Everyone knows that Dream is the admin, but nobody knows what exactly that means. They know he has some power, but they assume it's more like he's just the guy who owns the place. The power he has remains unknown in large part because I portray most of my Dreams (esp the prominent ones) as extremely reluctant to use them. They don't like feeling Othered or like they're "cheating". Sure, they COULD use barrier blocks or encase their enemies in bedrock...but that feels wrong, and would alienate them from everyone. And it's such an ingrained mentality that they struggle to break from it, even when shit goes wrong. It takes a LOT to make them use their powers.
My admins (at least this tier of them-- there's different levels, this is the highest) are WEIRD. It's best to consider them like dragons.
Now consider how a dragon would react to someone coming in and claiming part of its hoard as their own. This goes a long way to explaining why this version of Dream did the things he did. Not all of it, but a large chunk of it. (Some reasons are far more quiet and won't really be clear until MUCH later in the timeline. "Fool's Gold" in Three to the Infinite, if you're curious exactly how long that takes! Read "Blood & Gold" first at minimum though, because Fool's Gold is a direct sequel. Mild spoilers for To Mend, but nothing that wouldn't be spoiled by literally looking at the series description for Three to the Infinite.)
Vio explicitly has several misconceptions about how things work in this reality. Though he knows a lot of shit, a huge chunk of it is rooted in his old reality and not his current one. The differences could be tiny-- his Punz wasn't swapped with anyone and simply had a Robin Hood type morality, vs DSMP Punz who has no issues getting his hands dirty for the right price-- or big. Two examples of big ones are servers being their own separate thing here versus closer to countries/territories in the SMPza & the End being highly restricted everywhere and defeating the Ender Dragon on your own granting you magic wings (these are what DayDream has!).
Basically, no, Vio doesn't know, and honestly has a lesser understanding than average on the DSMP/world at large. Darkza, the admin of the SMPza, was VERY different from Dream. Dream doesn't have Void-based powers and thus far hasn't shown an ability to erase a chunk on a whim. Vio has, thus far, not actually met Dream (though that changes next chapter) and so doesn't even have a read on him as a person.
"Blood & Gold" is the tale of my most beloved Anyone I write. He is a bastard lad of a Tommy who I liken to a blend of cTommy, cDream, and FANON Dream. He is a ruthless person who doesn't flinch in the face of what he feels must be done for the safety and happiness of his loved ones. If he has to cut down or otherwise harm a hundred others to make that happen, then so be it. He is not entirely innocent for the horrible things that happen later on in the story.
He's also far too smart for anyone's good, especially his own. He's clever and, once given proper teaching, quickly devours skills and information. These skills are not always used in a kind fashion.
At the same time, he's deeply traumatized for reasons completely out of his control. This trauma is the root of his behavior and makes him tragic. He's a deeply complicated person with luck so terrible it's almost comical.
"Blood & Gold" is a tragedy, plain and simple. It ends badly, with anyone left standing (and not everyone does!) having lost something and been hurt by the events of the fic. It's the tale of a willing protege Tommy and a Dream who genuinely wants to teach him-- a Dream who is fundamentally a better person than the Tommy he mentors-- yet everything still goes horribly, terribly wrong.
It's also my bbygirl, the fic that I spent 10 months working on (December 26th, 2021- September 24th, 2022) before uploading a single chapter. Then I speedran the 30 chapters at a pace of 3x updates a week until it was all done. Then I burned out HARD.
I regret nothing, but also, NEVER AGAIN.
The Three to the Infinite series is the sequel series to this one. It builds off of the OG version of To Mend What Was Broken, known as A (Mostly Benevolent) Server Takeover. I didn't plan to write fics, and therefore didn't do it well. It just kinda happened. The overarching story is what I call the Sanctuary AU-- which is composed of To Mend, Mostly Benevolent (though it's soft-canon, things might be altered but the major events are more or less still true), Three to the Infinite, the side stuff, and the tumblr askblog (+3 years from where Three to the Infinite currently is, shit is WILD there).
The entire conceit of the Sanctuary AU starts with what is currently going on here; Vio appears in not-quite-canon DSMP, and then reforms it through pettiness and spite. Mostly Benevolent does not show this, merely the aftermath of it. It's not well thought out and not really planned. I don't hate it because it was a stepping stone, but I'm not satisfied with how tricky it is to use as an entry point to the rest of Sanctuary. Hence me coming back and doing the "rewrites". (Though we're not actually AT the rewrites yet. That comes after this fic!)
I love the Sanctuary AU-- in fact, I'm literally building on the world download of the DSMP as I write this! I have another instance that has some existing builds, too. I've put many, many, MANY hours into breathing life into this AU in whatever ways I can. Lots of ancillary docs, side AUs that explore characters in various ways (almost entirely unpublished), that kind of thing. My deep adoration of this AU should be evident in how pretty much only two fics of mine can be said to be outside of it. I've committed over 750k in PUBLISHED words to it, to say nothing of the likely millions tucked away in AUs for me to toy with but never fully publish.
It's definitely not for everyone, but it's a huge reason why I decided to do the rewrites. I wanted to give a good intro to my beloved story; an intro that makes people interested in the insane bullshit that happens later.
Because, trust me; things might seem wacky now, but it's nothing compared to what goes on the further you get in the timeline.
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