#I never managed to complete all the DSMP members

[steelstreqq]

pov i revive an old project from 2021 because i watched one sorry boys video

this is the 'rustout au', its a combination of TWD, fallout 4, and rust but i shoved silly block men (and ted nivison) in it. essentially its a zombie apocalypse au that takes place at some time in the 80s or 90s following a nuclear fallout that occurred due to undisclosed government activities with foreign global superpowers. none of the normal civilians really know why the nukes went off and only a few of the most wealthy in the community really were able to get down to the bunkers in time

there are a ton of characters i want to include in this au, but considering i made this in the peak of the dsmp fandom i have to be kinda careful to not pick out any ccs who are still a part of dream's posse.. :pensive:

so far, the other characters in this au who aren't displayed here are fundy, techno, philza, bizly, grizly, condi, connor, jack, eret, and a few others i cant think of rn >_<

some character information below ^-^

WILBUR G. SOOT - the widowed father to fundy. wilbur lived in a house in a suburban neighborhood with his teen aged son before the nukes went off. once the initial fallout occurred, will and fundy had an argument about where they should shelter. the day after the argument, wilbur awoke to find fundy had completely disappeared. grief stricken at the loss of another family member (under the impression that he was the reason fundy had 'ran off'), wilbur risked his safety to search for his son, traveling from settlement to settlement. he hated himself and blamed himself for his son's disappearance. by this point, he wanted to lie in the dirt and rot with the corpse of the land below him

TOMMY ZA - the adoptive son of phil, a single child. tommy was at school during the blasts, thus he was separated from his father. he and the rest of his school were ushered to the basement following the explosions to protect them from fallout. when given the all clear, tommy ran down barren streets to find his way home, and never did. too frantic and unable to navigate his way properly, he became stranded and lost. the crushing anxiety of being alone seemed to summon a taller man with a guitar case from a local town. he had found himself wandering into tommy's neighborhood. and therein, an alliance was formed.

"RANBOO" - ranboo is a mysterious creature who doesn't really appreciate questions about his history. tommy and wilbur found him a month or two into constructing their own settlement. ranboo was found uncomfortably asleep in a cramped car not far off from Dome. he was rudely awakened with a violent mugging from tommy. wilbur caught up to the shorter brit and apologized for his actions, suggesting that ranboo could stay at their camp as compensation for the troubles that tommy had brought to ranboo. ranboo reluctantly agreed and now is a part of the dome's settlement. tommy speculates ranboo is secretly a mentally mutated creature-freak-thing and must be put down immediately, ranboo just wants to eat dinner in peace.

CHARLIE SICKLE - charlie is the latest member to join the settlement. the former front man for the hit pop group Roll With You. during an england tour, the nukes went off and front man charlie had been stranded during his burger lunch break. separated from the rest of his band mates. charlie has faced deterioration in his mental state due to the stress of surviving during such a gruesome time period. by the time wilbur finds himself at the receiving end of charlie's gun, he is already unhinged. wilbur manages to talk charlie into submission carefully, and decides to see if he can form a fragile alliance with charlie for some sort of twisted protection. charlie agrees, as he is so *sick* of being alone. charlie simply insists he is just a silly billy, everybody else thinks hes clinically insane

DOME- dome is a passive settlement founded by wilbur soot to bring in local survivors and give them a small and safe community to rebuild humanity. although this is a large goal in such a hostile and dangerous situation, tommy gives wilbur hope to keep going. who knows, maybe while scouting for survivors, they could stumble across phil or fundy

TED - ted is a serial killer, plain and simple. hired by schlatt to be a bodyguard after the fallout, ted had escaped his cinder block hell to essentially be a guard dog thanks to the nukes. it turns out prisons arent explosion-proof. ted is silent, he doesnt speak much, but he has a clear cut focus on what he wants. when he does speak, he talks clearly and normally. mostly, about his travels with his good buddy 'eddie nine pins', whom he apparently did everything with before getting caught

J. SCHLATT - schlatt is a larger than life business mogul, the ceo of a handful of companies that produce clothes, products, music, etc. hes an incredibly creative and intuitive man who knows how to get what he wants. he is the forefront leader of his settlement in the bunker. schlatt is falsely married to quackity, both of them agreeing to commit marriage fraud when they initially entered the world of entrepreneurship as it looks better and improves both of their charisma in social situations. their 'marriage' is entirely superficial and loveless, purely for aesthetics

A. QUACKITY - you might say quackity is a strange last name, he'd tell you to mind your own business and call you poor in two different languages. quackity runs a small 'medicine' dealing business on the surface. in exchange for fancy goods and food, quackity will give out medicine to needy survivors with no real idea of what any of it does. indirectly, quackity has killed 15+ people with his medication and harmed countless others. he doesnt feel bad, as long as he gets something out of it. he's been spoiled by his previously lavish life and just can't stand to let it all go

TOBY "TUBBO" SCHLATT - tubbo is the adoptive son of schlatt. while schlatt opted to adopt tubbo purely for aesthetics, just as he did with his marriage, he ended up getting somewhat attached to the little guy (and so did quackity). adopted at the age of 13, tubbo was quickly exposed to the inside mechanisms of business, the lying and cheating that goes on behind the retina and he has no interest in becoming a mogul like his father. rather, he opts for weapon studies and collecting a massive arsenal of different types of guns and bombs. tubbo sees the fallout as more of a playground than anything, being able to collect and test as many 'toys' as he wants. tubbo and tommy have crossed paths on several occasions, wherein they both will have a bit of a scuffle until theyre tired, then sit and talk. they consider each other friends, and neither of them know of the conflict between schlatt and wilbur

THE BUNKER - the bunker was once a safe haven for the one percent in england, but only a week into shelter, everybody was slaughtered. quackity and schlatt performed a hostile takeover of the bunker for no greater reason than the fact they wanted more space and more liberties. theyve now claimed the entire bunker as their home, and they want to see how far they can expand their power and control.

if youve made it this far, thx so much for reading it means the WORLD to me.. ill be posting abt this au alongside my other projects like claymore hills and the sanatorium au (which also was a 2021 thing!!)

heres a playlist i made for the rustout au if anybody is as interested in music as i am

thanks sm again, likes and reblogs are both appreciated ^-^ asks are open and heavily encouraged if you wanna know more :DD i know dsmpblr is a little dead but maybe mcytblr might like this, u never know if u dont try so ill take shot in the dark ^-^

note: NONE of these characters should be confused with the CCs. they are loosely based off of real interactions and projects but are entirely FICTIONAL in this universe. i do not support the actions of content creators such as dream, george, sapnap, punz, and many others associated with dream thus they will NOT be in this project. thank you.

[coffeegnomee]

An analysis of having a rigid character in mcrp vs being swept up into playing a character in mcrp.

I was reflecting on dreamsmp and qsmp the other day and realized they both lost me when the lore shifted to a rigid character of the streamer.

Quackity approached the late-game lore as a cold, calm, businessman, completely devoid of the goofy, unserious charm that is Quackity. And in qsmp he was the alcoholic father. 

I didn’t watch much of qsmp, but I got similar vibes from Celbit and�� heck I forget his name. The one who became president. 

Like they approached every stream from a very serious point of view, getting into character before the serious moment happened, not chatting with chat in the lulls between yapping as they journey from one destination to another. 

And they lost me. 

That’s not what the medium of streamed Minecraft rp is about.

What it is about is logging on, bantering with chat, walking around the server, and then other members approach, they take the lore seriously, and subtly change it from a normal interaction with another streamer into something that is moving the plot forward.

There’s two examples from the dsmp era.

Tommy is the obvious one, and doesn’t need much explanation. Especially in the exile arc he would be fine and happy and bantering with chat until Dream showed up. Then the tone shifted. He always had moments where he was his annoying happy self before being drawn into the serious character he was developing. All of it was an act, but he planned to let his character be moved from one emotion to another through the conversations that happened.

But the same happened with Foolish, which I find fascinating since it was widely acclaimed that Foolish doesn’t really lore. Not on purpose at least. He’ll never be the one to overtly plan something, but he’s one of my favorites to follow because he will always get swept up into it.

I followed the Foolish/Leo lore through clips and tiktok, and it was the only aspect of qsmp lore that could draw me in. 

And in the dsmp, the L’sandburg arc and everything that happened at the summer home never had server-wide implications, and yet it captured the charm of the early months of the dreamsmp.

There was a day when Sam joined vc but shifted into the SamNook character and stopped actually talking in vc, just playing the animal crossing noises while writing in chat.

Foolish played along for a bit, and then they both returned to building in the hanging gardens, Sam making a tree while Foolish was doing like material collection I think, talking to chat.

Sam continued only communicating in chat until one moment when it was more helpful if he began actually speaking about the tree instead of being in character.

And I, and Foolish, literally jumped, forgetting that Sam was there and we weren’t talking to SamNook as a real npc.

It was so bizarre. 

We were swept up into the lore of the moment, and kept there through the efforts of the other streamer. 

And again, this happened one day when Bad and Foolish were arguing and Dream showed up in vc as Dreamxd, talking just to Foolish as if he was in his head and Bad couldn’t hear him. The conversation that followed was so hilarious as Foolish had to manage two streamers who refused to acknowledge that they could hear each other.

Without realizing it he was swept up into the lore. And he took us along with him. 

The reason this matters to me is the Lifesteal smp.

In Lifesteal, Zam takes this concept of casual banter with chat and moves it, when the moment arises, into something that is suddenly extremely RP.

In an instant it can go from random conversation into something that is moving his character forward and changing the fabric of the server.

I think we saw it best with the Joker arc. 

Every Joker day began with a threat given to either Minute or Jumper. Something to goad them into lore. 

He had no real plans, just a threat that he would do, a base he would blow up, if Minute or Jumper didn’t do anything to stop him. And he let them do anything they wanted to stop him. 

It was completely unplanned.

And you could hear in his voice the changes from, here’s my silly plan for the day, to, you just unlocked the Joker.

Changing it from a casual stream to something overly lore. Not going into it with a perfect character but using the encounter itself to bring out the character.

Interestingly enough, we all know that the Joker arc landed weirdly in relation to pb&j and how they were swept up into the lore.

And I think, in part, it had to do with the a flipping of roles compared to my above analysis about Foolish.

Zam was, more often than not, the one who was live AND the one who was going to take lore seriously and bring others into it. 

Vs Foolish being live and Dream/Bad/Sam being the one to take it seriously.

It broached a new style of mcrp, one that created streamers/characters who were resistant to doing lore, I think because they didn’t have the stakes behind it of being live. They were there for their recording, but they always knew they could cut it out of their YouTube video and it wouldn’t matter to their characters.

You only have to look at the difference between the Jumper/Zam yap session and Minute confronting Clown and Leo to see the difference going live had on them being wrapped up into the lore. 

Lore they did not expect to be doing when they first went live. 

As opposed to Jumper’s stream where she killed Mappic - she went into that with a plan and a character to play.

As opposed to Ash’s streams when he had a character and plan to execute.

They lost me on those streams because it was obviously so planned out and they entered the moment completely in character and resisted changing in response to anything that was said to them. 

Why does it matter? 

Because a character’s 3dimentionality comes from being fully fledged out. 

And you can make an extremely complex and compelling character when you draw on aspects of yourself. It doesn’t (and probs shouldn’t) just literally be you, but if you willingly draw on who you are as a person, the character comes alive. 

And the medium is Minecraft live streaming. It’s long winded. Time in the story passes by similarly to how real life time passes - day to day something new happens unlike a book or movie where they have to cut things out.

And the stories you create when you approach the medium of live mcrp is substantially different than any book, movie, or video. 

The method of storytelling allows you to explore a character over 100s of hours of content rather than a couple hours. 

And for my money, boiling that character down to something you put on for an hour or two at a time around completely unrelated grind streams, is so much less compelling than if both merged together and you never knew when a moment would turn from casual banter as a streamer into a character moment. 

[w3ndytheraccoon]

If I see one more post about why C!Dream is not a villain, I will rage-

C!Dream is a complex character with an understandable motive, and his spiralings was very realistic and I can one hundred percent see why. He is a very morally gray, albeit leaning more toward black than white, character. It wouldn’t be fair if I just label him as THE villain, because perspectives exist, and in some member’s perspective, like Purpled for example, he’s definitely not as evil as he is in, say, Tubbo’s perspective.

But that doesn’t change the fact Dream was a horrible person.

Just because he had a understandable motive, that doesn’t mean the shit that happened in Exile is justified. That doesn’t mean Doomsday is justified. That doesn’t mean all the manipulation and all the lying are justified. That doesn’t mean what he and Punz did to Vikkstar and Lazarbeam is justified. That doesn’t mean what happened in prison was justified.

