#and after finding out about all the ways Phil treated Ghostbur wrong

[ghosts-and-blue-sweaters]

It is just me and my complicated relationship with c!Phil against the world.

[fandomlit]

neutral, chap. 6 (dream smp x reader)

series summary (in game!au) when an exiled tommy finally rebels against a manipulative dream, he finds safety in neutral territory, a place owned and guarded by you. staying in your safe haven opens up the younger one’s eyes to your way of life, while also revealing your deeper past before neutral; a past that involved a war for your love.

chapter summary technoblade leaves the next morning, turning tommy and y/n back to their usual business of bow work and baking. but tommy lets his usual curiosity get the best of him and questions y/n about the war, leading to a solemn result and revealing some terrible truths.

warnings mentions of war, death, and murder

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gif cred belongs to @herobrine​

tommy woke up late the next morning, which he presumed was understandable. he had stayed up late last night talking with y/n and technoblade, watching as they laughed and reminisced about the past, enlightening tommy with old tales and teases. he appreciated that they had made sure to include him in the conversation, but he couldn’t help but feel.. invasive. the two were obviously very close..

that thought was only further proven to him when he made his way to the kitchen in the morning. he was met with the smooth sound of y/n humming, and when he peeked into the room, he saw her smiling as she braided back technoblade’s long hair. tommy didn’t speak a word, fearing interrupting the seemingly intimate moment.

but y/n, without looking up, had noticed him. “good morning, tommy.”

he cleared his throat, stepping fully into the kitchen. techno, who had had his eyes closed in peace, opened one to glance at the kid. “morning.”

“there are some berry muffins left warming in the oven if you’d like,” she hummed, still working intently on braiding the hybrid’s pink hair. tommy immediately perked up at the mention of food.

“berry muffins, you say?”

y/n smiled. “i’ll teach you to make them, if you’d like.”

tommy picked the remaining couple muffins out of the warm oven as he considered her words. “sure.”

“how much have ya learned to cook, tommy?” techno asked him as he took a bite out of the delicious muffin. tommy shrugged.

“not too much,” he answered. “i can make steak, potatoes, pork chops, cookies, and pumpkin pie. enough to hold my own, i think.” y/n nodded.

“well, that’s another thing you’re learnin’ from the best,” techno sighed, offering y/n his hairband as she reached the end of his long hair. “y/n’s a great cook.”

y/n just shrugged. “well, kinda back to our topic last night, it’s a nomad thing i picked up. you travel around so much, you learn a lot of different recipes from a lot of interesting people.”

“do you miss it?” tommy spoke through a mouthful of muffin.

“don’t speak with your mouth full, tommy,” she scolded with a laugh, placing her hands on techno’s broad shoulders after tying his hair. “but..” she shrugged. “sometimes. i miss all that i got to learn and experience, but i know i’ll find my way back out there one day. for right now, im satisfied staying here and helping people out. especially people with long, pink hair who can’t manage a tight braid to save their life.”

techno looked over his shoulder at her as tommy let out a loud laugh. “i know you’re jokin’, but that one hurt.” she laughed, squeezing his shoulders before moving away to pour tommy a glass of milk.

as tommy began to scarf down another muffin, technoblade checked the small, golden clock he kept in his pocket. “i should get goin’. i told phil i’d be back by sunrise tomorrow.”

“alright,” y/n nodded as she placed the glass of milk in front of tommy. the boy thanked her as technoblade stood from his seat. “your axe should be cooled by now, let me go check.” he nodded as she scurried out of the room.

there was a moment of awkward silence before tommy gulped down some milk and spoke, “so, how’s phil?”

“good,” techno spoke plainly. another awkward silence filled the bright kitchen.

“.. does he ever talk about me?”

techno didn’t even flinch. “yeah. a lot.”

tommy glanced up at the hybrid. “really?”

techno nodded, considering what to say as he tucked his hands into his pockets. “listen kid.. i know you’ve made this place a sort of home for ya, and that you and y/n have formed a close bond..” techno sighed. “but there’s gonna be a day where things catch up and you’re gonna have to leave neutral. that government ya made isn’t gonna leave ya alone, exiled or not. so when things do go wrong..” tommy gave techno a cautious look, but the piglin just nodded at him. “come find phil and i. we’ll take care of ya.” tommy’s heart immediately warmed. “maybe not as well as y/n, but it’ll be something.”

tommy nodded with a somber smile. as kind as techno’s words were, the thought of leaving neutral honestly hadn’t occurred to him in a while.

“thanks, techno,” he nodded. “i appreciate it.”

“‘course, kid.”

“alright,” y/n sighed as she came back into the kitchen. “one lukewarm netherite sword, and a fixed up netherite chest plate. and..” techno took the fixed materials from her as she walked over to her fridge, pulling out a bag. “enough food to last your journey. and a little longer, ‘cause i know phil likes my pie.”

“he does,” technoblade nodded, taking the bag from her hands. “thanks for everything, y/n.”

“of course,” she shrugged. “it’s what im here for.” he nodded with a small smile, and she held her arms out to him. tommy was surprised to watch techno accept her embrace, giving her a tight hug before pulling away and offering him a wave.

“i’ll see ya around, kid,” techno nodded.

“it was good seeing you, techno,” tommy smiled. and the piglin left.

...

“deep breath, tommy,” y/n reassured. his usual target had been moved back a couple more paces, increasing his usual struggle with aiming the bow. but he still did as instructed, taking a breath and relaxing his shoulders in the slightest before releasing the arrow he had drawn. it lodged itself to the left of the bullseye. “great shot!”

tommy grinned as he looked over to her. “im getting better.”

“and that’s all we can ask for,” y/n agreed, placing a hand on his shoulder. “come on, kid, let’s take a break. you’ve earned it.”

as they walked back into the kitchen, tommy inquired, “so where’d you learn to make the berry muffins?”

she laughed, retrieving a pitcher of water from the fridge. “it’s actually a recipe that niki and i made together. just, uh..” she thought as she poured them some water. “just a little before the war, i believe.” she pursed her lips as she placed his glass in front of him. he felt the previously light atmosphere begin to sink into something darker. more serious. “i suppose you know of the war by now.”

tommy shrugged. “i..” he raised his glass to his lips. “i know very little.”

he didn’t dare look up at her as she sat across from him at the kitchen table. “can i ask what you know?”

he finally looked up, seeing her eyes were as kind and patient as usual. for some reason, talking with her about the war seemed invasive. it felt intrusive; like he had walked into some personal part of her that he wasn’t supposed to discover. but looking into her eyes, tommy realized that they couldn’t avoid this conversation. the war was a part of her.

“technoblade and ghostbur told me a bit,” he admitted, his finger swirling around the rim of his glass to distract himself as he talked. “just that.. i know it was between alivebur, dream, and techno implied that there were more involved? techno told me that dream put out a claim on you, and everyone resisted that, including you, and then wilbur entered it to try and win you over, and..” he shrugged. “it ended with neutral. that’s all i know. really.”

y/n nodded. “i believe you. and you’ve got some of the more important details..” she took a long sip of her water. “the war was between dream, alivebur, and technoblade.” tommy’s eyes widened.

“technoblade?”

“yeah,” she nodded. “dream sent out a claim for me, wilbur stepped in and tried to claim me in return, and then techno stepped in to stop the both of them and convince me to go with him.”

“wow,” tommy whispered, taking a drink. he took in the new information before changing his curiosity. “what were the battles?”

“the first official fight was between dream and wilbur,” she answered. “then they both started to gain support from friends, and build miniature..” she considered. “i wouldn’t dignify them as armies, but i guess they were miniature armies. i remember they all eventually got tired of those and began to send each other duel challenges, but i actually managed to shut that down.” tommy nodded. “just because..” she shook her head, looking out of the kitchen window. her eyes had grown distant. “that was not worth losing a canon life over.”

“was that the only thing you managed to stop during the war?” tommy asked, his voice quieter than before. y/n considered.

“i think so,” she sighed. “it was just such a ridiculous war; it was somehow over me, and yet i didn’t get a single say in anything that happened. i-i’m not some blacksmith you can lay claim to and use whenever you need!” she spoke defensively. realizing she was exuding her frustration in the wrong place, she took a breath and looked back to tommy calmly. “they treated me like a possession that entire war, and i couldn’t do anything to stop them.”

“was there ever a winner?” tommy questioned. “i mean, the war stopped eventually.”

“i was the winner,” y/n spoke. “i proved to them that i wasn’t a piece of property to steal, that i have control over my own life and my own actions. and then i established neutral.”

“how’d you prove it to them?” tommy asked, and immediately y/n’s gaze dropped. after receiving no response, he spoke, “.. y/n?”

“i’d rather not talk about it,” she said, looking back up at tommy seriously. “to this day it’s not something that im proud of, but things are different in war.”

tommy nodded. after a moment of tense silence, he couldn’t help but ask, “did you kill someone?”

y/n stood abruptly and tommy’s heart nearly dropped at the sight of the tears forming in her eyes. he had crossed a line. but not only had he done that.. y/n had killed someone.

“i-im sorry, y/n,” he spoke, shaking his head. “i shouldn’t have-”

“it’s fine, tommy,” she whispered, wiping at the tears in her eyes. she quickly spoke, “let’s take the afternoon off, alright?”

he nodded, leaning back slightly in his chair. “alright.” 

he watched y/n sighed, dropping her hands tensely back to her sides as she voiced, “go relax.” she gave him one final nod before leaving the kitchen. he cringed when he heard her bedroom door whip shut, sighing as he looked to the empty kitchen surrounding him. 

technoblade, dream, and wilbur were all in love with y/n. or at least, had once been, and enough so that a war broke out for her heart. but as tommy considered what he had heard from y/n, he began to realize that the war may have began over y/n, but the boys became so blinded by their competition between each other that they allowed that love to turn to possession.

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[harimenui-forever]

The problem with many c!Wilbur "healing" fics

I will not mention the fics by name. Even if you know the ones I'm going to use as an example, please do not harass the authors, they probably do not realize how harmful their writing is.

This is a critique of a certain trope many people in the L'manblr discord server have noticed popping up in the Wilbur Soot ao3 tag. It is a serious topic that has probably been discussed before, but to my knowledge nobody has made a long post about.

CW: discussions of mental health, ableism, abuse and savior complex

This is not a recent issue, there were many fics like this after November 16th, but it is a relevant one. I'm talking about the basement fics, the "Wilbur is stuck in the house with SBI and cannot do anything and it's for his own good" fics.

The issue with these fics is surprisingly not Wilbur's characterization, that one is sometimes really good (although sometimes it degrades over time as he "heals"), it's rather an issue of narrative and what it deems as acceptable and okay. Wilbur in these fics seems to be fighting not only SBI, but also the narrative and the writer. He is stuck in a house/basement/a bad situation and it's "for his own good", it's so "he can heal", but is it really?

Let's work with some examples:

1) In this fic Wilbur is revived and feels like he needs to rebuild the camarvan. It is something that means a lot to him as a person and he wants to go back to the good old times. The catch? When he sleeps Ghostbur basically possesses him and drags him to the cabin in the Arctic, ruining all his plans. The SBI in this have a different dynamic than in canon, so I will ignore the mischaracterization (poor c!Tommy tho). Wilbur is obviously frustrated, he's essentially trapped, he can't do anything to stop it. SBI insist that he should drop it and be with his family, that he's too focused on the past, but instead of actually hearing him out, his frustrations, his feelings get ignored. Then someone blows up all his hard work and he suffers another psychotic break as a result. However it's painted as being the result of people just not monitoring him enough and not the result of people never hearing him out. All his feelings are invalid in the end, he was wrong, he should stay with his family and never do anything on his own, never have dreams, never be independent again, because look how much it fucked him up, look at how bad he's at living, they're helping him don't you see...

2) The aforementioned "basement fics". (I've avoided these personally, so I do not know the details) By this I mean the fics in which c!Phil doesn't kill Wilbur and instead locks him up in a basement until he "feels better". He might be nice and loving, but that doesn't change the fact that Wilbur is trapped. I'd even say that it makes it more insidious. And of course this treatment magically works, even though it's essentially abuse.

3) In this last example we will talk about a fic where SBI find a way to bring back Ghostbur by "merging" him with Wilbur, resulting in an alter-like situation. It is without consent, Wilbur is clearly horrified, it is treated as a good thing, because the "horrible evil Wilbur is suffering and we can bring Ghostbur back by saying a code-word when he's being annoying, don't mind that it causes him severe emotional distress". (I have a feeling this was written by a minor tho, but still)

What does this tell us?

Wilbur is a character who is mentally ill. Mental illness is something that needs to be discussed when talking about a healing arc. The way these fics "heal" or "help" Wilbur is just ableist, it is cruel. Some come from a place of anger (the third example), but most of them come from the desire to help and that is horrifying. The "right way" of helping people who suffer from severe mental health issues (he's not only suicidal, although in most of these not actively, but also heavily psychotic-coded) is, according to these fics: family love, locking the person up until they are better, taking away their autonomy and making them rely on you.

This makes me very uncomfortable. Wilbur is not seen as a person here, his concerns and feelings are invalid, how dare a mentally ill person have a say in their own mental wellbeing. He is just someone to be cured, a project. How dare he struggle after he's been "cured". How dare he relapse. How dare he feel uncomfortable when he's being treated that way. How dare he have any agency, let's take that away at the end and call it a good thing.

In conclusion: These fics are ableist. They say that mentally ill people should not have any say in their own lives. They imply that completely taking away person's autonomy is a good thing.

This attitude is genuinely concerning and I hope this post helps to bring that into everyone's attention.

[lonely-lost-soul]

First Lady of the Court

Part 3: Ghostbur (C!Wilbur Soot x reader)

A worn journal was opened, the pages faded and yellowing, a pen was placed on the parchment and the owner began to write. The sun rose over the horizon, and the wind nipped at the writer's skin, but they didn’t feel it. They didn’t feel many of life's sensations anymore, sometimes he felt warmth but it was always fleeting. He titled the page:

"Things I Remember", by Ghostbur

-The smell of bread

- L'Manberg

- The Revolution

- Bullying Tommy (he's a child)

- Sparring with Techno as a kid

- The wind

- Being president

- People cheering for me

- Fundy growing up

- Niki

- (Y/N) becoming my first lady

- The van

- Tubbo building everything

- Phil protecting me

- Sally the salmon

- (Y/N) the new love of my life

- (Y/N) adoring Fundy and treating him as her own

- Philza stabbing me to death with a sword

- A large explosion

-(Y/N) crying for me, I don’t like when she’s sad

- The taste of salt

- Air in my lungs

- Winning the election

- A ravine

- Techno's armory

- Books

- Tunnels

- Arrows

- ./..

