#excpet without the panic

[kayberrie]

Danny from Teen Wolf really is the pinnacle of chill, gay dude who wants no part in the crazy bullshit all his friends get up to and actually manages to stay out of it. Bonus points for surviving 4+ seasons in a town where murders are about as common as speeding tickets.

[sonicasura]

Oh they most certainly wished they had something to counter the electricity alright. And Kafka is kinda like Riot Mode at the momet, without actually going berserk just yet. But he is very close.

And guess what happens next? Kafka is in enough of a foul mood that instead of running at the first sight of an officer, never mind a dozen of them, he attacks them instead!

Isao and everyone was not excpeting that given how Kafka usually behaves and act when he sees them. Its a good thing that they have faster reflexes than young Kafka is fast or else someone would now what a fried chicken felt like.

Though the attack did not last long. Foul mood or not, Kafka is still able to know when to run and upon spotting a open manhole takes Isao and the team on a sewer trip they won't forget soon.

Next thing Isao and the others know, they have to chase after Kafka down there while it is still raining, which ups the dangers found in the sewers thanks to all that rainwater. Have to do their best to avoid debris and what else is floating about. Getting their sense of smell killed and a wide of other things that just makes the whole thing worse.

And of course feeling that they need to shower like a dozen times after it is all said and done.

And then when deep enough in the sewer one Kafka Hibino would cause a sleeping kaiju hive to chaos even more chaos once he wakes up by relasing again another strong electric attack in the sewer water to try and stop Isao and the other officers.

Meanwhile, Akari and Tabiki are in a panic thanks to watching the news and Akari feeling through the kaiju family bond that Kafka is not exactly in a right state of mind. And that something is very wrong with her son at the moment.

Everyone isn't having fun today especially when the sewers are involved. Kafka's gonna need a serious bath afterwards for obvious reasons. I bet this is an incident no one ever wants to mention again.

[darlington-v]

I know different interpretations of a work are generally enriching and cool... but c!dream villan interpretations is like how to tell me you only watch Tommy without saying you only watch tommy.... which would be fine but its not a great place to be making statements about the whole nature of the dsmp lol

Wild speculation, but sometimes I wonder if like, because the dsmp didn't really start as a narrative, and a lot of fans don't nessecarily enter it expecting a narrative, but then there is one and the fandom is really discourse heavy and everyone is sort of excpeted to have an opinion while maybe not expecting to form one from the begining or not having a ton of experience with narrative in a way that would "expect" them to have an opinion or not take things at face value??, I don't know if I explained that well at all... and I don't really even think thats right nessecarily... but like wow sometimes some of the takes about power and government and villany...

Honestly, it makes sense!!!

I think something interesting is like.... looking at how animatics have shaped the like tone and culture of the fandom essentially. Like, an interesting fact that I didn't really fully grasp until SUPER recently is like...

c!Wilbur out the gate admits he is manipulating c!Tommy. Like his first youtube video on the Dream SMP he admits his goal is to manipulate c!Tommy and people like c!Tommy into helping him achieve a potion ("drug") empire to monopolize on potions because there were a lot of people on the server who like to min-max, which is to put all of your effort into this one specific skill essentially. so like... i know minecraft doesnt have a skill tree but if it did, it would be putting all your points into that one specific branch of a skill tree. So he wanted to exploit the labor of all the TommyInnits to.... maintain a Potion Empire.

THIS IS A LONG POST BC I GOT CARRIED AWAY SO BUCKLE UP

And I don't think a lot of the fandom who joined later on knows this. I certainly didn't until like a week or so ago? Like... I knew c!Wilbur had been manipulative from the start because I'm a mod of (shameless self promo incoming) @dsmpanalysis and we have a lot of different POVs in that mod team and discord and we talk about it really frequently. I joined the fandom as someone who was really big on L'manburg ESPECIALLY crimeboys, and have turned into.... *gestures vaguely to my blog*

And ngl I owe a lot of it to @1-michibiki-1 in terms of c!Dream "Apologism" but all of the mods there have expanded my thoughts and views on the storylines of this narrative.

My application consisted of like largely essays about like... how I think Dream was the villain but he was meant to be the villain because you don't get any insight into his character WHICH.... IS A FAIR ASSUMPTION AT FIRST GLANCE. People are easily villainized when you cannot get a glimpse into their thought process. It's easy to dwindle someone down into this flat character and starting out I knew Dream didn't stream the SMP on purpose.

