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cdreambur · 7 months

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au where dream and wilbur are both actors, set to star in a movie together.

it's the story of the fictional city of l'manberg and its fight for independence, the two of them playing the generals of the opposing sides.

dream is nervous, because contrary to wilbur, who's been starring in big productions since his early teens, the movie is dream's first big role.

but the crew is absolutely wonderful, and the worry about meeting wilbur, whose fan he's been for a long time, is completely unnecessary, because the first words wilbur says to him are, "we're making them gay."

dream can only stare at him, a confused, "what?" all that comes out of his mouth. he's kinda glad that they're alone in the meeting room, sure that he looks like a complete idiot right now.

wilbur just grins.

"come on, the part where i straddle you, the scene where you pin me against a wall, telling me to surrender? people are gonna ship these guys anyway, the least we can do is give them some good material."

he accompanies his words with a little wink, light brown eyes twinkling with mischief.

it makes dream laugh, the last bit of tension melting from his shoulders.

he smirks back at wilbur.

"why the fuck not."

later, he thinks that might've been the moment where his tiny celebrity crush turned into something more.

filming is amazing. the crew is one of the nicest dream has ever worked with, and he makes fast friends with a lot of them.

there's sapnap, tommy, tubbo, and george, their co-stars, niki and karl, two of the writers, and the director, phil, and the producer, sam.

but the person he spends the most time with is wilbur.

he has no idea if it's because they're the leads, they actually get on that well, or a mixture of both.

all he knows is that ever since their first encounter in that meeting room, they've discovered that they not only share a love for stupid jokes and geography, but also that the chemistry they're able to show on screen easily translates into real life.

dream is honest enough with himself to admit that none of it helps with the adoration he has for wilbur, making the butterflies in his stomach and the warmth in his chest stronger with every smile, every compliment, every hug he gets from the brunet.

he never realized how serious it got though.

the day he finally does is the one where they film one of the scenes wilbur mentioned at that fateful first meeting.

they've been doing what they were talking about then for weeks at this point, every scene between their characters charged with unbelievable amounts of tension.

it's fun, and no one has told them to stop yet, so dream doesn't expect anyone to do it now.

which is exactly why he's not holding back at the moment, hands wrapped around wilbur's wrists, pinning him against a brick wall that one of their set designers, foolish, built in the studio two weeks ago.

his breaths are deep and deliberately controlled, face just the tiniest bit closer to wilbur's than it has to be as his lips quirk into a malicious smirk.

"just give up. you know you can't win against me. you're not good enough."

he meets wilbur's eyes, the brunet's gaze the perfect mixture of defiance and fear, and not for the first time, dream is hit with the thought of how amazing of an actor wilbur is.

he tries to free himself from dream's grip in a way that probably looks much stronger on camera than it actually is, allowing dream to follow the script and continue to hold him in place.

when he falls still again, dream lets his expression shift into a triumphant grin.

"we have no mercy for you. we will burn down your houses, we will kill everything inside your walls, and we will take back the land that is rightfully ours, if you do not surrender."

with a sneer, he brings his face even closer to wilbur's before delivering his last line of the scene with a vicious tone.

"i wanna see white flags outside your base by tomorrow at dawn or you are dead."

spitting out the last word, he watches as wilbur flinches, eyes fluttering shut for a second before they open again.

when they do, dream is suddenly overcome by the urge to kiss him.

it comes out of nowhere, slamming into him like a freight train, and he's just barely able to stop his eyes from flitting down to wilbur's lips.

"cut!"

phil's yell pulls him back into the present, and he lets go, stepping away from wilbur.

"guys, that was a perfect one-take! you were fucking incredible!"

dream barely registers phil's compliment, mind stuck on the way wilbur's breath was fanning over his lips, how the only thing he wanted to do was surge forward and kiss wilbur.

it's horrible. he can't fall in love with a co-star. especially not wilbur soot, beloved sweetheart of hollywood and the public.

he glances over at the brunet who's straightening out his clothes before meeting dream's eyes, smiling brightly at him.

dream's heart flips and he sighs inwardly.

looks like it's already too late.

the rest of filming goes wonderfully. dream's pretty sure that some of his scenes with wilbur were some of his best ones ever, even phil and sam mentioning that their energy together is stellar.

it makes both of them grin shyly.

when the movie goes into post-production, dream allows himself a few weeks of rest before he's out again, meeting with his manager and visiting castings.

he stays in contact with wilbur and the rest of the crew, even encountering tubbo and sapnap at one of the auditions.

the ten months until promotions start fly by like nothing, and soon, dream finds himself in interviews about the biggest movie he ever worked on.

it's exciting, and fun too, especially since most of them include their whole cast, always talking and joking and laughing.

dream missed them, and it's nice to be in the middle of the chaos again, bickering with sapnap and goofing off with tommy and tubbo.

but he also enjoys the quieter moments, talks with phil or george and especially the bunch of interviews where it's just dream and wilbur.

his feelings for the other haven't disappeared in their time apart, something that only gets more obvious now that he's around wilbur pretty much 24/7 again.

still, he gets through promo completely fine and without blurting out every emotion he experiences in wilbur's presence.

he guesses the acting career was the right choice.

when it's over, six weeks of games, interviews, and two press conferences done, they get a few days off.

then, the premiere rolls around.

it's happening in new york, and their team rents out the whole floor of a hotel close to the cinema for all of them to get ready.

things are hectic, but the tension in the air isn't a negative one, filled with excitement, joy, and pride.

dream, who's been one of the first ones to be done, is wandering the crowded corridors in his search for wilbur, a grin on his face.

the last person to see his fellow lead was eret, telling him that wilbur's in the suite at the end of the hall, waiting for the rest of them just like dream.

when dream wanders in, the room is empty, but he only needs a moment to catch sight of the open balcony door, leading out onto the private terrace.

stepping outside, he's met with wilbur watching the city skyline, turning and smiling at him when he sees dream.

tina, one of their stylists, has put him in a dark blue suit reminiscent of the uniform he wears in the movie, pairing it with a crisp black shirt and perfectly polished black dress shoes.

thin silver rings adorn his fingers, matching the delicate silver necklace around his neck, a small pendant in the form of a star resting against the hollow of his throat.

hair messy and the tiniest bit of color on his lips, he looks absolutely breathtaking, and dream almost feels a little boring in the simple green suit hannah gave him.

