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Tom cleared his throat, stacking a handful of cards on his lap. He glanced around the circle of 12 or so plastic folding chairs and the identical yet different faces, some glaring, some smiling, some looking like they were going to cry.
“Welcome everyone,” Tom said with a kind smile. “How did everyone’s week go? Did we all work on those exercises I gave you last meeting?” Sounds of grumbling and mumbling rippled through the crowd as the various versions of Tommy muttered to themselves. Tom sighed. “Let's start with a roll call then shall we?”
He looked down at his clipboard and the long list of names.
“Um.. Tommy?” He called out. Almost all of the voices in the room replied with an uncoordinated 'Here.’
“Ok- and Theseus?” A reply of much fewer voices answered him.
“Perfect,” he nodded. “We also have two new people joining us this week!!” Murmurs filtered around the circle and eyes darted around to spot the new faces. Well they weren’t really new, everyone looked the same.
But you get the idea.
“So everyone give a welcome to Tommy- and… Tommy!!” The others clapped and cheered for the newcomers, both of whom looked incredibly uncomfortable. One wore a massive hockey sweatshirt and the other was dressed in all black from head to toe.
Tom smiled at them. “How about you two introduce yourselves? Just a bit about things you like and what’s going on in your lives?” He motioned to the one in the hockey jersey. “You want to go first?”
The Tommy’s eyes widened slightly and he sat up straighter. “Um… sure,” he said slowly, glancing at the other newcomer next to him for a heartbeat.
“Well my name’s Tommy, that’s pretty obvious I guess. I do ice skating at the Olympics and… that’s really it,” he finished after a long pause.
“The Olympics?!” A Tommy gasped, looking up from his notepad he’d been scribbling in absently. “Holy shit, that’s insane.”
“What’s… what’s the Olympics?” The Tommy wearing a blue cardigan and a white streak in his hair asked, a confused expression on his face.
A Tommy in a lime green sweatshirt who’d been practically buried in his hoodie lifted his head. “Pretty sure it’s those games where people compete for medals and shit.”
“Oh, so like MCC,” he nodded.
“Umm… I don’t know what that is but ok,” he agreed with a shrug before slouching back into the hoodie.
“Anyways, thank you so much Tommy for introducing yourself, ice skating sounds really cool,” Tom smiled. “Everyone, let's give a hand for our new addition to our sessions! He’s great isn’t he?”
A round of sloppy applause answered him.
“Alright,” Tom continued, looking over to the Tommy wearing all black and a blank expression on his face. “Can you introduce yourself to us?”
He shifted slightly in his seat, eyes darting around the circle before opening his mouth to speak. “My name is Tommy as well, obviously I guess, and… that’s sort of it.”
“Come on, that can’t be it mate,” One of the vigilante Tommys huffed, crossing the arms of his black and red sweatshirt.
“Holy SHIT!!” The Tommy with the notepad exclaimed suddenly. “You have a fucking gun on your leg!!”
The Tommy wearing the green hoodie and the Tommy in the black and red hoodie both looked very interested suddenly.
“Are you a vigilante too?” One of them asked, a few random red sparks flying off his shoulders.
The Tommy in all black frowned slightly. “I… not really, but I’m not a hero that’s for sure.” The two vigilantes exchanged a glance at that.
“I’m definitely not a good person, I’ve hurt way too many people.”
The Tommy with the red sparks on his shoulders slouched back into his chair. “Newsflash buddy, none of us are good people. Except maybe mr. poet over there,” he nodded to the one holding the notepad and pencil. He looked up as the vigilante pointed at him, startled, before going back to writing something.
“I’ve killed people,” the one in all black said flatly. Everyone exchanged glances, before shrugging.
“Again, most of us here have gotten ourselves in rough patches like that as well at some point,” a Tommy wearing a red white and black high tech uniform commented.
“Speak for yourself,” a Tommy wearing a blue cloak and a crown, snorted dryly.
“Oh fuck off Theseus,” the Tommy with red sparks dancing on his shoulders snapped lightly. “You have your own weirdass problems to deal with.”
Theseus glared at him.