And I personally came to the conclusion of "Oh! So Dream is supposed to be the villain." However as the story continued and I learned more about what Dream went through I began to realize that... it's more than likely a form of a red herring. My opinions on this were immediately solidified when I watched Ranboo's 2 MIL stream because both Ranboo AND Dream agree on enjoying red herrings.

There have been MANY times were Dream has said that c!Dream is a complex character and he's not a wholly evil guy and there have been times where the narrative has honestly just proved that.

Anyways, what's important though was that... I learned most of this from other people who were more focused on c!Dream rather than myself. Eventually I shifted from c!Tommy to c!Ranboo and c!Techno after c!Tommy betrayed c!Techno and I began to realize.... everything I learned before hopping in wasn't exactly what it seemed.

Part of this is because I'm older, I heavily identify with c!Techno's sense of loyalty and philosophies on government, but I especially identify with the anguish c!Techno voiced in... a lot of lore but especially the lore around Doomsday.

I'm not 16 anymore. I don't always feel wronged by adults, or older people in my case, whenever they absolutely have done something wrong by me, but I do feel wronged by my close friends. I also felt like c!Tommy's sense of loyalty didn't line up with mine after what felt like him constantly flip-flopping and refusing to understand c!Techno's morals on government didn't line up with his.

In short, it was easier to identify with Tommy in these animatics versus in the actual stream content because c!Tommy is played by a 16 year old. I'm not a teenager and my line of thinking doesn't entirely line up with people that age anymore. It's harder to place myself in the same shoes of someone's OC who is played closer to their actual age, because I'm not that age.

Regardless, I was still on the c!Dream is a villain train. I wasn't ever like... c!Dream is repulsive I hate him, but I was like omg hot villain lad go brrr.

Even when the first like... mellohi, panic room, Ranboo lore stream popped up I thought "Oh! c!Ranboo corruption arc?"

And I was excited because I really wanted this shy, nervous character to turn into villain buddies with his good pal c!Dream. I'm a total sucker for villains and corruption arcs and all that good shit.

SO I STARTED GETTING REALLY INTERESTED IN ENDERSMILE. I'VE BEEN ON ENDERSMILE SQUAD OUT THE GATE. NOT THE SAME WAY I AM NOW, BUT I'VE ALWAYS WANTED THEM TO TEAM UP.

So... upon not really keeping up with c!Dream and being relatively??? indifferent? I don't think I started arguments on c!Dream back then, but I might have. But I remember like... starting to participate more whenever c!Dream came up and looking more into Dream's character BUT ESPECIALLY TALKING WITH OUR SERVER'S C!DREAM SPECIALIST MICHI ABOUT DREAM A LOT MORE.

And because Michi has been a watcher since day one and was a DTeam fan rather than a SBI fan, she was able to provide me with more information on how the server worked pre-Tommy but especially pre-Wilbur.

Now, you could definitely argue well Michi probably has clear bias but it made sense to me when I looked back on how the storyline had been constructed and was going along, and everyone in the server talks a lot about our own biases and how we want people to maybe not lean so hard on them. Michi would also provide like anecdotes on what had happened and I'm sure links were probably provided at one point but the point was I felt like Michi had no reason to lie or manipulate how the story was told and if she did, eventually someone would have pointed it out because... Group of like... right now it's around 20 or more analysts but I don't remember how many at the time there were. POINT BEING, WE'VE ALL GOT POINTS TO PROVE AND IN MY EXPERIENCE NOT MANY OF US HAVE BEEN SHY TO PROVE THEM.

So if anyone ever had any differing opinions they would be talked about and we literally had and still have discussions.

REGARDLESS.... I DIDN'T FACT CHECK IN DEPTH BECAUSE I THOUGHT PEER REVIEW WAS ENOUGH WHEN YOU HAVE LIKE HOURS UPON HOURS OF STREAMS TO WATCH.

Anyways. Eventually I started paying closer attention and looking more into c!Dream lore but only recently have I started to triple check before speaking about c!Wilbur lore because I know everyone has biases and while I did trust everyone's thoughts and analysis in the discord, whenever I make essays I typically like it to be largely air tight and if theres a mistake, I want it to be because I forgot not because I just trusted what was said. Plus, I wanted to get down to the specifics of how Wilbur had always started with manipulation on the mind.

SO I WATCHED HIS FIRST VIDEO ON THE DREAM SMP.

