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Tommy’s life was hell and he didn’t know it. He didn’t want to believe it. His inventory was drained every day for the past two weeks now. He had started to grow tired of being in this far away land on his own. He had started filling a chest underneath his house with items to fight back one day. He wasn’t quite sure how well it’d work out, but he had hope.
“So. Dream, any luck with the ladies recently? You probably get a lot of attention from the girls, eh? Especially with that new song of yours, ‘Mask’, truly inspirational stuff there pal.”
The only response he got was the sudden boom of the explosion underneath him. It was his things in a small hole getting blown up by his only friend Dream; this was now a daily occurrence. Tommy actually understood why Dream did this and had convinced himself he didn’t mind having to grind some more; his biggest issue with the ordeal was that every day as he heard the TNT explode under his feet, his ears would ring for just a bit longer than last time. He had begun worrying but didn’t want to say anything, he knew better than to object.
“Not much to say today big man? That’s fine, totally. Off you go now I guess, same time tomorrow?” Tommy asked, desperate to have a conversation.
Dream replied, in an unnaturally friendly tone. “Yep, I’ll be here every day to visit you, we can hang out like this more, best of friends, right?” It wasn't enough for Tommy to notice, but anyone else would catch on. Tommy didn’t care though, he needed any form of friend he could get.
Tommy gave a sigh of relief, he had gotten some iron and coal after a day in the mines. He was headed to Tnret to have a well deserved rest. As he laid down, he reminded himself he had wings. They had been getting harder to hide as his clothes had ripped more. Nobody on the server was allowed to fly, and he certainly wasn’t about to let the most powerful person on it know he had wings.
The thought of further torment from breaking the rules shook him, he had it hard enough alone out here.
He was getting tired of seeing his hard work go to waste every day and not being able to do anything about it yet. All he wanted to do was rest. He wanted to close his eyes and never open them again. Tommy tried to nap.
But he thought about Tubbo. He thought about how L’manburg was probably having a wonderful time setting up Christmas decorations, everyone was probably planning what gifts to give each other.
Tommy wanted a gift. He wouldn’t admit it to anyone but himself, but he’d do anything for a gift, and anything would work. He just wanted to be appreciated.Tommy had noticed the train of thought he was heading down and decided he would rather not think about it anymore. As much as he hated it, Tommy had to accept he wouldn’t be seeing his friends this Christmas, and he was definitely not getting a present this year. He’d be lucky if Dream threw a piece of coal at him, even then he could use it to cook some food. He slept that day imagining the reactions his friends would have if he appeared on the SMP on Christmas Day, even if only for an hour.
It was the next day. Dream had approached Tnret, towering over the boy as he was half awake.
“Just a reminder Tommy, you’re banned from the nether now too. You won’t be seeing them again, but you don’t need them, they didn’t even show up to your party. I’ll probably be here though.” Dream had said to him before disappearing.
The words echoed in his mind. ‘You won’t be seeing them again.’ Was he really not going to see them ever again? He’d broken rules before, he could break them again, just one more time.
Tommy headed to his mine. He really was alone, Mexican Dream had died and Ghostbur was missing, all he could do to spend the time was collect materials for his secret chest until it was ready, until he was ready. He swung his pickaxe and yelled at some people through his communicator, it was his only form of company.
Back at his house, Tommy got to bed and tried his best to sleep. He started to feel anxious. Was he really going to be able to fight back? What would happen if he failed? Would he be punished by losing his last life? Tommy tossed and turned before deciding he was too fed up with his own thoughts.
He got up and grabbed a wooden bowl, then headed straight to one of his only companions, Mushroom Henry.
“So Mushroom Henry, what’s on the menu?”
...
“I don’t know what I expected” Tommy got his mushroom soup and sat at his bed.
Am I gonna die here? He thought. Perhaps the exile was for life, but is burning down George’s house deserving of a life sentence? It was a funny prank, Ranboo participated in it too. He must’ve thought the same. He even burned it down with him.
