Archive of Our Own

It was a typical day. Wilbur woke up and started his day like usual. He woke up and changed out of his pajamas. He picked a pair of black jeans and one of his classic yellow sweaters, he didn’t really care for fashion today, so he skipped putting on his favorite brown coat, Tommy would have probably stolen it at the end of the day anyways. After he threw on his clothes, He groggily headed to the kitchen to eat breakfast with his family. Entering the kitchen the smell of pancakes wafted into his nose. He saw Philza at the stovetop flipping some pancakes. He approached the crow to see if there were any pancakes left for him.

“Morning, mate.” Philza chirped.

“Morning.” Wilbur greeted back.

“Tommy took the last of the pancakes, you’ll have to wait for me to finish yours, sorry Will.”

“I’m a very big man who needs lots of food!” Tommy interjected.

“Toms, you have had like ten pancakes, you little shit.” Philza chuckled.

Wilbur listened to the banter between his family as he sat at the table between his two brothers. Techno nodded at him as he sat down, Wilbur noticed the heavy bags in the piglin’s eyes. Techno would avoid sleep like the plague, he once spent a whole week working on his potato farm with no sleep so his disheveled appearance wasn’t a surprise to him. Wilbur nodded back as Techno nursed his morning coffee.

“WILLLLLLLLL,” Tommy said in a pleading voice, “PHILL IS STARVING ME.”

Tommy’s loud voice usually didn’t bother him, but this morning it oddly sounded louder and made him flinch. He had no clue why, but it was just probably the fact he just woke up. He shrugged it off. 

“You can’t have my pancakes. Tommy.”

The raccoon's ear flicked as he glared at him, “I will steal them If you don’t give me any.”

“Nope, not happening.” Philza said, “You’ve had enough.” 

Tommy crossed his arms and chittered angrily. Philza let out a sharp caw in answer. The noises hurt Wilbur's ears, and he flinched again at the sound.. What was wrong with him today? Usually, Philzas caws sounded normal but they were somehow almost deafening. He rubbed his face, unsure of his predicament.

“You alright?” Techno asked.

“I’m just a little off this morning, It’ll probably be fine.”  He responded, not wanting Techno to worry.

“Will How many pancakes do you want?” Philza called over from the other side of the room.

“Two is fine.”

Philza carried over a plate of pancakes for Wilbur, and he dropped it on the table, the ceramic of the plate making and irritating Clink . He grabbed the syrup and put a thin layer on top of both of his pancakes. He started digging in. Philzas pancakes were perfect like usual, he never knew how he managed to make them turn out good. The last time he tried to cook, the house almost burned down. He happily ate his pancakes, while listening to his family talk.

Tommy got up to put his plate in the sink, but he bumped into the side of the table and dropped his plate. The plate shattered.

Time felt like it slowed down. The sound of the plate was pure pain. It was almost like he could feel the sound attacking his body. His head screamed for him to get away from the sound, to shield him from the deafening attack. So he did. Wilbur curled up into a ball, protecting his ears from the noise. He didn’t know what was happening around him, he heard voices but he couldn’t connect them to a person, they sounded worried. He felt a hand on his back, he didn’t know who it belonged to.

“Wilbur?” Philza said, concern taking over his voice, “Are you okay?”

Wilbur looked up to see his father but, all he could see was a blur. He could see the green of Philzas robe and the color and shape of his wings but, his eyes were blurred.

“I-I can’t see.” He admitted.

“What?” He heard Tommy exclaim.

Tommy’s voice made his head swim, he flinched at the sound before speaking again.

“I-It’s all blurry I- I don’t know what is going on, sounds hurt.” He admitted.

“Sounds… Hurt?” Philza said quieter.

Wilbur nodded at the green blur.

“Does, your head hurt at all?” Philza whispered.

He nodded again.

“Fuck.”

“W-What’s wrong?” Wilbur said slightly scared.

“I-I think you're manifesting.”

“What? B-But I’m human!” Wilbur argued.

“We don’t know that, I found you In a forest, you could be anything for that matter.” Philza countered.

Wilbur squinted at Philza through his clouded vision, “I’m almost 27 Phil, I don’t think I’m manifesting.”

“Your age doesn't matter, you can manifest at any time, you have all the symptoms for it, sensitivity to surroundings, headache, what else can explain this?”

“I-I don’t know.”

“Let me bring you to the nest.”

Philza grabbed Wilbur and scooped him up as if he were a small animal. Wilbur tried to look around, but his vision seemed to be getting worse, the blurs darkened and he could no longer see his father's comforting green. He felt scared. He had heard horror stories of people manifesting, and even people dying from it. He remembered Philza's story of his manifesting and how he grew his wings, he had described it in a horrifying manner, and blood was everywhere. He didn’t want to think what would happen to him. He didn’t want to know what he was turning into. It scared him. He suddenly felt being put down in something soft. He recognized it as Philzas nest. It was full of Blankets, and various items of clothing from all his children.

“Will, your eyes…” Philza muttered.

“W-what about my eyes?”

“They- They turned white.”

“What?”

Was the transformation happening already? He didn’t want this to happen, he wanted this to be a normal day where he just did normal things. Not to go through a life-altering transformation. He felt himself begin to cry. He couldn’t see anything around him at his point and everything appeared to be black. He was terrified of what was happening to him.

“It's going to be okay Will.” 

He felt his father's hand begin to rub his back, providing him with some comfort. He unconsciously leaned into the touch.

“I- Can’t see.” He sobbed.

“It’s scary I know, but you're going to be okay, I'm right here I’m going to help you through this. You’ll be okay.”

“Tom?” He asked.

Wilbur didn’t realize his brother was in the room.

“Yeah?” Tommy whispered. 

“Can you get my book on mobs and manifesting?”

Wilbur heard Tommy leave the room, his heavy footsteps loud and painful, He covered his ears and let out a low growl. He was shocked at the sound, he was never able to make sounds like his family could, and it was surprising to hear it coming out of his own voice.
Philza cooed slightly trying to make his child feel safe. He could hear Tommy’s footsteps returning, he curled up again, distasteful of the loud noise.

“Sorry.” he heard Tommy whisper.

He tried to tell Tommy that, “It’s all right.” But the words burned his throat. He made a low rumbling sound instead. The rumble felt natural in his throat, unlike when he tried to talk. He felt so pathetic. He couldn’t even talk. 

“Thank’s Tommy,” Philza said.

Wilbur could hear the flipping of pages, these weren’t as painful as the footsteps but they still were distasteful. After a couple of seconds of Philza flipping through the book he spoke.

“I think I found it. Will, I think you’re turning into a warden.” his father said exasperated

Well, that explained why he was going blind, and how everything sounded way louder than usual.

 “It says here that it begins with an aversion to sound… gradual the loss of sight.. the  vocal cords shift… then the antennae grows…” Philza’s reading trailed off.  

“T-The book says growing warden antennae is one of the most painful transformations, more painful than growing avian wings, most- most  people p-pass out from the pain, or tear the antennae out… ”

Wilbur felt fear strike his heart. He didn’t want this pain. He didn’t want to be a warden. He didn’t want to be blind for the rest of his life. He didn’t want to go through this painful process. He felt his tears fall down his cheeks. He hated this, he hated all of this. He wanted to be human, not a warden, he was perfectly happy as a human. He didn’t want this. He gripped his hair in distress, pulling at it. He felt a pair of hands grab his own and guide them away from his hair. Philzas hands held him, trying his best to comfort his son. He gripped his father’s hands tightly.

“I’m sorry you have to go through this Will. It will be alright, we are all here for you okay? Do you remember when Tommy manifested? How we all took care of him? You aren’t going to be alone, we will be here to help you. Okay?” 

His father squeezed his hands before letting go. He nodded in the direction of Philza’s voice, showing that he heard the other. His nerves calmed down a little but he was still afraid.

“Allrigh, I'm going to grab some stuff for when your antennae start to grow. Tommy and Techno are here in the room if you need anything.”

Then Philza left, his footsteps trailed off until there was nothing. He felt alone. Without anyone talking he couldn’t tell that anyone was in the room, only the faint sound of someone breathing, he couldn’t tell if it was his own breathing or someone else's. All he could see was black and the faintness of grey. He lifted his hand in front of his face, he could barely make out that his hand was in front even of him. He felt alone in the darkness that his blindness made, what if his brothers weren’t even in the room? What if they left with Philza? What if they weren’t there?

He tried to call out for his brothers, but the best he could do was emit needy-sounding clicks. He felt disgusted, all he could do was make weird sounds and noises. They made him feel small, like a baby bird that fell out of it’s nest.

Techno noticed Wilbur trying to communicate with them. “Do you need anything? Thumbs up for yes, thumbs down for no.” 

Wilbur lifted his hand in the air and gave a thumbs up towards the sound of Technoblade's voice.

“What do you need?” 

Wilbur scrunched his face up. He couldn’t say what he wanted to him, so he just let out a low clicking noise.

“Oh yeah sorry, forgot you can’t talk.”

“How about he writes it down?” Tommy said.

“Good Idea, go get a notepad and pen.”

Wilbur heard Tommy walk off, more quiet this time, as to not ubset Wilbur’s sensitive ears. In a second he heard Tommy return. 

“Um, here.” Tommy whispered.

Tommy grabbed Wilburs hands and placed a medium sized notepad in one and a pen in another. Wilbur clutched the items as soon they were placed in his hands, for he didn’t want to loose them. He put the note pad on the floor of the nest. He had some trouble tring to figure out if the pen was clicked on or not, but after a couple of seccods of filling with the pen he felt Tommy take it from him and click it. The pen was returned to his grasp and then he began to write. 

feel alone can’t see you please talk 

He lifted up the note book and turned it to were he thought Tommy was.

“Feel alone, can’t see you, please talk?” Tommy read outloud.

“I-I Can do that, what do you want me to tak about?”

Wilbur thought for a moment, he wasn’t sure what he wanted to hear from him, he just didn’t want to be left alone. He scribbled something quickly before showing Tommy the notepad again.

I don’t know just talk please

“I can talk, I can talk Wil, can I sit down next to you?”

Wilbur gave him a thumbs up. He felt Tommy sit next to him, his fluffy tail resting on his outstretched legs, slightly leaning against his side. It comforted Wilbur to know that his brother was next to him in the fake darkness of the room.

“Okay… I’m not much of a story teller… Hmm.”

There was a couple seconds of silence before Tommy spoke again.

“Did I ever tell you about the time I got chased down by a Warden at a market?”

Wilbur shook his head, slightly surprised about the topic, but his brother was known for getting into situations like this.

“This was after my manifestation, I was out exploring when I found a little town with a market… I walked around looking at all the stalls with all kinds of people selling stuff. I was super hungry and had no money on me, so I decided to just snatch something.” Tommy chuckled a little.

Wilbur listened to his brother's story, he could feel a slight headache coming on, but it didn’t worry him, he was listening to the story.

“There was an empty stall with some bread so I snuck up and snatched something. I thought that being a raccoon that I was able to easily take it. What I didn’t know was that the person manning the stall was a warden hybrid… he saw… or err… heard me take it and he chased me down, it was super scary. He cornered me and just told me to keep it.”

The pain in Wilbur’s head grew as he listened to the story, It started feeling like a small headache to a stabbing pain in his skull. He curled up at the sudden pain.

“Will..?”

“Wilbur?” He heard Techno and Philza say simultaneously

He could hear their footsteps rush towards him, he couldn’t think straight, all he could feel was pain. Suddenly he could feel something moving inside his skull. Like something wanted out from inside of his brain. Something pushed against his skull and he screamed.

His antennae were growing.

He cried out in pain, tears running down his face. He was so scared, and everything was just painful. He heard the voices of his family swimming around him. He couldn’t pinpoint who was speaking or what was being said. 

He felt a stabbing pain coming from his head. He screamed as the antennae dug through his brain and skull and emerged through his hair. He could now hear everything. He could hear the breathing from his family in the room, He could hear someone shift their weight on the floor, he could hear the rustle of fabric from Tommy moving in the nest, He could hear their very heartbeats. Everything was just too loud. He covered his ears to block out the sounds, but it didn’t stop. He could still hear everything. His antennae picked up everything In the room.

Everything was too loud. Everything was just too painful. It was torture. Suddenly, he blacked out.