#c block story

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C Block Story (Poveste la scara 'C') (2003) Cristian Nemescu

July 5th 2024

[ghosts-and-blue-sweaters]

stormy skies and your hand in mine

Read on A03!!

~~~

A crack of thunder booms overhead—not a crash of thunder. A crack. Crashes of thunder are more quiet, and they build up, steadily, and they’re not startling. Actually, crashes of thunder sound quite nice; it’s like a song that nature sings, similar to leaves rustling except much more different.

Cracks of thunder on the other hand, are sudden, and loud, and very, very startling. 

Ghostbur jumps next to Tommy, feet leaving the ground for a millisecond before they land, creating a wet noise against the blades of grass. Not quite a splash, because there’s no puddle, but a wet noise all the same. 

Tommy doesn’t jump. Ghostbur doesn’t think Dream does, either. In fact, both of them have been quiet for a little while.

Ghostbur looks from Dream to Tommy and back again, before clearing his throat. “This is a pretty big storm.”

Tommy blinks slowly, glancing up at the sky. After a second, he looks back down, and he doesn’t say anything.

Ghostbur swallows, turning to Dream. “It’s a pretty big storm. Isn’t it, Dream?” 

Dream’s mask glistens with a constant run of raindrops. They slide off of the bottom and drip down to his boots. Drip, drip, drip. “It is.” 

Ghostbur lifts his head back to Dream’s mask (he’d been watching the falling raindrops) at the sound of his voice, cool and calm. Not unlike the raindrops, actually. 

Ghostbur blinks. “The thunder is very loud.”

“It is,” Dream says again. 

“A crack, not a crash.”

Dream tilts his head, and somehow, the smile on his mask looks a little bit scary. 

Ghostbur looks away and down at Tommy. “Maybe there will be lightning! Oh, and maybe we can watch the lighting in the sky, and we can watch everything light up in white for a second before it goes back to being dark.”

Tommy doesn’t say anything. He doesn’t even look at Ghostbur; he just stares, though at what, Ghostbur can’t be sure. Perhaps the ground. Oh, or perhaps the water sliding down Dream’s mask, collecting in a puddle at his boots! Perhaps that is what Tommy is looking at. 

A sudden hiss brings Ghostbur’s attention away from Tommy and waterdrops, and he flings his hand about, trying to dispel the water that had landed on it. It’s a good thing that he brought a blanket with him! Otherwise he would be much more wet, and much more loud (his skin hisses when water hits it, which means that his skin is melting, because his skin does that around water. He has very strange skin, as a ghost. Alivebur never melted). 

No, it’s a good thing that he brought a blanket from Tommy’s tent, and it’s a good thing that he’s holding the blanket over his head like an oversized hat, and it’s a good thing that the blanket is blocking the water from hitting him. Or, most of the water, at least; a few stray drops still make their way through, but that’s okay, because they don’t hurt very much. 

“Why are we out here?” he asks, making sure the blanket is tucked nice and good under his chin. “It’s a little rainy to be going for a walk, isn’t it?”

“We’re uh, we’re not going on a walk, Ghostbur.” Dream chuckles when he talks, and that makes him seem not-scary. Ghostbur’s hold on the blanket relaxes a little bit.

“Oh? Then what are we doing outside?” When he doesn’t receive an answer, Ghostbur looks to his friend—his best friend! “Tommy? What are we all doing outside in the rain?”

Tommy doesn’t say anything, and Ghostbur’s lips part slightly as he sees that his best friend isn’t wearing a coat—or a blanket. 

He must be so cold.

“Tommy.”

Ghostbur glances in Dream’s direction, listening to what he says. Dream has that sound in his voice, the little hardness to it, like pebbles mixed with sand. Dream’s voice mostly sounds like the sand, but sometimes it sounds like the pebbles. Like right now.

I think I prefer the sand.

“Tommy,” Dream repeats. “You know what we’re doing, don’t you? Why don’t you let Ghostbur know? He’s confused.”

“I am very confused!” Ghostbur adds cheerfully. 

Tommy takes a deep, deep breath, and it makes his body shake. “Dream’s trying to help.”

“Help who?” Dream peers at the ground, and Ghostbur blinks as a shovel appears in his hand.

Tommy swallows. “Me.”

“Uh-huh.” Dream pierces the muddy ground with the shovel, scooping away the earth and tossing it away. “And do you know why this is helpful, Tommy?”

Tommy opens his mouth. “Because-”

And then his mouth closes, and he doesn’t finish. 

Ghostbur glances at him inquisitively.

