Chapter Text
Tommy is a … curious child to say the least. Tommy, bless his soul, tried so hard and yet ALL the villagers still hated him (well that’s just what he thought.) he did- like everything they asked and even helped with the chores, come on give him a break, he is a big awesome man, he deserves it. (I assure you, he really does.)
He worked his hardest to follow the rules and listen and don’t be too loud, don’t ask for more- never ask for anything more- not more food “You're being greedy!”, not more clothes “go inside if you're so cold” not more space “This is all we have- you're lucky you get this at all!” Tommy didn’t want to be a burden- he never wanted to be a burden.
He also tried his hardest not to steal stuff as long as it wasn’t important, he didn't want to get in trouble but sometimes he needed to steal- for food or clothes- he needed to you know- not freeze to death. last time he stole he got locked in a closet by one of his caretakers (that happened a lot!) and all the boring stupid rule stuff like that- oh!
and -and he even stayed inside the walls of the village like they told him too (even though it was SO hard, it always felt like something out there was calling him the forest was cool- very cool) Whilst he did occasionally peek out into the forest which may have gotten him in trouble a few times he had never once actually been all the way in the forest (now that wasn’t completely true butttttt whatever …)
Why did the stupid villagers have to be so BORING. The forest did look- like- like- way cool, and like- way more interesting than any of those boring stupid villagers with all their boring stupid rules. Maybe other than Sam,he WAS cool, anyhow the forest was still marginally cooler than most people (and things like chores or jobs) in the village– especially the people.
Tommy wouldn’t go out there anyway; he was a great rule follower, he would never, ever actually break an important rule like that. (His care takers disagree, but WHATEVER) He knew better than to go into the forest anyway! He wasn’t stupid he was a big man who knew rules and how to follow them.
Really he did actually follow the important rules- he did! He would wear his sweater inside out even, if it was itchy, he wore as much red as possible (any time he was wearing yellow one of them would scream at him.) Even if finding red was hard and they didnt give the children red he still did it because he was good at following rules! He took salt in his pockets wherever he could because he was good at following rules. He even brought an iron trinket everywhere with him like they said! BECAUSE HE WAS GOOD AT FOLLOWING RULES!!!!
Speaking of,
His iron trinket was a cow, his name was– is Henry. To be honest, Tommy may or may not have stolen Henry; But hey sue him it’s not his fault Henry was expensive. He needed to stay safe too! And it’s not like any of the villagers would protect him if one of the fae got him -the uh- the fae that totally werent real and that he totally werent real- shut up he doesnt do any stuff to ward them off for any reason other than following rules- no he did not say that screw you.
(He wanted to be someone worth protecting—someone who people wanted to protect. He knew he might never would never be but he is a child and therefore still allowed to wish.)
Today was going to be a great day.
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Every day the caretakers or Sam (one of the librarians), would gather up all the children and take them to the library for story time. Today Tommy had almost dragged his feet on the way there, it was so boringgggggggggg. Sometimes they would read books that were about happy little tales, fun little folklore stories and fairytales that were usually accompanied with amazing, mythical writing.
Most of the time, they were decidedly not.
If the kids were lucky that particular day (such as if sam read to them or a teacher who liked variety) they’d get a story about a princess getting saved from a castle that she was sadly trapped in, or powerful knights slaying the monstrous mountain sized dragons that threatened to destroy them, their city, and all they'd ever known.(dragons were kinda cool he guessed) or- or amazing creatures with manes that sparkled in the wind, or powers that rivaled even the strongest wizard. Magical beasts that kept to themselves so as to not be threatened by humans, yes..
He is talking about unicorns, Tommy though they were objectively the coolest and bestest out of the stories- which they actually were. Tommy knew that if he ever came across a unicorn they would love him- he was awesome and unlike a lot of other stupid people– he would respect them.
His dream was honestly to ride on any horse's back, not just a unicorn– OH ALSO! Tommy wasn't one of those idiots who believed that unicorns were weak- cause they weren't. He had read lots of books about them in his free time. They were powerful (as he mentioned before) they could take out a whole village of people in a minute if they wanted to but the creatures, in some corrupt contrast to humans, were much too kind hearted and pure for that. Now, if they were getting hunted they would use their powers but sadly at one point humans had worked out a way to get around a unicorn's powers and trick them so they could hunt and kill said unicorn.
It was sick. That's why they went into hiding, staying out of sight away from humans. rumored to only show themselves to the purest of souls- deep into the forest. Sometimes also said to reside in huge numbers in the otherworld, aka the fae realm or fairyland for those who haven't read up on their fae literature recently- too bad fae were totally not real unlike unicorns who totally were.
Anyhow, it's time he gets back on topic
Mostly; the caretakers (if not sam who always read fairytales) would not read them stories of awesome unicorns who shared their magic with the world or a brave knight who sacrificed himself for the good of the people, the people who betrayed him and hated him and hurt him, yet he was still too selfless to let them die, but rather they would read them the stories of the horrible, terrible, terrifying forest, specifically the creatures inside.
They would tell stories (really just read a stupid book, not even a story) about children who got taken by the fair folk, or all the ways the fae have tricked children and will try to trick you.The horrors of what they will do to you, and how they will do it. How if you even dare to speak to a fae they will take your soul and keep you in their realm as a slave forever, how sometimes when speaking to a fae years passed in the human world and it was seconds with them- how they stole the time and your life. How they'd turn you inside out and- (that is a bit too graphic for him to describe but you get the idea!) all of it was stupid really.
Other times they didn’t read stories and they just told Tommy and the other kids about how to avoid fae and how to talk to them and all that dumb bullshit, Things like “if you do encounter a fae don't say your name or thank you or blah blah blahhhhhhhhhhh. They in addition showed what fae -do- WOULD look like if they were real.
