#auuuuuuuuuhg I need to get to Raine's fic so so so bad

[cocomere]

Most of this (bar some romantic stuff) is. Pretty much just Blood & Gold discduo.

On one side you have Tommy, the equivalent of a mangy street dog who longs with his entire heart to have someone and something he can protect. He thought he found it with Wilbur and L'manburg-- only to be near-fatally betrayed by his own brother. in Pogtopia

By virtue of concern, kindness, helping Tubbo, and willingness to humble himself before his future protege, Dream earns Tommy's complete and utter devotion. We would wrest the sun from the sky and hold it, burning and deadly, in his arms if it meant Dream would be happy.

He gets referred to as a dog several times. By being seen first as an annoying brat and then as Dream's right-hand man, he's underestimated and sneered at.

He doesn't deny it. He's already devoted his heart to the path that he believes will make his mentor happiest. Dream is smart in so many ways, but he's an idiot with people. He has righteous ideals that sound great on paper, but in the real world...

Well. Tommy decides to become a dog, a sword, a shield, a barricade to make sure those beautiful, shining ideals aren't exposed to the harsh truths of the world.

At the same time, he considers himself a rabbit.

His monster is very right about that. “I’m already scary– scary enough to make you back down.” Dream hums, his smile growing. “On some things. On others…” “On others, you’re just being stubborn. That’s fine; I can be like that, too.” Dream laughs in surprise at the blatant challenge. “You think you’re more stubborn than me, then?” “Obviously.” He doesn’t know what it’s like to need that stubbornness to survive. To be starved and feel the need to deny a part of himself because he believed lies about it being wrong. We do. That’s why we’ll win. Tommy lifts his chin and tells his mentor, “There’s a metaphor or fable or whatever– the dog hunts for its dinner, yeah? But the rabbit is running for its life. You don’t know what it’s like to be a rabbit– or if you did, you’ve forgotten too much about it. I’ve never been a dog. Every step I take is to run, because if I ever stumbled I’d die.” The admin is visibly startled at the tone Tommy takes, composed and almost threatening. It sort of surprises Tommy too. He wonders if the solidified presence of his admin side is giving him a boost in confidence.

Dream has stood at the top of the world. He's been a wildly popular and famous fighter; he's had his friends (imperfect though they might be); he's the admin of a server-- something that Tommy has been learning means so, so much more than he could have ever dreamed of.

Tommy, by contrast, can only claw himself up a little before he's kicked down to the bottom again. Found abandoned and malnourished, then brought to a wildly dysfunctional home and nearly entirely raised by Wilbur. His elder brother was only around 14 to Tommy's 5 or so.

Wilbur is his shining ideal, a person whose approval he chases to the point that he gets killed twice and makes a dangerous deal with the person who killed him.

The life of a rabbit is all he's known. Dream has things and people to fall back on. Tommy only has Tubbo, and kinda-sorta Wilbur (as long as Tommy needing him can be used for his schemes, of course.)

And then, much later...the guard dog slips his leash; the rabbit who played at being a hound pivots; and both sink their teeth into the hand that dared to try and force a collar around his throat.

He claws off the collar of allegiance and hero worship that he wore entirely willingly.

Then, in Sanctuary, you have a different but similar starting point for Aster.

He is a mangy dog, yes. But he is one who has been hit and kicked and hurt in more ways that could be named. His every freedom was restricted with an unwilling leash.

When he turns on the hand that held it, he knows the consequences will be deadly.

That's the point.

And then a miracle, in the form of the T3. Aster is snatched from the cusp of death and brought back so he can be treated.

Despite a lifetime of pain and abuse, he finds himself enamored with the Was-Taken family. Theo is a shining ideal, a pinnacle that, if beaten, would prove that Aster really is strong.

And, of course, there's Lee.

A six-ish year old who sometimes knows things he shouldn't, and at other times doesn't know things he should. While he's a Dream, he's...harmless. All he really wants is to apply a growing assortment of bandaids (magical, he believes, in the way they draw smiles from people who have them on) to him and occasionally show him fun things.

Aster gets other little tokens of affection, too. Flower crowns, and freshly-baked cookies, and drawings, and smiles as radiant as the sun.

So, with time (and with Daz's involvement), Aster slips a new collar around his throat.

He becomes a guard dog for the safest six year old in the cosmos. He trains other dogs to stand at his side for the same purpose. He works with someone he kinda hates to ensure that none of them ever need to attack.

But if all else fails...the Swords and Shields can and will mobilize to protect Achilles Reed Was-Taken from whatever threat was stupid enough to turn its gaze towards him.

collection of posts for a very specific dynamic