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darlingcass · 9 months

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The Lava Lake

Wheel Spins: 25 Minutes, SBI, Hurt/No Comfort

The wheel said: be sad bitch and I am attempting to deliver soooo….. I hope you like it!

Great way to start this account amiright

Word Count: 804

TW: Unaliving Oneself, Talks about Unaliving Oneself, I'm Sorry

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Tommy stood over the lava, for what would not be the first time, but what he hoped would be the last. It was devastatingly hard to realize that things were never going to be better. That at the end of the day, everything he fought for, was for nothing. The discs were lost long ago, his brother dead, his hero hated him. What more was there for him here.

He remembered the first time he stood over the lava, back then Dream cared enough to pull him back, but he supposed that toys weren’t important if they didn’t fight back.

So Tommy found himself standing at the edge of a precipice, asking the same question he always found himself asking. Does he take the leap?

He wished that there would be someone to tell him no, to take him away from the ledge, even if it was Dream. He thought back to Tubbo, of days when jukeboxes would be turned up all the way, of sunsets, and hugs, and laughter. Tommy wonders if Tubbo will miss him. He knows that he won’t.

Tommy thought of Technoblade, his once hero, turned… Well frankly Tommy didn’t know what Techno thought of him, but Tommy, Tommy thought the world of Technoblade. He can think of a couple words that left Techno’s lips that summarized most people's opinions of him. Annoying being the top contender.

But most of all, Tommy thought of his brother, of Wilbur. He thought of joining him in the afterlife, at this point Tommy would take the cold and empty of the void over this feeling any day. At least there he didn’t have to wake up, he didn’t have to feel if he didn’t want to.

Tommy wondered if Wilbur would be waiting, like last time. A smile on his face, a cigarette burning, a game of cards ready to be played. Or maybe Tommy annoyed him too, maybe Tommy wouldn’t be greeted at all, but left alone in the cold dark nothingness for eternity.

Tommy let out a soft chuckle, it seemed fitting, that even in his afterlife he wouldn’t receive freedom. But maybe he never deserved it. Maybe Dream was right, Tommy was selfish and cruel and irresponsible. Tubbo was right to exile him, his friends were right to not visit, and most importantly, Dream was right, Tommy was nothing.

He took one last look at the burnt surroundings of the nether, before he let his foot step over the edge, as he tumbled into the burning lake.

Tommyinnit tried to swim in lava

Tubbo saw this notification on his device and pushed it off at first. Tommy had a habit of getting himself in tough situations before and everyone knows that in order for it to be a cannon death, it has to have meaning.

And Tommy, while he was many things, he was not suicidal.

Tommy was Tubbo’s best friend… If they still were best friends, that is.

And even though Tubbo hadn’t seen Tommy in a while, he knew that Tommy was more full of life than anyone he knew. Tommy was fine, he was just fine.

But more than anything Tubbo wanted to see Tommy at that moment. While logically, he knew that he was fine, just as he always was, Tubbo couldn’t shake off the feeling that he was in trouble.

So there Tubbo was digging out the compass, waiting for it to point towards Tommy, but it didn’t. It spun wildly, as if searching for some unattainable thing. And Tubbo began to panic.

He ran to the nether portal, hoping through, not even worried about throwing on armor, or grabbing tools, just hoping that he would see Tommy standing on the other side with his normal grin, a big laugh, and calling Tubbo clingy.

But that didn’t happen. Tubbo stepped into the fiery landscape of the nether, and no one greeted him. The compass still did not settle on a single location. And Tubbo ran, looking for any sign of Tommy.

When along the shore of the lava lake Tubbo saw a burnt piece of a familiar green bandana, he couldn’t handle it. He broke. He grabbed the shard of cloth holding it to his heart and sobbed. His whole body hurt, feeling tight as the air pushed out of his lungs in an unnatural way. He knew Tommy, Tommy was a ray of sunshine, always smiling, always joking.

His Tommy would have never done this.

