"I don't understand." I roll my eyes even though nobody can see me in the discord call. "I've never even logged onto the server. Why would you want me to help you write the lore?"

"Because you're good at what you do, Maia," Dream says pointedly towards me, "George sent me your chapters, and you're great at telling stories. Even in the roleplay you do on other streams."

I roll my eyes, making a mental note to strangle my best friend of pretty much my entire life, George, the next time I see him. And seeing that we live not even two streets away from each other in London, I believe that will be in the near future.

"Don't kill George," Dream warns me.

"Don't worry, just making a second reminder to hurt my other friend as well," I say as innocently as I possibly can.

"We're both faceless streamers," Dream sounds fed up with my antics, "It's basically a pact that we can't murder each other."

I roll my eyes once again at him. This is what I get for allowing George to introduce me to his friends. George thought Dream and I would get along so well just one the sole fact that we were both faceless and friends with him. I mean, he was right but almost by pure luck.

"I never said murder."

Dream completely ignores my words as he continues, "So is that a yes or a no? Because Wilbur said he can join now to figure some stuff out."

"Just a clarification before I agree," I say before stepping into something way over my toes, "I'm just helping plot holes, right? Not writing anything from scratch?"

"I think so, yeah."

"That's not a-" I stop as a new person is added to the call.

"Hello?" a new voice says.

"Wilbur!" Dream's voice gets more excited than it was a few moments ago. "This is Maia, who is George and I's writer/streamer friend."

"Hey," I say softly. I tried to sound excited, but I wasn't necessarily here by complete choice. I don't think I ever actually agreed.

"Yeah, I've seen your streams, Maia," Wilbur says, "You're friends with Tommy and some of those people."

"Well you guys seem to have so much in common. I will check in later with you guys," Dream says quickly before either of us can object. "BYE"

"Did he just-" Wilbur says before he bursts out laughing. I've heard his laugh in clips and streams but never on a call like this. It's almost musical, but also with a hint of something else that I cannot find the words for.

"He just left us." My jaw has slightly dropped. "I can't believe he would do that to us."

"Only Dream would do that to us." Wilbur sighs afters his burst of laughter.

We're quiet for a moment. We were kind of brought here for the purpose of writing, so I guess that's the best place to start.

"Do you know the lore of the smp?" Wilbur asks right as I was about to talk.

"I know the basics." I chew the inside of my lip. "Is that enough, you think?"

"You should be good enough." He sounds like he's typing something. "There's a lot going on, and a lot of it doesn't really mess with what I need help on."

"Alright, well tell me what you got, and we can try to work it out."

Wilbur begins to explain his vision for the characters, and how he wants the plot to go for the lore. I listen intently, asking questions when needed, and try to think of solutions in a different way of thinking.

We discuss the different characters and who told him they want to be included in more lore. It sounds like there's a lot of stuff planned, but the issue is getting everyone together.

We talk for a solid hour about what we think should happen but get stuck on yet another betrayal arc.

"Who do you think has been betrayed so much in that past," I ask him, "that they would gradually be pulled in that direction? Who used a betrayer as a role model so much that they would grow up to be them?"

"I didn't know you were a writer, Maia," Wilbur says, ignoring my questions.

"Oh yeah, I wrote some stuff through college that got published, but I've been keeping it more low key recently. Bit of writer's block, I guess you could say."

"Writer's block sucks," Wilbur lets out another laugh. "I think that's what I'm going through right now."

I hum a response. "So about the betrayal-"

"Aghh." Wilbur makes a noise to interrupt me. "This is boring. We should drop this for now and come back later."

"Oh um, okay." I'm a little annoyed he would just cut me off like that. "You can just message me if you get any ideas."

"Okay sounds good." He sounds distracted by something. "I'll talk to Dream later about it."

"Sounds good," I repeat his words. "I'm just going to head out if that's alright with you."

"What?" He seems pulled back into the conversation. "You're leaving?"

"I mean, I was kind of just here to talk about lore, so if you're done then I don't want to impose."

"Oh you're not imposing. I was just going to join Tommy's vc real quick if you'd like to join."

I glance to the right to see the massive amount of laundry piled up on my bed. The same bed I'm supposed to sleep on tonight if I can hopefully get the mountain cleaned off the top.

"I think I'll sit this one out."

"You sure?"

My brows furrow for a moment. Just at the way his voice raised half an octave. It was almost like a tiny sliver of hope in his tone. Was Wilbur just being nice, or did he actually want me to join?

I shake my head, trying not to be a narcissist. This was my first one on one call with him. I can't get ahead of myself.

"Yeah, I got some things to do." I sigh as I think about facing the godzilla of all laundry piles.

"Alright then," Wilbur copies my sigh, "goodnight, Maia."

"Night."