#borrower tubbo saga

[bittydragon]

The Problems Arising (The Festival)

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Notes: :)

Warnings: Character Death

Tubbo had barely woken up when Schlatt’s voice rang out, announcing his entrance.

“Tubbo, my man! Today’s the day!” Tubbo sat up sleepily, blinking the sleep out of his eyes. Normally Schlatt would’ve let him sleep longer than this. He seemed very excited at the moment though. 

Tubbo wracked his brain for what possibly could’ve been today that had got Schlatt so excited. The tired feeling almost completely disappeared when he remembered. 

The festival was today!

Normally, Tubbo wouldn’t be this excited for an event like this, but Schlatt had told him that he could attend as long as he stayed hidden. Now, he would’ve stayed hidden regardless. He didn’t need anyone else knowing about him or borrowers, but he appreciated Schlatt’s concern.

The past couple weeks had been strange for Tubbo. Schlatt had started getting better, he wasn’t as violent and angry towards him. He even called him son at one point. 

It made the borrower happy, knowing he’d officially gained Schlatt’s trust. The president still wasn’t a good person by any means- plus the man drank way too much to be healthy. But he trusted Tubbo, and that was progress.

Tubbo quickly made his way to his feet and stared up at Schlatt, who was looming over the enclosure with a big smile on his face. It was an unnerving sight for the borrower but he decided not to say anything, instead opting for smiling up at the president.

“It’s the big day, sir! Your festival! Is everything all set up and ready?” Schlatt continued to grin and lifted the top of the enclosure off. The man reached inside and grabbed Tubbo in a fist. The borrower resisted the urge to squirm in the grip as it was a bit too tight. 

“Well of course it is! Everything is going perfectly as planned.” Tubbo only faked a grin up at Schlatt. He had to play nice with the man in order to be able to go to the festival.

If he was being honest, Tubbo was getting tired. Tired of everything happening and of Schlatt and Quackity. He didn’t really have to interact with the duck hybrid too much, but those moments were still tense. It was easier whenever Schlatt wasn’t around, but those moments were few and far between.

Tubbo hoped he would at least be able to see Tommy and Wilbur at the festival. He knew they were exiled and weren’t actually allowed in the country, but he also knew those two were the types to have something planned. Wilbur was bound to have a plan for something to happen at the festival, he had to. 

That was the main reason Tubbo was excited to go, he would be able to see whatever chaos the brothers would cause. It made them rescuing him more difficult, but he didn’t mind. He was in good standings with Schlatt, so he was fine.

Tubbo was yanked out of his thoughts when he was roughly deposited into a stuffy pocket. The material was scratchy and uncomfortable, reminding him of the suit he was currently forced to wear. It wasn’t too difficult to identify this as being Schlatt’s pocket. So despite the discomfort, he was going to have to deal with it for the rest of the day.

He shifted around in the pocket in order to rest on his knees and tried to get a look at the world outside. A finger suddenly came in and pushed his head down, shoving him back into the stuffy pocket with a yelp.

“You may be allowed to come with me to the festival, but under no circumstances will you show yourself off to my citizens. Stay in the pocket.” Tubbo wanted to protest, what was the use of going with Schlatt if he couldn’t see anything? Instead, he held back his grumbles and settled down in the pocket as if it was a hammock.

“Yes sir.” Schlatt seemed satisfied with the answer as he responded with an affirmative huff. 

All of a sudden, everything began to move. Tubbo just sat in the pocket as Schlatt made his way outside to join the festivities that had already begun.

“Schlatt!” Tubbo bit back a yelp as Schlatt was suddenly crushed in a hug from no one other than Quackity. That was one of the things Tubbo hated about the vice president, he knew nothing about personal space.

This time wasn’t any different as Quackity unknowingly pressed the borrower tightly against the president’s chest. He gasped for breath when Quackity finally pulled away and he felt the lurch of Schlatt being dragged towards everyone else at the festival. 

His chest hurt from the pressure of the hug, but there was little he could do as he couldn’t leave the pocket he was in.

