Chapter Text
Potion combining was a peculiar task. The reactions of multiple foreign ingredients mixed together were both unpredictable and exhilarating. One needed to memorize which ingredients wouldn’t explode upon contact, the proper temperatures to simmer the potions at, and the proper way to store them.
Tubbo loved it.
The gunpowder hissed as it dissolved into the boiling water. He waited, then poured the liquid into a fragile bottle meant for throwing. Of his own design of course. The glass was brittle. It was important if he wanted the bottles not to break in his bag, but to smash when tossed against the floor.
The bubbling of the stands filled the large room. It felt like music to his ears. Particularly calming on days like these. Humming along with the boiling of potions.
He laid it out to cool and turned to another stand. Stewing together were the glimmering mellon and the fermented spider's eye. The spider eyes in particular were a pain to collect, luckily Tommy always seemed to have a strange abundance of them.
He mixed the concoction, smiling softly as it turned a burgundy color. Then he strained out the ingredients, leaving only the juice.
Harming potion prepared, he continued onto the poison.
It needed to be an immediate acting substance, and extremely potent. Two bottles were already stewing on the pot. One was an ugly orange mixture, spider eyes bobbing on the surface. The second only had one, from an abnormally large arachnid he had found deep in his main cave system. He only was able to salvage six of its eyes, but he had personally experienced a bit of its poison, and was confident it would be potent as all hell.
The rancid smell wafted from the mixtures. Unsure if he’d pass out, he leaned as far back as he could and picked the first bottle by the neck with a pair of tongs.
He strained it out, then slowly poured one solution into the other.
Each potion was a painstaking process. At least an hour spent on each. Luckily, he never really left his home. The jungle base settled high in the trees.
Sighing, he corked the bottle, labeled it, and set it on the shelves. Among the many other ones.
His hands were sweaty, and he was extremely hot. He peeled off his work apron, discarding it by the door, then ran off to clean himself up.
Wilbur and Tommy were coming today.
Wilbur and Tommy arrived via glitch-portal an hour later. Tommy had rushed forward, scooping Tubbo into a hug, and pulling Tubbo up on his tiptoes to reciprocate it.
“Big T!”
“Tommy!” he pulled back, grinning. “I finished a couple new potions today. They’re still in testing, but they should work! Come on, you have to see!”
Tubbo led them over to his alchemy tower. Proudly pulling the green shifting to red potion off the shelves. Showing it off happily.
He tried not to let what it was sure to be used for distract him. His mood was too good for that.
“The aim of the mixture is to combine an extremely potent poison with a delayed harming reaction. The poison effect should be immediate. Delaying the harming was the really hard part, and it’d only really work on the ones with thick diamond or netherite armor, after eating through the material. ”
“That’s not too much of an issue. Dream and his goons will be nothing less than decked out with netherite. But what happens if they aren’t?”
“Well, then It’ll be the opposite, harming, then a dose of poison.”
“That doesn't seem too bad.”
“But the reaction will be immediate, but not deadly. They’ll be on half a heart. It’ll give them a chance to drink milk or gapple up-”
“Tubbo, I don't think anyone will be carrying milk on them into battle.” Tommy grinned,
“But they’ll have gapples,” Wilbur shot Tommy a look, and he immediately quieted and turned to mess with one of the stands.
“Yea,” Tubbo awkwardly looked up to his leader.
He’d never been a real part of L’manburg. Instead a resource guy, a weapon forger, the enchanter. Not even officially a citizen. But Wilbur promised him a place within the walls when the war finished, and he was happy to take it when the time came.
“Tubbo.” Wilbur said, a fierce look in his eyes as he set a hand on his shoulder. “We really wouldn’t have made it too far without you. That little brewing stand, within the walls? It’s nothing compared to this.”
Wilbur looked around him, and Tubbo followed. Proud of his own work.
The walls were lined with shelves along shelves of brewing stands and potions. Only one wall was left alone, a large window opening to the expanse of trees and the rest of his jungle base.
“But Tubbo.” there it was. “We need you to keep doing this. But we also need more. I'm asking you to transport the potions straight to L’manburg. A new fight is coming. I know it. Dream’s silent. That’s never good.”
“Wilbur, I can transport all the potions I have stored for you, but it could take days, maybe even a week--traveling the overworld? It’ll be near impossible to get it there in the time frame you're implying.”
“Then do it by nether.”
“N-nether? Dream owns the nether, and I’d have to pass through the hub to get anywhere close to a portal in L’manburg. What if-”
“Tubbo,” Wilbur grabbed him by the shoulders and stared into the boy's eyes. “Tubbo, Tubbo, Tubbo, we have to do this. Alright. Get those to us, and we could win the war.”
His voice was soft. But Tubbo knew somewhere in him that it wasn’t meant for him, the tone and words wielded like a sword.
Tubbo swallowed harshly, but nodded. “I’ll leave tonight, I should be there by late afternoon tomorrow.”
Wilbur nodded and gestured for Tommy to follow him out the door.
Tubbo suddenly perked up, “Wait!”
He darted over to his shelves, pawning through the thick bottles of potions, and pulled one from the back of the shelf.
Tommy gave Tubbo a look as his friend scrambled over to him, presenting it like a gift. Still, he took it delicately. Holding it up to peer through the glass.
“Warpotion.”
“Explain,” Wilbur said simply. Eyeing the potion as if it were radioactive.
Orange shifted to pink then blue and back again. Radiating like a sunset. The soft glow lit up Tommy’s face. Tommy shook the bottle a bit.
Tubbo nervously tugged on his hair. “It’s uh-it's another mixture. Speed, strength, and regen. I thought-I thought it might be helpful. In case something, well-”
“We get it Tubbo, don't fall over.” Tommy grinned. “this is wild.”
“Ah! Tubbo, my main man.” Wilbur slung a hand over Tubbo’s shoulder “Look at all this. Really--and I mean this Tubbo--this war, with you? Cake walk.”
Tubbo smiled, and Wilbur patted the boys back. And no, he did not stumble from the force of it, he isn't some type of baby bird. (Tommy shot him a mocking grin, and Tubbo resorted with the dirtiest glare he could manage. Which looked akin to a pouting kitten.)
Tommy stifled a laugh as Wilbur turned back to them, and strolled right out the door. “Well, Tubbo, it’s really been a blast. We should expect those by sundown tomorrow, yes?”
“Of course, sir.”
“Well, Tommy, business is done, lets go.”
Tubbo watched from the doorway as they walked out, standing on the high deck of his jungle base. Tommy waved, and Wilbur took out a small redstone device.
Suddenly, their forms glitched and shifted, then disappeared.