“Because,” Dream continues, grunting as he shovels dirt and dirt and more dirt. Ghostbur belatedly realizes that he’s not just fiddling with the tool; he’s digging a hole. “You need to learn. You need to learn that things… they have consequences, Tommy. You can’t just do whatever you want, all the time, and expect nothing bad to come out of it. Actions have consequences. And y’know, consequences help people learn. That’s what I’m trying to teach you, Tommy. I’m trying to help you understand.”

Tommy doesn’t say anything loud or offensive. Ghostbur finds that strange.

“Um. Dream?”

The masked man pauses his digging, looking up and fixing that unchanging gaze onto the ghost. “Yeah?”

“I don’t understand.” Ghostbur shifts from foot to foot, squinting. “You’re being rather cryptic, I’d say—which isn’t really like Dream. Not the Dream I know.”

“Oh.” Dream stays still a few seconds more before resuming his mysterious dig. “Well, you don’t know everything.”

Ghostbur squints harder, confusion stirring in his heart. “What-”

“Do we have to do this?” Tommy’s voice fills the air at the same time lightning splits the sky. Ghostbur looks up at it, surprised. “I mean- we don’t have to do this now, do we? It’s- it just- I-I’d like to mine a little more, maybe.”

“You can mine whenever you want!” Ghostbur is trying to be cheerful (people say he’s good at that) and he is trying to help Tommy be cheerful, but when he speaks, Tommy just looks at him with wide eyes. “Except at night, because that’s when all the monsters show up.” He sighs. “Monsters sure do make things rather tricky, don’t they, Dream?”

Dream doesn’t answer, but Ghostbur chalks that up to him being busy. “Okay! See Tommy, we can mine later! It’ll be alright!”

But Tommy is shaking his head, and again Ghostbur thinks about how cold the boy must be. 

Ghostbur steps closer to him. 

“No, we can’t mine later, because Dream’s gonna take my-”

“Tommy.” Dream’s voice sounds amused, but in the way a parent’s would after they caught their child doing something ridiculously wrong, like denying they wrote on the wall while holding a marker in their hand. “I’m not taking anything. All I’m doing is making sure you don’t get any worse while you’re staying here.”

“Worse?” Ghostbur tilts his head. “Do you mean bad? Tommy isn’t bad. I mean, he’s done some pretty awful things, but so did I when I was alive, and I don’t think I’m bad.”

His heart drops as a thought comes into his head. “Wait, Tommy: do you think I’m bad?”

“No. You’re not bad, Ghostbur. You’re fine.”

“Oh.” As quick as it had come, the awful thought leaves, and Ghostbur nods. “Okay.”

There’s quiet for a few moments. Well, not really quiet, because there’s still plenty of noises; the thunder booming, the rain falling and hitting the grass, Dream’s shovel ploughing the earth, and Tommy breathing. But no one talks. 

Ghostbur takes another look at his friend, clearing his throat. “Tommy?”

Tommy just watches Dream. 

“Tommy?”

“Hm? What, yeah?”

Their eyes lock, and for the first time Ghostbur wonders if the things swimming around in Tommy’s blueness are fear. “Are you cold?”

Tommy waits. “Um. Yeah, I guess… I guess a little.”

“Oh. Hold on.” Ghostbur closes the rest of the distance between them, carefully maneuvering his blanket until it lifts off one of his shoulders and goes over Tommy’s back. 

Tommy stares at the fabric in absolute wonder. “What are you doing?”

“Keeping you warm.” Ghostbur makes sure that the blanket is nice and snug, nodding in satisfaction. “I don’t want you to be cold.”

“Oh. Thank you.” Tommy’s voice is so, so quiet; barely above a whisper. 

He never used to be quiet, Ghostbur thinks, and he wonders if the thing swimming around in his heart is sadness. 

“Hey, Ghostbur?”

“Oh! Yes, Dream?”

Dream’s shovel sticks into the mud, and he pants a little behind his mask. This task would probably be much easier if he were to just remove it. “Could you help me?”

“Help you with what, Dream?”

“Digging. This is… taking longer than I thought it would.”

“Probably because of all the rain,” Ghostbur supplies, trying to be helpful. “And the mud.”

“Probably.” He waits a minute. He looks up, mask-eyes meeting Ghostbur’s dead ones. “But could you help me?”

“Of course! It’s always a pleasure to help my good friend Dream!” 

Tommy cringes against Ghostbur’s side, and Ghostbur peers down, happiness leaving him at once. “Oh… um, Dream, I actually don’t think I’ll be able to help you this time.”

“Why?” There it is again: the pebbles. 

“Because right now I am helping Tommy. He was cold and needed my blanket, so I am sharing, because that is the kindest thing to do with your friend.” Ghostbur looks back at Dream. “And if I leave him with the blanket to help you dig, then I’ll start to melt in the rain.”

“Eh… it’s just a little water, isn’t it? It won’t melt you that bad.”

