Savebats' Wing Emporium

Instructions: Holy crap this is so late I'm so sorry!!! Press the green flag and enjoy! >.<

Characters: Alaska and Hawaii!! (mine)

I THINK I followed the pallet??? I got a little confused. :(

This animation makes heavy use of my "life series life markers" for storytelling purposes. If you want more note on those or the designs in general, check out this tumblr post. (Bdubs is a bit outdated but the other characters are accurate.)

Song: Goldilocks Sometime (specifically from 33 1/3 Revolutions Per Monkee) by The Monkees Designs, story, animation, choreography, art, and code by @savebatsfromscratch (me) Characters/players from the Life Series.

(In order they are: Grian (american kestrel hybrid), Smajor (dragon and wither hybrid), Pearl (wolf hybrid), Tilly (Pearl's actual wolf), Martyn (creeper hybrid), Scar (tabby cat hybrid), Joel (Green lacewing hybrid), "Watcher"/Secret Keeper (purple outline, mask), Jimmy (drowned! canary hybrid), Cleo (zombie), Skizz (enderman hybrid), Etho (polar bear hybrid), Tango (blaze hybrid), Ren (springer spaniel hybrid), Impulse (just a guy kinda), BigB (creaking hybrid secretly), Bdubs (just a guy), Mumbo (vampire), Lizzie (dragon hybrid), Gem (magic reindeer hybrid))

This is 567 frames btw. *dies*

I started this AMV on the day Past Life SMP began and I finished it on the day it ended. (Though there was QUITE a bit of time in there where I did nothing on it haha. I was waiting for the new winner!) I ended up posting the day after the SMP ended though because I was having trouble screen recording. :/ Oh well.

Oh yeah also this was semi inspired by the animations of The Life Series as The Monkees and The Monkees as The Life Series by  @fronounxes  on youtube. I have loved both fandoms VERY much for a very long time, so seeing it was possible to combine them made me think of doing this.

Secret information you only get by reading this far:

Each setting has a distinct pallet, except in the fully/mostly rendered artworks. The character pallets stay the same.

The non-winners show up in order of their third life deaths, and then the Mumbo, Lizzie, and Gem in the order of their deaths compared to the series as a whole.

Martyn is the only one of the "winners" aware that Grian is there. This was originally done because they were both on Evo, but ended up working because he won.

The bit where the hearts transfer around has a section corresponding to each series besides Past Life. Three hearts for 3rd Life, they split to six for Last Life, they swirl like strings of fate for Double Life, turn into a clock for Limited life, shift into a book for Secret Life, and finally into a dice for Wild Life.

Martyn's disk plays backwards when he flips it over because somehow it is almost wrong to win twice. (*no shade to irl Martyn, I mean this in an angsty way and thus mean I LOVE it.)

The "watcher"/secret keeper is in shaky lineart because it is purposefully unclear if this figure is real or not.

Gem sat atop the cherry mountain, numb. At her side were two good friends, and above was a wide blue sky. Things should have been perfect, but they weren't. Even the pretty pink petals scattered around her feet and the high altitude of the mountain couldn't make her feel any better. She knew for a fact that she couldn't take off like this, and her heart was so down in the dumps that she half wondered if she ever would again. Her hooves twitched and she let her head fall against her knees as they curled close to her chest.

She was trapped here. Unable to fight the curse that held her, forced to turn against friends, forced to ignore her perfected routes and aesthetics, forced to die in the end. Without the freedom to even protest it.

"Gem," Impulse said softly, placing a hand on her shoulder, "It's gonna be alright, okay?"

That was an obvious lie, but she appreciated her bandmate for doing his best to comfort her.

"It's alright," she told him, sighing and lifting her head back up to the sky (he ducked away from her antlers, though they were still growing in this time of year), "You can tell me the truth, how bad is it?"

Impulse frowned. Knowing him, Gem should have guessed that it had been useless to ask. If someone couldn't be explained in terms of redstone or friendship, it was useless asking. Instead, he glanced over at Scott, who was on Gem's other side, his tail wrapped securely around Gem's back like a hug without all the poking each other in the eyes with antlers or stardust crowns.

"Well," Scott started, sounding like he didn't know how to break the news to her in a way that was positive, "Maybe this time we won't start fighting so fast-" (they would, that was part of the curse that they'd confided in Gem back home, churning their blood to a boil of rage and lust for violence,) "-and we'll probably go back home after it's all over." That was true, but it was the probably the reason they always worried and fought so hard to stay alive. It was a final death, and at any moment the rug could be pulled out from below their feet and it would truly be permanent what they lost that final life. And even if it wasn't, that freedom would come after all the bloodshed, betrayal, and general displeasure of the curse. She had seen her friends come back from these before (changed, ruined, destroyed), she knew it would never been normal again.

But somehow, despite the dread and the overwhelming sense that their lives would be over soon and that they were stuck in it, Gem couldn't help but laugh softly. Not mean, not displeased, just soft and genuinely amused in knowing there was nothing any of them could do. “Thanks for trying, guys.” She said. Suddenly she wasn't really scared anymore. She was hardly even sad. She was determined.