Especially Exile and Vikkstar & Lazarbeam ! Exile is for isolating Tommy so he can’t cause trouble, not for abusing and gaslighting him to near the point of fucking suicide ! And what happened to Vikkstar & Lazarbeam was completely unnecessary ! Dream and Punz did NOT need to kill them over and over and over just to test the Revival Book, that is cruel and several violations of human’s rights.

Conclusion : C!Dream fucking sucks and I wish Punz didn’t brought him back. I’m an enthusiast, not apologist. His motive makes him explainable, not justifiable or excusable, and if I ever somehow manage to rip the fabric of reality and teleport to the DSMP universe, the first thing I will do is find Dream to deck him.

… But he’s still a complex character and one of my favourites.

Anyway, if I miss a point or something, do remind me. I’ll probably edit this and add more character analysis in the morning, when my thoughts are actually coherent and I’m not writing something from pure spite and anger.

Morning edit :

He also hurt Geogre and Sapnap. Sure, he never physically hurt them as far as we’re aware, but do you know how painful it is to watch your friend spirals and became the total opposite of how they were ? How helpless it feels when you realised your friend is too far gone and you can’t help them ? How guilty it is when you think of all the times you could reach out and stop them from turning out like this but you didn’t ? How badly that would take a toll on your mental health ?

But anyway, just because C!Dream is a horrible person, that doesn’t mean what happened in prison is okay. The whole obsidian cell with lava door and raw potato ? Yeah, that’s fine, I can get behind that, since it was his idea for prison to be like that. It’s just karma. What I meant is the torture part. Does he deserve it ? Depends who you ask. I personally think it was justified and deserved, but that still doesn’t make it okay.

[anotherduckinthedepths]

Here be the den of someone who's interests always find a way back to Minecraft, one way or another

Anyhow, hello, I'm Depths! (It might change later just warning you) I go by she/her pronouns and enjoy drawing + rambling about things I find interesting.

This blog is for those drawings and ramblings, specifically those tied to the QSMP, DSMP, Sbi, mcyt in general, and maybe some ranboo content if Im feeling like it, I'm generally open for interactions with others! (Granted I'm not the best at initiating interactions) I only ask that you both respect the DNI list below DNI: -NSFW Blogs - TERFs, Racists, Homophobes, just be nice to people please (I hope this is unnecessary but better safe than sorry) - Those who support death threats/doxxing towards ANY content creators ("but you don't like (Insert cc here)", doesn't matter, no death threat/doxxing for ANY of them, full stop, you can dislike people without threatening their lives or the lives of those around them) And please do not harass me or anyone else who might pop up here just on the stance that we happen to enjoy a game and a story that is unfortunately connected to some well-known but divisive people online. Important addition, do not feel afraid to interact if you happen to like the characters played by ccs I dont like/support ! I'm not gonna shoo you away, I see them as seperate entities, like a character in a movie and the actor that plays them who exists outside of that, to do otherwise would be hypocritical of me. I want to try and make this blog as welcoming as I can to fellow fans regardless of how I view things, I do not seek to change anyone's mind and make them agree with me, I just wanna provide silly content to whoever enjoys it. Important tags #Depth's Art or #Depth's AU Art - Drawings I have done on this blog, from sketches to fully-fleshed out art pieces (if I ever do that), the latter is used for drawings regarding AUs I have. #Depth rambles - Random silly thoughts. #Serious Depth mode - Mainly got this up in the event of more serious posts, likely focusing on issues/discourse in the fandom and/or just how it affects me. I dont imagine I'll use this often but I feel like I'll end up having to use it at least once to explain my view of things. If you'd rather avoid seeing discussion around this I would suggest blocking this tag. #Depth's OCs - The tag for my OCs, more than likely minecraft related. #Depth's Brainrot About Jubilant - A specific tag for a very specific character that's on the border between AU character and OC (if you don't feel comfortable seeing posts about them due to the character they're an AU version of (hint- 🟩 :) ) I completely understand and you're more than welcome to block this tag)

_______ I have had some AUs cooking up in my brain and may post about them on this blog, when this happens I will list them down here and provide the tag it's assigned if you want to see my posts for it. Unnamed Superhero Warlock AU (Features c!dream and XD as main antagonists for the most part) (Important Note - This AU is right now kinda in-between being an AU and an original work, it's definetely still in AU territory rn, but I'm thinking of trying to make it it's own thing) The superpowered world all knows and looks up to Pantheon, a long-lasting group of individuals granted with two powers instead of one, what the public mostly doesn't know is that this comes at the cost of becoming a servant to an entity beyond comprehension, and becoming nothing more than a puppet to serve it's desires to invade and control the material plane. Kristin is one of these members of the current Pantheon, tied to a entity of the afterlife, she's long been resigned to her destiny as Lady Death, she is doomed to hunt criminals (or just those who know too much) and those she's sent after are doomed to never escape, none she has been sent after even managing to escape one encounter with her. ... until a man soon to be named Sisyphus manages to get away. Tag - #Unnamed Superhero Warlock AU QSMP Pokemon Mystery Dungeon AU Exactly what it says on the tin, an AU where the players are humans turned into Pokemon and are now stranded in a large remote island in the Pokemon world. Littered with Mystery Dungeons and various other dangers that threaten both them and the pokemon they've been given to care for. Tag - #qsmp pmd au

[teddy-bear-d]

A goopy boi

[jilliannotfound]

prepare for a long ask (i’m sorry)

my brain is very full so hear me out-

dream smp casino/mafia au-

now i was at first thinking Kinoko kingdom (karlnapity) are the owners of the casino cause yk Las Nevadas Quackity but then i remembered “Syndicate” (by Derivakat) which has a jazzy vibe and was like, what if the Syndicate was a mafia ‘family’ that ran a casino and reader is their star performer who starts off every night with a performance of “Syndicate”. reader’s performance is used to kinda establish the Syndicate’s power over the casino and to remind the patrons anything they do will be under the scrutiny of a mafia with literally two of the most renowned mafiosos’ (Philza whose reputation of traveling all over and taking down many a mafia family precedes him and Technoblade who has taken down mafia families singlehandedly) in the city, maybe even the entire country.

the Eggpire is like a rival mafia that is trying to take control over the city so it isn’t uncommon for them to try and infiltrate the Syndicate casino. so i was thinking, what if the people who are Pro-Omlette (but not in the Syndicate so Puffy, Foolish (since it’s not confirmed he’s part of the Syndicate), Awesamdude and Eret) are staff at the casino. they were each like a lone agent after their mafia family split up/they left and decided to join forces with the Syndicate to make sure the Eggpire didn’t gain total control of the city. Maybe Sam is a bodyguard stationed either outside the casino or manning security cameras switching with Puffy, Eret can be like a stage manager/backstage to aid the performers and make sure no one sneaks into the dressing rooms or the light control area backstage and Foolish is like a bartender keeping an eye out on the main floor of the casino for any activity.

Dream was the former head of the well-renowned Dream Team mafia family until the family split. he’s notorious for breaking apart mafia families before disappearing into the night and traveling to a new city. occasionally he’ll hire some aid but they never last long.

Ponk used to be an on-sight medic for the casino in cause of bar fights or performers getting injured on stage but after many rumors (later confirmed to be true) of him being a member of the Eggpire he was fired and not allowed to enter the premise of the casino again.

Kinoko Kingdom was a rival casino/mafia family to the Syndicate’s but they’ve decided to have a truce to make sure Dream and/or the Eggppire don’t take over their city. Their casinos have different vibes with the Syndicate’s being more of a hub for mafia and business activity with jazzy music on the constant and famous for civilized and tame yet very entertaining entertainment whilst Kinoko’s casino is like more of a rowdy type casino, famous for high stake bets, drinks with high alcohol content and lively music and entertainment that can be seen as a bit too glitzy and tacky. Like you go to Syndicate casino for a night of business deals and building yourself up to the top, the type of casino you would bring your boss to, whilst the Kinoko casino is the type of casino you go to let loss and risk it all with cheap entertainment and even cheaper booze. their truce works out because their casinos are so different that competition wouldn’t be worth the cash (and the Syndicate knows they can easily take on the Kinoko mafia in a fight but shhhh)

there’s multiple places a reader character could fight but as a primarily Technoblade simp at heart i had to put reader as a performer in the Syndicate casino-

~🦫Anon (if this title isn’t already taken-)

𝕋𝕙𝕖 𝕊𝕪𝕟𝕕𝕚𝕔𝕒𝕥𝕖

DSMP x Reader (in-game)

Summary: Request

Warnings: None?

A/N: Okay… I have a few important things to say. First of all, this story is not completed. This request is so genuinely good and I have been trying to work on it for far too long and have had very little success. With that being said I still want to publish the small bit of this story that I’m proud of.

Second of all, I would like any other dsmp writers on this platform to feel free to take this request and perhaps do with it what I wasn’t able to. If you write this story, please tag me because I’d love to see what you do with it. You can also use this bit I have written and am sharing to start off your own version of the story (just give proper credit)!

With all of that out of the way, please enjoy!

—

The Syndicate. One of the highest-end casinos in the country, and certainly the most powerful, being run by two of the best-known mafiosos.

Philza was best known for his travel, being able to track down anyone anywhere and take care of them.

Technoblade was easily the scariest man you could meet. He’d single-handedly taken down more mafia families at the age of 21 than most senior-aged mafiosos could even dream of.

It was rare to see either of the men in the casino, let alone to see them together, so when the pair came through the doors with power in their steps everyone knew something serious was in order.

They took their seats at the bar as Foolish prepared their drinks and Eret directed the casino's attention to the stage.

This performance was a nightly occurrence, the same jazzy tune came from the band's instruments as Y/N emerged from the curtain.

Hey, I'll tell you a little secret of mine

If you promise not to tell, if you have the time

Everyone has gotten you, always on the run

But if you join the Syndicate

Life could get a little more fun

It was the song of the casino, used to remind everyone just how much power it holds.

When all of the horses and all of the men

Won't learn from history, it's all the same in the end

I've told you once and I'll tell you again

The Syndicate is looking for a couple new friends

It reminds the patrons of the casino that no matter what they do, the Syndicate is always watching, studying each of them in hopes of finding some new friends.

Fight for freedom, fight to end the pain

Hey, this is serious, it's not just some little game

'Cause the anarchy's part of me, tyranny bothers me

End it all properly once and for all

They call us the villains 'cause they know we'll take the fall

The members of the Syndicate were a force to be reckoned with, composed of strong fighters and quick thinkers constantly working to take down anyone that dare stand in their way.

The Eggpire was their current concern. Run by a man named BadBoyHalo, the Eggpire was a whole other breed of mafiosos.

They preached about the Egg, whatever the hell that was supposed to be, and always wore a signature red color that made them easy to spot. Sometimes you could even swear there was a red glint in their eyes when talking about it.

After the incident with Ponk, their old medic that got caught up in the red whirlwind, the Syndicate became extra wary of the Eggpire, willing to do just about anything to take them down.

This is exactly why the two most powerful men were sitting together at the Syndicate’s bar with their eyes locked on the stage.

Fight for freedom, fight to end the pain

Hey, this is serious, it's not just some little game

'Cause the anarchy's part of me, tyranny bothers me

End it all properly once and for all

They call us the villains 'cause they know we'll take the fall

When all of the horses and all of the men

Won't learn from history, it's all the same in the end

I've told you once and I'll tell you again

The Syndicate is looking for a couple new friends

Oh, a couple new friends

Oh, oh, oh, oh

Oh no, no

You'll gain a couple new friends

As the jazzy instrumentals faded out, Eret poked his head out of the curtain on the side of the stage, gesturing for the resident singer to come backstage.

Y/N smiled at the audience and walked through the velvet barrier to be greeted by the deep-voiced brunette.

“Did you see who’s out there tonight?” They asked him.

“That's why I called you, they wanna see you.”

Y/N took a deep breath and headed out onto the main floor.

They’d been part of the Syndicate for most of their life and knew they weren’t in any danger near Techno and Phil, but the anxiety still pounded in their head as they approached the men.

Y/N sat on the stool next to Technoblade and the two turned their stools to face them.

“Lovely performance!” Phil praised

They shot him a kind smile and braced themself for the inevitable harsh news that would follow the attempted small talk.

“We need you to do something.” Techno said bluntly. “You know Las Nevadas?”

“Yeah, of course.”

It was another casino ran by Kinoko Kingdom, another mafia family. They used to be considered one of the biggest threats to the Syndicate because they had quite literally appeared overnight and nobody knew anything. Once the Eggpire popped up though, it was safest to become fast friends with the three men that ran Las Nevadas in hopes of strengthening their forces against the red abomination infecting families all over.

“We had a meeting with Quackity and he’s got a bad feeling about some guests that have been stopping by their area. It’s a shitty casino, we all know that, but he thinks it’s more than just some random troublemakers.”

…

:]

[grian-stole-my-rights]

OKAY! I promised to explain this Crack-Pot AU when I got home… but its been literal months… SO HERE WE GO!!

Evil Cake AU!