From Schlatt’s pocket, Tubbo could hear everyone else’s conversations around them. He heard Niki talking to Fundy about her new bread recipe and Bad yelling at Quackity for swearing. He also heard a new voice, a deep voice that was unfamiliar to the borrower. 

Was it someone who was passing through the country when the festival had started? It must be, Tubbo would’ve recognized them if they were a citizen of Manberg.

The festival was boring for the borrower. Being trapped in a stuffy suit pocket made all the different activities and entertainment pointless as he couldn’t do or even see any of them. They were also around people almost the entire time so Tubbo couldn’t even risk a glance, not like he wanted to. He’d rather as few people know of his existence as possible.

A few hours after the festival had started, Schlatt and Quackity both stood on a podium. The duck hybrid tapped on the microphone and began his opening speech as Schlatt stood slightly behind him, watching over the president’s shoulder as if waiting for anything suspicious to occur.

Tubbo tuned out the speech and took this opportunity to finally take a peek out of the pocket. As carefully as he could, he poked his head out of the pocket and surveyed his surroundings. 

The podium was very well built but Tubbo expected nothing less from Schlatt. He’d probably hired the best he could find to make sure everything looked perfect. 

Whether Schlatt had paid the architect was a completely different story, but that didn’t matter to the borrower at the moment.

Suddenly, movement from the top of a building caught Tubbo’s eye. He looked up to try and figure out what was moving on the building, expecting to see a bird or maybe a stray mob. 

What he didn’t expect to see was Wilbur and Tommy leaning over the edge of the building, watching intently as the speeches went on. Tubbo slapped a hand over his mouth to stop the excited gasp from leaving him.

They actually came! He’d hoped that they were here to try and do something to Schlatt. Maybe they would take a stand and try to start an uprising. They did have some allies in this crowd, after all, so they would have an actual chance.

What bothered Tubbo though was how worried his best friend looked. Tommy normally went into every situation with overconfidence that would always get him into near-death situations. But now, now he looked scared. The way he kept glancing between Wilbur and the podium gave the borrower a bad feeling.

And when he looked at Wilbur the bad feeling only worsened. Something about the way he stared at Schlatt with an unwavering gaze made an uneasy feeling grow within the borrower. It felt... unnatural, it felt wrong.

Wilbur and Tommy suddenly both ducked back out of sight as Quackity began introducing Schlatt to the microphone. Tubbo ducked back into the pocket, not exactly wanting to be seen now that Schlatt was in the center of attention.

“Look at our fine country! Our beautiful Manberg deserves to be celebrated like this, don’t you all think!” Some cheers rang out from the crowd, though Tubbo noticed how some of them definitely sounded forced. He didn’t blame them, their country was changed so much once Schlatt became president.

Tubbo felt bad for the citizens of what was once L’Manburg. They were all people of a proud country, a country that fought for their independence. Now they had to listen to the new president- the dictator who had completely taken over their country and changed it completely.

No one deserved it, especially the people who were targeted by Schlatt himself. Niki was one of the hardest hit. Her taxes were raised constantly, Tubbo wasn’t entirely sure how she kept up with them.

Not wanting to think about that sort of stuff right now, Tubbo zoned back into Schlatt’s speech.

“And now we only have one issue left at hand. It has come to my attention that there is a traitor in our midst.” Tubbo froze. He’d been so good at keeping everyone’s secrets. Was it Niki? Fundy? Who’d Schlatt find out about and how had he even found out about them?

“The saddest thing is that it was someone I hold close to me. I really did trust them, but they have been going behind my back for quite some time now. It saddens me, but we all know what happens to traitors.” Schlatt paused for a moment, staring out over the crowd of people. 

“Nothing good.”

Tubbo was given no time to react as fingers reached into the pocket and harshly wrapped around him. He closed his eyes as he was yanked into the open, the sudden light change being too much for him right now.

The crowd began to murmur in shock at the sight of him. He could hear the shocked gasps and whispers as they all tried to figure out what he was and why he was so small.