"hey."

wilbur's voice pulls him out of his thoughts, eyes finally flitting up to meet wilbur's.

reciprocating the greeting, he steps up to the railing to stand next to wilbur as the brunet asks, "nervous?"

dream nods.

"a bit, yeah. biggest premiere i've ever been to, since, you know, biggest movie i've ever worked on."

he chuckles, a little anxious and mostly happy.

wilbur grins and gently nudges his shoulder.

"understandable. but i think you don't have to worry so much. it's gonna be amazing. and if it really isn't, just come find me and the two of us can go to subway or something."

brown curls fall into dark eyes that shimmer with sincerity, and dream, overwhelmed by the genuine offer and the soft curve of wilbur's smile and all the things they did together in the last two years, lets so much more honesty slip into his next words than he originally wanted.

"nah. i think i'd rather take you to a nice restaurant for our first date."

wilbur's lips part, and before dream can even properly register what he just admitted, he breathes out, "are you serious?"

he sounds so hopeful, completely different from anything dream expected.

it's everything he ever wished for.

so, he simply replies, "i am."

it seems to be enough, because not even a second later, they're both moving, their lips meeting in a chaste, sweet kiss.

dream's heart races as they pull each other closer, bodies pressed together when they part with matching smiles on their faces.

their fingers interlace.

(in the end, they don't ditch the premiere, but they do get dinner at wilbur's favorite sushi place a week later.)

#hope y'all enjoy the little easter egg i put in this lol #you'll know what i mean when you read it #but yeah it's 1am i'm going to bed now #if there are any mistakes... no there aren't #dreambur #c!dreambur #madduo #au ideas

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kingsleywrites · 10 months

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A Custom Gadget For You!

Tommyinnit x male reader (Slightly geared towards romantic but can be seen as platonic)

Fluff

Prompt: M/N makes gadgets and after Tommy loses his discs he makes him something to remember them by

CW/TW: Cursing

M/N is used (meaning male name)

A/N: Just found out that it's L'manberg with an E not a U how did I not find this out until now??? 😭

"Wilbur..." Tommy spoke softly into comms. All of the citizens stood in the ruins of L'manberg, Tommy had said that he wanted to talk to Dream after their duel, so now everyone was waiting for Tommy's arrival back into the walls so they could get their stuff and leave.

"Yes, Tommy?"

"I've secured our independence." The tone of Tommy's voice sounded like he was completely drained, like he had lost it all.

Everyone stood there dumbfounded, staring at each other with shocked eyes. "Wha- How?" The confusion in Wilbur's voice was evident.

"I gave Dream the discs."

"Wait both of them?!" Tubbo spoke quickly.

"But I thought the deal was to only give him Mellohi?" M/N inquired.

"Yes, I gave Dream both Cat and Mellohi, in exchange for L'manberg's independence."

"Tommy my boy, get back here right now! We have to celebrate!" Wilbur shouted as everyone began to cheer.

[Time Skip to 2 days later]

After L'manberg was declared independent from the Dream SMP everyone started to clean up the debris and fill in the craters.

Or most of them.

"M/N where are you? Tommy and I don't want to be the only one fixing L'manberg." Tubbo complained, the sound of splashing water made it clear that they were probably getting the river water out of the craters.

M/N rolled his eyes and continued to work, ignoring Tubbo's complaints. "Why don't you ask Fundy to help? I'm sure he'll help y'all."

"What? You think I want to work with fur boy? Working with Tubbo's already annoying enough."

"Hey!"

"Okay, I'm leaving this VC before you two start fighting and blow out my ear drums, Ciao."

The signature sound rang through the boys' ears as they heard their comrade leave.

"I'm ringing him again." Tubbo pulled out his communicator, ringing the boy once more.

Tommy rolled his eyes and continued to shovel water out of the crater.

After a few minutes M/N picked up. "Tubbo, I'm busy!"

"With what? I'm gonna need a reason to tell Wilbur when he gets back and doesn't see you helping."

M/N stayed silent before speaking. "Is Tommy here or like really close by where he can hear you?"

Tubbo looked around and saw Tommy putting away some extra materials in a chest. "No he isn't close but why would that matter?"

"I'm making him a gift."

"A gift finally confessing your love?" Tubbo half joked.

"Ha, ha very funny Tubbo, but no, ever since he lost Mellohi and Cat he's been well, more moody? I know that he plans on getting them back but until then I wanted to help out, The both of us know how important those discs were to him."

Tubbo went silent for a moment. "Alright well hurry up, I don't want to cover for your ass."

M/N laughed. "Alright, I'm almost done so I'll be heading over in a second."

"Okay, see ya when you get here." The two said their goodbyes before leaving the VC and M/N alone with his thoughts.

After a couple of minutes messing with the mechanisms, M/N was finally done, he smiles slightly, proud of his work and lifted up the top of the box, inside on a small pedestal was two figure, both were of Tommy, though one was him in his normal attire and the other was him in his L'manberg outfit. The Tommy in normal attire held the two discs high in the air with a bright smile on his face while the L'manberg Tommy had one arm outstretched with both discs in hand, simulating Tommy giving the discs to Dream. Placing the box down, M/N twisted one of the cogs on the back and when he let go, he admired his work, the two figures were spinning slowly in a circle while cat played through the music box, after a few minutes the sound stopped and M/N twisted the other cog, this time, Mellohi played, the two figures spinning once more.

M/N smiled brightly and closed the box, halting all music that was playing and tied a red ribbon around it. He walked out of his house with the music box in hand, towards the walls.

Tommy was almost finished fixing the craters that were left over from the war, Tubbo had ditched him not to long ago for something he didn't remember so he was left to fix up the rest of the ground, which also meant, taking his time to walk back to his house to get some more dirt seeing as he had ran out. So now he was on his way back, he slipped past the trees and out onto the clearing where the broken caravan sat. He was looking down, not really paying attention to where he was going until he heard his name.

