Archive of Our Own ^beta

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This AU takes place in a cyberpunk dystopia where everything, including personal information, is digital, and one “United” government has absolute control over everything and everyone in the world. Personal information is processed and stored by a powerful surveillance AI, which then sends any and all relevant info to various United government bodies. The only opposition they have are hackers—shadowed, faceless people who use their knowledge of computers and code to combat and infect the Government’s various spy bodies with viruses, aiming to find and destroy this AI. Not all hackers are good; some have Noble goals, but some simply want to take power and control for themselves, and some people simply want to blackmail someone, and aim to manipulate the internet to get it.

The main protagonists of this AU are Dream and Techno, white hackers who were taken away and trained as children, and now work for the government. Using a specialized Virtual reality system, they “enter” the internet in a digital form, and combat hackers and viruses alike using a coded language that destroys the intruder. (It’s a lot like singing, or rapping—jdkfkfk they’re having a heckin rap battle, wow). Dream and techno are infamous among hackers worldwide for being unbeatable, and remain so to this day. 

Due to an accident long ago, Techno is trapped in a medically induced coma, sleeping indefinitely as doctors work to cure him. He only exists now in the digital world; so Dream only gets to see him when he’s working as a white hacker, or when he’s “asleep.” Dream continues to work for the government despite their wrong doings because of this; as long as he does what they say, they’ll continue to keep techno alive. If he doesn’t, however…well. 

Despite this, Dream is still very proud of his abilities as a white hacker, and does believe that he’s doing at least some good. And he’s happy to be with techno, in whatever form techno is in.

Techno likewise only works as a hacker for Dream’s sake, and to satiate his bloodlust.

The rest of the smp are regular hackers, all trying to locate and hack into the main AI for various reasons. A lot of them see Dream and Techno as horrible villains.

Bad and the eggpire are regular people who entered the digital world for fun and ran into the crimson—a strange, possibly sentient virus that seems to be able to infect the chip in everyone’s mind that allows them access to virtual reality and possesses them. This infection is obvious In the digital world from their glitched avatars, but nearly impossible to notice in the real world. Strangely, the virus seems to target people with at least a little coding knowledge.

Notes:

-Digital avatars are very brightly colored compared to normal people. 

-Everyone’s real forms are human, but their digital forms can be anything. Dream for example is mostly human looking, but has several dragon traits. And techno is full on a humanoid pig creature.

-the two “main” villains, besides the government, are the Surveillance AI (Dreamon) and the Crimson Virus (which was actually a failed government AI that was meant to be the prototype of the Dreamon)

-Dream and Techno’s human forms are both slightly modified to make their jobs easier. No this is not ethical. Yes, this is why techno is in a coma. Normal white hackers don’t have these, but Dream and techno were “prodigies”.

-The scientists who performed the modifications were expecting for them to strain their bodies, and for one of the two to either end up in a coma or die from the stress of it—but they were expecting it to be Dream, not Techno.

-Dream has daily checkups where doctors study him to try and determine why it was such a success with him specifically—he had far fewer side effects than they expected him to have.

-Techno is still the better fighter

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AU where Tommy never gets trapped with Dream in prison and so never grows to see Wilbur as a villain. Eventually he and the others go to Dream asking him to revive Wilbur for them, and Dream agrees, hoping for both redemption and the chance to be let out of his torture box—however this turns out to be a mistake on everyone’s part when the process of the revival knocks Dream out, and Wilbur, immediately upon being revived, grabs an unconscious dream, blows everything up, and high-tails it out of there.

Dream wakes up in a hidden cottage in the woods with Wilbur’s smiling face hovering above him, and Wilbur immediately greets him with “my hero.”
(Basically mutually assured destruction duo au!!!)

This can either be funny and somehow healthy or dark and very toxic but for now I’m going with the somehow healthy route.

-Wilbur genuinely loves Dream in this, but isn’t above manipulating him anyways

-he broke him out both to help him and because he wanted access to his admin powers and ability to revive the dead

-The server is planning to go after the two but they honestly aren’t sure if they’re gonna end up taking down Dream or rescuing him

-Dream and Wilbur’s friendship slowly gets less toxic over time, somehow

-this is half comedy, half thriller, half drama, And half slice of life. 

-Dream is weak from prison for a while and has to slowly recover. Wilbur dotes on him a lot during this stage, and it annoys Dream a bit

-Wilbur, for the first week or so, vacillates between wanting to dote on Dream and help him recover and being mad at Dream for what he did to Tommy and wanting to tie him down so that he can like, keep him but also make sure he doesn’t do it again

-he is so tempted by the “tie him down” option. It would also make taking advantage of Dream’s powers easier—instead of convincing him to use them, Wilbur could just force him to use them. But no. No. That’s the sort of thing Schlatt gave you judgemental looks for in the void, Wilbur. Also Dream is your friend. Your hero. You gotta be nice to him

-luckily Wilbur has restraint! And doesn’t do that. Thank god he doesn’t do that

-he gets healthier and less intense about his affections eventually I promise

-Wilbur is also mad at the rest of the server for throwing Dream in a torture box

-yeah, sure, he’s the one who started the propaganda that Dream was an evil tyrant, but they didn’t have to fall for it.

-only person he isn’t at least slightly mad at is Tommy. Brother bias I guess 

-this can be either platonic or romantic but for me it’s platonic.

-Dream, watching Wilbur eat flowers: uh

-Wilbur, going Void Mode(tm): do you want to know the exact date of the heat death of the universe?

-Dream:

-Dream: actually, yeah, that sounds neat

-oh yeah that’s a thing too. Void touched Wilbur.

-bonus points for axolotl hybrid Dream because I love him.

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AU where I give Dream the worlds most tragic backstory 

ok so

Dream was kidnapped from his parents as a baby and raised in a cult. There was this one cult person who was his “parent” of sorts, and he loved them more than anything.

but one day the cult performed a ritual (as you do if you’re a cult)

And Dream’s ‘parent’ was like “ok Dream sit in the summoning circle” and Dream, having never watched a horror movie in his life, was like “ok parental figure”
And so he did

And they start the summoning or whatever

The circle is doing cool glowy stuff and Dream is like “yay I’m helping :D” and then his parental figure is like “ok time for a sacrifice” and Dream is like “what’s the sacrifice gonna be? A sheep?”

