Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

The pickaxe was the last straw. The group suffered so much from the goddamn chickens for the pickaxe to make a.. a squeaky noise?? Grizzly had only laughed. Only laughed at how much pain the group went through to find the fucking diamonds just for the pickaxe crafted from it to NOT WORK.

Something snapped in Charlie. With the yelling for the meeting in Molympus, there was a flash of red, green, and blue, and the group was gone and back to their thrones.

“I say we vote him off the counsel.”

“Wait- no, listen , all right? Let’s not vote him off-”

“No. Shut up. Shut the fuck up, Bizly! Go back to your place. Stop hogging the goddamn Molympus!”

“...”

The nature god walked up to the earth god, hands clenched in frustration. Charlie opened his mouth, about to speak, when bottles of shame juice suddenly showered on both of them.

“Stop, stop.” Charlie ordered Condi, who reluctantly obeyed. The nature god whipped his head around to face Bizly. “What the fuck are you looking at?”

“Are you kidding?” Bizly threw his hands up, exasperated. “I worked so hard on all my stuff that you guys all hated, and when Grizzly makes a pickaxe that doesn’t fucking work I’m getting blamed for it?!”

Charlie didn't bother to reply and turned to the green throne. He walked up to the side of his throne, and opened the cursed barrel and revealed the most cursed thing of all.

An apple.

The harvest god returned to Grizzly, who had been silently observing, emotions tightly concealed. 

Charlie looked at two of his two non-blood but bound by their powers, brothers. Condi nodded once, regret flashing in his eyes, and Bizly looked away. But no one went against Charlie, the silently established leader.

“Your final punishment.” Charlie spoke, holding the apple out in front of Grizzly. Grizzly stared at the apple, refusing to look anywhere near Charlie.

“An apple as red as your sins, Grizzly Plays.”

Grizzly took the apple with shaky hands that betrayed his concealed emotions. Fear.

Grizzly glared at the blood-colored apple, and something snapped in him. His arms shook.

“THE SHAME JUICE!” Charlie ordered. Condi threw the potions with no hesitations. He wanted this to be over. This was just a bit, right?

Right..?

Charlie looked at Grizzly stone faced. Grizzly returned it.

“Eat the apple.” Charlie screamed, “EAT THE APPLE!”

Tears formed in Grizzly eyes, but they never dropped. A smirk appeared on his face, eyes not returning the emotion. He maniacally started to laugh.

“THIS! THIS IS WHAT YOU DO, CHARLIE SLIMECICLE?! To one of your... who you call 'partners'..” Grizzly barked out a laugh. “This was supposed to be for fun, wasn’t it? I had fun. I had enough. You’ll regret this, Charlie Slimecicle. You’ll regret this.”

Charlie looked away. He stepped back.

A crunch.

“GRIZZ!!” Bizly cried, snapping out of his trance. He raced forward and reached out his hands, but Charlie had to block his path as a giant sinkhole appeared in front of them.

Grizzly screamed.

Then he was gone.

A sob.

...

When the lights in your eyes fade and life flashes by..

One day you're going to die!
...

Tommy is the experiencer of many things. Most of them are bad, yes. But being stuck on an island that he doesn’t recognise at all? That’s new.

“You’re awake.”

A voice from his right makes Tommy jump out of his skin. There is a.. a person? A slime? It has glasses, and there’s a stick in his hair. It looks suspiciously familiar but Tommy can’t put a finger on what it is.

Tommy backs away and checks his inventory for weapons, just to find that it’s empty. He glares at the creature and hopes he looks even a bit threatening.

“Don’t.. come near me.” Tommy hisses.

The thing raises its hands in surrender, “I won’t harm you, Tommy from- I’m not going to harm you.”

Tommy’s glare softens maybe a tiny bit. “..How do you know my name?”

The thing sadly smiles, looking at the ground. “I just do.”

Tommy takes a cautious step forward, pointing at the thing. “What- who are you?”

Tommy will not let himself set his guard down. No matter what his gut feeling says; that this thing is just lost and in pain.

The thing hesitates. It adjusts its glasses, goop dripping from the glasses frames.

“You can call me Slime.”

...

“He was one of us. Why did we do it, Charlie?”

Chapter Text

The sun falls quickly. It turns everything from orange to purple, then to darkness. A god stares mournfully at the falling star, as specks of light begin to appear in the black sky. He is sitting on an open balcony at the edge of Molympus. He twirls a poppy in his hands.

I’m sorry.

“Hey,” the silence is interrupted by a familiar voice. The god of polar bears and all creatures joins Charlie and sits down next to him. “Hey," He repeats, more quietly.

Charlie doesn’t drop his gaze from where the sun was a few moments ago.

Bizly shifts awkwardly from his place. He inhales.

"Stop thinking. About that.” His eyes drift towards the flower in Charlie’s hands.

The harvest god looks down to see the blurry lights of the village far away. It is small as the dots in the sky, and if Charlie wants to, he knows he can be there almost instantly. He can escape..

He stays anyway, even though the only thing he wants to do right now is.. not be here.

“I’m not.” Charlie mumbles. He clenches his hand on the floor of the balcony made of quartz. With the other, he throws the poppy off the cliff.