But Tubbo supposed that he lost his Tommy the minute he exiled him. And with that thought, Tubbo felt a wave of guilt rush over him, a voice chanting, ‘you killed your best friend’ over and over in his head. Tubbo did this, Tubbo abandoned Tommy. And in that moment Tubbo wished the lava would consume him as well.

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ambiguousgrass · 2 years

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I'm reading transcripts of the exile streams and just. Wow. C!dream was a fucking asshole. Like I've watched these streams before but sweet jesus I forgot the extent of his bullshit.

#I've been in the fandom since november 2020 and I watched as many vods as I could from before then but I've mentally blocked out/forgotten-#so much that it feels like I'm watching for the first time again and it's a bit strange lol #grass yells into the void #block men #tommy was doing his best and it just makes me so sad the entire exile arc was fucking rough he did not deserve that #<- hot take I know /sarcasm #no but like the fandom is definitely aware of exile but I feel like so many people haven't watched the streams so they're not really aware o #like I've seen a lot of dark!sbi discourse which I'm not going to touch with a ten foot pole btw leave me the fuck out of that #but anyway I've seen so many people get upset at the actions of the characters in dark sbi works and claim that the author shouldnt've-#written something like that meanwhile they wholeheartedly support c!dreams actions #idk it's just a bit funny to me #again I'm not taking a side on the whole dark sbi thing I really don't want to be involved in that shitfest #but some people who are vehemently against the genre are a bit hypocritical imo #if you're gonna be an apologist (or whatever people call it) for a character don't denounce another character for doing the same things :/#god I am so tired my sleep schedule is so fucked up and my pain meds arent working so I'm very opinionated today while being sleepy #not a great combo lol I'll probably delete this later if I come back in a better state of mind and think all of what I just said was bs #<-very likely #I'm afraid to tag this as discourse so I'm not going to plus all of the stuff that would merit that is in the tags soooo #should be good I think #dear lord I need to sleep

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tobi-smp · 5 months

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don't get me wrong, I will never argue that tommy saving himself at the end of his exile wasn't powerful. because it well and truly Was. tommy making the choice to take back his own life and break out of dream's control is one of my favorite moments In the dream smp.

But Man. He Deserved To Be Saved. When He Was Tired And Scared And Had Nothing To Protect Himself He Deserved To Be Saved.

in exile, in prison, after dream's escape, at the very end. he deserved to be saved

#dream smp #tommyinnit

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firesnap · 3 months

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Rambling about bad c!Crime takes in 2024.

I think the struggle with being a c!Crime fan during peak DSMP was having to deal with the people who would unironically use "vilbur" like it was a badge of honor and the ones who legitimately thought c!Tommy was 8-years-old at the beginning of L'Manberg.

Like, I don't need to rehash a lot of this. A hundred meta essays were about how Tommy was not responsible for Wilbur's mental health, that he was a front row audience member watching Wilbur's decline and begging people to intercede because he was a damn teenager with zero tools in his kit for "help my brother is frightening me and he's ten feet from me but I think I've lost him in this cave."

But you can still see people go "Ok Tommy helped make Wilbur worse."

No. Just no Tommy's worst behaviors didn't impact Wilbur because Wilbur was so far into his own spiral at that point that it just didn't even phase him if Tommy called him insane. You can't put that on Tommy. When Wilbur came back he even said he could recognize the man he was back then was frightening and beyond what Tommy should have had to see.

But, saying Wilbur acted on violent delusions on Tommy or emotionally abused him or isolated Tommy on purpose... Girl this isn't exile arc and you're not getting c!Crime.

Wilbur and Tommy at their best were moments were like... Tommy with a shield in front of Wilbur, Wilbur with a hand on Tommy's shoulder saying to be better than Wilbur ever was, Tommy and Wilbur running through a small nation and dancing on beaches and laughing at how fucking much the other one sucked with every bit of affection in the world tied behind those words. It was a loop of I'd die for you, I'd die for anything but especially you and Who the fuck ever asked you to die??

