Archive of Our Own ^beta

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Age when they arrived at camp: 4

Age currently: 13

Godly parent: Unclaimed

Gift: camouflage

Status: dangerous

Ran away from a group home at age four found in a alleyway hiding from monsters. Found and saved by the satyr Eret brought to the camp from England. Has been at camp for nine years. His gift manifested before he arrived at camp. He can hide his scent and null any sound. Impulsive, smart, loud, not afraid to bite someone. No godly parent suspected. Mortal parent unknown. Struggles with low blood sugar. Keep under constant supervision

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Eret never knew whether to be scared of or grateful for the Awesamdude cabin, on one hand, their gadgets are often useful, on the other those kids are terrifyingly smart. One of their most recent inventions was a device, it looked similar to a cellphone in size and shape as well as a screen that displays a map of the world. The device was designed to track traces of power, specifically the power emitted by half-bloods. 

It’s this device that led Eret to their current situation, on a plane, heading to England to retrieve a half-blood who was radiating way too much power to be alone without any help or protection from monsters. The thought made Eret’s heart hurt, especially considering how confused and scared the kid must be, gods forbid they be a younger kid, though the satyr doubted it, all things considered, hell, it would be surprising if the kid was unclaimed considering the amount of power the tracking device was displaying.

Eret’s leg bounced anxiously as the pilot announced the plane was to be landing in only a few more minutes. They wondered what the kid was like, how they would take the news of being a half-blood, would they want to come with him? The questions swirled around in his head as the plane landed and the answers were now only minutes away.

When Eret arrived at the location their heart almost stopped, they stood at the entrance of a seemingly empty alleyway, it looked as though a small tornado ran through it with how strewn about and messed up everything was. The device was the only evidence of anything being in the alleyway. For a second Eret wondered if the device had been faulty and they’d traveled across the ocean for nothing, then they heard a crash come from the alley, not two seconds later a small child appeared. 

The boy's appearance alone was enough to concern Eret, even if this kid couldn’t possibly be the one emitting so much power (could he?) the satyr still felt the urge to protect the boy. The kid’s blonde hair was shaggy and tangled and there were patches of dirt and grime all over him as well as a scraped knee and a few other cuts here and there, based on his features he couldn't be much older than five. Another noticeable thing was how skinny he was, his small red and white shirt dangled off his body way too big for the child.

The kid was faced in the opposite direction of Eret, looking around frantically as if searching for some kind of unseen danger, when he turned around his eyes briefly met with Eret’s before the kid disappeared. Wait- disappeared? This kid is the half-blood emitting so much power? There’s no way, the device must be flawed or something because this child was far too young to be that powerful. It was almost unheard of for young children to be able to use their ability but to be so strong as well? How in the world is this possible.

“Hey buddy,” Eret said as calmly as they could despite his inner confusion, “I’m not going to hurt you, okay? I’m just here to help.” their voice was calm and their face gentle as they called to the kid they weren't even sure was still there, they didn’t move in case the child took that as a cue to run. All Eret could do was wait patiently for a response.

Sure enough, after a few long seconds, a small voice answered, “Are you like the other ones, All scary lookin’ n’ stuff, are you gonna attack me?” Eret felt so bad that they weren’t there earlier when the child said that, no doubt he was talking about monsters who’d picked up on him, sadly all the satyr could do was offer some kinds of reassurance.

“I’m not like them, I wouldn’t dream of hurting you.” They said softly, the only thing on their mind was getting this kid back to camp safely, “Can you please come back out.”

Eret can almost feel the kid's hesitance in the air before the boy finally reappears, big blue eyes staring up at Eret skeptically, looking them up and down judging their very being. 

“You look funny,” Was the first thing the child said after reappearing and Eret had to stop themselves from laughing at his bluntness.

