#double swap au | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

arthropod-concoctions · 9 months

Text

(AO3)

Grian's ears were still ringing when he respawned, back at home. He closed his eyes, buried his face in his hands, and groaned.

“I'm so sorry, Scar,” he muttered to himself. He'd decided to go make an apology to the man himself as well, as he would also be waking up right about now. Grian opened his eyes-

And immediately noticed that he was not in his own base.

He sat up and looked around to get his bearings. He was lying in a soft green bed, in an organically-shaped room with walls of living wood and beautiful wood-carved furniture. Jellie was lying in a cat bed a few meters away.

Scar's base. Why on Earth am I in Scar's base? He thought. “Scar?” he called out, then cleared his throat, because his voice sounded incredibly hoarse. There was no response.

He got up to go find Scar, but barely made it two steps away from the bed before collapsing onto the floor. His legs felt like he'd walked a marathon. That was concerning; respawn pain wasn't supposed to be this intense, even after exiting a hardcore world, and he'd barely even hurt his legs when he died. His ears were the part that got hurt-- and they still did. He rubbed his ears, hoping to make the ringing stop. It didn't, but Grian noticed something else: his ears had pointy tips.

“Wait a second...” Grian suddenly had an idea of what might have happened. He hastily dug through his horribly unorganized inventory for something with a mirrored surface. He eventually found a hand mirror with golden decorations, which he'd never seen before, and looked into it. A scarred face with dark green eyes looked back at him.

“Oh no,” Grian said, in Scar's voice.

He was in Scar's body. That must be why his legs hurt so much, he realized. He looked around and quickly saw a cane carved from spruce wood leaning against a nightstand, with a large green crystal worked into the design. Grian grabbed it, and immediately felt the pain lessen; slowly, he stood up again. For a second he tried to rebalance with his wings, but of course they were gone now.

This was a very big problem; seemed like something had gone wrong separating his and Scar's soulbond. He should probably check how his own body was doing; he closed his eyes to Watch elsewhere--

And nothing happened. He just opened his two regular eyes again.

He sighed. “Right. Scar's not a watcher.” he'd have to go check things out the old-fashioned way, but before then, he decided to send a quick message to everyone online. He pulled out his chat; the device was colored cyan and orange.

Grian joined the game

GoodTimeWithScar joined the game

<Cubfan135> heyoo

<Zedaph> Hi there!

<GoodTimeWithScar> guys

<GoodTimeWithScar> there's a big problem

<Cubfan135> need some help, Scar?

<GoodTimeWithScar> not right now

<GoodTimeWithScar> but

<Grian> no im having the time fo my life lol

<GoodTimeWithScar> im not scar

Grian experienced kinetic energy

<GoodTimeWithScar> that is

Well, at least Grian's questions of what had happened to his body and Scar's soul were answered now. He decided to go find Scar, and see if he had any idea what to do now. He left Scar's treehouse, opened his elytra-- mechanical elytra, he'd have to get used to those again-- and took off.

He flew towards Scarland's main street at first, before realizing his mistake; he set his own spawn point at his own base, so that would be where Scar was. Sure enough, when he approached his base he also saw a figure with black-and-white wings circling around the rocks floating high in the sky. It was a surreal sight.

Grian ascended up to where Scar was flying around-- quite clumsily, he should add-- and called out to him: “Scar!” he landed on top of a rock, nearly losing his balance but regaining it by using Scar's cane. Scar, who had been singing to himself, looked in his direction.

“Flying around, so gracefully on the wings of a- WHAT IN THE WORLD!” Scar shouted, the sight of Grian spooking him so much he involuntarily flexed his wings, and he began to fall down.

Grian watched Scar plummet down and try to recover, frantically flapping the wings but not letting them catch any air, before eventually hitting one of the rocks floating lower down and dissolving into white smoke. Grian winced, and began gliding down again, towards his bed this time.

He touched down just in time to see himself rolling out of his own bed, visibly shaken. Scar looked in his direction and startled again, falling back onto the bed.

“That was hard to watch. Hello, Scar,” Grian said to him.

“I don't- who are you and how have you- wait.” Scar stammered, before stopping to think for a second.

“...Grian?” his expression on Grian's face was dumbfounded. I hope I don't look like this much of a loser when I'm myself, Grian thought to himself.

“Yeah. It seems we've done a bit of a switcheroo for some reason. What, did the wings not give that away to you?”

“Yeah, but I thought we'd just merged together for some reason! I didn't think you would be in my body!”

“And that didn't concern you for even a second?”