M/N walked towards the boy with a box of some sorta in his hands.

"Hey M/N where were you?"

"I was busy, why did you miss me?" The boy replied in a mocking tone.

"If by missing you, you mean that I missed the fact that I could've been done filling in these craters. Then yes I missed you." Tommy had a smirk on his face, using the same tone to M/N.

Tommy's eyes glanced at the box in M/N's hands.

"What's that?" Tommy questioned.

"Oh! This is for you, it's a gift." M/N handed Tommy the box, who had a puzzled look on his face.

"Why? I mean I'm not complaining free stuff is free stuff but why?"

"Well I noticed how down you looked after you lost your discs, so I made you a music box to remember them." as M/N explained, Tommy untied the ribbon and opened the box.

"Is- Is this me?"

M/N nodded and stood beside Tommy, turning the music box around, showing him the two cogs, one was green and the other was purple.

"When you turn the green cog, it'll play cat while the purple one plays mellohi." he explained

"And I know you're getting your discs back but until then, you have a way to listen to them." M/N smiled

Tommy pulled M/N into a hug, "Thank you."

M/N wrapped his arms around Tommy mumbling a small "You're welcome" back to him.

********

My apologies for this one taking so long, I honestly shouldn't have considering I knew exactly how I wanted everything to go it was just a matter of writing it. But it's here now! I hope you all liked it, just some sweet fluff, and I have another draft that I may or may not get out some time this week, who knows.

Word Count: 1059

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faebriel · 9 months

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and you caused it: chapter 2

(click for more detail!)

In which Niki has a terrible secret, Puffy just wants to move on, Tommy sneaks into casino parties and Wilbur learns to deal with anger being justified. Or - the one thing they don't warn you of, when dropping nuclear warheads on old friends, is fallout.

in chapter two: arguments are had. roommates are invited to crash on an attempted murderer's metaphorical couch. more emotionally intense conversations are had over l'manberg's skeleton corpse, and niki is once again alone.

wc: 5k

Wilbur has always been a builder. Alright. Perhaps not practically. Wilbur's attempts at piecing together bases made of wood and stone leave much to be desired. But metaphorically, there's the crux of it - Wilbur builds stories, narratives, chord progressions and nations. There is something about the world, as caught in his eyes, that is always empty. Devoid of life. Wilbur simply seeks to fill it. Find empty forestland, build a camper van. Build a so-so drug empire. Build a story around the camper van - some quirk to draw them in - and then build your nation, pinning your Declaration of Independance right at eye level as one waltzes through the door. Lose a war. Lose your brother. Lose an election, and build a network of TNT beneath the earth so vast and complex that despite the months that trickle from Schlatt's inauguration to Dream's patronage to Wilbur's blissful destruction, not a single person figures out how to defuse it. (Who is they, one might ask. It's a valid question. Ask Wilbur, he might say his brother, he might say the people - if one happens to be a cop, he might tell them it's none of their fucking business and come back with a warrant if they come back at all. He won't tell you they is simply Wilbur. He won't tell you that without the story, without something to fill his mind with colour and give him direction, there is no Wilbur Soot at all.) The point of all this is: Wilbur lives in constant need of some project, something to build, something that destroys. Even ill, he cannot stand to keep his hands idle. This is, perhaps, what led to his demise. It is, in any case, what leads Wilbur to the office of one Captain Puffy. “I do appreciate you lending me your time,” he says, taking a seat in the plush, worn armchair in the corner of the room. Backed in by walls, which he supposes must feel safer for the woman sitting in front of him, pen and clipboard in hand. “I know you’re not officially practicing anymore.” He’s not sure if she was officially practicing ever, actually. There’s no certificate hanging on her wall, only tapestries and paintings - fading cloth in greens and blues, and a painting of breaking waves that stretches across the wall almost as long as his armspan. It is cluttered, lived-in despite its title as an office. Above all else, clearly marked as the captain’s territory. “It’s no trouble,” Puffy says. “I’m glad - it’s nice that you wanted to come, in the first place. I did just want to spell some things out before we start, though, yeah?” Wilbur inclines his head. “Take it away.” “Right.” Puffy resettles herself in her seat, pushing a handful of curls - these ones pearl-white, although it almost looks like the browner half is the part that’s been dyed - behind her shoulder.

puffy informs wilbur right off the bat that, well, patient confidentiality is a thing - she's not gonna tell him anything about tommy, or his recovery (recovery from what, wilbur thinks - because puffy is not as slick or as licensed as he necessarily assumes she is, and can be so dedicated to her pursuit of justice that sometimes she lets the cat out of the bag). no matter! wilbur is not here to talk about tommy. in fact, he'd rather ask puffy a couple questions about herself. and, would she be interested in attending a party in las nevadas, only a few days from now?

---

las nevadas is in pandemonium but for once, wilbur can't bring himself to care - he storms after tommy, racing with thoughts that tumble over themselves in their rush to make themselves heard.

he feels betrayed. he's hurt. he's always thought the world of niki, he trusted her, he cared so fucking much what she thought of him - thought she must hate him, after l'manberg, not even worth begging for her forgiveness, couldn't keep himself from crying when she dared to give it anyway - and the whole time she'd tried to kill tommy, his brother, and did nothing but smile quietly and evade questions. the thought chafes at him. it hurts. one of his closest friends, his first lady, the entire time -

(he hadn't thought to ask those questions, but wilbur is not in his precisely right mind at the moment.)

tommy, though, makes evasion into an artform - he refuses to answer wilbur's questions, parries back with his own (admittedly deserved) barbs about the casino and quackity who does not matter right now, they're talking about niki, he'd welcomed niki into their country and their stupid dinner and tommy hadn't said a fucking word to him about it. does tommy truly not trust him so much? is he so naïve, to take a raw betrayal on the chin like this?

