Ariadne: a story of the dream smp

Sides

I Don't Want to Be Sad - Human Kitten

"C'mon Lia." Dream calls as he walks away.

"Dream..." I say hesitantly. He snaps his body towards me, making me back up slightly.

"What?" He asks in a harsh tone.

"I..." I sigh, "Dream I can't come with you." He pulls his mask to the side of his head.

"Mhm. Mhm, so your just gonna go join their marry little band?" Dream points his sword lazily to a group gathered by Tommy and Tubbo as they give a speech. "Your just gonna leave? After months?! No! Not months! Years! I was there for you when no one else was! I was there for you and you didn't oblige!" My watery eyes show confusion through his words. He points to himself as he yells at me. "You didn't leave when you got ok with Tubbo again! Not Tubbo, not Tommy, not even Ranboo! It was Quackity! And you know what? Quackity is the person who's gonna get you killed. You messed up Lia. You fucking messed up!" A tear runs down his cheek as he points a shaky hand to me, "You said you'd never leave, Lia. You said it. You fucking promised you'd never leave." He says quietly before throwing an ender pearl in the distance. My mouth is agape from fear and a random sadness. My vision becomes blurry from tears building up but I wipe my face quickly, hoping no one saw. I promised?

"Lia! Lia!" I look over to the sound of the voice and see Quackity waving me over with a smile. At least they didn't hear that. I force a smile back to him that doesn't reach my eyes and nod. He turns back to everyone, satisfied, and listens in. I look back to the spot where Dream was seconds before. He was being manipulative... I did the right thing... right?

"I'm gonna head out." Tommy announces to the group when I walk over.

"Me too, but we will make sure to get supplies before tomorrow, don't worry." Tubbo smiles as he agrees with Tommy. They leave the area and I look to Quackity. He grins to me and wraps an arm around my shoulder. If everyone is back together, why does everyone seem so different? It's been only a couple months and I barely recognize anyone. Not even Quackity.

"You can't not choose sides!" Niki's yelling brings me back into reality. My eyes widen slightly and see her yelling at Ranboo. "I agree! We shouldn't be in this stupid war! It's all because of Tommy. It all is. But I'm not on Tommy's side. He is the reason the community house is destroyed. He is the reason we are even here in the first place. I'm with L'Manberg's side." Niki tells Ranboo. She takes a deep breath, "We have to choose sides." She says slowly as if she were speaking to a child.

Ranboo's jaw tightens and he looks around, his eyes lingering on me for a moment. "Why? Why do we have to fight an unnecessary war? Why can't we just choose the people?" Well that just sparked a conversation.

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"Ranboo, I'm on your side." I say after minutes of nothing but bickering.

A chorus of "What?"s and "Seriously?"s echo around the path.

"Look, we should be allowed to be friends with whoever and live wherever without context. I never chose sides. Always have hated it. But when it comes to L'Manberg, we have to fight back. It's our home. It's where everything started. It's the only place memories feel real. If we don't protect it tomorrow it's going to be gone, along with the people in it. They will leave and there will be nothing but ashes of withers." I reason. "At the moment, we need to fight back for what's right. After that, I don't care! We can all group up together. Destroy sides. But L'manberg can't be destroyed. It can't."

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I walk into my semi-messy room, sighing at the clothes thrown on the floor. I step over my piled laundry and fall onto my bed with a small thump.