*dramatic walking in* hello Bluebirds. Unfortunately, your dearest gelatin has been caught up in the dreadful pit of terror that are APs. So *dramatic sigh* I sincerely apologize for our absence - or rather, my delay, because Blue wanted to post this like five days ago and I kind of held her back (sorry 'bout that)

Anyway, remember to inhale your oranges and lemons, hydrate (this is critical istg I'm getting a kidney stone or sth), don't intentionally starve yourself (I did, it's not very fun) and you are valid, you matter, you're loved, you're amazing, your days will get better and I will now stop being wholesome because I have a reputation to uphold

Jello you're going to get all the readers killed /lh

I originally meant that regarding the inhalation of citrus but now I just want to cry and hug something, thanks a lot /pos

Hug a tree, or touch some grass - either is fine

And I will now yeet and (hypothetically - or maybe not) kill my work (╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻

SLAUGHTER IT YES, WITHOUT MERCY

Anyways, lets get into it.

Enjoy.

~ < o > ~

Dream was having an amazing day, thank you for asking. That was, until, three of his friends decided to vanish off the face of the planet.

As a general rule, he preferred it when friends did not disappear for no apparent reason. He found it to be rather disruptive of plans, not to mention increasingly worrisome. And if given a choice, he definitely did not want to be the last one to speak to any of them before they vanished, because he certainly wasn't looking forward to having to explain that.

So of course, that's exactly what happened.

It had started off like any other day: messing around with the hunters in Minecraft, trying to get a decent recording that didn't involve him instantly dying in the first twenty minutes, which was, as it turns out, surprisingly difficult.

Sixteen deaths, four hours and a sore throat from yelling later, Dream was ready to give up.

"Y'know, I think five hunters is too hard." He pinched the bridge of his nose, wincing as he recalled all his failed attempts at pulling off his attempted mid-air boat crafting. "We should go back to four. Or add another speedrunner."

George laughed, voice echoing in Dream's headphones. "Alright, how about seven hunters and two speedrunners?"

Sapnap made a sound of disagreement. "Try ten hunters instead, then we might stand a chance."

Dream wheezed, then rubbed his eyes. "You're overestimating my capabilities."

"Better than underestimating," Bad retorted and Dream laughed.

"True, true."

They lapsed into a comfortable silence, simply appreciating the fact that all six of them were here, existing, part of the same universe at the same time. It was the sort of nothingness that only friends could feel safe in, the sort of idleness that only people who knew each other well could allow themselves to fall into without the frantic awkwardness of feeling the need to fill the space with speech.

"I'm a little tired," George hummed after a moment. "Gonna go take a nap. You're not planning on recording more today, are you?"

Dream chuckled lightly. "Definitely not. I still need to polish my technique."

"Alright." The pinging sound of George leaving the VC echoed through the room and Sapnap laughed.

"This is a good time for someone to start a lore stream." Dream remarked, much to their amusement.

There was another moment of silence, broken by a shriek of delight from Bad. "Tommy just started streaming!"

Dream wheezed, already starting to navigate to the stream on his own device. "Didn't know he was streaming today."

"Neither did I," Ant agreed.

"Hardcore Minecraft featuring Wilbur, Tubbo and the blade", Dream informed them, reading the title of the stream. "Oh, this must be in some sort of memory to Phil."

"Ah." Bad nodded. "Makes sense."

The atmosphere was suddenly somber. Mourning was a very odd thing indeed - could one mourn someone they had never known?

Perhaps not, yet they grieved all the same. The thought of a man they had never met and likely never would whose paths had been so close to crossing with their own was an equally intriguing and horrifying concept.

"I guess we could watch Tommy for a while," Dream suggested, and the soft murmurs of agreement met his ears.

Which is how he found himself staring a few hours later at a facecam he was absolutely certain had been aiming at Tommy, but showed only an empty room.

~ ~ o O o ~ ~

Techno stared at his screen for a dumbstruck moment before pulling up google slowly, fingers flying across his keyboard.

Opening twitch, he navigated to Tommy's stream. 'Hardcore Minecraft featuring Wilbur, Tubbo and the blade', he muttered under his breath, eyes scanning the screen. The stream was on, chat was active. Everything was present.