AND WHAT I WAS NOT BY ANY MEANS EXPECTING WAS WILBUR TO SAY WORD FOR WORD, VERBATIM,

"SO WHY DON'T I START AN INDUSTRY WHERE I USE THE TOMMYINNITS OF THE WORLD TO WORK FOR ME, TO CREATE THINGS THAT THE MIN-MAXERS OF THE WORLD WILL WANT."

Like... this is in no way an attempt to like hardcore villainize c!Wilbur like everyone does Dream, it's just more so to like REALLY outline how far off a lot of fandom interpretation of c!Wilbur is....

Because of SBI focused animatics.

Now, when I joined I watched A LOT of animatics that really highlighted like... Wilbur being this self-loathing JD-esque, "I destroyed it because I had to because the world was against me because no one loved us, Tommy" type of character. At least... that's what it came across as.

And it definitely highlighted the fact that Tommy was a victim, which he is. He is undoubtedly a victim and no not even any dream apologist can change my mind otherwise. Tommy, despite being an instigator sometimes, didn't deserve the abuse he received.

But these animatics never shown the fact that c!Wilbur started L'manburg as a shady ploy to exploit people like c!Tommy and vilify c!Dream so he could have power.

And that was easy because Dream and Tommy had wars before. They had spars and pranks and here's the plan to take back my disks and here's the plan to out smart the thieving little child etc etc.

And all of the animatics I watched never mentioned this. Neither did the recaps though. The recaps gave the events flat out, there didn't sound like there was bias, and honestly I don't really know if there was rather than like... a lack of nuance. And it's hard to provide a recap with that much nuance in a short period of time for a youtube video, to be perfectly fair.

However, this creates a perfect formula for entirely rewriting the history of a server. c!Wilbur quite literally fucking succeeded TO A META LEVEL. He slandered and ran smear campaigns against Dream and like he even does that with Sapnap in the beginning. But what's crazy is that it transferred over into the meta! Most of this fandom understands Wilbur as a victim of mental illness, and yeah maybe? He definitely wasn't mentally well by the end of pogtopia, but he never started out with honorable intentions. L'manburg was never a victim, only its citizens. The TommyInnits of the world.

I just think it's like... such an interesting case study. Because this is like... an opinion like shared by at least half of the fandom, but the vilifying of c!Dream is shared by MOST of the fandom I would argue. Which is like even more crazy for me because that was c!Wilbur's goal!!!

LIKE I GO INSANE WHEN I THINK OF THIS BECAUSE HIS REACH IS JUST TOO POWERFUL. HE'S NOT EVEN ENTIRELY REAL, JUST A MANIPULATIVE PERSONA OF SOME BRITISH GUY.

And I mean... maybe people who have watched Wilbur's video on the SMP still maintain this idea that Wilbur wasn't always the bad guy, but honestly... I wouldn't be surprised if their introduction was still an animatic. Like bias is hard to check and I'm not going to lie I could have sworn I watched both Wilbur's AND Tommy's video on the SMP in the beginning and yet I STILL was a ride or die for tragic yet on some level still honorable Wilbur and a resilient Tommy.

Like... upon watching Wilbur's first video... possibly again I was surprised because I thought I did watch it like right before I even started watching the streams and yet I was still so invested in c!Wilbur as this tortured anti-hero.

It took 6 months of... not being in an echo chamber, full of multiple different people of different ages, different stream POVS, and people who joined the fandom at different points in time.

IDK IF THIS WAS EVEN ENTIRELY RELEVANT IT JUST FELT TANGENTIALLY RELEVANT AND THIS WAS SOMETHING I'VE BEEN THINKING ABOUT FOR A HOT MINUTE AFTER LIKE WATCHING WILBUR'S FIRST VIDEO AGAIN.

TLDR;

SBI CENTRIC ANIMATICS HAD A LASTING AFFECT ON THIS FANDOM AS IT'S HARD TO GO BACK AND ACTUALLY CHECK THE NARRATIVE FOR SOLID FACTS FOR YOUR OWN INTERPRETATION BASED ON THE FACT THAT THIS NARRATIVE SPANS OVER HUNDREDS OF HOURS WORTH OF TWITCH STREAMS.

[bonnissance]

hmm for a small prompt?? what about one of those great tropes where hecate and pippa sleep together for the first time and when hecate wakes up pippa isn't in bed and she imagines that she's left and it was all a mistake etc etc excpet pippa is just making brekky cause she's an angel

Straight up Trope w zero plot bc typing on a phone w rsi while travelling long distances on barely any sleep and no meds to combat brain fuzz means I have negative interest in editing or fleshing.

