#dream's gotta get everyone else on the server first | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

onecanonlife · 2 years

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In which Tommy travels back in time and tries to prevent a nightmare from happening to everyone he knows. Everyone else, meanwhile, is highly concerned.

(fic masterpost w/ ao3 links)

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(word count: 5,589)

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Part Eighteen: Foolish

Foolish considers himself a go-with-the-flow kind of guy.

That’s the main reason why he accepts the invitation to the server. Dream’s server. He doesn’t have a reason not to, and he didn’t have any other plans, and he doesn’t know much about the guy but he’s heard of him. Everyone’s heard of him, he thinks, though opinions differ depending on who you talk to. He can’t say that he has one, hasn’t cared enough until now.

He’s got no idea why he was invited. So maybe he’s a little curious, too.

So he joins. He’s greeted by a dude wearing reindeer antlers. Or maybe growing them; he can’t really tell. Dream himself is lurking in the trees, but Foolish pretends that he’s doing a good job of hiding, just for the sake of politeness. Also for the sake of politeness, he decides not to mention the fact that the code around spawn feels weird, thin, like something’s been trying to break through, because surely they know already. It’s not exactly nice to barge onto someone else’s server and immediately start pointing out everything wrong with it.

He bites his tongue about the architecture, too. Such as it is. Or at least, he limits himself to a couple of comments. If this is the reason he was invited, it would make sense. He’s happy to provide some structures with a little more sophistication. For a price, of course. He knows the value of his labor.

He goes with the flow. Asks after the one who asked him here—some guy named Tommyinnit, if he’s remembering correctly—and the reindeer guy, Callahan, points him in the direction of a place called L’Manberg. So he heads off that way, and he’s greeted at the gates, obviously expected. He’s given a tour. He meets a few people, though not Tommyinnit, not yet, and his guide doesn’t seem to know exactly where he is. His guide also asks him if he wants to join, and he hems and haws because it’s a little soon to be committing himself to anything, having only just arrived, and he doesn’t really consider himself the country-joining type. He works best when he’s got a nice space to himself. The kid doesn’t seem to mind that.

Tubbo. Seems like a nice dude. A little young for government, but he’s not one to judge.

Tubbo leads him around, and he meets the other members of this place. Catches a glimpse of the president, who gives off exactly the busy sort of vibes he might have expected. He gets a cookie from the bakery. Takes a long look at the flag, probably one of the most well-made things here. Other than the walls and a few nice-looking towers, there’s really not much to write home about.

It’s only a few hours in that he starts to realize that something really weird is going on. Because a few hours in is when he meets Tommyinnit, who pops up at his side like a jack-in-the-box or a particularly determined ghost. Who takes one look at him, and then demands that he follow. There’s no real introduction, no lead-in, no basic exchange of courtesy. The guy walks up to him and tells him to come along as if there’s no way that he could choose to do anything else.

“Um, okay?” he says. “Sure. Where are we going? Is this some kind of initiation?”

“Just—come on,” Tommy says. He’s younger than Foolish might have thought. And he’s only become more perplexed upon meeting him, because looking him in the eyes, he is increasingly sure that he has never met this kid before in his life. So how he knew to ask for him specifically, and why, is beyond him. “Don’t make a fucking fuss about it, yeah? You’ve gotta see something.”

“I feel like I’ve done a lot of sightseeing today,” he says, but he follows behind the guy as he leads him out of the walls of L’Manberg, marching with purpose. Foolish looks around with interest as they walk. There’s still a lot of the server he hasn’t seen yet, but Tommy doesn’t seem interested in continuing the tour, or in stopping. Just in their destination. Wherever that may be.

Tommy’s not striking him as a go-with-the-flow kind of guy.

“Does this have to do with why you invited me here?” he asks. “You are the one who invited me, right? That’s what the deer guy said.”

“Callahan’s a fucking tattletale,” Tommy says, not looking at him. “It doesn’t matter.”

“I think it might actually matter a little,” he says, but he keeps following. It’s not like he has anything better to do, even if Tommy’s attitude toward him is definitely weird. Almost presumptuous, as if he’s taken it for granted that Foolish will follow him, and Foolish doesn’t know quite what to do with that other than play along. There’s no harm in it, at least.

When Tommy finally stops, there’s no real indication as to why. There’s a fairly large, walled-off base over to one side, and a smaller house one the other. An obsidian field laid out across the grass, or maybe replacing it. It must have taken time to gather that much obsidian. There’s a reason he doesn’t build with it very much, and that’s entirely because of the effort involved in collecting it.

“Alright, look,” Tommy says. “You’re gonna listen to me now, and you’re gonna believe me, because I speak nothing but the truth literally ever.”

“This is a promising start,” he says.

Tommy frowns at him. And it’s not the frown that gives him pause, because the frown looks like any other frown on any other teenager. But there’s a look in his eyes. It’s a familiar look, and it’s unsettling, and he doesn’t think that it belongs there. And he doesn’t like it. He can’t put a finger on it, but he doesn’t like it.

“There’s something under the obsidian,” Tommy says.

“Okay,” he says. “Judging by your tone, I’m guessing it’s a bad something.”

“Shut up and let me finish,” Tommy says. “It’s—yeah, it’s a fucking bad something. It’s the worst something. It’s the worst fucking something you’ll ever meet.”

“Okay,” he says again. “Can I ask—”

“No,” Tommy says. “No, you fucking can’t. It doesn’t matter. It’s just—it’s bad. And it’ll—you can’t go near it, because it’ll get all up in your head and then you won’t be you anymore and you’ll do whatever it asks and you’ll probably die.”

“I don’t do that,” he says automatically, and then gives a pointed glance to where they’re standing, because if they’re not supposed to go near it then this seems like a horrible place to be. Also, what is this kid even talking about.

Tommy rolls his eyes. “That’s what the obsidian’s for, shithead,” he says. “Keeps it nice and locked up, see? It can’t talk to you if obsidian’s blocking it. And it’s probably not even awake yet. But it’s down there, and it’s terrible, and it needs to go.”

Sure. Sure, why not. This might as well be a thing. He doesn’t think he’s been this confused in a very, very long time, but sure. This feels like a fever dream, or what he thinks a fever dream would feel like, since he doesn’t really get sick.

“And you’re telling me this because—?” he says, hoping beyond hope for a more clear explanation.

“I’m the only one who knows it’s there,” Tommy says. “Just me.”

“Why—”

“Because if anyone else knew it was there, they’d want to go look at it,” Tommy says. “And they’d go all mimimimi it’s just an egg, what’s it gonna do, and they’d be stupid and wrong and then they’d be mind-controlled and then it’s over. It’s game fucking over. This whole server goes under.”

“I’m sorry, did you say egg—”

“So I can’t fucking say anything, see? Because everyone else’ll be all stupid about it, and then they’ll get themselves fucking killed or some shit.”

Foolish does not think that he sees. He thinks that he is not the one at fault for this. He thinks that Tommy is not doing a very good job at explaining, as much as the kid seems to believe that he is.

“Okay then,” he says. “Then why tell me about it, exactly? I’m confused.”

Tommy levels a stare at him. There’s that same look in his eyes. Something old, something empty. Something dead. And with a start and a curl of nausea, unexpected in its onset, Foolish realizes exactly what that look is.

Recognition. Someone who knows exactly who and what they’re talking to. It’s not an expression that he’s seen in a very long time. It’s not an expression he ever thought he’d see again. He’s retired. He’s peaceful. He builds things now. His skin glimmers golden and sometimes his back twitches with the memory of wings and he gives life and creates beauty, and in Tommy’s eyes is the expectation of something else. Someone else.

And with that realization comes another: death clings to Tommy like a second skin. It’s fuzzy, indistinct, difficult to make out. Something strange about it. Transient and slippery, like the universe itself can’t make up its mind as to whether it really exists or not. But Foolish is not so far from his roots that he can’t see it.

“Because you can fight it,” Tommy says. “You’re one of the only ones who can.”

He states it like a fact. For a moment, Foolish can say nothing at all.

Then, he laughs, scrambling to cover up his unease, his growing panic.

“I think you’ve got me mistaken for someone else,” he says. “I mean, don’t get me wrong, I’m very powerful. You might even call me a god. But I’m not the god of that kind of thing. I don’t really go in for that.”

Never mind that even the suggestion is enough to set something in his blood stirring. Never mind that his fingers still remember the feel of a sword, an axe, a bow, the motion of a trident flung at a target rather than clouded skies. Never mind the lightning, the thunder, the promise of storms. Never mind the thrill. Never mind the power. Never mind all the things he pushes down, down, down. Never mind all the things he swore he’d stop being. That he has stopped being.

Never mind the fact that Tommy is looking at him like he sees all of it, no matter how impossible that should be.

“Doesn’t matter what you’re the god of, does it?” Tommy says. “Reckon you could be the god of anything, things get desperate enough.”

“I don’t do desperate,” he says, a little desperately.

“Everybody does desperate,” Tommy says. “Enough people die, you get pretty desperate.”

“Is someone dead?” he asks.

“They’re gonna be!” Tommy says. He steps forward, hands slicing through the air, a fervent gesture that Foolish isn’t quite sure how to read. “They’re gonna—this is the last fucking thing. If I can deal with this fucking shitshow, that’s it. We’ll be—everything’ll be fine. Simply poggers. But it’s—it’s fucking dangerous, and nobody took it too seriously until it was too fucking late, so if you’re gonna stand there and be stupid about it then you might as well fuck off because you’re not doing anything helpful—”

“Literally, what are you talking about?”

Tommy goes silent, lips drawing together, the blood draining from his face.

“I know you can fight it,” he says eventually. “You with your, your lightning and shit. It can’t kill you as easy, not unless you let it. And I’m not—‘m not saying you have to do anything right now. Not today. But it’s gonna wake up, and by the time it wakes up it might be too late because that’s when it’ll start taking people, and maybe we won’t get those people back, and I’m not fucking doing that. I’m not fucking—I’m not fucking losing anybody. So you’ve gotta help me.”

Nothing about this guy makes any sense at all. Foolish has never been so certain that there’s vital information that he doesn’t have. It’s a connect-the-dots picture with half the dots missing, and most of the rest of them unnumbered.

“Why me?” he says. “There’s—okay, there’s not a whole lot of guys like me out there. But I’m not the only god that exists. Why would you pick me for this? How did you even hear about me?”

That’s the real question. If Tommy has an idea of his history, a history he doesn’t even admit to himself most of the time, then maybe it’s plausible that Tommy would latch onto him as someone who could help him out with this—situation. But that would beg the question of how Tommy learned any of that at all, and how he connected the god that he was to the god that he is and always will be. It shouldn’t be easy. Not easy enough that any random teenager could figure it out, anyway, and especially not if he wasn’t already looking into specifics.

It doesn’t make sense.

“Not your fucking business, is it?” Tommy says.

“I think it is my business!” he says. “You call me to this server without telling me why, and then it turns out that you want me to go back on, like, decades of nonviolence for the sake of a threat that you can’t show me and that I have zero idea about or stake in, and I don’t even know you. I literally don’t even know you. Why should I take your word for any of this?”

The color is coming back into Tommy’s face, turning it red.

“Don’t be a pussy,” he snaps. “I just told you why I can’t show it to you.”

“And again, why should I believe you?”

“Because it’s true.”

Really, the issue isn’t even that he doesn’t believe the kid. At the very least, he thinks he believes that the kid believes it. He’s all earnestness and drive and maybe some of that desperation he was talking about, and the way he’s looking at Foolish now makes him think that Tommy is genuinely confused as to why he’s not going along with this anymore. He can’t decide whether it’s a point in his favor or not.

So the issue isn’t that he doesn’t believe Tommy. The issue is the rest of it. The issue is that he doesn’t understand why Tommy asked after him specifically and he doesn’t understand why it’s something he should care about when he’s been on this server for all of a few hours and he doesn’t want to slide back into old habits. Not that he would. Not that it’s tempting. Not that there’s some part of him just begging to be cut loose, to flex his powers and show everyone around him who’s boss. Because there’s not. Not at all.

But it’s better not to risk it.

He opens his mouth to say something to that effect, even if Tommy has been brushing past all of his other arguments up to this point, but Tommy cuts him off.

“Just don’t leave, alright?” he says. “Just—stay here, stay on this server. Go and build your stupid desert temple or whatever, be as far away as you want, but stay on this server. I’ll—I’ll figure out a way to prove it to you. You’ll see, you’ll see it’s bad. And then you’ll help.”

“You seem very sure of that,” he replies.

“You will,” Tommy says. “Doesn’t matter what kind of god you are. There’s always something—something worth protecting. Worth everything. And this thing puts everything in danger.”

His stomach flips again. He blinks. Looks from Tommy to the obsidian and back again.

“I’ll think about it,” he concedes.

“Fine,” Tommy says. “Fucking fine. Just think about it here.”

Overhead, there’s a storm gathering, dark clouds and the occasional flash of lightning, high above. He glances up at it, wondering if it’s naturally occurring or if he pulled it in, summoned it through the sheer force of his discomfort, and when he looks back down, Tommy is gone. Not completely; he catches a glimpse of his retreating back, heading back in the direction of L’Manberg. But it does seem like a retreat, like fleeing.

And he can’t help but wonder what exactly the kid thought the outcome of this conversation would be. Did he really expect Foolish to react differently? Personally, he thinks his response was perfectly reasonable. He doesn’t know anybody here. He doesn’t have a stake in their problems. All he wants to do is live peacefully, and Tommy is pretty clearly trying to pull him away from that. The whole thing was just weird, and he has a pretty high tolerance for weirdness, but this is pushing it.

He looks back at the field. There’s a figure on the other side, staring at him with a shovel in hand. It’s hard to make out more than a silhouette, the sky darkening as it is, but he thinks he sees a red flash where their eyes should be.

“Nope,” he says out loud, and turns on his heel.

He likes being out in storms, feels no urge to seek shelter. So, walking as the rain begins to fall gives him time and space to think it over. He’s curious, he’ll admit, even still. But curious enough to stay and risk—whatever it is he’d be risking? For the sake of a weird, rude kid that he doesn’t know and the weird kid’s friends who he also doesn’t know?

Maybe not.

