The Chained Watcher

Last Life :)

~~~

Double checking the empty server's code, Grian nods in satisfaction, giving the friends who had been helping him make sure everything was working as intended a thumbs up.

"Looks like it's all good on this end. Did any of you find any hiccups or anything?"

Xisuma, who he had enlisted to help make sure the code was both working correctly and free of Watcher magic, shook his head. "Nope. As far as I can tell, things should go smoothly. It wouldn't hurt to check between sessions to make sure nothing new pops up, though."

"Yeah, I'll do that."

Since no one should outright be trying to break things, he didn't bother Doc about it, but Scar had managed to find a couple bugs in the coding related to his crystals, so that had needed a patch. As for what he's doing? He's getting ready for the next of the Life series, obviously. He just needed to make sure he wouldn't embarrass himself with bugs and exploits before starting.

"You sure you don't want to play? There's always room for one more player if you're interested."

X shook his head, smiling. "Nah, I'm good. Maybe next time."

"Eh, suit yourself."

Since there's nothing left to prep, he puts a message in the previously silent group chat where the people who had participated last time are all included. Last Life is ready, and if they want to play they can say so here.

~~~

With his own little camera hovering over his shoulder, Grian asked, "Alright, everyone recording? There's no questions left, right?"

Some nodded, others double checked first, and one or two tried to sneakily turn their recordings on while pretending like they didn't forget. Considering the times he's forgotten to do that himself, he just smiles, not saying anything.

"In that case, let's start! Scatter for intros, and I'll start the roll for lives, along with the timer for the boogieman."

With lives being tradeable this time, along with an imposter among the greens and yellows, things will definitely be more interesting this season. All this chaos, trapped inside a tiny border. What better way to have fun?

~~~

(I don't feel the need to explain a lot of what happens in the Life series, since it would be better to just tell you to go watch it yourself. Instead, I'll just put in some little bits that are different)

It's so strange how sometimes, a bit will spread like a virus, getting funnier the longer it's going on. You'd think they would have gotten tired of the 'Aha!' puns by now, but nope! Everyone he's managed to recruit to the Southlands can't seem to help but keep the bit going whenever it looks like it's over.

He's managed to get four people to move into the Southlands. Mumbo, Impulse, Martyn, and Jimmy.

The five of them are starting their session four outside their base when Grian pauses, looking out at the forest, confused. He generally does his best to ignore the sensation of other people's gazes on him, but there shouldn't be an unfamiliar gaze on this server.

"G? You good?"

He doesn't look at Impulse, instead pulling up a panel to send a query to the server. It's definitely annoying to interface with the server without using any magic though. Honestly, the tiny little bit he would need to use to easily interface with it would be nearly undetectable for anyone but a Listener, but it's a good habit to have for if he ever encounters one.

A few seconds later, he gets the response. Really? Did someone really have to choose his server to sneak into? The whitelist may just be the default one, but it's usually enough to deter anyone trying to sneak in.

"Grian? Did something go wrong?"

This time he glances at his teammates. He sighs, "We're gonna need to pause for a couple minutes. We seem to have an unwelcome guest, and unfortunately, the server doesn't want to lock onto them to let me blacklist them." If he were to use magic, it would take him mere seconds to kick the intruder out, but giving in and doing that would get him into the habit of taking the easy way out.

"Give me a minute to go find them and manually blacklist them, and we can pick up the session then."

Shaking out his wings, he leapt into the air, making the server apply the invisibility effect to him as he circled higher. His own spell would be much easier to use, but no, he should use the server's version if he doesn't need to risk detection.

His long-trained habit of moving quietly has him gliding down into a tree behind his uninvited guest perching silently while observing them and making sure he hasn't somehow made a mistake. There should only be one, based on what the server told him.

To be honest, there's a decent chance that this player is someone who's a fan of the series, and they're just here to watch in person, but they're still not allowed to be here.

Dropping off the tree, he lands heavily on their shoulders, driving them to the ground. They try to spin around and throw him off, but he grabs their wrists and pulls their arms behind their back. Even suppressed, he's not so weak as to lose in a strength contest with an ordinary human, even with the unapproved buffs they've got on them.

Realizing that they're not winning, they then try to access the server's magic. In front of him. On his server.

He doesn't even wait to see what they were attempting to do with the magic, flicking his wing to sever the little strand of magic they were using to interface with his server. With their face in the ground, they're unable to see how he stopped them from messing with his server, but they definitely noticed when their unauthorized buffs disappeared.

This also got rid of whatever they had been doing that kept the server from locking onto them, and he set them as the first person on the blacklist for his server. They disappear as the server kicks them out into the hub, and he shakes his wings out to dispel his mild annoyance.

He'd been using the default whitelist for his server, since that's usually enough to dissuade people from intruding, but perhaps he should give his a bit of an upgrade in between sessions.

Oh well, that's a problem for future Grian. Right now, he should get back to the Southlands.

~~~