Reblogging art and writing related to the one and only block game prison.
Submissions
If you would like to submit a piece of art or writing, be it your own or someone else's, just send in an ask with a link. I won't respond to the ask directly, but I'll give it a look over. Please be aware that not all submissions might be accepted. To increase your chances, please check the guidelines below before submitting.
Guidelines
For now, this blog is specifically for art and writing (mostly fic). Due to the sheer volume of prison analysis posted on tumblr, I probably won't be reblogging many analysis posts at this time.
Submissions should be directly related to Pandora's Vault. While I might branch out to other dreblr topics at some point, I'd like to maintain this focus for now.
Submissions should be c!Dream-sympathetic or at least not outright c!Dream-negative. This is primarily a space for c!Dream enjoyers.
IMPORTANT - Warnings
Due to the large number of posts reblogged here, I might not be able to appropriately tag content warnings for each one. Before you choose to follow, please be aware that this blog is likely to feature media involving torture, violence, blood, abuse, self-harm, food issues, and other themes relating to Pandora's Vault.
The more graphically violent art will likely be tagged with "#cw blood". If you're looking for a tag to block, it's that one. Writing is harder for me to tag, so please pay attention to each writer's own warnings.
Yes! I apologize for the lack of recent posts—I'm taking a bit of a break. It turns out that posting on 2 seperate archives, 3 times a day each, for a year straight, might not be the best idea for burnout. Sorry again for just going quiet without an explanation, sdjkhfsk.
in jham au, when is the first time sam has to force a respawn on dream after he accidentally went too far? i can imagine it was somewhat of a terrifying moment for both of them
/dsmp /rp
I think it happens early on, while Sam is still working out the kinks in his dispensers approach, and while Sam is still overestimating the amount he’s able to demand from Dream before he gets rapidly diminishing returns.
So. Early on into the new normal, Sam is demanding intelligence. Maybe he’s asking about the book. Maybe he’s asking about Ranboo. Either way, it’s something Dream cannot give up. By now, Dream knows what he’s in for if he refuses to talk… but he keeps refusing anyway, and Sam keeps pressing more buttons, but none of it’s WORKING, Dream isn’t TALKING, and— and—
And Sam is feeling insecure, alright? He’s thinking about Ponk, and he’s thinking about Quackity, and he’s thinking about how he hasn’t yet gotten ANY new information that’s worth anything out of Dream. He’s afraid that he’s not going to be able to fix things this time around. That his new approach might not be enough, that maybe Dream really is unbreakable, unfathomable, unable to be held. Maybe he’s destined to escape and make everyone’s lives hell. No. No. That’s not true, Sam was sent back for a reason, he can fix things, he knows the right questions to ask, he’s got Dream right here, right now, he’s not letting him slip through his fingers.
So Sam keeps asking, and the pitch of Dream’s begging changes, gets more desperate. He yanks at his chains. He’s going nowhere. He can’t avoid the acid that hits him from above. “You’ll KILL me, Sam, PLEASE,” and the sound of his name from Dream’s mouth just makes him more furious. This won’t kill him. Sam should know. He’s seen the… things… Dream can survive.
He jams his hand down on the button again, and accidentally hits it twice instead of once. The noise Dream makes is inhuman, wonderful awful. Sam quickly follows up the harming potions with healing. But—Dream starts to seize, eyes rolled back, jerking where he’s collapsed in his chains.
Heart in his throat, Sam send down more healing. Regen. He opens the glass and pearls in—he clutches at Dream as he shakes, as blood dribbles down his chin. Sam jams a health potion between his teeth, but Dream just chokes. Then he slackens. Sam can’t do a single thing as Dream’s body dissolves in his arms.
Behind him, a click, and then a cry of pain as Dream hits the ground where the respawn pool used to be.
Dream, full body shaking, eyes wide, legs bent awkwardly under him, just stares at him agape, gasping as he tries to work himself through the aftershocks of respawn.
Sam stares back.
This is the most terror he’s felt since Dream took his eye.