“ Anyways ,” Tom broke in, sending glances to both of them. “Thank you for introducing yourself, I’m sure we’re going to get along great and we’ll all be respectful,” he finished, staring at the two vigilantes and Theseus.
He looked down at his note cards. “Alright, now that we’ve settled in we’ll start the meeting as we always do, highs and lows of the week. Feel free to tell as little or as much as you want!”
He glanced around at the circle of 10 or so identical faces. Most of them currently looked to be some spectrum of slightly pleasant to downright depressed.
“Can we have Tommy innit go first?” He read out after looking at the first name on his cards.
Everyone stared at him, each looking some degree of fearful that he was speaking to them.
“No spaces between the Tommy and the Innit,” he clarified. When still no one spoke up he huffed.
“The L’manburg one?” He tried again. A few people looked away but a considerable amount stared at him nervously. “Come on guys, speak up,” he said with exasperation. He searched the faces, quickly realizing he’d have to do this manually. His eyes landed on the one with a white streak in his hair and a blue cardigan sweater over his red and white baseball t-shirt.
“You,” he pointed at him, “The original, my friend, the goat, the og, how are we hanging?” Tommyinnit looked up, his eyes gray and definitely more dim looking than others although most of the group had grayish eyes instead of blue. He looked startled and glanced around.
“Yes you,” Tom huffed. “We've been through this a million times king. How’s your week been?”
“Why do I always go first?” He muttered, his eyes glancing at the others in the circle for help. Tom shrugged. “You're the og, that's the way it works mate. Now stop beating around the bush.”
Tommy with the white streak looked down. “Uh.. Dream escaped prison this week,” He mumbled. Most of the circle winced, muttering soft words of condolences.
“Oh man,” The Tommy with the notepad wrinkled his nose. “I'm really sorry, that absolutely sucks. He hasn't hurt you though right? You're safe?”
He shrugged, his shoulders dipping. “I think I’m ok for now.. D-Dream uh, he found me and almost-” The white streaked Tommy stopped speaking for a heartbeat.
“It's alright, this is a safe space for talking, no one will judge you. You can say as much or as little as you want,” Tom nodded at him with an encouraging grin.
“Well he uh.. I went back to exile when I heard he was out, to get something I left there and he was waiting for me. He tried to… he tried to kill me and then I fucking ran and he chased me and I barely made it to Phil’s.”
“Hey at least you're safe now though!” The Tommy with the red black and white uniform said, attempting to comfort him. “Phil will protect you, I'm sure.”
The white streaked Tommy just shrugged. “I guess so,” he replied.
“Ok ok, did anything positive happen? Highs and lows of the week, amiright?” Tom said with a grin, his glow of positivity never dulling.
“Ummm…” Tommy with the white streak scratched the back of his neck, fidgeting slightly. “Well, I didn’t die,” he finished after several moments.
Tom’s face lit up and he clapped. “That is awesome!! You know we gotta take it slow right? Little by little, that's the spirit.” He glanced around at the other Tommys who also looked like they did not want to be there. “Can we have a round of applause for our boy Tommyinnit here, the og and the king, for not dying this week?? I’d say that’s quite the achievement!”
The other Tommys clapped and a few of the slightly less sad looking ones cheered.
“Great great start to the session Tommy, the positivity is awesome, you’re doing awesome king,” he gave a thumbs up to the Tommy with the white streak in his hair, who smiled hesitantly at him.
“Alright now,” he looked back down at his lots of cards on his clipboard, scanning the next name. “Prince Tommy?” He called out. “Did Prince Tommy make it this time? The one with the war? And the brother who’s a god?”
Theseus, the one wearing the blue cloak and crown scrunched his face up slightly. “He uh… I heard he died.”
Several Tommys eyes widened. “Really?” He asked, dismayed. “Shit, poor kid. Hopefully he’ll join us from limbo, I know the connection can be a little iffy though. Maybe someone can remind me to try and get in touch with Kristen or XD so I can send him the invite link.”
The others nodded solemnly. The Tommy who’d gone first crossed his arms. “The connection does suck, I barely could hear anyone, it was so annoying,” he grumbled. The vigilante Tommy in the black and red striped hoodie patted his shoulder.
