Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

This situation has gotten so fucking annoying. Tommy had just wanted to live his life, and stay away from his ex-brother. 

The thing is, Wilbur had been following him around everywhere, it didn’t matter what he was doing or where he was going, the man would always appear. It had gotten so bad that at one point Tommy had been trying to have a private conversation with Tubbo about killing Dream and Wilbur had burst in, wrapped his arm around Tommy’s shoulder, pulled him close and tried to add himself into the conversation.

Tommy doesn’t even know how Wilbur found them, they had hidden underground in a ravine hundreds of blocks away from the main smp. He led Wilbur outside, before starting to shout at the man, wanting to know why the man thought it was ok to barge in on private business.

Wilbur had blown up, screaming that he was Tommy’s brother, and that he knew what was best for Tommy. The two argued for almost an hour before Tubbo pulled Tommy away and the two made their way home, while Wilbur stayed behind and glared at the receding figures.

Once Tommy had separated from Tubbo, both going towards their own house, Tommy heard soft voices whispering from all around him, he tried to ignore them to the best of his ability. He didn’t know why they were so hard to ignore, only just above a whisper, but it felt like the voices were calling out to him.

“I know, I know, I know, this situations strange… it gets a little getting- a little getting used to.”

Tommy didn’t know what the voice was talking about until two days later. He;s on his way home from another day of ignoring Wilbur and collecting materials. All he wants to do is go home and sleep.

Once he gets home though, instead of seeing all the lights off and the door closed tight… he sees Wilbur standing in his open doorway, lanterns blazing in light. Luckily the man hadn’t spotted Tommy yet, he didn’t want to know what he wanted, so turning around and muttering a few swears under his breath, he made his way to pogtopia. 

That was three days ago, Tommy had taken to staying hidden in the ravine, only leaving when rations got a little low. As much as he hated the place, he knew Wilbur wouldn’t even think of looking for him here. 

It gave him a false sense of security. 

The voices hadn’t stopped, still repeating the same phrase at the same volume constantly. Tommy would take complete silence over the whispering at this point, never feeling alone anymore.

As the sun shone high in the sky on the fourth day, Tommy left the ravine in search of more water. He walked toward a river he had found a few days ago. He grabbed the few bottles he had and put them under the running water. 

He watched as the bottles slowly filled up, bubbles of air breaking the surface of the stream before being swept away by the current. He wished he himself could be swept away to never be seen again. 

He was done with all the wars, just tired of making friends only for them to drive a knife through him. He wanted a peaceful life, one where he felt safe, and he finally had that! And then Wilbur came back, ranting to anyone who would dare listen about how Dream was his hero, and that Wilbur was making a come-back that no one expected.

Now he had some semblance of that life, living in isolation once again. The ravine brought some sort of weird comfort to him. Sure Will was fucked in the head when they lived here, but that version of Will seemed better than Revivedbur. 

He missed the brother that attempted to make him chocolate chip cookies, which turned burnt in the end. The brother that would sing him to sleep whenever nightmares plagued his mind. But he knew he was never coming back, just like Tommy’s childhood, it was lost to the current of time.

As he finished filling the last bottle he made his way back to the ravine. He was so absorbed in his thoughts he didn’t hear the subtle break of a tree branch, or the way the voices steadily got quieter, and quieter, and quieter… until they disappeared, the wind dragging them away.

Chocolate brown eyes stared at him from the forest, watching him disappear into the ravine. Tommy didn’t see the eyes lingering on his back, nor the maniacal smile that seemed to just grow and grow, worst of all he didn't hear the words spoken. 

“Oh, little naive Toms. You really thought you could hide.”

Tommy, still unaware of the imposing threat, just continues to walk into his newly renovated room. Setting down the water next to his bed, he walked back out of the room to grab some carrots as a snack. 

Turning around he immediately dropped the carrots to the ground, not even attempting to grab them again. He started backing up, trying to get as far away as possible. Before he could take nearly enough steps away his back hit the chest, he stared in horror, blue eyes meeting brown.

Wilbur smiled and took small steps towards Tommy, he opened his mouth, letting out a little test hum before starting to sing. “Love me, Love me, Love me, Love me”

Tommy went to put his hands over his ears half way through, only for the singing to seemingly get even more alluring. He tried to move his hands, only for his body to have stopped cooperating.  His legs started moving towards the other, no matter what he did to try and stop it his legs stopped listening to him completely.

With Wilburs control focusing  more on his legs, his hands regained some motion. Attempting to keep his mind clear, he started pinching his thigh, hoping Wilbur wouldn’t notice the small movement , more focused on implanting the thrawl in Tommy’s mind. 

He was pulled closer to Wilbur, now standing right in front of the man. His mind had gone a bit hazy, and he made sure to show it in his eyes, in hopes of the man not becoming suspicious. 

Once Tommy was close enough, Wilbur brought the boy into his arms, holding him as close as possible. Even if the man hadn’t noticed Tommy pinching his thigh, he had wrapped his arms around Tommy in a way that he couldn’t move them at all. Any small motion would alert Wilbur of what he was doing. 

Tommy remembered when the pinching would work, back in pogtopia Wilbur wouldn’t like how Tommy still thought so highly of Tubbo, and how Tommy wouldn’t accept his plans, instead actively going against them.