Dream, still shuddering, arm aching from where it had slammed against the obsidian, trying to pull himself up and failing miserably. He still thinks he can taste vomit and blood and glistening melon, his mouth dry as he heaves for breath. His eyes catch on Sam’s - his chest is too tight, ribs squeezing around his lungs painfully - he doesn’t know what he expects to see. Satisfaction? Irritation? Disgust? It’s the first time Sam has pushed things that far - Dream finally manages to push himself up against the wall, avoiding putting weight on the arm that had taken the brunt of the fall. It was the first time Dream seriously thought he might die.
Sam is still behind the glass, still where Dream died before respawning. His arms are in front of him, resting on the tops of his legs, elbows bent and a half-full health potion in his hand like he’s holding something. Someone. His eyes are wide, lips slightly parted - there’s no hiding the fear on his face. Dream touches his own lips lightly, half-expecting them to come back stained with blood.
Sam - finally snapping out of whatever state he was in - stands up, moving towards Dream before he can react. Dream rears back at the approaching footsteps, fighting back weakly when a hand clamps over his wrist, but the respawn has left him disoriented and less in control of his limbs than usual. His eyes lock on the chains still on the ground, and he shakes harder.
Still, Sam doesn’t lock them to his wrists - instead, he sets Dream down, grabbing his face and tilting it back and forth with a steady hand. Dream watches as he presses the pads of his fingers against the inside of Dream’s wrist, tilts his head to the side to better listen for Dream’s breathing. It takes a second to realize that he’s checking for permanent damage - by the time which Sam has already headed to the opening in the glass, making his way through and shutting it behind him. Dream swallows thickly, meeting Sam’s eyes from where he’s sitting up against the wall.
Sam watches him for a few more seconds before pearling past the netherite barrier, then splashing fire resistance and disappearing into the lava. Against the back of his cell, Dream puts his head down and waits for him to come back.
Day three of c!dreamza week: House arrest and Prison @sunshine-in-a-bottle
I know this looks kinda like trash but it took longer than i expected and i didn't know well what make for this promp. Inspired on @blankerthought draw
Dream XD being a giant eldritch being following George around and noticing that George still calls him dream and treats him like he did dream. XD is so sad about this but in a true leap of immortal brand logic he breaks into the jail and steals Dream. He traps Dream’s mind deep deep down and takes the body for his own. “Look George now I am dream. That means you will stay right?”
THIS WAS SUPER FUN TO WRITE !!! it’s pretty dark, esp as it goes on, so pls read the warnings first !!
The sirens are actually too loud. XD grimaces, unused to having human weaknesses, and with a flick of his hand (he only has two hands now! That’s going to take some getting used to) the sirens shatter, bursting into flames and crumbling to dust. George flinches, horrified.
“I’m... I’m Dream!” He says cheerfully, and George looks miserable, scared and unhappy and guilty at the sight of his best friend in his old best friend’s body. XD doesn’t quite understand: it’s not like Dream’s dead, though maybe he’d be better that way, and now George can call him Dream all he wants and still be his best friend. Isn’t that better? “Look, we can be proper best friends now. Isn’t this cool?”
“I- No, this is not cool!” George snaps, turning away from him, looking ill. XD teleports himself to in front of his best friend, tilting his head like a kicked puppy. George doesn’t even want to look at him. “This is- this is the last thing I want to see right now! I don’t want to see Dream, I don’t want- I don’t want to see him like this, don’t you get how messed up that is?”
Oh. XD understands the problem. Dream is quite hollow - try as he might, he shine is gone from his eyes, and his body is too hollow and hungry and there are far, far too many scars and wounds for XD to be bothered trying to fix up. Sighing, he reaches for George’s face, wanting to touch it with human hands, but George pulls back, tears shining in his eyes.
“I can fix up the body if you want,” XD offers, pouting.
George flinches. “Put him back,” he whispers, “put him back, XD. I can’t look at you like this.”
XD frowns. “Put him back? Like- in prison?”
“No!” George stiffens at the desperation in his voice, tries to compose himself while XD watches like a puppy. “No, I don’t- Yes. Yes, back in prison, that’s where he needs to go. He doesn’t deserve this.”
“...But you think he deserves to be in prison,” XD says, putting two and two together, “I thought you missed him?”
