#the old server owner does need to come back

[internetscrapbook62]

all the tea is in the tags :>

[syoddeye]

kate proposes the job as a personal favor. an old friend needs extra security.

come to DC. wear plainclothes and earpieces. wander around. pretend to understand art.

and it is an easy gig, vip protection. there are no real threats against the big wigs attending the hoity-toity gallery opening, but their paranoia is profitable. all the men need to do is keep their eyes and ears open.

however, it’s difficult to ignore the attractive curator. she flits about, checking in with artists and collectors, protecting the art, and keeping the whole thing running smoothly. even checks on the four suited men patrolling the space. she’s diligent and polite, sweet as pie. poor thing could use a break.

but jobs like this get boring quick. they could protect these moneybags with their arms tied behind their backs. people watching is only entertaining for so long.

soap is the first to suggest the bet. whoever gets the curator's number first gets favors from the rest of the men. it’s childish, but a harmless diversion.

“watch and learn, mactavish.” gaz taunts as he passes his fellow sergeant. he finds the assistant in the crowd, and employs his usual moves.

it’s a surprise when he comes back empty-handed and sheepish. that doesn’t happen often. gaz could charm the skin off a snake. soap nearly howls.

“i’ll show you how it’s done.” soap oozes confidence, flashing a big grin as he takes his turn. tracks her down like a heat-seeking missile.

but he’s quickly rebuffed. when he returns, he doesn’t say a word; he just acts like it never happened.

price, certain of his experience, gets further with the curator. he bullshits half the conversation but makes her laugh. he doesn’t get her number, though. he takes it in stride. knows how to handle rejection.

ghost mocks the three of them, despite not bothering to try it for himself.

the men commiserate over comms, comparing notes and wondering where they went wrong with their respective approaches.

ghost’s voice crackles into their ears a short time later. clearly amused.

“think i found your problem.”

kate, in attendance as a guest and friend of the gallery owner, stands close to the curator. the younger woman leans toward her naturally, with a big smile, practically beaming at the station chief. kate grabs two glasses of wine from a passing server, lets her choose red or white, and then does the same with the canapes. 

the curator's such a doll, profusely thanking kate.

"no one's checked in on me like this all night."

"that so? suppose i'll have to keep an eye on you."

it doesn't take much longer for kate to get her number, or a date on the calendar.

toward the end of the evening, kate finds the men. she doesn't bother debriefing them as she collects their earpieces. the guests file out, the gallery closes, and the curator pops into her office to fetch her things.

kate dismisses the men with a grin.

"i'll take it from here, boys."

[goodbyeapathy8]

Leaving Kindergarten Mafia

There have already been a few posts floating around about the Discord server implosion of Kindergarten Mafia. They do a great job of outlining the events that happened, with documentation, directly from the folks who were harmed by the server owner (Hann) and mods that helped enable their racism. (Snake and Mouse, Jinx1, Jinx2, mousydentist, Faye, among others.) So I'm not going to do that.

These are my own thoughts on the specific racism and tenets of white supremacy that I observed in the server as well as a general commentary on joining fandom spaces.

Rarely do I emphasize my age but it's relevant so here we are : I am 35 years old this year and Kindergarten Mafia was part of my first baby steps into any fandom. Ironically, my hesitation to join fandom ended up being proven because I had heard, for a very long time, that fandom spaces were dominated by racism and a failure to acknowledge POC fans. For a long time, I was complacent and felt "safe" in that server of 300+ folks.

Until one Native member spoke up about the usage of "spirit animal" as appropriative and the cracks in the foundations began to show themselves to everyone and not just the people with marginalized identities.

I had already started to feel uncomfortable in how the server dealt with ableism. There was also a member who I've previously called out on Tumblr, for usage of the m*dget slur in their story, and who became extremely vocal recently. (Spoiler alert - they wrote an entire essay excusing their usage of it, multiple times in the fic, because they couldn't be creative or bothered enough to come up with an alternative for a "short person".)

Without further ado, let's get into it. These are all from the link above, "tenets of white supremacy in organizations" (and yes, a Discord server of 300+ people absolutely DOES count as an organization).

1. Sense of Urgency, such as prioritizing quick or highly visible results that can exclude potential allies. -> In the server, both server owner and problematic mods continued to emphasize that their "missteps" (i.e. racism) was due to needing to seek a solution ASAP for the good of the server.

2. Worshipping the Written Word, such as valuing strong documentation and writing skills. -> Rebuttals to POC/marginalized folks were constantly full of dictionary definitions, copied over.

3. Believing in Only One Right Way, such as concluding something is wrong with people who refuse to adapt or change. -> POC members and allies were banned when anger was expressed because OUR anger suddenly made it an "unsafe" space for the server owner and problematic mods.

4. Paternalism, such as decision-making processes that are only understood by those with power and unclear to those without it.  -> Despite multiple server users disagreeing with the server owner's tactics (including the co-owner, who stepped down), Hann continued to defend + make decisions.

5. Defensiveness, such as spending energy trying to protect power or defend against charges of racism. -> There's too many examples to cite here. But in the end, it was claimed that the initial problem was solved. And then the problem mod was invited back. With additional defense of why.

6. Power Hoarding, such as feeling threatened when anyone suggests organizational changes. -> Instead of wanting to listen to marginalized identities, the server was threatened with a shut-down. Multiple people stepped up to take over as server owner. But power hoarding was more important so not only was the server shut down... it was resurrected from the dead to include their favorite (white) people. This leads us to...

7. Believing I’m the Only One, such as thinking that if something is going to get done right, then ‘I’ have to do it.

8. Fear of Open Conflict, such as equating the raising of difficult issues with being rude or impolite. -> The initial issue around the problematic phrase was ridiculously hush hush. POC members were banned for their (rightfully so) angry remarks.

9. Believing in Objectivity, such as considering emotions to be irrational and destructive to decision-making.  -> Not just the server owner but the people who rushed to defend them and the problematic mods, claimed to be impartial and objective, based on their queer identities or other things. As humans, none of us can actually be objective and all of us are a little racist because racism is a systemic problem that we were raised under.

10. Claiming a Right to Comfort, such as scapegoating those who cause emotional or psychological discomfort. -> In the end, it was clear that only whiteness was valued when POC folks + allies were banned or made to feel uncomfortable enough to leave (such as myself).

I know I've only posted my thoughts/feelings vs documentation (which, you shouldn't always demand because see above for "worshipping the written word") but if this screenshot of the new rules for the new server doesn't convince you that something (racism/cult-ism) is wrong with these folks... I don't know what will.

TL;DR - Ownership and modding of a large Discord server doesn't make you a god. You are, unfortunately, still a puny mortal with the biases that come along with being as such. I'm sure it was a fun power trip for those involved but I am happy to expose the rotting underbelly in a way that I see fit.

In conclusion, I leave you with further reading that will help decolonize your mindset and has done a much better job at showing that the problems with the Kindergarten Mafia are not unique (as they claimed). It is one that those of us with marginalized identities face constantly and we are fucking tired of running into this and being treated in a way that emphasizes the problem with our existence in real life. Intersectionality and decolonization is what will actually liberate us, and without both, online spaces are simply the same reflections of real life.

At the very least, I hope it gives some of you food for thought.

(I will also post my Scathing Letter™ that was my last message in the server as a separate post because I am wordy AF and this is already too long.) [1/26/2024 update] Now with part 2 because apparently I had more things to say.

[astramachina]

Speeding across the country, in somebody else's car Keeping a book of secrets, and taking it too far (x)

Ricky's has got a handful of secrets:

The eyesore of a 'magenta' car he drives is stolen.

His college degree is a forgery.

The blood on his jacket is Definitely His Own.

And he's never forgiven the owners of that old pizzeria for the events of '87. After all, that was his little brother's head inside the jaws of a mechanical monster.

Here's all you need to know about Ricky Kronbach and his terrible, horrible, no good, very bad life courtesy of an extensive list of extremely bad decisions.

A movie!verse OC (in a "what if the games somehow still happened in the movie!verse but the dates were slightly altered" type of AU; ie the bite of '87 still occurred but rather than Jeremy Fitzgerald getting chomped, it was MCI!Jeremy)

"He said he could bring Jeremy back." "Jeremy's been gone a decade." "But what if he can? What if it's possible?"

Born September 9th, 1972 to Mary and John Kronbach in Great Falls, Minnesota. As the oldest of two kids he's both stubborn and protective, the former by instinct and the latter by necessity. With John's violent outbursts and propensity to gamble away most of the family income, and Mary's neglect in response to Ricky acting as a "tomboy" from a young age, home life for the Kronbach siblings was less than stellar.

To catch a break, Ricky would get into his allowance and bike down to Freddy's with his little brother Jeremy in tow. It happened often enough that multiple servers and one of the owners' daughters knew them by name. But late one Friday in November of 1987, tragedy came rushing up to meet the Kronbach's when Jeremy, aided by the owner's daughter, requested to see the Bonnie animatronic up close. No one exactly knows how the nine-year-old managed to get his head stuck between its jaws, triggering the springlock mechanism that killed him.

Following these events, John blamed Ricky for the death of his "only son" and unleashed a reign of terror on the teenager that would only end in further tragedy. When questioned about the events that took place during "The Christmas Massacre of '87", Ricky would claim to have been asleep during his parents' murder. At no point does he confide in anyone about the night terrors that lead up to the event—of the 7ft tall, striped marionette that led him towards the knife block on the kitchen counter.

The night terrors continue well into adulthood, even after his suspension from MSU's post-grad program, when he threatened one of his professors and picked fights with several classmates for unspecified reasons. With a criminal record and infamy attached to his family name, Ricky is forced to seek professional help when no one would employ him.

In the Spring of 1996, Ricky meets his career counselor, Steve Raglan, who offers him a night security gig. Ricky turns down the opportunity, and upon exiting the office he notices a magenta Chevrolet that seems familiar. Disconcerted that he can't pinpoint where he's seen it before, Ricky decides to skip town and start a new life altogether, as far away from his past as possible.

"I'm thinking Anaheim. Become an Imagineer. Someone who puts a smile on kids' faces, y'know?"

Strangely enough, in a Denny's out in the Middle of Nowhere, Colorado over a year later, he comes across the same car, the same career counselor, and Ricky is now certain "Steve Raglan" isn't who he claims to be.

"Steve Raglan" knows the name Kronbach, knows about Ricky's past and his impressive academic record, so he makes him one more offer the young man can't possibly refuse: if Ricky helps him finish an old project him and his old business partner set out to create in the 80s, then "Steve" can bring Ricky's brother back from the dead.

Some picrew references—altho! @/namonaki-arts took these references and brought him to life in chibi form.