Our story starts off with Sam Gladiator’s funeral (basically just the JSchlatt funeral but with the YHS crew + a few people who came for moral support and/or wanted to party). Wilbur showed up because he knows Sam was an abusive ass to his brother (Grian) in High School and that him and his friends are NOT having a normal funeral for the mother-fucker.

Sometime during the funeral, he steals the urn with Sam’s ashes and just- starts eating them.

While doing so, he gets the bright idea to bake them into a cake to give to JSchlatt. So he goes up to Grian and asks him to help him bake a cake.

So the next day, Wilbur is in the kitchen with Grian (I guess they’re staying with one of the YHS crew members? I don’t think we ever decided who’s kitchen it is, but I don’t think hotels normally have ovens so-). Wilbur tells him that they should put Sam’s ashes in the cake and Grian tells him no because that’s a stupid idea. So Wilbur puts the ashes in the flower mixture when Grian isn’t looking.

Flash forward and Wilbur comes to the border of Manburg with Tommy, cake in hand, and pretty much just tells them to let him in Manburg so he could “extend an olive branch of sorts” and shows them the cake. They let them in (I guess? Or Schlatt comes to them) and Wil tells them how his brother made the cake.

Reluctantly, he takes the cake and starts eating the cake. “The fuck is wrong with this?! Did is this poisoned or some shit?!”

Rumors spread throughout the SMP of this mysterious “SamGladiator” who never shows up on the tab screen, but has managed to kill the President of Manburg in broad daylight.

“Who is he?”

“Is he a part of Pogtopia?”

“Why would he name a weapon ‘his ashes’?”

Manburg decides to keep the cake. Flash forward to the festival and instead of getting executed, Tubbo is “rewarded” for all his hard work.

Tubbo respawns but doesn’t come back quite right.

Turns out everyone who’s eaten the cake is partially possessed by the ghost of SamGladiator, but it effects everyone differently.

Sam makes Wilbur become Vilbur, Schlatt more power-hungry and controlling, and makes Tubbo believe he is Sam.

Tubbo is convinced different DSMP members are different characters from YHS.

Tubbo keeps trying to get Tommy to do things that make him uncomfortable and uh- yeah he pretty much just re-enacts the Yakuza arc after the festival (complete with being forced to wear blue and being threatened by Wilbur with a sword).

Techno, Tommy, Eret, and Fundy all somehow managed to avoid getting possessed by Sam. Techno because he figured out Wilbur was trying to put something in the potato fields that was poisoning the potatoes. Tommy because Niki wound up eating the poisoned food meant for Tommy (hence why Tubbo thinks she’s Sookie). Eret because he’s just so out of the loop that at this point Manburg and Pogtopia just- somehow forgot he was there (mostly just plot relevance tbh). And Fundy out of pure luck.

After Techno discovers the poisonous potatoes, he confronts Wilbur. Wil deflects but then he remembers seeing Tommy giving Niki the hindlick and Tubbo telling Tommy how “Yuki” would “help make everything go back to normal” and just goes “fuck this! This is abuse!” and just- grabs Niki and Tommy and leaves.

It’s basically the Egg Arc before the Egg Arc happened.

[dreamteamspace]

They really went there huh

/rp (good lord I rly hyperfixated on this essay huh)

torture tw, abuse tw, manipulation tw, gaslighting tw

So the Dream SMP built a character, once maybe morally gray, who slipped straight into villany with little to no desire to change, and willing to cause a LOT of pain to get his way. Despite this, he doesn’t question what he does enough to stop, justifying his actions with a good intent that doesn’t come close to justifying what he’s done.

C!Dream is unremorseful of what he’s done, he’s quite literally manipulated and gaslit (like actually, not in the way everyone keeps throwing the word around) c!Tommy, almost drove him to take his last life- like, jesus christ. That’s not even to mention blowing up L’Manburg three times, encouraging c!Wilbur, wanting the discs JUST to have power over c!Tommy, etc.

SO, he gets thrown in a box for it so he doesn’t hurt anybody anymore, making his own hubris his downfall (narrative consequence my beloved). This leads us to a good finale - the bad guy, the person who’s caused objectively the most pain and destruction, is now unable to do so anymore, taken down by the person whom he tried to weaken. It is also revealed he was planning on blackmailing and threatening pretty much everyone, but now everyone gets their stuff back.

Good, right?

Especially for the finale, yeah! The message of the finale is good, c!Tommy manages to escape his abuser with nothing more but his clothes on his back and fights his way back to c!Tubbo and his home.

He doesn’t let his trauma (which is still very present!) let him become a terrible person (arguably the way that c!Dream DID let his frustrations make him a terrible person, c!Tommy, despite bearing quite a heavy weight, recognizes when he begins to turn that way and actively works against it).

It shows that while alone, c!Tubbo and c!Tommy were outfought by Dream, but because c!Tommy went the length to ask for help (which he didn’t even really seem to be relying on actually showing up), he wins! It truly is a good message.

C!Tommy escapes his abuser and manipulator, refuses and fights his trauma to not become someone he doesn’t want to be, and defeats his abuser by asking for help and receiving it, even more than he thought he’d get. He refuses to play c!Dream’s “game”, refuses till the very last moment to let c!Tubbo die, to surrender and say goodbye to him.

So, great! Good finale! C!Dream The Villain is boxed like a fish in a prison of, quite literally, his own making. It sent a good message to people. C!Tommy wasn’t expected to forgive him and did, in fact, axe him down twice, causing c!Dream to finally fall from his high horse.

Most media would stop at this point, say the villain is now defeated and never show them again, or have them come back another one or two seasons later, escaped and seemingly unharmed and worse than ever.

Alternatively, there’s a throwaway line, (or, in good media, a genuine, reasonable backstory, complete with remorse and bad role models and complicated situations), that allows the villain to be redeemed.

In GOOD redemption arcs (See: Zuko from avatar tbh), the villain was already never quite as heartless, or stressed their good intent, or felt remorse for what they felt they “had to do”. Then, ideally, the villain takes a looooong time adjusting their habits, regretting their actions and changing until they’re considered redeemed.

Not on the Dream SMP, though.

They don’t stop at c!Dream’s defeat.

He doesn’t dissapear off-screen and is never spoken of again. His life continues on, everyone’s does, just like it would in reality. He doesn’t magically want to become a better person, far from it. So no redemption. But he doesn’t dissapear, either.

They go on to, slowly, stress how awful the conditions in Pandora’s Vault are. c!Bad says c!Dream should be imprisoned, but at least at slightly better conditions. We’re in very VERY morally gray territorry here. Nobody says c!Dream is a good person, of course not, but even c!Bad - who knows Dream was planning on keeping c!Skeppy in a cage to control him with - goes, “yeah, he should stay boxed, but does he really need to like... suffer suffer?”

Still, c!Dream seems to be kindof inconsistent in his behavior. Is he faking his pain? Is he not? His actions don’t fully make sense for either take. He acts differently to each person, but at the same time some things he does don’t make sense if he were just fishing for pity.

Then c!Sam admits to trying (and thinking he succeeded) to “break Dream’s will”, to quite literally starving him for weeks.

Okay, so now we’re a step further. C!Dream is now suffering even more, although already boxed and unable to hurt anyone. Pandora’s Vault is one thing, but now c!Sam just seems to be out for revenge and nothing more. Instead of spending his time with c!Tommy, he spends his time pickaxing(?) c!Dream.

C!Sam isn’t an angel, and we should all know that by now. He does what he thinks is right, but he’s deeper than that, all characters on the DSMP are.

He cares deeply for the Badlands, and would always choose them above anybody else. He’s a capitalist. He built the prison because it would benefit the Badlands resource-wise, despite knowing Dream would probably use it on his enemies, and it was no secret that ALL members of L’Manburg, especially c!Tommy, are his enemies. C!Sam, undoubtedly, knew that. He still built it.

Arguably, he didn’t know about c!Dream’s attachment obsession at the time, but the point still stands.

People have already latched onto the untold story happening between c!Dream and c!Sam, and frankly, we barely know enough about it. Does c!Sam torture him regularly? Do they talk? Does c!Dream try to verbally fight back? CAN he fight back? We don’t know! We’ve gotten proof for both, between c!Sam saying that c!Dream is terrifying even in prison and c!Dream going silent to go on strike. We don’t have enough of an idea how bad or how good it truly is.

So the people who prefer to humanize c!Dream and explore morality imagine c!Sam to downright torture him, people that prefer to see c!Dream as nothing but evil due to his actions imagine prison on the DSMP to not be equivalent to real life prison, and thus nowhere near as torturous as people are making it out to be.

Now all that is thrown out the window as c!Quackity quite literally tortures him.

So now the internet is faced with a question that, judging by some of the impulsive reactions *cough cough* celebrating torture *cough*, it didn’t turn out to be ready for.

Tell me.

How far do we go?

C!Dream hurt a LOT of people. He did a lot of things that caused irreparable damage. Now what? Do we torture him forever? Why? Because he deserves it? How do we determine that without comparing one kind of pain to another?

It’s custom and kindof generally respectful not to compare people’s pain too accurately, because different things vary greatly in severity depending on the person that experiences them.

At what point do we say he’s suffered enough without comparing exile to the prison?

And if we DO compare, does that even make the question easier to answer?

And if he’s never suffered enough ever, killing them would be a mercy...

At what point has a person done enough damage that they “deserve” to die? What if someone only did half of the things c!Dream did. But if c!Dream gets infinite punishment, and half of infinity is still infinity, do they ALSO deserve endless suffering?

Do you think every person that did something you can’t emphasize with deserves to suffer for eternity and die?

I’m not saying we SHOULD emphasize with c!Dream. He did things we cannot justify, that NOTHING can justify. He did things that were, by their nature, unjustified.

I’m also not saying anybody should forgive him. I think it’s a GOOD thing that c!Tommy doesn’t want nor is narratively pushed to forgive c!Dream.

But c!Dream doesn’t need c!Tommy’s forgiveness to be... a person.

There’s a saying that I’m sure you know, that goes “I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy.”, because there’s things you wouldn’t want any human being to experience. Not because you like them, not cause you think they’re right, but because they’re human.

And perhaps this is my personal opinion, but I don’t think c!Dream being a bad person justifies dehumanizing him, because then we get into an area where someone needs to meet criteria just to be human.

-

I met someone once, whom, because of outside circumstances I knew I probably wouldn’t meet again. We’d been getting along just fine for people who just met, and were both getting into an interesting discussion about morality. They kept insisting upon something I kept refuting, so they said they needed to get something off their chest.

They proceeded to tell me that they had, years ago, while a teen, manipulated someone in a relationship, pushed boundaries and tried to convince them to do things they didn’t really want to do to get what they wanted.

They cried, while telling me, too terrified to tell anybody they know, terrified nobody would ever speak to them again, insanely regretful of their actions. They didn’t know whether to go back and apologize or just stay as far away as humanly possible, didn’t know which one the right thing to do is.

It had been years, by then, and I talked them through it. I said that what they did was bad, and there’s no going around that. But I also said what I saw, which is someone who would never do something like that ever again. I saw a human being. Someone who regrets a mistake they did and now, after enough time has passed, would do anything to make it undone.

Someone who is too terrified to be close to anybody in fear that they would do it again. I don’t remember if they already went to therapy or not, but it was definitly on the table, or in the near future.

They asked me how I could possibly even keep talking to them after they told me all that. They implied they felt like some kind of monster despite literally chocking back tears, firmly convinced they don’t deserve to be close to anybody in their life ever again.

I never swerved from the fact that what they did was wrong, and harmful. But I also told them they’re human. The universe isn’t keeping score. They want to be a better person now, and they were never going to learn how if they never let themselves be close to anybody.

I told them to seek therapy, and to slowly, carefully, try. Assured them that the fact that they regret it so strongly will at least help them in not falling back into the same pattern, and if they do, they can learn to recognize that.

They thanked me after the conversation, genuinely, especially for the fact that I didn’t sugarcoat what happened, because I know otherwise it would’ve felt like I was lying, like I was just sparing their feelings. I wasn’t. I was thinking about how to make sure they get to live without hurting anybody.

As per the circumstances, we didn’t speak again after that, which we knew basicly from the very start.

-

I still think about that conversation a lot.

Do you think they should’ve been locked up for life after it happened, instead?

Do you think this real human being, that I spoke to, that took years to realize their mistake - and never would have realized it if they hadn’t had the time to, if they’d been killed right afterwards - deserves to suffer forever?

Let me tell you something, from someone who’s been in more than one abusive situation: People that hurt you are human.

That doesn’t mean you have to forgive them. That doesn’t mean you have to like them. That doesn’t mean you have to make an effort to understand them. That doesn’t mean you need to go anywhere near them ever again.

You can hate them. You can be angry at them. You can (and should) go as far away from them as possible, and/or defend yourself.

But that doesn’t mean you have to dehumanize them.

