#cl.eo

[tubbytarchia]

I’ve recently rewatched dl and I wanted to find out if you had any thoughts on Pearl and Scott’s dynamic.. (double life or general idm)

BOY DO I. SIT DOWN

I've talked lots about Scott before, of how he twists the narrative the most and treats most relationships more as transactional. I will now immediately follow that sentence up with dear god please don't assume I hate Scott he's so interesting and compelling PLEASE don't think I hate him I beg of you I LIKE HIM I don't think he's evil and a villain he's just a bit fucked up like everyone else PLEASE just. believe me

Me ^

Anyway now that that's out of the way. Scott I think has an innate need for connection but denies it in favor of weaving his own narrative that he is in control of, especially so in Third Life where to me, it feels like he sought out to find a tragic love story and he got exactly that, from his perspective anyway, what with the final sequence of him meeting Jimmy again in some imagined afterlife, the one part that was scripted and it shows. Love is a variable that he can't afford the risk of. I think the story with Jimmy that he weaved was more important to him than genuine affection. In Double Life he admits to having whittled Jimmy down to nothing in order to get something from him. But then along comes Last Life

In Last Life, whatever it was, something about Pearl really appealed to him if even subconsciously and he very genuinely cared about her imo. And that was a relationship that oddly enough started as purely transactional yet quickly developed into the most meaningful one I think Scott has had. Even when he faltered in returning Pearl's affection fully, Pearl didn't care and stood by him. Well exemplified by the time he kind of froze when Pearl was boogey killed by Lizzie, but Pearl didn't even think to hold his inaction against him. (Especially fun contrasted with Pearl accidentally breaking the rules in killing boogey Joel for killing Scott lol). ADDENDUM: I forgot that it was because of Scott's encouragement that Pearl ended up killing Joel, which could have been the first indication of Scott having it out for Joel, or he was just being petty (because he very much is, as are many of the others, he's just good at masking it). Nonetheless my point stands when contrasted with Scott freezing up when Pearl was killed by Lizzie whereas Pearl had defended Scott adamantly

But all of that was the variable that Scott sought to avoid, so in Double Life he immediately uses what he can as an excuse to ostracize Pearl, almost as if to punish her for the crime of. loving? And I'm not about to claim that Pearl is wholly innocent but I'd argue that was unwarranted. Cleo and Scott are a great dynamic in a vacuum but unfortunately Cleo is also quite terrible (but then who isn't. It's a death game, they all are. Sorry I have to keep making these remarks because otherwise I get labelled a hater) and unfortunately fuels all the worst traits in Scott while Scott very readily sticks to her. They remain an encouraging pillar to Scott, it's just that the things being encouraged are like. Their ritual to slice each other with axes at full force just to stick it to Martyn and Pearl. Pearl often gets compared to Scott as equally physically harmful but idk personally I don't think the snow bucket compares to start-of-every-session-near-death-axe-crit routine. That's again not to say that she's innocent

Upon Scott spreading completely unfounded claims about her being crazy and malicious, she starts to adopt those claims. What else is she to do to get by? She has been nice to most players and nearly none of them want her around because of rumors despite her causing harm on accident at worst. She comes close to finally finding friends in Jimmy (Tango as well but mostly Jimmy), but ruins her chances by briefly playing into Martyn's "prank" and giving him Jimmy's horn without realizing it's importance to Jimmy, after which Jimmy tells her that she's no longer welcome on the ranch. She's effectively lost everyone and it is 90% due to Scott, not due to her actually acting the way she's claimed to as she only starts to go down that path after repeated rejection (sure she let herself be physically hurt to get at Scott, but it wasn't because of malice or having lost her mind, her doing so was reasonable anyhow but got twisted into something it wasn't. It's still wrong on her part and I do think she goes at least a bit insane as Scarlet Pearl surfaces, but the point is that she wasn't that when Scott started painting her that way)

Even in the very end, Scott retains control. He retained control of not only his narrative but contributed to most others' as well, painting Pearl as the exact character he wanted her to be known as in every POV outside of her own. And as they stand face to face as the last two survivors, Scott denies her any chance to change things, taking his own life instead whilst painting himself as noble in doing so

Scott is incredibly self-sacrificial but only when he gets something out of it, and because it allows him yet more control. He wants to be able to control when he dies, and he also gets to turn it into utmost grandiose statements of nobleness when he does, which then changes others' perception of him accordingly and directly or indirectly allows Scott to get something in exchange. His suicide in DL is no different, it was for him, not for Pearl

In Secret Life Scott also instils the idea of Pearl being untrustworthy in Gem

Wild Life. grrrr. Wild Life.............clenches fist. Pearl's personal hell

I think you can infer I was. scared to say the least about Pearl upon seeing her alliance in Wild Life. In the end though I ended up just being immensely sad and disappointed. Just about nothing worked out for Pearl, only for her trauma to be mocked repeatedly by Scott and Cleo

