Chapter Text
Tommy remembers learning about it at school, the terrifying dream things, they were rumors back then though, silly little tales the kids would pass around to scare each other, these long black beings with bright white eyes there to eat your dreams and steal them away from you and you alone, some people had multiple, some only had one. That’s the day Tommy learned to never talk about his safe space in his dreams, that the kids might think he’s one of the people stalking out people’s dreams at night.
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At that point it had been maybe 2 weeks since he had heard the tiny rumors of the dream eaters and night stalkers, and about a week out from his 10th birthday, when he was transferred to a different house, it wasn’t shocking he was an outcast at that point and didn’t talk much, and when he did talk it was mostly to talk back to people and get in fights, he got put in the time-out corner so much it seemed so small now.
When he was on his way home though he noticed something strange, some writing on the wall of the new building, but only he could see it “Xut icy qrtut, Qceei?” it seemed so random then, but he knows now what it said “Are you there, Tommy?” He knows now who was reaching out and why, but he wasn’t at the tree very long anymore, just to say hi to Tubbo and read a bit before going back to his standard dreams.
he didn’t want to meet the night stalkers because he was young and thought that they were real, oh they absolutely are real just not the way he was thinking, because the night of his 10th birthday was when he met the man in the striped green hat, who wore wings on his back and a smile on his face .
“Hello mate” he said calmly when he walked up to Tommy “Are you Tommy?” he asked calmly, there wasn’t an ounce of a threat in anything the man was doing and yet Tommy was still scared of him “How do you know my name?” Tommy asked, completely shaken by the man’s knowledge of him. “I’ve been looking for you, it’s good I finally found you.” He said sitting down in front of him “I’m a dream walker, me and my two sons well they aren’t my only sons anymore, are meant to help you in some way, whatever we can, but we were born into people's dreams to look for you and now I’ve found. Man Will is going to be so
salty
about me finding you first” he said laughing at his own comment.
“Where’s Tubbo? And you aren’t going to eat my tree?” Tommy asked worriedly, so scared that the only person he trusted had been eaten by the night stalkers. “Oh no Tommy, Tubbo is with his dreamwalker, he’s ok don’t worry” the man said smiling still. “What’s your name, mister?” Tommy asked, putting down his knees he didn’t even realize he had up.
“My name is Philza, but just call Phil or Dad, I don’t really care what you call me.” Phil said calmly, suddenly having a cup of coffee out of nowhere, “You said you had two sons, where are they? And is one of them this ‘Will’ person?” the only reason he remembers this is because every year since the on his birthday, he’s told this story, silly old man with his attachments to people and the places they hold dear,
“One of them is Will yes, his full name is Wilbur,” he said smiling, “The other one is Technoblade, you’ve probably heard something about him or one of his alias like ‘The Blood God’ he likes to terrorize people in his search for you. Though you should call him Techno, he doesn’t like his full name all that much.” he said with a sigh looking into the cup of coffee, it was in a teacup he remembers, funny.
“Why are you here alone then, why aren’t they with you looking for me?” Tommy asked, Phil always says he looked so worried, like he’s already met them and they were his best friends and he wanted them to be safe.
“We spread out over the night searching since we’ve been doing this for awhile, but I’ll have to inform them once you wake up that I’ve found you, they should be here tomorrow night, Will probably wants to question you and your life story, but if you want him to stop you’ll probably need to tell him, I’ll try and help as well. Techno is probably gonna wanna do something with your hair and at some point so prepare for that” Phil said and Tommy took a deep breath in at the thought, someone touching his hair.
“Is he going to pull it out?” Tommy asks, aspirated, eyes wide, Phil says they’re his ‘Sad puppy eyes’. “Oh no, no he won't pull out your hair, unless it’s an accident of course, accidents happen all the time.” he said having more coffee suddenly. “I think it’s time to wake up, Tommy,” he said, looking at the sky like the sun ever changes place “I’ll see you tomorrow night, ok?” he said and Tommy barreled his body into Phil’s with a hug, he still doesn’t know why he did that to this day, but he’s happy he did, but for now he wakes up, excited for night to come again already.