Lavender Snow

True Colors

Tommy quickly figured out the rules at the foster home. Not the house rules that they had told him when he first arrived, but the unspoken regulations that were implied behind Anna and Luca's glares and punishments.

They were startlingly similar to those of the Essempí. Don't speak back. Don't interrupt. Don't appear too energetic, especially when they're tired. Don't talk at the dinner table, and don't ask annoying questions. Tommy found himself falling back to his Enderian habits whenever Anna and Luca were around.

When it was just him and Tubbo, however, all rules were promptly forgotten and they went wild. And Anna and Luca left a lot, so there was plenty of trouble to get into while they were gone.

Besides sneaking each other out of the bathroom and stealing food from the pantry, they had figured out the password to the computer by sneakily watching Luca put it in, and they spent hours playing any game they could.

Anna had caught them unlocking the bathroom once, and changed the place of punishment to the attic, with a padlock on the door. That only prompted them to figure out how to pick locks, and it wasn't long before they were resuming their afternoon games around the house.

Today, Tommy was trying to cook some ramen while Tubbo browsed the videogames on the computer.

"How does 'Spooky's jumping massive' sound?" Tubbo read, squinting at the screen.

Tommy peeked at the title. "That says Spooky's jumpscare mansion. And nah, I don't like the horror games."

"Okay. . . What about Minecraft?"

"Eh. Sounds like a game for fuckin' pussies." Tommy poked at the ramen noodles, unsure why they were clumping together.

"Un- Undey—" Tubbo leaned closer to the computer. "Undeypail?"

Tommy choked, wheezing. "Undeypail?!"

"Oh— Undertale! Undertale!" Tubbo shouted. "IT SAYS UNDERTALE!"

Tommy bent over, tears streaming down his face from laughter. "OY, YOU WANNA PLAY SOME UN-DEY-PAIL?!"

"No, Tommy!" Tubbo said, burying his head in his hands. "That's not- it's Undertale!! Tom— TOMMY THE RAMEN!!"

The pot lid spilled off the top, the water boiling over. Tommy yelled and grabbed the pot handles, accidentally tipping it over onto the floor.

There was a brief pause, then Tubbo and Tommy howled with laughter, collapsing onto the ramen-drenched tile. "Undie-tale and the ramen, innit?!" Tommy wheezed.

"That— doesn't— make— sense—!" Tubbo said between giggles.

Tommy dragged his finger across the floor, a sign from the Essempí that he was amused. "I think you need to take a reading class or something."

"Yeah, I have dyslexia," Tubbo said, leaning against the cabinets. "It means I can't read that well, the letters just kind of shift around."

"The letters shift?" Tommy sat up. "Like they rearrange themselves and make different words?"

"I mean, kind of. Mostly it's just gibberish though. Like Undeypail."

"Undeypail," Tommy snickered. He hesitated, thinking back to Ranboo's note. "I think I have magic dyslexia?"

"Magic?" Tubbo laughed. "Magic how?"

Tommy froze, realizing his mistake. He'd been doing so well, and now he just had to go and slip up. "N-nothing. Nevermind, it's probably just normal dyslexia."

"No, tell me!" Tubbo protested. "What do you mean by magic?"

Tommy picked at a stray soggy noodle. "Um. . . So my friend Ranboo, you remember me telling you about him? Yeah, so he gave me this cool letter once, and it had these weird scratches on it, but then my vision went all wonky and it changed to purple and said a weird message."