-

- I don't know

The ghost’s head snapped up to attention, up until a few months ago he was lost in a void of darkness. Pieces were coming back together for him, he was once Wilbur Soot the president of the country he fought and died for, but now he didn’t have a purpose. He wanted to find Fundy, Tommy and Phil let them know he was here and alright, well alright for a ghost. But most importantly he wanted to find (Y/N), her cries wouldn’t leave his head. It was bad, a bad, bad memory, he’d taken to holding pieces of blue to make him feel better, but even that didn’t help his mood.

Eventually, Wilbur had found Fundy, who wasn’t that thrilled to see him, much to his disappointment. When he found Tommy he was slightly more thrilled and Phil seemed to be relieved yet mournful, Wilbur didn’t understand why, he did a good thing. However he had yet to find her, Phil seemed to be the only one who knew but he was giving him nothing. He didn’t know why was it because you didn’t want to see him? The thought made him want to cover himself in blue and beg for forgiveness. He managed to find a brand new buddy in his mourning, a blue sheep he had dubbed Friend. You would love her, (Y/N) adored sheep she would love Friend, she could be a forgiveness gift. Yet, nobody would tell the ghost where you were no matter how much he begged and pleaded, he watched as his once-prosperous country got rebuilt. Tubbo was doing a fantastic job as president, everyone seemed happy and Ghostbur accepted that fact.

A few days ago, Ghostbur sensed something was wrong. Phil was acting weirdly distant and even though Tubbo was trying to dodge his questions, he couldn’t fathom what was going on, until he saw you. You had come in wearing Alivebur’s old jacket and Ghostbur immediately froze, your hair was slightly messy and you looked tired. You were still you, same gorgeous, beautiful you, if his heart was still beating it would’ve skipped a beat. The only difference he could find was that your eyes looked deader than his own, and he was a ghost, it made him ache terribly. He wanted to float towards you, to welcome you with open arms but for some reason, he hesitated. He watched as Phil made his way over to you, he wrapped you in a hug and you hugged him back, the two made some small talk before Phil rubbed the back of his neck. Your brow furrowed and he watched you blink in surprise, you looked over Phil’s shoulder and right through Wilbur. The ghost would’ve flushed if he had blood, instead he settled on fiddling with the cuffs of his sweater before holding up a hand in a wave. You stumbled back away from him looking over at Phil who gave a little nod, Wilbur watched you shake your head and his heart sunk. His father reached out to you and your face scrunched up, you were hissing at him, clearly pissed off. Phil whacked you on the back of his head and you glared at the older man, Wilbur felt a small nudge on his arm, it was Friend. He took a shaky breath and ran his fingers through her wool, at least she had his back, when he looked up again you were marching over to him.

God, you were hot when you were mad.

“(Y/n)! Darling! It’s good to see you-”

“You son of a bitch!” You spat at him, eyes suddenly blazing with life and fire, Ghostbur felt himself falter and shrink into himself. “You think you can just come back here after what you did to us! How you treated us, how you treated me!” Ghostbur’s face fell, he didn’t remember hurting you, he refused to remember that memory, but the way he clutched his blue said enough. “I loved you! I wanted to marry you!” You choked out suddenly deflating as tears began to well in your eyes, you cursed and covered your face with your sleeve. “I cannot believe I’m crying right now.”

“You need some blue?” Wilbur said in a soft, tender voice different than you last remembered. You looked out over your sleeve finally taking in his ghostly appearance, he was wearing his big, round glasses, eyes a soft grey. Blue seemed to be pooling in the edges almost like tears, he had a shaky smile on his features, the yellow sweater he wore was one you’ve never seen before, a large red gash sat on his chest. He watched you swallow thickly and take a step back from him, “I don’t remember what happened to make you hate me so dear.” His voice quivered and he heard you whimper, “But I am so sorry...you can call me Ghostbur, I want to be different from Alivebur. Though his love for you still lives in me.”

Ghostbur watched you let out a heart-wrenching sob as you fell to your knees in front of him. You were clutching the L’manburg pin on your lapel, knuckles white, hands shaking in petrification. He floated beside you and wrapped you up in his arms, the hug wasn’t unwelcome but it was cold, Wilbur knew you’d feel no warmth from it but he hoped it’d bring you some form of comfort.

“I missed you. So much,” You admitted with a sniff, and Ghostbur couldn’t help but smile sadly.

“I missed you too,” He ran a hand through your hair and you leaned into the apparition's ghostly touch. Ghostbur glanced up at Phil who had a tense smile on his face as he nodded slightly at the ghost, it read don’t hurt her again, and Wilbur nodded. “Where have you been? I’ve been looking all over for you, you need to meet Friend!” His eyes lit up a little as he looked around for his blue sheep, “You’ll love her!”

“I’ve been living with Fundy,” You answered his question and his brows furrowed, but Fundy had told him he had no idea where you lived. “We’ve been taking care of one another, just like I promised you we would,” You responded flatly, your voice had a flat affect and Wilbur shuffled uncomfortably in the air.

Where was your spark? Your lust for life and the good things? Was this his fault?

No. No, it couldn’t have been, he refused to accept that outcome.

Alivebur loved you just as much as Ghostbur did, he felt that love so deep in his being it was almost suffocating. So, he’d never hurt you, you don’t hurt the people you love and that’s a fact. So why were you so sad?

“That’s weird. Fundy said he couldn’t find you!” Ghostbur huffed, shaking his head at his son's actions, “My silly, little champion.”

“Ghostbur don’t call him that, he doesn’t like it.” You stated gruffly crossing your arms and his frown only deepened,

“What do you mean he doesn’t like it? Of course, he likes it, he loves it!”

“No Wil he doesn’t. Stop it.” You hissed and he flinched, your face fell a little and you turned away from him. You shoved your hands in the pockets of the jacket, “I need a smoke.” You muttered and his jaw dropped,

“That’s bad for you! You know that!”

“So what? It makes me fucking feel better. You’re not my Wilbur. Stop pretending you give a shit about me.”

“I do care! I love you!” He argued desperately, “I know I’m not him. I can never be him but that doesn’t mean I love you any less. His love transferred to me, please...give me a chance.” You looked at him up and down and he’s never felt more terrified in his entire existence, he needed your hope, he could fix you.

“You don’t understand how much he hurt me.” You whispered completely vulnerable, “he went crazy, blew up a nation, and left me alone.”

He. Meaning Alivebur, Ghostbur was glad he was distinguishing the difference between the both of them. He didn’t remember doing that to you, after all, Ghostbur didn’t do that to you.

“I’ll never leave you alone. I can promise you that, with my whole heart I swear it.” He took your hands within his own, he knew you could barely feel his touch. You closed your eyes for a minute before reopening them,

“I’ll give you one chance. One. So help me god, if you ruin that chance I will never speak to you again. That’s a promise.”

Ghostbur swallowed thickly, nerves prickling at his entire being, “I won’t waste that chance, my dear.” You gave a stern nod and rubbed the back of your neck with a tired sigh,

“So...Friend?”

Ghostbur’s entire demeanor changed as he introduced you to the blue sheep that had taken a rather strong liking to him. The sheep nuzzled at your chest sniffing at your clothing choice, you hesitated a little before running your fingers through her wool.

“She’s very soft.”

“I know right!” he chimed wrapping his arms tight around his sheepy buddy, he buried his face in her wool. Ghostbur saw a weary smile spread across your face which made him smile back at you in return.

Maybe this could still work out for the both of you.

Months went by and you had set up residence outside of New L’manburg, everyone understood why you couldn’t make a permanent home out of the new country after everything that occurred there. In between watching over an exiled Tommy, Ghostbur would come by and visit you, even though you hated to admit it the ghost of your former lover had won you over. He was just so innocent so unlike the man who blew up his own country, so much like the goofball you had originally fallen in love with, you were enraptured. When New L’manburg blew up you weren’t surprised, there was a dull ache in your heart when you heard the news from a sobbing Ghostbur but you couldn’t feel sympathy. What you did feel sympathy about though was Phil’s uncaring attitude towards Friend, it was the first time you heard Ghostbur get legitimately angry.

It scared you more than you wanted to admit.

Even so, you confronted your former lover; he didn’t like sadness and tried to push the feeling away. You tried to comfort him the best way you could but he insisted he was fine opting to take his blue and forget his sadness. That was another thing, his quote on quote blue, it never did sit right with you. Hurt, sadness, and pain are hard emotions to face but they create character and depth and ultimately shouldn’t just be forgotten so easily, after all, how will you ever learn from your mistakes if you don’t experience sadness. Ghostbur didn’t want to hear your reasoning and still took towards using the blue, you eventually gave up trying to convince him otherwise.

You were sitting outside on your porch, rocking on your porch swing a cup of cocoa in your hand. Ghostbur was sitting beside you, head on your shoulder humming a soft tune to himself,

“Darling?”

“Hm?”

“Can I kiss you?”

Ghostbur had asked so innocently it made your heart leap into your throat. Thoughts of Wilbur and his betrayal flashed across your mind, you wanted to scream and say no. That you’ll never let someone like that hurt you again, you were too strong, you opened your mouth but the hope in Ghostbur’s eyes made you close your mouth. This wasn’t the Wilbur you knew, this was Ghostbur, sure he was the ghost of Wilbur but they were so different. Ghostbur made you happy, he made you remember what it was like to be a good person, made you remember what it was like when you first met Wilbur. He made you smile and laugh, and he genuinely adored and cared for your happiness. You found yourself uttering a soft okay before your brain could comprehend your decision, the smile that lit up across Ghostbur’s face was illuminating. He floated over to you and cupped your cheeks, his pale hands were freezing, but it felt good against your scalding hot cheeks. Ghostbur’s eyes softened as he stroked your cheeks with his thumbs, he leaned forward and captured your lips in a soft kiss, the kiss was cold but not unpleasant. You felt him melt against you, and press desperately on to your lips, you couldn’t help but let out a little giggle you felt him pull away. He had the cutest pout on his pale lips,

“Don’t giggle at my kisses!” Ghostbur sounded so offended, you only laughed harder. “Stopppppppp,” he whined leaning against you dramatically.

“I’m sorry Ghostbur.” You covered your mouth with your hand, “You’re just too cute.”

You watched him freeze at your genuine compliment, a smile broke across his features,

“No, you’re cute!” Ghostbur cooed floating around you and wrapping his arms tight around your waist. You leaned into his touch with bright red cheeks,

“You’re a goofball,” You whispered softly, he nuzzled his face into your hair,

“I love you.” You froze in his arms and tensed up, reality crashing back onto all at once. Did you really kiss your dead lover's ghost? The lover who was a fucking asshole to you and blew up an entire country.

Not a girl boss moment.

“You don’t have to say it back,” Ghostbur was quick to add, “I know how hard this is for you. There’s no pressure with me my dear, I just want you to know how I feel.” He pressed the sweetest of kisses to the side of your head. Tears gathered in the corner of your eyes, not out of sadness, out of shock. You couldn’t believe Ghostbur was once Wilbur, the same man you yelled and screamed at you before his death, Ghostbur was wonderful. Ghostbur was kind and sweet, gentle and tender, one day you’d be ready to say you love him, just not yet, not when everything is so fresh.

“Thank you Ghostbur. You don’t know how much that means to me.”

“Anything for you my dear.”

Months turned into years and you had officially fallen in love with your clingy ghost and his blue sheep. You knew he loved you to absolute bits, there were many occasions where Phil and Technoblade came up to you and begged you to get Ghostbur to stop gushing about you. You only turned red and smiled fondly, they scoffed but ruffled your hair, overall both were happy to see you smiling again. You hadn’t kept up with the dramas of the SMP, all your information was from Ghostbur, which happened to be not all that reliable.

You loved him but he was so naive, Tommy and Tubbo had defeated Dream, taken two of his cannon lives, and locked him in Sam’s prison. When Ghostbur told you a smile overtook your features, finally the bastard was getting what he deserved.

Isolation.

Tommy was growing closer with Ghostbur again too, which you couldn’t help but be happy about, he too deserved to heal from the trauma Wilbur had inflicted. You trusted Tommy, even when everyone else didn’t you tried to have his back and showed you he cared in his own weird way. Which mostly meant not stealing your shit, which you weren’t complaining about, today, however, he seemed tense. You both were walking the Prime Path on your way back to your abode, Tommy was loud and rambling, but they were different from his usual ramblings.

“Tommy?”

“What is it, women? I’m in the middle of my heroic story!”

“Are you alright?” You glanced at him out of the corner of your eyes and saw him go rigid. He cleared his throat shaking away his nerves,

“Fuck you talking about? Of course, I’m okay bitch. Don’t interrupt me again!” He scoffed nose high in the air, you narrowed your eyes and he shrunk under your gaze. “I just…” He rubbed the back of his neck, you thought about his resurrection and assumed it had something to do with that, your gaze drifted to the white streaks littering his hair.

“Hey...it’s okay. Just know I’m here for you,” You assured with a smile. You reached up to squeeze his shoulder, he looked shocked at the affectionate gesture,

“Obviously I know that! Don’t assume things bitch!” Tommy shouted shaking off your hand, you shook your head with a smile and let Tommy continue his story. If the young boy wanted to tell you, he would on his own terms. That night Ghostbur had come home absolutely shaking with excitement,

“Tommy, Tubbo, and Ranboo said we’re going on an adventure tonight!” Ghostbur was absolutely glowing, you couldn’t help but smile faintly at his antics.

“Don’t have too much fun.” You chastised teasingly, ghostbur giggled in delight as you pressed a kiss to his cold skin. “Stay safe, don’t let them bully you too much.”

“They don’t bully me,” he huffed but he leaned in for another kiss. Ghostbur had discovered he loved your kisses, even though they were probably cold to you all he felt was warmth. If he was a hybrid like his son his tail would be wagging, and if he was alive he’d be bright red. “I love you (y/n), of course, I’ll stay safe. I promised you I’d never leave you remember?”

You flushed and nodded, “I remember. I’ll see you when you get home.”

“Until then my dear!” He took your hand within his own and kissed the tops of your knuckles. You flushed pink and he sent you a cheeky grin,

“Get out of here loverboy! Don’t keep the children waiting!” You shouted as he floated out the door with a giant wave,

“I’ll be sending you kisses!”

“Ghostbur oh my god, go already!” You giggled with a fond roll of your eyes, he laughed loudly and floated out the door.

You should’ve told him you loved him. It’s okay, there would always be tomorrow.

You were getting ready for bed when Tubbo called you over the walkie-talkie, he was frantically apologizing and pleading for you to come to the crater that was L’manburg. Tommy then stole the walkie talking and started shouting about Ghostbur and your heart sink into your chest. He didn’t make a whole lot of sense but you put on a coat over your pajamas and ran in the direction of the once-prosperous nation. When you got there Tubbo and Tommy were a mess, Ranboo was trying to calm them down and Friend looked uncomfortable.

