Chapter Text
Tommy felt the breeze ruffling his feathers as he sat in one of the redwood trees surrounding his home. His brother, Wilbur, soaring through the skies in celebration eventually he came down. The branch creaked a little as Will perched on it. He started strumming the anthem on his guitar as they watched the sun set, creating orange and pink hue over their country. Both of them had fought so hard for l’Manburg. But at what cost?
That question bothered them on that night. Tommy knew that Dream would have other plans. The tyrant knew when he was beaten, but he wasn’t. Dream had backed them into a corner, then allowed them to have their freedom?
It didn't make sense, but that was months ago. The flashback was nice, it created a sense of calm in Tommy as he zoned back into reality, in the courtroom, on his trial, with Dream, Tubbo, Fundy and Ranboo, just to hear his best friend, Tubbo, confirm his exile.
Tommy was to be exiled and escorted by Dream. It was a disaster. Fundy was yelling at Tubbo, Ranboo was trying to speak, and Dream was just sitting back and watching it all unfold. Dream has always been like that.
He would sit back, say nothing, then strike when everyone was at their lowest. He also only ever thought about himself. But this time it was different. Dream himself had admitted that he didn’t care about anything but the discs and power. His prized possessions. Tommy had lived through years of war for those discs. He had given them up for L’Manburg’s independence in the Revolution. He had fought alongside Tubbo in his first war for those discs. Every war he had fought included those discs somehow. Other than his wings, there was nothing more important to him than his discs.
Leaving L’manberg was the hardest thing he ever did. Tommy was led away from L’manberg while Tubbo and the other members of the country stood on the wall and watched. Tommy had stopped feeling emotions for most of his trial, he wasn’t thinking of himself. He was thinking about Ranboo, about Tubbo, about L’manberg. Tommy had lived in L'manberg for the majority of his life. He had always been a part of it. It was his home and it always would be, no matter where his exile would take place. He would return to L’manberg.
Tommy flew through the clouds like he used to with Wilbur, only coming back down when he heard Dream talking. Dream, the tyrant that had started this whole mess. Dream had stood up for George after Tommy and Ranboo had burnt down his house. They didn’t steal anything and Dream had done the same thing to Tubbo in the first L’manburg war, but for some reason, this time was different.
During his trial, Tommy knew that he couldn't let Ranboo get in trouble. Ranboo was new to the server and getting in trouble would be the death of him. Tommy knew that he could handle it, but Ranboo couldn't, so instead of placing the blame on Ranboo like he would have in the past, he took all the blame for himself. He knew if he didn't end the trial quickly, the enderman hybrid would try to take the blame back, so that's what he did. Tommy took all the blame, allowing Ranboo to walk free, and practically forcing himself into exile. That brings us up to now, with his wings tiring quickly, Tommy flew back to the boat and sat down. The boat rocked a bit at the extra weight, and Tommy tried to find a comfortable position, but with sore wings it was near impossible.
“Wings finally tired, huh, Tommy?” Dream called out to him, without turning. “You have been flying for a while.”
Tommy didn't reply.
“Oh, come on, Tommy. You’ll have to talk to me eventually.”
Again, Dream was met with silence.
“Tommy, we are going to be spending a lot of time together, Tubbo isn’t going to magically appear and whisk you back off to ‘L’manburg’.”
Nothing.
“Come on Tommy!”
Getting sick of listening to the tyrant talk, Tommy took back to the air, even though he knew it was dangerous. It’s dangerous to fly normally with sore wings, but in the ocean it's much worse. Dream stopped rowing, realising what Tommy was doing and grabbed Tommy's leg, pulling him back into the boat. Tommy fell into the boat with a thud.
“Dream what the fuck!?” Tommy shouted.
“You were going to get yourself hurt,” Dream replied coolly. “I was saving your life.”
Tommy didn’t reply to this. Even though he knew it was true, the strong winds from the ocean would have pulled him into it soaking his wings and drowning him, he didn't trust Dream. He and Dream had never been friends. They were always fighting over one thing or another. Other than that one time they teamed up, but that was for their mutual benefit. They weren't friends. They never would be.
They reached land a few hours later and Dream decided it would be a good place for Tommy’s exile.
Tommy had been around people his entire life. Growing up with three brothers meant you were never lonely, but it did mean they were more likely to stab you in the back. First Wilbur, then Techno, now Tubbo!
Realisation was setting into Tommy. He had been exiled by his best friend. By his brother. Knowing this set off a spark inside him, instead of sitting around and waiting to be rescued or begging for mercy from Dream, he would thrive here. Tubbo had given Tommy a book before Wilbur blew up L’manburg, he took the book out and started writing.
‘Log 1 Day 1:
Plans:
Get wood
Get girlfriend
Build assertive cobblestone tower
Make friends’
Make friends. Tommy had friends.
At least he thought he did. He wrote it down anyways, knowing people would be hesitant to visit him because of Dream. Everyone was scared of Dream. Whether you were on his side or if you weren’t. If Tommy came off as angry or unhinged to the first people that came to visit him, he could potentially drive other visitors away too.