Tommy didn’t even like the stupid- stupid- dumb- story time, they all had to sit still and be quiet but it’s not his fault if he wants to get up and walk around (did he say how boring it mostly was since they MOSTLY talked about fae) or if he wanted to say something about how dumb it is that the princess has to be saved by the knight, she can save herself duh. (#Tommy feminist diva girlboss, he knows it too)
It was worse when they told stories of the faeries. The tales didn't exactly scare Tommy, per say,(he was a big man nothing, absolutely nothing could scare him) but a little bit of what– like paranoia, overtook him for a day or two. NATURAL HUMAN THINGS he wasn't actually scared tho. Why would he be, the stories were a load of hogwash and Tommy refused to really listen- uh, ignore what he had said earlier!
Tommy used to try and sneak out during stories that included fae, they were just so boring or.. Dare he say it… scary! Mostly boring though- mostly boring. Tommy just really hated listening and he couldn't do it. Eventually after too many “escape attempts” he firstly got hit by one of the caretakers and then was forced to sit at the front, next to Sam, for the foreseeable future.
Unfortunately this specific day they were in fact not reading a fun fairytale they were reading about the fae- he was mostly tuning it out and basically zoning all the way out, ironically thinking about unicorns and the fair folk. So due to that reason he did not notice when it was time to go and was forced upwards and shoved forward because people sucked.
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It was a rather brisk day in the village, they were done with storytime and as always, Tommy had finished his boring ass chores, now he was just out and about exploring the village (only for the 100th time ever.) He really didn’t have anything else to do, according to the townspeople “he wasn’t old enough to work.” he would actually quite like to work for a wage as he would absolutely cook- He was absolutely the biggest bestest man ever, afterall.
Ok so he really did not have anything to do: here why. He couldn’t work, not allowed to at his age, he also wasn’t allowed in the forest, too dangerous the only people allowed in were hunters and foragers and a few others-; and- and he was wayyyy too old to go play with the “little kids” so that wasn't an option either. Come on. What was he supposed to dooooooo.
And tubbo- well tubbo ( His only a friend- who he would usually play with) was …. gone sick right now so he couldn’t talk to tubbo, and he didn’t want to go pester Sam because …. Well - what if Sam got angry at him or annoyed or.. or didn’t want him around or-
Maybe he could just *look* into the forest. He wouldn’t get to close or go inside, he would just look. Right, that’s all he was gonna do. Look- he had done this before and only gotten mildly scolded so nothing could go wrong!
He slowly creeped closer to the forest looking around for witnesses, he wasn’t gonna get caught and why would he even need to be scared of getting caught he’s not doing anything bad he’s just looking, ok get off his back. The forest was rather dark today, (when was it not, that was a thick canopy of trees) it was cloudy and looked like it was going to storm outside. It wasn’t scary to him though; he was a big man after all.
He slowly approached the stone wall that kept the forest creatures out. It was very tall, was much taller than Tommy; It was at least 10 ft tall (maybe? He was tall but not that tall) but that wasn’t gonna keep (it wouldn't have to haha, cause he wasn't going in, duh) Tommy out, nothing ever could. He was great!. Plus, the gate was open during the day. Easy!
Tommy approached the entrance to the forest slowly, as long as nobody saw him it would be fine. Why was he getting so close- well uh…he just had to get closer; he wanted to get a GOOD look. The moment he got close enough he ran through the open gate. He made it, he was in the forest and NONE surely NONE of his caretakers saw him do it. He was sure
Right as Tommy was about to take a step further into the forest, because he was a big man who could handle the monsters in it and he made it this far so why not keep going- he was rudely grabbed, he was then shoved before being grabbed again, this time by the collar of his shirt. He tried to squirm and get out of his captor's grip, thinking it was a monster before he heard a shrill voice that he unfortunately recognized.
“THESEUS!” The women *screams*Jesus Christ, calm down lady. all he did was go into- look at the forest, not that big of a deal.
But still he may or may not be screwed because, for one thing, that was one of the care takers at the orphanage, Miss Shelly. For another, that was Tommy’s real name, he was so screwed.
Ok if he just - maybe he could get out of this. “Hello ma’am, I-uh-“ she cut him off almost immediately. rude
“What are you doing out here Theseus?!”
Now Tommy had a wonderful, *Great* lie- explanation for this.
“I was picking flowers and- uh looking at the forest?”
Safe to say she absolutely did not believe him. Tommy looked past the women to attempt to see if he had any savior, perhaps Sam, or a kind caretaker, or even a monster would be better than this. For a moment Tommy considered himself lucky as he saw Sam coming up to the women's side- that was before he heard the man start speaking.
“Get away from the forest ,Tommy. You know you shouldn't be there” Sam, the kind librarian said softly from over the woman's shoulder, he had been trying to calm her. It obviously wasn’t working and most likely wasn't going to work, well then he would just bullshit his way out of this one!
Sam looked sorry, but still, he turned away. The women looked far too smug, Tommy wished he could punch her in her stupid face right at that moment. He knew that wouldn’t end well, but he’s already fucked anyway.
“I was just picking flowers I swear- I just wanted-“ He was cut off by a stinging pain on his cheek as he flinched in the woman's grip, trying not to cry. Bullshitting was evidently not going to work this time. Shame, really.
They both walked him back to the orphanage and the women went to file some paperwork about the experience (as they were required too). He was thankfully left with Sam for a bit who got him ice and only scolded him quietly. Tommy knew that he was going to be punished further but whatever- he knew this would happen he just shouldn't have gone in the forest he knew–
That night,Tommy ended up sleeping in the closet (with a few bruises to show for it all.)