#writing.zip

[glqwberries]

Even in the Afterlife

inspired by this post by @sparxwrites

warnings: death and shipping of characters

Etho’s grip on his pickaxe tightened as a sound came from his- and everyones around him- communicator. He quickly pulled it out of his pocket, feeling a small smile creep its way onto his face. The smile quickly fell as the sound chimed again, tears welling in his eyes as he reread the message. 

BdoubleO100 was shot by Grian

His communicator clattered to the ground, the sound echoing through the ravine he had been going through, causing the rest of the party to stop in their tracks. His knuckles were white from how tight his grip was, his head hung as he tried to bite back tears.

There was a hand on his shoulder, followed by a hesitant soft voice.

"Etho?" Ren asked, his other hand gently going to Etho’s cheek, lifting his head upwards.

"Etho, are you okay?" came another voice- Cleo's. 

Etho had tried to avoid Ren's face as long as he could, but he eventually looked at the wolf hybrid, his breath stifling as he noticed the other's low ears and worried expression.

"I'm-" He started, trying to keep his voice from cracking, "I'm fine."

Everyone knew it was a lie.

Etho’s grip on his sword loosened as Joel swung at his shoulder again, and he fumbled for the golden apple on his hotbar. He didn't get to it in time. Joel struck his spine, the final blow. Etho was dead.

You have run out of lives.

His mind kept repeating that, he needed to understand that, he needed to come to terms. He hadn’t won. That in and of itself wasn't anything bad, but he felt a pit in his stomach when he thought about that.

Etho wasn't motivated by winning, not by a long shot. He didn't want to win for himself. He wanted to win for Bdubs- for the one he loved.

His breaths became shallow as tears filled his eyes, biting harshly on his lip as he tried to keep them from spilling. He had never gotten to tell Bdubs when they were both alive, even if he had known the other didn't reciprocate the feelings, it was awful that he had never gotten to say it.

"Etho?"

Etho looked up at the call of his name, sucking in a shaky breath. There was no one in front of him, and he let out a small laugh. He had thought-

"Etho-"

A hand grabbed at his sleeve, tugging at his arm, trying to get him to turn. He complied without a moments hesitation, hoping, damn near praying that it was-

A big grin was on the face of the man who was now in front of him. Etho couldn't help but to smile as well.

"Hey.." the taller man started, his voice shaky, "sorry I couldn't win for you."

Bdubs' eyes softened, and he moved to hold Ethos shaky hands. He opened his mouth to start to speak, but Etho had laughed softly.

"But- But you didn't win for me either-" his voice broke as he started to cry, tugging the smaller man closer.

"S-Sorry- 'm just- just kidding- I love you, Bdubs-" he managed out between sobs, trembling.

Bdubs pulled Etho into a tight hug, rubbing his back gently.

"It's okay-" he started, his voice soft and caring, "I know- it's okay, I promise, I love you too."

#ethubs #mcyt #last life #art.zip #writing.zip #last life bdubs #last life etho #ask to tag #death tw

[glqwberries]

My Last Life

this is an au by @opera25 !! i decided to write a bit of fluff inspired by the au!

there may be more in the future! i had a blast writing this <3

DISCLAIMER! THIS IS ABOUT THE CHARACTERS AND NOT THE CONTENT CREATORS. EVERYTHING IS STRICTLY PLATONIC AS WELL.

Etho smiled, holding the smaller yellow name in his arms as he slept, carding his nimble fingers through the brown hair. He was happy like this- they both were- they were both so happy to spend time with one another. Everyone else in the game thought they were… together, but they really weren’t! Just friends is all, friends who were very close, who were very affectionate with one another. That was alright. Everything was alright, as long as they were together.

Etho blinked open his eyes, groaning softly at the light seeping in from the window- which was directly next to his bed. He felt very warm- the good kind- like how it felt to be in front of a fireplace on a cold winter night, watching the snow pile up outside the window with a cup of hot chocolate in hand. It made him want to stay in bed, to fall back asleep and go back to the lovely dream, where everything seemed perfect. And so he stayed in bed. He tried to go back to sleep, tried to reach out to that perfect feeling from the dream. He was desperate for that feeling again, he adored it, he was addicted to it.