He put the book away and started chopping wood. He was ignoring Dream, who had started digging a hole in the ground. He continued this until Dream called him over.
“Put your stuff in the hole, Tommy,” Dream commanded
Confused, Tommy replied, “Hell no! I just got all of this!”
Slightly removing his axe from its sheath , Dream silently threatened Tommy, who immediately put all his stuff in the hole. He kept the book hidden, tucked neatly under his wing, so Dream couldn't see it. Tommy could see from his slight frown and his tight grip on the handle of his bow Dream had noticed the book, but for some reason let Tommy keep it.
He took out a piece of TnT from his inventory and placed it on top of the hole. Tommy instinctively ducked and covered his head. He knew he should run; he knew he should have gotten out of there as fast as he could. But seeing the TnT stuck him to the ground. Time had slowed down.
He heard Dream pull back his bow, load an arrow enchanted with fire, and shoot the TnT, exploding it. Dream ran off out of the exploding range, but Tommy was frozen to the ground. He heard the explosion go off and that was all. The force of the explosion hit him first. But that wasn’t what sent him spiralling into pain. He closed his eyes because it hurt to have them open. He could feel that his feathers were singed before even looking at them. He started to feel dizzy and all of a sudden, he was tired.
He woke up a while after.
He couldn’t quite see well, but he noticed the unmistakable red of a health potion right next to him. The bottle had a smile on it.
Like the one on Dreams mask.
He swallowed it all in one gulp. Tommy immediately felt better. Using all of his strength, he pulled himself back up and inspected the damage done to him. He remembered the book. Still tucked in his wing he pulled it out to make sure it was okay. Tommy didn’t know why he was acting this way over a book. It was just some hide and paper bound by string. It wasn’t even well made. But he felt a strange attachment to it anyway.
His thought then turned to his wings, had they been damaged? He quickly looked back at them to a see slight singe on them.
“Not too bad,” he muttered.
He thought that they would have been damaged more.
That’s when his mind ran through what had happened. His attention was brought back to the bottle that held the healing potion. He ran back to where he had woken up and grabbed the bottle. The smile on it was staring straight at Tommy. Tommy, being Tommy, threw the bottle to the ground as hard as he could, smashing it into a million pieces. Hearing it smash made Tommy jump.
During Pogtopia, Wilbur would constantly smash the bottles he used to make potions. Even before Pogtopia, his brother was clumsy when making potions. Tommy’s mind was brought back to L’manberg. The first L’manberg. Not Schlatt’s Manburg. Not Tubbo’s L’manberg.
Wilbur’s L’manberg. His L’manberg. L’manberg had been started because of potions. Dream didn’t want Tommy and Wilbur selling them so they started a country and declared independence from the rest of the DreamSmp.
“Tommy?” said an echoey voice from behind him,
Tommy jumped, wondering where the voice was coming from. He turned around to see the ghostly version of Wilbur. Ghostbur.
“Hey Ghostbur,” Tommy replied sound a little bored
“You don’t sound very happy, Tommy. Aren’t people normally happy when they go on vacation?”
So that was the lie Tubbo had told Ghostbur. Tommy knew that Tubbo would lie to Ghostbur so that he wouldn’t worry. At least the ghost had brought a tent with him.
“I’m fine, Ghostbur, just tired.”
“Okay, well I'm going to build us a holiday home! Wanna help?”
“No thanks, Ghostbur. I’m just going to set up the tent and have a nap.”
Ghostbur left Tommy to start gathering wood while Tommy set up the tent. After he had set the tent up, he laid down to try and get some rest. He tossed and turned, but he just couldn’t get comfortable. He sat back up and started mindlessly preening his wings.
He looked over at Ghostbur, whose wings were not in the best condition. Ghostbur’s wings had been seriously damaged in the explosion of the 16th. Everyone knew that Ghostbur would never fly again, but of course he did not accept this and used the floating ability he got from being a ghost to make it look like he was flying.
Tommy’s whole family had wings. Techno’s were red with white highlights, Wilbur’s had been a beautiful chestnut brown. Phil's wings were silver. Tommy’s wings were a gold color that faded into red.
Tommy heard the sound of splashing against waves and lay back down. He didn’t want to deal with Dream. Not today. Not any day.
Tommy’s mind went back to that bottle. That face. That smile. So much pain was attached to that smile. He realised that he could no longer feel the presence of Ghostbur. He had left. He left without a word to Tommy. He was alone.
“Let’s be the bad guys.”
Wilburs words rang through his head.
“You want to be a hero, Tommy? Then die like one!”
The same thing.
“Wilbur said he wasn’t going to hurt me!”
Tubbo’s words. He had sounded so panicked and scared then.
“Down with the revolution boys! It was never meant to be.”
Fuck Eret.
“I suggest exile.”
Dream.
Tommy knew he couldn’t just sit around and do nothing. He tried getting up, but something stopped him. That something wasn’t physical. It had been himself.