Where was Ghostbur?

You opened your mouth to call out to the boys when a pair of arms snuck around your waist. They were warm and real, pale hands caressed your abdomen,

“Hi, darling. Did you miss me?” Warm lips handed on your neck, “I missed you.”

Wilbur was back.

~~~ @blossom-702 @mayempress @thatguythatsshy

[stellocchia]

Since I really enjoyed yesterday's stream I decided to do one of my overly long analysis on it

So, here's my analysis of (DSMP LORE) Healthy Competition

Dialogues will be color-coded as usual, so here's what I used: Phil, Wilbur, Ranboo

As always I am incapable of brevity, so everything's under the cut

The stream starts with a conversation between Phil and Wilbur in which Wilbur admits that he hasn't been to visit Phil in a while, which makes Phil's later threat about throwing him out feel that much more ridiculous since Wilbur clearly doesn't really live with him either way...

"Alright, it's got one for Phil, one for Ranboo, and one for Techno. Is that all that live here? Just you three?" "Yep, just us three, just chilling"

The only reason why I'm singling this out is that it was right after the mention of Techno's birthday and Wilbur was pointing at the seats occupied by the 4 members of the Syndicate so it feels slightly weird that Niki wasn't mentioned at all. But also it's technically not a lie, she doesn't live there and she only comes around for the Syndicate meetings.

Another thing to add is that Wilbur did notice the chest Ranboo left for him and consciously decided to ignore it.

"I must admit I've come to you with a bit of a- a bit of a proposition. You're into propositions Phil? Are you a bit of a 'propositions' kinda guy?" "Oh, depends, depends. You- you've had some pretty... let- let's just say, uh- not- not a great track record on propositions that you've had in the past" "Alright... I mean, I'm trying to move past that"

I wonder what exactly Phil is referring to here. Because, like, Wilbur did bad things, don't get me wrong, but what's his track record with "propositions" in particular? Because he isn't talking about "Tommy, let's be the bad guys" here since he doesn't know about that. Is he talking about Wilbur founding L'Manburg? But then again, I don't think Wilbur interpreted it that way. I think that, from Wilbur's reaction, he clearly interpreted it as a jab at him exploding L'Manburg (which is the one thing he's trying to move past) which would be extremely hypocritical from Phil since he did the exact same thing but worse.

Also, I really do think that Wilbur is trying to move forward. He's lonely and he has the lowest possible opinion of himself so it doesn't feel weird that he'd want to move on. He isn't putting the work in it right now and he hasn't really changed, but he does seem to want to (though I think he may not know how).

"He [Quackity] didn't seem afraid of me, which is cool. Not many people- I mean you don't seem afraid of me. You aren't afraid of me, are you Phil?" (little look into Wilbur's mind and his fear of isolation once again. And this is fear of isolation, he's worried that other people are afraid of him and therefore are only waiting for him to step out of line so that all their fears would be confirmed)

"'Cause I'm not afraid of you [Phil]" (bold words for someone who spent who knows how long lying to his dad because of a crippling fear of disappointment...)

"Technoblade spent his entire time taking down the establishments, what he left is, as predicted, a power vacuum for a new establishment to come in" (in case it wasn't obvious, Wilbur is not the biggest fan of anarchy. And he actually got this one criticism spot on, indeed all taking down L'Manburg did was getting 4 new governmental-like structures to sprout in its place)

"Phil, I want to make a burger van" *Phil sighs and walks away* (I'm more sure now that Phil really meant "creating L'Manburg" as Wilbur's bad track record with propositions)

Wilbur repeating 4 times that he has no ulterior motive with the burger van managed to make me think the exact opposite. That said that ulterior motive may just be to create a safe little home for himself and Tommy for all we know honestly. Also, the whole thing with Phil trying to convince his grown-ass kid to go play with the neighbor kid and Wilbur throwing a tantrum in response was hilarious...

"If he's [Ranboo] shit you gotta come help me okay? If he's shit you've gotta come be burger boy with me, okay?" (he still is mistrustful to an extreme and pretty childish admittedly)

"Why is he [Phil] treating me like a kid?! Why is he treating me like a little baby?" (remembering how Wilbur treated Fundy I think it may be a family problem)

Another interesting thing to point out is that Wilbur was openly scared of the spider attacking him here, and fights it off, but he doesn't move away from the explosion later on and he didn't move away from the exploding creepers last stream. Other people already made this connection, but I do think it may be a sort of way to punish himself. Specifically, it's brought up later on that he thinks he got off easy for what he did, so he's using what he hurt others with (explosions) to hurt himself now as a sort of punishment for that. Which is another indication of just how much his stay in Limbo didn't help with his mental health.

"Am I being- is this [Ranboo having both cows and wheat] a setup?" (the paranoia never left)

"Ranboo I'm gonna go out on a limb here: do- do you wanna be friends?" "Su-sure yeah, I don't see why not" (I think that at this point it was still just Wilbur following along with what his dad told him to do and trying to find out more about Ranboo. That does seem to change later down the line)

"And then we decided that it [the 'cookie' outpost] was too much trouble so we kinda just left it" (So we have confirmation that the cookie outpost was abandoned)

"We're not gonna annoy Quackity" "That's good" "We can't annoy- we can't annoy him because we're simply put- we're simply put gonna be making...- I got the real estate! He's giving me the area and we're gonna be making a competing business"

Wilbur says this as if he wasn't perfectly aware that this would annoy the sh*t out of Quackity. As if the point of it wasn't exactly to annoy Quackity. Or well, annoying him isn't the end goal, it's just the means to an end. We don't know the actual end goal (though I think Wilbur still wants to either be let into Las Nevadas or actually instate a rivalry between them as he said, one of the two).

"We [he and Quackity] were a part of the same cabinet during New L'Manburg or whatever" "Cabinet?" "Yeah a cabinet is like-" "Was this- was this with Tubbo?" "Yeah yeah" (...) "So you were part of the old L'Manburg? I didn't know that actually, I thought you were a bit of an independent"

Once again: Wilbur is missing A LOT of knowledge. He wasn't aware that New L'Manburg had a cabinet and he wasn't aware that Ranboo was ever part of the country either. He has a lot of misconceptions about what happened during the time he was dead so it really shouldn't be a surprise to anyone that his views on a lot of things are as warped as they are. Wilbur is getting to his conclusions with an incomplete and sometimes wrong set of data.

"Do you dislike anyone Ranboo?" "Not too much I don't think. I mean there are other people I don't, like, agree with what they've done of course, but I think that everyone is just a product of what they've gone through and everything so if you understand that then you understand the person!"

There is nothing inherently wrong with Ranboo's reasoning here. It's true that most people are a result of their environment and, once you understand what they've been through you can understand them better as a person. It's also fine that he personally doesn't want to hold grudges. But that way of thinking isn't applicable to those who have been hurt by others, sure they can reach an understanding, but an understanding of a person doesn't justify shit and doesn't change shit unless that person works towards repairing old broken relationships. It just all sounds like a nice way of thinking about things in theory, but in practice, it just takes away responsibility from those who have wronged others to fix things and moves it to those who have been wronged. (Ranboo isn't advocating for everyone to think that way though, but I know the fandom will).

Either way, they arrive in Las Nevadas and Wilbur talks about how their place doesn't benefit the consumer and puts down 3 signs.

"I've been trying to think of a name for it [his and Tommy's area], I'm thinking about 'Paradise'"

There are two possible reasons for the name that I can think of:

1) It's in reference to Las Nevadas itself and how Las Nevadas is based on Las Vegas, the famous city of sin

2) It could be a reference to Tommy insistently calling Las Nevadas Paradise in the last stream and Wilbur trying to convince him that their place is the true Paradise

Wilbur does decide to make the Burger Van right at the border which really feels like a very obvious provocation. The other thing is that he makes it clear that he wants the van to be red and white which could be a random choice, but really feels like a reference to Tommy (since they are famously his colors) or an imitation of their opposition. Or both considering how much Tommy liked the restaurant of the opposition and the fact that Wilbur is still trying to convince him to stay.

"I'm not very fond of blue" (at this point it's obvious that Wilbur has quite a bit of pent-up animosity against Ghostbur. I wonder if it is because it still feels like people liked the ghost more than him...)

"Like, the Cookie Shop, I don't even know if it was a cookie shop, to begin with, because it was a little... fortified if I'm entirely honest, I realize that now" "Really?" "Yeah did you not see- oh wait- that giant stone structure?" (Ranboo really did fail to realize that the cookie shop was actually a military outpost, huh?)

"See, I like Tubbo. He's strong-headed, he doesn't let people push him around, you know?" (this is both an interesting change in what he thinks of Tubbo if he actually thinks that and further confirmation that Wilbur isn't a fan of people he considers to be 'followers')

"Why do you claim that you're so 'peaceful' and 'neutral' and yet somehow appear in almost every conflict this server's had since I died?" (since I saw people claiming this is manipulation already, just know that it isn't. He's just confused because, admittedly, Ranboo is a confusing guy and Wilbur doesn't really know him at all)

"Ranboo, why did you come to help me?" (...) "And then also I just think, you know... you can, you know- I think- I think you're an alright person, you know? So I wanna- I did kinda wanna get off on a better foot with you then what happened-" "Why?" "Just because I don't really like having the thought that people don't really like me" "Nonononono not the bit about the right foot, the 'why don't you think I'm a bad person'" "Well I mean, I think that you did bad things, but like, I think that you also went through things that made you that way and then I also think that you've changed now (...) but I think that now you've- apparently you've been away long enough that I think that if anyone goes away for that long eventually they'll have a thought about their morality and everything and maybe become a better person because of it"

I know this quote was absurdly long, but it is one of the most interesting conversations of the whole stream and it is really important and it tells us quite a bit as well. For one thing Wilbur was left quite emotional from someone simply admitting that he's an "alright person" and that they think he's capable of changing and this does bring him to open up to Ranboo right after. What Ranboo says to be exact is that anyone would have changed after going through what Wilbur went through and that change could be positive and while I completely disagree with it, it's clearly something that Wilbur needed to hear.

Now as to why I disagree with the notion that 13 years of semi-complete isolation could change anyone for the better should be rather obvious. But if it isn't, well, that's torture to put it simply. Psychological torture. Just like abuse it's one of those things that only cause trauma and a worsening mental health state and we see this with Wilbur because he didn't change, he only became more self-deprecating. Hurting someone doesn't make them become a better person all of a sudden, that's really not how it works. Hurting someone makes them become more traumatized.

"I think I scare people" ( as I said, immediately opening up about his insecurities)

"I think that a lot of people share your idea, but they share your idea in trying to- trying to keep me from hurting them" (for a bit here Wilbur talks about how he feels like everyone else is just waiting for him to step a foot out of line, which does really show that he's still interpreting all his interactions with people through the lens of his paranoia and self-deprecation, because no one is really interacting with him with that objective in mind)

"Dream's had his comeuppance and I've not" (this seems to be the crux of Wilbur's insecurity. This idea that he got off scot-free for his crimes, the idea that the only difference between him and Dream is the punishment that's been bestowed upon them which, of course, is wrong, but he doesn't know this, because he doesn't actually know why Dream's in prison)

"I've been investing into the wrong areas Ranboo, I've been investing into the wrong people" (This is either a reference to Tommy, to Phil, to Quackity, or to all of them)

"We're kindred man, we get each other" (the reason why he thinks that is because he seems to think that Ranboo has a similar type of paranoia to what Wilbur experience himself and he's not entirely wrong. Ranboo is deathly afraid of conflict and of being disliked so much so that he never stands up for anything in fear of angering others)

Little definition of "neuroticism" for you all since Wilbur kept mentioning it: neuroticism, one of the Big 5 personality traits, is typically defined as a tendency toward anxiety, depression, self-doubt, and other negative feelings.

I'd say it's quite fitting for both characters...

"I feel like life dealt us the same cards and the difference is that you built your trust by showing people your cards whilst I- I keep them close to my chest and I feel like that may be the big difference" (I felt like this was interesting. Especially knowing how much Ranboo actually doesn't share and how much he actually also keeps close to his chest)

They talk about tubbo in general for a bit and about what's been going on the server in general. Ranboo also that he's part of both Snowchester and the arctic commune (mostly the latter though).

"This has been chill, this has been good, I'm excited to show Tommy. What's your opinion on Tommy?" "Oh, he's- he's great. Tommy's awesome" "I agree I agree" "Definitely gone through a lot but I think that it's made him a good person" "Well you seem to think that everyone going through something at least gives them some merit you said" "I mean, yeah. I mean if- if no one- the only really bad people are the ones who are just evil because- just because and they don't have any reason why"

Included the whole thing here because if I stopped at Ranboo saying that Tommy going through trauma is what made him a good person it would have sounded really bad. As things are I think that that was just poor wording on his part and that this mostly goes back to the mentality he expressed before about how people sometimes do bad things because of the environment they're in pushing them and this idea he seems to have that actual hardships (like 13 years in Limbo or whatever he knows about what Tommy has been through) can encourage people to be better which is... sort of naive honestly. Again, trauma isn't a catalyst for the betterment of a person, and any improvement Tommy has made came from his self-reflection, not what he's been through.

After they're done with the van Wilbur brings Ranboo to their competing establishment and asks him to smash the windows, which Ranboo does with no hesitation whatsoever. After that Wilbur proceeds to place down one single block of TNT in a corner and Ranboo starts being a little more hesitant.

"You trust me right?" (I feel like that was a trick question considering how their common paranoia is the thing that Wilbur praised in Ranboo before)

Wilbur hands Ranboo the flint and steel to detonate the piece of TNT which Ranboo does, albeit with some hesitation.

"You passed the test, good job man, you go back to the van (...) Ranboo- Ranboo... I'm proud of you man. You've taken a side, you've proven that you can choose a side"

Quite a few people have already pointed out how similar this scene was to the time Wilbur tested Tommy in season 1 to decide if he was fit to be his right-hand man. In both situations, Wilbur gave someone a chance to cause some destruction against someone on the opposite side. Tommy passed the test by refusing to do so and showing that he was willing to uphold his morals and what he believed in. Ranboo passed the test by doing the exact opposite, by showing that, as much as he talks about how he chooses people and not sides, he's not willing to prove that even when all he would need to do to do so is doing nothing.

