"I've got you a photo," Ghostbur said. It was a photo of a big Christmas tree, with Sapnap perched all the way at the top. "Do you like it? It's almost Christmas!"

"Christmas!" He exclaimed.

"Is that really... real?" Tommy asked.

"Yes, it is!" Ghostbur answered.

"Can I go and see it?"

"No," Dream said chidingly. "You've asked that at least ten times now. The answer is no."

"Why won't you let him see it?" Ghostbur questioned. "It's not in L'Manberg."

"But it's in Dream SMP, so, no."

Ghostbur frowned. "Okay." He paused. "Tommy, why don't we build our own Christmas tree?"

"That's a very good idea!" Dream said with a full smile. Tommy had a feeling that Dream was simply indulging Ghostbur.

"Let's do it!"

***

The next time Tommy logged onto the server, he was presented with an odd new gift inside the walls of the campsite: a mooshroom. The note the gifter had left for him pronounced the mooshroom to be Mooshroom Henry. Tommy frowned, but let the mooshroom stay, for it was a symbol of kindness and he wanted whatever kindness there was left to stay.

When he walked into his Tnret, he unintentionally stepped over a pressure plate, and stepped back in alarm when he heard the signature sizzling sound of TNT being set off. Then, the ground underneath the front part of Tnret exploded, and he gaped in shock. Why had someone done this?

"Who the fuck did this?" Tommy muttered to himself with gritted teeth.

Tommy navigated his way to the front of his now exploded tent and inspected the damage. The floor had almost been completely blown out and left in its place a crater. Surprisingly, the wool of the tent had remained intact.

He let out a breath and began rebuilding. When he finished, he took a look in the chat and sighed. Since the first time he'd joined, out of all the people he could see were online, not one of them had said hi to him.

He was suddenly struck in the back with an arrow, and he yelped and turned around to see two flaming skeletons shooting at him. The flames engulfed their bony frames and Tommy did nothing as four arrows wedged themselves in his body. The rattling noise of the skeletons taking damage was loud, but when they both died, there was left only a pile of bones, arrows, and silence in its place. An enderman took offense at Tommy's passing glance and shook with rage, and Tommy let out a screech when the enderman attacked him, depleting Tommy's already low health from the arrows he'd took. Tommy took the enderman down after a couple of hits and was delighted when the enderman dropped an ender pearl.

He shook himself out of his dazed and mute spell, and picked up the ender pearl with more purpose in his stride. He had a goal today, and he wouldn't let himself mope around while he could be working towards it.

Tommy made his way to the village. The first thing he wanted to do was establish trading relations with the villagers. Last time he'd visited the village, he hadn't looked through it that thoroughly, and was now curious to find if there was a brewing stand in the church. Sure enough, when he made his way to the cobblestone structure, a brewing stand stood in there.

His first step towards his goal was to make an ender chest. The ender pearl he'd just harvested from the enderman, which'd reminded him of his goal, was the second to last piece he needed to create an ender chest. In his ender chest, he had also emeralds, which would speed up the trading process with the villagers. He just needed blaze powder now.

When passing back through the campsite, he remembered the disc underneath his chest and retrieved chirp from Bad's hiding place, putting it into the jukebox. He sat down next to the jukebox, leaning his back against it and listening to it.

"Music," he thought to himself. "It's like a person who's not here."

After the short tune ended, he got back to business. He had no time to be sad or demotivated or glum. He had something to do. And that purpose filled him with energy he hadn't realized he had been lacking, but was thankful to have back.

It's all going to be alright.

***

Tommy was completely alone for another day and night as he cleaned up the campsite and made his exile vacation home look prettier. However, when he finally took a moment to stop working and look down at himself, he found his clothes got steadily worse as his home improved. His shirt was starting to wear and tear, and his hair was dirty.

After a short rest, he geared up to go into the nether, and was startled to find a chest waiting at the foot of the portal with his name on it. Inside, there was a book and quill, and Tommy smiled when he found a message from Ranboo waiting.

Ranboo had clearly made an effort to cheer Tommy up, and it definitely worked a little. Tommy wrote Ranboo back shortly, and then went back on his journey. Along the way, he bumped into Ranboo, who seemed to be hiding.

"You weren't supposed to see me," Ranboo told Tommy, "but I guess this is fine too."

"Okay," Tommy said, feeling a little miffed that Ranboo would hide from him, but understanding his motives nonetheless. "Well, I'm looking for blaze powder. Do you have any idea where I could find a fortress?"

