Chapter Text
'I imagine death so much it feels like a memory.' Tommy thinks about that musical and how they loved to sing in during the war.
He had never paid that line any real attention, until after he had died the first two times.
Even now, standing on a pillar high in the clouds, body aching, it was the first time he had thought about those words and really understood what they meant.
He didn't obey Dream, which is why he was exiled. That he knew, he had reached that conclusion standing in the freezing wind.
But what did it matter?
Sure, he was a disobedient teen, unable to be tamed, despite the fact that Dream had nearly done it.
Dream was still an untouchable tyrant, Tommy had no hope of going against him, especially alone.
Because he was alone, he couldn't rely on his father to help him, or uncle Techno, and he certainly couldn't rely on Ghostbur, a shell of his once fiery brother.
So Tommy closed his eyes and gave in to the urge, stepping into the air above the unforgiving crater below.
And he was falling.
….and falling
and…. falling?
Why hadn't he hit the ground yet? He opened his eyes, a small gasp leaving him when he realized he was still only a few feet under the top of his pillar.
What was more surprising, were the wings sprouting from his back, keeping him aloft, maybe he was more like his father than he thought.
He looked back at them, marveling at the design, gold and red mixed with yellows and oranges to make a sunset look that shifted with every wing flap.
His instincts and his heritage had saved his life, he thought for a brief moment.
How had he not realized he had inherited wings from his father? What else did he inherit? He wondered for a moment, a new resolve seeping into his bones.
Here he was, breaking one of the most important rules of the land.
Flying without permission.
And he couldn't care less! He really wasn't something to be tamed, he was chaos in a bottle, always meant to explode.
He flew east, flying over oceans and deserts and forests until he couldn't physically anymore. He came to rest at a little village on the seaside. The village itself was on the mainland, though Tommy could see little islands around the land.
He landed with little grace, stumbling and nearly knocking a man with a fruit cart over.
A village elder approached him with little caution, "Hello sir. May you find our village welcoming. I hope you can defend us from the monsters that steal our cattle and sometimes our children."
Tommy blinked, a place to stay? For the measly price of killing a few monsters every night?
What a deal.
The first night all he did was repair the town's iron creature. Before collapsing into a rented bed at the inn.
He'd build a little house just outside the village tomorrow.
For now Tommy just wanted to sleep, and not think about the fact that he had abandoned everything and everyone he had ever loved.
And without realizing it, Tommyinnit died, and someone new was birthed.
When he opened his eyes the next morning a pair of curious faces peered at him.
One looked to be about 5 while the other just a toddler. Tommy, despite still leaving the fog of sleep, noticed how the toddler and the child didn't look related, and the toddler had bright purple eyes. He then noted more kids who looked too afraid to come into the little house.
Great, he was already popular with the kids.
That was sure to end well.
"Uh? Hullo?" He said, voice scratchy from sleep, as well as from him screaming his lungs out the day before.
He didn't want to think about that pillar, and what he had almost done.
"Hi." The older of the children replied, pulling on Tommy's arm. "Irony is better because of you."
Tommy bit his lip to keep from laughing. "Your iron protector is named Irony?" When the child nodded enthusiastically Tommy couldn't help but grin in response, allowing the child to pull him from bed.
He glanced at his back,
Huh, looks like the wings still there, visible under the dirty jacket he hadn't bothered to take off.
None of the children commented on it, so he didn't say anything.
"I'm Beau and these are my friends!" The child gestured to the group of 8 kids, ranging in ages from 8 to a literal toddler.
"T-.... Just call me T for now." He didn't know why he was hesitant about sharing his name, he knew he was far enough away that it didn't matter.
But still, his heart hammered from the very idea of it.
When the purple eyed toddler made grabby hands at Tommy, he had picked him up and placed the kid on his hip before he even realized.
He blinked in confusion and surprise, how did…?
The toddler laughed and tugged on his hair as the rest of the children flocked around him as he walked.
"His name is Purpled! I think he likes you." Beau said with a grin. Tommy couldn't help but smile back "of course, I'm big man! What's there not to like?" He joked. Approaching the tavern, which seemed to serve as a hub for the small village.