And it's an interesting scene to analyze as a parallel to that, but it's also interesting to note that Wilbur knows about Ranboo and Tommy griefing George together. He knows that Tommy was the only one to face any consequences for it (not that exile was actually the consequence for the griefing, but this is from Wilbur's point of view). Now putting this in the context of Wilbur seeing himself in Ranboo and thinking that he himself got off scot-free explains this next part perfectly in my opinion.

It explains why he made sure to leave this sign:

To me at least. This is only a theory honestly, we don't have an actual full explanation. But I do think that Wilbur may feel like the both of them never got the comeuppance they deserved, which is why he did something that's sure to get a reaction from one of the most powerful people on the server. Though considering that he also left 2 diamonds as retribution + a chest with all the materials he picked up it could have also been Wilbur's idea of a bonding moment and he could actually really be proud of Ranboo.

[straighttohellbuddy]

Okay so I'm working on a different thing that had me thinking about my fics and music, and a fully formed music video idea sprung into my head when I thought about Rabbit Heart (Raise it Up) and my ghostbur series 'midas'. so now, here. you don't have to have read midas to enjoy this but it probably helps. basic context is that reader lost all three lives and is a ghost now;

The looking glass, so shiny and new How quickly the glamour fades I start spinning, slipping out of time Was that the wrong pill to take? (Raise it up)

The entire first stanza is Reader before they lose their final life, the initial joy with the others after winning L'Manberg's independence, the Reader seeming lost and uncomfortable and lashing out at Q during the election arc, which causes them to lose their final life.

You made a deal, and now it seems you have to offer up But will it ever be enough? (Raise it up, raise it up) It's not enough (Raise it up, raise it up)

The Reader waking up outside of L'Manberg and realising that 1. they're dead, 2. that their pride got them killed, and 3. with the last line there they see that Schlatt & Q won the election.

Here I am, a rabbit hearted girl Frozen in the headlights It seems I've made the final sacrifice

As the Reader walks through the streets they're horrified to see how things are changing, how their friends are being treated, but are too afraid to reveal themselves to anyone. As these scenes all take place at night they're all heavily saturated in blue, but the reader's touch as they run their hands across walls, fences, everythying, it stains a bright, vivid gold.

We raise it up, this offering We raise it up

The visuals turns fluid and colour rich as we see the Reader painting gold across the town, but we never see exactly what they're writing/drawing.

This is a gift, it comes with a price Who is the lamb and who is the knife? Midas is king and he holds me so tight And turns me to gold in the sunlight

The Reader turns sharply to look over their shoulder, as if caught, but we transition to another scene entirely where they're looking at L'Manberg. We see their expression turn horrified and they start running desperately, camera following them with a wide shot so we see the detonation of L'Manberg at 'who is the lamb and who is the knife?'. We cut to the Reader in the tunnel, expression distraught, sunlight filtering in from the crater at the end of the tunnel. We cut to a wide shot of the Reader on the far left of the screen, and Philza sitting with his back against the wall on the far right, sunlight filtering in bright from Phil's side. Seperating them and taking up most of the screen is the words 'I was always fighting for it's soldiers' in large, shining, gold letters.

I look around, but I can't find you (raise it up) If only I could see your face (raise it up) Instead of rushing towards the skyline (raise it up)

The Reader reconnects with their old friends, but searches for Wilbur, seeing echoes of moments they shared in places that are now stained gold. It's clear they're happy to reconnect but distracted all the while, hoping, searching.

I wish that I could just be brave

A hand takes the Reader's, staining them blue the way their touch stains gold.

I must become a lion hearted girl Ready for a fight

We see shock on the Reader's face; they're positioned directly in the sunlight, and so the reverse shot that reveals Ghostbur has him illuminated in gold by the sunset, smiling so warmly at them.

Before I make the final sacrifice

The Reader reaches out and touches Ghostbur's cheek and he leans into the touch; when their hand moves, because of how rich the light of the sunset is, it simply appears as a glittery kind of highlight.

We raise it up, this offering We raise it up

We cut to a wide shot of this moment, as if to give the couple their privacy, slowly rotating around them, showing them to be standing over the rubble of L'Manberg, both bathed in the gold of the sunlight while the rubble beneath them glints occasionally with old, gold stains. Both are full of joy, both taking this moment to be close and to finally reconnect.

This is a gift, it comes with a price Who is the lamb and who is the knife? Midas is king and he holds me so tight And turns me to gold in the sunlight

Absolute joy. Montage of building their house in the woods. Friend (the lamb) has a special place just for him in their house, and weapons (the knife) are used only for decoration. We get domestic closeness and romantic moments for the last two stanzas.

Raise it up, raise it up Raise it up, raise it up

The next four shots are all taken in the kitchen, the camera is in the same place for all as it cuts through each shot. The first is a conversation with Phil that is clearly very warm and chill. The second is phil and techno, again mostly chill. The third is with Tommy and the Reader is clearly kind of distressed about whatever is being discussed. The fourth is Tommy, Tubbo, and Ranboo in conversation with Ghostbur looking very serious, while the reader is behind them all in the doorframe, clearly anxious but not wanting to say anything.

And in the spring I shed my skin And it blows away with the changing wind

Ghostbur is clearly leaving for something, he takes the reader's face in his hands and says something reassuring to them, and they nod but can't meet his eyes. He kisses them on the forehead.

The waters turn from blue to red As towards the sky I offer it

Ghostbur steps out of frame, and the Reader watches him leave but doesn't move to stop him, just looks upset by it all. As we pull back, Ghostbur closes the door of their little house that is painted in blue and gold, bathing the reader in shadows.

This is a gift, it comes with a price Who is the lamb -

The reader is outside, though it is later in the night, and they stop, having found something. Their expression is distressed.

and who is the knife?

We cut to a very wide shot of Tommy, Tubbo, and Ranboo, tiny at the bottom of the screen as the Prison looms large and imposing, filling up the entire rest of the screen behind them.

Midas is king and he holds me so tight And turns me to gold in the sunlight

The Reader's expression absolutely shatters as the situation is fully explained to them; Ranboo and Tubbo immediately come to comfort them. The Reader crumples.

This is a gift, it comes with a price

There's a fluid, stylised transition to the reveal of what happened, of Ghostbur going into the prison and Tommy's panic and distress when Ghostbur becomes trapped with Dream.

Who is the lamb and who is the knife?

The walls are rising so Tommy can't see exactly what happens, only that Dream is approaching Ghostbur with malevolence and Ghostbur is panicking too. As the wall rises, the screen too goes black.

Midas is king and he holds me so tight And turns me to gold in the sunlight

We cut back to an over the shoulder shot from behind Tommy where he can see Tubbo and Ranboo comforting the Reader. The sun appears to be rising behind him. He turns, seems both horrified and full of apprehension. The other two who were comforting the reader also look up.

This is a gift, it comes with a price Who is the lamb and who is the knife?

As the song goes into its final chorus we linger on a long shot of the reader as Tubbo and Ranboo leave them to walk in the direction of the rising sun. The Reader is obviously crying, but soon they look up, distraught and confused.

Midas is king and he holds me so tight

They stand, confusion turning to hope as they walk further into the light, and they briefly try and shield their eyes to get a better look.

And turns me to gold in the sunlight

We cut to a shot of Wilbur painted gold in the sunlight, smiling broadly, until he shifts enough to put the sun directly behind him, and with his face now in shadow its clear; there is no gold on him, he is Revivebur, not Ghostbur, and there's something mean about the way he's smiling.

This is a gift

We cut back to the Reader, now standing in his shadow, and in the final show we watch their tentative hope turn to despair as they realise what this means, that the Ghost they love is gone.

[habeascorpseus]

so I just saw something on twitter saying that if people want to give c!wilbur a chance after all the manipulative shit he's done, we should give c!dream a chance to change too. which is absolutely fucking wrong for so many reasons. mainly being that I feel like this completely misunderstands c!wilburs arcs. wilbur's arc was about him falling apart due to pressure both internal and external, as well as being unable to reach out for help because of the trauma he experienced due to the war. eret's betrayal, fundy abandoning him for schlatt, quackity's deal with schlatt, and the subsequent exile of him and tommy were all factors in both the decline of his mental health and in his inability to get help. why would he vent to someone if everyone else he knows "has stabbed him in the back"? and what could he do if the one person he trusted left him? the manipulation to keep tommy dependent on him is a direct result of his paranoia. there was nowhere to go for him but down after he was exiled. and after his death, ghostbur's arc was about change of perspective. both towards him and towards others'. after his death, ghostbur was far more open than wilbur was while alive, giving people the chance to see just how truly hurt and broken he was in a way wilbur never allowed himself to express. when tubbo asked him for advice about being president, ghostbur's answer about crying every night was the first time we've seen him talk about the anguish being a leader caused him. and when ghostbur revealed his death was a happy memory, phil was finally able to see just how much hatred for himself wilbur (and ghostbur) had. in turn, ghostbur got to see how his actions effected his friends and family. he was able to see fundy's pain and bitterness at never having a father. he got to see him struggle through finding a parent in eret and phil and then get abandoned once again when techno needed support. and he was able to see tommy's confusion and frustration with his actions towards him and the rest of l'manburg. he finally got to see, with clear eyes, the trauma the war had caused and the trauma that was still being caused to him by everyone who was meant to protect him. and ghostbur hated seeing this! he hated seeing people he cared about pay the consequences for his actions! and that made him want to change. if not for fundy, then for the rest of the server. to right his wrongs and make the server a little bit better.

conversely, c!dream has never shown a want or need to change during the entire story of the server. and when he did change, it was to manipulate the feelings of those around him. he blew up lmanburg in anger during the first war, laughing at the shock and fear of the revolutionaries for daring to challenge him. he blew up logstedshire, months later, with hollow platitudes and promises that it was for tommy's own good. though his words changed, his actions didn't. and that makes sense, given that dream's emotions haven't been genuine since the first war. dream started a war as punishment, angry that wilbur resisted his power. the moment he became disingenuous was when tommy challenged him to the duel and made it, in dream's opinion, personal. after that, he viewed the conflict as only being between him and tommy. which, of course, evolved into him viewing their conflict as a "game" that tommy was also in on. as soon as he began treating tommy's life like a fun little game and the people tommy cared about as pawns, bishops, knights and kings, that was when he became unable to change. because people who are capable of change involve themselves in the lives of others personally. dream only personally involved himself in tommy's life and barely gave the time of day to everyone else he used. meaning if he were to "change", he'd have to actually care about the people he hurt beyond tommy. but because tommy beat and humiliated him, because tommy just won't leave him alone, because tommy had to gloat, well. we all know how c!dream responds to making things "personal." and that's by making tommy suffer. dream won't change because his obsession with tommy has disconnected him from the reality that he is a mortal man. like he himself said, he cut his attachments to become powerful. he lost his friends, his items, his home, and his pets, in order to get back at tommy for challenging him. and, as wilbur tragically proved during season 1 of the smp, connection is what drives our desire to get better. and dream has none. even if c!dream wanted to change now, he cant. but I guess that's also just karma for abusing a teenager and all his friends for fun. I don't think c!wilbur's actions are even comparable.

[starrywolf101]

I JUST HAD AN AWFUL IDEA

I promise it's different from the usual way this goes!

---

Rewind to when Tommy first flees Logstedshire after realizing Dream was manipulating him. Remember that his clothing was torn, he was injured, and that he hadn't been eating consistently. The poor boy was malnourished and ill.

Tommy heads to the snow biome, and as he travels, he gets slower and slower, freezing. His clothing was still soaked from landing in the pool of water after jumping from the tower. The wet clothes just made the freezing air creep further into his bones. His bare foot lost all feeling... his shivering has ceased, and Tommy can't think past the cold fog in his head. His movement is all automatic. He sees the light from Technoblade's cabin and heads towards it.

But!

Before he can reach it, he collapses into the snow, unable to work up the energy to stand back up and push forwards. He's tired and the world is slowly being consumed by blackness. Tommy falls unconscious, his body giving in to the cold. He wasn't strong enough to fight it off.

Techno finds Tommy covered in snow, barely alive. He's quick to unbury the teen and bring him inside where it was warm. Laying Tommy out on a table, Techno treats Tommy's wounds and changes him into dry, warm clothing. He's concerned by how thin Tommy was and wonders when the last time the other ate was. Throughout the whole process, Tommy remains unconscious, no sign of life other than the shallow rise and fall of his chest.

Throughout the day into the night, Techno doesn't leave Tommy's side. He stays awake the whole time, busying himself with something or other while he waits for Tommy to wake up. As the hours pass, the younger struggles to breathe, and Techno fears the worst. Even if Tommy was nowhere near freezing to death anymore, a fever had settled in. Although he wanted to hope for the best, reality was: Tommy probably wouldn't make it through the next day. As a precaution, Techno grabs his second Totem of Undying and places it in Tommy's hand; wrapping the unconscious boy's fingers around the item. The younger was on his last life, so Techno didn't want to chance it.

The next morning, he receives a message from Phil, warning of the Butcher Army's arrival. Techno forces himself to leave Tommy's side so he could prepare for the fight to come. He makes potions, rushing around to find the ingredients and juggling three brewing stands at the same time. He slips the second Totem of Undying into his boot as a just-in-case. One could never be too careful when you're wanted by the government.

Ghostbur comes in, talking about being lost, asks why Tommy was sleeping here instead of at Logsted, and eventually leaves the house. The following events all play out the same, Ghostbur finds Friend, the Butcher Army arrives, and Techno fights them. Carl is taken hostage by Quackity, and Techno is brought back to L'Manberg for his public execution.

