#in a way he now can understand q!quackity perfectly

[tubchunk]

my biggest enemy is people misinterpreting q!tubbo's reasons for saying and wanting to do the things he said in yesterday's stream regarding hideduo or just thinking he wants to ruin it for nothing

[littleseasalt]

I've been thinking about why q!philza seems to be able to understand and read q!forever and the situations about him for a while now, and now I'm finally able to type out this full ramble so bear with me.

First I wanna say this post is in no way saying that Philza is the only person that understands and knows Forever, there are multiple characters that understand and know him, but I wanna focus specifically on Philza because he might as well be the most curious one to analyze: Other characters that understand Forever are generally his close friends, whom he spends a lot of time with. Meanwhile, Philza and Forever, thanks to the ccs timezones, don't get to hang out quite as much. They are friends, yes, but we don't often see them interacting like philza and the morning crew do, or forever with Cellbit, bbh and baghera, you know? Like, in character, most characters probably don't even understand how their bond actually plays off and how much they trust each other, etc etc.

So, why is it that Philza can understand Forever and the situations around Forever very well? He doesn't always gets it perfectly, obviously, but he always gets at least some parts right. What is it that makes Philza comprehend him?

And the more I think about it, the more I realize that this might be because Philza, out of all the characters, might be the character who has one of the closest audience perspective on Forever.

Now I know that sounds insane but PLEASE, hear me out. Of course, he doesn't have as much knowledge of Forever as the audience, especially cause he doesn't stream everyday and timezones and stuff so he does misses on a lot, but the thing is that Philza was the only character who was there for every single thing that is crucial to understand Forever.

How many people in character knows how much of an impact Tallulah's death left on Forever? I genuinely think Philza is the only one- they thought together that day and he was there to see how down Forever got after she died. On the same day, he also saw the sparks of what would become the ninho project later- him, Forever and Chayanne talked about egg protection rules, such as the safe room, and thought about ways they could use those rules to the maximum. Then there was Bobby's death, which lead Forever to pick up what he talked about the day of Tallulah's death and dedicate himself to this big project to protect all the eggs. He saw Forever's dedication to this project, dropping everything he was doing just to grantee the eggs safety. He sees how much Tallulah's and Bobby's death impacted Forever. He was also there when the whole Quackity taking Richas away and Cellbit traitor thing happened and he was there to cheer Forever up. These three things are *crucial* to understand Forever's character. And Philza night as well be the only one who was there to witness how all these situations actually impacted Forever- again, this isn't to say other characters don't know, understand or comprehend Forever, because other characters do, but Philza specifically stands out to me because he really was there for the initial things that ended up guiding Forever as a character.

[sardonic-the-writer]

helloooo,

quackity x reader (gender doesn’t matter) where reader comforts him because he’s really burnt out? totally fine if not! 🌹

Quackity loved doing what he did for a living

You had known that from the first moment you ever learned what he did in his free time

His streams were sometimes the highlight of his day. Discord calls with friends for random YouTube uploads became a way to get him to laugh at the dampest moments. And his chat never failed to cheer him up; even if it mostly consisted of the craziest mother fuckers he'd ever heard of

But that can all be too much for someone, even at the best of times. Especially when that someone is trying to wrap up a giant lore plot point and study for lawyer school at the same time

He had called you right after his second to last lore stream

Closing twitch had been probably the biggest relief of that day. If the giant stack of papers in the corner titled "EXAM NOTES" weren't any hint, Big Q was exhausted

And he really needed a friend

You were in a Chipotle, thinking absent-mindedly about that one vine when his name had popped up on your phone screen

It elicited a surprised, yet happy smile from you as you answered the call

The joke you had been prepared to make when sliding the answer button across the screen died in your throat as a tired voice called your name

A very tired voice

The food was forgotten, your feet on auto pilot as you marched straight out of the restaurant and into your car, asking what was wrong all the way there

You knew Quackity had a tendency to over work himself, but you'd never seen him like this before

It had taken a few moments to pry anything out of the man that wasn't reused meme quotes or half hearted puns, but eventually he had shut up and let you say your part

"Alex. Listen to me. Right now, your school work and mental health is more important than Minecraft. Twitch, YouTube, Discord; none of that matters when it comes to you. I know how long you've been wanting to become a lawyer, and you can't do that if your working yourself into the ground over a stupid block game. Message anyone on that server of yours and they'll tell you the same thing. For fucks sake, you know you have millions of fans that would be more than understanding if you took a break for just a bit. Now try actually letting yourself relax for once while I go finish getting my food, okay?"

By the time you had went inside, grabbed your perfectly timed good baggie, and sat back in your car to text him, Quackity had taken your advice and closed all of the tabs on his computer in favor of taking a shower—only after leaving a message to you detailing all that

You had simply rolled your eyes with a soft smile at the text he had left you

Sighing, you started to back your car out of the parking lot

Maybe you should bring him some McDonald's on your way home

[commaclear]

That one ask about sally finding out abt fundy and dream got me thinking… and ik after the last chapter this is sorta ooc for htid!sally but the brain rot controls me not the other way around

Like imagine quackity noticing fundy slip off to the bathroom a few minutes before lunch starts. He sees the way fundy painfully avoids dreams not so quiet whispers to grab his attention during class, shamefully looking over to the other side of the room. Now it would be wrong to keep paying attention to what clearly wasn't his business, especially when he's got his own boyfriend shit to take care of. But something about the way fundy gets paler and paler by the second, and the hollow look in his eyes that quackity has seen one to many times from Wilbur, makes quackity think he should keep an eye out for fundy.

A few weeks later quackity noticed dream had completely given up on gathering fundys attention, coming to school with a bruise on the side of his face from an altercation after school in the courtyard. Fundy had stopped trying on his work. He would just stare at the problems on the sheet like they're about to get up and dance around if he looks away. Quackity had called sally numerous times, it was the sixth call when she finally picked up that he learned fundy was transferring to the catholic school half an hour from there. "Fundy," quackity got the boys attention, " you mind coming over here?" Fundy looked over from his shoes to the chair beside quackitys. He slowly marched over and set his bag down on the floor. Sally could yell at him later for getting dirt on the new bag, it wasn't like that was the worst thing she'd say he's done these past few weeks.

"How was your day?"

"You were here." Fundy replied monotonously

"Ah well, you've seemed sort of... out of it these last few weeks" Fundy shrugged in response,

"How's home?"

"Good, we started inviting the pastor for dinner."

"Oh. how's he?"

"He's nice, brings these nice spring rolls from the Chinese place near by," Fundy said, analyzing the patterns in the ugly carpet quackity keeps below his desk.

Quackity awkwardly chuckled, " you know, your dad buys spring rolls from this place near his work all the time. They're like crack to him."

"Yeah he would buy them on his way here. We'd eat them in the parking lot and talk"

"What would you guys talk about?"

"Movies, new video games. Anything.." Quackity looked over to see Fundy sniffling

"Hey..." quackity placed his hand of fundys back, and that just seemed to be what broke the dam. Fundy crashed into quackity, sobbing into his shirt.

“I mi-hic - miss him so much! I hate it here!” Fundy cried

Quackity shushed him softly, rocking the two of the back n forth, “it’s okay it’s okay”

“No it’s not quackity!” Fundy had never said his name like that before, “I-I hurt dream!”

“He’ll understand Fundy” quackity hugged him tighter

“I don’t wanna go home anymore!” Fundy sobbed, “it’s just a reminder that I’m a-“

“Fundy,” quackity looked the teen in his eyes, “You are perfectly fine just the way you are, nothings wrong with you” quackity felt a sort of ache with how fundys words were all too familiar to him.

