Chapter Text
Puffy stood before Tommy and Tubbo could respond. She swept through the small room gathering things into a worn cloth bag.
"Wait, why do we need to go to the Prime church?" Tubbo asked incredulously.
Puffy took her ankle length buccaneer jacket off a hook sweeping it on.
"That was John. I ain't seen them in a long time." She paused before continuing. "We have to go now if we want to fix this."
"Hold on, fix what? What's going on?" Tommy yelled, frustrated by the uncharacteristic urgency in Puffy`s tone.
"I'll explain on the way." Puffy strode out of her practice, taking up a brisk pace in the direction of the church.
"Do ye know anything about dreamons?"
Tubbo perked up recognition on his face. "Yeah, I hunted a few, years ago." Tubbo was confused. "Is John..." He left the question hanging in the air.
Puffy nodded solemnly.
"But I thought- aren't they supposed to possess people?"
"Usually yeah, but ye see John ain't a normal dreamon."
They arrived at the church and Puffy took a breath and pushed open the heavy double doors.
Purple lights shone through the stained glass windows, illuminating the church with an eerie glow. The church was empty, pure white marble walls and columns stretching up to the ceiling. Puffy strode up the purple carpet to the front, a raised platform with a large golden bell. It was completely silent.
"John was created by XD itself. Given life, their own form. The dreamons that ye met didn't have that luxury."
"So, John can't possess people?" Tubbo asked.
"Not quite."
Tommy looked between the two, he'd completely lost the plot.
"Possession? XD! What are you two talking about!." He threw up his hands in frustration.
Puffy set down her bag and begun taking things out, laying them around her. Religious icons and artifacts of all sorts, crosses and crucifixes, incense burners and candles, small statues some carved of stone and wood while others were made of gold and silver. She brought out a charred stick and started to draw on the ground, runes and symbols that Tommy didn't recognise, marking the pristine white quartz floor.
"How do you know about all this?" Tubbo stood off to the side, crossing his arms and watching her work.
"I suppose I should explain." She paused and sighed, taking a seat on one of the pews. Tommy joined her.
"John's my kid."
"So did you...?" Tommy tilted his head.
"No, ye daft child, they were given to me. By XD." Tommy and Tubbo looked at her equally awestruck.
"That's pogchamp!"
A laugh burst from Puffy.
"Sure! Scared my crew though, XD can be a right bastard when it wants to be. Just dropped John and Drista off on my ship."
"But why you?" Tubbo asked.
"Aye was getting there! I had adopted another kid a few years back. Learned that night that he was a fallen god, did somethin that angered death herself and was cast out, stripped of everything. He was a kid when I found him, barely old enough to walk. Guess XD saw that I was takin care of one god and decided I was the perfect choice to raise another."
"That still doesn't explain what were doing here." Tommy groaned.
Puffy's gaze darkened.
"Dreamons are a possessive lot, suppose they get that from their creator. They'll attach themselves onto one person, feeding off of them, their emotions, their energy. They're like parasites, they live off their host. Taking pieces of them and taking them into themselves. Sometimes that can be curbed by having big friend groups or even just a large family. But it's rare, the only way that that can be permanently avoided is by them ascending to true godhood." Puffy cast her eyes down as she spoke.
"I've only ever seen it happen twice. John was not one of them."
Tommy fidgeted with his hands, Tubbo placed a hand on his shoulder.
"So, what happens to the host?"
"They die."
Tubbo looked straight at Puffy, his eyes wide.
"What do we need to do, how do we stop this?"
Puffy grinned. "We need to summon XD. It can reverse the process." She stood, walking back to the platform. "That's where all this comes in." She gestured to the items around her. "XD is the god of chaos, so in order to summon it we need to create chaos. Best way I've found to do that is to create a feedback loop, do something that both creates religious energy and openly defies it. Actually anything that messes with the fabric of reality can do it, but that takes time and effort that we don't have right now."
"Aw, this sounds awesome!"
"Yeah! Tommy, you're great at doing that." Tubbo smirked at Tommy.
"Hey!" Tommy spluttered as Tubbo began to laugh at him.
Puffy stopped, things clicking into place. "Right." She said cautiously, quickly composing herself.
"Tommy, take those statues and place them on the runes I've drawn." She pointed a felted hand at a small collection of statues, all measuring around an inch in height. Fish, birds, angels, a goat and a bunch of people in various poses, some human while others were hybrids of some sort, at least that's what Tommy assumed.
"It doesn't matter which one ye put them on, just go with yer instincts." Tommy nodded, trying to gather them all in one go. Almost immediately he dropped a bird statue, it shattering on the hard quartz floor. Tommy yelped in surprise.
"Perfect, we were going to have to break one anyways." Puffy pulled a bowl from her bag, it was a sturdy thing made of obsidian. It shone strangely in the purple light.
"Put it in here."
"Is there anything I can do?" Tubbo spoke, raising a hand.
"Ah! Hold on a moment." She grabbed a journal from the side and handed it to Tubbo. "Take this, flip to a page and draw whatever symbols you see."