"I don't know, actually. We can go look," Ranboo smiled. Tommy spotted the pity in his gaze, and wasn't sure how to react.

"Can you cover me? You know, in case something attacks me?" Tommy inquired.

"Yeah, of course," Ranboo answered quickly and easily.

After a lot of wandering around on their own, they were able to locate a fortress. The two picked their way through the lava flowing in the halls and found a blaze spawner. Tommy killed a couple of blazes and was able to harvest some blaze rods for his project.

"Okay, I'm done here," Tommy told Ranboo. "Let's go. Ranboo... do you have any idea how we get back home?"

Tommy was running too fast along the sides of the fortress and screamed when he slipped from the edge and burned to crisp in the lava, including the entire contents of his inventory. He respawned back in his tent.

"Well, that's one way to get home," he said aloud to himself.

"Oh, no," Ranboo sighed in the nether, and headed back to Tommy's place alone.

***

Tommy and Ranboo ended up meeting halfway, around where the portal was.

"Do you have some of my things?" Tommy asked hopefully.

"Uh," Ranboo's gaze flickered away and then back again. "Yeah! I've got some of your stuff. Not all of it though."

"Okay. Can I have them back now?"

"Yeah, sure," Ranboo looked slightly nervous. He dropped a couple of things from his inventory as Tommy picked them up.

"Do you have my blaze rods?" Tommy asked.

"Ah," Ranboo looked awkward, "this is all I have."

"Oh."

Ranboo shuffled on the spot. "I don't have yours, but I can give you some of my personal stash." He offered up, looking guilty.

"Thanks," Tommy smiled, recognizing the pity.

"So... can I see your place? Can I see your new home?"

"Vacation home," Tommy corrected, still smiling.

Ranboo blinked. "Of course. Can I see your vacation home?"

"Of course," Tommy answered, still smiling.

***

"I'll give you a little tour, eh?" Tommy said as they appeared on the other side of the portal. Tommy showed Ranboo around tnret, and then around the campsite, and especially showed Ranboo prime log.

"It's really nice," Ranboo said appreciatively.

"Yeah!" Tommy grinned, excited to have company. "Ghostbur made it for me."

Tommy watched Ranboo look around the place for a little while longer, when an idea struck him.

"Here, I have a present for you." Tommy dug around in a hidden barrel and extracted the disc chirp. "Come with me."

Ranboo followed Tommy curiously, and Tommy made sure to watch Ranboo's reaction as he put the disc in the jukebox.

"It's my new disc!" Tommy exclaimed. The mellow tunes were soothing and constant.

After they'd finished listening to the disc, awkward silence descended upon them.

"So, anything else?" Ranboo inquired.

"No," Tommy replied, feeling dull all of a sudden. "That's it."

"Oh." Ranboo looked around nervously.

"You can go, if you want," Tommy offered. "I don't want to waste any more of your time."

"No," Ranboo rushed to say, "it's not a waste of my time."

"No, it's fine," Tommy pushed back, "I've got lots to do."

"Oh, of course." Ranboo blinked. "I can just... go, if you want."

"Yeah, sure," Tommy said, feeling suddenly awkward and wanting to be alone. "I'll go... get some obsidian. I'll see you."

"Yeah." Ranboo blinked again, surprised by the sudden whiplash of Tommy's mode. "Yeah." He repeated, not knowing what to say. Then he left.

Tommy descended back down into the mines with his diamond pickaxe and mined some obsidian and returned to the surface. He excitedly took his ender pearl and blaze rod and obsidian and made his way to a crafting table. He was so close.

First, he made blaze powder. And then, an eye of ender. And then finally, he put the eye of ender in the center of the crafting bench and assembled the obsidian around it... and he had an ender chest.

Tommy's face split into a wide grin, and he placed it down. He'd done it!

***

The next morning when he logged on, there was a huge tree erected outside of his home decorated with ornaments. Underneath, there was a chest and a sign with a note on it.

"Not out of pity, just wishing you a happy holiday," Puffy's note read.

Tommy looked at it, not entirely convinced but not wanting to reject the gift. The tree was actually quite beautiful, and there was even carpet underneath.

"Thank you," he said aloud to himself, feeling genuinely grateful for the diamonds in the chest. It would go a long way. He knew they still cared.

At least, now, he had his very own Christmas tree. He smiled when he saw his ender chest. Finally, he had all of his things back. His diamonds and emeralds and gold and iron, his discs, all of the things precious to him were stored in that ender chest. He was feeling better.