Slowly falling back into that feeling, Etho sighed.

That didn’t last for very long, though. There was a scratching sound at the door, followed by a loud meow. A laugh echoed from the living room of the apartment. The doorknob turned, followed by a squeak as it was opened slightly. There was a snicker from behind the door as small footsteps ran towards Etho’s bed, a meow sounding by the side of him, before there was a weight on the Canadian’s side.

Etho grumbled, turning onto his stomach and burying his face into a pillow that he hadn’t even noticed was in his arms.

“Oh my GOD!” snorted his roommate, throwing the door open fully, just laughing boisterously. 

Etho groaned loudly, tugging his pillow closer to himself. There was pawing at the back of his head, the cat now standing on his back and meowing as she batted at Etho’s hair.

There were footsteps headed towards him, the small weight being lifted from his back, only to be replaced by a much bigger weight. Etho finally opened his eyes, grumbling and murmuring something that could be considered as words. 

“What was that?” Bdubs laughed, pressing his weight down.

Etho murmured gibberish again, making Bdubs cackle. Etho attempted to roll onto his back, only managing to roll on his side, causing Bdubs to be unstable on top of him. Bdubs yelped as he wobbled to the side, falling off of Etho and onto the bed, laughing. Etho snorted, reaching his arms up to stretch, then he proceeded to snuggle up into his blankets and hide in his pillow.

“Oooohohoh- no you don’t!” Bdubs shouted with a laugh, getting on Etho’s side again, poking at his arms. 

“Noooooooooooooooo…” Etho mumbled, curling in on himself slightly.

Their cat meowed loudly and jumped back up onto the bed, rubbing her face on Etho’s. He couldn’t help but to smile at that, exhaling a small laugh.

“I know you’re awake! You never ever laugh unless you’re awake!! Get up!!” Bdubs kept poking at him, moving upwards towards his face.

“Don’ wannaaaaaaaaaaaaaa…” Etho complained, batting at Bdubs’ hands.

“Etho, don’t make me do it!” Warned the smaller man, his smile obvious in his voice.

Etho just made a small sound, something between a protest and a groan. Bdubs laughed, moving himself off of Etho- if only for just a moment to turn him onto his back. Etho yelped, his eyes shooting open as his roommate threw the blankets off of the taller man. Bdubs snickered as he placed himself on Etho’s stomach, grinning at him. 

“I’ll do it if you don’t get up!”

“Nooooo-” Etho plead, “Noo don’ do it, Bubs, I’ll get uuupppp…”

Bdubs raised an eyebrow, not believing him for a moment. He moved his hand to Etho’s face, squeezing his cheeks.

“That-” he started, “is a blatant lie! If I leave your room you’ll go back to sleep!”

“Nuh-uh!” Protested Etho.

“Yuh-huh!” He retorted, moving his hand away and bracing it besides Etho’s head.

Etho blew a raspberry at the other, snickering. He most definitely was awake now. Bdubs responded by blowing one right back. Their cat joined in by meowing at them both, which made the two of them laugh.

“‘M awake now! I swear I am!”

“Uh-huh… So if I get up, you’ll get up too?”

“Mhm, I will.”

“Good, cause it's almost 12, when’d you go to bed?” Bdubs asked as he got up from the bed, stretching.

Etho hummed thoughtfully, sitting up and rubbing at his eyes. “Uhhhh.. I dunno, maybe 11? I was out pretty early.”

Etho reached his arms upwards, stretching them with balled fists.

“11!?” Bdubs repeated in disbelief, “You’re never asleep that early! Are you even the real Etho!?”

Etho laughed at that, smiling. Bdubs was a dork.

“Oh no- you found me out, what ever will I do! The magnificent Bdubs found out that his friend has been replaced by an alien who sleeps almost normally!”