Fundy calmed down and loosened his hold on quackitys shirt, “I’m sorry. I just-“ he rubbed his eyes before tears started to fall again, “I miss my dad…”

Quackity opened his mouth before he was cut off by a ping from fundys phone. Fundy looked over to see he had 10 messages and 4 missed calls from sally.

“Fuck.” Fundy looked over at quackity, “sorry.”

“It’s fine bud, I can walk you out and explain to your mom-“

“No! No it’s fine” Fundy grabbed his bag and left the room quickly. Quackity sighed and opened his curtain to see sally waiting impatiently in her car. Thankfully she seemed to let Fundy off the hook after taking a look at the kids face. Quackity saw Fundy lean his head onto the cars window as they drove away. He left the school shortly after.

******

“Hey Q,” Wilbur gave quackity a chaste kiss as quackity walked into the apartment, “work go okay?”

“yeah. “ quackity looked at the English work scattered across the table, “slime?”

Slime looked up at quackity, “Wilbur’s helping me with my homework!”

“Oh, why’s that?”

“He said if I get it done early we can watch balto before bedtime.” Slime smiled

“Sounds fun” quackity mouthed a thank you to Wilbur before going to their room and changing. He looked in the mirror, trying to forget the day he had

//end

-****** anon

I've read this like three times trying to figure out which response is funnier, because I very much enjoy your angst (and inflicting on the other anons) but also this cuts me deeply how dare you bite the hand that for once is feeding you fluff.... So:

HOW DARE YOU SEND ME SUCH FINELY CRAFTED PREMIUM ANGST ON THIS FINE WEDNESDAY MORNING, THE EVE OF YET MORE COMFORT AND FLUFF, AND FORCE ME TO FEEL SUCH PAIN. YOU SADISTIC INGRATE. LOVE YOU, PLEASE COME AGAIN.

[cdroloisms]

I have seen a few fanfics with this premise, so now I wanna see your hands drabble with it. AU where everything is the same except nobody knows that Dream is actually the youngest member of the SMP at 14-15 years old. Bonus points, revived Wilbur figures it out and makes some plans for how to use this knowledge to his advantage.

ooh yeah !! this au is one of my favorites - it’s a really interesting examination on the mindset of different characters in the server, plus just fun for just Angst Purposes. this is a little messy but i hope you like it! 

tw: abuse, torture mentions, broken bones, branding mentions, trauma, emotional distress, unhealthy relationship, unhealthy coping mechanisms, smoking, mental illness, panic attack, mentioned death, dark portrayals of ,, most of the server, prison arc/pandora’s vault 

“Hey. Thought I’d find you here.”

Wilbur turns at the familiar voice at his back, smiling.

“Dream,” he pulls him in to clap him on the back, ignoring the other’s full-body flinch at his movements. “How’ve you been, man?”

“Don’t pull that bullshit on me,” Dream’s words are biting, but he smiles as he says them - a small, bitter thing that stretches over his scarred skin. His new mask is pulled to the side of his face, exposing the dark bags beneath his grey-green eyes, the varied scars that fall over the bridge of his nose and under his jaw to trace down his neck below his collar. Wilbur watches him as he walks forward to stand by his side with a small spark of fascination, enhanced further when Dream’s eyes narrow at him. “What are you staring at?”

“Nothing- nothing,” Wilbur laughs. “They just really did quite a number on you, huh?”

Dream stiffens, then rolls his eyes. “Well, he did have seventy four days, or so I’ve been told,” he quips back, words dry. “Not that there was any keeping track in that hellhole.”

“Speak for yourself,” Wilbur smiles tightly, amusement coloring his words as the other scowls. “I kep track of my thirteen years quite well.”

“Whatever you say, old man,” Dream huffs. “You have a cigarette?”

“I almost feel bad, y’know. You’re kind of underage, man,” Wilbur feels his smile widen when Dream glares up at him, eyes glinting dangerously from behind his eyelashes. “I don’t know if I should.”

“I was younger when you gave me one the first time,” Dream retorts immediately, not bothering to hide his annoyance, sharp-edged and acidic. “And even younger when you drafted child soldiers to fight in a war for your own glory. Don’t make me laugh.”

“Ouch, really know how to hit a man where it hurts, don’t you?” Wilbur mimes pressing a hand to his heart like he’s been shot with one hand, the other fishing through his jacket pocket for his pack. Dream rolls his eyes again, but stretches a hand out for him to press a cigarette and a lighter in his palm.

“Learned from the best,” Dream drawls, going quiet as he focuses on holding the end in the flame and then pulling the lit cigarette to his lips. He chokes, as he always does, on the first drag, sputtering slightly as the smoke seizes in his chest like a puzzle piece that doesn’t quite fit, and Wilbur watches the little flickering light at the end of the stick in his hand as he struggles to catch his breath.

“Surprised I can stand the sight of these things,” Dream says suddenly, quietly, as Wilbur pulls out one of his own to light. He looks up, meeting Wilbur’s quizzical look with a faraway one of his own. “Quackity was a fan of making me his personal ashtray.”

He reaches up towards his collar, pulling it away slightly to reveal a collection of puckered circular burn scars that dot the skin of his shoulder to trace to the edge of his collarbone. Wilbur hums in vague sympathy and acknowledgement, breathing in a drag of his cigarette slow and smooth and feeling the smoke fill his lungs.

“Guess it didn’t make the cut of torture methods bad enough to become a trigger,” he laughs, sharp, the bitter punctuation of a joke he’d realized would fall flat halfway through speaking and fidgets awkwardly with the cigarette in his hand as he looks off into the distance. “I should make a tierlist. It could be...useful.”

The words are empty - Dream wouldn’t be able to stomach torturing anyone and they both know it; Wilbur cocks his head to the side curiously, deciding to press the point anyway.

“Useful?” He takes a deliberately heavy drag, blowing the smoke out slowly from his lips and watching as Dream flinches away from it. “How so?”

Dream keeps looking stubbornly away, the only indication he’s heard at all being the way his lips press tighter together. Wilbur laughs softly.

“You mean with Big Q, don’t you?” Dream’s hand, which never seemed to stop trembling since he’d left Pandora, starts shaking harder, the smoke rising from the cigarette clutched tightly between his fingers making a jagged pattern in the air. “I won’t judge man! He tortured you for- what, 72 days?”

“74,” Dream’s shoulders rise to his ears, his head pitching forward as his arms wrap around his torso in a futile attempt to hold himself, “74 fucking days, and no one gave a single shit.”

Wilbur hums, encouraging, trying to tamp down his curiosity from making itself too obvious in his voice. Dream had been closed off for as long as Wilbur had known him, his walls only rising more after they’d pulled him out, half-starved, half-dead from the depths of the prison, newly revealed face startling young even deprived of the baby fat that would’ve otherwise lingered in its corners. For the other man to actually say something, to give more clues into his head than his usual one-word answers and bitter sarcasm - Wilbur settles in place, raising his cigarette to his lips once again. This will be interesting.

“I just-” Dream’s voice cracks, and he goes quiet, looking down at the cigarette in his hands like it’ll give him the answers he’s looking for. “I don’t understand. They’re all perfectly fine with throwing me in there and leaving me to rot, with letting Quackity come in every single day to make my life hell, but all of a sudden because I’m fifteen that changes? Because I’m a “child”? Because that makes them feel guilty?”

His grip tightens on his arm, breath seizing in his throat. “It doesn’t change a damn thing and they all know it. All of them were perfectly fine with watching me die, with sticking me in that hell, with letting Quackity- fucking-” his free hand reaches for the long tangles of his hair, the sandy locks peeking out from between his fingers, “He did- everything he could fucking think of, carved words on my goddamn back, broke every fucking bone in my body just because he could, branded his fucking NAME on me I-” he squeezes his eyes shut. “I screamed for them every single day. All seventy-fucking-four and I was still calling their names and-” Wilbur reaches towards him, watches as his head snaps away once again. “It didn’t fucking matter.”

