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English
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Part 3 of baby server: the series
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Why...(°ロ°) ! (pages and pages of google docs links)░(°◡°)░
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Published:
2023-02-02
Completed:
2023-07-02
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8,958
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5/5
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baby server: the fic: the sequel: the conversation

Summary:

Dream takes a breath.

"Look," he says, meeting Technoblade's eyes, "I know you trust Philza and--and I'm sure he wouldn't want to hurt you, but Gods…they can't help it."

Technoblade frowns. "What do you mean?"

 

(Or: baby is afraid. conversations (are coming soon))

Notes:

Quick Disclaimer: this is about the characters, and not the CCs

(See the end of the work for more notes.)

Chapter 1: the conversation chapter (is coming soon)

Chapter Text

 

 

The air in the cave feels heavy on his tongue, wet stone and the faint scent of gunpowder filling his lungs as he takes deep and guided breaths.

 

It takes far too long for Dream to calm down.

 

If Technoblade weren't there to practically drag him along kicking and screaming, pushing him down to the ground and shoving his head between his knees, Dream is pretty sure he would have passed out.

 

As it is, he's only just saved from that fate by Techno's insistence to sit down and breathe.

 

"The world isn't going to end in a couple minutes," he promises.

 

Dream relents, taking a moment or twenty to keep his heart from beating through his ribs.

 

It's only when the episode ends, when the bright-hot fear sinks out of his bones and drips along the floor, that Dream takes a second to remember why he was terrified in the first place.

 

Dream chokes, scrambling up, and Techno makes a panicked--if inquisitive--sound.

 

"You're an admin," he whispers, shoving himself on his feet. Technoblade reaches out to steady him when he sways, just a bit.

 

"You're an admin," Dream says again, staring at the space just above Technoblade's head. A few stray pink strands fly about, even with the wind nearly still inside the cave.

 

Techno crosses his arms, but his frown makes him look more confused than upset.

 

"You didn't know," he says, not really asking.

 

"I didn't," Dream answers anyway.

 

Technoblade frowns. "I…I thought you knew."

 

Dream huffs, crossing his arms this time.

 

"Yeah, well," he says, hugging himself nervously, "Apparently I didn't know a lot of things."

 

Technoblade meets his gaze, something that makes the both of them squirm pretty quickly, and Dream lets his head sink so he's staring at Techno's boots. They're leather, with tufts of fuzzy white fur popping out the top.

 

After a moment, Technoblade reaches into the pile of stuff neither wanted to hold and pulls out a small loaf of bread. His friend takes a bite, eyes Dream, and hands him the loaf before taking a few steps back to give him space.

 

Dream takes a bite, staring at the stone floor of the cave, and turns to look at his friend with wide eyes. Technoblade watches him knowingly, a twitch to his lips. The bread isn't normal, flour bread; it's sweet and tastes faintly of oranges.

 

Dream hands the loaf back to Techno, and they spend a while sharing bread and breaths in each other's company.

 

After the bread is halfway gone and they're both tired of it, Techno wraps it and tosses it on top of the pile. Dream would usually protest the end of such a treat, but he's not sure he has any room left in his stomach for even a bite more.

 

Techno shuffles a few steps back to give Dream space and asks, tentatively, "Is that why you were mad? Because you didn't know they were gods?"

 

"I wasn't mad."

 

It would be hard for him to be mad at anyone right now, with his bones still dancing under his skin. His fingers twitch and the tremor in his hands--across his body--feels like if a shiver held a grudge.

 

"Fine. So you were--" Technoblade makes a face. "--scared of Phil."

 

"I wasn't scared," Dream protests with a scowl, like their codes aren't still tangled from the space-hop-thing.

 

Technoblade shoots him a look.

 

Dream wilts. "Fine. I was a little scared. But he's a God. Of course I was kinda scared."

 

Technoblade considers him blankly. "Right."

 

Dream grimaces. "Gods are dangerous," he says, standing straight as his core finally settles in the space of his ribs, "You're an admin, Techno. You know what they do to Admins."

 

Technobalde's face scrunches up and Dream bites back a snicker at the expression.

 

"What--what do they do to admins?"

 

Dream stills, his amusement dropping like a stone. He looks at Technoblade and--even though he's known Techno forever--he's surprised to find his friend isn't joking. He wishes, desperately, that he were.

 

"They… you know," Dream says nervously, wringing his hands like a dish towel. He doesn't want to have to say it.

 

"No," Techno refutes, "I don't know, Dream. What do Gods do to Admins?"

 

Dream screws his eyes shut and takes a deep breath, biting back the newly refreshed distress that threatens to spill out of his codes.

 

"You--you really don't know?"

 

Technoblade says, "I really don't."

 

Dream tries not to let the weight of it sit on him--just how easy it would have been for a God to hurt Technoblade if he didn't even know--and he scoots a few inches closer to his friend.