“We’re very glad you’re back though,” Tom smiled at him. He moved the card on his clipboard aside to see the next one. “Theo? Do I have Theo here today?” He glanced around before spotting a red cloaked figure with a mask on his face slouched in a chair.
“There you are!!” He said, clasping his hands. “How was your week Theo? Any highs and lows to share?”
Silence greeted them and Tommy waited patiently as Theo pulled his mask back and glared at him with a very dead expression before giving him the middle finger. Tommy gritted his teeth and smiled tightly.
“Thank you Theo, that was wonderful,” he huffed out. Several Tommys sniggered.
He looked back to his clipboard, scanning the names. They’d all figured by now that any acknowledgment from Theo was better than nothing.
“Tommy Innes, member of the L’mamburg and one of three- I’m sorry two surviving members of the Children’s Rebellion? Are you here?”
The Tommy wearing the strange high tech uniform from before raised a hand albeit grudgingly.
Tom looked down at his notes, frowning slightly. “Is there a typo in your form? I could swear it used to say three, not two surviving members.”
Tommy Innes just stared at him, flat expression. “Ranboo got shot,” he said.
“Another one??” The Tommy with the black and red hoodie gaped, his mouth open. Tom glared at him to shut up before looking back at space-tech Tommy.
“I am so sorry, you don’t deserve what’s happening to you, and it’s not your fault I promise,” he said, resting a hand on his shoulder since they were sitting next to each other.
Tommy Innes didn’t really seem to process this however and simply nodded. “Chroma shot him,” he mumbled. “I couldn’t stop it. It’s just me and Purpled left now.”
Tom squeezed his shoulder gently. “You’ll get through this ok?” Silence seemed to spread out until suddenly one of the others in the circle spoke up.
“I- I’m currently in the same boat as you, if it makes you feel any better,” the vigilante Tommy in a lime green hoodie said shakily, swallowing hard. His fingers twisted around the corner of his hoodie. The others turned to face him, confused.
“A few nights ago, Dream… died,” he said quietly. “We found the people who’d been abducted by Schlatt but- but Dream didn’t make it out.” Everyone’s eyes widened with shock. This Tommy was a regular here, most of them knew him well.
The two versions of Tommy from different parts of the multiverse glanced sadly at each other. “If- If you can get through it then I will,” the vigilante Tommy said quietly to the other. “We’ll do it together.”
Tommy Innes nodded, quickly looking down to hide his face slightly.
Tom smiled sadly at them both. “Are you guys going to be alright?” He asked gently. “We can talk more about it this meeting if you want, though coping with loss is a heavy subject.” He frowned. “We probably all need it though to be honest.”
The two exchanged a glance with each other before looking back at Tom. “That’s ok,” Tommy Innes told him after a nod from the vigilante. “We might just stay a little afterwards and chat if you don’t mind though.” Tom shook his head to show he did in fact not mind.
He cleared his throat, reading off the next name to the circle. “Prince Theseus, Crown Prince of the Antarctic Empire? Wow that’s a mouthful,” he chuckled lightly. He scanned the chairs to find the Tommy wearing the blue fur cloak and silver crown, raising his hand looking like he wanted to be anywhere else.
“I don’t need therapy,” he said flatly, crossing his arms as Tom greeted him.
He sighed. “If you didn’t need to be here, you wouldn’t be. I’ve said this to you the past ten meetings.”
This did not seem to change the crown prince’s mindset. “Can you give me a high and a low of your week?” he asked, tapping his finger against the wooden clipboard. Theseus huffed.
“My high is that I talked to Dream, my low is that Ranboo exists. Happy?” He raised an eyebrow. Tom sighed at him.
“I’m really not, but you shared something at least. That is more than what we can say for some people.” He squinted pointedly at the masked figure who was practically buried in his red hoodie, his arms crossed and unmoving.
“What about something fun you did this weekend?” He pushed lightly.
Theseus just stared at him blankly.
“Guys I don't think he knows what a weekend is,” the vigilante Tommy with the black and red hoodie hissed. The vigilante in green snorted. Theseus glared at them both.