Does this look like a man who'd team up with a serial killer to bring back his dead brother who may or may not have been a victim of said serial killer? Look at him. Does he look like someone with his own trail of dead bodies and stolen cars and also arson? P'shaw.

[fizzarollitm]

Hey its the fire hc post. This was written with @wcshedup's barbie and @madefate's blitz & hcs made from our server.

tw for hospitalization, medical trauma, mass disasters, and loss of life.

From the start, a fire was always the nightmare scenario. Cash always skimped where he could and the supplies of the Circus coming from Greed already had it at a disadvantage. A common form of old waterproofing was a combination of wax and gasoline and I think this is why the circus went up so quick. Of course waterproof tents in Hell were the cheapest option and was a tragedy waiting to happen.

Now for the Ring where it happens, I waffled between Greed & Pride but the red sky is definitely Pride's. Talked to Syd about it and we agree that part of the mass loss of life disaster was Pride's emergency personnel are not made for death. 90% of the population are Sinners who can only be killed through exterminations and they can't exactly stop those. Maybe scoop up the odd body until they pop back together but a Hellborn circus fire? Whole different situation.

More often than not they're responding to insurance claims, annoyed owners who got blown up during an overlord fight, a regular Tuesday. When they see Imps running out the whole tone changed. Suddenly they need everything in Pride and scratch that, get fucking Sloth up here too.

Barbie was the first one out because she was never in it running errands for Tilla. Cash ran out of the tent and was swarmed by emergency workers wanting names, info, head count for tickets and staff. Shit that was in his turned-to-ash office. Keeping an eye out for Tilla, Fizz, Barbie, and Blitzø while arguing about what he does and doesn't remember. Trying to sniff out fraud while smokes still in the air.

Blitzø eventually came out and it was actually Cash who goes back in for Fizz. While Fizz's memories of the day after Blitzø left are few and far between (hell the whole 6 months after to a year is) he is told by staff that Cash saved him. And that's why he stays for 5 years. They take a ride to Sloth and its later in the hospital they confirm what they already semi-know about Tilla. It all spirals from there with Cash blaming Blitzø as he has always been and would be the scapegoat. He is banned from the hospital while Barbie is left alone without a mom, a brother, and a Fizz who is MIA. Her own survivor's guilt and isolation already hard at work and Cash's words poisoning her love for her brother. Divide and conquer.

Fizz eventually woke up and it was a grueling recovery. Sloth won't make you pay for it but the system is purposefully frustrating and slow with doctors going back and forth on what was best for him. By the end of it, his life was changed forever, Blitzo tried to kill him, and he can't even hug Barbie when he learns that Tilla is dead. He just lives. And he keeps living. And he survives surgery after surgery because at some point it became a battle between his health and his future as a performer. Would he rather live or die with the chance to be a clown? We all know what he chooses.

[ni-de-mama]

ace attorney fans on discord, yall are fucking stupid. genuinely this is the stupidest discourse ive seen in my entire fucking life. the owner was removing unsafe people from her server. it's HER fucking server and she has the complete right to. dont dms exist? who the FUCK is policing you here? why do we need to have this fucking war when you could just go to another server with that banned member? fucking hell, have some common sense. the fact that adults are getting so aggressive makes it even worse. the minor here is making stupid decisions and saying stupid things and yall are encouraging her. nobody from the mod team was fucking coddling anyone. they were literally just saying we shouldn't fucking encourage harmful behaviour in their server. literally go encourage it in another server and it won't be any of the mods' business and they won't give a flying fuck. and what's with rejoining after ban with a new account? why the fuck are yall even trying to stay at this point if you hate this server and the mod team then fucking LEAVE. literally what do you want?????????? clearly the mods are being sent into panic attacks because of yall. do yall feel great now??? i was so glad i found a space i could talk in with other aa fans, and now ive lost that thanks to yalls stupid fucking discourse over some idk nearly 30 year old who doesn't know how to communicate properly. and the minor in question? not everything is about you. even i can see that, as a lurker. protecting minors does not mean bending to your every will. fucking hell, this server wasnt made just for you. protecting minors meant protecting all the other minors who felt unsafe, good for you if you didn't! you don't have to be so selfish and want the adult to stay so the other minors can feel unsafe lolllll. why did that mod have to justify them being uncomfortable around that adult? does it not matter that they just did? and now the mods are the ones shutting you down? use your fucking brain please. can't believe i have to lose this place because of this. literally everyone got too comfortable with hurting the mods here. its not even like yall couldve done a better job communicating with the banned member, the mod team clearly did their best to communicate with someone who only knew how to retaliate to their every request. are yall blind? i could see that happen, how come yall couldnt? bc yall are their friends obvious fucking ly. not to mention the banned member started spreading rumours that the owner called them a predator? fucking almost 30yo and youre still spreading rumours? christ on earth lol i saw everything. i saw the video i saw screenshots. that did not happen. is it that hard to look at this situation with less bias towards the ""victim""?? hope yall are happy that yall hurt the other members who love this place, and most of all the mod team who has to deal with yalls bullshittery. fucking wake up and see how stupid yall have been acting. jfc this is disgusting, yall disgust me, in a server for a game abt law yall clearly have not learnt anything. bringing your horrifying reading comprehension from tumblr to discord. sorry, clearly yall did not even fucking read whatever the mods said. yall ask for an explanation, the mods gave you one, you rebut it with a completely irrelevant point and then we go back to square one? not only that but yall kept demanding answers angrily, hostile and aggressive. how many times did the mods say they would be releasing a statement soon? yall asking for answers would give them no time to write it. and they have fucking lives outside of discord, unlike yall who have nothing to do but shout at strangers on the internet because they wont bend to your will in THEIR server. yall make me laugh. grow the fuck up. all of yall need to grow the actual fuck up.

[whumperofworlds]

I just saw your post on the WLC server that you posted a while back (but you didn’t name names). I also had some bad experiences there as well but Ive been concerned about bringing them up because I don’t trust the mods.

The owner of the server was far too lenient imo. Allowed scammers and creeps to hang around for extended periods of time because from the looks of things she wouldn’t give any of the other moderators banning permissions.

Their ability to handle conflict fucking sucks too. I know that one of the old moderators (a-crumb-of-whump) left unexpectedly and made a post a few months later in response to an ask saying that they had a few bad experiences that stopped them from wanting to become a moderator for whump servers again. I’m assuming they were talking about WLC.

I don’t feel comfortable coming off anon because of the mods, but yeah, you’re totally valid for wanting to leave. They really let the server down.

Oh definitely. When I made my own server and one of the mods joined, the mod made a post about how the server wasn't transphobic and all. That's fine and all, we all need both sides to every story, if it weren't for the fact that A. They called the post warning about WLC being transphobic "attention seeking", B. Cherry picked screenshots, and C. Admitted they're very biased due to being a mod. So I kicked them out of the server for the possible shit stirring (they even shared the post to me!) and they proceeded to block evade in another server asking why I kicked them (I had to ask a friend to send them a message exolaining why so I don't have to unblock them. Their response was entitlement). Granted, I should have said why, but after sharing that post to me, you should know why (at the mod, not you.)

That caused a brief drama, as one of the mods who modded both the WLC server and my server was asked by one of the mods to step down from my server as a mod or theirs. They ultimately chose to step down as mod on WLC and they got banned from WLC. The whole thing put their anxiety at worse and even made them cry, which pissed me the hell off.

I loved WLC. Made lots of cool friends and even got some gift art and fics there. But after being aware of that, I had to let it go. Transphobia and childish shit like that does not slide with me.

But yeah, my grievances. Thank you for sharing what was happening anon, and I hope you're in a better place now!

[ooofaitooo]

Should You Create A Discord, Facebook Group, Reddit, Or Forum For My Community?

Since the dawn of humanity we’ve always had a need to connect, It’s wired in our brains and souls, We are social creatures and there’s no denying that, Thanks to mobile phones and the internet this has made things so much easier to talk to people without the need for them to be right across from you, While there are some negatives with this type of technology if used correctly it has helped humanity at the same time, We have a need for communities, This means internet-based communities are not going anywhere.

So let’s get to the question, “Should I Create A Discord, Facebook Group, Or Forum For My Community?”

In Each of these, I am going to be breaking down the cons and pros of each product type then at the end of this article we can finally get to the golden question, Yes I know you want me to get straight to the point! Trust me we will but before we can we need to explain the positives and negatives of each one, It wouldn’t be a blog post if I didn’t explain them first.

Discord

Best for quick and easy communities

Discord is a VoIP and instant messaging platform, It was launched in 2015, Users can create their own servers (similar to groups) and inside that server, They can create chat sections, This is similar to creating sub-forums in forums but replace the threaded discussions with chat logs.

Cons:

discussions are not designed to be permanent and hard to find over time,

No search engine optimization meaning your discord may not be high up on google or at all

Limits on users and channels per server preclude new fans from popular servers and limit growth for indie developers.

Busy Discord servers are overloaded and not pleasant

Pros:

User Friendly, Anyone can start a Discord server even your grandma if you teach her, It’s not that hard to learn and will only take a few minutes

Push Notifications on the go make keeping up with your community easy

an app designed for ease of use not much else to say

Reddit

best for simple discussion communities

Reddit is an American social news aggregation, content rating, and discussion website, It was launched all the way back in 2005!

Cons:

Threads are archived after a certain time frame

The reputation system automatically bans you for nothing, If people disagree with you the downvotes ban you! (censorship is big on that site)

each new “subreddit” as they call it is just sub-forums turned into a hashtag-style, Each subreddit has different owners as anyone can create a subreddit.

Unlike traditional forums, things are not organized and it’s still hard to find old posts and comments.

Can’t post in many subreddits unless you have a certain level of reputation (upvotes by other users help this)

Pros:

Reddit is extremely good at driving traffic, Reddit does get indexed by Search Engines unlike Discord or Facebook.

discussions are deeper than Discord but not as good as a traditional forum in my opinion, Still good and a pro.

many people are on Reddit it’s the largest forum on the internet.

Not niche based so may feel not as personal, Each subreddit represents a niche .

Facebook Group

best for together communities

Facebook is a social networking website launched in 2004, It has a Group Feature, a Group is a place where people can join a group with other people of shared interests. What I mean by “together communities” is communities that want to come together and discuss a certain niche but not go to complex with it.

Cons:

Not organized, Old Posts get lost.

Not the best for SEO.

Busy Facebook groups can be over-crowded like Discord.

Not good for support groups.

Pros:

Almost Everyone is on Facebook.

Can invite all your Facebook friends.

simple, easy and not hard to get group members.

