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Tubbo was six when he was abandoned on the side of the road in a cardboard box. He was old enough to know that it wasn’t normal for adults to leave their kids on the side of the street in a busy server. He was naive enough, however, to think that his dad would come back.
Spoiler alert, he didn’t.
He should have known that something like this was bound to happen. Most of the kids he played with on the streets of Hypixel had loving parents (emphasis on parents and he only had a parent ) who could afford to clothe, feed, and care for their children. His dad didn’t. His dad tried, Tubbo could remember that much. He bought him the occasional toy, played with him in his free time, tucked him into bed and told him awesome stories. But he couldn’t battle his addictions, his need to get drunk off his ass and smoke till he dropped. Little Tubbo thought this was normal.
Spoiler alert, it wasn’t.
It wasn’t normal for your dad to be barely an adult when caring for a child. It wasn’t normal for the mother to drop the kid off with a guy who had no support and no way to raise the kid in a healthy household. It wasn’t normal for him to survive off the profit of selling drugs to others. It wasn’t normal for him to be an addict and raise a child at the same time. It wasn’t normal to spend money on drugs and alcohol when you had a child to care for. It wasn’t normal to abandon said child in the hub of a busy server and hope for the best.
Spoiler alert, Tubbo was lucky enough to get what he thought was the best possible outcome of being abandoned.
He was very grateful for Phil, the guy that even after ten years he was reluctant to call ‘Dad’ because he wasn’t his biological son. Not like his three other kids were his biological kids anyway. The poor winged hybrid had to deal with a piglin hybrid, his ‘twin’ human brother, and loud human boy roughly the same age as Tubbo, along with Tubbo himself. He wasn’t sure how Phil managed to do it, but in the end things worked out and Tubbo knew that Phil would be there for when he needed him.
Unlike others, Phil was kind and sweet and would do anything (and Tubbo means anything ) for his boys. When Tubbo’s hybrid features (small horns, floppy ears, and one yellow-brown eye with a goat iris) started to appear he helped him through the pains being a late bloomer (one of the rarer ones who weren’t born straight away with hybrid features and instead manifested them between the age of six and ten). Tubbo preferred to keep his features hidden, so longish fluffy brown hair helped to hide the horns and ears. The eye was easily covered with a contact that just gave him weird heterochromatic eyes, one brown and one blue. Phil didn’t question him, he just ruffled his hair and told him that if he ever wanted to come clean about his features he’d be there to support him. For that Tubbo was grateful.
Tubbo was pretty sure Phil thought he covered up his features because of some abuse or something. Hybrids weren’t always welcomed and in some families were down-right shunned and abused. Tubbo guessed that some of the memories from his childhood (dare he call it suppressed childhood trauma?) were the reason he covered up his hybrid features. He remembered how his dad would get called out of the streets about his features. He remembered the way his dad came home covered in blood and bruises and would grab a bottle of whiskey or beer and drown his troubles in the ecstasy of alcohol. Those were the kind of nights that his father forgot to feed him and he would cry himself to sleep.
But that was all in the past. Tubbo lived a fairly normal life with his adoptive brothers and adoptive father. They all went their separate ways rather quickly but Tubbo couldn’t exactly blame them for wanting to create a name for themselves.
Techno left to become the famous ‘Blood God’ of Hypixel and various other servers. Wilbur, Techno’s human twin, was the adventurous type, like a traveling bard, but would always return home. His craving for attention sometimes was stronger than the craving for adventure.
Tommy was the only one that stayed by his side. The two were practically inseparable after Tommy had found him that awful day on which he was abandoned. They were best friends, partners in crime, chaotic children, and so much more. Tubbo couldn’t have wished for a better best friend.
Tubbo couldn’t exactly remember how they were invited to the Dream SMP. Apparently Dream had been scouting them for a little while. Tommy was a regular Skywars player in Hypixel and Tubbo created smaller worlds for Tommy and himself to try out the hacks and code he had created so they could mess around. So when Dream, Techno’s famous rival, asked them if they wanted in, they agreed.
Wilbur followed quickly behind them after Tommy asked to extend the invite to him. Together they created L’Manburg, their drug dealing empire that was supposed to help them gain power and recognition in the server. It quickly turned into a country and a grab for freedom from Dream and his rules. With it followed new friends, wars, a battle for music discs, betrayals and losses, but they were determined to win the freedom they desperately sought after.
One day, at Tommy’s persistence, Tubbo aided one of the server mods in inviting a new (temporary) member to the SMP, so they could all have a break from the war. The new member was apparently one of Tommy’s role models, which honestly didn’t sound great considering all Tommy did was scam people and start chaos. But nonetheless, Tubbo knew he would do anything for his friend and when he saw the smile on Tommy’s face when the new member appeared in spawn, he knew it was worth it.
Spoiler alert, Tubbo often questions if it was worth it.
Tubbo had no idea what his father looked like. It was all a distant memory in the back of his mind. He had the memories for sure, but the face was blurred and fuzzy because younger Tubbo didn’t want to remember the man that had abandoned him.