You’re allowed to hate and dislike people that are human, because you’re human, especially if they hurt you. That’s how life is.

And to go back to my original point - c!Quackity torturing c!Dream is not something that should be celebrated.

There’s a difference between necessary measures (locking c!Dream up so he doesn’t hurt anyone), and torturing people for fun.

It’s not right. It’s never going to be right, and do not justify literal torture on human beings, and do not make someone lower-than-human to justify torturing them.

Taking revenge on someone for what they did tenfold is romanticized, I know, but I promise you it’s not actually as cool as it sounds.

[blockgamepirate]

So we were talking on Discord about a DSMP superpowers AU, specifically Syndicate as an anarchist superhero team who are perceived as villains by pretty much everybody. (There were a bunch of people involved in the brainstorming but I wanna particularly credit @macachee for the idea for Techno’s superpowers, even though I ended up using a slightly different version than theirs.)

Anyway I know I don't really write fanfic anymore and I'm extremely rusty but uh... my hand slipped?

(CW: nothing major but there are repeated mentions of fire and some pretty tame violence)

×××

"Professor Underscore, I presume?"

The distinctive deep voice of an infamous supervillain was really not something anyone wanted to hear after 14 hours of last minute bug-fixing on a prototype superweapon in a secret laboratory. Especially when all your assistants had already called it a day and gone home.

Without even looking around, Tubbo reached for the gun in his desk drawer but before he could pull it out, a blade smashed into the wood right next to his hand.

"Nope", said the voice, "you don't get to have weapons, I get to have weapons. And speaking of weapons..."

Tubbo carefully turned around on his chair to face his attacker. As expected, it was a huge, hulking pigman dressed in flashy red and a golden mask.

"You are Protesilaus, aren't you? From the Syndicate?"

Protesilaus blinked at him. "You're a LOT younger than I expected, professor."

"Yeah, I get that a lot."

"I mean it's very impressive though, good for you."

"Thanks."

"So anyway, I'm here for the weapons."

"The weapons are kinda reserved already. You know, for the military."

"Don't give a shit", said a voice from the door. "Gib."

Protesilaus sighed. "Zephyrus, you're supposed to be the secret back-up."

The man hiding by the door frame laughed. "We already took care of the guards. There's nobody here but him, it's fiiine."

"But what if HE has his own secret back-up? What then? Well, it's too late now so just keep a look-out, alright?"

Zephyrus laughed again. "Sure."

"Alright." Protesilaus pointed his sword at Tubbo. "Show us to the weapons."

×××

There wasn't much he could think of doing to stall except try and tap in the pin codes on the doors as slowly as humanly possible. To be fair he didn't even really know what he was stalling for exactly. Secret back-up would have been nice but if they’d really taken out all the guards then none was likely to come.

Protesilaus was following him, sword in hand, making random small talk on the way as if he didn't know how to deal with the silence. Tubbo had only caught a few glimpses of Zephyrus, the winged man, in the background or in reflections. He seemed to be tampering with the security systems on the way, meaning that Tubbo really might be completely alone on this if the sabotage was successful. Zephyrus was also pulling along a big wheeled container of some sort that was probably intended for the weapons.

The two of them were the known members of the Syndicate, a team of anarchist terrorists who gave nightmares to the local police forces, the national guard and occasionally the military, but it was also widely theorized to have a secret third member with fire powers. Nobody had ever managed to catch them in the act, the only evidence of the secret member's existence was the trail of smoking ruins following the pair, their targets always burned down in a blaze of extremely memorable pink flames.

Tubbo had a theory that there were actually two secret members in the Syndicate, because if you're going to have one secret member you might as well have two, right? Maybe even three! It just made sense.

His assistants hadn't seemed convinced by this logic.

They arrived at the large hall leading up to the main vault where the prototypes were hidden and Tubbo finally had a plan. Somebody (probably him, honestly) had left the remote control of his battle bots lying around on a sidetable. He took advantage of his captors checking the space for surprise guards and inched slowly towards the remote.

"Everything good up there?" Protesilaus called out to Zephyrus who had flown up to the rafters.

"All good."

"Alright, seems safe enough", said Protesilaus. "Now, open the vault."

Tubbo just needed to stall a little bit longer until he could grab the remote undetected. "Actually, maybe I just won't be able to live with the fact that I let you guys get your hands on superweapons? What if I'd rather die than let you have them?"

Protesilaus sighed. "Look, don't worry, it's for a good cause, I promise."

"I mean, you guys are supervillains."

"Oh yeah sure, you're literally making weapons for an imperialist government but we're the villains?"

"What about that orphanage you burned down?" Tubbo kept moving towards the sidetable, trying to make it look like he was just pacing nervously.

"I have NEVER burned down any orphanages, I do NOT have an irrational hatred of small children, in fact I LOVE orphans in particular, you can ask anyone."

"You did, though! That was like two years ago, back when you were part of the Sleepy Bois Inc!"

Tubbo actually knew quite a lot about the Sleepy Bois, the infamous villain team who were particularly known for conning people into taking part in some sort of strange experiments, like that time they somehow transported a hundred people to the moon and told them to terraform a random area. The group had broken up a while back and two of the four had since reformed. Well, more or less reformed anyway. Actually not really reformed, but they were at least sticking to smaller crimes these days.

Anyway Mr. Business was now one of Tubbo's best friends, although nobody was supposed to know that. And Dirty Crime Boy seemed like a surprisingly nice guy. He was out there running what seemed to be some kind of a drug van but Tubbo had chosen not to worry about it too much.

The other two members, however...

"Sleepy Boys? Doesn't ring a bell." Protesilaus' face was suspiciously blank.

"You know, back when you called yourself the Blood God."

"Nah nah nah, I'm Protesilaus, not the Blood God."

"Come on, you're OBVIOUSLY the Blood God."

"I've never even heard of that guy."

"You're LITERALLY a pigman with superhealing powers and a shiny magical sword, you wear a crown AND you're hanging out with a blond guy with wings who looks just like the Angel of Death."

"Wow, wild coincidence", said Protesilaus

“Not gonna lie, the Angel of Death is a really cool name“, said Zephyrus.

Tubbo ignored them. "And you sound exactly like the Blood God."

"I don't hear it", said Protesilaus.

"You said you don't even know who he is!"

"Exactly."

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN 'EXACTLY'??? THAT DOESN'T EVEN MAKE SENSE!!!"

"Well I can't hear it if I've never even heard him speak. That's just logic."

Up in the rafters Zephyrus was cackling like a madman.

"You annoy me so much", said Tubbo.

"Aaaanyways, just give us a little peek into the vault, alright? Just out of curiosity, you know."

Tubbo had made it to the remote, he just needed one more distraction to cover for him grabbing it. "Uh..." Then he had an idea: he just took a quick sudden glance at the exit, as if he'd seen something over there and sure enough both of the criminals immediately turned to check. It was just long enough. He got the remote. "Okay fine, you can see the vault."

"Nice, nice." Protesilaus was still glancing around suspiciously but he had no idea what he should have been suspicious of.

Tubbo was more than happy to open the vault now. It might be holding the prototypes but it was also filled with a small army of robots.

All of which came to life with the press of a button.

"Ah", said Protesilaus. "There's his secret back-up."

"Oh Jesus", said Zephyrus. "I think we fucked up."

"You could say that", said Tubbo. "If you just leave peacefully I might let you go", he added in a sudden fit of uncharacteristic levels of confidence.

Protesilaus raised his sword. "Well you see, I really want those weapons, though."

"I guess you'll just have to fight the robots for it then", said Tubbo, configuring the targetting system.

"Mate, they've got guns on them", Zephyrus called out from above.

"Take cover then", said Protesilaus, very much not taking any cover at all himself.

Tubbo, pretty sure the bots knew which people to fight, released them on the criminals.

Protesilaus immediately managed to dodge the first few lazer bolts from the bots, but the third hit him on the arm. He flinched a bit but didn't seem too bothered. "Ouch. Okay so they can actually aim."

Still dancing around the shots, he held his hand to the wound and once he took it off, only the singed hole on his sleeve remained. The Blood God had been known for some kind of healing powers and coincidentally Protesilaus of the Syndicate, who apparently definitely wasn't the Blood God, just happened to also have healing powers. This fight was going to be hard even for thirty robots.

The pigman finally took some cover, hiding behind a pillar. The robots would have to move closer and Tubbo could already tell that if he'd manage to single them out, Protesilaus would easily take them down one by one.

Even worse, Zephyrus had hidden behind a different pillar up near the ceiling and was sniping the bots from above. They were supposed to be bulletproof but the man was absolutely cracked and managed to keep hitting them in the joints and in the eyes.

But at least the bots had given Tubbo some room to work with. He bolted into the vault and headed straight for a very specific section.

"So I just wanna know, professor", Protesilaus called out from the hall, "how are you NOT the evil mastermind here? You have a LITERAL horde of robots in your control that you can just let loose on people!"

"What do you MEAN? They're for fighting people like you! In this exact kind of situation!" Tubbo found what he was looking for and quickly unbuckled the huge harnesses holding it in place. He had to get a stool to reach the highest ones and nearly tripped on it in his hurry.

"Oh and how many of these have you sold to the government? And what if they just decide that they'd be very convenient for taking care of dissenters?"

"Well if the dissenters are literal supervillains, that sounds great." He climbed the ladder on the wall up to the platform by the mech suit and jumped inside.

He couldn't hear what Protesilaus responded after he pulled down the dome of the suit over his body. The sounds of fighting and the bulletproof glass drowned it all out from this distance, and the sound system wasn’t turned on yet. Now the odds should be a lot more even, though. Let’s see how they deal with this, he thought. He settled in and launched the mech--

... and then maneuvered awkwardly through the mess of secret weapons and machines inside his vault. He was pretty sure he didn't break too many things on the way, it was fine. In the corner of his eye he thought he saw a flash of pink and for a second he worried that the pigman had followed him into the vault where it would be almost impossible for him to fight in the suit but luckily he could still hear the sound of sword clanging into metal from outside.

He moved over to the vault door as sneakily as he could while piloting a 12-foot-tall machine in a tight space and looked out into the hall. The floor was littered with broken robots, and there were several blinded ones aimlessly wandering around and getting in the way of the ones that still functioned properly. Protesilaus was towards the back of the hall, stabbing a bot in the armpit and tearing off its arm, Zephyrus on the other hand, still perching on the rafters, had moved around the pillar he had hidden behind, now aiming away from the vault. Neither of them were looking at Tubbo. He took aim and shot at one of the huge grey wings.

"Ah! Fuck!" Zephyrus spun around. "You little shit!"

"Zephyrus, are you okay??" Protesilaus immediately looked over to his ally and took another hit himself.

"I'm FINE, dude!" Zephyrus sounded exasperated but fond. "Look out yourself! Also the kid has a fucking mech."

"A what?"

Tubbo slammed the vault door shut. Good luck getting in there now, Syndicate. Then he tossed aside some robot carcasses to clear out the floor and threw one at Protesilaus who dodged it easily but in the process took another hit from a different robot. He was starting to look tired and he was obviously distracted by Zephyrus getting hurt. That was promising.

Tubbo started climbing the pillar up to the ceiling. Zephyrus cursed again and tried to hop around the pillar to run across to the other side but his hurt wing didn't open properly so he lost his balance, slipped up and fell. "Shit!"

"ZEPHYRUS!"

The man managed to open his wings and soften the fall but the injury made him veer dangerously to the left and crash into a pile of broken robots. Protesilaus leaped over to him, dropping his sword and laying his hands on his friend's wing and back. A faint red glow emitted from the touch points.

Tubbo jumped back down to the ground and stormed at them. He punched the pigman right in the chin, sending him flying across the room. He then tried to grab Zephyrus but the man had already slipped away and had apparently managed to pick up his friend's sword. "You motherfucker", the man said, "I'm going to take that fucking suit apart and then it's your turn."

"Zeph!" Protesilaus called from the side and Zephyrus tossed the sword to him without taking his eyes of off Tubbo. Then the man pulled up his sniper rifle again and Tubbo quickly covered his weak points with his armoured arms and jumped behind a pillar. He needed to disarm Zephyrus ASAP.

Behind them, Protesilaus was taking care of the last few robots. Tubbo didn't have much time, but he couldn't do anything until Zephyrus would have to reload, the guy was just too accurate...

"Oh fuck", said Zephyrus suddenly. "Prot, the door!"

They all turned to look at the exit.

There, at the door, was Ranboo, widened eyes flicking between Tubbo, the broken robots and the Syndicade. He was holding a bowl of biscuits and a cup of tea. "Uh... hello? Hi?"

Ranboo was actually NOT allowed in the vaults but how do you stop someone who can literally teleport anyway? Tubbo was glad to see him sneaking in, though.

"Ranboo! Help! They're trying to steal the weapons!"

"I..." Ranboo seemed frozen in place.