Traditional Forum

best for passionate communities.

the internet forum is a platform type that started way back in 1994, Other forms of forums that were not browser-based go as far back as the late 1970s, Just because they’re an old form of social media does not mean they are useless, Many people still play classic Nintendo systems such as the Nintendo GameBoy that’s also retro and software companies such as Xenforo or IP. Board still makes modern versions of the traditional internet forums, Social networks such as Twitter also use a forum for their support inquiries you can see Here.

Cons:

Can takes months or years to get it off the ground Since you are redirecting users to a separate website.

Costs money (these days to start it can be as low as $20AUD, as traffic spikes more)

Takes a ton of work to keep things in place, sometimes server maintenance.

Not as popular as they once were.

No push notifications on iPhone (Android can use PWA notifications on some forum software such as Xenforo)

Pros:

Very organized, easy to find old discussions in a few minutes, You just need the threads name.

deep discussions, designed to go in-depth.

can feel very personal that you joined an entire website for that 1 thing you’re passionate about for example a Golden State Warriors basketball forum.

Boost search engine rankings, designed for SEO.

if you get lucky one day and build an active community you can make money from it through ads.

You own the data and rights to all data, it’s your own personal domain.

As you can see you now Have the idea so let’s answer the question “Should I Create A Discord, Facebook Group, Reddit, Or Forum For My Community?” Well, that depends on what type of community you want to start.

Want to own the data and/or start a passionate community? Then start a traditional forum, Hosting isn’t as expensive as it once was.

Want a quick and easy community? Then start a Discord, it’s a chat app with your own servers that you can administer.

Want a simple but discussion-based community? Then start a Reddit.

want a together-style community then start a Facebook Group

As you can see Discord or Facebook HAS NOT DESTROYED FORUMS, These platforms have existed for years and forums continue to thrive, it may be true as Reddit involved it has made forums less popular and it’s harder to get them going, But it’s not easy to get a Twitch Stream going either, forums are not dying, People are sick of the internet, This doesn’t mean there’s no need for communities though because there is, The honeymoon phase of the internet is over but the internet still gets used daily if that makes sense.

Depending on what you think is best for your community and the goals you want to achieve then each of these can work for different reasons. the “forums are dead” saying is old and stupid, Xenforo still makes the software, If that were the case why would this commercial company and others such as IPBoard be still making money?

We at Pulse Chatter have our forums for passionate deep discussions and Discord for simple things, Both can serve as they are for different things. I hope this article has helped you, if it has please share it around :.)

[potatoes83]

Random...

So we have a restaurant in our area, it's called Boodles. You can Google it, Boodles steakhouse. It bills itself as a New York supper club. Now I've never been to a New York supper club, but this place is so deliciously old school. I mean you walk in, and you're traveling back in time 30 years. The banter of the servers, hell, the banter between you and the table next to you. Steak diane, Steak au poivre, tableside cherries jubilee or crepes suzette. Freaking old school. And it's one of those places you drive by a thousand times and wonder, like, do I need a suit and tie to go there, is this a special occasion place, what are we doing here? And the best part is, there's people in three-piece suits coming off of work, there's also 20 somethings in football jerseys coming in to knock back some beers. A live piano guy, wood and chandeliers, this place is basically anything you want it to be. After mowing the lawn and tilling half the back garden, we hadn't been there in quite a while, I decided it sounded like a good idea.

Ruth Ann was our server, right off the bat, Tom collins? Yes please. Five of those later, chasing a saganaki, a steak stewart, and a crepes suzette, with the live music accompanying our delicious dinner, what a wonderful night. The place is about half a mile from our house. And we always walk there. And the walk home, a beautiful warm spring night, shoot, if it wasn't a work night, I could have stayed another couple hours knocking back drinks at the bar. This is one of those places where literally you feel like you're a regular the second you walk through the door. That's not hyperbole, it's really a thing. Whether it's your first time there or your 50th, they treat you like an old friend. Something that is tragically lacking in the chain restaurant world. God bless and save Boodles, Bruno the owner is his late 70s or early '80s now, and he can't do this forever. But by God I hope he does it as long as he can. 🥔

[terraliensvent]

Controversial take on all this drama but both sides seem to have their issues. While yes coy has some shit to get together but there's some thoughts I have about the mods. 1. From what I'm reading, the issue is happening because coy did not want to follow the adopt schedule like the mods but I just want to know how this is major? I'm not active in the server but last time I checked coy does not post in the server so how would their adopts on Instagram affect discord? For fundraiser adopts, I can see the issue but in general I don't believe it was hurting anyone so an explanation as to the issue would be nice, an actual answer except the money grabbing claims.. 2. Why is said staff just now coming out with the dog screenshot? While it's not that old, shouldn't it have been addressed by mods when coy sent the message? It's honestly just fueling the fire but imagine if coy didn't take terraliens back. The message would have been unknown to us for so long. I'm curious if staff ever addressed this issue with coy personally because I am interested in what those messages are, if they exist. On coy's end, they need to properly address the dog issue and the statement about firing staff. It's one thing to not agree with a rule but to fire an entire staff because of it is definitely a control thing, there's no denying it. That screenshot of them considering dropping all mods after they admitted to not wanting to do staff work shows where their priorities are. Regardless of what coy say, people will hate on them so they should just apologize and leave. Fully give ownership up and disconnect themselves from terraliens for good. The dog issue, I can see how coy may overexaggerate on the smacking but the hair pulling sounds like absolute hell for any dog out there. As a dog owner, there are many ways to lure a dog out without having to touch them. You can tempt them with toys. Food is a great way to lure an animal out, as seen in many rescue videos. There's just different ways to go about getting your dog from underneath the bed. You can even move the bed carefully and pick the dog up if he does not move. I have to agree with some members when they say the announcement seems so rushed. Even if dog-piling isn't harassment, the way mods say to remain respectful yet let the server go into chaos, it's destroying whatever last hope there is to terraliens. Then when someone who had a different opinion popped up, they got banned which is interesting. If it was for aggression, where is the same energy for the others. It'd be nice to hear from both sides in a professional manner. This all seems childish from a bunch of adults. They should just make a new server if temul decides to pull through.

TL;DR: Both sides need to take a breather and address everything at once because now we're left asking questions yet getting no answers and demanding for a response. At this point, we need a doc on all this again.

from what i gather the mods just wanted some sort of warning or schedule on adopt posting, i can understand why they would want this because then they could make sure they dont have events or stuff that interferes, or other adopt batches

this i am curious about. maybe they thought it wasnt that huge of an issue or just didnt see it at all? just speculating

this ask was sent this morning before the new announcement, so i think some of the points made here are out of date, but what i will say is that after the chaos of last night i dont see any way they can come back from this

[discordiansamba]

the tea shop closes for the evening.

lee takes off his apron and hangs it up, saying goodnight to the owner. she wishes him one in turn, and he heads off into the night. when he gets home, he'll need to get started on dinner- his father often works until late. officially, he's an assistant to a minister at the earth kingdom palace. unofficially, lee knows he's an agent for the dai li- helping keep peace and order in ba sing se. it is a challenging job, and he is proud of him.

he's halfway through making it when his father arrives home.

he smiles at lee and asks how his day was. they talk as he finishes preparing dinner- household chores like these are probably the only other thing he's good at, aside from being a tea server. dessert is the plum tarts that old lady hanako surprised him with at work. he talks to his father in length about the gossip he overheard in the tea shop. he praises him for being so good at listening.

(for some reason, he doesn't tell him about katara.)

lee visits the bathhouse before bed, and runs into jin on the way home. she just got off her shift at the flower shop- she'd helped set up an arrangement for a party. lee walks her home. they kiss outside her door, and lee pointedly ignores the teasing he gets from her father- asking him when the wedding is. they've only been dating for a few months- they're far from ready for that.

he goes to bed in a good mood.

in the morning, he wakes up and gets dressed. he always rises before father, like clockwork almost as if he's rising with the sun. he fusses at his hair in the mirror for a few minutes with a frown. he knows his scar intimidates people, so he tries to hide it as best he can. he prepares breakfast, and eats it alone before he heads to work. he greets the owner, puts on his apron and gets to work.

it's mid-morning when the avatar shows up.

lee stares at him, stunned. he'd known katara had said she might come back with friends, but he hadn't expected the avatar. his fingers twitch slightly, and he frowns. they did that yesterday, too. he's hoping it's not a pattern- the twitching used to be a problem, a few months ago. it hasn't been for awhile, so he'd been hoping it had finally stopped.

lee greets the avatar with a deep, respectful bow. he doesn't see the way he and his companions openly gawk at him- they've schooled their expressions by the time he looks up. he smiles at them and guides them to the best table in the house. the water tribe boy with them asks what he recommends, so lee lists off his favorites.

the earth kingdom girl asks him if he likes tea.

lee laughs. that's a funny thing to ask someone who works in a tea shop- of course he does. he writes down their order and heads back into the kitchen. he doesn't see the furious way they whisper among themselves. he brings their order with a smile- and a few tarts on the house, courtesy of the owner. only the best for the avatar, she said with a chipper smile.

she's right. it's a rare honor to serve someone as important as the avatar. if he'd known he was coming, he would have told jin.

...maybe he can get an autograph for her?

oh oh! AU in which Zuko is brainwashed by the Dai Li into believing he's REALLY Lee from the tea shop.

oh fuck, sorry about your life zuko. and also yours, iroh.

azula doublecrosses zuko after the fall of ba sing se and hands him over to the dai li. she never had any intention of sharing the glory with him. she smiles and tells him that since he enjoyed working at the tea shop with uncle so much, he can just become lee forever.

lee wakes up in ba sing se, alone. his uncle is gone. the city has been taken over by the fire nation. his memories are a blur- he and his uncle went to the earth palace to serve the earth king tea, and then... he can't really remember what happened next.

the fire nation princess wants him to serve her tea. he can feel her eyes on him the entire time he does. she's smiling, but he doesn't like that smile. her other two friends just watch him with looks that verge on pity- but only when the princess isn't looking. part of him feels grateful when they leave for the fire nation. the other part of him just feels... angry?

lee doesn't know where to go, so he goes back to the jasmine dragon. he finds out jin has been looking for him. she asks where his uncle is. he just shakes his head and says he doesn't know. he went missing. she invites him to come stay with her family... but he turns her down. he finds a job at another tea shop. it's all he knows. he's not good for anything else.

princess azula left behind standing orders with the dai li to make sure to keep up her brother's brainwashing. he's stubborn, so if you're not careful, he'll start to realize things he shouldn't. it's why she does not bring him home to the fire nation, as amusing as the idea of having him paraded before the court as a servant is.

the dai li visit lee once every week. it is the same agent every time. they have brainwashed many in their time, but the prince of the fire nation is their masterpiece. he crafts an entire new life for him. lee is drowning in a sea of lies and he doesn't even know it.

iroh realizes something is *very* wrong when he hears nothing of zuko upon arriving in the fire nation. when he breaks out of prison, he discovers that zuko never returned with his sister- and feels fear in his heart. but with the failure of the invasion, someone must teach the avatar firebending... and it cannot be jeong-jeong. iroh asks the white lotus to search for zuko in his place.

it's katara who finds him by accident, after the war is over. she decides to take a break at a tea shop. she looks up at her server- and sees a ghost. a ghost that doesn't recognize her, not even a little- and with a sinking horror, katara realizes exactly what must have happened.

she can't even be angry at him for his betrayal. not when all it earned him was this.