But then again, Tommy wants his help specifically. That’s almost enough to make him feel guilty if he were to decide to leave. Even if that’s ridiculous. He’d have nothing to feel guilty about. He’d be well within his rights to put this server behind him and not look back.

But maybe if he stays, he can get them to give him gear, maybe other stuff. He could ask for payment in gold. That seems reasonable. And he can never have enough gold.

Would the pros outweigh the cons, here?

Lightning flashes, and as if summoned by his thought, his gaze catches on one of the towers he’d noted earlier. He’s wandered fairly close, and as the area briefly brightens, something gleams between the stones. Gold accenting. Whoever’s building these structures has good taste, better taste than he’s noted in any of the other builds so far. He lets his feet carry him closer, debating the merits of just leaving the server right now and trying to pretend that this never happened.

And then he draws up short.

There’s a person at the base of the tower, digging through a chest with one hand and with the other, holding a slab of wood over their head like the world’s worst umbrella. They’re muttering to themself, irritation audible even over the patter of rain and rolling of thunder. They’re wearing the same uniform that most of the other people in L’Manberg were wearing, along with a pair of unfamiliar sunglasses perched on their nose.

But it’s Eret.

It’s Eret.

He can feel the grin spreading on his face. Not that he would try to hold it back. A few things slot into place, suddenly; if Tommy originally heard about him from Eret, then that might explain why he sought him out. Honestly, Tommy probably should have led with that. It might have made him feel better about the whole thing.

“Hey there!” he calls, striding closer. Eret jerks and looks up, the white of their eyes hidden behind the dark lenses. The chest they were rooting through slips closed, their hand falling from the lid.

“Hello?” they say. They sound uncertain, startled; maybe they didn’t know he was here, or that he was coming.

“Sorry, I don’t know if you’re busy,” he says. “Don’t mind me. Are the towers yours?”

“They’re a work in progress, but yes,” Eret says, after a beat. “I’m not that busy, it’s alright. I was thinking about heading home before this started up.” They gesture at the sky, but they’re otherwise motionless. Even unable to see their eyes, Foolish feels the weight of their undivided focus. It’s a creeping static, a prickle across his spine, the regard of something distinctly other. But that’s just Eret. He’s used to it.

“Yeah, that might have been me,” he says. “Maybe. Sorry about that.”

“It’s not a problem,” Eret says. They sound strangely distant, a little hesitant. How long has it been since the last time they saw each other? Foolish isn’t great at tracking things like that, but it’s never really been necessary between the two of them. They fall apart and then fall back together again, returning to each other’s company as if no time had passed at all. They can go long periods without so much as hearing from the other, but that’s never meant that much in the grand scheme of things.

“So, how’ve you been?” he says, stepping closer. He doesn’t miss the way Eret tenses, and unease starts to open a pit in his gut. Everything about this server seems weird. Off. Is that going to extend to Eret, too? “I have to say, I wasn’t expecting to find you here. I didn’t think this kind of server was your scene.”

Eret’s head tilts.

And then, they step closer, too. Foolish doesn’t have time to feel relieved before they step forward again, and again, until they’re literally right there. Too close for comfort if it was anyone else.

For a moment, they’re completely silent.

“Um,” he says. “Eret? You good?”

Eret reaches out and puts a hand on his cheek. It’s feather-light contact, barely a hold at all, and he could pull away easily if he wanted to. He doesn’t, even though every instinct he has is starting to scream that something about this is not right.

“I’m fine,” Eret says, even though they don’t sound fine, sound hazy and troubled and a couple of other things that Foolish can’t quite put a name to. And now that they’re standing right there, Foolish can pick out the slight distortion in the air around them, the minute fracturing of the code that follows each and every breath they take, the cracking around their fingertips that heals in the space of the next blink.

It’s nothing out of the ordinary for them, not really. But there’s something about it that raises the hairs on the back of his neck.

“You seem a little stressed,” he says, and tries to crack a smile. Eret’s hand doesn’t move from his face. “I hope it’s not because of me. Maybe I should’ve written ahead. In my defense, I wasn’t really expecting I’d come here either.”

“I—” Eret says, and then stops.

Foolish waits. The smile is a little hard to maintain. Worry accumulates, a foreign tightness in his chest. It’s been a long time since he’s had to worry about Eret.

And then, Eret says the most baffling thing Foolish has ever heard from them, which is saying something, since Eret is, on occasion, very baffling. Comes with the territory.

“I know you?” Eret says, finally. It’s unmistakably a question, lilting upward and terribly, horribly uncertain.

“Uh,” he says, and attempts a laugh that very much does not sound like a laugh. Because what. “Yes? Are we stating the obvious? I can do that, too. Um, I’m a really good swimmer.”

There’s a knot in his throat. A pit in his stomach. Something that transcends worry, that feels almost like fear, except it can’t be fear, because he doesn’t fear. There’s nothing that he’d ever need to be afraid of. Except, maybe, for the expression on Eret’s face right now, the faltering touch against his face, the tremor in their voice, the way they suddenly seem so lost. He’s never seen his old friend look so lost.

“I—” Eret starts again. “I know you. I know—but I thought that it was—that doesn’t make any—you know me?”

“Of course I know you,” he says, and makes a point of looking them up and down. “Yeah, same old you. New uniform. Um, the glasses are new. But it’s you, for sure. You’re my pal Eret.”

“But that’s—” Eret shakes their head. They’re getting rained on, the both of them, and their curls are damp, well on their way to being plastered to their skull. “It’s too—I don’t think you’re supposed to be here yet, so you shouldn’t—but that’s not—I remember—”

“You remember!” he says, latching onto that. Maybe he’s misunderstanding. Maybe there’s no reason to be afraid. It’s weird, but—usual weirdness. They’ll work it out. They always do. “See, uh, maybe you’re just a little bit confused. Too much sun?” The rain splatters down a little harder, as if in direct contradiction to his words. “Or maybe you’re coming down with something. Too much work. Uh, and now it’s raining. It’s kinda cold out here, isn’t it? Maybe we should go inside.”

Eret leans forward, leans in, and the force of their attention feels like a static storm. The code is bending, and they don’t even seem to realize that they’re doing it, oblivious to their own capabilities.

Their hand moves from his face to rest gently against his neck. Their finger traces a line across his skin, passing right across his jugular, and then the hand falls.

“I saw you die,” Eret says. Barely a whisper.

It takes him a moment to find his voice. Lightning flashes overhead, followed by a crash of thunder.

“I don’t die,” he says. “Eret—”

“I watched,” they say, and they take on an odd cadence, distant and with the hint of an echo. Something resonant, something so strongly other that even he begins to feel uneasy. “I watched, and I couldn’t do a thing. You traded your life for mine. I watched it soak up your blood.”

He shudders. Some part of him wants to move back. To flee the server. He won’t, because he’s not about to flee from Eret. That would be ridiculous.

“Eret, buddy, I think you’re, uh, maybe misremembering something here—”

“You died for me,” Eret says. “You died for me. And then they killed me too.”

“Eret—”

“None of us escaped that room,” Eret says, flat, face blank. At their fingertips, the code distorts. Foolish catches a whisper, the barest hint of the void, something creeping and something watching and something sad and something that should not be. And this is Eret’s area of expertise, not his; his powers lie in a completely different direction, especially these days. But he can tell when something is very wrong. He can tell when something has broken, has been twisted against its own shape and form. He can pick up on dangerous magics, and magic clings to Eret like a death shroud. Hard to see, just like the aura around Tommy. Like it’s something that should not exist.

“Eret,” he whispers. “What did you do?”

Eret’s face crumples. It’s instinct to hug them, though the instant after he does, he wonders if that was a good move, because Eret’s memories—are in shambles, apparently, and that’s highly concerning, and maybe they really don’t have much of an idea of who he is and who they are together. But he doesn’t have to worry for long, because Eret shoves their face against his shoulder, their hands latching onto his back and gripping uncomfortably tight.

“I don’t know,” they say, voice like shards of glass. “I don’t know, I don’t understand what’s happening to me, I have memories that shouldn’t be mine and I think I broke the world, and—I should know you, I should know you, Foolish. I don’t know what’s happening. I don’t know—I barely know what’s real.”

“Oh, jeez,” he says. “Okay. Okay, we’ll figure it out. I’ll help you. That’s what friends are for. Weird brain things or not. We’ll jog those memories of yours.”

“I think I betrayed my friends,” Eret says. “I think—I think I did it, but I haven’t, but it makes sense. I think I would. For power.”

You do like a bit of power, he almost agrees, but manages to hold his tongue, because even he can see that that would not be a helpful thing to say right now.

“Okay,” he says instead. “Um. You did it, but you haven’t? Like—as of now, you haven’t, so that’s—that’s the important thing.” Never mind that the phrase you did it, but you haven’t definitely makes no sense. That’s not the priority at the moment.

“I keep seeing things that haven’t happened,” Eret says, only just audible. “But I know they did. I keep—affecting the code in ways I don’t mean to. I don’t understand it and I can’t stop it.”

“Well, I’m here to help now,” he says. “We’ll figure it out. Just like old times.”

Eret pulls back, looks him in the eyes, though they shift their hands to take a death grip on his arms. If he blinked they could be somewhere else, somewhen else, in the aftermath of a battle well-fought—or a massacre, depending on which side was narrating—clasping arms and reveling in their victory.

“Old times,” they echo. “I don’t—I don’t remember. I’m sorry.”

“We’ll figure it out,” he repeats, feeling like a broken record.

“You’re sure,” they say. “You’re sure that you know me? You’re not thinking of someone else?”

With one hand, they reach up and take off their glasses. It’s funny, how a sight that would alarm a whole lot of people is nothing but relaxing to Foolish. Because there they are, those blank white eyes, glowing with all the promise of a break in the universe, something that should not be but is. A glitch, a distortion, a corruption. That’s what Eret comes from, and that’s part of what Eret is, and they both know it; Eret comments on it often, talks about what is meant to be with a wry smile and a tilt of their head.

But Foolish doesn’t care about that. The universe can shove it.

Eret is tense, holding his gaze steadily. There is something in their face that screams of an expectation of condemnation. They haven’t looked at Foolish like that since just after they first met. He’s not sure he wants to know who put that expression back there again, because he really would like to continue upholding his vow of nonviolence.

“Same old Eret,” he says. “Memories or not.” His smile is a little more genuine this time.

Eret blinks. Once, slowly.

“I trust you,” they say. “I feel like—I trust you, even if I don’t really know why.”

“Hey, that’s a start!” he says. “See, we’ll have you remembering things in no time. And for the rest of it—I won’t lie, I’ve got no clue, but there’s nothing we can’t do when we put our heads together. You trust me, I trust you. We’re good. We’ve got this.”

Eret says nothing, just breathes, in and out. Their shoulders set, some of the anxiety falling from their face, becoming more like the Eret that Foolish is familiar with. Self-assured, powerful, always on top of things. Their gaze flicks to the side, and then back at him.

“There’s something coming,” they say. “Something terrible.”

That’s—huh.

He’d put the whole Tommy thing out of his mind in favor of focusing on this. Maybe he should reconsider that. Maybe one weird thing is connected to another.

“Under the obsidian field?” he says. “That’s what Tommy said.”

They start. “Tommy?” they demand. “Tommy—but wait—”

Their eyebrows knit together. The code distortions become more prominent, especially around their head, like an approximation of a halo. He clasps their arms tighter.

“Weird kid,” he says. “Look, I don’t really know what’s going on. But we’ll work on it. How about we get out of the rain right now? You can show me your tower. This is for sure one of the best builds I’ve seen on this server. Does no one else have any sense of good design around here? I mean, there’s a hot dog van that’s on fire. Why is that even a thing?”

Eret smiles, the furrow in their brow easing, which was the point. “The camarvan,” they say. “It’s got sentimental value. But I’ll admit, I’ve been doing a lot of the building around here. It might be nice to have a bit of help.”

“Hm,” he says. “Give me some gold, then we’ll talk.”

Eret laughs, rich and familiar, and leads him into the base of the tower. Their sunglasses are still gripped in one hand, and they make no move to put them back on. And—he can admit that this whole thing is weird and scary and bad, because never in a million years would he have expected to find an Eret who didn’t remember him, whose memories in general were all strange and mixed up, who seemed to barely know who they were at all. But Eret is still Eret, and that’s really what matters.

So, maybe he’ll end up giving Tommy the help he wants after all.

#dream smp #dsmp #foolish gamers #eret #tommyinnit #dsmp fic #/rp #cat writes fic #long post #cw mentioned death #cw slight unreality #time travel au #surprise!!! i'm back!!#betcha weren't expecting fic today

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aresmarked · 9 months

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Speaking of the writing, I only downloaded this game because I saw people talking about it and wanted a silly rhythm game. I didn't expect to be so engaged with the cast and stories. How do they do it?! Do you have a fave part of the writing? I love Filipino An! I mean she could be since we haven't seen her mom right? Yea I love how the old friends still keep in touch despite attending different schools! Are there any character interactions you want to see happen? How?

psekai devs asked 'what if vn. with 5 intersecting routes. with a rhythm game' and nobody stopped them.

but half-jokes aside, really, it's cause it's honestly pretty much a norm with similar games? though story quality may vary you go to bang dream, or enstars, or d4dj, or love live, up back to when idolmaster was an raising and rhythm arcade game and people had to contend with kisaragi chihaya's gameplay-integrated depression in her story, and you find a good number of games that paired coming to know characters along with some really good music.

PSekai, I do gotta say though, is probably one of the best I've tried for making you invested in the characters, everyone's a round character and growing, and no one feels like they're just A Bit that's gonna get tiresome after two events of nothing else.

my fave bit... if i sum it up, it's the sincerity, of the writing. Suppose I can explain with what first got me into PSekai. I forget how I ended up there (honestly probably itching for a new rhythm game, I've played bandori, LL, and d4dj before but had kinda bounced off the stories), but I started playing on the JP server when Secret Distance was the current event. and i was just really taken by, 'oh, hey, you really put that in the story'. An enby! in a game with SEGA's involvement! a disabled girl with a congenital disease whose view on life is truly shaped by that! a girl with a short fuse and short tongue but when the chips are down is truly a considerate sister, and always a loyal friend! while i was naturally drawn to certain characters, i still found something i enjoyed about the characters who weren't my immediate faves, just because of how well-written they were. The amount of thought put in is clear.

