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love-n-pirates · 4 years ago

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The Harm of Accusing DNF of Queerbaiting + Ignoring The Issue

I like to keep the stuff on this blog lighthearted and jokey and I like to just reblog art but I did wanna make another post about the kaceytron issue but specifically the accusations of queerbaiting. This is gonna be a long post so sorry about that but this stream made me really mad and I’ve put a lot of time into gathering my thoughts and reviewing the VOD again to ensure my citations and interpretations are accurate.

TW for mentions of homophobia and ableism and please remember no matter how mad this might make you as well. Don’t send any hate. Best thing to do is unfollow, block and move on, she’s already had enough of a stage to perform on.

I’ve sectioned the post into summary and thoughts with pictures in case you only want to briefly look but I tried to be cohesive enough without going on too long so hopefully you’ll give the whole thing a read. Particularly a part I wrote at the end about her using Dream as a scapegoat (titled such) I just think it’s important to keep in mind. I watched this shit a second time so you don’t have to! It wrecked my head but I’m unhappy with how they spoke about queerbaiting, which is a serious issue in media, and wanted to talk openly about it here.

At first I did feel bad for her and thought that some of it was blown out of proportion, things that she could learn and grow from but ultimately she showed no remorse and after how she handled speaking with Dream and the immature nature of the whole ordeal I can’t feel entirely awful for her anymore.

This is the tweet that started it all. Kacey is in a very similar circle to Dream and George so it makes sense that Dream stans would find it. Ignoring the sort of humour behind the fact that so many assumed it was about them, it is a shitty tweet and seems kind of irrelevant. Ironically enough, she was getting called out moments later as stans brought up prior racist, ableist and homophobic issues with Kacey. Cancelled for a little more than breathing it seems.

One thing I wish had been asked from the get go was “Who is this tweet supposed to be about?” Kacey said it wasn’t even about them and that people were assuming incorrectly. She could’ve saved herself from the wrath of all the mc stans that came her way if she just said who it was really about. But she didn’t, which indicates to me that it definitely was about them. Not a great statement to make as a cishet woman, unprompted, especially when your influence often intertwines with theirs and when you share mutuals.

I did speak about queerbaiting before in reference to George just a couple posts down but it's blown up massively recently and I wanted to get detailed in a more general sense while using this event as a sort of case study.

For clarification I am a queer woman so I've had my fair run ins with queerbaity content etc. This is gonna be a detailed rundown of what was said with my own thoughts on it and some time stamps are included if you feel the need to see for yourself.

TL;DR

Dream and George are not the malicious straight boys they’re being made out to be. Saying they’re Queerbaiting is a disregard for their own emotional autonomy and they have been open with the fact they do not date nor do they use it for views. This argument is being used to shift focus from the important conversation which is Kaceytron’s use of slurs and arose from a stream that was made about Dream and forced him to be involved. She’s doing it for attention and should be ignored.

WHAT IS QUEERBAITING?

First of all, queer baiting is defined as "a marketing technique for fiction and entertainment in which creators hint at, but then do not actually depict, same-sex romance or other LGBTQ representation."

Technically twitch streams do fall under entertainment although I would argue that there is a certain nuance to this. We know that streamers often put on a certain persona when streaming (Tommy and Quackity are very loud in their own streams because that's their brand, then on their alts they are very laidback) but I would say that Dream and George are two streamers that are often just themselves while streaming. Particularly when they are together, it makes sense that a stream has a change in vibe when the cc is talking with a friend rather than focusing on talking to chat. Since these two usually only stream when they're with friends, we tend to see a more authentic side. We very much feel that they are real people showing their casual side. Their streams do not feel performative, this is part of their appeal.

Don’t forget that Kacey, a cishet woman, puts her streams under the LGBTQIA+ tag on Twitch. A tag only usually used if the streamer is LGBT.

SUMMARY OF EVENTS IN THE STREAM

Now, the stream. During the stream Kacey had her sister and two friends(both gay men, important for a later point) to back her up. Dream joined at about 3hr and 55 mins and already there was a distinct power imbalance in Kacey’s favour within the call. They titled it a debate yet it felt more like relentless high school bullying. They spoke for about an hour and the entire time, Kacey’s chat was spamming for her to ask about queerbaiting. Finally, one of her friends, Shaun, brought it up at about the 4hr and 43min mark.

