#tiny!puffy

"Puffy get out here!"

Schlatt...

The sheep hybrid tumbled down the stairs as she raced towards her front door, she flung her front door open as she was met with her very serious, and rather furious, older brother. The ram hybrid sighed as he stared her down.

"Hey JJ- what brings you here, shouldn't you be with Dream at the docks?" She chuckled trepidatiously, her brother pursed his lips before he began to speak. "The elders are scolding him...he may have crushed some of the wood we were going to use."

The ram let out an exasperated sigh, "Look Puffy, I love my nephew, but..." His words trailed off as he stared at her sister's wide, soft eyes. "I can't keep defending him...Everyone's getting pretty..." Another sigh escaped his lips, "Well- everyone is getting pretty scared; I've heard that he almost stepped on some old lady!" Schlatt was about to continue but Puffy spoke first.

"What am I supposed to do Schlatt? He can't control what's happening to him- and it wasn't my decision for him to be going around doing chores! He's a kid, he should be out playing in the fields, not working in them..." Puffy was tired, she was tired of seeing her son come home exhausted; not exhausted from playing, but rather tired from working.

It hurt her as she watched her child lay on his bedroom floor, having to get rid of his bed and furniture for the sake that he would still fit in his room. She remembered the nights her son would cry relentlessly, begging to be held; yet all she could do was gently hug his leg as fat tears rolled down his face.

Now her brother—one of the few people who caused this to happen to her son—stood in front of her criticizing his mistakes once more, how dare her brother have the audacity to take away his childhood and still complain!?

Schlatt let out another sigh, it snapped the sheep hybrid out of her daze. Both stood in awkward silence as the ram hybrid stared down at her with gentle eyes, while she was resistant to meet his own. The two were having a silent war; that they barely noticed another presence arrive, until they were startled by a shadow looming over them.

"Uhm- Uncle Schlatt? We're—we're done with the docks and they told me to go on break..." Dream sheepishly announced as he avoided eye contact, Puffy's heart broke, her boy, despite the fact he towered over everyone in the flock; looked so, so small. The ram hybrid's lips pursed as Puffy began to speak. "Hey duckling, you hungry?" The blond gave a shy nod, still unwilling to meet her eyes.

"There's food in the dining room, I made it all for you so don't worry duckling." She reassured, Dream muttered a grateful 'thank you' as he ushered himself inside the house; needing to bend down to walk around the house. The sheep hybrid turned around to face her brother again, "Look Schlatt- if you have nothing else to say I have stuff I need to do..." He sighed and shook his head.

"Goodbye JJ."

•~☆~•

"Dream can you get the tools over there?" A disheveled middle-aged man gently commanded the blond which he complied too, "Yes sir..." The child simply responded as he took a few strides and bent down to pick up a box full of tools.

It was another day for Dream, he was helping rebuild the town fountain at the core of their little village; which got damaged after some rogue hybrid went into their village and started throwing bombs, luckily another group of hunters came and escorted the hybrid away before anyone got hurt—the blond was especially lucky he wasn't there to be spotted by the said hunters—he stood at his full height and stared at his surroundings, taking in how much damage the bombs did.

A few patches of the streets were affected due to the obvious holes in the ground, and he expected to fix them sooner or later, it was sadly turning into his new normal, barely anything about this was normal. Another abrupt command made his head snap back toward the ram hybrid, "Go get the bricks over there, it's like laying on a wooden platform so get it all." Dream nodded and spotted the bricks atop a wooden pallet, he quickly rushed over and picked up the crates with his two hands.

He was slowly walking back to the fountain, being extremely cautious with the bricks; he was halfway there when he heard a loud feminine voice let out a commanding yell, "Jack! Elliott! Come back here!" Suddenly two children came running his way he lost his footing as the two children were seemingly playing tag, he yelped as one of them ran in front of him and he almost stepped on them.

He panicked as he tripped backward dropping the bricks in the process, shrill shrieks were heard coming from all over the place as bricks flew in every direction. Dust encompassed the area, in all of the chaos he prayed no one got hurt; a cough escaped his lips, as the dust settled down, the two other kids; who were probably around his age were huddled up together, covered in dust and debris themselves.

He watched as numerous amounts of rams and sheep hybrids ran to the duo's aid, a familiar stinging sensation made itself known; yet in the midst of all the chaos he couldn't even focus on anything, everything felt hazy as he sat there with his head limp and arms shaking. And the weird feeling spreading all over his body.

He felt something protruding in his gums and as the chaos began to settle down he grew.

He cried alongside the townsfolk as they all scrambled to get away from him, at that moment he silently thanked his mom and Bad that they put a spell on his clothing to adjust to his size, no matter how tall he was. Pain shot throughout his body, he could barely comprehend whatever the people were yelling.

Suddenly he ceased his movements and dropped to the ground.

•~☆~•

"Captain Puffy!"

Puffy was having a light conversation with Bad that day, they were simply talking about events of the week, trying to have a good time; keyword: trying.

"Oh Samuel? Why are you in such a rush." The sheep hybrid asked as Bad stood beside her respectfully waiting for them to finish. The panicked ram hybrid who was apparently named Samuel was catching his breath, Puffy patiently waited for the other to speak.

"Your son-" He heaved and took a big gulp of air, "He grew right before our eyes! And—and he fainted, Mayor Schlatt told me to get you." As he finished his sentence Puffy bolted from her spot not even saying a proper farewell to the demon hybrid. She almost tripped a few times as she took one step after another.

