Chapter Text
Chapter 1
Sunlight was already flooding the room as the ringing of Dream’s phone woke the man from his deep slumber. The messy-haired blonde squinted with discomfort as he blinked away his haze, trying to focus on the sudden shift from dream to reality. He pushed blankets aside and lifted his pillows to locate the phone from which the incessant noise of the ringtone came.
“Hello?” He answered it, unable to stifle the yawn that came after.
“Dream? What the hell are you doing? MCC starts in half an hour, and you’re not online!” The British accent of one of his best friends, George, filled his ear.
He cringed at the loud voice so soon after waking up and looked to the paper calendar that hung from a small silver hook embedded into the wall.
Sure enough, the first small square that didn’t have a bold ‘X’ through it, had a circle with a few doodles of stars, and the words “ MCC All-Stars :)” written on it.
“Sorry–sorry. I overslept. Tell Sap and Bad I’ll be on in a few.” Dream rubbed his face, getting out of bed and quickly changing his outfit. Given, it was just into a different pair of sweatpants, but nonetheless, it felt better not being in the clothes he’d slept in. Besides, it wasn’t like he’d have to worry about his appearance.
He pulled open his bedroom door and walked to the kitchen, grabbing a glass of water and a quick bite to eat before walking to his office, excitement for the tournament glimmering in his chest.
He quickly booted up Minecraft and Discord, the former loading faster than the latter, giving him time to join the practice server before joining the voice channel.
Dream double clicked the server listing and was brought to the familiar loading screen. He drummed his fingers on his desk while he waited, when he heard a crackle coming from his keyboard.
‘Shit, my keyboard better not be giving out .’ He thought in a slight panic bringing his hands to the light-up keyboard to inspect it.
However, as soon as he touched the keys, a jolt of electricity was sent through his hand, and he snapped it away, sharply inhaling air through gritted teeth as his vision went dark for a few moments.
He blinked and rubbed his eyes before opening them again.
Very quickly, he noticed that things weren’t right.
“What the fuck?” He muttered in a concerned awe.
He appeared to be inside the video game, and it took him a few moments to process before panic started to set it.
“What just happened? What is happening?” He lifted his hand to his face.
Dream noticed that he was the embodiment of his Minecraft character. He had green arms, green face, and that large black and white smiley face on his chest.
He must’ve just fallen back asleep. Yes, that was it. He just needed to wake himself up to free himself from this lucid dream.
He tapped his face, softly at first, then proceeding to increase force when it didn’t work.
“This cannot be happening. No, no this can’t be happening.” Dream began hyperventilating.
Water. There was a pond over there. That would wake him up, surely.
He quickly sprinted to it and leapt in.
He splashed the water on his face and his arms, and closed his eyes.
“Okay, deep breaths, Clay. I’m going to be sitting at my computer, ready to start the tournament in three…two…” He whispered to himself, before snapping his eyes open.
Still. Here.
What. The. Absolute. Fuck.
Several transparent gray blocks of text flashed in front of his face.
GeorgeNotFound whispered to you: JOIN DISCORD
Sapnap whispered to you: dude where are you
BadBoyHalo whispered to you: MCC is about to start, what are you doing, you muffin?
Oh god. He couldn’t just drop out of the tournament. Everyone was counting on him. He had to figure out a way to get on to the main server and somehow…play like this?
A familiar character sprint-jumped up to him, and crouched and began trying to punch him. Though, an invisible force around him blocked the punches causing an odd sort of whooshing sound.
It was the Minecraft character of GeorgeNotFound, as evident by the nametag hovering over his head, and the skin he’d spent countless hours looking at through his computer screen.
Was there a way he could tell George what was happening?
“George! You have to help me!” Dream stepped out of the pond, and to his dismay, he wasn’t wet at all. It was as if the water repelled away from him.
The virtual character didn’t react, giving the impression George had not heard him.
“....Okay. Different tactic then.” He muttered, clicking on the transparent gray text that was starting to fade.
A short little text box opened up and he felt a short surge of hope.
“Slash whisper space GeorgeNotFound.” He verbally commanded it and the words appeared in the box. Thankfully, giving the symbol and the space. Otherwise he wasn’t sure what he’d do.