Now, the reason I have a few issues with this is that it seems to me that he doesn’t really know what he’s talking about. You can see on his stream(in the background of Kacey’s) at one point that he has a massive text post from tumblr up that is accusing Dream of queerbaiting, saying that he gets to benefit from maintaining a queer audience but without the issues that come with being a gay man as he prefers to keep it ambiguous. That text post is super problematic, a creator is not there for your wish fulfillment or to be your idol. Also, there is a lot of assumption coming with saying he isn’t ostracized just because he doesn’t label himself. Instantly it’s clear that this post is the basis for the accusations that Shaun is making. I’m using accusation lightly here because over all I think the Shaun guy was very civil, (at least to Dream’s face) but the rest of the group were quite on the attack, particularly Kacey’s sister, Holly. (I’ll come back to her)

Shaun says that he feels that Dream and George, possibly unintentionally, are guilty of queerbaiting. Dream handled it well and said he would like to open that dialogue and asked Shaun to expand on what he means by queerbaiting and if he has any specific events that would be prevalent. Shaun says he has examples that he can pull up, which he never does, and continues to be very vague and general about it in saying that there’s been a “culture” going on for years that he’s noticed.

At this point, the other guy (I didn’t catch his name, sorry) jumps in and says there's a “clear flirtiness in attitude and undertones” which Dream agrees to. He points out that this is how he interacts with most friends, male and female, on the Dream SMP. He also points out that he acts like that with his friends both on and off camera and it’s not like he’s only approaching gay men and flirting with them. It’s clear that this line of joking is a constant in his friendships, where comfortable, and is never malicious. He even asks what their thoughts would be if he only did it with gay men and how that would differ, they don’t answer this question and the conversation moves on.

At the 4hr 46min mark is where Holly jumps in and tells of VERY personal experiences from Shaun’s past of him being tormented by straight guys in school, being called slurs and jokingly flirted with. She even tells a story about how a homophobe hit him with their car. This was very uncomfortable as it was not her experience to share and Shaun was IN THE CALL. She said that Dream’s flirtations with George could be a trigger to people like Shaun because of that experience. This shows again a lack of awareness for other people, she’s using Shaun's personal story for her own gain and not even letting him be the voice that tells it. This sat poorly with me as Kacey was already being accused of speaking over LGBT voices rather than lifting them up with her, then her sister goes and does it live. Maybe Shaun was ok with this, maybe not, it just didn’t sit well with me. At 5hr and 05mins, after Dream is gone, they mention this again and Shaun asks them to point out when he said he was triggered after he talked about his experience. He was clearly uncomfortable with the use of the word and it seems to have been put in his mouth.

Shaun then says that he doesn’t like it because here are Dream and George exhibiting behaviours that some people are often scared to do because of homophobic violence. To me, this was probably one of the only valid sort of feelings against it (Shame he wasn’t let speak more). I understand why someone might look at it that way, but at the same time there is a clear difference between messing with your friends and real life romantic flirtation. In my own personal life I know that I’ve been afraid of any sort of pda with a partner but when it comes to my own joke flirting with friends, I’m never afraid to do it. This can differ from person to person and maybe is very different for gay men but this is my own gay experience as someone who understands that fear. I think that the line is fairly clear between the real and the jokes and I honestly have no doubt that Dream and George have probably had people throw homophobic language their way but it may not have had to same effect as they don’t present themselves as homosexual.

Worth noting that during this exchange Dream does say in passing he’s straight but it’s said in a hypothetical sort of way which leaves it unclear and he’s stated before that he doesn’t like labels and he wants to keep it ambiguous so it would be more respectful to continue thinking of him as such. Ambiguous is the way he chooses to present his sexuality and this should be accepted by everyone instead of making assumptions that he is straight. He was under pressure from four other adults to explain himself and handle accusations, anyone would say they were straight if they were being pushed like that and felt it wasn’t a safe environment. Which it definitely wasn’t and I advise that anyone who does want to watch back the VOD to turn off chat because they’re extremely toxic.

Holly proceeds to say that this makes gay people the butt of the joke, Dream says that he sees it more as the flirting with his friends as the joke, again, I’d agree with him. Depends on your humour I suppose, but arguably, anyone who watches Kacey interact on egirl rejects and stuff like that will see she often makes flirty jokes with Minx and other female friends, for some reason this isn’t seen as queerbaiting, but it’s unfortunately not brought up. I can understand why, Dream wasn’t trying to make any accusations in return, he was legitimately trying to have an earnest conversation which quickly went sour.

Holly goes on to explain how Shaun feels, by speaking over Shaun, and asks Dream what he thinks about that. Dream agrees that Shaun’s feelings are valid and says “That’s why I started this off by saying ‘lets talk about this’“. Holly gets extremely patronizing and asks if he understands it now that it’s been explained.

Dream is still very patient with them and agrees that he’s said things and learnt from mistakes and criticism that he’s received. He speaks honestly about his original cancelling and how he handled it poorly but learnt from that and has grown to be more careful and thoughtful with the things he says.

I have a real issue with this again because words are continuously put in his mouth. He’s asked several times throughout the whole call to denounce things, from people hating on Kacey to actual MASS SHOOTERS. He’s barely given space to defend himself and is ignored when he tries to say that he can’t control his fans. They just ask him time and time again to denounce multiple things.