“No, I was having too much fun for that. Look, dude, I have wings now!” Scar said, and spread his wings out again.

“Yeah, I know, those are my-” Grian didn't finish his sentence, distracted by the sight of Scar jumping up and flapping the wings, not gaining any air at all, and faceplanting into the ground. He groaned.

“You just respawned. You have to give them a few minutes before they work again.”

“That's lame,” Scar said, sitting up. “Anyway, what should we do now?”

“I dunno. Maybe we should go check on some of the other people that've come back, see if they're- what's so funny?” Grian said to Scar, who was giggling.

Scar stifled his laughter, and waved his hand. “Nothing, nothing. Keep talking.” His smile looked very out of place on Grian's face.

“Right. So, check on the other peeps, or maybe we should talk to X and see if- why are you laughing?”

Scar's giggle had evolved into a full-on laugh now. “I'm sorry!” he said between wheezes, “It's just... I sound so stupid with a British accent.”

Then he added, doing a terrible imitation of Grian's accent: “'maybe we should go see X to-' see, I just sound normal now!”

Grian pursed his lips, then whacked Scar on the shoulder with his cane. He half-expected to feel the impact in his own shoulder as well, but fortunately that wasn't in effect anymore.

“Hey, back off!” Scar said in response. “You know, technically you're hitting yourself when you do that. Self-harm is very unhealthy, don't you know?”

“Oh- you're one to talk, mister powdered-snow-baths!” Grian responded. “Anyway, I think I'm going to go check on Tango and Etho now. You wanna come with, or...?”

“Okay!” Scar said, before standing up again. “Let's fly, bird boy! Wait, no I'm the bird boy now. Let's fly, elf boy!” With that, he spread his wings out once again, and successfully took off this time. Grian grabbed a firework rocket and followed suit.

“Remember, Scar, I'm using regular elytra now. So if you fall, I'm not gonna be able to catch you.”

“Oh, you think I'm gonna fall? Of course not, I am an expert at flying with wings now! Did you not see me practicing...” Scar's voice faded into the distance as he moved closer and closer to the ground, too distracted by talking to keep his altitude consistent.

Grian heard his own voice yelp from below, and burst out laughing. Server-moving bugs aside, it was nice to be flying again. It was good to be back.

(next)

#arthropod writes #desert duo #grian #goodtimeswithscar #double life #double life fic #the swap au #body swap fic time! this is gonna be a series again!

120 notes · View notes

ask-the-blueverse · 3 months

Text

Ah yes. Another askblog ran by @artoutoftheblue

This blog is mainly just to prevent the need for other askblogs. Any of my aus that dont have their own askblogs are available for asks on this. This'll be updated for the fairies when I finish all the designs

Note: Any undesigned characters will have written interactions only until they are designed

Links to the other askblogs if you wanna talk to characters that aren't on the list:

•Canon HS

•Canon BTB

•Lord Solar AU

•Lord Crimson AU

•The Mers

•Confined to one Spot AU

Crossover mentions are allowed!

Magic anons are allowed!

NO NSFW ASKS!!!

List of the aus and characters available with them:

The Cost of Doubling Down AU (Dimension TCODD285936497583683631630719):

TCoDD Sun, TCoDD Moon, TCoDD Crimson, TCoDD Solar, TCoDD Lunar

WC x SBS AU (Dimension WC38546997475275368348658520):

Sunnyblaze, Moonstar, Stormwhisker, Nightfall, Redwing, Swiftshadow, Vanillia, Butterfly, Blazewing, Mapleleaf

WoF x SBS AU (Dimension WOF3588648534628530869786321):

Sandwing Sun, Nightwing Moon, Night/Sky Eclipse, Icewing Lunar, Skywing Bloodmoon, Rainwing Solar, Seawing Monty, Silkwing Earth

Always Evil AU (Dimension AE2858539648522747508697585):

Lord Eclipse, AE Lunar, AE Bloodmoon, AE Solar, Servant Sun, Servant Moon

Minds of Static AU (Dimension MOS853853472834685373574238):

Static, Mischief, Mayhem, MoS Sun, MoS Moon, MoS Lunar, MoS Monty, MoS Earth

Junkyard AU (Dimension JY385853853538852469386396):

Mechanic Solar

Celestial Fairies AU (Dimension CF3638649649694638538538594):

Day Fairy Sun, Night Fairy Moon, Spring Fairy Earth, Summer Fairy Solar, Autumn Fairy Eclipse, Winter Fairy Lunar, Fauna Fairy Bloodmoon/Carmine and Crimson

