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They say curiosity killed the cat, but Tommy didn’t seem to believe that. He had always been curious, often people would tell him off for always getting into trouble. Its almost as if wherever Tommyinnit goes, chaos is sure to follow. But this had never stopped the boy before, his need for adventure always proving to be too powerful. So, when Sam nook had informed him that ‘blood vines’ were getting in the way of the process of building his hotel, he just had to investigate.
It was only one stupid egg, it can’t be that bad, can it?
Now locked inside a suffocating obsidian box, Tommy realises that his assumptions had been extremely wrong. Ant and Bad- well, Tommy wasn’t too sure if it was really them anymore. They weren’t the kind and welcoming people he had met on the server many months ago, instead their eyes glowed ominous reds and whites, emitting a malicious aura. Whether they were themselves or not didn’t matter anymore though, as they had successfully lured Tommy into a trap. With no escape, they forced him to listen carefully, apparently the egg was going to speak to him. At first Tommy laughed at how stupid that sounded. Voices? Really? These people had gone crazy, there’s no way an egg could possess the power to talk to him-
Then a whisper tickled the back of his neck, mumbling incoherently. Jerking his body, he turned around but was just greeted by the immovable obsidian wall. Maybe this was all a prank. Maybe it was a recording being played because what he had just heard definitely wasn’t Tubbo, Bad or Ant. Speaking of which, he turned back around so he could demand to be freed. However, as he did so, he wasn’t greeted by the sea of scarlet vines, instead it was complete and utter darkness. There was no purple hue that obsidian had, just complete darkness. Tommy slowly reached out. Immediately he let out a gasp.
He couldn’t feel anything.
There were no vines, no egg and definitely no obsidian. Where had it all gone? Where was he? Attempting to cry out for help, in hopes that someone would hear him, he opened his mouth. Alas, no sound escaped his lips. Panic began to rise in his throat. Waving his arms frantically he tried to search for something that he could feel. Nothing. The only solid object was the cold, hard floor beneath his feet. Running was an option, but where would he go? He couldn’t see anything, he couldn’t hear anything, he was so very alone.
Until a distant but familiar tone spoke out. It was the same incoherent mumbling from before. This time though, it spoke actual words.
“Join us”.
“Become one with us”.
“We can help”.
Shivering, Tommy tried to demand that whoever was speaking to him would let him go. He tried to exclaim that he didn’t want to join them. Once again, this failed. Tommy was left alone, for who knows how long, his only company being the sinister voices that attempted to reach out to him.
But then the voices became distorted. Slowly, they began morphing into a familiar voice. In front of him, a small glowing light appeared, expanding gently. Relief overcame him, as tommy realised that there was finally something else in this empty void with him. Then that relief turned into fear as he was greeted by the face of someone he had lost a long, long time ago.
Wilbur.
And the figure was definitely Wilbur, not ghostbur. This was the face of the man he had once blindly followed into an endless cycle of war. This was the man who had managed to destroy everything Tommy had ever held dear to himself. Cold eyes bore daggers into his soul, they were eyes tommy knew far too well. Giving up at his attempt of speaking, he anxiously waited for whatever was going to unfold.
“You’re never going to be president.” Wilbur spoke out, voice void of any intonation. Deja vu instantly hit Tommy. He had heard this before; he didn’t need to relive the insanity he had experienced back when Wilbur was alive. Tommy always knew he wasn’t fit to be the president, that’s why he had refused the position, claiming that he had ‘unfinished business’. Tentatively, he watched Wilbur step closer, reaching over to him. Ice cold fingers rested on his shoulder, sending shivers down the blonde’s spine. The grip tightened, and Tommy flinched. He had felt this sensation before too. Fear the only thing occupying his mind as he eyed the older boy. This had happened so many times, Wilbur grabbing Tommy’s shoulder only to stare him down and spit out insults, dumping all his frustrations onto his follower.
Bracing himself for the string of complaints, he waited. The complaints never came though, instead Wilbur spoke out, “this time you don’t have to be a leader Tommy, instead you can be a follower. You have always felt the need to lead others your whole life, haven’t you? Well, now the egg can lead you. You don’t have to be scared anymore Tommyinnit.”
The words echoed in his mind. Wilbur’s voice seemed so fake and empty, nothing like he had ever heard before. Even in the crazed mans last moments, his words were always laced with emotion, whether it was despair, anger, or desperation. So, when the taller boy spoke, only expressing one idea, it confused Tommy. Wilbur wanted him to follow the egg. No. No, no, no. Tommy had to constantly remind himself that this wasn’t Wilbur. It couldn’t be. He had lost his friend way before the man had actually been killed. At some point when they resided in Pogtopia is when Tommy assumed that the last part of Wilbur had died. And then to add insult to injury, he was stabbed by his own father. So surely what stood in front of him was just an illusion brought to him by the egg. A scheme to get him to join the cult. But if Tommy knew that this was all fake and was just the egg’s plan, then why did it feel so real? Why did it make him want to give in?
