Chapter Text
This all started with Tommy running away from his own personal hell, exile… How Dream had managed to escape the prison or even how he found Tommy so quickly, well those were questions Tommy might never have a solid answer for. He only knew one thing right now, run. Dream seemed to be getting ever closer to him and he wouldn’t go back, he just couldn’t. He couldn’t go through it all again.
"Tommy, come back. You can't escape me, Tommy." Dream cooed as the chase continued.
There had to be a way out of this mess, someone was living out here, right? Techno and Phil. Phil lived out here! If he could only get to Phil he would be safe, Phil would believe him.
‘Phil will protect me’, Tommy thought as he weaved quickly through the thick forest seeing lantern light ahead of him, “Phil! Phil, please, he’s gonna kill me!”
Tommy doesn’t slow down, he can see the end of the tree line and the chorus of wolves that started to howl at Tommy’s cries. He’s almost there, he’s almost safe, almost-
Dream’s hand finally gets a strong grip on the back of Tommy’s shirt and yanks the teen back, Tommy watches with wide eyes as he falls his gaze landing on the white mask, he swears he can the cynical grin behind the ex-prisoners expressionless mask, everything going in slow motion as the world around him tilts.
Tommy shuts his eyes, anticipating the impact and when it comes… he’s not cold and there isn’t snow under his back its… sand? Oh, Prime… Dream took him back to the ruins of Logstedshire, no, he couldn’t be back here, he couldn’t do it again… His lungs seized up in a panic, he looked up at the crystal blue sky above as tears blurred his vision. He curled in on himself crying on the beach.
At some point, an iron door clicked open and footsteps were heard coming closer, Tommy only curled in more on himself until the person who had approached finally broke the silence, “a-are you okay, mate?”
Tommy goes still before uncurling and looking at the man nearby before jumping to his feet and staring at the middle-aged winged man in front of him, “Phil?”
"That's my name..." the man said, confused and almost on edge. “Do I know you?”
“Of course you do! It’s Tommy. Tommyinnit. You know who I am!” Tommy explains desperately, “you do remember me, right?”
Phil hesitates seemingly more confused than before, “I know a Tommyinnit but you’re not him, where did you even come from?”
“I come from a server, a dangerous server…” Tommy said quietly, his head lowering as he wiped at his still teary eyes.
“Oh… mate… it’s okay." Phil says, opening his arms to the boy, "you're okay, you're safe."
Tommy throws himself in Phil’s arms, this Phil might not know who he is but at least he was nice.
“Let's get you inside, mate. You can stay with me until we get things figured out.” The man offered as he released the teen and gestured back towards the house that sat on the edge of the beach.
Tommy nods following Phil inside as Phil stands on the pressure plate inside the simple single-roomed house.
Phil settled himself at a desk in the corner of the room and it was then that Tommy noticed the crows there were more than there were that followed his Phil back at home, they watched his movements curiously before one flew down from the rafters and perched on Phil’s shoulder. It looked between him and Phil before saying to Phil, “who’s the kid? He can’t be Tommy. Wait, is Tommy here?”
Phil shrugs, “he says he’s Tommy, I’ll help him until I can get him home. The last thing I need is for him to die here.”
The other crows seem to chatter amongst themselves as the perched crow returns to the rest of the murder.
There is a long minute of silence before Tommy shuffled awkwardly, “soooo… how long have you been living on this server?”
Phil looks over at him from where he was drafting out some blueprints, “server? This isn’t a server. This is a world. A private one to be exact, I’m the only other player here.”
“Is there a life system? Like, how many times can you die before-” Tommy makes a little poof noise and a small explosion motion with his hands, “-that’s it. You can’t respawn.”
“One life. It’s Hardcore. If you die? That’s it.” Phil said folding up his blueprints for later and setting down a shulker box and opening the box to put the papers away.
“WHOA! What is that?!” Tommy exclaimed as he starts to poke at the colored box, it was like magic.
“It’s a shulker box? Do you not know what a shulker is?”
Tommy shakes his head looking up at Phil still keeping a hand on the box, “no, should I?”
“What else does your server not have?” Phil chuckles and he stands to his full height, still about half a head shorter than Tommy, himself. “Come with me, I want to show you something, let's get you some armor and maybe even some wings first, though.”
Phil waved for Tommy to follow him downstairs, as they walked a few crows perched on their shoulders.
Tommy smiled as Phil explained where things were, he was already beginning to like it here.