The only time where Dream seems actually riled up by anything they say is when Holly, at the 4hr 11min mark, mentions the hashtag “Shooters4Dream” trending and says its Dream stans promoting gun violence (which was just a handful of idiots being insensitive under the tag). Dream responds to this with his classic “Oh come on” but before he can say anything else, Kacey does talk over him and says that the tag was mostly people denouncing it and tries to change the subject, but Dream brings it back and says that the tag was stupid and wrong. Holly and Kacey talk about how people were making jokes about it and Holly asks “Is it funny to you? Because your community think it is.” She’s playing such an abrasive blame game with him and he talks about how he spoke against it on twitter, they discount him, and Holly can be seen laughing at him. When Dream tries to explain the issue properly and Kacey just says, “Lets skip this, let's move on.” Dream points out that it is bad that the tag was trending, but he didn’t want to speak about it too much otherwise it would become a bigger thing. Ultimately, he doesn’t control his fans and the meaning of the tag was misconstrued massively. A matter of poor use of language and appalling timing.

Love or Host

Love or Host is brought up a few times as an example of him flirting with George which I found interesting as he’s only been in one episode (George’s) and he was talking mostly to the girls on the show to figure out who is good for George, as that was his role. During this there was joking about how he should come before the girl and even female guests joined this line of joking. This is all part of the show and most played along with the bit, it’s not an uncommon bit for guests on the show to do. Not just Dream and George, but other guests in their respective episodes.

I also find the mentioning of Love or Host interesting purely because, if anything, it’s the exact type of content that Kacey should hate, right? False relationships being formed? It’s not like there’s only straight people on the show as well, there’s been gay and bi love or hosts so queerbaiting, under the parameters which Kaceytron has set, is on the table. I’ve yet to see a real romantic relationship come out of an episode of LoH. This is a show purely for content and Kacey knows this, she’s appeared on multiple shows and even won Sapnap’s episode. She knows their date wasn’t real. Her sister says that many women are afraid to be on LoH because of hate they receive in the aftermath of the show and she claims it’s running its course because of this. I’d have to disagree with this (it’s a super successful show cmon) and, though a lot of people do get hate on the show, I think it’s often outweighed by the benefits they get from that type of exposure which is why people like Kacey continue to appear on multiple episodes.

What I found most interesting was what she said about her appearance on George’s episode. Mostly jokes were made about this costume:

admittedly, it was kind of funny albeit rather creepy. However, if Kacey felt so strongly about Queerbaiting, why would she dress like that. Why wasn’t she a passionate advocate then? Where’d the sudden fire come from? I think we all know the answers to these questions.

In response to people bringing up how she pandered by using this costume, making her a hypocrite, she said that in dressing like that she knew she was appealing to children. Now, I don’t know about you, but I don’t know many kids that want to sit through a four hour long dating show filled with adults they don’t know and stuff they don’t understand. I don’t think the Austin Show’s demographic contains an awful lot of kids, no matter who the guest on the show is. Also, the point of the show is not to appeal to the audience per se, but to the person whose episode it is. It felt like a weak excuse and another chance to try take a dig at mc stans for being younger and trying to brand them as immature.

INITIAL AFTER THOUGHTS

As I said before, creators do not owe you anything, especially not a window into their personal lives. We’re lucky that Dream shares so much and is a very open person, you don’t need to pry any more than that. When you get upset about him queerbaiting you, what you say to me is that you don’t see him as a person. It’s a level of objectification that leaves me feeling uneasy, if you feel robbed of something because of this then you need to set your priorities straight.

As Dream said in the stream, he hasn’t misled anyone. He has specified that him and George are not dating nor do they plan to (I included a SS at the end of this as well where he states this again). If he were queerbaiting then he would title his videos as though George was his boyfriend, he doesn’t do this. He makes it clear that they are friends, their chemistry is never used as a marketing device or as the main attraction of a video.

Many pointed out the hypocrisy of Kacey’s claims. Some pointing to her own channel where she has a playlist of 16 videos titled “gay videos”

These are just a few of the videos. Within one of these videos, titled “The F Word”, she complains about reclamation of slurs and repeatedly says the r slur. She shows no remorse for saying slurs and this is part of why it’s difficult to forgive her.

I don’t even know what to say about this video. This is extremely offensive, even if the people involved agreed to it, it doesn’t mean it's not offensive to other gay people. This clip features her sister and Shaun, who were on the call, kissing while clearly intoxicated. The narrative that gay people can be ”turned straight” is extremely harmful and is an unfortunate reality that many LGBT people are forced through. In the call with Dream, they mention how maybe some gay people are fine with Dream and George’s flirting but people like Shaun weren’t and so they should be more respectful. When it comes to a video, like the one I’ve shown above, you’d think they would follow the same thought process. This is far more offensive and harmful to the LGBT community than any harmless flirting between friends. The hypocrisy is blatant.