Frozen in place, he watched as the figure (Tommy forced himself to refer to it as the figure because it wasn’t Wilbur, it couldn’t be him, he wouldn’t allow it) leaned in and whispered into his ear.
“The egg won’t be disappointed in you. You finally won’t be a failure like everyone else thinks you are.”
Then in the blink of an eye, the figure evaporated into a cloud of smoke, the words still lingering in the air. Failure. Yeah, that sounds about right. Realising that he hasn’t done many good things on the server, the word sadly seemed fitting. Tommy had failed too many times to count. On several occasions, he had lost the discs that were so important to him. He wasn’t able to stop L’manberg from blowing up, not one, not two, but three times. His own home permanently destroyed, a crater replacing it for the rest of time. Being the closest person to Wilbur on the server, he had a chance to help the man, but he failed that task too. Vivid images flashed across his mind. Wilbur’s lifeless corpse slumped over in Phil’s arms. Debris covering the battlefield. In front of him stood Techno, vicious expression painted on his face.
In fact, the image of Techno looked almost lifelike. Then the image blinked, causing Tommy to step back in shock. This was no longer an image that was flickering in his mind, no, in front of him towered the piglin hybrid. Lifting an axe up to the blonde’s throat. Once again Tommy was experiencing a situation he had experienced before.
Techno opened his mouth, familiar words laced with anger escaping the man’s lips. He was reciting the conversation they had had on that day. Tommy wished, he prayed, that the anarchist would shut up. He didn’t need another reminder that Techno was a person, not a weapon. He didn’t need Techno to remind him that he would’ve fought everyone for the younger boy. The day his nation lost its last life was still a fresh wound, he hated that the egg was forcing him to live through the confrontation he had with Techno that day.
Of course, he betrayed the piglin, but betrayal has been the only consistent thing on this goddamn server. The world around them had been destroyed and rebuilt so many times. Relationships had been broken and fixed on countless occasions. The only thing that has stayed the same is the acts of betrayal and the anger everyone felt almost daily. Sure, he betrayed the man who offered a safe space once he escaped his exile, but this was the same man that slaughtered everyone, including Tubbo, because of some stupid ‘peer pressure’. So yeah, he betrayed Techno, but did he feel bitter about it? Not really.
So, he tried to zone out Techno’s unusually emotional voice. This is just the egg’s mind games, he wouldn’t give in, he wouldn’t be persuaded by petty emotions that he should have abandoned a long time ago.
Tommy’s hands, that were clasped around his ears, were violently pulled away. “You have left others behind and others have left you behind. The egg will never leave you, you will never have to feel alone ever again,” Techno spat before disappearing into darkness just like Wilbur had done.
He would never have to feel alone ever again.
This appealed to Tommy. He knows betrayal is inevitable, but even though he knows this, he has never been able to brace himself for the pain and hopelessness that followed it. Loneliness is something he had become accustomed to. Stuck in Pogtopia, he had Wilbur but at the same time he felt like he had no one. Tubbo was under Schlatts watch, Techno was helping them but kept quiet most of the time and Wilbur furthered the distance between them every day as their ideals and morals seemed to collide. And finally, once they had won back their nation, he was unfairly banished. For weeks he was abandoned by everyone he had ever considered a friend, the only company he received was from a manipulative masked psychopath who thrived on other people’s pain.
Loneliness had become something so common that it was almost on the same level of breathing or blinking for Tommy.
Standing on a tower hundreds of blocks from the ground made him realise that it was only him. Dream had almost driven him to death on multiple occasions and at the time the hooded man was the only person Tommy had thought of as a friend. Sure, their friendship had flaws, but that was bound to happen with anyone. But as he swayed on top of the pillar, he realised Dream was in fact an enemy.
The loneliness was overwhelming. Even Dream had left him, despite Tommy being terrified of the man, the action had still hurt him.
“The egg could protect you from me.”
As if the sentient creature that had him trapped had read him mind, the figure that had formed in front of him looked frighteningly like the aforementioned. The same mocking smile that was always plastered onto the white mask taunted him. It teased him; this was the smile that had looked down on him on his lowest points. There was some sort of comfort the blonde received from the familiarity he felt from seeing the plain smiley face again. Maybe it comforted him that he wasn’t too far gone, that the fear he felt from looking at the man meant that he was still himself somewhat. The thought of being completely free from Dream, being protected from the monster, called out to him.
