Chapter Text
The forest was much different compared to L’manberg. Everything was undisturbed, untouched. The nights were without noise besides the occasional clicking that came from cicadas or crickets. He built his house from dark oak. No one told him his house was ugly this time or changed it without asking him. Tommy decided he loved that house, as much as he loved his first-ever home.
It’d been a week since he watched the city he’d fought for so hard to be reduced to nothing in around an hour or two. If Alivebur were still around, he’d say some quote or reference about it.
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Rome wasn’t built in a day, but it burned in one.
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He watched his father and brother do it. They teamed up with the man who had practically tortured him. Tommy wasn’t surprised. He hadn’t even been at their house long enough to tell them what Dream had done.
Tommy had tried to rationalize it, watching his family bring his life’s work to bedrock. He knew why his brother had done it, but it didn’t even matter. It didn’t make it right. Tommy knew L’manberg wasn’t perfect, he thought the butcher army was a mistake. It was a hard one to forgive, but it wasn’t Tubbo’s fault. He was a kid, not a president, after all. A kid’s misstep didn’t give Techno the right to do what he did, but at least he understood the man’s reasoning, to a certain extent.
Philza was different. Tommy struggled to make sense of his father’s choices. Philza held no personal grudge against L’manberg, besides the attack on his son. As Tommy said before, that didn’t mean they had to tear the place to the ground. All Tommy could think about, is how he had always favored Techno, always going along with his favorite.
It wasn’t something Tommy liked to think about, so he tried to forget it. It took growing up to figure that out. Techno hadn’t changed much, Tommy realized at some point. Techno had never talked much and had been a brilliant fighter since birth, or at least as long as Tommy had known him. Tommy and Wilbur had personalities. The two had flaws that weren’t ‘I’m too aggressive sometimes,’ or ‘I hear voices in my head’. They were simple people. Sometimes, Tommy acted out against Philza. Sometimes, Wilbur isolated himself from the rest of the world. And what Philza didn’t know, scared him, strangely enough.
As Tommy grew older and older, it was more and more obvious that Philza barely tried to help or understand them. Why would he need to when he already had one perfect son?
Then, when Tommy desperately called Philza over and over again, Philza showed up moments too late. The man arrived just in time to scold his son, fail to stop him from blowing everything up, then proceed to kill him. Tommy watched his brother beg to die. Philza, still too confused, followed his son’s orders with only brief hesitation. It doesn’t take a philosopher to tell you killings wrong, but a terrorist? Feel free to drive a sword right through that sicko!
So, yeah. Tommy watched his brother die in front of him. He watched the lights fade from the eyes of the scared young boy, who had never learned to try to understand himself. Maybe if he had, there wouldn’t have been a lasting reminder of Philza’s broken clock following him into exile.
But, Tommy tried not to think too much about it. He decided to start a farm. There wasn’t much to do out there, so Tommy would fill his time making a simple food source. He could gather the wheat seeds himself, but he went to The Greater DSMP to get other plants. He ran into some people on the way, greeting them accordingly. A small part of him was relieved at the hole’s abandoned state. The place couldn’t come back now. The name was tarnished with bad memories.
He did run into an old friend. He saw the enderman hybrid teleporting to a nearby road, and Tommy made his way towards the guy. He noticed the other boy mumbling to himself as he drew closer.
“Hey, Ranboob! Long time no see, aye?”
“Yeah, Tommy,” he replied. He had a sympathetic look in his eyes. It was the pity that Tommy had always hated. “How are things going, since, well, you know?”
“Pretty well.” Tommy glanced in the direction of his new home. “The woods are perfect, I think. What about you?”
Ranboo hesitated before speaking. “Okay, I guess.” Tommy thought he was lying, but he didn’t say anything. “I’ve been a little stressed, but that sort of comes with being me.” Ranboo looked up briefly before continuing, searching for his words. “Philza offered me a place to stay, which has been nice.”
“Philza?” Tommy regretted speaking as soon as the name left his mouth.
Ranboo’s expression matched Tommy’s, eyebrows raised. “Yeah, what about it?”
“I guess I’m just surprised.” Tommy himself paused this time to think. “I hope he enjoys your company more than he enjoyed mine.” Philza had barely ever been at the house when Tommy was living there. Tommy assumed he just didn’t want to see him. He made time for Techno, of course.
“What’s that supposed to mean? Philza’s been nicer to me than anyone else on this server!”
Tommy didn’t have to think too hard about his answer this time. “That’s because this server is made up of selfish dickwads, Mr. Boob.” Ranboo didn’t have a response to that. It was true. “Just don’t rely on him too much. His attention span doesn’t last long for anyone or anything besides the man whose name starts with ‘T’ and ends with ‘echno’, old buddy.”
With that, he turned on his heel and walked away without looking back. He could only hope Ranboo took his words to heart and didn’t get too attached to the father he once thought he knew. Maybe it was better if he didn’t get attached to anyone for that matter. So far, being alone was working quite well Tommy.
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Ranboo tried not to take Tommy’s word to heart. The kid had been hurt by his father’s actions, and Ranboo didn’t understand them himself. He did try though. He listened to Philza and Techno talk at the dinner table, or he eavesdropped on them when the two trained.
They were close and spent a lot of time together, but they’d known each other far longer than then they’d known Ranboo.
Ranboo temporarily forgot what Tommy said after Philza helped him through a panic attack. He told him about the voices, even Dream’s voice. It clicked in Philza’s eyes and he knew what to do. Ranboo smiled, he’d never had anyone by his side during those terrifying moments. Now, he wouldn’t have to be alone again.