And the parental figure is like “you”

Dream: D:

so the parental figure pulls out a butcher knife and attempts to murder Dream. But Dream, panicking, calls for someone, anyone to help him and the dreamon that the cult was trying to summon is like “ooooo actually”

So Dream gets possessed, appearifys a netherite axe out of nowhere, and murders the cult

Uno reverse card

But yeah

like everyone

the entire cult

And now he just is sort of angry and feral and homeless and possessed
But he has an axe so hey! Silver lining!

The dreamon is there too but it’s more like a slightly evil brother that lives in the same body
It appears in spirit as like a white wolf like creature and talks to Dream in his head

And so basically Dream and the dreamon wander around homelessly for a while until they run into puffy and foolish

Both of whom are still in their villain arcs (villain arc for puffy means she’s still a pirate)

And puffy and foolish take one look at Dream and are like “ooooooo murder child time to adopt.”

And so the three of them run around murdering people together

Kid Dream commits many atrocities while trying to make puffy proud

Puffy commits even more atrocities

Foolish commits so many atrocities

Then, skipping ahead a lil bit to when puffy and foolish suddenly quit their villain arcs and start doin redemption arcs

Puffy pulls an “Odin from the marvel movies” move on Dream and tries to pretend he doesn’t exist along with all of her other wrong doings.

which sucks for him

Foolish though is nice

we love and respect foolish in this house

Do not worry puffy will learn to be less like Odin soon

But this is supposed to be a tragic backstory

We gotta make it tragic

dream, upset, runs away. 

and meets Sapnap and George 

And then DSMP canon happens

and then what happens next is up to u but I’m thinking people find out about Dream’s tragic backstory, because drama

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I’m really into the headcanon that Quackity’s casino deals in souls (aka canon lives), since it would up the stakes a whole lot and is also just a cool idea in general. That’s part of why I’m hoping he’ll somehow get Badboyhalo on his side eventually, post dealing with the egg, because Bad is like a demon, and could possibly help with that. 

Like maybe Bad used to deal in souls in the past and gave it up due to guilt, but then Quackity convinced him to start doing it again. He doesn’t seem like the type to eat souls without feeling at least a little remorse.

But maybe after having his free will smothered by the egg for so long, Bad might feel the same need for power and control that Quackity does.

Imagine Quackity wins someone’s soul off of them, and gives it to Bad to eat, as payment. That way the poor person can never get it back.

And imagine Quackity manages to trick, say, Technoblade or Wilbur out of their souls? That sure would be one way for Techno to lose his first canon life. 

Because Techno is one of the richest and most powerful people on the server, and if he of all people were to get conned out of his soul, that would be a game changer, and it would grant Quackity a shit ton of power all in one go.

And not only that—Techno is friends with Skeppy. 

Because I think Bad would want to keep his soul eating under wraps. He enjoys eating souls, but feels unbelievably guilty over it and doesn’t want anyone to know…. And there would also be a rift in between Bad and Skeppy already because of the egg. So skeppy wouldn’t know about the soul eating from Bad telling him.

So what if Techno told him after he lost his soul to Quackity?

Skeppy would feel betrayed that Bad didn’t tell him about this, and would go to confront him and Quackity with Techno. So we’d have Techno, Niki, Ranboo, and Skeppy vs Quackity, Bad, Foolish, Purpled, Charlie, Sam and Fundy. Maybe they even drag Sapnap and Karl into it as well.

Maybe Quackity kept Techno’s soul as a form of blackmail, too—that could be why he went to skeppy instead of Philza; Quackity threatened him not to get Phil involved.

He still has hope of getting his soul back, but if he tells Philza, Quackity will have Bad eat it.

Techno went to Skeppy for another reason as well—in order to appeal to Bad, and convince him not to work for Quackity, but it just starts a fight between Skeppy and Bad.

Also, what if when Bad joins Las Nevadas the rest of the eggpire does as well?? So Techno and the syndicate are outnumbered, and need to recruit more people to their side—maybe Puffy??

Also I want to give Fundy more of a role in this. Maybe something with that weeping angel thing?? 

Or he could be Quackity’s bodyguard, possibly??

OH! He can predict the future—bodyguard Fundy with the ability to predict the future!!

The syndicate can’t pull off any ambushes on Quackity because Fundy sees them all coming.

I’m just imaging team Quackity as scarily competent and team (Skeppy? Techno??) as increasingly desperate. They’re the underdogs.

Like they arrange a meet up between the two warring groups under truce, but Skeppy and Techno are planning to attack Quackity and separate him from Bad when his guard is lowered, but when they arrive Quackity just turns to Fundy and asks him to tell him what their intentions are, and Fundy rattles off their whole plan in terrifying detail. They don’t try that again.

Oooooo what if when Skeppy and Techno go to Quackity’s ex-fiancé’s for help it’s revealed that Karl doesn’t remember Quackity?? Even more drama!!

But then it comes out that Quackity didn’t know about and was never invited to Kinoko Kingdom, and Sapnap is just like “oh noooooo”

And he is now torn between helping Karl with his memory issues and trying to explain to and reason with Quackity

Who is now in a full fledged straight up villain arc (he was before as well but now it’s more obvious).

And then in all the drama Phil finds out what’s going on. Techno’s soul may or may not end up getting eaten. And Quackity has to deal with an extremely angry Philza. 

(Also I have to include what my friend Alvie said here—

Alvie: Phil almost saves it, (he probably has the power to hold/carry souls) and bad just. Gulps it down. And then goes “omg I’m so sorry I panicked.”)

So now Quackity and Bad both have to deal with angry Philza, though I feel like he’d go a bit easier on Bad since Quackity is manipulating the fuck out of him.

Also Tommy and Tubbo don’t get involved at all. They need a break from all the wars. 