“Dream-”

“None of it mattered. All that matters is that I’m a fucking child, that I’m fifteen fucking years old. Not that they stood by while I died twice with no means of defending myself! Not that they threw me in a fucking torture chamber! All that matters is how old I am and I fucking hate them!” He shouts, voice breaking and dissolving into a choked sob, and Wilbur watches quietly as Dream swallowed back his cries, shoulders shaking silently. “I- I hate them. All of them. At least Quackity still treats me like normal- the rest of them just look at me with this- this stupid pity, I don’t need their pity, I don’t need anything from them, not anymore-”

“Dream. Look at me.” Dream’s head snaps over, fear flashing in the backs of his eyes before it disappears as fast as it came. Wilbur ignores it, shucking off his jacket and draping it carefully over the other’s shoulders. “They’re hypocrites, I know. That’s why we’re doing this, yeah? We’re blowing it all up to kingdom come. You know how it goes.”

Dream meets his eyes, a storm warring briefly over his face before he looks down. “It was never meant to be,” he says, sounding tired, sounding resigned, and Wilbur smiles darkly at the self-same bitterness that shadows the words, recognizing the ashy taste from when they had coated his own tongue.

“Atta boy,” he says, grip firm on the other’s shoulder. “See you tomorrow. You can keep the coat for tonight; it’s getting cold.”

“Thank you,” Dream murmurs, quiet, and they both know it’s about more than just the jacket. “See you tomorrow.”

[kozozaki]

We really fucked up this time - Ranboo x Reader Chapter 4

Y/n will be a little touchy with Tubbo this chapter (Tubbo and Tommy throughout the story) Y/n is just really comfortable around them and I don't have a better way of showing that than them hugging and stuff. Everything with anyone that isn't Ranboo is platonic no matter how much it doesn't seem like it.

Y/n hadn’t been to L’manburg in a couple of days, she didn’t want to be there until she was required to. Ranboo came over that day as he promised, it was really sweet of him to offer. Y/n must admit, she didn’t realize how lonely she was over there until Ranboo showed up, it was nice having someone over who she got along with.

She was just barely missing the qualifications to be considered late. She rushed to the holy lands, where the meeting room was, “Y/n, you’re here! I didn’t think you would want to come after, the other day,” Fundy said.

“Umm, yeah, I’m sorry, I broke down for no real reason. B-But I’m fine now,  I promise!” Ranboo had comforted her a lot when he was there.

“It’s perfectly fine Y/n. Are you okay though, really? If you have a nervous breakdown in the middle of the meeting, I’ll feel responsible, please, tell the truth, Y/n,” Tubbo made her feel guilty, but it wasn’t completely a lie, she was feeling better for the most part.

She nodded, “I promise, Tubbo.”

“Big Q and Fundy, you will be seated on the left side, Y/n and Tommy will be seated on the right, Tommy, you will be next to me,” Tubbo informed. Everyone nodded and prepared themselves to enter the room, as the atmosphere was already tense, they couldn’t imagine how it would be in there. Y/n gave Connor a confused look. He shrugged as if to say, ‘I don’t know why but I’m here’.

They entered the blackstone building, Y/n’s anxiety rising by the second at the sight of her older brother. They all sat in their designated spots.

After a moment of silence, Dream spoke, “Hello,” they all greeted him in return, some more hesitant than others, “Did you bring a book and quill?”

“We need the minute man,” Tubbo said. Y/n blinked in confusion until Ranboo came through the door holding a book and quill. She smiled nervously at him. She couldn’t tell, but Ranboo felt extremely guilty, she looked so uncomfortable, and he was the one who pushed her to go to that meeting. 

Tubbo and Dream began discussing the possibility of Tommy being exiled and the walls, but Y/n zoned out when she heard Tommy breathing heavily next to her. She grabbed his hand to calm him, and it helped, but not great.

Dream began to say that Tommy couldn’t curse towards anyone and he lashed out at him, “You can’t silence my swearing you motherfucker!”

To which Y/n yanked his hand downwards and he groaned in pain, “Tommy you have to learn to shut the fuck up when you need to, okay?” She scolded him, he was like a brother to her, she didn’t want him to be exiled.

“Fine, jesus…” he breathed out. Y/n zoned out once again, for who knows how long, not noticing what was happening until Tommy started taking apart the table.

“Tommy what are you doing?! This is the exact opposite of what I just told you!” He ignored her still and stood on a makeshift podium.

“Dream, you idiot. You walk around all day, thinking you’re the shit. This isn’t some insanity thing, I’m not going down Wilbur’s path, I’m not getting exiled, because my friend, you have nothing of mine. But Dream, a long time ago, I got something of yours.”

“Tommy…” Y/n whispered, not loud enough for him to hear. She was scared, he had no idea what he was doing. Tubbo put a comforting hand onto her shoulder, “Tubbo, he doesn’t know what he’s doing.”

“It’s okay, Y/n,” she nodded slowly, she had no reason not to listen to Tubbo. She had no reason to not listen to anyone in the room, everyone had been there for her and helped her.

Tommy paced towards the enderchest, “Dream are you familiar with your old pet horse? What was its name, Dream?” Dream pulled out an axe and Y/n put her hand out to stop him but Tubbo pulled her back, and she melted into the slightly taller boy's arms. Her head rested on his shoulder as a few anxious tears fell from her face. He wasn't gonna let Dream kill Tommy, but if he couldn't prevent it, he sure as hell wouldn't let Y/n see it.

“Kill me all you want Dream, kill me all you want, what was it’s name?” Y/n seethed at the boy’s confidence that she used to admire before it got them into shitty situations like the one he was in now.

“I can’t it’s the holy ground,” Dream said. Y/n let go of Tubbo and turned around. His voice was uncharacteristically quiet. There was no way he still cared, he didn’t care about anything, even his sister, why would he care about a horse that died months ago? 

“What was it’s name, Dream?” 

There was a small moment of silence, “Spirit,” he stated. Y/n knew better, she knew he was only pretending to have trouble saying Spirit’s name, pretending to have trauma attached to that name. But she didn’t speak up about it. No one would believe her.

“Spirit, ‘Tommy confirmed,” Months ago, months ago, I retrieved Spirit’s remains, an item that means so very much to you. You don’t have anything on me anymore, not even the discs! And I’ve been holding onto this for so long. You have nothing on us anymore.”

“Tommy, you’re speaking out of line,” it pissed Y/n off when Tubbo spoke like a president, like he was more entitled than Tommy and her, even though he was more entitled. And he was correct, Tommy was speaking out of line. She wanted nothing more than to be with her friends without any issues, just like it was in the summer.

“I can speak out of line, what does he have on us, what does he have on us?!” Tommy repeated, not understanding why nobody else was contributing to his detestable words towards the man. 

“He has the power to destroy our nation, you’re being selfish Tommy, you’re acting like the bad guy here,” Y/n had it up to here with Tubbo’s hurtful words towards Tommy, he was one of the most selfless people she knew even if he didn’t seem like it.

“No no, Tubbo, listen, he’s had my discs all this time, he’s had the high ground, but Spirit is the one thing he actually cares about, he doesn’t have anything on us, alright? As long as we speak to Skeppy and Purpled before him, which we can do easily, Tubbo, you have one of them, we’ll have all four discs!” Y/n looked up from the ground, was it truly that simple? Dream took her discs, wait and chirp when she fought alongside Tommy, Sapnap, and Tubbo that day.

“Everyone thinks I’m out of line, everyone thinks I’m being naive, no. Dream, you don’t have anything on me anymore. You don’t have the discs.”