Other members of the herd who were oblivious of the situation happening at the core of the town gave her weird looks; some even attempted to follow her. More and more people began gathering to see what all the commotion was about. Puffy's thoughts were scattered everywhere as she yelled at people to move to the side.

All of a sudden she crashed against another figure which she quickly realized was her brother, "Schlatt let me go! I need to see him!" Tears began to form at the corner of her eyes as Schlatt held her back. "Please JJ..." Her voice began to grow quiet as Schlatt quietly huffed. "Puffy...I don't—I don't think you should see him right now."

The sheep hybrid was now letting on soft sobs whilst weakly grasping her brother's arm, she could only register the fact more people kept rushing behind them; she so desperately wanted to see what they were up to, what were they doing to her baby?

•~☆~•

Puffy sat at the foot of her bed, she sobbed so much she started to choke; she began to cough and gag as fat tears kept rolling down her face, earlier that day she waved her son goodbye as he left with a bright smile on his face. Now the day turned gloomy and dreadful.

"M-Mom?"

Her son's broken worried voice forced her to lift her head, for a moment she was scared startled to see a luminous emerald green eye stare at her through her window, she quickly pushed down her fear sorrow and walked over to the window, Dream backed up so she could see his face more clearly as she pushed the window open. It was obvious the poor boy had been crying; his eye's were puffy and red, and he was seemingly trembling.

"Oh baby- what's wrong?" She tried reaching out her hand to touch his face, however he stayed put; unmoving and silent. Puffy had no idea what to do at this moment, she could barely see his face as the sun took cover behind the horizons. The last remaining streaks of light highlighting the saddened features of the blond's face.

His mouth opened hesitantly as he stumbled over his words, "Are you okay mama? I-I'm sorry..." Puffy quickly gestured for him to come closer, "You did nothing wrong duckling, it's okay." Tears came back at full force as the now giant leaned against their house, the sheep hybrid could only reach the strands of his hair as she softly touched it—the blond probably didn't even feel it.

Puffy watched as stars began to twinkle in the sky, both simply fell into the haze of comfort and calm as they simply basked in the feeling of each other's comfort; the sheep hybrid gently felt the blond's soft breaths. She quietly went back to her bed and let the child sleep in peace.

With that thought she laid down and slowly drifted off to sleep aswell.

•~☆~•

"Woah dude! I'm sorry- but you look so cool right now!" Sapnap was gawking at the blond boy's new height, they finally got another chance to hang out and they were more than grateful. Dream sheepishly grinned at Sapnap's antics, he felt elated that the other treated him no differently than he did before, no matter what happened.

"I'm guessing you'll only wear one pair of clothes for now?" The blond nodded along as he tapped his fingers against the grass below him, "Y-Yea Mom said until she and your dad figure something out this is my clothes for now." The hybrid simply shrugged and an idea quickly popped up in his head.

"How about hide and seek?" He grinned widely, "We can even go in the forest so it's fair!" The taller hastily nodded and mustered up the courage to stand at his full height; vertigo smacked him as he stared at the difference of the size of his house to himself. Sapnap quickly snapped him out of his thought with the prompt of a race. The blond happily obliged and carefully sprinted towards the ravenette; albeit the blond being as careful as possible Sapnap could still feel the ground softly shake yet he shook his head and thought nothing of it.

As the two now stood in the midst of the forest, Dream was more fixated on the few small scrapes around his legs caused by the branches, it just gave him another reminder on how tall he was at the moment. Sapnap was the first to break the oddly awkward tension, "How about you hide and I seek?", He chuckled at his suggestion yet meekly nodded along.

In the blink of an eye Sapnap was now propped against a tree with his arm covering his two eyes and began to count down, for a moment the green eyed giant stood completely and utterly still, why? He couldn't exactly say, maybe it was the fact he couldn't exactly think of a place to hide or was it the strange noises her could hear, it heard like other people chatting?

Oh he was definitely losing it now.

He suddenly remembered what he was supposed to be doing and sprinted deeper into the forest to the direction of the mountains, he knew he should watch on how far he was going but surely the small caves and taverns he would spot on the way would be a better hiding spot.

The blond quickly halted as he spotted an opening to a cave on the forest floor, somehow he could hear Sapnap's counts getting closer to zero and he bolted inside the cage; he crawled his way in and situated himself—the cramped space gave him a familiar feeling, instead of uncomfort and uneasiness he felt...safe and warm(he couldn't exactly pinpoint why, his thoughts were pretty jumbled up right now)

Dream felt tranquil, his eyes slid shut and purely embraced the feeling. A heavy sigh escaped his lips, his body fell slack as he leaned in closer to the cavern walls.

It was like he felt truly at peace.

An ear-splitting cry broke his valuable silence, in his groggy state of mind he could barely comprehend where the scream came from; until another wail erupted once more. His eyes shot open and his body jumped at the sound as everything became slightly clearer.

Sapnap?

A rush of memories and emotions overwhelmed him, he was torn between remembering the moment a similar instance happened or rush to see the ravenette; it was like his body was on auto-pilot, none of the movements were his, like a foggy cloud sheilding away his sight.

As his hulking figure reached the sound of Sapnap's screams, he watched as a group of hunters were trying to chain the nether-born as he emerged from the forest all the hunters heads snapped towards him, seemingly just spotting their new prey.

"Stop it you shits those are my horns!"

As if history was repeating itself, his movements were dazed, downright feral.

That day blood coated the forest floors and a giant left the forest with a slightly traumatized hybrid.

