#periwinklepaint

2.) "Why Gem?"

Why not! Honestly, she just happened to be the first person I thought of when I was originally thinking about this AU and the pieces sorta started lining up soon thereafter. Considering her performance in Secret Life with raising the Boogeyman Army, her connection with the Watchers seemed like it would be strong enough for her to be the one to find this path.

3.) "Centaur...?"

YES!! I'm a huge fan of Hermit designs with fun and wacky headcanons. This AU is no different and follows a lot of the fanonly accepted tropes (Grian -> Bird/ Harpy Hybrid, Mumbo -> Vampire and/or Robot Hybrid, etc. I'll show off all my designs in due time LOL). That being said, these developments and hybrid changes are not present in the Evolution world. This is because of a few reasons. a.) As stated before, none of the Evolutionists have had these events occur to them yet. (Grian has yet to become a Watcher and gain his Watcher-like abilities, Pearl has yet to become "5 AM Pearl" and gain her moth-like abilities, Jimmy has yet to become "the Canary" and gain his bird-like abilities, (at this point) Martyn (and BigB in this AU) has yet to become Listeners and gain their Listener-like abilities). In Season 10, these events have already happened. b.) Due to being in such an early stage of humanity, Evolutionists haven't had the chance to literally evolve into these hybrid / abnormal beings, hence why they're all so surprised when a centaur shows up!

4.) "EVO!Martyn and EVO!Pearl. What's their deal?"

Well am I GLAD YOU ASKED!

In this AU (and in my own personal view of Evo), EVO!Pearl is a spy sent by the Watchers, specifically to keep EVO!Grian in line. Though not a Watcher, she does derive from the same plane as them, making her highly omniscient in the timeline of her life, including her future. Due to this fact, EVO!Pearl is aware that, at some point after Grian is taken by the Watchers, Grian creates the Life Series.

(Side tangent: In this AU, the Life Series is a seperate universe initially created by Grian, who does indeed have Watcher abilities at the time. After dying at the end of Third Life, however, he is greeted by the Watchers in the afterlife, who basically highjack the Life Series and starts taking control. They manipulate and force Grian to continue the games, even though he knows that it will only result in the cycle of watching his friends kill each other over and over and over again. As a way to try and compromise, Grian asked the Watchers to allow him to "split the universe", AKA live in another universe where his friends don't remember the Life Series (this universe being Hermitcraft) whenever the games weren't in session. The Watchers agreed but reminded Grian that the versions of his friends stuck in the Life Series universe will forever be tortured and exist in a limbo-like state in between the games (Eyes and Ears AU). This haunts Grian in modern day, but he pretends like it doesn't.)

EVO!Pearl resents Grian for the decision of creating the Life Series, considering the fact this means she is aware that he will eventually create a universe where she and all the friends she will make in the future will never escape a cycle of killing each other. This information drove EVO!Pearl basically insane, causing her to lash out towards the Evolutionists (Grian especially who, at the time, didn't even know what she was mad at him for) and distanced herself from them "out of safety". Eventually, EVO!Pearl goes missing entirely (but it doesn't stay that way once Gem starts coming along...)

EVO!Martyn has a similar tale, albeit a bit more complicated. At the end of EVO (which is when I believe Martyn becomes a Listener), he is also gifted with omniscience. It's a bit difficult to explain: Because end-of-EVO-Martyn has this ability, it retroactively makes AU-current-Martyn aware of his eventual fate. Unlike EVO!Pearl, EVO!Martyn is practically unbothered by this knowledge. Knowing that there is a future in which he wins with such glory! (Limited Life) Knowing that, someday, he will fight to bring down the Watchers that currently terrorize his town! It makes him PROUD! There's no shame in what the future holds for him. In fact, he makes jokes with/towards EVO!Grian about murder & betrayal frequently, something that angered EVO!Pearl prior to her disappearance. Simply put: He did not care!

("What about BigB?" because BigB's relationship with the Watchers doesn't start to truly bloom until the Life Series starts up (in a different universe entirely), he does not have the same retroactive powers (in the EVO timeline, at least).)

5.) "...So EVO!Grian and EVO!Jimmy don't know about the Life Series?"

Nope! Not at this point. Though Grian gains omniscience, he does not gain the retroactive abilities of a Listener, like Martyn. In fact, Hermit!Grian struggles to remember much of his time as an Evolutionist at all due to the fact the Watchers screwed him over so bad when they took him. Jimmy's situation matches BigB's, in which his connection with the Watchers started in an alternative universe, so he has no connection to it during his time as an Evolutionist.

6.) "How can Hermit!Pearl remember EVO, but not the Life Series?"

More Watcher manipulation babyeeee. Because Hermit!Pearl lives in a world where she does not remember the Life Series, her "memories" of Evo are warped. Though she knows she was (and still is) a spy for the Watchers, she has no recollection of ever getting "going crazy" (basically, she remembers EVO as how it actually happened OUTSIDE of this AU lol). Hermit!Grian knows that Hermit!Pearl doesn't remember the Life Series and does his best to prevent her from ever figuring it out due to the fact he fears that, if she were to learn about the fate of herself in the next universe over, it would trigger basically a sleeper agent emotion in her and cause her to end up like how EVO!Pearl did. And Grian does not want to see that happen again.

WOW that was a lot. I've been typing for at least an hour now LMAO