A important thing with headcanons is recognising that they are exactly that. I'll be pleasantly surprised if they do add that touch to folk's families, but it still is uncommon.

I'm still waiting on a Mizuan class event I feel like, it's hard to count Kamikou Fest when Mizuki split from An so early. But more general interactions, I'd like to see Shiho and Mafuyu talking. Shiho refuses to take shit from folk knocking her dream, so I think it'd be very healthy for Maf to see 'you don't have to submit to everyone to be loved'.

#project sekai #war replies #prsk!anon #anonymous

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sleeplessnessthoughts · 1 year

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So, to begin with, I wanna make it clear that I’m somewhat neutral on this topic, because I’m still a fan of both sides of this. :) I’m also a relatively new person to the fandom, so I cannot speak on anything that took place before late sept. 2022 when I started introducing myself to this community because I’m not well versed on it.

To begin this, I gotta go back all the way to face reveal and twitchcon time frame, the last time Dream and Quackity publicly interacted with each other on their own volition. It was already pretty obvious that after the event and the Drituation, Quackity started drifting away from Dteam, since their interactions literally became nonexistent, and while it is true that you do not have to always interact online to SHOW that you’re friends, it really speaks for itself when you answer everyone else’s tweets and comments except for a Select Group of People. Then after radio silence came the Quackity and Wilbur wine stream, in which George called Quackity and even Dream was mentioned, but even then, when we were all holding onto dtqk crumbs, Quackity literally showed No Interest on wanting to know what Wilbur was saying about Dream’s music video, people used that clip to show that “loudduo was still alive” but you can tell that he’s Not Interested. At All. Then when George called, Quackity was being distant, even as they joked around, went as far as to decline his call when Wilbur hung up on him. Although it Can be argued that the stream was mainly Quackity and Wilbur and they wanted things their way, not taking that away from them, just something to keep in mind.

VOD for the Wine Stream here.

Dream is mentioned at 2:34:30 and George called at 2:50:20

So, Quackity is distancing himself, although Dream didn’t interact with him as much, Sapnap and George did and got ignored, each and every time, and it was so obvious too. That goes on until the time of the Squidcraft Games in which Quackity DID interact with dtqk a lot more, but even then, it was an event with around 200 other streamers, to call that an interaction is kind of weak, especially when Quackity is a reserved person and does not air his personal Situations. Then when QSMP is announced, Dream shows his support privately and reveals that he also had a similar idea in the works, and whether it was the intention or not, it does look like he’s trying to deflect the attention from Quackity’s project, but at the same time, Dream gets demonized for almost everything he does, if he hadn’t cleared the air about that, he would’ve been called a copycat and everything under the sun, so I get why he did it.

Putting all of that aside, I feel like this all started snowballing when Dream posted that the USMP would be the first multilingual smp in the world and then Quackity posted the same thing for the QSMP, and now as more information and proof comes out that Quackity’s server IS the first multilingual SMP in the world (as he now has added Portuguese speakers) since he had been talking about and hinting his ideas as early as 2022 of my knowledge (I’m not taking into account when he told Wilbur he WANTED to do something to unite both communities he grew up in, only when he started asking people if they would be interested in joining his server) it’s more noticeable that absolutely no communication had been going on between these two for a While, and I also don’t think Dream did take the idea away because even when Quackity hinted the QSMP’s launch, nobody thought it would be that but rather, we all thought it’d be either merch or music, and I myself saw that. I don’t think it’s wrong of Dream to want to do a multilingual SMP either after seeing how well received the Squidcraft Games interactions were, but it just turned into a petty war of who was first, which at the end of the day, doesn’t fucking matter.

Then The Mod came out, and I apologize for forgetting the name but it was a shitshow and I’d rather not remember it. First of all, Quackity did not handle that shit correctly, he lacked an apology, empathy, and sincerity in his statement, saying “I’ve been told the mod is quite offensive so it will be getting removed” is not enough when people are being affected by it, because even if it was used before, even if no one had complained about it before, he’s the owner a server that promotes cultural union, and if a part of your community that practices a culture you’ve wrongfully represented says that they’re not comfortable with the depiction of a hostile mob that has been ridiculed by streamers in YOUR server, you LISTEN to them, because at the end of the day, your audience is your EVERYTHING. Period. Dttwt starts getting attacked and called sensitive and snowflakes over it, that’s when the harassment really starts, and let’s be honest, over the past few months, as Quackity got more popular, his stans just got worse and worse, they’re the most parasocial I’ve ever seen a fandom act, and I‘ve been in armytwt and dttwt. So dttwt gets harassed, and no response from Quackity at the racism that a good portion of his fans are implementing, whether at this point him and Dream have beef or not, your fans represent you, even if you don’t like controversies and drama, your fans attacking anyone and everyone they don’t agree with or think are less than them is very VERY harmful, and should be addressed. While it is true you cannot control a big fan base, and NOBODY, EVER, said that he was going to, addressing negative concerns about your fan base is ESSENTIAL, to show that you CARE about the well-being of those being harassed.

Honestly, it’s a blur after that, I’m pretty sure that what happened next was Dream posting snaps with dates that showed how he was also planning the USPM in early March, which was Very Intentional to show mainly drantis that he didn’t just pull it out of his ass, but it backfired more after streamers such as Wilbur, Philza, and others started promoting the “QSMP is the FIRST multilingual server in the world” and let’s be fucking for real, Quackity started it as a bilingual server, at the end of the day, the only two communities he grew up in was an hispanic and an american one, if he started promoting it as a multilingual server after its launch, then it’s completely different. Anyway, Wilbur and Philza knew EXACTLY what they were doing and how it was going to be perceived.

And that leads us to the fucking Tweets. I’m gonna be honest, Dream should’ve NEVER aired this shit out, at least not something so private and personal such as Quackity literally ghosting him and mutual friends. Not only because us as fans do not need to know, but also because something you should never do, especially as someone so big as him and that has been on the internet for a long time, is be vulnerable online. NEVER. I’m not saying he shouldn’t have addressed the doxxing and harassment situations, of course not, what I mean is: he shouldn’t have mentioned Quackity, at all. It was unnecessary and this I will give to some Q stans, it socially pressures Quackity to respond to him, which is very shitty in my personal opinion. He should’ve kept his tweets about the doxxing, about how his family’s been harassed and how the drama surrounding them is a dumb reason to start a fan war. That’s it. I know he meant well, because the tweet is very vulnerable (THATS THE FUCKING PROBLEM), but it just caused the drift between communities to deepen.

And also, Quackity did not address ANYTHING, but instead, streamed as if nothing is going on. I don’t wanna know his opinion on Dream, I don’t give a single FUCK, I wanted him to address the fact that due to the harassment his fans put others through people’s lives were endangered, not only Dream’s and his family’s (although it is not directly Q’s fault, the rampant hatred from his fandom did amplify the issue and caused him to get doxxed again, which is really fucking shitty and disgusting; not only that, I’ve seen people say that Dream BLAMED Quackity for it, which he did not do, and that it’s not a big deal because he’s been doxxed before, WHICH IS ALSO NOT OK) but also other stans from dttwt who were doxxed and even stalked outside of twitter and had to get involved with the authorities. Over Minecraft servers???? It’s fucking insane, and both of them are in the wrong; Quackity for not addressing it and acting as if everything is ok, and even PRAISING his fans, and Dream for airing out personal issues between Quackity and him that did not NEED to be public especially because Quackity IS a reserved person.

I still stan both Quackity and Dream, and I hope with the entirety of my soul for them to either work it out or fucking block each other already, I don’t care anymore. One more thing, majority of Q stans are fucking immature and parasocial as fuck, and a good part of dttwt as well, we’re all in the same fucking shithole anyways so.

This turned into a vent I’m sorry. ):

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aliferous-ly · 1 year

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I know nothing of DSMP but I would love to hear how the ending/story/characters/creators were mishandled if you’d like to rant/ramble

OKAY.

I didn't watch the ending. I barely knew the ending was happening, because by the time it happened I was so disenchanted with the whole dsmp that I didn't really care. so I heard through the grapevine (Tumblr dashboard) that it was like.. everything blows up we're starting over and everyone's memories are wiped.

Which. Is a choice. But is a particularly horrible choice when one of the people roleplaying.. died, and would therefore "not be remembered" (with no new content). The people close to this person confirmed that dsmp 2 would continue technos legacy and that they wouldn't forget him, but the fact that it needed to be said in the first place is just. An awful feeling. like, none of techno’s actions would have any bearing on dsmp2...?

So fuck the ending, who even cares about it. The beauty of the dsmp is supposed to be the many interlocking characters, since they're all roleplaying to have fun with this comedy/serious rp. But the creators (read: the main creators slash writers of the arcs) would often ignore other creators on the dsmp and their role. Niki frequently was talked over and ignored. Her and puffy planned a dsmp lore stream only to cancel it because dream scheduled a server-wide event for the same day (literally the day before). eret regularly planned lore and streams, but received rare replies in the discord. they were the first villain character and received so many death threats for the arc that really kick-started the serious storylines, and then their character was mostly forgotten by the other big creators. I understand the improv of rp, but the streams started becoming more and more planned, and eret wanted to be in them! And as the original traitor, having her as a staple would have been INTENSE. but she just kinda.. dropped off. Anything to do with the egg was vastly considered uninteresting and therefore lesser to the "main" characters, which is, of course, tommy and dream. which sucked because I didn't care about tommy and dreams storyline and I liked everyone else's 😭😭 (this is more neg for the community than the creators, but whatever)

Another thing I hated was when the creators would joke about how cringe people getting invested in Minecraft RP is. stuff like that. because it shows that at a certain level they're ashamed of creating it? They're embarrassed of it. And so they disregarded their audience and fucked up the storyline and now dsmp 2 is never happening because who's gonna watch it? their scorned audience? like holy shit, guys, you were getting 200k viewers a stream because people liked the story. people like stories!!! the medium doesn’t MATTER.

Like.. okay. There's some really good characters in the dsmp. Schlatt, I think, had the best character, because he was cohesive and had an arc -- he entered as a villain against wilbur and tommy, was further corrupted by power, physically crumbling from his poor choices, was super horrible to quackity which set up quackity’s arc & insecurities... and his death was interesting! nobody killed him, he just succumbed to his own problems. I still think techno is a good character, because he stuck to his thought processes and morals (which was basically, governments = bad, people = good. with a dash of extremely violent inclinations). Whether or not you liked him. His problem was his innate existence as unkillable (technoblade never dies, he won a battle against the whole server, etc), because then it can get tedious, but he'd been planning to have cyberknife the Government Lover to counteract this (god, I miss him).

Dream is... Dream, I guess. Sam has a good character, very nice corruption arc (everyone literally hating him in his chat was annoying though. Like guys, you're in sam's chat, you gotta root for SAM. go to Tommy's stream if u wanna be a little bitch). also sam’s arc had everything that dream apologists wanted with dream’s character, lol. dream had no regrets and was a horrific abuser. sam started good and slowly corrupted to evil through “the ends justify the means” choices, which is FASCINATING, because by the end he was a mess of ethics and trauma. I love Niki's arc, but I wish she could have had more closure with Wilbur, because he was huge for the beginning of her arc. Hannah, bad, ant, and punz had this super cool thing with the egg (bad and skeppy was WILD) and I loved the fantasy aspects and that it didn't take 4 fucking hours to do the climax, with like 1 hr of actual action. (the egg was like... a fungal infection came to the dsmp and infected various characters to do its bidding by promising whatever they want most. and bad wanted to be with skeppy, who is his actual in-canon soulmate, since bad’s CANON LIVES were tied to skeppy’s. meaning he never lost a canon life unless skeppy did. fellas...)

I guess overall it's like... the main creators didn't communicate and plan enough with many of the people who wanted lore and arcs. Foolish, quackity, purpled, Sam, and Charlie did really well at the end, I loveddd the whole purpled defecting and shit. charlie’s arc was incredible. and they COMMUNICATED in the discord to make this happen.

Dream, sapnap, and George just had no handle on the storyline they were trying to construct. And it's their server. They needed an ending. Something satisfying, cathartic, something where tommy finally gets the chance to heal which might only happen alongside dream's death-- and the servers getting blown up by a nuke okay sure that works too I guess.

I’m so, so upset by the lack of happy ending for tommy. like, the cc wanted to move away from dsmp, so they could have written an ending for the character and then he could ease away from the server and lore. it didnt have to happen Like That.

Also, if dream wanted to play a different character, then Do That. He could pretend to be a shape shifter who liked the original dreams form, or the original dream could be a shape shifter who copied dreamXD (the literal god of the server, which I feel like was not mentioned more that foolish had regular interactions with them?), or just, anything. but the constant evil!dream abusing tommy was getting a bit much. it was just never ending.

AND. THIS ISNT EVEN TALKING ABOUT THE STUPID FUCKING THREE LIVES THING.

Like.. they had three "canon" lives. This happened because the original roleplay was Not Serious, it was just them fooling around. They would kill each other to steal their stuff. Everyone died all the time. And I don't remember the specific inciting incident.. it might be as far as tubbo getting executed on stage? but suddenly This Death is far more important than all the Other Deaths, so they have to separate them and add some significance, but tubbos back now and technos not apologizing which is a whole thing (oh nooo techno didnt save tubbo from being executed despite not receiving any communication), so tubbo is alive, so this death is Significant (but he's still alive) so. three canon lives. Which is dumb, because the only thing (seemingly) signifying a canon life loss is that it's literally written into the plot. (Which, jack manifold dying to techno and then falling into a glitch and respawning, to then claim that he lost his third canon life but through pure determination to kill tommy/techno crawled back out of hell, is metal as fuck). which takes out a lot of the improv, makes things a lot more staged. But it's canon, in the lore, that sometimes people die and they don't lose a canon life. It's just.. so bizarre. (Phil having one life to show that he's from a hardcore world is also, however, very cool).

it makes the whole thing a bit meta, using terms like “canon life” within the actual roleplay. the only bandage I could think of would be coming up with unique ways each specific character could die. Like, tubbo can only be killed via explosives/fireworks. Tommy and Dream can die by axe. techno’s is unknown, until tubbo infiltrates phil’s house and finds information that techno can be killed by being crushed. this would cause some other brand new problems, though.

