Work Text:
Tommy awoke in his cozy bed, birds chirping outside of his dirt home. He had a lot of plans today, all of which included the necessary action of avoiding the existence of an angry goddess. He had no way of knowing, but the part of him that dreaded getting out of bed also suggested in the back of his mind that the goddess wouldn’t be very happy upon hearing her dog had been killed.
To be fair, Tommy hadn’t actually hit the pet, but a few people in their little group had and Drista was bound to blame him for not preventing it. Why yell at a random person when you can yell at someone you’ve known to be destructive? But Tommy didn’t really mind, as afraid as he was that the goddess would strike him down one day, the few times they spent together had been genuinely fun. Of course, life was fun when you shared time with a deity that has access to creative mode and an entirety of life at her fingertips.
But despite the fun they had, he didn’t believe that an angry immortal being with access to the mentioned creative mode was something he found fun. And based on her past actions, he cringed at the thought of her being mad.
When he fumbled through his unorganized chests, he didn’t even reach for his armor. Half because he didn't care enough to sort through it, and half because the old L'manburg rules still fit in his mind. It was a habit now to not wear armor, especially with the addition of his time in exile when he was forced without it.
He was still recovering from the effects of pain that occurred after his revival, but putting on armor seemed like an even heftier wound that he could never convince himself to overcome. Yeah, he had acquitted himself with the necessary protection during a dangerous battle because not doing so was reckless, but when it wasn’t needed, he refrained from putting on the material. It was such a cold metal for being found in the pits of hell. Or maybe that was the imprinting of Dream’s looming netherite figure that made his mind panic at the sight of it. He pushed the thought aside, he had to get wood to rebuild his house.
When the sun laid its gentle hands on his skin, he figured that a smile would present itself on his face. But one hadn’t. He wasn’t smiling, rather being reminded of the conflict that had slowly placed itself in his thoughts. Through the duration of his birthday party, which his married best friends had prepared with ice cream and a cake, and through Tubbo’s, where he and Ranboo had prepared a picnic with Michael, -- might Tommy add that he still hadn’t gotten over the whole adopted son thing -- the issue still remained.
Quackity’s question still remained: had Wilbur really changed for the better?
Tommy seemed to catch onto small lies here and there. They were ones he probably wouldn’t have caught if he had not matured even a little since L’manburg’s end. But they were also ones that hinted towards Wilbur’s old corrupted self. Wilbur had claimed that he no longer knew about TNT or explosives to Quackity, and yet he had given a perfect analysis of how Purple’s spaceship was blown up.
None of that mattered though. Wilbur was practically his brother. They had been together for so long and he had offered a place to create together. Part of him didn’t exactly trust him, but the other felt fairly safe, relying on his actions. When Wilbur was alive, Dream had never truly bothered him, at least never to the point it was after Wilbur had died.
He was conflicted so he relied on building his house to distract him from having to think on the matter further. It may have been ignorant bliss, a part of his day without stressing over life, but sometimes the bliss was good. Sometimes.
Green flickered at the corner of his eye. His heart raced when he made out the sight of a smiling mask. Fear was struck into his chest at the thought of Dream escaping along with many questions. How was he out? Where was Sam? Who let him out? But upon further glancing he realized the green jacket had actually belonged to Drista and the mask was not the menacing unmoving eyes but rather ones lifted in delight.
Her blond hair was lifted in a ponytail, swaying side to side as she rose her duel-wielding netherite swords and impaled them into his chest, “Tommy, why the hell did you kill my dog?!”
Only it didn’t hurt too much, the sign of regeneration keeping him alive.
“Where did you get knives!” He yelled, slowly backing up with the wood and masking his surprise with a fake smile, “Hi Drista.”
“Why did you do that?” She inquired, referring to her dog.
He suppressed a laugh, humor as a way to make situations better was definitely not going to make this better, “Oh no, please stop pointing knives at me.”
“Why did you kill him?”
Drista, the goddess of chaos, was definitely a lot scarier when she was pointing knives at an armorless mortal.
“I didn’t kill him, it was a group assault!” He defended, trying to get more wood for his home, “Actually, that probably doesn’t sound the best.”
“It was your fault!” She accused.
“It wasn't my idea, I was a passerby. Go argue with Foolish or Sapnap, he's killed a lot of pets in his time!”
Without a reaction, her mask bore into him.
“Do you want to help me cut wood?”
It was a lighthearted attempt, but he knew it wouldn’t make her happy.
“No.”
“Can I have wood?” He offered a smile.
And he was received with another swipe of her sword, “No you can’t have wood.”
“Stop, Stop!” He complained. He didn’t appreciate being stabbed with knives, even if he did have regeneration. She stopped the attack but still held a threatening gaze.
“Look, I know I probably could’ve done more to stop them,” he sighed, starting again when Drista raised her weapon, “But! But it all happened so fast and I didn’t have enough time to realize what was happening before he died.”
“Tommy, I saw what happened, you could’ve stopped them,” she countered.
“Sorry, I’m not a god! If you saw what happened, why didn’t you stop them?”
“Because they wouldn’t let me.”
Tommy paused, “Who is ‘they?’”
“Nevermind that, I’m leaving. I don’t want to be around you ever again,” she complained, an unknown green substance similar to that of the nether portal started to accumulate off of her. Tommy had seen it before back during exile when she was departing.
