on temporizing || Dream SMP Timeloop Fic

Chapter 19

91.

"Everything in our universe is either a disc or not a disc."

Wilbur bolted upright in his bed, head snapping around. "Tommy?" he called.

"No one ever specified that Humpty Dumpty was an egg."

Wilbur paused, then slowly looked down. Tommy lay flat on his floor, the upper half of his body sticking out from under Wilbur's bed. His spectral form glowed dimly in the darkness.

"Surgery is just stabbing someone to life," he said.

Wilbur stared. "What?"

The ghost stared back, unblinking. "If you take care of chickens, that makes you a chicken tender."

". . . Okay," Wilbur said. "Why are you lying on my floor at four in the morning?"

"Reading is just looking at a piece of paper and hallucinating."

"That doesn't answer my question."

"The best liar you know isn't the best liar you know."

"That's-- unfortunately true, but what--"

"The bigger your bed is, the more bed room and less bedroom you have."

Wilbur nodded. "Yeah. Sure. Tommy, what the fuck are you doing?"

The ghost paused and tilted his head, face unnervingly blank. "Anxiety is just our brain sending us fake news."

"You're messing with me, aren't you."

"You are forever trapped inside your skull. Except for me, because I'm dead, but now I'm trapped in my ghostly skull."

Wilbur breathed in through his nose, held for five, and exhaled. "I'm going back to sleep."

"Sleep is a free trial of death," the ghost whispered before he sunk into the floor. Wilbur stared at the spot where he'd been for a long, long time, then laid back down and tried to go back to sleep.

Needless to say, he failed.

92. remix, pt. 5 

"And stay inside."

"I can fight," Dream protested as Technoblade pulled open another chest. "You know how good I am at PvP--"

"--and you're still recoverin' from malnutrition, burns, and a bruised rib," Technoblade deadpanned. "You're not fightin'."

"It's four versus one! You can't fight them off by yourself!"

The chest slammed shut. Dream took a step back as Technoblade turned to him, hands full of potions.

"Dream," he said. "You know you can't fight off either. You'd be dead weight."

"I can handle it--"

"I don't have time for this," Technoblade muttered, brushing past him. "Dream, I'm serious. Stay inside. Hide. If they're here to kill me, chances are they'll want to kill you too. I can't defend both of us."

Dream hesitated. "But. . ."

"The invis potions are in the chests on the far right, middle row," Technoblade called. "Grab some and get down to the basement. I'll call you up when it's safe."

The door slammed shut behind him. Dream was left standing alone in the room, gnawing on the inside of his cheek.

They were switching roles, but they were only loosely following each others' scripts. Tommy wouldn't help Technoblade escape. Which meant that if Dream didn't interfere--