At their worst they were a negative feedback loop that fed each other. Tommy was possessive of Wilbur, from even the early L'Manberg days, to the point where Wilbur often neglected other relationships to give Tommy attention. He was angry at Wilbur for falling off the pedestal that Tommy put him on. Wilbur was just as dependent on Tommy being always behind him and took advantage of the fact that Tommy wouldn't leave. He dumped his own fears and paranoia and self-hatred at Tommy's feet and then assumed that this person younger than him could sort through it.

And if you can't handle hearing how they fed the worst parts of each other, then maybe you aren't really here for that dynamic. Maybe you've made something else up in your head that you like more. And that's fine, man. Do whatever the server is gone. Just don't act like your personal version is what canon gave us.

Also, something something it's totally fine to dislike Wilbur's finale btw, but as imperfect as the execution was, it was right on board with what they were telling us about c!Crime from right when Wilbur was revived to Wilbur telling Ranboo that, essentially, Tommy would never leave him and Wilbur knew that wasn't healthy. They needed to break the cycle to save themselves and whatever brotherhood was between them.

They were about acknowledging they were tied to each other in fucked up and unhealthy ways, but needing that sense of brother so much that they were both afraid to do anything about it.

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sumwan · 5 months

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I'm not sure how many people know about this, but the entire script for the Green Festival was actually shown in Tommy's DSMP tribute video from last year. It seems to have been written by Dream (it mentions "I" at some point when referring to Dream), and it's pretty interesting to see how they planned out the lore streams and what changed in the actual streams.

Transcription can be found under the cut.

Transcription The festival is happening. Fundy, Tubbo, Quackity, Ranboo, Niki, and anyone else that is generally around lmanburg can attend. Everyone starts streaming early for the festival. Before the festival starts, Quackity Tubbo and Fundy (and ranboo? I'm not sure who was there originally), have a meeting about how they're going to kill Dream.

They talk about how Dream trusts Tubbo so Tubbo is going to have to be the one to do it. That they've become sort of friends since Tommy was exiled. Tubbo agrees, still slightly doubtful that it would work. Tubbo says that Dream agreed to show up with no armor to for the first time ever, honor lmanburgs laws.

The meeting ends and they start the festival, talking about how Dream said he would be a little late.

Tommy and Techno at this point have been planning how they're going to ruin the festival (and get back Tommy's disc from Dream). They know that Dream will show up, but they don't know how they'll fight him without him escaping. (Ranboo finds them on the outskirts of lmanburg and tells them that Dream agreed to show up in no armor? possibly?) That sparks that they can hide around lmanburg and ambush Dream when he's at the festival. Tommy and Techno improv and mess around while trying to build an "ambush spot" (all of this is sort of unimportant to the plot so can be adjusted to make funnier/better streams for those two).

Tommy and Techno start streaming about 30 minutes after the others.

After some festival activities have been done, Dream shows up in full armor, placing obsidian again in a wall formation. Everyone sees him and runs over confused about what's happening.

They hop in a call with dream (techno and tommy join too but tell eachother to be quiet before joining.) Dream starts screaming about what Tommy did and how he really screwed up this time (tommy is kind of afraid and is looking at techno for assurance), and everyone is confused about what Tommy did, especially tubbo. Dream yells about the fact that Tommy destroyed the community house, the longest standing structure on the server, and how he has to pay for it. Quackity and the others don't believe it and decide to go look with Dream. (Techno and Tommy follow stealthily behind (invis), no one should see them).

Sapnap and anyone else from the original Dream SMP can log on now or already be on and come over to see. (Awesam, Callahan, George(probably not), Sapnap, BadBoyHalo, Punz)

They stand in front of the shattered remains and everyone is shocked that Tommy would do this, and upset. Everyone is insisting that Tommy really screwed up and that it's horrible.

Tubbo agrees but insists that he and lmanburg had nothing to do with it. Dream says that as long as Tubbo has one of the discs, he has everything to do with Tommy. Tubbo seems shocked and thinks about what Dream said. All of the Dream SMP original members agree and are talking about how he should give it so they can burn it once and for all. Tubbo is reluctant but seems to agree that Tommy keeps doing things that would put lmanburg in danger, so he doesn't want association.