Nobody but Techno and Ghostbur know about Tommy's presence, and the ghost probably didn't think much about the unconscious boy. The whole time, Techno worried about the sickly teen, afraid that he would die... worried that Tommy would die, be revived, and wake up scared and confused. A scared and confused Tommy was much more reckless, and there was a chance that he would run out into the snow and get hurt again.

When they arrive in L'Manberg, Techno is forced to push Tommy to the back of his mind. Seeing Phil with the ankle monitor on angers him further. Not only has Tubbo's exile indirectly led to Tommy being deathly ill, but his tyrannical rule has led to Phil being chained up like a caged bird in an attempt to find Techno.

The execution is interrupted by Punz swooping in to lay out TNT, but it wasn't enough to stop the lever being pulled. The next events happen in the blink of an eye–

The anvil falls.

Phil screams out for Techno.

Techno grabs the totem from his boot and squeezes his eyes shut.

The loud thud of the anvil hitting it's target.

A bright flash of colors and explosions.

Techno survived and is racing off to where he saw a green blur take Carl. Philza whoops happily as the Butcher Army scrambles to figure out what happened. Quackity is the only one that sees where Techno slips off to.

The quick fight in the Final Control Room ends with Quackity losing his second life to Techno, and the anarchist fleeing the nation with his horse.

As Techno hurries home, all he can think of is Tommy; the boy who was at Death's door when he last saw him. He fears that it'll be too late.

As soon as he reaches the snow biome he lived in, he jumps on Carl's back, urging the horse to go as fast as he could. Carl, who as always seemed very intelligent for a horse, gets the message and pushes himself. The moment the cottage he calls home in in view, Techno feels the relief course through himself. He doesn't even bother putting Carl back into the pen, letting the horse wander about as he races inside.

Throwing open the doors, Techno is met with Tommy still lying on the table, a hint of gold hiding in the boy's hand caused the weight on his shoulders to lessen. He walks over to Tommy to run his fingers through the younger's hair... only to be confused about how cold Tommy seemed. Techno places the back of his hand to Tommy's forehead... there seemed to be no sign of fever... whilst that might seem good, Techno didn't like how cold the boy had turned.

And now that he noticed it... he couldn't tell if Tommy was breathing anymore...

Panicking, Techno places his ear to Tommy's chest to check for a heartbeat. He holds his breath and listens. Nothing. No sign of life.

He pries open Tommy's fingers, confused about why the totem, still clearly there, didn't do anything! Was it faulty? Did Techno do something wrong!?

The voices are deathly silent as Techno takes everything in...

He tries to recall everything he knew about Totems of Undying.

They were made by Evokers with dark magic... they were tools crafted to defy death. They worked by taking the brunt of a death via the user's willpower to continue living–

And there was the problem. Tommy didn't have the willpower to continue living. Something had happened during the exile...

Overwhelming grief fills Techno's entire being, and the only thing he could do was to scream. The voices, although much quieter than they've ever been, mourned the death of the teenager.

Whether Techno knew it or not, Dream had caused the death of both his brothers. When he finally figures it out, the green man will have Hell to pay.

[strawberrylemonz]

My head is filled to the brim with ideas, guys. So, I made a new AU. I call it the “Double Dadza AU”

Essentially, a Philza from another timeline, one where his sons were still children and still lived with him, appears into the current dsmp timeline. The way he’d see his broken family shuffling about, trying to find their next step.

————————

He’d see Technoblade, grown up and wary. He’d hear the stories of when he and Wilbur planned the first downfall of the nation Wil and Tommy created. He’d hear how Techno insisted he wasn’t in the wrong because of how transparent he’d always been. He’d hear about how he dubbed Tommy a hero, telling him to die like one. He’d see and hear how this Techno spoke of traitors. He would then recall his Techno, still small and strong willed. How he would happily tend to his potatoes. The way he sparred with Wilbur in the mornings, just now beginning to teach Tommy the basics to proper sword wielding in the evenings. He’d think of how his Techno had dubbed that he’d protect his brother’s, no matter what.

He’d then see the ghost of his son. Ghostbur, as he was so fittingly named, being amnesiac and happy, offering everyone blue. He’d hear of the leader he once was, how he became a father. He’d hear how he used his baby brother and said brother’s best friend as child soldiers. He’d hear how he was exiled, his younger brother following suit. How he began his spiral of insanity. How Tommy tried to help, while Techno continued to feed the behavior. How he blew up his nation. How he had his father ME put a sword through his chest. How he still faced sorrow after death. How he was evicted from his home, how he followed Tommy to exile. He’d hear about Friend, and how he perished twice. He’d hear about how he was sent to the wilderness to die as a ghost. How terrified he is to return to world, alive. His head would ache alongside his heart as he’d think of his Wilbur. The young, free spirited boy back at home. The one who sang his family songs, and complained about sparring. The one who adored Tommy, and would never let any harm come to him. The one who still had breath in his body.

And then, he’d see his youngest. Little Tommy, who was currently taking his daily naptime back at his timeline. Little Tommy who was to turn 3 years of age in months. His precious little ray of sun, broken. He’d take note of the scars and injuries, from swords and arrows, to explosions and lightning. He’d see the hesitation in his eyes and hear the uncertainty in his voice. He’d see the fidgeting and flinching that would occur during simple, safe days. He’d hear the broken sobs and wails at night, whether Tommy had a breakdown or a nightmare. He’d see how Tommy would stare at lava or water, his gut turning as such a sight. He’d hear about his youngest’s time in exile, finally able to get the child to open up. He’d hear about how hard Tommy fought for his nation, how he loved it so. He’d hear how he gave up him most precious possessions to save the nation who didn’t love him back. He’d hear how his brothers treated him during their stay. Phil could only think of his baby boy, who still had the stars in his eyes. The one who adored his big brothers, looking up to them as heroes. The one who swore that he’d be as powerful, smart and great as his dad and big brothers.

So he decided to work to heal these versions of his sons until he found a way back home to his own. He’d do his darn best to pick up the pieces and mend them to something even more beautiful than before. It was subtle enough, his impact towards Techno and Wilbur. Dsmp! Phil didn’t even see the changes his double was making to the bonds of his sons, how he tried to mend them again. He didn’t seem to notice the other Phil sit down the two, individually then together, and spoke. How he would listen to their reasonings and sides of the stories. Then, he’d explain how even though they thought they were right in some areas, they were not excused of the consequences. He’d lovingly scold them for their mistakes and guided them to the solutions, letting them reach them on their own. Dsmp! Phil definitely didn’t notice when his double would disappear for days, weeks even, to who knows where. Everything was still the same.

Until it wasn’t.

It was when both Philza’s were walking down a simple path to visit Tommy, who was working on creating a more efficient farm. Dsmp! Phil wasn’t sure as to why his double was joining him to see Tommy. He was sure that his traitorous son only called for him in the letter he sent. Shrugging the thought away, he supposed it was due to him not knowing the location of his youngest son. Sighing, it was only then that he’d taken notice that Tommy decided to meet them at the entrance to his area. Upon seeing the two approach, the kid let out a happy cheer as he ran at them, yelling an excited “Dadza!”

Dsmp! Phil is confused as to why his son was ecstatic to see him, something that was a major change to the previous encounters. Nonetheless, he prepares to open his arms for a welcoming. However, he doesn’t take into account that he isn’t who his son was running to greet.

Tommy runs into the arms of the other Phil, who gently wraps his wings around the young boy in a protective manner. The child let out a shaky sigh as he playfully and jokingly wailed how he missed the man, who, in turn, laughed affectionately. Tommy would then pull away, face his actual father, and nod solemnly with a quiet, “Phil,” leaving his mouth. Dsmp! Phil didn’t expect his chest to ache so much at that. Tommy would ramble about his plans for his house not that his father thought of it as a house as the other Phil checked for new injuries, cleaning up the boy as he did so. He listened as his son gave his double updates on his improvement on his eating habits he had trouble eating? Is that why he’s so skinny and his sleeping status he couldn’t sleep well? He silently got to work alongside his double and his son, who chatted endlessly. It’s the most he’s heard Tommy speak in a long time. He listened with a tight chest as Tommy happily spoke of how he got 5 hours of sleep that night, instead of 3. He heard Tommy receive praise and support for being able to keep his meals down. He narrowed his eyes as his double happily gave positive feedback to Tommy’s updates to improving his friendship with Tubbo. But, it wasn’t until he and his double prepared to leave that he felt the impact of his absence.

“Wait!”

A freshly bathed Tommy ran over to them, giving his father a serious nod. After seriously addressing his father and wishing him a safe trip back to the cottage, he turned back to the double. His shift in attitude was obvious. A pep back in his step, Tommy happily gave the double items, gifts for those back at the cottage. Then, joy filling the boy, he handed the double a wrapped box. A gift. The double smiled as he unwrapped the gift, laughing at the eagerness and impatience the young boy held. Then, he’d see the gift. A compass attached to a red string. Two small emeralds were carefully strung onto the string of the compass. Smiling at the boy, the double turned the compass over to see ‘Little T’ written carefully on tape.

“I’ve, uh, enchanted it so that it always points you to me. Not my spawn, not my house, but me. Took a while to do, but I’m badass and all that shit, so I was able to do it!”

“Are you sure you want me to have this, Toms?”

“I trust you with my life, Dad. I’d love you to have it. That way, you always know that I’m safe.”

Dsmp! Phil felt sick.

[dramaticsnakes]

The Revived - Chapter 9: Reconnecting

This is chapter 9 of the Dream SMP multichapter fic @rainbowbutterfrosting​ and I wrote together! I hope you’ll enjoy!

AO3

Read in order (on Tumblr)

Characters in this chapter: Wilbur, Nihachu, Ghostbur

Word count: 2784

Cw: sleep problems, needle imagery, implied desire to get hurt, mentions of guilt, brief mentions of food/eating, discussions of violence, implied trust issues

Fic summary: Wilbur was alive, and it was such a magnificent feeling, that made his mind spark with anticipation. It didn’t take long, however, for Wilbur to realize that this new breath of life, was not just his own. An echo-y voice hides in the back of his mind, and before he knows it, the transparent version of him he saw at the endless train station, is a lot more ingrained than he’d expected him to be.

And Wilbur really shouldn’t care. Because he’d be damned, if he spent the life he’d awaited for so long, babysitting a lost cause of a ghost, stuck in the very same limbo Wilbur spent so long in. It was an even exchange, and one Wilbur wasn’t going to mess with. Why exactly he ends up setting out to get the ghost out of his mind, in order to save the both of them, however, is beyond him. And perhaps Wilbur’s past isn’t as easy to leave behind, as he’d hoped it would be.

The minutes that followed were awkward to say the least. Niki had held onto Wilbur for a while, as if he would slip out of her grasp and dissolve into nothingness at any moment. She’d let Wilbur go free shortly after, and then she started staying at a distance, her eyes never quite leaving him. In a matter of minutes, she’d gone from yelling at him and punching him, to treating him like a fragile porcelain vase that would break the second she got too close. In a way, Wilbur wasn’t sure which he preferred.

“I’m sorry.” she’d repeated several times, quietly and broken, almost as if to mimic Ghostbur’s words that had echoed in Wilbur’s mind earlier, “Wilbur, I’m so so sorry.”

Wilbur had said it was okay, because really, Wilbur had expected punches far earlier, and perhaps it was about time.

He had the chance to look at his surroundings properly, now that he was no longer blindfolded. What had previously been stairs leading to an unknown place, and a lonely room he couldn’t see, now resembled something much grander. An underground area with high ceilings, and god knows how many different rooms. It was like an entire city, right underneath the ground, and Niki was walking through it so casually, looking at Wilbur instead of the impressive sights. “What is this place?” Wilbur asked quietly.

It took Niki a few moments to realize she’d even been asked a question. “Oh! It’s my secret city.”

Wilbur hummed. “Not so secret anymore. You led me right to it.” he said, trying to lighten the quiet mood. Niki just laughed awkwardly. “Did you build this?”

“Yeah. I did.” Niki said with a nod, “I originally made it to house refugees from the war, but… Well, now I just kind of live here on my own.”

“Really?” Wilbur said, looking at what looked like the beginning to a farm, “That’s… That’s a lot of space.” he tried to dig through his memories, “Didn’t you have a bakery?”

At that, Niki’s face turned pale again. She shook her head. “L’Manberg’s gone.”

“Oh.” Wilbur said, “Oh, right. Sorry, that was stupid.” he facepalmed, accidentally touching a bruise, and he heard Ghostbur wince. 

He must’ve winced too, because Niki gave him a concerned look. “You… I’m so sorry, but we should find a way to treat the bruises. I didn’t mean to- or well, I did mean to, but not to you, I…” she trailed off, and closed her eyes, as if her own words made her cringe.

“It’s okay.” Wilbur said, walking ahead.

“It’s not okay. I should’ve…” She shook her head, and took a deep breath. After a few moments of nothing but silence and the sound of their steps, she stopped walking. Wilbur looked back, confusedly. “Wilbur… How exactly are you back?”

Ah. Wilbur should’ve expected the question eventually. “Dream.” he said, “Dream revived me.”

A range of subtle emotions seemed to flow down Niki’s face in ripples. She swallowed something in her throat. “Oh.” she said, “That’s what they said happened with Tommy, I thought… I didn’t even think he was…” she looked at the ground for a moment, her eyes closed tightly. “But why would Dream- Are you… You were dead right?”

Wilbur scoffed. “What do you mean? Yeah I seemed pretty fucking dead to me.”

Niki started whispering to herself. “Wilbur died. He was killed by Phil. Dream revived him.” She repeated the words again, and looked up again, with a smile that looked performative at best. “Okay, I suppose that makes sense.”

“Yeah…” Wilbur attempted to shift the conversation, “Why did you stop threatening me? Like are you just gonna punch me again? I’ll understand if I look punchable, I’ve gotten that quite a lot.” Wilbur chuckled. He desperately hoped Niki wasn’t going to hurt him again, yet part of him still said it was going to happen. Part of him said Niki wasn’t going to let him leave alive.

Yet, Niki managed to prove him wrong when she spoke, “No, no I’m not-” She took a shaky breath. “I’m not going to do it- any of that again. I… I realized that you were actually you when… When you called me ‘Nix.’ You were the only person that called me that.” The words were fragile in a way that made it look like Niki’s eyes were watering. He might have been the one to wipe away Niki’s tears moments ago, but he couldn’t attempt to rub away the unshed ones.

“Niki are you oka-”

“You look tired.” Niki interrupted, the words sounding sharp, “Have you had some rest recently?”

Wilbur looked at Niki disbelievingly, “I mean, I was just passed out and tied up for some hours wasn’t I?”

Niki looked apologetic for a moment again, and Wilbur almost wished he hadn’t said that. “That’s not rest.” she proceeded to say, “You should… You can borrow a bed, and lie here for a while. It’s the least I can do.”

