Tommyinnit: The Dark Tower (A Dream SMP AU)

5 - the disc

Tommy began looking around the room in a frenzy, his panic almost enough to strangle him.

Tubbo on the other hand began to relax his posture and soften his expression. He noticed Tommy's frantic movements and gave him an empathetic look.

"You seem kinda lost, Theseus. Do you have any idea what's going on at all?" Tubbo asked, his intonation light and harmless.

Tommy shook his head.

"You remind me of someone," Tubbo sighed.

Tommy paused for a second, debating whether or not to speak. Dream wasn't here now. A small part of Tommy felt a sense of relief but it was overshadowed by the larger part experiencing pure terror. But Tommy had to know more about this, he had to know exactly what Tubbo believed regarding Tommy's fate.

He took a moment to prepare, ensuring that his voice would sound low and formal. He needed to sound unrecognisable. Tubbo's life depended on it.

"Your friend...who passed?" Tommy carefully grumbled.

Tubbo smiled in suprised delight, "he speaks!" His expression soured slightly as he continued, "uh no, not him. A different friend of mine: Fundy. You met him outside earlier."

Fundy? What the fuck?!

"Yeah, he struggles with paying attention during meetings too, always has. He's so different from his father in that way... You're probably around his age I'd guess, how old are you Theseus?"

Silence. Tommy wasn't going to be baited.

"Back to silence, are we?" Tubbo joked. "That's fine, Dream will be back soon. He just went to go grab the official border maps from his base. It's nearby, maybe you've been to it already..."

Tommy knew what Tubbo was doing, this was so classic. Trying to seem friendly, to appeal to that small voice that doesn't really want to do bad things and is simply mislead. Ugh, Tommy was already sick of him. Even back during Pogtopia, when Tubbo had acted as a spy for the resistance, he'd never actually succeeded in retrieving information. He'd even lost one of his lives thanks to his own incompetence. Did Tubbo really think that a companion of Dream would be so easily lead?

Tommy made an ambiguous grumbled noise, an indication to Tubbo that he was done talking. Tubbo was surprisingly quick to take the hint and seemed to back off.

Once again, the empty item frame hanging above Tubbo's desk on the wall caught Tommy's eye. He studied it for a second, trying to guess what may once have hung there, or what was intended to hang there in the future.

Tubbo eventually took notice of Tommy's gaze, likely eager to start a new conversation. "An odd design choice, right?" Tubbo began.

Tommy slowly nodded.

"You know it wasn't always empty, I just took it out because I didn't want it on display. I can show you what was there if you like, Dream will be back soon anyway..."

Tommy grumbled out a noise of support.

At this Tubbo reached down and pressed a button under his desk. Suddenly the walls once again began parting, revealing a small, dark room occupied by a few chests and item frames, lit by a single lantern hanging in the middle of the room above an ender chest. Tubbo beckoned at Tommy to come closer and he hesitantly complied.

Looking around the room, Tommy saw several item frames containing various books, tools and weapons. He briefly noticed an item frame containing a compass which was softly emitting a purple glow, before dismissing it and following Tubbo's movements with his eyes.

"If you're struggling to see, you can always remove your mask," Tubbo said, half jokingly, "I won't tell if you won't."

Tubbo then walked over to the ender chest and opened it. "This is what used to hang above my desk. I know it doesn't look like much, but believe me when I say it's extremely valuable."

From out of the chest, Tubbo presented a grey music disc with a purple inner circle.

At first Tommy was unimpressed. After months alone with Dream, he'd come to associate only weapons and armour with any real value. Common articles like art and music discs were for the simple and weak.

But then the disc blinked into focus and Tommy processed what exactly he was looking at.

"Mellohi!" Tommy cried. He couldn't stop himself. In that moment, he was completely overcome with sentiment.

Tubbo visibly jumped at the outburst. His face then demonstrated a spectacular progression of emotions, truly it was something to behold. At first it was the visible confusion.

"How do you-"

Then the creeping suspicion.

"Wait-"

Then the thought that Tubbo hadn't dared let himself think. That nagging hope that he'd had shut out for so long. It was too painful. It was too impossible. It was-

"T-Tommy?" Tubbo finally choked out.