"She tried to kill you!" "Dream did kill me!" Tommy shouts. "Dream - he, he - he killed me and you didn't even care!"

that's not true. of course wilbur cared when tommy died, but -

limbo has a way of blurring things. for instance, priorities.

and besides, this is more than murder, this is a betrayal, he insists - a crime for the innermost circle of hell. not that tommy cares. worse things have happened. wilbur has happened. dream, apparently has happened -

and tommy refuses to divulge a word more, puffy told him that he doesn't have to tell wilbur shit if he doesn't want to and wilbur's not gonna tell him not to listen to his therapist, is he? tommy rips into him - because this isn't about wilbur, wilbur wasn't even there, he was dead, and who did that, wilbur? it's none of his business, and if tommy had his way wilbur wouldn't have even found out, because tommy knew this would happen. he knew wilbur would make this about him, knew he would twist it into something that makes the word l'manberg go sour and sickly in tommy's mouth - and wilbur can harp on about betrayal all he wants. he cares about this because it affects him. and if he fucking cared, he'd know that a near-miss with a warhead is not even close to the worst thing that's happened to tommy. he'd let tommy settle his friendship (wilbur scoffs, and that only proves tommy's point, he shrieks) with niki. it's not even close to the worst things that have happened to him since wilbur died, and if wilbur cared outside of making things all about himself, he would know that, too.

it's easy for you to be all buddy-buddy with dream, tommy retorts. it's just fucking easier for you.

and this time, wilbur lets him go - watches him disappear into the smoke and rubble, and it's a sign of how close he and tommy are these days that he doesn't even know where tommy's going.

he can't stop the river-rush of his thoughts, stewing and self-critical and fuming with a sense of anger and betrayal and loss that he can't control - he'd have better luck trying to shift the tides themselves. if niki is, as it turns out, horrible terrible awful betrayer no-coming-back - what does that make someone like wilbur?

---

niki wakes to what feels like one of the worst mornings of her life.

the thing about this morning in particular is that for once, it's not someone else's fault that she's so miserable - there's no war, there's no fruitless bickering over countries, there's nothing but the quiet sound of her breathing in her underground city. but she still feels miserable.

she drags herself to the arctic for the syndicate meeting, hoping to cling to some semblence of normalcy. she ties wobbuffet's lead to the pens, and descends to the syndicate meeting room - and is beyond relieved to see, at least, that techno has returned.

if they know what happened last night, neither he or phil are saying anything. ranboo, to his end, gives her a briefly awkward glance, but otherwise seems happy not to unsettle the waters. thank god. the meeting opens, as planned, and the three of them welcome techno back to the main server. techno is just as happy to see them (although he still tries to hide quite how much, still a bit vulnerable about this whole having friends thing), and summarily informs them:

quackity and sam are torturing dream in the prison

he has, in fact, spent some time in the prison (thanks for the escape, phil, definitely didn't leave me hanging for a good couple weeks) and seen this with his own two eyes

and techno owes dream a favour, y'know. from l'manberg days. so the syndicate is going to break dream out of the prison.

cue mild pandemonium.

phil's heard the plan already, he has no questions. ranboo and niki, though, hearing this for the first time, have several - mostly centred around why are we breaking dream, of all people, out of prison - prison the server put him in, we were there, we were both there. niki has never liked dream, and really, was more than happy to see him put in the prison - he's a bully, he's a tyrant, and if anything his imprisonment kept her and jack from having to sort out how exactly they would well-deservedly take him down a peg after the whole. y'know. tommy thing.

(she hasn't spoken to jack in quite some time, she suddenly thinks again, spurred on by the memory of their talks. it's another thing to feel guilty about, even if jack made it clear her presence, if not productive, was not wanted.)

ranboo, on the other hand, is terrified - especially after the night before, still twitchy.

"Dream isn't - he isn't safe! He - Techno," and their voice drops, "the voices - " "You'll be fine," Techno assures him. "Besides, wasn't the point that he was messing with you to do shit that he couldn't? When he's outta prison he's not gonna mess with you anymore. Easy." "It's not - I - it's not just that, actually, anyway. I mean, he tried to kill Tubbo. In the vault, and everything." "I have also tried to kill that guy," Techno explains, as if to a young child - "many times. Water under the bridge. No big deal." Ranboo's face takes on an ill-fitting shape - stony, for a brief second cold - and says testily, "I wouldn't say that - "

ranboo tries to push their arguments further, but splutter to a stop - his head hurts suddenly, claws finding their way to press against his temple, and eventually goes quiet. niki, though, is still frustrated. she's never liked dream, not from the very first second she stepped on this server. she was perfectly happy to leave dream in prison. he's not the only bad person, sure - are there others niki has thought deserving of being locked up in her time, some more validly than others, absolutely - but he's a tyrant, and niki said her piece when it comes to playing nice with tyrants years ago. she doesn't.

(and if dream is out again, some part of her thinks - with dream comes war, and with war comes more betrayal and hurt and uncertainty and instability, and niki feels unstable enough thanks to what she's wrought with her own two hands. she already feels like she's spent the last twenty-four hours tumbling downward, and if dream is free, the ground beneath her will shake hard enough that she will never be able to get herself back up. she's safe. she was - and, she tries to remind herself, will be - happy. she doesn't want a selfish bully to ruin that because techno thinks he owes something to someone who shouldn't be owed a thing.

and, she hates to think it - she's heard tommy ramble, even when she knows he hopes she's forgotten, and she's heard him rattle off his rambling fears of dream. and she saw the vault. she saw tommy and tubbo in the vault, beaten and bruised and with a blade to tubbo's neck. and puffy always seemed to know more, barely keeping herself from spilling whatever else tommy has told her. niki has known tommy has... problems. and that's sat with her uncomfortably since that night in her cabin, baking bread, because he was far kinder to her than she deserved because he could see that she was struggling and she, well, hasn't done the same.

thinking of niki's part in all this, now that it has been dragged back into the open - of wilbur's blatant interrogation of him even as tommy practically begged him to shut the fuck up - yes, she feels like to some extent, she owes him a favour.)

techno, though, responds with unexpected ire - so niki doesn't feel like helping? it's not even a case of what if one of their friends was stuck in there, under quackity and sam's control - techno was stuck down there, and yet apparently taking down such an oppressive power isn't something niki cares about?

the ensuing argument is defensive and nasty. both techno and niki feel deeply hurt, feel that the other doesn't care about their safety, and both are stressed enough to lash out at each other about it - and phil and ranboo are both mostly unwilling to step in. for niki, though, it's not just a matter of whether she participates herself - she feels that if dream is out at all, her world will get turned on its head. and to be entirely honest, she's not in a good headspace right now. if techno is painting himself as an adversary right now then niki will fight tooth and nail, because there's that awful cloying anger crawling up her throat and god, it has to go somewhere.

so in a desperate attempt to call off the thing, niki threatens to leave the syndicate if they break dream out of the prison.