“I brought you a poppy.”

Bizly stiffens, then shifts again. He glances at Charlie in unease.

"Well, you know. I’m here. Me and Condi.. You know that, right?”

Charlie doesn’t respond. He brings his knees to his face. After a while he speaks.

“I miss him.." His voice is shaky.

There is a silent sob. Bizly looks over the mountains that stretch farther than he can see.

A sigh.

“..Me too, Charlie.”

…

Starting all over again is difficult.

For a person who's used to instant tools, breaking a tree is ridiculously difficult and mostly, so, so slow. Tommy's been mining this tree for what, three hours now? Won't this stupid fucking tree just break?!

Three logs. THREE LOGS. It takes him an HOUR to break a whole entire three block high FUCKING TREE.

A slight exaggeration, perhaps.

But! But, no one is going to catch Tommy Innit complaining, oh no. The last few thoughts- observations. Yeah, that's what it was.

Tommy looks over to Slime, who is gathering dirt for their house.

The slime is humming quietly. The tune sounds strangely familiar, but Tommy can’t remember what the song is.

The tune is a bit sad-

Tommy goes back to the tree and plants the sapling. He sighs inwardly and moves on to the next oak tree, biting back complaints- I mean, more very observant observations.

One log.

Two.

Three..

One minute.

Four logs..

Five..

Six..

Two minutes..

Three minutes..

Ten, twenty, thirty minutes...

An hour.

Another hour of mining trees.

Tommy thinks he can punch a hole through a wall. Wait no he can’t, ‘cause his hands hurt so fucking much-

Tommy hates this. It takes so long, he could be doing something else right now- he could be going home , but no. Instead he’s building a hut for someone he’s known for so little! For three hours.

This is a complete waste of time. He should just abandon Slime and go home .

Not that he has..

Somewhere familiar. A new start means new dangers, new enemies, more deaths..

Tommy doesn't want to deal with more.. more drama, as some might say. Like big man Tommy Innit because he's not a WIMP, and he’s too great for drama! Or.. well, too little excluded by choice- his very presence will make everyone scoff tremble-

..Tommy would rather deal with the past. Nothing good comes from both past and future, but at least for the past he knows what happened. He doesn’t need to take part in them because they already happened..

New friends only end in pain.

It’s better to be alone.

The last log of the tree is chopped.

That’s it.

Tommy is leaving. He’s going to craft a boat, kill the animals here, cook them, and get away. Maybe some coal too. Tommy can eat seaweed if he’s desperate out in the sea. And he can stop by the islands (if there is any) and he can just sleep on the boat and-

“Tommy!”

Slime runs over to Tommy with a handful of dirt. He is smiling without a care in the world.. but in its eyes, are those..?

"I got A LOT of dirt!" Slime lifts the dirt up, as if Tommy couldn't see them before.

And it looks so happy.

Tommy doesn't want this. He doesn't want this at all. He can already feel the pain; he should let the slime go. Friendships..

Friendships, this feeling of.. of happiness, is danger.

He cannot let himself be attached.

He doesn’t even know where the slime is from.

And yet.

"Tommy..?" the slime smiles a little unsurely, tilting his head.

Yet.

Maybe this was another chance from.. from whatever’s out there. Maybe.. does he deserve this? Is this some kind of a trick? Maybe Tommy can just play along until he leaves. He does need more food.

And.

Maybe Tommy can afford to stay a while.

He grins and holds up the hours worth of work.

"I got a lot of wood too."

...

Who...

...

The hut is built. It's small, and it's messy. Made of wood, then cobble, then they resorted to dirt because a certain someone decided that he'd rather die than mine yet another tree.

But you know, it's theirs .

That's really all that matters. At that point.

Tommy looks proudly at the build, his thoughts a week before completely forgotten. Honestly, it's even Grian worthy.

...Okay, maybe not. But close! Kind of.

Now he can leave. Slime will be fine. He can go back to his.. his home ... Well, where he knows the land. He knows the people. A lot of bread was used when Tommy was cutting the trees, but he still has enough (Slime had given Tommy some bread from.. honestly, Tommy does not want to think about it. “Gooped up from my body!” The slime had said).

Tommy has to have missed so much. Only a few hours may have passed, but someone could be dead. In a few hours, another war might have... or maybe a nation.... declarations? He definitely missed moments when he could have been working on his actual home.

He can go home. Finally. He has to catch up with all the things he missed. He misses the lands does he really? and Slime will be fine! It has a home now. The slime can start a life on the island, or maybe he will travel somewhere else, but Tommy’s work is done here.

Slime moves in front of Tommy and smiles. It waves at the build.

“So are we going to build the farm now?”

The what?

Look, Tommy reluctantly agreed to help build a hut but a farm ? Like.. like a garden.. right? A small garden on the side??

“...What?"

Tommy echos his thoughts, staring at the Slime.

"We..” Slime says hesitantly, “We were going to build a farm? So we don't starve living here!"

No.

No, nonono, Tommy will NOT agree to this. He isn't going to live on the island! The stop on the island is supposed to be a short one. He already wasted so much time here, in this deserted, shitty place - (Why did Tommy feel.. uncomfortable when he thought that?)