Star Corrupted Solstice AU: (Dimension SCS3857526417527533853853858):

SCS Solstice, Harvest Moon

Breaking the Bounds AU that was rescued by the CSSverse (Dimension BTB118201521201562085212216)

Sun, Moon, Lunar, Crimson, Solar, Monty

Swap!BTB AU (SBTB5835832853857959469365335):

Swap!Sun, Swap!Moon, Swap!Eclipse, Swap!Lunar, Swap!Crimson, Swap!Solar

RightHand!Supernova AU (dimension BTB118201521201562085212217):

Lord Eclipse, Servant Sun, Guard Solar, Prince Lunar

TSAMS Demon AU (Dimension 2538964495738753976094679):

Characters adopted by other aus:

Sun (Demon of Fire), Moon (Demon of Darkness and Fear), Eclipse (Demon of Discord and War), Lunar (Fallen Exorcist), Bloodmoon (Demon of Murder and Violence; resident of Cannibal Town), Solar (Fallen Exorcist), Callisto/TSAMS Ruin (Demon of Trickery and Lies), Helios/TSAMS Solar (Demon of Loathing, Numbness, and Isolation), Nightmare/TSAMS Killcode (Demon of Confusion, Indecisiveness, and Sleep Paralysis), Monty (Demon of Selfishness and Greed)

Villian Jack AU:

Sun, Moon, Eclipse, Lunar, Bloodmoon, Earth, Helios (Solar), Callisto (Ruin), Harvest (Jack), Stitchwraith, Monty

Recovering Solar, Solstice, HS Sun, HS Moon

#wc x sbs au #wof x sbs au #the cost of doubling down au #always evil au #minds of static au #junkyard au #celestial fairies au #star corrupted solstice au #swap!btb au #rescued btb au #tsams demon au

27 notes · View notes

artoutoftheblue · 9 months

Text

New banner reveal! This took 15 hours, but y'know what? It was worth it

Featuring:

•Bottom row - Regular Solars (left to right): Stockholm Solar, TCoDD Solar, CtOS Solar, Solar, BTB Solar, Recovering Solar, and Swap!Solar

•Middle row - Star Holding Solars (left to right): Princet Solar, Lord Solar, MoI Lord Eclipse, Lord Jeopardy, and Killcode Solar

•Top row - Creature Solars (left to right): Rainwing!Solar, MerSolar, and Swiftshadow

60 notes · View notes

shyrose57 · 1 year

Text

I was thinking about the winners hanging out, and then I was thinking about Scott borrowing Scarlet Pearl's cloak, and then it spiraled into this.

So, a little bit late Life series roleswap AU. All the Double Life soulmates swap places with each other, and that carries through the other series.

Some highlights I was thinking of:

Last Life:

Aha-lliance consisting of Cleo, Tango, Lizzie, Scar, and Bdubs. They're terrifying. They have no clue what they're doing. Cleo is the only thing keeping these fools alive. They're her fools. Half the server lives in fear of them.

Moon fairy King Mumbo and his loyal knight BigB. And their tentative allies, Martyn and Ren.

Etho, the terrifying sorcerer in the mountain, and his partner, Grian, with too sharp teeth in a jagged smile and lives to spare for the sake of claiming a life or two.. Care to make a deal?

Third life:

Red king BigB, and his most vicious protector, loyal, burning Cleo.

Scar accidentally gets Grian killed, so he swears to stick with him. Despite Grian's best efforts.

Red Grian with a massive body count, and Scar who keeps accidentally murdering people, he is so sorry, but those were his orders. Would some reputation points make it up to you?

Tango and Pearl, fireworks duo. They're either going to be your best defense or the most annoying duo you've ever had to deal with. There is no in-between.

Pearl dies, so Tango sets the world ablaze before following after. She's got an eternal fireworks show going on in their afterlife, with his red stone and all their hard work finally coming to fruition in a way it never managed to in life.

Double life:

Martyn and Pearl decide they don't need Scott and Cleo after the two team up to check out the Nether. So Scott and Cleo decide that's just fine with them, actually, and are low key terrifying for the rest of the series.

There's a tower in the woods where the air is frigid and the shadows are long and the undead linger. A flash of dull orange through the leaves. The crunch of snow on green grass. The glimpse of a red cloak before the night swallows it up, starless and starving. Something red and dark blocks out the moon above your head.

The dye won't stay in Scott's hair anymore, despite his numerous attempts. Eventually, teal seeping between his fingers, he gives up.

