’s saying that as a young elf explaining his own death. “Those who are tired of existence. But any elf who has experienced enough grief is at risk.”
Her face is nothing short of horrified. “You’re- fading? But doesn’t it usually happen to old elves? Wait, are you old?”
“I’m fifty-five.”
“Is that old?”
He has to laugh. “Fifty is the elven equivalent of eighteen for humans, the age of maturity.” Though he feels so much older than that, both in elven terms and in human.
“Oh.”
There’s a moment of silence, then, “How can you be so calm if you’re dying?”
“I’m tired, Katherine. The world tore me away from the people I loved, and..I’m tired of fighting it.” He’s so, so exhausted. So sick of having to claw and scrape and struggle for the barest scraps of happiness.
“Is there a way to reverse fading- to fix it?” Katherine sounds so hopeful that the question seems almost naive even though she’s far more capable of a ruler than he is. Naive in the affairs of elves, maybe, much as she’s intelligent in so many other ways.
Scott tries not to flinch at the innocent inquiry, thinking about the deaths from fading that he’s watched. “Technically, yes. If an elf recovers enough emotionally, it’s reversible. But whatever caused them to fade the first time can- and often does- cause it again.” And again, and again, until there’s nothing to be done but let them die , he finishes in his head.
Katherine nods, a look of determination overtaking the hope. “We’ll just have to reverse it, then.”
“That’s sweet, Katherine, but I’m dying.”
“No. You’re not going to die. Now come on, you can show me your empire while I fill you in on what’s happening on the rest of the continent.” She sounds so firm that he doesn’t dare disobey, though his exhaustion makes a fair effort at convincing him to. Will this really fix anything? Unlikely. But it’s worth it to try, if only to humor Katherine. At least this way she’ll have the comfort of having tried to save him when he inevitably fades away into nothing
Scott takes her hand, though it brings him little warmth, cold from her trek here. “Alright.” He swallows the bitter grief in his throat before it can seep into his words. “We can try.”
He leads Katherine around Rivendell, taking some pride in the way she oohs over the decor. If there’s one thing he can do right, it’s building. While some elven rulers might see it as below themselves to help build houses for their citizens, Scott finds building soothing. It’s one of the few skills he picked up during his time away that people really appreciate; no one wants to live in a shitty house.
As they walk, she also tells Scott about the demon, Xornoth. “The demon’s already visited a lot of people, I think. Gem and Shubble for sure, and Fwhip and Sausage. That’s not even mentioning the corruption that’s been spreading.”
If Scott said that the name Xornoth didn’t make him flinch, he would be lying to himself. It’s not your sibling , he tells himself. It’s just a coincidence .
It’s through the virtue of years of lying that his voice comes out steady. “There’s corruption in Rivendell too. Likely Xornoth’s work. And given that Jimmy still has Vilya-” his heart doesn’t ache when he says Jimmy’s name, it doesn’t- “well, I haven’t been able to do much.”
“Vilya?” Katherine asks.
“A ring of power. My inheritance from the Noldor.”
“Why does Jimmy have it?”
He doesn’t answer. He won’t- can’t talk about Jimmy, not without remembering how he looked with an arrow through his throat, bright smile gone and face frozen in fear. How does he explain how much Jimmy meant to him? How much he’s now giving up, knowing he’ll have to lose it one way or another?
Katherine drops the topic, seemingly sensing that she’s stumbled on something sensitive. When she has to go home, she leaves with a friendly goodbye and a promise to visit, and Scott believes neither. Who would put the effort into visiting him? He’s not a good friend, he’s not a good king, and god knows he’s not a good husband. In fact, he’s actively avoiding his husband. He may have kept the pufferfish Jimmy gave him, but that doesn’t mean anything. He can’t fall in love with Jimmy again. Loving Jimmy will kill him. (Scott ignores the small voice at the back of his head that whispers that he’s still in love with Jimmy and it’s already killing him just as he always knew it would.)
To his surprise, Katherine does come back next week, and the week after that. He’s ashamed to admit it, but there’s some part of him that’s pathetically grateful when she shows up at his doorstep. It’s a chance to not be alone . Much as he dreads the day when she finally gives up on him, it’s nice that someone cares enough to try and save him from himself.
The third week, Katherine doesn’t show up. Instead, the footsteps on the stairs are familiar in a way that makes Scott’s heart twist painfully.
He takes a deep breath. “Hello, Jimmy.”
“How’d you know it was me?” Jimmy asks. Scott can tell he’s startled by the way his voice goes up, almost frightened.
Scott steels himself, taking a deep breath before rolling over to face his ex-husband. “Do you think I could ever forget the sound of your footsteps?” He forces himself to not get distracted staring at Jimmy, instead going on before Jimmy can open his mouth. “What are you doing here?”
“Katherine asked me to visit, I’m not sure why, but...here I am. Say, why is she visiting every week?” Jimmy’s so curious. So naive, as always.
Scott laughs, bitter. “Katherine thinks she can save me.”
“Save you from what?”
