Chapter Text
Fundy Soot. Youngest, oldest, middle, and only son of Wilbur Dimitrius Johnson Soot.
Always last.
Fundy is born during a storm and left in the rain until his father comes to check on his mother. His mother, who, by the way, goes missing soon after. His mother, who he is told was a wonderful woman, a shapeshifter with an affinity for the river and the form of a fish.
He's brought inside a van and raised to be a good little fox. He's raised with a name he's forgotten and hair in expertly done braids. His father says that he's got practice, braiding his twin's hair for years. Fundy has never met this twin, and soon forgets about the comment altogether.
He is raised alongside his uncle and his uncle's best friend. It's strange to think them all to be around the same age, and yet have one be his father's brother. Tommy is loud and brash and says that Fundy gets dirty too much. Tubbo pushes his arm at that, says that Tommy gets dirtier, so it doesn't matter.
Fundy loves his father very, very much, but he is never a priority. He is babied and coddled, while Tommy and Tubbo are treated their age. In an act meant to get attention, Fundy folds his ears out of the way and chops off his tidy braid with Wilbur's axe.
He finds that he quite likes it this way.
He steals clothes from his uncle (who is really more like a brother, Tubbo as well) and a hat from a shelf he has to climb to reach, and no one says a word. He names himself, and the world keeps turning.
He fades into the background once more.
When war breaks out and he and Tommy and Tubbo are all only teenagers, they are promoted. Tommy becomes right-hand-man. Tubbo becomes secretary of state.
Fundy becomes 'Wilbur's little champion'.
He makes his own uniform, spends hours on it, changing the colors and keeping the design. It stands out, bright among the darker colors of the other uniforms. He is mocked and told that his crayon suit is 'so cute'.
He closes his lips over bared teeth and stifles a huff. He picks up a sword and continues his fight.
The war is won. Wilbur is president. Tommy is vice. Tubbo is secretary.
Fundy is 'little champion, yes you are'.
An election is held.
Schlatt is president. Quackity is vice. Tubbo is secretary. Fundy is archbishop.
He still plays no role, but at least he's recognized.
Fundy jokes that he hates everyone (he doesn't, but he does hate most), but he hates himself most in the moment where he watches Niki scream, in the moment where he watches Eret scale the flag in record time, in the moment where he watches them fail at putting out the fire he's started.
(The fire that Sapnap snuck in to teach him about)
He documents it all. He spends night and day detailing everything, gaining trust, and building his home nation.
Tubbo is executed in front of him, and he is helpless to stop it. He doesn't make it up the stairs in time, and he's shot down seconds later by a man with long, pink hair done in a familiarly styled braid.
He wakes up, gets shot again, wakes up, gets shot again, wakes up, and Technoblade is gone.
Fundy spends one hour nursing his pain and fresh scars before Schlatt is ordering work again.
So Fundy works from the inside, from the outside, from the in-between, and writes and writes and writes. He writes through ten pens (and counting) and two finger splints. He writes through fat tears and he writes through hidden burrows and he makes note of it all. He writes through three diaries, and sews them together at the spine with thick twine.
He writes until his hands shake with exhaustion, and then he writes some more.
And he brings it to his father and his uncle and his uncle's friend and the ex-ex-ex-vice president and he's spat at. He is told he is despised, a traitor of a son, he is not to be trusted.
He is used to it, and he takes it all without flinching. He sits in his hastily-built prison while they read through months and months and months of spying. And they doubt him.
Wilbur tosses the journals on the ground, and they split as the twine snaps. Tommy walks over it to speak with Wilbur. Technoblade stands at the overhang and watches.
Dream speaks of a traitor, and all eyes go to Fundy. Of course they do.
Up until Techno and Dream detonate the land, Fundy is suspected. Up until Wilbur is murdered, Fundy is suspected.
New L'Manburg flourishes.
Tubbo is president. Tommy is vice.
And Fundy?
… and Fundy.
He watches them mock him again. He's an orphan, so clearly his father's twin will target him. He's an orphan. He's abandoned. He's alone.
And no one will stop reminding him.
(Fundy wonders if Wilbur was actually defending him or if he was just tired of Schlatt talking)
He tries not to fade into the background, he tries to make himself known, tries with his small explosion, tries with the removal of his jacket, tries with his bridge to Quackity's.
He scrambles for recognition, he clings to anyone who will listen, he grasps at words and glances, he soaks up the attention whenever someone even mentions his name (because really, that's all the attention he gets, and it's rare).
His house is large and empty and blocked off from the rest of L'Manburg, because Quackity was more important. Because Karl was more important. Because everyone was more important, and he's just a child to be babied and coddled and blocked in. A child to be seen and not heard.
So L'Manburg grows, built by the following: Tubbo, Tommy, Quackity, Karl, Puffy, Phil, Sapnap.
(And Fundy)
(And Fundy)
("And Fundy," he whispers, because not even his own father's ghost remembers him anymore)