Ours poetica

The nows of summer glitter in a ring These are cities where I had hoped to live

No TWs :)

It was the summer before senior year that it changed again.

At first everything was looking up: he had finished the year with all As, managing to pull his grade up from a B+ after countless hours studying with Tubbo over discord, and he was on Puffy's slam team for this upcoming summer slam. He was stoked: the SMP Slam was the biggest in North America, and there were going to be international teams competing in Los Angeles with them. He had never been to an in-person slam before, had only seen Youtube compilations of the big ones like BNV or CUPSI, and he was practically buzzing with excitement at the idea of attending the largest one of the year.

Sure, he was anxious, but who wouldn't be? SMP Slam was unique; unlike most classic or team slams, SMP was an immediate elimination slam - if your team scored the lowest in a round, you were immediately eliminated. There were no bouts, just constant sudden death.

Oh, and he was the youngest member of his team, which was horrifying.

They tried not to, but Tommy could tell his teammates treated him differently because of his age: among the five poets in total (Puffy, Ponk, Foolish, who he had seen in passing, Tommy, and some dude he hadn't seen before named Dream), Tommy was the only one who had never competed before. Hell, he hadn't even performed before the audition. He was completely new to the scene, and being only a little more than half the ages of his slam-mates did nothing for his confidence.

Their first meet up had gone smoothly—Mr. Sam drove Tommy to practice (at the same coffee shop he had first met Puffy) and he was introduced to two new faces. First was Foolish: the man was, to be perfectly honest, a lovable idiot. Don't get Tommy wrong, the guy had some serious bars, and every poem he wrote stuck to your skin like syrup and felt impossible to get off, but the dude lacked some common sense sometimes. Tommy would watch him switch from waxing poetic about the 'inherent ethical dilemma of sharing poetry to be consumed in a competition' to immediately forgetting a door was a push instead of a pull. It was kinda funny how Puffy treated him like a massive toddler (because holy shit, the dude was even taller than Ranboo), and everyone on the team mutually agreed that Foolish should never be left in a room by himself, ever.

Ponk, on the other hand, was a force to be reckoned with. Even missing an arm (lost, he said, in an unfortunate accident while in the car with Mr. Sam), the man was more capable than all the teammates put together: he could fix up cars, fix the leaky faucet in Puffy's kitchen, and just generally retained the most practical knowledge of the crew. Not to mention he wrote explosively, diction dripping with gasoline and all things flammable. He once told Tommy that his greatest influences came from the music he listened to as a kid; Wu-Tang Clan, Fugees, The Roots, all rap groups that were able to twist their words into gravity-defying rhythm, and were masters of repetition. Ponk had obviously taken after them, the refrains of his poem subtly shifting with each utterance, from the inflection of his voice or the rearranging of letters, he told entire stories all while repeating the same set of lines.

Oh, and he was Mr. Sam's boyfriend; Tommy was absolutely stoked to see him perform at the slam.

Dream was another story. He apparently had a super close relationship with Puffy that went way back (and Tommy could tell by the way he lingered next to the team captain, how she affectionally referred to him as her 'duckling'), but he rarely spoke, like, ever. When he did decide to open his mouth, his words were booming and rushed, as if he was desperate to get them out. He walked through the room as if he owned it, all silent and brooding, and spoke as if the entire universe revolved around what he had to say. Tommy had to admit it, he got sketchy vibes from the guy. And from the way Dream tilted his head upon first meeting Tommy, as if he was a mountain cat stalking prey, Tommy knew the feeling was mutual.