They can hear about it from Ranboo later

He’d just be like “yoooo it was wild Bad accidentally ate Techno’s soul”

“We had to make him spit it back up again like a cat”

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AU where Quackity gets the book from Dream, but instead of killing him he decides to leave him to rot in his cell, knowing that it would be a fate much worse than death, with everything fully automated and no visitors or social interaction whatsoever.
Nine months go by with Dream in solitary with zero human contact and only raw, automated potatoes to eat
Then techno finally visits him

And finds what basically amounts to a wild animal in that cell

Dream doesn’t talk, doesn’t understand a word he says, can't read or write and walks either on all fours or in a strange, hunched manner, like a dog trying to stand on two feet
He uses his long hair as a blanket, his tail and fur are tangled and bedraggled, his horns are overgrown, and his claws are blunted from scratching at the walls

but on the other hand, he's managed to create a small garden using only mouldy potatoes, has figured out a way to keep his water clean by boiling it with lava, managed to cook the few not bad potatoes he gets, and figured out which plants in his mini garden are edible 

the reason he was scratching on the walls? He was drawing
he’s managed to carve out as much of a home for himself in there as he possibly could, and it’s as impressive as it is depressing
Either way, though, leaving him there would be inhumane, so techno consults the syndicate
in the end, he ends up just telling the server what’s going on
and they all agree to visit Dream and see for themselves
Sure enough, everyone visits Dream and is horrified
And meanwhile Dream is like “what the fuck are these weird tall creatures and why are they in my home”
he’s wary, but cautiously optimistic -the pink man that visited a week ago was very respectful of his garden- all the way up until Sapnap steps forward and tries to grab him

Dream is too weak from malnutrition to really do much damage, but he still goes down fighting. He has to be dragged out of his cell by force, drugged on like three weakness potions—just cause he was literally hurting himself by pushing his body so hard to fight them

after getting freed he gets sent to the syndicate to be rehabilitated, since they are best equipped for it and also techno is the only one he doesnt attack on sight

so it's just the syndicate taking care of this grumpy, feral 22 year old former villain

at least hes taking care of their rat problem

Anyways, the first thing Dream does once calm is try to find a nice corner and restart his farm. 

hes really fucking pissed all his progress is gone but he can work with this

Bigger cell (aka his room at techno’s house) means more garden space

and the pink man cooks his potatoes for him so no more burns!!

this doesn’t mean he’s not angry (they took his water and his garden and his drawings and his comfort and familiarity and everything is strange and too cold now) but he can handle it

dream sets aside some potatoes and let’s them rot into a fertilizer, and then starts planting other potatoes and pieces of root and whatever he can find in it.

techno is exasperated with Dream constantly ruining his floorboards.

it’s mostly mold at first, similarly to in the prison

techno gives him a plastic tray to put it in eventually when he can’t get Dream to stop

niki finds an avenue to bond with him that way

she also likes gardening

she shows him some flowers for the first time and he falls in love with them

They become his new favorite thing

and trees are even cooler

They’re like plants but hugeee

He didn’t know plants could even get that big

He tries to bring one inside the house and techno has to stop him

niki Embroiders flower designs in his clothes.

Introducing Dream to new things (things that weren’t in his cell) is weirdly fun

Of course they have to take it slow and ease him into it

But it’s funny seeing his reactions

like when Dream sees a mirror for the first time in a long while

(my friend nix came up with this part and I had to leave it in) “first time he shows it to Dream, the still half feral man just runs straight at the glass, but to everyone but phil's surprise, he bounces off and lands, stunned in the grass”

Phil: And that's why I reinforced it.

But yeee It’s exactly like those videos where a dog sees it’s reflection

Dream likes a lot of things but hates some of the strangest things

He doesn’t like mirrors or ceiling fans or fish (only living fish, for some reason)

and he likes baked potatoes but not mashed potatoes (too soft, wrong)

Dream loves blaze powder for some reason

He keeps stealing it and eating it

Once he’s better at speaking he says it tastes sparkly

(and another excerpt from my friend!! They are a genius) “sapnap's a blaze hybrid, and during dream's first trip through the nether, he takes off at a sprint, and techno finds him camping a blaze spawner, ripping the poor mobs to shreds as soon as they spawn. Collecting the dropped rods, phil counts a stack and a half. Dream meanwhile, is sitting back looking rather smug, mouth covered in blaze powder.”

”when told about the massacre, sapnap gives dream a wide berth”

Dream really likes ranboo for some reason

Mostly cause he likes to draw him

Like he never even interacts with ranboo that much

But when he does he just starts doodling him everywhere

Ranboo is slightly unnerved but Is too polite to say anything

It’s like those fanartists who draw one character exclusively because their design is fun to doodle

dream just thinks ranboo is very long

long is fun too draw

Ranboo, in an awkward attempt to talk to Dream, ends up gifting Dream a picture of himself

and Dream is utterly delighted

he’s never had someone draw him before!!

He’s always been the one to draw things

He didn’t know other people could also draw things!!

And it’s him!! Ranboo drew him!! He’s a drawing now!!

Woah!!

He is very happy

He decides that ranboo is the best thing since trees and blaze powder, and tells him so

It’s the weirdest compliment ever but ranboo is still flattered

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immortal non-human dream au where he ends up locked in the prison so long that it becomes a part of him. like he can see, hear and feel everything that happens inside the prison. He can wander through its halls as he pleases. He just can't leave. The prison won’t let him, and after a while he doesn’t really want to anymore.

Dream as the prison's heart.

as long as the prison has a purpose, it survives. the world withers and falls beyond its looming walls, but Pandora still harbors life.

the prison loves Dream more than anything because he’s what gives it life and purpose. And Dream loves it the same because it gives him a home, it gives him its love

They share everything—their senses, their body, their thoughts

Sam and Quackity are part of the system as well—it envelops everything within its walls. They become cogs that keep the prison moving, and Pandora loves them, so Dream loves them too.

Dream is Pandora’s heart, and Sam it’s guard, and Quackity is its embassy to the outside world.

