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Tommy got his small shop ready for another quiet day.
Hardly anybody stopped by.
Not since..
...
Not since the war.
Tommy ran to the counter from the back of his shop when he heard the bell ring.
Tommy gasped aloud, seeing who opened the door.
"Wilbur!"
He spun around after half-shutting the crooked door (which reminded Tommy he needed to replace the door)
"Tommy? You run the shop here?"
"Yeah, I do but.. well, so, how are um, how are you? Haven't seen you since-" Tommy choked the next words a bit "Since the war."
"I - I'm doing fine, I was just taken aback that you made those potions.."
"What do you mean?"
"Well, a friend of mine gave me one, and god was it helpful."
He adjusted the trench coat he was wearing.
Tommy hardly noticed it.
"..So you want more?"
"Well, yeah."
Tommy was somewhat disappointed.
He hasn't seen his brother (or any of his family for the matter) in so long.
Tommy squinted his eyes at Wilbur before returning to the back of the shop, where he makes all his potions.
Tommy opened the chest.
It was.. really, really empty.
He needed new supplies soon.
Preparing the brewing stands, he realised Wilbur didn't tell him what he wanted.
"OI! WIL! WHAT'D YOU WANT?!"
"Tommy this shop is small, you don't have the yell."
Tommy couldn't respond to that.
"Could I have swiftness, strength, invisibility.."
Based on the ones he just said, Tommy knew exactly what he wanted.
He started brewing.
===
Wilbur observed the paintings Tommy had in this small shop.
So that's where Tommy went all these years.
He stayed in this forest, far from the rest of the smp, far from L'man- no, sorry, Manberg.
Wilbur scoffed.
God he hated Schlatt..
Tommy's potions would not go to waste.
Hopefully they should save Manberg.
And hopefully he didn't need to press the button.
He looked down from the painting.
Oh.
A button.
Ironic.
"..Hey Tommy, what's this button do?"
It reminded him of the very, very fatal button waiting for him on the outskirts of Manberg.
The one he so desperately wanted to press.
Tommy appeared behind the counter again.
He looked over at the teenager.
Tommy looked between him and the button, and narrowed his eyes.
"..Nothing."
"Oh c'mon Tommy, you know its gotta do something."
Wilbur smiled at him.
Tommy gave a shaky breath.
"I'll tell you. Just because you're my brother. And I know, if you don't, you would go running to Dad when you realise something."
Tommy pressed the button, revealing a secret stairway.
It was like..
Like Pogtopia.
"Oh - can I - go in?"
Tommy nodded slightly.
Wilbur descended down the staircase.
Reaching the bottom, he couldn't help but marvel.
"Holy shit, Tommy."
He turned around to stare at his brother.
"..yeah."
He turned back around.
It was like an underground mansion.
Much better than Pogtopia.
"Tommy. How long did you spend making this?"
"..Probably four weeks? I dunno."
Wilbur guessed it was much more than that.
He turned to face his brother again.
"Tommy. This is amazing, I'll give you that."
Tommy grinned proudly.
Wilbur didn't know he could build this well.
Where did he even find this many resources?
"I might've used a few potions to help me, but I did it completely on my own."
"What? What do you mean you used potions?"
"What do you mean Wilbur?"
"There aren't any potions that can help with building, did you use haste or something?"
"No, I made one."
"What do you mean you made one?"
"It means I made one."
Tommy is so stubborn.
He put his hands up in resignation.
"Fine. If you're not going to tell me-"
Tommy raised his voice. "It means I made a new kind of potion!"
"What?"
"I made a new potion Wilbur."
"You.."
Wilbur couldn't believe it.
A potion that wasn't completely poisonous or utterly useless?
"Haven't you heard? The reason my shop is doing so much better than the one back at L'manberg is because I can make any kind of potion. Even make new ones."
That struck a nerve.
"Tommy. Have you.. heard anything about outside your shop?"
"No. Most recent thing I remember is leaving L'manberg."
Right. He left right before Wilbur sort of.. screwed himself over.
Right before he announced the election.
Before Schlatt exiled him and Tommy.
And.. he stilled called it L'manberg.
Wilbur sighed.
"Tommy. Do you have any seating areas? This will be a long story."
"Yeah I do. Follow me."
Wilbur saw all sorts of amazing rooms while Tommy lead him to a room.. designed almost perfectly for this talk.
"Tommy - are you sure the last thing you remember was leaving Man- L'manberg?"
"Yeah."
Wilbur gestured to the room. "Then what's all this?"
"..We both have our fair share of things to explain."
"Okay, then, you first. I want to hear your story."
Tommy seemed disgruntled.
The room changed colours, into a sort of.. void look?
"What the fuck. Tommy?"
"See, Wilbur, the thing is.." Mellohi was now playing. "My potions aren't the only magic I know.
"What?"
"In the months I've been away from L'manberg, I've learned magic."
Tommy sat down, gesturing for Wilbur to do the same.
Wilbur walked over to the chair.
He sat down, and looked at Tommy.
"Why're you looking at me?"
"Well- because that's how a conversation goes Tommy."
"No, look at the wall."
"Okay?"
Wilbur looked at the wall directly ahead of him.
It changed again.
Now it was.. Tommy reading thousands of books in about two minutes.
"That's how the entire thing went."
"Is that sped up?"
"Well, yeah, that part is, but after that the house building process relied on a lot of potions."
"If you have 'magic', then why not use it?"
"Dream warned me about using too much magic."
"Oh. Dream is amazing."
"Eh, he keeps taking my discs. But I can still listen to it. Still not really the same but it works."
"Dream gave me five stacks of TNT."