“A weekend is when there are two days at the end of the week and you don’t do work,” The Tommy with a little pad of paper and a pencil in his hand explained. “It’s when you do something called relaxing -”
“I fucking know what a weekend is, I don’t live under a rock!!” Theseus exclaimed, glaring. “I’m the crown prince, I can’t just take breaks because it’s the ‘weekend’ or whatever.”
“You could though, couldn’t you?” The original Tommyinnit suggested. “Doesn’t everyone kinda have to do what you say?”
“Doesn’t work like that,” he huffed out.
“You know I think this is a perfect opportunity for us to discuss this week's topic!” Tom butted in before Theseus could snap at more people. Everyone turned to look at him, their faces unamused. He huffed. “Come, I have good ideas! Don’t look at me like that.”
“Four weeks ago you told us to try strange cooking recipes as exposure therapy because it exposed us to new foods and experiences,” Tommy Innes said dryly. “I tried it and almost blew up the cafeteria on the L’manburg.”
“There’s a burn stain on the ceiling of Phil’s kitchen now, because I tried making gourmet seasoned eggs,” the Tommy who'd been writing things down in his notebook commented.
Tom laughed hesitantly, scratching the back of his neck. “Yeah well, see- they don’t always turn out the best but I’m sure you enjoyed the experience!”
“I guess it was a bit fun, but I’m pretty sure it gave Phil and the whole bridge a heart attack, and now I’m banned from cooking,” Tommy Innes said, crossing his arms.
Tom waved his hand in the air like it wasn’t a problem. “This is going to be a different exercise. I think you’ll all like it much better,” he told them brightly. They stared at him skeptically.
“This week I want you all to take the time to do one thing you haven't done in a long time that you really love. Like Theseus,” he turned to the prince. “I remember you said you used to love gardening, how about you take a day off to get dirty and grow some flowers and shit?”
Theseus frowned at him but didn't reply. “And Tommy,” Tom turned to the first Tommy wearing the blue cardigan. “How about you build one of those interesting cobble stone towers you like? You haven't built one in ages.”
Tommyinnit tilted his head, brow furrowed. “You're right, I haven't done one in a while. Phil probably has cobblestone in his house…” He trailed off as he got lost in thought.
Tom smiled as he saw the others talking to each other as well, seeming more interested by the minute.
“This is honestly one of your better ideas,” a Tommy in a navy sweater said, speaking up for the first time that meeting. “Definitely better than the one where you suggested we write our trauma as a musical number.”
One of the Tommys looked up from his notebook and burst out laughing. “I- I actually thought that was pretty fun.” he sniggered. “Especially when we shared them the week after.”
“Oh of course the fucking poet enjoyed the song writing assignment,” The vigilante with the red electric powers and the black and red hoodie muttered with an eye roll.
“You're just upset because yours was the worst,” the other vigilante wearing the green hoodie laughed. The other glared at him, crossing his arms.
“It wasn't that bad,” he grumbled.
Theo shifted on the far side of the room.
“It was pretty bad,” He spoke up, speaking for the first time that whole meeting.
The others stared at him in surprise for a heartbeat before registering what he'd actually said. They all burst out laughing at that, and the vigilante being made fun of yelled a “Fuck you,” at Theo but even he was laughing.
Tom rolled his eyes at them before looking back at his notecards. “Tommy, Tommy who writes poems, the coolest poet, where are you?” He looked around before spotting the one he was looking for.
“I’m here,” the Tommy he’d just described nodding at him. Tom grinned excitedly. “How are you doing this week king? Got any highs and lows to share?”
“I do actually,” he nodded. “I thought about them beforehand this time.”
“That’s awesome!!” Tom exclaimed. “See guys, this is the example of what I’m looking for. He’s got a good attitude and he came prepared!”
The Tommy seemed to flush slightly, rolling his eyes. “I guess my low for this week is that Wilbur and Techno are home for the first time in ages which really kinda sucks. And my high for this week is that Dream and I got to practice our poem we’re writing together. It’s been really nice.”
“How many of you are friends with Dream exactly?” The Tommy with the white streak who’d gone first butt in. “It feels like literally all of you are besties with him in your universe which I find a little fucked when you compare it to what I have to deal with.”
