on temporizing || Dream SMP Timeloop Fic

Chapter 3

11. (credit to Paper_T0ast)

"Oh. Oh shit."

Dream began to clap slowly. "Congratulations, Tommy. You just killed a villager with a rock."

"It was your idea to enchant the fucking pebble with Knockback II!"

"And it was your idea to toss it at his head!"

"I thought he'd faceplant!"

"It was Knockback II, not I, you idiot--"

"Who the fuck are you calling an idiot, you green bastard--"

"--and now he's crushed under a house. I'm not explaining this to the others."

Tommy blinked. "Explain?"

"One of them's gonna notice eventually," Dream said dryly. "And then they're gonna have questions. And given that you named the pebble for some reason--"

"--my goals are beyond your understanding--"

"--people are going to be able to trace it back to you."

Tommy scowled. "They might not!"

"You named it wife haver."

"Yeah, so?"

"So unless you want to go pry that pebble out of his skull, or its name was somehow deleted within the past five minutes," Dream deadpanned, "People are going to find out what happened. And then you're going to have to explain why you committed murder."

Tommy wilted. ". . . Fuck. Okay, fine, you bastard, what the hell do I do?"

"Hide the evidence."

"Thank you, Captain Obvious. I know we gotta hide the fucking evidence, but h--"

"Tommy!" Tubbo called, rounding the corner. He looked up from the clipboard he was holding. "Have you seen--"

He stopped, taking in the deer-in-the-headlights expressions plastered on Dream and Tommy's faces and the corpse lying behind their feet.

"I'll come back later," he decided calmly, turned on his heel, and strolled right back the way he'd come. The two loopers stared as he disappeared around the corner.

"He knows too much," Dream muttered. Tommy kicked him in the leg.

"We're not killing Tubbo, you bastard!"

12. (credit to Starshifting and curry_powder)

"Puffy, it's okay," Foolish said, emerald eyes fixed on her horrified expression. "It's. . . it's okay."

"No, it's not!" she screamed, taking a step forward as Ant raised his sword. Behind them, Bad laughed, a dark, twisted thing that sounded nothing like him.

Foolish smiled gently. "It's okay," he repeated, just as Ant brought the sword down.

"NO!" Puffy howled, lunging forward, only to stop short when a resounding clang rang through the room. The edge of Ant's blade shivered inches away from Foolish's neck, blocked by a netherite sword.

TommyInnit grinned confidently at the cat hybrid, then threw his weight forward, sending Antfrost stumbling back. The moment their blades were safely away from Foolish, Tommy flicked his wrist, forcing Antfrost to disengage or risk losing his weapon. The teen then slid between Foolish and the members of the Eggpire, assuming a defensive pose. "Hey Eggheads!" he shouted. "Why the fuck wasn't I invited to the party?"