Wilbur had used his voice on him almost non-stop during that era, At one point Tommy realized what was happening and was terrified of what was to come. He had expressed his concerns to Tubbo, who had hugged Tommy sympathetically and promised to do some research in order to find a solution to Tommy’s problem.

A few days later the two had met up again, Tubbo had explained that small bursts of pain could be helpful in removing a siren's spell. At Tommy’s bewildered look, Tubbo explained that it didn’t have to be anything serious, small pinches, a splinter. The two then discussed how they think Tommy should go around with it. 

That night Tommy used his new little trick against Wilbur. The man hadn’t noticed anything, instead, Tommy let himself be guided by Wilbur into the olders bed. Where he could “keep an eye on Tommy”. He knew the man would find it suspicious if he just stopped listening to him overall. 

It had worked the whole time on, WIlbur had never suspected a thing as long as Tommy said the right thing at the right time. When Techno had finally arrived nothing changed, he tried to talk to him, and tell him that something wasn’t right with Wilbur. 

Only for Techno to side with Wilbur and say that Wilbur was in the right, he only wanted to protect Tommy. After a while Tommy started to notice something wrong with Techno. Whenever Tommy would bring up the conversation, golden flecks would appear in his brother's eyes.

Late at night, Tommy would hear Wilbur singing from somewhere else in the ravine. The song didn’t do anything to affect Tommy’s mind at the time so he started creeping closer. Once he got close enough to see his older brother, he was shocked to see the oldest as well. 

It was quite obvious that Techno was also under Wilburs thrawl. He watched as his brother fell face first into Wilbur. His hazy eyes made contact with scared blue ones. His brothers eye held no recognition while staring at Tommy, 

He watched in horror as Techno made a confused sound, still making eye contact with Tommy. Attempting to get away he started backing up, too scared to turn around and take his eyes off the dangerous men. 

He accidently hit a rock, forcing Wilburs attention up from where it had been focused on pulling Techno under. Once he made eye contact with Tommy, his golden eyes seemed to start glowing even brighter at the sight of the younger. 

The memory became blurry at that point, all he knew was that Wilbur’s singing had started to focus on him, he had started to pinch his thighs, hoping it would cause the same reaction it always had.

The last thing he remembered of that night, or for the next fews days, was Techno standing up and grabbing Tommy. The last thing that he remembers is staring into red eyes as a  beautiful voice sings next to him, his thoughts drifting away, not to return for the next few days. 

“Love me, love me, love me, love me.” A voice brought him away from his memory, or lack of, startled he looked up. He made eye contact with now golden eyes .There was something so alluring about them, when he tried to look away it just felt wrong. 

He could feel something in the back of his mind telling him to run, to escape. At first he would’ve fought, but then he remembered that those thoughts had saved him during war, they had kept him alive for the past 17 years.

He started struggling with even more vigor. He tried snapping his arms up, hoping they could somehow force the arms around him to let go. All they did was tighten, Wilbur then put his chin on top of Tommy’s head, making it hard to even move his head anymore. 

Wilbur leaned down a little more, voice now directly in Tommy’s ears, taking over all his other senses. “Love me, love me, love me… love me… more~” Tommy could feel control over his body slowly leaving. The words sunk into his brain, “than you possibly can.” vines wrapping around his brain and stopping all thoughts from entering his brain. 

Once the final command entered his brain Tommy completely blanked out. He was aware of everything happening, but he was watching from an outsider's point of view. After Wilbur finished his song, Wilbur brought Tommy further away, studying his face.

It didn’t take an idiot to know what Wilbur was looking for, and by the delight in his eyes it was obvious he found it. Tommy knew from years of experience that Wilbur saw his own gold reflected in Tommy’s eyes. 

“Come on Toms, let's get you to bed.” He started guiding Tommy to his bedroom, once close enough he laid down next to Tommy. He held his younger brother close, “Don’t worry, big brother Wilby is here, I’ll take good care of you. We just need to stay here a few more days before we can return home.” 

Tommy stared at Wilbur in horror, body unable to move. He tried to hold in the tears, but it didn’t take long before they started falling down his face. Wilbur noticed quickly and started wiping his face while cooing. 

Tommy didn’t know how he was going to escape, but he knew that if Wilbur successfully got him to the antarctic, he’d be so fucking screwed.

Chapter Text

Over the next few days Wilbur would use his song on Tommy non-stop. Often singing Tommy to sleep at night, words crowding his mind and lulling him into a false sense of security. Whenever Wilbur wanted him awake he would sing the same song, just not as soft, more in an aggressive way. 

Tommy could never quite make out the lyrics of the small paragraph of the song, only a few words would be remembered, but never for long. Tommy wanted to know what the lyrics were, only so he could do his research on what it meant. 

When he had talked to Tubbo about siren songs during pogtopia area, he remembered the boy making an off-hand comment about how different songs had different meanings. For instance, some songs were just meant for making people fight, some were for orders. And then there was the bigger groups of short and long term spells. 

There was no way to figure out what a song meant without intensive research into each and every lyric. He had a hazy memory of talking about the meaning of lyrics with Tubbo, Tubbo had offered to look into half the lyrics while Tommy attacked the other. At first he had been hesitant, not wanting to force Tubbo to do more work for him, but the man insisted for Tommy’s safety.

Sitting at his desk he stared at all the books that were scattered on his desk and floor. Over the past few days he had done his best at ignoring Wilbur, he was still trying to piece together what happened two weeks ago, finding the whole situation strange. Walking in on Wilbur using his powers on Techno, and then once the man notices him, his memory blanks, yeah, he found it suspicious.