“My fine friends, have you all ever heard of borrowers?”

Tubbo opened his eyes again and stared in horror at the massive crowd of people he was being shown off to. They all stared at him in varying degrees of shock. The only people whose expressions he couldn’t read were Dream’s and a piglin’s, whom the borrower hadn’t seen before today.

“This here is Tubbo.” Schlatt seemed to pay no mind to how shocked everyone was, instead opting to continue his speech as normal. “He’s been a close member of my cabinet and I truly did trust him. But it seems as if he has decided I haven’t treated him well enough. I gave him clothes, food, a place to sleep, and he repays me with betrayal.”

Tubbo began trying to squirm out of Schlatt’s grasp. This wasn’t good, this wasn’t good at all. On top of the fact that now an entire country knew about him and his species, Schlatt had somehow found out about his traitorous actions. And Tubbo knew exactly how Schlatt felt about traitors, the man wasn’t subtle about that piece of information.

“Technoblade. Could you come to the podium please?”

Tubbo stilled as he watched the piglin stranger freeze up in shock before awkwardly making his way up to the podium. So that was his name. For being such an intimidating-looking guy, with an intimidating-sounding name too, he seemed to be pretty awkward.

That didn’t make it any less nerve-wracking as the piglin stood next to Schlatt, easily towering over the borrower, he was huge. So when Schlatt suddenly dropped him into the hooved hands of the piglin, Tubbo would definitely admit he was beyond scared.

Tubbo yelped as Technoblade fumbled with the borrower before gently holding him in his hands. The piglin looked around confused before settling his gaze on Schlatt. The ram’s smile sent a shiver down both his and the piglin’s spines.

“Techno, I’d like you to take care of him for me. That shouldn’t be too hard for someone like you.” Tubbo paled. He shook a bit and whipped his gaze towards Technoblade. He knew exactly what Schlatt was implying.

“Take care of him? Like, keep him safe?” Tubbo stared up at the piglin, confused and a bit angry at him for misinterpreting the command. He must’ve been an idiot for not knowing what Schlatt meant. 

Though he did notice how Technoblade kept glancing up to the top of the building where Wilbur and Tommy were as if asking a silent question.

Tubbo let his gaze linger up there as well, only to notice a terrified-looking Tommy, meanwhile, Wilbur nowhere to be seen. He didn’t blame Tommy though, he’s pretty sure if nobody stops this then the blond was about to watch his best friend die.

Schlatt just narrowed his eyes at Technoblade’s response. “Kill him Techno. I’m the president, the blood doesn’t go on my hands. That’s what you’re here for.”

The silence following that confirmation was deafening. 

Not one person in the crowd dared to speak, everyone in too much shock at the events playing out before them to speak anyways. Even Tubbo stilled at the words and kept his horrified gaze on the piglin holding him. 

He- he wouldn’t actually kill him… right?

The blank look Technoblade was giving him was nowhere near reassuring though. Tubbo’s eyes widened as fingers began wrapping around his body. By the time he attempted to squirm away, the grip had already become too tight.

“P-please! Please don’t do this! Please don’t!” Techno just stared down at him with the blank stare, though Tubbo could’ve sworn he saw a small look of remorse flicker in his eyes like a silent apology for what was about to happen.

He screamed as the pressure only continued to tighten around him and black dots filled his vision. Soon, his own screams cut out as the grip became too tight and he couldn’t breathe.

As Tubbo felt himself slowly fading away, he heard the familiar sound of an ender pearl shattering before someone rammed into Technoblade, forcing the piglin to let go of the borrower and drop him to the podium floor.

Tubbo closed his eyes, letting the darkness consume him. Faintly, he heard the angry voice of his best friend and something similar to fireworks going off around him, but he ignored it all in favor of falling asleep.

Neither Tommy nor Technoblade noticed how the small body vanished into thin air, only a small puff of smoke remaining.

