Still not over that ending

GRIAN KILLED SCAR AND THEN FELL

Remind anyone of anything?

And the winner is…

(I’m taking commissions to help pay the bills)

ALL of the Desert Duo fanartists LIED TO ME!! Grian doesn’t land the final blow on Scar while they’re in the cactus ring, they end up outside the ring and Grian punches Scar off the side of Monopoly Mountain and then JUMPS OFF THE MOUNTAIN AND JOINS HIM!

Desert duo sketch! may or may not finish someday :p

Desert duo enjoyers when Grian kills Scar

guys I think they left the desert

we're still here though

Gonna put Canon Lore to the side for a second but What IF:

What if as time passed, everyone kept losing more and more of their lives groups by groups

What if the Life Clubhouses started to become abandoned by the dwindling club members each house could host

What if when it's all said and done, Martyn is still in his first life when the last member loses their 6th life?

What if he's only left with the company of the Colliny and his Ice Dollop soon becomes encased in frigid ice as he sits upon his lonely throne

What if he lets the ice encase him in more ways than one as his heart becomes frozen cold

What if winter never left?

having normal thoughts about desert duo

Ok so I just recently watched all three life series from scars pov again and I've come to a horrible realization...Scar doesn't hit grian once after third life and if he does he never shows it. When grian steals his first life in last life sure scar goes after him swinging but he never actually hits him just barely missing him every time and when he was the boogeyman and had the perfect chance to kill grian he simply doesn't. In double life it was grian who hurt scar to show him that they were soulbound. It never crossed scars mind to test grian like at all. Like he just accepted that grian was helping him out by giving him food whenever he was low on hunger and worrying about his life when he was low on hearts out of the kindness of his own heart. He was one hundred percent ready to accept that grian was going to be on his side without even being soulmates in a death game. He didn't care about who his soulmate was at all in double life but accepted grian as an ally right off the bat. And when he finally realized who his soulmate was via dripstone ,as pay back for grian not telling him sooner, he doesn't hit grian ,no, he punches a jellie panda and hurts himself. Everytime he wants to hurt grian he never physically hits him it's always him hurting himself. Grian on the other hand...in last life grian isn't afraid to hit scar. After stealing his life and running into Lizzie he takes out his sword and swipes at scar the moment he jumps down to their level but misses and he shots arrows at him willingly when he's on yellow and when on red despite not wanting to. On double life grian is the one who hurts scar physically. When showing him their soulmates he uses dripstone and when their hiding from the reds he uses dripstone to prank scar which almost kills them both. It's wild. Plus in last life scar is the only one with a cactus in a world without a desert and it's mumbo and grian who trades for it and in double life they make another monopoly on sand and somehow manage to find the only cactuses on the server to hide out by when on the run. Yeah they never left the desert but Scar never left monopoly mountain and Grian never left the cactus ring.

Don’t mind me, just losing my mind over how Scar gave Grian his heart for a cactus…

Completely random thought- everyone always says „oh, Grian never left the desert“. And while they’re not wrong, they also kind of are. Neither Grian OR scar ever left that desert. The only difference is that scar never left monopoly mountain, while Grian never left that bloody cactus ring.

Life series!Grian a survivor not a traitor

Alternative title: I thought about Life series!Grian for too long again and because Tumblr doesn't have a character limit I'm putting my thoughts on the Internet.

I'm not normal in how while watching Cleo's secret life final episode there was a silent agreement that Grian was no loyal when they had that conversation with Scott when they were trying to convince Gem to be on their side.

"I mean, don't ask about Grian's loyalty"

And Scott response was "I have never seen a man drop a pair of sunglasses quicker in my life. As soon as Joel dropped, the bad boy glasses were off"

To which Grian responded "My boys died, what did you want from me?"

Like how is Grian seen has someone that betrays or isn't loyal to his teammates? HE IS LOYAL, HE IS JUST TOO COWARD. He has never betray a teammate first.