A woman with similar features to Purpled stood in the doorway. "Ah, I had wondered where you youngins had gone off to, you should leave the poor boy alone." She said as Tommy handed Purpled off to her.
Tommy paused for a second, as the children began to disperse. "Do you have clothes that you think would fit me?" He gestured down to his poor excuse of an outfit.
She nodded, gesturing for him to follow her inside and up the stairs to where she lived with Purpled.
"I had a brother, he was about your size before he left." She pulled out some clothes and handed it to him. "You may need a cloak for those." She nodded at where his wings poked out from under a tear in the jacket.
"Oh… uh thank you." Tommy shuffled his feet and looked down, at a loss of what to do. "Is there somewhere I can live? Near town?"
She nodded, "empty field just inland, you could build and farm there." And with that she placed a now sleeping Purpled on the bed and left Tommy with his thoughts.
Tommy waited for a moment, sighing to himself, wishing he could be home, listening to his brother tell exaggerated stories, or watch his uncle spar with his father.
He collected his thoughts and walked downstairs, Purpled's mother handed him a small pack of food as he walked by, smiling at him in a way that only a mother seemed to.
He tried to ignore the ache in his chest when he thought about his own father.
He found the field easily enough, pleased that the area was flat.
He got to work, breaking down trees enough to make a pick, feeling a comfort in clearing out a little basement area and then working on the structure of the house. Night was nearly over by the time he was done with the first level, the planks holding sure, the wooden door swung open to let a breeze in while Tommy worked on making windows.
His body reacted before his mind did when he heard the son of a skeleton drawing it's bow.
His wings fanning at it, knocking it over, his sword out and already swinging to dispatch it by the time his mind caught up.
He closed the door as he worked after that.
It was 3 days full of work later when Tommy was finished with the house.
He had dirtied the clothes Purpled's mother had given him. Which was just as well, the green shade of the shirt made him think of Dream, and he was determined to not do that anymore.
The children had found him again when he had stepped back to admire it.
"Let us help plant please sir!" One of the oldest ones cried out, excitement clear in their tone.
Tommy paused for a moment, before nodding. "Fine, go get sticks so I can craft a hoe. And you, go get potato seed." He sent them off running.
He had just finished digging the ditches for water when the children returned, with what he had asked for.
Tommy smiled at them, "Very good big man!" He ruffled Beau's hair and high fived an older girl who had given him sticks.
He crafted a stone hoe while the children watched in awe.
He paused and looked down at them. "Say Beau, you wouldn't have any buckets laying around would you? I reckon this would be a lot easier if you guys could pour the buckets of water into the ditches!" He smiled when the kids nodded excitedly and took off running.
The smile faded as he kneeled there sowing seed, how was it that he felt so much more peace here?
Shouldn't he be trying to get back to Tubbo and his family? Back to his disks? Trying to figure out how he had suddenly grown wings?
He watched as the children returned with buckets of water, laughing and shouting amongst themselves.
Maybe he could stay a while yet, it was nice here. He laughed and played with the children, soaking his new clothes as they splashed each other, and for the first time Tommy felt like he could relax.
Meanwhile, a ghost wandered the wilderness, at the direction of a cruel ruler. He stopped at the ocean, his yellow cardigan shifting slightly in the breeze.
"Oh! A boat! And Friend is already in it!" He exclaimed to himself.
And there was indeed a boat, with a blue lamb sitting peacefully in it.
It blinked up at Ghostbur as if simply waiting for him to climb aboard and sail off with it.
"Friend! Let's go on an adventure! Now that Tommy isn't in Logstedshire we don't have to stay either!" Ghostbur climbed in, pushing off the shore with a laugh. "Off we go! To explore and make more friends! Won't that be nice!" He pulled the lamb's head into his lap as he rowed.
He didn't know how long it would take for him to get across the ocean.
But that didn't matter! Because he had Friend for company! And maybe wherever he ended up in, he could make even more friends!
So he set off, heading eastbound, unknowingly following the path of his younger brother.