"I Will Smile Right Through it and I'll Scream when No One's Around."

the Afterlife

(Warning, blood, death, curses, Watchers.

The Canary's curse.

A curse that had Jimmy dying first every single death game despite how hard he tried to keep it up. Despite how much he hated dying first.

Sure, his friends would all laugh and make fun of him afterward for dying first again but that was never the most painful part about it.

Being in an experimental world every season was bound to be painful.

Grian never could get the afterlife right on the first try, always making one mistake after another in his haste of getting it done for the season to start. It was never that simple and shouldn't have been.

The first afterlife never was opened up.

Jimmy respawned in bed, screaming as his body felt like he was being torn apart. The code couldn't handle a person with no lives left. Scott was left to watch with fearful eyes as the man he loved withered in pain.

Grian came immediately at the inquiry, admin bag in hand and bursting through the door to their abode. The game was canceled for the time being.

"Timmy? What went wrong?" Grian asked, panicked as he looked through his laptop at all the code.

"Kill me, kill me!" He begged, panting as he clung onto the sheets of the bed. He could go to the temporary after life ever server had to get away from the pain.

"Not yet, I need to figure out what went wrong so we can send you to the correct place." Grian had tears in his eyes as he searched through all the code. Scott watched on with concern.

Eventually, Grian found the little blip in his code. A singular letter was missing and that was all that went wrong. Grian closed his laptop, publishing the data. "Okay, kill him now. Let me know if anything is wrong in the afterlife, okay?"

The next thing Jimmy knew was that he was in a void.

The pain disapated slowly as his body mended itself together. He laid on the floor, trying to calm his breathing as he got it all together.

After that, Jimmy was finally in the Afterlife.

It was a black void that was infinite with only a singular change in the landscape. A bubble that depicted everything happening in the games.

But after that, everything was alright with this Afterlife.

---

The second Afterlife wasn't as painful and he wasn't the only one.

He arrived just minutes before Mumbo did but only Jimmy realized what was wrong.

"Glitched body," he muttered as he typed in his comm, sitting on the floor of the void. Their bodies were glitching out every few seconds but it was only parts. Jimmy's left leg seemed to be glitching the most.

"Oh, so this isn't supposed to happen?" Mumbo asked, gesturing to his right hand where it flickered every so often.

"No, did you think it was?" Jimmy asked, putting the comm down after he finished typing.

Mumbo shrugged. "Well, I hadn't seen this Afterlife before and maybe it was just the code adjusting."

"Makes sense."

Jimmy sighed in relief after a few hours as both of their bodies stopped glitching. It didn't hurt or anything but he couldn't walk without his leg. It was just an inconvenience.

But at least Mumbo was there to experience it with him.

---

The 3rd Afterlife was supposed to be revamped.