All of their life forces are connected now thanks to the prison. dream was already immortal before getting thrown in prison. But he’s immortal in a different way now that he’s there. Sam and Quackity are immortal too, because Dream is immortal.

and the prison is immortal too.

Sam, his armor dull and stained a sickly purple, wanders the halls aimlessly until he is needed.

He has lost himself to Pandora, consumed by his own creation.

Quackity is lucky—He’s the only one allowed to come and go.

but he’s still part of the cogs of the prison

if he misses even one visit he feels wrong

If he misses enough days he’ll get physically sick

but as long as he visits regularly, everything goes well for him

he doesn’t hurt Dream anymore, though

He gets the strangest feeling that something really bad would happen if he did

(If he hurt Dream badly enough the prison would die. And he and Sam would die with it)

thinkin about. quackity. aimlessly wandering through the halls, hands limp at his sides, trying to remember his purpose and why he was there.

He wanders

Everyone does

Dream, Sam, Quackity

They all spend their time just. Wandering

Quackity can’t remember shit, and neither can Dream

However, Sam remembers everything. He has Dream and Quackity’s memories as well. He’s the “guardian” of the prison, and memories are one of the things he guards.

Poor Sam though

he has the memories of both someone who once manipulated him and of someone he dehumanized and abused and allowed to be tortured (aka Quackity and Dream, respectively)

He wanders, but he’s also the one in charge of protecting the place

he’s still mostly himself

Just

Disconnected from everything

And if the prison wants something from him then

He’ll stop being Sam, for a while

And become The Warden

Also, a bittersweet thing that happens is

Quackity, Dream and Sam bump into each other in the halls, sometimes, while wandering aimlessly

And Quackity and Dream actually do eventually start talking

Without their memories, the two become friends

there’s a kinship there, Because they’re both changed by the prison in the same way

Sam however, knows who they used to be.

He never talks, even when the other two try to talk to him

it hurts him to see them so different

They’re not the people he used to know anymore

He can talk, but he doesn’t want to

However, dream and quackity adore sam

much to his chagrin

Dream and Quackity: sam. buddy. friend. love of our lives. please. we're dying over here. speak to us. please

they know who sam is because the prison told them

And dream and quackity consider everyone connected by the prison to be their siblings

warden mode sam is almost a different person from regular sam

he gets super overprotective of Quackity and dream when he's in warden mode

warden sam also doesn't talk, but unlike with regular sam it isn't because he doesn't want to, it's because he can't

Dream and Quackity just like the affection

Quackity gains some of his memories back when he leaves the prison

enough to seem normal to other people from the outside

But if you get closer you realize something is wrong 

He has these huge holes in his memory. 

wilbur and karl and sapnap are some of the first to realize something is wrong

karl notices cause of time travel, actually

he visits the prison a thousand years in the future and finds sam, quackity and dream all still alive inside

Quackity eventually stops leaving the prison entirely

in the timeline karl visited Quackity just disappears, from the outside world's perspective

The prison looks damaged on the outside, but on the inside, it’s in perfect condition.

slime has also become part of the prison at that point. He followed Quackity inside.

Quackity in that timeline: new brother!!! :DDD

Dream: new brother!!! Yayyyyy

But yeah. Karl comes back from that trip like “oh fuck”

I’m imagining afterwards karl rallies everyone and the server tries to rescue them from the prison

Only to be met with Strong opposition

they do Not Want To Leave

The prison and its children would all be hostile to outsiders at first 

Including slimecicle, even if it’s against his personality—because he feels what the prison feels

the only reason slimecicle got accepted so smoothly into the system of the prison was because Quackity already knew him and liked him

Outsiders do have a chance of being accepted into the prison system

But even then it’s questionable if that’s a better fate

sure, Quackity, slimecicle and Dream are happy with their fate

But Sam isn’t

The fact that people he knows are there with him is the only thing keeping him sane and relatively not miserable

sam considers them to be the only good thing about his predicament

Also, for the far future stuff—the egg also gives immortality, if it wants to—though only to those followers it really likes. So bad is still alive. 

He’s considered one of the leaders of the eggpire

He commands a lot of respect from the egg’s followers

And Skeppy is the egg’s heart, similar to how Dream is the prison’s heart. Bad and Sam have similar roles as well. (both not too happy with what their doing)

However, the prison is something even the crimson is unwilling to touch

Pandora is a deity in its own right

They leave each other alone out of respect

A lot of people actually end up entering the prison in order to seek shelter from the egg

They don’t know the nature of the prison

and they’re desperate

The poor sods who get to the prison are either added to the system or killed by it. Similarly to the egg

Another parallel

Though Pandora could care less about spreading or gaining followers

It just keeps people it likes.

the prison does occasionally accept offerings

That’s how a few people managed to survive and escape the prison

They gave something up in exchange for their freedom

Like for example, Technoblade and Philza

Techno got locked in there as well, and became part of the prison system for a while

Philza gave up his wings to free Techno

techno and philza are also immortal, So there’s a chance that they might meet Dream again

Techo would sometimes get this faraway look and go in the direction of pandora, but Phil stops him

Pandora freed him

But it’s influence still lingers

However, Dream doesn’t leave

The prison won’t give him up

Not for anything

Another tidbit about Dream—his body, like his actual physical body, is still in the cell, being the heart connected to the walls

he’s projecting a mental version of himself that wanders the halls

But his physical body stays inside his cell

I like the idea of mental dream being like

An eternal teenager

He looks about 15

He can also go eldritch horror

Not his physical body

But his mental projection can

Cause literally the only thing limiting it is his imagination

His real body is almost completely broken from starvation and torture

He’s immortal, so he can’t actually die

but the prison keeps his body asleep and unchanging. Preserved.