[daaziscoolbesties]

[REPOST] MY 2K WORD COMMENTARY/ANALYSIS OF RANBOO’S LORE STREAM

‼️‼️This post contains lore spoilers from Ranboo’s 4/23 stream, “The Enderwalk Saga. Chapter 1: The Lessons”. If you haven’t seen that stream don’t read ahead unless you want spoilers‼️‼️

disclaimer: this isnt really an analysis as much as a bunch of commentary and half-baked theories.

-on the way to the mansion he was sort of talking to himself saying stuff like "i'm good i'm good" which m a y be a normal thing but also maybe it's not and it flew over our heads cause he talks to chats and donos like that so often

-again, this one may just be a normal thing but when he was climbing up the stairs in the mansion looking for foolish, he repeats some of his words like down to the exact same tone of voice and everything. 12:42,  "this mansion is way too big actually. this mansion is way too big actually." (why the repeated actually? seems odd to me but again it might just be a normal thing that i haven't picked up on). (right after) "okay okay lemme find him lemme find him" again repeated words in the e x a c t same tone.

-does everyone know about ranboo's silk touch hands ability thing? or was that just a techno and ranboo main character moment. bc if it was, how would foolish know that ranboo could pick up the full cake after it'd been partially eaten. unless everyone on the sever knows about that in which case this means nothing. but if they d o n t know... how would foolish know? ranboo wrote about it in the do not read book so maybe if it's not a publicly known thing maybe foolish got his hands on the book and read it??

-14:53-ish, they're talking about the war room and how it was for tubbo or whatever and ranboo says, and i quote "he prepares for lore but he's never gonna do it." now funny thing is at first i couldn't tell if he said "war" like in reference to the war room or "lore". but after playing the clip over and over i can say with ALMOST 100% certainty that he said lore. there is a definite L sound at the beginning of the word. which either means a) this was a slip up (doubtful bc he said later that there were no mistakes), b) he broke the fourth wall because they were supposed to be rping at that point, or c) i'm completely wrong and he said "war" which leads down an entire other road of possibilities

-15:17 "are you a book reader?" "*checks inventory for do not read book* uh yeah i'd say i'm a book reader-" dunno how i didn't catch this the first time I HATE THAT DAMN BOOK

-15:18 there's blue in his hotbar. where did he get the blue.

-16:40 "it's like a metaphor- i have two minds: i have my normal self, my normal little shift-dancing self, and then the builder one. the builder one is demanding. it's a very demanding mind." ranboo then lets out a weird sigh after this. i feel like what foolish was talking about was an indirect(?) parallel to ranboo in and out of enderwalk, there's how he normally is, trying to do best for others, and then there's enderwalk, meeting up with bad guys and "demanding" things (its very late as i write this i really don't know what i'm talking about)

-17:11 "you have your panic closet" i'm sorry his what now 😀 no but seriously how the hell did i miss some of these

-18:04 "you're asking me if i remember?" very funny ranboo thank you for making jokes in these trying times

-18:25 WHY DID HE GET OUT THE AXE WHEN STARING AT THE BEE

-19:38 why did foolish hold the grass block- most of these observations probably mean nothing but- h u h - is that- i'm too tired for this

-19:54 "i never properly thanked you for the deal you made with me" so foolish got something out of this deal, we're not sure if ranboo did. "the green cardboard box" again do you mean dream's house- but seriously the only people i can think of on the server that are associated with green are dream and sam. and i have no idea what cardboard box could be referring to.  foolish got a lime colored shulker from drista

-20:30 "we're supposed to only talk about it at a certain location" hmm now where would that be? panic room maybe? cause like usually after doing a big thing in the enderwalk state ranboo wakes up in the panic room so maybe?  the deal was that they only talk about it in his house

-21:52 how does ranboo receive(?) the lessons? like are they whispered to him in his mind or is he seeing them as words in front of him like we see? hmm

