Almost But Not Quite Human

Spider Town

TW swear - idk whether to keep doing these or just put a heads up for swears at the beginning of the SBI arc. What do u think?
_______________________________________

As the days started to flow smoother, the Dream team sort of came accustomed to the tree house life.

Dream was making great progress with the SBI, and had even started training with Technoblade again although it was more sparing than training since he and Techno were almost evenly matched nowadays.

Sapnap and Tommy continued to test eachothers limits, to the frustration of everyone else in the tree house. Most arguments included one calling the other a dickhead, or Sapnap calling Tommy a child, to which the other would protest to no end.

George learned that Niki and Ranboo acted almost like siblings, and he wondered how long they'd known eachother for.

As Sapnap predicted, George was sleeping in again and it was in one such occasion that he learned that sleeping in was more dangerous than he thought, considering the hiss he heard upon waking up from said lay-in.

"George what the heck get up!"

George practically bounced out of his hammock and found Sapnap and Dream engaging in combat with a giant spider - no, there were at least four giant spiders in the room.

"Well don't just stand there!"

Sapnap tossed George one of his larger knives, realising a bow wouldn't work well in such close range combat.

The spiders weren't formidable for their overwhelming strength, but rather speed and agility kept them biting at the Dream team with sharp fangs while they managed to dodge most of their slices with the sword.

While he had been training George and Sapnap, Dream still far surpassed them in skill and dispatched two of the spiders, while Sapnap and George killed one each.

"Wow, whered those guys come from?"

"Never mind that, how did you manage to sleep while they started attacking us," Sapnap berated, while Dream laughed - or rather that iconic wheeze-laugh.

As if to prove a point, George yawned and said, "I was just tired mkay?"

Sapnap smiled, "Whatever man."

The smile soon disappeared though, when more hissing was heard outside.

Dream finally spoke, "Oh you have to be kidding me."

Unfortunately, whatever cosmic force of the universe Dream was addressing was not, in fact, 'kidding', because outside there were even more spiders than before and the other occupants of the tree house were already battling them.

"Nice of you to join us boys," Niki called as she aggressively ran a kitchen knife through a spiders head with her metal manipulation mutation, and watched it fall to the forest floor.

"Well, one of us decided to the best way to deal with a spider infestation is to sleep through it so-" Dream was cut off by a not entirely-playful-but-
also-not-harmful-punch in the arm.

Before joining the fray, George took a moment to survey the scene. Technoblade was killing the most spiders by far, mostly by slashing and hacking at them with a sword (it didn't look as graceful as any book would have you believe). Wilbur was snipping spiders with a bow, but very occasionally an arrow would just fall through his ghostly hand, making him scramble to reload before a spider could get any closer.

Tommy was almost as agile and fast as the spiders himself, which more than made up for his lack in actual fighting experience. It also helped that his skin could burn as hot as real magma, killing most spiders at a mere touch. The tricky part was for him to get close enough without being. Ranboo's technique was certainly interesting, as it seemed he could alternate between one and two bodies quite quickly, as long as they were close together. This made great ambush for attacks combined with their long claws, but seemed to take alot of concentration and energy.

Finally Phil, who George at first thought was MIA, swooped in from his hidden position in the canopy, ramming at least five spiders at a time off the bridges and to their deaths. He then switched to actually fighting them, but still utilised his wings as a shield or for batting the spiders away.

All of this George saw in about five seconds, before he too was dragged in to fight the onslaught of arachnids.
_______________________________________

Dream wasn't sure how long had passed, but eventually the spiders slowed and then stopped altogether. Everyone was bruised and battered, or at least exhausted.

Collectively deciding they needed food and a sit-down, everyone trudged over to the main tree and grabbed a snack each. No one wanted to cook right now.

"Is no one gonna mention," started George, "How strange that was? I've never known mob-spiders to have such large groups."

Wilbur answered, "Well I would refer to your lack of real-world experience with mobs, but even though this does occasionally happened here it does seem to be a rare phenomenon elsewhere."

"So you're just... fine with it?"

"Oh heck no, but what else are we going to do? If we light the place up then that'll attract something even worse than the spiders."

"Something worse?"

"People"

George wasn't sure if this was a joke or not, but luckily he got his answer when Phil spoke.

"While Wil is probably referring to people in general-" Wilbur smiled, "-People are actually an issue out here sometimes. If you remember when we first met, me and Techno thought you'd come to kill us."

Sapnap just nodded, not liking the reminder of when he had a knife in his face.

In the peaceful silence that followed, there was only quiet sounds of various crunching.
_______________________________________

It was far past sundown when Technoblade trudged outside and rested his elbows on the support of the rope bridges. He didn't stay long, however, because he caught sight of grey feathers on the roof of one of the rooms.

With little effort, he climbed up to join the feathered mutated. "Hey Phil. "

"Hey Techno. Couldn't sleep?"

Techno grunted in response, and Phil wasn't sure whether it was a yes or a no. It was quiet for a while, and the two old friends just gazed up at the night sky through the canopy. Phil had chosen a great spot for seeing the stars. Then Techno broke the silence.

"Just because you don't need to sleep as often as the rest of us, doesn't mean you need to stay up every night man."

"Someone has to keep watch," Phil yawned, accidentally proving the pig-man's point, "I'm fine." He lied.

"If you're so worried about protectin' everyone, then just think about how much better you'll be able to help them if you're well rested. Besides, we haven't had a raid in months - they might've given up by now."

Phil didn't reply, worry evident in his face.

"Alright, how about we share watch? You go rest. I'll stay tonight."

"Really?"

"Yeah man, go snooze."

Phil's face was full of relief. He had complete trust in Techno, and knew that just maybe he'd be able to get some rest. He was also grateful Techno hadn't asked how many days it'd been since he slept. It would be about... eight or so now? Sometimes it was hard to keep track.

On unsteady feet, Phil rose and spread his wings. How had none of them noticed his utter exhaustion before? Techno didn't know, but he knew it wouldn't happen again. He watched as Phil glided off to the room he shared with Wilbur.

Technoblade closed his eyes and felt a breeze flow past him. He opened them again and thanked the sky for a cloudless night, so he could sit and watch the stars in awe of their beauty.
_______________________________________

So we're starting to use other pov's more often readers, also! Rest in peace pog emote... It had to be done, but all us twitch users are sad to see you go. 😔

Sincery, a teeny tiny scrap of fabric