A hibernal state, if that makes sense

Nothing in the prison can harm anything or anyone the prison considers as belonging to it

Dream, Sam and Quackity can all walk through lava without getting harmed

they can’t get sick while in the prison

Falling stone, harming potions, booby traps

Nothing in the prison will ever hurt them

The little garden in the prison courtyard births all the plants dream or q or sam at the moment desires

Want an apple? Bum, quick apple tree

They're pretty bad at gardening, but fortunately, it's not a normal garden, but a part of a very powerful deity that is Pandora, and Pandora loves it's children, so it humors them and grows things

The courtyard is like a little mini paradise

it’s the only non withered and non-crimson plant life in the whole smp

But if you’re not one of the prisons children, then

Every plant is poisonous

Sam is the only one who can outright communicate with Pandora, While Dream just instinctively knows what Pandora wants

Hope wanders the halls as well

Hope’s ghost, I should say

Dream wanted her back, badly enough that the prison listened

she stays in the courtyard with the plants

and lives as peacefully as the she can in a place like Pandora

Dream made her a bed

Dream doesn't want much - he still considers a clock and a basin the absolute hights of a luctury. After all, what more could a person want?

He only really asks for food and friends

All of Pandora’s children are vaguely eldritch

Not quite human anymore

so regular humans who wander into the prison find them extremely unsettling even if they’re not attacking

and they function in a similar way to enderman—as hostile mobs

you can’t sleep if they’re angry at you and nearby

They also have unholy and eldritch screeches or screams when they are angry at someone or a group in Pandora’s Vault

I wanna talk a bit more about quackity

He eventually stops leaving Pandora regularly

But

If Pandora ever needs anything outside the prison, Quackity is the one sent outside to get it

He’s the only one allowed to leave the prison, even if it’s only on extremely rare occasions

something cute that comes from this is that Quackity gets to tell stories about what the outside of the prison is like to an extremely enraptured dream

Quackity telling stories about how was the time outside and Dream listens like a child interested in something

He never interrupts and Quackity just goes “You really like what i'm telling, right?”

Quackity is dream’s cool older brother figure

Pandora usually sends Quackity out to get things it needs but can’t easily make, like new tridents and weapons for the warden, medicine and such for Dream (some of the intruders in the prison occasionally managed to get near enough to hurt him)

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Dsmp moomins AU

Puffy is a mymble, Dream and Tommy are both mumriks, Ranboo is of an unknown species cause I can’t think of one that fits him, and Tubbo was one of the woodies

Karl and Sapnap are Moomins!! Quackity is probably the same species as too-ticky, and George is a hemulen.

It’s basically like moominvalley—episodic, slice of life, and it follows the bench trio as they get into adventure all around the valley.

Tubbo and Ranboo are both Karl’s adopted children—him and Sapnap and Quackity’s.

Most of them hibernate throughout the winter except for Quackity, who just camps out and waits for them to wake up, and Tommy, who leaves with his older brother Dream every winter and returns when spring comes around. George is their neighbor!!

Wilbur is one of Dream’s friends in this—his son Fundy stays in Moominvalley and hangs out with the bench trio on occasion. Fundy is the same species as sniff. Fundy thinks Wilbur is lame but admires Dream—Dream is the cool uncle. No one knows how this happened. Dream is not cool. He sleeps in trees like a cat

Dream also hangs around in Moominvalley on occasion, though he travels a lot more.

He’s friends with Sapnap and George as well as Wilbur, after all, and he wants to make sure his little brother is doing ok as well.

Tommy loves the beach—he built a little fort there by his favorite bench and named it the Logsteadshire fort. Ranboo and Tubbo hang out there with him. No one else is allowed. Friends only!!! Ranboo likes collecting seashells but is scared of the water. Tubbo likes to bury him in sand while Tommy splashes around in the waves.

Niki is a fillyjonk baker— she’s very cool, for a fillyjonk, and the bench trio frequent her bakery often to get free treats. She has a bit of a soft spot for them. 

Sam is a Snork, and he’s always inventing different things that go wildly off the rails and lead to Adventures. Tommy and Tubbo like to assist him, and Tubbo is starting to take an interest in inventing himself. 

just. I want something cute and feel-good. No trauma, just funny happy times.

Chapter Text

AU where c!Dream finds an injured dreamon in the woods and nurses it back to health. In return, the creature gives him a gift— a white mask made of wood. 

However, it’s a trick— the mask is actually a spell, and it steals away Dream’s face, leaving an empty void where it once was. Now armed with Dream’s face, the dreamon can take on his physical form— due to the magic involved, no one is able to notice the difference, no matter how well they knew Dream before. 

The dreamon locks the real Dream away somewhere hidden, and then proceeds to take his place on the smp, causing chaos and despair. The reason it’s doing this? It’s a twisted attempt to keep Dream “safe” and protected, as a form of repayment for nursing it back to health. Everything it’s doing is what it thinks is best for Dream, with its twisted, alien moral code.

(This all started when the dream team was in conflict with lmanberg, but before an actual war had broken out. So it saw Wilbur and the others as Dream’s “enemies”)

notes:

I’m not sure if or how real Dream gets found and rescued

But I’m thinking if it happens it’ll probably happen sometime when dreamon Dream is in prison

the dreamon has a very mother Gothel “I know what’s best for you” vibe.

spoiler alert— they do not actually know what is best for Dream.

One glaring example of this— they keep him in the nether. 

Simply because they don’t understand that the high temperature of the nether isn’t good for humans

Dream is dehydrated and tired a lot because of this.

I’m thinking maybe one of the new smp members— Michael Mcchill or eryn or boomer— is the one to find him, because they’d at least hear him out whereas an original smp member would be much more biased. 

Though the original smp members would probably still question why Dream is locked up in a cage on some random island in the nether.

you know what I don’t have a real reason I just want the new members to be included and also have a hyperfixation on c!Dream

also! It’s hard to tell what Dream is feeling cause

you know

his face is missing

and it’s not like he’ll tell you most of the time (trust issues after the whole dreamon debacle)

You have to pay really close attention and pick up subtle clues in order to figure out how he’s feeling

The dreamon can always tell though, because it has slight empath abilities

It’s connected to Dream (through wearing his face)

And therefore can feel his emotions a little

though it doesn’t really

Understand them, or know for sure what’s causing them

I just like the irony that this being that can literally feel what Dream is feeling misunderstands him so completely

Whereas people who have no easy way to tell are able to understand him much better

Chapter Text

AU where after breaking out of prison, terrorizing Tommy, and everything else, c!Dream just. Disappears. Vanishes completely. No more schemes, no death message, no nothing. No one knows where he is. Eventually the mystery of what happened to Dream becomes almost an urban legend among some, but for the most part no one really cares— Dream isn’t around to hurt anyone anymore, and they’re fine with that.