Ranboo burnt it down with him. How come he wasn’t punished like this? It was the same crime, even with Tommy’s past behaviors Ranboo should’ve gotten punished. It wasn’t fair. Does he deserve to live like this? Why did Tommy always get the short end of the stick? Why couldn’t he just cause chaos as he pleased?
Maybe that one’s up for discussion but he was still just a kid. All Tommy wanted was to be home, even if it was just to look around and see everyone. He didn’t want to be alone, he hated it more than anything.
Tommy clenched his fists, wanting to slam something in rage. Why couldn’t Tommy just live a normal life? Why did everything have to end in him getting either traumatized or killed?
He wanted to hit something. The walls of his house were weak, the last thing he wanted was to sleep in the cold in the middle of nowhere. Without thinking, his fist went straight for his head. He felt the pain of the hit, but then, Tommy felt an unexpected odd sense of relief. He hit himself again. Not wanting to feel the pain immediately, he hit again instantly, then again, and again, about four times before slamming his head against the wall. There it was again, the relief. After a while it didn’t outweigh the pain, but just in that moment, he felt amazing.
Letting his anger out calmed him down, but his head was feeling numb and his hands were hurting a bit. Tommy wished he could just let it all out on himself until he couldn’t feel it anymore. Tommy contemplated for a second, immediately deciding not to. A sound sleep sounded better.
Tommy plopped back on his bed and finally slept. Tomorrow was a new day, but the same things were going to happen, again and again. He dreaded it, but still looked out for the day he could fight back.
Tommy had awakened, grabbed a bowl of mushroom soup and waited for Dream to arrive. He sipped quietly as he watched all his newly gained materials get blown up right beneath him. He could barely even hear Dream due to the ringing, but it only lasted so long. So far, it was just standard procedure. He was fed up with it, though. Tommy had decided he was going to see his friends, his family, at least one more time.
He felt determined, powerful, he felt excited for what felt like the first time in weeks. He was going to fucking kill Dream. Tommy’s wings opened in excitement at the thought of getting back at Dream, he wanted more than ever to just slash his face right then.
“Whatcha got there, Tom?” Dream asked in a friendly voice, he put it on when he talked to Tommy, he needed to act like his friend because he knew he was all Tommy had.
Tommy felt a shiver down his spine. Fuck. His wings. Tommy didn’t notice his wings spreading, he closed them as quickly as he could. Fuck. Tommy needed to think of something.
Dream coughed to get Tommy’s attention. “Not sure if you heard me. I asked; what are you hiding?”
“Oh, uhh, Mushroom soup? Y’know Dream honestly you might wanna get your eyes checked. Actually, how the hell do you even see through that mask?! You’re a fucking weirdo” Tommy responded, his voice shaking. Not the best choice of words but Tommy didn’t really care, he was panicking.
Play it cool, Tommy told himself. He tried to convince himself Dream suspected nothing. Everything was going to be alright.
“Don’t lie to me Tom. Don’t worry about it, you can show me anything. I’m your best friend, you can trust me.”
Tommy didn’t notice, but he was shaking. Dream knew he was hiding something.
“I-it’s nothing Dream, you should just stop caring about it and go ominously disappear into the woods like you always do.” Tommy was desperate to get out of this. Dream stepped closer to him, his hand reaching to his sword’s handle.
“Woah woah woah what’re you doing Dream? We’re friends right? No need to start getting that out.”
Tommy got no response. He was scared. Tommy wanted to do something, Dream was getting closer and there was no sign of him stopping.
“You’re going to show me what you’ve got there, Tom. You know you can't hide anything from me.” The friendly tone in his voice was less convincing. Dream was going to find what Tommy was hiding behind him whether Tommy liked it or not.
Tommy had to say something.
“Getting a bit close there pal, c--calm down. I-” Tommy was stuttering. He was visibly shaking.
Dream put his hand on Tommy’s shoulder.