“But he has shit on us!” Fundy argued.

“Tommy, what if I get it, Tommy? Right now I have nothing, but what if I get it?” Dream tried to threaten.

“Cause Dream, I can burn Spirit,” Dream visibly tensed at Tommy’s sheer lack of care, “Why is no one else freaking out right now?”

The room devolved into Quackity, Tubbo, Tommy and Fundy talking over each other, “Well Dream you don’t have anything on me, and I have Spirit on you. And this is the only item that means anything to you now, and it’s in my possession.”

While listening closely to Tommy venting to make sure he didn’t fuck up any more than he already had, Y/n made her way across the room over to Ranboo. He had his sunglasses off once more, and by looking closer she had noticed that his left sclera was black and his right was the normal white. His eyes also had a soft glow to them. She realized she had been staring at him and her face was quickly covered in a red hue as she muttered curses at herself, halfway hiding behind Ranboo and half hugging him from his side. 

Ranboo looked down and smiled sadly, she was getting stressed again, he could tell by the way her hands were shaking slightly as they clasped together on the other side of his torso. She looked up at him, her breath feverish and her eyes moving around his face sporadically. He ran his hand through her hair, attempting to calm her down. He set his hand onto her shoulder since that always seemed to work more than other things. Her frantic breathing patterns had ceased, but her shaking stayed. He decided to leave her alone and let her hug him. Since that first time they had hugged each other, it seemed to be one of Y/n’s favourite things to do. Besides, he could always help her more later.

She shifted her focus onto the conversation happening elsewhere in the room, “Tommy, tell him what he has to do,” Fundy spoke, no longer wary of joining Tommy’s side.

“Dream. You’ve got to take down those walls,” Tommy ordered, Big Q and Fundy chuckling in delight, Dream had finally been put in his place. At least that’s how they viewed the situation, “Let’s go, we don’t need the holy land for protection anymore,”

“This is a really bad idea,” Y/n agreed with Tubbo, it was relieving to see her cruel older brother finally at everyone else’s level, but it was all a ruse. He didn’t care about Spirit. But she didn’t say anything about it. She loved seeing Tommy happy like this, but if she said anything while he was in this mood, he would either not listen or it would put him in an unbearably upset mood. She knew it would be apparent why she was so silent during the meeting in a few minutes regardless.

They all stood there just outside of L’manburg. Fundy and Quackity were just making fun of him, “Well Tommy- ugh,” Dream groaned in annoyance, knowing he couldn’t make a sufficient rebuttal, “Tommy, if I get a- grr,” Tommy made a surprised laugh, taking pride in the fact that Dream couldn’t do anything. Y/n scoffed and turned away back towards the direction of the museum. His difficulty speaking was patently fake, why was it just her that realized it? Her eyes became cold and dull to anyone who didn’t bother looking closer. She was so frustrated, she couldn’t do anything. Tommy and Tubbo are the only ones that ever took her seriously, but they’re both being arrogant. 

She only turned back around towards the walls when she felt a hand on her shoulder, turning around to see Ranboo towering over her with a sweet, nervous smile. She returned it the best she could, and Ranboo snaked behind her. Y/n saw a small section of the walls being torn down by her brother and smiled a little. It wouldn’t last long, but when he wasn’t being unruly, it was nice to see Tommy proud of himself.

Dream stood still, before beginning to place back the obsidian that he had been forced to mine. Tommy, Fundy and Big Q were bewildered, Y/n looked guilty, and Tubbo was indifferent, they both knew it was bound to happen, “Y/n? Y/n you have a really guilty look on your face right now, did you do something?” Tommy asked very quickly, “Or- You knew that this was gonna happen. Didn’t you?”

She looked away with an even guiltier expression, laced with a sad smile as she watched her older brother build the walls even higher, “Why didn’t you say anything!? I would’ve stopped if you’d just say something!”

“Because I like seeing you happy,” Y/n sniffled, “and if I told you he didn’t actually care, you would either ignore me because you were being arrogant, or you would be upset. So I just didn’t say a thing,” Tommy looked at the girl with sad eyes as Dream jumped down from the walls in front of them.

“Tommy. Listen, you fucked up this time,” Tommy asked him not to swear, “No, Tommy. I don’t give a fuck about Spirit, I don’t give a fuck about anything actually, I care about the discs. I care more about your discs than you do! That’s the only thing I care about actually! I don’t care about Spirit, Spirit was my horse, died ages ago. I care about the discs, cause that’s what gives me power over you, your friends, and everybody that you care about because you care about the discs more than anyone else here. So if you are not exiled from L’manburg, I will build these walls until I can’t anymore! I will keep everybody inside, I will hire guards, Punz and Sapnap to patrol all around the walls keeping them inside. No trade, no one leaves, no armour or they get slaughtered inside,” Y/n was grinding her teeth against each other, Dream was pissing her off. They both had slight anger issues, like brother like sister, “Don’t try and threaten me! I don’t care, I have lost all care for anything in this world-”

“Really, so if I burn Spirit, right now, you wouldn’t care-”

“Burn Spirit, right in front of me right now!” That was it. Y/n couldn’t take any more of him yelling at Tommy, and she snapped. In one swift movement, she was in front of Dream, holding the flat of her gleaming netherite sword to his neck, effectively putting decent space between him and Tommy.

“Quit shouting at Tommy Clay!” She could only see one of his eyes from behind his cracked mask, but they told her everything she needed to know. He was taken aback, he seemed to have temporarily forgotten how much she cared about Tommy. She used his real name, that even she rarely used, and she only used it when she was beyond pissed. She wouldn’t hesitate to kill him if he tried anything, he knew that for sure. Despite being nearly a foot shorter than him, she was a threat to everyone if they pissed her off or hurt or offended someone she cares about. Dream’s eyes flicked over to Ranboo, someone else she seemed to care about a great deal, “Don’t you fucking dare,” she spat, knowing what that look meant.

“You wouldn’t kill me, you’re too-”

“I would,” she said simply, with a sick smile, “I would kill you. Half those discs are mine too, I couldn’t care less if you lost one, or two, or all three of your lives.”

“Well this is the only thing you’ve had attachment to this entire time, how do I know you aren’t fucking lying?” Tommy stated shakily.

“I have an attachment to you and Y/n’s discs.”

“What- Why would you care about them, they’re ours, why do you even care about them?”

“No no no, Tommy, they’re my discs,” the edge of Y/n’s blade pressed further against his neck, just a bit more pressure and it would puncture his skin, “I’ll get them, I’ll keep them, and I’ll put them in my enderchest for the rest of your lives. Listen Tubbo,” Y/n took her sword away from his neck and walked back towards Ranboo only to be engulfed in a hug. She faced the scene while leaning her back into his chest (or waist? I don’t fucking know he’s too tall. ribcage?). “You have three days. If you don’t exile him in three days, I’ll do what I said.”

“What does that entail, what the fuck do you mean?” Tommy asked.

“L’manburg can be independent, but L’manburg can’t be free,” Dream answered simply. Dream stopped talking and immediately went to raise the walls.

“Tommy you had one job. You had one job. To be positive, to be peaceful. And you messed it up,” Tubbo criticised. 

“You fucked up,” Quackity whispered, “You really fucked this up now Tommy-”

“No this is on you two as well!” Tubbo shouted at Fundy and Quackity, and they all argued for a moment while Tommy just stood there, watching Dream build up the walls, bewildered at what had just occurred. Y/n huffed at the sight, Ranboo just held her tighter to his chest.

“Tubbo he’s only doing this so he can get under your skin to get you to turn on me,” Tommy tried to tell him but he wouldn’t listen.

“No, he’s very clearly doing this to get the discs, cause he wants them.”