•~☆~•

"Dream, you okay?" Sapnap asked as he stood before the giant in the drizzling rain, the blond slowly lifted his head, tears mixed with the rain, the only reason the nether-born was sure the giant was crying was the constant hiccups and sobs he would stutter out as he tried to suppress them. Even with the thunderous claps and heavy winds accompanied with the earth's very tears; it felt so, so silent. Sapnap began walking closer, he was greatly startled when the other scrambled away.

"No—no I don't wanna 'urt you..." The giant was shaking his head side to side while mumbling incoherent sentences with pain and panic laced with every word, his lips trembled as he spoke, "Uncle Schlatt a-and the elders said I should stay away from the flock for a while till—till they solve stuff." Without any thought Sapnap walked closer and held his hand out to touch the other.

"Good thing I'm not part of the flock then." He grinned with pride, Dream thought for a moment. He's right, Bad and Sapnap were never welcomed to the flock nor did they try and be part of it; or atleast that's what he thinks.

Even if his body wasn't as tense as before Sapnap sighed and sat beside blond. "For what it's worth I'll always be by your side bud."

"Pandas..."

The ravenette took a moment to cringe at his own words but kept his attention on the other, "Maybe it's best if I leave you know?" He muttered, "Ever since- well this happened to me, everything just...sucks." the nether-born was slightly taken a back with the sudden mature aura the giant gave, maybe he was spending to much time with the elders...

Sapnap was expecting this, he knew Dream was never truly at peace with the town, he thought long and hard before speaking again.

"Well if you do, I'll—I'll join you."

Was he serious? A soft grin made it's way on the taller's face.

technically speaking, he wasn’t biologically her son. but really, out in the sea, blood didn’t matter as much as bonds did. and the moment she had found him stowed away on her old ship, before she was as big as she was now, years and years ago, she knew he had potential.

and, well. seeing as he was now her first mate, he supposes she must have been right.

their crew had grown since then — not by much, mind you, but no one really minded.

one of the most early ones was her other son, someone who went by the name foolish. as the months go by, he comes and goes, staying for a couple days before heading off to who knows where. the only person who seemed to know where exactly he went between the weeks he was away was puffy herself — and she didn’t seem particularly keen on telling anyone, either. that’s alright with him, though. dream knows enough about having a background he would frankly like to leave behind, he wasn’t about to pry.

then there were george and sapnap, two people he got very acquainted with, seeing the various months he spent on the run from him. cons of technically being a wanted criminal: you’ll get bounty hunters on your tail pretty much every week. pros of being a wanted criminal: you can take those same bounty hunters, and make them a part of your family. it took a long while, but eventually, the two came around to him — and now, they’re a part of the journey.

..well, currently, george isn’t part of this particular journey. he was a fucking coward (affectionate), and would have rather stayed home doing.. whatever it is a george does when he’s home alone.

and then, there was skeppy.

......dream honestly didn’t know skeppy’s deal.

he doesn’t mean that in any bad way, of course, it’s just. he has absolutely no clue where he even came from. literally, he just kind of, showed up one day. swears not even puffy knows anything about skeppy.

and, even weirder, it seems skeppy knows sapnap? like, foolish, that would make some sense, who knows what the fuck he does when he’s not around. george, he could see, if he squinted. but.. sapnap?

granted, he doesn’t know much about sapnap’s background, but he didn’t seem like the type to hang around people like skeppy. the guy had practically no sense of preservation(well, neither did he, but he’d like to pretend it’s better than it is), and pulled pranks every five seconds. sapnap was a hothead, but a loyal one, too. it just seems like they’d bash heads every now and then, with skeppy getting on one too many nerves.

and don’t get him wrong, they do fight, occasionally; but.. it seems more lighthearted than anything.

well, dream supposes it wasn’t any of his business. if they ever want to share their backstory over a campfire, he’ll be glad to listen, but he won’t pry.

no matter how much he really wants to.

back onto the topic at hand(did he have a topic to begin with?) — adventure!

the crew was currently out on an expedition, following a map that puffy had... borrowed, for a bit. the map didn’t exactly say what it led to, but puffy had a feeling it would lead to something worthwhile.

and so, they all had set off. barring george and foolish, of course, for aforementioned reasons.

they were out in the middle of the sea, on a spare ship — their main one had gotten a bit beat up on their last journey, and needed to be left behind for repairs. while it was a shame to leave behind the beloved ship, it was probably for the best — they had enough trouble manning the ship with their usual five members, maybe six if they were lucky. with the much smaller ship, four people was just the right amount to keep her from sinking.

as long as nothing went terribly wrong, they should reach their destination in no time! it’s already been a couple of days since they had first set out, if they keep up the pace, they should be arriving in just a couple more.

the sky was a little gray and cloudy, but it shouldn’t be too much trouble. they’ve bested storms before, on their main ship, even if one were to strike now, they’re experienced. they’ll make it through just fine.

——————————

alright, uh. couple hours later, and.. the clouds look just... a tiny bit worse.

well.

maybe just a bit more than a, well. a bit.

“uh, dad?” dream spoke up, turning his head to puffy, who tilts her head slightly towards him from her position at the wheel. “is it just me, or does the sky look a bit..”

“i see it, duckling.” puffy interrupts. she looks about five seconds from gripping her hands right around the wheel, but her voice is just about calm. he can only catch a hint of it being anything other than that. “hopefully, we can leave this area before it hits.”

“and, if we can’t?”