"Tommy..?"

Why did Slime say his name like that , why would he say it like how -

"I can't.." Tommy mutters. "I-"

"Oh.."

Slime looks.. almost guilty, for some reason. It looks down at his fidgeting hands.

"Of course..”

SIlence.

Tommy hates silence. He despises silence. And this type of silence..

“I’m-” Tommy can’t get the words out. He has not said those two simple words for a very, very long time.

I’m sorry.

It’s so foreign, and it just. Feels.. It doesn’t- he can’t. He can’t say it, Tommy will die before those words come out of his mouth. But- No. This apologizing, it’s a sign of weakness. He’ll seem weak and people can, and will take advantage of him, and he doesn’t even know the slime very well- who knows when it’ll finally fucking betray him too?? He can’t- Look, Tommy can’t be on the wrong, right? It’s not like he deliberately hurt the slime, it’s not like he actually promised to stay-

“I- I have some bread!” Slime tries, interrupting Tommy’s uncomfortable train of thoughts. Tommy stares at the slime blankly. “I-If you want to..”

Goop drips on the ground.

It's been.. Come to think of it, the whole time Tommy built the house, he didn't think of anything related to Dream, the discs, the nations.. It's been really peaceful.

Tommy is hit by a feeling of guilt.

What is wrong with him?

"Maybe I can stay a little longer."

The words are out of Tommy's mouth before he can stop them.

What the fuck. He needs to leave!

Slime looks up at him, uncertainty written all over its face. "You will..?"

Tommy nods. “Yeah.”

Fucking instincts, man.

Might as well stay a while longer. It hasn’t been horrible , Tommy will admit (truthfully, this has been the most relaxed Tommy has been for a long time).

Yeah, he’ll stay a bit.

...

What....

...

“Tommy! Look, I found a cow!”

Tommy looks up from the place where he is gathering seeds for the soon-to-be-named farm.

“What?”

“A cow!” Slime smiles and pushes an animal in front of Tommy. As if Tommy couldn’t see the giant mammal behind the slime.

The over enthusiastic Slime grins even wider, if that was even possible. “What should we name her?”

“‘Her’?” Tommy says, avoiding the question. He reluctantly pets the cow. Its warm, brown eyes stare at Tommy. “How do you know it’s a she? What if it’s a he? Or they?”

“I just know.” Slime answers in an almost monotone voice.

Okay. Tommy doesn’t want to know more. He goes back to getting seeds. He can almost hear- actually, he does hear the squelching of the frown the slime makes.

“Tommy..” Slime says sadly. “I thought we were going to be friends..?”

Tommy destroys grass more aggressively than necessary. “We are.”

Green slime mixes with the grass. Tommy pushes that aside and moves a few blocks away for fresher seeds. He can hear Slime starting to follow him but abruptly stopping.

What the fuck ! Tommy hates the feeling bubbling inside him. He sighs.

“Bessie.” Tommy speaks as the cow follows him and noses his hair.

Slime looks confused. “What?”

Tommy gets up, half a stack of seeds in his hands.

“Let’s name the cow Bessie.”

...

How..

...

They come up with a system.

They never talk about it, but it becomes a thing they do. A lot of things are like that, between them. By how Slime does it, somewhere very deep inside Tommy, he thinks that Slime wasn’t silent like that before. As if something’s keeping it silent-

He wipes away the thought before his actual self can wander too deep into it.

Anyways, they come up with a simple, silent agreement: to tell each other every new thing they saw on the island.

The island is so small. Tiny. If Tommy somehow got his instant tools back, he could dig up the entire island in three days, at most. That’s how small the island is. It’s ridiculous.

So there’s not much going on. And Tommy gets so fucking bored. It started with Bessie, then chickens, then a pig (they named it the Baconator), and they trapped two zombies in a pit at some point- Tommy really doesn’t know how this started.

He’s not really complaining, to be honest.

“Tommy, look! I found an oxeye daisy!”

Maybe Tommy smiles for the fifth time that day.

“I have some clay balls.” Slime crooks its head as Tommy makes a weird face, trying not to laugh conceals his emotions very easily and clearly. Nothing passes by. Unseen by anyone. “I can make a pot for it.”

Slime agrees enthusiastically, “That’s a great idea, Tommy!” (Of course it is.) And Slime bounces away to who-knows-where. Probably working on the hole he made for some reason in the middle of their cabin.

God. How long has it been since someone said that to him...?

A long time.

No, shut up. Tommy doesn’t have a fucking soft spot, that’s for losers.

...

That’s not him.

...

“Tommy!” Slime bounces over to him, carrying a single diamond. “Look at what I found!”

Tommy casually nods towards Slime, currently occupied with farming and replanting. Then he blinks. Wait, hold on, Slime found a what now? Diamonds ? What the fuck? Tommy barely has iron-

A blue, shiny jewel is brought into Tommy’s view. And yep, that’s a diamond.

“You can have some, Tommy. I found multiple!”

Tommy just. Tommy just takes it. He shouldn’t question it anymore.

And so he doesn’t.

...

Should we go-?