There's something so deeply unsettling about seeing him with only the bright crimson of for color.

Are Pearl and Martyn going to ask their soulmates to come back? No. But if Scott and Cleo chose to, then they would not stop them. Out of the kindness of their hearts.

Limited life:

Mean gils Pearl and Cleo.

Bad boys Etho, Tango, and Scar. They lack a moral compass.

Scott and Ren vibing. At some point Mumbo swaps with Scott? Or however that was interpreted. No clue who we swap Gem with, but they swap/possess Martyn.

#traffic smp #3rd life smp #last life smp #double life smp #limited life smp #Soul Swap AU #3rd life au

88 notes · View notes

catgirlkirigiri · 5 months

Text

Fuck you. Warrior cats your team strq.

Height chart cause the refs are not to scale and I need y'all to understand how massive Ravendusk is

#zoracontent #zora arts #rwby #rwby au #rwby wc au #team strq #summer rose #brightrose #taiyang xiao long #sunnypounce #raven branwen #ravendusk #qrow branwen #crowshade #tai was gonna be sunpounce but sunny- doesnt work as well for yangs name so i swapped them lol #and i REALLY wanted summers prefix to be silver- but i cannot do silverrose the double r would kill me. and i super needed her to have -ros #cause then rubys got rose- as a legacy name #also for reference on the height chart: brightrose is a bit shorter than average. sunnypounce is average height

20 notes · View notes

crimson-roots · 1 year

Text

couple of eswap sketches! have a few more to add but it is currently. 4:30am. so. <3 5am pearl real

[character credit to @yawningawning and @yellowsomethings]

#pearlescentmoon #double life pearl #pearlescentmoon fanart #geminitay #geminitay fanart #empires fanart #empires swap au #doodles #double life fanart #eswap fanart #will be posting the scott one tomorrow <3 #mcyt #mcyt fanart #hermitcraft fanart

117 notes · View notes

transingthoseformers · 6 months

Note

Double swap au

Yes you did remember correctly, Bulkhead blames the whole thing on Wasp there was no reason for Bumblebee to become Goldbug if it weren't for the stockades

Yeah after Goldbug is revealed Bulkhead won't hesitate to play the blame game with Wasp and use Goldbug as evidence

I have the whole thing about Goldbug being in stasis set up in my head. So Optronix and Goldbug get split up from Lugnut at Blitzwing they meet up before Bumblebee wakes up but Optronix won't join the search because he's looking out for Bumblebee. Blitzwing tries to wake his friend up and is disappointed when it doesn't work. Anyway Optronix captures Sari has his reveal with Elita but not before baiting her away to capture Sari. Sari is put down near Goldbugs room and she goes up to him because she's cold and this thing is fluffy and warm, but she somehow manages to wake Goldbug up. Elita gets to her before much happens but Goldbugs now up and Bulkhead and Wasp get to see him. Despite the weird buzz Bulkhead recognizes Goldbugs voice as Bumblebees. Wasp apologies over and over but it means nothing to Goldbug (Mostly because was doesn't even have the I was ticked by Shockwave reasoning yet). Yeah Wasp avoids Bulkhead after that

Makes sense yep yep, Bulkhead is thoroughly not happy with Wasp

Oooo on Optronix and Goldbug getting split from Luggy and Blitzwing because that's what I imagined but I hadn't quite imagined how

The reveal has gotta be cool as hell and full of cool parallels to the scene we see in Along Came A Spider, but with so many interesting changes (such as Optronix's goal being revenge rather than purging his organic half)

Ooo on Sari waking Goldbug, that's gotta be an interesting interesting scene

The confrontation between Goldbug, Wasp, and Bulkhead has gotta be pretty tense, with neither of them all that happy with Wasp (which in his defense he was duped, but none of them know he was duped yet yeah)

#maccadam #transformers #double swap au #like the scene where goldie wakes up has gotta be moderately terrifying for sari #especially since I'm betting Goldbug is quite a bit larger than he was in his previous frame #tfa bumblebee #goldbug #< same guy 1/2 #tfa optimus prime #optronix #< same guy 2/2 #tfa sari #tfa shockwave #tfa bulkhead #tfa wasp #tfa lugnut #tfa blitzwing

36 notes · View notes

swappedshera · 1 year

Text

Swap she ra edits <3

#spop #she ra au #she ra and the princess of power fanart #she ra adora #she ra double trouble #she ra catra #she ra entrapta #she ra hordak #she ra scorpia #she ra glimmer #she ra kyle #she ra perfuma #she ra frosta #She ra nettossa #She ra swap au #swap au #she ra entrapdak

