#this is the very beginning of the smp if it wasn't clear :D

[arthropod-concoctions]

I wrote another fic :D a oneshot this time, based on @happy-hermit's how to be home AU. (which you should also read. it is very cool)

fic below the cut:

Cleo hadn't gotten him.

That was the first thought that ran through her head as she respawned, laying down in a field of grass. She hadn't managed to kill Ren, his goons had killed her instead, and he was still out there terrorising her friends.

Her second thought was ow.

The sun was beating down onto her from above, feeling like fire to her decomposing skin and giving her a throbbing headache. She sat up and looked around, squinting, until she saw a roofed forest some twenty blocks away.

She shakily got up, and almost immediately fell over again; the dizzying heat was getting to her. She hastily ran towards the forest and nearly collapsed against the trunk of the nearest tree. Now in the shade, she could begin to compose herself a little, although the headache was still there. It was like a haze in Cleo's head, preventing her from having any clear thoughts.

And then, of course, there was the hunger.

It had always been there, since the beginning of her undeath, and Cleo had mostly learned to suppress it. But after she was killed and woke up Red, it became so overpowering she could hardly consider anything else. She'd had to fight to stop herself from biting Bdubs when she saw him again. Bdubs. The one person she could trust, and she'd almost killed him.

So when the Red King had shown up to their doorstep, reeking of murder and with fresh blood dripping from his crown onto his smug face... well, she could hardly be blamed for what happened next. By the Universe, she hoped Bdubs didn't blame her.

Alright, enough dilly-dallying, Cleo thought to herself. What next? She... couldn't think of anything. Her head was still scrambled from the respawn. Abruptly, she realised that she had died while red, and somehow respawned anyways. Shouldn't she have been... dead-dead by now?

Well, she was a zombie. Staying dead wasn't her specialty anyways. And hey, now she'd be able to give those Red Army rats a nasty surprise.

But first, she should probably find Bdubs. Before the Red Army does. Looking around, she finally registered the high walls standing in the distance. She was near her castle-

No, she wasn't. She was near a castle, and her mind tried to tell her it was her castle, but it was decidedly different from the Crastle she and Bdubs had been based in. It was much bigger, and made of sandstone instead of stone bricks. Had the desert guys made this much base progress already?

Well, it didn't matter. Cleo's goal was clear: find somewhere familiar, then from there, find Bdubs. She took a deep breath, braced herself, then stepped out into the sunlight and began walking towards the castle.

«Cleo!» A voice that she didn't immediately recognise suddenly called out. Cleo tensed up, and looked around to find the source of the voice. She saw a silhouette walking from the dark forest behind her. She squinted as they walked into the sunlight-

And she saw Skizz.

Skizzleman, the man who had killed Jimmy, the man who had run a sword through her chest just minutes ago, was approaching her.

And he had the gall to smile at her.

All of Cleo's plans, all her rational thoughts went out the window as she charged towards Skizz. He spread his arms wide as if to catch her (the audacity!), but Cleo saw his smile begin to falter as she barrelled closer. She heard him talking:

«Cleo, I'm so glad you're back! You and all the others just vanished without any warning, and we'd been worried, but we couldn't... uh... whooah ookay!» He began to shout as Cleo collided with him, and the both of them fell to the ground. Cleo leaned over him and began clawing at his face, but a few moments later Skizz vanished into a purple cloud- he'd enderpearled away. Cleo let out a scream of frustration. That hadn't sounded like Skizz, a voice in the back of her head said, but she didn't listen. The only thing she could listen to now was her rage. She wanted to tear his eyes from his head, to pull out his brain matter and shovel it into her mouth, to show that red army bastard exactly what he was getting into when he decided to attack her.

She got up and whipped her head around, and saw Skizz standing away from the forest canopy, in the middle of the field. With nowhere to hide. At least he looked appropriately concerned now- Cleo could see the fear in his eyes through his glasses. Did Skizz always wear glasses? She couldn't linger on that now, as she charged him again. But this time he anticipated it, and threw another enderpearl to land on top of a tree. When he landed, he called out to her again.

«Look, Cleo, I don't want either of us to get hurt, so...»