Eight years later, Punz shows up on Sam’s doorstep with a letter from Las Nevadas— Quackity’s extremely successful city/utopia. The letter contains tickets to a show taking place there— apparently a famous tap dance troupe is coming to las nevadas, and performing for one week only. Tickets are already sold out at this point, but Quackity saved one just for him, apparently at the request of one of the dancers.

Sam decides to go, both because Quackity is his only real remaining friend, and because he’s curious about this dancer that seems to know him.

When he gets there, he finds that Punz is attending as well—apparently the dancer that invited him here is a friend of Punz’s. At this point Sam is extremely confused and curious, but Punz is being tight lipped and even Quackity is avoiding the subject.

Then the show starts. The lights dim, the crowd hushes, and music starts to play. A spotlight comes on. And a very familiar man walks out on stage.

It’s Dream. Sam, shocked and confused, makes to stand up, but Quackity and Punz pull him back into his seat, urging him to wait until the performance is finished. Neither seem surprised.

The other dancers come out, Dream begins to move, and the performance starts.

It’s a good performance, but Sam is too distracted to really appreciate it. He wants to know what happened—where Dream has been for all these years.

Dream approaches him after the show and explains that back when he’d just escaped from prison and was trying desperately to make the server how he wanted it, Quackity had approached him— not to try and hurt him or get the book, but to apologize. Quackity’s actions had startled and confused Dream so much that he started questioning himself, and eventually after a long heart to heart with Quackity, he asked for Punz’s help starting a new life somewhere else. Now he wants to try and reconcile with Sam the same way Quackity reconciled with him. But does Sam want forgiveness?? Does he even want to be better?

notes:

The whole thing is a really surreal experience for Sam, just because both Dream and Quackity look and act so different than what he remembers from back in Pandora’s vault

they both have therapists they talk to regularly, Dream has filled out and his much healthier, and all his scars are faded. 

Quackity’s eyes are kind, and the lines of his face have softened. His wings are lush and shiny rather than ruffled and in disarray, a sign that he’s been actually grooming them. 

neither have bags under their eyes anymore, neither are as pale as they used to be. And here’s Sam, and he looks… exactly the same.

Dream also invited George, Bad, Ant, and Techno, but on different nights. 

so he can talk to them all one on one

He didn’t invite Sapnap or Tommy (as well as several others) cause he knows they have no interest in ever talking to him again and would rather let them live their lives in peace.

Also Dream is genuinely really good at tap dance. 

That’s why he’s the main dancer for this show

(He isn’t always the main dancer— he’s one of three top dancers, and they alternate which of the three is the main dancer for that show)

His troupe is a small group of about eight people, and they’re all very close knit and genuinely enjoy tap. Rhythm and music and energy bring them joy.

He has a very nice dancing outfit too

It’s comfortable and soft, and also looks good.

black leotard and white tights, black tap shoes, forest green sash

All the dancers have about the same outfit but each has a different colored sash

Chapter Text

One day, Tommy approaches Dream and proposes a deal— he’ll work for Dream, and prevent the others from finding him and hurting him, and in return, Dream will leave his friends and family alone. Dream agrees, and Tommy braces himself for what happened in exile to happen again, but Dream, unbeknownst to Tommy, is reluctant to hurt him after trying to “punish” Tommy for a mistake and being violently reminded of Quackity and prison. Tommy, confused and upset, confronts Dream over his sudden change of heart, only to be abruptly confronted with the reality that a part of him.. misses exile. Misses the feeling of purpose Dream gave him, however horrible it was. Disgusted with himself, Tommy breaks down, and Dream comforts him, revealing that due to his experience with Quackity and Sam in the prison, he can relate to Tommy— he feels similar towards Quackity as Tommy feels towards him. From there, the two form a tentative friendship, one that quickly becomes severely toxic and codependent, as both attempt to help each other cope, but in really unhealthy ways.

also I’d like to clarify— Dream isn’t a villain in this (neither is Tommy, though that should be obvious) he’s a former villain, but current Dream is genuinely trying his best to help Tommy. He’s just not. Good at it. They’re just bad for each other, partly due to all the awful history between them, partly due to their individual trauma, and partly cause neither is a trained therapist and both really need one

Chapter Text

Chapter Text

Magical girl discduo/Prime boys AU!!!

theme song for the au: Wozwald by Miyashita Yuu

This is very heavily inspired by madoka magica, and also a bit by Ours Poetica if you’ve read that (it’s a fic on ao3) but it isn’t exactly the same as either.

Tommy is a new magical girl who only just formed his contract with XD, and is now floundering, struggling to stay alive and defeat dreamons despite his lack of experience.

After a disastrous encounter with a powerful dreamon, Tommy is rescued by Puffy, the leader of a group of magical girls who teamed up in order to survive. The group consists of Tubbo, Puffy, Quackity, Karl, Dream, and Ponk. Puffy takes Tommy under her wing, and he becomes fast friends with a lot of the members of the group, including a mysterious and reclusive man named Dream, who claims to see himself in Tommy. 

Tommy begins to learn about the dark truth of being a magical girl—how most magical girls die young, or grow jaded and ruthless— and slowly starts to realize what exactly he gave up in the process of becoming a magical girl. 
He has his friends by his side—but that might not be enough.

(Notes: there is no time travel in this au!!! However, I do borrow plenty of other themes from madoka magica. XD is a small cute mascot-looking creature, similar to kyuubi—he resembles an allay!! He is also very evil, sadly.)