But they smooch, so worth it 👍

Hicsqueak, an amount of words, light mature for sexual references, CW: Hecate is a bag of brain weasels in a tightly tailored dress, but she’s doing her best!

~*~

Hecate has always been a slow riser. One to snuffle herself awake, come to consciousness a millimeter of newly opened eyelid at a time.

It’s why she has so many charms on her door, for when the girls in her care need attention during the night. To wake her up, and keep her awake, with just a hint of something to make the agonising task of ripping herself from a warm comfy bed of red satin sheets and soft goose feather down just bearable.

Goddess knows how those midnight Mildred Hubble shaped mishaps would turn out if Hecate woke up in a foul mood too.

But when she’s not rudely awoken in the middle of the night, she rises slowly, a yawn and a sigh at a time; stretching out across the span of the bed, shuffling under the blankets to snatch the last moments of warmth before she has to strip back the blankets and face the day.

It’s what she does now, slowly waking, stretching out parts of her body still sore from the night before, moaning ever so slightly w the slow flow of memories of just how she’s come to ache in the first place.

She smiles, a tiny curl at the corner of her lips, a tooth catching on a plump bottom lip: kiss bruised and swollen. Reaches out to tease at a curl of shining blonde hair while she opens her eyes to a sight so long wanted: Pippa Pentangle, bleary eyed and disheseller next to her. Reaches out to search of Pippa, warm and soft and naked laying beside Hecate.

Reaches out, only for her fingers to pass thru nothing. For her palm to fall on empty sheets, to feel just the hint of warmth left over from Pippa’s body.

That faint hint of rapidly cooling heat is the only proof Hecate has save for her traitous, still wanting body that she didn’t imagine the night before.

She wrenches herself awake, sitting up in bed as she blinks rapidly; panic washing thru her as the sheets fall around her waist. No sign of Pippa, save the parted curtains of Hecate’s four poster bed framing a chair now sitting at the wrong angle.

The chair she kicked over in her hast to get Pippa flat in her back. The curtain Pippa almost ripped as she hurried Hecate to join her on the bed. The bed they finally fell asleep in, hours later: soft skin snuggles close and far too much hair wrapped around both of them along w their arms, tho neither of them had the presence of mind to care—too content to fall asleep pressed tight and tired against once another, after all these years.

And yet, she wakes alone. Hecate panics: blood rushing in her ears faster than her racing thoughts as she struggles w the blankets, tears burning at her eyes—how could she be so stupid, to think Pippa could want her, to think she could make Pippa want to stay—when a clatter echoes around the room as Pippa materialises beside the bed, hands full of silverware carrying breakfast in bed for two.

Hecate freezes, halfway to tears, and blinks at Pippa: beaming bright, clearly proud of the array of fruits and pastries she’s manages to rustle up from the kitchen.

Keeps blinking, while Pippa’s smile fades as she takes in Hecate’s bewildered eyes, the red of her cheeks, the hitch in her breathe as she opens and closes her mouth.

She tries to say to hello; tries not to sob: doesn’t really manage either. Starts to curl in on herself; away from Pippa.

‘Hiccup?’ Pippa asks softly, catching Hecate before she falls too far away, placing the tray on the end of the bed and settling beside Hecate’s knee.

She waits, eyes full of nothing but care and concern and patience. It’s the last one that finally prys Hecate’s lips open.

‘I thought you’d gone,’ she admits, only briefly meetings Pippa’s eyes before she has to look away. ‘I though, you—‘ She tries not the choke; stifles a cry instead. ‘I thought you’d left me.’

She can feel the heartache radiate off Pippa.

‘No, sweetheart, never,’ she promises, reaching out. She hesitates, for just a moment, before Hecate opens up her palms and welcomes Pippa’s hands clasped around her own.

Hecate smiles, small and bright, as Pippa explains.

‘I was famished when I woke up, and I thought you might be too.’ She tightens her grip. ‘We did work up something of an appetite last night, did we not?’

Hecate blushes. ‘We did indeed.’

‘Well then,’ Pippa says, as if that sorts everything. Then pauses. Looks at their joined hands. Runs a fingernail over Hecate’s knuckles, deep in thought.

Hecate is about to ask, when Pippa finally looks up. ‘And I’m not leaving, Hiccup. Ever. Not unless you want me to.’

‘I don’t,’ she says without thinking, bc what else would she ever say? Then realises the magnitude of what she’s said, of what Pippa’s said, and blushes. ‘I mean, we both have responsibilities we must return to-‘

‘Eventually,’ Pippa interjects, already trancing circles over the sensible skin of Hecate’s inner wrist.

