Eburnean Tommy Au

VIII - Another Nightmare

Tommy sees Tubbo giving a speech, but it's odd because Tom isn't with the rest of the audience, and he feels a strong sense of harmonoia.

He can't tell what his friend is saying, but the crowd seems inspired, so he's happy for him.

The whole scene becomes sped up and confusing, and too many things happen at once to keep track of, but everything he's seeing eventually converges with a resounding click and a following explosion where Toby is.

He wakes up and looks around frantically, but he can't find Tubbo, so he starts to hyperventilate.

"H-Hey guys, he woke up and now he's really freaking out" Techno mentions

Tommy looks at him and recalls seeing him launch a firework at his best friend, so he tries to get away from him.

Tubbo rushes to the living room to comfort him.

"What's wrong?" he asks when he kneels down to look at his friend.

When Tom doesn't respond he tries to narrow it down to simpler yes or no questions.

"Are you worried about something?"

He nods and points to Toby's scar.

"That happened a long time ago, did you maybe have a nightmare about it?"

When he doesn't receive any kind of answer he sighs,

"Techno, you can go have breakfast, I'll take over watching him"

Tommy points to the scar again, then to the piglin leaving the room.

"Yep, he did that. But like I said, it was years ago" he explains again, but to no avail, because Tommy shakes his head.

"Look I think you had a nightmare about it, but it's only a scar now see? it doesn't hurt a bit" he demonstrates as he pokes the burned skin.

Tommy lightly touches it for a second and looks for a reaction, then seeing no discomfort from his friend, grows more convinced that Toby isn't hurt.

He remains confused, but he's glad that Tubbo is alright.

"c'mon, let's get you something to eat"

Tubbo heads to the kitchen, but Tommy stays where he is and struggles to process what's going on.

Toby returns when he realizes that he didn't follow him.

"Are you going to come have breakfast?" he asks gently.

Tommy gives no sign that he even heard him.

"Awh, you're still confused, aren't you?"

When he again gets no reaction, he grows concerned, so he waves his hand in front of his face, and Tommy seems to notice his presence.

"Did you hear me? I've been trying to get you to eat something"

Toby groans and drops himself on to the bed when Tommy does nothing.

"Phil, can you bring him some food," he yells towards the kitchen, "he's unresponsive"

"Sure thing mate"

Shortly afterwards, he enters the living room with some blueberry pancakes.

"Here you go" he says as he puts the plate on the coffee table.

Tommy soon comes back to reality and starts eating.

"We should make little pieces of paper with words so Tom can tell us things" Tubbo suggests

"Oh, like communication cards?"

"Exactly, but I'm not sure of what words" he admits

"Probably emotions, question words, and needs. Tommy what do you think?"

The boy, who had no idea that a conversation was going on, just nods and pretends that he was listening.

"Okay, let's make a list then" Phil says, then he starts writing things down.

When he's done, he shows Tubbo the list, "I wrote down some questions and feelings"

"Didn't you say you'd put needs too?" Toby asks

"You're right, could you add those?"

He adds hungry, thirsty, tired, help, stop, and go away to the list.

"Let's put thank you as well" Tubbo suggests

After they each make few more revisions, Phil reads it out,

"Alright we've got angry, happy, sad, scared, and confused for the emotions. For needs, there's hungry, thirsty, tired, hug, help, nightmare, slow down, stop, and go away. We put the 5 Ws and also how. And we put thanks and sorry. All together that's 22"

Toby grabs some paper and some other things to make the cards and gets started.
Tommy sees him and Phil with craft supplies and wants to join in, so he grabs a paper and some markers and starts to illustrate a familiar scene.

He starts by drawing a bench and some trees, then adds a sun and clouds. When he's done, he gives the drawing Tubbo.

Phil, who has been hole-punching the completed ones and putting them on a ring, notices that he is no longer being handed any cards. He looks over at Tubbo and sees him hugging Tom and crying, so he decides to complete the rest.