“Turn.”
Tommy did as he was told, not wanting to know what would happen if he didn’t comply. Tommy let them spread, the bright red wings made two holes in his shirt to stick out of. Dream inspected them, seeing how tough the feathers were and how big they were. They were rather small, about half the size of his father Philza’s.
Dream faced Tommy, his tone no longer friendly, and his friend act gone.
“So, why are you hiding these from me, Tom?”
Tommy was frozen
“Tom, answer me. What’s wrong? Were you going to use these to fly back? Y'know you can’t go back. You’re stuck here until further notice, and I doubt there’ll be any.”
In a desperation to defend himself he responded.
“They’re not even strong enough to let me fly. They’re a bit embarrassing actually, no need to worry about me going back. I don’t even want to go back.” Tommy was a horrible liar and it was clear. Dream took a while to process his next move. He wanted to teach Tommy a lesson, and one that’ll stick.
“Dre-?” Tommy asked nervously before being cut off by a sudden blow to the legs, he fell face down and had no time to think about what to do. Dream had him pinned down, his foot on his back and sword to Tommy’s neck. Tommy groaned, barely coming to his senses.
“What the fuck are you doing Dream?!” Tommy screamed. He struggled but was no
match. He was panicking, squirming to get him off.
“I don’t believe that they’re ‘not strong enough to fly’. These give you a chance to go home. I can’t allow that. To serve as a warning, I’ll be removing them.”
Tommy had to take a moment to process what Dream said. Remove them? Now? How? There was no way he could just yank them out, right?
Tommy felt his wings being grabbed. They were getting pulled. In that split second of realization, he felt his life flash before him. All of his friends in L’manburg. Everyone he knew that was a part of the Dream SMP. They’d help him right now, if they saw him. Right?
Then Dream started pulling. And Tommy started screaming. He couldn’t stop screaming. Dream’s pull started getting stronger and he couldn’t do anything but struggle. He had to get out. His wings might’ve been useless but he’d rather not be plucked.
Dream kept pulling, but the feathers interrupted his grip on the wings. Dream wanted Tommy to remember this, so he started pulling feathers. He grabbed them in handfuls and ripped them off, pushing Tommy’s head into the dirt to muffle his screams. Pulling the feathers left only bare wings, easier to grab for pulling.
Tommy was defeated. This was his lowest point. But he deserved this, right? His only thoughts while getting smothered and tortured were of what he did to get to this point. Nobody on this server was treated like this. Surely he deserved this, somehow, someway, this was what the world needed.
But, was he really this awful? Was his destiny to be kicked around by useless adults and be a puppet to a bunch of idiots? Probably. Hemust’ve deserved this. Of course he did. He had to be the reason for his own exile. If you go far back enough, Tommy helped Wilbur start L’manburg. It was all his fault.
Tommy was still screaming, he was reminded of the pain. No amount of screaming could help it go away but he screamed anyway. Not long after, one of the wings was out. Tommy was bleeding heavily and was completely exhausted. It was still midday and Dream wasn’t done with Tommy. Although one other wing was still left, Dream was feeling a little bad after hearing Tommy nearly die underneath his foot for about a half hour.
“I’ll let you off easy Tom.” Dream said to Tommy’s limp body. Unsure if he could hear him, Dream decided to slice off the other wing in silence. He got out his sword, Nightmare. Tommy could still hear him, and he could only barely open his eyes to see it. He snickered at the name.
‘What an edgelord’ Tommy thought, still in immense pain.
What Dream found odd was that he did, infact, slice off the other wing in silence. Tommy didn’t scream this time. He just lay there, eyes dry of tears and mouth tired of screaming. Dream didn’t want Tommy dead so he quickly put some cloth on the wound. He left Tommy’s base and ominously disappeared into the woods, like he always did.
Tommy woke up a few hours later, it was night now and he was getting cold. He struggled to get up, but managed to just barely balance himself. His back was in indescribable pain still, so al he could do was collapse onto his bed and cry.