Tubbo got to work as Puffy pulled out incense sticks, a vial of oil and a tiny bag of gold powder. She took the bowl with the broken statue and moved it to the back of the church next to the Prime bell. She uncorked the vial and poured the oil over the statue. From one of her jacket pockets Puffy grabbed a lighter, it was short, engraved with intricate filigree and a small silver rose. She flicked it on with a click and it sparked into life. She held it up to the incense, lighting it.
"Alright Tommy, come up here." She beckoned him over. He slowly made his way up the stairs and over to her and the bell. With nothing to hold anymore he wrung his hands together. Tubbo looked on with interest.
"Now, take a pinch of this," She held the bag of gold powder up to Tommy's face. "And I need ye to blow it over this." She pointed to the bowl.
Tommy nodded, steeling himself. He grabbed the bag from her hands, shoved his hand in grabbing the powder and blew. As he did so, Puffy whacked the Prime bell with a copper cross.
Instantly there was a spark, a flash of light nearly blinded the three.
When the light finally faded they were no longer in the church.
At first Tommy thought he had gone blind, all he could see was darkness stretching out into infinity. He rubbed his eyes, when he opened them again he was no longer blind, he was looking down. Below him porous yellow rocks made up the ground, enormous purple trees littered the landscape reaching up toward the void-like sky. It was an alien landscape, floating in a sea of blackness. Despite their being no visible source of light Tommy could still see perfectly fine.
"Big Man, where are we?" Tubbo was looking around trying to take in their surroundings.
"How the fuck am I suppose to know."
Puffy grumbled under her breath. "Dramatic bastard."
"Puffy do you know where we are?" Tubbo asked.
She huffed, annoyed. "The end. The god's domain."
From over the edge of the island, there appeared a figure. An enormous white head, it easily doubled Puffy's height. The pure white skin glowed. Tommy and Tubbo jumped back scrambling behind Puffy.
"Very astute observation." It grinned, the x that crossed its face opened to reveal swirling pools of ichor. "Now, what have you brought here?"
Large disembodied hands rose up from the void, they flew past Puffy. Tommy screeched as he was grabbed around the waist and into the air.
"Put me down you bastard!" Tommy squirmed in the hold, his feet dangling in the air. The hand only held him tighter.
Tubbo made a jump for the hand, but it was too late. It was far too high in the air.
Tommy was brought closer to the face of the figure. He could see every detail of the porcelain-like skin. It was nearly flat, aside from the open slits that revealed the pools of ichor. There were no other features, no nose, no ears, and no visible mouth.
"I know who you are." It's voice was low, it rattled Tommy's form. It let Tommy rest on it's palm, thousands of feet in the air.
Tubbo, unnerved, started to run toward the deity, he was stopped by Puffy grabbing the back of his jacket.
"Not yet."
Tubbo looked back at her, confused.
"What?"
Puffy shook her head.
"Can't we at least move a little closer?"
"Fine, but we ain't doin anythin."
There was a sickening snap as it`s previously smooth face split neat the bottom, ichor dripped from the crack as it curved into a perversion of a smile.
Tommy gagged at the sight.
"You are a very special creature, rare. I have not seen another like you." Another hand came up, a large finger nudged Tommy's head.
"Hey don't touch me!" Tommy tried to bat the deity away from his head.
"Hmm, you haven't died, but yet you have changed." It tilted its enormous head.
Puffy yelled from the ground. This had gone on long enough.
"We have come because another has been stalkin Tommy. They have dug tunnels behind his walls. I have reason to believe that they will try and possess him soon." Tommy squeaked ad the deity tensed, it's other hand coming down onto him.
A low rumble erupted from the deity. Tommy could feel the energy coursing through him. The previously still air began to move, wind whipping around. The smell of petrichor invaded Tommy's nostrils and static ran through the air. Tommy covered his ears an screwed his eyes shut.
From the ground Tubbo was knocked over.
The god's layered voice thundered out.
"Who."
Puffy covered her ears, thick coloured hair covering her eyes. She shouted,
"John!"
Everything stopped, so silent even breathing seemed muffled. The gods grip on Tommy loosened slightly.
"Is that so? One of my own spawn."
Tommy's stomach lurched as he was put down, he stumbled. Tubbo having picked himself up, ran to Tommy, catching him as he collapsed.
"This will be dealt with immediately." Two of its hands clapped, a light blinded the three.
They were back in the church again.
"What in the nether was that?" Tommy was hyperventilating. "What did it mean `deal with it`" He wrenched himself out of Tubbo's grasp.
Puffy looked guilty. "I didn't know it was gonna do that."
Tubbo took a step towards Tommy. "Hey are you alright?"
Tommy burst out “Of course I'm not alright! One of my friends, who it turned out was stalking me, may have gotten yeeted out of existence by a god, who, might I mention, may also be stalking me!” Tommy gripped the horns on his head, holding them as if they would ground him. He sat down on a pew curling around himself.
Tubbo sat next to him, hugging him.
"I'm sure it'll be alright, hey at least you have a god looking out for you?" Tubbo tried to lighten the mood, but even he sounded unsure. "If not that, then you have me" He paused, then a spark shone in his eye. "You know what! How about you move into Snowchester with me and Boo, permanently?"
Tommy looked up at Tubbo.
"You sure?"
"Absolutely."