"Ranboo!" Tubbo was starting to get worried. His husband wasn't even taking any shelter. He drove the mech over to him to at least give him some protection.

"I just came to bring you cookies? Coz I thought maybe you were staying late to make the deadline and I thought--"

"Ranboo, I'm being attacked by supervillains right now!"

"Look, what if we just talked this through? I'm sure everybody here would rather not kill each other, right?" Ranboo was tall enough to lay a hand on Tubbo's shoulder even when he was wearing the mech suit which kind of pissed Tubbo off to be quite honest.

"Sure", said Protesilaus, "I love negotiating. Give us the weapons and their blueprints and we're more than happy to go."

"See? That's good, right? Tubbo, we can just let them have the weapons."

"Ranboo, sometimes you're a bit too quirky for my liking. Stop being quirky, help me fight them. You can use your... T-E-L-I-P-O-R-T-A-T-I-O-N powers."

Everybody just stared at him for a second.

"Shouldn't it be T-E-L-E?" said Protesilaus.

"Tubbo, you realise they can spell words too, you know, like most people who graduated elementary school?" said Ranboo.

"I'M SORRY! I'M TIRED, OKAY?"

“You could have just said ‘use your powers’, I mean, I know what my powers are.”

“IT'S BEEN A REALLY LONG DAY!“

"Zephyrus, I think this guy might be too much for us, I've never met such intimidating intellect", said Protesilaus. Zephyrus seemed to already be dying of laughter and his ally's words did not help.

"Now that's just rude," said Tubbo.

He'd barely finished his sentence when a horrible whistling sound hit them all like an invisible cargo train. After a second Tubbo managed to reassemble his braincells long enough to figure it out: "The fire alarm!"

Then he noticed the grin on his enemy's face. "Well, good job, everyone! Let's go home, Zephyrus", said Protesilaus cheerfully.

"Sure, mate."

The secret third member of the Syndicate, Tubbo suddenly remembered. The container they'd brought with them was gone too. Well, fuck. "This whole thing was a diversion??"

"Yep." The Protesilaus was already at the exit and Zephyrus was following right behind him. "See ya, losers!"

Something inside the vault exploded, making a muffled bang through the door, as if just to prove where exactly the fire had been lit.

"Oh man..." Tubbo flopped down on his seat. "I spent SO LONG building all those things!"

"Tubbo, we need to get out." Ranboo took him by the hand of his mech suit and pulled him along.

"No, we could still go in and save the--"

"No, Tubbo. Let's NOT run into the vault full of dangerous chemicals that's literally on fire, actually."

×××

By the time the fire department showed up, pink flames had enveloped the entire lab complex. The terrorists presumably had at least one of the prototypes now and all the remaining ones were a lost cause.

It's not like all the work was gone to waste, they'd made some backups at least, but it would be a pain to find a new lab and order all the extremely volatile chemicals again. So much paperwork. Tubbo was really not good at paperwork.

"Well, there goes my summer holidays I guess", he said.

"Yeah", said Ranboo. "There they go."

×××

"So... Lethe", said Techno at the next Syndicate meeting, "you never happened to mention you were friends with Professor Underscore."

Ranboo shifted nervously in his chair. "I mean... in my defence, you never said you were going to raid his lab?"

"True, true. It didn't seem like relevant information at the time I suppose. You know, because you're kinda more in the group just for the book club and Bake Off Fridays and not so much for the vigilante thing."

"How do you know Professor Underscore, Lethe?" asked Niki gently.

Ranboo looked around the table. He was fairly certain that the others wouldn't kill him for fraternizing with the enemy. He was pretty sure anyway. At least 70% sure.

Also they were all staring at him now.

"Uh... he's my... husband?"

The staring continued.

"Oh!" said Niki.

"Well", said Techno. "This is awkward."

"Uh huh?" Ranboo responded, his entire body tense and slightly wobbly.

"Techno", Phil said softly. Techno brushed him off.

"So uh, are you attached to him, Lethe?"

"Y-yes?" Ranboo straightened his back. "Yes." he said again, more firmly.

"Alright. I guess in the future we should try not to kill him then."

[boatemhole]

crossfire | a hermitcraft x dreamsmp crossover

ohhh boy oh boy. remember that hc x dsmp crossover i was talking about a while back? the one with ranboo and zed? well, i finally finished writing it! i can be found here on wattpad, or if you don’t have it you can read it under the cut :D

this is actually more hermitcraft-centered than dsmp, so heads-up for that. i don’t watch too much dsmp so i tried to keep it as vague as possible for ranboo’s parts. i had a lot of help from my friends on that bit

word count: 2115 tws: swearing, mentions of wars

Ranboo wasn't sure where he was, but it definitely wasn't the Dream SMP.

The place he found himself in had buildings that seemed to stretch upwards forever. There was no consistency in the block palettes; each build had its own distinct style. Some were larger than the others--one build that looked like a town hall seemed to overlook the rest of the builds. Ranboo could even see more buildings that were in the background and seemed to have their own islands.

What was this place? Was this someone's base? It was huge. It seemed to go on forever.

For some reason, the grass hadn't spread around the island completely yet. He noticed some large patches of dirt that looked freshly dugout. Little sprouts of grass had started to grow, but it hadn't completely covered the dirt yet.

As Ranboo wandered the area, he heard a small moo. Turning around, he saw a lone mooshroom, its red and white hide looking out of place among the green grass. He vaguely remembered that mooshrooms are supposed to be in mycelium islands, not regular ones like this.

How did this one get here, then? Poor thing.

Had this place been a mushroom island before? It would explain the still-spreading grass. Whoever owned this place must have put in so much time and effort here between the builds and the replaced mycelium. It was incredible. The look of this place was chaotic--so many different styles crammed together--but, at the same time, there was a certain harmony it had.

Ranboo slowly walked up to the mooshroom as to not scare it. When the cow approached him, he held out a hand and petted it a bit, feeling surprising sympathy for the animal. It was taken out of its natural habit and was alone now.

Kind of how he had found himself here, in this place he had no idea how to navigate.

As he petted the mooshroom, he thought he heard a firework sound off in the background. When he looked around, though, there was nothing.

Oh, yeah. Where were all the people? Where was the person that built this place?

Then, he looked up and saw someone flying above him.

Flying...?

Ranboo didn't recognize the grayish-purple wings strapped onto the man's back. They looked light, but they managed to catch the wind so the person who had the wings strapped to them glided around easily. Instead of feathers, these wings had a more silky, transparent look to them. There were only two main parts of the set, and they functioned pretty simply. The two parts just expanded whenever the person was in flight.

The person noticed Ranboo, too, and he landed on the ground. It wasn't anyone Ranboo recognized. They had light blonde hair, violet eyes, and a brown tunic. He was wearing diamond armor--no netherite. And instead of a chestplate, he was wearing those wings.

From the look on his face, he didn't recognize Ranboo, either.

The guy gave Ranboo that confused once-over, like he wasn't sure who--or what--he was looking at. He must have looked very odd compared to the other person's attire.

"Um...how did you get here?" he said after a moment. "I, uh, haven't seen you around before."

Ranboo sighed inwardly. "Honestly, I don't even know myself."

He reached into his inventory for his memory book, but after a few moments of digging around for it...he didn't find it. He opened his backpack all the way to look for it, but it wasn't there.

He started to panic a bit. He didn't like going anywhere without his memory book--he tended to forget things a lot, and he wrote them down in his book so he didn't forget. Without it, he constantly forgot important things...like how he'd gotten here.

...Shit.

The other person noticed his panic and hurriedly gave him a "calm-down" gesture. "Hey, don't worry about it," he said quickly. "I'm sure there's a reason why you're here."

"I'm Zedaph, by the way," he added as an afterthought. "You can call me Zed. For now, why don't I take you to Xisuma? He might know something about all this."

Zedaph? Xisuma? Who the hell were these people?

"Listen, I don't think I'm supposed to be here--" Ranboo said, looking around as if he could somehow find an exit out of this place. "I'm part of a different SMP, not...whatever this one is. I don't even know what this place is--I belong to the Dream SMP."

Zed paused as something occurred to him. "Wait--hold on, you're a part of the Dream SMP?"

Ranboo was a bit confused at Zed's sudden curiosity. "Uh, yeah. Why?"

Zed leaned against a shop's storefront, petting the mooshroom Ranboo found earlier idly. "What is it like?"

Ranboo was really confused now. Zed had changed topics at the speed of light. "Uh, what is what like?"

"The Dream SMP."

When Ranboo raised an eyebrow, Zed continued.

"Well, we've heard some things about that SMP. It's kind of infamous. Big reputation. I don't really know how to explain this, but uh...we've heard that conflicts on that server are more...major?" His voice went up an octave. "More serious? Than other SMPs, at least."

"Oh, um. Yeah." Ranboo was careful choosing his words, knowing he was treading on a ground littered with landmines. "What about it?"

"Well, compared to a place like here--Hermitcraft--we have more, uh, lighthearted conflicts. Not entirely serious, you know?" Zed cleared his throat awkwardly and glanced to the side.

So this was Hermitcraft. Just like how Zed said the DSMP was well-known, people knew the Hermitcraft server well, too. Specifically their big, grindy builds. Ranboo should have known that's where he was. This place definitely did Hermitcraft justice.

Zed was still looking at him curiously. Ranboo knew he wasn't going to let this go until he said something about it--he seemed like that kind of person.

"Well, I'm probably not the best person to turn to for this kind of stuff," Ranboo started.

"Hey, you're the only DSMP member who's appeared in our server randomly," Zed joked with a little laugh. "You're my only source. You can probably say something ridiculous that would never happen here and I'd have to believe you."

"Okay. A place called L'Manburg was blown up three times by three different people at three different times." Ranboo put on his best deadpan face, though Zed probably couldn't see it behind his mask and sunglasses.

Zed stared at him for a count of five. "...You're not joking, are you?"

"Nope. Actually happened."

"Um...wow. Okay." Zed didn't seem to know what to do with that info. That kind of stuff was probably unheard of in a place like this. "H-how did that happen anyway? What prompts someone to blow up this place thrice? What did it do to deserve that?"

Ranboo went stiff. Zed had hit a sensitive spot. "Wars. Conflict in the server. So many sides taken, the SMP is split in half."

"And...what side are you on?" Zed asked softly.

"...None."

Zed leaned back, surprised by the answer. "Oh, um...can I ask why? If you're comfy saying it, of course."

"No, it's okay." Ranboo took a deep breath before continuing.

"I have this policy. 'Choose people, not sides.' Every conflict on this server has started out because of two conflicting beliefs. Then, people start taking the side of one belief. Then, it just...escalates from there. I don't choose a side because that's going to solve nothing. Instead, I choose people. Of course, I want all this conflict to be over.

"But it never stops."

He trailed off as he realized he'd started rambling. "Uh, crap, you probably didn't want to hear all that, though--I'm sorry--"

"No, no, it's okay," Zed said quickly. "It's just...y'see, on Hermitcraft, our wars are more...lighthearted. Not as serious. I've said this before. There's no real conflict, just servermates messing around with each other."

"I wish I could experience that kind of thing," Ranboo muttered. It made sense that a place like this didn't have a lot of real conflict. It was like a haven of some sort to Ranboo. A special place that was unachievable in his own server.

"...I can't imagine going to actual war when it's my friends who are on the opposing side," Zed continued. "I mean, sure, we've had wars before, but it's always lighthearted roleplay. We're not actually mad at each other, y'know?"

He was silent for a moment before adding on one last bit. "Though some...recent wars...have gotten a bit more out of hand."

"How about you?" Ranboo asked. "What side are you on for these wars?"

"Would you believe me if I said 'none', too?" Zed said with a smile.

"Wait...really?"

"Not for the reasons you are. It's just...not my thing. I don't usually get involved in big server events. I have my own projects I want to work on. Though I have these two friends—Tango and Impulse—who always get involved. And they always end up on opposite teams."

"What's that like after the war is over?"

"Weird. It didn't use to be like this, but there's this...lingering tension now. Like I said earlier, the wars are getting a bit more serious, and it takes me a while longer to break the ice again between 'em. It's not like immediately after the war things go back to normal. Not anymore."

Ranboo let out a small puff of laughter. "Seems like we each have our own problems, huh?"

"...Yeah. Seems like it."

Ranboo's smile faded, and he sighed. "I wish I could be a part of a really close server like this. It seems fun."

"What do you mean?"

"Well...let's just say I don't really have any close friends on the DSMP."

"...You don't?"

Ranboo instantly regretted oversharing with Zed. The reason why he never told people about this is that they tended to go "Oh, poor you"! and baby you afterward.

Why did he share this with Zed, anyway? Out of all the people he could have confessed to...why a Hermit? They had it easy over here. How could he understand? Why not talk to someone on the DSMP who could?

But...Zed continued to surprise him with what he said.

"If you want...I can be your first real friend."