Some of them frowned. “I’ll be honest,” Tommy Innes started. “ I find it really weird how Dream is so bad in your world.” Others nodded.
“Hey now wait a second,” A Tommy stood up, it was the one wearing the navy sweater. He was crossing his arms. “The one I have to deal with is pretty shitty, he almost killed Wilbur.”
“Wait, you have a white streak in your hair now too!” The first Tommy exclaimed, like he was happy to have something in common with one of them. “I was dead in the meeting you talked about it, so I didn’t hear how it went. Since you're here I’m assuming you caught your Dream?”
The other Tommy with the white streak in his hair opened his mouth to speak when Tom interrupted him. “Guys, I'm really happy you're opening up and talking more, but it was someone else’s turn.”
The poem writing Tommy just shrugged, not looking like he cared too much. “It’s fine I was finished anyway.”
Tom sighed. “Alright then,” he nodded at the second Tommy with a white streak in his hair. “You can go now, sorry I interrupted.”
“All good,” he replied. “But anyways yeah I caught him! Or the other heroes did, I had to save Wilbur and use my powers to heal him from fucking dying, the idiot,” he rolled his eyes fondly. “But honestly I- I've been really happy. Everything is finally going right and the Soots are great. I’m not honestly sure if I’m going to come back next time, even though I love you all. Even you Theo,” he glanced over at Theo who was messing with bandages on his hands.
Tom smiled, his eyes lighting up. “I’m really happy for you king, you deserve to live in a happy ending.” The others nodded along as well. “And if you ever need us we’ll be here ok?”
The Tommy nodded and sat down while he felt his heart swell with bittersweet pain. He was going to miss the kid. Not many of them got to really smile and say they’d done it . Not many of them got to rest.
“Ok,” he cleared his throat of any emotion, looking at the rest of the cards. There was only one left, if he took out the two Tommy’s who’d gone out of turn.
“Thomas Underscore? A random intern? Theseus? We got a lot of names for you king,” he read off with a snort, looking up to see the teen in the black and red striped hoodie waving his hand in the air. A small red spark jumped off his fingers and he winced. “Sorry about that,” he apologized to Tommy Innes who was sitting next to him.
Tom smiled. “How was your week? Highs and lows? Interesting developments? Whatcha got for us?”
The Tommy looked slightly uncomfortable. “I Uh- kind of a shitty week honestly,” he muttered. “Went to a barbecue which was fun, but then I had a panic attack. Also sorta took out shit on a bunch of police officers trying to capture me and hurt Spectre on purpose because it felt good.”
Tom winced slightly. “Well- thats- yeah that kinda fucking sucks.”
“So I guess you haven’t told Wilbur yet?” The healer Tommy, wearing the navy sweater who’d finished speaking a moment ago, asked cautiously.
Sparks flew off the vigilante's shoulders as an obvious reply. Tommy Innes, who'd been patting his shoulder gently, cursed loudly and yanked his hand away. The vigilante muttered an apology again.
“You know Spectre- Spectre’s Wilbur , right? He’s like- he’s the same person, king,” The first vigilante wearing the green hoodie who’d spoken a bit earlier told him with an eyebrow raised.
Sparks flew faster and thicker off of the other's body and his eyes flashed. “You- you don’t understand, you- it’s more complicated than that.”
“I know I would never hurt Wilbur on purpose whether he kicked me off a roof or not,” the other replied to him calmly.
“Well your Wilbur cares about you even when you're a vigilante!!” The second one snapped, standing up, red sparks flying off him. “Some of us aren’t so lucky!!”
“You want to speak of being lucky?! My mentor my- my brother, Dream, is fucking dead , at least everyone you love is alive!!”
Full red electricity currents now flickered around Tommy's body. “Everyone I love is going to turn on me the moment they find out who I am. Some of them even hate me regardless!!” he hissed. “You have other people besides Dream, you have literally all the heroes and villains on your side even knowing who you are. That’s a fucking privledge I’ll never get and you should be fucking thankful you have it.”
