Tommy's Ultra-Important Keychain

Chapter 26: The lonely see too much

Tommy was lonely.

He would die before he admitted it out loud, but it was the truth.

He wasn't without company, technically; Wilbur drove him around, Tubbo spoke to him in between classes, and sometimes Ranboo even texted him back. Something about it was wrong, though. There were people around him, but he still felt isolated.

Tubbo was always preoccupied with his gadgets. Ranboo was swamped with work at his new job. Those two could be excused. Tommy knew firsthand how flighty they were. His best friends had this innate ability to disappear for periods of time, and come back to him like he never left at all. It didn't bother him that much, really. That was just the way he worked.

Wilbur was the outlier.

His mentor had been distant for about a week. It started the day after their fight with Speedrunner. Wil would zone out while Tommy talked, forgetting to respond and giving half-assed answers when he did. He spoke in riddles when Tommy tried to pry.

"I'm just realizing how little I know about the world," was one of the profound things he said after Tommy's most recent attempt. "I wish I could keep you from it."

So, he wasn't the best conversationalist at the moment.

School was a different kind of anxiety-inducing. Wearing a red hoodie in the middle of August drew the same attention that it did at the beginning of the summer. People passing in the halls shot him glances, bordering between worried and disgusted. He still felt thrilled by those little looks, but there was a new fear that prickled up his spine that hadn't been there before.

His fight with Speedrunner was viral, almost matching his debut with views on youtube. It was a weird sort of fame that he could only sometimes be proud of. Hyperion was him, but also not him all the same. To see his face in the media, both televised and otherwise was unsettling.

To go from being someone almost less than a person, to being infamous was kinda scary. There were experts theorizing on his powers, his weaknesses, his identity. Wilbur warned him about it months ago, obviously, but experiencing it was far more intense than he imagined. His mentor was a popular villain for numerous reasons, and it was for those same reasons that he didn't touch social media. Tommy would probably have to do that too.

With his newfound secret popularity, strangers felt like more than just eyes to him. Any of them might give him a second look. They might notice the style of his hair, or the slouchy way he walked, or his general height and put the pieces together.

He would have to focus on his breathing, keep himself stabilized and aware of his anonymity. No one knew. He was safe.

Needless to say, he was not finding a cure for his loneliness at school. Tommy had to think outside of the box, relish the little things. Every few days, he had a workout session with Niki, where she used excruciating methods to keep his mind busy. His new PC worked like a charm. He had wracked up hours of gameplay in his rare freetime.

At Ender Ice, he had a new coworker, Aimsey. She was a short girl with dark hair. Tommy tried his best not to like her. She was Ranboo's replacement, and he was Tommy's ride-or-die. It should go without saying that this new threat would be his enemy.

Except, she wasn't a threat. She was honestly kinda refreshing.

It was hard not to like her when she made a game out of irritating the more self-centered customers. Tommy would watch from afar as she purposely added one too many sprinkles to a woman's cup, or when she would slip a Skittle into a serving of M&Ms. They didn't even offer Skittles as a topping. She brought her own bag of them just for that.