...it's a respectable attempt at a trump card. unfortunately, three-fourths of the decision has already been made. techno, feeling defensive and angry and above all else betrayed by niki's apparent lack of care for what could have been his plight, informs her promptly of where the door is. ranboo, struggling to hold onto his waking self, has nothing to add. phil makes an attempt to soften the blows between them, to keep the bridge from being burnt - but niki is furious and embarrassed that it didn't work, and techno is just incensed enough to let her leave.

niki storms out, retreats to her little cottage. she stands in the centre of the small space, passively taking in all these small details - her weapons rack, her baking nook, her winter quilts and her flowerboxes. so many of them from techno, phil and ranboo, and now she can hardly stand to look at them.

she rips through the cottage like a hurricane gone loose. every plate and dagger and glass bottle goes crashing to the floor, blanketing its surface in a snowbed of ceramic and glass. pillows are thrown at walls. a bag of flour is ripped, and spills across the floor like even more snowdrift. and then niki stands in the centre of it - some part of her hoping to god that the others are still deep in the syndicate room, though most of her just doesn't give a fuck anymore - and wails.

she did the right thing. she did the good thing. she knew the villain was imprisoned for a reason, she believes in that imprisonment, she was right there when he was sentenced and every drop of her blood sang for revenge as he was silenced. and now she's thought about the hurt she's caused people, and for once, she stood up for him instead. she's lost the final tethers she had. she's unmoored. adrift. nowhere to go but beneath the earth. it's one thing to lose the syndicate, another to lose wilbur - to lose both, all in the span of a day, is a blow that niki isn't sure she can handle.

and it didn't even fucking matter, because they're going to break dream out anyway.

Each shard of glass is a face in the vault, discarded against the wooden floor.

niki is furious. furious at techno, furious at phil and ranboo for doing nothing, furious at herself - guilt is not something she has had to reckon with before, and the feeling chafes at her like an ill-fitting glove. there's always been a sense of discomfort that comes with being wrong, that moment sent off-kilter, when her perception of reality shifts and what is and what is not change like water. she remembers when tommy died, when ripples cast across the water and her grudge was revealed as just as stupid and petty as it always had been, that the source of her fury was wilbur - and even then, how left me became died became suicide and fury sunk back into its forgotten twin, grief. but even then, it wasn't like this. it wasn't her fault. this, undoubtably, is. she thought she had gotten over it. perhaps that's an exaggeration - she thought she was getting over it, making amends, even if slowly. even if she couldn't quite say the words, admit she was wrong, make herself vulnerable again.

god. has she always been so selfish? so cowardly? when l'manberg burned, did niki even pull herself from its ashes? it doesn't fucking feel like it, now. it feels like every slow step of healing has been worth nothing.

it feels like the second she stopped being either of those things, she lost everything. again.

niki thinks of how even in the depths of their planning - at her worst, at her most violent (towards tommy, sure, but towards herself the most), even when they didn't trust each other - she and jack could always agree on one thing. together, they hated dream.

niki has been a coward. not in the face of tyrants, but in the face of her own guilty conscience - putting her name next to her misdeeds. fine. if the universe, threaded into puffy's voice, calls on her to make amends - so she will. and so she'll rip tyrants to pieces, if that is what clearing the conscience means for niki nihachu.

---

niki walks to snowchester. tommy opens the door.

"Niki?" Tommy asks, cautious. He doesn't close the door on her, as she thought he might - doesn't even waver, although his expression goes a bit shuttered. "What d'you want?" She thought about this. She ran it over in her mind as she walked all the way here from the Arctic, alone with her thoughts - she's rehearsed the script this time, wrapped the warning in wool, made sure she's careful, because she's trying - "Techno is going to break Dream out of the prison," she blurts out. Fuck. The effect on Tommy is instantaneous, a stormcloud rolling over him - first his breathing goes, and then a hand to the chest, as if he can't believe the lack of air himself. He steadies himself against the door, although his eyes sink to the ground, unable to meet hers, and all Niki can do is stand there silent and try to think think think and, not for the first time, think oh god please don't cry. She hears Tubbo's voice faintly down the grand entrance of the place, followed by footsteps - he recognises her as he approaches, shoving Tommy out of the doorway, staring her down with sharp animosity. "Get off of my fucking property," he informs her. "Techno's breaking Dream out," she repeats, and Tubbo's face falls. "You're lying," he says immediately. "They're not that stupid. They're not that stupid - " "Techno says he owed Dream - " "The favour," Tommy gasps. "Tubbo, Tubs - Dream helped him escape, after the execution - he always said he owed him something..." Tubbo's face goes sheer, snow white.

snowchester, once again, is now considered an almost-military base of operations - niki is clearly unwelcome, but her muffins still sit on the kitchen counter and she's the one with information (ranboo hasn't come home, he hasn't been answering tubbo's comms, and out of the three of them niki is somehow the one to see him last). there isn't much they can do. they don't have the force. and, of course, it wouldn't be hard for dream to find them. even if tommy never stepped foot in his hobbit-house again, dream would find snowchester too easily.