“Small victories. We’re getting somewhere.” He heaved a short sigh of relief.
He spoke to the box again. “George, I know this is going to sound crazy, but I’m stuck in the game.” He spoke loudly and clearly, and the words appeared. “Uh–send.”
The text was released into the code, and George’s character stopped moving and hitting him, showing a good sign he’d received the message.
GeorgeNotFound whispered to you: Haha, very funny. But seriously, join the channel. People are joining the main server.
You whispered to GeorgeNotFound: It’s not a joke. I’m going to try to find a way to get in discord, but I seriously don’t know what’s happening.
More text appeared in front of Dream’s face.
Join the main server? [YES] [NO]
Huh. That was…convenient. Maybe Discord could work the same way.
He clicked the large green ‘ YES’ button, and suddenly was hit with the sensation of flying.
“Oof–head rush.” Dream rubbed his head, feeling dizzy.
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw chats flying by from the 35 other members currently on the server.
[+] GeorgeNotFound
[+] Sapnap
[+] BadBoyHalo
GeorgeNotFound whispered to you: If you’re actually serious about this, you can’t play in the tournament. You have to drop out.
You whispered to GeorgeNotFound: How?? I have no idea how to leave the server itself, and what am I supposed to say to everyone as to why I dropped??
A small communication device started buzzing in his pocket. Similar to a phone, but obviously wasn’t quite one.
He pulled it out and answered it, feeling a headset appear on his head as the device disappeared.
Whoever was doing this to him really had everything planned out.
“Hello?” George’s familiar voice came through his headset.
“Oh god–George. I don’t know what the hell is happening. My keyboard sparked out one second, and then the next, I’m literally inside of a video game. What am I supposed to do?” Panic seeped into his voice.
“Uhm–I don’t know, this has never really happened before. Okay. Well at least we have you on the call, let’s get you into the channel with Sap and Bad so we can talk this over.” George suggested gently, and pulled his discord icon out of the call and into their locked channel.
Dream’s heart sank at his friend’s careful tone. He didn’t believe him. Did George think he was crazy?
“Dream, bud, you know we love you, but MCC starts literally in like less than ten minutes. You can joke around after.” Sapnap’s voice was exasperated.
“Sapnap, this isn’t a joke. I’m genuinely trapped in the game.” Dream’s voice was trembling.
“ How ?” Sapnap sounded incredulous, but still disbelieving.
“I don’t know–but look–ahh I don’t even know what to tell you.” Dream was at a loss for words.
“If I wasn’t out of town right now, I could just come in so you could prove it. Is there any way you can show proof?” Dream could still hear the other man’s skepticism.
“Do you not believe me? Why would I lie about this?” Dream yelped out in his desperation.
“Okay, but can you really blame us? This does sound really insane.” Bad’s voice was also laced with tones of disbelief.
He was about to protest before realizing they were right. It probably did sound crazy. He could barely believe it himself.
“Okay. How can I prove it to you?” Dream sighed.
“If you really are in the game, wouldn’t you be able to move in ways that Minecraft people can’t?” George asked.
Dream felt hopeful again. “Yes—yes. Come to the hall of fame, I'm not sure if I really want this getting out.” He ran, trying to seem…block-like.
The other three obliged and entered the hall.
It was somewhat terrifying staring them in the face like this. They didn’t move without the people behind them controlling them. They didn’t blink. They didn’t breathe.
He had to remind himself he wasn’t really talking to the characters themselves.
“Uh—okay—here.” He decided to just lay down on the floor. “God this feels so weird.”
Only silence radiated from the channel.
“Guys?” Dream asked tentatively.
“Oh my god you really are stuck in the game.” George was the first to speak, his voice quiet with shock.
“Jesus Christ—Dream—Clay! How are we supposed to get you out?” Sapnap sounded terrified.
Text appeared in front of his face again, and his blood ran cold.
Console whispered to you: You must win the tournament to escape the game.
“We have to—“ Dream swallowed. “We have to win the tournament like this.”
“ What ?” The shocked voices of his friends rose in unison.