Look, for example to third life: He promised Scar his life, and altough he warns the rest of players at the beginning about the scams Scar was doing, he always do what Scar did, he helped him, he create traps and didn't thought on betraying him until Scar betray him first, until Scar did it, when he recovered he was so mad and just jump to them shouting out that Scar was a traitor. AND THEN when Scar apologies and offers Grian to have the win he refuses because he still considers Scar his ally, and then the cactus ring happens and he feels bad, he feels bad for killing Scar, I don't think a traitor would be that bad to the point of killing themselves

Then in last life, where he killed two of his four teammates and started his reputation as "allies killer". First of all, when he turned red he had the oppurtinity to just turn on them, sure, he went back to the nether and threat Mumbo, but it was mostly joking and I think the most messed up thing was how afraid he was of not having any teammates that he was willed his best friend but couldn't find the courage on himself. The next episode he has already a plan to go back with his team AND get Joel out of red, like- he planned a way to be back with his allies and get his new ally (that if I had to remember you, was the one that killed him, but Grian was perfectly with him because he understands it was for the red impulses) out of red. Once he gets his yellow life back and goes back to the southlanders for a happy teammate reunion and discovers Jimmy was exiled he doesn't hesitate in saying he doesn't want him back because he betrayed the southlands; they have the votation, he says 'no' inmediatly and is surprised that other people said yes but doesn't oppose to it.

When Mumbo and Jimmy turned red he didn't try to kill them until their few attempts of murder, he did not attack Mumbo when he tried to end cristal him, he didn't attack them, even when they had that terrible attempt of a trap for him and Martyn. He attacked them when Jimmy physically tries to punch him to the trap that he looses the little patient he had left and kills him and then Mumbo for trying to stop him. Then Martyn betrayed him because of the boogeyman curse and when Grian finds Impulse he sounds so wounded because of that but even then he doesn't try to go for him, he makes a plan with Impulse to put a Wither on the base of team B.E.A.S.T because they were one of the biggest threats. Once Impulse died he was back with Joel and he didn't betray or left him, even when he had the opportunity to join bigger alliances than him.

With that out of the way we arrive to the fatal Double Life, I feel that this is the catalyst of Grian's character misinterpretation, mostly because of the cheat situation but: 1, that him and Scar and soulmates doesn't mean they are allies (see the two pair of soulmates that were literally divorce) and 2, he really tried to protect Scar and be a good ally. He made a base, he warned Scar to not go to places he could die and he even trust him with the sugar cane, when he lost it he trust Scar the sand he isn't even that angry or dissapointed on him. It also applies to BigB, he was a great ally with him too! He gave him sugarcane, cookies, tnt, they didn't attack eachother and the only reason why he killed him was because he forgot BigB was soulmates with Ren in his red madness, he even had a funeral for him and apologise for killing him. That is not traitor behaviour if you ask me.

And then finally Limited Life (my excuse and the real season I wanted to talk because I haven't left that bread bridge), the season where Grian is in his most loyal teammate arc of all. He is a coward of course, he plays safe always, in every single season, and that is what ends up being one of the reasons why Joel ends up dead. The bad boys were too reckless and idiots (in an affectionate way, I love them) for him to not fear for their lives constantly, and yes they almost felt apart, but that was after Jimmy killed Grian. Grian left Jimmy get the kills, they were trying to save him, when Tango (the boogeyman) killed Jimmy he didn't took the two hours from him because that would had permakill him, at the end Jimmy didn't die because of him, he just slip from the platform. They had the funeral and all, he left diamonds at his grave as an offer.

With Joel it is a little different, Grian didn't betray him, he didn't kill him, but he wasn't there because he was afraid of dying, in the middle episode 7 Joel wants to murder the family because they wanted to kill Jimmy "It wasn't their fault he died" trying to persude him to not do that to which Joel answers "I'm gonna send Scar a message" and Grian almost begs "No Joel, you got to be careful or I'm gonna be alone. I'm gonna be a singular bad boy" but he doesn't follow him, he doesn't go to kill people with him because they don't have a plan and it's obvious they will die.