...an idea occurs to niki.

the underground city is not the perfect hiding place. there are people who know about it, people who can't necessarily be trusted - or at the very least, not accounted for. who knows what jack or hbomb or karl are doing right now. who knows what kind of assumptions techno would make if dream were to let slip that snowchester is empty.

but the two of them can't go on the run. tubbo has michael, for god's sake, and he's not putting that kid in harm's way for anything. it will have to be secure enough - shrouded, perhaps, by the fact that of all the people he's crossed, dream has never really given niki the time of day. and thank fucking god for that. tommy's been in better straits, and tubbo is still extremely suspicious of niki (he's pieced together how jack and niki would have pulled off this whole scheme of theirs, and his place in it, and he is not fucking impressed), but under the cover of night - on the eve of the prison break - they escape to the city.

niki watches as the three of them settle in. her underground city was meant to be a place for refugees once, away from the horrors of war - although that was before the nuke, and doomsday, and tommy burning that stupid house down. before even the detonation of november 16th. it has been a long time since refugees stayed here.

she supposes she should feel some kind of fulfilment, seeing it live out its purpose again. perhaps she does. mostly, she feels a bit awkward and uncomfortable. too vulnerable. maybe that's half the point.

it's a first step.

---

niki can't sleep.

is her pointless turmoil any surprise, at this point? after all that time alone in her city, somehow the thought of people actually inhabiting those empty rooms is just as distracting. she decides to go for a walk to clear her mind, and where should she end up but sitting at the edge of l'manberg's crater - feet tracing the old path to her bakery, before she burned it down with her own two hands - and who should she run into, but wilbur.

"O mighty Nemesis, amid the ruins of what she reaps," a voice drawls from behind her - and the sound of it is like ice water down her back, a harsh tug on the fragile threads barely holding her together, but she can't still bring herself to turn. Can't bring herself to see the look on his face - betrayal, fury, hatred. She lets her eyes sink onto the wreckage instead, every bitter angle of it. "I never really asked why that was your little codename, you know," he continues. "Seems a bit on the nose, don't you think?" Niki lets her forehead sink onto her knees. "Fuck off, Wilbur."

wilbur is not being his kindest. niki ponders whether she deserves it. fucking probably, right. she did try to kill his little brother. forget everything she's done since, because wilbur's always kept his allies close to his heart, and betrayal is one of those things that hurts him more than any blade would. she doesn't rise to his remarks. she sees absolutely no point in it. wilbur is stubborn as a bull when he wants to be, and after all these years niki's finally learned when to stop wasting her energy reining him in.

doesn't make her feel any better that his current rampage is directed at her, though.

he's stressed, you see - not that you would care is a halfhearted barb, and niki almost rolls her eyes at it - because he needs to find tommy. he needs to speak with tommy, but his base is empty and snowchester is empty and he's not replying to his comm and phil mentioned that he saw niki heading towards snowchester that afternoon. he doesn't suppose niki has seen tommy at all, has she?

she tries to keep her face even. but here's the thing -

niki could barely lie about committing a murder while actively leading the victim-to-be into a trap, and wilbur - who, if you think about it, never really retired from politics - sees through her attempts to evade immediately.

you know, wilbur says, and then - haven't you done enough? don't tell me you're causing trouble for him again. where is he? where is he?

she could tell him. probably, she should tell him. tommy is his brother, after all, and for all that wilbur's anger burns, she knows how much he cares about tommy. hell, once upon a time that was the entire point of her own... episode. but.

"I can't trust you," she says, pretends it sounds as definitive as she wants it to. "I can't - I don't think I can trust you to say. Not while Dream is out." Wilbur's eyebrows raise - his shoulders do too, lined with tension. "Dream is out?" "He will be. Tomorrow." Niki nods in the direction of the Arctic. "The Syndicate will be breaking him out tomorrow - not me, I'm not... with them anymore, but - didn't someone tell you?"

no, no one did. not phil, not techno, not ranboo. wilbur lives in phil's attic half the time now (more than half, she supposes, if she guesses how quackity would respond to the casino's destruction) and they hadn't said a word.

despite wilbur's apprehension over that, he has greater issues to deal with right now - incredulous that of everyone, niki doesn't trust him because of dream. (after, he reminds her - he keeps reminding her - after what she did.)

"I told you - I told you about limbo," he says, voice fraught. Even now, when they're fighting, some part of Niki hurts at the fragility in his voice. She steels her resolve. "I told you what it was like, about Dream - and you still don't trust me?" "I don't know," she says, and finds that to be, for once, the honest answer. "You said you were sorry about destroying L'Manberg too - you said you were done with all of that - and then, then Las Nevadas, Wilbur! How could you go back to that?" Even he has the shame to look abashed. "So many people could have gotten hurt. We were lucky - we were lucky - Ranboo warned us, and even then, it was close. It was too close, Wilbur. I don't - I don't know what else you'll do. I don't know anymore."

what else can niki say? yes, he told her about limbo. it sounds horrifying. it sounds heartbreaking. he also told her he was sorry for blowing up l'manberg, for forgetting the people betwixt the grand thing that was their country, and that he would try. and yet las nevadas' casino is in ruins, half the server barely escaping with a life intact. and even that was only thanks to ranboo, in the end.

more people would have died unknowing, entirely unaware of the danger until the ground lit up beneath them and they all woke up in their beds, sparkling with burns and regen effect - and tubbo has only one life left, and who even knows how lives work after revival? who knows how many other people in that casino would have one life left too?

he told her he didn't want to fuck it up again. and she told him you left me, you said you'd come back for me and you looked for the button first, and he did the entire fucking thing again.

niki could have died. again. because wilbur was silent.

this - this is the killing blow.

(for as hurt and disgusted and fucking confused as wilbur is, there is still a part of him - bone-deep and steeped in habit - that holds niki's words in high esteem. her response is perfectly predictable, in the midst of his own fury and feelings of betrayal in her direction, and yet the vulnerability of it all stings something fierce anyway.)

they splutter arguments at each other for a few more minutes, running hot with anger, but they achieve nothing. ultimately, both have said their piece - it is not long before even wilbur gives up on the conversation, retreating to the arctic.

niki is done with haunting l'manberg for the night, and returns to the underground city with an eye cast over her shoulder, just in case she's followed. wilbur is far from the type to stalk someone through the woods, but of every possible person on the server, it's his brown coat that she keeps subconsciously looking out for between the trees.

tommy is awake when she comes back, fidgeting with his comm as he sits in what was once planned to be a common area. he tries to call her over for conversation, but she brushes him off as she storms towards her bedroom, resigning herself to another night of staring eyes-wide at the grey, emotionless stone of her ceiling.

she doesn't see the frustrated kind of grief in his expression as she goes.