(lee was born and raised in ba sing se. he has no uncle, but he has his father. he is an agent of the dai li, and lee could not be more proud of him. he got his scar in the accident that killed his mother. a tragic fire. an accident. he's been afraid of it ever since.

lee lacks talent. he knows this, but he has found a simple happiness in the one thing he is good at- serving tea. he chats with the customers. he remembers the orders of all his regulars. his life is simple, but he is happy. he has never once thought of leaving ba sing se. why would he? his entire life is here. he has his father. his job. his girlfriend jin. he doesn't need anything else.

...he would like this strange water tribe girl to stop talking to him now. he hides in the kitchen. the owner kicks her out for hassling his best tea server.

lee has been kidnapped. these people keep calling him zuko. he has no idea who that is. they take him to the fire nation. he needs to get far, far away from ba sing se, they say. somewhere more familiar. lee doesn't know what they're talking about. he wants to go home.)

[crimewavezx]

pairing: Dano!riddler × reader.

a/n: It's gonna get spicy soon I promise :>

Cw: obsessive thoughts

words: 2.2k

Ao3

Chapter 1

<?>

Chapter 2: Coffee

You stare at the machine. It's old, should be thrown out. You've already begged the owner but he is adamant it does the job. Sure, it spits out coffee when you throw some in, but it's too dark, burnt almost and has a strange plastic taste to it.

You've spent the last hour opening it up to clean the parts which you were sure hadn't been cleaned since it's conception. You made sure everything fit in it's place and you had been brewing pot after pot, sampling your work. But you still weren't satisfied.

The burnt taste still lingered and now you were sure you could taste the cleaner you used. You made it worse somehow.

You slump against the wall across the cleaner and look to it. Why couldn't it know you needed this job to work? That you needed good coffee? You needed to be friendly, to be cute, you needed the strange men coming in late at night to see you could your job.

You sigh. You cant afford anything else. Finding a job in gotham is impossible. Truly. If it's not mob work it's underpaid. If it's a livable wage your likely going to be mob work that isn't explicitly mob work. Their roots spread deep. You couldn't touch it. Wouldn't allow yourself to fall into that hole. You know what happens when you give yourself over to the life. The cost-- but oh god the money is good. So good. You knew that much.

You knew that if you just told yourself a lie to keep yourself happy you wouldn't have to worry about making rent, or what to eat for dinner. Life would be so easy, wouldn't it? You would just have to accept the price of looking away. The blood on your hands. Maybe it wasn't innocent blood. Maybe it didn't matter.

But this diner seemed innocuous enough. If it was mob work, well they only wanted coffee and you could do coffee. So you thought. Nobody seemed to complain about the last server so why should you care? Why do you care so much?

You can't help the anger which rises in you looking at the coffee maker. It's stubborn. Stubborn like you.

You pull the maker from the wall. You stare at it before chucking it across the kitchen. You can only hear the shattering of the coffee pot. It breaks apart into a million different little pieces.

Your hand finds your mouth. You can only look in horror at the glass all over the floor. You did that.

Joey the cook comes rushing into the kitchen. He looks to you then the late coffee maker. "What'd you do that for?" He yells.

You shake your head. "It didn't work"

He approaches you, "so you break it? Is that how this works? You gonna break the rest of the kitchen next? Look around you girl, nothing works like it should."

He walks over to the microwave and gives it a bang over the top. It lights up. "You gonna cause anymore problems?"

You look at him. The tears start well before you register them. God, it's just a coffee maker. Just stupid coffee. Just a stupid job in a stupid city.

"No, Joey. I won't. I'm sorry" you say.

Joey holds open his arms, as though offering a hug. You look at him. "Free hug" he says.

You hug him. He's warm. It feels better. He gives you a reassuring pat on the back, "don't be so hard on yourself, kid. There's a big electronics store down the road, why don't you go buy a replacement? And I'll tell the boss it really did crap out, and you saved the day." Joey breaks away from you and opens up his wallet. He pulls out a hundred dollar bill.

You gawk as he places it into your hand. "Make it a nice one," he says.

"Joey, I--" you start.

"Hush," he stops you. "The late night crowd will be coming soon, better hurry"

You nod and leave the diner. You knew what electronic store Joey talked about. It's a big warehouse full of electrinic junk, open all night. Shady business but you were in a desperate position now. You were so thankful he was being nice.

Joey is a big guy, real mob type. At first he intimated you as he seldom said a word to you. But he was never rude or cross, he was always very forgiving on your mistakes when you first stated. You were so thankful he wasn't really mad. You would have to find a good way to thank him.

It's getting dark now as you approach the store. In Gotham the dark is invasive. Seeming to eat away at everything. Luckily a single street lamp broke the dark and you found the stores open door.

You enter cautiously. A man's voice greets you. "Welcome, what can I help you with?" You look to a counter along the wall beside you and see a man perched on a stool.

"I'm just looking for a coffee machine," he stands and silently begins walking further into the warehouse. It's dimly lit, the overhead lights were just bulbs attached to long wires.

You don't recognize half the junk you pass. You try not too pay too much attention to what you were looking at, too scared you would see something you shouldn't see at all.

You notice how everything seems winding. Like the store is built to pull you in further, deeper into its belly. You shudder.

Finally he veers right into a narrow aisle Where coffee makers line the shelves. Some were in boxes, some not, but there is a lot to choose from. "I'll be up front when your done" the man leaves you.

You curse a little to yourself as you're sure you'll get lost without him to guide you back to the front.

You look at the wall of coffee makers. You try looking for the same model you have, but it's difficult to make out everything at once. It's so dark in here.

In your frustration you just grab the first box which looked unopened. Better chances it would actually work that way.

You start your attempt at making your way back to what you thought is the front of the store. You think of the turns the man made but it's hard to recall with everything being so dim. You soon realize you are just heading further into the massive maze of a warehouse. It just keeps winding and winding, no marker or indicator to anything at all. Just aisles of electronic junk.

You start to panic. You really shouldn't be here. You don't belong here in what is very likely a criminal's fantasy. You just need a stupid coffee pot because you were stupid and broke the other. And now you were running out of time. It's getting close to your shift starting and you weren't going to be able to find your way out of this godforsaken warehouse.

As you start to truly panic, you look to your right and see a man peeking around an aisle further down. You couldn't make him out clearly as he quickly moves back when you spot him.

"Hey!" You cry and move towards him. It's a really dumb idea to approach a strange man in a shady store, but you'd be damned if you remain lost in here.

"Hey!" You call again. You get to the aisle and see, to your suprise, Edward attempting to hide around another corner. But you've already seen him. You smile at him.

He shuffles nervously in place and quietly murmurs a hello. You see him move to leave but he stops. In his hands he holds a strange box, with wires poking out along the tops and sides. It looks strangely hostile in his hands. He sees you looking and moves to hold the box to his side.

You swallow down your anxiety, "Edward, oh its so great to see a familair face. I really hate to bother you but I'm lost in here."

Edward smiles a little, but still looks on edge, "Yeah, it's easy to get lost" Is all he says. He doesn't move.

"Do you know how to get out?" You ask.

He blinks, as though not realizing you were asking him to show you out. He hesitates, fidgeting with the strange box. "Right. Okay. I'll walk you out." He slips the box into his jacket pocket. You don't question it.

As you walk behind him you are eager to talk to him again. After he left last night you keep wondering whether you really did bother him. You think quickly of something to say.

"Do you come here often?" You ask.

You see his head shake, followed by a short snort. "That's a familair question," he remarks, sounding amused.

You laugh, "well I don't know what to say. This place freaks me out."

"it's probably good that it does." He says. Your silent. He's right.

You were at the front now. Edward turns to you with a sheepish look. You expect him to say something but he only looks down.

The man at the counter speaks first, "find one?"

You are still looking at Edward. "I think so."

You pay with the cash Joey gave you and leave quickly with Edward at your side.

You look at Edward with confusion as he starts to walk with you in the direction of the diner. "You're going to walk with me?"

He gazes up at the sky. It's truly dark now. "It's late isn't? For you to be out alone. Gotham is a bad place."

You nod. "Yeah, guess so. Thanks. And thanks for getting me out of there. Really thought I was going to be stuck for a moment."

He is silent. You walk like this for a while. Just in silence with one another. It feels nice to just be with him like this. He's being friendly. Which suprises you. You think to ask him about last night but he speaks first.

"What happened to the other one?" He gestures towards the box in your hands.

You laugh, "I broke the other one. It didn't work. But hey, hopefully your coffee should be drinkable tonight."

"It was fine last night." There's that word again. Fine. You sigh.

"Did I bother you yesterday?"

It's really hard for him to pretend like he isn't just so excited to be here. Walking next to you. He can feel your body so close to him. He swallows. "No, you didn't bother me." It bothers him that he likes you so bad. That he can't say. Can't say it to you.

You face him. "Oh. Well you just left in a hurry. I didn't make any more pie tonight cause I thought you didn't like it."

He laughs. Like a real, genuine laugh. It suprises you. You laugh in return.

"Just frozen tonight then, huh?"

"Just frozen."

"Bummer." But he sounds amused. He's still smiling when you enter the diner together. He takes his seat at the counter and props his head up onto his hands.

You smile at him. He looks really cute. It's almost too much. "Don't get too excited. I still have to setup this bad boy."

"Take your time." He watches you move into the kitchen. Joey had ready swept up the glass and cleared a spot on the table for you. You feel a little nervous working with Edward watching you. He seems more...amiable tonight. More lively, you suppose. You keep casting him looks to affirm he still watchs you. His eyes barely move away.

You half expect him to pull out his journal but he doesn't. No, no, he's too enraptured by you. He really adores how often you are nice to him when you really shouldn't be at all. So nice. You are so nice.

It'll be too cruel when the time comes. When he's taken away from you. Or when you're taken from him. You'll see the truth and that will end it all.