-"Lesson 14: If you have the opportunity to gain a favor, take it." "gain a favor" don't you usually ask people for favors though? how does one "gain a favor"? anyways i'm pretty sure lesson 14 has to do with the deal foolish was talking about. (the deal explained because i now have info: at some point a bit ago foolish met up with ranboo and asked to make a deal, he'd gotten a shulker box from drista. the deal was that ranboo would have ownership of the box, it would be under his name but foolish rents/borrows it indefinitely. ranboo negotiated that if he took ownership of the box he would get a "war favor"  from foolish where if something happens that creates sides, ranboo can ask him a favor that could change his side. but why would foolish want ranboo to have ownership of the shulker you may ask? well i have an answer for you. a theory actually but still. basically since drista technically isn't supposed to give out shit on the server if someone where to have that stuff then they may get in trouble. foolish wants to be able to use the shulker but if it gets found he doesn't want to get in trouble, so he can blame it on ranboo seeing as it's under his name.)

-22:16-ish "i still have this from when you *can't understand whats said here*" well i guess that sort of explains why he had the grass block? idk man (info update: he had the grass block from when ranboo threw it at him telling him to calm down like what ghostbur does with blue)

-31:35 "i figured out how to cause it" how to cause the enderwalk state

-38:30 "ninety three lessons" I STILL DONT KNOW WHY HE KEPT SAYING NINETY THREE AND NOT NINETY FOUR AND ITS DRIVING ME CRAZY LMAO

-39:01 "it's all for the greater good" okay well when are you gonna start thinking about yourself and not everyone else for once huh. self care bitch.

-40:31 he started holding the axe when he was looking at sam- gonna say it i really don't like that axe ahahah- WAIT A DAMN MINUTE THE AXE IS NAMED "axe of ender" I DONT LIKE THAT I DONT LIKE THAT AT ALL

-41:53 is there something?? physically keeping him from telling sam??? or maybe it's sort of like his enderwalk state taking control to make him shut the fuck up??? so many questions and approximately zero answers

-43:18 ranboo raising his voice legitimately scares me 😀👍

-"Lesson 27: Do not reminisce on what you have lost for it will weigh you down." showed up when he was thinking about and REMINISCING about the community house 👀👀

-"Lesson 53: Never fully trust anyone." showed up literally after he said that he thinks he can trust the other people on the server enough to tell them about what he did

-"Lesson 67: Leave no evidence of what you have helped with." this is different from the others because there doesn't seem to be at least a semi-direct connection to it? unless maybe at the time ranboo was near something he may have "helped with"? not sure about this one

-"Lesson 94: DO NOT LET THEM KNOW WHAT YOU HAVE DONE" yeah yeah i get it i get it he's fucked up some shit in enderwalk i don't feel like analyzing this thanks

-OH OH NOTICE HOW HE SAYS "REMEMBERING" WHEN THE LESSONS SHOW UP. IMPLYING THAT THIS ISNT A NEW THING, ITS HAPPENED BEFORE AND NOW HES REMEMBERING IT. MAYBE HE WROTE DOWN THE LESSONS WHEN HE WAS IN ENDERWALK AND NOW THAT HES BEEN EXPERIMENTING ITS BEEN EASIER FOR HIM TO REMEMBER THOSE ENDERWALK MEMORIES

-okokok the experiments are that he's been e x p e r i m e n t i n g on how to purposefully induce the enderwalk state. and we know now that it wasn't from the pain of the water because on the stream afterwords he said that it's caused by the intense fear of something happening. and so the "side effects" of the experiments is that since he's in enderwalk more often(?) he starts remembering more things from it

-OH MY GOD WAIT "there is a reason sam, there's so many reasons, theres ninety three of them" (44:47) WHAT IF EVERY LESSON IS TIED TO A QUOTE UNQUOTE "reason" THAT RANBOO THINKS HES A BAD PERSON/NEEDS TO BE LOCKED UP BUT HE SAYS NINETY THREE INSTEAD OF NINETY FOUR BECAUSE THE NINETY FOURTH LESSON DOESNT HAVE A REASON YET/HE DOESNT REMEMBER IT HAVING A REASON