“Mmm. Maybe not. But it still doesn’t feel good.”

“Yeah, well, I don’t feel good right now either. I’m stuck in the rain digging a hole in the mud.”

Ghostbur gently bites his lip. “I still don’t want to. I’m sorry, Dream.”

Dream doesn’t say anything to that; after a few seconds, he begins to dig again. 

Ghostbur sighs. “I really am sorry,” He says, both to himself and to Tommy, who’s been huddling closer with every passing second. “I would help Dream if I could. I hope his feelings haven’t been hurt.”

Tommy doesn’t respond, but that’s okay. Ghostbur hadn’t really wanted him to. Instead, Tommy presses just a little closer.

Ghostbur smiles, putting his arm over Tommy’s shoulders. Tommy goes very still. 

A little while passes. Ghostbur doesn’t keep track of the minutes. The storm doesn’t go away, but Tommy stops shivering and Dream’s hole in the mud gets deeper. Ghostbur wonders what it’s for. Perhaps Dream wants to plant a tree? Or maybe he’s trying to build something underground… it could be an extension of Logstedshire! An underground extension! Oh, that would be wonderful! Ghostbur hopes Dream is making that!

Finally, Dream puts an end to it, putting his shovel back into his inventory and rubbing his stained hands together. “Alright. Tommy?”

Tommy goes still—no, not that. He stiffens. 

He also does not move or say anything.

Dream’s mask tilts slightly downward. “Tommy.”

“Um… c-could this… do we have to do this? Now?” Tommy’s voice carries the same quietness from before, and Ghostbur frowns. 

“Tommy, what’s wrong?” he whispers, but Dream speaks next and overpowers him. 

“Tommy. You know what you’re supposed to do. Come on.” When only the rain answers, Dream makes a gesture at the very deep—and increasingly strange—spot in the mud. “Put your stuff in the hole.”

Tommy’s breath hitches. Dream’s words sound very familiar. 

There’s a sudden brightness, and it takes Ghostbur a little bit to process that Dream is now holding an axe in his hand. “Tommy.”

It’s the pebbles again.

Before Ghostbur can think about anything else, Tommy is pulling away, leaving the blanket behind, leaving Ghostbur’sside devoid of warmth, and walking slowly towards Dream. His sneakers are covered in mud, and he’s not wearing any socks. 

“Tommy,” Ghostbur murmurs, or maybe he doesn’t say anything. 

Lightning flashes in the reflection of Dream’s mask as he watches; watches Tommy empty his inventory—which is very meager—and watches Tommy’s shaking shaking hands. Ghostbur watches both of them. He doesn’t know what to do. 

Tommy drops his last items, and Dream issues a quiet acknowledgment—of thanks, of praise, of apathy; Ghostbur doesn’t quite hear—and then Tommy shuffles away, eyes on the muddy ground. He files back to Ghostbur without a word, standing beside him. Ghostbur hurriedly pulls the blanket back over the boy’s shoulders, which are shaking just like his hands. Tommy isn’t looking at him. 

“This,” Dream says, and Ghostbur doesn’t look away from his friend as the words wash over his ears like rainwater. “is going to help you, Tommy. I promise. I know it doesn’t seem like it now.” Something appears in Dream’s hand. “But someday you’ll understand. You’ll understand how much I helped you.”

The thing drops into the hole, and Ghostbur suddenly feels afraid. He doesn’t want this. He doesn’t like this. This feels like a bad thing. This is scary. 

He grabs and holds Tommy’s hand. After a few seconds, Tommy squeezes back. Ghostbur can feel him trembling. 

Dream says nothing as he drops a match into the hole, igniting the dynamite. Tommy says nothing as he watches a burst of color and brightness fling into the air, destroying every last one of his things. Ghostbur says nothing as he holds Tommy’s hand, and he holds it a little tighter. 

None of them say a word. And they stand in the rain for a while longer, listening to the thunder, the rain, and the absence of good things. The explosion reminded Ghostbur of fireworks. He doesn’t think he likes fireworks. Only bad things have happened with fireworks. 

Dream walks away. 

Ghostbur does not let go of Tommy’s hand for a long, long time. Eventually, Tommy stops shaking and his fingers don’t feel so cold. They both go into Tommy’s tent, and Ghostbur decides he wants to spend the night there, and they both fall asleep. Tommy doesn’t move away from Ghostbur’s side for the entire night. He’s still quiet.

And Ghostbur forgets everything that happened with Dream’s pebble-voice, Tommy’s shaking body, and that hole in the mud. He wakes to the sound of birds and gentle rainfall; he peers down at Tommy, still sleeping and pressed against him in the little bed; he smiles and softly pulls him closer. He decides that today is going to be a good day. Today is going to be a very good day. Tommy will be his usual loud self, and Ghostbur will give him blue, and Dream will visit, and everything will be just wonderful, and nothing scary will happen.