The next day, Tommy woke up and didn’t know what to do. Dream’s plan worked, he had no motivation to go home anymore. Dream had shown how much control he had, and he was going to come around in a bit to show it some more. As he walked outside, he noticed some raindrops starting to fall. Great, perfect weather to compliment his day. A quick eye roll and a sigh later, he went to Mushroom Henry to get his breakfast. He yelped as a sharp pain went down his spine, he wasn’t used to this.
Dream had shown up a while later, neither of them said a word. He left a stack of steak on Tommy’s bed, he wasn’t sure how quickly Tommy was going to heal and he’d prefer it’d be quick as to continue the friendly act he had been using. He left as quickly as he appeared, Tommy’s health was less concerning than Techno’s execution that he had to stop later that day.
Tommy was alone now. He needed time to heal, he was lucky to have been stacking up on resources. He’d throw out Dream’s ‘pity steak’, he didn’t want his help. He thought about all of his friends again, none of them came to help him. None of them showed up to his exile party. Tommy realized how alone he was. Was it worth living, like this?
Tommy had spent the day doing nothing. He was miserable, he wanted to see someone that wasn’t that green bitch Dream. But he knew he couldn’t do anything about it. That fact got to him more as exile went on. He wanted to see someone that actually cared, he wanted to be loved. Tommy wanted to rebel but he knew it would just bring more pain to him. Perhaps his Christmas gift to the world could be getting rid of himself, maybe then everyone’s problems could go away. He got out of his house to get some soup. His energy was too low to do anything else. As he sat on his bed eating cold mushroom soup with his wings torn off, he decided this wasn’t how he wanted to live. He decided he didn’t want to even try at a better life at this point. Nobody even liked him, nobody was going to care.
He’d gotten about a half stack of TNT. He knew if he was going to go out, he’d leave a mark. After getting Mushroom Henry to a safe biome for him to frolic, Tommy laced all of Logstedshire with TNT and placed a single lever that was connected to it all. He stood outside of the wooden walls, bracing himself for the detonation. He reflected on Logstedshire, thankful he’ll be the one to get rid of this place.
Tommy pulled the lever, but he immediately noticed he was still in Logstedshire. The first thing he could think to do was build up.
“Fuckfuckfuckfuckfuck SHIIIIT”
He built up as fast as he could, but he was running out of blocks. Only a couple blocks above the explosions, Tommy watched as his house, chests, and farm got blown up. He sat on his floating pillar of dirt. He blew up his home, now time for the next part of the plan. With the few blocks he had, Tommy began building higher. He wasn’t sure if the fall would kill him, he hoped to Prime it would, though.
As he stood high atop the rubble of his home and overviewed the place he’d hated living in for what felt like the longest time, Tommy felt free. None of it mattered to him anymore, it was behind him. As the rain fell and dripped down his face, he smirked.
He whispered, “I’m just like you now, Wil.”
With nothing left to say, an accomplished Tommy stared down at the grounds beneath him. Flashbacks to all those time in the nether where he could have jumped so much sooner played in his head. It was time to act upon that urge, it seemed.
Tommy took a step forward.
He was falling.
Tommy closed his eyes, hoping the impact would be enough to end his story there.
As he fell, Tommy noticed he was falling straight up. In a panic, too close to the ground, he braced for impact. This was not gonna feel good.
A loud cracking noise was made, followed by an agonizing scream.
But there was no one near to help, and all he could do was yell as he laid on the ground for help just in case someone would come.
The pain was unbearable, he wanted the relief of death to come quicker. He remembered a few nights ago he hit his head for relief, and he needed some of that right now. He stopped screaming to slam his head against the ground. He hoped to pass out and skip the suffering, but it wasn’t working. Tommy felt relief after the pain, like last time. His vision was getting blurrier now, and he was losing focus despite the pain in his legs still tormenting him. He laid down and hoped it would all be over soon.