He had wanted to avoid Techno as well, only for the man to be behind every single fucking corner. It was annoying as fuck, especially when Tommy was trying to get information. Now that he knew that something was happening to Techno, and that he was probably working with Wilbur he didn’t want to accidentally hint at any of his plans. 

Sadly the only time he could efficiently avoid them both was in the middle of the night. He had been looking into the lyrics for two nights now, this one being his third, the lack of sleep was finally catching up to him. He wanted so badly to crawl into his bed and fall into a deep sleep. But Tubbo was waiting on him.

He should’ve known one of his brothers would notice his new found tiredness. 

As he was staring mindless at the words, willing for them to finally make sense, he heard footsteps near his room. Jumping up in a panic, he quickly snuffed out the candle before jumping into his bed and hiding under the covers. 

The footsteps walked past his room, not even stuttering as they passed by.After waiting a few minutes, the footsteps gone a while ago, he snuck back out from under the blanket and used Wilburs lighter to light the candle again. 

Once he was sitting back at his desk, he went right back to work, studying the sentence he was attempting to work on, “It’s not that complicated, no matter what they say.” He didn’t understand anything about the sentence, and it was the first one he started on. He had used the first two nights to study the books, he decided that tonight would be the night that he would finally start on the lyrics themselves. 

As he was re-reading a paragraph he failed to hear the small squeak of a door coming from somewhere in the ravine, too fixed on the writing. He felt like he was on the right track when some of the words started to match up. He quickly grabbed a feather and started writing notes about the line.

He heard scraping from somewhere, but just presumed that it was him moving the ink. As he was about to dip his pen back in, two muscular arms wrapped around him and dragged him away from his desk. He tried thrashing around and yelling out, but all that did was get him pulled into a chest and a hand to cover his mouth.

He couldn’t tell what was happening, pink hair slightly covered his vision. He watched, unable to do anything, as he was dragged into Techno’s potato farm, where the man set him down before blocking the exit and turning back around to face Tommy.

“You have to stop.” He stared at his brother's eyes as he pleaded, the golden flecks weren’t as bright as they had been over the past few days.

“Why not Techno, look at what he’s doing to us, to you!” Tommy cried out,tears surfacing in his eyes.

“Look Toms, you don’t understand Wilbur and-”|

“Techno! Come on it’s time for your lullaby, and Tommy’s as well, he’s finally joining us.”

Tommy had stopped focusing on Techno when Wilbur had called for him, instead looking behind him to see if Wilbur had found their location. It didn’t take an idiot to learn what ‘lullabye’ meant, especially when it came from Wilbur. 

As his attention was divided he didn’t notice when Techno’s eyes had the gold returned to them. He somewhat noticed his brother moving closer, but didn’t think anything of it, assuming that he was doing something that didn’t apply to Tommy. 

Techno’s arms wrapped around him as Wilbur walked into the room, at first he was staring at Techno in horror, trying to fight against the arms even though he knew it was pointless. He directed his gaze towards Wilbur, only to see the man holding one of his siren books and staring at it with a dark look in his eyes. 

The next thing he knew Wilbur was tsk-ing at him while starting a song, dumping Tommy and Techno into his deep waters. 

The first two days Wilbur would only sing to him when trying to awaken him or make him fall asleep, but over time Wilbur would start singing songs over the littlest of things, Tommy didn’t want to eat? Bam! Song, Tommy wasn’t wanting to cuddle? Bam! Song, Tommy was literally debating banging his head against the wall just to stop listening to Wilbur ramble about going back “home” Bam! Song.

Tommy was honestly done with his brother's bullshit, but everytime it became harder and harder for him to fight against the song, even the simplest of commands would force him under and quickly. The song's power would last longer as well, before, even with Tommy only slightly aware, he could tell that only a few hours had passed since he had been forced to watch like an outsider. But more often than not the spells would last longer and longer.

He brought this up to Wilbur once, the man only smiling and saying that it would only be a few more days before they were ready, which just left Tommy with more questions than answers. 

One night Tommy is laying with Wilbur while the older hums a song in his ear, after the days of them being there Tommy had gotten used to being Wilburs teddy bear, being held whenever the man wanted. 

Out of nowhere, Wilbur started muttering words in his ear, saying stuff about how, ‘everyone else will always leave and hurt you, we’re the only ones you can trust’, ‘you really think Ghostbur was better than me? And ‘your familys the only one who will ever be here for you bubba, we’ll take care of you.’

Tommy pushed himself partly out of Wilburs hold, turning around to face Wilbur. He stared at the man in horror, not expecting the man to say such things. He forced himself to stand up and was about to yell at the man for even insinuating such things when Wilbur opened his mouth to speak first.

“It’s not that difficult to get your head around.” Tommy knew what WIlbur was doing, the words were so alluring. He found it easy to fight it when he was pissed off though, so he stood his ground.

“Ghostbur was the only one there for me, you left me behind!” 

“Shut up Tommy, this is your only warning.” Wilbur glared at him, pissed off at Tommy’s disobedience after being so good over the past days.

“No, we all hurt each other in war, but the real way to know if someone was real is if they would come back… funny, you were one of the only ones who didn’t come back even when I tried to reach out, same goes for Techno and Phil.” Tommy would’ve kept ranting to Wilbur, wanting to get all his frustrations, only to have the man lift his hand up in a single to stop.