Wilbur caught a good look at Niki’s face again. He looked at the bags underneath her eyes, and the way she looked as if years had passed. For a moment, he pondered if perhaps Ranboo and Tubbo had lied to him, about how long Wilbur had been gone. He found himself doubting this was the same Niki, Wilbur last saw thirteen and a half years ago. “How long has it been since you last slept.” Wilbur asked, and it wasn’t meant to be spiteful. In fact, he was uncharacteristically concerned.

Niki’s expression hardly changed, as she simply blinked once. “Last night.” she said, and Wilbur had enough experience with her to know that it was a lie, but he wasn’t going to say anything. He didn’t feel as if he had the right.

Soon enough, Wilbur found himself sitting on a bed. She left the room with a promise that she’d return, and Wilbur suddenly felt exposed and off, as if he had been miscast in the role of someone who needed help, rather than whichever role he previously had. Not that he was confused about his previous role, because Wilbur had gone way too far by now, to qualify as a hero.

“Ghostbur?” Wilbur whispered.

“Yeah, I’m here! Are you alone?” Ghostbur asked.

“Yes. You went quiet for a while.” Wilbur said.

“Oh, did I? Sorry. I love talking, but you usually don’t like it when I talk while you talk to others.”

In a sense, Ghostbur wasn’t wrong. Wilbur had expressed little but distaste towards it, or he’d ignored it completely, because really he had to. It wasn’t as if this was something he could explain, when people were baffled at the revival alone. Furthermore, he wasn’t sure what would happen if he tried to explain. While people held tension and disdain whenever it came to Wilbur, people held everything from fondness to mild annoyance with Ghostbur. Wilbur wasn’t an idiot. Ghostbur was so inextricably good and happy, and those were two things Wilbur had little to nothing of. There was a little part of Wilbur, however small, that felt as if people would rush to get Ghostbur back from the place in limbo he had done nothing to deserve, even at the cost of Wilbur. 

Of course he shouldn’t want Ghostbur to talk all the time. Ghostbur was annoying. Wilbur knew that. For so long, he’d had to face that fact. And yet, Wilbur still found himself saddened at Ghostbur’s words, because a ridiculous part of Wilbur insisted that the silence was worse. That the light echo-y tone, was keeping Wilbur just above the surface of the ocean, that otherwise wouldn’t hesitate to suffocate him.

Wilbur’s time in limbo must’ve done quite a number on him, for him to think such things.

“You can talk if you have something to say.” Wilbur said quietly, “I won’t always be able to respond, but you can talk.”

“Oh.” Ghostbur said, sounding a little uncertain, “Thank you.”

“You don’t have to thank me for that. You can do what you want, you know. Not like anyone can stop you in there.” Wilbur said, but he regretted the words as soon as he said them, because they were met with the sound of a harsh inhale. Wilbur took a deep breath, closed his eyes, trying to collect his words. “I’m sorry it’s… How are you feeling there? I left you alone for a… For a while.”

“I’m fine, I think.” Ghostbur said, his cheerful tone apparent, but the words ambivalent. “I-I don’t think I like this place very much though.”

Wilbur nodded to himself, feeling his heart drop slightly. “Yeah, I get that. It’s very quiet and enclosed.” he bit his lip, almost hard enough to taste the blood within.

“It’s okay!” Ghostbur said, “I’ll probably forget it soon anyway. You’re here now.”

“Ah. Yes, of course.” Wilbur said, and perhaps the idea that Ghostbur would possibly forget soon enough should’ve been a relief, yet there was something strangely dishonest about the way the memories worked. In a sense, Wilbur related to the way memories seemed out of reach. To the way, certain parts of one's life were muddled. He carried just a bit of sympathy for the ghost, and the way he, despite everything, held on, through the vague fog of remembrance. 

“And you have to sleep sometimes! The living do that when they get tired.” Ghostbur said affirmingly.

“That’s true.” Wilbur said, a small smile on his face as he chuckled. After a moment of silence he added, “Hang in there.” because perhaps he was still cruel enough, to let the ghost fall into the illusion that it was temporary. It wasn’t. It couldn’t be. 

But Wilbur had gone way too far, to qualify as a hero anyway.

Just then, Niki entered the room. She was smiling, though it seemed practiced. She was holding a plate with a pastry that was probably homemade. In her other hand, she held a glass of water. Wilbur realized that his throat was a little dry, as he laid his eyes upon it. “I had this. Are you hungry?”

Once again, Wilbur felt miscast as a victim. “Yes.” he said begrudgingly, and Niki approached, placing the plate on a table next to Wilbur. “Still baking without the bakery?” he asked.

Niki looked a little surprised at the question. “Oh, yeah! I uh- I am now.”

Wilbur nodded, feeling that the response was a bit strained and off, though he didn’t find it in himself to comment on it. “How long have you been staying here?” he asked.

“A while.” Niki said, “A couple of months, I think.”

Wilbur hesitated. “Alone?” he asked.

Niki turned visibly uncomfortable at the question. “Yeah.” she said, “Or well, I’ve had visitors sometimes.”

Wilbur wasn’t sure what he’d imagined the world to be like, after he died. Perhaps a part of him had expected a bustling community, with Niki standing tall as ever. With her smiling while trying out a new recipe. Maybe with Tommy front and center, with Tubbo by his side. Everything continuing on, as if death led to blooming rather than decay.

And perhaps another, much more selfish part of him, had expected the world to die along with him. For everything to fall to the ground along with L’Manberg, until there was nothing but a crater in the ground.

Neither of those seemed to be the case. Though sometimes, expectations had to be set aside, in order to keep a goal clear.

He took a bite of the pastry, familiar flavours filling his mouth. “Oh. This is delicious!” he said, “Prime I haven’t tasted cake at all in forever.”

Niki giggled, and for a moment everything felt normal. Wilbur wasn’t sure what normal meant at all, but it was as if no time had passed. The sound of the giggle seemed like a gateway through the past, and their voices seemed to blend comfortably, as they went on to make some more awkward conversation. 

Apparently Techno had gone as far as to make an anarchist group, though Niki didn’t go into much details of its members, or whether they’d even done anything noteworthy. She mentioned a couple of new faces, and briefly went into how Dream was in prison. Pandora’s box. Wilbur knew of it. He vaguely remembered the huge building, and he remembered vague dread that didn’t come from his own memories. Ghostbur’s breathing turned shakier at the mention, though they quickly moved on from the subject.

Wilbur noticed however, that whenever the subject of L’Manberg was brought up, Niki’s tone had a sharper edge to it. Her words became quicker and harsher, as if the topic itself stuck needles into her chest, that made her hiss, as if she was catching breath. “Did you miss me?” Wilbur asked at one point.

“Of course I did.” Niki said, her voice turning a little softer.

“Are you mad at me?” he asked.

“Of course I am.” Niki said, and she grasped her mouth once she realized she’d said it. She shook her head. “No! It’s not that bad, it’s just… You’re back now, it’s fine.” 

“I destroyed it all, didn’t I?” Wilbur asked, though it wasn’t a real question. He chuckled, “I destroyed your home. I destroyed everyone’s home.”

“Stop.” Niki said, “It’s over now. The memories are gone and-”

“And I did that!” Wilbur said, with a slight smile.

“Stop.” Ghostbur suddenly said.

“And I’m sorry.” Wilbur added, “I’m sorry I did that, but you should be mad at me anyhow.”

“I don’t… I don’t want to be mad at you Wilbur!” Niki said, a little desperation in her voice. She suddenly took his hand, and looked him in the eyes. “You left. You were gone, and now you’re back. I lost you Wilbur. We all did. And you betrayed everything you used to stand for.” She said harshly, “But I don’t want to be mad at you. Everyone here has done bad things, and you’re not the only one who has left in one way or another. Betrayals happen all the time, and now you’re here. I’m here, and I’m not a part of any of it up there, so it doesn’t matter anymore. None of it matters.”

Wilbur sat in silence for a moment, feeling the heat of Niki’s hand on his, that felt all at once comforting and overwhelming. It shouldn’t be there. At most, it should’ve been punching Wilbur again, because the more he thought about everything, the more he hoped someone would take this all out on him. At least it would make him feel alive rather than confused. He wondered exactly when Niki’s outlook became so somber, and he couldn’t help but feel that he perhaps had played a part. The words hadn’t even seemed planned out, and while Wilbur didn’t doubt that they were truthful, he couldn’t help but feel as if there was more truth to be uncovered. “Okay.” he just said, because what the hell was he supposed to say, with Niki looking at him, as if this was the last second he’d spend within her sight?

“It does matter.” Ghostbur said, “There’s a lot going on, but everyone deserves to be happy. That’s important.”

Wilbur wasn’t sure if the sentiment broke his heart or poorly repaired it with some blue duct tape. “I’m sorry, Niki. For what I did.”

“Thank you, Wilbur.” Niki just said, she smiled slightly, though Wilbur wasn’t sure if his apology had gotten through. “Get some rest, alright? You still look exhausted.”

“I can talk a lil’ bit longer,” Wilbur yawned after saying the words. He caused so much pain to Niki that he wanted to at least talk for a few minutes more. Perhaps make those minutes count more than the ones in his past lives. Cherish the moment in a way.

But Niki only looked sympathetically at him. The pity, saying more than she ever could, “Can and should are two different things, Wil.”

“Aww,” Wilbur rolled his eyes. “Fine, I’ll rephrase that. I should stay up a bit longer.”

Niki sighed in a way that could have been considered a melancholic laugh, “You really shouldn’t.” The words were quiet, genuine concern showing through them.

With the waves of exhaustion washing over Wilbur, he laid back in the bed. Although the pillow wasn’t very soft, he leaned into it gratefully, his eyes closing along the way.

“Good night, Wilbur.” Niki sat up from the bed, pulling the blanket slightly more over Wilbur. A small smile came across Wilbur’s face. He thought about returning the good night back to her, but he already fell into a dreamless sleep.

[amintyworld]

My Official Dream SMPsona: Flower

(I heard some of you guys wanted to see this, and this was pretty fun to make. Ask box is open, I’d love to talk about her more. I’ll have to work at drawing her later this week, so be on the lookout for that! Anyway, hope you enjoy! - Minty)

------------------------------

Name: Flower

Age: 16

Gender: Female

Sexuality: Straight Demisexual

Joined: September 22, 2020

Current Cannon Lives: 2/3

Alignment: Neutral Good

Fighting: Only skilled with a bow/crossbow, otherwise is absolutely terrible at PVP.

Look: Short brown hair, dark blue eyes, pale skin, black framed glasses, dark blue sweatshirt with black leggings and blue sneakers. Either wearing a light pink flower crown or a random flower in her hair.

-------------------------------

Quotes:

“I am NOT weak! Don’t you ever DARE call me weak!”

“You know what they say, Tubbo: Tomorrow is always another day, and it’ll probably be a better one.”

“I help because… because… because I want to. I need to. So many people are hurting, and I… I just didn’t want to add to that. If so much bad happened, we need a little good to balance, don’t we?”

“My name is Flower and I speak for the trees!”

“These are my cat babies, hurt them and you die.”

“STOP! Just… just stop, stop it please, I...I dunno what to choose, I don’t… I don’t want to choose, don’t MAKE me choose!”

“You deserve a grave, Ghostbur. Everyone deserves to be remembered, no matter what. It’s not about what they did while they were alive, they were people. They deserve to be remembered as a person. A person who tried.”

“You know Philza Minecraft, you’re pretty cool.”

-----------------------------------

Fun Facts / Headcanons:

Extremely Indecisive, especially when it comes to joining a group because she doesn’t want to hurt any of her friends. She always wants to make the right decision, but as the choices turn more grey she can get stressed and put pressure on herself, always worried about doing something wrong that sometimes she’ll go into a full panic attack. This can lead to frustration when she seems to just be helping all of them instead of just choosing one.

Always ready to help and lend materials to others whenever they need.

Has a cat named Rose and another named Lavender, is self-proclaimed ‘Cat-Mom’.

Loves giving gifts to anyone at any time for whatever reason - she loves making others happy, as well as giving others something to remember her by when she’s gone.

Made the land around her house a nature preserve and went to court over the matter when someone chopped down her birch tree.

Has a book full of inspirational quotes that she sometimes uses in conversation.

Is often called “weak” for her PvP skills by Schlatt, Dream, and a few times even Techno, which got under her skin all too quickly, leading her to desperately try to constantly prove them wrong, getting angry and upset when it doesn’t work. This leads to many of them picking on her and pushing her around since she can’t exactly fight back.

Always sees the good in everyone, even some of the darkest villains, which many say is naive. She sees people like Wilbur, Schlatt, Dream - as people hurting and in need of help. Of course, she doesn’t try to excuse what they’ve done, but she doesn’t like when people call them evil or monsters, because to her they’re not. Everyone has good inside of them, they’ve just lost that part of themselves, even ignoring it.

She lives by the golden rule and didn’t like when people celebrated Schlatt’s death or Tommy’s and made no gravestone for Wilbur. Treat people the way you want to be treated - do you want people to celebrate your death, or to never memorialize you or even give you a proper burial?

When her friends and allies turn against her, she’s never mad at them. Just disappointed in what they let themselves become, and holds no ill-will toward any of them.

After the Manburg v Pogtopia War, seeing all the heartbreak, destruction, and hurt that was caused she committed herself to spread a bit of happiness around, to bring it all back to balance and help people recover - planting flowers around New L’manburg, helping Phil settle in as well as helping to rebuild.

She grows closer with Phil and Tubbo during this time - Phil appreciated her kind spirit and help, which he said he’d repay tenfold, and Tubbo liked her support and help to rebuild, especially when he was forced to exile Tommy, she reminded her Dream put them in a tough spot, that there wasn’t much of a choice.

She turned her protected lands into a healing garden and invited any who needed it to visit - she added a bench swing and a small pond.

She once followed Phil to find Techno, and the two panicked, Technoblade almost killing her before Phil stepped in, vouching for her. She promised not to say anything if it would put them more at ease. When questioned by Technoblade on her intentions, her answer was pretty simple: “Look, I don’t really understand why you did what you did. You hurt a lot of people and caused a lot of pain. But I don’t feel like it’s my place to judge you, I don’t know the story and I don’t think it’s my story to know. I’m glad you’re okay, Technoblade.”

When she goes against the Butcher Army, Quackity pushes her around, asking what she thinks she’s going to do against four people with netherite armor and axes. She tries to fight but as always she gets beat up pretty badly. Finally, she just turns to look at Tubbo. “Look at what you’re doing, Tubbo. Please, this isn’t the way.” When they go toward Phil, she steps in front to protect him as the tensions rise and she loses a cannon life by Quackity after he gets so mad at her protests he snaps and gets rid of her.

After he escapes she goes to meet Technoblade in secret, asking for training. She realized that if she was going to do any good, she needed to get stronger. They make a deal for him to train her, but in return, she’ll have to be his eyes in New L’manburg in order to help out Phil. She agrees.

She continues to train as the days pass and eventually she helps Phil escape and get back to the safety of Techno’s house. The training continues when Techno has the time.