Sometimes streamers are tricked into saying slurs by donos etc. but instead of saying sorry I didn’t mean it and here’s what happened, Kacey tends to jump on the defensive. Dream said to her around when he first joined the call that he understood how difficult her position was because when he was first cancelled he felt like it was very unfair. He told her that even if you don’t think you’re wrong you can’t control how other people feel and you have to acknowledge that. He did mention how he handled his cancelling badly (something he still gets shit for today despite the fact he learnt from his mistakes) and that instead of getting upset about it now, he knows you should just take accountability and move on. Kacey doesn’t register this and goes on about how terrible it is for her.

MISOGYNY AND AGE DEMOGRAPHIC

Part of me wonders if the reason she continues to fight with mc stans is because she knows she can just call them stupid kids and call it a day. This is interesting to me as I think I’ve seen more 15-24 year olds in this group rather than young children. Maybe this is just the content I’m looking through but I actually think that her demographic is more similar to Dream’s than she thinks. It’s just easier to write them off as snot-nosed minecraft playing children. This is a theme she sticks with as she makes half-assed jokes about bedtimes and parents etc. etc. It’s boring.

Also, despite the accusations at Dream, calling him a misogynist, it actually was both Kacey and Holly who came in with the sexist narrative as they go on about how his fans are just teenage white girls. This is a clear double standard as they are trying to use both age and gender to discount the validity of their feelings.

For someone who says she doesn’t care, it sure is interesting that she’s tweeted constantly about it and streamed for hours at a time. The stream with Dream was seven hours long. She blames the fact that she accidently read a slur out on stream on her lack of sleep. As a creator, you should know your limits and when you are and aren’t emotionally ready to be on camera. Kacey clearly does not know her limits and it effects her greatly. On the first watch I skipped forward in the VOD to the six hour mark and found she was still chatting shit about Dream with her sister while playing Roblox.

Ironic that she goes on about stupid minecraft kids while being a 30 y/o woman playing Roblox. Nothing wrong with playing stuff at whatever age but not when you’re ragging on kids for the same thing.

USING THE GAY NARRATIVE

I finally wanted to come back to the use of her two gay friends in the so called “debate”. At 6hr and 08mins she reads out a message in either chat or from twitter.

“Listen up here cishet woman, you are cishet, shut your mouth and do not talk about queerbaiting ever again, ok?”

I don’t think people should bother going to her chat to say this stuff because it only fans the flames and will not change her mind but it’s what she said after that left me thinking that she knew exactly what she was doing when she included two gay men in the narrative on her side. She says

“That’s why there were two gay people on the show who talked about queerbaiting and how it’s offensive to them. Are they trying to speak over gay voices? Like, who are they playing?”

I find it difficult to consider this a valid point as they quite literally spoke over said gay people themselves and as I mentioned, it was pressure from Shaun’s chat that made him bring it up when it was clear he wasn’t educated on the specifics of who he was speaking with. It all felt very false and like a set up to try catch Dream out. They were essentially there for the clout they get for being plants for Kacey as long as they go along with the narrative she was pushing. They seemed dispassionate about the topic and were more interested in drama. It makes them unconvincing debators.

KACEY’S CHAT AND ABLEISM

I could barely look at the chat the whole time because they were very toxic and some even used slurs in there. Kacey claims to have created a safe space for people, particularly LGBTQ people, yet from what I saw, it was only really a safe space for bigotry and toxicity. These are just some screenshots that I took during the call.

Blatant ableism in the first one, maybe they didn’t know about his ADHD, but this was one of many and even Kacey and her sister made fun of it when he was out of the call.

Gaslighting is a serious accusation. The definition is this: “Gaslighting is a form of psychological abuse where a person or group makes someone question their sanity, perception of reality, or memories. People experiencing gaslighting often feel confused, anxious, and unable to trust themselves.”

This does not apply to Kacey; she is not questioning her sanity or being confused. She’s outright denying things. There is no gaslighting going on here, yet the chat was FILLED with it. Bitches will learn a new word like gaslighting and queerbaiting and really use it for everything oof.

Not once did he invalidate the fact that there is misogyny in the community and if anything he has expressly supported female creators very vocally and without being asked to. Writing off anything he says just because he’s a white man is not even an argument; he accepts the privilege he has and has never claimed that others don’t experience issues because of these things. This is not a misogynistic attack, this is a grown woman being asked to own up and apologize for her mistakes.

Chat continued to be extremely toxic towards Dream and even people in game with Kacey made multiple jokes about him. Here’s an example of just one.

It says ”What I wear omw to dream’s court hearing.”

They say a lot of horrible things about him and Holly even makes implications of him being inappropriate with fans which is an extremely serious thing to say and is based in NO truth.