Grinning at Tommy’s obedience once again, Wilbur started singing, “You’ll never meet another me, you’ll never-never-ever-never-ever meet another me.”

This time all fight was hopeless, Tommy quickly fell under Wilburs spell. Swaying on his feet, Tommy almost fell onto the ground. Wilbur grabbed onto him and brought him back to the couch. 

He started whispering words into Tommy’s ear again, still talking about how everyone had left him except his family, and that ghostbur was a terrible version of Wilbur that couldn’t even protect him. In this state of mind Tommy couldn’t fight back against the words anymore, instead finding himself agreeing to the terrible words about his friends. Wilbur had been right all along with Wilbur, Phil, and Techno being all he needs. 

~~~

Wilbur had been leaving the past few days, whenever Tommy asked he’d say something about needing materials for the upcoming days. Tommy didn’t want to question his brother, but was suspicious about what he was coming back with.

One day it would be some wool and cloth needed for making more clothes. He didn’t know why either of them would ever need more clothes. In pogtopia it was kinda cold, but if you went outside you could easily survive in summer clothes, around in the ravine he would normally just wear Wilbur’s sweatshirts or blankets. 

Other Times he would come back with excessive amounts of food, he didn’t know why they would need all that much if it was just the two of them living there, but Tommy was too scared to question his brother when it came to this sort of stuff.

The other common thing for Wilbur would bring back just happened to be metal or weapons/tools. Tommy noticed that Wilbur refused to stash these in the normal chests, instead his enderchest, kept out of reach from anyone and everyone. 

Over these times of Wilbur being gone Tommy would see… things. He didn’t know what it was supposed to be or what it meant, but all he knew is that it would only appear in a reflective surface. Whenever Tommy looked into a mirror he would see someone that looked like himself, instead they had a healthier look to them, bright blue eyes, shining hair, full cheeks, and an ever present smirk on his face, like it was making fun of Tommy. 

At first it had only been mirrors, then it was in the puddles that would accumulate around pogtopia, it even got to a point where it was in the water he would drink. After a few “visits” he noticed that the clothes were different, the thing would switch between two outfits. One being an antarctic empire looking thing, basically a white shirt with a blue cape that seemed way too small for his small figure.

The other normal outfit was something he had seen Ranboo wear plenty of times, he couldn’t remember exactly what Ranboo had said about it, only remembering the word ‘syndicate’ from that conversation. The thing would always grin whenever the other noticed the outfit it was wearing, which scared Tommy to no end. 

The day before Wibur had said that in two days time everything would be ready, so that meant whatever the fuck Wilbur had planned would happen tommrow. He sat staring at himself in the water for a while, getting lost in thought over what’s to come. 

When his eyes focused again the thing was moving it’s hand around to try and get Tommy’s attention. And once Tommy’s undivided attention was on it it made a “come closer” motion with it’s finger, and Tommy stupidly leaned closer.

At once he realized how dumb his decision was and went to move further away from it when it opened it’s mouth to speak. Stunned, Tommy stopped moving abruptly and watched as it leaned closer, almost rippling the water with how close it was to him.

It smiled, and then for the first time since Tommy first saw it, it spoke, “But don’t you see my dear, I am your doppelganger have your faith so.” Tommy watched as the thing faded away, still staring at the spot in horror. He didn’t understand the meaning behind the words, but didn’t think too long on them as Wilbur called him back.

As he was walking he started to hear something weird, it was almost like the whispers from what felt like so long ago. He tried to ignore it, but the closer he got to Wilbur the harder it became, though at one point when he could see Wilbur, they just stopped. 

As he stepped into the clearing where Wilbur waited the man smiled and held his arms out for a hug. Not hesitating to take the opportunity, Tommy buried himself in Wilburs chest and let himself be held. The man put his chin on Tommy’s head and stared out into the woods, it wasn’t hard to tell that the man was thinking deeply about something with the far away look in his eye. 

“It’s time, Toms.” The man pushed Tommy back to make eye contact with him, offering no further explanation, just a wide, unhinged smile.

Chapter Text

Wilbur had led Tommy out of  the ravine, their hands entwined. Tommy was let go as Wilbur walked over to the chests, he watched as Wilbur pulled out some travel packs as well as some warmer clothes. It didn’t take long for it to click into Tommy’s mind where they were going. 

He slowly started making his way to the door, careful to not alert Wilbur in any way. As he was  about to put his hand in the doorway to push himself into a sprint, Wilbur started humming an alluring tune. Not listening to his instincts telling him to run, run and never look back, he started moving.

He walked towards the humming, giving into the voices screaming around him, yelling about how he needed to be close to the voice, that if they didn’t have the voice blood would be spilled. Tommy didn’t even listen to what they were saying, just wanting to be near the pretty voice. 

One close enough, arms wrapped around Tommy and held him tight, not that the boy minded. He let out a whine as the man let him go, he reached out again, wrapping his own arms around him, only for him to be pushed off and for something warm to be shoved into his arms. Looking down Tommy recognized the warm thing as clothes. 

“Go change into those little one.” A silky voice spoke, Tommy looked up into golden eyes, staring at them, trying to soak up all their beauty. The gold eyes shone, they were seemingly getting dimmer the longer Tommy stood there, which he didn’t like. Frowning he reached up and tried to touch the beautiful gold only for a hand to slap his hand away with a laugh. 

“Come on bubs, don’t you want to see Techie and Dad?” Tommy didn’t recognize who those two people were, but decided if it made Wilby happy then he should. Grabbing the clothes he walked into his and Wilburs shared room and changed as quickly as he could.

Before leaving the room Tommy looked at himself in the mirror. At that moment he decided he liked the outfit. Walking out again, with the cape flowing behind him, he met back up with Wilbur. Once he was spotted the man started cooing and complimenting Tommy. 

Once the man was close enough Tommy ran into his arms, he had missed the arms while he was gone and now wanted the man to hold him again. A joyous laugh rang out as the arms returned around him and pulled tight.

“As much as I love holding you, we’re losing daylight.” Tommy pouted at the man, putting on the backpack that was handed to him. As the two started to leave the ravine Tommy felt a pull in his gut. He stopped in his tracks and turned around, something weird happening in his mind, it felt like it was tearing itself apart to get to something, or get rid of it. 

Tommy took a step closer to the ravine before a hand tugged his shoulder back, not paying it any mind Tommy kept taking more steps closer. The hand grabbed again but this time Tommy just pushed past it’s hold completely and sped up while walking into the ravine. 

As he was finally out of sight of Wilbur his head exploded in pain. Falling to the ground Tommy tried to escape the voices screaming in his ears. He tried to crawl away, only for it to do nothing. When he tried to cover his ears it didn’t change the volume in the slightest, the only thing it did was block everything out except the voices. 

He didn’t pay attention to the voices at all, instead ignoring them as well as he could and crawling away, trying to find anything in this fucking ravine to ease the pain. 

Why don’t you go back to Wilby?

WILBUR!!

POG?

WILBUR WILBUR WILBUR
WILBUR TAKE TO PHIL

GO TO THE FISHFUCKER!

Tommy was confused about what the voices were saying, not understanding why the strange hallucination would want the man he was trying to one from, the one who made him stay here against his will. 

Tommy hadn’t made it far by the time Wilbur found him lying on the ground. The man walked over to Tommy and put his hand in Tommy’s hair, Tommy assumed that the man would be violent, dragging Tommy across the ground by the hair before throwing him, only for the man to start running his hand through his hair and making soothing noises.

“It’s okay, this must be scary for you, isn’t it Toms?”  Tommy tried to move away, only for Wilbur to tut disapprovingly. “Love me, love me, love me, love me.” Tommy immediately stopped struggling, giving into Wilbur. 

The man helped him up, and then the two of them started moving towards the arctic. The whole time during the walk Wilbur kept a hand in Tommy’s hair. Soothingly running his hand through the curls and scratching his scalp, Tommy didn’t even mind the cold when Wilbur held him close.

