#root writes

“Is that—” The severed fish head certainly catches him off guard. “Did you seriously bring me raw fish?” “Yeah?” They question, like it's normal. Like Dream's the strange one here. “Don't worry, it's fresh. I caught it on the way over here.” “That's not really what I'm worried about.” “Do people not eat raw fish? I swear I heard that's a thing.” “You couldn't have brought, I don't know, beef? Cooked beef?” “Geeze, didn't realize I was dealing with Gordon Ramsay here. Listen, this isn't exactly a five star joint here, okay? You're not going to get a Michelin star meal."

Rating: T

Warnings: Non Graphic Torture, PTSD, Panic Attacks, Bittersweet endings

Relationship: Dream & Foolish

Steam wafts up from the stew— a joint effort. Dream caught, Punz cooked. The aroma makes his mouth water, but Dream eats in slow, measured bites. Deliberately pacing himself. The rabbit is tender and well seasoned, if a bit gamey. The broth's flavor heavy on his tongue.

Next to him, Punz doesn't say a word.

He knows eating, eating for pleasure instead of just base survival especially, is a tense experience for Dream. The stew is rich in flavor and labor intensive to cook. Not the most efficient food, but before the- before, with Sapnap and George and a house surrounded by a lake, Dream had enjoyed this food the most. Then, Dream had time to spare. Days to waste lazing in a kitchen or hunting through a field. Time is the one thing he doesn't have now.

Well. One of the things.

This whole affair is an exercise, smaller than some of the others, but with that- easier to do. Readjust to eating food again. Real food again. Dream can't afford to keep being thrown off by the bloated feeling in his stomach. Being more comfortable craving. It's a hindrance. He needs to get over this.

In the silence, he can hear himself chew. Dream wishes Punz would say something, honestly, but Dream knows he doesn't want to add any more pressure. He doesn't, but he does. Punz's eyes bore into him as he watches the spoon pass Dream's lips with an eagle's eye. Calorie counting for him.

He's watching him eat the food. Making sure he's finished it.

This stew is a waste. He eats the stew. He avoids the potatoes. Teeth tear a bit of the meat apart. And for a second, he tastes iron.

He eats the stew.

Foolish always talkswhen they eat together, filling up the empty spaces with something warmer than whatever meal they're sharing. Foolish isn't here right now, by design. Dream orchestrated that distance.

Dream can feel the food in his teeth, on his tongue and in his throat, in his stomach. Dream can feel Punz watching all of it.

He sets the spoon down. He walks away from an almost full bowl.

BUT OF COURSE!! I started writing it almost two years ago now, before the torture plot came to a conclusion so I was having a lot of thoughts about how c!Quackity might have felt about everything he was doing and under what circumstances could be start to maybe, just possibly, regret what he's done.

I ended up editing it to fit some new developments that happened before the prison break but unfortunately never got around to the "change of heart" part of the story. I still think it's a neat idea nonetheless! ignore any typos 😌

cw for torture and graphic depictions of violence

"He turns around and raises an eyebrow at Dream, who's currently drowning on his own blood and vomit, and laughing like a goddamn demon. He looks nothing short of manic, with blood leaking down his chin and covered in whatever else has come out of his body within the last hour. He's clearly too high on pain to register the situation they're in or he wouldn't be dumb enough to laugh at Quackity.

"You're fucked. You're... so fucked, he's 'onna kill you. I knew he'd come back, you're dead." Dream's ramblings slur together, blood loss making him delirious. Still- no matter how hard they are to understand, his words never fail to make Quackity want to hit him.

He kneels down instead, knuckles clenched, as he bites back his frustration. "Who, Techno?"

Dream nods, eyes glassy. "You're fucked." A broken record it seems.

Quackity lets out a sigh under his breath and forces out a laugh that he hopes expresses confidence, "Oh no, it's not Techno. It's Tommy, actually, with half of the smp. Guess they finally had enough of your shit."

"It's not-" Dream's eyebrows dip close together as he takes a moment to process Quackity's words. "It's not Techno?" He says the last bit in a hushed whisper, almost entirely to himself.

If Quackity was any further away he wouldn't have been able to hear it at all.

"Which is why," Quackity says evenly, "you should be taking this more seriously. You don't have a Ghostbur to bargain for your life with this time around and Tommy has a lot more than an axe."

Dream shakes his head, apparently unfazed by Quackity's words. "Techno said-"

"Techno said whatever I told him to!" The lie comes easily and Quackity launches up in one quick, harsh motion as he thinks of his next plan. He savors with a sick type of glee as Dream flinches from the sudden movement. Sweat is now forming on his brow and Quackity is glad Dream is out of it as he is because he's not sure he could handle those all-too-knowing eyes focused on him right now.