 

"Gods don't really like Admins," Dream explains, "and they feed on energy, right?"

 

After a moment's pause, Technoblade nods so Dream continues, "And Admins are--we're made of energy."

 

They are, both he and Techno. There's a fluttering to the code, a flicker under their skin that burns and bumbles alight.

 

"They kill us for our energy?" Technoblade asks and Dream pauses.

 

"They feed ," Dream corrects, gesturing to the half-gone loaf of bread between them, "Y'know."

 

Technoblade blinks. He stares at Dream for a minute, making a face torn between incredulous and disgusted.

 

"Gods…Gods eat Admins?" Techno asks, his lips twitching strangely like he's halfway to a scowl. Dream isn't sure what he's said wrong, so he just barrels on, averting his gaze back to the floor.

 

"Only if they catch you," Dream says, "but they won't, okay? I'm too fast, and you're too strong. They won't get us."

 

Technoblade snorts and Dream freezes, hazarding a glance back to his friend. He knows that pigs and Piglins snort for fear, aggression, and dominance. Techno just seems weirdly amused.

 

"Phil won't eat us," Technoblade says after a moment, "Neither will Foolish or Bad."

 

Dream, getting ready to refute, short-circuits.

 

"Bad?" He trails off nervously, "why would Bad…"

 

Techno cuts him off, "He's a demon, and--I don't know. I didn't want you to worry."

 

It sounds oddly stilted, like Technoblade's trying to pretend to be Wilbur again.

 

Dream takes a breath.

 

"Look," he says, meeting Technoblade's eyes, "I know you trust Philza and--and I'm sure he wouldn't want to hurt you, but Gods…they can't help it."

 

Technoblade frowns. "What do you mean?"

 

"We all gotta eat," Dream says, an arm wrapping in front of his chest. "There's only so much energy in the Universe, right? And Gods can't survive without it."

 

"Even Phil?" Technoblade asks, an eyebrow raised, "Even Foolish? "

 

Dream swallows.

 

"I'm sure--I'm sure they don't mean it," Dream says, "but...well, what else can they do?"

 

Technoblade frowns deeper, clearly not having an answer himself.

 

Then, after a moment, he asks, "Have you ever seen a God eat an admin?"

 

Dream shudders, squeezing his eyes shut to drown out the memories of screams.

 

Finally, once he's caught his breath again, he admits, "Once."

 

"Are you sure?" Techno asks, looking hesitant.

 

"Yeah," Dream says shortly, his fists curling tightly. He focuses his gaze on the buttons on Techno's shirt, counting the holes in each of them. When he looks down at his own hands, red drips along his fingers for a split second before clearing away when he blinks.

 

"I--I don't know why that God ate an admin," Techno says, like Dream hasn't been telling him why this whole time, "but I don't think Philza's going to eat me."

 

Dream opens his mouth to protest, but Technoblade cuts him off. "If he was going to eat me, why wouldn't he have done it when I was asleep or something? He wouldn't have waited until I got strong."

 

Dream frowns, but he can't actually find anything wrong with what Techno's said.

 

"And," Technoblade points out, "Foolish would have just killed you when he met you, before you realized he was a God, right?"

 

Dream hums unhappily, tapping his fingers together. Still, he nods.

 

"So, maybe only some Gods eat admins? Or maybe Foolish and Philza and I are special."

 

Dream pauses, his hands freezing mid-tap. He turns to meet Technoblade's eyes through their masks, his code still half-entangled with Techno's. He follows his own strings until they merge into Techno's, brushing at the source code as subtly as he can.

 

Technoblade, who jerks immediately, seems to notice.

 

Dream tries to keep his heart steady, but he can hear it in his ears as he asks, scrambling back a bit when his friend reaches for him, "You're a God?"

 

Technoblade, a bit frantic himself, points out, "I'm the Blood God, Dream."

 

"Yeah," Dream hisses, pointing accusatorily, "in tag."

 

"Don't freak out," Technoblade says, his eyes wide and hands raised in surrender.

 

"I'm not freaking out!" Dream hisses, even though he's definitely freaking out. The codes still coiled between them tighten and Dream's hands shake even faster than before.

 

He takes a deep breath, counting the seconds like Puffy taught him to. Technoblade takes one too, and the codes loosen enough for them both to breathe.

 

"I'm not freaking out," he says again, still freaking out a little bit.

 

"Okay," Technoblade agrees dubiously.

 

Dream looks up at the ceiling and then down at his toes.

 

"You're not gonna eat me," Dream says nervously, pretending like it's not a question.

 

The air around them shifts, nerves giving way to something hot.

 

"I'll kill anyone who tries," Techno says, his angry-hungy God eyes glaring at every part of the world that isn't Dream, "God or not."

 

Dream swallows. "Promise?" he croaks.

 

Techno nods solemnly. "Pinkie swear."