Bdubs huffed, glaring at the other, almost threatening another berration.

“Okay, okay-” Etho started, snickering, “Yes, I am the real Etho, I just went to bed early cause I had nothing to work on!”

He conveniently left out the part about how he wanted to sleep and have those same dreams that he’d been having for almost a week now. Bdubs would take it the wrong way if he said that he had been dreaming about the other. The smaller man needed to be humbled, not to get an ego boost. That’s what he told himself, at least- he didn’t want to believe that there was any other reason for him not telling the other about the dreams.

Bdubs squinted at Etho, trying to read his face for any clues as to if it were a lie. It seemed like he had found none, as he shrugged and bent down to pet their black and white cat.

“Alright- but if I find out you’re lyin’ to me, I’m gonna getcha! Want some coffee or anything?” Bdubs had added that last part after a moment of silence.

Etho yawned, nodding. “Coffee would be nice, yeah. Thanks, Bubs”

Bdubs just hummed, picking up their cat and bringing her over to his roommate's bed, setting her down next to Etho. Etho smiled at her, then looked up at Bdubs, smiling more, his eyes crinkling on the outer corners. That’s how Bdubs knew that Etho was genuinely happy, how he knew the other wasn’t lying. He started for the door, set on fulfilling his first task of the day.

#MLL #mcyt #last life bdubs #last life #last life etho #ethoslab #etho #bdubs #bdoubleo100 #last life fanfic #art.zip #writing.zip

[glqwberries]

The Last Stand

overview: Bdubs and Etho are the last two left alive, but they can't bring themselves to kill one another.

note: this is about the characters and not the real people. also warning for implied violence and suicide

Bdubs sighed, rubbing at his nose with the back of his hand, trying to get off any drying blood. Tango had put up a good fight, but he was panicked, he'd never killed anyone before. Bdubs was the opposite, he'd killed many people, many times over. He knew his way around plenty of different fighting methods.

They had been fighting in plain old fisticuffs, no weapons, no armor, no potions or anything. That was part of the whole team's agreement. They had agreed to fight each other to the death, almost like a tournament bracket, but just with 4 people in total. 

The dark haired man's communicator beeped with a new chat message, followed by a more grim sound. Someone had died. So he took out the communicator, checking the death message. 

Skizzleman was slain by Etho

Bdubs ran a hand through his hair, sighing gratefully. He was glad Etho survived, just the two of them now. They ruled the whole world, no one could stop that, they were all dead, cursed to watch as the two of them spent time together, never once trying to kill one another.

At least… for two months, maybe three. They had decided to try and stay alive as best they could without any pvp usage.

Bdubs lifted his head from where it had been resting on Etho's shoulder, blinking open his eyes. Etho carded his fingers through the messy brown hair, chuckling softly. 

"Morning 'Time King'," Etho teased, pinching Bdubs's nose playfully. Bdubs made a very tired sound in response, batting at the taller man's hand.

"Shhhhuddup…" he grumbled, reaching his arms outwardly with balled fists, stretching. He brought a hand to his face to rub the sleep from his eyes, yawning.

His mind was clearing up from his sleepy haze, and he winced at the thoughts that filled his head. 

The thoughts were normal at this point, but he hated them. They'd been similar before everyone else had died, but now they were very focused, very particular. He knew they wouldn't stop.

Bdubs opened his mouth to say something, but closed it, not remembering what he even wanted to say. 

"Bdubs."

Etho. Right. He remembered now, but he didn't… He didn't want to say it. Etho's hand was still on his head, slowly playing with locks of dark chestnut hair.

"Bdubs, what's up? What's on your mind this morning?" he asked softly. It just made things worse for Bdubs. He loved Etho, he could never stomach leaving him or anything like that.

"We're getting nowhere," he finally blurted out.

"What do you mean?"

Etho was confused. That was always funny to Bdubs, he loved to confuse the other man. It felt different now, it felt… bad.