-dude honestly the whole sam part hurts so much this man is scarily good at acting

-46:46 "i cant put you in the prison you wouldn't be able to see michael anymore" bestie that's the point he doesn't want to accidentally hurt michael or tubbo in the enderwalk state—

-okay but there's no way that sam couldn't tell that ranboo was at least TRYING to confess to something- i feel like he definitely knows more than he's letting on because usually like when people do bad shit or admit to doing bad shit he's like in Prison Guard Mode™️ (he literally cut off ponk's arm because he stole some keycards or something) and whatever and idk what he knows but he definitely knows something and is trying to protect ranboo. or he's trying to manipulate him or smth either one works—

-50:38 "you are a good person" "i am?" you can hear my heart shatter. "yes you are" "i don't think so sam" "i do, even if you don't" "i really don't think so" and there it goes again

-51:25 hello badboyhalo i see you to the left of ranboo

-52:44 "but then my curiosity got the best of me" curiosity killed the cat, bitch

-52:54 "there's ninety three, ninety four, ninety- theres so many reasons!" SEE!! NOT ONLY ARE THERE THAT MANY LESSONS THERE ARE REASONS THAT CORRESPOND IM S O SMART—

-52:56 "i don't want to remember anymore!" *quietly brings forth my theory that when ranboo loses a canon life his memory gets wiped*

-53:13 "ive opened pandora's box" isn't the prison?? literally called pandora's VAULT??? so this m a y be a stretch but i'm thinking that maybe this could be taken in the literal sense that he "opened" the prison and let dream out (the sirens at the end of quackity's stream confirm that dream is indeed out)

-53:42 mans just straight up walked through a ghost i—

-55:37 so are we just gonna ignore the eleventh page of the book? "he's alive, but hopefully soon dream won't be"??? alright nevermind it's most likely bc when tommy came back he recruited ranboo in his plan to kill dream

-55:47 notice how he writes "what am i?" as opposed to "who am i?" no elaboration here idk what it could be

-56:08 just so it's clear for anyone who doesn't know- he's wearing armor at this point, and i'm like 90% sure that when he wears his armor water can't hurt him. and i saw someone say somewhere that like with splash potions when thrown it turns into a gas-like thing? so again, it didn't hurt him, he didn't get hurt. he said in the chill stream that he wasn't comfortable making it where his character had to hurt himself to do that. the thing that causes the enderwalk isn't pain, it's intense and sudden emotions like fear and stress. thank you for coming to my tedtalk.

[bittydragon]

The Problems Arising (The Spy)

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Notes: Here’s chapter 2 of The Problems Arising! (Finally, I took way too long on getting this out y’all) Hope y’all enjoy!

Being with Schlatt was a nightmare. Everything about Tubbo’s new life with the president was terrible. He was even forced to change out of the clothes that Tommy had sewn for him, back when they had first met. 

He was now forced to wear a small hand made suit, much like the one Schlatt wore, only poorly sewn. 

He missed his old outfit. Tommy had made it for him because when he had first seen the borrower, Tubbo was wearing a small piece of cloth over his shoulders in a bad attempt at a poncho. 

He never really did get the hang of making clothes for himself, but the poncho worked well enough. Though he never realized how comfortable a proper set of clothes would be until Tommy made him some.

And now Tubbo was forced to wear the shoddily made suit that was too big in some places and tight on others. It even made him wish for his old poncho. But Schlatt insisted and practically forced him to wear the ensemble, despite him being a secret from the rest of the cabinet, minus Quackity.

Quackity was tolerable. He was pretty funny and came by frequently to talk with Tubbo. But he never made any attempt to free the borrower and in the presence of Schlatt, any kindness he held disappeared. 

Tubbo wasn’t too sure how he felt about him.

Schlatt on the other hand was horrible, through and through. At the beginning of Tubbo’s capture, he’d made many attempts to escape. 

He had nearly made it to the walls at one point. But every time his luck seemed to fade out and he was met with a boot slammed down in front of him or a hand roughly pinning him down.