~~~

Tommy started spacing out at one point, thinking of nothing and everything. His mind was in a daze and he couldn’t focus on anything. He would’ve stayed in this state if not for Wilbur singing into his ear as they were walking up steps to what looked like a cabin.

“Love them, love them, love them, love them.” Tommy could feel his brain melting within his skull, he didn’t know what else to do other than listen to Wilbur’s suggestion. Letting the man lead him into the house, he saw Techno laying his head in Phil’s lap, while Phil ran a hand through his hair

Once Tommy made eye contact with the red eyes, he saw panic. Brain not being able to think he just moved on and looked at Phil, the man had a dark grin spread across his face. He looked at something behind Wilbur and gave whatever it was an even bigger smile.

“Hiya mate, how was the journey?” Tommy, seeing the man in front of him, felt a race of panic run through him. Before he could think of the panic feeling, Wilbur took a step closer to Tommy and wrapped his arms completely around the boy.

“Love them, love them, love them, love them, more~” Tommy tried to fight but knew it was hopeless. One of the last things he noticed before his brain turned to mush was Techno’s eyes. He could see the terror and helpless-ness in his brother’s eyes, he wanted to reach out and reassure him that it was ok, and that the golden eyes would help, his brotherl liked gold, right?

As Techno stared in horror, Phil reached down and started running his hand through Techno’s hair and holding him closer before whispering something in his ear, the only thing Tommy could pick up on was the word ‘voices’.

t

The man relaxed not long after Phil spoke, body falling limp in the man’s hold and purring once again. Tommy didn’t think anything of it, instead just leaning back into Wilbur more. The man pushed him forward as Phil stood up and walked towards Tommy. Phil grabbed Tommy from Wilbur’s hold and held him tight, making some weird noises in Tommy’s ear. 

Wilbur walked over and had a weird sort of staring contest with Techno, Techno’s eyes were dazed and drooping. Tommy didn’t focus on him for long when Phil started pulling Tommy closer and pushing his head into the olders neck.

Tommy didn’t feel like he ever wanted to leave, but all good things must come to an end. Phil leaned away and passed Tommy over to Techno, who has now finished the weird staring contest. Techno grabbed onto him tightly and wrapped his body around Tommy, holding him down and steady. 

Looking around to try and get a sense of the area, Tommy saw Wilbur and Techno being weird. Phils also now engaged in a staring contest type thing with Wilbur, except this time Phil was making chirping noises.