Anyway. Wilbur's plots were well written, but disregarded Fundy (his canonical son) and mostly Niki, too (who he brought into the server). George obviously didn't give a shit about lore, bc he was never there. Sapnaps lore is meh, even though he has, arguably, one of the most interesting relationship webs of the server (his best friend became this abusive pos, his parents are skeppy and bad, he’s off-and-on dating quackity and karl, both of which have their own crazy shit going on. god, i didnt even talk about karl). Tommy's was very well done even though I personally didn't like his character.

Like... These people just didn't know what the fuck they were doing. Which could have been fine, if they didn't try to capitalize the fuck out of the views lore streams could bring while also ridiculing their audience for liking this sort of thing, and then attempted to tie it together into some sort of ending to the tommy / dream arc. Like, new arcs can happen, sure, but things have to end! They have to!

Honorable mention for ponk who regularly streams earlier than I watch but consistently was on the dsmp. He kept that shit alive. He was the og. His tree jumpstarted the lore. Much love for ponk and many wishes for future successes for that man.

Also it was really weird how the dsmp was primarily white men because it originally was just dream and his friends, which obviously is fine ur not gonna intentionally diversify your minecraft server for friends, but after people started pointing out that most everyone being added was a white man and the only defense was that it's dream and his friends became.. thinly veiled. Because he started adding people that hes not like, close friends with, but they were also white men. Like I'm so sorry Michael mcchill I love you and your energy is fantastic but this is about you and manitreed and foolish and and and. There were like 30 people on the server and like 6 poc. maybe 6 women. (Shout-out to Tina, lmfaooo).

idk. it’s a storyline that was wonky and weird at its base, so the viewers were willing to give it the benefit of the doubt for a lot of things, because we knew that it was improv and sometimes things dont go your way. and they had this massive, growing, beautiful thing at their fingertips. and wilbur said “yeah i’m not writing this arc” and communication became nonexistent and everything collapsed. the server literally NUKED ITSELF. OK . holy shit.

that being said i immensely enjoyed my time in the dsmp fandom. it helped me through covid, it inspired me, i’ve written quite a bit of fic for it. i loved the dsmp. there are aspects that i still love, and will love forever. but holy shit. we were not treated well.

#long post #if the read more doesn't work... o7 #anon opening the floodgates #some of these things im like 'i have more!!' but its me just saying the thing but louder #i definitely forgot some stuff #it was very very long and i didnt watch a lot of it #bc there would be 7 povs for one thing and people would be jumping in and out of vc so you woulndt get the full story and sigh. sigh sigh #punz is a fun character because he's barely there. i can fit so much headcanons into this guy #I AM NOT UP TO DEBATE OK THIS IS FOR ANON ONLY DO NOT START DISCOURSE IN MY NOTES

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fluffallamaful · 1 year

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Ohohoh, that little manhunt you imagined in the prison — foreshadowing much? Something similar happens later — but way worse. :)

Okay, so, an important thing to keep in mind here is that everyone DOES, in fact, keep their memories of the future. Sam remembers the Daedalus Arc (the time he and Dream basically swapped roles for three days), Purpled remembers murdering Charlie and Charlie remembers being murdered by Purpled (and man THAT’s gotta be awkward: you both remember that one of you murdered the other and can’t broach the subject because even if you don’t feel guilty or angry about it it still feels like a big deal), pretty much everyone in Las Nevadas remembers Quackity’s descent off the deep end, Tubbo remembers the nuke and believing he killed his best friend, etc. Aside from Dream, everyone remembers everything.

Also, the Prison scene is more…brief. See, Sam comes in, he’s dead fucking silent, Dream’s babbling nonsense and stuff, and eventually Sam just fucking — sits down and starts grooming him? (Because that’s pretty much mandatory for me, lol) And there’s no explanation, Dream’s terrified, and eventually he just submits to it. It feels nice, anyway. He really missed being touched like this, all gentle and comforting-like.

Eventually, Sam leaves him in the cell. He mutters something about having to go do something else. He leaves being a very, very confused Dream.

And THAT is when Quackity shows up. He tries to hiss at Dream to be quiet, but when Dream remembers Quackity promising to kill him less than two hours ago that doesn’t go down well. He screams for Sam, even though he knows nothing will happen, because Sam has pretty much NEVER saved him no matter how much he never stopped screaming for him —

But this time he DOES. He’s back in the cell in an instant, panicked and geared up, and Quackity quickly reassess the situation.

The conversation between those two is much — quieter, I think. Not less tense — both players believe that they’re playing a game of 3D chess or whatever — but Quackity is manipulative, and Sam is somewhat distracted anyway. Quackity offers to house Dream in Las Nevadas, where Sam can stay with him and enjoy all the luxuries that his estate can afford — bathhouses, good food, proper medical staff, etc. He dodges around his true intention of getting Dream all of that stuff as well.

But Sam catches on to the possibility, even if he doesn’t realize that Quackity wants it, too. He realizes that moving Dream to Las Nevadas — out of this place — would mean better food, better care, and a better place to sleep than the mess that he was just putting together in a different cell. So he accepts, also dodging his true intentions. And so the game of idiots attempting 3D chess begins. (A couple of pieces have already been eaten within the first few moves.)

A lot of stuff happens in Las Nevadas — stuff that I’m sure will be plenty discussed later. It’s basically the meat of the whole thing. But eventually, Dream manages to run. He gears up alone somewhere, and he resolves to do the entire plan ALONE (even if he knows it’s a useless endeavor — Punz WAS the plan) and the entire server is sent into a panicked manhunt.

There’s a confrontation. Dream fights, and loses. Badly. They take his armor and his weapons. But he somehow escapes.

(After this second escape is when the server finally realizes that they all actually experienced the future, and that it WASN’T “just a me thing.” This means that searching for him a second time is a lot more organized.)

By the time they find him a second time, Dream is half-dead in the snow. He’s cold, he’s hungry, he’s face down in the wet and still trying to crawl — it’s horrible. He stopped crying a while ago because he was just too tired to keep doing it. And now Sam’s huge paws are in front of him, and he knows there’s no escape.

(He wakes up in the community house.)

okkkk there we gooo 😍 i sensed that you had thought this throughhhh!! and omfg so they remember the future????? omg 😭 what the heck that’s so sad AHHHHHHH

(discussionnnnnnn below)

🦙🦙🦙…

ok so omg the confusion that dream would be experiencing when sam starts helping and grooming him without an explanation :(( also it’s right after he’s pulled out of the toilet??? 🥹 so like he’s babbling so damn much, pleading for sam to keep him hidden. but sam is just quiet in thought, just pulling him down next to him on the obsidian wall, hugging him close, using his fur to dry him and grooming through his hair :( dream being too exhausted and defeated and terrified to fight back :((

and then sam leaving and quackity showing uppp…. omg the way you described quackity’s manipulation and sam’s internal decision making is so awesome holy crap?? so they both decide to take dream to las nevadas to help dream,, but they both have to pretend it’s for logical reasons other than helping dream??? 😵‍💫 omgggg that’s so cooollll!!! and dreams just so confused and terrified the whole time? unaware that he’s literally just been broken out of prison by his warden and his torturer?

the care in las nevadas ☹️ i’m curious to know if both of them would be helping at once? or would it be that they’re both helping him subtly without the other knowing? would they both explain to dream that they’re trying to help? would he say anything??? AHHH i’m so excitedddddd (also so excited to make bathtime tickles hehe)

and eeeeeeee ok so i predicted a manhunt futureeee 😍 i would expect nothing less. i am so excited to hear your thoughts for that part toooooo!! like the bits that prompt him to escape?? it’s like i get to read through a movie script what the heck this is awesome!!

9.9999999999/10 - needs more soup 🍲

🦙🦙🦙…

#llama asks #soup the destroyer #Soups Time Travel AU

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hangezoeenthusiast · 3 years

Text

God(hcs)

c!multiple x god!reader

notes: the reader will be the god of death to make it a little bit more spicy :). c!punz’s pronouns are he/they, i’m not sure about the others, but i know theirs. also why does ranboo take away my gender? /j

word count: 1,672

warnings: arson, violence, cursing, yelling, mention of death, voices in technos part, spoilers for wilbur if you haven’t watch tommy’s lore stream, revival for wilbur, making a religion, time travel, egg, prison, stealing, anarchy, playful name calling

Sapnap

so obviously y’all would be a great match :)

you have creative mode, so when sap would ask you to give him a lighter and tnt, you would GLADLY give it

also, can we talk about him being a nether hybrid

fire squared

like fires left and right, hide your mom and your children in your house lol /j

but besides the whole arson thing, you favor him above anyone else on the server

like if he asks for diamond blocks, well here’s a whole inventory of it, also, here’s some ancient debris and some netherite

if someone asked, you would probably grant them with poison and curses, just because you can’t be “unloyal” to snapchat

wouldn’t be lonely anymore

Dreamwastaken

this duo is less chaotic, but chaotic enough where people avoid you

he still asks you for stuff, but most of the time, you don’t give him it because he annoys you too much about giving stuff

“hey y/n/n, can i pretty please get some emerald blocks.”

“nope bitch, get it yourself.”

but sometimes, you grant him some op shit, when it’s your good day

“because i’m being nice, here’s some diamond, now, don’t ask me again you little piss baby.”

“shut your trap y/n.”

“or what homeless teletubby, what are you going to do to a god like me?”

“you hang out with technoblade to much.”

Georgenotfound

maybe the least chaotic duo

you guys keep on relaxing and relaxing until the point where you don’t do anything

he barely asks you for anything, but only when it’s really really important, like a house or build

especially when he was building his little cottagecore house, he needed your godly presence to help

“y/n, what should the roof be made of?”

“i suggest brick, it makes it more aestheticy if that makes any sense.”

also barely any drama or tea with you guys

never arguing and never betraying each other is a must

Tubbo

also another least chaotic duo

literally help him with his bee farm, he will (platonically) love you forever

gotta be close to ranboo, that’s the rule

gives him SO much stuff, he’s a precious boi 🙄

also gotta be close to tommy, but not as much unfortunately

you help him pick out things for builds, like what material clashes with another, etc

“do you think that the wool and the netherite blocks look good together y/n?”

“nah, what i suggest is the wool with the gold, it looks perfect.”

sometiems, gotta put him in check because he gets a little ego built up

you definitely yank his horn a little too hard because of your IMMENSE STRENGTH

“OW, WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT Y/N.”

“calm down sunny, you were just getting a bit over your head a little.”

Tommyinnit

chaotic duo like sapnap

snaps at anyone who annoys you and vice versa

you give him EVERYTHING, obviously except op and creative

he tries to persuade you to do something, but dreamxd wouldn’t allow it, since he is the main boss

“come on y/n, give me op.”

“no tommy, xd will kick my ass.”

“pweaseee.”

“no.”

you would DEFINITELY help him with the Big Innit Hotel, making the whole layout and color palette.

both of you have an intense hatred for ranboo, since he “stole” tubbo away from tommy

Ranboo

least involved in everything

just stay in the tundra and drink some tea, and you’re good for all of your life

helps him get netherite all the time so your boii can get the good stuff 😬

when he mines to get diamonds, he literally prays to you

“y/n, if you’re listening, please give me a 6 vein, i desperately need it for my collection of diamond blocks.”

and THERE IT IS

more than a 6 vein actually, a 12 vein

guess he needs to pray to you more

daily tea sessions, to talk about the good stuff, and NO, and i repeat NO skipping

threatening to flick water on him check ✅

Wilbur Soot

literally you spoil him

not to be angsty, but when he died and lost his last canon life, you revived him instead of Dream

now he’s practically at your knees

like he’s thinks that he owes you, but actually that’s the opposite

he was revived because you were lonely, and wanted your best friend back :(

prays to you when he goes to bed

“hey y/n, hope you’re having a great day, (platonically) love you.”

“love you too mortal.”

sometimes, to be at the peak of godness, you shower upon wilbur as gold to symbolize blessings, like zeus did before

“omg y/n, what are you doing?”

“i’m trying to bless you, shut up bitch.”

just saying, he would make a religion about you :/

Karl Jacobs

omg don’t get me started on this

first, you wouldn’t codone him going back in time

he would definitely forget your name a lot, so that’s why you hated it

“hey karl, how are you doing?”

“i’m sorry, but do i know you?”

ANGST IS TOO MUCH FOR ME

you were definitely the one to push him towards sapnap and quackity

this is also another spoiled boi

give him the entire world while you’re at it pwease

he wants a few diamonds, nope, give him a chest full of them

Quackity

why are there so much chaotic duos in here?

literally chaos times infinity

energy to the max

literally, did you take an energy drink

grants him every wish he can randomly think off

“can i get a bucket with lava and a fish in it?”

“weird choice, but ok man.”

gotta be close to sap and karl or he isn’t your friend anymore /j

helps with las nevadas a lot, and definitely tries to rig the machines so you get money

“hey big q, i got 10,000 dollars.”

“that’s impossible... y/n, did you cheat?”

“nooo 😊”

help him preen his wings, and he goes “I LOVE YOU, MWAH MWAH.” obviously in his mind 🙄

Awesamdude

definitely helps him maintain the prison

you both love setting up red stone contraptions and pistons and all that giz

“hey sam, do you know where the redstone torches are?”

“yeah, there behind the pistons in the back.”

also you helped build the prison, since he could do that by himself

“are you sure that lava wall will work y/n, your calculations seem inaccurate.”

“i’m sure sam, this will add some more security to this goddamn server.”

nerd squared lol

BadBoyHalo

wouldn’t condone the egg

you warned him multiple times to get away from its grasp, but most of the times he’ll decline

“i won’t y/n, the egg is the future.”

he still, even after all the advancements, even after everything, he tries to ask you to join the eggpire

“come on y/n, you’ll like being with us.”

“i don’t wanna be on a stupid egg side, like let me crack the egg, i wanna eat it and turn it into a omelette.”

he doesn’t like that joke :(

but before he discovered the egg, both of you were joint at the hip

sight seeing was a must

languages being thrown around everywhere, since you were the little language muffin

Punz

steals stuff from everyone

hide your stuff, because the punzo-y/n team is unstoppable

definitely they can be really stubborn and indecisive

like one day, he will be like, “i need gold blocks.” and the next, “nevermind, i need netherite actually.”

like hon, stop switching

also anarchy buddies

burning down forests and buildings are your guys’s specialty

when you give him gold when they doesn’t ask, his heart goes brrr and his brain goes, “pog pog, they’re so cool, lets hug them.”