“well,” puffy taps her fingers on the wheel. “this ship has survived a bunch. not as much as our big guy, but it’s had a decent amount. we’ll be fine.” even as she says that, though, her mouth was pressed into a thin line.

dream hummed, but left it at that. he turned back around and looked for how his other crew mates were faring.

sapnap is all but leaning over the edge of the ship, staring out at the sea with an unreadable expression.

skeppy is, frankly, nowhere to be seen. that would be concerning, if it were anybody but skeppy. he just makes a mental note to be careful for any hidden tricks around the ship.

he decides to go up to sapnap — the guy looks troubled, almost. he could probably use a distraction. they both could, really.

“you good, man?” he says, causing the man to startle. wow, sapnap must have been really deep in his thoughts, he wasn’t even trying to hide his footsteps.

“oh, hey dream.” sapnap said, relaxing his shoulders.

“must have been thinking pretty hard there, that’s new.” he grinned, resulting in a harsh punch to his shoulder.

“fuck off, dude.” sapnap glared at him, though the effect was ruined with the smile he gave him.

“hey, i don’t want you to ruin your mind with all those thoughts going around, could mess up your perfectly empty brain!” dream shrugged with a wider grin, before dodging some more punches.

“i am going to fucking kill you if you don’t stop.” dream laughed.

“good luck, then you’ll have an angry pirate captain on your tail.”

sapnap stuck his tongue out at him, causing dream to laugh harder at him.

the two sobered down a bit after that, sapnap going back to looking at the swarming clouds in the sky.

“looks like a storm is brewing.” sapnap said.

“oh really? i couldn’t tell.”

“dream i will kill you. i almost succeeded before, don’t test me.”

dream snorted. a brief silence followed.

“it.. kinda looks like it’s gonna be bad. like.. really bad.” sapnap spoke up.

dream paused.

“i.. i think we’ll be fine.” dream said slowly. sapnap turned to him with a raised eyebrow.

“well- okay, fine is a strong word. but i know we’ll make it out, if worst comes to worst.” dream amended.

sapnap turned back to the sea. the apprehensive look was back on his face.

“hey.” dream nudged his friend. “we’re gonna be okay.”

sapnap glanced back at him. he paused, before giving him a small smile.

“and hey,” dream continues, “on the one percent chance we do die — unlikely, by the way — i give you full permission to kill me again.”

sapnap huffs out a laugh at that, giving him another punch, softer than before.

“i’m going to hold you to that, you know.”

“wouldn’t have offered if i was going to back out, pandas.” dream grinned at him.

sapnap gives a grin back, before looking back at sea again, looking lighter than before. dream’s own eyes softened.

yeah, they were gonna end up fine.

——————————

so uh.

things... weren’t going fine.

like, not even in the slightest.

you know that storm? the one that wasn’t too bad?

yeah no, it.. it got worse. way, way worse.

dream tightened his grip on the sail’s mast as the ship lurched, as lightning cracked, and thunder roared. by the gods, this might be the worst storm he’s seen yet, though he has to admit, he hasn’t seen many. at least, not out at sea.

puffy’s holding on to the wheel like her life depends on it — and it does, all of their lives depend on it — she’s trying her best to gain back control of the ship, but judging by the desperation on her face, it isn’t going so well.

the ship lurches again as another wave crashes onto the ship, one large enough to splash him with the salty water. he finds his eyes laying on skeppy, grasping onto the door to the captain’s office for dear life — dream’s not gonna bother even asking why he was in there to begin with, he’s pretty sure he knows the answer, not that it really matters anyway.

he searches for the final member of his crew, and finds sapnap holding on to the ropes climbing up to the crow’s nest — he must have been up there right before the storm hit, dream thinks. shit, that is a terrible place to be in any sort of storm, especially one like this.

none of them had any warning when the storm hit. at one point, everything was fine, they were set on course to be out of the area before things could escalate. the next? chaos, utter chaos. no one could get to a safe spot, no one could prepare.

all they could do was hold on and hope.

the ship lurched once again, a particularly large wave hitting the poor vessel, and- he hears a gut-wrenching, terrified scream, and he turns his head just in time to see sapnap fall just out of sight, out of the boat, into the water. he could barely hear the splash under the clamor of everything else.

“SAPNAP!” dream cried, a hand reaching out, as if that could save him.

nononONONONO-

“MAN OVERBOARD!” puffy shouted, looking around with wide eyes, but no one moved to do anything. they couldn’t, really, not if they wanted to join him. then that would just be two bodies to worry about.

that didn’t change the fact that dream desperately wanted to jump in after him — he can’t lose a friend, he just can’t. he doesn’t want to have to break the news to george, he doesn’t think his heart could take that. please, please, please, prime, let his friend live, through whatever miracle that exists, let sapnap live-

suddenly, a loud, haunting cry echoed through the atmosphere, piercing through the storm.

dream’s heart stopped.

that was a siren.

that was a siren.

he wasn’t even aware they were in siren territory, shit shit shit.

they really were as good as dead, now, if they fell into the water.

