Thanks! I'm glad you liked it. I've had the same "Wow, there's a ton to recap and I have limited space/time" issue when I share with my sibling or write my chapter recaps... sometimes it's a struggle to keep it one page per chapter, haha. It's a fun story though and I've enjoyed it a lot :)
I'm glad you liked this chapter! This is one I come back to reread a lot. The Sniff arc was SUPER spontaneous since he was revealed the morning after I posted Chapter 5 (Joel's injury). At the time, I had no real plan for how to recover Joel beyond "Probably have LazyBeans26 donate some lines of code," and then when I saw Sniff, I knew what had to be done. It's been a lot of fun exploring how Sniff affects my story plans, and it's so nice to have a character who needs the lore explained to him alongside the reader. Couldn't have planned it better if I tried. Crazy to think that if I'd been one chapter sooner in posting Dog's Life, we wouldn't have gotten Sniff until too late to incorporate him into this 'fic. I might've brought him in later by giving Joel complications that Lazy (Pig)'s code didn't help with, but I'm glad I got to use him.
It's funny... When readers get to this part of the story (Chap 7-9), the response I get from comments/Tumblr asks seems to be "Hell yeah! Sniff is here!" All my homies love Sniff... He's such a guy. True epitome of who a Minecraft character should be (to me): Hardworking, learning new things, and ready to attack.
Etho and Sniff are just so victims of circumstance to me... There is so little control they have over the situation or the fact that Sniff has memories he didn't ask for, but doesn't want to let go of because they're important to him and he doesn't want to stop having the thing that makes him feel like him. I enjoy them because they both want to do the right thing and also hang out with each other and they're just both confused and nervous and wanting something nice for themselves. They're silly...
Ugggghhhh, I live for Grian's communication struggles. Learning to be a good partner in a healthy relationship & talk about his feelings is his primary theme in this story, so I'm glad you're enjoying that too! There will be plenty more :) I really love that conversation with Scar. It's super important to me that I do what I can not to villainize Scar (at least to the reader, though Grian sometimes gets tense around him and blames him for things), but also not portray Grian as "at fault because he doesn't experience attraction." Nah... Grian's relationships fall apart for a lot of reasons, but it's absolutely because of how he chooses to handle situations and treats other people, not because he's aro.
I love Grian and Scar on positive terms and this story isn't supposed to bash that- It's just a character study of who each of them are, how they work through their feelings, and how they talk to one another. Ugh, I love writing them... Grian is so "clawing his way into a hole" and Scar is holding the rope that will lead him home. Grian does not trust him not to drop it for a second.
Minecraft time (on-server) runs about 72 times faster than Between time. Each Life Series gameplay session is about 3 hours with half an hour start and end for resource gathering and building (Basic off-camera stuff that benefits the game, but you're expected to be extra cautious about- No sneaking into someone's base or setting traps, but you can tend to your farms and stuff). This is 9 to 14 days per session; each person's time will vary a bit if they are 20 minutes sooner to join the game or quicker to leave.
Etho's starting his mental calendar in June 2022. There are 6 play sessions of about 2 weeks each (About 12 weeks - 3 months - on the Double Life server). After that, he's counting the time between play sessions. Many players feel like a year has passed between play sessions (About a week IRL), so they might count Double Life as about 5 years of time, give or take. Etho stays in Between a lot (he has a ton of wander hour time and tends to return to Between quickly after his soul is taken by Bdubs; phantoms have a high metabolism and process souls quickly). In other words, Etho managed to shave 4 years off the passage of time by staying in Between longer than some people with less wander time.
Time is super subjective in this universe; no one experiences it the same way. There's one written calendar which is how many people refer to their age. However, some people count their age only by what they've personally experienced. Phantoms don't need to join an AFK server to sleep - they stay in Between full-time unless they join a server willingly). Thus, phantoms tend to be "younger" than others, as they've experienced less passage of time (BigB is also in this boat because he spends a lot of time in Roblox, where time doesn't move as fast as it does on a Minecraft server).
Wander hour is a skill that can be improved with practice. At minimum, people have about 3 hours: one in blue, one in orange, one in green. The older and stronger they get (Ex: eating healthy, taking care of their bodies), the better their wander hour. It's still connected to an outside player's energy, but each person has their individual experience with it. Sometimes it can even vary by the day. If an IRL player turns off Minecraft and immediately goes to bed, the digital player won't have much energy because there's no active, awake mind on the other side to draw energy from.