Scott hears the concern in Jimmy’s words, and he can’t bring himself to break the news. It’s not as if it matters. It’s not as if Jimmy would care; he came here because of Katherine. Maybe he cared at the start of Empires, but Scott’s been nothing but rude to him since. There’s no reason for him to care. (He cares. Scott’s lying, like always. Jimmy cares and Scott knows it.)
“Save you from what?” Jimmy asks again, more insistently.
He refuses to say it. He needs Jimmy out, out of his room and out of his life before he does something he’ll regret. “You should go.” To prove his point, he tries to stand, finding himself too dizzy to quite pull it off. Jimmy rushes to catch him, and Scott hates himself just a little for how that still gives him a warm feeling.
“Scott, what is going on?”
He brushes Jimmy off, letting go of his arm and hurrying for the stairs. He can’t let Jimmy work his way into his heart again; Scott won’t be strong enough to let him go this time.
“Scott, seriously! Answer me, are you okay? What’s happening?” Jimmy sounds almost angry, but Scott can hear the distress under it and that’s what breaks him.
“I’m fading, alright?” His voice nearly breaks at the concern on Jimmy’s face when he whirls to face him. “I’m dying, now leave me alone!”
Jimmy sputters, seemingly caught off guard. “You- what- but elves don’t die, right?”
“We do. From poison, from swords-” Scott thinks back to third life- “from arrows through the throat, from grief.” The words come out more raw than he intends, leaving him scrambling to recover his composure. He takes a deep breath in and out, forcing his voice to steady again. “Come on. If you’re not going to leave, I might as well show you around.”
“You can’t just drop something like that on a man, you know!” Jimmy calls after him, although Scott can hear his footsteps following as well.
“You did ask, to be fair.” Scott replies. His voice is calm. He’s fine.
“I guess so, but- but still, dude.”
Scott pushes open the side door, holding it for Jimmy. “Here.”
Jimmy nods and slips through the door.  “Thank you.”
“Don’t mention it.”
Scott starts towards the bridges, intending to show Jimmy the enchanting tower and then the door. He doesn’t care about how fast he’s walking, Jimmy can keep up. He’s taller than Scott and probably has better balance at the moment too. Scott’s struggling not to fall, honestly, but his pride won’t let him go slower.
Jimmy breaks the awkward silence with the question Scott least wants to hear. “So, uh..are we going to talk about 3rd life?”
“No,” Scott says firmly.
“Why not? We need to talk about it some time-”
“I said no .” He can’t talk about it.
“It’s literally killing you to not talk about it!”
The words strike right at the raw wound of Jimmy’s death, and Scott freezes. Inhales. Exhales. Tries to keep calm.
“Tell me I’m wrong, Scott!” Jimmy cries. He sounds so upset, Scott’s heart aches. “I dare you, tell me I’m wrong! Tell me you never cared about me, tell me you didn’t bother to bury me, tell me it didn’t hurt even a little when I died! Tell me I was just stupid little Jimmy, a toy for an elf who’d live far beyond my lifespan! Tell me whatever, just tell me the truth! ”
Scott takes a deep breath. “Fine. You want to know what happened after you died?” He can’t think straight through the rage clouding his head, the desperate need to prove that Jimmy’s wrong , that Scott loved him so much it’s killing him. “You want to hear about me screaming until my throat went raw? You want to know that I kissed your face and sobbed and begged you to wake up, over and over until I couldn’t speak at all? You want to live with the knowledge that Grian had to physically pull me away from your body? Is that what you want to hear, Jimmy? ” His voice damn near breaks on his husband’s name, and Scott thanks the gods he stopped believing in a long time ago that it doesn’t.
“No,” Jimmy says. His voice is soft, gentle, almost as if Scott is a wounded animal that needs a delicate touch. “That’s not what I want to hear, not at all. I’d rather you be happy than love me.”
The words punch the air from Scott’s lungs, raw and soft and real. Scott is an excellent liar. Jimmy isn’t. Scott knows that Jimmy is telling the truth. What he doesn’t know is how to handle that level of devotion. He wonders again how Jimmy- sweet, genuine Jimmy who wears his heart on his sleeve and is hopelessly devoted to an elf who can’t be fully his- chose Scott of all people. Scott, who’s as bitter as Jimmy is sweet, who’s sarcastic and snarky and hasn’t been good enough for just about anything in his life. He certainly wasn’t good enough to save Jimmy, Scott thinks bitterly.
He shakes off the thought. “I buried you on the hill above our houses. I planted a poppy over your grave.”
“Oh.”
“Grian came over the next day. I didn’t want to see anyone who wasn’t you, but I let him in because I had to. He helped me do the straps on my armor and asked me if he could do anything else to make things easier. I told him to bury me next to you.”
“Did he?”
Scott almost laughs at the innocent question. “How would I know? Grian was honorable enough, though, loyal to his allies. I like to think he did.”
“He was a good guy,” Jimmy agrees. “A little bit bloodthirsty, I guess, but good. I don’t suppose he survived any better than the rest of us, though maybe being bloodthirsty helped.”