Schlatt wasn’t at all merciful towards Tubbo either. If he did anything the man didn’t like, he received some sort of punishment. He felt like a dog being trained to be a good pet for its owner. 

Though, that analogy wasn’t too far off from how he was treated.

About a month into Tubbo’s capture, he had stopped trying to escape knowing it would be a fruitless endeavor. Schlatt had quickly picked up on that piece of information and was pleased enough to know that he could now use this tiny boy to his advantage without him attempting to run away again.

So now Tubbo was on one of his little spy trips for Schlatt. Schlatt realized fairly quickly that he was small and knew how to get into hidden spaces and stay undetected. 

So every so often, Schlatt would send Tubbo out just before the sun rose to go out into Manburg and gather any inside intelligence he could and report back to Schlatt at the end of the day.

Schlatt was kind enough to drop him off at different locations in the mornings, but after that, he was left to traverse the area on his own, a difficult task for a borrower. 

Tubbo was forced to make do with the situation, he didn’t want to try his luck at gaining more favors from Schlatt.

However, Tubbo was not completely under Schlatt’s thumb. While he did have to go out and retrieve information for the man, he always found a way to leave out the details that would mark people as traitors. 

He had overheard a few people in Manburg state something about a place called ‘Pogtopia’ and how Tommy and Wilbur now resided there.

Because of his spying for Schlatt, he had managed to gather the fact that Wilbur and Tommy were working together in order to find a way to overthrow Schlatt. 

With that in mind, Tubbo decided he would only need to bide his time until Schlatt was overthrown and Wilbur took back his rightful place as president of this country.

But now, it was time to report back to Schlatt. Today was a boring day, nobody really said anything that they all didn’t know. 

There was the one lady who owned the bakery that Tubbo had overheard complaining about her high taxes and thinking about becoming a spy for Pogtopia, but Schlatt didn’t need to know that.

Looking up at the white house, he took a deep breath and walked towards the building. He had only made it a few steps before the door was practically slammed open and in the doorway stood Schlatt, who looked a bit too pissed off for Tubbo’s liking. 

Schlatt spotted Tubbo almost instantly and marched over towards the borrower, who took an instinctual step back at the sudden movement. Before he could say anything else, Schlatt bent down and picked him up in a tight fist before marching right back towards the door.

“You better have some fucking good news for me, little pest. I don’t need another shit piece of news right now, so you better have something good.”

Tubbo stared wide-eyed up at the president. What bad news had he received that got Schlatt all worked up like this? 

It didn’t bode well for Tubbo though, Schlatt was not against taking his anger out on the tiny boy. He needed to make sure he calmed the man down before anything especially bad could happen.

Far too quickly, they arrived at Schlatt’s desk and Tubbo was unceremoniously dropped onto the wood. He watched as Schlatt sat down and levelled him with a hard stare.

“Well? What’ve you got for me, kid?”

Tubbo cleared his throat, he had to word everything carefully as not to further anger Schlatt, even if he had barely any information to give the man.

“I did not find much out that we didn’t already know, sir. The most interesting thing I saw was that a demon and a strange person made of diamonds were walking through the country today. I have not seen them here before, so I was unsure as to whether or not this was vital information for you or not. Other than that, it was a very normal day and nothing incriminating was found.”

Schlatt almost seemed to measure him up for a minute. Tubbo nervously stared back at him, nervous at what his reaction could be. Schlatt eventually sighed and leaned back into his chair.

“Bad and Skeppy. They shouldn’t be a threat, but they aren’t exactly a friendly party with us either. The Badlands, their faction, is a very neutral faction. I don’t trust them but no issues have arisen with them, so we shall continue with them peacefully.” He paused for a second before addressing Tubbo directly. 

“You did well enough, I suppose. I can’t really blame you when nobody says anything around you sometimes.”

Tubbo did his best not to allow the relief to cross his face. If Schlatt knew of just how much Tubbo was panicking then he would use that to his advantage to gain more power over him. He didn’t need anything else making his life harder.