He seems like he is about to give the disc, so Tommy reveals himself (techno too) and gets into a screaming match with Tubbo about it.

--Tommy and tubbo fill in what happens here, but it's a big argument and fight probably mostly improv-

Eventually after both nearly dying, Tommy realizes that he's fighting his best friend and stops. Tubbo is angry and gives the disc quickly to Dream, saying that it's just a stupid disc. Tommy is hurt by that but realizes that he's been blinded and has lost friends because of it. Tommy realizes that Dream now has both of his discs, and that they're back at square one.

Dream has an evil speech about how Tubbo is an idiot and that he never should have given him the disc. That Tubbo was never the president of L'manburg, but that everyone else had more control than him of his own country, even Dream. That he's the worst president because he was no president at all. Expose Ranboo as a traitor that has been working with Techno and Tommy, and that he can't even keep control of his own people. Give Tubbo the book with proof. That l'manburg is weaker than it's ever been, and that the only thing stopping Dream from completely destroying l'manburg was the fact that Tubbo had the discs and so Dream had to befriend him.

Now there's nothing stopping Dream from completely obliterating l'manburg. Everyone seems shocked and tries to talk Dream down, but Dream screams and tells everyone to shut up. Everyone goes completely silent. Dream asks Techno if he has any withers left. Techno responds basically like "oh do III" because he has so many.

--Techno should add more here so he has more of a role-

Dream announces that tonight is the final night of l'manburg forever. That he and Techno will finish the job that Wilbur started, and that l'manburg will be blown all the way to bedrock at (TIME, the next day). He tells everyone to say their last goodbyes, and to not try and stop him because Techno and him will kill every last one of them.

Dream leaves.

Everyone is left in shock, (maybe techno has some funny monologue here like it's awkward that I just left him there with everyone or something)

No one knows what to say. They realize that Dream has gone completely insane and that he has to be stopped. (techno is gone by now) They realize that Dream made a mistake by telling them the time, and they decide that they will all plan to work together and stop them. If all of the server fights together they can beat Techno and Dream. They get hyped about it and Tommy and Tubbo agree to fight together, despite having 1 canon life, that they're willing to put their lives on the line for l'manburg. They kind of have a reunion.

--Possibly Tommy leaves or ends here?-

Quackity seems blood thirsty and wants to punish Ranboo for conspiring with them and being a traitor. Tubbo disagrees and Quackity and tubbo get into an argument, Quackity insists that he HAS to execute him because he was a traitor. Tubbo gets mad and flips out on Quackity insisting that he's not going to be like Schlatt and execute him next to his own festival decorations (call back), that they need to ALL be together, ALL of them, otherwise they will lose to Techno and Dream. As long as he agrees to fight, he will fight with them. Quackity still seems to disagree, Tubbo puts his foot down and mentions what Dream said. That everyone else always pushed him around, but no HE'S the president, and his word is final, anyone who goes against it is committing treason. Quackity reluctantly agrees, but says that what Tubbo said doesn't mean they can't deal with the traitors after they stop Techno and Dream.

-End of this stream-

Bullet points for Tommy-

Starts Stream a little after Tubbo and the others start.

Plan to go to l'manburg to ruin the festival

Show up at l'manburg, with lots of invis potions, investigate what's happening

Dream shows up, join VC secretly Hear Dream freak out about the community house, seem confused, follow them.

Once Tubbo seems like he's going to give up the disc, tommy interjects

Fight tubbo

Give up on fighting tubbo and realize that you're fighting your best friend

Listen to Dream evil speech

After Dream/Techno leaves, convince everyone to work together. Talk about putting your life on the line for l'manburg.

Bullet points for Techno-

Start Stream a little after Tubbo and the others start.

Plan to go to l'manburg to ruin the festival

Show up at l'manburg, with lots of invis potions, investigate what's happening

Dream shows up, join VC secretly Hear Dream freak out about the community house, seem confused, follow them.