Grian is a survivor, when he notices things are getting ugly he looks for a way out. When Joel goes on his murderous rampage after they talk to BigB he reunite again with him and Pearl to offer himself as a ally, making a list of all the things he is useful for, selling himself because he knows he will be alone at the end of that episode and alone players are easy targets. At first he wants them to become bad boys, he doesn't want to leave the mark, but they refused, and a survivor has to do what they have to do. He isn't even hiding why he wants to be friends with them and they don't have a problem with that.

"I have already kind of accepted he's gonna die in a way" he says while making a trap for the nosy neighbours while watching how Joel died (again)

"I mean, you completely abandon him at this point" Pearl points out (and if I watched Pearl more I could talk about how Life Series Pearl seems to have really trust issues with people that is so confident in leaving allies behind because she keeps repeating how Grian is not with Joel, she is so 'I will die for you', and it was prove in the final of secret life, I love her so much).

And Grian doesn't deny it, he does try to excuse his behavior with a "Joel reaches a point where he just loses his mind completely and he was way past that a while ago. Jimmy's death has kind of got an adverse affect on him" just to be silent a second, finish placing the TNT cards and going "But I will have to go and see if he is okay in a minute"

He cares about his last truly ally even when he knows Joel will die, Grian can't just stand still and wait for it to happen "I'm gonna have to go and see if Joel is okay. He must be on less than an hour and if I don't say bye, I'm gonna regret it"

And once he is with Joel again he doesn't hide that he has allied with the nosy neighbours from him. It is the first thing he tells him actually "I've just been like making new friends because you have lost your mind". That is not betray behavior, that is not 'I'm gonna back stab you' or 'I'm leaving you now'. And Joel gets it, he gets that Grian is too coward to confront people directly, that he is not a pvper and accepts him like that. And then they have this conversation on Skynet while trying to get kills for Joel:

"Yeah, do you know what would be really funny? If I just knocked you off right now but I won't, I won't, I won't do that"

"I would do that for you. I would do that for you. Bad boys for life"

HOW IS THAT NOT LOYALTY? Grian, the one that is afraid of death, willing to die for his ally? Without hesitation answering that yes, he would do that for Joel. We have the hole "Kill me Joel. KILL ME" dialogue and scene after that even. Grian didn't wanted Joel to died, when he has five minutes Grian tries to tell him to kill him again before Joel denies. When they are going to see who Joel can kill is when he starts hesitating because he would lose two hole hours to get Joel back to just one hour, he is balancing saving his allies with keeping himself alive and at the end Joel's rampage ends up killing him and Grian is without his bad boy.

He enters in full survivor mode and downplays Joel's death in front of everybody but contradicting his discourse of 'It was getting expensive to keep him alive' once everyone is gone he tells Pearl and BigB they should have a funeral for Joel fully knowing they weren't his allies. He makes Joel a grave too, like they did with Jimmy and says some words for him. How could that not be loyalty? The last episode he uses the bad boy skin, all season he forgot to use it and had to be remember by the others to use it, and then he puts it even if he 'isn't a bad boy anymore' to honor his allies.

I think the most close he was to betray an ally was when at the end he enacted the sword and ally with Impulse and Etho whitouth talking it with Pearl and it ending with both Etho and Pearl killing eachother to be in peace. When they first met after Grian enactes the sword and Pearl goes to kill he tries to stop her, but he doesn't defend her (or Etho), he just tells them to stop. Grian character just... always leaves his allies do what they want? even if it is not the best for them, it is something he does with every one of his alliance really, he does his own and they do his own, Cleo actually points it out on their last episode while they are talking to the heart fundation and Grian gets bored and goes to do his plan to get Gem and Cleo is like 'yeah, he does his own things, don't pay attention to him'.

In Secret Life he was also truly loyal to the roomates, in part I think because he was afraid of loosing his only oportunitty to get some friends after three episodes of loneliness. Grian is always so desesperate to make allies every season, make people like him because it would mean someone would fight for him. The rommates is a very solid team and he reassures himself and they how he made the correct decision. They are not as attach as he was with his bad boys (that, talking about them, he had this weird no-alliance with Joel, changing hearts and not really attacking eachother until the very end) but it is stable.

