The dream of a game

Under a black sun

George left Sapnap's house after that. His mood had been greatly dampened, but the gently pulsing soul in Nether Star urged him on. Dream was alive, and if he had to retrieve him from the End and physically drag him to Sapnap's house to prove it, then he would.

As he made his way down the wooden path he caught sight of a brown-haired figure coming up the other direction. Tubbo. The teenager walked quickly, occasionally glancing up worriedly at the grey sky. Glancing at the path, the grass, the lake. Pointedly not looking at George.

Did the server think he was a fucking enderman or something?

George considered ducking his head and silently passing by, but a thought suddenly occurred to him. He raised an arm in a half-wave and called out to him.

Tubbo froze in his tracks, seemingly not knowing what to do. His eyes darted to meet his, having left uncovered for days without his glasses, then down to the Nether Star clutched in his hands. Thankfully, he didn't question it.

"Do you have any blaze rods?" George asked.

"Blaze rods?" Tubbo echoed, "Why would you be needing blaze rods?"

"I'm going to-" Sapnap's dismissal was still fresh on his mind, "Oh nevermind, just do you have them?"

He shook his head, "No, they got confiscated during the war, remember? And Dream broke all the spawners." he gave him a sideways look, "...You're not trying to do drugs now, are you?"

George laughed, for the first time in days, "No, I'm not."

"Okay because if you were I was going to have to get Big Law." he put on a mock-serious face, "This is an intervention!"

He laughed again, and for a brief moment Tubbo's yellow shirt reminded him of Dream.

=================

The next person he ran into on the path was Purpled. He rarely took part in the server's conflicts, and George realized that he might not have heard the news.

"Hey, do you like my Walmart?" Purpled called out to him as he passed. He was sitting on the roof of a blue and yellow building labeled, in poorly written letters, "WalMar".

"You built a Walmart? Dream's dead and you built a Walmart?" George didn't mean to rain on his parade, but he felt like the teenager deserved to know.

"What? Dream's not dead." Purpled said, completely unfazed, "I saw him die in chat a couple of days ago, but he'll respawn."

George opened his mouth to correct him, but decided against it. Here was someone with the right attitude. "Do you have any blaze rods?" he asked instead.

"Nope. Do you like my Walmart?"

He looked at the blue and yellow building. At least he could see the colors properly, "Yes, I like your Walmart."

"Great, because I like it too."

=================

Rain started to fall again when he reached the community house, and he briefly stood outside to scrutinize its ugly bricks. Hadn't Dream intended to fix up the exterior sometime? He quickly pushed the thought away before it could drown him in misery again. He had a plan now, stopping to mourn would only slow him down.

He quickly rifled through the mess of chests in the community house, searching for the odd blaze rod. He'd passed a few more people on the path back home, but he'd stopped asking around for blaze rods. He didn't want to have to explain himself only to have them doubt him like Sapnap. All it would do is rouse suspicion and the last thing he needed was for others to try and stop him on his "fool's quest".