Paradise | Dream SMP

Newly revived Wilbur wants nothing more than to live life to the fullest. After thirteen and a half years in the hell that was his limbo, Wilbur takes advantage of each breath of clean air he gets and he has Dream to thank for that. But when he stumbles across Ranboo while on his introductory tour with Tommy, suddenly life doesn't seem all that different than it was all the way back in the early days of the SMP, back before November 16th or Limbo. Before Ghostbur and the trains. Before even Pogtopia and L'Manburg.

Wilbur isn't stupid. He sees Las Nevadas for what it is, an attempt to revive that L'Manburg once had. But when Quackity throws him out of the city, all he can do is create a little friendly competition. Enlisting Ranboo to aid him, it's not supposed to be anything more than a business relationship but the more he gets to know him, the more Wilbur sees himself in him.

Perhaps he and Ranboo weren't as different as Wilbur once brushed him off to be. Perhaps if Wilbur had still been George Washington, he'd be his Aaron Burr or even his Madison. Nevertheless, Wilbur sees himself in Ranboo.

Maybe the scariest thing is that Ranboo sees himself right back.

(Entry in the Open Novella Contest 2022 under prompt number seventy. "His eyes were cold and lifeless as he stared at me. 'You have no idea who I am, do you?' I do not own the DreamSMP nor do I claim to own any of the characters or events. I also don't own the chapter titles. Those belong to Derivakat. This is simply a work written for fun as a character study and a deep dive into Wilbur and Ranboo's characters. This book includes some of my own personal headcanons and is obviously my own writing. Therefore, my right to ownership still applies, even if this is not an original work like my others.)