Curate, connect, and discover
What if:
c!dream remembers how almost the entire server watched as he lost two canon lives; and that no one said anything to stop him being murdered.
c!dream has recurring nightmares where the server watches again, but this time it’s as c!quackity takes his sanity.
C!dream becomes so sure that there are other people in the cell when c!quackity visits him. That the people he once called friends are watching him be tortured. Sometimes he sees them out of the corner of his eye, other times he can only feel them watching. Sometimes he begs for their help, pleads with the mirages his mind has conjured. C!quackity will occasionally indulge these hallucinations, pretend to interact with them, make c!dream detail exactly who he’s seeing. Other times he taunts c!dream with the knowledge of his tenuous grasp on reality, question the logic of certain peoples presence, and do anything he can to remind c!dream that he’s alone, that he only has c!quackity now.
C!dream tells c!techno how many witnesses there had been to his torture. C!techno tells him it wasn’t real, that no one could have watched his suffering and stood idly by. C!dream is so grateful, he’d been so confused when everyone, even his best friends, had done nothing as they watched him be murdered. But it hadn’t been real... right?
What if c!quackity finds out abt c!dreams’ sh. He decides that since he’s so good at hurting himself, he can give c!quackity a break. C!dream being instructed to inflict pain, being handed a weapon and only able to turn it against himself. One of his few forms of control taken by c!quackity. Self harm had been an unhealthy coping mechanism, but it was one of only a few coping mechanisms’ he’d had
sometimes I remember the fact that c!quackity canonically brought shears with him to pandoras vault and I have to go and lie down
‘C!dream doesn’t like c!techno! He’s just using him!’ - what???? He literally stood up to his torturer for c!techno??
C!Dream affected not only by malnutrition, but but by a lack of sunlight.
When he first enters pandoras vault he’s doing, okay. Mentally and physically. Still shaken by his two canon deaths in quick succession, but he’s handling it.
But then he starts sleeping more (and it hurts because it reminds him of c!george). But sleeping is all he has to occupy himself, a way to make the time pass faster. He tries to keep his strength up, to exercise regularly, maintain his stamina, but it seems to get harder everyday. Not just because there’s no point, but physically. Fatigue plagues him every waking moment. He sleeps not because of its restorative effect, but because when hes sleeping, he doesn’t know just how tired he is.
Everything hurts. He can never find a comfortable position on the obsidian floor, but it’s more than that. His very bones ache. Muscle pain is constant, with no exertion to explain it. His legs cramp, his whole body does, despite it never happening to him previously.
When c!Quackity visits, things are worse then they should be. Hits that would have only bruised in the past now break bones. His wounds don’t heal like they used to. Infections set in easily. He can only watch as his body breaks down, is broken down, and one day he forgets what the sun looks like. Did its warm rays on his skin feel the same as the heat radiating of the lava? He can’t remember anymore.
Everything listed is an actual symptom of vitamin d deficiency! Not included is depression and mood swings. Add onto all that solitary confinement & malnutrition. 6 months of no sunlight is a Very Bad Thing.
A c!dream who, after prison, is fine.
He’s not really. Deep down he is so so hurt- but he doesn’t act like it. Because showing that he’s hurt, not just physically but emotionally, means that c!sam and c!quackity won. It means that other people will see his weakness, know that he’s an easy target. Now that he’s out, that he can see the sun, go a day without torture, he’s gotten himself under control. No more pathetic displays. (And maybe, c!dream doesn’t think he’s allowed to feel bad- are monsters entitled to emotions?)
Some people don’t believe that anything happened to c!dream at all. Prison was a mercy, one they’d been forced into granting him, and how dare anyone suggest he was hurt. Because who could remain that unaffected after torture?
Others think it’s true, see the evidence in c!dreams injuries, or a confession from c!sam or c!quackity. But it doesn’t matter. C!dream isn’t traumatised, so who cares? He was an un caring monster, a psychopath incapable of emotion. No one could hurt him, so it didn’t matter if they tried.
I’ve seen some people say that pandoras vault was fine until c!quackity started torturing c!dream.
Daily reminder that solitary confinement is a form of torture.