SHIFTING FOCUS

Right before Dream left, they reiterated that they didn’t think he was a bad person because of his “queerbaiting”. This was something repeated many times throughout the talk. The implications of this language use is that Dream should be the one apologizing and that Kacey and her friends somehow were the ones with the power to forgive him. Overall, it was misguided and gross. He shouldn’t have had to be defending himself from four people at once all by himself, especially when the conversation was not supposed to be about him. And to clarify, he did not make it about himself, he started by talking about Kacey and how he had been trying to dm her about her cancelling. It was them that turned it on him to flip it in their favour.

There was an insistence that they were the victims, direct quote from Kacey at 5hr 55min and 40sec Kacey says “I am a victim, I am literally a victim of cancel culture.”

Yes, I think the doxxing is too far and constant hate doesn’t do much but Kacey needs to acknowledge that her words hurt a lot of people and she needs to own up to that.

Even after Dream left, they continued to chat shit about him, with Shaun even saying at about the 5hr 16min mark that he thought Dream had “perfectly scripted” his responses in a way that meant he wouldn’t have to denounce his fans. Of course he won’t talk crap on his fans when they’re the reason he is famous and he knows it’s a minority that ruins it for everyone else, he’s said he doesn’t like people who spread hate calling themselves his stans. The idea that Dream could have prepared a response to the questions and accusations thrown at him from a cast of half high and fully ignorant strangers who are all almost 10 years older than him is ridiculous. He was clearly out of his comfort zone and was a complete curveball for him. This leads me on to the main reason I think Dream was dragged into this.

SCAPEGOAT

If we’re being real, this is a clear attempt to change the subject away from Kacey. Dream is someone who people come for often, whether it’s accusations of cheating or scripting or bringing up past mistakes which he has apologized for and showed that he has grown from. He even said to Kacey that he does get death threats and he’s been doxxed before. He constantly gets in trouble because of the more radical “stans” who are a problem starting minority for the rest. Dream separates himself from those people as best as he can, but he knows himself that he can’t escape that brush he’s been tarred with. Kacey also knows this.

By bringing Dream into the narrative, she’s successfully shifted the focus of the conversation in a way that favours her. That stream conversation should’ve been about Kacey and the things that she has said, instead it was a grilling session from four strangers for Dream. Now people are very focused on that aspect of the whole thing (myself included ofc but this post is specifically about qbaiting accusations so) rather than the important part which is holding her accountable for her use of slurs.

It’s not her first attempt at this as she made a twitter post about how she was no.1 trending despite a mass shooting taking place. Of course this is terrible that that would be higher up but it was an obvious blame passing as this reply points out.

She knows what she’s doing and has shown no sign of stopping. It’s best that she’s not given any more attention now but just try not to watch anymore content with her in it. As I said before, don’t bother with any hate, just block and move on. For a creator complaining about all the “kids” coming for her, she doesn’t act all that much older despite being fully grown at 30 years of age.

CONCLUSION

At 6hr 42min 30sec Kacey mentions that she is number 2 on trending to which her friend replies “Good job Kacey”, she laughs. It’s clear that she does this for attention, her friends are there for clout and they are all irrelevant clowns looking to get a career boost out of creators more successful than them. They don’t stop to consider others’ feelings or empathize towards anyone. Kacey will say herself that she got her start from baiting on 4chan, this is her brand. It’s just unfortunate that she seems to think that she’s doing something just when, in actuality, she is causing a lot of damage to the LGBT community and invalidating many people with her unapologetic use of ableist and racist slurs. Her friends congratulate her because it's obvious it’s the attention she wants, this is why she streams for so long and tweets so much. She hit a far higher viewership on this stream than she normally would. I’m sure this sort of hatred does affect her negatively, whether she notices or not, I hope she gets the help she needs to become a less selfish person and to become more productive with her time.

Remember again to not send hate, just block and move on. I also recommend that you don’t watch this stream but if you are going to then watch a reupload on YT so she doesn’t get money out of it.

I was very uncomfortable after watching the stream, especially with all the false allyship with the LGBT community. People like Kacey act like this to get views whenever they’re losing their following. Just don’t fall for any bait and petty jibes that they throw this way. Don’t let any anger get the better of you and just lets move past it as it can’t be healthy for people like Dream to have to see this on his TL as well, which he will if we keep interacting. Though I do think that for now, it’s pretty much over.

For all the talk of how hateful this community is, I couldn’t disagree more. I’ve found most people very pleasant and the CCs themselves very accepting of all types of people. I’ll leave off with these tweets Dream made at the end of last year. Stay safe folks, be positive and kind to each other! Much love <3

#dreamwastaken #kaceytron #georgenotfound

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studiousmusings · 4 years ago

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What if Dream Won?

