// death mention
Years after the war between Paradise and Las Navadas, nobody wanted to remember. The people that they lost, the great buildings that have been torn to pieces...it was best to just leave it all in the past. Nobody wanted to remember, and everyone forgot. Everyone, except for Michael.
Michael saw his fathers fight in that war. He heard the screams. He saw the execution of Quackity. However, for a partially dead child, this didn't really affect him. What did bother Michael, was the changes his fathers made to their house. After the war, Tubbo boarded up all the windows. Ranboo removed anything and everything with a mirror. The home he once knew, became a dull, dark, depressing house. But, not all hope was lost. Ranboo and Tubbo made sure they spent as much time with him as they could.
And of course Michael didn't mind. He loved spending all his time with his fathers.
However, Michael assumed his fathers were terrified. He assumed that they were only trying to protect him and themselves from the world that wouldn't stop fighting. Though, Michael later learned the sad reason for their isolation. It was a fun evening, the day he found out. The Beloved family were in their kitchen, baking a cake.
Ranboo, who just knocked over the bottle of sprinkles and Tubbo who was hysterically laughing at his husband's misfortune, didnt notice Michael quickly run to his room. He wanted to capture this moment on his brand new polaroid camera Uncle Tommy had given him. His fathers didn't know about Tommy's gift. If they knew, it would've been destroyed, followed by Tommy soon after.
By the time Michael had reached the kitchen again, Tubbo was on the floor helping Ranboo collect the fallen pieces. With just a snap, Michael captured the picture and what happened next was a blur of emotions and a rush of adrenaline. Ranboo screamed in shock and horror as Tubbo leaped over him towards Michael. Tubbo successfully knocks the camera out of his hands, and the camera lands with a crack. A frightened Michael; a shocked Ranboo; and a regret filled Tubbo are now frozen around a broken camera.
With tears forming in his eyes, Michael quickly snatches his camera and examines the cracked frame. As the picture prints out Ranboo places a hand on his distraught husband and sits him down beside himself. The photo falls out of the camera and onto the kitchen floor as Michael sits and tries to fix his broken gift. Tubbo reaches out his hand to grab the photo, only to be grabbed softly by Ranboo's other hand. The kitchen is quiet and still as the Beloved family sit around the photo that is slowly appearing on the film.
Michael, with tear streaks stained on his face, reaches and grabs the fully developed photo. He frantically looks back and forth at the picture and his fathers. Micheal begins to sob as Ranboo and Tubbo embrace their shaking child. He tosses the useless photo to the ground as he accepts their comfort. He never saw a reason to keep the developed film. Why should he? Ghosts don't appear in captured photos.