“I do,” George murmurs, lifting his eyes to XD and cringing back at what he sees again, “I do miss him. But not- not enough to want to see him like this. Don’t you know I don’t want to see him in this state? I-”
He chokes on his words, turning away, hunching in on himself.
“Jesus, XD, I’d rather just spend time with you than see him look like this, okay? This is messed up. Put... Put him back in prison before someone realises he’s gone.”
XD sighs, but he’ll do almost anything for George. With a blink, he’s dropping Dream back into his prison cell, leaving him disorientated and exhausted and wounded.
“George?” Dream whispers, voice coming out as nothing more than a mess. “Did I hear George?”
XD floats away, disinteresting. “Nope. He didn’t wanna see you, sorry. I thought he would...” Oblivious to Dream’s distress at the words, he glows brightly for a second. “Which means he wants to be my friend even more instead. Nice!”
“XD-” Dream begins, but the god disappears, leaving him alone in the cell. Hands shaking, curling up into a corner of his cell, he pulls out his communicator.
Dream whispers to you: george??
Dream whispers to you: can you see these
Dream whispers to you: please talk to me i’m sorry
Dream whispers to you: george please
Sick at heart, George turns off his communicator, and puts it away for good measure.
“Is this better?” XD asks him, back to his usual self.
George tries to smile. “Much better.”
(He doesn’t turn on his communicator again until much later. He misses Dream’s death messages, over and over again, that leave the rest of the server in uneasy tension all day.)
AU where because c!George sleeps through the entire prison break + Daedalus arc, when he wakes up again he has no idea of the shifted situation on the server, so he just… goes and stands and stares at the outside of the prison as per usual when he wakes up, assuming that c!Dream is still stuck inside. (Which… is not wrong, exactly, in a manner of speaking.)
Which leaves c!Dream looking at him through the security cameras and wondering what the hell is up with c!George, who never fucking visited him even when he could have. So he asks c!Punz, who absolutely spent the year c!Dream was in Pandora keeping tabs on what’s been going on in and around the prison, which would absolutely include c!George’s “widowed woman staring at the sea that took her sailor husband” act, what the hell’s going on.
“Er, yeah. He does that,” c!Punz answers. “When he’s not sleeping. Like, everyone knows he does it.”
“When he’s not… sleeping?” c!Dream knows c!George can be lazy and apathetic, but over-sleeping to the point of it being notable enough for c!Punz to mention it is out of the norm.
c!Punz grimaces. “Okay, so actually I think he’s been borderline in a coma for months.” At least, that’s what they gather from c!Sapnap’s mutterings of the inner workings of Kinoko. “Whatever’s up with him, it’s not natural.”
c!Dream stares at c!George’s form on the security feed. “But he’s… done this before? A lot?”
“… Yeah,” c!Punz says, quietly. They keep their thoughts to themselves.
Consider this: c!Dream is absolutely laser-focused on The Plan (reset the server) so that everyone will be happy, he’ll get his old friends back, there’ll be no wars, etc etc. He’s already tried to get people to just listen and they didn’t, so the idea of trying again after he’s already tried so many times and failed is difficult. Only a fool repeats the same actions and hopes to achieve a different outcome, and c!Dream may be a pioneer in over-thinking, over-preparation, and taking things to extremes (all of which, factually, have also saved his life multiple times, which doesn’t help the argument that they’re unhealthy because they have canonically helped him; both of these can be true at once), but he’s not stupid.
To him, he’s sunk far too much into it to abandon it now - he’s hurt other people, he’s hurt himself, he’s been hurt (though he can barely think to admit it), he’s done things he himself describes as “evil” in the pursuit of this goal of being able to hit a reset button and make it so that he didn’t actually do any of that. If he stops without the reset happening, everything will be so much more real, will mean more, than if he reaches the end of the path and wipes it all away.
He can’t let it go without someone on the outside - someone who, unfortunately, can’t be c!Punz because c!Punz is embroiled in this fully, is out in the deep water with c!Dream, is helping keep his head above the waves but that doesn’t mean that c!Punz has a boat with which to save them - trying to reach him instead. For someone on the outside to change their mind enough or find the courage to give it a try, to reach out and take the hand that c!Dream’s afraid to extend back, having been burnt too many times to try first.