Technoblade

now this is the most deadly duo in the entire Dream Smp

better not piss you guys off 😐

he’s the Blood God, and you’re the God/Goddess/God being of Death

so if some occasion where you need to battle someone, like Techno’s enemies, *clears throat and murmurs Quackity*, you will obviously back your boy up :)

help him with enchanting and potions and he’s set for life

also you got have to be close to the great Philza Minecraft since him and Techno are buddy buddy

anarchy squared

helps with the voices since you have some of your own

“so what you’re saying is that i need to pay attention to them?”

“yeah, when i first learned that the voices were in my head, i tried to ignore them, but that sucked. so what i did was try to distract myself with various tasks, and that sucked.”

“so what do i do, you’re saying that i should listen to them, but how do i do that when they literally shout at me.”

“just embrace it, obviously when they do their little chant of blood for the blood god, you have to ignore them.”

“you suck at advice.”

Philza Minecraft

so since both of you resemble death, him being the Angel of Death and you being the God/Goddess/God being of Death, y’all are fucking best friends, platonic soulmates if you will

death squared

watch out, because if you piss them off, prepare to d-

gotta be close to Ranboo and Techno, and obviously others who he platonically likes

he doesn’t need to ask you for stuff, he’s the fricking Angel of Death, but he will ask you to preen his wings :D

“ow, not there y/n.”

“oh shut up grandpa, let me do it.”

“I’M NOT OLD DUMBASS.”

Dream XD

two gods at once, damn there is so much chaos

left and right, you guys are noticed by everyone, like purrrr

y’all would be in some fancy shit, to show your power

you would get jealous of him hanging out with george

“why are you jealous y/n?”

“you’re hanging out with george to much, hang out with me please :(.”

gifts are a must, even though both of you have access to creative

2K notes · View notes

nightferns · 3 years

Text

The Third Variant to the SootCraft Fundy and Wilbur family drama that Maybe Accidentally Started it

So yesterday me and @bigbraveboop came to the conclusion that C!fundy had an arc in early early L'manburg that we were kinda unaware of. And it cracks the case of... how the family drama started. And also is why is this exists

C!Tommy was the catalyst of the c!Fundy | c!Wilbur family drama in S1 and i promise i have proof

all /rp

So what does Fundy repeatedly say is his biggest gripe with Wilbur currently and multiple times after his death? Well:

“You were there for me for a very very long time and then when i needed you the most, you skedaddled fuck the out of my life and died. Because of what? L’manberg’s causes, huh? You thought that was- You thought that was justice? You thought that was good for me? You left me, man.’

“The dad that- my dad that exploded himself for the sake of a country, just for that country to be demolished in future hands?-"

“He put me to priority number 2, man. He put me in the second place.”

So its about L’manburg being more important than him to Wilbur.

Now lets dig deep, where did that insecurity start? Why did Fundy arrive at this conclusion? Why did he feel like this in the first place about his position in L’manburg and his Father?

We kinda assume it was always there or was because of Wilbur actually prioritizing L’manburg over his son/being negectfull. But no! Fundy was very confident in his realtionship with Wilbur and his position in L’manburg at the Start and we see tha change so!

I want to argue that this insecurity... didn't come from Wilbur or any of his actions or lack thereof. Not directly.

“Wilbur? I dunno, Wilbur’s a man of chaos, alright- due to the lore of the server, Wilbur may or may not have been the father of our nation, but- that doesn’t mean he’s for everything I do. That doesn’t mean he stands behind me, alright? Not necessarily...not necessarily.”

This is the first instance of Fundy doubting his connection to Wilbur helping things, i'd argue it still was a part of a lighhearted bit that isn’t to be taken too seriously in the context of the larger story but i realized something that made me change my mind, i mean it is still a lighthearted bit but it connects to a certain quote from uncle Innit:

“What would father think?”

And then that got me thinking and:

Part 1 aka Early L'manburg Fundy had different feelings towards Wilbur than Civil War Fundy

So how did Fundy act towars Wilbur early on?

Fundy: "Don't speak to me ma- hey that's fucked up don't talk about that. That's-"

Tommy: "Listen Th- you gotta kn- you gotta know you don't speak to the boss's son like that. Nevermind about- about the boss's wife to the boss's son in front of the boss's right hand man! You really gotta- You really gotta read the room Thunder."

Fundy: "Yea you don't. You don't."

JM: "fine ok let him do what he wants to do, i just don't wanna hear about it [..]"

Tommy: "Listen to me Fundy- Listen to me Fundy- he didn't mean that- he's just a bold man- he had- he had a little-"

Fundy [turning to JM]: "I will tell on you."

Tommy: " NO no no no Fundy- Fundy He had a little flirt with Dream- he had a little flirt with dream, he's- he's a- he's really new, he's learing his boundaries, he's over stepped them, alright, listen, but you don't have to tell Will, you don't have to tell no-one. "

[To JM] "Thunder you need to to calm your fucking- holy shit."

"-Please, please give him a rest."

JM: "no i- im sorry, im sorry, i'm sorry Fundy"

Fundy: 'I don't want this behavior again, alright."

JM: "no i wont- i wont-"

Fundy: 'Don't talk to my Dad OR my salmon Mother like that ever again, i will tell on you, keep it in mind. I have privilege to speak up against-"

JM: "i understand."

I will come back to the i have a privilege line later but first, from this we see Fundy being confident that Wilbur would take his side because he is his son. He is the “i will tell my parents about this” kid, alongside that he doesn’t feel like he has no imput in decisions, he doesnt feel insecure here he is in the position of power.

So again when did it appear?

Well,

Fundy: “I may or may not have scammed a bunch of people, including all of L’manburg people, um…”

Tommy: “You scammed L’manburg members?!”

Fundy: “But here’s the thing – I’m willing to pay you a part of the profit if you help me out here!”

Tommy: “Fundy…okay, can I tell you what’s happened from my point of view? The son of the President has gone around scamming the other presidential members, and as the Vice President whilst the President’s not on, this is my duty to make sure that this doesn’t pull apart L’manburg. And what you’re saying – what you’ve essentially just said is, ‘hey, can I bribe you?’“

Fundy: “…Can I?”

Tommy: “Jesus Christ…No, okay, we need to settle this now, ‘cause I mean if this happens on my turf, I’m gonna fucking take the blame from this from Wilbur, alright…so listen, Fundy, under no circumstances can you bribe anyone!”

Fundy: “I got two Netherite scraps?”

Tommy: “Okay, okay – explain to me what’s happened, please.”

[Fundy explains the conflict]

Tommy: “What would father think?”

Fundy: “Well, he always – he always sides…by me…obviously.”

Tommy: “Would he though? I mean, you’ve gone against the other members of the nation he fought to build.”

Fundy: “Well only because my loot has been stolen! Alright?”

Tommy: “This sounds petty, Fundy.”

Fundy: “Okay, okay, I can word this differently in my favor.”

Tommy: “No, okay, no – you’re not meant to say that out loud! Okay, I’m gonna ask Tubbo what’s happened, and then from there on we’ll – but please do not do any – we can’t have L’manburg falling out over this, alright?”

So here we see Fundy the president’s son being put in comparison to L’manburg the nation the president built for what Wilbur would prioritize for the first time, and Tommy sows the seeds that maybe L’manburg matters more to Wilbur than him, that Wilbur would choose the nation. this is also first time Fundy has been sort of excluded from the Whole of L’manburg.

and we see Tommy’s words affect Fundy,

Fundy: “We gotta list everyone who’s against me:”

“I killed Tubbo twice, I stole his bow. Tubbo’s probably against me.”

“Tommy has always been against me from the start.”

“Sapnap is against me because I killed his animals and stole them.”

“Punz is against me ‘cause I stole his bees.”

“Eret is against me ‘cause I went after Karl.”

“Karl’s against me ‘cause -- I just realized I’ve made a lot of enemies...I just realized I don’t have many -- I don’t have many allies on the server. There’s not many allies.”

“Who’s neutral? Niki! Niki is with me! Niki is friendly.”

“Wilbur? I dunno, Wilbur’s a man of chaos, alright...due to the lore of the server, Wilbur may or may not have been the father of our nation, but...that doesn’t mean he’s for everything I do. That doesn’t mean he stands behind me, alright? Not necessarily...not necessarily.”

“Quackity? Quackity’s definitely not -- no, listen, Quackity’s definitely not for me, okay. I called him a whore. There’s definitely -- there’s definitely many things Quackity has against me.”

so here is my argument... Fundy’s insecurity started with Tommy.

Part 2 Development Of Those Feelings (Uncle Tommy you’re not Helping)

Fundy, growing disillusioned with Wilbur and L’manburg, lead to this one coversation between Fundy and Wilbur,

Wilbur: Well the uh- the ballot entries have closed now.

Fundy: Who's in it?

Wilbur: Well it originally was just gonna be me and Tommy, me and Tommy tired to do it so- tried to do it so we will be the only ones running, then suddenly out of nowhere Quackity joins and enters himself on the ballot-

Fundy: Ok.

Wilbur: -so it's me and Tommy against Quackity and someone else.

Fundy: Who's someone else?

Wilbur: We don't know yet, he hasn't announced,

Fundy: Wait then- oh, so it's just a random… sneaky person who put himself in the ballot not announced who he is.

Wilbur: yeah, yeah. I mean if you wanna try and convince Quackity that you wanna run against your father.

Fundy: Yeah ok.

Wilbur: Wait, you- you wouldn't though.

Fundy: What if i win? What are- what are you gonna do?

Wilbur: Well then you'd be Vice President.

Fundy: but-What if i win?

Wilbur: Why do you want power in L'manburg so much?

Fundy: Why do you want power?

Wilbur: Because- i led the revolution, i'm your… i'm your president.

Fundy: That's history.

Wilbur: Wh- d- Do you not think i- i'm suitable to run for president?

Fundy: I think you are, but i think I am as well.

Wilbur: I don't know man. I don't- i think- i think you- i think you'd be s- i think you'd be getting into a fight you wouldn't want to start with me. You've only been on the positive side of me, you've only seen my nice side, because y'know? being my son you get- you get special- y'know? You won't ever see me going against you.

Fundy: Wait so you're a biased person going for presidency.

Wilbur: Biased to my son? Yes. But, if you're gonna run against me then i'm changing, i'll- i'll go guns blazing.

Fundy: I'll have a word with Quackity.

Wilbur: Fundy i… i've got- i've got- i've got a bad feeling about this. I think you're just gonna… you're just gonna get hurt.

Fundy: That will happen-

Wilbur: Fundy yeah- Yeah someone in my chat just pointed out, Fundy you started the civil war.

Niki: I mean technically Sapnap started the civil war.

Fundy: I mean- i mean technically- Yeah y' know, technically- and i'm gonna win it! It's fine! I mean what does he have on me, really?

Wilbur: I thought it was you fighting Tubbo?

Fundy: what?

Wilbur: I thought civil war was you and Tubbo?

Fundy: No, Tubbo's just a prick.

Wilbur: Sapnap's not even- not even part of L’manburg how is it a civil war?

Fundy: I don't know you brought it up!

Wilbur: Tommy told me- Tommy told me it was Tubbo and Fundy.

Fundy: Yeah no Tommy is a little bit delusional.

Wilbur: I think i've spoiled you.

Fundy: How?

Wilbur: I think you need to learn some manners.

Fundy: I dunno- power seems nice.

Wilbur: Fine, you can run against me, it won't end well for you but you can give it a go.

Fundy: Like i said i'll- i'll have a word with Quackity i'll think of my actions, see what will happen, i'm not saying necessarily that i'll go against you, then again i'm not standing beside you because you may or may not be the father of L'manburg

Wilbur: And you! The father of you!

Fundy: That's irrelevant. To-

Wilbur: No it's not irrelevant! It's very relevant to this!

Fundy: I don't- i don't think that's relevant to presidency

I’ll talk over Wilburs pov here in a little bit but focusing on Fundy,

He wants to run, other than everything we established before here Fundy wants to run to prove himself to himself, and we see the other part of this conflict more internally is,

(“[..] may or may not be the father of L'manburg- “ , “ That's irrelevant.” )

Well, here is the insecurity about Wilbur choosing L’manburg (here his position as president) over Fundy, the being second place to L’manburg part matters here becasue i think this is where Wilbur and Fundy fundamentally clash, so Fundy doesn’t want for it to matter to Wilbur, he doesn’t want for his position as son to have any influence over Wilbur here beacuse of this fear that that’s why he may be in the second place.

now let’s move on to,

Uncle Tommy ‘helps’

Fundy: “I’m wearing glasses…are you making fun of my eyesight?!”

Tommy: “Yes.”

Sapnap: “Your father would be very disappointed.”

Fundy: “Wh – disappointed for wearing glasses?!”

Tommy: “You got glasses, like what are you wearing…”

Fundy: “What do you mean?”

Tommy: “Sapnap, Sapnap, over here. Fundy, Fundy, Fundy, I’m really sorry to say this – I’m just here to publicly denounce you.”

Fundy: “…What?”

Tommy: “I just, I – yeah. You’re stinky, you’re shitty, the fur that’s sewn onto your skin, I look at it and I go (retching sounds) And whilst you’re a lovely guy, you’re actually not, you’re really…and all the viewers are like ‘oh no!’ But they can’t smell you. I can! Holy shit, you know? I mean you know, Sapnap…”

Fundy: “I showered two hours before the stream…”

Tommy: “I know, and that’s what makes it so remarkable, how you smell that terrible.”

Fundy: “I used coconut oil…it smells good…”

…

Tommy: “Fundy, I’m just here to kinda let you know that I – if you weren’t Wilbur’s son, you would be out of L’manburg, alright? Just remember – you need to keep that relationship with your father. I saw how asshole-y and bratty you were acting in the courtroom the other night. You need to pull your shit together young man.”

Fundy: “Being neutral is – is asshole?”

Tommy: “Yes. Come with me, Sapnap. Yeah, I’ve denounced you – well no no no, you were challenging him. You were challenging him.”

Fundy: “Denounced to what?”

Tommy: “I just – it’s just a formal way of saying you suck.”