AU Fan Fic of the Dream SMP final showdown between Tommy & Tubbo vs Dream

Warnings: Angst / Major Character Death / All the heart break

Words: 2619

A/N - I just binge watched all of tommyinnit’s vods and am in love with the lore and story line of the Dream SMP (just starting to get into Ranboo’s Arc). I had this stuck in my head and just needed to get it out there. Hope you enjoy!

__________________________________________Tommy's heart was pounding in his chest. Lungs burning for air as he hid behind the pile of dirt, a half eaten golden apple in hand.

"Tommy."

Dream's voice echoed over the mountain top, ringing in Tommy’s ears and sending a shiver down his spine. Every moment he could ever remember the green clad man saying his name overlapped in his mind. Never had his tone been as ice cold as it was now.

“T-tommy…” Tubbo. enemy traitor YOU EXILED ME NO! His friend, his best friend. His first friend ever since he arrived on the SMP. This was just Dream getting into his head again. Tommy shook clear the haze and memories and froze as a cry came from the other side of the mountain's summit. Tubbo was sprawled across the grass, trapped under Dream's boot, sword tip resting against his friend's throat.

The disc burned in his pocket, the weight of it was like a thousand pounds. Everything he and Tubbo worked for. Every war, every skirmish, every death. Wilbur... L'Manburg. BURNT TO THE GROUND . The smell of sulfur and smoke filled his nostrils, the blasts of TNT and the Wither's cries ringing in his ears.

Dream sighed, "Come out Tommy" his sword moved, stabbing into Tubbo's shoulder as the teen pleads.

"Please, NO! DREAM! STOP. You're killing me! TOMMY!!"

"STOP!" Tommy stood, dropping the apple as he gripped Techo's axe his axe. The worn leather cutting into the skin of his palm "just stop."

"Tommy. Tommy. Tommy" He could hear the crazed smile behind the blank white mask. the soulless eyes and smile mocking him. "You're nothing! I haven't even gotten started yet! Look at you, your armor is falling apart and I haven't even brought out my potions. I had our poor Mr. President crying within three hits!”

“I have one of the discs Dream” Tommy can hear his own voice wavering.

Tubbo yelped as Dream withdrew the sword, bright red blood coating the glowing metal and slowly dripping onto the grass. “Give me the disc Tommy. Or I’ll kill Tubbo. I’ll even count you down”

“Ten”

“Don’t give it to him Tommy!” Tubbo tried to surge forward, hand gripping the wound as blood continued to spill past his fingers but Dream just kicked him down again.

“Nine”

“I… Tubbo….”

“Eight”

What does he do? What does he do? What does he DO!

“Seven… Six”

Thousands of thoughts rushed through Tommy’s mind. Heat building behind his eyes, as his free hand wrapped around the circular bit of metal. The memories behind it, the history… Then he looks into Tubbo’s watery gaze. The strength behind them, telling him it’s ok. BUT IT’LL NEVER BE OK!

“Five.”

Tubbo flinched as the sword cut into his cheek, leaving a small trickle of blood to run down his chin. “Four.”

Tommy’s heart stuttered, moving before he could even think the disc soared through the air and clattered at Dream’s feet. He could feel the man’s surprise as he stepped away from Tubbo, letting the teen scramble to Tommy’s side. Bending down he picked up the disc, a manic laugh bubbles past his lips. “I- I didn’t think it’d be that easy. No, I should have known. You’re such an idiot Tommy.” the thin metal shattered in his grasp.

Tubbo gasped “wha- no!” and Tommy felt like the world had disappeared beneath his feet.

“They were FAKE TOMMY!” Dream threw down the other disc, Mellohi and stomped on it, the thin metal shards cutting into the earth. “Did you really think I would bring the real discs with me!? Do you think I'm stupid? Do you think this is a game! It’s not!” he laughed, high and crazed. “Here’s what we’re going to do.” He cocked his chin, the green glow of his eyes just barely peeking out from behind the mask.

“Drop your armor and items Tommy.”

The familiar phrase made Tommy freeze. His heart hadn’t stopped pounding, the pain lancing through him. The rush of emotions almost sending him to his knees, this was it.

“You too Tubbo” He raised his sword, nearly slicing the teen’s other arm.

“OK! Ok…” Tubbo moved quickly, tearing at the leather straps with shaking hands and dropping his apples and potions. “Tommy...” he looked between them nervously.

“Now Tommy.”

He moved like a man on strings, a movement that was well oiled and familiar. How many times had Dream made him do this while in exile? He had lost count truly. He dropped everything, even the seeds he had no idea why he had grabbed in the panic of battle. Ghostbur’s crossbow and pickaxe… all the pearls and potions. Dream picked up the Axe of Peace before tossing the dynamite down, letting all the items go up in flames. Hours upon hours of work, mining… farming… all of it gone. Left in only his clothes, still slightly singed from Doomsday as the sun began to set, the freezing wind burning his skin as it whipped around them.