In the canon finale, it was c!Tommy who finally found it in himself to recognise that c!Dream is a person, and that he’s hurt, and that there could be another way out of this. In canon, c!Dream never went searching for c!George, because he had to compete The Plan, had to make it work, had to ensure that everything wasn’t for nothing.
In this AU, c!Dream presses a button on the security desk, and the door to the prison slides open. Because, if nothing else, he wants answers from c!George; wants to know where he was at the Staged Finale, through all the months of prison, what’s going on with his sleeping.
(He still cares about c!George, after all, even if it would be easier not to, and in the prison there won’t be any witnesses to use their meeting against c!George.
Once upon a time, c!Eret planned assassination attempts to regain the throne. Once upon a time, c!Dream dethroned c!George to publicly divide them and push him away. Once upon a time, c!George told c!Dream, “Just say you hate me,” and c!Dream didn’t answer.
There are claw marks in everything c!Dream has ever had to let go of.)
To expose their alliance would be to put c!Punz in danger, but - but it’s c!George. c!George, who won’t care enough to say anything (hopefully), who didn’t show up to help put c!Dream in prison but who also never visited even in the times he could have.
c!George, who’s stared and stared and stared at deepslate walls and who, maybe, c!Dream hopes, because c!Dream has always been weak for c!George, might not have been able to get through the prison questionnaire. c!George doesn’t care enough to say what people think he should say, to be any less than who he is. Is that proof of c!George’s affection, that he couldn’t do it? Or proof of his lack, that he didn’t force himself to do it anyway?
c!Punz stands inside the prison entrance, shadowed as they look out at c!George across the water. “Why don’t you come in?” they ask c!George.
Okay so sometimes prisons will let people (as far as I understand) have some sort of religious comfort object or something. Dream was allowed a single mercy by being able to keep his mask. He hides it the best he can when people came to visit, but one day quackity finds it. He doesn’t like that Dream can still hide things from him, even in prision. Perhaps he hangs it on his wall, perhaps he does worse 👀
Oh poor c!Dream :(
warnings: prison arc (pre 14.09 and yes there is a difference), torture mention, dehumanization, starvation (mentioned)
/rp /dsmp
It’s been months.
Or at least that’s what it feels like for the only prisoner of Pandora’s Vault.
It may have been longer. It may have been shorter. Dream wouldn’t know either way.
He began his day (or at least what he assumes is a day) like always - by waking up and trying to wash and dress his wounds from Quackity’s last visit.
Dream tries to do it before falling asleep if he can, but last night’s session left him unconscious by the end.
And now there he is - sitting against the obsidian wall and trying not to think about his situation. About the sharp edges of the wall and the floor. About how hungry he is. About how he is just waiting for the next visit. About how it is his only source of entertainment (if he can even call it that). About how he is just surviving, not living.
But does he have any other choice? It’s not like he can change anything. He has no allies. No friends. No family. No one cares about him. No one cares that he is being tortured.
They all know Dream. They know what is happening. They approve.
The voice sounds very similar to Quackity. He doesn’t want to believe it.
You will understand one day.
He hopes he doesn’t.
He reaches up to tug his mask down.
…
It’s not there.
The mask is gone.
How?!
Where?!
When?!
He looks around frantically. It must be somewhere close! The cell is not big enough for it to be hidden well!
He checks everywhere. Throws the books out of the chest. Digs into the water.
It’s not here.
Where is it?!
Dream is beginning to panic now. How is he supposed to face Quakcity now?! His face has always been too expressive. He has to hide it. He has to.
The lava falls down.
And there he is.
The visitor.
Sir.
No. Not sir. (Not yet.)
Quackity.
With shears in one hand. And… his mask.
(Dream doesn’t get the mask back. He does get to hold it for a bit. Right before Quackity tells him to choose: burn the mask or lose a finger.
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the
Organization for Transformative Works
Someone appeared in the doorway after one long, drawn-out moment. Punz, Niki realized. The server’s mercenary. Them. She had never paid much attention to them; they had never seemed very relevant or important. She’d only now realized that it had been a mistake, and a massive one, at that.