This is fine, he can work with this. He can swing this. "Techno did exactly what I told him to Dream, and that included keeping you on his side."

Dream manages to look even more crestfallen than normal at that, and Quackity let's a grin spread across his face. "What? You didn't think he would spend months in this cage just for you, did you?"

With a heavy effort, Dream shakes his head again. "You're wrong. You're wrong, lying, Tech said he'd be back. He told me how'd he do it, just like this, you're wrong."

"Oh please! You're not this fucking stupid! Technoblade is the strongest person on this server, he could have saved your ass whenever he wanted to. But he didn't. Do you really think he'd fall for such an obvious trick and get stuck in here? How do you think he got out, huh?" Quackity gives an easy laugh, and rocks back on his heels. This is fine, this is working.

"His stasis chamber-" Quackity scoffs, so that's how he did it, "You really think I didn't know about it? I was the one who told Philza to get him out. Just like I was the one who told Techno to come here. I needed you to think you had a chance, a way out. Now, this-" he gestures to the walls with his hand, "-wasn't exactly what I was expecting. So I need you to pay attention. Tommy is going to kill you, he doesn't care about the revive book. No one does, okay? They've had enough. No one wants you here, Dream."

There's no imitate response from Dream as he mulls over the words. "And you do?"

Quackity revels in the defeated tone and says easily, "No, not really. But you're insurance and, well, what can I say? You're too much fun."

Dream shudders and Quackity smiles, "So, instead of lying on your ass why don't you help me think of a way out of this? What do you say?"

Again, he's met with silence as Dream just stares up at the ceiling with dead eyes. Quackity rolls his shoulder back, accessing his inventory, and slams Sam's axe down next to his head.

"What do you say, Dream?" There's a hard edge to his voice, one that Quackity recognizes in himself. One that comes from Dream pushing his limits too many times.

Dream is all taunt muscles, all fear. It colors his eyes and voice as he mumbles a weak "Yes, sir."

Quackity smiles, feels the expression stretch his skin, but he can't help it. He really does love that sound. "Atta boy."

He yanks Dream up into a sitting position. The quick movement must make Dream lose some of his focus because he suddenly lurches forward and leans his weight against Quackity. Quackity flinches back, disgust filling his expression as he holds Dream at arms length. "Don't touch me. Don't fucking do that."

He's only not letting him drop because he doesn't want to scrap Dream's ass off the obsidian again. Dream mumbles a weak, "Sorry, sir. Sorry, sorry." clearly on autopilot as he tries to get his bearings. Quackity pulls his arm away slowly and relaxes slightly when Dream stays upright. He looks so fucking pathetic like that, barely holding on and bleeding everywhere. It's infuriating.

Instead of staring at Dream's shaking form, he turns around and flicks out his communicator. Still no new messages and he gives a weak groan. Sam better thank his lucky stars Quackity can think quick on his feet or else their little operation would have been done and over with ages ago. He glances around the meager cell and tenses slightly at the sudden claustrophobic feeling that overtakes him. He's never been stuck in here before and the thought makes him uncomfortable in a way he can't really describe.

"Got any idea on how to get out of here?" He asks over his shoulder, only half serious. He hardly thinks Dream is going to actually be of any help. Dream predictably gives a shake of his head. "Yeah, that's what I thought."

"Just have Sam bring the bridge over." Dream says like that wouldn't have been the first thing Quackity tried.

"He's not responding." And, just because he likes seeing the absolute terror in Dream's expression, he adds, "Maybe he wants you gone just as much as everyone else."

Quackity pulls open his inventory and looks around. He's glad he finally convinced Sam to stop searching him before every visit but it's not like Quackity brings much with him anyway. Sheers, Sam's sword and axe, 3 fire res in case of emergency, about half a stack of steak, and about 20 cobblestone. Well, it's an emergency all right. Even so, he's still not crazy about the idea of swimming through lava. The cell gives an unsteady groan as another round of explosions fill the air. Quackity drags a hand down his face. He doesn't have another fucking choice it seems. Quackity pulls out a fire res, downs it, and turns around again.

He walks back over to where Dream is sitting and roughly grabs his chin, "Open up."Dream opens his lips obediently and Quackity dumps the glass bottle down his throat. Dream starts to choke on it and Quackity's grip tightens in response. "Swallow it, idiot." Dream does, after a second, and Quackity pulls away.

He leaves him sputtering for a second before grabbing his arm and pulling him upright. "Let's go."

Dream, suddenly, pulls back. "Wait, what did you give me? Quackity- wait, stop-"

As they near the lava, Dream starts fighting full force. "Stop, stop! No, no I'm not going in there, please, Quackity, please!"

