Chapter Text
This is the story of how Tommy keeps dying. Don't fret! He never seems to stay dead. In this world there are heroes, villains, and vigilantes. Sure, there are civilians, but at the end of the day, everyone has their morals. You have the powerful and the powerless, everyone falls somewhere on the line.
TommyInnit is aged 15 and he hates his power. Some would say he'd be lucky enough to even own a power, but he had lived through the ups and downs within it.
"Tommy!" The freezing breeze of the unknown outdoors brushed tears into his eyes. His chest heaved but he couldn't stop running.
"If you really cared about me, you'd come back, Tommy!" Tommy's heart sunk.
"I won't do it again, I promise!" Liar.
Tommy was currently on the run. He lived his whole life with his family. If you could even call them that. His parents passed away at the age of 5, and Tommy had been living with his older brother for the last 10 years. Things used to be great with Dream. Only a few years ago did Tommy realize his power; he had been at a shady convenience store with some of his friends after school. The store got robbed. The robber shot everyone in the store. Tommy was the only person who seemed to make it out alive. That's his problem. He doesn't die. He feels the pain and the agony rushing through his limbs before exhaling them away and restarting. After his brother found this information out, the testing started. At first, he thought he understood where Dream was coming from. Curiosity. The longer Tommy lived with it, the more unbearable it became. He had been starved to death, shot, sliced open, bled out, tortured, and destroyed. He became a toy for Dream, a science experiment, but not the kind that you would put up in the window of a science fair. Tommy lived in the basement. He didn't get his own room. He would only speak when spoken to; at least that was Dream's number one rule.
"Tommy?" The cold voice of his once-known family hushed at him. He needed to keep running, he couldn't look back, he couldn't go back. Pure adrenaline and fear kept him going until he was on the outskirts of Logstedshire, trailing into the unknown.
…
Tommy saw a light in the distance. He had been running for a long while, the sun had gone from partially setting, to the moon being directly above him. He started walking after he was certain Dream stopped following him. He climbed through trees, under valleys, under and over bridges, and finally walked on the side of a highway.
Squinting his eyes, Tommy recognized the light to be a small building. A gas station. Perfect. Tommy was starving; he quickly checked his pockets for any change he might have gathered before leaving. Shit. He was empty.
Tommy entered the gas station, the little bell above the door announcing his presence. The worker at the till glared at him before looking down at her phone. Tommy walked down the chips isle and stuffed a bag of Doritos in his hoodie pocket. He had never stolen before.
"Empty your pockets, kid." The woman from the desk said slyly. Her voice was rasp. Looking behind her, Tommy acted. As it was what he was good at. He pretended there was someone behind her; and foolishly, she turned around to find no one there, and a bell to announce Tommy's exit.
…
Essempi was a bright city. Billboards filled with neon lighting and buildings that seemed to tower over everything else filled the streets. Despite the obnoxious hour, the streets were busy. He discarded the empty chips bag in one of the many trashcans along the sidewalks. The electronic billboards had introductions of famous heroes in the area scrolling through them. Tommy never cared for heroes. If anything, he dreamed of being someone a little more on the quieter side. A vigilante sounded perfect.
Tommy didn't know where he was going. His only goal had been to get as far away from Dream as possible. Fortunately, it looked like he had succeeded for the most part. He missed sleeping in his thin blankets, in a warm house; as awful as it was to be there, at least Tommy had a home. Pushing his emotions down, Tommy set his sights on a family diner. He knew he couldn't pay for it, but scouting the area wouldn't hurt.
"Sleepy Boys Family Diner? What a stupid name." Tommy whispered under his breath. He entered anyway. He instantly got hit with a wave of a delicious smell. His mouth watered.
"Hi there. A table for one?" Tommy looked up and made eyes at a man. He looked similar to Tommy, in a way. The man had sandy blonde hair that reached just below his chin with bright blue eyes. He had a few faint scars around his face, but to be fair, so did Tommy. Stunned, Tommy shook his head no. He needed something to figure out where he was. Google maps or a regular map would work just fine.