“Good to know, you wanna get out of here?” they said, their tone remained calm although as the kid seemed to warm up to the half-goat being there was an undertone of playfulness. “Is this a kidnapping? Are you ‘napping me?” the kid said seriously although he looked as though the idea of being kidnapped was ridiculous. “That’s not very pogchamp. I’d have to scream fire and get the police, Ms. Tanner says if someone's trying to kidnap me I should do that but I think she’s just got a ghost in ‘de ‘ead, if you know what I mean.” 

Eret was confused, this kid went from cautious to friendly in a matter of seconds, was that normal for little kids? Were they all insanely trusting? Sure, Erets helped with some younger kids at camp before but none as young as the kid currently chatting their ear off. This was an entirely new experience for the satyr and frankly, Eret wasn’t sure to be glad that the kid was so trusting or worried that someone could have taken advantage of that trust so easily when the kid was obviously alone.

“I’m Tommy, and I’m the biggest man in the world, did you know that? One of the girls in my last home said that was impossible but I didn’t wanna hurt her feelings and tell her she was wrong so I didn’t say anything, What’s your name?” Tommy continued, introducing himself and asking Eret who was still worrying over the boy hardly zoning in time to hear the question asked by the little boy.

“Eret.” They answered shortly, then speaking up quickly before Tommy could continue his ramblings. “Do you wanna come back with me, I’m going to a place where the monsters can’t get you again.” Eret kept their sentences simple so Tommy would better understand. Eret wasn’t too worried about parents, they’ve dealt with enough kids in the system to realize Tommy was on his own. The ‘last home’ part of his introduction is what truly gave that away.

Tommy’s expression changed slightly at the mention of monsters, something akin to fear flashed across his face, his childish ramblings didn't resume instead he seemed to consider what Eret said before he looked up at them and said, in the most serious voice he could muster, “You promise no more monsters? Ever again?”

Eret’s heart shattered, at that moment all they wanted to do was make sure this kid never had to face another monster, no matter how inevitable it seemed, “Never.” they promised and held out their hand for Tommy to grab so the half-goat could lead him back to Camp Half-Blood, where he’d be safe.

The little boy placed his much smaller hand in Erets and with that, they were off, back towards the airport.

Hours later, after a long flight and a drive, Eret stood in front of Camp Half-Blood’s activity director, Captain Puffy with a sleeping Tommy on their back. 

“He was the source of all that power?” Puffy asked incredulously. Her eyes not meeting Eret’s white ones but instead going to the shaggy hair just visible past Eret’s shoulder.

Eret’s face was solemn as they responded, “Yeah, I found him alone in an alley, The kid had obviously had something after him based on the state of the place, not to mention the dozens of scrapes and bruises.”

“And he’s unclaimed? Do we know what sort of power he has?” Puffy asked with a growing concern for the sleeping child.

Eret nodded silently, “Some sort of invisibility, I don’t know the extent of it but that’s the gist of it.”

Puffy had a frown that wouldn’t leave her face as she thought over the new information Eret provided, “I have no idea what god he could possibly get that from, but for now, I guess we’ll stick him in the Hermes Cabin until he’s claimed.” Puffy decides with a sigh.

“Drop him off there, have one of the older kids look after him while he sleeps, make sure they don’t wake him, looks like he could use the rest,” She said softly, giving the kid one last look before continuing, “I’ll let Schlatt know Tommy’s arrived, though I doubt he’ll care much and then I’ll start on his file.”

Eret responded with a short nod, walking slowly as they left so they didn't wake Tommy. The little boy was in desperate need of a shower (Bath? Eret wasn’t sure if Tommy was even old enough for showers.) and maybe a good meal, but for now they’ll let Tommy rest in the cabin that was slowly coming closer as Eret made their way over.

Tommy opened his eyes slowly, trying to remember falling asleep and the events leading up to it as he sat up and looked around an unfamiliar room. 