She stood and brushed off her overalls, flicking her tail to remove the layer of pink petals that was undoubtedly all over her carefully embroidered back pockets. She wasn't lying, she really did appreciate the attempts to calm her down, but it wasn't worth it. This was a curse, and she'd honestly been naive not to consider the possibility that she'd get pulled into it eventually. After all, she was close with many of the people who usually were, why wouldn't she eventually?

It wasn't their job to make her feel better, it was her own.

She took quick stock of their abilities as a team. (She knew it would probably fall eventually, but the idea of betrayal among the three of them was so outlandish and horrible that she ignored it for the time being.)

Scott could fight with his tail as well as he could with his words, and if it came to it he could technically use the bit of wither in him and explode. (Though she highly doubted that literally exploding and dying was quite his style, in the right circumstances it could be helpful.) Impulse was good with redstone, with villager trades, and with loyalty. ...most of the time. They were both great teammates, especially when you took into account they way the bridged the other cursed people with their friendships.

Gem could build, patch up both torn clothing and damaged armor alike, light up a dark area, and fight like nobody's business. She knew for a fact that pvp skills were lacking in most of the others stuck under the curse, and her blade was going to be useful, but the idea sent a pang through her heart. It hurt to imagine herself facing off against all those friends, but she knew it had to come eventually. Still, she felt her ears droop at the thought.. Pearl, Etho, Grian, and all the others...

How could she be doing this in good consciousness? Taking stock of her skills like this was a game to be won and not the curse to be worked against that it so clearly was.

She turned her head to the sky, watching a single cloud trace it's way along the open blue.

There was one other thing she could do.

She looked down the slope of the mountain, watching her friends scramble about, trying to get their barrings about themselves. There were some strange looking houses taking shape on the ground, covered in shadows from the few flighted members mapping out the place for the teams they had naturally joined too, and, of course, there was the horrible gray space where the rock they had dubbed the ”Secret Keeper“ lay.

Gem took a step towards the ledge, her heart in her throat. She hopped she was feeling well enough to do this.

“Hey, Gem?“ Impulse said, nervous, unsure, worried she might do something drastic like jump off the mountain without a plan, ”Limbo is worse, don't...“ he seemed unable to bring the words to his mouth, ”...don't do anything drastic, okay?“

”Way worse,“ Scott assured her, his tail not-so-subtly raised just in case she made a run for it and needed to be stunned for her own safety, ”You can keep talking with us, you know!“

”It's okay guys,“ she said, ”I know what I'm doing, I'm not gonna hurt myself.“

”Gem.” Impulse said again, wary. He reached out an arm but she dodged away, taking a few more steps towards the cliff. Scott's tail darted out, but it was too slow for her and she twirled away from the paralyzing venom. From her inventory she pulled the stone sword she had quickly fashioned for herself and parried a second stab.

”Guys,” she assured them, still holding the sword in case he tried it again, “I can fly, I'm just gonna map the area out, see if there are any weak points in the borders.“

There weren't any weak points in the borders, the squawking shape of Grian in the distance had undoubtedly already proven that particular pipe dream. Still, both of her friends deflated a bit, embarrassed that they had forgotten such an obvious thing.

”Still,“ Scott said weakly, puling his tail back, ”Take a water bucket with you at least.“

”Yeah,“ Impulse added, ”We- we need you for the band.“

Gem nodded, flashing a bucket of water into her off hand and a smile only her face. It had to have been real for this to work, and she hoped it was close enough as and braced herself to run.

She held the pose for one second, two, and then launched herself forward, leaping across the pink petals and churning her arms through the air in her very best sprint. Her hair flew behind her, her ears flapped, and she felt her nose begin to glow as she dipped her antlers into the wind.

Before she was even at the cliff edge, she felt the ground leave her hooves. Her bandmates whooped behind her, obviously more relieved than proud or impressed, but all three emotions all the same. Gem grinned and kept running, leaping through the air as she climbed to a good height for an easier flight. (She would need it, she wasn't the best flier in any circumstance, usually preferring to use an elytra and a stack of trusty rockets wherever she could. Here though, that obviously wasn't an option.)

Below her, cherry branches, pink petals, and her own shattered foundation attempts swam like fish below the ocean waves. Impulse and Scott were waving up at her, and a few of her other friends down below were glancing up to gawk. The wind pushed through her hair like comforting hands, her leaps felt like the very best part of her favorite song, the flowstate for making a perfect building, or the chocolate cake to be enjoyed at a birthday bash for a best friend.

Despite the fears that still burned in her chest, she let out a whoop, swinging her sword and bucket back into her inventory to clear her hands fully for the run. She knew to enjoy the flight while it lasted, enjoy the ability while she could. To feel the wind on her skin and watch the land below dance like snowflakes on a night sky. To scream across the sky in a sprint that only the best fighter could manage. To touch the sky with the tips of her antlers and to stab right through it with her hooves.

She had a feeling that the horrible curse would suck the confidence out of her eventually, but for now she was in the air. For now she was as light as one of the particles of redstone that had stained Impulses' eyes, and as bright as the stars above Scott's head. She would live for as long as she could. She knew she would die eventually, she knew her friends would die eventually. But she was still alive for the moment, and she would make it through.

She would enjoy it, because it was the only freedom she had left.

Notes: