Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“Okay, hear me out,” was probably not the best way to start proposing this idea, but in Tommy’s defense, he would likely sound insane no matter how he phrased it. It’s not like it was Tommy’s fault, anyway. This idea made perfectly good sense in his mind, but it just might not appear that way to everyone.

“I was browsing Reddit the other day,” Tommy said, which was probably also not a good way to start, “and you know how there has been a huge wave of disappearances recently, right? It’s pretty much all you see in the news nowadays. Well there have also been reports of monster sightings—“

“Tommy…” Tubbo started, sighing.

“I know, I know, it sounds crazy,” Tommy didn’t want them to start trampling this idea before he had even finished saying it. “But these reports grew in popularity when all these disappearances started, and I was doing some digging, and these reports and pictures go way back.”

Tommy dug out his phone to show Ranboo and Tubbo some blurry pictures taken in the dark of what looked like classic zombies. 

“Tommy, that's just from a movie,” Tubbo said.

He flipped to a picture of a skeleton. 

Tubbo raised an eyebrow. “Tommy, have you ever been to science class? Those things exist within the school building.”

Tommy insisted, shaking his head, “No, no the post said the skeletons moved. And look—“

He flipped to a picture of a tall black figure with purple eyes.

“Tommy, none of these are real,” Ranboo exclaimed, forcing Tommy’s phone on the table, “okay?”

Tommy huffed, “It’s just…” Okay, so maybe he should have found some more evidence, but he had expected his friends to at least hear his full story. Tommy knew for a fact he had found dumber things on the internet before. Tommy rubbed his head, sighing, and got up from the cafeteria table.

“Tommy,” Ranboo said softly. 

“It’s okay, Ranboo. I’m just going to the restroom.”

Tommy did not, in fact, go to the restroom. He went immediately to the school doors and spent about two seconds considering whether or not he was making a good decision before deciding to skip school for the rest of the day. As he slipped out of the school building, he pulled out his phone. If those idiots wouldn’t believe him, he would just have to gather proof. In fact, while he was at it, why didn’t he just prove it to the world?

That was when the idea struck, so much better than anything he had ever come up with before. He could record videos, vlogs, of his monster findings, and he could make a whole YouTube channel out of it. 

Let’s see them dispute me then.

So Tommy returned to the most reliable source of information, Reddit. Surely there must be some rumors of places nearby that were haunted. And maybe those rumors held a glimpse of truth.

He didn’t have to look for long. There was an old post that was popular about three years ago about a house with a basement that contained, you guessed it, skeletons that moved on their own.

It was the same post where he had found one of the pictures he had shown his friends. It offered a general area where the house was located, which happened to be nearby Tommy’s school, and a picture of the house, so it shouldn’t be very hard to find, he reckoned.

He drove to the area and found a house that looked exactly like the one shown in the Reddit post. Same one-story, same bricks with white paint that seems to have been chipping off for a while. He was certain that this was it. He was going to get video evidence, he would show his friends, he would show the world, and he would be revered as the person who discovered monsters. He could see it now.

Perhaps the first surprise he had was that when he rang the doorbell, he actually got a reply. A human reply. Humans lived here. Did they know that they had living skeletons in their basement?

A skinny, slightly pale man opened the door. “Huh, who are you, kid?”

“Do you have a basement?” Tommy asked.

“What kind of question is that?”

“Just yes or no. Do you have a basement?”

“What concern is it to you, kid? Yes, we have a basement. Now shoo.”

Tommy found himself grinning. “Have you ever been down there?”

The man raised an eyebrow, “Yes? We have been to our basement.”

“Did you see anything down there? Anything weird or scary?”

“Kid, why are you here? Go away if you don’t need anything.”

“Please,” Tommy tried to use his best puppy dog eyes, “just a few questions.” That got a door slammed in Tommy’s face.

Oh well, looks like it’s back to the drawing board for Tommy.

While Tommy couldn’t get any solid evidence from the house, there was also no proof that the monsters weren’t there. He just had to find another place and keep looking.

He found rumors of a park that had been decommissioned by the city after two deaths occurred there and there were reports of sightings of strange creatures in the area. The park had been reopened recently, and there haven't been any mysterious cases or monster sightings since it reopened. It wasn’t much, but it was a lead, and that was all Tommy needed. Plus, it was on public property, so there couldn’t be any rude homeowners keeping Tommy from investigating properly.

The park itself was a large clearing off a small neighborhood road. It was surrounded by a forested area on the opposite side of the road. It had a small playground, a few picnic tables, some benches sparsed throughout the park.

It was nearly empty, which considering that it’s the middle of a weekday and all the kids are at school and the adults are at work, was to be expected. Now, Tommy had no idea where to start his search, but he didn’t let that stop him. He pulled out his phone and started recording.

Hey, boys, this is TommyInnit, and on this channel, we will be investigating the existence of monsters and how they relate to phenomena including the recent uptick in disappearances in the town of L’Manberg.

Here we have Southside Park. This place was recently reopened, but for fifteen years it was closed after two little girls: Amelia, age 5, and Coraline, age 7, disappeared suddenly. The father of the two girls said he was watching them play in a sandbox when he turned around for one second and they were gone the next. He reported seeing movement in the bushes and when he went to look, he caught a glimpse of a child-like creature that was clearly far from human.

Tommy cut the camera. If he was going to make a big thing out of this he would probably want to invest in a better camera than his phone, but his phone would do for now, and Tommy definitely didn’t have the money for better equipment right now.

He started with the bushes. After all, that’s where the monster was spotted. But after half an hour of walking into random shrubbery, Tommy had no signs of monsters, and his hair was full of sticks.

However, in one place that the city had clearly tried to hide and forget about, he managed to find a wood frame. It was the remains of the old sandbox where the two girls were playing before they went missing.

Tommy pulled out his phone camera again.

After recording a short clip for the video, he checked the immediate area around the sandbox with no success. 

He sat on the grass with a sigh. This was all going so much worse than he’d expected. He thought he would’ve had a little bit of proof. Not even solid proof, just a little hint. But maybe the monsters don’t lurk in the same spot for fifteen years straight. Maybe it moved. But it might be on a lunch break or something, so maybe if he just sat here and relaxed, he would find something.

After a couple of hours, Tommy was ashamed to admit that he made a mistake. He was on the verge of falling asleep due to boredom, so he was laying down with his eyes half-closed when he finally caught a glimpse of movement. He shot up from where he was laying down and pulled out his camera at a speed that would probably nail him a far better grade in P.E. This creature was not about to get away from him.

So, update boys. I was sitting by the old sandbox, keeping an eye out for monsters, and I eventually saw something that might be what we’re looking for. If I can find it again, this time with the camera, we might have proof of the existence of monsters.

Tommy heard a growl to his left and he kept recording as he began to run past the bushes and into an area shaded by trees. Eventually, his run slowed into a jog and his jog into a light walk as he couldn’t hear anything else. Tommy cut the camera.

Maybe this whole park story was bullshit. Did Tommy just waste hours on a wild goose chase? Well, if Tommy was going to go down this whole unsolved rabbit hole, then he was going to make other people do the same. He was going to make the best video out of this story and eventually he would find proof of the existence of monsters. Mark his words.

Tommy decided that he had to rub his plan in his friends' faces.

Group Chat: Tubbo & Ranboo

Tommy: K ik yall don’t like the whole monsters idea thing but I’ve decided that I’m going to make a YouTube channel out of it

Tubbo: Wait what? Tommy where have you been???

Tubbo: Did you cut class?

Tommy: Yeah

Tubbo: Why

Tommy: For monster footage

Ranboo: Wait so did you like get any

Ranboo: Is that why you’re making a channel about it

Tommy: Well

Tommy: Not yet

Tommy: But I will

Tommy: And I can make videos out of my search

Tubbo: If there are monsters out there

Tubbo: Which there AREN’T

Tubbo: Couldn’t you get hurt if you find them

Tommy: Don’t worry Big T

Tommy: No monster could ever get me

Tubbo: Sure sure just uh talk at school tmr?

Tubbo: We were concerned when you disappeared

Tommy: Aww was Big T worried about me

Tubbo: D:<

Tommy: Kk I’ll see you then

For all Tommy’s confidence, Tubbo was right. These monsters could be dangerous. He should bring weapons in preparation. 

Another thing to add to the list of stuff he should get but definitely can’t afford after spending all his money impulsively on an aquaponic garden, the last thing he had randomly jumped on immediately after finding out about, which he had dropped after everything died within a week.

Tommy began looking through the video clips he had shot at the park. With some good editing, he could probably make a sensible video out of them.

Everything seemed normal until he was rewatching the footage from the mad scramble to find the monster. Something he must have missed while he was running or something that looks incredibly strange out of context in a video. But the more Tommy looked at it, the more convinced he was that he might have found what he was looking for.

It looked mostly human-shaped, but it was green and looked extremely deformed.

He would have to point it out in the video. There was certainly potential to this idea, and it had Tommy fully back on board the whole monsters-are-real train.

Tommy decided he would have to frame the channel as more of looking into the rumors surrounding certain places, rather than a straight-out monster hunt. Purely for the sake of viewer retention of course. After all, who knew how long it would take to get solid evidence. Tommy was in this for the long run.

And with his mind made up, Tommy left the park, unaware of the eyes that followed him.

***

As it turns out, monster hunting was not a good enough excuse to keep Tommy from being grounded when he returned home to parents asking why he had missed all his afternoon classes.

Tommy could care less until he realized that meant he would have to spend tomorrow plus the entire weekend unable to explore more haunted places. Thankfully, he managed to negotiate to do extra chores instead until he realized that that would also suck and wrinkled his nose in displeasure but begrudgingly accepted the punishment without any extra fuss.

Tommy was really looking forward to sitting down, editing this first video together, and actually creating the YouTube channel.

Tommy was up until 3 AM but it was worth it because at the end of the night he had a full video ready. It would probably be a good idea to give it a look over in the morning after he’d gotten some sleep and Tommy almost managed to just go along with that wise plan before he decided that he was too excited to get the video out there. 

He pressed the upload button and left it at that.

Tommy woke up in the morning and checked the video. It had garnered an impressive total of zero views. That wasn’t very surprising; it had been out for like five hours, maybe, on a brand new channel. Surely, it would get better eventually. It would just take some work.

Tommy quickly got ready, packed his bags, and left for school.

School was calm for maybe two minutes before he was ambushed by his friends. 

“Hey, Tommy,” Ranboo greeted cheerfully, “You done with the longest bathroom trip in existence?”

“Yeah, that was one big shit. Not me skipping school or anything,” Tommy said.

“Yeah, yeah, sure, that sounds about right,” Ranboo said, “Now Tommy, I was thinking about some things and I was wondering if maybe I could join you on your ‘monster hunts’ sometimes. I don’t know, maybe I'm just a little curious.”

Tommy’s jaw dropped, “I mean if you insist on joining me on the coolest monster hunts ever, I guess that could be fine.”

Tubbo suddenly jumped in, “Wait you’re both going for this. I mean I don’t think monsters exist, but if you’re already going to be staking them out for hours, I guess I could join and hang out. I could be like the channel skeptic or something. If you want.”

Tommy smiled. He didn’t know how he had managed to wrangle both of his friends on board this idea, but he had done it.

This was going to be great.

Chapter Text

Tubbo let out a sigh. This was going to be terrible.

Tubbo cursed whatever internet rabbit hole had led Tommy to this conclusion, and especially whatever demon must have possessed Ranboo to get him to go along with this horrible plan. Tubbo rubbed his forehead. Ranboo was supposed to be the sensible one, not the one to encourage Tommy to go on these searches which could put them in highly dangerous situations.

It wasn’t that either of them knew how dangerous it would be, but still.

It was the only reason Tubbo volunteered to join; in case they did run into one of the monsters they were out looking for, Tubbo could hopefully protect them, and Tommy and Ranboo wouldn’t become one of the people who ‘disappeared’ .

Though who knew if even Tubbo’s assistance would be enough in a truly dangerous situation. Monster hunters were required to go out in groups of at least three, four if Tubbo was with them. Something about how he doesn’t count because he only officially started training a year ago blah blah blah— a whole ton of rubbish if you ask Tubbo.

But, even though Tubbo was great at monster hunting, there was a reason three full-fledged monster hunters were required for a mission. Because monsters were dangerous, the kind of dangerous that meant Tubbo did not want his friends to seek them out.

Tubbo really wished he could tell his friends—make them stay safe at home instead of going out in search of something that could get them killed. However, Tubbo knew very well the punishment for telling anyone about the monster hunters would mean never being allowed to go on a hunt again.

In addition, knowing Tommy, getting confirmation of his theory that monsters actually did exist would probably just end up encouraging him more, no matter how dangerous Tubbo told him it was.

So the best option Tubbo had was to go along with the plan. Hopefully, he could bring Tommy to some safer places and fight off any monsters nearby without Tommy seeing.

Tubbo should probably search up Tommy’s channel to see just what his plans are. He texts Tommy asking for a link, and he gets a response almost immediately. Pulling up the channel he sees— Ah, the park.

Tubbo remembers that case. The deaths of the two girls had gotten fairly popularized, but fewer people knew that it was a case of some pretty feisty undead monsters who killed far more than two people before some monster hunters had finally gotten around to dealing with them. Tommy was doomed from the start. Those monsters were dealt with years ago, so there was no way Tommy would find anything there.

That actually gave Tubbo a good idea. Suggesting places for Tommy to visit where monsters had been but were already dealt with. He would have to come up with a list of ideas for dead ends like those.

But then, later in the video, peeking out from the trees and brush, was an undead monster. They had come back . Tubbo laughed. Did Tommy seriously find a monster on his own in a place that Tubbo had laughed at the mere thought of containing monsters? This was—Tubbo didn’t know what to think of this. Like this was great. Tubbo would definitely be getting a group together to take care of the monsters out there soon if not tonight , but yeah, there was no way Tubbo was going to let Tommy go looking for monsters alone if this was the kind of stupid luck he had.

So when the topic of monster scouting came up at lunch, Tubbo was quick to throw out a few locations he knew were empty. Well, he thought back to the park and he supposed there was really no way to know for certain if they were clear, but he made sure the places he suggested had been cleared far more recently than the park. Despite how useful it would be if they discover places with actual monsters, Tubbo really didn’t like the idea of Tommy simultaneously putting all of them in danger and getting footage that could blow an entire world out of secrecy.

But just maybe, in the future, Tubbo would ask Tommy for some of his ideas for potentially haunted places. And if Tubbo then set up a group to scout those places out and deal with any monsters they found there, well it just seemed like a good plan.

“Tubbo, I thought you were opposed to this whole thing,” Tommy said, raising an eyebrow, “I mean it’s good that you know places, but why? ”

But Tubbo was thankfully quick to come up with an excuse, “Ah, a few years ago this monsters and legends thing was something I was actually really interested in, so I still remember a bit of research from back then.”

“Oh, what's that I hear?” Tommy taunted, “Did Mr. Sceptic just admit he once believed in monsters.”

“Fuck you. And I never said I believed in them. I just liked reading about the legends.”

Tommy gasped, “What a turn of events. Who could have ever guessed that Big T was secretly hiding the fact that he actually believes in monsters?”

And that was a little too close to the truth for comfort. 

Tubbo awkwardly laughed for a few long seconds, then shoved Tommy, “ Fuuuck offfff. ”

Soon the duo was fighting in a light-hearted mess of playful shoves and abundant swearing.

Ranboo looked up to the two fighting boys with a sigh, “All right, you two, calm down. Some of us are actually trying to eat here.”

The two took a few more taunts and pointed glares before they finally settled down to eat.

“Oh, but on another note, Tubbo,” Tommy spoke up, finally in a semi-serious mood, “On the group chat, you mentioned bringing some kind of defense with you, like a weapon, right? I don’t really have anything we could use. Do either of you have any ideas for something to bring?”

Tubbo thought to his family’s large training room and weapon room full of almost every imaginable weapon, plus several more resources for targeted use against the weaknesses of specific types of monsters, “Yeah, I have some stuff we could use. My family is pretty into martial arts.”

“Oh, that's great,” Tommy exclaimed.

“Yeah, great…” Ranboo sounded much less enthused.

“So how do you say Saturday we go to one of the places Tubbo suggested?” Tommy said.

“Sounds like a plan,” Tubbo said.

“Okay,” Ranboo agreed.

“Oh, and I was doing some thinking. Do you think monsters are more likely to come out in the morning or the night?” Tommy asked.

“I don’t think they come out no matter what time it is,” Tubbo said, rolling his eyes.

“Well, that’s not very helpful.”

“I don’t see why they would be any more likely to show up during the night,” Ranboo said, “But since you’re making videos out of this, recording in the night may make the video look more authentic and dramatic.”

Tommy’s eyes widened, “Oh my god, you’re absolutely right.”

Tubbo let out a laugh. Classic Tommy .

***

Ranboo wished he could say he was surprised by how quickly the topic came up. After agreeing to join Tommy, it was only a few hours before they were talking about mythicals at lunch, and from there, it was only a few seconds, maybe minutes if he was being generous, before the topic of weapons came up.

It was probably due to the group of hostile blazes that had been wrecking all sorts of damage recently, but he knew that it wouldn’t have taken long for that topic to come up either way.

He wondered what his friends would do if they knew the truth. He didn’t want to believe his friends would leave him immediately, but who knows. He sure didn’t want to find out.

He was one of the lucky mythicals who had a human form that he was able to use that enabled him to live a semi-normal life. In his extended family, about half of them were shape changers, and from what he had heard that was a fairly normal average. 

It just felt weird, like an uncomfortable sensation, whenever he was in this form, but it was fine; Ranboo was used to it. It would get painful after about six hours and unbearable after ten to twelve, so after a full day of school, spending any more time in his human form became particularly unpleasant, so he could only really hang out with his friends on the weekends, and he was constantly having to make up excuses to his friends over why he couldn’t hang out after school.

Whatever. He dealt. He was far better off than his mother and sister, neither of whom were shape changers, meaning they both spent all their time stuck at home. The constant patrols of monster hunters and the risk of being caught on camera, and therefore targeted by monster hunters, meant that leaving the house was extremely dangerous, so they went outside just about never.

Ranboo found it quite ironic that every single place that Tubbo suggested was somewhere that had recently been discovered by hunters, which therefore meant most monsters would be staying far away. Though Ranboo supposed that any place which was publicly rumored to have mythicals living there would be found by the hunters, so it made sense he guessed.

Ranboo laughed. This was great. If Tubbo kept coming up with these completely empty places, then Ranboo wouldn’t even have to worry about Tommy endangering other mythicals by inadvertently alerting hunters to their locations.

Then, Ranboo saw the video, and oh god, he was so glad he got Tommy to let him help with the channel because that’s a zombie, and now they were in danger if any hunters managed to find that video. He needed to make sure this wouldn’t happen again. The video was blurry enough that it won’t be any big threat to the general human populace discovering the existence of mythicals, but to Ranboo and surely any hunters out there, they would be able to tell.

He couldn’t be mad at Tommy though. He had no idea what that video would do, and Ranboo knows that spite is a big if not the only motivator for why Tommy does anything, so through trying to convince Tommy to give up the whole ‘monsters’ thing, Ranboo had only encouraged him more. 

It would be funny if it wasn’t so concerning.

Ranboo would need to do something to fix this.

Ranboo waited a few hours once he got home to recover a bit before he had to change back to his human form. He wasn’t about to be taking chances going out in his other form in a place that could be found by hunters. But later that evening, he went back out to go do some damage control in the park.

Believe it or not, Ranboo didn’t know every mythical who lived in L’Manberg, so it’s not like he could go to their house and warn them, as convenient as that would be. However, there is a little he can do in case they come back to the park.

The sign for danger is pretty much universally known among mythicals. A circle with an X in the center means get out. Ranboo knew that, and whoever that zombie was would know it too.

It couldn’t always help. After all, it’s impossible to consistently and accurately predict where the hunters will strike, and the constant reports of death, the constant talk of ‘oh stay away from such-and-such place because some mythicals were found and killed there’ was proof of that.

However, that was what made it so important that Ranboo did what he could to help prevent any disasters he could.

The park was quite the scene at night. Ranboo wasn’t sure whether it was ominous or beautiful; he supposed it was both at the same time. The wind blew strong through the trees, which had moonlight dimly shining through their leaves, and the walking paths were illuminated by warm street lamps. The park was completely empty aside from Ranboo himself.

He enjoyed the feeling of solitude he got as he scanned the park, but he couldn’t waste time enjoying himself. He had a job to do.

He started just a little way into the trees, around where the zombie was in the video. He began to gather fist-sized rocks, which he planned to use to form the symbol. Rocks were always a good option for outdoor areas because it was noticeable without being too immediately suspicious like something like pinned paper or spray paint would be.

He looked upon his finished work of rocks spread to fill all the space they could in the large space between trees, which should be visible to anyone who looked in the wooded area, and he went out into the main park. He would set up two more: one in the playground, and one among the walking trails. Then, all he could do was cross his fingers and hope his message would be noticed.

But as he worked on the symbol, he heard a group pull up. He stiffened, but laughed at himself and tried to relax. C’mon, this is a park, people come here all the time.

Still, his curiosity and maybe just a little bit of anxiety got to him, and he quickly peeked behind him. His breath hitched at the sight, and oh boy, he’s glad he did that. 

Hunters .

Their outfits weren’t particularly distinctive, but it had been drilled into Ranboo’s head how to identify a monster hunter from a young age, and after he had his first encounter with them when he was ten, he doesn’t think he could ever forget.

The group was dressed nearly identically: all black with long hooded jackets to store weapons and hide their hair and face masks to disguise their appearance.

He remembers the first time he saw them. Well, not so much when he first saw them. They didn’t stand out to him very much at the time. What he remembered was his parents' reaction.

He was ten years old at the time, and he had known that they weren’t supposed to be seen when they were all out. His father had told him to run, to get as far away from them as possible, then, when he was sure no one could see, to change into his human form and walk home.

His father hadn’t made it home that night.

So, seven years later, when Ranboo met the eyes of a hunter, he nearly swore. He forced himself to turn back around and make no obvious change in demeanor. He couldn’t allow himself to look panicked. 

Ranboo was about to finish setting up his warning symbol— he needed to do what his own symbol said and get out, but he needed a few more minutes so he wouldn’t appear suspicious leaving as soon as they arrived— when a voice spoke from behind him, “Hey, you, what’s your name?”

Deep breaths, deep breaths, it is going to be okay. They don't know. They don’t know. They can’t know.

The pinching pain of his human form suddenly became far more apparent as he forced himself to reply, “I-I’m Ranboo.”

“Hello, Ranboo,” the hunter spoke, “Sorry, this is a bit random, but I was just wondering if you’ve seen any strange creatures around this area?”

“No!” Ranboo said maybe a little too forcefully, “I mean. Sorry, but I really don’t think I have- like I don’t know what kind of strange creatures you’re looking for, but I really don’t think I’ve seen them,” and oh god, now he had overcompensated.

The hunter’s eyes crinkled, “That’s okay, Ranboo, really, we’re just trying to find something. Have a good night!”

The hunter walked away and Ranboo wanted to cry. He didn’t think it was possible to do worse at appearing inconspicuous. Thank god the hunters were clueless to shape changers. That could have gone way worse..

Ranboo made sure to hastily finish the symbol because yeah, the warning was apparently very necessary. But he also needed to get the heck out of here immediately, so he skipped the third one.

As he ran the car to leave the park, Ranboo spotted a hunter on the edge of the trees staring straight at him.

***

And as he stood at the edge of the trees, in a park bathed in the darkness of the midnight hour, Tubbo had one thought on his mind: What the fuck is Ranboo doing here?