91 notes · View notes

philipwittebane · 2 years

Text

this is directed mainly at @jess-the-vampire and @moonmeg cause the latest AROFAM and Caleb + Catherine additions HURT ;-;

#wittebane artists wake up and go ‘is anyone going to write a devastating backstory for these puritans’ and not wait for an answer #THIS IS ALL LIGHTHEARTED!!!#I LOVE BOTH COMICS A LOT #I JUST FIND IT FUNNY HOW BOTH OF THEM DROPPED ANGSTY COMICS AT THE SAME TIME #AND ALSO HOW THE WITTEBANE FANDOM IS SO GOOD AT ANGST #the owl house #emperor belos #philip wittebane #wittebane brothers #caleb wittebane #wittebro #‘out of my way witch.’ KNOCKOUT #‘my little brother is missing!’ DOUBLE KILL #hhhhdkdhdjch #anyways #shitpost #genuinely though. both comics are so good.#been following arofam since it first started I’ve always found the idea of a swap au interesting #and tumblr user jess-the-vampire does it so well #and as for Caleb + Catherine #I didn’t expect to like this series as much as I do tbh! it’s a great mix of fluff and angst and I’m always rooting for Caline :D #I speak words

304 notes · View notes

somereaderinblue · 5 months

Text

Hyacinths & Daisies

Tesla is tired.

She wants humans & Plants to be equals. She wants the humans who are selfish enough to abuse her Plant sisters & innocents to stop. She wants Knives to stop so Nai can properly heal. She wants to go back to those days where they were kids & innocently carefree.

She wants her wishes to be heard. But no one listens.

She tries anyway.

She screams and shouts and uses bullets as punctuations when she has to. But ammo is finite & she’s been screaming so much, her throat tastes of dried blood even when she’s just breathing.

She’s tired. She’s so tired.

Tesla’s hope is akin to the sand of No Man’s Land. Seemingly infinite but rough & coarse, a witness that enables misery more than anything. She grabs it in tight fists until her palms are scraped raw but it spills through her fingers sooner or later.

We’ve seen heroes who start out as idealistic become realistic, if not outright jaded. Try as Tesla might, she knows she’s not really living. She has no idea what she’ll do once Knives is stopped because at this point, she’s more likely to die trying to do that than achieving her dream of building equal ground for humans & Plants.

Still, she helps where she can. She can’t play God, surely she can make sure death at least finds the bastards who deserve it more? Surely this time, she can add a tally to the people she's saved instead of another she's failed? She’s trying, she’s trying, she’s trying.

Enter Livio (& the age-reversal wand).

All the kids at the orphanage avoided the scrappy boy who sharpened his teeth so nobody would pick on his brittle bones. When Nico bit Livio hard enough to draw blood, he teared up but didn’t flinch. When Nico finally let go because his jaw ached, Livio wiped the dirt from his cheek instead of slapping it.

In turn, Nico didn’t run from Razlo either. Livio taught Nico how to calm a crying baby while Razlo taught him how to punch the older meaner kids in places that count. Livio was the shield, Razlo was the sword.

When the Eye of Michael came, Livio accepted it; showed them Razlo & proved his compatibility with their experiments. He became their Double Fang. Naturally, everyone preferred Razlo but a coin only had value when both sides were intact. Putting up with still stupidly gentle, weaker, Livio was a small price to pay.

Until they decided they had a mission that was perfect for Livio, not Razlo.

And so, the sheep that was forced to wear the fangs and claws of a wolf was once again stuffed with cotton until it soaked up the blood & left his lungs clogged.

The worst part? Tesla meets Livio and slowly but surely, the sand-like hope she has is refined to glass. Still fragile and capable of cutting once shattered but the transformation? It burns, it shapes, it’s delicate & it’s beautiful.

Neither of them were meant to be weapons, but maybe with the help of each other, they can learn to be people again.

Extra AU notes:

TW: mention of addiction

-Tesla loses her right eye while Livio covers his left (it dramatically comes off when Razlo takes the reins).

-This visually shows how they're similar yet different in a way that complements each other & foreshadows that they're literally on opposite sides.

-Tesla jokingly calls Livio a grandpa because he carries a lot of candy & always nags her to rest more.

(The irony of that nickname is not lost on either of them.)

-Nico of course, followed Livio. The Eye purposely got him addicted to cigarettes laced with the serum to further keep him under control.

-Instead of canon!Livio's skull mask, he wears a mouthguard to resemble a muzzled dog (I'm sorry for doing this to you Wolfwood-).

