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A small wooden room on the first floor of a wooden house was Michael’s life. He had his chicken, and cake, and occasionally his parents would visit him. There was not much he remembered from his previous life. He knew he and his chicken were adopted from the Nether, but he didn’t know anything other than that.
Papa was his favourite. He was smaller so when Michael looked up, it didn’t hurt his neck so much. Papa also had horns that grew from under his hair and a scar. Michael was told it was from a bad man they had fought against but Papa won and now the bad man won’t hurt them anymore. Papa liked to tell him stories about a place called L’Manburg. He wanted to visit L’Manburg one day.
Dada was his taller parent. He was so tall that he always hurt his head because of the low roof. But it was okay because Michael would pat his head afterward and give him a slice of cake. Dada could make more cake out of cake! It was so cool! He would also let him ride on his shoulders! The world looked so small from up there!
But his favourite, his very favourite, besides for his parents, was his uncle.
Uncle Tommy didn’t visit them often. He was very busy, his parents told him, with his new business and being a hero. But whenever Uncle Tommy visited, they would go outside! They would go out and visit his hotel and Tommy would tell him everything about how he got the materials and Sam Nook, the nice robot, built the hotel for him! Sometimes they would go and cause some mischief but no one was ever mad at them, not when Michael looked at them with puppy eyes and smiled his bright smile. They would end up letting them go with a warning but Uncle Tommy would just end up saying some words and then they would leave laughing.
That was another thing. He still was bad at English. His tongue was just unable to say the difficult words. But Uncle Tommy could speak Piglin! He didn’t know how he learnt that and when he asked about it, Uncle Tommy seemed sad and instead of answering the question, he taught him some nice words in English! He could say Fuck, Pog and Girlfriend now! Papa had looked at Uncle Tommy with a glare when he said Fuck. He still didn’t know why though.
Uncle Tommy was sad often. Michael didn’t like that. Being sad hurt Dada and he didn’t want Uncle Tommy to be hurt. So whenever he saw Uncle Tommy being sad, Michael would give him a piece of cake, wrap a blanket around him and give him a book to read out for him. Then Uncle Tommy won’t be sad anymore and instead read to Michael and he did the funny voices thing and instead of saying the actual people’s names, he said his own! And Uncle Tommy was always the hero in those stories! And Uncle Tommy is a hero in reality as well! He was just that pog!
Oh and he was also always very warm! It was like he was the sun! Michael didn’t see the sun often, but when he did, it was always very warm and made him feel better. His room in Snowchester was very cold and he didn’t have the best clothes so he liked to huddle in his bed. But Uncle Tommy was warm and he felt like home and Michael liked to cuddle with him. And Uncle Tommy liked cuddling with him and telling him other great stories about people he didn’t know.
Sometimes he talked about his family. But whenever he did that, his eyes seemed to go very far away and Michael didn’t know if he liked that look, so he patted him on his head whenever that happened. That usually would cause Uncle Tommy to shake out of it and smile at him with a sweet smile and say sorry. That was ok because Uncle Tommy was still the sun in his eyes.
But soon Uncle Tommy didn’t visit anymore. He was gone for a week! Michael didn’t understand why but Dada said that Uncle Tommy was super busy with his hotel and Michael believed him. Sometimes grownups will be busy and that was ok so long Uncle Tommy didn’t forget about him.
Instead, his grandpa and other uncle (?) came to visit him. They brought cake and while Michael didn’t like his other uncle too much, he was not warm like Uncle Tommy, his grandpa was very nice and he was warm and the coolest! He had wings! His wings were hurt but he had wings! Maybe if Michael wished hard enough, he could get wings.
But one day, a week after Uncle Tommy disappeared, his Papa and Dada came home. Papa was smiling a lot but there was so much hurt in his eyes. Dada looked like he wanted to cry but he was silent as Papa talked to him. Michael didn’t understand what happened but he knew that he didn’t like the hurt so he was listening to his parents.
A day later, he asked Dada why he was so sad. There were scars underneath his eyes and Michael knew that that meant that he had cried. He didn’t like his Dada crying. But Dada just told him that Uncle Tommy had been hurt very very badly and that was why he hadn’t been visiting lately.
This was a shock to Michael. Uncle Tommy never got hurt! He usually got up immediately when he was hurt by someone, like the mean Egg people. But he always got up and protected Michael no matter what! So hearing that Uncle Tommy was hurt, Michael really wanted to visit him but Dada kept saying no.