(Tommy and Sapnap leave)

Fundy: “…They are mean…They are mean! Why are they so mean? That is so mean…”

Fundy: “Listen, it is one thing making fun of a person’s appearance…it is one thing making fun of a person’s blindness, but hey – don’t fucking make fun of my coconut oil! Listen dude…that shit smells tasty! That smells good! Man…that’s…god…coconut oil, man…dude.“

…

Fundy: “TNT their houses? That will just prove their point, chat. That will just prove their point. That will just prove their point…they’re just mean. They’re so mean. But it is okay, chat. It is okay. The reason why it’s okay…that’s actually true. Why is he talking to the enemy? Wait…wait a minute. Wait a minute! So let me get the story straight real quick.”

“Chat…just hold up a second here! Hold on a second! So Tommy is demoting me, right? And he’s saying you’re only in L’manburg because of Wil. So Tommy says…in theory, he would kick me out if he had the chance. But considering that, while he’s together with Sapnap…it leads me to believe…Tommy wants to destroy L’manburg!”

“Why would he do that? Why would he team up with Sapnap? He had no correlation with this conversation at all. What was the reason for that?”

“…Do we have another traitor in our midst?”

…

Fundy: “Listen, Tommy, here’s a really interesting theory, alright…here’s an interesting theory, Tommy. I got a little theory on my mind! Listen, boy, we’re part of L’manburg, you and me. Wil as well, Tubbo, all of us, alright? And we’re supposed to be a union! Now here’s the thing! Here’s the thing. If you said, due to Wilbur I’m still basically part of L’manburg – in other terms saying that if it was on your hands you would get me out of there, right, why would you excessively bring Sapnap, out of all people, for that conversation alone?”

Tommy: “Shall I explain to you? It’s because, Fundy, we fucking need votes, Fundy. We need votes! This Quack City guy, son of BadBoyHalo? He’s just – he’s just, like, oh my god. We needed votes. And listen, Fundy–”

Fundy: “You basically just lost my vote, and I feel like that’s your purpose!”

Tommy: “You’re in L’manburg! You vote for us already – you vote for your own father, don’t be an idiot!”

Fundy: “I feel like you’re trying to bring us apart, Tommy. I feel like your goals are not supportive towards L’manburg at the moment…”

Tommy: “From my perspective, Sapnap hates you, Fundy. Sapnap hates you. And if I go listen, if I had to tier list all of the members of L’manburg, Fundy would be in D tier. He needs to hear that.”

Fundy: “…Tommy, are you Eret?”

Post the court debate Fundy was more decided on running on his own,

“Honestly, I feel like everything just needs to change. Honestly, I feel like neither of the parties have done enough right to deserve leadership, to deserve presidency in the first place. I feel like a lot of shit needs to change.”

Fundy didnt want to endorse any of the parties, SWAG2020 was endorsed by Dream, and he belived POG2020 to be corrupt because of the bribing Karl situation, so he was more keen on running on his own, and then came the public denouncing situaion.

Obviously Fundy was hurt by this, especially considering Sapnap was his enemy, and Tommy’s words didnt do Fundy’s and Wilburs already shaky relationship many favours, but his behaviour both pushed Fundy futher away from the POG party, and started Fundy’s ‘traitor Tommy’ theory that he shared with Niki after which the Coconut2020 party was formed.

Part 3 Wilbur is a oblivious dumbass but it makes sense now.

now lets look at Wilburs pov of things, which means we are coming back to the privilege line,

-----

JM: "no i- im sorry, im sorry, i'm sorry Fundy"

Fundy: 'I don't want this behavior again, alright."

JM: "no i wont- i wont-"

Fundy: 'Don't talk to my Dad OR my salmon Mother like that ever again, i will tell on you, keep it in mind. I have privilege to speak up against-"

JM: "i understand."

So coming back to this quote, i belive Wilbur didnt realize Fundy had these doubts about thier relationship, because he was used to Fundy sharing his problems with him, and he was left kinda drifting in an ‘why is my son suddenly against me now??’

Wilbur didnt realize Fundy’s feelings about him had changed, as in Fundy no longer WOULD come to him if he had any probems, because Fundy used to come to him with problems, ("I will tell on you.") But Tommy’s first comment knocked him down and the debate and the Sapnap-Tommy situation had as well and the denouncement, (which Wilbur also knew shit about) because he was already insecure about his place in L’manburg and Wilbur. AND he wouldn't come to Wilbur like he used to because Wilbur was the point of his insecurity even if he wasnt the couse of it.

So we see Wilbur kinda be sad and confused and misstepping becasue of that,

Fundy: Wait so you're a biased person going for presidency.

Wilbur: Biased to my son? Yes. But, if you're gonna run against me then i'm changing, i'll- i'll go guns blazing.

Fundy: I'll have a word with Quackity.

Wilbur: Fundy i… i've got- i've got- i've got a bad feeling about this. I think you're just gonna… you're just gonna get hurt.

------

Wilbur: Tommy told me- Tommy told me it was Tubbo and Fundy.

Fundy: Yeah no Tommy is a little bit delusional.

Wilbur: I think i've spoiled you.

Fundy: How?

Wilbur: I think you need to learn some manners.

Fundy: I dunno- power seems nice.

Wilbur: Fine, you can run against me, it won't end well for you but you can give it a go.

-----

Wilbur: Wait, look who’s coming, look who’s coming.

Tommy: Uh oh!

Wilbur: My son. My boy.

Tommy: Your ex-son.

Wilbur: Yeah. Well, I mean, he’s still my son in blood, but, he’s just…

Tommy: You should put him up.

Wilbur: What d’you mean, put him up? What, for adoption?

Tubbo: For adoption.

Tommy: Yeah. You should see if Big Q will adopt him.

[They discuss Fundy’s Twitch Prime cape. He runs up on stage, to the microphone, and starts punching the air. He’s not in the same vc as them.]

Wilbur: What’s he doing, what’s he doing- what is this? What is this bit? What is he doing?

Tommy: What the fuck are you- no.

Wilbur: He’s just not- he’s not- he’s really upsetting me.

Tommy: Just- just- he’s not President is he? He’s got no manners, he has no manners. No etiquette.

Wilbur: Look, he’s supposed to be my son.

[Wilbur types in chat: “fundy talk to me” and Fundy immediately leaves the game.]

Tubbo: He is trying.

Tommy: Tubbo, you’re gonna get murdered, my friend.

Wilbutr: He said, he said, “I am here for the Presidencialcy-” He just left.

Tommy: And then he- [sighs] I’m so sorry you have to deal with him.

W: I don’t- I- It’s really sad, like I… Honestly, I- when he turned around to me and he said he wasn’t gonna vote for me, and then he decided he was gonna vote for the opposition, and then he decided he was gonna run against me, that was- one of those was the straw that broke my back. I’m not sure which one- I’m still contemplating which one was the- are you listening?

[Tommy has jumped off the podium to join Tubbo in the audience.]

Tpmmy: Yeah, I’m going down to Tubbo, I just- I’m just letting you vent, Wilbur, I want you to have time to vent.

Wilbur: Yeah I just- I miss me son! I miss me son! I miss when he was my boy! Do you remember when he was my boy?

Tommy: Yeah, I’m not really good at handling… People who are emotional.

Wilbur also didn’t know anything about the denouncement situation,

Sapnap: “Will you continue to have your son banished from L’Manberg if I vote for you?”

Wilbur: “My son. My- My son. Look, we’re talking about politics here, I don’t want to talk about my family, if that’s alright. … I would like to say, thank you, Sapnap, for the question, I very much appreciate it, but I’m not gonna be fielding responses about my family situation, thank you.” (Alivebur)

*Wilbur proceeds to step off the podium and cry*

Wilbur: “Fundy...!”

Besides that fundamenatally Fundys and Wilburs views about the presidency oppose eachother,

“Tommy, I’m- I’m- I’m- I don’t know what to do, Tommy, I’ve never not been President.”

Fundy sees Wilbur and L'manburg as two separate things that he has to unfiairly contest with and for

1. for Wilbur because of his fears, for a place among L’manburg members

2. Because He wants to prove himself to himself. he needs to know what Tommy said, isn’t true/he can thrive regardless without his fathers support he can still be a great member of L’manburg and even a president

Wilbur sees himself as inherently connected trough L’manburg with everyone to the point that he thinks that without his position he cant do anything for his loved ones/ he wont be usefull. he thinks of l’manburg as something he does FOR all of them including Fundy.

“My son… My son is tearing down the walls, in front of me! My son is tearing down the walls in front of me! The walls I built to keep him safe! I promised him this world, Tommy, I promised him this world.”

----

“Fundy was the closest thing I had to something I cared about in L’Manberg, when it all began. You know, when it started, the closest thing to anything I cared about was Fundy. Fundy was my, he was my, he was my boy! My rock!”

----

Ranboo: "I don't know if they actually needed me, but I was there.(about his work in the NLM cabinet)"

Wilbur:"I know that feel."

This why Fundy and Wilbur clash fundamentally here,

Wilbur: And you! The father of you!

Fundy: That's irrelevant. To-

Wilbur: No it's not irrelevant! It's very relevant to this!

Fundy: I don't- i don't think that's relevant to presidency

Part 4 Tommy WHY? (he is propably protective and and a tiny bit jealous )

----

Tommy: “Hey, you know about Fundy’s little rebellious stage he’s going through?”

----

Fundy: “You basically just lost my vote, and I feel like that’s your purpose!”

Tommy: “You’re in L’manburg! You vote for us already – you vote for your own father, don’t be an idiot!”

Fundy: “I feel like you’re trying to bring us apart, Tommy. I feel like your goals are not supportive towards L’manburg at the moment…”

----

Wilbur: Wait, look who’s coming, look who’s coming.

Tommy: Uh oh!

Wilbur: My son. My boy.

Tommy: Your ex-son.

Wilbur: Yeah. Well, I mean, he’s still my son in blood, but, he’s just…

Tommy: You should put him up.

Wilbur: What d’you mean, put him up? What, for adoption?

Tubbo: For adoption

---

Wilbur: He said, he said, “I am here for the Presidencialcy-” He just left.

Tommy: And then he- [sighs] I’m so sorry you have to deal with him.

[Tommy has jumped off the podium to join Tubbo in the audience.]

Tommy: Yeah, I’m going down to Tubbo, I just- I’m just letting you vent, Wilbur, I want you to have time to vent.

Wilbur: Yeah I just- I miss me son! I miss me son! I miss when he was my boy! Do you remember when he was my boy?

Tommy: Yeah, I’m not really good at handling… People who are emotional.

Besides Tommy genuinely wanting to get more votes during the dennoucemnt situation, his seconddary motive was well, he was protective over Wilbur, he noticed that what Fundy did during the debate hurt Wilbur, and kept acting bitter towards him from then on. ( “ I saw how asshole-y and bratty you were acting in the courtroom the other night.” / And then he- [sighs] I’m so sorry you have to deal with him.” )

the he a was tiny bit jealous point IS more up in the air but we can compare this to how Tommy acted towards Ranboo just after leaving prison, when he learned of the c!beeduo marriage.

Quotes from @/kateis-cakeis, @/findingjoynweirdstuff, @/ace-enderchest and my own transcripts, thank you guys!

#dream smp #dsmp #wilbur soot #fundy #tommyinnit #night's talk tag #dsmp analysis #night's meta tag

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sheepprophet · 2 years

Text

The Forced Family Theory™

Credit to Jelly, Oracle, and Moss for coming up with this theory with me! <3 (And then nominating me to be the one to post it,, :| /nm)

So, I was discussing the reveal that the Disc Confrontation was staged on Discord with Oracle and Moss. We were specifically having a back and forth on why Dream would’ve allowed—much less wanted—himself to be locked away in Pandora’s Vault. I had previously suggested that maybe he planned to be locked in the prison all along which is another post for another time. But even then, it didn’t really make sense why he would put himself through that, when he knew what the conditions of the prison were like.

Moss mentioned that maybe it was to convince Sam that he never intended to be locked inside (which is a pretty good shout) and I offered that maybe he wanted sympathy from the other server members when he eventually escaped.

To the latter, Oracle rebutted, “But he royally screwed up any sympathy points he may have gotten by immediately going back after Tommy.” She went on to add, “Like, he knows Tommy has a large base of friends that defend him no matter what, that's why he exiled him in the first place, to cut off ties Tommy had [in order] to use him. He’s gotta know that the “convince everyone Tommy's crazy” plan is shit. Especially since he’s done nothing to drive that point home. I think the “everyone’s gonna think I’ve changed’ line is just to torment Tommy.”

This prompted Jelly—genius that they are—to pop in and suggest, “I really don't like this theory, but I'm pretty sure Dream tormented Tommy so much to make him as sympathetic as possible. Not enough people cared about Dream to become a tight, close-knit family, so Dream made someone that everyone would have to care about, if out of nothing else but pity.”

Cue me, Moss, and Oracle all collectively losing our absolute minds because that makes so much fucking sense? (Explanation under the cut!)

As Jelly said, Dream on his own wasn’t enough to bring everyone together. But maybe he could manufacture someone who could be. So he manipulated, abused, and tortured Tommy for the sake of making him sympathetic to everyone else on the server. All to further his own goal of getting them to be the big family he’s claimed he’s always wanted them to be.

It’s difficult to tell when exactly this may have become Dream’s motivation, but I’d wager that it was somewhere around the end of season 1/beginning of season 2. Because that’s when Dream’s actions clearly became much more tunnel-visioned on Tommy.

If that’s the case, then that’s why Dream forced Tubbo to exile his best friend. It was a sort of test—to see if Tubbo was already attached to Tommy enough to choose Tommy over his responsibility to L’manberg. And when it turned out he wasn’t, it came packaged with it’s own punishment for choosing L’manberg over Tommy. Tubbo was made to feel unbearably guilty over it and he desperately missed Tommy the entire time he was gone. It made him value his friendship with Tommy all that much more and it taught Tubbo to never choose anything over Tommy again or he'd risk feeling that way all over again.

Exile, of course, also worked to make Tommy experience an adequate amount of pain and suffering to, in theory, make anyone sympathize with him and want to protect him. (Though, unfortunately, that didn’t exactly happen, so Dream began constructing Pandora’s Vault three days later with a new plan in mind.)