#my fics #and you caused it tag #wooooo #also i dont usually talk about designs but its art time so. tommy has one permanently dilated pupil from Prison Era #i think ive rambled about other design choices at length but i dont know if ive mentioned that one so. :]#my art

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moondragon618 · 9 months

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Witnessed by Dream, GeorgeSomethingSomething, Sapnap, and Punz (Also Eret fuck eret) The Decree of Independance Signed: President Wilbur TommyInnit Tubbo_ Fundy As we gaze upon the swaths of redwood trees. The great hills to our south and the walls that have protected for years. I, as the now President L'Manburg hereby state:

SUCK IT GREEN BOYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY

Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Freedom

#o7 happy L'manberg independance day part two :)#dream smp #dsmp #I really just wanted to make a full version of this lol

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phantoids · 1 year

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Fuck it. Take some dsmp countries worldbuilding for an AU I'm working on.

Snowchester. originally it was l'manberg's industrial sector of claimed land, including a nuclear research lab (not limited to weapons but mostly yea, i like to think they had a decent physics department and were trying to figure out nuclear reactors to help power the city when things started getting worse) but ofc it turned into an industrial town since workers migrated there. you have small farms of hardy vegetables and their own traditions and such. it ends up gaining independence of lmanberg as like a separate country but it's still a colony yk since they wanted to be allow the people of snowchester to be seen as their own people whilst being able to easily keep their lmanberg citizenship and such given they're all first generation migrants basically. snowchester's main things are engineering (electrical, mechanical, anything they can get to do with mechanics), physics and nuclear physics. they've got some primary industry in extracting natural materials required for the nukes (the specific area is where there's a lot of very deeply buried inactive nuclear ore) and ofc secondary industry in the processing of those materials too since they're refined there too. snowchester has very little tertiary industry, and quite a bit of quaternary in terms of engineering and designers and such. meanwhile l'manberg has quite a bit of quaternary and tertiary industry but not nearly as much secondary (they mainly export food products, however, and often jewellery too) and basically no primary industry.

snowchester remains one of the more populated areas on the server after the egg, with how it's self sufficient and a bit too cold for the vines still. some are creeping up the shore though and nobody's too sure how long they have til the town is uninhabitable.

the dsmp specialises in primary industry and tertiary. all its manufacturing is either outsourced to lmanberg or the badlands. cause like. the badlands is an extremely good place to have a lot of manufacturing and quaternary as well, and they just do fuck all everything. they are THE manufacturing specialists (also cause sam would definitely like that kind of thing and help out with it).

kinoko exports agricultural goods and has one of the most popular brewing industries on the server, as well as being renowned for the general quality of ingredients and the amount of cafes. also has a lot of builders, there's a decent amount of construction done there due to the materials used in most of the buildings, it attracts a lot of carpenters and construction workers who want to test their skill working with mushrooms sturdy enough to build a house with. las nevadas is entirely tertiary and quaternary industry, they outside a lot to lmanberg and the badlands. basically after el rapids dispersed they created las nevadas so the few people who lived there moved to las nevadas, and people probably migrated from elsewhere too, but el rapids was planned to have a decent entertainment industry. las nevadas has lots of builders and carpenters and jewellery sellers but it's all bespoke stuff, and a lot of it is high end or hand made goods too. it's where you'll go to find the best restaurants and hotels and night clubs and casinos. it's where you meet the big business execs and where there's a lot of cramped office buildings, and the food is quite lovely since it's so close to kinoko they get fresh ingredient imports every day.

also foolish's summer home is a tourist attraction and resort. you've also just got foolish there. he's always seen building smth.

#void talks about writing #worldbuilding shit #god i love it so much.#tteote au

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wils-brother-tommy · 9 months

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finished these right in time 4 L'manberg independance day... BEHOLD, L'MANSHOES!!!

#this project was rlly fun ^^#L'manberg #L'manburg

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songbird-sunrise · 9 months

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Are you gonna ask Quackity if there’s gonna be a la manburg Independence Day celebration in las nevadas?

Why would there be a L'manberg celebration in Las Nevadas? That'd make no sense

#quoth the raven...#anonymous

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catpcgames · 1 year

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Since Wilbur was in Utah at the time of "The Incident" that means he'll still have all of his memories, so when Wilbur finds Tommy he'll be freaked our by the fact that he's living with Dream of all people.

It would probably go something like this: "Wilbur spots his younger brother across the field and dashes towards him and gives the kid a hug. "Tommy, I- I've really missed you man." The kid proceeds to try and push Wilbur off of him, which Wilbur found, strange, to say the least.

Wilbur's confusion grew into panic when Tommy screamed "Dream! Dream help! This old man is attacking me!"

Wilbur released his grip on Tommy in shock, and gets a good look at this kid for the first time since coming here.

Tommy's eyes are back to the bright blue they were in the L'manberg days, all of his scars were gone, he didn't have the green bandana he got from Tubbo, his coat was now red rather than blue, and he now had demon horns and a tail.

However, he still has the unnatural white streak he got from his revival.

"Tommy, what is he doing to you?"

"'What is he doing to you' what the fuck are you doing to me?"

"Look, I'm just trying to help, but if you don't tell me what's going on and can't help you"

"Who the fuck even are you? How the fuck do you know my name?"

This broke Wilbur. His own little brother, his sunshine, not regonizing him? What had happened to this kid?

Wilbur was so caught up in his own thoughts that he didn't realize that tears had begun to stream down his face.

Tommy put a hand on Wilbur's shoulder "Hey, I- I'm sorry, I didn't mean to upset you, I just, I don't know what to say."

At that moment, Dream came running towards the duo.