Ranboo did a double-take. Out of all the things Zed had said—and some of them had seemed downright foreign to him—this is what surprised him the most. He didn't go "Poor thing! Do you want a hug?" or awkwardly change the subject...he listened. More importantly, he understood.

And that was something Ranboo wasn't used to.

He realized Zed was waiting for an answer, and he awkwardly cleared his throat. He couldn't say anything that could properly convey the...happiness he felt when Zed offered to be his friend. Yes, that was it. He didn't realize how lonely he'd felt before.

Even if he did have people he hung out with more on the DSMP, he never felt close to them. That wasn't something he felt with Zed. For whatever reason, in the short time he'd talked to him, Ranboo felt like he could relate to him. A lot. They had to deal with the same kind of problem, even if their conflicts were on opposite ends. They were two sides of the same coin.

"...Yeah," he said after a moment longer. "I'd like that."

Zed smiled a bit, and Ranboo did have to read too deep into it to know that he was thinking along the same lines as he was right now. He was that kind of person.

After a moment of silence, Zed cleared his throat. "Um. Though...you know you can't stay here forever. You have your own server, and the whitelist will kick you out sooner or later. You belong in the Dream SMP. Not here. As much as I'd like you to stay."

Ranboo laughed as a thought occurred to him. "It was never meant to be, huh?"

"What?"

"Nothing."

"But--before the whitelist kicks you out, we should make the most of the time left. I don't know if I'll see you again, y'know? And I want to hear about everything in the DSMP."

Ranboo felt a smile grow on his face. Zed delivering bad news, then immediately following with a hopeful smile afterward was something he'd do. He was glad he met Zed today...even if it was under the weirdest circumstances he'd ever encountered. And he'd seen some pretty odd things.

"Yeah. C'mon, let's go find somewhere to sit." Zed got up from his sitting spot, brushed off the dirt, and gestured for Ranboo to follow him. "I'll tell you what's happening in my server, and you can tell me about yours!"

[bones-sprouts]

SELF INDULGENT APOLLO JUSTICE ACE ATTORNEY AU BECAUSE IT BRINGS ME JOY ( SPOILER WARNING ⚠️‼️)

@burnoutandbookworms-ohmy you wanted to be tagged :>

okay so the cast would be as follows

apollo - tommy

phoenix - wilbur

trucy - tubbo

klavier - ranboo (this one's ambitious but hear me out-)

kristoph - dream

ema - techno

lamiroir - kristin

zak - phil (F in chat for mr minecraft 😔)

and then all of the filler characters would be various other smp members (suggestions?)

so then the plot would go as follows (we're bullet pointing this bitch you better run)

°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•

• so tommy arrives in the courtroom with dream, and he's nervous as hell, because not only is it his first trial

• his client is wilbur fucking soot

• world renouned defense attorney, now disbarred for forging evidence

• but tommy is 110% sure wilbur is innocent

• because wilbur is his HERO

• and then dream introduces them and damn he looks like shit

• i'm talking full pogtopia era get-up, plus a ratty beanie that has wilby painted on it and a crown pin

• so wil spouts the standard cryptic bullshit you'd expect from phoenix

• and tommy does an early smpe earth 'i am so cool and not at all starstruck' type act

• and they head in

• you meet the judge, who i didn't replace bc it's the judge

• tommy does his chords of steel, but with significantly more swearing then apollo would use

• and dream seems to be just a bit off

• and he goes on this big tirade about blue cards

• the case goes smoothly, until

• tommy feels something akin to a burning from the compass he's kept as a necklace for as long as he can remember

• and he just knows that the witness is lying

• it's like he can see the tiniest of tells that tip him off

• dream doesn't quite understand it, but wilbur looks like he knows exactly what's going on

• before he calls this out, though, a recess is called

• wilbur and dream have a chat, so tommy's left to his own devices

• and this boy about his age in a green magician's outfit runs up to him

• and he looks like an older version of the picture of wilbur's kid that he showed off in court beforehand

• and he hands tommy a (bloody??) playing card and poofs away

• then the trial resumes as normal, with tommy grilling the witness and eventually accusing her

• but it just doesn't seem right

• he knows she's not lying about being innocent, her tells would have tipped him off if she was

• but dream pushes and pushes him to formally accuse her

• until wilbur fucking soot interjects with an OBJECTION!

• while tommy geeks the hell out, wilbur asserts that there must have been someone else in the room

• and accuses dream.

• tommy's confused, and the both of them argue back and forth for a bit, until wilbur starts explaining his theory with evidence from tommy along the way

• but it's seeming like they don't have any non circumstancial evidence

• until wilbur has tommy pull out the playing card

• (i haven't been explaining the case but it makes sense i promise)

• they win the case, with dream never faltering or showing emotion, even after being taken away

• tommy's shaken up, but happy, all things considered

• but before he can ponder on what's just happened, wilbur takes him aside to talk

• and admits the card was forged

• tommy's shocked, and he's sad, and he's angry, because how could wilbur fucking soot forge evidence??

• and he punches him in the face

• wil smiles and gives him an offer to work at his office, since tommy's boss is kind of in jail

• tommy leaves

• but he comes back a few months later, only out of desperation

• he's greeted by the boy from the trial (wil's kid?)

• who demands to know his name and his 'talent'

• tommy says he's a lawyer and introduces himself

• the kid says his name is tubbo and that the building hasn't been a law office in a long time

• tommy asks to see wilbur

• so they go to see him

• in the fucking hospital

• he managed to get hit by a car, which sent him flying 40ft back into a telephone pole

• and he sprained his ankle

• he's very lucky apparently

• so from there, cases 2 and 3 play out (i'm gonna skim though these bc if i write them out ill end up rewriting plot points and i don't have the energy)

• along the way, they meet a few interesting people

• ranboo, a prosecutor who's dream's younger brother and the guitarist for a popular band, that tubbo immediately gets along with and tommy despises

• dispite seeming cocky, he's impressively awkward outside of court

• technoblade, a detective who's fairly standoffish towards tommy and tubbo alike, but has a soft spot for wilbur (do they have a history)

• kristin, a singer with a past she can't remember (unbeknownst to tommy, his compass tends to point towards her and tubbo. odd)

also before we move on to the final case, a quick summary of the dynamics and other small shit bc seritonin

• though wil adopted tubbo, they have much more of a sibling dynamic, and cause general mayhem

• wilbur does actually warm up to tommy fairly quickly (beanix and apollo dynamic, my abbhorrent) and while tommy still doesn't 100% trust wil, they do end up getting pretty close as time goes on

• tubbo and ranboo IMMEDIATELY hit it off, much to the dismay of tommy, and the two of them act like the dummy named micheal that tubbo uses for magic tricks is their son

• tommy acts like he hates ranboo's guts, but that won't stop him from trying to sweet talk his way into getting evidence from him (it always works, ranboo has no spine.) he also, like in canon, vents to ranboo whenever he needs to, and ranboo ends up knowing more ab him then even wil and tubbo

• jack is eldoon. they all go to his noodle shop constantly and tommy always complains about them being too salty. jack hates him with a passion but adores tubbo and wil

• instead of snakooos, techno deadass just has entire bags full of raw potatoes that he eats like chips, this is terrifying to everyone except wilbur, who acts like it's completely normal

• instead of pretending to be taken hostage in case 2, tubbo deadass pretends to have a nuke and threatens to set it off unless a recess is called. after things calm down they go back in and he just,, doesn't get arrested. the law is fucked

• after case 1, dream wears a smiley mask in order to not show his face, paranoid that tommy or someone else like him will know his secrets though his tells

okay now final case here we go

• wilbur tells tommy and tubbo that he's been working on a special trial with the jury system, and that he needs them to defend

• they agree, and go to meet the client

• things generally go like any other investigation, but there's just something about it that feels game changing

• and as they power though the first part of the trial, they start to uncover that there might be someone pulling the strings from behind the scenes

• tommy clocks her tell (chewing her nails) and they start to make progress

• but before they can uncover answers from her, she passes out

• a recess is called, and so are paramedics

• it turns out she's ingested the same kind of poison as the victim, coming from her nail polish

• tommy and tubbo are shaken up, and they go to wil for help

• he decides they need to know the full truth, but he knows that some of the evidence is lost at this point

(and holy shit stay with me here i promise that as out of left field this is the original game made significantly less sense)

• he phones a friend that he knows is the only one that can help them

• karl

• he explains the situation, and karl agrees to help them

• and they fucking time travel

(again, the game makes even less sense i promise)

• they chat with the victim and defendant from seven years beforehand, right after wil was disbarred

• they watch the trial wil got disbarred over, where he defended tubbo's bio father, phil

• and they see a much smaller tubbo hand wil the forged evidence, saying that a kind man told him to give it to the man with the bright blue hamilton suit

• and they watch wil present it, only to be shot down by a much younger ranboo, who proves it's fake

• and they find out tubbo and tommy are bio siblings, which they're shocked about but decide to talk about later (fuck canon tommy and tubbo get to know)

• and they go visit dream in prison

• at this point wil is CONVINCED dream is behind everything, they just need the right evidence

• so they head to the cell, only for it to be empty

• naturally, they start snooping

• wil finds a letter, and opens it to reveal exactly what they need to win the case

• but before they can leave, dream, equipped with a smiley mask, stops them

• they exchange a few words before they leave, letterless

• luckily, wil has a trick up his sleeve, and reveals that his crown pin has a built in camera

• they examine the contents of the letter, and wil hastily makes a replica, and they head off to the trial

• since they're experimenting with the jurist system for the first time, they can't afford to wait for the defendant to heal, so they proceed

• they call dream to the stand

• they grill him for quite a while, with the help of ranboo who refuses to protect his brother, getting him to show his true colors, and then pull out the letter

• and he says that it's a fake, which the judge unfortunately agrees with

• so they don't have their evidence

• and even though they've shown pretty much everything and dream had practically admitted to bring a murderous bastard and the one who gave tubbo the fake to give to wil

• they don't have enough to convince a judge

• tommy and tubbo are crushed

• but wil is happy

• because they don't have to convince a judge

• they have to convince a jury

• and they win

• dream shatters along with his mask, going completely off the deep end

• their client is safe, and so is wil

• kristin also reveals to wil that she's tommy and tubbo's bio mom, saying that she'll tell them when she's really

• so things come to a close

• for now, anyway

so yeah, thats AJ but dsmp, to anyone who didn't play the game, i'm so sorry this makes no sense, and to anyone who did, you're cool as hell can we be moots 👉👈

[daimonhalos]

The Inbetween may be lying to or tricking Karl

Before we dive in I want you to know that this is purely theorizing and that I might be completely wrong, still I thought that thinking about this in a different lens might actually become pretty intriguing, if we look at the various twists in the plot that the DSMP lore has been having lately.

First off, I also want to warn you all there will be Kingdom Hearts lore spoilers in this argument, so if you were planning onto watching/playing the game, I don’t recommend reading this. In the same way, if you don’t know anything about the games, no worries, I will explain everything the easiest way I can!

This got long, so I’m leaving a read more right under this.

So, I’m sure you’ve all been left aghast at the sight of the Inbetween’s building and, like me, some of you may have recognized the first room Karl was in. For this one room in particular, he got inspired by Castle Oblivion, which is introduced to us in Kingdom Hearts Re:Chain of Memories if I’m not wrong.

Here’s the KH version:

And here’s the Tales of the SMP version:

Now I really really like the fact that, of all things, Karl chose to get inspiration from Castle Oblivion. In the KH game, the protagonist, Sora, ventures into this Castle with his two sidekicks and friends, Donald and Goofy. The peculiar thing about this one place, though, something you might as well figure out by the name, is that the deeper they go into the Castle, the more memories they lose, to the point of forgetting the most important people in their hearts.

Now you may be wondering, but Purp what’s wrong in all this and what does it have to do with the Inbetween? Didn’t it say Karl will be getting a hold onto his memories?

Well, this is where it gets really interesting: you see, in Chain of Memories there is a main antagonist, it’s called Organization XIII and it’s a group of people who are trying to get a hold on Sora so they can control him etc, not too important for our argument as of now. The thing is this group is using a particular girl, her name is Naminé and she can manipulate others’ memories and replace them with fake ones.

So here’s my question: who is talking to Karl through the books in the Inbetween? Who says it’s telling the complete and utter truth? Surely it seems like Karl will be able to manage his powers better and perhaps even his memories (up to debate as in “what if he loses control of them?”). But still, what if there’s someone who’s plotting something behind this? What if they just softened the truth of his powers to him? What if it didn’t tell him everything? For example, I’m sure it tasted sour when it said Karl cannot decide when to time travel. What if this being is the one who does, what if it starts keeping Karl from making history right? What if it starts messing with him as it tries to teach him? Should he really trust it? Well, he doesn’t have any other option now, does he?