And that’s why he staged the Disc Confrontation—why he was so willing to be whittled down to (presumably) his last canon life, lose all of his stuff, and then be locked in his own prison. Because at least most of the server was coming together for once to defend Tommy and Tubbo.

That’s why he beat Tommy to death in the cell they’d been trapped in together for a week and then waited days to bring him back. He wanted enough time to pass for everyone outside to learn of Tommy’s death and to feel his loss. Afterall, you don’t know what you have until it’s gone.

That’s why his first action when getting out of prison (after meeting with Punz) was to go straight to Logsted. To torment Tommy further while corralling him to Phil—one of the few people who didn’t show up for the Disc Confrontation. As another test, to see if Phil was sufficiently attached to Tommy. If Phil would defend Tommy against Dream. And Phil passed.

On top of that, tormenting Tommy—triggering him and forcing him to relive his trauma—reopened the wound Tommy had tried so desperately to heal while Dream was in prison. And because of his worsened mental state, what is Tommy doing now? Rallying people to fight Dream with him—exactly what Dream wants.

Paraphrasing what Oracle said: “All this time, the Tommy obsession made no sense. Dream’s sadism benefits him in no way. He’s pragmatic. Why would he keep it up with everything to lose? Because he needs the entire server to rally [against] a singular villain to come together again. The only way he can do that is by being that villain. That’s why Punz sees helping Dream as “saving” Tommy. That’s why he’s so fixated on Tommy. Because Tommy, in the past, has been the biggest divider on the server. So if he can get the entire server behind him…?”

Moss also eloquently pointed out, “[Dream] wasn’t lying in the Attachment Hall—Tommy really is the key to attachment. He needs everyone attached to Tommy to bring them together.”

And, finally, just in case you’re convinced by the level of ~drama~ something offers, imagine:

A final showdown with Dream. Everyone on the server banded together behind Tommy, with Dream backed into a corner.

“You've lost, Dream," someone says from the crowd.

“No,” Dream replies in a pleased tone, “I haven’t. Because look at you... You’re all together now, aren’t you? One big, happy family.”

TL;DR Dream is purposefully setting Tommy up to be the protagonist of the server. Thus bringing the whole server together as the big, happy family he wants them to be, against him.

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auramindedd · 3 years

Text

Fixed? Never - SMAU*

Part 3

CorpseHusband x FemReader

Warnings: cussing

A/N: again, any posts with a “ * ” attached to “smau” has writing in it. imma focus A LOT more on just the social media n message perspective, but y/n n corpse meet in this part soooo i had to add some writing :) something else b4 i forget; i’m updating my masterlist and changing it into a directory post that way you guys can also request through a google form! i’ll have requests open at all times unless i get too stressed out or if they overfill. due to me changing my masterlist, there’s gonna be about 6 posts i think. also,, thank you guys so much for 600 followers! i’ve been hitting a bunch of milestones and haven’t been remembering to say thank you, but just know that i appreciate every single one of you... also i love reading y’all’s comments 😭

🤍 directory

🕊 previous

☁️ next

•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

You make sure you’re set up before 6 PM, which was probably a mistake. You can’t sit still, you’re starting to get nervous, and you kind of just want to run away to McDonald’s.

Sure, you know Ludwig, Dream, and Rae, but it feels like you’re at school all over again. That anxious feeling of having to be with people while your best friends aren’t around.

You’re leg is bouncing, your nails are tapping on your desk, and you can’t stop running your hand through your hair. It probably looks like a fucking bird nest by now.

You start streaming, deciding that maybe talking to your supporters will make things a bit better.

“Hey, loves,” You greet in a not so Y/N-fashioned way. Of course, the chat catches on, and you’re being called out for it. You can’t help but giggle at the fact that your supporters know how you usually are.

@user: What happened to, “Hey, bitches!”

@user: Ou, someone is nervous.

Yeah, they obviously know you very well.

“Alright, let’s start over.” You clear your throat for dramatic effect because, well, when are you not dramatic? “Hey, bitches!” Yup, even you know that just feels right.

After a while of talking to your supporters, Rae sends you the Discord invite and the Among Us code. You join, feeling your nerves start to come back.

“Y/N!” Rae exclaims in excitement when she sees you’ve joined the Among Us lobby.

“Hi,” You say, shyness lacing your voice.

“Oh my God! The cutest voice.” Jack says. Wow, what a compliment coming from the Jack_Septic_Eye.

You take time to introduce yourself to everyone, trying to calm your nerves.

“Are we gonna start?” Ludwig’s impatient ass asks.

“We’re waiting for Corpse.” Rae explains.

Shit, another person you have to introduce yourself to?

“Hey, Corpse!” Sykkuno greets quickly, very obviously racing to be the first to say hi to Corpse.

“Hey, Sykkuno,” Corpse chuckles, and woah, the last thing you expected. You can’t help but be surprised, and you know it’s showing on your face. Why? Because your supporters are teasing you in the chat.

“Corpse,” Rae says in a sing-songy tone. “This is Y/N.” And your heart drops to your fucking stomach. Every single time it happens when you have to meet someone, but now your heart is beating even faster because you’re obviously the only one who hasn’t met Corpse. They’re all expecting a reaction out of you...

“Hey, Y/N.” His deep, husky voice says. You can hear the smile in his voice and it helps ease your nerves.

“Hi,” You greet, shyness still lacing your voice.

Corpse chuckles, “So cute.” Now you’re blushing. Great...

Rae starts the game, saving you before the others can start teasing you.

Crewmate.

You’ve only played Among Us once, in a public server with Dream, George, Karl, and Alex, and then you got bullied for not knowing what the fuck to do.

To say the least, you’re pretty glad to be Crewmate and not Impostor.

“Y/N!” Jack shouts, walking up to you. You slightly jump, forgetting they’re playing with Proximity Chat.

“Jack!” You shout back, letting his astronaut catch up to you.

“We were expecting a reaction.” He says, and of course they were.

“Uh, yeah, I don’t know. I feel like he hears it a lot, don’t want to add on to the list of Things People Say To Him Everyday.”

“Yeah, he’s probably very grateful for that.”

“Grateful for what?” Charlie walks up to you two.

“Nothing,” Jack drawls. You’ve just met Charlie, but you know that he’d tease both you and Corpse about one another’s voices.

“Oh, I know!” Charlie exclaims, but before he can say what he knows-

“Okayyy! That’s enough interaction with Charlie for today.” Jack says, and you take that as a, ‘Walk the fuck away now, Y/N!’

You walk around, trying your best to finish tasks, but when it comes to the card swipe in Admin, you want to quit life as a whole.

“Ugh, I fucking quit.” You groan, slamming your hands on your desk. A deep, rumbling chuckle comes through on your headphones.

“Having trouble?” Corpse teases.

“Yeah. I wanna rip every strand of my fucking hair out.”

“Swipe it slower.” And with that, you try again. Voila! Just like magic.

“Well if I would’ve fucking known.” You groan, Corpse chuckling.

“Here, I can help you with the game.”

“Yes, please, I don’t know shit about it.”

“You know, you cuss a lot for having such a sweet, innocent, and cute voice.” Corpse laughs.

“Yeah,” You drawl. “I know, bad fucking habit.” You slap your hand over your mouth. How does someone cuss in every sentence? Get a filter, damn.

Corpse walks around with you as you both finish tasks, explaining how the game works, and giving you tips for when you do end up being an Impostor.

Honestly, you could listen to his voice all day. He’s also really sweet.

“What are you two up to?” Brooke asks, doing tasks in Electrical with you two. Corpse told you to make sure you’re always aware of your surroundings when you’re in Electrical. So, naturally, you’re freaking out, but silently and internally.

“Brooke,” Corpse warns. He doesn’t even have time to finish his warning. Brooke kills him, his body flopping over, the one bone sticking out from the top of his body. Your mouth falls open.

“Hey, Y/N. Let’s be besties!” You don’t know what to do, but ay, #girlsupportinggirls, right? So, you walk with her. She helps you along the way, also telling you tips on the game, explaining how everything works. Then, after about a minute, a whole 60 seconds, Corpse’s body is reported.

“Why Corpse? Such an innocent man with a beautiful voice.” Lud fake cries.

“Get over it,” Brooke says.

“It’s Brooke! Brooke’s an Impostor!” Lud shouts.

“What? No! I was with Y/N for a lot of this round.” Brooke defends herself, and oh fuck, who the fuck do you defend? You’ve just met both of them, one of them will possibly hate you forever.

“Y/N?” Sykkuno grabs your attention, snapping you out of your thinking.

“Yeah, she was. She wouldn’t have had time to kill Corpse. Where was the body?” Well, there you go, potentially ruining yours and Corpse’s blooming friendship. Sad Girl Hour, type beat.

“In Electrical,” Charlie says.

“Yeah, no way she would’ve had to time to kill him.”

Nobody’s voted out. Brooke hasn’t even told you who the second Impostor is so, you don’t know if you should stay with her or not.

As you and Brooke are walking around, or skipping as she sees it, and holding hands, Dream pops out of a vent. Well, there’s Imposter two.

“Woah! Dream, way to out yourself out.” You tease, throwing your head back and laughing.

“Please, you’ve been with Brooke the whole time. Don’t say anything.” Dream begs, making you and Brooke giggle.

“I won’t, I won’t.”

“Thank you,” He starts walking away from you guys, but not without finishing his sentence that you thought was already finished. “Cutie.” And there, finished.

Fucking finished! Tweedle-dee, tweedle dum! Whoopty-fucking-do! Fan-fucking-tastic! A-fucking-mazing!

And of course you’re blushing for the whole 80,000+ people watching to tease you about.

“Oh my God!” Brooke squeals. “What was that?!”

“I’ll explain later,”

•*•*•*•*•

“Y/N, how could you?” Corpse says, offended.

“I’m sorry! I didn’t know what to do.”

“She’s my enemy, Y/N. We were supposed to stick together. I told you some tips and tricks, explained how to be a badass Impostor, everything!” Wow, he’s a good fucking actor.

“I can very well do the same thing, bitch.” Brooke spits, all in a playful manner - you hope...

“Not better than me, bitch.” Corpse retorts, his astronaut getting closer.

•*•*•*•*•

Imposter.

With Corpse.

Great.

Your enemy. Or as he put it, “Enemy who he can maybe, and most likely, will become friends with in the near future.”

“Follow,” He says, and even though he’s your enemy, you do.

“I gotta do my own thing.”

“You don’t know how to do shit.” Corpse scoffs.

“Okay then, what the fuck are we gonna do?”

“Double kills, all the way, but only when we meet up with each other. So, right now, we’ll both go our own ways, but when we see each other again, we’ll walk to a pair and do a double kill if we can.” Corpse explains.

“Brooke told me not to do double kills often. It won’t help get through a game.”

Corpse snorts, “Brooke doesn’t know dog shit about this game.”

“Fine,” You groan, going along with it only because you don’t know dog shit about the game either.

As Corpse explained, you two do double kills every time you meet up. You two managed to get double kills where people rarely go - Shields, Comms, and the top of Cafeteria.

After killing Rae and Sykkuno, the game ends. You made sure to leave Brooke and Dream alive.

“Period, we did that!” You exclaim, everyone else groaning and complaining about how you two should never be an Impostor duo again. “But I still fucking hate you because you hate me!”

“Exactly!” Corpse retorts in the same tone as you.

•*•*•*•*•

•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

Taglist - comment or message me to be added!

* if your username is in bold, please reach out to me; you’re at risk of having your username removed that way i can clear space for other tags. *

@cherry-piee @littlered00 @sunnywinterdays @strang-ersclub @callmemaeve-y @powerpuffyn @kusuinko @where-thesundoesntshine @letglimmersayfuck @coryisagee @a-dot-dev @ifilosemyselfagain @tayloryorkscurls @lex-prplatmngrl @letsloveimagines @youretheonlyonewhomakesme @smiithys @mikayladoesntknow @clubfairy @mirahg @thurstyforholland @thatsouthernblondewiththeass @majasophieanna

——————————————————————————

Tags - ignore::

#corpse husband scenario #corpse x y/n #corpse husband scenarios #corpse husband imagine #corpse husband fic #corpse fanfic #corpse husband #corpse #corpse x reader #corpse fic #corpse supremacy #corpse husband fanfic #corpse husband smau #corpse husband social media au #corpse x you #corpse x fem reader #corpsehusband #smau #social media au

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ghoste-catte · 3 years

Note

I was curious what advice would you give to someone new to writing fics? I've been wanting to get back into it but haven't seriously written something since high school. I hope this isn't an annoying question or anything!

Not an annoying question at all! I'm just a little worried that I won't have terribly good or useful advice. To be honest, I also sort of stopped writing in earnest right as I finished high school, and didn't pick it back up until my late 20s. It's certainly an adjustment! But I think the few things that really helped me get back into writing fic as a hobby and something I spend quite a bit of time on would be:

Write for yourself first, then find your other motivations. My original inspiration in getting back into fic writing was that there just were not that many fics I liked for my favorite pairing, and I wanted more of them, and I especially wanted more with the tropes and characterizations I wanted to see. I think at the very core of anything you need that internal spark that drives you. At the same time, for me at least, if I just relied on my own drive, I would not get much done; I need some external guardrails. So having people send prompts, or writing for particular events, or writing stuff for friends really helps me to get my ass in gear and finish stuff. That may not be the perfect motivator for you, and that's fine! You just gotta figure out what is.

Be open to inspiration. Anything and everything can be spun out into a story with the right tweaking. Obviously stuff like music is a classic inspiration source, but I've also pulled ideas from poetry, from memes, from Reddit threads, from YouTube videos, from rambling conversations on Discord and from real life to make fics out of. So many times, someone will post a silly Twitter screencap, and I'll think, There's a fic in this. And a lot of the time, there is! Research is a wonderful thing, but so is serendipity. If you're out there actively looking for ideas, eventually one that you like will stumble past you.

Find your community. I can genuinely say I never would have finished more than one fic if I didn't have fandom friends to talk to about even stupid headcanons, to bounce ideas off of, and to encourage me (and to encourage them in turn!). Discord has been a godsend, and some of my closest online friends are people I met in the GaaLee discord server. As I've gotten more comfortable as a writer, I've also joined general writing servers and Reddit communities and have found them immensely helpful on both a motivational level (bingos, sprints, owe-me challenges) and on a craft level (plot workshopping and writing ethics and live grammar help). It's a lot easier to think about fic ideas and hash through problem moments when I have a constant stream of fandom-related chatter coming from the little people who live in my phone! Ao3 is an amazing website, and it's great as, well, an archive, but it isn't social media by design. If you want conversation and human connection and cheerleading, you've gotta forge out and find it.

