#momo rambles

however, I'd like to offer:

scar and grian’s entire interaction is the two of them trying to gauge where they stand with one another. grian’s hesitant “…just like in third life” is a silent question, both trying to discern if scar remembers the desert, and how he feels about it. it’s his hesitant foot forward

scar remembers third life—of course he does. he knew so many of the answers to the questions. he remembers every little detail of that game, because it was probably where he was happiest

he only asks grian “what happened in third life?” because it's a test. he's testing the waters between them, now standing as two victors on equal footing, equal ground. he plays dumb because it's scar, and he never shows every card in his hand, every trick up his sleeve. before scar takes any kind of step forward, he needs to know how grian will explain the desert, what he’ll say about it.

he asks “what happened in third life?” but there’s more questions lying in it. “do you still care?” “am I safe to trust you with my heart?” “did it mean something to you?”

So when a trans women tells you to not call her that, do not fucking argue with her. Just be polite and move on.

do you think that was scar’s way of trying to tell grian he misses him? that he truly does forgive him? that he never held anything against him for how things ended up on that mountain oh so long ago?

do you think that’s scar’s way of truly reaching out to him, saying it while talking in slightly more direct circles. that they can be okay again?

do you think, as scar holds the thorns of the cacti in his hands, feels them prick his skin (if he imagines, they feel like the thorns of a beautiful rose), he’s really just taking grian’s rough hands in his own and saying it’s okay.

so new life series tomorrow huh

“no it’s how you want it to work!”

besides scott, we’ve never truly seen another else defy the watchers so… loudly like that. and I think there’s something amazing and beautiful about how differently cleo reacts to winning than the other winners. in the previous five games, our winners have always had this air of disparity around them in one form or another.

but not cleo. no, I’d even go as far as to say that cleo is excited that she won. there is no sadness. no heaviness around her (and maybe part of that is they didn’t keep themself alive long enough to feel it. maybe jogging up to that creeper was a way of saving herself from that pain. she’s outlived allies before. but this? living in an empty world? no… that’s something else entirely. that’s a pain she didn’t want to confront).