Cc!Karl has confirmed he’s made Kingdom Hearts references in the Tales of SMP series in the past and one of them was blatant, i.e. the Village that Never Was, a direct quote to The World that Never Was.

Coincidentially enough, the World that Never Was is the World where the Organization XIII resides (in KH there’s many different scattered Worlds that were once all united). Their headquarters is actually a white castle as well, it’s called the Castle that Never Was, but I do believe it doesn’t have much to do appearence wise to the Inbetween, not as much as it does concept wise to Castle Oblivion. It’s a cool coincidence and sometimes I do like to believe some small things are actually done on purpose.

Now there’s actually another thing that came into my mind thinking about the Inbetween that is linked to Kingdom Hearts.

In one of the latest games, Kingdom Hearts III, a new world has been introduced: The Final World. Sora ends up there because he seems to have died, but it is said that people who end up there continue to persist due to something (or someone) holding them from death. So you could say that this is a sort of Inbetween as well, right? Furthermore, in this place Sora is able to speak to others who ended up there and they tell him their stories. This calls me back to the Lost City of Mizu, where we got to know more about the current members through their descendants, as wrong as they may have been. Or just the new pieces of information Karl is getting, like the existence of the Egg centuries and centuries earlier.

Want to know what happens next in the game? Sora time travels. He time travels to make things right, because right before the moment he died, he had lost all his friends in the War that had just taken place, so he time travels to make things right.

Foreshadowing, anyone?

There’s also complicated and very strict laws of time travel in the KH lore, some laws I still haven’t been able to comprehend as I’ve only recently caught up, but one coincidence is that usually you shouldn’t be able to choose when you time travel, you need very specific conditions.

These conditions are also strictly detailed for the KH lore which is a part of it that has nothing to do with DSMP (for all who know about the game, it's about the whole Heartless, Nobody, soul and/or heart dying at different times, all that stuff) so I won't go further than this.

I really wanted to put this out there because finding these coincidences is super interesting and it may even lead to something in the future, who knows! Maybe just some more easter eggs placed by Karl, I honestly am absolutely loving what he’s doing with the series and I can’t wait for more lore.

Tell me what you guys think in case! Again I pointed this out just for fun.

[mcytbdamofficial]

the full bdam!schlatt design page!

hi friends :) got something really cool to show you today!!! gonna put it under the cut as there is quite a lot to go through here haha...

but! essentially what you’ll find here is design pages for bdam!schlatt i’ve been working on for about a week now! there are a total of 21 designs for various stages of the story, which I explained in detail. feel free to just skim through and look at the drawings, haha. and enjoy!

(all of the designs are put in chronological order of the story, rather than the order of which they are in the actual story. they are also ONLY designs for bdam, and don’t include anything related to bhav)

first what i drew up here are designs for schlatt in the first stages of the smplive chapters! on the left is his very first appearance, and on the right is how i imagine him to look around his teen years.

in the first design is how i imagine schlatt looking when he first meets wilbur. at this stage of the story he was of course living in the inner districts of the city with not a lot to his name, so you can see ragged and dirty clothes there. he would usually carry his four discs around in his backpack since he didn’t think it’d be smart to leave them unattended in his parents’ apartment.

after getting taken in by phil, there was an immidiate change in how he dressed and acted - mostly getting more clean and fitting clothes, as well as trusting his surroundings enough to leave the discs in the room he shared with wilbur, never really feeling they were in danger. you can see the design on the right is a lot neater, AND he’s got the blue sweater! 

the second set of designs is mostly right before and right after phil’s banishment - more simply right before and right after schlatt was kicked out of the house the family stayed in and was forced to go work at the live daily

the design on the left is what schlatt looked like when he tried to make money for the family right before the banishment - he was described to have been wearing an old shirt of techno’s, a tie made up of a cut piece of techno’s old cloak and black jeans. it wasn’t a suit, but it was made to look close enough to one to help him sell things in a more convincing manner. up close, however, the outfit looked very clearly cheap.

on the right is schlatt’s design for the live daily! together with the aparment he got and everything else techno managed to put together through his connections with pete, he also got some actual suit shirts and pants he could wear, together with a tie. he would often carry around pens and pencils as well as a notepad (at least before he was barred from writing stories for the paper following the ted nivison piece), and was granted a press pass as any other worker at the paper, but he would hardly use it as it was near useless with his low position and permissions anyway.

in the third set of designs we have both of his schlatt & co designs, from before and after the fire that lead him to finding out about the nether intolerance and everything else surrounding it.

at this point in the story, the company was set up and schlatt, connor and wilbur all had enough money left to get themselves nice suits they could use for work. not only that, they made business cards! they’d give them out to clients and new people alike to try and get exposure. you can also see a clear change in how he styled his hair - going from overly neat for his more stable job to more messy for a job he had more control over.

on the right is schlatt’s look after the fire - when the captain concluded what he had he started offering to test schlatt more to try and find some sort of work around for the intolerance, or at least to try and figure out how it worked. he would often be seen with bandages or small bandaids from skin samples being taken, injections, blood being drawn, etc. he wouldn’t wear his jacket a lot around this time since it would be uncomofrtable anyway, and he rarely did business up close around this time considering how he looked.

in this fourth set of designs, we have a design for schlatt during his time in the lunch club, and a design for schlatt during the floods. they are two widely different designs - but i decided to put them side by side for contrast.

in the lunch club design, you can see some minor changes. he’s back to having a full, clean suit, and clearly started presenting himself A LOT more professionally. and as every other member of the lunch club, his badge could always be visible - and hey, i finally designed the badge! it’s a sort of more serious spin of the normal lunch club logo. the other six members had badges from the previous six - but schlatt’s was newly made, so it lacked the wear and tear of the others. another thing about this stage of his life was that he would often be seen around the city on various posters - as all other lunch club members. this was a sort of pseudo-propaganda method to keep the city loyal to the seven leaders and to raise kids admiring them.

on the flood design you can see everything we learn from the narration - schlatt used the jacket of his suit for the most part to bandage up wilbur’s leg, and used whatever was left to make a make-shift sling for his broken arm. there’s not much to say about this other than it being a drawing of what i saw mentally as i wrote those sections!

in the fifth set of designs we have one minor design and one far more major one - between schlatt after smplive’s recovery from the flood, and schlatt after he was left behind by everyone.

on the left, after everything returned to normal, schlatt got back to work at his, wilbur’s and connor’s company. he got a proper cast and sling for his broken arm, and he once more went back to a cheaper, but more comfortable suit. there’s really not much to say about this design, i just wanted to draw the cast-suit combo since i haven't done that before lol

the design on the right is a very important one! this is a design for how i imagine schlatt to look during his time alone in smplive. he would probably hang onto a sense of normalcy with the suit and everything - but would also try to get more functional with what he wore. he would carry a backpack with supplies he would need at any time and that he would fill with things he found around the city while looking for supplies, and he’d have a lot of straps to hang weapons, potions, etc... for the most part, he just tried to get an outfit that could keep things normal and familiar for him but also keep him alive. he always carried the picture of him and wilbur, stal, and a bag of schlattcoins. and of course, the voice recording device. that’s the only thing of those four he left behind when he left the city for good.

finally, some horn designs! these are really fun! on the left we have schlatt right after his first journey through the nether, and on the right we have him after he was nursed back to health by niki! 

when walking through the nether, even despite minx’s magic, schlatt’s condition still left him hurt severely. he also, of course, got hurt quite a lot walking through a place that dangerous. through his walk he grew very small horns - but they were not as big as they would be later. his eyes also begun to shift colour from brown into yellow, but the colour did not show very clearly at first. a small split also showed in the pupil of the eye, but once more, it was barely visible at this time.

after recovering, there isn’t really much to point out. schlatt got fresh clothes, most of the wounds were cleaned and fixed up, and apart from the horns, it was quite hard to tell the difference between how he looked in the dsmp and right before the left smplive.

in the seventh design we have some more severe hybrid features! these got really fun to draw from this point on! on the left we have how schlatt looked during his ban, and on the right is how he looked after, once more, being nursed back to health by niki after coming back. 

on the left design, you can see the hybrid features have gotten more severe. the horns grew out and curled, more resembling that of a ram, and his eyes fully shifted colour to yellow as well as their pupils splitting completely and turning a more rectangular shape. you can see his clothes being a lot more torn and dirty, as well as his jacket being ripped up and used as bandages for most of his body. at this point, schlatt had left his bag in the dsmp and had practically nothing to work with in the nether, especially in the early days when minx was still angry with him and very unwilling to help out in any way. 

on the right we have his design after recovery. he has some bandages, some clean clothes, and once more, there isn’t a lot to say. you can still see some bruises around his face, as well. ah, and of course, at this point he has the chops(tm).

in the eighth design i put together 3 suit designs, since i didn’t need to get too detailed with these ones. let me quickly run through these!

in the first design here, we have schlatt during the election! he got a cheap suit from wilbur that he wore when he expected him to do a speech in support of pog2020, which we of course know didn’t actually happen. at this point he still had most of the damage the ban in the nether did to him underneath, whether it be bandages or bruises.

in the second design we have schlatt during his presidency! this was definitely at his peak, with a nice, custom suit (you can see the manberg flag sewn into it around the chest), which shows how in control of everything he was at the time. 

for the festival, schlatt chose a more extravagant outfit, as did everyone who showed up. you can see a more casual, “human” suit to try and fit in with his people and try and paint himself as a fair ruler. he also put rings and other decorations on his horns for this event!

in the ninth design we have schlatt after the festival and during his further presidency. these were fun to do - let me walk you through them!

as shown in the design on the left, following the festival, schlatt lost an eye, burned most of the right side of his body, and lost a part of his horn. no one really know where it went. it’s believed it was lost in all the panic, eventually, and probably perished in the explosion. his right eye turned completely grey and faded, and he couldn’t see with it. following everything, he had bandages on most of his body for quite some time.

as shown in the right design, schlatt’s further presidency was a facade. he still has his clean, custom suit, but it doesn’t seem to fit the same. you can also see his hair got far messier and he never seemed to bother to actually clean it up. 

and so we reach the final, tenth page of designs! we have schlatt during the dsmp finale, and then we have him during the bdam finale!

in the left design you can see i got HEAVILY inspired by sad-ist’s dawn of the 16th animatic! at this point, schlatt lost his eyepatch but didn’t care enough to replace it or fix it up, and you can see his dishevelled state with how he’s dressed and how his clothes look overall. you can clearly see the burns on the right side of his face, and how little he does to conceal them.

and finally, the finale design! schlatt and wilbur, when they were between life and death, sort of became a mix of their spirits and minds - on one hand was their normal selves, but on the other, was that more innocent side left long behind, symbolised by the blue sweater he USED to wear when he lived with phil, mixed with a nice shirt he’d wear normally. in this void, his state is also more clean and orderly, which is why his horn is back in place and there’s a lack of burns. it’s essentially the most stable representation of him that can manifest - without changing him completely.

and that’s that! hope you guys like these <3 i worked really hard on them, and i’m planing to do more in the future for different characters! i have a lot of time to work on these now that i’m taking a break, so i hope to get more done soon. for now, that’s all! thanks for taking a look at these! <3

[votederpycausemufins]

Another chapter, and next one people will arrive, but for now it’s more of the bots

special people tag list: @petrichormeraki and @helleborusangel

Grum was sleeping when it happened.

Itsfundy was shot by skeleton.

Grumbot immediately turned on, but he wasn’t immediately awake. Programs started working and calculating.

Life Counter active. Entity Check Itsfundy. Death: non canon. Commence respawn.

Error.

Blacklist check. Attempting Entry: Itsfundy. Assigned roles: Family Member, Cousin, DSMP Member. Banned roles: Family Member, Cousin. Continue blacklist.

Blacklist check activated. Increase displacement by .5%. Displacing. Displacement complete. Displacement at 43.5% total.

Entity is entering from location: respawn. Retargeting to default world. Default world: DSMP.

Blacklist check. Attempting Entry: Itsfundy. Assigned roles: Family Member, Cousin, DSMP Member. Banned roles: Family Member, Cousin. Continue blacklist.

Blacklist check activated. Increase displacement by .5%. Displacing. Displacement complete. Displacement at 44% total.

Entity is entering from location: respawn. Retargeting to default world. Default world: DSMP.

Blacklist check. Attempting Entry: Itsfundy. Assigned roles: Family Member, Cousin, DSMP Member. Banned roles: Family Member, Cousin. Continue blacklist.

Blacklist check activated. Increase displacement by .5%. Displacing. Displacement complete. Displacement at 44.5% total.

Entity is entering from location: respawn. Retargeting to default world. Default world: DSMP.

Blacklist check. Attempting Entry: Itsfundy. Assigned roles: Family Member, Cousin, DSMP Member. Banned roles: Family Member, Cousin. Continue blacklist.

Blacklist check activated. Repeat offender. Increase displacement by 1%. Displacing. Displacement complete. Displacement at 45.5% total.