«Aww, you don't want us to get hurt? That's cute.» Cleo responded, having apparently regained the ability to speak at some point. «Well what'dyou think I want to do? I am going to make you regret ever pointing your sword at me!» Cleo gathered some dirt from the ground, and used it to make a pillar to reach the treetops.

«Okay yeah that's a good point, uh, allow me to rephrase: please don't hurt me.» her adversary responded his voice cracking, while using sandstone he apparently had in his inventory to tower up above the tree.

«Request denied, Skizz!» Cleo shouted back, although the rational side of her was now trying to tell her that this was definitely not Skizz. But Cleo's mind was frazzled, and her stomach was growling, and he looked like Skizz, so he'd be the stand-in for her wrath. She clawed her way to the top of the thick canopy, and began pounding at the hastily-made sandstone pillar.

«Well I don't know what a skizz is, but I- OH NO!» Not-Skizz shouted as the pillar came crumbling down with Cleo's final strike. He reached for another enderpearl, but fumbled it- it landed only a few meters away, still on the forest roof. He yelped, and then simply began running, bouncing on the thick leaves- Cleo pursued.

While running, strangely enough, not-Skizz began to sing- with a shaky voice, and seemingly more to himself than to Cleo. «Whoooo's the man who can conquer death...?»

And with that, something began to stir in Cleo's head, a memory pushed out of the fog in her mind. She'd heard this tune before, and she knew exactly how it continued. Who's the man who can conquer death?

That's... Joe Hills.

Cleo abruptly froze, causing her to fall down and land face-first in the leaves. Getting, up, she saw Joe also come to a stop a few meters ahead. He turned around, but when he locked eyes with Cleo he backed away a few steps again. A good reaction- she had just almost killed him.

Dear gods, she'd almost killed Joe.

More fractured memories fell into place as she remembered who Joe was, how she knew him, and therefore where she must be right now. Cleo sat, unmoving, even giving up the pretense of needing to breathe for a moment, as the realisation overwhelmed her- until she heard a rustle, and saw movement coming into her field of vision. Instinctively she turned around and reached for the movement, grabbing and digging her nails into Skizz' arm- Not Skizz, it's not Skizz, it's Joe. Joe's harmless. She relaxed her grip, only slightly, as she looked into Joe's eyes. They were tearing up- probably not just from her nails.

Joe crouched down next to her. They stood there for some time, until Joe swallowed, then said:

«Cleo, if- if there's anythin' I can do for you right now- uh, except for dying, that is... please do tell me.»

Cleo stayed silent a long time. Eventually she remembered to let air into her lungs and responded: «I... I'm hungry, Joe.»

«I can get you some steak.»

«Not that kind of hungry.» Cleo was fighting the urge to pull Joe's arm in and bite the fingers off one by one.

Joe breathed out shakily. «Well... the steak might still help. Why don't I get you some steak, and then we can talk about what's happened the last few weeks, alright?»

Cleo breathed out as well. Joe was right, wasn't he? Cleo hated when Joe was right, she remembered. «Okay.» she said. Then, finally, she let go of Joe's arm.

«Cool. You stay here, I'll be back in like two minutes, okay?» Joe stood up, and aimed an enderpearl towards the castle- their castle.

«That's okay.» Cleo said, before Joe vanished into the distance. And after he did, she whispered: «Thanks, Joe.»

#arthropod writes #hermitcraft fic #3rd life fic #zombiecleo #hope you don't mind the ping J :D

[moonavem]

He was the first human I saw.

#mcyt #dream smp #dreamwastaken #dreamxd #my art #this is the very beginning of the smp if it wasn't clear :D #i didnt look at reference but he spawned in the main portal area #i just remember they were surrounded by mountains and there was a pond somewhere #i made up the waterfall

[kiuda]

Hey just wondering why are you a c!dream apologist? I really don't wanna seem rude I've just never actually had anyone give me their reasonings. /gen

Anon dear Anon there are so many ways I could answer that question! Luckily for you I was actually writing a post about this, so I'm not going to just leave you with a meme and call it a day ^^

I'm putting a cut here because the explanation got long hahsah

Okay so let's begin with a few things so we are on the same page:

-> I've been in this fandom since September last year and I've been a fan of c!Dream since the beginning of my dsmp journey basically

-> the term 'apologist' for me is flawed, but I use it, because it's the one the fandom settled on

-> I don't think anyone should have to 'give you their reasoning' for liking a character, but as I said - I wanted to make this post anyway, so here we are :)

Why do I like c!Dream?