Pearl imo shows so many signs of regression, and she holds onto Impulse as the one member of her team that isn't actively taunting her, making it a goal for herself to see Impulse win, and it is that: for her, for anything to go her way, not so much for Impulse as much as she does genuinely care for him. She really doesn't spend that much time with him, she just needs a goal to work towards for her own sake. Pearl being unstable, untrustworthy and especially pathetic are all things that continue to get enforced within the alliance, where she's often spoken to like a ticking time bomb and the team's destructiveness gets relegated to her specifically. She recognizes not feeling good about it but she doesn't recognize everything that's at play in the social dynamics of their alliance or the extent of it

She becomes scared of people becoming resentful of her were she to make mistakes all the while Scott and Cleo start enabling her worst tendencies, aka Scarlet Pearl. They don't do this a large degree but they do make an explicit point of it, or at least Cleo does. Cleo is also however, if even vaguely, trying to mend the relationship between her and Pearl, where they occasionally encourage and defend her although it's not to a significant enough degree for Pearl to really realize. After Gem's death, Cleo is also there to help although Pearl is too distraught to appreciate it

While Gem's largely the catalyst for the "pathetic" notion that Pearl adopts to her detriment over the course of Wild Life, it only affects Pearl as strongly as it does due to her having gone through what she has, and because she's in a largely unloving alliance that fuels and reminds her of her wrongdoing. Just compare her mental state here to the one in Secret Life with the Mounders. Although it does have importance to her because she seeks reconciliation, she isn't allowed to forget about Double Life, she's not allowed to heal and grow around the grief of what's happened to her

And the final two notable incidents in her and Scott's relationship are 1. Her being made to feel like she needs to kill Scott, which she doesn't and ends up picking her own method of killing him to retain any semblance of choice, and 2. best summarized by my friend's Pearl POV analysis: "Scott is wearing my clothes. instead of villainizing me, our “reconciliation” has encouraged him to embrace the qualities he thinks I represent. he matches me, and we don’t talk about our past"

I state again that I like Scott, I like Cleo, I don't think they're evil or villains, at the very least in no cut-and-dry way. They're flawed and compelling and although I feel sad for Pearl and see Scott as largely at fault for what's happened to her, I care about Scott too and he's easily in the top 5 of most intricate Life characters to me that I enjoy dissecting

You know like. enjoying any character in any other fandom that is morally reprehensible in any way. I don't know why that's such a wild concept in traffic but sigh. I have to disclaim this unfortunately

[tubbytarchia]

I think the reason the women of the life series get categorized as "the braincell" is because they are often better at surviving and being careful. Maybe you do have a point but they are also just less likely to die to stupidity than most other members.

For example in the impossible minecraft series all 3 of the women have far less deaths than the men. I think it's a pretty good visualisation, even if it's not from the life series itself. It's still the same people playing and making decisions.

(I wanna reiterate that I have nothing against just headcanoning siblings in a vacuum. For example I am partial to Nosy Neighbors headcanoned as siblings, because Pearl isn't usually put up on a "big sister" pedestal to take care of BigB, and I can absolutely see how their LimL dynamic could be interpreted as sibling-like)

Yes, they're absolutely competent, but why do they get the mother and big sister labelling because of that fact alone? Plenty of others, eg Scott and Grian, perform very well most times, but you don't see them being labelled dads. In fact, I have seen both of them be credited for other characters' success (which I disagree with but I digress) without any dad or big brother labelling. Eg in 3L Jimmy's and Scar's case, Scott and Grian respectively are often treated as the breadwinners, and I do wonder whether fandom's labelling would've been different if Jimmy and Scott weren't canonical husbands and Scarian wasn't as prominent of a ship

When it comes to the male characters, the dad label is applied to those who have been perceived as acting fatherly on the Life series or on HC, like Impulse. Whether or not you agree with that, what about the women makes them caretakers? Just because they're good at the game? Was Pearl taking care of the Mounders in a way that sets her apart from them? Is she a caretaker because she survived the longest? Is Lizzie the caretaker in WL because she's coupled with Jimmy and Scar who the fandom seems to believe need protection and are incompetent otherwise? Did that make her become a caretaker? Cleo I can understand somewhat on the surface level of them literally being a mom in LimL (same with Lizzie although I personally don't headcanon seablings outside of ESMP1)

Yes, the women perform better in general, so I can understand them being labelled the braincells to some degree, but again, it reads much more like trying to find less incriminating terms to put them into stereotypical motherly and sisterly caretaker roles, and I just don't see anything of the sort from the series to convey that such dynamics are present. When every other teamup expectation post I see labels only the women as competent and their teammates as being at their care, I'm not sure what else I'm supposed to take away from that. This stereotyping, especially when it takes prevalence over actual character, is very misogynistic, and, imo it's also misogynistic idolization applying such a stereotype because of competency when in many areas, Pearl for example, can't be described with the blanket terms of "sane" or "wise", let alone the "best" or "most competent", although she's certainly good at the game and very smart. I don't know if I'm alone in just not understanding what about any of the women outside of Cleo's caricature of a role in LimL convey motherly or sisterly characteristics, or in not perceiving them as the objective best players with the best mindsets etc (I don't see any player in that way)

[scarreddesertgrains]

Cleo and their dogs…

Said dogs being Ren and Pearl.