They don't fucking have time for this. Anger makes his vision go red and before he even really knows what he's doing, Quackity is ramming the axe into Dream's left shoulder. Metal slices through skin and tendon with ease as the smell of iron floods Quackity's senses. A new, heavy stream of blood quickly drips down into the old, ratty jumpsuit. Dream cries out and his knees buckle under the weight, so now Quackity has to hold Dream up too.

"I'm trying to save your life, Dream, so get the fuck up." Dream frantically shakes his head as he doubles over, the arm still in Quackity's grip desperately pulling against him. "You swim in there all the time so I don't know what the problem is!"

Dream shudders and turns away. He uses his legs to push himself towards the corner he always hides in.

Quackity wants to scream, nearly does, as he yanks Dream back. "If you don't fucking stop I'm going to send this through your neck next."

—

A conversation of dogs, capital punishment, and the devastating connection of having Quackity be the one to break you and Sam build your kennel.

Or; Dream, Foolish, and an understanding of cages.

THANK UUUU 😈🏳️‍🌈🦈 TWO!!!!! is honestly one of my favorites!! It's an older one so I'm not thrilled with my writing but I'd love to come back and finish and clean it up 😭 it's just self indulgent fluff (with a wee bit of angst I mean it's me come on) about c!Foolish finding ways to get Bad to leave him alone (his method is kissing. really thought that one through didn't ya champ)

"And as Foolish yanks him back, he realizes several things all at once:

One, Bad is a lot closer than he realized.

Two, this whole ridiculous game of cat and mouse gets them absolutely nowhere and killing him would do absolutely nothing.

Three, everything Bad does is because he's desperate for Foolish's attention.

So Foolish decides to give it to him, all at once.

He pulls Bad closer, maybe too forcefully in retrospect, and angles his body so he's standing in front of him straight on. The hand not tangled up in Bad's clothing moves to his chin and tilts it up, just enough. In an instant, Foolish presses them together and distantly notes that Bad squeaks as their lips meet. Later, Foolish will hate how he so clearly noticed that Bad's lips are chapped.

The kiss itself is incredibly brief and hardly anything more than a peck, if that. Still, Foolish feels his cheeks heat unreasonably at the action. He draws back, hands still on Bad, before he really processes that he just kissed him.

Which, alright, in terms of spur of the moment decisions, not his best."

---

the egg one is obviously more angsty! I wrote it before the egg finale so it was just me spit balling about certain concepts. Bad getting mind controlled, Foolish's ptsd, the way those two are maybe the only two who will ever understand each other's trauma, Foolish's reluctant but ultimately very deep care and concern for Bad. Not sure I'll ever finish this one, but fun idea anyway.

"He also knows that it's wildly unfair to blame Bad for something an ageless, unknowable entity forced him to do. The logic always painfully knocks against Foolish whenever he feels himself getting irrationally angry at them for what happened but at the end of the day, Foolish will be the first to admit that they're just as much victims of the egg as he is.

Still, Foolish also knows that it's going to take a long, long time before he stops seeing Ant as his executioner and Bad as the monster who called for it.

This fresh hell certainly isn't doing my favors in that department. He squints against the light and tries to piece together what happened. Foolish had been- he'd been asleep. For what felt like the first time in months he'd actually gone to his beacon with a mountain of blankets and had decided to camp out there. He'd been scared and stretched thin, and even if the light never seemed to chase away the red in his nightmares, it at the very least left him feeling physically better.

So he had decided to sleep.

And then he woke up here.

He blinks, slowly, and tries to summon his own power and is met with nothing but the dull tingles more akin to static electricity than actual lightning.

Great. Perfect.

As he rolls over, he can't help but note the ceiling above him is one he's seen before, from this exact same spot even. Then he had been on his knees and there had been lava illuminating the walls. And, Foolish can't help but think as he strains against his bonds, he was probably better off.

"That's not going to work." Foolish flinches before he spots the voice, and hates himself as he relaxes at what he sees.

OHHHH thank uuuuuu!! Admittedly this is the concept I'm most excited for :'D the current summary I have for it is "In which Foolish is almost a god and Dream is the world. They meet somewhere in the middle." which. not to toot my own horn but ohhh I love the phrasing something abt it is very satisfying lol.

but yeah the whole premise came from me wanting to use Minecraft mechanics and game limitations as a core part of the story. This idea that all of the divine characters know that their world is made of code is just ugh, so juicy to me. C!Foolish essentially being a tool made to fix glitches and crashes is just a fun idea to me. fun fact: I was inspired by "How to Save the World" by talkingsoup, which is a really clever undertale fanfiction that uses game mechanics as a core plot device.

anyway anyway here's the little excerpt:

"A solution has shown up on a silver platter, a way to remember. He'd shut it down before, still so sure he could fix this. No crash is inevitable, all deaths are malleable. Things have changed though, and Foolish is running out of time and Hail Mary's. His tongue feels heavy in his mouth, flicking briefly over chapped lips. If they can't save this world, they should do everything they can to remember it. Too much had happened to just sweep it aside and forget. But still, it felt too similar to giving up and— …well. Dream might not go for it anyway, but it was a chance, however thin. One he should run by him.

