does Secret Life happen during early s10 in this timeline or? I guess Secret Life can replace Real Life in the timeline if you’re really not sure what to do with Real Life haha.
Dog's Life was originally supposed to take place between August and October, roughly, since that was when I started posting. However, Sniff showed up August 29th, so canonically this story takes place after August. Back in Chapter 8, Sniff comments that he's "1584 day/night cycles since he started counting." If I did my math right, his calculation should be exactly the amount of time between August 29th and the day that chapter went up- September 19th. However, I used the term "since he started counting" for a reason, because I didn't know what my canon was. I started posting before Decked Out 2 was opened, so I was guesstimating the end of Season 9 when I started this 'fic.
Basically, Dog's Life Session 1 was probably recorded September 19th, 2023 with the episode going up that Friday, September 22nd. I'm going to try to end it after 5 or 6 sessions because this is a very long 'fic and that's probably enough. Theoretically it ends with an episode posted Friday, October 20th or the 27th. I'm not planning to count Real Life as canon unless I think of anything really exciting for it, but the start of April would be about 5 and a half months from Dog's Life, which isn't a weird time to have Secret Life.
I think... maybe my canon would be that Real Life episode 1 dropped on April 1st - after viewers had been hyped for a new season - and then Secret Life started the following week, because Real Life was just a joke. That does lead to a bit of weirdness like Gem's debut being Real Life, but that's probably how I'd do it if I choose to make it canon in this world.
There are probably some Secret Life references that exist in early Hermitcraft - Ex: Joel started calling Etho obsessed after Etho said "I love you," which he only said because it was Scott's secret task and people were joking that it would be weird if Etho said "I love you." So... vague timeline, but I'm here for a good time, not a canon-compliant time (as much as I do love canon compliancy). Generally in 'fics from that era, I'll make references to the season, but not reference what IRL month it takes place.
Canonically, we go from Sniff and Pig's race to the end to the Decked Out 2's closing crossover stream to Dog's Life (probably 2 to 3 weeks later, so Etho and Joel are fresh off the neck kisses teasing, Jimmy off his Decked Out excitement high, and Martyn and Ren off whatever they did (I was mostly watching Joel POV and I know Ren and Martyn talked and the fandom enjoyed it, but I haven't seen it and haven't been in the mood to go digging yet), and then we go from Dog's Life into the holiday break. After break, Secret Life and Hermitcraft 10 fit in there, but I'm not going to be overly picky about the dates. I'm date-picky in a different fandom, but this is my chill calendar world.
Something I'd already been thinking before this comment was that I like the idea of Scott decorating for the holidays early because if he waits, we get closer to people disappearing for a break and missing the decorations. In most of my 'fics, my holidays make references to the solstices and equinoxes rather than to real-world holidays; religious holidays can still exist in this world, but a lot of the details would get lost in translation and it's not super likely everyone would be able to get together to exchange gifts or enjoy ceremonies. Blue and white is a color scheme I've used for winter solstice across three separate universes and I just like it here :) They don't have solstices or equinoxes because their world is flat. They're technically welcoming the dry season.
if Scar dies in Between is there a Vex Dragon he can now spawn in the nest of? Or do vex who die in Between just die because no dragon? Because if so that adds another complication to the issue of unthreading other players
- There is a Vex Dragon. There are natural-born vex in this world. Not all vex have chronic glitches- only unthreaded players do. Vex who don't have chronic glitches can still take the bullet path. However, they might have to parkour their way past the amethyst blocks we saw Scar hesitate over back in Chapter 8. The blocks are put there as a reminder for unthreaded players (who are always vex) that they might dissolve themselves and be unable to reform if they jump into the path. Are natural-born vex getting faced with a barrier they don't deserve? Yeah. Do we have any natural-born vex in New Star? ... Probably not. Scott extends invitations to a lot of newbies (inviting them to come get their Education in New Star), but he probably steers clear of the vex hub, knowing him. A lot of vex prefer to get Education near the evoker hub anyway because that's kinda their culture.
- As far as we know, an allay or cluckshroom who was unthreaded would not respawn at the Vex Dragon's nest. Technically, we don't know if that's true, but we do know cluckshrooms are considered extinct and we do know allays are considered an endangered species, which implies they're gone. I don't think any of our characters know what would happen because they're kind of all in hiding. I've been writing a meta 'fic and one of the topics that gets discussed in there IS about different theories, though, which range from "they get wiped out and deleted forever" to "surely they can't actually be gone, because there's an outside player who still needs them" to "maybe they respawn but are severely corrupted" to "maybe they're reborn as a different species."
