Q: If Shelby hadn't killed Arachnid Gem, what would have happened?

Sorry if the timing is a little bit off, I wanted Vampire Scott to be a part of it really bad so even though he was probably dead at this time in the actual Afterlife series, he's not dead here

Gem is really out of character in this... I can't see her ever becoming evil outside of AUs like this

ANYWAYYY I was gonna make this a full book and then I gave up

"Oh nooo," Gem moaned.

She rushed past blinding lights and colors, on her way to respawn.

She had enjoyed being a Mothling. She had built a cute base, gotten some silk moth friends, but she hadn't even finished the interior of her barn before she died. To her own wings.

Hopefully she would get another flying Origin.

Gem opened her eyes and immediately stood up. She noticed with dismay that the now-familiar weight of wings on her back was gone.

Her field of view seemed a lot bigger and clearer now. It was like having multiple pairs of eyes.

And then she realized that she did have multiple pairs of eyes.

But what was she?

Gem immediately put a hand into the pocket of the black sweatpants she was wearing and pulled out a paper. This concept was familiar to her; when she got a new Origin, she would find a paper in her pocket with instructions on how to survive.

Arachnid

Oh. So she was a spider.

She could get people to like her as a spider, right? People had liked FWhip when he was an Illusioner. People had liked Oli when he was an Enderian. And Illusioners were hostile. Spiders were neutral.

It was a lofty goal to have. But Scott had still been lovable as a Vampire, even if he was evil and had killed two people, one of which was Gem. And Sausage as a Half-Wither was... Sausage. It was impossible not to like him, even when he was a bad guy.

Gem could be the same way... right? Except not evil. Evil was bad. Definitely not evil.

Gem headed back to her village to try out her new abilities. She glanced at the barn she had built as a Mothling and decided it was no longer fit for her. However, she kept the spider webs that she found she could create far from the barn and the silk moths. They were too cute to risk capturing. 

The village, however, was covered in webs. They would protect the villagers from monsters, as well as the wall that Gem had built as a Villager.

Once she was done, Gem admired her work. The webs actually looked kind of good, even though it made the village look abandoned.

But as lovely as it was, Gem knew she no longer belonged in the village.

The village had structure and buildings, which she loved, but there wasn't really a good place to build a web. Because a web would be the best place for Gem to live.

So, she packed her things and set out to find a nice place to settle.

The Orb seemed like a good place. She remembered that Oli had a basement that he had tried to trap her in when she was a Villager. It hadn't been very nice, but now, that basement seemed like the perfect location to make a web.

"Hello? Who's there? I kind of need help."

Alarm ran through Gem. Oli was in trouble.

"I'm coming!" Gem said, and ran down into the basement.

She found Oli in a sort of aquarium in the wall. "How did you get in there?" Even as she spoke, she started to spin silk into a nice web that could protect him while he got out.

"I don't know!" Oli wailed. "I never know- wait, what are you doing?"

"The web's going to protect you!" Gem said, finishing.

"Um, no," Oli said. "Take it down. Take it down and get out of here."

"What?" Gem asked, hurt.

"I don't want a spider in my base!"

Gem glanced between the web and Oli, in the aquarium. She pursed her lips.

"Fine," Gem muttered, and left.

"Take your webs!" Oli yelled.

Gem left them there and didn't look back as she went down the mountain.

She thought for a minute about Sausage's base. It was really nice, and probably had a bunch of nooks and crannies for her to build a web. But he was an ant, as far as she knew. He would definitely be scared of her.

Her eyes wandered through Heaven's Reach, down to the docks, and across the bridge to Wither's Grasp.

Maybe. But no.

There were much nicer places to settle.

Gem tore her eyes away from Wither's Grasp and made her way to the birch forest.

She loved birch. It was a very pretty type of wood. And people actually lived in the birch forest: Jimmy and Shelby.

However, when she found a perfect place in Jimmy's gazebo, he kicked her out and made her take her webs.

"Nobody likes spiders," he had said.

Somebody has to like spiders, Gem thought desperately as she went across the river.

She thought Shelby's greenhouse was the perfect place to settle, but she was caught before she even finished her web.

"SPIDER!" Shelby screamed as she walked in, and pulled out her sword.

Gem yelped and jumped out of the web on the other side. Fortunately, Shelby had to push through the web to get to her, and it slowed her down. Gem managed to break a hole in the glass (feeling a little guilty) and escape.

She ran into the forest and got to the edge of the biome. Once she had, she leaned against a tree and slid down to its roots.

Nobody likes spiders, Jimmy's voice said in her head.

Apparently he was right.

Gem sniffled, not realizing she was crying.

All she had wanted was a home and a friend. She had spent her entire time on Afterlife alone in her village, then the oil rig, then the barn.

Was it a crime to want to be social?

"Umm... I don't want to ask what's wrong because I'm the bad guy and all, but..."

Gem didn't even need to look up, because she already knew who it was. But she did anyway. "Hi, Scott."

There was an awkward moment where they both remembered the Incident that had led to Gem's death.

Gem looked at him coolly. She hadn't really seen him since the Incident, but she had heard that Lauren had killed Lizzie under his orders.

"Why aren't you at your village?" Scott asked awkwardly.

Gem looked away. "That's not home anymore."

"Then what is?"

Gem glared at the ground. "Nowhere. Nobody likes spiders."

"Not true," Scott said, shrugging. "I like spiders. Spiders are cool."

Gem looked up. "Really?"

Scott shot her an evil grin. "You could be a bad guy."

Gem gasped. "No! Of course not!"

"Or you could be homeless. And probably dead, because everyone kind of hates you except me."

Gem considered that.

Did it really matter if they were bad guys, as long as they were friends?

But bad guys don't have friends.

You don't know that.

Scott killed me.

But now he's being friendly.

Everyone does kind of hate me.

"You know what?" Gem said. "Fine."