He was in an alley, there was some- something following him, trying to hurt him, and he disappeared like he did when he left the home, and then the monster left, and then-

Eret! Where was Eret? Did they leave him alone? Were they actually a kidnapper!? Where was he? He followed Eret to-to a plane, and then Tommy must have fallen asleep cause now he’s in this weird room with a lot of beds and another boy- wait… another boy?

Tommy looked at the boy curiously, he looked like he was a couple of years older than Tommy and had black hair that was mostly covered by a navy beanie and he was wearing a bright orange t-shirt that had words on it that Tommy didn’t know how to read. Looking at the boy’s face his blue eyes met brown ones. 

Suddenly the boy smiled widely, “Hi!” he said a little too loudly to be a proper volume when indoors, “I’m Quackity, Eret said I couldn’t wake you up, so I had to be quiet but now we can be loud as we want.” Quackity said happily. Tommy rubbed the sleep out of his eyes before responding.

“Where’s Eret?” Tommy asked, his voice way too meek for his own liking, he wasn’t a small man he was a big- no HUGE man, he never gets scared because he’s a huge man.

“Oh I think they’re with Puffy right now, so they’re busy, but you can hang out with me while you wait, I have some cool action figures we can play with, you can even pick which one you wanna use first,” Quackity responded happily, grabbing a blue backpack that had some cartoony figures on it. Inside the bag were more toys than Tommy had owned throughout his entire life and he happily excepted when Quackity put the bag in front of him so he could pick one of the many toys.

Later Eret would come back to see Tommy happily shouting as his action figure attacked Quackity’s, and Eret swore by the River Styx that they would always protect the little boy they found in an alleyway.

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There were many things Tommy didn't understand, after all, he was four so it was only logical he didn’t understand everything. Although this time Tommy thinks that even big kids would have a hard time understanding what the adults in front of him were telling him.

Tommy had never even heard of greek mythology before, now he’s being told that one of his parents is a god? like a super-powerful person that lives forever? Tommy was confused, but he figured it was one of those things that grown-ups would say he’s too young to understand then yell at him when he tries to ask more questions so he just nodded his head and went to take a shower when Eret asked him to. 

Most kids his age would probably still be taking baths but Tommy was a big kid- no, a big man, so he can take a shower all by himself. It wasn’t like many people would help him after he aged out of the title ‘toddler’ not to mention Tommy was naturally a very independent child who didn’t need help with things as simple as showers.

By the time Tommy came out of the shower, dressed in the same clothes he was wearing before, he realized how hungry he was and wondered how long it had been since he ate. How long has it been? It was a good question but sadly Tommy wasn’t privy to that information.

It had to have been a while since he hadn’t anything to eat before Eret had found him and still hasn’t. He couldn’t remember if he ate the day before but he probably found something small to snack on. Either way, Tommy was hungry.

Now Tommy wasn't going to ask the adults for food, gods know how that’s ended for him in the past, so Tommy does what Tommy does best: crime . Yes yes, a four-year-old boy doing crime probably isn't normal but when you’ve been living on your own you find that stealing isn't so bad when it means you actually get to, y’know, live. 

Now he just needed a plan, since he could go invisible he could easily sneak past anyone who would try to stop him from grabbing whatever he wanted, so that part was simple, the only problem was; Tommy had no idea where the food was, he needed a guide. Lucky for him he had just the man for the job. 

Tommy ran into the Hermes cabin grinning like a madman, looking around for a familiar face ignoring everyone else in the cabin as he looked for a certain black-haired eight-year-old with a navy beanie. 

While Tommy had only recently befriended Quackity within the last few hours, Tommy found himself wanting to do more stuff with the older boy so he decided to include the eccentric child in his plan, “Quackity!” he nearly yells in order to get the older’s attention, getting several stares from the older children in the cabin ranging from confused to annoyed. The boy in question, however, looked up from whatever he was doing and smiled at Tommy, gesturing him over.