“You guys are idiots, he wants Tommy as far away from L’manburg as possible, while also getting the discs to gain control of Tommy and I,” Y/n affirmed quickly. They both turned towards the girl who was rested in Ranboo’s arms, that was standing behind Tubbo, both giving her a baffled look, “What? You guys didn’t realize that?” Her face was covered in blush as she realized how weird it must look to them that out of nowhere Ranboo and her were so comfortable with each other within less than a week of him being here when it took her at least a month to hug even Tommy. She exhaled in relief when they turned away, but also grief when they started arguing.

“You couldn’t do one thing for me, Tommy! And it was for your own good! So you know what, if the roles were reversed as you said, yeah, you probably wouldn’t have exiled me, because I would’ve actually listened to you and done what you said! And maybe had a couple ounces of respect! You’ve messed this up for no one but yourself,” There was an agonizing silence after Tubbo’s line, but as much as it angered Y/n seeing Tommy pushed around, it was the painstaking truth. Tommy had no one to blame but himself and Dream, “It’s selfish.”

“I’m gonna say it now,” Big Q sighed, “What’s happened has happened, there’s no going back.  What do we do next?”

“We have three days-”

“Tubbo-” Tommy started.

“I don’t want to exile you, okay?!” Tubbo yelled.

“This whole war, all of this, L’manburg, everything. This has started way before L’manburg, me you and Y/n versus Dream. This can’t be where we split now, you can’t- it’s always been us three, man, we can’t- C’mon, please, you-,” Y/n zoned out until Ranboo spoke up for Tommy.

“Tubbo, you said that Tommy was selfish. You said that Tommy doesn’t care about anyone else, well that’s not true. I robbed George’s house too. I did it with Tommy. But in court, he said that it was just him. He could’ve pinned the blame on me, there was evidence that it was me. But he didn’t. He’s not selfish. Me and Tommy robbed George’s house, we didn’t mean for it to burn. We didn’t mean to burn anything down.”

“Tommy, is this true?”

“Yeah. It is.”

“He covered for me. He’s not selfish. Calling him selfish after what he did, I’ve only been on here for about five days, is it? That’s not selfish. Tommy isn’t selfish-”

“Ranboo, stop,” Y/n said, no longer leaning into him but standing up on her own with his arms around her, “Stop trying to pretend like I wasn’t there too.”

“Why didn’t we question Y/n? She’s always the one who causes most of the damn fires around here anyway,” Big Q said. 

“You didn’t even think about it? The girl who’s nickname is literally firebug? I didn’t burn it down, and neither did Tommy or Ranboo. I simply burned a tree, went back to George’s home and the outside was burning. Both Tommy and Ranboo were inside, there was no way they could’ve started it,” she left out a few details, of course, but it wasn’t like they could fact check it.

“Tubbo I’ve put the discs aside for so long, I think for once, now that Wilbur’s gone, now that the dictator, the man who has exiled us before, Schlatt, is gone. Tubbo you can’t turn into what you hate. You can’t be the next Schlatt. If you exile me, you’re following in that mans footsteps.”

“Well, as long as I can’t be the next Schlatt, you can’t be the next Wilbur,” Y/n’s eyes narrowed, he really had the audacity to compare Tommy to Wilbur. Quackity started talking and she left, she’d had enough of her brother’s bullshit for one day.

OH MY GOD I AM SO SORRY I HAVEN’T UPDATED IN NEARLY A MONTH! I’ve been meaning to write but this chapter was especially difficult. I probably updated too quick in the beginning, giving out chapters every two or three days like they were candy. I’ll probably start updating around once a week. Also if anyone would like to draw fanart for this book that would be very pog, my discord is in my bio!

[letsfluxshitup]

we're like a family of divorce (ao3)

Techno dragged up the metal tub from his basement, setting it in front of the fire. He filled it with warm water, setting out clean warm pajamas and a towel on a chair. He laid out all the fancy soaps he had, gifts from when he first arrived.

He saved the shampoo and conditioner, setting them aside for later.

Tommy entered the house, loud and abrasive and a lot.

"What's up, Big Man?" He shouted, tugging at Techno's loose braid, poking at his tusks, forcing Techno to witness him.

He was always so high energy, demanding attention, positive or not. Techno didn't understand it but it made Tommy happy to be the center of attention, something Techno more frequently than not shied away from.

He blinked back into the present, gesturing vaguely at the tub.

"You stink." He deadpanned, and it wasn't necessarily true, but the kid needed to sit down for a second. 

He'd been high energy since he arrived, and seemed perfectly fine. But Techno knew Tommy, knew his quirks and his tells. Saw the dead look in his eyes, the way he flinched away, his fear and sadness.

Techno didn't know what happened, but he knew something did, and he needed to protect him and care for him.

So he guided Tommy towards the tub, nitpicked at him about his hair, and disappeared upstairs. 

--

"Do you need a haircut?" He called from where he was sitting in his rocking chair, glancing through a book Philza had handed him when they last met. 

It was a potions guide, and he was quietly happy that Philza had taken the time to carefully draw out visuals and diagrams, tucked into the book at relevant intervals.

He glanced towards the stairs, catching the tail end of a mumbled response.

"What?" He called, looking at the stairs so he wouldn't get distracted again.

"Are you gonna cut it?" Tommy shouted back, punctuated by a splash. Techno flinched, there was no way the kid wasn't making a mess down there.

"No." He responded, looking back towards the book. 

Quackity could cut short hair, he knew. They weren't exactly on talking terms but surely he'd set that aside to help out Tommy?

Maybe? Probably? 

It's not like Techno couldn't just make him cut Tommy's hair, but threatening him was probably not the best fix for their already rocky relationship.

"Then why'd you ask?" Tommy shouted again, "And where's the shampoo?" 

"I have the shampoo," Techno said, eyeing the bottle where it sat across from him, "and Quackity can cut your hair." 

"Quackity? Isn't he trying to kill you?" Tommy's voice sounded muffled, sloshing denoting him getting out of the tub and Techno cringed again thinking about his floor.

He wasn't sure what to say to that, actually. 

"Are you… Ok with Quackity coming by?" He asked instead, maybe it wasn't the best idea to invite someone with so much... Violent intent into his home with the kid. 

"Big Q's great! I mean, he tried to kill you and stuff but I'm not, like, scared of him. As long as you're ok, y'know?" Tommy fumbled up the stairs, hair still dripping and fluffy pajamas noticeably damp. 

Techno didn't comment on it.

"You don't have to worry about me, Tommy," he said lightly, hoping his tone conveyed comfort. 

Tommy really shouldn't have to worry about his brother's potential murderers, he was just a kid and Quackity wouldn't try to start anything if he was around.

"Anyways, I'll message Quackity, see what he says, alright?" Techno pulled out his communicator, picking at the layers of stickers on it. Tommy had helpfully redecorated it after his previous one had gotten destroyed in his execution.

Attempted execution, that is.

It didn't take much to convince Quackity to come over. It didn't take anything, actually.

Quackity? Techno typed, and almost instantly got a reply.

no

Tommy needs a haircut

fuck off

You remember how to get here?

yes

--

"Well? Where's Tommy?" Quackity huffed, shivering as he rubbed his arms. He should have worn a heavier coat but he didn't have any because he didn't live in the middle of the fucking Arctic.

"Big Q!" Tommy shouted as if on cue, barreling down the stairs at full speed. Quackity's wings flared out to steady him as he caught Tommy, squeezing him tightly.

He didn't say anything about Tommy's clinginess, chalking it up to the exile and the only other source of comfort around being Technoblade.

Fucker probably didn't even hug Tommy.

He was almost instantly proven wrong when Techno cleared his throat slightly, the hug lasting a second too long, and Tommy disappeared from his arms and tucked himself under Techno's.

He firmly reminded himself it was stupid to be jealous of Techno's little brother, but also he was really fucking cold and he knew Techno was really fucking warm.

"So!" He hoisted his bag, "You need a haircut?"

--

It took some finagling but he finally got Tommy to sit in front of the sink properly, and went to work on washing his post haircut hair.

The water was a soothing backdrop as Quackity lathered shampoo into his hair, absently asking Techno for a hairbrush.

Tommy was quietly amazed at how easily Quackity bossed Techno around, his brother instantly responding to any command.

He'd successfully bullied Techno into handing over one of his capes, at Quackity's insistence that it was fucking cold. Techno was now tending to the fire at Quackity's request, and it seemed almost natural.

He knew Techno was more than happy to help the people he cared about, but he'd never really considered that Techno cared about Quackity.

"Are you and Quackity broken up or something?" Tommy blurted out without thinking, interrupting Quackity's soft chirping.

Quackity made a choking noise before accidentally dumping water on Tommy's face, sending him into a fit of painful coughing as it went up his nose.

"Sorry, Toms," Quackity cooed, carefully running his fingers through Tommy's wet hair.

"Is fixing people's hair like a bird thing or some shit?" Tommy asked, leaning into Quackity's hands, "Philza does the same thing and he's like a bird." 

"Yeah, kind of. I think so." Quackity stuttered slightly, straightening Tommy's pajama shirt and dabbing away the spilled water on his face with a towel.

Tommy's face scrunched up in concentration for a second, before he let out something that sounded pretty close to a happy coo.

Quackity cooed too, and they cooed back and forth. Techno couldn't help his pleased snort, happy they were getting along and safe and content.

Tommy's head snapped towards him, instantly reciprocating the snort, and while still unnatural for him he managed to replicate it a lot better than the coo.

Techno watched, vaguely amused, as Tommy nudged his head against Quackity's chest. Growing up around hybrids gave him a weird mix of behaviors, but Quackity was quick to catch on, and he lightly nudged Tommy back.

--

As Techno set up for dinner Quackity and Tommy sat at the table, heckling him and generally being a nuisance.

"You're burning the fucking bread!" Tommy shouted, far too loud in the small space, but his energy seemed slightly more subdued. Less manic, more... Genuine.

Techno rolled his eyes, tugging open the oven door.

"No, see, look it's fine." He squinted at the bread. It did look a little too brown around the edges but he definitely wouldn't tell Tommy that.

Instead, he reached into the oven and grabbed the bread pan with his bare hands, smirking slightly at twin panicked shrieks from behind him.

"Techno what the fuck! You're going to burn your fucking hands, dumbass!" Quackity appeared in front of him, snatching his hands to check the damages after Techno set the pan down.

Quackity blinked at his unharmed hand in confusion, wings settling from where they'd flared in his panic.

"What's the diagnosis, doc?" Techno deadpanned, prompting Quackity to look up. 

They were nearly nose to nose and Quackity was staring directly into his eyes. He shifted slightly, uncomfortable, but didn't look away.

"Are you two going to kiss?" 

Trust Tommy to ruin the peace, Techno thought as Quackity shrieked.

"No we're not going to fucking kiss!" 

--

Quackity was leaning against the arm of the couch, Techno sat on the other side, Tommy flopped across the two of them, trapping them.

"So, you're in exile, right, Techno?" Tommy said, lifting his head slightly from Quackity's lap.

"Yes," Techno sighed, shifting slightly under Tommy's bony legs.

"Huh." Tommy said, before saying more quietly, "I like exile with you a lot more than when I was with Dream." 

Techno tried not to let his expression shift, he'd picked up bits and pieces of his exile but nothing concrete. He still didn't know what happened.

"Oh?" Techno said, voice carefully even.

"Yeah." Tommy responded, tilting his head away from Quackity to stare at the fire. "He- I- he wasn't as nice as you are, y'know?"

Techno didn't, didn't think he'd been doing a good job of taking care of him, but he nodded anyways.

"He..." Tommy sniffled suddenly, furiously scrubbing at his eyes.

Quackity quietly ran his fingers through Tommy's hair, a comforting croon soft in the air.

"He was a real dick, y'know?" Tommy said, desperately high energy, like he could forcibly will away his bad feelings. His voice gave him away, though, thick with tears.

"Tommy?" Techno said, voice soft, "what happened in exile?"

And Tommy broke.

He flung himself into Techno's arms, burying himself in his arms, as he babbled about what had happened, incoherent and a mess.

Quackity tucked himself against Techno's side, curling his arm around Tommy's back and stretching a wing out to cover them both. He pressed himself close, face carefully neutral, but Techno noticed. 

Noticed the twitch of his eye, the tension in his shoulders, how he barely held back a snarl.

Finally, Tommy cried himself out, face tucked into Techno's neck as he fell asleep. Techno carefully scooped him up, Quackity a step behind him as he walked up the stairs and laid Tommy in the bed. 

He tossed Quackity a pair of pajamas, and before he could turn away to change into his own Quackity grabbed his arm.

There was a long moment of silence as they stared at each other, dying fire throwing Quackity's features into sharp relief, fury evident.

"You'll help me take down Dream?" Quackity said finally, leaning closer. 

"I owe him," Techno warned, voice soft as he studied Quackity's face. 

Quackity blinked, then leaned ever closer, noses touching this time.

"When it comes down to it, no matter what Dream says or asks for, you'll be on my side? On Tommy's?" 

Techno sighed, leaning forward to press their foreheads together.

"When you put it that way, how can I say no," he deadpanned, arms coming up to wrap around Quackity's waist, comforting and solid.

Quackity snorted, holding up a pinky.

"Pinky promise?" He murmured, and Techno linked pinkies with him, foreheads pressed together, swaying slightly in place.

"Are you two actually going to kiss now?" Tommy whispered loudly, voice slurred with sleep.

Quackity jerked away, startled, as Techno snorted loudly.

Tension dispersed Techno quickly got ready for bed, putting out the fire and flopping onto the side closest to the stairs. Quackity was forced against the wall, Tommy sandwiched between them. 

Techno fell asleep with Tommy's head tucked into his neck, his arm thrown across Techno and his gangly legs sprawled across Quackity. 

[hayden-thefuck-whywouldyoudothis]

The Inevitable

Hello wonderful people! This is going to be my first ever fanfic that I am posting anywhere, so please be nice. I would appreciate feedback, and I think that if it does well here I’ll post it n Ao3. 

I came up with this fic idea a little while back, and I’ve been writing it since 03/13/21. Basically the idea is that while Tommy was in the afterlife, he met characters who died during Tales From The SMP episodes that took place in the past. They told him their stories, and Tommy connected the dots. He goes to confront Karl in Kinoko Kingdom.

This story includes a headcanon that is not mine. I read a fanfic with the mute!Karl headcanon. The story was an absolute banger. If you want to hear a little more about that go read their story Come Home With Me by icaruswontmelt on Ao3

Story starts under the cut .

The Inevitable, by BangHaydenCoven

Death was the one thing that had always been truly eternal. When Wilbur came back as Ghostbur, it had seemed like death maybe wasn’t completely permanent because Wilbur was back. But he hadn’t been brought back to life. He was a ghost, a shell of the person he had been before everything went to shit. Tommy had truly thought that death was the one thing that stayed constant on this god-forsaken server. Being beaten to death and brought back by the person who hurt you so deeply puts a lot of things that were just beyond reach of perfectly understandable, into perspective. In the amount of time that had gone by while Tommy’s life actually went to hell and back, everything had changed. Tubbo had gotten married of all things, He had a kid. And a new best friend as well, apparently. There was, for the first time in a long time, a semblance of peace between all of the factions. Peace smashed, the moment he had been let out of the prison. No one looked at him the same way anymore. No one looked at him like the kid he was. The kid he was supposed to be. All they saw was an anomaly. Not a real, live, breathing person who has feelings and needs validation, just like other people. Proof of something that never should have been real. 