Thank you random wheel for opening my eyes to Cleo/Ren and vampires for opening my eyes to Cleo/Pearl.

I’m definitely thinking normal about Nice Life, mhm.

[headsnhearts]

I'm gonna combust I've met TWO whole dollification enjoyers other than myself today!!! As a hello offering: jleo with puppet master Cleo and their pretty marionette Joe,,, so many potential uses for the armor stand magic book -⚾️ (my mcyt blog is darkoaklogs but I'm too shy to share my main rn)

Welcome welcome~ Always happy to see more dollification fans, since it's so unfairly niche.

As for Joe and Cleo! Good taste for doll kink, I'd say. This one got a bit away from me.

~

Jleo dollification, dom/sub dynamics with dom!Cleo, brat taming, and some references to exhibitionism but it's not a huge focus

Joe is a spirit who's able to possess different objects or bodies as hosts. Cleo normally makes them a human-like body and Joe made the puppet himself, but they have a few special ones in reserve.

One is a life-sized wooden doll, with intricate details carved into the surface and lovingly varnished. It's more an art piece than an actual body that Joe inhabits frequently; the limbs are thin, made delicate by the carving, and the joints are loose, so Joe struggles to hold a proper pose with them. Cleo made it a while ago while trying to find the best non-organic material for a body, but they've never gotten rid of it, for one specific reason.

Cleo likes time to herself to think. Joe also likes Cleo's time to think and will make that their problem at a moment's notice. When that happens, they pull out an armor stand book and set off to put him in his place.

First, she binds them to the wooden doll body. Beautiful but weak—a step shy of being a china doll.

What Cleo does next depends on how forgiving they feel.

Mercy is taking Joe for a walk with the armor stand book and leaving them behind in the shopping district or another hermit's base, unable to keep pace when she leaves. Either another hermit will take pity on the poor lost doll and help them home (or inside for some fun), or a mob will get them and they'll drop out of the body when they respawn, no worse for wear.

But when Cleo really feels like putting Joe into his place?

First is changing the doll's clothes; it's been so long since she's played with her doll, so a fresh outfit is in order. Whether she uses the armor stand book to pose them like a mannequin or simply manhandles him out of his clothes varies. Joe can't resist either way.

Dolls don't have opinions on what they wear, so Cleo picks by herself. Definitely something lacey and impractical that would be hard to move in. And dolls are made to be nice to look at, so the outfits she has are pointedly revealing. Frilly doll dresses with teasing hemlines, heeled boots and thigh-high stockings, even just lingerie—there are options.

And then Cleo takes their doll for a walk. No book this time, just a collar snapped around Joe's neck and a leash. There's a tag on the collar that says "If lost, return to Cleo," with a little heart etched underneath it.

Now her doll better not fall down and mess up those nice clothes unless they want to be punished <3

[headsnhearts]

Cleo and Jevin should have violent kinky sex. They think stabbing can be foreplay if you're brave enough.

[headsnhearts]

Since we need more of it in the world... perhaps a bit of soft dollification? I'm weak for it

Falseo! soft dom Cleo + sub false with soft dollification, coming right up :) (also has light though notable objectification) No sex here, just foreplay.

....

From the moment the scene started, False wasn't supposed to move unless directed or to speak unprompted.

Cleo led her by the hand to their bedroom, saying that dolls bought out of box should always be cleaned up before being displayed. Undressing was almost painfully slow since Cleo had to do all the work, even positioning her limbs to remove the clothing. The best dolls could hold a pose for their owners.

False's eyes flickered to follow Cleo's hands.

They peeled off her gloves and jacket, slid the shirt over her head, and nimble fingers unfastened the button on her shorts and allowed them to drop. Dolls couldn't undress themselves, but False could flush hot when Cleo ran a hand along the swell of her ass, commenting that her sculptor had an excellent eye for detail.

Her bra and underwear went next, leaving her fully nude in the middle of the room while an appraising gaze dragged over her body. She fought down the urge to fidget as Cleo's eyes met her own. Dolls didn't move or shy away from attention. Dolls were display objects meant to be looked at.

Cleo interrupted her train of thought by leaning forward and placing a kiss on the corner of her lips, and then another on her cheek, on her jaw. They whispered into her ear, "You'll be good for me, won't you, beautiful?"

A shiver ran down False's spine. She nodded. "Y-yes. I'm a good doll."

A chuckle rumbled in Cleo's chest. "I'm glad to hear that."