Well at first it was my bias to cc!Dream. He was the one whose content introduced me to the Dream SMP. He was funny and I liked him. Please note that back then the rift between 'apologists' for various characters wasn't as big - anyone could like anyone they wanted to. I wasn't as involved with the fandom as I am now as well - so it wasn't anything weird to me.

Then I watched the vods of the revolution war and was like 'Wait those L'Manburg guys are actually in the wrong here! they just came in, tried to have a monopoly, got mad when the people living there didn't like it when they tried to have a piece of land no one else could live in and then started a war and made c!Dream the bad guy. I actually don't like them!' Of course I am talking about the characters here! I have no problem with the ccs :D

So I stuck with c!Dream and his story - I started getting involved with the fandom, found the people that liked c!Dream as well and started reading analysis made by them. I began to understand his character a bit more beyond 'oh he is fun and also played by a cc I like!'.

Now I follow his story as a character that is interesting - he has a clear goal and believes any action that is taken by him to accomplish this goal is justifiable. He is ruthless. But he also cares so much.

And that just makes him so... human! He wants to protect c!George and that blows up in his face - he is told he 'doesn't care about him. And that breaks his heart, no matter how much he doesn't want to show it.

He is badass - he blew up a country that I didn't really like anyway, so it was fun to watch it burn tbh :D

He is a tragic character. No one stays by his side at the end. Everyone is against him (from what we know now ofc). He is so sad and pathetic and alone in the prison, which makes a perfect material for angst which I love writing!

And he is complex! His story is just very interesting to me - he began as a caring person, someone that tried to always help others (see: c!Dream and c!Sapnap rebuilding c!Tubbo's house), then the war happened and he won. Then Pogtopia. He tried to stay on the 'good guys side' this time. But he changed the sides suddenly! Now we know the reason was the revival book, but back then it was interesting to speculate what made him switch! And then the exile happened - he was doing horrific stuff and no one is trying to justify that, but it is interesting to speculate on why. Why did he do it? Why did he think it was necessary? What pushed him to do those stuff?

And then the prison arc!! Omg I love the prison arc so much!!

We saw c!Dream defeated, sitting in that cell alone, trying to get any human contact by throwing his only source of entertainment into lava to have a few seconds of talk with c!Sam. We saw him beginning to break - for example during c!Bad's visit or during c!Sapnap's visit. Can you imagine how much it must have hurt to hear his brother say he is going to kill him?! c!Dream makes me so sad :(

And then c!Quackity started his visits... Please tell me how I'm supposed to look at the broken man calling his torturer 'Sir' and cowering before him and not feel bad for him.

And then c!Techno came and we saw c!Dream starting to get better again! He laughed! He accepted being called a friend! :D

Also can you imagine how amazing of a character arc c!Dream is going to have if the redemption arc comes? From a peaceful person, happy to help anyone, but ready to defend him lands, to a bad person, someone that thought he had no other choice and didn't care about who he hurt (even himself) to a person just... tired of it all? someone who finally understands that attachments are not weaknesses? that they can help? that it's okay to rely on others?

I am so sorry it got so long ^^' I think this turned into a ramble about how much I love c!Dream ashhashas Sorry about that!

The TL;DR answer to your question Anon would be:

I am a c!Dream apologist, because I find his character fascinating. I like uncovering his story through others' povs (and maybe his own lore stream one day? cc!Dream please) and questioning his motivations and beliefs. I think there is more to his character than 'the villain' and I love how cc!Dream plays him! :D

So yeah :D

Oh and also spite <3

@just-a-mess-at-this-point because you asked me that question as well :D

#ask #anon #hope that answers your question :D #sorry for rambling i tend to do that a lot ^^'