“I am glad you are happy with the information I have found today. I apologize for not finding anything else for you.”

Schlatt actually smiled at him. Tubbo didn’t know what to think, the smile seemed genuine but the president was a master of deception so he couldn’t be too sure.

“Y’know, you’re a good kid. If you continue working this hard at your job, I may have to upgrade your enclosure again.” 

Tubbo wasn’t sure what to say in response to that. It seemed more of a backhanded compliment. Schlatt may have applauded him for his work and how well he did it, but he also made sure to remind him that he was still nothing more than a pet. An obedient little pet who deserved a treat when they did a good job.

“I have an idea, kid.” Tubbo looked up to the ram. He felt a small bout of nerves build up inside of him, but he shoved the bad feeling away. 

He nodded towards Schlatt to indicate he was listening, too scared that his voice would relay the slight fear he had. However, the president didn’t seem to notice as he continued on.

“Manburg is thriving right now, there’ve been very few amounts of potential betrayal and Wilbur and Tommy can do absolutely nothing against me with nobody else on their side.” Tubbo flinched at that, but if Schlatt noticed he said nothing as he continued talking. 

“So I’ve decided that I should hold a festival, one to acknowledge the success of this country under my rule. There will be games and activities for everyone and I will give a speech to the people as well. This should be the perfect way to show everyone how great the country has become, don’t you agree?” 

“Of course, Schlatt! I think that’s a perfect idea! A festival would be a good way to celebrate how far your country has come.” Tubbo’s voice shook a little as he spoke. 

He hoped the president didn’t notice how he was struggling to lie in order to appease the man. He didn’t want to call the country Schlatt’s, but if he didn’t he would be labelled a traitor on the spot.

“Exactly! You get it, kid. I knew you were a good asset for my cabinet.” He reached a finger out to ruffle Tubbo’s hair. The borrower resisted the urge to flinch away and only faked a smile up at Schlatt.

“I’m glad you think so, sir!” Schlatt sent another small smile towards the boy, finger still on his head. Tubbo let out a mental sigh of relief when he seemed to buy his lie. He felt like he was getting a whole lot better at this whole faking thing.

Schlatt began to shift his hand to grab Tubbo, the finger slipping out of his hair. The borrower found himself restricted in Schlatt’s fist once more, but in a noticeably looser grip than earlier. 

He didn’t appreciate being grabbed like this, but there was nothing he could do against Schlatt. If he attempted any form of rebellion then he would lose all the privileges he had managed to gain, and he liked the small amount of freedom he currently had.

It didn’t take long for Schlatt to reach Tubbo’s enclosure. He pat his head once more before lowering him down into the small glass enclosure. 

Tubbo only stared up helplessly as the top was placed over the enclosure, trapping him inside once more. Schlatt sent one last glance towards the small boy before making his way to the kitchen.

Tubbo didn’t move, just sitting there allowing his thoughts to run wild. This festival did actually seem like a good idea, but something about the whole plan made him feel queasy... like there was a part he was missing. 

And why had Schlatt conferred in him about the idea? The whole thing just sent Tubbo for a loop and he couldn’t explain why something just felt off about the idea of the festival.

A minute later, Schlatt returned with a small container containing bread, some pieces of strawberry and a bottlecap of water. He moved the lid off of Tubbo’s enclosure, putting the food and water into the glass box before closing it and leaving once more, this time towards his office.

Tubbo instantly made his way towards the food, the sight of it reminding him of his hunger that had built up throughout the day. He was glad that Schlatt felt the need to feed him, even if he knew it was probably because the ram didn’t need his pet to be dying on him any time soon.

He picked up a small chunk of strawberry and began to nibble on it while staring blankly out at the room he was kept in. 

His mind wandered back towards the festival idea. Something inside of him screamed that something was wrong but he didn’t know what. 

He decided it was just nerves and he chose to brush off the rising anxiety. The feeling remained but Tubbo decided to just ignore it.

What could possibly go wrong anyways?