Once Tubbo seems like he's going to give up the disc, tommy interjects

Fight tubbo

Give up on fighting tubbo and realize that you're fighting your best friend

Listen to Dream evil speech

Join in when Dream asks if you have withers, *whatever else you want here*

After Dream leaves, awkwardly leave and head back to your house

Dream is there and Techno & Dream briefly talk about what they're going to do, Techno shows Dream the wither room

Bullet points for l'manburg-

Start Stream a little before the festival

Have meeting with cabinet about killing Dream, how Tubbo should be the one to do it because he's trusted.

Start the festival, Dream said he would show up a little later.

Dream shows up in full armor and is building an obsidian wall.

Realize and run over pissed off. Join his VC (don't see tommy / techno)

Listen to Dream, then go see the community house

Be mad at Tommy

Tubbo fights with Tommy after almost giving up his disc

Fight ends, Tubbo gives the disc to Dream to end war

Listen to Dream evil speech

Ranboo was a traitor for Techno/Tommy

After Dream/Techno leaves, Tubbo and Tommy convince people to work together. They talk about putting their lives on the line for l'manburg.

Quackity wants Ranboo executed

Tubbo puts his foot down and insists that he will not be doing that, that he's president.

Bullet Points for original DreamSMP members:

After l'manburg and dream show up at the community house(it's blown up), show up and seem upset and distressed that it was blown up. That it was the oldest artifact on the server and it had a lot of memories.

Follow Dream's lead, mostly agreeing with what he says.

Once Dream brings up the disc that Tubbo has, insist that it be burned and turned over by Tubbo.

Once Tubbo turns over the disc, Dream gives and evil speech

Realize that Dream is taking it too far and l'manburg's a part of history and is a free country

Follow Tommy/Tubbo's lead, talk about how you guys can stop Dream and Techno if you all work together

#maybe this was known about already but I've never seen it anywhere?#meta #it's funny to me how closely both Dream and Punz follow the script actually #dsmp

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sunlitmcgee · 6 months

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I find it weird that to this day there are people who say that exile wasn't good or didn't make ctommy seem lonely enough because we saw people visiting because like. even way back then when i first started to watch around the beginning of the arc, I always saw each stream we got as like...a glimpse into a specific moment of a very long time period. Like. Tommy's clothes and skin getting more worn out and tattered made me go "oh okay so it's been a while in-universe since the last we saw him" and I just assumed we, the viewers, were getting snippets and highlights of a prolonged period of isolation and abuse that were broken up by the brief visits from other characters.

I've ALWAYS thought of exile as lasting AT LEAST a few months. I don't know why this is still such a point of debate.

#tw abuse mention #c!tommy #dream smp #exile arc

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swordfright · 11 days

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but you DO think that cdream was only after ctommy right??? the only things he's ever wanted was to be able to control ctommy. he lies to manipulate other people (like lying to csam about the prison and what it was for). sorry i haven't been sure if your one of those freaks or not but i saw some art you reblogged so i figured you're not.

sorry to disappoint you, but i disagree. there are demonstrably other things that c!dream wants, namely:

security

immortality

knowledge

I'd also argue there are other things he wants at various points in the story, and there are also points where he seemingly doesn't know what he wants, even if he would never admit that. i also think the control he's trying to establish over c!tommy during exile is just one of several permutations of his control issues. he wants to control c!tommy during exile because he wants control in general. to me, a lot of what c!dream does throughout the story is fueled by a perceived loss of control and the ensuing spiral. i mean, what is chasing immortality if not the most drastic possible response to loss of control? death is the ultimate loss of control. i don't think these anxieties justify or excuse the bad shit c!dream's done, but i do think they are key components of his motivation and to deny that is to deny the complexities of the story.

also. i'm gonna offer an unsolicited word of advice here. it honestly strikes me as kind of sad that you label every fan with a different interpretation of the source material as a "freak." fandom is a hobby space, not the cold war. the other people in your fandom aren't secret enemies you have to uncover, they are fellow creatives you are in conversation with. do what you want, but i think you'll have more fun in fandom spaces if you relax a little.