She tries not to shiver; smiles instead. ‘Right,’ she says, then pauses to let a shaky breath. ‘But until then, I want you here, with me.’ She looks up thru lowered lashes, suddenly unsure again. ‘If that’s what you want too?’

‘It is, Hiccup. I promise.’ Pippa smiles, radiant and bright, Hecate leans forward to kiss that happiness right off Pippa’s lips.

Leans forward, closing her eyes as she lets herself fall, knowing that Pippa will be there when she opens them again.

[divine-valley]

Rotation

“Can someone explain...why we’re up so early?” Vic mumbled, he was all for waking up on time to start his duties of the day but two hours early was stretching it even for him. Unable to open his eyes all the way just wait it was a strain from the bright lights in the halls.

“It’s Rotation Day Vic! There’s no time for sleep!” Howler’s comm chirped in the sickeningly sweet voice, they really needed to get a new one, the novelty and humor of it was starting to wear thin now. 

“Rotation Day?” Yawning loudly he followed Howler until they reached the main barracks and Vic’s sluggishness evaporated when he realized the bunks were empty, where was everyone?! The entire crew, where the hell were they?! What’s going on?! Feeling panic bubble up inside him Vic opened his mouth about to ask when Hawke and Mouse arrived both looking quite excited.

“ROTATION DAY!” Throwing his fists up in the air, Mouse smiled widely as he and Howler high fived and went running off in separate directions investigating the empty bunks. What were they doing? What the hell was Rotation Day?

Nudging Hawke a bit he gave him a confused look forgetting the other was blind for a second but the younger clone seemed to almost sense Vic’s confusion and frustration. 

“This is your first Rotation Day, I completely forgot! Well you know The Speck’s crew is always changing, on Rotation Day the old crew is sent out for their next jobs or back to the field and a new one is brought in. Though between that there’s a period of two hours when the whole station is almost empty meaning...it’s open season. Whatever is left behind it for the taking.” Hawke informed with a smile.

“So you three just scavenge around for stuff?”

“Well, not just stuff, better pillows, blankets things like that. I’m in the market for a new mattress.”

Made sense and it was pretty clever in a way. Hearing metallic banging suddenly Vic looked down one of the rows to find Howler angrily waving around a metal box before he rushed back over to the duo showing them it was filled with various candy wrappers. 

“That Explicit Word, Zapper was holding out on us! He had more chocolate! Not just chocolate but those spicy sucking candies! I love those!” Throwing the box down with a scowl Howler huffed loudly looking like he was ready to rant when Mouse came back dragging along a mattress.

“Hawke I found one I think you might like! Oh and Vic here! You said you weren’t sleeping well!” Tossing Vic a pillow Mouse laughed seeing it bounce off his face and then haphazardly trying to catch it. 

Scouring through the rest of the barracks the group ended up in the cafeteria next where there was no stopping them to get into the kitchen. Staring at one of the food dispencers he stuck his mouth underneath the nozzle and waved his hand wildly gesturing for someone to press it.

“Howl do you really want a mouthful of mush oatmeal right now?”

Signing for a second toward Mouse the older clone nodded and snorted softly. “He says, it’ll be fun and he’s taking on challengers if you’re interested Gal’ika.”

 Much to everyone’s surprise Hawke felt his way around to the other and ducked his head beneath it. Vic and Mouse shared a brief look before starting a countdown and pressed down on the buttons dispensing the oatmeal. It was utterly stupid, chaotic and messy but damn wasn’t it hilarious. Just as Mouse and Vic started cheering getting ready for their own turns both went rigid when the doors to the kitchen opened revealing Sten and Blitz staring silently at the four.

“S-sir we can explain w-we were just testing out the effeciency of the dispencers for the new crew that are about to come in, sir!” Vic sputtered, quickly trying to cover it all up with an excuse. 

Sten sighed heavily as he took a step forward looking at the mess on the floor and each one of his men before clearing his throat. “...I’m not mad...I’m just disappointed...disappinted you all started ROTATION DAY WITHOUT ME! Blitzy and I are team three boys!” The Sargeant shouted as he hooked the medic into a headlock and pumping his fist in the air excitedly.

As a chorus of cheers sounded off in the room from each of them for the next two hours the remaining crew of The Speck enjoyed Rotation Day...all excpet of Blitz who had to handle the fallout of upset stomachs and welcoming the new crew on his own...