When both her teacher and her close friend side with Dream to destroy her home, she tells them that she won’t stop them or betray them, but she needed to protect her home, that her friends needed her. When Technoblade insisted that this was a betrayal, she reminded him that it wasn’t, that for the longest time she supported him and helped him even though she didn’t always agree with him, and now she’s asking that he does the same. She gives them some gapples and a couple of potions. “I’ll see you both on the other side. I’m sorry. Just… be careful, and do what you have to do.”

She moves her stuff just in case, knowing her friends, and cries with the others over the destruction of her home. When Phil finds her after, wanting to talk after his interaction with Ghostbur, she tells him that it isn’t the best time right now, trying to force a smile. “Hey, look - I’m happy for you, Phil. I’m happy that you succeeded, I just need a bit more than a minute, okay? We’ll talk tomorrow.”

She gives both Tubbo and Tommy on the Final Confrontation Day each a cookie and wishes them the best of luck, and was there, willing to risk another life to protect Tommy and Tubbo and stop Dream from causing more hurt and destruction than he already has.

[ruby-whistler]

Are you normal or do u sometimes go "IVE BEEN SCARED OF SLEEPING WITH THE LIGHTS ON(off? Idk its hard to decipher)"/lyrics -curious anon

me: oh boy, can't wait to try and make a tumblr blog! Before i do i should research it- *what in the hecking heck is an xkit*

djskdjsk i had no idea what an xkit was until yesterday and when i got it i got too confused and uninstalled it - dw curious anon i don’t use it either i just vibe and do whatever i guess. if you tag correctly and make good posts things should work out, can’t wait to see your acc around!

I got some sad-ist merch :DDD!!

yooo!! that’s so pog for you! it’s probably pretty comfy :D

me standing ominously in your askbox waiting to rec my fav fics:

fjsjdjsk i literally just finished passerine i still have 80 more (some of which are like 300k words long) on my to-read but uh if they have c!dream mischaracterized i’ll not be reading them anyways so it’s very hit-or-miss, will probably get through some of them quicker-

After many moons spent under the dsmp, seeing discourse and analysis alike, i have come to the conclusion i simply do not have the energy to care about any lore outside of c!tubbo and c!tommy's and will only defend them. And that is ok. It is ok to not watch or care about all dsmp or want to discourse about them or analyze. Idk man was thinking deep thoughts today

it’s ok to watch entertainment and enjoy it the way you want to! it’s great to want to enjoy or talk about your fav character!

the problems come up when you attack other people for their perspectives on the medium or spread misinformation about different characters based on only watching the perspective you like, but you know - if you’re not doing analysis, you really don’t need to look that deep into it.

it’s ok to just chill. your feelings about characters are valid! :D so yeah i agree with you! let people with different opinions exist if they’re also being respectful (e. g. tagging correctly).

Hey ik u worked with animgician's newest vid and i found a not-crit (i rlly think) little thought on it if u wanna see it

yoo feel free to send it in!!

No one: me: *shuffles around* wanna hear about my cool warden c!tommy au?

may i interest u in a little bit of my writing? If not that is ok i just wanna see if my writing is any good before working on a fic lol

Anyways if i am not in the askbox for a little it is because i am now writing a proper fic thing out. Wish me luck o7 -curious anon (i have three different lyrics i am going to be incorporating and a little analysis and just a smidgen of projection)

Ruby do u wanna read a little something i wrote? *does the little fingers thing* its really short just a headcanon with a little prose

i sure do! that sounds rlly cool - are you sure you don't wanna make a post about that on your own account though? i don't mind seeing it at all but i think the c!tommy tag would be able to appreciate that au better than my followers. you've gotta find the right target audience, y'know? /lh

though of course i'd love to see your writing, i'm sure it's great! looking forward to it :]

Ayo i remembered u talking about how punitive punishment doesn't work the other day so i want to discuss. What would u consider to be a fitting "punishment" for c!dream's canonic killing of mexican dream?/gen

i mean... we're not trying to - being against punitive justice is about the fact punishment is wrong, not just certain types of it. asking me what a "fitting punishment" would be is sort of very not getting the point.

hurting people further is not going to teach them anything and it’s not going to help anyone, why is it necessary?

so the answer is: none. he shouldn’t be punished, actually! he should learn on his own that what he did wasn’t right, and that’s about it. that’s the thing about transformative justice. him becoming a better person who Wouldn’t Do That again because it goes against who he is.

however, there’s also restorative justice, which is working to “make it up” to the victims. to which i propose; dream has the revival book and could literally bring him back once he is out of the prison. give him some powder maybe. md would probably be chill w/ that.

Yknow. In all my time in dsmpblr i can confidently say that the main differnece between c!dream apologist/enthusiants and c!wilbur/sam ones is that the c!wilbur/c!sam ones want their fav to have a breakdown and c!dream ones want theirs to get positive reinforcement /hj /lh

i’m pretty sure the sam and wil ones also want them to get better/get redeemed, at least deep down, but i get what you mean! you’re *glances at the 🟩⛏ gc where all we do 24/7 is write angst about c!dream being terribly hurt and then we cry about it* 100% correct. no angsters who like the pain here *nervously laughs* we all just want him to heal and be happy for the rest of his life with no heart-shattering breakdowns whatsoever! /s /lh

Hope ur having a great day m8 :]] -curious anon (also i have a new canon fact i wanna share. In quackity's alt lore stream yesterday he said (to the best of my memory) that "no law/juridsiction exists on the dream smp to prevent one from building anywhere" so i guess that clears up the big debate on wheather or not c!dream had a right to enforce rules (or basically the arguement that he owned the server by divine rule)

no i’m - i’m pretty sure that’s just how it works. dream still owns the smp, but he himself has said wayy back at the beginning “everyone can build and go wherever they want” and that was that. it was one of his rules on the smp, it was his main problem with l’manberg. being able to build anywhere were the rules that he “had the right” to enforce. and he did, not because he was a god, but because it was his smp, his home that he claimed for his friends. wouldn’t call it a big debate, it’s really that simple.

.AGONY. HURT EVEN. THIS IS HOW IT IS FOR CURIOUS ANON. I LAUGH, I CRY, I FIND AN ANIMATED GIF ON TWITTER THAT SQUEEZES MY C!TOMMY ENJOYER HEART INTO OBLIVION. (i am being dramatic btw for the funnies just so ya know) I AM NOT GOING TO FINANICALLY RECOVER FROM THIS. AAAAAAAAAAA UEEEEEEE

OK THAT FREAKING

O U C H-

also for the old phil ask. Hes a bad dad because of how he treated ghostbur. I will elaborate if u want

didn’t ghostbur just say “i’m not wilbur” and philza said “you’re not my son” and they went on with their day? weren’t they actually in agreement that he wasn’t the same as wil when he was alive? i don’t remember him really treating him badly tbh other than disowning him which seems fair to me, because ghostbur was a literal stranger to phil at that point?

wish you a nice day, curious anon! (i’ll be back on my essays and answering other asks now, so i might not reply right away :])

[foryouthegays]

summary of ‘nothing bad ever happens at festivals. [Dream SMP]’

live commentary comin out in a minute or so!!! 

Techno starts the stream making Invis potions, and talks to Phil. Phil lends Techno his riptide trident. Phil tells Techno that he’s going to build a farm, and they talk for a few minutes before Tommy joins and they talk about discs. 

Technoblade gives Tommy potions, and the Axe of Peace. Phil leaves the VC, and TnT finally start rowing towards the festival, and talk about their plan. They agree to try and get the discs back, and destroy L’manburg at the first chance possible. However, they start arguing when Techno says that if there’s a chance, they will kill Tubbo. Tommy freaks out, and says that they’re getting the disc off of Dream, and to not kill Tubbo. 

Techno reveals that he isn’t against Dream, and is instead against the government. They reach land, and find a strange structure, and Techno observes that it looks like a prison. They continue walking, and end up at Tommy’s vacation home.  After taking their hats off for Henry, Tommy finds signs that read, ‘My parents named me after a Minecraft Block so I griefed you,’ and another that said ‘sighed - Clay :) (that is why the blocks are clay)’

Tommy goes inside and doesn’t see any griefing, so they keep moving to L’Manburg. While Tommy watches from the Bee Sanctuary, Techno gets closer to the festival and tries to find Ranboo. Ranboo takes them to a cave, and talks about the games, the meaning of the festival, and who’s coming. He mentions that Dream will be respecting the laws of L’Manburg, and Tommy remembers that one of the original laws was that no one is allowed to wear armor, and if Dream is respecting the laws, he would be vulnerable to attack. 

While exploring and trying to find a place to watch, Techno spots Dream and runs to hide. He watches as Dream places obsidian and they find a good spot to observe the festival. They join the VC and find Dream getting confronted by Tubbo, Fundy, Ranboo, and others. Dream says that Tommy fucked up, and takes them to the Community house. They find it blown up, fully destroyed. Techno yells at Tommy in chat, and Tommy denies any involvement in its destruction. 

Dream continues yelling about Tommy, saying that the house is the oldest building on the server, and that everything is Tommys’ fault. He finally calms down and starts talking about a plan. He says that Tommy has to pay for his actions, and goes back to the historical and cultural significance of the building. 

Techno and Tommy are still talking in chat. Techno says that this was bad, and that the entire server will unify against Tommy, and that they’d have to do a 50v2, which implies that Techno will stand with Tommy. 

Dream comes back around to the Discs, saying that he needs both discs to keep Tommy under control. Quackity, and a few others, start talking about how it isn’t their fault, and they shouldn’t be walled in because Dream couldn’t keep Tommy in exile. Dream continues trying to get Tubbo to give him the disc, saying that the servers conflict will never be resolved if Tommy thinks he can get his discs back. 

(00:40:40) Tommy reveals himself, and Techno follows soon after. He defends Tommy, saying, “Tommy wouldn’t lie to me, ok? He said he didn’t do it, he wouldn’t lie to me.” 

Dream interrupts, “he- he lied about burning down George’s house!”

“He wouldn’t lie to ME, Dream. He’d lie to you, but he wouldn’t lie to me!” 

Dream and Techno continue arguing, and Tubbo finally steps up and almost takes out the disc to give to Dream. Tommy punches him, and they start fighting. Tubbo tells Tommy that he’s untrustworthy, and that their friendship might not be a recoverable thing anymore. Tommy tries to explain what happened, tries to tell Tubbo how he was treated and how betrayed he felt when Tubbo didn’t visit him, but Tubbo doesn’t seem to care. Tubbo yells at Tommy, telling him that everything comes back to him, and not in a good way. 

Their arguing continues, and their trust in each other, and their friendship, shatters as everyone watches. They talk of betrayal, and lies, and eventually start fighting. 

Techno advises against fighting, but lets Tommy make his own choice. When Tommy starts the fight, Techno splashes potions on himself and starts to fight the people surrounding them. Tommy tells Tubbo that the discs were worth more than Tubbo, and Tubbo gives Dream the disc, at Tommys request. 

Tommy tells Techno he’s sorry, and joins Tubbo and L’manburg. Techno yells at Tommy, saying that just because he said Tommy didn’t have to help take down L’Manburg, that didn’t mean Tommy could switch sides and betray him. 

Techno tells Tommy to think about his decision, and Tommy decides to stay with L’Manburg. Betrayed, Techno looks around, and resorts to his last true ally: violence. He asks everyone who wants to go first, and Dream interrupts him. Dream calls Tubbo an idiot, saying that he isn’t a president, and that Quackity is more presidential than he is. He continues, and Techno encourages Dream, occasionally adding on to his bullying. 

And then, Dream says the one thing that brought Techno onto his side: “you just gave me the ONE THING I needed to destroy L’manburg.” 

In chat, Techno thinks about this. He tells us, ‘im liking where this is going,’ and you can tell that his alignment is fitting perfectly into Dreams speech. 

Dream continues berating Tubbos role as president, and reveals that Ranboo is a traitor. He shows Tubbo the book, and Techno denies that Ranboo corresponded with him at all. 

Dream goes back to yelling at Tubbo, and this time, Techno joins in much more often. 

Dream turns to Techno. “Techno. Got any Withers?”

Techno smiles as he agrees, and Dream and Techno ally together.

the crowd around them begs for mercy, but it’s been decided. Without even calling in a favor, Dream and Techno ally to destroy L’Manburg. Dream tells Tubbo and Tommy that at 3 PM tomorrow, L’Manburg was going to be destroyed. 

Dream leaves, and Techno is left to deal with the group himself. They start trying to fight him, but he manages to calm them down, and starts to talk to Tommy. 

00:52:30.

“Tommy. Give me back my axe. You’re not worthy, I was wrong.”

“...no. No! You know what, Technoblade? I am worthy. And you’re not- you’re not gonna side with Dream to take down L’Manburg, are you.”

“I- I’ve been so transparent about how I’m going to destroy the government, I’ve explained my reasons, like, I’m destroying it because of a, b, c, they executed me, they betrayed me, you betrayed me... you know what, Tommy? You’ve made a decision today that can’t be undone, and you know what? I respect you, Tommy. You’re free to make your own choices, wrong as they are, that’s what anarchy is about. It’s about freedom, to do what you want. But all I have to say, Tommy, is that I hope you don’t come to regret it.”

Techno leaves. He pearls to the portal, and runs home, wondering how to contact Dream. He finds Phil at home, and updates him on the situation. Dream finds them, and they talk about their plans. Dream wants to duplicate TNT, and asks if Techno has withers. He gets the stone button, and they walk to the Vault together. 

He opens the vault, and there’s only enough for six withers. Dream is impressed, but why is Techno hiding his true stash of skulls? Techno opens his ender chest and shows off the rest to the viewers, two stacks and seventeen, but doesn’t tell or show Dream. 

They talk, and Techno says that he’s confident that they can fight the server. He says that Dream’ll destroy everything, and he’ll hold off everyone else. Dream says that he has another part to the plan, that guaruntees their victory, but he can’t tell Techno until tomorrow. Techno once again shows the audience the hidden skulls.

Techno shows Dream the Vaults redstone, and then Dream leaves. Phil and Techno continue talking, and Techno remembers that Tommy knows about the wolf army and all of his plans. Phil realizes that Tommy switched sides, and Techno starts ranting about how Tommy took his axe. 

at around 01:03:00, Ghostbur joins the call, and things get a lot less tense. Techno and Phil shelter him from the knowledge of the wars going on.  Ghostbur reveals that he has canonical access to twitch and youtube (he’s able to see through their eyes, meaning he’s watching their streams), and the group laughs at the implications of that. 

Techno mocks Tommy for switching sides, saying, ‘oh, i haven’t been betrayed by these government guys enough, I’m going to switch sides, take Technos axe, totally betray the one guy who stood by me, because I am a fooliSH CHILD.’ Techno then tells Phil that he’s his only friend, because Phil doesn’t betray him. 

Techno decides to go back to L’Manburg and get his wolves, fearing someone finding and taking, or killing, them. Phil joins him, and Techno reveals to Phil that he hid most of the skulls, and that he doesn’t trust Dream. 

He then starts talking about how he can’t even trust trust alone anymore, and that he has to have a common interest with the person. Phil agrees, and stands by his decision to destroy L’Manburg. 

Phil sees the bombed community house, and Techno reveals that most people think it was Tommy who bombed it. Ghostbur asks if he’s ok, and Techno says he’s fine. 