Wander energy is highly influenced by how much an outside player thinks about Minecraft. Once your energy runs out, you have to retreat to your AFK server and rest; you can't get off the AFK server until you get a wave of energy from the outside world. For most people (Especially ones with less experience), this requires the player to actively play Minecraft. With practice, this threshold can drop, allowing someone to leave in the minutes or hours leading up to a planned gameplay session, or just if their player is thinking about Minecraft in general. This story focuses on characters owned by YouTubers, so they can usually leave every day or every few days; their creators are often thinking about Minecraft. If a creator takes a break from videos/gameplay, the character is more likely to get locked away for a while (which they don't consider too traumatizing; they're used to it).
- Unthreaded vex (like Scar and Sniff) can leave a server without waiting for an energy boost. They can come and go as they please, and the trade-off for that is that they left part of their body/soul behind in their AFK world... thus, the chronic glitch.
Scott and Etho are two characters who care a ton about their wander time. IRL Scott has been on a lot of SMPs. He was neighbors/roommates with fellow MCYTrs for a while, and he does a lot of organizing (MCC and such). It takes very little to give Scott the energy to leave a server, which is why he's around Between a lot (to the point that he doesn't have his own pleasant AFK server; he basically "rents a room" in another server and doesn't have a nice house of his own).
Etho pretty much puts all his energy into expanding his wander hour time. He doesn't care about increasing wing size or his fox abilities (jumping, digging, biting, stealing, etc.) - He values his ability to get into Between and stay there as long as he can. Etho actually has a special ability that lets him to split his consciousness between his singleplayer and Between, which he'll talk more about in a later chapter. It's very difficult to get to that level Etho has achieved, but he worked hard for it.
In other words, wander hour is based on an awake player's mind; it's not hooked to the time zone. You'll usually see the Australian, Asian, British, and African gamers drop off earlier than the American or Canadian players due to time zones. Pearl's wander hour follows IRL Pearl's sleep schedule regardless of where she is in the world. For the purposes of this story, Pearl is on a vaguely American schedule, so she outlasts some of her British friends.
- Dog's Life gameplay sessions occur around 7 or 8 pm for the British friends, somewhere around 2 pm for the Americans. So, the British players usually head to sleep not long after playing. The Americans stay up a bit later. Pearl plays early in the morning [5 AM; I use the Double Life lore there], so she's more likely to be awake while the Americans are since the British are slowly winding down through wander hour. She might play Dog's Life and then do some editing, or maybe play Dog's Life and jump on Hermitcraft later that day without a sleep session in between. You'll basically never see the British jump onto Hermitcraft straight away though.
- Scar tends to wake up around noon or early afternoon. He's on a similar schedule to Pearl: Playing Dog's Life and then either resting, editing, or doing Hermitcraft. Scar is very often in Between, especially since he's unthreaded and can get out on his own if he wants to. Very rare for him to be missing in action- He loves seeing his friends.
Thanks for reading and commenting! Glad you're enjoying and I love reading people's thoughts :)
thanks for the explanation about wander hours and game time! it's insane how much thoughts you put into your world. I love to imagine my own Minecraft character running around in between (even tho they probably feel abandoned at time.. I don't play Minecraft that much but I think about it all the time)
I've read I think two more chapters since this comment and I'm really interested in Grian's character arc! I love a aro character but you're right, his struggles go far beyond that, he's so convinced HIS world view is better that he refuses to even try to understand what people are explaining to him (even tho he was the one to ask in the first place). I've thought about it a lot. I live for Grian character development
Arc 1 complete for you, then! Exciting times. I love Chapters 10 and 11... Honestly I'm pretty happy with how it came together overall. I really wanted to cut Session 1 early so I could show readers Between without the gameplay dragging on too long, followed by full sessions later, and I think that worked out great.
Well, this is a great story to read if you like Grian character development! He is fighting it every step of the way, but boy oh boy, will that boy develop...... Aro Grian desperate for answers, my beloved.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts! Glad to hear you enjoy :)
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FountainPenguin on Chapter 9 Mon 24 Feb 2025 06:40PM UTC
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