Except, of course, for the streamer himself.

No mistake about it, Tommy was gone.

His facecam was still on, showing an empty room.

This was all too familiar.

His chat was flying at a million miles per hour, Techno barely able to see even the occasional word before it was buried under a mountain of chaos and panic. Slowly, he cleared his throat, and the chat sped up even more.

Oh, right, he realized. He was still in the VC, and they could hear everything he did.

"Uh hi chat, hi. Hello. Yes, hi. What happened to Tommy?"

Part of him wondered if this was a prank, but the other half knew that they would never joke about something so serious, so heavy. Especially not Wilbur.

So if it wasn't a prank, what was it?

He squinted, trying to read the replies, eventually piercing together the blur of letters into something comprehensible.

Cam glitched.

There one moment.

Sudden.

Gone.

No trace.

Vanished.

We don't know.

Techno tell us.

Techno this better be a prank.

Techno why.

E.

Ignoring the last message, he swallowed, then raised his voice. "Hello? Tommy? Wilbur? Tubbo?"

Again, there was no response. He turned to his screen. "Chat, I don't know what happened to them either."

Chat was a blur to his eyes, messages of disbelief flashing by.

"They - they're just . . . gone."

~ ~ o O o ~ ~

Tommy and Tubbo were reported missing by family members an hour later, Wilbur following another forty-five minutes after.

The news tore through the fandom, streamers everywhere remarking on how odd it was - Tommy, after all, was on-stream. According to those who were watching, the facecam glitched ever so briefly, and he was gone. There was no way he should have been able to leave the room that quickly.

And to have all three of them vanish at the same time? That was new. It was rare that multiple people disappeared at once, or that the disappearances had anything to do with each other.

Clips of the moment gained traction too, and Techno watched them, over and over again until it was ingrained into his mind. He couldn't come up with a reasonable explanation either, but he was thinking.

He had left the VC but was watching the silent stream, as were most streamers. All the big names were in chat, and viewership had peaked. He could hardly read a single letter before it was swept away in the chaos.

If Tommy was here he would have been ecstatic. The thought didn't exactly cheer him up.

But he was thinking. Something was off, something felt odd. Something pulled him back to the past, to the first disappearance he had paid close attention to - the ever so mysterious case of Philza.

Heart racing, he reached for his phone, scrolling through his contacts, finally finding the right one. A theory - an odd, impossible, stupid theory, was forming his his mind, and he had to test it out.

Messages

DreamOnline

<Technoblade> Hey this is important

<Technoblade> I got a weird theory

<Dream> About what

<Technoblade> If I also go missing in a moment, the disappearances have to do with dying in Minecraft Hardcore

<Dream> What.

<Technoblade> Just go with it, if nothing happens I'll look like an idiot, but seriously.

<Dream> Sure, I guess

Techno took a deep breath, logging on slowly into the world again. The logical part of his brain screamed that it was stupid, that nothing would happen - after all, why would a video game about blocks cause tens of thousands of disappearances worldwide? Or, more importantly, how?

It seemed impossible. And indeed, correlation isn't causation. But it was a lead (which was more than he had gotten in a long time) that he had to test.

He walked his character over to the side of a cliff, peering over the ledge cautiously, stamping down the amusement at looking really dumb if nothing happened.

Nothing to lose.

And then he stepped over the edge, plummeting downwards.

For a moment all was normal, and then suddenly he felt as if something was tugging inside him, the world starting to spin, dissolving into patches of darkness. It was darker than the deepest shadows, so pure that it seemed not empty, but rather full of colour - rich and thick as cream. It engulfed his senses, trapping him in his own thoughts, ensnaring everything he knew.

And then with a single tug, the world was torn away from his grasp. He was still, yet falling. Grounded, yet floating.

How odd.

<Technoblade fell from a high place>

~ < o > ~

I guess Technoblade Never Dies is a lie - yeah I went and yeeted that out the window a second time, please wait in line for your turn at a defenestration

Defenestration my beloved <3

Defenestration my beloved until I'm on the receiving end of it, then defenestration my abhorred

Double standards, smh /j

Anyway I reiterate you're valid, you matter, you're amazing, your days will get better, you're loved, and with that, we'll see you next time o/

^^ that, and until next time o/