While in the sewers, Techno and Phil see a ton of nametags and go quicker, and Techno starts realizing what a huge task he’s going to be a part of in destroying L’Manburg. He lists who he’s going to be against, and ghostbur inserts his name, because he thinks Techno is just listing names. 

Phil finally gets to see Techno’s Wolf Army, and he’s impressed. Techno starts moving all the dogs, and once again he starts making fun of Tommy. 

Techno shows Phil another area of the Wolf Army, which the viewers hadn’t seen before. He sits all the wolves down and tells us to not snitch on the location of the wolves. 

Right after Techno brought the last dog to the cave, Fundy spots him. 

Techno pauses, and sends the message, ‘Run.’ in chat. He chases after Fundy, and kills him. They run, and Techno sends a totally effective diversion in chat, telling everyone that he just saw Techno at Pogtopia. 

Eret spots them, and they finally make it to the nether just before Eret can catch up. 

They almost get caught by Jack Manifold, but he doesn’t see them before they make it through the portal. Once back home, they use the sellout bell, and then Techno ends the stream.

[unnamed-atlas]

God people really still be like 'Techno's in the wrong' even after seeing

Techno tell Ghostbur, who is already dead and can't get hurt, that he needs to get away from Techno's house bc he knows that the people of L'manburg will turn on anyone who's friends with him and he wants to keep Ghostbur safe

Techno telling the butcher army of L'manburg that he does not want to fight them and that he'd only resort to it if they refused to leave him alone

Techno immediately dropping everything he was doing the second he saw Quackity with Carl and giving up practically everything including his freedom just to keep the horse safe because he knew Big Q wasn't fucking around when he said he would kill Carl bc the people of L'manburg had slayed his innocent animals in punishment for his crimes before

Techno being brought into L'manburg to be executed and immediately, instead of worrying about himself, trying to find out if Phil was alright bc Phil was his best friend and, again, L'manburg doesn't exactly treat his friends nicely

Techno not even planning to fight Quackity at first when he comes looking for him after the failed execution, despite the many ways Quackity had wronged him and his friends in the last 20 minutes, and only resorting to fighting back when he was threatened and attacked

The government that Techno has opposed since the beginning committing the exact abuses of power he's said they would since day one, hurting not only Techno, but Tommy, Phil, and all of the people who are a part of the government who wouldn't be under nearly as much stress or dealing with nearly as many large scale political life or death decisions if there was no government

[strawberrylemonz]

Tonight’s Showing

Part 1 [CURRENT]

Part 2

DT: @bargledblocks my beloved <3 and @snapdragonfirefly my beloved <3

------------The screaming and yelling tore into his mind, filling him with pain. The screams, Tommy’s screams, called out to him, begging for him to save him. He didn’t want to leave the boy there, he never even dreamed of such a thing! That stupid security issue that occured a week ago had started all this, and Sam hated every bit of it. He didn’t know what to do in the situation. What was there to do? 

“SAAAAAAAAAMMMMMMMMMM!!!!!!”

His eyes widened at the tone of Tommy’s voice coming through to him from the communicator. Tommy sounded terrified. He couldn’t do it, he couldn’t wait any longer. Rushing through the halls towards the main cell, Sam was fully prepared to get Tommy out of there. Fueled by the screams, he stumbled into the room, flipping the switch to undo the lava. His fear and adrenaline only grew the moment the screams fell silent. Why was Tommy silent? Before he could even see the lava fall, however, a bright light momentarily blinded him. Upon regaining his sight and senses, he was quick to draw his weapon, only to realize he had no weapons or armor on him. The only thing he had were his everyday clothes.

“Why am I here? Where is here?”

He quickly turned around to see that he was not alone in this confusing predicament. Everyone from the server was appearing into the strange room, all panicked and confused. Ranboo quickly rushed to check on Tubbo, who appeared to be digging around his pockets for some form of protection. Ghostbur, Techno, and Phil stuck close to each other, the latter two wary and ready to fight. Heck, even Drista was there! Everyone was the same, armorless and weaponless. Everyone, including-

SMACK!

Everyone turned to watch as Sapnap’s fist flew threw the air, connecting to a familiar mask. Dream. Dream struggled against Sapnap for a moment, his mask as crazed as his movements. Before the two could exchange any more punches, an invisible force separated the former friends. As the two regained their senses, everyone could get a good look at the freed prisoner. Whether the blood on him was from the altercation with Sapnap or not, no one knew. Standing there, mask facing mask, Drista could only stare as she questioned her older brother.

“What did you do?”

“He did something despicable and disgusting.”

The unfamiliar voice caught everyone’s attention, causing them to turn and face the direction of it. Standing there was a petite woman, watching them. Studying all their expressions, she snorted as she turned to face Dream, who was trying to walk forward. 

“Don’t even try leaving that small area, Dream, you can’t. Then again, I’d enjoy seeing you struggle, Bitch Boy.”

“Who are you?”

“Didn’t Tommy tell you guys? Wait, I forgot that none of you ever took him seriously when he mentioned me. The name’s Clara, I’m the lady in the sky.”

Lani played with her fingers, unsure of what to say or do. Sticking close to her brother, she gathered her confidence before speaking to the mysterious “lady in the sky”.

“Excuse me? Clara? Did you bring us here?”

“Yes! Well, with a little help, of course.”

Clara smiled as a grand being glitched into the room, his white orb of a head spinning in delight. Stopping the orb from spinning, his shoulders shook in joy as his prominent ‘XD’ presented itself to everyone there. Techno and Phil pressed their lips together as they shared a knowing look, obviously not expecting to see the god once again.

“Oh, you make me blush, Clara.”

“I do no such thing, we both know that. Did you give unhacked access for the others to join us?”

“Yes, they should be here any moment now.”

“Wonderful.”

Just then, a dark door emerged from the ground. Watched as the knob twisted and jiggled, the residents of the server didn’t know what to expect. When the door opened, however, they could only watch in confusion. Everyone, that is, aside from Phil and Techno, who happily rushed to her side.

“Kristin!”

Said woman smiled and giggled as Phil gathered her in his arms, planting kisses on her face as his broken wings flapped in excitement. Her own wings, white and pure, happily fluttered behind her as she returned the gesture. Pulling away, she turned to face Techno, a hand on his face as she smiled.

“And how is my eldest child?”

“Eh, you know. Here and there.”

“Here and there, indeed.”

“I’m sorry, what is going on here.”

Quackity watched the scene unfold in genuine confusion. Who was this lady named Kristin? Why was she so important to both Phil and Techno? Where did she even come from? He wasn’t the only one confused, pretty much everyone in the room was. Smiling as she stood in front of both men, Kristin hummed as she extended her arms in a welcoming manner.

“My apologies, I forgot to introduce myself! Hello, my name is Kristin! I’m the wife of Phil, as well as the mother of Technoblade, Wilbur, and Tommy! I’m also Death itself.”

“I’m sorry, Philza Minecraft fucked death?!”

“Wait, Techno is Phil’s kid?! I thought they were just business partners!”

“Business partners? I thought they were just besties!”

“I’m still not over the fact that Techno is related to Wilbur and Tommy.”

“I knew about Tommy being brothers with those two, as well as being Phil’s son, but I didn’t know about death being his mother! You’d think he’d tell me, given that I’m his best friend!”

“You knew?!”

“Duh.”

“And you never corrected us?!”

“Thought it was just a dumb inside joke.”

Ignoring the chaos caused by those around her, Kristin made her way to Fundy, who was frozen in uncertainty. Smiling as she placed her hands on both sides of his face, Kristin gave the fox hybrid a sincere greeting.

“My my, what a lovely young man. It’s finally great to meet you, Fundy. Look at you, I’m so proud to call you my first grandchild.”

She knew that her words caused her husband to flinch, it’s what she intended. As much as she loved and adored her significant other, she did find it sad that Fundy was denied the right to be loved. He deserved to feel loved and important, because he was.

“I can’t wait to learn all about you during the free periods! Oh! Speaking of grandchildren, silly me.”

They watched as Kristin made her way back to her opened door. Peering in, she spoke out in a gentle voice.

“Twins? Can you two please come out? Grandma will make sure no one hurts you two.”

Everyone watched as two small figures made their way out of the door, tiny hands holding onto one another. Watching as the door disappeared back into the ground, the twins turned to face Kristin. Humming, she gathered the two in her arms as she presented them to the room.

“Family, not family, meet Clementine and William-”

“Hn.”

“-I’m sorry, love. Meet Clementine and Wilbur! They’re technically Tommy’s children, born from the debris of his star.”

“I’m sorry, his star?”

“That will be revealed soon enough, no worries.”

Clementine just glared at the occupants of the room, her pigtailed hair bouncing as she turned to make sure everyone saw her expression. Wilbur, on the other hand, opted to hide behind his curled hair, painted in the same blond color as his sister’s. 

“Did he name his son after his dead brother? Because if so, that did not age well-”

“Fuck you!”

Everyone watched with apaled expressions as Clementine glared Dream down, flipping him off with her tiny fingers. Kristin shook her head in mock annoyance as Clara belted out in laughter, XD following in suit. Doing her best to regain her composure, Clara spoke up once again.

“Oh my Me, she certainly is Tommy’s daughter.”

“Well, as much as I don’t enjoy hearing my youngest son and my only granddaughter curse out their issues, she did do it in her brother’s and uncle’s honor, so I’ll let it slide.”

“Hehe.”

“Go on, go sit with your cousin.”

“M’kay!”

Kristin set the twins down back on the ground, smiling as Clementine immediately took her brother’s hand in her own. Pulling him along, the two happily ran up to Fundy, smiling as they did so. The moment was interrupted by Quackity, who was unsure of everything.

“As great as witnessing this family reunion was, why are we all here?”

Sam nodded as he agreed with Quackity, speaking up as he gave Dream a pointed look.

“Not to be rude, but I agree. Something happened back in the prison, and I haven’t been able to see what.”

“Ah, yes. That is exactly why we’re here. Kristin, XD, if you will.”

The two nodded at Clara before taking each other’s hands. Closing her eyes, Kristin began mumbling as XD stood there, waiting. Once Kristin finished her mumbling, XD released one of his hands from her, drawing invisible signs on the air. Once he was done, both deities gave a synchronized nod. Rumbling was heard as a tunnel emerged out of nothing. A train emerged from it, coming to a sudden stop. As the doors slowly opened, everyone froze as they watched the occupants walk out, confused and cautious. 

“Wilbur?”

“Schlatt?!”

“And me, MD!”

Before anyone else could make a move or sound, Clara spoke up once more.

“As much as I want more of these sweet reunions to occur, we really do need to get a move on. Now, I am very tired of everyone treating my poor starchild with such unjust unfairness. Don’t get me wrong, Tommy does make mistakes and his narrative is in his perspective, but come on! Blaming everything on him? This is getting ridiculous at this point! Now, you are all going to sit here and feel and hear everything he did! I, alongside Kristin and XD, will be monitoring you all. And Dream? Don’t make me go over there.”

Without warning, the environment completely changed. The group suddenly found themselves in the vast emptiness of space. They didn’t know what they were looking for, no one but Kristin. Said woman could only grimace as she nodded to herself, unconsciously touching her stomach.

“I remember this.”

“Remember what-?”

“WHAT THE FUCK?!”

The group turned to see another Kristin scream out in pain, her hand resting on the bump of the belly. They watched as she tried to take a step, only to double down in pain again.

“FUCK YOU, PHIL. HOLY SHIT, I’M GONNA PUNCH YOUR FACE SO MANY TIMES.”

Phil grimaced as he leaned away from his wife, who laughed as she kept sikeing him out with her fist. Wilbur snickered at the sight. Turning back to the scene before them, they watched as Clara quickly rushed to Kristin’s sign, obviously not enjoying her distress.

“Clara, I- Ah! I don’t think- think I can make it to the bo-OOOOOOAH! The boys! I know I promised, but I can’t.”

“Phil will understand, dear. Breathe with me, in and out, okay? I don’t know a thing about human childbirth, but I know starchildbirth. Allow me to help, okay? I don’t like to see you in pain, and neither would your husband or sons.”

“Hurry!”

Clara pulled out a small orb from her pocket, holding it in the palm of her hand. Gently holding it against Kristin’s belly. Closing her eyes, she mumbled as the dull like of the orb brightened, growing in size as it did so.

“What is she doing?”

“That orb in my hand? That’s a dying star that I collected that morning. I’m using it to dub Tommy a starchild so that Kristin wouldn’t struggle with giving birth.”

Kristin let out a sigh of relief, her screams and sobs subsiding. Taking deep breaths to try and calm herself, she rubbed her face as she tried to wipe away her tears. Mumbling out a thank you, she watched as Clara extended the bright orb to her.

“Here he is, a healthy little boy! He’ll shine brighter than the sun, I’m certain of it.”

Kristin smiled as she took the orb into her own hands, watching as the light dimmed, revealing the newly born child. Tufts of blond hair poked out of his head as she adjusted the blanket. Kristin couldn’t help but let more tears fall as she held him close, kissing his forehead.

“He already looks so much like his father. Oh, Phil will be upset that he missed this.”

“Go and see your family, I’ll cover your shift for you.”

“Thank you.”

Kristin summoned a door, adjusting her youngest son as she walked through it. Navigating through the dark void, she came across another door. Opening the door, she stepped outside into a secluded area in the woods. Walking down the path, she approached the cozy cottage that proudly stood there. Knocking on the door, she cooed at the child in her arms as she waited for the door to open.

“Kristin?”

“Meet your son, Phil. He looks so much like you.”

The group watched as Phil dropped everything in his hands, startling his sons from the other room. Holding his newborn son and wife in his arms, he wept tears of joy as a tiny Wilbur and Techno rushed in, prepared for the worst. Seeing that it was only their mother, their worried looks morphed into joyful expressions.

“Mum!”

“Mom!”

“My boys! Come, meet your new brother.”

The two boys staggered for a bit, eyes widening at the revelation of the newest addition of the family. Watching as Phil and Kristin stared down at the bundle with great love and joy, they couldn’t help but feel excited at the sight. 

“Can we hold him?”

“Of course, just be gentle with him, okay boys?”

“M’kay.”

The twins carefully cradled the bundle in both their arms, working together to keep him safe and secure in their arms. Watching the sleeping child, they were in awe at the sight.’

“He has golden hair! Just like papa!”

“Gold! Gold! Gold!”

Kristin and Phil both laughed as they watched, joy and love filling them. Humming, Phil spoke up in a gentle tone.

“Well? What’re you two gonna name him?”

The twins just watched their baby brother as he slept soundly in their arms. Suddenly, startling the twins, their new brother yawned and squirmed in their arms. Rubbing his eyes with his tiny fists, he blinked his eyes open for the first time. Blinking up at them, he tilted his head as he squirmed. It wasn’t until Wilbur spoke up that he reacted.

“Tommy. Let’s call him Tommy.”

Everyone gasped as the feeling of immense love and wonder filled them, something they weren’t prepared for. Doing their best to cope with the feeling, they watched as the baby let out gurgles of giggles, reaching for his brothers. It was only then that they realized that Tommy was a very emotion-driven person, and they were going to feel every bit of that.