The man lacked the mask he used to use to hide his face, his hair was entirely white with the exception of a single streak of his natural hair colour. He wore the green sweater that Wilbur hasn't seen since the war for independence.

"Tommy are you okay?" Dream asked, "I heard you screaming my name."

"I think I'm fine, I just- he knows me" he points towards Wilbur, "and I've never seen him in my life."

Wilbur winced slightly.

"I don't think he'll be causing us much trouble, I just- I just panicked."

Dream nods in agreement, "that is strange, the fact that he knows you."

"Yeah, but I'd rather not think about it too much, don't wanna have an 'existential crisis' or something"

"Alright fair" Dream laughed, "wanna go home now?"

"Yeah, I think I've had enough adventure for today"

Tommy and Dream leave, leaving Wilbur on his own.

What the fuck had happened to his sunshine?"

#dream smp #dsmp #wilbur soot #tommyinnit #dreamwastaken #cwilbur #s2!tommy #s2!dream #s2!discduo #dream smp season 2 #I kinda got carried away writing this lmao

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proudfreakmetarusonniku · 1 year

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whoops wrote some stuff for “c!benchtrio in a sleepy 80s town where every myth is real and no one is normal” au. yes the cabinet is polybius. of course it is.

TW: period typical ableism, references to period typical homophobia, mind control, referenced kidnapping.

tommy loved saturday.

one, it meant he was off school. school was a fucking hell system designed to tear out the individuality of kids and turn them into little worker drones- at least, that was what wil reckoned, and wil was probably the smartest person in town by account of haunting the shit out of everyone over the past few centuries, so tommy believed him. besides, he struggled to sit still for long enough to write, and tubbo couldn’t read the words, so they spent most of their time staring at each other in detention anyway.

but that wasn’t the main reason. the two of them skived off school half the time, though in their defence it’s kind of hard to go when you’ve got seven government conspiracies, three independent mad scientists, several different types of aliens, at least one fae court, and whatever the fuck sam was on your tail 24/7. honestly, being kidnapped by half of them was probably better than an english lesson where the teachers shouted at him for writing in the proper british way he was taught instead of suddenly switching to the dumb american shitty way. his organs might have been rearranged last time he'd gotten abducted by a flying saucer, but at least that meant he looked cool on x-rays.

no, the real reason saturday was great was that saturday was arcade day.

if tommy wasn’t religious, he'd call the local arcade his church, but that felt disrespectful to Her Lady Prime (though, considering the amount of gods he'd met in sleepy l'manberg he was convinced that there was probably enough gods in oregon every video arcade had one). still, he approached the day phil would drop off him and tubbo at the doors for a whole day with reverence, and as the man who was not his father (he actually wanted him) dropped them off, he handed them enough coins for an extra with a wink.

that was another reason tommy loved saturday. school didn’t really accept local cryptids, unfortunately, but with a mask, hat, and a long enough skirt, ranboo could blend in as a weirdo teenager instead of a local nightmare. besides, he liked the flashing lights.

ranboo was in first, as always, and rushed tommy and tubbo into a big, big hug the second they entered the doors. he knew when phil dropped them off, and had started waiting to ambush them.

“ugh, gross, man,” tommy said, not sounding annoyed at all. “we're twelve now. too old for little kid cuddles.”

“why?” ranboo’s voice had a vibration to it like an insect. it made tommy feel comforted.

“because you get beat up if you're weird, y’know!” tommy flushed. “i don’t wanna get beat up, fucker.”

tubbo raised an eyebrow. “tommy, have you met a normal person in this town?”

“well, no-“

“there. look, are we going to play some pac-man or not?”

“ugh, no!” tommy said, giggling as he pushed the other boys away. “pac-man is so uncool. now, frogger? that, man, is truly radical.”

ranboo blinked. “what’s a radical?”

“it’s just one of tommy's weird big kid terms, boo.” tubbo said, ribbing ranboo and grinning at the disgusted face tommy made. tommy didn’t have any issues with, y’know, those sort of people. people who got mad at boys kissing boys were stupid. the issue was that tubbo was far too young to be flirting with anyone. that stuff was gross. “he just wants to be cool, y’know. that’s why he’s got that stupid mullet.”

“mullets are so cool, fuck you,” tommy said, sticking out his tongue in a not at all childish way. “anyway, now are you two gonna go all K-I-S-S-I-N-G, or will you- oh my Prime, what the fuck is that?”

every machine in the building was empty of players. all except one, a blank looking cabinet, which had a line that looked a million billion miles long.

ranboo raised an eyebrow. “good game, i guess?”

“no game is that good. not even frogger.” tommy shook his head. “that’s like… remember when that fucking weird government dude had all those pills and shit? that made you all fuzzy and do what they say?”

tubbo gasped. “you can’t say that, tom! you know he has memory issues. stop being a dick.”

“fine! sorry.” tommy threw his hands up in frustration. “but anyway, you see that blank fucking stare on their face? well, most of there’s, purpled seems fine but he's got the whole being not human thing going. that’s the look ranboo had when that dream fucker gave him the pills. that’s mind control, innit?”

“don’t remind me of dream,” ranboo said, growling.

“oh, yeah. sorry man.”

“anyway… do you think that might be involved? if it’s to do with governments… i'd rather not get cut up by a lab, thank you. we need to stop it.”

“chill out, ranboo, being cut up isn’t even that bad if they give you proper painkillers and shit,” tommy said, ignoring the weird stares ranboo gave him because of that. “besides, y’know i'll never say no to uncovering some secret truth. it’s almost as fun as frogger. tubbo?” tommy paused, turning to his other best friend. “uh, tubbo?”

there was a far away, dreamy look in tubbo’s eyes. not those of brainwashing, but desire. “i want to take that thing apart,” tubbo said, sounding overjoyed. “i need it. i need that beauty so bad.”

well. it was better than the barrels of radioactive material he'd seen tubbo carry into the shed. tommy couldn’t deny that. “then, let’s go figure shit out, then.”

#my writing #dream smp au #c!benchtrio #tw ableism #tw referenced homophobia #tw mind control #tw referenced kidnapping

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