#did he not realize the dsmp was supposed to be roleplay

[kisuminight]

Right. So this is the one that I've been trying to avoid posting, but it's important to the AU, so--c!Tommy. Mind the tags.

For a general overview of all the minors on the server--we have c!Tubbo, c!Tommy, c!Purpled, and c!Ranboo. How much they know about Blades influences a lot of things in this AU. Purpled is c!Punz's Driver, obviously. Ranboo used to know about Blades. Now he's unaware that he even needs to ask. ew!Ranboo still remembers, obviously, and is gatekeeping the knowledge a bit.

Tommy and Tubbo, they don't know. They don't find out until Staged Finale, when Dream is revealed to be a Blade and everyone (badly) explains the system to them. Prior to the explanation, they know a little bit about Aegis Blades, and generally assume that the standards of an Aegis Blade (ie, never forgetting) can be applied to any other Blade.

Theoretically, info about Blades was supposed to be covered in school. But given that they're server-hopping at 16, they clearly haven't had regular schooling. In that case, their parents should have told them, but.... Yeah. So then it should be the adult who is technically in charge of them. That's c!Wilbur. Who grew up with a Blade for his only parent and another Blade as kind-of family and doesn't realize that normal people have to be told about Blade stuff. So yeah.

Tommy's ideology is unfortunately incompatible with Blades. It's normal server etiquette that you avoid from killing anyone when you're new on a server (for about a week), to give the local Blades time to adjust to you and identify themselves (or not). This is generally understood to be a unstated rule, one designed to prevent tragedies. Tommy doesn't know it, and probably wouldn't acknowledge it if he did.

The thing about Tommy is that he doesn't really take responsibility-- not for his actions, and not for the consequences of the actions--unless it benefits him. We can see this in one of the first streams that cc!Tommy did on the dsmp. Yes, I am aware that the roleplay hadn't started at that point, but I think it is a good example of the ideology that eventually kind of got baked into c!Tommy.

See, cc!Tommy was talking about the rules of the server. Don't grief, don't steal, and don't go to the End. Starting with the second one, don't steal, Tommy basically makes up an excuse to do this. At a later point in the stream, cc!Dream does tell cc!Tommy that the resources in the community house are communal. But before that, cc!Tommy is making up an excuses to take supplies from the chests. cc!Tommy reasons that if he fixes parts of the path that got destroyed by creepers, that is enough to take several emeralds from the chests. So he is taking responsibility of a minor/easily accomplished task as an excuse to receive a large reward.

That's fine, and people do that all the time. While c!Dream in this AU would probably find it a bit irritating, it's not an irreconcilable difference. The issue c!Dream would take is when c!Tommy doesn't take responsibility for his actions. And we can see that in the same stream, when cc!Tommy talks about griefing. cc!Tommy states that if he did arson (on Ponk's tree), it would not be considered griefing. Because he is not griefing anything. He is setting a fire, and the fire is doing the griefing.

Taking this for a c!Tommy characterization, this shows that Tommy is not going to take responsibility for his actions (the griefing) and he is not going to take responsibility for the consequences of his actions (Ponk getting upset that his lemon tree was set on fire). This type of mindset would drive c!Dream up the wall, because if you're not taking responsibility, it means you're not learning from what happened, and it means that you'll do it again (or maybe worse).

From c!Dream's perspective, c!Tommy turned up and tried to kill the people on his server for fun (he nearly killed Dream, nearly erased him from existence), tried to burn down things for fun, and eventually escalated into helping c!Wilbur start a nation for fun (which caused a war/people being hurt), burning down someone's (George, Dream's Driver, what if he was hurt) house for fun when he didn't even know if they were inside or not, and culminated, pre-exile, in Tommy deciding it was a good idea to get what he wants by threatening Dream and what he cares about directly via Spirit's leather (what if Sapnap is next what if George is next everybody I love is going to die). And even if you get him on your side, he may change his mind on a whim (why did he betray Techno? Dream would never be so stupid).

So yeah. Long term, Tommy is not very compatible with Dream or his worldview, or even the Blade System in general. And even once Tommy does know about the Blade System, that knowledge doesn't initially cause his actions and how he justifies/thinks about his actions to change.

See, another thing about Tommy, in this AU, is that he and Dream both take the philosophical question about what it means when a Blade dies in completely different ways. After all, when a Blade dies and is Reawakened, they:

Lose all (emotional) memory

Have all their achievements reset

Retain their physical skills

Retain their base personality

Looks the same

Keep the same nametag/Player ID/comm account

Can access the same enderchest as their previous life

Dream comes at this from the idea that the memory is what makes the person. Even if the base personality is the same, the fact that the Blade is in a new Resonance (even if it is with the same Driver) and is starting over with zero experience of the world makes the Blade a fundamentally different person in their new life. The previous-life Blade may look or act similar to the current-life Blade, but they are not the same person and cannot be treated as such.

Tommy, when Blades are finally explained to him during Staged Finale, would choose to say that Blades are the same person every time. The fact that a Blade can put something in an enderchest, die and Resonate with a new Driver, and open an enderchest to see the exact same dimension of the previous life shows that the universe is treating all incarnations of a Blade as the same person. And that's not even getting into the fact that a Blade will have the same base personality in each life. This is a common opinion to have for people who have never Awakened a Blade (and sometimes for people who have, but rarely).

The thing is that Tommy is basing this position off of his experiences with Dream. If he had a Blade of his own, and experienced the trauma of the Blade dying and coming back without their memories, he'd probably change his answer. But he's got bad experiences with Dream and doesn't know any other Blade, so his knee-jerk reaction is to assume that every incarnation of a Blade will always be the same (Dream will always be dangerous).

But people aren't static. Tommy does eventually mature and change and grow. This is already getting long (I'll probably do another post on it), but Tommy runs into c!Niki and Dream during Dream's Syndicate Arc. And then he has to face the consequences of his actions, featuring

a Niki that still kind of hates Tommy and has been stewing over enough things to also be sympathetic to early-server!Dream

a Dream who is pretending for all he is worth that he has lost all his memories and has no goddam clue who Tommy is or what he's screaming about

Tommy's own perception of Dream the faceless, scary warrior smashing headfirst in the Syndicate!Dream who is soft spoken, spends most of the conversations trying to hide behind Niki, is stupidly expressive, and is a healer who isn't armored or carrying a weapon

[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!"