(he doesn’t think about what this might mean for sapnap, he doesn’t think about it he doesn’t think about it he doesn’t-)

another shriek shatters his thoughts, one much louder than the previous. shit, were there two of them??

puffy seemed to be going through the same thought process as him, but before they could even do anything about it, the ship lurches again, and he has to hug the mast as tight as he could to keep himself from falling off — he swears that the ship did a ninety degree angle then, if not close to it. that’s not comforting at all!

before they could even think about relaxing, he hears-

“LOOK OUT-!” skeppy shouts, and dream looks just in time to see a large wave, one bigger than the entire ship towering over them, before suddenly he finds himself hit with a crushing pressure, his grip on the mast slipping, leaving him stranded underwater, with no way of knowing where the surface is, no way of getting to any sort of safety, no way to escape the sirens in the waters with them-

he opens his eyes, only just ignoring the way the salt burns his eyes, and looks around, trying to find something, anything that could help. he catches movement from his peripheral, and as he turns, he finds himself looking at something big headed his way(a siren, his mind fills in, considering the fins and the tail), with something else swimming around just behind it. from the looks of things, he’s only just about as tall as it’s finger.

and dream has just enough time to think ‘oh, that’s bigger than i thought it would be,’ before the siren opens their mouth, not slowing down a beat, and he gets snatched inside.

immediately, his mind panics, especially since he’s still surrounded by water- but he’s given no time to adjust, as the siren immediately tilts its head back, and he’s only able to think ‘shit-’ before he’s swallowed down with a quick gulp.

all around him is a crushing sensation, forcing all the air out of his lungs, not letting him take a breath. it feels like an eternity before he’s squeezed tighter than before, only to get plopped into some sort of chamber. he takes a deep breath as soon as he’s able, trying to catch his bearings.

it takes a second of rest before everything fully sinks in.

he’s inside of a siren.

he was eaten, by a siren.

he was in it’s stomach.

he was gonna die he was gonna die he can’t die not yet please-

belatedly, he realizes puffy and skeppy are still out there, sapnap too. there’s no one else in here, they might’ve gotten away — or maybe the other siren has them, god he hopes it didn’t. he’s not sure being stranded out in the sea, in siren territory, is any better than just getting killed by one, but at least with the former, there’s a chance of survival.

him, though? there’s no escape. there’s no feasible way he could live through this, not when he’s in the belly of the beast. literally.

gods, puffy, sapnap, skeppy, please live, please get away. i couldn’t stand it if you died with me.

he felt the siren moving again, felt the walls crush him slightly, before suddenly, he saw something else fall into the stomach with him.

no, not something.

someone.

they were coughing, and instantly, he zeroed in on their long hair, once fluffy, now soaked.

no.... no, please prime, no........

“dad?” he croaked out, and he watched with a heartbroken expression as green eyes met blue in the soft light of the chamber.

“..hey....” puffy spoke softly, giving dream a wobbly smile.

immediately, he shot over to her, throwing his arms around her. she hug him back tight, as he rest his head in the crook of her neck. he was only just able to hold back his sobs, though he couldn’t stop his breath from hitching every other second.

“it’s okay, duckling,” she mumbled, resting her hand in his hair, scratching at his scalp in an attempt to calm him down. “it’s okay, it’s alright.” she kept muttering sweet nothings to him, as if that could help the situation any.

the two startled as something new happened, as their surroundings started to vibrate slightly. as he pulled away from the embrace, it only took him a moment to realize what it was.

purring. the motherfucker was purring.

before he could think any harder about that, the walls moved again, and someone else fell into the stomach with them.

he could tell immediately who it was, what with the bright blue hoodie.

“hey skeppy, welcome to hell.” puffy muttered sarcastically, causing dream to snort despite himself. even skeppy let out a good chuckle at that, and while it did sound strained, overall, the guy looked relatively calm about the situation.

“well, looks like the gang’s all here.” skeppy said, leaning back onto the walls.

“except for sapnap,” dream mumbled, bringing his knees to his chest. “do.. do you think he’s..” he stopped himself. god, he didn’t want to think about what might have happened.

“knowing him?” skeppy said. “he’s fine, no doubt about it.”

“if he hasn’t.. hasn’t drowned yet,” dream said, spitting out the words, “there’s still sirens about. there’s.. he..” he hugged his knees tighter, puffy reaching out, and rubbing circles on his back.

“there’s no way he drowned,” skeppy said, crossing his arms. “he wouldn’t let something like that bring him down, that would just be embarrassing.” he chuckled, as if having he was privy to a joke the other two weren’t. “seriously, if he let water be the thing to bring him down, i would drag him out of limbo just to make fun of him. i’d straight up just learn necromancy, and i’d never let him live it down. he’ll never know a day of peace.”

dream huffed out a laugh, puffy giving a snort herself.

a silence followed afterwards, skeppy trying to get more comfortable, while dream and puffy simply sat and waited. the purring hadn’t stopped, and.. purring? really? he wasn’t aware sirens could purr. prime, he bet it was satisfied at having been able to catch them as a meal. he bet it was enjoying their terror. well, maybe not skeppy’s, he didn’t seem all that scared. dream wasn’t even sure anything could faze the guy at this point. that in of itself scared dream, if only slightly.

he looked around at his surroundings out of boredom — or at least, what little there was. he fully realized that there was, in fact, a light source, if a bit dim — it came in the form of small little freckles of light, scattered all around the walls, giving off a red lighting, as if the walls really needed to be even redder. the light seemed to increase wherever they touched it, but only slightly.

it felt like maybe five minutes had passed, before puffy spoke up.

“where is sapnap? it didn’t take too long for- for the siren to catch us,” puffy said, “you’d think he would have joined us by now.”

“..well, uh. there was another siren,” skeppy pointed out.

“great,” dream snapped out, almost pouting, “so we don’t even get to die together as a whole crew, he gets to die alone.”

god, what was george gonna think? what was foolish going to think? will they ever know what happened to them? or were they just going to disappear from the world quietly, with only two people to wonder what had happened, never to find out.

prime, he hated this. they just had to go through that storm, they just had to go on this expedition in the first place. now, they were going to..

