Chapter 26: Making Peace.

"Ugggggggggggggggggggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh...!" Dan groans as he slowly crawls a short distance away before collapsing onto his side and curling up into a quivering, miserable little ball, he was positioned just right so that Stampy was staring directly at his ass, balls, and thighs, which were a mess thanks to Lukas.

Does Stacy see this? Stampy wonders.

He glances to see that Stacy is also gazing at Dan.

"Have you started to feel better yet, Stacy?" Stampy asks, raising his hand to cut off her view.

Stacy looks at him sharply.

"Yeah." she nods, lowering Stampy's hand and resuming watch "what are your thoughts on... seeing him like this? the mighty Diamond Minecart, #1 Minecraft YouTuber of the World, and your long-time rival, reduced to... you know." she breathes "I pity him."

Stampy looks back at the horrible wreck that is his arch nemesis.

"I... I'm not sure, actually..." he admits, "it's kind of, underwhelming in a way... I mean, he was on this huge pedestal, almost since he started... everyone just loved Dan TDM, always, and he's... he's what so many people have strived to be, on a level that all of us were always trying to meet, me included... he was regarded by everyone to be the very best there was, completely unstoppable, and utterly unmatched... but... he just... rolled over and died... like, I get it, we're in the same situation as him, and I know there wasn't really anything he could do... but after he showed so much resistance earlier I just... guess I didn't expect him to submit so totally, and disregard all of his self respect, and... I don't know, it was, strange... that egomaniac didn't even have the decency to swallow a drop of his pride to thank me earlier, and seeing him go from that to begging Lukas to climax in his ass was... really something, in a way it's... like, kind of humanizing, but in another way it's pretty pathetic and actually reinforces my idea of him only being so big and great because he got lucky, and that if he was in my shoes, and had to work a lot harder for his fanbase, then he never would have reached the level I did, but... again, I... I know he actually has it a lot worse than us as far as this goes, so I can't realistically look down at him too much for it, it was just... farther down than I thought I'd see him go, at least this quickly..."

"Hold onto that humanization, Stampy." Stacy instructs "I think... I think it's time you made peace with him, we've already set everything up so that he's dying tonight, so I know it's tempting to just remove all emotion from him because of that, after all, why would we want to feel for him now, when it'll hurt us? especially after he was such a douchebag to us earlier. But truthfully speaking, I think we need to, not even for him, but for us... because if we see him fall this far, and then die, and be gone forever, without you and him ever making peace, and you don't feel anything, or worse, feel good about it... then I'm terrified at the prospect of what we might become further down that road... like people always say, 'once you definitively step down the path of the dark side, there's no going back, it will consume you forever' and similar statements... I know it sounds foolish to put us into an emotional state where we'll be hurt, but if we don't feel that pain, we could become monsters..." she looks deep into Stampy's eyes, more serious than she's ever been "this isn't just about survival for me anymore, what happens after we survive has become just as, if not more, important. Do you understand what I'm saying?"

"I... I think so..." Stampy nods, "I, guess we could try... I mean, if he's a dick and just spits in our faces about it, then we just... don't have to care, right? I mean, we'll give it a good solid try, and probably persist at it a couple more times after he spits at us, but if... if there's just no getting through to him and we did all we could, then we can just... let it go and be happy, can't we?"

"Hmmm..." Stacy thinks about it "...yeah, I think we can feel good about ourselves as long as we legitimately try, whether or not Dan accepts us is up to him, and has little bearing on our conscience."

"Okay..." Stampy accepts, "but what about the restraining order?"

"..." Stacy stares at him.

Silence.

"...fuck, we tried." Stacy shrugs.

"If you feel alright about it, then it's fine by me." Stampy agrees, "no need to upset Jesse by asking her to call it off for no apparent reason."

"I mean, yeah, exactly." Stacy hops on the excuse train "all calling the restraining order off now would do is, like, cause trouble, and we don't want that, better to not rock the boat, being good and forgiving is great and everything, but we do still need to make sure we escape with our lives, and this is just..." she shakes her head "too much of a risk."

"Well, yeah, like... we need to keep our priorities straight." Stampy nods, "and unfortunately it's just... not possible right now."

"Uh-huh." Stacy frowns "sorry, Dan... at least we're at peace with you in our hearts, I hope your spirit will realize after... the end."

"Yep." Stampy concurs.

They have both now officially dropped lower on the morality scale than they were before, they're not dark yet, but they're starting to slide more into neutral than light.

To paraphrase what just happened:

"We need to be better than this!"

"But that's kind of inconvenient right now."

"...well, at least we gave the prospect some consideration, it's the thought that counts."

"Yep."

"All good?"

"All good."

"We good?"

"We really good."

"We good people."

They have successfully made peace with exactly two people: themselves.