The Unfinished Symphony: A Retelling of the Dream SMP War

Chapter 12

CHAPTER 12

Tommy's smile dropped. His posture sagged. "I dunno Tubbo. I don't think he wants to see me right now."

"Of course he wants to see you," Tubbo reassured, leaning on the doorframe.

Tommy sighed. "Sure. Fine. Why not." He got up, leaving the blanket on the floor to collect dust. The pair walked down the hallways to Wilbur's room. They could hear Wilbur muttering to himself through the door.

Tommy backed away, whispering. "Maybe this wasn't such a good idea. He doesn't sound like he's in his right mind right now."

"Nuh-uh." Tubbo pushed him towards the door.

"Tubbo, Tubbo, Tubbo, this is a bad idea, we should just leave him alone-"

"Get in there and apologize. Or whatever you need to say to him."

"Wh- I'm not gonna apologize! He's the one who should be apologizing to me!"

"Fine, then demand restitution. I'm not gonna judge, but you need to talk to him."

"Ugh, fine."

Tommy crept into Wilbur's room, where he slept fretfully. Glancing back at Tubbo anxiously, he shook Wilbur awake.

Wilbur shot upward with a cry, causing Tommy to jump backward. "Oh- Christ- don't do that, Wilbur!"

"Tommy- what- what happened? Did Dream do something?"
"What? No, I just... needed to talk to you."

"You woke me up because you needed to talk?"

"Yeah. Is that not allowed?" Tommy crossed his arms, defensive.

"Tommy, you've started a war, who knows how much sleep I'll get anymore."
"Listen, I did not start a war! I started a miniscule conflict, okay? We don't even need to involve our kingdom."
"Dream involved our kingdom, Tommy, there's no going back!"

"Well- I mean- surely there's some way to go back. It's probably fine."
Wilbur stared at him, incredulous. "It is not fine, Tommy. None of this is fine!" He stood abruptly, scaring Tommy another few steps back.

"Says who? Why do you have to be all pessimistic all the time?"

"I'm not being pessimistic, I'm being realistic. Do you want me to be all sunshine and rainbows like, 'yay, we're going to go to war! People are going to die!' is that what you want?"

"I'm not saying we should be happy, dickhead, I'm just saying we don't need to assume the worst case scenario."

"Fine, Tommy. Not the worst case scenario. Best case scenario, Dream comes back, apologizes, burns the books, gives us our country back, forgets this ever happened, and we go on with our lives."

"See? It's not that hard."
"Sure, except what are the chances? I mean it's not like he hates us or anything. I'm sure if we just say sorry he'll forgive us and give you a unicorn."
"Now you're just being sarcastic."

"No, really?"
"There's no reason to be mean, Wilbur."

"Tommy, I'm not going to continue this conversation unless you give me some actual input. Explain why you did this, or apologize, or at least tell me how you're going to fix it!"
"Hold on, this isn't entirely my fault! Dream started this. He probably started this whole conflict with me as an excuse for war."
"Well you still fell for the bait, didn't you? You still screwed us over."

"I- I didn't..." Tommy faltered, stepping back.

"You did, Tommy. You did."

Wilbur pushed past Tommy, opening the door right into Tubbo. He completely ignored the small boy, however, muttering something about coffee.

Tubbo stared awkwardly at Tommy. "I take it that didn't go well?"

"Why did you make me do that?"

"Because you needed to talk!"
"Clearly we didn't, because that accomplished nothing. All it did was make him more mad at me."

"I mean it was worth a shot,"

"It really, really wasn't." Tommy shook his head, spirit totally gone; dejected.

"Okay... let's just go find Fundy or something," Tubbo tried.

Tommy didn't look up. "You go on ahead. I need a minute to think."

Tubbo hesitated, then clapped Tommy on the shoulder. "Okay. See you in a few, big man." He left Tommy alone in the long hallway with his thoughts.