“You’re a bastard Dream.”

“I know. And now, we’re going to take a trip. I’ll even show you the real discs.”

Held at sword point, Tommy gripped Tubbo’s wrist as Dream marched them towards the edge of the summit, the waterfall they had used to climb the sheer cliffs was now their trip down, death hung above the two teen’s heads.

“Go” Dream shoved Tommy’s back, nearly making him tumble over.

“Ok! Ok!” he helped Tubbo into the water, with his shoulder useless he would need help to safely get down. At least the spring water would somewhat clean out the wound.

Dream stops them at the mountain’s base, a stretch of rock too flat and uniform to be anything but suspicious. “I’ve been one step ahead of you two the entire time. Tubbo thought I was his friend Tommy. You thought I was your friend.” He laughed and knocked Tommy up against the wall, pushing Tubbo aside. “What an idiot, right Tommy?” he whispered, sword waving dangerously in Tubbo’s direction.

“You’re evil Dream… do you know that? I gotta wonder how you sleep at night.” Tommy couldn’t help the words flowing from his mouth even as the back of his head stung from knocking against the stone. The white mask darkened for a moment, the taller man stilling, his frame rising to block out the moon and cast an angry shadow.

“I sleep just fine. L’Manburg’s gone, I have the discs, I have you two at my mercy.” The glee returned, and Tommy’s heart nearly stopped when the pickaxe came swinging at his head, the metal breezing past his cheek, as it smashed into the stone behind him. A warm trickle of blood drips down his cheek a matching pair to Tubbo's.

“Go in Tommy,” Dream bent over to whisper into his ear.

“What the fu-” the cavern had torches haphazardly scattered along the walls, the dim light just barely illuminating a section of the floor made of obsidian.

“Get on the platform.”

Tubbo’s fingers intertwined with Tommy’s, helping pull him to the black stone. His eyes were pleading as he whispers, “just do as he says Tommy, we might still get out of this.”

The sounds of pistons filled the room as Dream hits a button, and with an almighty lurch the platform began to lower. There’s a moment of tense silence in the dark, only the glow of Dream’s armor reflecting off of his manic mask to see from. “Listen Tommy,” from all the thick stone it sounds like Dream’s voice is coming from every direction. “Ever since you arrived here, you’ve been a headache! You’ve brought war… terrorism. And above all else, you’ve brought the reason for all the violence, you brought attachment. Your attachment to the discs, to friends, to pets, lands, countries, items.” he laughed short and loud as the platform finally lowered into a huge underground cavern.

The walls made of thick, black obsidian towered high over them as they slowly lowered to the floor of bedrock. On the other side of the room, illuminated by glow-stone lamps the discs sat on pedestals on either side of a Nether portal.

“What the fuc-”

“You brought attachment Tommy.” Dream continued, even as the platform stops at the bottom and an eerie gong rings throughout the room. “It took me a long time to realize just how important attachment could be. But when I did, it made me stronger. And I realized you- you’re important. Come see, come see you’re discs. They’re right there… you could take them.. Run through the portal… but then I’ll just kill Tubbo. See, they don’t matter anymore.” he looks at Tubbo, “because I know what your real attachment is.

I’ve cut my attachment, I became free. I lost my friends, blew up my house… my crossbow… everything that was important to me. I cut everything because that’s what gave people power over each other, attachments. I had to lose everything, to gain control.” The manic tint to his words made Tommy shiver, Dream was becoming more and more twisted with each word. Or maybe he was always like that and Tommy just never noticed.

“You’re a sick bastard!”

“If I can control the things people are attached to... then I can control the world again." He laughs gleefully, scowling "This isn’t Tommy SMP or Tubbo SMP. it’s DREAM’S SMP! I can control it all if I have everything anyone’s ever cared about. I’ve already started my collection.” a wide sweep of his arm drew Tommy’s attention to the other pedestals around the edges of the room, and signs labeling them. Dream put Techo’s Axe on one with a glass case. Another podium had a bucket with a little clown fish in it, the label said Beckerson.

“LOOK! LOOK TOMMYINNIT!” Dream spun on his toes, green glow all but erupting from behind the mask. “I have a spot for everything, and room for more! I will take it all and no one will be able to go against me again.”

“You’re a terrible man!” Tubbo spat, “wha- what have you done…”

Tommy could feel himself shaking, looking over the few items Dream had already collected. Ghostbur’s friend… Henry for god sake. He thought Henry was DEAD! “You are sick Dream! A fucking psycho!”

Tommy pulled Tubbo behind him as Dream marched into his space, towering over the teens all while still glowing that ghostly green. “Everything I’ve done is for a reason!” he snarled. “To take back control of the world!” he lent back, a smile growing in his tone again, “and it’s all thanks to you Tommy.”

