When You Hold Me, I Feel Important.

For the grian enjoyers

Floating Trees

Many of C418’s tracks have a dreamy quality, which resonates deeply with me since I love that style. 'Floating Trees', in particular, feels like a glimpse of the Overworld just before it glitches and breaks into the End.

"Say... has Joe always had those colorful floaty eye-thingies around his head?" Scar asks, absentmindedly stroking the fletchings of an arrow.

"I don't think so?" answers Grian, perched on the railing of the HotGuy Tower. "You hear that clinking of chains around him more often these days, too."

The two are silent for a moment, watching Joe play Beef's card game with Cleo. Even from this distance, they can occasionally catch a flash of color from one of the little floating eyes near him.

"Why do you think that is?"

"I think it's Them", Grian says.

"What do you mean "Them"?"

"Eh, you know. Just Them. You know what I mean, right? They can change us, sometimes. Haven't you noticed?"

"I really don't get what you're talking about."

"I wasn't like this-" for a moment Grian is surrounded by a soft purple glow and a halo of eyes, not in all colors of rainbow like Joe's, but purple like the light around him "-before They decided I was, either."

"But I thought that was the Watcher thing?"

"I mean, it sorta was. But it wasn't. I wasn't like this when I first became a Watcher. This happened when They decided that's what Watchers are like."

"Joe's not a Watcher, though, is he?" asks Scar, frowning.

"Nah, he's Something Else."

"You know, it's weird, but recently I've felt like something's changed", Scar says. "Like I don't know what, but something's different. Dreams of like, arenas and fighting people, some of them ones I've never even met. And it's like there's thousands of voices in the back of my head, cheering me on. It's very distracting."

"Yeah, I think I know what you mean."

"Is that Them too?"

"Probably. Almost definitely, actually."

"I feel like I'm sort of racing, competing with Joe, and I'm not even sure what it's about."

"Yeah, that's Them playing games. You don't have to pay too much attention to it, if you don't want to. It might not be a good idea, anyway. Sometimes They like attention, and then sometimes they run and scatter and hide if you give Them any, and you never know what it'll be this time." Grian shrugs. "The good news is though, if Joe has changed because of Their game, he might change back once it's over or They get bored of the game."

"Might?"

"Yeah, might. Or it might stick. They're fickle creatures, it's hard to tell beforehand."

"You know an awful lot about them", Scar points out.

"That's because They used to be Watchers. Until They decided They weren't, but I still was, and made Watchers be something else instead and became not-Watchers."

"That doesn't make any sense."

"You're right. It doesn't. I think that's how They like it."

Before Scar can ask more questions, Grian spreads his wings and takes off.

Been learning some new stuff

Here's a rough Portal-Cloak animation test from a while ago that I forgot to post.

[Image ID: A GIF of Danny Phantom stepping out of a swirling black portal, looking around, and then jumping out of frame to the right. Phantom has light green skin and white firey hair. As he turns to leave, Phantom flicks his hand over his shoulder and the portal behind him turns into a black, flame-like cloak. /. End ID]

in a classic “only on hermitcraft” move, the booming fishing industry is funding the space program

The fundamental problem with Scar and Grian when it comes to forming alliances is a difference of expectations. Grian is a tactician. He assumes that in a war or a big multiplayer game, you need to get yourself a loyal team. Anybody who is on your team is your buddy, anybody who isn't on your team is your enemy. That is the only way to win. Anybody who won't pick a side is not to be trusted, and he is surprised and annoyed if someone won't make their allegiances clear.

Scar, on the other hand, is a diplomat. He never thinks about forming a team because his assumption is that everyone he meets is going to be nice to him. His charisma is high enough that this is true way more often than not. Even when he is being a chaos gremlin, he tends to get away with it for much longer than he probably ought to because he is funny and charming and just a little bit intimidating. He doesn't consider people he makes deals with to be teammates because he doesn't see the world in terms of teams, but as a network of shifting relationships. He is surprised and annoyed when the web starts getting sticky, with various friends starting to want him to fight other friends.

Grian believes that loyalty deserves loyalty, and that if you are someone's teammate you protect each other no matter how you feel. Scar believes that friendship is what it is, and that relationships can ebb and flow with time and circumstance. Note that in Third Life, newly-red Scar seeks to reestablish a friendship rather than confirm that Grian is still loyal to him, and that in Double Life, Grian justifies his secret soulmate by rationalizing that the relationship will in the end also benefit Scar by keeping them safe. Note also that in Last Life and Double Life Scar wanted to live alone but work together and Grian was not at all on board with that because you can trade and borrow and joke from separate bases but you can't really protect one another.

There is always going to be friction in their alliances because Scar wants a buddy and Grian wants a teammate and those two things are not always compatible at all. It's going to be the same thing with Hermitopia because the more Grian tries to loop Scar into the team, the harder Scar is going to fight to get away, while at the same time Scar is very unlikely to actually take sides against the Hermits because they are his friends. Neither of them can get what they want from each other because neither of them have figured out how to make the other understand what it actually is.

Maybe they need another panda sanctuary. I hear that's good for communication.

Okay, so, a summary of the Scar & Tubbo livestream:

Tubbo is extremely excited to meet Scar

Scar has no idea what they’re doing

They have picked a challenge world in which lava is constantly rising

Tubbo picked this world

Tubbo did not read a tutorial and has no idea what they’re doing either

They totally fail to gather appropriate resources

Scar uses this time to successfully convince Tubbo that fireflies now exist in Minecraft

Scar attempts the double-life dripstone trick on Tubbo

They scaffold up above the lava. Scar nearly dies about five times. They escape to the nether, nearly dying again when Scar puts the lava bucket in the wrong place.

Tubbo: “Er, I’ve just had a discord message from Grian that just says Welcome to my world.”

Tubbo: “Also my chat keeps telling me you betrayed me??”

Tubbo destroys the nether portal back “until we’ve talked this out!”

Scar: “I haven’t betrayed you!”

Scar: “Grian will vouch for me!”

Grian has left the chat.

Scar reluctantly admits that they didn’t put fireflies in Minecraft

They leave the nether for the lava-world again and realize they’ve won

Scar falls into the lava by accident and Tubbo dies trying to save him.

Grian enters voicechat and proposes a therapy group of people who have had to keep Scar alive.

Tubbo immediately volunteers to join this.

Grian re-convinces Tubbo there are now fireflies in Minecraft.

When you learned your mother was a goddess, things finally seemed to fall into place. The other demigods laughed at you, the only child born to the goddess of the hearth, Hestia. But your power was so much more than they could dream of.

petal in the machine