Since declaring that Dream had to die, Tommy had holed himself up in his little house dirt mound of a house. When he finally got over the initial panic, the firsthand terror of forcing himself to think about the time he had spent dead, he allowed himself to do it freely. Puffy had told him it was good to think back on the trauma. He wasn’t sure just how much he could trust that ideology, but it seemed to work for the most part. Tommy had spent the majority of his time in the afterlife with the people he had known when he was alive.  Wilbur, Schlatt, Mexican Dream. It had been pretty simple. They spent a lot of time playing card games, for some reason. But one day, a fight had sparked between Tommy and Schlatt, causing the younger to storm off into the distance. He had been fuming that day. It hadn’t even been a fight that made sense. Schlatt had thrown some baseless accusations his way, and Tommy had just given up. He needed a break. So he walked away. 

He walked.

And he walked.

And he walked.

And he walked.

And he stopped.

Looming over him was a building that was like nothing Tommy had ever seen. It was old, dusty, and cold. It belonged in the afterlife, to put it simply. It fit. It was a simple embodiment. Then, laughter filled the air. Frightening, drunk laughter that was cold but inviting. Tommy followed the spine-chilling noise into the building where he found four people. Three were dressed like they were from the Wild West. Cowboy hats, cowboy boots, and simple revolvers at their hips. The fourth was also clearly from the same time period, put was dressed simply. When he walked into the building, they just stared at him. Cold, level stares that made him feel like he would rather die all over again then be stuck under those gazes for the rest of eternity. But suddenly the looks of the people softened as they beckoned him over, introducing themselves as Connor, Mason, and Jack Kanoff. They were group of bandits called the Democrat Haters, and a simple bartender named John John. They told him their story, to put it simply. They told him how they died.

That was only the beginning.

Tommy wandered for a week straight, meeting people, hearing their stories. He met higher members of society who attended a masquerade only to die brutal deaths at the hands of a possessed butler, the members of a village with a crazed murderer that didn’t know haw to stop, that killed people brutally, among many others. And every single story Tommy heard had a one thing in common. There was always one man, in every story, who appeared out of no where, wearing colourful clothing and iridescent goggles perched on his head. He didn’t always use the same name, but he was always there, no matter when it had happened. As Tommy moved around his home to prepare, one thought rang true in his mind. 

Karl was getting a visitor tomorrow.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Walking to Kinoko Kingdom had taken a lot longer than Tommy had originally thought and planned for. Not that the little settlement was close to the rest of the Greater SMP, but it wasn’t far either. Regardless of distance, it was still far too long of a walk for Tommy to be in a good mood when he arrived to find Sapnap of all people tending to the garden in Kinoko. Usually Tommy would have snuck up behind Sapnap and scared him to intentionally piss the older man off, but that was the old Tommy. The old Tommy had stayed dead. Instead, he announced his presence by kicking an acorn at the other mans head. There was a loud yelp, followed by a string of curses that matched the flowers in the garden with how colourful they were.

“George, I swear to god, if-” his sentence dropped of in a look of pure disbelief as he turned around, expecting to see his best friend that deserved a good scolding. A dead teenager was definitely different. And confusing. 

“Shit...” Sapnap mumbled, “Tommy?”

“Hello Sapnap. I must say its very nice to see you doing something other than killing pets. Or your fiances.” He smirks.

“Well it’s definitely you. The question is how. How are you alive?” he says as the shock on his face fades into confusion mixed with disbelief. Tommy freezes. 

“Only if your okay with it of course. Don’t answer if your not comfortable. I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have brought that up. That was insensitive of me...” he trails off as he realizes Tommy seems less stressed at the fact that Sapnap isn’t going to make him talk about it.

“Sapnap,” Tommy started, “I need to talk to Karl. Like, right now.” 

“Alright,” said Sapnap, nodding slowly, “I’ll go get him. Stay right here.” As Tommy watched the other man walk away to retrieve one of his fiances, he really hopes that what he is about to accuse Karl of is wrong. Maybe one day they’ll laugh about this. Probably not.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

As Sapnap entered the house, looking for his fiances, he couldn’t help but wonder what it was that Tommy so urgently needed to talk to Karl about. Not finding his fiances on the first floor of their shared house, he went upstairs to continue his search, not wanting to keep the teen waiting for too long. As he opened the door to the throuples bedroom, he let out a small huff of affection when he saw his fiances, the loves of his life, asleep in their bed. Quackity had his arms around Karls waist, with his wings over both of them like a blanket, reflecting the golden light of the sun filtering through the window. Not wanting to disturb the scene in front of him, he let out a small sigh of annoyance as he forced himself to wake up Karl, and by extension Quackity.

“Theres someone here who wants to talk to you.” he muttered softly in Karls ear. 

“Who?” Karl signed sleepily.

“Tommy. It seems pretty important. He’s down in the garden.” Sapnap said a little louder, seeing that Q was now awake, so there was no reason to stay quiet.

“Alright.” He signed, “Let’s go.” as he got up, he tugged on Quackity’s sleeve lightly. “Are you coming, Q?”  He nodded and gave a small smile.

“Alright,” Sapnap said, pulling Quackity into a quick hug, and giving him a quick kiss on the temple, “Let’s go then.”

As they left the house and approached Tommy sitting at the picnic table in their back garden, they exchanged a small conversation in sign language.

“Is he okay?” said Quackity with some concern clear on his face, his movements slow and scuffed from sleep.

“He looks really tired.” Sapnap added.

“Q, could you run in and prepare some sandwiches and lemonade?” Signed Karl, “We’ll bring Tommy inside and we can all have lunch together while we talk.”

“Of course, my love.” Said Quackity, giving Karl a small kiss on the cheek before hurrying inside to prepare some lunch.

Turning to Tommy to thank him for waiting, he was met with a face of absolute, genuine confusion. As Tommy stared at their hands, then looked back over to Karl, his face quickly changed to a look of understanding.

“I forgot,” he said as he stood up sheepishly, “that Karl was mute.”

“That’s okay Tommy.” Karl cut in before Sapnap could say anything, “I know you’ve been through a lot recently. It’s okay to forget things from time to time. I should know.” Karl signed slowly so that Tommy could keep up with his rusty remembrance of sign language, adding a small smile at the end of his sentence. 

“Thank you Karl.” Tommy said with a sigh of relief.

“Would you like to come inside and have lunch with us? I know you have something to talk to me about, but you look hungry. We could talk right after though. How does that sound?” Karl signed with a smile on his face.

“That sounds great.” Tommy said after a beat of hesitation.

“Perfect,” said Sapnap, “let’s head inside. Q is making some sandwiches.” They all headed inside, one dreading the talk that would come after, the other two wondering what could possibly be so important to cause Tommy to come all the way out to Kinoko Kingdom to talk to Karl.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Tommy and Sapnap sat down at the table in the dining room as Karl went into the kitchen to help Quackity. Usually it would be all three of the in the kitchen, making food and having a good time, but Sapnap needed to take advantage of the situation at hand. Since he hadn’t visited the main SMP in a while, Tommy gave him the rundown of the current and recent events he knew of. Nothing too bad, but Sapnap knows you can never be too careful. A few minutes later, Quackity and Karl emerge from the kitchen carrying some plates and the food. As they sit down and start to eat, Sapnap and Quackity make small talk that Karl contributes too every once in a while with some one handed movements, putting his sandwich down when it was necessary. But Tommy stayed quiet, which the fiances found quite odd. Clearly whatever the boy had been through recently, on top of all his other trauma, had really messed with him. The loud, boisterous teenager they had known before was gone, replaced with someone they didn’t recognize in the slightest. So Tommy stayed silent the entire time, not noticing the quick, worry filled glances the trio sent his way every so often.