“Maybe.”
“Can I- can I ask you why you hate me so much now?” Jimmy’s tone is uncertain, hesitant and it hurts . “I mean, if you mourned me in third life and all.”
Scott looks away from his earnest gaze, but he can’t stop the truth slipping out. “I don’t hate you.”
“You don’t?” Jimmy asks, seemingly bewildered. “But you burned the pufferfish-”
“I didn’t. I kept it.” Scott doesn’t want to think about this, wants to say it even less. “I never hated you. I don’t think I’m capable of it.”
“Then why do you keep avoiding me?”
“I’ve been kind of busy dying,” Scott says wryly, unable to resist a bit of morbid humor at his own expense.
“Scott! That’s not funny!”
“It was a little funny.”
“No!”
Jimmy sounds genuinely distressed, and Scott drops the wry smile. “Jimmy, I’m an elf. I won’t live far beyond you, but only because I’ll fade without you.” It’s a simple statement. The truth, as much as he can give.
“So your solution is to isolate yourself and fade now?” Jimmy’s outrage is justifiable, but Scott just shrugs.
“It does sound stupid when you put it like that, doesn’t it?” It really does. “But I lost you once, and I don’t think I could bear it again.”
A hand lands on Scott’s arm, and he turns, startled. Jimmy doesn’t give him time to react, throwing his arms around Scott and pulling him close. Scott almost lets out a very undignified squeak at the sudden contact, though he slowly relaxes into Jimmy’s hold.
He should pull away. He shouldn’t give Jimmy false hope like this. But Jimmy is so warm , and Scott is so unbearably cold. Every fiber of his being is screaming that this is what’s right; screw Rivendell and obligations and too-heavy crowns, Jimmy is home to him. He’s warm for the first time in months, and the most heartbreaking part is that it can’t last. He can’t do this again.
He pulls away, ignoring the painful hope on Jimmy’s face. “I’m sorry, Jimmy.” For the first time all conversation, his voice well and truly wobbles. “I can’t. Not again.”
“But-”
Scott shakes his head. “Losing you will destroy me. We dared to love, and now all we can do now is lessen the pain when it all comes crashing down.” The words are like glass in his throat, but he forces them out anyways. They have to be said.
Jimmy’s silent, and it hurts more than if Jimmy had yelled at him.
“Goodbye, Jimmy,” Scott manages, turning away before Jimmy can see the way his face twists in pain. He makes his retreat as quickly as possible, stumbling and nearly taking a tumble just before he reaches the door. Unlike before, there’s no helpful ex-husband there to catch him, to make sure he’s alright and ask a million questions until Scott’s forced to admit that he’s not okay and hasn’t been in a long time.
He fumbles with the latch, hands shaking and vision blurring. Finally, it clicks, and Scott stumbles inside and slams the door shut before sliding to the ground. He won’t cry. He won’t . He doesn’t love Jimmy, he can’t love Jimmy anymore. Jimmy was never meant to be his. They might have carved out a few precious moments, stolen them from the universe and giggled like kids with their hands in the cookie jar as they kissed amongst the flowers, but those brief moments were all they were ever going to be allowed. It was always going to end this way, Scott tells himself. There’s no use crying over a mortal who will be dead in the blink of an eye to an elf. What would his parents say? That this was typical of him, probably. Typical Scott, always wanting what he would never be able to have. Typical, predictable Scott, loving a mortal who shouldn’t be worth anything to him.
He’s crying. There are tears spotting his cyan robes, splashing onto the wood floors he worked so hard on. Scott rubs at his eyes furiously, but that only makes it worse, sobs shuddering through him and leaving him hollow and aching. He’s so cold . The ache in his chest has returned tenfold, stealing away his breath, and he curls further into himself, struggling for air.
He’s going to die. He is going to die , alone on the floor of his house because he fell for someone he couldn’t have. For all that he’s spent every minute since Jimmy’s death in 3rd life wishing for some way out of this cruel world, he’s terrified now that it seems inevitable. He’s scared in a way he hasn’t been in forever, breath coming quick and shallow. He's scared, and he is so, so tired of this ache that haunts him, the chill that he can never get rid of.
“Jimmy,” Scott whispers. There’s no way for the human to hear him, but the name brings him some comfort. “ Jimmy .” He wants his husband. He wants someone to hug him. He doesn’t want to fade away freezing and alone, no one there to hold his hand or reassure him that the pain will be over soon. Internally, he begs for someone, anyone who cares to come looking. To find him, even if they’re too late to save him. Someone. Anyone. Please.
No one comes, and Scott lays on his floor until his breathing steadies out again. His head spins when he forces himself to his feet, and he has to lean against the wall for a few moments. There’s no time for dramatics, he tells himself sternly. He has a kingdom to rule. He cannot afford to break over a mortal he never should have fallen for in the first place. He doesn’t love Jimmy anymore, he can’t .
(He’s lying. But Scott has always been an excellent liar, even when it’s to himself.)
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