It's one of those worldbuilding questions we probably won't ever get an answer for, although the implication does seem to be that those hybrids are extinct or endangered. In an early draft, I did kill off Scott and have him respawn at the allay hub because he was protected by the Allay Dragon's star and the game respawned him as a dragon, but Scott respawning in this way does not fit the finalized worldbuilding, so that was scrapped. I did write some 'fics that take place in the future and Scott is mysteriously absent in case I needed him to be either dead or doing dragon things, haha.
NPC Grian does not because of his white soul
Just to clarify, NPC_Grian has no soul. The leading theory is that Helsians are spawned in response to strong emotions, but the reason for it is that the game needs to store additional code somewhere, - specifically "Hey, this cubito had a strong emotion; they are expressing a lot of conscious thought and we shouldn't erase that when respawning them; let's make a note" - and for some reason all those notes end up in a mysterious "back end" dimension called Hels, with a lot of outdated and April Fools content that isn't usually needed but still needs to be pulled from to load those versions. The true form of a Helsian is just. code. with no skin. Kinda like a blaze or breeze :)
You are 100% correct in saying it's an interesting moral quandary, and NPC_Grian definitely operates from the angle that he wants to be perceived as having worth. However, it's worth acknowledging that he doesn't have a soul- anivores can't eat him and everyone kinda finds Helsians spooky.
[This reply got longer than expected. One more reply below!]
oh man are there things Scar actually can’t do without Cub’s permission?
- Cub does let Scar make his own decisions. Most evokers do, but vex tend to look to them for advice.
- This comes vaguely hinted later, but I don't consider it a spoiler, so here ya go: Cub and Scar have had a special ceremony that turned Scar from a regular vex into a seravex. For this to happen, Scar committed himself completely
How would Sniff go about finding an evoker if he wanted?
- All he has to do is ask and if he's accepted, there's a ceremony. Sniff did ask this of Cub off-screen (not necessarily "can I be yours?" but at least "How do I get one?") and Cub told him to wait until he gains more life experience. Committing to an evoker is a pretty big deal and not something to rush into. It's not weird to spawn into this universe with a brain that tells you "Hey, you're married to this other person," but due to how the worldbuilding works, you can't really spawn in as a vex who's emotionally ready to have an evoker- the creator would have to specifically design an emotionally ready character.
Statistically, the chances of that happening are zero... especially since the character would have to be born a vex with attachment to someone spawned as an evoker, and species can be random (Ex: Sniff wasn't spawned a sniffer even though his creators were probably thinking of sniffers). Low-XP vex should wait and research. When they're ready, they can bond.
Can Cub be the evoker for multiple vex or would Sniff need his own private evoker? Very intriguing!
Thank you! I enjoy the worldbuilding a lot :) You can be an evoker for multiple vex, but a vex can only be bonded to one evoker at a time. They can hang out with other evokers, but only magically bonded to one.
Allays are the same way- they can switch partners, but the magical bond only works one way (because game mechanics). I don't think it gets explicitly stated in this story, but Scott adores Cleo and also wants Pearl back; you can tell from a lot of his behavior, though he's not likely to admit it to her face. Many characters are stuck in "how Double Life changed them." The divorce quartet got hit hard because they learned to recognize their soulmate's behaviors through the bond while not living with them; they grew familiar with each other's body language, tics, and tells.
--> Martyn and Cleo had a very ambiguous relationship where Martyn would do things like hug himself while curled up in bed and Cleo felt weird telling him to stop when he was likely just trying to keep warm, and maybe that's how he sleeps. I'm working on a 'fic about this right now - it's called "my lips are chapped; I know you’re there" - and it's specifically themed around Martyn running his tongue over his lips and how weird that makes Cleo feel. I think IRL Martyn (and character Martyn to some degree) was largely pushing an angle of survival, but it doesn't change the fact that character Martyn was very romantic-oriented towards Cleo in canon (Ex: Scar asked if Martyn wanted him to play romantic music and Martyn said yes, Martyn said he wanted to be "Real, proper soulmates" and made it very clear he was unsatisfied being Cleo's secret alliancemate and he wanted to base with her). Sure, on some level it was roleplay for him, but I also think [for the purpose of my universe], it would be ingenuine to ignore that Martyn was pursuing her as a partner... Anyway, I could talk about them all day.
--> Scott and Pearl also grew familiar, but my portrayal is that Cleo was making allowances for Martyn (implied in canon when she tells Scott in Ep 3 that she thinks Martyn would be a good ally, not to mention she did give him diamonds) while Scott was out here cutting himself off from Pearl as much as possible. Cleo and Martyn might hug themselves or pat their skin to silently communicate (though they'd hesitate to admit it), but Scott would sooner tie his hands to separate poles than hug himself to soothe Pearl.