“wait- hold on,” skeppy said, sitting up. “who said anything about dying?”

dream stared at him blankly.

“we...... we’ve been eaten by a siren.” puffy said, staring at skeppy with the same look. “we’re in it’s stomach. skeppy, man, in what world does that not equal death?”

“do you see us dying, though?” skeppy said, as if they were the crazy ones.

“we’re gonna be- we’re gonna be digested, skeppy!” dream said, voice raised. “that’s not a quick death! and even if we aren’t, by some miracle, we’ll suffocate!”

“we won’t, though.”

“wh- how would you know that?!” dream threw his hands up.

“i know these guys.” skeppy said simply.

dream froze. he could feel puffy pause beside him.

“you.... you, know, these sirens..” dream deadpanned.

“yep.” skeppy said, popping the p.

dream paused, trying to take in the information.

skeppy.... skeppy knows sirens. and.. those sirens that he knew just.. happened to be around when they were almost killed by the storm.

i........

in.... in all honesty, part of him isn’t surprised. this sounds like a skeppy thing, just casually befriending man-eating beasts. like. okay then. this is happening now. this is fine.

“yeah.” dream says, exasperated. “yeah. sure. okay.”

“so.. we’re gonna be okay?” puffy asks cautiously.

“we’re fine, we’re in his brooding pouch — a second stomach, one for storing young hatchlings.” skeppy said, as if this was the most common of knowledge.

“..yeah. and, sapnap.. he’s in the other siren’s.. pouch?”

“he’s fine, without a doubt.” skeppy said.

dream’s shoulders relaxed unconsciously — he wasn’t even aware they were hunched. they.. if skeppy was right, they were gonna be fine. they were gonna be okay. they were gonna live.

god, he hoped this wasn’t one last prank. that would just be cruel, even for skeppy.

even as the thought comes across his mind, he mentally shakes it away — no, skeppy wouldn’t do that. he knows when to hold off on the jokes, when things are serious. he may not have a filter most of the time, but this would just be crossing a line.

so.. that meant skeppy really did know these sirens. dream briefly wondered why he never told anyone, but then he realized it wasn’t the most causal of topics to suddenly drop in a conversation. “hey guys, just so you know, i’m actually friends with two terrifying beasts that are known to take out entire flees of ships with little effort. also, we’re out of gapples.”

yeah. like that would have gone well.

not that this went any better, either.

well, he supposes that they would just have to trust these sirens, and hope that they wouldn’t suddenly turn on them, or that skeppy didn’t mistake some random siren as his friends.

god, he hopes sapnap is alright.

———————————

it feels like hours pass before something changes. dream had gotten used to the subtle swaying of the stomach, occasionally hearing purrs or faint siren chirps. the moment he felt it still, with only the slight churning of the walls, he was on edge.

he could hear the sirens talking to each other, though he could only assume that’s what it was, as he couldn’t understand the various trills and whistles that they made.

suddenly, as the chirps quieted down, the walls squeezed tight around them all. dream struggled in a panic, before finding himself in that crushing sensation from earlier. before he knew it, he was getting spit out into a hand — a giant hand, he found he was hardly bigger than one of it’s clawed fingers.

carefully, he found himself getting brought down to the ground — a dock, he realizes, one not too far from the town their crew resided in. the village the dock was from was abandoned, a ghost town. he never really understood why, but he supposes he doesn’t need to, all he needs to know is that no strangers would pop in unexpectedly, no one would panic at the sight of the large siren in front of him.

the first thing he notices about the siren is it’s eyes. a brown, almost red iris, with a light red sclera. it’s almost haunting, really, if it weren’t for the fact he could practically feel the kindness radiating from it’s eyes. he could feel part of his shoulders relaxing slightly despite himself.

it(they?) had red fins at the sides of their heads, as if those were their ears. and as his eyes trailed up, he could see.. horns? on the top of their head. half of their face was a void black, fading to a freckled peach. they had puffy brown hair, as well, and it didn’t even look wet, despite him knowing that they had to have been underwater recently, there’s no way it could have dried in the past few minutes. was a siren’s hair just like that?

before he knew it, the siren had coughed up his other two companions, one looking more disheveled and wary than the other. you’ll never guess who was who.

“hey bad!” skeppy grinned up at the siren. the siren- bad, he guesses(an odd name, sure, but he’s seen weirder), chuckled good naturedly at him.

“hello, geppy!” bad smiles softly at him, before turning turning to the other puffy and dream. “and hello, you two. i’ve heard a lot about you guys, and i’m so sorry our meeting had to go like this.”

“uh-” puffy stumbled. “it’s alright, and i do have to thank you for getting my crew out of that storm. despite the.. unconventional methods, to say the least.”

the siren winced. “sorry, sorry! i wasn’t thinking much when i first did it, i’m so used to doing it with skeppy, i didn’t think twice.”

dream ignored the look puffy gave skeppy(who had simply shrugged in response), and asked, “where is sapnap?”

at this, bad’s fin-ears went flat, and they gained an apprehensive look on their face.

dream paled.

“he- he isn’t dead, is he? prime, please, he can’t be-”

“no!” bad all but yelled, “nonono no! he’s fine, i promise!”

dream stared at the siren. “..but...?”

bad looked away briefly.

“just, give me a second.” they said, before letting out a low trill.

dream shared a look with puffy. even skeppy had an unreadable expression, glancing at the two briefly.

suddenly, something else emerged from the water. it was smaller, far smaller than bad was, with their torso being as tall as bad’s head. they had a blue-ish pattern on their face, their ears looking similar to shark fins. they had dark blue eyes, with black hair being held up by a white band-

..wait.

