Virtuosity | Dreamnoblade

Chapter 2

Groaning, Techno rolled over in his bed, turning to look at his alarm clock. 6:30am the red display shouted at him. Sitting up, his almost waist-length pink hair flowed everywhere around him.

"Fuck, barely five hours of sleep, and I have Minecraft Monday today," he cursed to himself. "I should really get a better sleep schedule," he continued. It was true, having only just finished the potato war, he was still getting used to not being awake for near 20 hours every day. Sitting in his bed, he realised he had been sat motionless for 15 minutes.

"No point being sat here useless," he said to himself, as he started getting out of his bed. Walking to his bathroom, he began brushing his teeth, the mirror in front of him, revealing the bags under his eyes. He hoped they wouldn't be visible to others. Two minutes had passed, and Techno spat out the toothpaste, quickly rinsing his mouth. He decided to splash cold water on his face, hoping it would wake him up more. It did not.

'What shall I have for breakfast?' he pondered to himself. He opened his pantry, looking for inspiration. But with nothing jumping out at him, he decided to go to the store to find something. "Maybe it'll wake me up a bit more," he said to himself, deciding to not voice the other reason he had for going to the store. Rushing to put his shoes on, he grabbed his car keys and ran out of his house, forgetting basic logic and common sense.

"COME ON DREAM!" The voice of his teammate dominating his hearing. All he needed to do was land this one shot. Running across the dodgebolt arena, he interspersed his running with sudden changes, making it difficult to hit him. Hearing the distinct sound of an arrow being fired, he braced for the oncoming loss. He imagined the torment from his friends. He tensed, ready for a death that never came. Realising he had both arrows, he knew what had to be done.

"Dream, please, I will tell everyone on my youtube channel to subscribe to you," Techno pleaded. Techno didn't know if he could handle another loss dealt to him by HBomb. "HBomb, I will block you on twitter," he continued. Slowing his breathing, Dream stood still and prayed he could hit this shot. With both arrows, he could afford to mess up, but that would be giving HBomb an opportunity to win. He flinched as he fired the first arrow, narrowly missing his competitor. Not dismayed, he hastily prepared the second shot and hoped he could do this for his team. With one release of his right-click, he had done it.

The whole team erupted into cheers. "THANK YOU DREAM!" Techno yelled, simultaneously clapping while yelling, the pig also spamming the same words in the chat. The amount of adrenaline Dream felt coursing through his body, he thought he may pass out. The team were taken back to the lobby, where they were teleported to the winner's catwalk where they proudly displayed their dominance over the other teams.

-

Ending his stream, Dream felt a weight had been lifted off his shoulders. Deciding to have a genuine conversation with Techno, who had finished his stream minutes earlier, he complimented Techno on his skills throughout the tournament.

"You did really well in Sands of Time, I nearly messed it up for us." Dream began. At this, Techno tensed up. He wasn't used to people genuinely complimenting him. Composing himself, Techno barely stammered out a response.

"T-Thank you, you did really well too. We wouldn't have won without you in dodgebolt, you really clutched that. I nearly had a heart attack when I saw it was just you and HBomb." Techno recalled the previous Minecraft Championships, where an easy win had been dashed by HBomb in a 1v2 clutch. Dream laughed at this, remembering seeing how in-denial Techno had been when that happened.

"Didn't want history to repeat itself did you Techno," Dream responded.

"No, that wouldn't have been too good for my self-esteem and exemplary status among the community. Have you seen my chat? I would have been ruined!" Dream chuckled at this.

"Well I'm going to head off Techno, have a good one."

"See ya, loser."

Dream, having left the call and stopped streaming, suddenly found himself bored with nothing to do. He glanced around his room, hoping something would appeal to him. One particular thing got his attention, and he stood up to go over to it.

-

Chilling in his lounge room, it had been a few days since his Minecraft Championship victory, and Techno needed something to do. Editing videos was boring, and streaming was a hassle. Walking through his house, his old violin case stood out to him. He had moved it while looking for a thing in his closet. He eyed up the dusty black object, considering whether he could get back into playing, but he decided against it. "Another day," he told himself.

Sitting at his computer, Techno opened Twitch, hoping some of his friends were streaming. Looking through the sidebar, he looked at each channel and considered the pros and cons.

Tommyinnit

'Eh, too loud and annoying,' Techno thought to himself.

Wilbur Soot

'Maybe, if there isn't anyone better,' he continued.

Dream

As his eyes landed on the green profile picture with the crudely drawn white figure, he quickly clicked the channel. He was doing some more 1.16 speedruns. Looking at the timer, it seemed like Dream was on pace for a world record, though Techno wouldn't know a thing when it came to speedrunning Minecraft. Zoning out, the sound of a donation brought him back to reality.

"Hey Dream, do you play any instruments?" The donation read. Techno didn't think he would, he had never heard him speak about music in any capacity. But the next sentence that came out of Dream's mouth surprised him.

"Yeah! I play the piano."

Techno perked up at this revelation.

'Perhaps? No, it couldn't be, he's in Florida. But what if?' His mind went into overdrive, thinking of the possibilities. Standing up, Techno walked over to his lounge room, where his discarded violin case lay. 'If Dream can play the piano, then I can play the violin.'