#asks #c!dream #“creatives you're in conversation with” sounds like SUCH a pretentious way of putting it lmao #but what i mean is #“community - not competition”

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dr3amofagame · 2 months

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been thinking about post-prison c!dream again and i feel like ... characterizations of him after pandora smtimes can lean vindictive. and it's not like there's no proof for this being the case, lol, this man has quite a few angry speeches post-prison about getting his Revenge! and such, and obviously has Feelings about the whole being left to rot and be tortured thing. that being said, i think it's worth pointing out how what a character thinks they believe and what their actions show can have some...pretty apparent discrepancies, and i think that c!dream's stated desires to take his revenge as well as a "us against them, you're either with me or against me" viewpoint of the server as a whole don't necessarily match up with his behavior post-prison

for one, i think it's worth pointing out how often c!dream's anger in these cases is obviously emotional to the point of incoherence--it's often been stated that his speech in the logstedshire chase scene screams of projection in the midst of a panic attack, which, i mean? yeah? he's making assumptions about what c!tommy thinks and basically repeating what c!quackity said in that cell almost word for word and making the kill-and-revive-you-over-and-over-and-over threat that he definitely wasn't going to go through with (though, is kind of interesting retrospectively considering we know that he literally did that to himself). then there's his rant to c!sam in daedalus one which literally includes his threatening c!sam with c!quackity, a claim so absurd that c!sam himself points it out as making no sense. and then there's his speech with c!quackity where he says he's going to torture...las nevadas? as in, the country? dream that's. dream it's a country. it can't feel pain. dream.

in this, a clear pattern is established where a lot of these angry threats are...bluffs. hot air. even if c!dream is genuine when he makes these threats, they're really not plausible (like, uh, please tell me how youre gonna convince quackity to torture sam for you king.) and it's not like c!dream doesn't have a pattern of being A Whole Lotta Bark when you have him in a position where he feels cornered, either. but with this, there's a precedent that's established where c!dream's threats, particularly threats where he's literally just listing shit out like that, should be taken with a grain of salt. less evidence of true plans and more an attempt to bare his teeth at you until you back the fuck away.

of course, this in itself isn't enough to claim that all of his claims of more vindictive actions should be dismissed. that being said, across the board, when you look at c!dream's actual actions post-prison...well, the amount of actual revenge this guy gets is. very small. very small. in fact, contrary to what one might think due to his paranoia and the huge breach of trust that had happened as a result of the prison, c!dream actually seems quite willing to establish connections with other people--friendly interactions, even alliances to a certain degree. looking at the following list of interactions w/ people post-prison:

He immediately gives the axe of peace to c!Techno in Snowchester after they part ways at the Arctic Commune--though the lack of favors between them indicates that there's no real explicit reason to call on each other in the immediate future, he does show very clearly that their parting hasn't made himself unwilling to cooperate with c!Techno at all.

Punz is self-evident--he speaks with his ally and reaffirms that the plan is still on track (a plan made before the negative effects that prison had on his. uh .everything)

The aforementioned conflict with c!Tommy, where he makes a lot of threats in ways that seem like a pretty damn deliberate mirror of c!Quackity and makes no effort to follow through on, particularly in tems of the killing-and-reviving shit and keeping tommy in exile and whatever else he was saying there

The interaction with Sapnap, where he is clearly gauging c!Sapnap's reaction and flees shortly after things appear to grow in hostility, once again making overtures at a threat that he will never follow up on (even considering he could very easily follow Sapnap to find Kinoko and could as such attack it quite simply even with just, a couple flint & steels tbh)

An interaction with Eryn where he makes no effort to be hostile at any point, hiding behind his shield and then exchanging items when Eryn offers them. The entire time, c!Dream's actions are defensive and purposefully nonthreatening and at no point does he attempt to engage a fight--even when not asked for payment, he gives a valuable item in exchange. Clearly more an attempt to be friendly than any outright hostility, though he is also obviously wary.