Tommy didn’t understand what happened, but he swore he read something about this, something along the lines of “Family-Trapping”, but he didn’t know what that word meant. He let himself be pulled closer to Techno, he enjoyed basking in Techno’s presence for a few seconds. He then looked back over to Phil, who seemed to be trying to escape the staring contest, only for Wilbur to grab his chin and hold him in. Tommy’s eyes were quickly covered.

~~~

It had been a month since Wilbur had led him here, everything felt perfect, too perfect. Phil would always be really touchy with everyone, but when asked about it he would just glare. Techno sometimes would just stare at Tommy with an unreadable look in his eyes. He would’ve thought Techno was under Wilburs spell at some points, the things he did just didn’t add up, but no matter how much he stared at his brother's red eyes, that’s all there was, red. 

Overall though, everything felt too perfect except the small things that weren’t… like Tommy’s dreams. 

They had started not long after they had gotten there, Tommy just pushed them to the back of his mind and just thought that they were just figments of his imagination, that they’d go away eventually when he settled down with his family and stopped trying to stupidly fight them, and then he saw the writing. 

One night before Tommy went to bed Phil said something… weird. He’d been talking to Phil about going back to L’manberg, about them loosening up the rules a bit and giving Tommy some freedom. They’d taken everything, he wasn’t allowed out of the house without someone, even then he couldn’t go far, and when he was in the house if he even tried to hide something Wilbur would do his wack fucking shit magic on him. 

Phil had finally snapped at one point, and sternly said ‘ it’s not that complicated, no matter what they say.’ Tommy’s brain basically just stopped at that point, he didn’t move, didn’t scream, barely breathed, just stood and stared. It didn’t register that when speaking Phil had said “they” like it was poison. Nothing mattered to Tommy’s blank mind except going to bed. 

He just walked away from Phil, not saying another word, and went straight to his bed and laid down. As soon as his head hit the pillow, he was out like a light. 

“Now Tommy, you may be new here but we have a few rules, ok?” A younger Tommy nodded his head enthusiastically. Phil stood in front of him while Tommy sat on a stool. Wilbur and Techno were seen lounging on a couch, both of their eyes such pretty colors. Wilburs eyes were bright blue, seemingly glowing, and Techno’s was the same blue, just slightly dimmer. He hadn’t given it any thought then. 

“You have to respect everyone's privacy, if someone tells you not to go somewhere you don’t.” Phil nodded along at his own words, as if prompting Tommy to do the same. “Always ask before leaving or doing anything.”

“Wilby taught me that one!” A squeaky voice butt-in, the words shining in excitement. 

“Ah, Wilbur taught you that?” Phil’s eyes drifted away from Tommy’s own, looking over at the couch with the two teenagers on it, “Well, now for the next rule, if Wilbur ever tries to sing to you ignore it” 

That rule was confusing, why couldn’t he hear Wilby’s beautiful voice? He didn’t know what it meant, but if it was one of Phil’s rules for living with them then he had to follow it. Whenever Wilbur would come meet him in town and he’d bring his family he’d seen the weirdness, Phil and Wilbur seemingly always fighting over Techno, and when Techno would walk away to Tommy the two would have a weird staring contest, both eyes lighting up before Wilbur’s went back to blue. 

“But Phillll~, rules are meant to be broken.”

Phil leaned closer, making it so Tommy had nothing else to look at except his eyes, “ You will, Techno learned, Wilbur is still learning his lesson, you will Thomas. Plus, No matter what Wilbur and Techno say, it’s not that complicated.”

Tommy tried not to shake at the use of his full name, but couldn’t help the tremor that ran through his body. 

Tommy woke up with a start, not knowing what his dream was about but knowing that he was terrified and that hands had grabbed him. Once his eyes adjusted to the dark room, he saw pen markings all over his hands, looking closer he could see that they were supposed to be words.

Getting up to turn on the light and see them all better, he saw odd markings all around his room, once he got the light on he realized what they were. All around his room were the words “you’ll never meet another me”

Scared shitless, Tommy didn’t think before acting. He grabbed a rag from the hallway, and got it damp before running back to his room, thank god no one else was awake, and started scrubbing at the words. He didn’t know who wrote them, how they got there, or what they meant, but he wanted them gone. 

Once the words were fully gone his muscles relaxed, but not fully. That night he didn’t get a wink of sleep, too scared of closing his eyes just for them all to come back again. 

A few days later Techno is sitting next to Tommy with Phil and Wilbur sitting across from the two. The four of them had just finished dinner and after Wilbur had sung the four of them a song, Techno and Tommy’s eyes had turned gold, but Phil’s had only slightly changed.

Wilbur glared at the two sitting across from him before yelling at them to get out. Techno quickly scampered away as Tommy rushed to hide behind the door to watch. His body and head were screaming at him to follow the command quickly and get away and go to his room, but he needed more information.

Ever since the night where he woke up with the writing all over, it seemed to snap something into his head, something that screamed at him to escape. His brain had gone all foggy ever since Wilbur found him, but something about that dream made him realize the truth of what was happening. 

He knew something was happening with Techno, the man always seemed to love the attention Phil and Wilbur would give him, but whenever his eyes would show the slightest bit of red he’d fight back, only to be knocked down quickly. 

He didn’t know what was happening with Phil, sometimes the man would be under Wilburs thrawl, following him around and doing anything he’d ask. Another common thing to see him doing is fighting with Wilbur, somehow fighting the thrawl and refusing to give into him, when Tommy had tried to ask about it he was sung to sleep that night and couldn’t remember how to think for the next few days.