So one day, Michael snuck out. He went outside his wooden room on his own to look for Uncle Tommy! He first went to the hotel because it was one of the only places he knew. At the hotel, he saw Sam Nook again but there was a different guy! He was very green and had four… feet? He was like a centaur in those pog Greek books!
Michael walked up to them and tugged at his tail. The centaur turned around to look at him and when he saw Michael, he asked him why he was there. He seemed tired. Michael still couldn’t speak English so he instead motioned to the hotel and said pog. The centaur laughed before telling him to be careful of strangers, whatever that is. Michael just huffed before pointing to Sam Nook before trying to somehow say Tommy. Only a “my” came out but apparently it was enough to make the centaur very sad because he shook his head and said something about Tommy not being there. The answer was enough to satisfy him though. Uncle Tommy was not here then. He waved to the centaur before going to walk around.
Next he came to Uncle Tommy’s small dirt hut. But when he knocked at the door and instead of Uncle Tommy, one of the mean Egg people opened the door. Uncle Tommy had said that they were dangerous. So before the cat could even say a word, he was up and running from him.
His last stop was a huge crater in the ground covered with glass and weird red vines coming from the middle of it, surrounding a flag. He recognised it as flag of L’Manburg. It used to be on Uncle Tommy’s coat. He really liked this country. He wanted to get on the glass but when he did, he was swooped up. It scared him. Maybe it was a bad man! So he tried to bite the person but instead he heard soft sobs. When he turned around to see the person, he could see his Papa holding him while sobbing. He didn’t like the tears so he reached up to wipe them away but this only made Papa cry more.
Michael didn’t know what to do, so he just held onto Papa until he stopped crying and they went back home to Snowchester. In Snowchester, Dada looked stressed but once he saw them, he hugged the both of them very close. Michael could smell the burning in the air but he still cuddled closer to Papa and Dada. This would be his last trip to the outside for a long time.
But he still hadn’t found Uncle Tommy.
That was, until Uncle Tommy suddenly came to Snowchester one day. Michael hugged him tightly. He had missed him so much.
But Uncle Tommy wasn’t as warm anymore, his blue eyes were a bit lighter and he had a white streak in his hair. He was scared of being hurt as well. He flinched at the smallest sounds and he couldn’t see potatoes anymore. But he was back! He was back and he continued telling Michael more stories even if his eyes were always looking from the left to the right like he was expecting to get hurt by someone. He still laughed though! He still laughed at Papa’s jokes and he still yelled at Dada.
Uncle Tommy was so different but he was still the same. When he asked him about that, he just said that someone named Dream was a very very bad man and Michael should never trust him. He knew that name. Dada sometimes whispered it whenever he went out of the house in the middle of the night with purple eyes. But Uncle Tommy didn’t seem to like him so he stayed silent about that, instead enjoying having his uncle back.
The next time they were outside, they were a lot more careful. Uncle Tommy carried him most of the time, “so he wouldn’t get hurt”, and they went to the big crater. They sat in silence for a long time before Uncle Tommy spoke to him, “Michael. Do you know what this place used to be?”
Michael shook his head. No he didn’t know.
Uncle Tommy laughed before looking at the crater. “This place used to be where L’Manburg was. It was hurt very badly by the two bad men. Well three bad men. Dream was one of the bad men and he was very rude to all of us.” He let out a batted breath and Michael leaned closer to him for him to comfort him. This earned him a small smile. “Yeah they were very rude but your Papa and I fucked them up! L’Manburg is not there anymore, but they won’t be able to hurt us anymore. Especially you.”
Michael nodded excitedly at the new story and the new knowledge that his Papa was such a hero and that Uncle Tommy was living up to his title! “Pog!”
“Yeah that’s right, my little apprentice.” Uncle Tommy petted him and Michael’s smile brightened. “Pog!”
They continued to sit in silence. Michael looked to Uncle Tommy to sneak a peak at him. Uncle Tommy looked tired and there were some bags underneath his eyes. But he looked so cool in the sunlight, like the sun itself! The sun was warm and so was Uncle Tommy! He was a hero, the coolest and he got up whenever he was down! And Michael smiled as he cuddled closer to him. One day he wanted to grow up and be like Uncle Tommy!