A Mockingbird In The Crows Nest

A Bird Made Of Hay

Soulfire is Sapnap!

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"What do you think of him?" Is what Phil asked when Tubbo and Ranboo sat down for the briefing. It was the morning after Tommy was hired, and Charon had called a quick meeting amongst the top heroes and their apprentices to fill everybody in.

This included Tubbo and Ranboo.

Tubbo wasn't too comfortable talking about Tommy behind his back- especially giving an opinion on the guy when he barely knew him. And when he glanced at Ranboo, he had a similarly uncomfortable look. His friend was shifting in his seat and picking at his nails. But that was ok. Tubbo could handle this. Hopefully.

"He's nice." He started, but bit his lip. "But he's also really nervous..We went out and got him some furniture yesterday-"

"That explains the call I got." Puffy hummed under her breath.

"-and he looked uncomfortable the whole time we were getting him clothes." Like no one's ever done that before. Like no one's ever cared enough to take him out to get nice things. Tubbo thinks. "And when we handed over our IDs to show we were apprentices, he kinda..Froze." He chewed more on his lip, remembering the way Tommy's eyes had gone wide and far-away. Like his mind was fighting itself to the point he couldn't do much more than breathe. Fuck, Tubbo doesn't even remember if he'd blinked before Spots started alerting. "Even Spots started to freak out. It was.." He shook his head, leaning back in his seat with a nervous flick of his ear. "I dunno what it was, but it wasn't good."

Tubbo felt Ranboo's tail brush against his ankle, and he relaxed minutely. He really wished Spots was here. What he wouldn't give to feel his coarse fur in his fingers right now.

"Enderchest was shifting on my shoulders, too. Like she wanted to jump on him." Ranboo added quietly. "I think he might've disassociated? At least a little bit?"

"Or it could've been the start of an anxiety attack." Tubbo murmured, frowning at the table in thought. "I couldn't really tell. We wanted to get him out of that store as soon as possible to calm him down."

"Has he said anything to you guys?" Ponk asked, leaning forward and frowning with concern swimming in their eyes. "Anything about his mental health that might tell us what might've triggered that reaction?"

The two of them shook their heads. "No." Tubbo said, reaching a hand up and itching at the scarred skin on his cheek. "He just said he doesn't want anyone in his room under any circumstances; that's all."

"He looked like he wanted to say more.." Ranboo said, keeping his words careful. "But yeah..That was all he said."

Everyone was silent for a long moment. The whole room was processing the little information the two knew about Tommy. And already, they didn't like what they knew. For someone to be that bad this late in life..Something must've happened to him. Something that slowly chipped away at whatever personality he had until there was nothing but a husk left. A hollowed out person without any wants of his own. It made Tubbo's soul ache.