Daedalus also quite self-explanatory--again, it should be emphasized that letting Sam go in any capacity with any lives is explicitly an act of mercy. Left alone, Sam would have died in the prison for good; he set his spawn in the prison, a fact Dream would've known when he escorted him out. He makes a lot of threats, including some that are quite incoherent, and at the end he kills Sam once and then escorts him out of the prison grounds alive. Interestingly enough, conversations in Daedalus also seem pretty explicitly from a perspective of trying to get c!Sam to understand him in some respects--like, c!Dream isn't seeking division here. Even in consideration of the fact that he needed to get the keycards, c!Dream's continued emphasis on trying to get c!Sam to see him is...interesting, in view of how much of what went wrong being explicitly because of c!Sam's betrayal.

He warns Bad and Skeppy away from the prison shortly after beginning to reside there on a permanent basis. He gives them quite a sum of gifts (iirc, a block of netherite and a totem of undying) despite firing arrows at them; even though he has a reason to be aggressive towards c!Bad as one of the prison guards (something both c!Bad and c!Skeppy point out) he makes no effort to kill them and outright gives them valuable items while warning them to stay away from the prison

scrapped lore, whenever it was meant to happen, was an obvious "revenge" attempt against quackity...which goes, badly. a clue into the State that he was in in terms of his revenge quests. also, whatever interaction he has with c!wilbur later, obviously c!Wilbur doesn't end up worse for wear physically from it.

In inconsolable differences, c!Dream is more preoccupied with keeping a "feeling" of power over c!Wilbur over taking outright control over the room and therefore complies with c!Wilbur's orders. He does attack, but despite having more than the necessary means to kill both c!Wilbur and c!Tommy while he's there, does not do so. Neither does he manage to keep them trapped in the prison, something that he absolutely could've done if he so chose. Instead, he values a (imaginary) symbol of his continued alliance with c!Wilbur over any kind of hostile action, imprisonment, or killing of either person (and explicitly values c!Wilbur's life over just about everything, there.)

In his interaction with c!Foolish, he's outright trying to get c!Foolish to consider him beyond what other people have said about him. He's trying to establish some form of an alliance and offers...well, quite a lot in order to have one (in order to have a five minute warning of c!Quackity's location. like, he's putting himself in c!Foolish's service quite explicitly here, offering to become his hitman or bodyguard). He's obviously wary, but also obviously trying to be friendly and largely interacts with c!Foolish by trying to establish a rapport, not by trying to threaten him into something or attack him in any way. Even with c!Sam, the amount of outright threatening behavior from c!Dream isn't all that large--mostly, he's being petty? You could make an argument about c!Dream's vague threat to c!Sam's island, but clearly Sam loses no lives from Dream in any interaction they might have after they leave the summer home.

I consider the whole interaction with c!Aimsey canon bc literally everyone was playing as their characters there--c!Dream outright goes out of his way to try and protect a total stranger here with no obvious personal benefit. He literally inserts himself into the conflict to try and prevent c!Aimsey's death, which is kinda wild for someone to do as someone who allegedly wants people to die on the server. He attacks (and even kills c!George) c!snf here, but it's all in a scene where they get distracted from their whole "blowing shit up" moment because they want to chase c!Dream, and c!Dream specifically uses very little melee combat here--a lot of ranged stuff, which is far from his specific specialty. Further, there's a scene in this fight where c!Dream is acting entirely defensively, backed up against a wall with his shield in front of him as c!snf attack, and at the end he just runs away--all behavior that doesn't seem to be about killing anyone or profiting from anyone's deaths in any way.