“Thomás!” Quackity greets with a strange accent Tommy had never heard before but giggled at the strange pronunciation anyway, “Big Q!” Tommy says in a quiet but excited voice, “Big Q, I’m gonna do some crime.” Tommy says in his hushed excitement. 

“Crime?” Quackity questions curiously, to which Tommy responds with a nod, bouncing on the balls of his feet with pent-up energy. “What kind of crime we talking about, Tommy? You trying to get me in trouble?” he accused fakely.

“You only get in trouble if you get caught, Big Q,” Tommy assured, not quite getting that Quackity wasn't actually accusing him and dragging out his words childishly. “C’mon, let’s go!” Tommy ushered grabbing Quackity’s arm without giving the older time to accept and trying to drag him away despite being way too small to have enough strength to actually move the other boy.

Quackity laughed and complied, letting the little boy drag him outside, rambling about his plan to rob the kitchen, “They won’t even know. I’ll be super sneaky. I can get you something too! But I don’t know what’s there so I’ll just find whatever looks yummy. Can you please show me where the food is? I can’t steal when I dunno where the food is.”

Words tumbled out of Tommy’s mouth like an avalanche, the pace so quick that Quackity was concerned that the blond wasn’t getting enough air, it was kind of surprising how much the little boy’s mind could come up with and talk about.

“Tommy?” Quackity questioned from behind the little boy who was rambling about what kind of food he was hoping to scavenge, “Why don’t we just ask one of the counselors? Or Eret? I’m sure they’d give you some kind of snack while we wait for dinner if you asked.” 

Tommy was quiet for a couple of seconds, a look of consideration on his face as he thought it over, on one hand, Big Q sounded so sure that the grown-ups would listen, on the other, they never have before, why doesn’t he understand that? Adults don’t listen, they never do so why did Quackity think they would? Tommy couldn’t understand, but Tommy hasn’t been understanding a lot of things lately so maybe this was one of those things.

Ultimately Tommy decided to go with “It’s more fun stealing,” instead of providing a truthful answer.

When the boys reach the kitchens Tommy is ready to enact his plan, which is less a plan and more of a ‘be sneaky and don’t get caught’ sorta deal. There was one problem, Quackity didn’t know Tommy could turn invisible and even Tommy knew that wasn’t normal.

How would the older boy react? Eret didn’t react badly, but who’s to say quackity won’t. His worries were short-lived when Quackity said he would stand lookout while Tommy sneaked in, meaning he could disappear without worry.

Sneaking in wasn’t hard, the kitchen was empty of people, which made Tommy’s life easier as he crept cautiously towards a cabinet. Inside were some strange caramel-colored squares, Tommy peered at them curiously, they were in plastic bags and kind of look like fudge squares he had seen in the display window of a sweetshop.

He carefully grabbed the bag and pulled out a singular square, he sniffed it before taking a small bite. It tasted strange, well not really, it just seemed strange for the texture of the food. It had a familiar taste, almost sweet but not quite, it took Tommy a second to realize it tasted like the yellow apples he had received as a treat from one of his homes that he creatively referred to as gapples because they had looked gold in color. They had quickly become one of the boy’s favorite things before he had to leave that house for being too energetic.

He had quickly devoured one square before grabbing one for Quackity and zipping the bag up and placing it back where he found it. Feeling strangely full and a new boost of energy, he snuck back out of the kitchen, reappearing before going to look for his new friend again.

He found Quackity talking to Eret. Eret spotted him immediately and waved, Tommy had to suppress the urge to run, hiding the strange apple-flavored squares behind his back, doing his best to not look guilty, he approached the two. 

“Hello, Tommy.” Eret greeted softly with a kind smile that did nothing but make Tommy feel even more guilty. “I was just asking Quackity where you were.”

Tommy turned to Quackity who looked just as guilty as Tommy felt. The older didn’t say anything to Tommy so Eret spoke up once more.

