Ink Stains (MCYT Oneshots)

[R] Behind The Mask (Wilbur & Dream)

(A/N: request as a pic. honestly i wasn't sure what characters to label this as because it's,,,, dream but wilburs pov and,,,, yeah. anyways how'd y'all react if i take a long break? because my finals are coming up and by 'long break' i mean like.... about a month's worth. ahahahahha yeah uh. yes.)

When Wilbur had declared his intention of separating L'manburg from the Greater Dream SMP, he'd been fully expecting to fight for its independence. He was ready for it, even.

Still, standing outside the walls of his beloved country, standing firm and unyielding against Dream's barrage of words, Wilbur couldn't he,p but feel a sense of trepidation. It was a strange one, because it didn't seem to be directed at him; there didn't feel to be any misfortune coming L'manburg's way.

But Wilbur couldn't get into his head now. Right now, he had to remain strong, and prepare to fight back against Dream and his merry gang of tyrants.

"And I want to see white flags!" for a man like him, Dream could shout surprisingly loud and clear. "White flags! Outside-"

Dream didn't get to finish his speech, because an arrow came whizzing his way, and the next few moments seemed to happen in slow motion.

The arrow collided with Dream's mask, and to the shock of everyone — including Dream — in the vicinity, it broke. In fact, it practically shattered in half, the straps flying off and dropping onto the floor.

And now, everyone could see Dream's face.

Wilbur had always been curious of what laid beneath Dream's smiling mask. The leader of the SMP kept his private life extremely private — which wasn't a surprise, especially since everyone else did too — and he was never seen without his mask. In fact, there had been quite a few jokes about how he could've been born with a natural mask-shaped face — as in, his face was literally the face itself. It didn't make sense, but it was one of the tamer theories that were commonly spread around.

For Wilbur, the thought had always came to his mind that, perhaps, Dream's mask hid scars or something beneath it. He wouldn't be the first to be ashamed of visible scars, anyways. Wilbur could find a sense of understanding, in that; there was a reason why he'd never let anyone see him naked above his waist, after all.

So yes. Wilbur had always been curious about Dream's mask. But he never went out of his way to actively try to get it off of him.

When the mask had first started falling off, Wilbur saw a glimpse of scars, and felt some pride in his secret theory being corrrect.

But then the mask fell off completely. Wilbur got a look at Dream's naked face before he quickly hid it under his arms, and holy shit, the word 'scars' was a fucking understatement.

A patchwork of scars literally ran across his entire face. From the brief glimpse Wilbur had been given, there were scars of varying sizes and severity, with more than one even spanning across his entire face itself. It was like the markings on a tree trunk, except much less organised and much more... horrific to see.

If Wilbur had a face like that, he'd want to hide it too.

God, what had even happened to him?

Despite Dream's — futile, not that anybody would tell him now, not when he probably knew already — attempts to cover his face with his arms, everyone had seen what laid beneath that placidly smiling white mask of his. There was no hiding now.

"Just- just heed my warnings," Dream's voice cracked in the middle of his words, as he started to speedwalk away, with his allies right by his side. "Don't go- I'll be back tomorrow, and then our battle will officially start!"

The only things he left behind were his broken mask and L'manburg, standing outside their walls. Wilbur snapped out of the shocked state that he had been in, and mutely ushered his own friends back into the walls.

"Holy shit," Tommy was the first to break the fragile, stunned silence. "Oh my god."

"He had so many," Tubbo whispered, horror clear in his voice.

Wilbur pursed his lips and said nothing as the rest of L'manburg started talking animatedly about Dream's face. Despite all of his attempts, something like pity started forming inside of his heart.