Grian includes them in his plans, if they are not on board he respects it, but when he thinks it is something that can protect them he insists. He insists they should go to Joel's platform where he hide from the zombie apocalypse because it is the easiest to defend and they were chase by the people with more health on the server. When Etho died they took it seriously, when they are scaping he goes first through the portal that belongs to Gem, Impulse and Scott because "No point both of us dying" he could have left Cleo go first to be more safe but he didn't, he tries to make a trap to get Gem and the Scotts and he tells Cleo to back off because they would get hurt if they stay to close because he will manually activate it.

My conclusion? Grian is not a traitor, he has never betray his teammates until they cross the line first. He is a bad teammate? Oh, totally, not because he won't provide his allies with supplies or plans but because the moment it becomes dangerous, too risky for his constant safe plays he distants himself because he doesn't like risky plays, he is an expert in the 'long game' even if he won't win anything with it, he also has some kind of honor (if you want to put it that way) he won't attack the weakest unless he is corner to do it to keep himself alive, he always goes for the biggest alliance, the people with most hearts, the people with most potential of giving to bring them down with the rest.

As always thank you for reading how normally sane I'm about Life series Grian. Again, I write this mini kinda essays on the fly and don't check facts too much but Grian himself implying he is not loyal had me "are you sure about that?" and then this was write on my drafts. Thanks for coming to my Grian talk!

The first step was realizing "de la Cruz" would fit as a knuckle tat. The second step was realizing that a competent slayer is never without weapons, so why not tattoo them on yourself permanently? Along with symbols of protection from various religions and cultures just in case?

(ID in alt and under cut)

ID: Various drawings of a tattoo covered slayer Guillermo. 1. Guillermo sitting down in nothing but blue boxer briefs and a silver crucifix, one arm raised chest-high to inspect a wound on his forearm. There is a fresh bandage half taped-on and a bloody one in his other hand, a band aid hanging from his mouth. There are more blood scrapes on his cheek, chest, and elbows as well as various scars, including a gnarled knot on his lower belly, a long thin line on his right tit, and one bisecting his right eyebrow. His hair is longer and more unruly than in canon, overgrown down his neck and flopping over his forehead. He is covered in tattoos: a tall saguaro cactus on his right upper arm, a stylized Nahua gila monster on his right forearm, a bright blue evil eye on his right inner forearm, crucifixes across both knuckles, a yellow and red Calli house symbol on his right abdomen, a string of red crosses around his neck, a star of David on his collarbone, crossed arrows over the center of his chest, a teal thunderbird stretching from his sternum to his navel, a Celtic knot on his left side, a flaming sacred heart on his left shoulder, and an ankh stylized with knots on his left forearm. 2. Guillermo standing, staring at the viewer challengingly, dressed in dark green army pants, a lighter green button up with short sleeves rolled above his biceps, and a brown vest. All are scraped, sewed, or discolored in some way to show a lot of use. He has a tactical belt and a thigh strap with empty stake holsters, a cross-body strap with two stakes remaining, a silver cuff on his left ear with what looks like a vampire fang pierced through the lobe, and a flask of holy water at his hip. His left hand is wrapped in a rosary and holds a bloody stake at his side; his right hand is raised up, holding a bloody silver short sword with a sharp wooden pommel. At this angle we can now see part of a circular maze tattoo on the inside of his left forearm, gnarled slashing scars on his left cheek and jaw, and the arrows tattooed at angles along the back of his hands. 3. Guillermo faced away from the viewer, shirtless. We can now see the large tattoo stretched over his back: a tall dark orange oval fades to yellow at the bottom; in the center, a tree of life stretches it's branches above the ovals borders, roots anchored to the border below. In front of the tree is the figure of the Lady Guadalupe, hands clasped and head bowed in prayer, orange ribbons like flame resembling her usual surroundings ringing the bottom of the oval where the roots of the tree disappear. 4. Close up on Guillermo starting at the viewer, mouth open and tongue out to show off a silver crucifix pierced into the tip. 5. Close up on Guillermo's hands, scarred, scraped red at the knuckles, and splattered with blood. We can see the crosses on the backs of his fingers in detail; they work similarly to crucifix knuckle dusters and only form a cross when his fingers are pressed together in a fist. On his lower knuckles in stylized font, one letter per finger, it says "De La Cruz". /end ID

heist

supercorptober 2023

I′ve waited 'til the moment's right To look into those starry eyes And say the words That I′m thinking all the time - The Hunts, I Do

or Kara's plans to propose almost go awry, because of course they don't.

