in my sci-fi au steve and alex and herobrine are quasi-religious mystical historical figures who are either worshipped or just revered for their historical accomplishments to different degrees in different cultures. the mythology surrounding the three of them varies widely, especially regarding herobrine - he's variously considered to be actually the same person as steve, some kind of equivalent to the devil, or just an old wives' tale by various different religious and folklore traditions.
however, it's impossible to deny the fact that blank white eyes, slight luminescence, and other traits traditionally associated with the herobrine myth are found in humans on every world, regardless of their known ancestry.
bc Phil made SMPEarth (partially) canon,I suggest: Techno+Phil were father-son duo conquering land. But it came apparent its "God(aka gov't aka monster)" who gave every member power was doomed to corrupt. They’ve shown everyone how broken it is,& as a result, punished by the blissfully unaware & exiled. SMPEarth decayed over time bc seeking power endlessly became boring. Phil knows its corruption. Phil wants anarchy,but unlike Wil,no destruction of land. Hence his ideals being “weird” this SMP.
I don’t know what inspired this ask but I like the interpretation! You would definitely have to pick “fighting against corruption” for Techno’s motivation in SMP Earth in order to bring that series into continuity with the Dream SMP. Phil’s ideology still confuses me a bit on Dream SMP so I’m going to wait until he’s had a chance to take some more plot relevant actions before going in on the meta for him too much but it seems as likely as anything that he’s an anarchist like his son.
Honestly the only one who’s giving me major trouble when trying to bridge SMP Earth and the Dream SMP is Wilbur. He ran Phil and Techno’s tribunal on SMP Earth, so clearly he was a) some kind of authority there and b) not aligned with them (though he may have been friendly with them), but that doesn’t fit in with his relationship to either of them on the Dream SMP. Essentially, he wasn’t acting like family on SMP Earth. It’s making my MCYT Cinematic Universe timeline project difficult :/
been trying to come up with reasons for Dream to wear the mask in my realistic AU.
facial scarring has been done before, and I’m not sure that he would care enough to wear a mask over it. if you want to avoid unnerving people for whatever reason, a mask is arguably worse than a scar, unless I made his face really fucked up (which is also an option).
I could have it be where he sees his magical UI screen. actually I’ll probably do that no matter what, but it’s not a good enough reason by itself.
he could be a wanted criminal. probably for political reasons if he’s wanted enough to have to wear the mask all the time, because I don’t want him to have been a serial killer.
it could be something like Real Dream’s actual motivation for choosing his skin - image building. he wants to be recognizable in his public persona while also being able to unmask and go anonymous if he needs to.
finally, and I haven’t seen this one before: light/sun sensitivity. there are hybrids in my AU (actually, every human is a hybrid, they all have some amount of non-human DNA even if it’s very little) so he could be part something that makes the sun burn his skin and eyes. ...or he could just be albino. I kind of like that actually.
that might cause some issues with plot that I haven’t thought of though. also body modification is very doable (if expensive) in this world, so while the skin would be difficult he could definitely have his eyes altered to lower the photosensitivity... maybe the mask is a habit from when he was a kid, and now he wears it because he’s more comfortable when people can’t see his face.
idk anyone have any thoughts? any other headcanons about why he wears the mask?
I WROTE FANFICTION, I HAVEN’T WRITTEN FANFICTION IN YEARS, PLEASE READ MY FANNED FICTION. I’ve been thinking about this short scene for a few weeks and tonight it just came together in my head! and I had to write it down!!
Edit: now posted on AO3! Come read it here! :D
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Feeling Good
Scene: the beginning of the first Manhunt. George POV. Dream is afraid. 803 words.
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You land softly on the grass of the new world, bouncing on the balls of your feet for a moment as the brief darkness of the void gives way to light and color. The air has a warm, sweet quality to it which is beautiful after the chill of the last world’s End. You fill your lungs, stretch out your sore arms (still bruised from the Dragon fight), and turn to your partner.
“Good spawn, do you think, Dream?” You’ve landed in a pine forest, not your favorite, but better than a barren tundra or a treeless island. You can easily get the resources you need here. You’re itching to start - the two of you finished killing one of the most dangerous creatures in any universe not ten minutes ago, but something inside you already wants to get moving.
Dream is standing just a few meters away in a patch of sunlight. He hasn’t made a move to pull up the communicator’s sparse analysis of the world’s properties, which is odd for him. Usually that’s the first thing he does. The communicator scan may not give you much, but it can detect most dangerous anomalies, which are definitely the sort of thing you want to know about going in. But Dream hasn’t even reached for his. He’s just standing there, head cocked a little to the side. Perfectly still.
“Hey Dream, I said do you think this is a good spawn?” you ask, obnoxiously loud, walking over with full intention of annoying shoulder-punching. You want to go, already. You want to already be running. But he throws a hand up before you can reach him.
“George, wait. Is that… do you feel that?”
“Feel what?” You roll your eyes, bouncing on your heels again.
“I don’t know, just - something feels weird. Like, I feel all - hm.” He cuts himself off. You can barely see his mouth twisted in a frown under the lip of the mask.
Ugh, you don’t have time for whatever this is. “Dream, c’mon. Nothing’s wrong. I feel great.” You do. You feel like you’ve just slept ten hours and used bottles o’ enchanting for your morning shower. “Let’s go already!” You move towards him again, but he spins sharply to face you, hand still outflung.
“I said wait, George, hold up a second.” His voice is a little higher than usual. He’s staring like he can’t afford to lose track of your location.
Dream seems… afraid of you?