-Livio doesn't smoke but he carries a lighter to perform tricks, it's calming for him.

#purple hyacinth au #trigun au #role swap au #trigun #tesla #livio the double fang #nicholas d. wolfwood #also i hc tesla as ace in case the purple coat didn't alrdy give it away /j #honestly leaning this more on platonic than romantic #bcz we could always use more male female friendships #and that the intimacy of platonic love deserves more rep #i'd never kiss you but i'd lay my life on the line for you #i'd never get down on my knees to give you a ring but i'd casually toss my life into your hands #get my point?#also LOL yk how fans make content of nai losing his shit™ over the punisher fucking his brother?#nai thinking livio 'corrupted' tesla & slept with her when ironically tesla is sex-neutral #and altho razlo teased livio he was like bruh NO i'd give her my kidney but never a kiss just NO-

12 notes · View notes

arthropod-concoctions · 9 months

Text

(AO3 - prev)

Jimmy wasn't in Tumble Town. Instead of the mesa he'd claimed to build his empire in, Jimmy found himself in a snowy field surrounded by gargantuan walls made of blackstone. Had someone pranked him by terraforming his surroundings while he'd been in the game? Probably not; there wasn't enough time for that. He'd been inside the game for five weeks, so that was... about fifteen hours for outsiders. Not nearly enough time to gather enough blackstone to do all this.

I still can't believe I died so early again. To an enderman of all things! Jimmy thought to himself. Well, no point lingering on that now; he'd apologize to Tango the next time they played. Right now he wanted to get out of these walls and see something familiar.

He flew to the top of one of the walls to look around, but he only saw forests, no familiar scenery. He shuffled across the wall to see more-- shuffled, because whoever had dropped him into this snowfield had also put a thick, cumbersome coat on him. It got in the way of his movements and made it very hot, so he began to take it off-

Wait a minute. He was in the middle of a snowfield, yet didn't feel cold at all; in fact, he was getting very warm. Wasn't that a symptom of hypothermia? Suddenly, he noticed that his arms were very pale, unhealthily so.

“Oh no,” he whispered to himself, and put the coat back on. “Right, change of plan: I need to get out of here.” He activated his elytra again, and flew away from the blackstone construction.

He didn't have to fly long to find signs of civilization; he quite quickly came across a large street with many buildings along it. It was deserted, and didn't look like the building style of any other emperors, but Jimmy landed anyways. Then he decided to do something he probably should have done earlier; he checked chat.

Strangely enough, his chat didn't manifest as the book and quill he'd designed, but instead as a small red device. Still, it showed him the most recent messages of the server he'd ended up in:

Tango joined the game

<joehillssays> Howdy Tango, welcome back!

<Cubfan135> Tangooooooo

Tango was here! Jimmy didn't know the other names, but that didn't matter; finding Tango would already be very helpful. He decided to send him a private message; better not to alarm these strangers.

You whispered to Tango: tango

Tango whispered to you: tango

You whispered to Tango: im lost

Tango whispered to you: im lost

You whispered to Tango: where are you

Tango whispered to you: where are you

The fact that his messages to Tango immediately got sent back was worrying. Maybe Tango's chat was bugged, and somehow bouncing messages back instead of showing them to him...? Regardless, Jimmy sent him one more message.

You whispered to Tango: im so sorry about that death btw

Tango whispered to you: im so sorry about that death btw

Unsure of what else to do, Jimmy made his way to a bench and sat down. He was beginning to sweat; would it be safe to take off the coat yet? His arms still didn't have any colour in them, so he decided against it.

After a few minutes of waiting, someone flew past on elytra, noticed Jimmy, and landed in front of him. It wasn't Tango; this was someone wearing a brown sweater, with curled horns jutting out from his blond hair.

“There you are! Why weren't you responding to chat? And what are you in Scarland for?” the stranger asked Jimmy.

Jimmy wasn't sure how to respond; this person didn't seem at all concerned about the fact there was someone new on the server. He decided to get straight to the point: “I think I'm freezing to death.”

“Oh jeez. The deep frost finally got to you, then?” he stepped towards Jimmy, and put his hand on his forehead.

“I mean, you are a little cold, but I thought that was just part of your bit this season,” he said. “You feel, warmer than the last time I high-fived you. And- dude, you're sweating! Tango, buddy, I know hardcore worlds can get intense, but did you forget the difference between hot and cold?”

Jimmy hadn't ever high-fived this man. “I thought getting warm was a symptom of... did you just call me Tango?”