“Is there something you two want to tell me?” Eret asked, it wasn't accusing which surprised Tommy, they talked like they were genuinely concerned for the boys, Tommy thought they’d be mad at him. Tommy didn’t know why he thought Eret would be angry since they didn’t even know what Tommy did, yet he expected it.

Tommy was hesitant to answer not sure what to say to avoid trouble but it didn't matter much cause Quackity answered before Tommy could form a sentence, “we were hungry so I figured since Tommy just got here we could grab some food from the kitchen.” Big Q said quietly, looking at the ground.

Eret nodded slowly, seemingly thinking over Quackity’s words before giving them an understanding hum, then looking to Tommy who was still hiding the caramel-colored squares behind his back.

“Tommy,” Eret said slowly in a voice that made it clear they were about to ask the child something, “Can you show me what you have?”

Tommy definitely did not want to do that, what if they took it away? Then he couldn’t give it to Quackity and Quackity had helped Tommy so it wouldn’t be fair if Quackity didn’t get any, but what if Eret got Upset that Tommy wasn’t listening? What would happen then?

With a few seconds of deciding, Tommy figured an upset Quackity would be easier to deal with than an upset Eret and held out the food he’d been hiding so it was visible. 

Eret gives tommy a look a little to much like pitty for tommy's liking, tommy huffed, looking down, expecting to be scolded for taking food but instead heard, “How about we grab something else from the kitchen,” eret paused “these can make you very sick if you have to much.” Eret said gently.

Now big man Tommy Innit knew a lot of things. He was smart, that's why this camp confused him so much because there are simple facts to the universe that just don't change, like how the sky was blue, or the grass is green, but suddenly there were gods and goat people and nothing made sense. Why are they so nice? Adults and even older kids just weren't nice to him. 

The older two, oblivious to the little blond boy's inner turmoil, looked at each other, Eret offering Quackity a reassuring smile, letting him know neither of them were in trouble, then looked at Tommy who was still looking down with the fudge-like square in his extended hand. Gently, Eret took the square and squatted down so they were eye level with Tommy.

"Hey, buddy," They said calmly, attempting to get the boy to look him in the eyes, "I'm not upset at you, okay? I just don't want you to get hurt."

After a few painstaking seconds Tommy looks up at Eret, glassy eyes meeting gentle one's. The boy looked one second away from crying, and Eret couldn't blame him, there was so much going on, he was probably confused and frustrated.

"Hey," Eret said softly, glancing towards Quackity who looked helplessly lost on what to do, "Hey, you're alright, I know there's a lot going on and I'm sorry you're feeling this way. No one is upset at you." Tears slid down Tommy's cheeks and before Eret had the chance to speak Tommy flung his small arms around the older's neck, leaving the satyr shocked, then they gingerly returned the hug as Tommy sniffed next to their ear. "You're alright," they said, looking towards Quackity and mouthing "Tell Puffy", the black haired boy immediately running off in the direction of the director's cabin.

A Year later and Tommy is almost unrecognizable, once quiet around anyone with authority, now no one could get the boy to be quiet. He rambles about anything and everything.

Quackity gets claimed by aphrodite and everyone is ecstatic, even Tommy though the five year old misses playing with him before lights out.

Another year goes on and a new boy with brown hair arrives, he's a little older than Tommy according to Eret and Puffy. Tommy sneaks into the infirmary excitedly barely able to keep quiet.

He tiptoed towards the cot that held a 7-year-old who was fast asleep. Tommy tapped the sleeping kid's shoulder a few times. Nothing. 

Time for Tommy to get creative. He lifted his hands to grip the cot, planting his feet firmly and started shaking the cot, after a few seconds of this the boy finally jolted awake, making Tommy stop immediately and offer a big smile. 

"What the heck-" The brunette said,  bewildered, "Who are you?"

Tommy only seemed to smile wider, "Big man Tommy Innit," he answered excitedly, already forgetting he was supposed to be quiet, "Who are you?"

The boy sat quietly for a moment, "Tubbo- Tubbo underscore."