He and Cleo chatted a lot, but weren't cuddling. Scott really vibes with Cleo's personality and humor. He likes her a lot, but he keeps thinking back to snuggling up with Jimmy and Pearl. He's cuddled Cleo since then, but Double Life was weird for Scott specifically in the sense that neither he nor Pearl were really touching their own bodies (i.e. in hugs or touching bruises) in the ambiguous way Cleo and Martyn were hugging themselves and mentally connecting with each other despite their distance. Cleo and Martyn really embody that vibe of soulmates working things out while Scott and Pearl embody cutting off a toxic ex (or at least an ex they choose to believe is toxic, regardless of how justifiable either's behavior is or isn't).
All of this to say, Scott likes Cleo AND Pearl, in spite of their Double Life conflict. He also misses Jimmy, but that's a whole thing. It's actually very annoying to him that he can't have some kind of poly bond that lets him bond with multiple people, but unfortunately that's just not how bond magic works. Even as a vex, he'd only be able to have one evoker at a time. He can talk to his potential partners about switching between them (regularly flipping the bond on and off which would be very noticeable), but that's not a conversation he's ready to have.
Eye contact and hearts isn’t a thing in Between right? Because no golden carrots?
Not a thing, but they can still flirt, yeah. She's just letting him feed her for cultural reasons.
Grian accidentally shot Etho in Last Life while eating bread and when Etho accused him of attacking on purpose, Grian said "I make eye contact when I eat bread." I couldn't resist a little joke about this being a consistent Grian quirk. He'll just look at you while he eats bread.
He reminds me of that tumblr post going “not to be a lesbian but oh my god” in reaction to Cleo.
SLKDFJSLDKFJS... I'm crying. This is so funny.
I am intrigued if you would like to elaborate on what you meant by Grian flirting with Cleo in a sexist way but Cleo not noticing?
Grian's gunning for Cleo because basically, Cleo is stereotyped in-universe as getting around. Plenty of people do, but for some reason Cleo gets slapped with "a reputation" about it and our male-oriented characters don't. Some surely do, but Cleo definitely gets a ping. This note's also here mostly because I said in a warning a couple chapters ago that we were "starting to lay the groundwork for sexist moments that we'll talk about later."
You are correct in saying that sexism isn't as big in the Pixels world (Never had a culture of baby-bearing), and you're correct in saying Grian comes from a very sexist universe (NW world wouldn't like admitting it's sexist, I think, and would make a big spiel of extenuating circumstances due to the 80-20 assigned at birth split, but I'd agree it's sexist). It really boils down to Grian deciding he needs to pursue someone "someone who gets around" and immediately thinking Cleo, even though there are plenty of men who also get around. In fact, he even sees Cleo as the one who gets around in spite of Martyn telling him Bdubs would be happy to play with him; Grian even makes the assumption that surely Bdubs doesn't actually get around. But he has no issue believing Cleo would.
All this is to say that it's kind of slut-shaming, except Cleo's thing is also that people think she's heavily flirty when she's actually not THAT flirty, and slut-shaming doesn't feel like the right term when Grian is specifically looking for someone to have a 100-day fling with. Cleo is exes with a lot of people in this friend group (namely Bdubs, BigB, potentially some ambiguous Fairy Fort stuff with Lizzie and Ren but she was definitely married to BigB at that time, then there's Martyn drama, you could argue Scott as an ex, and then there's "sort of Etho"). If you pan out and take in New Star as a whole, I think Cleo wouldn't seem like she's getting around that much, but within her friend group, she's largely considered to.
That's 7 possible people right there plus an 8th if someone assumes Gaslight-Gatekeep-Girlboss had romantic undertones. There are only like, 14 to 17 players (with Gem as 18 iirc, but that hasn't happened yet). And these are just Lifers- there's the whole Hermitcraft and other SMPs that have crossed their path... but yeah, you could perceive Cleo as having gotten with 50% or more of the entire roleplay group and that's the kind of thing that lands them with a reputation. For comparison, Bdubs and Etho are sometimes perceived as being together, and the friend group does know Bdubs was with Cleo and then moved onto Impulse. You could even make an argument for Martyn, though Martyn would hate it if you implied romance- that's his boss. Bdubs can be a physical, flirty person, but that's only 2 confirmed romances in the friend group with an argument for a 3rd.
An outsider making assumptions could perhaps argue flirty reputations for several individuals (Ren potentially with Martyn, Lizzie, BigB, and/or anyone from Dogwarts alliance / Jimmy with Scott, Tango, and possibly the Southlanders not to mention his Bad Boy Joel / and Scott who's perceived as touchy-feely and quick to move into relationships would also be good ones too). To me, though, there's this view Grian has of Cleo right now where he's not approaching due to genuine romantic interest in them as a person - he is cupioromantic; he feels little to nothing in terms of romance - but he's chasing this idea that Cleo can help him because she "gets around the most."
Thanks for dropping in, reading, and commenting! :) <3
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