Wait. Dream was locked away. Dream was in prison.
Shaking his head at his own stupidity, Tommy averted his gaze. He wouldn’t admit it, but the masked man still frightened him. But now he was trapped, unable to escape. And he didn’t have to worry about it because he wholeheartedly trusted Sam and his abilities to keep the prison securely locked.
From the corner of his vision, he noticed the green in front of him morph into several different shades, the white mask transforming into the face of a creeper. Sam was obviously appearing right before his eyes. But Sam has been nothing but nice to him, so surely this would persuade him to fight the egg. Panicking, Tommy began to question how real this whole situation was. He was so set on the fact that it was the egg messing with his brain but now stood Sam, someone who gives him the energy to fight the demands of the egg.
Sam was helping him build the hotel, along with his newest friend, Sam Nook. He couldn’t abandon them and join the egg, could he?
In fact, the taunts of the egg faded in Tommy’s mind. Sam hasn’t left him; in fact, the man had done the exact opposite. He had offered Tommy a place to stay and he gladly gave him help with his project. And Sam Nook created a fun and light-hearted work environment. Even though Tommy was certain that it was just a persona put on by Sam he still appreciated it. It almost made tommy feel like a kid again, the though of the past wars and destruction feeling like a distant memory.
The more Tommy though about it, the more he realised that there were people still out there that cared for him.
Not only Sam, recently he had found himself liking Puffy more and more. He was certain that the Captain understood the pain he had been forced to endure and she was so soft with her words and actions that it brought Tommy solace. There was Foolish, and whilst the new player was weird and radiated a chaotic aura, he doesn’t seem to have any bad intentions. Ranboo had stuck up for him before his exile, claiming that the disc obsessed boy wasn’t actually selfish. The relationship he had with the enderman hybrid wasn’t bad either. In fact, most of the server came to his and Tubbo’s rescue when they needed it. So that shows that even if he had a relationship that was leaning more towards the negative end of the spectrum, people still cared enough to come protect him, right?
Sobs broke Tommy out of his thoughts. Familiar cries rang through his ears. They were Tubbo’s. Cursing at himself for getting too involved with the egg, Tommy was brought back to reality. How could he forget about Tubbo? Their relationship had had its ups and its down, but they were always reunited. Two magnets that were destined to stick together. At some point during his battles, he had lost the compass ghostbur had given him, but until the very end he had always held it closely to his heart. That’s enough to prove that even though they have had their squabbles, Tubbo had always remained Tommy’s best friend. Apologies were repeated again and again once the boys had reunited, both clearly regretting past decisions. And Tommy had even chosen Tubbo over his discs only a few days ago.
He couldn’t give into the egg, he refused. Instead, he focused trying to reach Tubbo, his best friend desperately needed his help.
Slowly Tommy opened his eyes, he hadn’t even realised that they were tightly shut to begin with. Soft glows of yellows and reds entered his vision. He was back. Well, had he ever really left? Were the figures he saw just illusions? Confusion flooded his mind, but he forced himself to push that aside. He yelled out for his crying friend, receiving muffled sobs as a reply. Tubbo stood shaking, eyes wide and full of tears that threatened to spill. Tommy held up an ender pearl from his inventory and nodded to his friend. The brunette hesitantly nodded back to indicate that he knew what was going on.
Bad was still rambling on about the egg, persistently asking if Tommy could hear what it was saying. This was his chance. He held out his hand, which the shorter boy latched onto, then loudly responded to Bad, “Oh! I can hear it now; I can hear it!”
Bad’s white pupils lit up with delight, “Really? What is it saying?”
“It says that in order to love the egg, we need to start swearing!” Tommy mocked, then instantly threw his pearl. It hurled himself and Tubbo across the vines that covered the floor.
At first, too focussed on the task in hand, he hadn’t even noticed the arrival of his business partner and good friend. Sam Nook stepped between them and the egg, claiming Tommy and Tubbo were under his protection.
Adrenaline pumped through his veins as he gripped onto Tubbo’s hand, dragging him along. Sprinting towards the exit, he didn’t stop, Sam Nook following closely behind them. Grinning, he couldn’t help but find himself enjoying the situation. Escaping with his best friend and one of the only adults he has come to respect on the server made him realise that he didn’t need the egg.
Rumours stated that the egg had the power to give you what your heart truly desired. But Tommy realised, right now he already had everything he could ever want. So, he kept running, refusing to let the egg control him.