----

"Aunt Kara"

Esme whispered, tugging gently on her sleeve, her eyes round with worry.

"Yeah Bug"'

"Why are we breaking into Aunt Lena's office?" Momma says that's something robbers do."

Kara pinched the bridge of her nose, the two of them stopped just outside of Lena's office.

"Of course she does." She kneeled down in front of Esme. "Listen..."

Kara bit her lip, contemplating how to answer. They were just getting something back that wasn't even supposed to be in there. Something that belonged to her anyway. Something that no one but her currently knew even existed. But how could she explain all that to a six-year-old?

"Well, we're, uh, we're just entering, no breaking? So it's fine."

But Esme was clearly not entirely convinced.

"So why do we have to be all sneaky then? She rocked back and forth on her feet. "Is it because that lady at the desk doesn't like you?"

"Wh-what, who, Jess, no Jess, Jess likes me. I bought her a cactus." Kara insisted

"Gerald?" Esme eyes widened with curiosity. "She said you almost killed Gerald once."

Kara chuckled nervously.

"That was like more than a year ago, and, if anything, Gerald almost killed me!."

She looked over her shoulder to make sure no one was close enough to hear them.

She lowered her voice again just in case.

"Jess is just suspicious and very very protective."

But Esme had moved already on.

"Is it because we're on a secret mission then?"

"That"— she grinned, ruffling Esme's hair — "is exactly why."

Kara stood up and reached for Esme's hand, leading her into Lena's office.

"I left something super secret in Aunt Lena's coat, and we need to get it back."

Kara's eyes darted nervously around the office.

Her gaze falling on a coat draped over the back of a nearby chair just as Esme's hand slipped from hers, going straight for it without hesitation.

"I see it!"

So much for being sneaky.

"Great job, Bug

But Kara couldn't help but smile at her niece's enthusiasm.

Kara joined her on the other side of the room where Lena's coat, well technically her coat, was lying. She reached out tentatively, her fingers brushing against the soft material before slipping into the pocket, her breath catching when she found the ring box seemingly untouched.

She glanced at Esme, who grinned back at her, and slipped the box into her own pocket just as the door behind them opened.

She turned, heart pounding in her chest.

"Jess thinks you're in here planning a heist of some sort," Lena's voice filled the room, her smirking figure appearing in the doorway.

Esme immediately ran to her, arms wrapping around Lena's legs and head resting against her stomach.

"Hi, my love," Lena greeted warmly, her eyes flicking over to Kara with a raised eyebrow.

Esme smiled up at her.

"Don't worry, we're just entering, but not breaking."

"Well, that's reassuring; never can be quite sure about that second part with your Aunt."

"Hey!" Kara protested, feeling the heat rise in her cheeks. "I don't think I'm the only one to blame for at least several of the things broken in this office."

She watched as Lena's cheeks flushed pink too.

"Uh-huh. Well, to what do I owe your entering?"

Kara nudged Esme gently, and she proudly grinned at Lena.

"We came to take you to lunch!"

"You did, did you?" Lena asked, amusement dancing in her eyes as she looked between them. "Hmm, well, I suppose I could do with some lunch."

As they prepared to leave, Kara noticed Lena picking up her coat, her heart fluttering when she paused with it in her hands.

"Well, that's silly."

"What is?"

Lena turned the coat back and forth.

"I must have grabbed your coat instead of mine this morning. Sorry about that. I was in such a hurry that I didn't even realize or apparently even bother to hang it up when I came in."

"It's okay." Kara shrugged her shoulder, gripping the box in her pocket again as if to make sure it was still her.

With the other, she reached out for Lena's hand, thumb subtly ghosting over her ring finger as she threaded their finger together.

"I didn't even realize either."

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read and follow along on Ao3 too

No thoughts head empty only Scarian coming back to kill each other like they truly never left that cactus ring