“How the hell are we supposed to win a tournament-–wait a second…” Sapnap trailed off. “What did you just say? That it felt weird? Like what-–like the ground?”
“Um–yeah?” Dream was confused, not following his friend’s train of thought.
“Do you think that would mean…you can–-like feel other things in the tournament too? Because there’s a lot of violence in this tournament…you don’t think…” Sapnap cringed, sounding as if he didn’t want to say what he was suggesting.
“Are you saying you think Dream might die for real?” Bad caught on in shock.
Silence ensued.
“Nuh uh–no way. Dream you can’t do that, we have to get you out of the tournament. I’ll talk to Scott–” George began but Dream cut him off.
“George, you can’t! I have to win the tournament, and obviously they would take me out if everyone found out I was stuck in here. There’s no other way. I’ll just have to–do my best.” Dream gulped.
All four of them seemed to be speechless.
“Okay–all we have to do is protect Dream, right? Get games that don’t involve PvP?” Bad offered.
The others hesitantly agreed. What else could they do, really?
They stepped out of the hall when several chat messages rolled through, giddy for the start of the tournament.
Sapnap, George, and Bad walked protectively around Dream, worried someone would notice Dream walking funny.
Tommy jumped up to the four of them, crouched and began punching as George had done earlier.
Sapnap stepped in front of Dream, fearful it would hurt him.
“It’s okay Sapnap, I can’t feel anything when PvP is off,” Dream assured him.
“Just making sure our Dreamie-poo is safe.”
Dream rolled his eyes at the feeble attempt to lighten the mood.
The bridge extended, and Dream had to admit, despite the fear running through his veins, it was kind of cool to see it all unfold in…person? Minecraft character?
Dream had no idea.
When the bridge was finally down the four of them ran inside the dome, Dream sprinting and jumping like the rest of them as to blend in.
When all of them were in the Decision Dome, he felt the sensation of flying again as they were placed in the red glass cage.
Dream felt vulnerable being faced with all 39 other characters. It was so strange seeing all these people that were familiar, yet completely strange at the same time.
The incessant clicking sound filled his ears as the games were revealed one by one.
Parkour Tag
Sky Battle
Big Sales at Build Mart
Sands of Time
TGTTOSAWAMCCPWHNWAEY
Grid Runners
Ace Race
Battle Box
“Okay, we have to play this strategically. Obviously, there will be some PvP games chosen, we can’t avoid that entirely,” George began. “But let’s just test the waters. One that Dream for sure cannot die in, but one we can see what he can and can’t feel.”
“How about parkour tag? That one should be a good indicator,” Dream suggested.
“Okay. Let’s vote that and hope the rest of the teams follow suit,” Sapnap agreed.
“Just wait–wait until the last second to vote,” Dream commanded.
“Wait–why is everyone saying your name in chat, Dream?” Bad asked.
Dream felt a jolt of fear as he looked to the floating text that he’d tuned out of his vision.
Relief washed over him. “Oh, I made a joke last night in the discord about paying people to vote build mart.” Good. It wasn’t about him looking strange or something.
“Should we vote build mart then? That wouldn’t really be a good indicator, but Dream couldn’t get hurt, and it would help us toward winning if we get that out of the way first,” George reasoned.
“Okay. Yes–vote build mart,” Dream agreed.
The four of them threw the eggs in unison, Dream making sure to lock his elbows in a quick swing so no one would see his arms bend.
The chickens wandered around a bit before the walls went up.
“Wait–it might be parkour tag,” Sapnap said, quickly tallying the chickens in his head.
“Ugh–why do they wander out?” Bad groaned.
“It’s okay, it’s okay.” Dream assured them. “That’s what we wanted originally, that’ll be okay.”
The lights flashed around the dome until finally landing on parkour tag.
Teleporting soon…
“You ready for this, Dream?” George asked him, sounding almost as nervous as Dream himself.
He chuckled in an attempt to lighten the tension. “Even if I said no, I don’t have much of a choice, do I?”
The floor fell out from underneath them and Dream yelped as they fell and were teleported into the game.
Console whispered to you: Let the games begin.