Other times Phil would seemingly be controlling Wilbur, this didn’t happen often, but when it did it was terrifying. Tommy didn’t understand what was going on, but would always get pulled away by Techno, only for the whole night to be fuzzy in the morning when the voices, which he’d now gotten used to, would scream that he shouldn’t question Wilburs plans.

As he watched Phil and Wilbur fight, he was too entranced to notice the footsteps behind him. Techno grabbed him and started dragging Tommy back to his room. Once they were in there, Tommy gave up on fighting knowing how strong his brother is why couldn’t he remember?  

Techno dropped him on his bed, eyes glowing gold and glaring at him. It was obvious that Techno was somehow not in control, the way he carried himself was different, he was somehow taller and moved around like he wasn’t normally this buff. 

“It’s not that difficult to get your head around, Theseus, everything is perfect, don’t fight it.” Techno then laid in bed with him, the way he wrapped himself around Tommy reminded him of Wilbur. He hated how it made him yearn to listen to Wilbur sing again. 

He acted like he couldn’t hear Wilbur singing downstairs, as he listened to his words he recognized it as a manipulation spell, one stronger than he had ever heard. He didn’t fall asleep easily that night, too scared of the man breathing down his neck. 

“Tommy, why do you want to go back to them?” Techno growled out, unhappy as Tommy expressed his desire to go back and see his old friends.

“They’re my friends! I miss them, c’mon Tech” Tommy pleaded his older brother for him to be able to go. He hadn’t seen them since his exile started, and sure he was banned from L’manberg but he just wanted to see him again.

“They betrayed you, not just once but twice. Look at what they did to Wilbur!” Tommy tried not to flinch at that, “You’re safer here, with me.” As Tehno talked he started to move closer, every step he took his eyes would start to glow brighter and brighter gold. Tommy could hear some sort of chanting coming from all around him.

He attempted to look around to try and find out where the talking was coming from, only for Techno to grab his chin and force him to make eye contact. He stared at his brother scared, the man had a feral smile that he had only seen on Wilbur before. 

“C’mon Toms, don’t you want to stay with me?” Now that wasn’t Techno’s voice.

Tommy had to stifle a scream as he jolted up. He didn’t know where these repressed memories came from, but the two that he had seen were more than enough. Tommy was scared to look around the room, not wanting to see if the writing was a one time thing or not. 

Looking down he saw Techno not sleeping far away from him, the man was holding his pillow, which made Tommy think about how if there was really writing on the walls, he would not want to explain that.

Groaning Tommy got up and once again walked out of the room to grab a rag. Once he got a rag and went into the bathroom to get it damp he noticed the writing on his hands, this time it was even clearer. 

Once he got back to the room he made quick work of rubbing all the words off the walls, Tommy tried not to read the words but couldn’t help himself, “You’ll never meet another me”. Tommy wanted to act like he hadn’t put any other thought into the words since he last saw them, but they had kept him up. 

He tried not to sigh, he hated how these words plagued his thoughts day by day, he knew Wilbur noticed by the looks that would be thrown at him. He had made up some excuse, attempting to make his eyes dazed, he didn’t know what Wilbur thought about him being under control, but the less the man knew about his escape plan the better. 

Ever since Tommy had woken up Wilbur was obviously in a bad mood, the moment people came down he immediately started singing, making everyone's mind in a haze, then after a few minutes of that Phil let out a few small hums of his own.

Wilbur had then snuggled up to Tommy, making his mind float even more, he found it hard to think at all, Phil was near Techno forcing the man next to him to relax. The four of them laid in that room for hours together, board games were played, soft conversations spoke, songs sang and hummed.

Eventually Tommy fell asleep, he’d been scared to fall asleep over the past few days, but knew with the way Wilbur was holding him while singing, there was no escaping it.

Tommy was half asleep, eyes closed and breathing slowing down slowly but surely . “You’ll never-never-never-ever-ever meet another me.”  Tommy didn’t fight against the song as Wilbur sang softly in his ear, it had been too hard to fight against the voice recently, so what was giving in this one time.

Exile was kicking him in the ass, he hadn’t had enough food and Dream had taken away all his materials. His ghost brother had been nice to have around, except for the fact that he did literally nothing. Tommy had yelled at him once, but of course his brother forgot quickly and Tommy felt bad. 

Dream didn’t seem to mind ghostbur there, so Tommy didn’t complain even when the ghost had some annoying tendencies. Ghostbur didn’t seem to mind when all of Tommy’s stuff got blown up, he just sat there and as soon as Tommy was done Ghostbur would drag him away to either find more blue or to go exploring. 

It had been a few days since Dream had shown up, Tommy didn’t know why, but the last time he saw him, Dream had given Ghostbur some weird looks. 

Tommy was missing the physical contact Dream would sometimes give him. Even before exile he hadn’t had much physical touch, the only people who ever really indicated physical contact with them was Phil, Techno, WIlbur, and Tubbo. Even then touch from Phil and Techno was kinda rare. 

Ghostbur had been following him around all day, not leaving him alone at all. When Tommy had tried to ditch him he had just appeared in front of him again and acted like nothing had happened. Tommy could tell he was acting weird, there was a weird look in his eyes and he seemed less see-through.

As Tommy was staring out at the sea he spotted the ghost walking up from behind him he didn’t think anything of it until two arms wrapped around him. Turning around in surprise he saw Ghostbur hugging him tight, a dark smile on his face as he rested his head on Tommy’s head. Tommy would’ve questioned how the ghost was hugging him if he wasn’t so touch starved and wanting some sort of contact. 

As Tommy let himself relax into the hug, he heard Ghostbur start to whisper something in his ear, looking up he made eye contact with his brother, only to see golden eyes staring back at him. 

“You’ll never-never-never-ever-ever meet another me”

