on temporizing || Dream SMP Timeloop Fic

Chapter 20

This chapter has no crack. If you're here for the crack and not the plot, ignore this chapter.

Just for this chapter, loops are arranged in chronological order. 

96.

Tommy shot up with a scream.

"W're safe," Tubbo slurred, hooking an arm around his chest and dragging him back to the floor. "G'to 'leep."

"Sleep," Ranboo agreed drowsily. Michael continued to snore, oblivious to the world.

Tommy forced himself to take deep breaths, eyes tracing the ceiling of the pillow fort. His heartbeat gradually evened out as the last traces of his nightmare slipped away. He didn't remember much of it-- just a terrible sense of loneliness.

He turned his head to the side, staring at Michael. The piglin boy was lying on his side, arms wrapped around a bee plush Tommy had made for him. Ranboo was half-curled around him, one arm slung over the child and the other half-buried in a mountain of pillows.

They're okay, Tommy reminded himself. They're here. We're here together.

He slowly relaxed, melting into the thick blankets piled beneath him. Tubbo made a muffled noise and shifted closer, his arm tightening around Tommy's shoulders. Tommy rolled his eyes.

Clingy bitch.

He reached over and tucked the blanket a bit tighter around Tubbo, then let his eyes fall shut. He'd be alone again the next time the loop reset, but he'd enjoy this easy friendliness while it lasted.

97.

When Dream had gone on a mining expedition, he hadn't expected to stumble across an underground cavern. The place was huge and completely enclosed, with no tunnels in or out aside from the one he'd dug. He wasn't quite sure where he was in relation to the aboveground SMP, but he was pretty sure this place was located under inhabited lands. Strangely, nobody seemed to have discovered it yet.

He raised his torch higher, inspecting the walls. Underneath the thick layer of grime, he could see the outline of uniform stone bricks. Scraping away the layer of dirt on the floor revealed the same thing. He revised his earlier thought; this wasn't a cavern, it was a room. An old room that had been abandoned for quite a while, but it definitely hadn't formed naturally. Strangely enough, the entire place was devoid of life; the room was bathed in darkness - perfect spawning conditions for hostile mobs - and yet there wasn't a single mob in sight.

Dream adjusted his grip on his pickaxe, ignoring the chill that slithered down his spine. He advanced further into the room.

The withered remains of what might have once been pillars jutted out of the floor at regular intervals, built from the same stone as the rest of the room. They appeared to have been destroyed rather than worn away with age; the tops of the ruins were jagged, like the pillars had been smashed to pieces. Chunks of rubble strewn over the floor cemented that theory.

He was about thirty feet in when he saw it. A thin string the color of redstone, nestled in the cracks between two stones. He squatted down to inspect it, only to realize that the string had no visible end-- it continued on into the darkness, originating from somewhere out of the bubble of light from the torch.

Dream rose to his feet. More strings appeared as he moved further in, gradually growing thicker. It wasn't until they'd grown to the width of his ankle Dream realized what they were - vines. Crimson vines as thick as his leg, flourishing in a lightless room. The arrangement suggested they were all growing from a central point - a point that Dream was approaching.