"Do you have a map?" Tommy asked.
"Are you lost? Do you want to call your parents?" The man asked. Tommy thought of Dream. He must be so alone and scared for Tommy. Maybe he should go back- No.
"No, I'm alright. Do you have a map?" Tommy pushed, he didn't need the pity, just the damn map.
"I should. Give me two seconds, yeah?" Tommy nodded and the man rushed to the back. A few minutes later, he came out with a long sheet of paper and a pen. He placed the map on the table and circled a location.
"We're here." The man said, pointing at the red circle.
"Thank you. Do you mind if I take this with me?" Tommy asked politely. It's all he'd ever grown up with, politeness.
"No, you can take it. Do you want something to eat?" The man asked kindly. Tommy weighed the options in his mind. It felt wrong to rob the kind man, and he wouldn't be able to pay for it.
"I can't pay for it. Thank you for the map." Tommy took the map from the man's hands and left.
…
The dumpster wasn't the most comfortable place to sleep, but it would do. He fell asleep within seconds, sleeping next to the trash bin in the alleyway beside the diner. The day caught up to him, and he was out.
He didn't sleep for long before the smell hit him. He had smelled it before, it was alcohol. Sometimes he would be able to smell it radiating off of Dream some nights. Those nights were the worst. Tommy felt a pain in his head and slowly opened his eyes.
Three men were standing around him with the stink emitting from them, each with a glass bottle of clear liquid in hand. Muggings weren't uncommon in a small town like Logstedshire where everyone seemed to divulged in their own little words to care for others.
"What's a pretty boy like yourself doing in an alleyway? Got anything for us?" One of them slurred.
"Where's 'ya money?" Another one laughed.
"Why aren't 'ya talkin'?" The last one garbled. The dark night was making it quite difficult to make out anything distinct about the group. The only similarity between them was old drunks.
One of them smashed a bottle over Tommy's head, the glass shards sticking to his hoodie. He scoffed. Hopefully, this time would be different. Maybe this time, he'd stay dead. Every time Tommy wished it, it never happened.
Darkness took his vision. The last thing he heard was the laughing of the sloppy men. They had to live with their consciousness of killing a little boy. What a shame. Being dead wasn't Tommy's problem. It was the waking up afterwards, knowing that he'd be stuck in an everlasting loop. A never ending life.
Tommy woke up with his head leaning against the dumpster. The three men were nowhere in sight, yet the night had passed. The sky was pale. Breathing in, and breathing out, Tommy was still there. What a joy.
"Uh. Hi?" A voice spooked Tommy. The boy had brown hair that fell above his eyes. He had two tiny horns peeking out of the mop of hair and a large scar that trailed down his neck and beneath his shirt.
"Hi." Tommy realized the boy had an apron that read, "Sleepy Boys Family Diner." with a bee pin attached to the strap.
"Your head is bleeding." The boy pointed out. Tommy reached his nimble fingers into his hair, retreating back with a red sticky substance.
"I'm fine." Tommy assured him.
"Augh! You smell." The boy exclaimed. Rude.
"I slept in your dumpster all night. What did you expect?" Tommy argued.
"Jeez, take a shower." A shower did sound pretty nice, but first he'd need a home.
"I'm homeless, dumbass." Tommy rolled his eyes.
"Oh- sorry, I'm a little slow. My name's Tubbo." The boy chuckled. Tubbo chuckled.
"Theo." Tommy lied.
"Nice to meet you Theo, do you want to come to my place? You can use my shower, plus my shift is almost over." The little emergency bell in Tommy's head began ringing. Stranger danger, but at this point, Tommy couldn't care less.
"That would be great, thank you." Tommy smiled, he brushed the lone banana peel off his leg, and the excess glass shards.
"Awesome. Come on!" Tommy could feel a small friendship start to bloom.
…
TommyInnit's Guide To: A Never Ending Life:
1. Get a stupid power
2. Run away from home
3. Get mugged
4. Get a new best friend