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Maybe some of this was on Scott for accepting an invite to an "experimental" world twice, but Scott kind of got the feeling that the Watchers would have gotten their way regardless. Maybe it was time that someone finally said no to them.
Narration

carbon monoxide is a Life SMP Alternate Universe Fic by Story_Teller_Of_Untold_Legends, though it contains many allusions to the greater Minecraft Multiverse.

After winning Last Life, instead of being near-instantly smote by Grian, Scott is confronted by the Watchers, who learn how poor a decision it is to mess with the supernaturally powerful lover of a harbinger of death and chaos.

As the fic takes place during the end of Last Life and heavily discusses topics adjacent to the "Eyes and Ears" continuity, all spoilers are off.


carbon monoxide contains the following tropes:

  • Adaptational Karma: Since no one in the "Eyes and Ears" continuity other than Martyn (or, well, Grian) is supposed to know the Watchers exist in the first place, it's kind of hard for them to get any sort of comeuppance for putting the players through the death games. In this continuity, though, they're at the very least terrified out of their likely immortal lives for once.
  • Adaptational Species Change:
    • Instead of being presumably human (or humanoid), due to being a multiversal Composite Character, Scott is a starborne, like in the Origins SMP.
    • There's a passing mention of Martyn being the Watchers' "pet Listener", but this theory has been explicitly jossed in the "Eyes and Ears" canon.
  • all lowercase letters: Its title is carbon monoxide, with lowercase 'c' and 'm'.
  • Canary in a Coal Mine: True to the series fanon, the fic heavily plays on Jimmy's "curse" imagery, being "a harbinger of death and chaos" whose permadeath announces the moment everything irrevocably hits the fan. One of his multiversal forms is also described, in short, to have canary wings.
  • Celestial Body: Scott's "true" form is described to be "swirling galaxies of starlight", on par with Body Horror. Under the effects of Last Life's Power Limiter, though, he's restricted to minimal Star Power abilities while appearing, for the most part, human.
  • Composite Character: The players' multiversal forms appear as a Perpetually Protean combination of their counterparts' appearances. Scott is also able to tap into the Multiverse to shift between forms due to his starborne abilities.
    The cracks in the darkness spiderwebbed and broke open even more, revealing countless galaxies. Scott could sense the worlds in each of them, could sense the countless iterations of himself and his friends. The Watchers had been fools to bring him here.
  • Death Seeker: Implied. After a hollow victory, as with canon, Scott seriously considers ending the season with an "Everybody Dies" Ending — in this continuity, by downing what's implied to be a Potion of Harming. However, this time, instead of being interrupted by Grian doing the deed for him, the Watchers decide to intervene… to their own detriment.
  • Fangs Are Evil: The dangerous variant; as Scott cycles through his multiversal forms, he starts sporting fangs. It's implied to be a nod to his vampire counterpart on the Afterlife SMP, who was a Card-Carrying Villain, and in his current form, an eldritch being who's Horrifying the Horror as he speaks.
  • Hearing Voices: In this account, Scott has started to hear the Watchers' whispers since Day 8 as he resisted the Boogeyman curse, and eventually figured out their identity based on Jimmy's recountings of the Evolution SMP.
  • Horned Humanoid: Scott starts growing golden antlers in his multiversal form — a nod to his Empires Season 1 counterpart's Crown of Horns (typically depicted in fanon as actual antlers).
  • Horrifying the Horror: The fic ends with Scott fully going supernova to unleash hell on the Watchers, relishing in their fear as they realize he's far more powerful than they anticipated, especially since they chose to confront him in his natural habitat of the dark void of space.
  • Kaleidoscope Eyes: In his multiversal form, Scott's eyes are described to "rapidly cycl[e] through colors like a kaleidoscope". It's implied to be a nod to the ten colour-based teams of the Minecraft Championship, to which he plays host to.
  • Lotus-Eater Machine: One of the things the Watchers offer Scott after his victory is being reunited with Jimmy and protection from further machinations for both of them, but he thinks it's Too Good to Be True — it's either not real or is only going to end in heartbreak regardless.
    And for a moment, Scott wanted to reach forward, to take this ever-shifting Jimmy into his arms… but it wasn't real. And even if it was, that would only end in heartbreak. Scott lived enough lifetimes with Jimmy to know that.
  • Perpetually Protean: The multiversal forms of different characters shift and "flicker" between the appearances of their counterparts in each world. The Empires SMP (Season 1 only at the time) and the Afterlife SMP feature most heavily in the fic, though.
    "Then what about your beloved Canary? You could be with him again, no harm would come to either of you," the voices offered, and a shimmering image of Jimmy appeared before Scott. It flickered, causing Jimmy's appearance to shift from having scales, to bright yellow feathery wings, to glittering amethyst thorns, to a cat's ears and tail, to the features of a dragon, and back to the human Scott knew — but one thing remained the same: Jimmy's smile, mischievous and kind and radiant.

    Scott was surrounded by starlight and color now, the galaxies bending and swirling towards him. He began to flicker much like the image of Jimmy had — golden antlers grew from his head, wings unfurled from his back and shifted between a snowy owl's and a lunar moth's, he felt fangs creep into his mouth, and his eyes rapidly cycled through colors like a kaleidoscope. All that remained constant was the starlight simmering in his veins and the galaxies swirling on his skin.
  • Power Limiter: The Last Life world places a limit to how much of Scott's starborne abilities he can use, but Grian apparently lifted this limitation shortly before his death in the season.
  • Psychopathic Manchild: As per canon, the Watchers aren't too happy about having to crown a "Champion" who didn't participate in the Deadly Game the way they designed for it to go, and are described to be "sounding almost pouty" as they complain about it.
    The Watchers: You saw a world built for betrayal and chose loyalty. You say you played our game, but you didn't play it right.
  • Rage Breaking Point: While Scott spends the entire first half of the one-shot being irritated by the Watchers' attempts at mind-games, the moment he fully snaps is when they insinuate that "trying to love a harbinger of death and chaos is a fool's errand", when the "harbringer of death and chaos" in question was, despite all his flaws, still his love interest (and dearly beloved husband in at least one lifetime).
  • Star Power: In the Last Life world, due to the Power Limiter, Scott's starborne abilities are restricted to just making his eyes glow and creating "particles of starlight that hovered around him if he so chose" — or in essence, very limited Light 'em Up abilities for aesthetics. In his true Celestial Body form, though, his connection to the Multiverse becomes downright Lovecraftian.
  • This Cannot Be!: As Scott grows more powerful in his starborne form, the Watchers become more and more terrified.
    The Watchers: This– this should be impossible! What are you?!
    Scott: You should have heeded the canary's warning.
  • Title Drop: The fic is based on a line the author wrote on Tumblr, as quoted in the author's notes:
    if jimmy is the canary, scott is the carbon monoxide
  • Voice of the Legion: The Watchers' voice is described to be "more like several compounding on each other and coming from everywhere and nowhere at once". They also happen to be the deity-level entities who created the death game loop in the first place.
  • We Can Rule Together: One of the things the Watchers offer after Scott's victory is power, but he's completely disinterested, thinking it's a trap and that none of this would have happened if Grian didn't join up with them in the first place.
  • Winged Humanoid:
    • One of Jimmy's multiversal forms, at least in the Watchers' illusion, has "bright yellow feathery wings" in tribute to the Canary Curse.
    • Scott's multiversal form has wings shifting between those of a snowy owl and a luna moth, from his Empires SMP Season 1 counterpart and first Afterlife SMP origin, respectively.

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