Make it a habit ... If you want to produce anything longer than a couple hundred words, you really have to set aside time for it. And writing is just like knitting or dirt biking or painting little model figurines: the more you do it, the more easily it comes. When I was first getting back into the proper swing of things, I committed myself to 30 minutes of writing per week. Just 30 minutes. I didn't even hit that goal every week, but there were tons of weeks I got on a roll and went over that amount, and by the end of the year I'd written over 200,000 words. I used to spend an hour laboriously tip-tapping out 200 words, but now I can easily blow through 1k in a 50 minute sprint. It's all about training that muscle.

... But don't make it a chore. With fanfic, you aren't doing this as a job, and you aren't ultimately doing it for anyone other than you. That means you can take breaks when you need them, you can set deadlines and then fail to meet them, you can write stuff and then decide to never post it. When you start getting burnt out, when the practice loses the joy and energy, stop. There's no 'hustle' here. In our capitalist society we're so trained to push past our limits and keep going even when it hurts us, but the hobby you do for connection and relaxation and whatever else shouldn't be like that.

Ignore metrics. Sometimes stuff isn't gonna get hits, or kudos, or comments. There are some basic 'rules' as to the stuff that does and doesn't get traction, but every time you post something it's a roll of the dice. If you're focused on watching that kudos counter tick up, you will get bummed out fast. And any writer will tell you that the stuff you think is your best work will never be the stuff that gets the most accolades. So you have to find something else to give you a sense of success. For me, it's watching my wordcount go up in my stats and those occasional comments where someone has a lot to say and that one person who always leaves me a <3 emoji (and, shout out to @egregiousderp, having someone to have long one-on-one conversations with about the stuff that never made it to page).

Don't strive for perfection. It's really easy to want your first ever fic to be a complete showstopper, the best fic fandom has ever seen, hitting all the tropes and the ideas and the characterization that you just know fandom is missing and would be everyone's top favorite if only it was written. This is a trap. No one fic can be all things. Most people who want to write an epic as their very first venture will not see the end of that epic, because they haven't put in the practice hours to make something on that scale work. That's not to say you can't start out with a big, sprawling multichap, just don't expect it to be the greatest thing since sliced bread if you're just starting out, and be okay with abandoning it for greener pastures if you get to that point. Think of the first time someone makes a vase out of clay or bakes a loaf of bread. That's never their best vase or their best bread. If they keep up with it, they'll make more and better vases and loaves. Likewise, your first fic is probably not gonna be your best fic. See it for what it is: your launchpad.

You can't edit an empty page, but you can over-edit a full one. This kind of spins off of #7, but if the words aren't there, you can't fix them. Daydreams and headcanons are fantastic (and god, how many times have I wished for a speech-to-text engine that projected my falling asleep thoughts onto a Google doc for later perusal), but they aren't fic. If you want to write fic, you've gotta get comfortable with the idea of sloppy outlines and rough first drafts. You can't build a house without a frame and you can't build a man without a skeleton (I mean, you can, I guess, but he'd be one floppy man). The nice thing about fic is that it doesn't matter if that frame is structurally unsound or the skeleton has 18 too many bones, you can clean that up in the editing process. But you can't start hanging curtains and arranging furniture in something that doesn't even have walls. That's the process. But! Also know when to set down the editor's pen and say, "Okay, this is good enough for government work", and call it done. ("Done" doesn't have to mean "posted", but it does mean, "I'm done picking at this for now, and I'm gonna go write some more stuff".) Over-editing can make stuff seem laborious and forced, and it prevents you from actually improving. To continue belaboring the house metaphor, you can spend your whole life rearranging furniture in just one room, but the end result of that is a pretty narrow existence and a room with a lot of footprints and tracks in the carpet.

Write shit down. When you have ideas, jot them down--in a notebook, in a Google Doc, in the Notes app of your phone, in pen on the back of your hand. You think you will remember that brilliant line of dialogue or sparkling snippet of narration or genius plot that came to you in a dream, but you Will Not. Write it down. Write it down. Write it down! There have been so many times when a fic was completely saved by past!me having written down my shower thoughts about what happens next in the fic, that present!me had completely forgotten about and was floundering over.

Have fun with it! Try different stuff. Try stupid stuff. Try experimental stuff. Do stuff you've never done before that you aren't sure will work. It's important to get comfortable with your niche (for example, I know I'm never going to be the sort of person who writes intricate plots of intrigue or super long 100k epics or detailed battles), but you can't find that niche unless you explore lots of different niches! Figure out what you love and what you absolutely hate, and then keep doing the stuff you love.

Okay, so that was actually TEN things, but ... I hope you still found this helpful. Feel free to send another ask if any of this was confusing or unclear. Good luck with your fic writing and, if you want, send me a link to what you've written once you've written it! I'd love to read it.

#answered #anonymous #writing advice #i guess?#am i qualified to give this?#no #but im doing it anyway

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cube-cumb3r · 3 years

Text

The Means Reflect On The Ends Actually, (c!Dream & the conditioning of Exile)

What was the point of exile, storywise? What does it say about c!Dream? Sure, it’s showcasing how far he’s willing to go to achieve his own ends, but I don't think all discussion about what exile tells us about c!Dream should start and end there.

Dream is not cruel for cruelty’s sake. Dream’s end goal is not to hurt as many people as possible. He views his cruelty are “necessary evils”, and he doesn’t dwell much on whether the things he does are “good” or “bad”. He’s fully aware he’s hurting people and he ultimately thinks that hurting people, to the extent that he does, is worth it. That being said, while Dream has an ends justify the means mindset, but the truth is, the means absolutely reflect on the ends. His true intentions aren’t a mystery, it’s very clear in the text that his ultimate goal is unity, but why does he want unity? And what would said unity entail?

(Before this essay starts I have to do an ad break to promo @daggryet's very helpful [transcriptions from the exile streams], which I'll be using a lot of. Thanks for the very helpful resource.)

TW: Relatively extensive discussion abt the abuse in exile arc & the effects of said abuse.

Firstly, I don't think you should deny his relationship to control. A through-line of his character is achieving harmony through control, and more specifically, obedience. There’s a reason why he tends to single out Tommy the most. It’s not actually because Tommy is remarkably more troublesome than anyone else on the server, but rather, because his disruptive nature is at Dream’s expense. Tommy is the only character who’s consistently over and over again refused to respect Dream’s authority, and though he isn’t particularly threatening on his own, it’s the sentiment itself that’s dangerous. Similarly, this is why he has consistently targeted L’manburg, moreso than any other faction on the server such as, say, Badlands, El Rapids. It’s almost as if they represented the sentiment, “Hey, why are we listening to you anyway? Why can’t we be listening to anyone else?”, which is why he crushed them, over, and over again. What if everyone figures out they can just stop listening to him? What then?

We talk a lot about the effects exile had on Tommy, and rightfully so, but we don’t talk enough about what Dream was actually doing. What was the purpose of exile? Was it just a way to get closer to the discs? Just a means to an end? What was the end?

TOMMY: What, what could you possibly want more from me? You’ve tortured me.

DREAM: I’m just keeping an eye on you, Tommy.

TOMMY: What does that mean?!

DREAM: I’m just, I’m making sure that you’re not up to no good.

TOMMY: But, how, you’ve exiled me, you fucking stupid, manipulative fucking green bastard!

DREAM: I know! And you know why I did that?

TOMMY: Yes?

DREAM: No, you know why?

TOMMY: Why?

DREAM: Because you don’t listen to me ever, you’re the only person who doesn’t ever listen to me. If I tell you to do something, you’re like “no, fuck you!”, and you go and like do like the exact opposite.

[full transcription]

As much as I have to preface this with that this is speculative and we may not have any irrefutable confirmation, I think it's very likely that it's literally just what Dream is saying he's doing. Tommy is the one person who refuses to listen to him, and he wants him to listen. Exile was not only conditioning Tommy to believe that nobody other than Dream cares about him, not only conditioning Tommy to be entirely reliant on him, but also conditioning Tommy to listen to him, without question, without disobeying. And that is such a significant and reoccurring motif for it to arguably just be the intended reading of exile.

Abuse is a vague term that encompasses a lot of abusive practices. There are a good handful that apply to exile, I'm sure if you ask someone qualified they'll be able to provide you a nice handy list, but ultimately, all of them target Tommy's own sense of agency and autonomy, and it all revolves around power and control. Dream creates rituals purely to disarm him, threatens him and punishes him when he doesn't listen, and rewards him when he complies (or rather, conditions Tommy into thinking that not being punished is a reward).

TOMMY: [begins throwing his armor and axe down for DREAM to explode.]

DREAM: No, no, it’s fine.

TOMMY: Re-really?

DREAM: Yeah. Today’s the party, right?

---

TOMMY: So when can I- no, I wanna go back. I… hey, thanks for letting me keep my armour today.

DREAM: You’re welcome.

TOMMY: Kinda nice of you.

[full transcription]

Dream isn’t only hurting Tommy for the sake of hurting him. People tend to frame it as if Dream Just Hates Tommy, but that’s not true. He finds Tommy fun, in a twisted way. There are a lot of moments in exile where they’re both on very good terms and Dream is friendly with Tommy. But, it's also all part of horror of exile, making Tommy reliant on him and his company, getting him to doubt his sense of reality, making him question whether his friends back in L’manburg ever cared about him at all, and possibly questioning whether he’s imagining the abuse as well, Dream is so kind to him after all, why would he ever want to hurt him?

Over the course of exile Tommy agency and sense of self start to deteriorate as well as his mental health, he starts worrying about what Dream would think, starts asking Dream for permission, going out of his way to avoid upsetting him, his only friend, his only reliable caring companion.

TOMMY: Yeah, so I’m thinking we- and then I can- but the thing is; so recently my buddy, Dream, has been doing this thing where he, uhm… it makes sense, though, because I’m not in his land anymore, but he takes my shit from me, so I need to make sure- […]

---

RANBOO: Yeah, so what do you say- does Dream like take your armor? Is that what you said?

TOMMY: I don’t know, he just- hey man, I just follow the boss.

[full transcription]

TOMMY: “Visit Techno” no, no, what would Dream think? […]

---

TOMMY: I’ve had a little idea, by the way, and I wanna know what you think, and also if I’m allowed

DREAM: Okay?

[full transcription]

TOMMY: Yeah, I know he’s actually - he’s sort of my- he’s borderline my owner, Big Q, so I’m not really sure.

MEXICAN DREAM: He’s your dad?

TOMMY: No, no-

MEXICAN DREAM: Ey! Ey, Papa Thomas!

TOMMY: No, no, we’re- as in labor.

MEXICAN DREAM: You gotta teach your child some manners.

[full transcription]

Dream’s outburst in exile after finding Tommy’s chests, is arguably one of Dream's most emotionally honest (and reckless) moments in exile considering it was what made Tommy realize he needed to save himself and escape. And it's punishing Tommy for going behind his back and planning to revolt.

TOMMY: I’m really, no, I’m really sorry, though. Why don’t we just pretend this never- yeah, let’s, shall we just pretend this-?

DREAM: Sorry doesn’t cut it, Tommy. Listen, I’ll leave you here to think about what you did-

TOMMY: What about the nether? What about the nether, my friends, what-?

DREAM: No! You can’t go to the nether, no one can come here, you are alone, okay? As soon as I think that you have changed, have become somebody who isn’t going to hide and lie and try and revolt; then people can visit you again. You can go to the nether again. But for now - no, no one can. You- I was being very lenient. Yesterday I let you go into the Dream SMP on a temporary pass, and then what do I find out the next day?

TOMMY: I’m so sorry.

DREAM: I have been nothing but gracious to you. Tommy. Think about what you did.

---

Exile wasn’t only a means to getting closer to the discs or getting Tommy out of the way. Exile was a means to conditioning Tommy into listening and respecting Dream as his superior. Dreams solution to Tommy being disruptive and troublesome was to [physically beat], emotionally abuse, and psychologically condition him into obedience. Only seeing exile as a testament to how far how willing he was go to meet his ends is reductive, and not acknowledging what Dream considers to be a “problem” and what he considers to be “solutions” is to not engage with his worldview. You have to take exile into account and what it actually says about his ideals of harmony and unity.

---

TOMMY: I can’t go back… I can’t go back, and see my friends and see Tubbo. This is a shithole! He wasn’t- he wasn’t here ‘cause he was my friend. He was here to- what did he say on the first day? Got a little bug that he can’t flig off? I’m the only person who never does exactly what he says?

TOMMY: I’m the only person who never does what he says. Me! He said that to me, didn’t he?

TOMMY: He was here to watch me.

[full transcription]

Dream’s relationship to Tommy can (and honestly should) be compared to his relationship to the entire server at large. Not to imply that He Literally Wants To Abuse The Server, but rather the he views the server revolting as a problem, and the solution? Well. The [prison]. The hall of attachments. It’s no surprise that the disc war, a conflict that was initially only primarily between Dream and Tommy*, is suddenly about everyone. Bargaining and blackmailing using attachments, something Dream initially only subjected Tommy to, to keep him under his control, is now a means to control everyone.

Is Dream's goal of unity for the sake of the overall happiness and quality of life of the people living within said unity? I don’t doubt that this at some point in time was true. But, the fact that he’s willing to ruin lives and long-term psychologically destroy people over it, means that his goal isn’t unity for the sake of the people living in his ideal version of the server, but at their expense. Him believing he needs to control people to maintain unity and harmony means that he believes himself to know what's best for people moreso than the people themselves, and therefore he's the only one responsible enough to make decisions for them. And it also means that his motives has warped and twisted overtime, it’s likely that he’s become so fixated on the goal of unity itself that he’s lost track of why he wanted it in the first place.

Anyway. Stop buying into Dream's own self-justification of "ends justify the means" and put his deeply flawed and broken worldview and view of people under a little bit of goddam scrutiny.

#*yeah no its about tubbo and sapnap too but thats not really who dream has ever focused on #dream smp #dreamwastaken #tommyinnit #exile arc #tw abuse #ask to tag #lor3 essays

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