Syndicate + Armor Trims

Syndicate + Armor Trims

This has been in my wips since this feature was announced and I'm so glad it's finally done

Meeting in progress…

Technotober Day 24: Syndicate (promptlist by @/JUZA4N)

Techno and Phil’s house had trap doors instead of glass windows because Phil can’t see glass

I LOVE THIS HEADCANON IVE SEEN THIS BEFORE I LOVE IT

haha silly bird man cant see glass

I imagine it originally had glass windows but one time Phil smacked into them and Techno replaced it.

Every time I draw a cat I feel like those medieval painters that can't draw babies

I know there's often complaints about the c!Syndicate and how they didn't really do a whole lot, that their existence almost felt pointless because they didn't do anything. Not even regarding how Techno's condition and then his passing severely affected this storyline, I think these complaints sorta misses the point of what the Syndicate became and why people like this group so much.

Like, yes c!Techno initially created it in the aftermath of Doomsday, a way to ensure no governments were being formed or used to hurt or corrupt others. He gathered others who shared the same beliefs. They had even gone to Snowchester to ensure that nothing suspicious was going on. And before his passing, cc!Technoblade had wanted to work on that plot involving Cyberknife, to give the Syndicate story a bit more meat. Which would've been great, yes.

But then you look, and you have all these moments of them just... they're just bonding; if not as a group, at least in sections: the streams of Technoblade and Phil connecting with Ranboo, Techno and Ranboo becoming mentor and mentee, Technoblade's birthday party. And then you hear how the Syndicate really mattered to these characters: how Niki was beginning to heal around those who made her voice feel heard, Ghostboo saying that Phil and Techno did care for and love Ranboo, Technoblade outright stating he had friends now thanks to the Syndicate.

And then there's the last Syndicate stream, which I think also sums this up well. There's no Syndicate meeting, no talks of taking down any governments. It was Philza and Niki making a cake. It was Philza panicking over hearing voices, and Niki being a physical presence for him when he seemed to be lacking one at the time. It was Kristin finding the members of the Syndicate and taking them someplace safe. The Syndicate made it to the End, alive and not necessarily okay now, but someday.

And it's just... yes, I would've loved to see more concrete stories of the Syndicate combating corrupted governments and tyrants. But just because they didn't serve their initial purpose as much as we anticipated, does not mean that this group coming together was pointless. If anything their story is a solid example of fighting against a constant narrative in the server; the cycle of power and revenge.

Cause I think about Las Nevadas. People who banded together who, for the most part, did not make deep connections or find comradery. Or even if they did, things fell apart (only Foolish really stayed with Quackity by the end of the Las Nevadas lore). All because Quackity lost himself in his quest for, well, power and revenge. Las Nevadas could've been more than Quackity's need for control and power, but it was never able to reach that point.

Then you look at the Syndicate. Where from the start of the Syndicate's creation, Techno made sure everyone in the Syndicate was equal, that no one was in control of another. Where they never sought violence, wanting to only resort to drastic actions if they believed a location was a threat to others. Where they celebrated Technoblade's birthday and took pictures and had cake and were just friends. I just think there's something a bit profound, intentional or otherwise, in how the Syndicate may have tragically been underutilized, but the group wasn't just an anarchist group. It was a group of people hurt by a nation coming together and not actively seeking any goal toward gaining power or control over others. Yes, they wanted to fight against power. But they also wanted to just... be.

Just something I think about when of the few who managed to survive the Dream SMP, the ones who managed to escape with their lives were the ones who formed this anarchist group, a group that people say didn't do much, and... yeah, they're right, but isn't that a good thing?

More DSMP fans need to be obsessed with C!Niki because while her story wasn't handled perfectly, her character and story explores some really interesting themes.

The first thing she did after joining the server was declare loyalty to Wilbur and L'manburg. The second thing she did was befriend Eret when everyone told her not to trust them. She was the last one take off her L'manburg uniform, long after the founders had stopped wearing theirs.

She was the loudest voice of rebellion against Schlatt, the most violent protester against his reign. She was treated as nothing more than a minor annoyance for this rebellion.

She saw the tnt Wilbur had placed beneath L'manburg, she saw it and kept it quiet because she trusted and believed that Wilbur wouldn't use it without good reason. After he pressed that button, after he died, she went and found one of his old coats and wore it, despite the pain of betrayal.

Wilbur, Dream, Techno and Phil all tried to destroy L'manburg, but failed. They failed to stop people from fighting for L'manburg. Niki didn't. Niki, L'manburg's most loyal and devoted, killed L'mabburg when she burnt down the L'mantree. L'manburg didn't die until Niki declared it dead.

Ghostbur only showed up once for Niki, despite her being one of the few people he remembered, even after all that time.

"We've been overlooked for far too long."

She's been hurt, and her pain is silenced. When she was suffering for her defiance against Schlatt and Manberg, Pogtopia told her to wait, that they had no room for her. When Wilbur died, no one thought to comfort her for her grief, despite that he was the one she was loyal to, that she joined L'manburg for. No matter how loud she screamed and cried, no one heard her, no one cared.

It's about fire and rage and pain and healing. Her pain and suffering went ignored, and she needed at an outlet, a scapegoat. And she tried to do that, tried to hurt others the way she had been hurt, in a blind attempt to fix things in a messed up way.

Then she heals. She heals with those who she joined because of that anger and pain and wrath. She heals and finds peace and makes amends.

Niki's story isn't perfect, but it's so wonderfully complicated and full of beautiful contradictions. Loyalty and Defiance. Hope and Despair. Forgiveness and Revenge. Blind Faith and Paranoia.

I just think this fandom really sleeps on her a lot.