"Yeah? What for?"
"..You'll need to hear the full story first."
===
Tommy could not believe what he was hearing and seeing.
"Are my potions ready?"
Tommy nearly forgot about those.
"Yeah they should be. I'll go get those ready for you.."
Tommy raced out of the room and up the stairs.
Right upon hitting the top he jumped over the counter, ignoring the perfectly okay trapdoor.
Grabbing a bag, he collected the two potions and bundled them up safely.
He returned to the counter, with Wilbur just getting to the top of the stairs.
"Here you go."
He passed Wilbur the bag, who peeked into it.
"Tommy I'm one short."
"No, in fact I gave you an extra."
"I asked for three?"
"But I made them into one splash potion."
"Oh. How much do you want?"
"What?"
"Payment."
"Oh. I want you to take me to L'manberg."
"Tommy, we're banned. But don't you want payment? Diamonds or something?"
"Diamonds would be nice. But I want to see L'manberg."
"I mean, we could look at it from outside the borders?"
"Yeah."
Tommy was kind of excited.
He was leaving the forest for the first time in a while.
He might even get to see Tubbo, who hasn't come to potion shop in a while.
Tommy started following Wilbur, who was just exiting the shop.
Wilbur and Tommy were striding through the forest, and Wilbur stopped dead in his tracks.
Tommy, who wasn't paying attention, almost ran into him.
"Wil?"
"Are you sure?"
"Am I sure what?"
"Are you sure you want to go to Manberg?"
"Uh-huh."
Wilbur sighed.
"Okay then. Let's keep going."
===
It was about noon.
Tommy was humming something behind him.
"Watch your step. There's a steep hill here."
Tommy made a noise of.. agreement?
They both climbed the hill together.
When they reached the top, Tommy gasped in.. disappointment, Wilbur guessed.
"Where's the camarvan?"
"They destroyed it."
"Why?"
"I don't know?"
"..Why is the flag that colour."
"It might just be because Niki burned it. So they used obsidian."
"Niki burned the flag?"
"Yes, I just told you that."
"Listen I just forgot okay?"
They continued looking over Manberg.
"Can I see Pogtopia?"
"Oh - you want to see Pogtopia?"
"That's what I just sai-"
"Yeah sure."
"Really?"
Tommy's eyes were sparkling with amazement.
"Mhm. Follow me."
They took extra care descending the hill, and Wilbur led him to the entrance of Pogtopia, occasionally checking behind him for possible Manberg members.
===
Technoblade looked up from the entrance of Pogtopia.
Wilbur was finally back.
"So was Punz tellin' the truth? Was there actually a potion shop?"
"Yeah." Wilbur held up a small bag.
"Techno?"
Was that Tommy?
"As it turns out, Tommy was the shop owner. How crazy is that?"
Technoblade was actually somewhat surprised.
" 's pretty crazy, Wilbur."
"Hello Technoblade."
Techno glanced over at Tommy.
"Hallooo."
"So is this.. Pogtopia?"
Wilbur answered first.
"Mhm. Do you want to go down to the main part?"
"Yeah sure, I guess."
Wilbur opened the door and Tommy followed.
Now that they were gone, Techno was going to go see why Schlatt wanted to see him.
===
"Your place isn't as good as mine."
Tommy grinned.
"Well, we didn't use potions or magic."
"So you did it the boring way."
"That's not-"
"Not what?"
Wilbur was getting irritated, Tommy could tell.
"..nevermind."
Wilbur looked like he just had a great idea.
Probably couldn't be better than one of Tommy's.
"You wanna see my button room?"
"Uh.. sure?"
Wilbur grabbed Tommy's wrist very suddenly, and pulled him all the way to the outskirts of Manberg.
Tommy looked at the hill.
"Wilbur, why is there a penis made of dirt?"
Wilbur looked at him wide-eyed.
He destroyed the dirt, revealing a yellow staircase.
"Woah."
Tommy stepped toward it.
"Wait."
"What?"
"Ladies first."
He went up the stairs.
Tommy was confused but followed anyway.
There were signs.
And TNT.
Lots of it.
Tommy looked around at the signs.
The L'manberg anthem..
"Tommy. Do not press the button. Whatever you do."
"Why?"
"That button is connected to around 5 stacks of TNT, placed under Manberg."
"Holy shit."
"..every-time."
"Pardon?"
"..every-time I get so goddamn close to pressing this button."
"..."
"Every-time, Tommy. Every-time."
"..Let's go back to Pogtopia, yeah?"
===
So Techno has been waiting for them.
And He delivered a lot of information.
This sent them into days of planning.
===
The festival was finally here.
Tommy and Wilbur were already on top of the L'manberg Flight and Aeronautical Organisation building.
Tommy was bored out of his mind listening to Tubbo's speech.
Lettuce, Schlatt, no idea what he was talking about.
He was just listening for "Let the festival begin!"
He agreed with Wilbur.
He wanted this place blown up.
Tommy suddenly snapped back to reality.
Tubbo was in.. a box?
Technoblade was on the stage.
He wasn't listening to them.
Tubbo_ went off with a bang due to a firework fired from [Subscribe to Technoblade] by Technoblade.
jschlatt went off with a bang due to a firework fired from [Subscribe to Technoblade] by Technoblade.
.
.
.
"Tubbo..?"
"TOMMY. GO. TOMMY, GO."
"TUBBO!"
Tommy pearled down.
"Techno, what the fuck. You killed him."
He started attacking Technoblade.
He was so.. so..
===
"Where's the button? Where the fuck's the button?!"
Wilbur couldn't find it.
No way.
Manberg lives another day.