Entity is entering from location: respawn. Retargeting to default world. Default world: DSMP.

By this point, Grum was awake, and everything hurt. He didn’t know what was going on. Just about everything was being used for processing, so he didn’t even have the available memory to tell what was happening. An attempt to open his task manager just left the program not responding. With little else to do, Grum just started crying.

It was agony. No one was visiting anytime soon, and there was no way this feedback loop was ending on its own. It also didn’t help that Grum was currently connected to the charger, so it wasn’t like he would run out of battery soon.

Grum was vaguely aware of a percentage ticking up. The rate was speeding up over time and he was waiting for it to hit 100%. Maybe that would stop things. The percentage doubled every three total score increases, so Grum was sure that it would get past 16% at once. 

The total went up. 73.5, 81.5, 89.5. Grum kept watching, ready to hit 100%. And it did and didn’t at the same time. 105.5%. That was more than 100, but maybe it would stop there? But it didn’t. It kept going further. In a moment of panic, Grum was able to gain just enough control to yank his cord out. He was losing power now, but it kept going up and up and up. He was still crying. It hurt so much. At the very least crying also used up battery, but Grum wished he didn’t have to. He just wanted to stop hurting.

He mostly stopped watching the percentage. At the very least the percentage added each time stopped at a max of 64, but it kept adding on. 

Finally, Grum felt it all stop. The program stopped functioning due to extreme low power and he got a moment of relief. He glanced at the final total. 873.5%. Grum didn’t want to know how much further it could have gone. He also didn’t know what it was for, but that was okay. Right now he just. Wanted. To sleep.

Dream was upset. Everyone was freaking out and now he needed to deal with it. Fundy had been shot by a skeleton and died. Something like that was normal. What wasn’t normal, however, were the following 31 pairs of messages sent to everyone of Fundy leaving and then joining the world.

Chat had been filled with questions during it all happening, everyone seemingly holing themselves up wherever they were, scared that if they died, they would be in the same situation.

Finally it stopped, and a message from Fundy came in.

<Itsfundy> he was almost dead too.

Immediately, chat was filled with questions for Fundy as well as Dream. And the worst part was neither of them knew what was going on. But hopefully they would soon. 

Dream sent a message to Fundy. Another offer. He could make up what he did before by coming with Dream to investigate the problem. At first, he refused, but then Dream gave the hybrid a little reminder on where exactly the problem may lie, and that seemed to get through to him.

Dream frowned ever so slightly behind his mask when Fundy’s final reply came in. This Iskall person had worked well before. It was someone Fundy had communicated with before. These robots, on the other hand, were new and unfamiliar. There was no reason for the hybrid to prioritize them over the communication to his ‘friend’.

Dream then closed the chat log with Fundy and swapped over to the one he had for the first robot. There was only one message in there. A video file. He played it and watched the recording. It started with the second robot introducing itself to Fundy, but then it immediately turned to static, Dream not able to see or hear what had been going on. When it came back, the two of them were discussing Fundy’s friend and he gave the robot the special comm for a moment. Dream laughed as the robot suggested that Fundy leave the SMP with him. It was just so outrageous of a thought every time. A little during that suggestion and more before it, there was more static. And then Fundy started to turn to the camera and the recording ended.

Dream wasn’t sure what the connection was, but it seemed like there had to be some connection between this video and what just happened. Both involved the robot and Fundy and some sort of error. And seeing as how Fundy would know what exactly had been blocked by static, he would be able to give Dream some… insight into the situation.

It didn’t take long for the admin to arrive at what the robot had built for shelter. Inside it was laying on a bed and turned off. The cord that let it charge was unplugged, so likely everything had stopped due to a low battery. Dream walked over and plugged the robot back in, surprised to see it was still sitting at 21% battery.

Before he could try to figure out why that was, the door opened behind him. Dream turned and was glad to see it was Fundy and not the other robot. “I expected you to take longer.”

Fundy responded with some weak panting, letting the admin know he had run most of the way there. “Well, I’m here now. What exactly do you need?”

“You died and then proceeded to be continually disconnected and reconnected to the world.”

“Yeah, that’s what everyone was saying. What does it have to do with him?” Fundy gestured to Grum.

“Well, a while earlier, you were talking with the other robot. You talked about that offworld friend of yours and it offered to take you to it’s old world.”

Fundy winced, remembering that Dream had somehow been spying on them. “Yeah, still not making the connection.”

“There was a third thing you talked about. What was it?”

That made Fundy pause. Dream didn’t know what else they had talked about, possibly he arrived later and heard the tail end of the conversation, but somehow that seemed unlikely. “We… just talked about the stuff relating to Iskall.”

“Oh I don’t think you did. I think you talked about something else. I suppose I could see if taking apart the robot will give me any answers… but-”

“No leave him alone!” Fundy said so protectively, it even surprised himself.

“See, what’s what I’m after. Why do you care so much about it?” Fundy didn’t respond. He tried to stay calm and look calm, but his instincts made that hard, causing his fur to puff up. “Well? What are you hiding?”

Fundy still didn’t respond, and after a few seconds, Dream tried moving towards Grum again. “Okay okay fine! Apparently he and his brother are my cousins!”

Dream froze completely. They were what?! That made no sense. Fundy’s dad? Dead. Fundy’s uncles? They had been living here. Well Tommy had gone missing, but him making something like this? Impossible. For a moment Dream contemplated the other side of Fundy’s family, but he felt that was unlikely.

“Do you want to elaborate on your own? Or do you want me to find out my way?”

Again, Fundy hesitated, but another threat got him talking. “One of their dads is my uncle apparently. Apparently my dad had another sibling.”

That was interesting. Phil had had another child? It never came up when looking into the hardcore player, but with how long he had been alive, it wasn’t impossible.

But then Dream frowned. That had been the issue. The blacklist had been set up so that one one in this robot’s supposed family or previous world could come looking for them. If it considered Fundy family, that would lead to what just happened. It was attempting to block Fundy from entering, but since the hybrid was only living there and had only been living there, it got stuck.

This also explained why the other missing people hadn’t returned. The three of them likely also had the same issue. At least with Tubbo, it was easy enough to say he had lost his last life, but while the other two had been living alone, far away from the rest of everything, it was only a matter of time before their absence was noticed. And there was no easy way to explain them being gone for good.

“Well then, I think that helps explain the problem. We’re just going to adjust some files and make sure it ignores you as a family member.”

“And the others?”

Dream tilted his head slightly. “What others? Techno and Phil? They’re not going to have any issues with respawning in the first place.”

“No. I mean Tommy.”

“Tommy’s dead. He’s been dead.”

“I’m pretty sure you know that isn’t true.”

Dream frowned. How could Fundy have any idea that Tommy wasn’t really dead. No one could have known. No one was around to see and he had disabled most of Tommy’s messages. And when he learned about the teen’s disappearance, he created a message that looked like a death message, fooling everyone. 

“I know you saw the death message. Everyone did. Tommy is dead.”

“You are currently using this kid to fuck with the world! Who says you couldn’t fake that too?!”

“That’s not how it works.”

“And what proof do you have of that?”

“Tommy is gone. He’s not on any list for this world. His lives are at zero. You can go over to where he was exiled and see the tower he built to jump off of.”

Fundy wanted to yell back, but it was obvious they would just go in circles. “You know what. Fine. I’ll mess with the files, but I’m also letting Tommy in. If he’s really dead, it won’t be an issue, right?”

The hybrid couldn’t help but smile just a little when Dream couldn’t refuse it. He then started messing with Grum, trying to do as little to the bot’s files as possible. Fortunately getting to the blacklist files was easy enough. He saw the short list of roles that were being blocked, and Fundy attempted to open the ‘Family Member’ list to edit it. But he couldn’t, the file being password protected. “Dream, what’s the password?”

“There isn’t one. I didn’t give it any.”

Fundy raised a brow. “Look Dream, I can’t do what you want if I don’t know the password. If you’re really serious about me not knowing, I can leave the room for you to-”

“I. Did not. Use any password.” Dream spoke again, speaking the words out slowly. “There shouldn’t be one.”

Fundy looked back at Grum. Dream had known about the talk he had with Jrum that mentioned Iskall, but he didn’t hear anything about the relation to the bots. When he first got Fundy’s help, they had trouble accessing some files that were supposed to be information on Grum himself. Now they were trying to open a file with a list of the kid’s family and it was being blocked. Fundy was sure that the blacklist was supposed to keep people from coming in and rescuing the two brothers, but now Grum was using it to try and keep his family safe. 

“Well, I guess since we can’t edit that, we’ll just have to make exceptions.” The fox hybrid said before making a new category and list, putting his name on the list.

“Not putting Tommy’s?” Dream asked, and Fundy nodded. If Grum was trying to keep people out, he wasn’t going to change it. Sure the hybrid wanted to put other names on the list, but that would need to be done when Dream wasn’t breathing down his neck.

“Nah, you’re right. No way for him to come back, so why bother.”

The hesitation from Dream made Fundy worry the admin was onto him, but then he left and Fundy was able to slump to the ground with a sigh. “Ugh, when did family become this much of a chore?”

Jrum happily kicked his legs as he sat at the table in Bad’s house. The demon served the bot a bowl of redstone which Jrum happily started eating. “Thank you very much!”

“Oh, it’s no problem. I have plenty strewn about in my chests and don’t use it much, so I’m glad someone can use it.”

“Yeah! And I’ve already finished gathering up everything I need for my charger! Now all I need is to figure out where I’m going to build everything.”

“Well, I know it’s not much space, but I’m sure we could fit you in nearby if you connect up to this place.” Bad suggested, making Jrum pause.

“What do you mean? Isn’t this your house?”

“Well it is,” Bad started. “But you saw the plants covering the place. Those are connected to the egg in the cave you found. It really likes this place and you definitely seem to like it just as much as me and Ant. What better place to stay than right here?”

Jrum thought about it. It did seem like a nice place. And He doubted Bad would be the kind of person to get upset at any sprouts he tried to grow. And… he was really nice… and kind… and was helping him. Sure, Jrum wanted to prove he could do things on his own, but he didn’t want to be completely alone. “You’d really let me?”

“Of course!”

“Then… yeah! I’d like that! Where should I connect to? What’s the best place for my charger?”

“Here, once you’re done eating, I can show you where you can start.”

Jrum nodded and then began to shovel the redstone from his bowl, eating it as fast as he could. The moment the bowl was empty, he was up out of his chair and ready to go looking with Bad. They found an area which Jrum could use, but they needed to move a few vines.

The two of them started carefully pushing the vines around, just making a large enough area for Jrum to start building in. There were a few times Bad tried to help the little robot, but being a robot, Jrum was much stronger than he looked and didn’t have much trouble.

But then Jrum got to a particularly large part of the vines and tried to move it a bit, lifting it up so it wouldn’t get caught. He almost got it to where he wanted when his center of balance was shifted too far and he tripped, falling to the ground with the large vine pinning him there. Jrum struggled a bit, but couldn’t move much and also wasn’t at an angle to easily pick it up again.

“H-Help! Daddy, I’m stuck!” Jrum cried out on instinct. He had often gotten stuck when they were doing a redstone project together, Jrum fitting where most people couldn’t, and then overestimating how small a space he could fit into and getting pinned.

Jrum wriggled a bit more before the vine was moved off his back and he was picked up. “Thank you.” Jrum automatically said, then realized what he had shouted before. “Oh… I-I’m sorry for… before.”

“What do you mean?” The demon asked. “You were doing well before, I just didn’t realize how strong you were.”

“N-No. I mean… I… said the wrong name.”

Bad paused. “Huh, I guess you did. Eh, it’s fine. Honestly I sort of miss hearing that instead of just Dadboyhalo.”

Jrum giggled. “Who calls you that?”

“I have a kid named Sapnap. I’m not sure if you’ve met him, but he’s somewhere on this world.”

Jrum shook his head. “No, so far I’ve met uhhhhh… You and Ghostbur and Puffy and Dream and Mister Sam and Fundy and uhhhhh I think that’s it. Oh no wait! I also met Michael and his dad Boo!”

“Oh, I’ve heard about Michael. I know technically you’re a robot, and robots don’t age, but you seem young enough the two of you could be friends.”

“Yeah, he seemed really nice. Though his… parent? Boo seems protective of him.”

“Yeah, well after what happened to his friends I can see why.”

That concerned Jrum. “Oh no! What happened?”

“Well, both of them lost their last lives. They’ve both been on one for a while, and with how reckless they can be, it’s a little-”

“What do you mean, last lives?” Jrum tilted his head.

“Well, you know when something important causes you to die, it takes one of your three lives?”

“No. How does that work?”

“Huh… well I think we might want to wait on that conversation until we’ve built what you need, because that could lead to a long conversation.”

Jrum was a little upset he couldn’t know now, but he saw the reasoning. His charger was much more important right now. “Okay, later works!”