Everything will change. You'll change. How nice will you be then? Will you still smile? Will the horror of having known him hurt you? Will you no longer want to be nice to the quiet ones? Will you be distrustful? It feels good to have an impact. Even then, Even then.

Setting up the coffee maker is easy. It's a newer model, so it has fewer levers and cranks. Just buttons for your ease and enjoyment.

It chimes with a gentle tone as it finishes making the last of the pot. The color is a healthy brown and the smell! God the smell is actually like that of coffee, just as warm and inviting as you'd ever known.

You are eager to pour Edward a cup. He seems just as eager to enjoy it.

With a grin you place the cup in front of him. "Edward, It is done." The steam rolls off the cup in gentle waves. You swell with pride.

"Finally!" He cries. He goes to grab the mug but you stop him.

"Careful! It's hot. You have to wait."

"I have to enjoy it with my eyes for now?" He giggles.

"Yes, just that."

He smiles at you. "Can do."

<?>

[unfoundhoney]

mom’s mushroom stew ↠

↠ sapnap x fem!reader , dream x sister!reader ; fluff ; requested

↠ masterlist

You built your home deep in the forest, away from the majority of the rest of the residents of the SMP. You’ve found keeping away from the rest of the server and- more prominently- remaining out of the conflicts that go on amongst them all has led you to a more peaceful life.

You keep to yourself, though that’s not to say you can’t defend yourself when need be; there have been several instances where you have been targeted as a result of your brother’s actions. Your days consist of mining and reading, though mostly you tend to your garden. Your cottage itself is quite small but your garden extends behind your home for quite a ways, giving you plenty to keep yourself busy with.

Unless you’re mistaken, most server members don’t even know where you live. It’s not often someone other than your brother (who has a habit of checking on you more times than necessary) finds their way to your cottage. However, one person has begun to visit you frequently.

“Y/N!”

Sapnap’s call of your name is loud but not startling; you’d carefully been watching his approach as he walked along your paved garden path.

“Y/N? Where’d you go?”

Sat on your knees and effectively hidden among your flowering lilacs, you don’t show yourself even as Sapnap passes right by you. After eating lunch together, you’d gone out to the garden ahead of him as he used the restroom, giving you enough time to hide. He continues his search through your garden, unsuspecting as you sneak out from within your flowers and sneak up behind him.

“Y/N...? Is she not here?” he wonders aloud to himself.

You clap your hands on his shoulders, “BOO!”

Sapnap shrieks and spins around, shoving your hands off him and reaching for his sword. He relaxes immediately upon seeing you, who is now bent over in laughter.

“You little- come here!”

Sapnap reaches for you but you dodge his hands, dashing away further into your garden. Sapnap chases after you, faux anger offset by his laughter. He catches you, pulling you to a stop and into himself, bringing you both falling to the ground. You lay in the grass just laughing for several moments.

You roll to your side and support yourself above Sapnap.

He laughs, grinning brightly up at you, “Hi.”

“Hi,” you say back.

“You’re a sneaky little thing, you know that?” His words hold no hint of malice as he cups your face.

You lean into his touch, “Hm, you bring it upon yourself.”

“Are you victim-blaming me?”

“Shut up.”

You both laugh and he tugs you down, pressing his lips to yours. It’s almost impossibly picturesque: laying in a garden and kissing your secret lover. You tilt your head to the side, slotting your lips together. Just as Sapnap’s hands have found your waist- no doubt planning to flip you onto your back- a third and heart stoppingly familiar voice calls out and shatters your sweet moment.

“N/N!”

You pull away from Sapnap immediately, eyes wide, “Dream.”

Below you, your boyfriend looks absolutely terrified. As much trouble as it causes being the owner of the server’s younger sister, Dream and you are close. You are someone who he can always rely on to talk sense. It’s almost comforting how you will refuse to take his side in conflict if you disagree with him despite being siblings; he can trust you to be honest with him.

Dream has always been protective of you. From the moment your parents found you and took you in as an infant, he has been your self-appointed bodyguard, so to speak. While this was endearing as children and handy later on in life when the occasional man would have too much gall around you, it has become something of nuisance upon your entering a relationship with one of his best friends. Friends who had been told you are “off-limits.”

“Stay,” you tell Sapnap, who nods without a thought of argument.

You jump to your feet quickly. Luckily, you and Sapnap had been sheltered by the lilacs that you had hidden in minutes before. As you call out to your brother and make your way over to him, Sapnap remains out of sight in the grass behind the flower bushes.

“Hey, Dream,” you greet him with a hug. “What are you doing here?”

“Just stopping by to see my favorite sister.”

“I’m your only sister.”

“And therefore my favorite.”

You laugh, “Sure.”

“Anyway, I was hoping to have dinner together and catch up but I see you already have company.”

Your heart stops, “Company?”

“Sapnap’s horse is tied to your fence out front.”

Crap crap crap crap crap crap crap-

You speak a little louder than necessary, “Oh, right! Yeah, Sapnap dropped by. He just went to go get mushrooms for the stew I’m making later. You know how he likes mom’s old recipe, so I told him if he gathered the mushrooms I would send him off with some.”

“Okay...”

Dream seems suspicious but you can only hope it’s because of his protective nature and not knowledge of your relationship. His eyes are looking out towards where you had popped up from.

“You wanna come inside? I was just checking on my lilacs,” you lie smoothly, walking towards the back entrance of your house and hoping to take his attention with you.

He, thankfully, follows after you, “You’re making mom’s stew?”

“Yeah, I’ve been feeling a little nostalgic lately.”

Your conversation with your brother flows easily like it always does when you two meet up after a while apart. As you prepare the rest of the stew, Dream rants to you about Tommy’s latest misadventure and you tell him that your recently-planted alliums sprouted, replacing the ones that you gave Niki for her flower shop. It’s about half an hour later that there’s a knock on your back door.

“Can you get that?” you ask your brother, “It must be Sap back from mushroom hunting.”

There’s a brief pause.

“Sap? Since when do you use nicknames with Sapnap?”

You bury your panic with a roll of your eyes, “Come on, Dream. I’ve known Sapnap and George as long as you have; it’s hardly a crime to call them by a nickname.”

“Yeah, sure,” Dream says, unconvinced.

He goes to open the back door and you turn to face the pot of ingredients cooking on the stove, releasing a long breath to try and calm yourself.

It’s fine. You’re fine. He doesn’t know. Just be cordial to Sapnap, not overly friendly. Don’t raise suspicion. Be cool be cool be cool.

“Oh, hey, Dream!” you hear Sapnap greet his friend, “What are you doing here?”

When you turn, you’re incredibly relieved to find Sapnap carrying a sizable amount of mushrooms wrapped in a handkerchief. Thank god he picked up on your plan from the garden earlier.

“Shouldn’t I be asking you that?” Dream says, arms crossed over his chest.

You can see the barely contained fear on Sapnap’s face.

“Dream,” you say firmly, “I’m an adult woman. I’m allowed to be friends with whoever I want to.”

Your brother turns to face you, “But not with-“

“You don’t get to decide who I’m friends with.”

“But-“

“No buts.”

Dream obviously wants to argue further but for once, he heeds your wishes and lets his shoulders drop in defeat. The wave of relief that washes over your body is unimaginable. Sure, you may not be just friends with Sapnap, but getting Dream to understand that you are your own person and don’t need protecting anymore is an uphill battle; you’ll have to take it one step at a time.

“Come here, Sapnap,” you call. “Everything else it ready, it’ll just have to cook for a while with the mushrooms.”

“I’m watching you,” Dream says threateningly as Sapnap passes by him.

“Stop it.”

[findingjoynweirdstuff]

Dream SMP Recap (February 26/2021) - ...What?

DreamXD helped George build a McDonald’s, Quackity’s double joined, Jack and Andrea went on a date with Sam and Foolish joining in as wingmen, Andrea was lured to the Egg, Wilbur (non-canonically) had a heart attack during a horse/footrace and died...

Just an average day in the Dream SMP, I suppose?

---

VOD LINKS:

Ranboo

Captain Puffy

Georgenotfound

Jack Manifold

[Andrea’s VOD was deleted due to leaked info, nothing to worry about though!]

---

- Puffy and Foolish work on their fast food restaurant

- After attempting to solve the mystery behind why George was banned on TikTok, Quackity decides that George should build a McDonald’s in Minecraft.

- DreamXD, the god of the server himself, appears to help them. As the owner of the land, he suggests that they renovate the Deal or No Deal house into a McDonalds. He happens to have some very convenient stacks of supplies. 

- They burn down the old house and begin to build. Wendy’s replies on Twitter and Dream ratios them.

- Quackity starts chasing George so he calls for Dream’s help and DreamXD attacks him as Quackity repents for his sins. Quackity logs out and DreamXD builds a pit and they fill it with lava.

- George shouts for Quackity to log in while dramatic music plays. 

Quackity: “Then so be it. So be it! I don’t care! So be it, George! If this is the destiny that I have to face, then I’ll face it with honor, George!”

- He’s known it all along...Quackity is the one who got him banned. Quackity’s the one who got them all banned! Quackity begins to chuckle. George finally put together the pieces.

Quackity: “You have no idea how much power I have, George...and guess what, I have no issues doing it over, and over, and over again.”

- Quackity decides that he’s not going to log in so that he won’t give George the satisfaction of watching him die. DreamXD types a suggestion to ban Quackity in chat.

George: “I have Dream on my side! DreamXD, he is the god of the Dream SMP server! He will RUIN you! He will delete you from the lore!”

Quackity: “DreamXD...you think gods scare me, George? Gods don’t scare me, George, they don’t.”

- Bad falls into the pit and has to get out.

George: “He’s quacked!”

Quackity: “I’m gonna walk out the door with honor, George, and I’m never giving you the satisfaction of watching me die.”

- Suddenly, DreamXD hits George into the pit of fire, revealing that he’s been with Wendy’s this entire time! George perishes in the fire as Quackity taunts him. 

Quackity: “LOOK AT YOU! Look at you fall into despair and death, thinking you’re one step above, but you have no one on your side, George. Nobody...nobody is on your side. Nobody has ever been on your side, George. That’s the funny part! That’s the funny part. Your little moments, your little moments where you think you have any sort of power...they’re just amusing, George. They’re so amusing to me. Have you realized it yet? Have you realized how you hold no power, ever, at all? Take this to the grave, George...you’re nobody.”

- DreamXD tells Quackity it’s clear to log on, but Quackity still doesn’t die. DreamXD then says that it was all an attempt to trick Quackity into logging in and calls for George to log back on.

DreamXD: “I was never with him, George...I’ve been by your side since the beginning, George...I promise.”