"Let me talk to Dream, see what he thinks, alright? I can't just make this decision for him."

"Foolish," Death sighed, voice weighter than before, "I told you the offer can't extend to him. Dream's code isn't like a player's, he needs his world."

His world. Something about that phrasing itches in the back of Foolish's head, an omen. His nails scratch at the skin on his arm, his movements quickening, slightly, "Right, I mean, I know he's an operator but-"

"No," Death's voice is hard, immovable, "the world's lifespan and his own, they're connected. Intrinsically tied together. One cannot exist without the other. Dream cannot breathe air without the server running, and the server cannot run without Dream breathing. Do you really think it was just a coincidence that the server ended at the same time Dream's last life did?"

Death shook her head, "To move him to a different save file would do more than kill him, it would erase him completely."

A moment pases before Techno walks up next to him and sits down on the opposite side, facing the direction Dream has his back too. Dream huffs another breath, and leans forward, resting his forearms on his knees. He keeps his head down as a soft wind picks up. At least Techno isn't saying anything.

Beneath him, Dream starts absentmindedly tracing patterns on the bark. His head is still spinning, but the murky, overwhelming feeling is starting to clear. Dream bites the inside of his cheek, he hates it when he loses control like that.

The bark is rough on his fingertips, and the frost bites against his exposed skin. There's the distinct smell of spruce needles in the air, and a few feet in front of him Dream sees a crow digging around underneath the trees. Next to him, he hears Techno's steady breathing, heat practically radiating off of him. Dream lifts his hand and stretches his fingers flat against the log.

"I wouldn't actually hurt the server." Dream admits softly.

Techno tilts his head in Dream's direction, "You blew L'manberg off the map."

Dream instantly bristles at the comparison, and hunches back over. "They weren't a part of the smp, they made that abundantly clear."

"Still bitter about that, then." Techno hums.

Dream's head spins to glare at him, "You- you weren't too fond of them last time I checked."

"True," Techno stretches his arms above himself, "but then again it was never about L'manberg, at least not at first. It was about the government. The injustice."

This time, Dream doesn't bother responding. He's too tired to push against his ideal today, and far too exhausted to challenge the fact that Techno isn't just as petty and bitter as himself. The wind picks up again and he shivers.

"It was always about the server for me." He speaks softly and half hopes the wind will carry his words away before they reach Techno. "I always wanted to- to save it. Protect it and keep it together. Guess- hah- guess I failed there, huh."

Techno doesn't respond, and Dream takes that as an invitation to keep talking. He doesn't do it often. "It's just, at the end, I'm not sure there's anything I wouldn't do for the server. For the smp. But, what else can I do? I've already killed for it, died for it. And in the end, none of it mattered. The server is fractured more than ever and the Dream Team smp is long gone."

There's another silence and this time, Dream doesn't want to fill it. He'd rather listen to the wind rustle the pine needles.

Techno shakes his head and huffs, "Chat is saying I should apologize."

"Yeah, well, don't put yourself out." Still, Dream feels himself grinning despite himself. He picks up his cane from where he let it drop in the snow, and pulls himself up. "Let's head back, I'm getting cold."

"You're the one who walked out here."

"And now I'm getting cold." Dream gives an exaggerated shiver and starts walking towards the buildings in the distance.

It really is a bit of a walk, at least for him, and Dream almost wishes he brought a jacket of some kind. Still, feeling cold is something he's not sure he'll ever get tired of. The snow crunches underneath his feet as he heads back to Techno's house. And, hmm, how long will he live here before he starts thinking of it as his house, too?

From here he can see it's large roof with the wide, stretching fences that incase it and it still feels nothing if not unfamiliar. The heavy snow and lack of grass will never come close to the sound of gentle waves and smell of dew that was a staple of the community house. It will never replace the building he built with his own hands, brick by brick.

"Ya know," Techno's voice breaks him out of his thoughts, "you could always try living for it."

Instantly, Dream's feet still in the snow as Techno keeps walking ahead— his cape brushes Dream's shoulder as he passes him.

Living?

Above them, a bird catches an updraft and takes off towards the sky.

hehe >:)