But when he was staring at J. Schlatt for the first time he knew, he just knew , that the hungover man standing in front of him was his father.
It was often said that hybrids could always recognize their family, birth family that is. Even growing up with other hybrids Tubbo never was quite sure that this was true. Phil and Techno never said anything about their birth family and Tubbo never brought up his (and his hybrid status was still a secret) so of course he had no idea.
But something about Schlatt’s soft face, dark hair, similar eyes, let alone the same hybrid features, made Tubbo’s instincts scream . This was his father. This was the man that had abandoned him ten years ago. This man was his family.
Tubbo followed Tommy around at a distance the rest of the day. He was quiet and numb. He wasn’t going to tell anyone about the instincts screaming at him. He was going to ignore it. Schlatt wasn’t his father (and even if he was, did he even know Tubbo was his son?)
It didn’t matter anyway, because in the matter of a few hours, Schlatt was banned from the server and Tubbo would never have see or worry about him again.
But the guy just had to crash a certain election months later.
He wondered if Schlatt’s instincts made him curious about him as well, because he must have known Tommy was his best friend and Wilbur his older brother, so he must have known he would never voluntarily been on Schlatt’s side. He would never truly be on Schlatt’s side and even risked his own life by being a spy. But Schlatt kept him around and dubbed him his ‘right hand man’ and they were almost always seen side by side in public, Quackity always close by as well.
Schlatt was almost always drunk, high, or hungover. Tubbo didn’t know how the guy could stand or let alone run an entire country (even if he was only doing a mediocre job at best). He never hurt anyone though, not physically. He would often scream at Quackity and one time Tubbo walked into his office and had a bottle thrown at his head but that was the most harm he did. Tubbo was sure he saw him slap Quackity once but the action was enough to make him fall over. He never did anything like that again afterwards, especially since Quackity kicked him right after he was hit.
Tubbo hated that during the time he spent with Schlatt during his presidency that his hybrid features were finally really starting to reach the maturity they should be for a sixteen year old. His head hurt constantly with the new growth his horns were going through. He was having a harder time hiding his ears and his newfound tail, let alone the horns poking through his hair. He almost wanted to approach Schlatt about it, but he was afraid to give himself away.
Imagine that, asking for advice on going through growing pains only to have awkwardly reveal the fact that yeah, remember that kid you abandoned ten years ago? Well here he is now, fighting in wars and serving as your right hand man! Do you regret throwing that bottle now old man? Do you regret executing your own god damn son?
So he kept it to himself.
Spoiler alert, he regretted it.
He remembered the way Schlatt died before his eyes. Remember how they locked eyes and how Schlatt seemed to have one brief moment of recognition, shock, and regret. He remembered how he died moments later and how they celebrated, cheering and cursing Schlatt’s name.
The rest is a blur, his new presidency, the explosions, Theseus and withers, and then the calm after the storm.
There, surprisingly, was a funeral. Bad hosted it and it turned into one big joke. Quackity and Tommy shouted and they threw around mobs bones and called them Schlatt’s remains. Tubbo somewhat remembers, through the haze of his jumbled mind, that he had taken the bones from Quackity’s hands and thrown them into the river. He hoped it would bring some sort of closure with it, closure so he didn’t have to think and think and think about the death of his supposed father.
Spoiler alert, it didn’t.
Things only went downhill from there. A week or so before Tommy’s great stunt (the griefing of George’s new house) Tubbo had woken up with a horrible headache. He didn’t even care to look at how high the sun was in the sky before he rolled out of bed, ruffling his hair and rubbing his eyes. He didn’t get dressed, didn’t pull socks onto his cold feet, didn’t think about his hybrid features, before he went downstairs to get some coffee and a potion for his head. He was up at nearly the crack of dawn most of the time anyway, so he didn’t expect Quackity, Fundy, Tommy, and that new guy Ranboo, to walk into the kitchen as he was pouring some coffee into a mug.
Tubbo just blinked and sipped his coffee, too tired to really think about how they were all staring at him.
“What?” he remembers asking as he rubbed his eye. That’s when they started shouting.
“TUBBO YOU HAVE FUCKING SCHLATT HORNS,” Quackity had shouted, louder than the rest. Tommy was screaming and Fundy looked horrified while Ranboo just flicked his red and green eyes between all of them. Poor guy really was dragged into a server he knew very little about just because he had met Niki and Phil before in passing. (Tubbo also heard somewhere that he was compared to Technoblade, and he had absolutely no idea why.)
Tubbo’s heart sank and his free hand flew up into his hair. He looked at his faint reflection in the window looking at the horns, that even with his long hair, weren’t covered anymore. That explained the headache.
“Shit,” he murmured under his breath before he downed his coffee in a few gulps.
“Tubbo, when did this happen?” Fundy asked. The fox hybrid appeared worried and hesitantly stepped forward. Tubbo groaned and ran his hands over his face.
“I dunno,” he said. “They started growing when I was ten or something. I just aways hid them.”