The man's eyes widened slowly. “...Yes? That's your name, silly!”

“No it isn't,” Jimmy said, and frowned. If he got mistaken for Tango, did that mean...?

“Oh. Okay, that's fine, uh... do you remember my name?” he spoke slowly, and had a concerned expression on his face.

“No. Look, dude, I think something went-”

“WHAT!?” the man interrupted Jimmy. “You don't even remember your best friend Zedaph? Okay, you are clearly not feeling well. Take that big coat off, I think you're overheating.”

Jimmy did take the coat off, leaving him with a short-sleeved undershirt. His upper arms were even paler than his hands; they were almost blue. Zedaph took the coat and draped it over the bench they were sitting on.

“Tango, you just lay down for a moment. I'll stay here with you, and I'll call X when he gets online, and then he'll get you checked out, okay?”

Jimmy started to lay down, then changed his mind. “No, I feel fine, but dude, I'm not Tango. My name's Jimmy, and me and Tango were-”

“Ah-bah-bah-bah, don't get so worked up, just get some rest,” Zedaph interrupted him, and pushed him flat onto the bench. He was surprisingly strong; or maybe Jimmy was just lighter than he was used to. Zedaph sat down on the bench next to him, and began writing something down, muttering to himself: “Okay, symptoms: amnesia, weird body temperature, talking in a London accent for some reason...”

Jimmy sighed, and laid down. How had he ended up in this situation?

---

One moment Bigb was rushing up the stairs of the Box, trying to help Ren. The next he was... sitting in his lap?

When he turned his head to see Ren's be-sun-spectacled face right next to his own, he immediately jumped up. He also squealed, which would've been embarrassing if not for the sound Ren made, which was louder and lasted much longer.

“He-hey, Ren! Fancy seeing you here,” Bigb said to Ren, trying to sound casual. He had not expected to see him again; he'd expected to end up back on BasicCraft with Tom. Maybe this was the afterlife? He was pretty sure Scott had mentioned an afterlife some other time.

“What sorcery is this!?” Ren responded, not sounding casual in the slightest. “Why- How is there an impostor of the king in thine own throne room?”

“Impostor? Aw, I thought you liked the matching dog ears,” Bigb replied, scratching his own ears. Yep, still furry. Then, noticing the small crown on Ren's head and the throne he was sitting on, he added: “Wait, are we doing this again? Uh, my lord.”

“Well, of course I like the ears. But-” Ren paused, and tilted his head at Bigb. “Ah, I see. You are my old self. My PEASANT self! Oh, how it doth pain me to see this reminder of how I once was... BEGONE!”

“Wow,” Bigb said. “Rude.” He'd remembered Ren having a dramatic flair as king, but he was fairly certain he'd been nicer last time.

“I am the king, and I can be rude to whomever I doth wisheth! Now leave me, I must ponder!”

Well, two could play at that game. “You know what?” Bigb said. “You look stupid in that big cape.”

Ren's face dropped, and Bigb saw him shrink down into his throne. “Oh,” he said, much quieter than before. He looked utterly crushed by Bigb's remark.

Bigb stuck out his tongue at him, and turned around to leave... but Ren's sad face made him feel bad. So he turned back around and said: “I'm sorry, my lord. That was mean.”

“Yes... yes, I'm sorry as well,” Ren replied, wiping a tear out of his eye. “I should not be so rude to my own image... but I can make it up to you!”

“You can?”

“Yes! From this point onwards, I declareth thee... the royal stunt double! If ever I need a vacation from ruling, or I get a bad haircut or something, I will calleth upon you to take my place for a meeting or two.”

Bigb raised an eyebrow. “And what's in it for me?”

“Huh? You... you'll have a position in the royal court of King RentheKing! That is the greatest honor in all of Hermitcraftia!” Ren called out, spreading his arms wide.

“Right, of course, of course,” Bigb responded, then scratched his ear again. “...Are you sure I look enough like you for that though? I mean, we don't even have...” he trailed off, as he took a good look at his own arm for the first time since getting here. Why on earth was he white?

“Yes, of course, you are my splitting image! Come, stand beside me,” Ren ordered, so Bigb approached him again and stood next to his throne. Ren grabbed his chat and turned on the camera.

“Look, our faces are identical! As soon as you don some proper royal garb, no one will tell the difference.” Sure enough, the screen showed two Rens: one with a crown and cloak, and one with the floral shirt Ren wore at the start of Double Life.

“Oh. Yeah, that makes sense,” Bigb said slowly, staring at the screen. “I have no questions about this at all.”