Soon enough, they had all finished eating. They were sitting in the fiances’ living room together, Tommy on one couch, the tree of them on the other. The room sat in an awkward silence as Karl, Quackity, and Sapnap waited for Tommy to talk to them, and as Tommy decided what to say.

After a moment, Tommy said, “Are you sure you want them here for this?” Karl’s eyes widened at how blatant he had been.

“Of course I want them here.” He signed quickly, “They are the people who matter most to me. Whatever you need to say to me you can say to all three of us.” Sapnap and Quackity nodded, not wanting to disrupt anything.

“Alright,” Tommy sighed, “Where should I start...” Karl’s hands stayed firmly in his lap to give Tommy a moment to think. “Well, I guess I’m just going to say what I came here to say, and pray to Prime that I’m wrong.” Karl nodded, once, slowly. Tommy took a deep breath before opening his mouth and saying...

“Your a time traveler, aren’t you?”

Silence.

And then laughter

All he could hear was laughter.

Sapnap and Big Q were laughing. 

Karl was not.

Karl was not.

Karl wasn’t laughing.

The look on his face was not one of someone who had just been accused of some laughable fallacy.

A fantasy, really.

Sapnap and Quackity had stopped laughing.

They seemed to have come to the same conclusion that Tommy had.

“Karlos?” Quackity started, “There is no possible way...” he stopped, a look of pure disbelief on his face.

“Tell me that he’s lying Karl.” said Sapnap. “Please.” Karl’s hands started to move, making aborted and scuffed movements as he tried to figure out what to say.

 “No,” He finally settled on, “he’s right. I’m a time traveler.” Sapnap started crying at this, and Quackity gave him a hug as he buried his face into his fiances neck. Karl looked completely torn. He clearly wanted to comfort his fiances, but he knew he shouldn’t while Tommy was still here. But he also didn’t know if he could. Karl didn’t know if he was even still allowed to comfort them after keeping this big of a secret from them, and for so long. Karl started signing again, this time with clear urgency behind each movement.

“Two things, and then I need you to leave. Understood?”

“Of course,” said Tommy, “I will leave immediately.” Karl nodded.

“Thank you. First things first,” he signed, “how did you know?” Tommy sighed. He really didn’t want to talk about this. But Karl deserved to hear the truth.

“When I died, I was in the afterlife for a little while,” Tommy said softly, “One day I walked away from the people I knew in the afterlife, Schlatt, Wilbur, and Mexican Dream. I walked for so long I came across a building I had never seen before, and when I went in I met a group of people from the Wild West.” Karl’s eyes had gone wide.

“You met Jack and Mason and Connor?” he signed.

“Yeah, and John John as well. They told me what happened the day they died, and they mentioned you. Not directly, but they mentioned a man that had showed up out of nowhere wearing bright colours and iridescent goggles.” Karl looked wistful, remembering his time sent in the Wild West, even if it hadn’t been an exceptionally fun trip at the time. Tommy continued. “I also met the people who visited the masquerade, same story. But this time they mentioned your name. And lastly I met the townfolk of the Village that went Mad. Same story, but no name once again. I just connected the dots.” Tommy fell silent, waiting for Karl to tell him something. Sometime during his revelations, Sapnap and Quackity had left the room to comfort each other. Karl clearly wanted to tell them he was sorry, but he couldn’t do that until Tommy had left. Turning back to the teen, he started signing once more.

“Thank you for telling me, Tommy. I just have one thing to ask of you, then you can leave.” Tommy nodded his head, and Karl continued, “You cannot, under any circumstances, tell anyone what you know. It would put everyone in grave danger. Is that clear?”

“Of course. I won’t tell a soul.” Karl gave him a small smile. “Now I think you should go talk to your fiances.”

“I will,” he signed, leading Tommy to the front door, “Goodbye, Tommy. Have a good trip back.”

“Goodbye, Karl.”

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As he walked towards the door of their shared bedroom, he could barely hold himself back from running to the room to comfort them. But Karl couldn’t be sure that they would ever be the same again. It broke him to think that, but he had lied to them, for a long time. They probably hated him.

He stopped outside of the door, hearing faint sounds of crying on the other side of the door. He slowly opened the door to see Quackity and Sapnap cuddled up together against the headboard of their bed, with all of the lights out. Sapnap was asleep against Quackitys chest, tear tracks all over his face. Q wasn’t much better.

“Hey Karl.” Quackity said softly, sniffling a little.

“Hi.” he signed back, gong to sit on the edge of the bed. “I’m so sorry.” he signed after a beat of silence. “I have no excuses. I just wanted both of you to be safe from it.”

“But... what is it, Karl? Why couldn’t you tell us? Are these the trips you’ve been going on? Does it have something to do with your memory problems?” Quackity rambled, question after question. He cut off when he realized how tense Karl looked. “...sorry.” he said, lowering his voice once more.

“Woah, Q, it’s okay. But I can only answer one question at a time.” Quackity nodded. “It is the In-Between,” he started, making the ASL sign for between, then spelling it out, “I don’t actually know what it is, but I managed to get away from it recently. It was stopping me from telling you about my time traveling. It told me that telling you guys would put you guys in grave danger. I couldn’t let that happen. So I kept it a secret.” He stopped, hands dropping when he couldn’t figure out where to go from there. Quackity opened his mouth, about to ask a question, when he felt Sapnap stir at his side. 

“Hey babe.” Quackity said, Sapnap just let out a little huff. “Sap, do you feel up to talking right now?”

“...yeah...is he here?” he mumbled, voice heavy and slurred with sleep. 

“He is.” Quackity answered. Sapnap looked up at him, then looked over to Karl.

“Hi Sap.” he signed, not making eye contact. “I want to apologize to both of you. For not telling you. There really is no valid excuse that I have. The In-Between was crazy. I just wanted to keep both of you safe.”

“What is the In-Between?” Sapnap asked. Before Karl could answer, Quackity cut in.

“He doesn’t know, Sap.” he whispered. 

Sapnap continued, “I want you to tell us the whole story. Please?” Karl looked conflicted.

“Alright.” he signed, “I’ll start at the beginning.” So he did. He told them the whole story. By the time he had finished, all three had tears running down their face. “Do you understand now?” Karl wiped his eyes before continuing, “It wasn’t safe to tell you.” Sapnap nodded, eyes red and puffy from crying.

“You need to stop traveling Karl. Me and Sapnap wouldn’t be able to live with ourselves if you forgot everything.” said Quackity, pulling Sapnap even closer. Karl sighed.

“I can’t control the traveling. I don’t know if it will ever stop. All I need right now is you two. If I hadn’t wanted to get home to you guys so desperately, I would have forgotten long ago.” Karl got up and grabbed his journal. “Fill it.” he signed, after he gave it to his two fiances, “fill it with everything I need to remember. And when I come back each time, help me remember. Please.” Sapnap looked up at him, then glanced at Quackity, coming to a silent agreement. They would do anything to keep Karl with them.

“Of course we will, mi amor.” said Quackity, opening his arms to invite Karl to come sit with them. Karl smiled, tears running down his face once again, crawling into their warm embrace. And as they sat there, holding each other close, Karl took each of heir hands, pressing his favourite symbol in ASL into their palms.

“I love you.”

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Thank you for reading!!! Once again, if you like this, leave a comment or something, idk. And make sure to go check out the story linked at the top of this post for more about the mute!Karl Jacobs hc.

Have an amazing day, wonderful people.