The way the magical girl system works, is XD approaches people—usually young people—who are on the brink of death but have a strong desire to keep living—a last wish that they want to see granted. He offers to grant that person’s wish, and in exchange, they’ll become a magical girl—someone with powerful abilities who can fight Dreamons, strange monsters who cause natural disasters and feed off of suffering (and in worst cases souls), but who ordinary people can’t see. When killed, these creatures leave behind remnants of leftover magic, which can be used to replenish the magical girl’s powers.

Unbeknownst to most magical girls, what magic really is is soul energy— when XD “creates” a magical girl, he displaces their soul and gives it physical form. That way, even if their body dies, as long as their soul is intact they remain alive. So, though they don’t know this, the magical girl is siphoning energy from their own soul to heal their body and power their magic, and replenishing it with soul energy from the Dreamons they kill.

Even worse, is what happens when a magical girl loses their soul— they transform into the very dreamons they fight. Dreamons are actually amalgamations of leftover soul energy, memory and emotion—the stronger the emotion, the stronger the dreamon. That’s why they eat souls—they’re trying to replace their own missing soul.

When approaching a normal human, the dreamon will just try to eat that human’s emotions, since there’s no actual way for it to reach a normal human’s soul, but if fighting a witch, a dreamon will always go for the soul gem. (Which doesn’t disappear when you transform).

Also, Fun fact— technically a magical girl can use another magical girl’s soul gem to power their own, the same way they can use a Dreamon’s leftover magic!

Anyways guess what ends up happening to Dream

He ends up sacrificing himself for Tommy during a fight with a dreamon gone horribly wrong, and turns into a witch.

For a long while afterwards, tommy is dead set on trying to find a way to cure him. 

Spoiler alert

There is no way to cure him

there’s also a big plot point with Tommy’s family (Wilbur, Philza, and Techno) who aren’t in the know about any if the magical girl stuff and don’t understand why Tommy is suddenly so distant from them. Especially when Tommy is grieving for Dream and they know something is wrong but they don’t know what.

But he won’t talk to them

(He can’t)

Also I had a cool visual idea for the au

When a magical girl’s gem is critically low on magic, black “corruption” starts spreading across their body

If it’s treated, it fades

But if not, then it consumes them

a little bit more about Tommy (and Dream’s) powers and abilities 

tommys magical girl outfit has a superhero/racer theme of sorts

his power is explosions, and his weapon is brass knuckles. He’s a close range fighter, uses his fists.

he can also “fly” by propelling himself in the air using his explosions, though this isn’t perfect and his landings are usually rough. 

Before Dream’s death, Tommy had a bad habit of overusing his magic and letting it go dangerously low. It was very common to see him with corruption spreading across his arms, complaining about itchiness.

after Dream’s death, though, he’s much more careful with his magic.

I don’t really have any ideas for Dream’s magical girl outfit yet (maybe a masquerade theme of some sort?) but I know his powers.

Dream’s power is teleportation, and he uses an axe as a weapon. Puffy tends to pair him and Tommy together a lot because their powers work together so well, which is part of why they ended up becoming such close friends. 

Now I have a much stronger imagery in mind for Dreamon Dream. 

He’s like a lil puppet/clown angel thingy

Angel wings (made of black goop), void face, wooden puppet joints

Clown/stuffed animal getup

He also appears younger than Dream actually was

Dream was 22

the witch resembles a child

This is sort of meant to represent how

well

his childhood was stolen from him

Much like Tommy’s will now be

He can form extra arms out of shadows, and he juggles axes

His labyrinth is a circus tent

He dances around on tightrope strings

And then gets tangled in them when he’s nearing defeat

like a puppet

The whole fight against his Dreamon is absolutely horrifying for Tommy

Just extremely traumatizing

especially when he has to kill what used to be his friend with his bare hands.

Now for some other important magical girls— there’s Ranboo and Tubbo, who join the group after Dream’s death. Ranboo, like Dream, has teleportation powers, and Tommy resents him for a while because of this— he feels like he’s replacing Dream. Eventually, though, they work things out, and Tommy, Tubbo and Ranboo become extremely close friends. 

Then there’s Punz and Purpled, who are rivals to Puffy’s group—they’re much more ruthless magical girls, who care less about doing good and more about surviving. However, they do care a lot about each other.

Chapter Text

AU where Tommy, Ranboo, Tubbo, Dream, Sapnap, George, Bad, Skeppy, Puffy, Niki and Hannah are a group of hybrids trying to escape a hostile kingdom, ruled by a tyrant king

In order to do this, they disguise themselves as a troupe of traveling ballet dancers, in order to get into a neighboring kingdom known as the Arctic Empire. The King and the two princes of the Arctic Empire have a reputation for being much more tolerant towards hybrids than their own king, and in addition to that the eldest prince is famously fond of ballet.

(Pst. The King is Phil and the Princes are Techno and Wilbur)

There’s only one problem.

None of them know how to do ballet.

In the words of Tommyinnit: what the fuck is a ballet?? I’m gonna kill you

List of all the hybrids:

Puffy — sheep
Dream — Shetland sheepdog 
Sapnap — panda 
George — fruit bat 
Niki — pink axolotl
Tommy — raccoon
Ranboo — enderman 
Hannah — dragonfly
Tubbo — mountain goat
Bad — black cat
Skeppy — Hummingbird

Puffy is the “Troupe Leader” of sorts— she’s the one who knows the most about ballet, at least in the beginning, and she teaches the basics to the others.

This whole scheme began cause she was feeling nostalgic remembering her old ballet lessons and decided to teach what she knew to Dream

And then Dream came up with this whole hairbrained scheme to disguise themselves as a ballet troupe, and dragged the others in as well, because he’s an ambitious idiot.

(Dream and Puffy’s relationship is very wholesome in this— you know those sheepdogs who are raised with the sheep they’re meant to protect so that they see the sheep as family?? Yeah that’s Dream and Puffy right there.)

The original plan was just to dance regularly/do existing classical dances, but Sapnap and Tommy didn’t want to tell the usual stories because "that's boring”. They wanted to add in mock battles and create stories of their own, and as a result of this they develop a very unique style.

But yeah.