"I mean that- uh- just… Neither of us is winning and we're just trapped here until one of us is dumb and does something ridiculous- I- I love spending time with you! Don't get me wrong- but um- if one of us dies, the other wins and were free and we can go back home and just-"

"Woah- woah- Bdubs-" Etho cut him off, sitting up more, looking down at the other man who was still laying on him.

"Bdubs, I can't kill you, you know this. Neither can you, our first day here made that very clear-"

"No- no I- I know that! But um- like- I know a uh- I know a way that we can both win! If we just jump off Magical Mountain together- at the same time of course! If we do that we could- we would die at the same time and we'd both be winners and neither of us has to kill the other!" 

It was silent after that. It wasn't their normal comforting silence, it was stressful, dreadful.

"We uh- we don't- um- have to do that of course- I just… Etho, it's torture being here- we're alone here, we're trapping everyone else who was a part of this sick game here until one of us dies- we need- we should just end this-"

Etho sighed, pulling Bdubs closer to himself, hugging him.

"You're right," he said after what felt like centuries of silence, "It's selfish of us to stay here like this, to be trapping them as well as ourselves… I just… What if we don't remember one another once we get out of here?"

Bdubs hadn't thought about that beforehand but… he wanted to be out of this place.

"I think we'll remember. You remember the other game, right? You remember your outside life before this? We're gonna be able to remember each other."

It was quiet again. It still wasn't comforting, but it wasn't dreadful this time.

"Okay," Etho agreed, reluctantly, "Yeah, okay, you're… You're right about everything. Let's.. Let's do it."

So there they were. Stood atop the mountain, ruins of Scar's house behind them. They were both nervous, but they knew it had to be done.

Bdubs looked at Etho. He'd made up his mind, Etho would be the sole winner.

"Hey, Etho?"

"Yeah?"

"I'm so glad we spent this stupid game together, I've had fun being with you, as strange as it is to have fun in this game. I love you. A lot. So much, Etho. I love you so much."

Etho snorted, smiling like a dork. Bdubs was so cheesy.

"I love you too, Bdubs, you huge dork," Etho laughed, looking over at where Bdubs was… was no longer stood.

Etho's communicator beeped, followed by a grim sound.

BdoubleO100 fell from a high place

Everything was deafening, yet all too quiet.

Etho had won.

But it felt like he had lost.

#mcyt #last life #ethoslab #last life bdubs #last life etho #bdoubleo100 #bdubs #3rd life #last life fanfic #last life writing #tw death #tw implied suicide #tw implied violence #art.zip #writing.zip

[glqwberries]

My Last Life

this is an au by @opera25 !! heres chap 2 babey !!

CW: SLIGHT UNREALITY/DEREALIZATION, TICKING CLOCKS, AND BDUBS GETTING HURT!

DISCLAIMER! THIS IS ABOUT THE CHARACTERS AND NOT THE CONTENT CREATORS. EVERYTHING IS STRICTLY PLATONIC AS WELL.

Bdubs set the mug of coffee down right before Etho’s seat, smiling at the other man as he walked out from his bedroom, wrapped in a blanket.

“Want anything for breakfast- wait no- for lunch- want some lunch?” Bdubs stumbled out, earning a small chuckle from Etho.

“Sure, lunch would be nice..”

“M’kay, what’cha want?”

“Burger.”

Bdubs laughed at Etho when he said that, literally just because of how he pronounced it.

“Bor-gor??” He snorted, opening the freezer to get a burger patty out.

Etho hummed in agreement. “Bor-gor. Ber-jer if you would.”

Bdubs snorted, leaning his elbows against the counter, holding his head in his hands as he breathily laughed.

“Ber-jer?” He managed out between his laughs, “why are you saying it like that?”

“What do you mean!? I’m saying it completely normally. Ber-jer. You’ve been saying it wrong all your life, thought you knew it was ber-jer!” Etho snickered, grinning from ear to ear. He loved to mess with Bdubs so much, it was so fun to him.

“Okay Mr. ‘laa-vah’, sure it is.”

It was silent for a moment after that, comfortable, pleasant. They were both smiling, glad to be in the company of the other in the room. The silence was broken by a meow, then the sound of something falling.