“Just kill us already!” Tommy screamed, behind him Tubbo was shaking. He couldn’t tell if it was because of the panic or because he was feeling the same anger that burned in Tommy’s stomach.

“You’re the KEY Tommy!” Dream scoffed, “You bring the attachment, so no… I can’t kill you. I can’t let you free either. Your exile was perfect! People could visit you, not that I didn’t do my best to stop them. But you were out of the way… just how I wanted, and then you left. You disappeared and wrecked EVERYTHING.”

Dream spun, sword back in hand it’s cold metal caressing Tommy’s chin, making him look up into the mask’s painted eyes. “So I made a prison.” He tilted his head, letting the mask focus on Tubbo. “I’M GOING TO LOCK TOMMY AWAY FOREVER TUBBO. I need him, but I don’t need you. You’re just a pawn, a follower who has lost his usefulness”

Tommy shoved the man back, not that it moved him much. Pure fear ran through his system, at the anger that was directed at Tubbo, at the blatant threat. “Tubbo isn’t a follower! You’re a monster Dream, evil… just pure evil!”

“Evil…” Dream laughed, dark and gritty that echoed around the vault. “Evil is in the eye of the beholder. So if I’m the evil in your story, that means you’re the hero Tommy. And every hero needs and origin story.”

“NO!” the fear that soaked Tommy to the bone gripped at his throat, his voice breaking and wheezing. Even as Tubbo grasped at his hand, clammy skin with a heartbeat fluttering fast under his touch. “Absolutely fucking not! NO! What do you mean.” Tommy desperately looked around the hall, they were trapped, Dream stood between them and the portal. The platform had long risen back to the surface. They had no tools, no supplies, no way to break through the impossibly strong obsidian.

“Tommy. I want to give you your chance to say good-bye. I’m not the monster you think I am.” Dream said lightly, like he was giving a present on Christmas day, “It’s Tubbo’s time to go, so say your good-byes, because after this… you’ll never see him again.”

“Keep the discs!” Tommy panicked. “I don’t care about them, let Tubbo and I go.”

“I don’t give a shit about the discs Tommy. I care about power, and Tubbo is the power over you that needs to go. Say you’re good-byes.”

“FUCK YOU BITCH! NO! Wha-what the h-hell…” Tommy resisted the urge to pace, to move so he could think, try and come up with something that could get Tubbo out of here. But the small hand clutched in his kept him rooted in one spot.

Dream tilted his head, like Tommy was some sort of interesting painting “You’ll miss out on your chance to say good-bye to your best friend? I’m not kidding, I am going to kill him!” The anger was back, the flip flopping of emotions coming from the older man was like two sides of a coin, one moment blistering anger, the other a child filled with excitement.

“Tommy…”

“NO!”

“Tommy!” Blood soaked fingers grasped onto his shirt and spun them so Tubbo stood in between Tommy and the green man.

Tommy’s muttering continued in full force, “if we run, if we get to my old base, we could make it Tubbo, we could make it…” He gripped Tubbo's sleeves, anything to ground himself.

“It’s alright. This is it…” Tears streaked down the slightly chubby cheeks of his best friend.

“Don’t just accept this Tubbo! We- we- you can’t….”

“Tommy, it’s over” the smaller teen pulls Tommy into a hug, arms wrapping around him like a lifeline. “All good things must come to an end. We had a good run” he mutters into the fabric of his shirt, tears soaking through, “I didn’t think this would be the end for me, but we had some fun times.”

“...What am I without you?”

“Yourself. Your amazing, funny, and brave self. I believe you’ll get out of this on your own, it won’t be the end for you Tommy.” Tubbo pulled back, eyes roaming over Tommy like he was trying to memorize everything about him.

“Tubbo...even though, ever since I met you, I've always regarded you as my sidekick.” Tommy ignored the hot tears stinging the scratches across his cheek. “But really Tubbo I was your sidekick.”

Tubbo takes a step back smiling, arms dropping to his sides. “You’ll always be my best friend Tommyinnit”

The sword erupts from Tubbo’s chest with a wet sound of singing metal. Blood bubbling up past pale lips. Face still stupidly stuck in that small smile, eyes never leaving Tommy’s even as he watches the light fade from them.

“NO!” Tommy feels his world fall apart. Catching Tubbo as he falls, like a puppet with its string’s cut. Dream stands over him, blood dripping onto the stone as he wipes the blade clean. Clinical and oppressive.

“Time to go Tommy.”

Hands still stained, and blood soaked shirt and jeans sticking to his skin, barely dry unlike the cold body of his friend. Tommy feels the rage fester and build as he looks up at the maniac, the murderer. Even as the lava slowly falls over the cell’s doors, blocking his view and locking him in the obsidian room with only empty books for company. Tommy makes a promise, a declaration. Whatever it takes, Dream is going to pay.

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