~~~

Tommy’s brain was blank, he didn’t know how much time had passed but he knew that he’d been following Ghostbur around for all of it like a lost puppy. The ghost had seemed ecstatic at Tommys reaction, grabbing the boy down and dragging him down into his cot for cuddling. 

Tommy didn’t protest, he felt safe and warm. He had missed Wilbur the whole time he was gone, and he didn’t want to lose him again. 

This time he didn’t wake up in a panic, looking around the room he didn’t see any writing, which confused him, but then he realized it was still on his arms. He looks up and makes eye contact with Phil, who walks towards him and grabs his face. Forcing eye contact the man stares at Tommy for a few seconds before speaking. 

“If you make Techno feel like that again, I don’t care what Wilbur thinks of you, but I will kill you.” 

Tommy stared at him in horror, too terrified to move. The man then started pushing him back down into a lying position before moving Wilburs so they’re wrapped around him again. Tommy opens his mouth to protest, but before he can get a word out Phil starts humming and then Tommy’s eyes shut without his permission. 

The next morning Tommy finally decides he’s had enough, he’s had more than enough memories resurface of some weird things happening around his family, and now even though he hasn’t tried he doesn’t feel like he can leave. 

As everyone is awake Tommy decides to confront them. As they’re sitting in the same positions on the couch as yesterday he finally decides to bring it up. Taking a deep breath and praying to Prime, he got ready to finally say his mind. 

“Can you guys stop fucking with my mind and just let me go? I am sick and tired of your bullshit, I want to know what’s going on and I want to go home.” Tommy wanted to continue, but got a bit wary at seeing all of their facial expressions, all three of them glaring at him, everyone's eyes changed. 

Wilburs eyes were glowing gold, a harsh gold, while Phil’s were a cold ice blue. Both of which were terrifying and Tommy tried his hardest not to shake. When he looked over at Techno’s eyes, the man was also glaring, but his eyes were a mix of the two’s. One of his eyes were like Wilburs, while the others were like Phils. It was terrifying seeing both mens eyes in a man he used to think of as his protector. 

“Don’t you see, I didn’t want to be here in the first place! Wilbur fucking dragged me here with your weird as fuck mind games. I just want to go back to being home with Tubbo and Ranboo, my real. Fucking. FAMILY.” He paused between the last few words as emphasis, wanting to make sure his point was proven. 

While he glared at the three men, not remembering when he stood up, he didn’t notice Techno slowly moving his hands up towards his cape, instead he focused more on trying to hold in the angry tears that were resting in his eyes.

All of a sudden the world went dark, he couldn’t see anything anymore. He felt around his head, to feel fur lining around something and soft cloth, Tommy recognized it as Techno’s cloak. As he went to rip it off two other hands grabbed his own and pushed them into his side, he realized after a few seconds that this person was behind him, and that they were being careful to only touch his hands. 

Then he heard footsteps circling him, they weren’t stopping in their movement, circling him and confusing his mind. Then the singing started. 

“Ey-ey-ah bada ba, ba, ba, bada ba, ba, b,a bda ba ah”

His mind felt fuzzy, he could feel his knees starting to feel weak. He couldn’t think, he felt so weak and small. He was so tired and his brain was just so, so fuzzy (I wrote fucky, oops) Then the singing started again, and Tommy knew he was screwed. 

“Bam bam ba, bada bam ba, ba, bada ba, ba, ba, bada ba” 

As the last bit was sung out, Tommy’s, knees gave out on him and he fell backwards into Phil. The man, expecting it, didn’t even stumble as he held the boy up. Tommy’s mind was complete fuzz, he wasn’t really thinking, mostly just listening to the voices talking to him. He had tried to ignore them before, but he didn’t understand why he wanted to then, Wilbur gave him such beautiful voices, why wouldn’t he listen to them.

Speaking of Wilbur, he made grabby hands to where Wilbur was. He wanted him back, but he wasn’t close enough to reach. 

Someone let out an aww before taking him from Phil’s arms and pulling him into a warm chest, he heard some talking above him, some in a mocking tone, other in a loving tone, but he didn’t care, Wilbur was holding him! 

~~~

That incident was months ago, Tommy doesn’t understand why he would ever want to leave, everynight Wilbur or Phil would sing him and Techno. 

It was a normal day, Techno’s reading on the armchair, Phil’s sowing something he’s been working on for the past few days and Wilburs playing on the guitar. As he ran downstairs he passed all of them in favor of the front door. 

“What are you doing mate?” Phil spoke up, watching Tommy with suspicious eyes.

“I’m going to go play with the wolves! They’ve been lonely and the only one who can help them is big man Tommy!” 

Techno growls, obviously upset with Tommy’s plan, but that was quickly shut down by a look from Wilbur. 

“Don’t worry, I know the rules, it’s not that complicated, no matter what they say, I’ll never meet another you. It's not that difficult, to get my head around, I’ll never meet another you. I know them, don’t worry.” With a smile Tommy walked out of the house and went to play with the wolves.