LN5, threats similarly nonsensical, and he dips as soon as things start going south. For all of his seeming confidence, he's not the one that continues the chase in an attempt to kill c!Quackity, and the fight evidently freaks him out considering how he ends up not realizing he's being stalked by c!Tommy and then hides in the prison for a solid while (while still being stalked by c!Tommy)

Despite apparently wanting them to decide who to die in the saw trap (which had a premise that is frankly, quite hard to believe), c!clingy are given the exact items that could've facilitated their escape. He certainly could've killed both or one at any point in time, even if he wanted a message to be spread to the server (something easily done with one guy)--instead, he monologues at them, then conveniently leaves so that they can get away (and they could've with the literal items he gave them if tommy didn't burn their food.) When c!Tommy returns the following day, c!Dream makes it clear he expected both of them to have gotten out

Despite being clearly unable to stand c!Tommy, blaming him for most if not all of his problems on the server, and outright saying to c!Tommy that c!Tommy would never agree to help him (after they had a shouting match literally one day ago), gives quite the sales pitch to get c!Tommy on the same page as them.

I'm probably missing stuff, but you get my point--even when presented golden opportunities to kill off a player post-prison, c!Dream doesn't take it. He outright spares c!Sam when he could've easily died from the Revengers' tactic. When meeting with strangers, he prioritizes establishing a friendly rapport with them through things like gifts over, in his distrust, treating them badly so that they're scared of him and therefore don't fuck with him yadayada. His behavior, instead of exuding an aura of anger and vengeance and vying for destruction, tends to send a message of trying to be outright unthreatening, please-don't-attack-me. He's not going everywhere holding his big fuck off axe, he's seeing a new person and ducking behind his shield.

Oftentimes, I feel like this quote is pulled or paraphrased from No Way Home to show how c!Dream has become distrusting of people, vindictive, post-prison

And if that means we have to kill everybody— and ev— everybody that doesn't wanna go along with what me and Punz have to say? Everyone that doesn't want to figure it out? Then, fine! You can be simple-minded and you can die simple-minded. But! If you wanna actually know what's going on in this world, and you wanna fix it, and make it the best that we can be, and live forever? Then they can join us.

And while I'm not saying we should dismiss the whole quote as just being disingenous bluffing, I think when taken into the context of post-prison c!Dream's actions (or, well, c!Dream's actions as a whole) as well as his actions in the finale itself (such as his appealing to c!Tommy in the next stream), rather than putting the emphasis on the idea of "everyone who disagrees with me should die," c!Dream seems far more preoccupied with the idea of trying to find people who are willing to work with him to "fix" everything. People who will help him make it so that they can "live forever"--a desire he expresses in the fourth finale stream as well.

like, it's not to say that c!dream isn't vengeful. he is. i mean, i'd say moreso than vengeful, he's angry--just like how a lot of his overtures at friendliness are so deeply rooted in fear. the prison made him angry and the prison made him scared, and the anger has to be repurposed into revenge because revenge is power that he certainly didn't have when he was on his knees begging for mercy. but far from being closed off and unwilling to work with other people post-prison due to his experiences in Pandora (which. would make sense. i mean. like, he was left in there, and tortured, and betrayed. anger and revenge and a general distrust towards everyone and a desire to destroy a world that condemned him would be very easy to understand in this scenario), i'd say c!dream's interactions with people post-prison scream of a general lack of a desire to actually go through with killing people. hell, he even revives c!tommy--c!tommy! who just killed him! who c!dream outright blames for like, basically ruining his life! when revivals are literally apparently destabilizing the universe!--shortly after killing him. generally, he meets people who are dealing with him aggressively with a desire to flee moreso than with murderous intent (in genuine finale 2, for example, this guy was sure more focused on running the fuck away than he was on killing either of c!clingy), and even moreso deals with other people on the server by acting defensively and even in a manner that seems deliberately designed to get them to be more willing to work with him, or at least deal with him in a friendly way. despite his paranoia and how deeply pandora cut as a betrayal and his obvious wariness towards all people as a result (there's hardly a single interaction on the list above, after all, that doesn't have c!dream's obvious fear of people leaking all over the damn carpet), he seems to be much more focused on the idea of finding possible allies than he is on the idea of killing everyone possible.

which, i mean, makes sense. as he himself states:

#c!dreamisms #dreblr #c!dream #long post #my guy ...#c!dream. C!DREAM.#sorryi have so many damn opinions

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