The AU would mostly be fluff and humor

With the occasional angst mixed in

They’re going on an adventureee

they’re gonna reinvent ballet

It’s for their survival at first but eventually they all grow to genuinely like ballet too

over time they become genuinely passionate about the art

Fun fact!!

Ranboo is 7 feet tall but weighs almost nothing (this is due to endermen hybrid genetics, not anything unhealthy)

Which adds a lot of spectacle to their shows

Because he looks like he’d be heavy but everyone in the troupe can lift him.

So you’ll get like 5’6 raccoon hybrid Tommyinnit lifting this giant enderman hybrid like it’s nothing 

The crowds eat it up

Dream is the strongest and heaviest (And fluffiest)

He can lift everyone in the troupe, but only Sapnap and Puffy can lift him (and Techno later on)

He throws his friends in the air as a sign of affection
And then gets sad when they can’t do it back

Dream: *puppy dog eyes*

George, exasperated: I can’t lift you Dream you’re too heavy for me

Dream: *puppy dog eyes increase in intensity*

Sapnap, very dramatically: my goodness George, how could u be so heartless!! Don’t worry Dream, I’ll lift you. I appreciate the homies, unlike someone

George: oh my god

But yeah Sapnap would 100% flaunt his status as one of the only 2 people to lift Dream

(Tubbo is getting close though. He and Tommy are competing to see who will get strong enough to lift Dream next)

Also George manages to somehow do the most insane stunts without dying but can and will randomly trip over his own feet when walking

He’s somehow both very graceful and very clumsy

Niki does her dancing underwater, which adds to her appeal. Her performances are hard to set up but always breathtaking

Dream is the one who ends up getting the most passionate about it, and is also one of the most skilled

though Ranboo, Hannah and Niki are all up there too (Niki is arguably the best performer)

he’s very competitive too, but it’s balanced out by his golden retriever energy

Now for the more serious/angsty stuff

They have a lot of trouble finding places to stay early on

A lot of hotels turned them down or overcharged them because they were hybrids

They had a ratty old tent they’d set up and sleep in when they couldn’t find anywhere

And they’d all huddle for warmth

The fuzzier hybrids like Tommy, Sapnap, Dream and Puffy tend to get used as cushions

when they start getting more successful and well known though they don’t need to do it as much

Cause a lot more people are willing to take them in once they’re famous

But even once they’re famous they have issues with audience members harassing them

Ranboo is mistrusted the most

you see, there’s a reason all of them but Ranboo are common animal hybrids, rather than hostile mobs

The king had almost all hostile mob hybrids killed

Endermen, unlike other hostile mobs, are only hostile if you look them in the eyes and so their hybrids were somewhat spared

And so were all the peaceful mob hybrids

but even then, enderman hybrids are still widely mistrusted

and the kings actions are seen by humans as a noble deed

rather than the truth, which was that

it was genocide 

Even the hybrid species that were spared are still considered second class citizens

audience members will approach the other hybrids after seeing Ranboo, in order to warn them about “it”

they can’t afford to argue but they also don’t want to exclude Ranboo, especially since he loves dancing

So early on when they can’t afford to stick out they pretend his features are a costume

later on when they’re famous they can get away with having him there

But they still have to deal with some harassment Due to his presence 

it’s unfair, but they just learn to grin and bear it

To be honest, all of the hybrids get harassed in different ways

People screaming at George/being too loud around him (on purpose and on accident)

People petting Dream without his permission/ giving him commands and laughing when they manage to trick him into following one 

Tommy and Bad are also mistrusted, though not as much as Ranboo

People will stick their hands in Puffy’s wool or pull Bad’s tail

on the bright side, though, getting to the Antarctic Empire is a huge relief

Just a breath of fresh air

The people there are so much more respectful of their hybrid natures, and it removes a lot of stress from their shoulders 

Several of the audience members are hybrids themselves

They even see hostile mob hybrids walking around, alive and happy

eventually they learn that one of the princes— Prince Techno, the one who loves Ballet— is a hostile mob hybrid himself, and suddenly quite a few things click into place

but really it’s just nice to be so accepted 

Chapter Text

So I had a weird dream (lowkey a nightmare, actually) and I’m turning it into an AU because that usually takes the spookiness out of it.

So to set the scene— it’s modern times, and Dream is a famous painter

there are these two distinctive, reoccurring characters who appear in some of his most well known paintings, and slowly develop over time. They appear to be opposites of eachother, and bitter enemies as well

Whenever they appear together, they’re always fighting

Lots of people speculate on what they represent

those characters are Technoblade and Quackity

Dream himself is a very instinctual sort of artist— he doesn’t plan out his works, usually starting with just a basic concept or feeling in mind and working from there

He never intended for Techno or Quackity to become reoccurring figures in his work— it just happened

But lately, he’s been feeling uneasy

Like someone—or something—is watching him

The feeling is strongest in his studio, where he’s working on his current piece— a close up side profile of Quackity mid battle with an unseen foe, his one visible eye the focal point of the piece

The eye is hyper realistic— Dream put as much effort and detail into it as possible

And Dream can’t help but feel the eye is staring directly at him

It’s that feeling more than anything else that leads him to splatter red paint directly over the eye, obscuring all of his hard work

(Though it also just feels… correct, somehow. Familiar)

The painting ends up becoming his most popular and iconic piece

And the next time he feels driven to paint Quackity, he finds himself adding a scar over the man’s eye that wasn’t there before

Almost like his hands have a mind of their own

But anyways long story short

Basically Techno and Quackity have minds of their own, Quackity is trying to drag Dream into the painting and do something horrible to him (probably kill him, but it’s spookier if you don’t specify) and Techno is trying to protect Dream from Quackity

I’m also thinking of maybe adding like

an element of reincarnation? 

that wasn’t in the nightmare

Like this Dream is a reincarnation of C!Dream

and maybe the Quackity and Techno in the painting are the spirits of c!Quackity and Techno somehow

Which is why painting Quackity hates Dream so much

This version of Dream is innocent though

He has no memories of his past life, and the worst thing he’s ever done is steal a pencil 

And then immediately return it out of guilt.