Far from where you should be

But I like making them exes because grian and gem's dynamic would be so incredibly funny if it's paired with GemPearl AND skyblings.

I'm not tagging this as GemPearl

Romance option?? (no)

stay alive

stay safe

Drink some water

eat something

get back into the things you love

Unclench your jaw

do some self-care

Take a shower or bath

Double life Pearl musings c:

And also I just really wanted to draw some hands so..

- Scott

- Pyro

- Elaina

- Graecie

- Legs

- Zam

- Sausage

- Jojo

With her also saying that the 1st 5 people she mentioned (in this order, Pyro, Scott, Sausage, Graecie, Elaina) are the 5 she trusts the most :)

like aj unintentionally and indirectly causing a rift between drift and shelby… ough evil…

Because feeling a craving and pretending you don't isn't a recipe for staying strong against it. It's a recipe for catastrophically failing to resist it, and then pretending you didn't.

Anyway. Post-canon where Shelby and Drift occasionally mess up and eat people, and Scott, who is trying to convince Abolish he's not up to his old tricks, has to juggle convincing Abolish that no, he didn't kill this guy, really, I promise, and keeping Shelby and Drift calm about it.

It's fun if he's not really interested in changing and is mostly just biding his time, because he still needs to do that.

But it's really fun if he is trying to Be Better. Because how is someone who is better supposed to manage this? What would Shelby say doesn't work if Shelby is freaking out / deep in denial. What would the doctor do? Well the guy is pretty solidly dead dead, so presumably not much...

Imagine: She's a vampire! a creature of the night! She's immortal, and so she no longer has to be afraid of the worst of humanity. So, as penance for running away from the Orchid Killer, she starts getting involved in solving homicide cases.

And then she picks up on the trail of a serial killer.

And then the serial killer has a distinctly vampiric MO.

I was leaning towards both of them, but if Drift's involved, she would have to have episodes that she doesn't remember at all, or at the very least episodes she can convince herself are just. Very realistic daydreams. Or intrusive thoughts.

...Not that they necessarily know what intrusive thoughts are, back then. Pretty sure even if we set it very late in the possible timeline, Freud was still running around.

cough

Anyway! Only Shelby is also a very fun option! But the horror of finding the serial killer at the end of the trail is yourself...

(She imagines the color of Scott's hair when they first met. And though it was long since bleached bone-white at the tower...she imagines the fangs dripping the color into her veins. She imagines it growing there. Unfurling, as petals)

# This also put Scott in such an interesting position as a supporting character bc he Not Equipped to help someone manage a problem # they refuse to admit exists!! That's a people problem but giving help to someone in a yikes situation without making them absolutely shut # down on you is hard enough when you've known someone for a long time and are at least vaguely aware what should be done in their specific # situation/what approaches they actually respond to as opposed to make them freeze up and shove that deep down # So regardless of which of the two of them (or both!) are Going Through It he's having to learn on the fly but that also means he sucks and # is obvious and clumsy about it which makes them Aware Scott thinks sth is wrong which makes them not wanna talk about it with him more

all via @mytoomanybookstoread

And yeah! He's floundering and he is so utterly unused to floundering. He hates it. And he can't admit why he's floundering, and that's suspicious.

And of course, as the clues lead closer and closer to Drift, they lead closer and closer to Scott, too. And Scott's the easy answer, even if it sits like ice in her gut, like a knife (like teeth) at her throat.

Of course it's Scott.

It could easily be Scott. (Quite easily, he says in her head)

# God the fact that they have such an easy obvious cover # Of course it's Scott he's failing his promises and he's not really doing better (even though the trying and failing is part of the process # Also the mention of Scott asking what would legs do bc even once Scott figures out this is happening and he's liable to go down with the # ship if he can't Fix It - he won't walk away bc the person he's using as a model of goodness is Mr. I'll fix him or be irreversibly # destroyed and robbed of hope trying of course Scott won't go that far he's got way more of a self preservation instinct than legs # But he also cares more deeply about Shelby than he has anyone else in a long time # This is a psychological horror for drift in many ways but one of them is watching Scott decide in real time if incriminating himself for # them to go free is The Right Thing

yessss! Scott, who usually lies so easily and perfectly but who is struggling here for multiple reasons, having an answer for what to do just land perfectly in his lap. It's simple. It's obviously believable. He doesn't have to lose anything, really.

And it's not like convincing Drift that he did it is the same as convincing Abolish. He could tell the truth to Abolish, maybe, and just...keep this inconvenient little thing from Shelby and therefore also Drift.

They can think he slips up and eats people, sometimes. They'll be mad, but they won't leave him for that.

(Right?)

# but. Scott flailing and getting the sense he's failing an open-book test on the right thing to do. And it's not like Abolish is trapped # he's been cured # shelby can leave once she's cured # …it's just scott and drift and some random human who presumably is in there too # and there's a very easy way to get everyone out # just turn the human into a vampire # but the toll is no longer so easy to ignore… # not when he's seen the distress it causes Shelby and Drift # and it's not like Drift and Shelby can ignore it either # given they're both there BECAUSE Shelby needs to be cured # because she's blacking out and eating people # so no one can pretend it's a nice clean no-one-dies solution # when the human might turn out to have the same problem # I honestly can't see Scott sacrificing himself super early like this # …but I CAN see him maybe deciding to turn the human himself # instead of Drift

and then @mytoomanybookstoread

# Hey so drift mentions a mother in her episode one # What if it's not random human but “person the person you care about cares deeply for” # Bonus points if he's heard from Drift that her mom absolutely does not want in on the living forever

oh HELLO. Genuine attachment toooooooooo

I do imagine Scott trying to convince her, just like he tried convincing the townsfolk. It's an easy, nonviolent solution (The doc tried talking! It's definitely something he would do, right?)

But then she won't listen. She doesn't want it. (Why wouldn't you want it?)

shoutout to this user on Pearl’s most recent VOD of her and Ren playing Hungry Hermits who left this incredible comment. I have been cackling at it for five minutes. I will never be as funny as them. The idea that Pearl is secretly an evil genius who’s hiding by making her redstone look cute and absorbing knowledge from redstoners to make her own hive mind is amazing. Tango will be a withered husk before the season ends because Pearl is a lich.