- They walk back to McDonald’s. DreamXD assures George that Quackity will pay for this. He murders Bad to cheer George up. DreamXD also makes George a server operator for a short moment.

- George runs back, shouting at Quackity to log in. Quackity replies that as long as he’s outside of George’s realm, they have no power over him. The instant he logs in, they have control. He won’t give them that satisfaction.

- George threatens to canonically ban Quackity for eternity. Bad warns him of the mark this might make on his soul. George presses enter...and it doesn’t work. 

Quackity: (laughing) “George...you really thought you had the power! You really thought you could do anything to me! George, you can’t! You can’t do anything to me! Not now, not ever, not as long as I live, George.”

“Long live Quackity, George...I never die.”

- Quackity announces that he will be building a salad store right across the street from George’s store, and there’s nothing George can do about it!

- quackitynumber2 joins the game. George tells him that if he sacrifices himself to the lava, he’ll forgive him. Quackitynumber2 does just that. They rescue real Quackity from the lava.

- DreamXD takes George to the Oogway Shrine to “pray.” 

- Sapnap comes on, very confused. They continue to ratio Wendy’s.

- Jack preps for his date. Foolish gives him a pep talk, then Wilbur briefly joins to ask if Andrea’s there yet. Antfrost arrives in a maid outfit.

- Andrea eventually comes onto the server. She dies once and Sam declares it canon. Sam gives Jack gifts for the date at Spawn.

- Jack and Andrea ride around in a boat a bit. The date continues as Antfrost and Sam work as diligent wingmen.

- Sam turns Jack into the waterman and shouts about Dreamons as he attacks. Jack runs away and waits for the invisibility to wear off while Sam, Punz and the others show Andrea Egg propaganda.

- Sam says they can see the Egg soon! Punz remarks that the Egg is nice. Jack freaks out when he hears about this and runs over, eager to stop Andrea from being mind-controlled.

- Jack makes it to Puffy’s McDonald’s and reunites with Andrea. 

- They continue to walk around, near the Eggpire meeting room. Sam greets them there, leads the two into the egg building and tells Andrea to stand in the center. Jack and Andrea jump down into the Egg Room.

Sam: Break it Andrea. Save the server. Do it.

- Jack warns her against breaking the blocks. Andrea jumps down from the Egg and looks at it.

Sam: DO YOU WANT TO BE A HERO??

Andrea: SIR

Andrea: MR AWESOME DUDE

Sam: Yes?

Andrea: HAVE YOU EVER SEEN AN EGG

Andrea: THAT IS NOT AN EGG

- She says this reminds her of health education classes. A fun way to teach people about the reproductive system. Sam tells her to break the Egg again.

- Sam tells her they need to break the Egg to leave, but Andrea dies by lava instead. Jack warns her that she only has one canon life left.

- Jack struggles to swim back up to the surface through the chute. Sam tells Andrea that he doesn’t see her surviving the night.

- Jack makes it to the surface and tries to get back to Andrea. Meanwhile, Sam tells Andrea that he’s way richer than Jack is. 

- Jack meets Andrea and Sam at Lemon City. Sam gets Andrea a horse. They decide to do a race. Andrea proposes that they sacrifice the loser. Foolish accuses Sam of cheating on Ponk.

- Ponk comes online.

Jack: Hi Fonk

Sam: LETS RACE

Ponk: Shut up home wrecker

WilburSoot joined the game.

- They make a call for all the racers. Wilbur joins and asks Jack for a few words in private.

- Once alone, Wilbur urges Jack to get out of there. This is not going well, he says. Jack insists that everything’s going fine! Wilbur tells Jack that Andrea asked him to serenade her.

- Jack points out that Wilbur did this last time. Wilbur tells him that was just him being a silly quirky goofster. This is him being real.Wilbur tells Jack to trust him.

Wilbur: “I have a plan...basically, you’re doing a race, right? What’s the worst thing that can happen during a race, you may be asking? I’ll tell you what:

“Wilbur Soot has a heart attack and dies.”

- The plan goes as follows: they start the race, Wilbur has a heart attack and dies, and in his last dying breath, he asks Andrea to tell the truth.

- The two rejoin the call with the plan in mind and meet at the Community House with Sam to begin the race.

Wilbur: “I sure hope my arteries will hold up!”

- The race begins! Jack, Andrea and Sam all start running, Andrea still on horseback. Wilbur calls out that his chest is hurting and Jack turns around to run back to him.

- With his last dying breath, Wilbur says to Andrea that she should tell Jack what she said to Wilbur. He then dies before they can perform CPR. Sam points out that Wilbur Soot is not the type to waste his last words. Andrea replies that they were going to sacrifice him anyway.

- Jack has the messages from Wilbur.

Sam: “Can you read those to us please? I wanna imagine that he wrote them about me.”

Jack: “Okay, he said -- you’re gonna struggle, it has my name in it.”

Sam: “Well, just, when you read your name, just say ‘Sam’ instead.

Jack: “Okay, he says, ‘I want to date Sam. That sounds fucking brilliant.’”

Sam: “Wilbur said that about me?! Oh my god, I have chills. I literally have chills right now. I got ghost bumpies.”

- Andrea asks what’s going on between Jack and Wilbur, and questions whether Jack is really in love with her. She decides to run away.

- Sam shows her the prison he built and brags that he’s the warden. Andrea’s horse explodes. Sam asks if they should lock Jack up, and Andrea says they should.

- After Andrea sings “My Humps,” Sam rapidly comes to the conclusion that he no longer wants anything to do with this date. 

- Jack and Andrea’s date continues as he leads her to the restaurant he made. 

- Afterwards, they go back to the mainland and Andrea sees L’manhole. Jack explains that this is where L’manberg was destroyed, and he fell into Hell. Andrea remarks that there used to be a sign here that said “I <3 Andrea” that now says “You </3 Little Penis” instead.

- They sail out into the ocean together. 

- Afterwards, Jack brings her to Foolish’s Temple of Undying. Jack says he’ll see her on their next date, if he’s still alive by then.

- Andrea leaves, and Sam speaks with Jack alone.

---

Upcoming events remain the same.

[stellocchia]

Alright, now that I got some sleep, time for an overly long analysis on Tommy’s second prison visit!

I’m only talking about character in the rp from here on out, not the cc’s unless explicitly stating otherwise

-

First of all, a clarification is in order: was it Dream’s plan from the very start to get put in prison to end up in this situation? No. Does this mean he couldn’t have caused this to turn things in his favour? Also no.

Dream has proven before that he’s a rather flexible character (kinda has to be with a nemesis like Tommy), he’s been put multiple times in unexpected situations and managed to come out of top. We don’t know if he expected L’Manburg to be reborn after the 16th, and yet he managed to have the whole cabinet wrapped around his fingers. He didn’t expect Tommy to threaten him with Spirit, and yet he spun it around on him. We also know he didn’t expect Tommy to leave Logsteshire (he was talking about it with Punz, it’s the reason he went to check on him shortly after because he realized he may have stepped too far and broken Tommy out of his manipulation there) which offered him the opportunity to frame him for the community house disaster later on.

He is nothing if not resorceful.

Another thing we have to discuss when talking about the visit is the themes of their relationship:

- Dream’s possessiveness/obsession

- The whole Dream finding Tommy “fun”

- Their “game”

More under the cut

- For the first point, when I say “possessivness” I mean that Dream literally regards himself almost as Tommy’s owner. Don’t believe me? Let’s talk about how he treats Tommy’s canon life then!

Remember all the way back during exile? To keep Tommy in line Dream consistently threatened to take his last life, implying that he would have been fine with Tommy dying, yet, as soon as Tommy showed signs of wanting to take his own life, Dream bust out the line “it’s not your time to die yet”, 2 times in fact. Why? Well, Dream wants control in all things, not only that, but he clearly thinks he’s in the right in wanting it. Of course the life of his favourite toy is no exception. Also let’s not forget about the terrifying scene on top of the obsidian grid where, when Tommy said that their story would be over soon, Dream immediately took control again assuring him it would never be over.

There is also Tommy explicitly stating that Dream was “borderline his owner”, in case we needed an additional affirmation, in the stream where Mexican Dream made an appearance in exile. 

Also, I have to mention that during the first Prison visit Dream, when talking about what he missed, grouped Tommy together with “his stuff”... can’t get much clearer then that

- Dream’s describing Tommy as “Fun” has been a reoccurring creepy theme between them. But is it soley done out of manipulation or does Dream actually feel that way in his twisted world view? I’d say a bit of both to be honest. 

Clearly there is a level of gaslighting with it were he used to say it at the very start of Tommy’s exile to get him in the frame of mind of considering Dream his friend and trying to convince him that they always had fun together (trying to get him to switch his anger from being directed at Dream to being directed at his old friends), but that’s not all. 

Dream, in cutting all his known attachments, is left with only Tommy as an attachment, Jack is right on that one, which is the rason why his obsession seems so extreme. That said, it’s pretty obvious that he does sort of find his relationship with Tommy “fun”. It’s the reson why literally everyone else is a replaceable pawn, but Tommy isn’t. Don’t get me wrong here: he doesn’t see him as a human and, despite him “caring” in his twisted way, there is NOTHING healthy about their relationship. But it is still important to point out that Tommy is extremely important to Dream.

- Their game is something we’re all well aware of. They are regarded by so many people as the hero and the villain of the server, even though neither of them accepts their assigned role. That said they both view the other in the role assigned to them. Dream doesn’t see himself as a villain, but he does see Tommy as a hero and vice-versa. And, just like that, the stage for their “game” is set.

Only problem? Only one of them is playing the game. We know this from the season 2 finale: the reason Dream kept coming down and trusting Tommy was because he thought Tommy was as attached to their “game” as he was, but he was wrong. Tommy HAS other attachments, plenty of them, he’s not dependent on Dream and that’s also probably why Dream is so obsessed with him in the first place: everyone else is predictable, easy to use. They aren’t surprising, they aren’t “fun” (remember that? Remember Dream goning “Tubbo isn’t fun” when Tommy said he had as much value as himself? Because I sure do) they are boring pawns. 

You’d think he may think differently of someone like Techno but, despite him acknowledging his strenght, he has no reason to think he won’t be able to use him every time at the smallest promise of violence as it worked every time before. George and Sapnap? When’s the last time Dream showed them he cared in any way? He used them time and time again and then left them behind when the relationships required work on his side to mantain. He didn’t even speak to Sapnap during his visit! He regards Quackity as barely an annoyance (remember what history left on him in the Lost City of Mizu? Just a Fool). Punz and Sam were both people he paid, only means to an end. They ALL played his game and followed his rules, which is what made them predictable. It's what makes them so replaceable.