So, the days went on. Ranboo settled right in and made his room his own. It was a spare closet in the basement, but it wasn’t THAT small. It was like a walk-in closet, Ranboo assured himself.
The two other residents left to hunt for dinner and Ranboo went to the living room. He hadn’t had the chance to explore it. He didn’t want to come off as weird to Techno and Philza yet. So, now he had some time to wander the house. The kitchen remained clean, and he had Techno to thank for that. The living room was filled with books, some sat on the coffee table. It was an open area, to say the least.
He traveled upstairs. The single room must be Philza’s because Techno’s was also in the basement. Techno’s room was a bit bigger than Ranboo’s but had nothing of note, just a bed, and a few chests.
Philza’s was more personal. There was a little bell on the wall, and windows with beautiful views. Books sat on a shelf right above his bed and a few books made up a stack beside it. There was a desk in the corner of the room that piqued Ranboo’s interest.
He of all people should have understood the privacy surrounding books. This one was wide open though, and Ranboo was a snoop. He knew it, but he also knew it was far from the worst flaw to have. He noted the page number, then flipped to the cover.
It was titled simply, ‘daily report, DSMP’, so it was a diary. The first few days of his stay in Techno’s house were thoroughly described at the beginning of the book. It was sometime after that Wilbur-guy had blown up part of L’manberg. It was weird, knowing Wilbur was the man’s son. Each day was a one or two-page chapter, as promised by the name. Ranboo scanned the pages, looking for anything important.
He came across a page strictly about Techno.
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Techno ate breakfast, clearly irritated about something. It took me a while to figure out why. Later that afternoon, he told me the voices were worse than ever. It hurts to hear. I don’t know what to do. I just took him out hunting again.
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It wasn’t too detailed, but it told him something. Philza had experience with voices or at least people who heard them. The choice of hunting was odd though. The voices scared Ranboo and wore him out. He couldn’t imagine fighting when he felt like that.
He kept searching. For what, he couldn’t tell you. Just something.
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Tommy showed up yesterday. I wasn’t at the house when he arrived, but Techno was. Injuries reported: possible hypothermia, possible burnt skin, exhaustion. Tommy denied further examination, despite his brother’s protests. He didn’t say what happened, for him to end up as he did. But, at the end of the day, Techno took him in.
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The word struck him as odd. Techno took him in. As if Philza wouldn’t have. But he would’ve because Ranboo was pretty similar to Tommy, right?
The kid had been stealing from Techno, and Techno didn’t say anything to me. Tommy has been showing signs of trauma since he arrived, and possibly PTSD.
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It was strange how Philza talked about Tommy. Ranboo’s brain involuntary brought back Tommy’s warning. No, no. This isn’t that, Ranboo reasoned with himself. Tommy had been wrong.
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Techno’s voices are back, so more hunting. We caught a large deer today, and a few small rabbits. Techno and I talked about the possible futures of L’manberg.
Side note: when asking for Techno’s armor back from Tommy, he had a notably odd reaction and his mood changed.
Hunters were sent after Techno, and he killed them all. We started a plan to blow up L’manberg. Techno’s voices are getting bad again, and hunting is not solving it.
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Ranboo realized very quickly that Techno’s voices were very different than his. He skipped through the days, scanning over the lines.
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Tommy has strayed from us. He’s working with Tubbo, and by proxy, L’manberg.
Dream joined us today.
L’manberg is gone. We were successful.
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A line caught his eye. A more recent one.
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The enderman hybrid caught my eye today. He doesn’t want sides. A government is essentially a side. He and Techno are similar then. I’ll invite him to our house. He doesn’t have anywhere to go. His house is gone and his friends think of him as a traitor.
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The entries mentioning him appeared often. Ranboo didn’t like them.
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Ranboo hears voices too. I wonder, are they violent like Techno’s? The poor kid was terrified when I found him. He built a little panic room, keeping his pain inside himself. A difference between the two. Techno’s voices made him angry. Ranboo’s voices scared him.
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He doesn’t like it when I look into his eyes.
Maybe I should take him out hunting one day, like Techno. Does the kid have a fighting spirit?
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Ranboo didn’t want to have whatever the fuck ‘a fighting spirit’ was, if he was being honest. Ranboo was panicking, but not because of the voices. He wanted to leave. He wanted to leave. He wanted to leave.
He wanted to leave.
Ranboo teleported. It was L’manberg, or what was left of it. He looked up, and it felt like the hole was tugging in on itself as if it would collapse and take Ranboo with it.
He sank to the floor, looking at the stone in the ground. Things were getting worse, a lot worse. He might have burnt the community house. He might have acquired Tommy’s disc, doing who knows what. Anything is possible when you have the moral backbone of a chocolate eclair and extreme memory loss.
Tommy. Maybe Tommy had been right. Maybe not? Ranboo felt stupid. Overwhelmed and stupid. He should know what to do. He didn’t know where to go. His body decided for him, finally working in his favor. All he had to do was think one thing. He wanted to leave.
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Ranboo found himself at the door to a little house. He was surrounded by thick trees, probably somewhere near the Greater DSMP. He gave the door a simple knock and waited. He heard rustling and all of the sudden remembered he didn’t know what he was doing. He started to cry accidentally, right before the door opened.
He met eyes with a confused and tired Tommy and realized it was night.
“What the fuck, Ranboo? Are you okay man?”
“I- I don’t,” but he shook his head. He wasn’t okay. They both knew this. “ I just teleported here by accident.” He looked back up at Tommy. “I don’t know what to do.”
Tommy’s face settled. “Stay at my house today. I have a spare guest room.”