---

Martyn felt the characteristic thud of getting dropped into a new world, and opened his eyes to see he was laying in a flat field of grass.

“Are we going again already? Surely not, it's been like thirty seconds since the last game. I didn't even hear the rules this time,” he said to himself. He got up, and immediately saw that wherever he was, it was not at the start of a Life game. Giant rectangular pillars loomed before him, and he turned around to see two huge seahorse statues. He also noticed he wasn't wearing his own clothes; instead he was wearing a dark blue dress, and his limbs were pale green and felt numb.

He was undead like Cleo, and was wearing a dress like Cleo's. “If this is some kind of punishment for being mean to my soulmate earlier, it's-”

his statement to nobody in particular was interrupted by the sound of fireworks nearby. Martyn immediately whirled around to find the source-- was someone coming at him with a firework crossbow?

It almost seemed that way when an explosion of green and yellow lights in his peripheral vision made him jump; but the person who emerged from the explosion was unarmed. They looked a bit like Skizz, but with a significantly more eccentric fashion sense. They smiled at Martyn.

“Howdy Cleo, welcome back! How was the death game?” they said in a voice that sounded nothing like Skizz's.

Oh, so that's the game we're playing, Martyn thought. It was best to stay under the radar until he'd figured out what was going on, he thought; so he decided to play along.

“Oh you know... you know how it is with death games,” he replied, talking slower than usual, hoping to mimic Cleo's voice. It seemed to work, as Cleo's friend didn't look suspicious of him.

“Not really. It's been a little while since I did one. Maybe I should ask Grian to invite me next time,” they said. “Anyway, I'm about to go mine out some nether tunnels, do you want to help?”

“No. I'm gonna go... recover for a bit,” Martyn said. The more he was alone, the longer before someone caught on to the fact he wasn't actually Cleo. It's a good think we have similar accents at least, he thought.

“Okay, see you around!” the stranger responded, then used a pull-string firework rocket and elytra to take off into the sky. Martyn watched them fly away for a few seconds, then turn around and go back towards him.

“By the way, Cleo, I have a lot of blackstone now, so if you ever need any for your builds, just tell me and I'll give you some, alright?”

“Yeah, alright. Look, can you just-” Martyn was interrupted by the sound of yet another person flying in using elytra. He turned around and saw Scar landing on the ground and walking towards him, leaning on his cane. This was someone he knew-- he wasn't sure whether that was better for him or worse.

“Howdy Scar! Did you have fun in the death game?” Cleo's friend said, while grabbing a totem of undying from their inventory. That worried Martyn; he really didn't want to end up in the middle of a fight right now.

“Hi Joe,” Scar said to them. Then he turned to Martyn: “Look, Martyn, something's gone horribly wrong, as you can probably tell-”

“Who's Mahrtyn?” Cleo's friend-- Joe, apparently-- interrupted.

“This is,” Scar responded, gesturing at Martyn. “Wait, did he not... had you not told Joe?”

Martyn didn't respond. Well, there goes that plan, he thought. Joe stared ahead for a moment, squinting, then a smile broke across their face and they turned to Martyn.

“Oh my gosh, Cle- Martyn, that's amazing! I'm so happy for you! Is it okay if I call Quinn?”

Martyn didn't know who Quinn was, but evidently Scar did. “No, Joe, that's not what I-” he started to say, before breaking down into laugher. It was a loud cackle, very un-Scar-like; and Martyn suspected he knew why.

Joe's smile faded. “...What?” they said accusingly. “Did I not understand this correctly? Also, Scar, why are you British now?”

When British Scar had recovered slightly from his laughing fit, he said: “No, Joe, listen- first of all, I'm not Scar, I'm Grian. Somehow we all got swapped into each other's bodies when coming back from Double Life. So this isn't Cleo at all, this is Martyn.”

“Oh, okay,” Joe said. Then they blinked and said to Martyn: “Wait, no, cancel that. You mean you aren't my good friend Cleo?”

Martyn sighed. “No, sorry dude.” At this point, pretending otherwise would only make things worse. Martyn held out his hand-- or rather, Cleo's hand-- to Joe. “I'm Martyn, nice to meet you.”

Joe stood still for a second, thinking, then shrugged and took it. “It's a pleasure,” he replied. “Welcome to Hermitcraft, I guess.”

(next)

#arthropod writes #double life smp #double life fic #jimmy solidarity #zedaph #bigbst4tz2 #renthedog #rentheking #martyn inthelittlewood #joe hills #the swap au

86 notes · View notes