..wait a minute.

“s..sapnap?”

the- the siren in question winced. “..hey, dream.”

dream stared, trying to process everything that has happened in the last few hours.

“you’re.. you’re a siren.” dream said.

sapnap nodded, not bothering to talk.

“and.. you knew about this?” dream turned to skeppy.

“yep.” skeppy gave a thumbs up.

“i- okay. okay.” dream sighed, putting his head in his hands. “just- give me a second.”

so. sapnap was a siren. who.. could turn into a human, he guessed. alright. alright.

so his friend was a creature known to sink entire navies, known to kill thousands of sailors, all with little effort.

in all honesty, he was surprised skeppy wasn’t one, too.

......

briefly, he turned to skeppy. “are, are you also..?”

“nope,” skeppy said, popping the p. “‘oops, all human!’ here, folks.”

alright. ignoring whatever weird joke skeppy made.

one of his best friends is a siren.

does this.. really change anything?

he’s still sapnap, isn’t he?

he’s still the same hothead, still the same hunter he befriended.

so he can turn into an overgrown fish. that would just make their little manhunts all the more fun, wouldn’t it?

he’s still sapnap.

he’s still his friend.

he’s.. still staring down at them apprehensively.

like he’s worried that they wouldn’t accept him now that they know.

like he’s worried that dream wouldn’t accept him.

oh, not a chance in hell, you’d have to pry me off to get rid of me at this point.

“so, did you like, get turned into a siren a la vampire?” dream smiled up at him.

sapnap let out a startled laugh.

“i- what?” he asked, confused.

“you heard me,” dream grinned, “are you some sort of siren-vampire, or were you just born like this?”

“i was born like this, what are you even-”

“so we don’t have to worry about you getting burnt in the sun? no need to worry about random stakes impaling you?”

“dude, what are-”

“so there’s no point getting worked up about you getting forced to turn into a siren every full moon? no allergy to silver?”

“dream, that’s werewolves, what are you on right now-”

“what, i’m just listing reasonable worries!” dream laughed. “c’mon, you’re still part of the crew, we gotta know what we’re dealing with here, don’t want to accidentally kill you with garlic, of all things.”

dream expected a retort, but paused when he realized the siren wasn’t replying. he looked up, and saw sapnap looking at him with a vulnerable expression.

“i’m.. you still want me to be a part of the crew....?” sapnap asked, ears pinned back.

“of course, man! this-” dream gestured at sapnap, “this doesn’t change a thing! you’re still my friend, pandas.”

sapnap looked as if he was about ten seconds away from tearing up, but he still looked a bit wary, glancing somewhere behind him. dream turned, looking at his dad, who had been silent, watching the exchange unfold.

puffy stared back at sapnap, before stepping up to him.

“sapnap,” puffy started, “to me, it doesn’t matter what you are. i wouldn’t care if you were some world-killer, you’re a part of this crew. and, as long as you want to be, you will always have a place in this family.”

she looked up at bad as well. “this goes for you, too, if you’d like. you clearly know these two, and i’m sure they’d vouch for you. if you ever want to, you can join us in our crew. after all that happened, that’s about the least i could do to thank you.”

sapnap stared at her with a watery look in his eyes, while bad considered her.

“well, i have been told stories of all of you from these two.” bad said. “and, i have to say.. i wouldn’t be opposed to it.”

immediately, skeppy threw up his hands, letting out a woop. “HELL YEAH, BAD’S JOINING US FOR CRIMES!”

bad snorted, murmuring a quick, fond, “language”, as everyone else let out a chuckle.

informing everyone else(as in, two other people) about the.. developments would certainly be an event, but dream’s sure that things will go fine.

It was the same dream every time, the darkness consuming him like the ocean, always falling. This was always his dream, it wasn’t scary though, rather it was oddly familiar to him.

He was happy to stay in this sort of stasis until he woke up and saw Wilbur again, but this time it was different. The atmosphere of this place was different.

Something was there, it felt so close yet so out of reach. It was just barely out of his control? Every time he thought about it, he felt such immense guilt, sadness, and anger. But why would he feel this way if he didn’t even know what it meant?

“Can you hear me, mate?”. Echoed through the darkness, it sounded so far away and distorted, plagued with worry and why did it sound like Phil’s? The more he thought about it the more a growing pain grew inside his head. Why couldn’t he remember? Why did he remember Phil saying that?!

Why was he trying to remember things that weren’t there? He tried to yell out to Phil, but he got no response, nothing else seemed to happen after that.

“Please! Wake up!”. It was the same voice, although only more distorted and quieter, he responded in the only way he could which was a distorted whine, it was really the only way he could communicate since… Since when actually?

He never really thought about it but where did he come from?...

The headache grew as his vision blurry, he felt so weak, his body feeling as if it could pass out at any moment, the next thing he opened his eyes to see he was in a hospital room? It was so bright…

“Mate? Can you hear me?!”. Phil?... He moved his mouth to speak but nothing audible came out, “Oh... Thank God! You’re awake!”, “H-hel?-“ He couldn’t finish the sentence, his throat felt like it was burning… “Hey! You’re going to be okay! I promise!” he heard another voice, they sounded… motherly?

“W-who…”. There was a moment of silence as he could utter another word, “I’m Doctor Puffy, and this is Doctor Philza” The figure seemed to point to the other but was too blurry to make out, didn’t help with the tears streaming down his face.

