#au means aTotally uCanon now

[proudfreakmetarusonikku]

anyway SO when the universe is reset. the memory loss is a lot more severe than you’d think. it’s not just losing memories it’s also losing a lot of knowledge- it’s not a gentle process, it’s basically taking a scalpel to the brain and cutting out random shit. tommy and tubbo can barely even remember their own names- they sound familiar, but it takes a while for them to figure out why. they struggle to read. they can’t recognise simple concepts. basically, they’ve had their entire brain completely wiped, and the only pieces of knowledge that remain are due to pure luck. (this is the same for everyone, they’re just less relevant to these totally canon facts).

but dream? dream is only pretending that he lost his memory too. he was the one who initiated the incident, to wipe the server back to his intended vision- and if he had to leave everyone as blank slates, well, that just makes it easier! he’d happily do it again. (another fun fact: this includes punz. that’s why dream ignored him by the end bc he knew he wouldn’t remember shit.)

but he pretends to have a little more knowledge than everyone else, so he quickly manages to get the role of leader because no one knows to distrust him. the concept of lying is something most of them have a vague recollection of, at best, and they trust him implicitly, and think of him exactly as he’s portraying himself- a borderline god.

and then we get back to tommy. dream basically immediately kidnapped him under the pretext of building a base (which he proceeded to trap the poor kid in) while using his amnesia to make him believe that everything dream was doing to him was okay and normal for family (which he also convinced him they were) and that everyone else was the problem. so tommy’s completely oblivious to the fact that basically being locked in a glorified cell, unable to speak with anyone but his “big brother”, and heavily abused under dream’s paranoia he’d start remembering if he wasn’t being actively conditioned into obedience at all times isn’t just what happens to everyone else, and thinks that it’s everyone else who is scary. he doesn’t want to leave because he’s been manipulated into believing his own abuse is a privilege he should be thankful for and actual friendship is harmful.

but then, of course, he inevitably starts remembering. and at first he thinks he’s just having bad dreams, but as he gets more and more snippets from his life, he realises that dream did… something, and he could probably do it again. that what’s happening to him isn’t okay. that he’s actually worth something outside of being an emotional support hostage. but as soon as he realises that, he also realises that no matter what he can’t let dream know, because what if he makes everyone forget again? so he has to play along as the perfect pawn in some twisted game of happy families while waiting for the opportunity to fight back and make sure dream can never fuck with anyones memories again and go back to living with his real family (if they even remember him- after all, the only reason tommy realised the dreams were real was because he was remembering stuff about dream specifically…)

anyway since dsmp 2 is mercifully dead we can say with 100% certainty this is canon. c!prime psychological horror always wins 🥰 and since c!prime belong to me i have full authority on this 🥰