The idea of Dream fearing you for any reason is ridiculous. Even if you were strong enough to be a real threat to him - and you don’t kid yourself, you’re no slouch, but you don’t win even one fight in twenty when he’s fighting for real - you’re George. He’s Dream. You would never actually try to hurt him, any more than he would you. He would have nothing to fear from you if you were the Ender Dragon itself. The idea just doesn’t make sense. “Dream?” you ask, moving a step towards him, tilting your head in concern.
He backs away from you in perfect sync. You can’t see his eyes, but there’s a line of tension across his shoulders that you’ve never seen before, and certainly never because of you. One of his hands is half-raised, like he’s instinctively preparing to defend himself. He’s afraid. He really is afraid.
You step closer.
The idea doesn’t make sense. But you find that somehow, suddenly, it does. Dream takes another step back, and another, and something about the way his heel catches on a tuft of grass shoots up your spine like lightning. He stumbles, just a little - normally so graceful, he can move across the canopy of a forest at a dead sprint without missing a step - and you lock eyes. Even through the mask, you can tell. He’s afraid of you. You can tell.
You want to ask him what’s wrong. Or, you think you do. You should. Your best friend is as afraid as you’ve ever seen him. But when you open your mouth to call his name, it curls out low and playful, like an invitation to share in a joke. “Dream,” you say, and you feel the corner of your mouth turn up, feel your teeth exposed.
“Geor-” He cuts himself off at the first syllable, but you heard his voice shake. Does he know how tightly his fists are clenched? He swallows and clears his throat, opens his mouth like he wants to speak again, but just takes another step back. Then another. You’re the one mirroring him now, moving towards him as he backs away. Step. Step. His head tilts back up to meet your eyes, again, just for a moment.
Step.
Dream cuts and runs, and you lose track of everything you were thinking.
SMP Earth has so much cool Wilbur lore if it's canon, because you can see a more stable version of Wilbur the Leader. He's calm, mostly fair in the trials, and genuinely cares about citizens. You can see the pressure on him when he's put in an impossible situation with Techno and Phil, how he gets his reputation, and why he wouldn't trust Techno to help them in Pogtopia.
yes, I loved his SMP Earth videos!! I do feel a little bit bad for him since it’s pretty clear he was the most invested in the lore out of the SMP members - he really wanted to make the political dramas happen but everyone else mostly wanted to mess around. of course, that’s just from watching his and Techno’s vids, no one else’s, but it is the impression I got.
unfortunately it’s hard to fit him in on the timeline I have going for Explorers ‘Verse. currently I have Techno and Philza meeting for the first time on SMP Earth, which takes place immediately after Phil dies on his 5 year hardcore run. there’s no time in there for Phil to have had a kid and even if he did, Wilbur wouldn’t be old enough to participate in SMP Earth the way he actually did. I may have to rethink the whole thing though because I want Wilbur and Techno to be at least kind of close in age and with the current arrangement, they would have to be 15 or 20 years apart at least.
I’ve written a couple thousand words of Techno and Phil meeting in Explorers ‘Verse but it’ll probably have to get scrapped :P might post it here anyway because I’m pretty fond of it!
Attention: we interrupt the constant stream of longwinded meta to bring you a seriously overdue fic update!! Not really any violence in this chapter - I’m saving it all for the next one :) Enjoy!
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Chapter 5
Frustration.
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You get lucky. Twice, actually.
First, you stumble into a collapsed mineshaft. It doesn’t look like one of the really old ones — you’re not deep enough for that anyway — but even abandoned village mines always have a few useful bits still left lying around. And sure enough, after an hour or so of climbing over rockfalls and squeezing under splintered support beams you unearth a scatter of shining diamonds tucked away at the bottom of a dusty, half-buried chest. You pick them out carefully and sift through your handful with a hiss of excitement. They wouldn’t be worth much in any real marketplace, but there’s just enough here for what you need.
You take your time with the crafting, despite the nagging urge to rush onwards. Diamond can only be crafted once. If you mess it up you’ll be left with nothing but useless brittle shards. There’s not quite enough for a full diamond blade so instead you smooth the pieces into a coating over your iron sword, running your hands across the flat of it over and over, concentrating hard as you trace the long-memorized Galactic symbols and flex your magic just the tiniest bit required to make the crystal malleable. When it’s layered to your satisfaction, you turn to the edge, furrowing your brow as you call it to a wicked razor sharpness.
Finally you rise from your makeshift crafting table, crack your neck, and give the improved blade a few experimental swings. There’s a satisfying swish as it cuts through the air. You smile. It’s not the prettiest weapon you’ve ever made, but it’ll cut bone as easily as flesh.
what I actually got this out in a reasonable amount of time
no violence in this one! but yes mindfuck. also we hear from Dream!
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Chapter 4
Re-connection.
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You wake up calmer.
Well, no. You wake up spitting mad. But moving hurts almost as much as it did when you were lying at the bottom of that cliff, so you have no choice but to lie there until your limbs all remember that they’re in one piece again and the haze in your mind clears.
That had been… that had been stupid. You’re honestly a little embarrassed. What exactly did you think you were going to accomplish with that kind of behavior? Idiot, George. Yes, it’s tempting to get carried away, but you need to focus! Really, you know better than this. You don’t even want to think about what Sapnap would say if he’d seen you back there. Or worse, what Bad would say! Ugh.
Once your limbs have mostly stopped aching, you pull yourself to your feet with a groan. You need to re-equip yourself (properly this time) but the thought of going digging… well, maybe you can at least put it off until you’re a little closer. After all, you have a long way to travel. Again.
Night is closing in. You sigh and set off in the direction your tracker points you.