“Wait! Don’t leave!” He rushed for something to say that would be enough for an apology, “I’m sorry it happened, really.”
She stopped whatever spell or command she was casting, waiting for him to say more.
Tommy sat on the grass, looking at the ground, “I had a pet cow named Henry. He meant a lot to me even after Sapnap killed him. Then I realized he was actually alive because Dream wanted him for control but then he died again when Ranboo and I tried to save him but that's beside the point. I understand how it feels to lose an animal that you have a lot of attachment to and while that doesn’t give enough for me to completely understand how you feel, I really am sorry.”
She laid down in the grass beside him, making Tommy follow her actions and lay on the ground with her.
“I accept your apology, mostly.”
They fell into a silence that Tommy wouldn’t quite describe. It wasn’t entirely comfortable because he still felt on edge, but the breeze that drifted through the hill and the distant sounds of Las Nevada's chattering centered him.
"He meant a lot to me," She sighed. "Even being a supreme power, I've never had a pet before. They can't live where I go when I'm not here."
“What is it like being a goddess?”
Tommy looked at the clouds. If he were a god, he would probably dedicate a whole nation to his friends and encase Dream in bedrock. Not for his own sake, he would be too powerful for Dream to even touch him, but for the safety of so many others that could be hurt because of him.
“Boring,” she sighed, “being stuck in the divine realm is much more lifeless than this realm.”
“Then why don’t you just stay here?”
“DreamXD won’t let me,” she complained, “He's such a dick.”
“Who?”
“Another deity. They won’t let me interact with this world much because I’m so young.”
Tommy laughed, “Holy shit I’m older than the goddess Drista.”
“You’d be a baby if you were a god,” she rolled her eyes, “Just because I’m fourteen doesn’t mean I’m not still eons older than you.”
“No!” He answered, “My number is larger and therefore I am older than you.”
She ignored his antics, “The restrictions are just annoying.”
“Aren’t you known for your chaos? You literally used bedrock to write your name.”
“Yeah but XD gave a mushroom hybrid a full set of netherite armor and weapons before. If anything, he threatens to taint this realm more than anyone else has.”
“You should give me one of the Drista Daggers!”
She lifted it, blocking the sun. With a single snap, the sword held the name of which Tommy had labeled it, “You know what? Yeah, here.”
“Wait, really!?” Tommy yelled. He held it in his hand, excited.
“Why not?”
He pocketed the weapon. It was definitely going in his ender chest later.
“So he finally allowed you to come down then?” Tommy asked.
“I probably shouldn’t be telling you this, but it’s not entirely our say in whether we can shift realms.” She sounded like a teacher trying to explain some complex theory to their student. “For some reason, our souls connect with other souls easier. A deity normally wouldn’t be able to change worlds, just like a human can’t. However, when a mortal subconsciously calls for help or guidance and the deity also desires to go to that realm? That is when the shift can happen. But it only occurs whenever certain connections are made, explaining why only you can really summon me and why DreamXD only replies to his mortal.”
Tommy let the information sit, “So you only connect with one person?”
She nodded.
“That’s so fucken cool man. What made you connect to me?”
“For you, I could feel your desire for an end. You needed something or someone to be around and I just wanted to have some fun.”
And it all made sense. She came to him during exile. Through his tired and depressed thoughts, she had shown up out of the blue to give a sort of distraction. It hadn’t cured his life, but it sure gave a little boost. He would’ve yelled at her for not helping him or warning him while he was being manipulated as she sat back and watched, but she had already explained her limited interaction with the world so he saw no need to complain about something set in stone.
Tommy smiled, "Does that mean I can call upon you all the time?"
She frowned, "Tommy I'm not someone you can call along like that Ranboo guy or Tubbo. As much as I like coming here, it does become draining after too long."
"Oh. I guess that makes sense."
Another small pause passed and the wind picked up, rushing through the leaves.
“I hope today helped whatever you’re going through.” She offered words so genuine that it almost hurt. “You reached out to me even after you killed my dog. There was obvious restraint that made it harder to come here because you were so reluctant to interact after Bruno died, but some other conflict must have summoned me.”
The conversation with Quackity once again rang throughout his head.
She turned her head to face him, mask staring back, “DreamXD said that nothing physically bad happened, so what are you so concerned with?”
“It’s more of an emotional turmoil,” he answered, “but it’s fine. I’ll figure it out soon, not really something a goddess can help.”
She acknowledged his response with a faint hum before sitting back up and offering a gloved hand, “How about we do something fun before I have to go?”
He sat up as well, the sun now halfway through the sky, “What do you have in mind?”
In the palm of her extended hand, explosives that he could only recognize from the destruction of L’manburg floated into existence, “Let’s go blow some shit up.”
Tommy screamed, another way his humor manifested, “This time can we make a fort of invisible blocks too?”
With the nod of her head and the sway of her ponytail, the two were off to do it as both a way of distraction and fun. It was a dangerous combo really, the goddess of chaos and the problem child. His house remained unfinished, half of the needed wood still formed a forest.
“You’ll return after all of this is over? This won’t be our last time?”
Tommy was still hesitant about the dog issue, so he figured one last question would be enough to set his mind at ease.
“Of course. As I said, it gets boring in the divine realm.”