“Uh-oh-” started Bdubs, “Go check on her?”

“Yep- I’m goin’. She probably just bumped into a book in the office.”

And so Etho got up, taking his coffee with him, but leaving his blanket behind. He started for their shared office room, the door of which was wide open. Pineapple Pizza loved to be in the office, so much so that Etho had put a small food bowl in for when Etho or Bdubs were working long hours in their office. 

Etho flicked on the light of the office, looking around the office for their cat. She was sat on Bdubs’ desk, staring at the ground at what had fallen.

“What was it, huh?” Etho asked her, smiling, “You jumped too close to something on accident? That’s okay, it happens.”

He walked over to the desk, petting the cat before looking at what had fallen, scratching behind her ears. She purred loudly at him, pressing into his hand.

“Such a pretty cat, I love you so much,” he said softly, moving his hand away. He placed his coffee down on the table, more towards the center, just as a precaution, before bending down to look at what had been knocked down.

“Hey Bdubs,” Etho called out to his partner, grinning as he clutched the chain, “It’s clock time.”

The moss-covered man gasped, reaching for the clock with a devious look.

“Oooohhh- it’s clock time!! I’m ready baby!”

Etho gasped, dropping the dirty golden pocket watch onto the rug where it had previously been, hitting it on the crown of it, causing the front cover to pop open. 

Tick. Tick. Tick. Tick.

The second hand was ticking, moving, working.

The pocket watch had been broken for as long as Etho had known Bdubs, and Bdubs said that it had been broken since he was given it. So why was it working now? 

Etho quickly scooped the clock back up into his hands, scrambling towards the door.

“Bdubs!” he called, excitedly. At least, he assumed that it was excitement.

“Yah?” Bdubs responded, glancing towards the office door.

Etho held out the pocket watch to Bdubs from across the room, clutching the chain.

Bdubs shivered, the cold air blowing past the mountains, the leaves of Ethos favorite tree blowing in the wind. He turned his body fully, moving his hands away from the chest he had been in. He stared, his mouth agape, following the way the clock swayed in Etho’s grasp. He began to walk towards his partner, almost entranced by the clock in his hand.

He wanted to reach his hand out, to take the clock from his partner’s hands, to cherish it always and forever.

He hadn’t noticed that he wasn’t breathing, his breath had been caught in his throat, he was paralyzed in the moment. When Bdubs finally remembered to breathe, it was heavy, and he smiled at his partner across the room, bringing his attention back to what he had been doing before, organizing the…

Bdubs yelped, taking a few steps backward as he stared at his hand. He had burnt himself on the pan- it wasn’t just there, was it?

Etho rushed towards his roommate, shoving the watch into his pajama pocket, and grabbed Bdubs’ arm.

“Oh my god- Bdubs-” he started, panicked.

Bdubs was panicked as well, staring down at his own hand as it was examined for damage. His breath was heavy and hesitant, his mind running at thousands of miles a second. 

The visions had never been so vivid before, he had never felt as if he were in a different place before.

Etho sighed deeply, glancing at Bdubs’ face with a worried expression.

“Bdubs… please be careful..” He pleaded, releasing Bdubs’ arm to get the medkit out from one of the cabinets, turning off the fire on the stove. Food could wait. Bdubs was more important.

Etho couldn’t explain it, but whenever Bdubs was hurt, it made his stomach drop, made his heart hurt. It made him terrified, especially whenever it was a burn or a cut, it made him almost feel sick sometimes. He had to bite back the tears that he could feel swelling in his eyes. It was ridiculous of him to be so upset over such a minor thing as a slight burn on his roommate, but he couldn’t help it.

Bdubs just stood there in disbelief as he stared at his burnt hand, allowing for the other to patch him up without his usual complaining.

#mcyt #last life #art.zip #writing.zip #last life bdubs #bdubs #bdoubleo100 #ethoslab #etho #last life etho #last life fanfic #tw derealization #tw unreality