In the distance, there is a crack of thunder.

[elven-child]

.

[loving-jack-kelly]

it is Extremely funny that the whole watcher thing just ended after one weekend of people being like hey this was poorly thought out and a terrible idea. lmao. cringe fail financial decision.

[ditch-lily]

when you stumble across the discourse for a fandom you've been dipping your toes into and you just have to. touch grass and think. it was never greener here

[planetplutoxe]

As an avid staged duo enthusiast I really loved that recent lore gave us so much content all at once. I especially want to talk about their dynamic in the last stream of the finale. (I'll probably talk about their duo a lot more later on too bc gotta love morally grey character dynamics)

The more and more we learn about staged duo the closer they seem. Out of all the relationships in the server theirs is one that seems to have the most trust. They quite literally trust each other with their lives. Dream shares the information of his only leverage on his server with Punz. Punz sticks to and trusts Dream's plan and is still waiting and ready for him after prison despite it taking longer than planned. Punz helps Dream get revenge on Quackity.

Dream and Punz during the finale seemed to have pretty much the exact same goals and motivation. Knowledge. Power. Bringing the server back together. Even Tommy said Punz was basically a "second Dream".

However, the scene with c!Dream, c!Punz and c!Tommy in the prison starts to reveal a lot about how their immense trust and similarity with each other is not necessarily a good thing. Trust and being able to rely on each other is incredibly important but there is a huge difference between that and being dependent on one another. Dependence is normal in moderation but I would almost call them codependent on one another (in a way where they both push each other to be worse people).

When George and Sapnap are brought up Punz says "but he has friends, I'm his friend" and says that "he (Dream) is always pretty happy". I think Punz knows Dream's not as happy as he was before. The moment Tommy starts to get through to Dream, Punz is quick to try and shut it down. I don't think this is only because Punz wants power, I truly think he cares about Dream. But he cares so much that he's willing to drag Dream back down in order for them to stay together.

I think it could also have to do with Punz being the only one who has stuck with Dream this whole time. So he feels like he has to protect Dream from making the mistake of turning back to his friends that left him and siding with Tommy, the person Dream considers to have ruined his life.

I also think Dream probably does something similar. He tells Punz about the book, leading both of them to gain an obsession for knowledge. He wants to live forever with Punz and anyone else who is willing to follow his ideals bc if everyone is in agreement and there is no conflict or nations then no one can leave and he won't ever have to be alone.

Anyway in conclusion for this post I think c!Punz and c!Dream are both heavily misguided people which prevents them from having a truly healthy relationship or being a good influence on one another. (but allows them to have a pretty cool villain duo dynamic)

Here is an old Punz (supposed to be stagedduo but haven't gotten to the Dream part yet) wip to go together with this "analysis". Also this is from before it was revealed that Punz knew the revival book so... I totally manifested it.

[whoblewboobear]

Writing and going, “I can’t do that.” Just to realize hey this is for fun. You can and should do whatever you want bc it’s enjoyable to do.

If something doesn’t work, you can change it.

[punmster]

having an existential crisis because I finally cracked and searched up a summary for Manacled and found out one of the DMSMG alternate endings (which I've changed before this) is like. kinda similar to it??

[explodingstarlight]

mayhaps have some food for y'all soon (sketches)

[squids-comics]

Just entered a second writing contest! Wish me luck!! Here's the link if you want to check out my little short story!

[everlune-evotide]

.

[multi-lefaiye]

pavel is such a fun character to develop i fucking swear

[ybcpatrick]

no thoughts no feelings just crowd video of kevin collapsing to one knee after sami got the pin

[rubyleaf]

Jen's eyes grew to the size of saucers. "I won't get a view?" she exclaimed. "I'm sitting here—with almost a window seat—and I'm not gonna get a view?"

Miette energy.

[areus-in-a-little-cave]

thinking of. the horrors

[planetplutoxe]

Something about how funny it is people cheer when the "hero" ambushes the "villain" at his weakest, purposefully pointing out how much weaker and slower than normal he was, and then not only killing him anyway but celebrating it.

And then the same people freak out when the "hero" apologizes to the "villain", NOT to excuse abuse, but to humanize the both of them.

There are no such thing as heroes and villains. "Heroes" make mistakes and "villains" are capable of good. Strictly categorizing someone as either one dehumanizes the both of them.

Saying Tommy is incapable of doing wrong and has no reason to apologize for anything, to not let him take a moment to self reflect on how he can change, is denying him humanity too.

Because humanity is imperfection.

And everyone, "heroes" included, have a right to it.