Dreaming of Demons (Dream x oc)

[2] Tour

I stepped out into the bright sun and Karl joined my side.

Footsteps sounded to my right and I noticed a tall boy dressed in a white and red t-shirt with disheveled blonde hair. He was dragging a wooden plank out from an opening in a hill.

"Tubbo!" He called. "Hurry up!"

The blonde haired boy hadn't noticed us yet and he continued to pull on the wooden plank until another boy—who I assumed was Tubbo—with brown hair and a long-sleeved shirt grabbed the other end to help lift it off the ground.

Karl leaned closer to me. "Oh yeah, that's Tommy and Tubbo."

The one in the red t-shirt, Tommy, must have heard Karl speak because his gaze snapped up. "Hey, you just gonna stand there and stare?" He called out. His eyes flicked to me. "Is that your girlfriend?"

Karl stepped away from me. "What? No! She's...a friend that is a girl. But I guess that technically does make her a girl-friend..."

I raised my eyebrows and then turned to Tommy. "We're just friends."

"Ok...well if you don't mind. I'm trying to build my hotel."

"You're building a hotel?"

"Yeah, for people like you. You wanna stay at my hotel? There's a price of course but it'll be a lot better than that." He gestured at Karl's wooden house surrounded by bamboo stalks. 

"Hey! Yours isn't even a house!" Karl shot back, throwing his hand in the direction of Tommy's so-called home.

Tubbo, who had been watching the argument, stumbled, nearly dropping his side of the wooden plank. Tommy's attention left us as fast as it had come, a slew of irritated words raining on Tubbo.

I watched them struggle to carry the wood out of sight. "Well they sound fun." I said dryly.

Karl had his arms folded. "Yeah, sometimes I regret building my house so close to Tommy." He suddenly moved ahead of me on the path. "We can start our tour this way, though. Probably wouldn't want to interrupt their building."

He led me down a path in the opposite direction Tommy and Tubbo had gone. Many buildings lined on either side of the walkway, one of the larger ones being a crude Target look-alike. He also gave an extensive tour of a building he called Hutt's Pizza. An elaborate entrance to what I learned was Punz's castle stood not too far down the way. It's tall, dark walls next to the rainbow of colors from the other buildings added to the type of chaotic feeling to everything. It was a nice feeling, though. It had a certain air of...freedom to it. It wasn't hard to see that every build I noticed had a story behind it, whether they were run-down or brand new.

Karl then gestured grandly to a white building, announcing it as Church Prime. He also mentioned the wooden path we had travelled on earned its name from the Church, dubbed the Prime path. A giant column of water fell in the middle of the small church building, and I stuck my hand in it as Karl went to the pulpit to ring a bell a couple of times. He attempted to push me in the water, but I yelped and jumped away. We soon exited the building to continue on the Prime path again, laughing as he told stories about the Prime church.

Karl glanced ahead and his smile fell. My own laughter died, and I turned to meet the sight of a severely broken building in the middle of a lake. A man stood in the center of what was left of the floor with a bundle of splintered wood in his arms. He was dressed in a white t-shirt and black cargo pants, the outfit completed with black-and-white checkered shoes. He also wore a white bandana tied around his head. The man hadn't noticed us yet as we approached.

"Sapnap?" Karl's voice was tentative.

The man, Sapnap, whirled around, adjusting his arms as the wood he carried threatened to fall. "Oh, hey Karl and..."

It took me a moment to realize he was waiting for my name. "Uh, Taryn."

He nodded, a grim smile turning his lips for only a second. 

"Are you on cleaning duty here?" Karl asked.

Sapnap took a breath, letting it out in a long sigh as he glanced around. "Yeah."

I studied him for a moment before my gaze swept across the interior of the broken building, "What was this place?" I moved inside, picking up a broken piece of red brick.

"This was the community house!" Karl turned towards me after hopping across a hole in the floor. "This was where anyone could come in and get stuff. But it was also the first building ever built in the Dream SMP."

"Before Dream destroyed it." Sapnap muttered, making Karl pause.

"Dream..." I trailed off. the name sounded familiar from Karl's texts, "He's the guy that stole the discs, right?" I looked to both boys for clarification.

Karl, strangely, didn't offer an answer and Sapnap sniffed, turning away. "Yeah."

I watched him begin to pull at a large splinter on the wall. I had only ever known Dream from what Karl had told me—through text. Apparently, he seemed to have done more than just steal some discs. I angled my gaze up towards the bright sky, looking through the broken roof. Sapnap was obviously not in the mood to talk about Dream, so what exactly happened to cause that? 

Karl jumped to my side, snapping me from my thoughts. "Come on, I'll show you Eret's castle next." He waved his hand, looking past me. "Hey Sapnap, I'll see you later, okay?"

"No problem, see you guys."

I once again followed behind Karl as we headed towards a giant stone castle, casting one last look back at Sapnap's form moving among the rubble. I had seen so much in my first day here. First, the massive crater, and then a clearly upset Sapnap cleaning up the remains of a building someone—or Dream—had destroyed? If these were the first few things I had seen, how much more had the people here endured?

"You guys seem to have a lot going on here." I spoke after a moment.

"What do you mean?" Karl looked at me from over his shoulder, slowing down to match my step.

I shrugged, gesturing to the more populated part of the Dream SMP behind us. "I mean...whatever was going on with L'Manburg back there, and then seeing your friend picking up the pieces of a leftover building." I shook my head. "You don't really see stuff like that."

"Well...I do"

"You know what I mean."

He gave a small laugh before it died out, and he tugged on his hoodie sleeves. "Yeah, it gets kinda crazy here. But the good thing is that we've all kind of come to a peace now. Everyone is happy and Dream is in jail so... we're all good now!"

I blinked at his last few words. "In jail? There's a prison here as well?"

"Yeah, you have to put the bad guys somewhere." We neared the front doors of the castle, and Karl stopped. "I wonder if Eret's here right now. Maybe he'll let us tour the castle."

I stood by silently as Karl used the large, golden knocker on the door to knock. Whatever I had in mind for this visit was definitely not this. I wouldn't say I was disappointed though, I was just very surprised. The Dream SMP was a lot different from visiting, say...Paris, for example. But deep down, a part of me was beginning to like this place—as chaotic as it seemed. It had a sense of adventure and freedom I hadn't felt anywhere else, so I found myself wondering: What else could the Dream SMP offer?

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A/N

A little introduction to some people for this chapter! Hopefully you guys are liking the story so far as well! Just wanted to say that I'll try to post new chapters on Saturdays, so look out for those :)