“We need to ask you something, I’ll-“ He stopped as he tried to put it into words. “To put it simply, you’re dying.”. He- was what?! When did this happen?! Was he remembering his past?! He was scared and confused!? Phil?! What’s going on?! Where’s Wilbur?!

“We can save your life though-“ With what?! If he was dying, then where was Wilbur- he wanted to scream for help, he hated this, he hated this pain… ‘Wilbur! Help!’ his thoughts screamed.

“We can give you medicine, a special type of medicine. But it does come with its repercussions, if you let us do this to you, then you’ll probably forget your past and other things, but by means, you’ll live.”.

He’d live? So… this was from before? Is this why he couldn’t remember? Because of this? This was a memory; he was a human before then?

“Y-yes…” came out his voice, beyond his control. Did he make this choice? ‘I guess I didn’t want to die. And Phil saved me? I’ll have to try and ask him about it…”. His vision faded again but this nightmare didn’t end there.

 “Tommy! Tom! Stop running will you! I’m not as fast as you!”. Tom was always the faster of the two, and Tubbo was the smarts. Not to say that the genius Tommy didn’t have his own smarts of course! He was a genius, just… Tubbo always had a backup plan in case his master plans went wrong.

Being 17, and recently moving on with their lives. They were currently running around in the forest within the local neighbourhood like they usually did. He’d known Tubbo since he was a kid. So truth be told they were best friends! Best friends for life! Or better say the universe!

“So, Tubs, Did you get accepted into that university?”.  “Course I did, it was easy as hell!”. “I knew you could do it! Always a genius! Not as smart as me obviously!”. “Yeah, nobody could beat you in smarts!” Tubbo playfully nudged his shoulder, the two laughing as they talked about the day’s events.

‘Tubbo?... Who…? I knew him, I remember him, somewhat… I-“.

Time passed quickly for the two of them, time always did, it always seemed so fast for the two. Guess it goes to show how much they actually cared about each other, not that Tommy Danger Kraken Innit would say it himself!

“Hey, Tubs! Race you back to the house!”. He decided it would be funny to run at a slower pace to Tubbo, as for Tubbo’s ego seemed to have boosted since earlier since he ran right past Tommy into the open street. Now that street was quite famous for its… let’s just say, drunk drivers?

Tubbo stood in the middle of the road, making a pose and mocking Tommy who was just as easily caught up, it was the only time really Tubbo was reckless, and who knew he’d regret it.

Just as Tommy, made it up the hill connecting to the road, a screeching was heard in the distance with sirens along with it, it sounded closer and closer every second. Tommy’s heart raced as he realised Tubbo was in danger.

He sprinted as fast as he could as the car approached, Tubbo standing in shock as he seemed like a dear in headlights, his eyes screaming fear. Tommy was a hero though! He’d save Tubbo.

And he did, he saved him.

He pushed Tubbo out of the way safely… And well the next thing was he felt was so much pain, and Tubbo screaming his name, Tubbo ran up to him, desperate to help, but instead, he grabbed his friend’s cheek to make sure he was okay, besides what seemed to be a light gash on his forehead…Tubbo…was…okay…

His vision once again faded as he heard sirens…

 Wilbur had been staying in the office overnight due to an overwhelming amount of paperwork, he had to get it done. But it seems his energy didn’t agree with him since well… He was half asleep writing whatever could be called a report.

His vision faded black for a few moments as he kept trying to keep himself awake but for whatever reason, it wasn’t working, heck he didn’t even think he could get a cup of coffee… That was until he heard a terrifying scream.

He burst up in his seat in an immediate frenzy, the energy he didn’t even know, had rushed through his head, adrenaline pumping through his body. He immediately sprinted towards Tommy. Grabbing his keyboard and very clumsily unlocking the door with his key card.

“Tommy?! Tom! Are you okay?!” Tommy looked over to Wilbur the instant he heard him, “W-Wilbur!” He screamed disturbingly as he ran towards Wilbur, for a moment Wilbur was shocked that he made out Tommy’s voice, although it was only for a moment.

Tommy ran into Wilbur’s arms as he put all his weight on him, he snapped out of his shock, “Tom- Tommy what’s wrong?!”. He got no response besides the whines and cries of his friend. He was trapped in his embrace as Tommy clutched onto him, although tight it was still gentle.

Whatever it was, he seemed to have had a nightmare… “Toms, did you have a nightmare?”. His sobs increased as he held Wilbur tighter. “Oh Toms, hey! It’s okay! I’m here”. The position changed as Tommy sat up, and well changed in size, Wilbur was held protectively close to his chest as he continued to cry.

Wilbur rubbed circles and continued to comfort him until they had both fallen asleep…

Entry 09 – 2/10/20—

Tommy’s been acting a little different lately, he’s cheered up since that nightmare he’s had but when he’s around me he’s been a lot more? How do I describe it? More gentle and mature, kind of thing.

I’m glad he’s okay, I just worry. Just what happened in that dream to make him so scared like that?

 Tubbo placed the flowers gently by the stone that read, ‘Tommy Innit, 20XX – 20XX. Honourable family member and friend…’. The thought of Tommy made him want to sob but he couldn’t he knew Tommy would want him to stay strong…

It had been over a year now since he’d died but, for some reason, he felt as if Tommy was still out there somewhere? Maybe? But that didn’t matter, Tommy would want him to be happy, he’s been living his life just like they had planned. He’s gone to university and such.

He misses his best friend; he saved his life… It was just so difficult to think he was gone, he was there one moment, next he wasn’t. Hell, he wasn’t even sure if the reality had set in for him yet. He…