~Manipulation~

22 // Risk

"For anyone who isn't aware of this, Risk is a board game that destroys sanity. In the next few hours, our friendship will be pushed to the brink. What will happen? Will our friendship still be standing? What will become of-"

"Jeez Tubbo you sound like fucking woppa man and his commentating!" Tommy quickly interrupted Tubbo's dramatic intro.

"OY! I was building suspense, you idiot! You would know that if you had any knowledge of lore!" Tubbo's words left everyone in silence; their minds thinking back to their last lore stream where Tommy blew up the house.

"Sorry... sensitive topic..." Tubbo awkwardly scratched his neck.

"No worries mate!" Phil sent Tubbo, then Tommy, a sympathetic look. "I'm assuming we've all played this before?"

"Of course," Wilbur slid into the seat next to Tommy, "dibs yellow!" This triggered a chorus of replies.

Tommy yelled "DIBS RED!" as he snatched a red piece from the box and held it tightly to his chest.

"DIBS GREEN!!" Tubbo and Phil screamed in unison, both trying to grip the same piece. Phil eventually prevailed and snatched the plastic horse from Tubbo's tight grasp.

"No fair! You're the adult, you should be more mature than this!"

"Mate... I literally play Minecraft for a living, what gave you the impression of maturity?"

"You're like 50, old man! Aren't you a little too elderly to care about something as trivial as colours?"

"HEY! IM ONLY 32 YEARS OLD! Besides, if it's so "trivial" then you wouldn't mind playing as blue."

Tommy giggled at Tubbo's outraged spluttering. This was nice - even if only for a second, everything seemed normal. Too bad that feeling was short-lived.

"Enough bickering you two, let's just play the game." Wilbur playfully rolled his eyes at their antics.

Without thinking, Tommy immediately joked back, "Shush Wilby, they're being entertaining for once!"

...

"DID YOU JUST CALL HIM WILBY!?" Tubbo's incessant screeching turned into a proper sentence.

"Awwwww Mate!" Phil chimes in.

"NO I DID NOT JUST FUCKING CALL HIM WILBY-" Tommy clenched his jaw shut as a bolt of electricity came flowing through his body. OW! He blocked out the surrounding noise as he focused on containing his pain. It felt... worse than the first time. Maybe the first time was a warning? No - Wilbur turned it down after that.

Tommy looked to Wilbur where he saw him mouth the number twenty. How did he know what Tommy was thinking? Never mind. Guess he turned it up, but which rule had Tommy broken again? He thought back to the long list lining his wall. Don't unless spoken to? That could be it, or was it don't lie? Tommy could barely remember all of them, never mind follow them. Probably a mix of the two if Wilbur had turned up the shock. How did he even do that without the others noticing? It was probably a hidden remote in his pocket, or (like Wilbur had said) the others just didn't care about him enough to notice. Of course, it could be that-

"Mate?" Tommy realised they were all staring at him. "You good, mate?" Phil repeated.

"Oh, yeah, don't worry I'm good. Big Man Tommy was strategising and shit!" Wilbur smiled as Tubbo rolled his eyes, but Phil gave a slight frown.

"If you say so Mate," but Phil wasn't convinced. He knew Tommy better than most people, and he knew something was wrong with his kid. His kid? Sorry - small internet troublemaker. Yup... totally...

Phil mentally cursed his internal dialogue. Guess he was becoming more a father figure than he realised; if chat caught wind of this, he would never hear the end of it! The sound of an eerie evil laugh broke his thoughts - Tubbo.

"HehEhehEheHehehE! Then without further ado, let the game begin! World domination here I come!"

A few hours later, Tommy was scrolling down Twitter when he heard Wilbur curse.

"Shit!" Wilbur slammed his fist on the table, making Tommy jump, but not flinch.

"Bahaha! Get wrecked music man!" With that, Tubbo took control of South Africa; effectively winning the game. Phil rolled his eyes, but congratulated Tubbo nevertheless.

"Well done mate."

"OH YEAH! OH YEAH! I WIN! YOU LOOSE!" They could all sense the joking tone behind Tubbo's screeching as he paraded around the room in what appeared to be a victory dance.

"Gg dude," Wilbur said as he began packing up the board with the help of Phil. "Toms why don't you lay the table for dinner, I'll order take out."

Tommy nodded and got to work. Guess time really does move faster when you're having fun, cause they all missed lunch!

"I'm starving!" Tubbo yelled as he joined Tommy in getting out the placemats.