“YOU WHAT?! YOU NEVER TOLD ME!” Tommy shouted. “Tubbo, does anyone know?”
“Just Phil,” Tubbo responded dryly. He itched at his scalp, his head still bothering him. He forgot to slip a potion into his coffee.
“So Schlatt didn’t like, do anything to you?” Quackity asked, still looking at him worriedly. Tubbo shook his head.
“Schlatt didn’t have anything to do with this,” Tubbo lied. Schlatt had everything to do this with. Schlatt was his father for goodness sake.
Nobody brought it up again, but it sure was a shock to all the SMP members to see Tubbo walking around with his horns, floppy ears, one goat eye, and tail all on display.
Spoiler alert, Tubbo hated how they all stared, how they saw Schlatt when they saw him walk by instead of Tubbo.
Something inside of him broke when Quackity and Fundy called him Schlatt when he exiled Tommy. It’s not like he wanted to, but it was either exile or L’Manburg’s doom. None of them understood that L’Manburg’s doom meant that not only would the land be in shambles, but so would its citizens. Tubbo wouldn't wish Dream’s wrath upon anyone.
So when he found himself standing in front of Sclatt’s stupid grave he wondered what brought him here. He kicked his grave before he collapsed, tears forming in his eyes as he sat on the grass.
“Hi Schlatt,” he said, hands pulling at his hair as tears slipped down his cheeks. “I hate you, so I don’t know why I’m here.”
“Yeah, neither do I.”
Tubbo jumped at the sound of Schlatt’s voice and his eyes widened when he saw the former president’s ghostly form hovering above the ground beside his gravestone. He was wearing a blue jumper and a pair of black jeans. He looked tired and sad, a lot like Ghostbur whenever he remembered something he’d rather forget.
“I don’t know why I’m surprised,” Tubbo said, wiping the tears away as he laughed bitterly. “If Wilbur came back as a ghost why wouldn't you?” He paused, picking at the grass, not wanting to look back up at Schlatt. “Are your memories all fucked up like Ghostbur’s?”
“Nah,” Schlatt said, running a semi-transparent finger across the top of his gravestone. “Ghostbur remembers more than he lets on, he just would rather be oblivious and aloof. Not healthy if you ask me.”
“Not like you were ever healthy either,” Tubbo responded. Schlatt’s expression soured. Schlatt wouldn’t look at him either.
“Yeah,” he said, his words quiet, the quietest he had ever heard him speak. “Guess I wasn’t.”
“I wish you were sober,” Tubbo said softly. “I wish you would have been sober because then maybe things wouldn’t have gotten so fucked up.”
“Me too kid, me too,” he said, itching at the base of one of his horns. “But I’ve been an alcoholic since I was sixteen.”
“That young?” Tubbo asked. Schlatt smiled sadly, pulling at his jumper.
“Yeah, knocked my girlfriend up and suddenly I was a dad,” he admitted. “I don’t think I was sober a day after my kid was born.”
“My dad was like that,” Tubbo said. “That’s until he abandoned me that is.”
Schlatt looked at the kid cautiously. He reached a hand out but hesitated before pulling back. He couldn’t meet Tubbo’s eyes, could barely look at him, as he took a step back. He looked at his gravestone and sighed.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “I was a pretty shitty dad. You may look like me but you were always more like your mom. Soft but with a wild side.”
“You know?” Tubbo asked, surprised. He looked up to meet Schlatt’s tired regretful eyes who were looking right at him.
“Yeah,” he said. “I think a part of me always knew, but I didn’t notice ‘til I was on the brink of death.”
“I knew the moment you stepped into the server,” Tubbo admitted. “Instincts and shit, y’know?”
Schlatt shook his head and scoffed, but he was smiling. “I know what you mean.”
“Everyone hates me now,” Tubbo said. “They think I’m going to be just like you, drunk and mean.” Schlatt gave him a sad smile and went to ruffle his hair, even though his ghostly hand just traveled through it.
“Promise me something kid,” he said, crouching besides Tubbo. Tubbo perked up and looked his father in his eyes. “Don’t be like your old man. Be better,” Schlatt said. “It’s not too late for you.”
“Thanks Schlatt,” Tubbo said with a sad smile. Schlatt returned the expression.
“No problem kid,” he said, before fading into the background. Tubbo wasn’t sure if he just went invisible, or if he passed on to another realm.
Fundy found him walking away from Schlatt’s gravestone. He stopped on the path and glanced at the direction he came from curiously before following Tubbo.
“What were you doing Tubbo?” he asked, jogging up behind him so he could walk by his side.
Tubbo stuffed his hands in his pockets and focused on the path ahead of him.
“I was promising my old man that I’d never be like him,” Tubbo responded. Fundy’s steps paused and Tubbo didn’t stop to turn back and look at him. He had work to do. Dream needed to be stopped, Tommy needed to be saved, L’Manburg needed to be free.
Spoiler alert, he’d do anything in his power to accomplish what he needed to do, but he would never become the next Schlatt.