-

Now that the themes are established, let’s move on to the analysis of the visit itself!

First of all: big foreshadowing from Sam with the missing books (which Tommy admitted to not remembering the content of) and from Tommy saying how much he trusted and appreciated Sam. It doesn’t have much to do with the analysis, but we all pointed it out.

That said, what was Tommy’s objective with this visit? Closure. Tommy wanted to make their game finally stop for good, he wanted to reclaim the control over his life that he hasn’t had for a while now. Not over his literal last life nor over hid day to day life. Both used to be controlled by Dream. 

Dream “loosing” his clock is the first information we learn. But, remember during Bad’s visit when Bad convinced Sam to give Dream one last chance to get his clock back if he behaved? And then again with Sapnap? Dream wanted the clock to go, that’s why he kept burning it despite the warnings. Why? Could it be that he was planning to get someone to stay with him in there? Isolation affects you much harder when you’re not aware of the passage of time after all...

“That’s the Tommy I know!” from the start of the visit Dream is trying to re-establish their “bond” and get Tommy in the mindset of them being “friends” again. I mean, it’s not a coincidence that he’s never been this talkative or friendly in any of the visits from other people. 

Other point in favour of Dream having planned this long stay is the sheer number of potatoes he had stored. Also, may I add that he immediately started giving them to Tommy? He started before the tnt and explosions, before he should have known Tommy was gonna stay. He never did this before during any of the visits we’ve seen. Establishing his role as provider again like back in exile I see...

Dream also started immediately demanding for Tommy to visit him more, but Tommy does turn it down just as quickly by explaining that that would be the last visit (if Dream wasn’t planning to act this time, he changed his mind in this moment. He’s very adaptable remember? And his main accomplice was online...). Of course, Dream isn’t happy about it. 

We already established that Tommy is the only one he finds “fun” (as far as we know), having him stopping visitations entirely wouldn’t be good for Dream. There is also the fact that Tommy is deciding to move on on his own. It’s Tommy’s choice under Tommy’s complete control and Dream has already shown he’s not too kin on that being a thing.

“Anything you want to say to me now, you have to say to me now, because I’m not visiting you again” “Why?” I’m highlighting this piece of dialogue because I think it’s pretty indicative of Dream still being convinced that they’re both still playing the game. Sure, Tommy outplayed him for now, but the game is not over, is it? Tommy can’t just decide to drop him can he? They both have so much “fun” after all... 

Of course though, to Tommy the “why” should be obvious. Because of Dream he’s struggling with severe ptsd. He’s afraid of plains biomes, of lava, of heights to a certain degree, of black stone (both because of the Attachments vault and the Final Control Room on this one), of tnt, of small holes (big enough to drop your items in as he said), of giving up his stuff and of Dream acting Friendly. Dream hurt him a great deal to the point were he’s not managing to settle down even now, he’s still afraid. How can Dream not see how he hurt him? How can he not understand? In Tommy's mind it just doesn't make sense.

TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES (had to add this because it was just funny... why are there always bloopers with this 2?)

Potatoes again. Again the tnt had not started to go off yet. And Tommy eats them again immediately, of course. I can’t stress this enough, but this is done again to re-establish the dependency tommy had on Drem during exile. While he didn’t entirely depend on dream for food (he barely ate and he had Mushroom Henry), he used to be entirely dependent on him for protection, getting to the point where he would hardly defend himself from the mobs when they attacked him even when Dream wasn't around. Of course Dream can’t provide “safety” while he’s in prison, so he has to find something else.

“You had all this shit coming” “I did but... you know... maybe one day” “No! Have you seen this prison? It’s kind of the most secure thing ever” They are talking about two different things here. Dream is implying that, maybe, they’ll let him out in the future while Tommy, having already decided to move on and not worry about Dream anymore, is implying that the only way Dream is getting out is if he manages to escape, which he won’t. Quite different from the first visit were Tommy showed quite a bit of hesitance when asked if he would ever let Dream out.

“Unless you have extreme therapy” Tommy recognizing the importance of therapy I see! No, but, more importantly, this goes to show that Tommy is moving on from his exclusively vengful mindset he had at the start (which was more then understandable, btw). At the start of this visit he said he didn’t think that Dream deserved to die anymore and now he’s recognizing that he needs help, Tommy however also knows he’s not the one who should be helping him, he can’t. Still, he’s empathizing with him, because he can’t help doing so. Despite everything, Tommy always tends to see others as their own individuals, even when the same is often not true in reverse. 

“I mean exile wasn’t that bad... right? I mean, we hung out” again, tying it back to the themes in their relationship, this fits so well. Of course exile wasn’t that bad, right? After all: why would Tommy have needed anyone else when he had his Best Pal Dream? And here’s the thing: we can’t know how much of what Dream says is just manipulation and how much of it he believes, but Dream has shown enough signs of being dependent on Tommy as his only attachment that we can assume there is, at the very least, some level of truth in this. I mean, if you remember back when he blew up Logstedshire, he didn’t even wanna believe that Tommy was suicidal. Tommy told him directly, but was dismissed. Why? Not because Dream wasn’t extremely opposed to him taking his own life, he’d already shown that not to be the case. Perhaps because he actually didn’t think it was that bad? Maybe he didn't want to admit he pushed him too far? Did he actually view himself and Tommy to be Dream’s own twisted version of “friends”? It’s a possibility and it’s what this visit seems to imply. 

“When I’m around you I feel like my brain is conditioned to be your friend, but also when I have a knife I wanna just plunge it into your heart... you don’t make me a good person!” This seems to be a rather recurrent theme with Tommy and the mentor figures in his life. Wilbur trying to convince him (albeit not managing to) to just blow it all up and give in to his aggressive nature. Techno wanting to “bring him to the side of evil” and making him more violent in the process. Now we have confirmation that Dream himself makes him lash out more (though we could see this already when he was in exile in how he lashed out at Jack Manifold without the latter having done anything to deserve it). There is also the confusion to point out. While Tommy is trying to move on he’s clearly in no way “healed”, he’s still very much suffering from the consequences of Dream’s abuse and manipulation. He still doesn’t know exactly how to feel about him because, despite everything, he feels compelled not to hate him entirely. 

“You’re a bad guy” “Well I did bad things, but everyone thinks they’re right from their perspective” “That’s not true” I haven’t seen almost anyone talk about this exchange, but it’s such an important one! As we said, Tommy views Dream as a villain, Dream doesn’t (he admits to having done bad things, but not to being bad because of them). Dream also sees Tommy as a hero, but Tommy doesn’t (Tommy doesn’t even view himself as “the good guy” in his own story, which ties in to his big self worth problems). It’s an interesting dynamic to be sure. 

“Well I think I’m right. I did bad things, but I did them for good reasons” “What good reasons?” “I wanted to bring the server together you know? Make it a big happy family” This is the second time Dream brings up unity as his ultimate goal (the first being with Punz). Of course we know that the “unity” he wants it’s under his complete control. It’s not an objective that we can see as positive, but he does, or, at least, if he’s telling the truth about it, he may actually believe in it. Now, while this is the second time he brought up “unity” directly he did also strongly imply in the season 2 finale that that was his intention when explaining he was doing everything to get the server to “how it used to be”, back in the idealized past with no conflicts that never existed. Dream is deluded in the literal sense of the word, I would say it’s pretty probable there is at least some truth in his declared objective (truth in the form of him actually believing the bs he spews).

At this point Tommy is done. He’s drawing an end to the visit and Dream started getting more frantic. He started insisting on how he’s “changing” and insisting for Tommy to go visit him again. Ngl, I think this was probably to buy time for his accomplice (who is very possibly enderwalk!Ranboo) to get there. Because, if he let Tommy go, their game would truly be over, and Dream can’t stand that.

And cue the explosions! 

So: Dream managed to buy enough time and, by the prison's protocols, Tommy is now stuck with him up to 7 days. He can’t leave which means Dream gets another chance to force him into continuing their game. 

Quite a few people pointed it out, but, from this point onwards, Dream gets much more assertive and controlling in his demeanor. He drops the whole “insecure” act that he had going on in his enunciation and general behaviour and goes back to being like the old Dream (you would almost think that all that talk about “having changed” was just absolute bs, though he keeps insisting on it throughout) 

Tommy’s behaviour also changes. He gets much more paniked (no doubt a combination of way too many of his triggers being present at once) and pliant. He starts calling out for Sam and asking to be let out but, of course, that doesn’t happen as Sam has to take care of the security breach first and foremost. 

Dream starts immediately harping on Tommy being stuck there (probably to increase his panic, as he's easier to influence when he's distressed), first pointing out how “Sam can’t hear him” and then that the tnt must indicate a “security problem” (which he then explains he knows the consequences of because he wrote the book). By now he’s dropped his meek act entirely and he’s showing to be much more smug and self assured (a big contrast with Tommy having a very obvious panic attack). As we already said: he got what he wanted, he basically won already. All he needs to do now is get Tommy back to how he used to be in exile (”when they had fun” in Dream’s words...). 

At this point there is only one question left to be answered: Why did he do all of this? How does this benefits dream?

Clearly this didn’t help him to get out. The security may actually increase because of it. Right? Well...

“I mean... if you want a way to get out, let’s get out together! We can work it out, we can-” “Fuck off” “Then there is no way out” I’m going out on a limb here and saying that, perhaps, Dream may know a way to get out provided 2 people cooperate on it. Tommy wouldn’t help him yet, but, who knows what he may do after spending way too much time locked in a small room, with a lava fall on the side and Dream to top off the list of his worst nightmares... 

“Are you trying to get out?” “I’m not trying to get out, I’m not trying to get out!” a bit of a contradiction here, considering he proposed getting out together like 2 minutes before (coupled with his insistence on “one day...”)... however “I’m not trying to get out (yet)” may be a way to interpret his words more truthfully. If he just needed an accomplice to get out, he would have probably used Ranboo, but there is something else he wants as well... 

(btw, potatoes AGAIN multiple times, especially every time Tommy is particularly distressed, and Dream also brings up Tommy being on his last canon life again in the context of this being “just like exile”... man do be trying hard with those parallels...)

You see, he already told us that he still sees his objective as good. He still wants control. He still wants his game to go on. And there is one person he elected to be the key to everything...

