~Manipulation~

4 // Just Listen

When Tommy opened his eyes, he was immediately greeted with 34 missed discord messages. When he opened them, he realised that most were from the DSPM members complaining about what happened yesterday.

They were mad... like really mad. Dream was warning him not to do it again or else he might be banned from the server. Phil was threatening to disown him. Sapnap was repeatedly saying how uncool it was. Tubbo was trying but failing to defend him; eventually siding with the others. George... George had slept through the drama and Badboyhalo was trying to summarise it for him. Techno said nothing. He hadn't been online since the incident.

Tommy was a little alarmed about it. They did know it was scripted... right? He quickly typed out the following message: 'Hey guys. I know it was a little radical but you do know it was scripted, right? Wilbur told me and Techno and Phil the plan – making sure we all agree – before we did it."

The whole chat went silent for a minute, before Phil and Wilbur sent a message at the same time. 'I wasn't told that' and 'Tommy. Stop framing me for your mistakes – it only makes it worse.'

Tommy was shocked. They didn't believe him!? But – but – Wilbur had told them all the plan! They had all agreed!

Suddenly the chat got filled up with another round of messages. The most prominent one was a DM from Dream. 'Get on vc. Now.' Tommy reluctantly joined.

"That 'scripted' thing had better not be your only excuse. It's pathetic." Tommy stayed silent. "Seriously!? Don't you fucking dare blame Wilbur for this. You went too far." There was a moment of pause where Dream sighed and was undoubtedly pinching the bridge of his nose. "I'm going to call the others to discuss your punishment."

Tommy was about to start screaming about how he wasn't a child and didn't need a punishment, but Dream had already left. The blonde reluctantly looked towards the group chat where a call was started. He paused for three seconds before joining the call – a 'bling' sound notified the others of his presence.

"Hello Tommy." Sapnap spoke... then no one spoke. After a minute of silence, Tommy realised that they were probably waiting for his defence... but the thing was, the 'scripted' thing was all he had. The blonde sighed; better to get this over and done with.

"Wilbur had told me that this was in the plan. He warned Techno beforehand and apparently he was okay with it. I was still reluctant about it, but Wilbur insisted. I even called Techno to check."

"Do you have any proof?" Sam spoke, but before Tommy could talk about the text message, Wilbur interrupted.

"Don't be ridiculous! He is framing me and you're all listening to him like he's the victim. We all saw him burn down Technoblade's house. I did not tell him to do that. You can watch the stream over again if you want: I did nothing to contribute to this."

"Yeah but that's because—"

"Enough Tommy!" Sam spoke, "Just own up to your mistakes!"

"But it's not m—"

"What!? Not your fault? We literally all watched you burn down Techno's house!" Skeppy started raising his voice.

"Well yeah, but that's beca—"

"You're still all listening to him like he's a victim! Just punish him already." This time it was Wilbur speaking.

"JUST LISTEN TO ME!!!!" Tommy screamed at the top of his lungs and for a moment the only sound filling the call was his heavy breathing.

"What is there to listen to?" Sapnap spoke. "You destroyed Techno's house and you're blaming it on Wilbur."

The call was suddenly taken over with inaudible shouting and screaming. Something about a 'plan' and whose 'fault it was'. After what was probably around five minutes, someone finally broke the mayhem.

"Can everyone please just SHUT UP!" It was Technoblade. "Although it is correct that Phil and I were not told of this plan, Tommy did call me earlier to make sure that I was okay with it... I thought he was talking about stabbing Phil when he must have been asking about this, so that would explain a lot. This means that – from a logical point of view – either Phil and I are lying about the plan, Tommy was planning this from the start... or Wilbur is lying about the plan."

The call went silent for a second. "Oh come on now guys," Wilbur was clearly smiling, "I think it's safe to say that we all know what happened here." There was a lot of murmuring and faint agreement through the call.

"Alright then," Dream spoke, "since this was Tommy's doing, what do you suggest we do?"

"HEY THAT'S N—"

"What about if we prevent him from growing strong on the server again? Nothing too radical, just little things like burning his armour and weapons and emptying his inventory every now and then – we can even build it into the lore so the viewers don't notice." Wilbur was very obviously smirking right now.

"That could work." Sapnap seemed deep in thought.

It was only Tommy, Phil and Techno that seemed to have a problem with that punishment. "That's not fair! Why not just kick me off the server for a month!? Not that!", "Why are we giving him a punishment? We aren't his parents and even if we were, he's just a kid – they make mistakes all the time.", "That seems a little too far; I can always rebuild the house."

"No!" Dream's voice thundered through the call, "I've made my decision and that's that. Besides, aside from you three, everyone else agrees with it." After a moments pause to let it all settle in, people started leaving the call, until it was just the Sleepy Bois left.

"I'm sorry Techno – I didn't mean to cause all of this."

"I know, I know. Just think your actions through a bit Tommy."

"It's alright mate – we forgive you."

Tommy would have been relieved if it weren't for the text message that he received just moments after – it was from Wilbur. 'Cute that you actually think that they care. They're using you Tommy. I'm your only real friend you have left.'

Tommy stayed silent for a moment; causing Phil and Techno to glance at each other. Sadly, Wilbur caught onto this action. 'Say goodbye and get your shoes on. We still have a vlog to film.' Tommy sighed before giving some half-hearted excuse in order to leave. He wiped the tear marks off of his face and ran downstairs to get ready for the filming.