“You have exactly one minute to explain yourself, Punz,” Techno stated.
OR
The Syndicate gets an unexpected visitor, and no one's happy about it, but they learn some very important information and decide to do something about it.
---
I started this a long time ago and didn't post it then, so I might as well as do it now.
Hello! Local dreamon theorist here! And uh, long term theory of mine that has not yet been disproven, especially with today’s stream: c!dream is possessed by a dreamon, but the dreamon wants a new vessel- Tommy (Maybe because c!Dream wasn’t “fun” anymore). Possessing c!Dream was easy enough because he was already pretty isolated, but tommy, the dreamon has discovered, is quite a bit more resistant to possession.
Sam pulls down the lava quicker than he ever has before on the seventh day, eager to get Tommy out as quick as possible. Nausea swarms his stomach — he’s terrified to see what state Tommy is in mentally. Physically, he’s certain he’ll be mostly unharmed, but mentally? Emotionally? God knows what Dream had been doing. There had been interference on the communicator for days: nobody had heard much from either prisoner.
Tommy flashes him a tiny, relieved smile when he comes into view, and Sam breathes outwards in relief, sending the bridge over for him. It’s not the most standard procedure, but he doesn’t want to force Tommy to die by potion to escape, so this is the only other way.
“Big S!” Tommy calls over, waving. “Fucking finally. I thought I’d never get out.”
Sam swallows guiltily. “Sorry, Tommy,” he says, “I had to be sure the security breach wasn’t going to happen again. Are you okay?”
He doesn’t see Dream; for a second, he’s terrified. And then he sees him huddled in the corner, twitchy, without the energy even to lift his head up. Part of him wants to ask Tommy what happened — that’s not like Dream at all — but Tommy is smiling at him, and he looks relieved, and Sam doesn’t want to bring up bad memories. Instead, he smiles back, extending a hand that Tommy takes to hop off the bridge.
“I’m great now I’m free,” Tommy tells him earnestly, “I actually feel a lot better.”
“Sam.” The communicator crackles with a hoarse, exhausted voice; wary, Tommy anf Sam glance at each other. “Don’t— Don’t let him out. You can’t let him leave.”
Sam rolls his eyes, hand tightening around Tommy’s. Dream has moved from the corner, collapsed against the side of the entrance, dark heavy eyes trained on the two of them in fear.
“Count yourself lucky Tommy is in one piece, Dream,” he says coolly, “you’ll be in solitary for two weeks for this. No visitors, no nothing.”
Tommy sighs, and, when Sam looks at him, there are tears in the kid’s eyes. “He really fucked me up in there, Sam,” he admits, voice wobbly. “He— God, he hasn’t changed a bit.”
“That’s not true,” Dream hisses, eyes widening, “Sam, Sam, please, you have to listen to me, that’s not Tommy—”
Sam’s heard enough. He turns away, leading Tommy towards the exit of the security room.
“That’s not Tommy anymore!”
It’s the most desperate he’s ever heard Dream, and it makes him pause for a second. Tommy twitches at the loudness of Dream’s voice, ducking his head, and he’s never looked smaller.
“No, Dream,” Tommy says quietly, voice wavering, “despite everything, it is still me.”
When he looks up at Sam, his green eyes are wet.
“Can we leave? I’m— I’m done. I don’t ever want to visit him again.”
Sam feels pride grow in his heart. Tommy’s been through hell, and he’s still the same kid he’s always been. Not many of them can say the same.
“Of course, Tommy,” he agrees, leading him into the next room, getting ready to leave completely, “let me just—”
Dream’s voice comes through the communicator again, a broken wreck. Sam switches it off, turns to Tommy with a smile.
“Follow me. Let’s get you home.”
“Home,” Tommy says, savouring the word and nodding to himself when Sam turns his back, “let’s.”
And only Dream notices the venomous smile that slides over Tommy’s face when he faces the cell, and only Dream can see the glaze in Tommy’s eyes. The dreamon waves mockingly at him in Tommy’s body, and no matter how Dream screams, nobody cares enough to listen to him.