“I’m telling you you’re stuck in here for a little while with me, were we can bond, we can talk, just like old times, right? You know... just like exile” “Tommy this is the best thing that’s happened to me since I got in this prison, because now we can be company, we can stay together!” “Fine, fine, you’re done with me in a couple days, when you get out of here” “Tommy it’s not that bad! We can- we have lot’s of time to bond” Ngl... something tells me his other objective is very obvious... and we talked about it to death by now. But, in case it wasn't clear to someone, he wants to get back what (or who in his case) he considers to be his most cherished possession (again, do NOT interpret this as a "good" thing. It isn't. Dream literally treats Tommy as his toy, it isn't healthy and I've seen way too many people in chat trying to imply otherwise and calling it "cute". It's not cute, it's abuse)

“Tommy you’re stuck in here with me wether you like it or not, ok?! Wether you like it or not you’re in here with me for a WHILE, we’re gonna talk, we’re gonna have lot’s of fun” I just wanted to point out again how much Dream’s demeanor changed from the start now that he’s back in control. He’s not asking Tommy to talk to him, he’s not giving him a choice in it. Tommy already said how he doesn’t wanna talk and “get to know him better”, but that doesn’t matter. He has no power anymore. He doesn’t have the power to leave NOR the power to ignore Dream, as much as he wants to. Also, after this, Dream seriously ramps up the whole “We’re gonna have so much fun!” shtick...

And you want to know the saddest part of the ending? Tommy is already cracking (honestly, not surprising. He’s been through WAY too much by now...) 

He started asking Dream for confirmation of whether all of this was “serious” (just like he needed to ask if things were real back in exile... or generally Dream’s opinion on everything). He also asked for more potatoes in a dejected tone (I know it may not seem that serious, but, as I said, it is just another way to create the dependency that Dream wants), showing a beginning of acceptance for Dream’s role as provider once again. Together with the very obvious “I can’t do this” and the black screen right after it creates a very worrying picture.

In conclusion: Dream is already dependant on Tommy, but the opposite not being true was a big part of his downfall. So, before he can get out, he has to work on getting Tommy back to exile!Tommy only this time he’ll be even more careful not to do some dumb mistake probably... 

-

As anxious as I am to see how this will develop I do also think it’s one of the most interesting outcomes they could have had!

Also can we please take a moment to appreciate how WELL cc!Dream anc cc!Tommy manage to handle this incredibly serious scenes? Like, they bounce off of each other perfectly and, as someone who’s done theater themselves, I cannot commend them for managing to do so well in IMPROV enough!

They are honestly so great! Let’s get some serious love and appreciation for them to close on a positive note!

Also @mysweatymakerstudentworld

[roseverdict]

Two War Heroes and a Fellow Ex-Refugee Walk into a Tea Shop

yeahhh cranked this out in like two hours bay-BEE, that's the power of the brainrot!!!

anyway here's jin being the best when she figures out li from the tea shop is the fire lord now

AO3 link

~

Jin blinked in surprise.

There was activity in the Jasmine Dragon.

There hadn’t been anyone inside since before the fall of Ba Sing Se, and it almost seemed poetic that the Jasmine Dragon would come back to life when the rest of the city did, except Jin knew the owner and main server there, and neither had been seen or heard from since the fall.

And yet there was Mushi, humming to himself as he bustled about inside and prepared to open the doors.

Jin couldn’t help herself.

She peeked inside.

“Pardon, but the Jasmine Dragon is not yet open for business,” said Mushi kindly, not quite looking away from where he was adjusting part of the décor.

Jin smiled. “I’m not here for tea, though I wouldn’t turn it down. I’m just glad you’re alive.”

Mushi turned, and his face broke out into a wide grin. “Ah, Jin! It does this old man’s heart good to know you’re alright!”

“Same to you. When the city fell and you and Li were in the palace-!” Jin said, stepping all the way in and closing the door behind her.

“It was a difficult time for us all,” Mushi agreed, “but we came out of it better and wiser.”

Jin nodded, but before she could say something else, the ground shook from the force of a mob’s-worth of feet pounding the pavement outside. The shaking subsided as quickly as it had come, but Jin still scowled. “Five golds says those are some Fire Lord fangirls.”

Mushi’s eyebrows shot up. “Oh?”

“Yeah, apparently the new Fire Lord is coming to visit. Something about making reparations?” Jin explained, taking a seat at a nearby table. “I mean, good for him, it’s nice to know somebodyin the Fire Nation’s royal family isn’t a royal jerkwad in need of a psychiatrist, but I doubt he’ll wanna get mobbed by that crowd.”

Mushi smiled in that knowing way he tended to and turned back to the décor. “Not just the Fire Lord, but my nephew as well.”

Jin lit up. “Li’s coming, too?”

At that, Mushi’s knowing smile turned mischievous for a split second before he nodded. “Yes, he is. I’m sure you’ve figured out by now that we came from a rather distant place before moving to Ba Sing Se. He’s been back at home now that the war is over, straightening out what was twisted in our absence, but I managed to convince him to take a break and come visit his uncle’s tea shop for the grand re-opening.”

“Still a workaholic, huh? That’s Li, alright,” Jin declared.

Something started tickling at the edges of her hearing, and Jin blinked. “What’s that?”

“What’s what?” asked Mushi innocently.

Jin snorted and crossed her arms. “What game are you playing, you meddling old man?”

“Who, me?” Mushi deflected cheerfully. “I only play Pai Sho.”

The source of the noise either got closer or it got louder, because Jin could now identify it as the sound of screaming fangirls.

Actually, on second thought, they were probably getting closer.

“Oh, boy, here we go,” groaned Jin.

Then a boy dashed into the tea shop and slammed the doors shut behind him, pressing his back against them and peeking nervously out the windows. “Uncle, I thought you told me the city was safe!I put on my casual clothes and everything!”

Jin’s brain stopped working.

The boy in front of her was dressed in Fire Nation colors, his hair done up in a topknot and holding none other than the crown of the Fire Lord himself. His robes were made of elegant fabrics Jin rarely ever got to see, let alone up close, though they were disheveled as though caught and pulled in every possible direction.

He also had the same voice and face as…

“Li, what the fuck.”

The Spirits-damned Fire Lordwhipped his head around like a pig-deer in front of a carriage, his face turning bright red, and he honest-to-both-Oma-and-Shusqueaked, “Jin?”

Mushi (who definitely wasn’t actuallynamed Mushi) started chuckling, and Li the Fire Lordwhined, “Uncle-!”

The ground started shaking again, and Jin leapt to her feet. “Okay, explanation later! Li, get to the kitchen and stay out of sight! I’ve got this.”

Li gulped, but he nodded, and the moment Jin took his place barricading the doors, he scrambled to get out of sight.

Not a moment too soon, either, because the horde of people came to a stop just outside the tea shop.

Jin dusted herself off, stood a little straighter, and opened the door a crack with a too-sweet smile on her face. “Sorry, everyone. The Jasmine Dragon isn’t quite ready to open yet.”

The boy in front- and how had Jin not seen it coming, there were fangirls and fanboys and more, so why wouldn’tthey join forces?- cleared his throat. “Don’t lie. Everyone knows the old man who used to own this shop disappeared months ago. We saw the Fire Lord come in!”

Mushi came up behind her. “Jin, are these people troubling you?”

“I’m not quite sure, Mushi,” said Jin, relishing the looks of shock rippling out into the crowd as the man singlehandedly disproved any rumors about his demise. “They say they saw the Fire Lord, but you, me, and your nephew are the only ones in here right now. I haven’t seen anybody else come in.”

“Hm, interesting.” Mushi gave her shoulder a quick pat, then addressed the crowds. “Unfortunately, Jin and I have been setting up in here for quite some time. If neither of us saw him, then perhaps the Fire Lord dodged into a different building.”

The fanboy in front faltered a bit, and Jin offered him a wide, beaming grin. “Best of luck in your search!”

Mushi closed the door, and once the crowds had dispersed, he chuckled. “Impressive quick thinking, Jin.”

“I mean, it wasn’t technicallya lie.” Jin shrugged. “They just didn’t have all the context.”

Mushi burst into outright laughter at that. “You’re a good kid, you know that?”

Li poked his head out from the kitchen. “Are they gone?” hestage-whispered.

“Yes, they’re gone,” Jin said, rolling her eyes lightheartedly. “Now, I figured you had to be some kind of firebender when you lit those lanterns, but I gotta say, I was not expecting the crown.”

Li’s eyes widened. “You figured me out on our date?”

“Eeyup,” said Jin with a nod.

“And you still wanted to..?”

Li’s fingers lifted to his lips, and Jin softened. “Well, yeah. I probably shouldn’t have gone for it on the first date, but you’re nice, and you’re funny, and you care a lot, even if you have trouble figuring out how to show it. And before your dumb sad brain tells you I’m only saying it because of where you are in life now, I’m just repeating the same stuff I told my friends right afterwards. So what if you had the same bending abilities as the soldiers trying to break down the wall? Theywouldn’t have lit the fountain for some Earth Kingdom refugee.”

Li’s face screwed up, and Jin almost worried she’d said something wrong, but Mushi just swept in and led Li to the table Jin had taken just a few minutes prior. “Congratulations, Jin. I believe you’re the first person outside of our traveling companions who has gotten it through my nephew’s thick skull that people love him for who he is.”

“High praise, though that award should have been given out after Mr. Fancypants here got coronated, not months later,” Jin said, taking her seat again.

“Unfortunately, such is the way of the world,” said Mushi. “However, where a trickle of water flows, there is always the potential for a roaring river.”

Li snorted. “Your proverbs still don’t make sense, Uncle.”

“I think I get it,” Jin said. “There’s gotta be a little progress before things can get to where you want them to be.”

Li’s face whipped up, and then he snapped around to look at Mushi. “Why can’t you just say that?!”

“It’s less fun that way,” Mushi said unapologetically. “I shall go start some tea, I think. Any preferences?”

“Jasmine, please, Mushi!”

“Yeah, I’ll take jasmine, too.”

“One pot of jasmine tea coming right up!”

Jin beamed as Mushi retreated to the kitchen, then gave Li’s shoulder a squeeze. “So, got any stories from the courts that are just begging to be told, Li?”

“Uh, Zuko, actually,” Li-Zukomurmured. “And my uncle is Iroh.”

Huh. Well, that would make sense. Fire Nation names for Fire Nation royals.

“Oh? Well, then, Zuko, I didn’t hear a ‘no, Jin, I don’t have any stories for you,’ in there,” Jin pointed out, elbowing him with a grin.

Zuko smiled. “Okay, well, there was this one time that Aang- that’s the Avatar, but he’s only, like, twelve, or maybe thirteen, give or take the century in the ice- decided he wanted to teach us all how to make Air Nomad fruit pies, but he didn’t tell us until after that he was gonna throw them at our faces! So that started a food fight, and we didn’t realize the food fight had started overlapping with a scheduled meeting until...”