Suddenly Tom realized he should probably be stopping this since this was group therapy not a place to get more traumatized. “Guys- guys, chill,” he said quickly, standing up to get between the two vigilantes. “You can’t compare trauma, that’s not how it works. Everyone’s been through hard things and the point of this is to work through it together . Yelling and arguing is only going to make things worse.”
The two different vigilantes glared at each other for a heartbeat then sighed and sat down.
“I’m sorry,” the vigilante with the red electric powers said quietly. “Shit week.”
The other wearing green shrugged. “Shit week,” he replied.
“Ok guys, so let’s work this out alright?” Tom said carefully. “We understand where you were coming from,” he gestured to the Tommy in green. “But we do know that for him-” he pointed at the Tommy with red sparks on his shoulders. “-For him and lots of other vigilantes, the topic of identities and choosing who you reveal yourself to is a touchy subject.”
Both vigilantes nodded. The Tommy in the blue sweater raised a hand, showing he had something to add to the conversation. “I was never actually a vigilante in my world, I was a citizen, and then I was the Syndicate’s healer, someone to help them if they get injured. I didn’t really do a ton of fighting.” He looked down for a heartbeat. “My friends Tubbo and Ranboo were vigilantes and they didn’t tell me. When I found out… it almost tore our friendship apart.”
The Tommy in black and red flinched, looking down at his dark cargo pants. “But,” he continued. “The reason I was upset, and the only reason I think others might be upset if you told them, was because you didn't tell them the truth. Not the actual fact that you're a vigilante.”
The two vigilantes exchanged a glance with each other and looked away. “I don’t think that’s going to be the case for me,” the one in black and red said quietly. “Spectre hates Theseus, especially after what I’ve just done to him. How is that not going to carry over Tommy as well if I tell him?”
Suddenly the new Tommy dressed in all black looked up from his lap and over at him. “Because Wilbur cares about Tommy. And that’s going to overpower whatever Spectre thinks.”
The vigilante crossed his arms tightly and scrunched back into his chair, a strange expression on his face. He didn’t answer the newest Tommy or any of the others.
Tom looked over at him, a questioning glance at the troubled vigilante. The other just met his gaze for a heartbeat, eyes flashing red quickly before sighing and giving a shrug. He was ok to move on. Tom looked back down at his note cards, surprised to see he’d run out.
He flipped through his papers, checking to make sure he hadn't missed anything. When he saw he hadn’t, he looked back up at the circle of Tommy’s. A few had grouped up and we’re talking to the ones next to each other, not really discussing much in particular.
“Alright everyone,” Tom called out. “Now that everyone’s had a turn we've still got a bit of time for group chatting, so you are free to go, but those who want to stay behind can,” he finished, flipping the paper back over his clipboard and dropping it into his lap.
“Remember the exercise for this week, trying something you haven't done in a while, ok? And remember to take breaks every once in a while, you don’t need to be working every second you breathe,” he glanced at Prince Theseus pointedly as he said this.
“And you silly little vigilantes who spend your nights being selfless idiots and almost dying, take a few nights off this week ok? The city can go once without you there.” The vigilantes huffed.
“Same for you too,” Tom glanced at the healer Tommy. “Make sure you're taking breaks.”
He looked around at the whole group of ten. “Just- let your goal this week be to take time off, whatever that may be ok? Can we all do that?”
There was a heartbeat of silence before they all nodded. “Thank you all for coming, everyone, and I’ll hopefully see you all here alive next week! And maybe we’ll see Prince Tommy from limbo, I gotta send the invite, you guys never did remind me,” he grumbled. “Thank goodness I have the best memory.”
The others rolled their eyes practically in unison.
Tom wheezed.
“Alright alright, get out of here you fuckers,” he snorted, waving his hand. “Oh- and you-” He pointed at the healer Tommy in the navy sweater. “I’m gonna miss you bud, take care of yourself ok? We’ll always be here if you need us, though for your sake, I hope we don’t see eachother again.”
The Tommy sent him a smile of gratitude, giving a short salute. “Same for you all,” he told them, adjusting his sweater slightly. “I wish you all the best of luck in your universes and the happy ending you all deserve,” he smiled.
Choruses of farewells and good luck echoed around the endless white space that their chairs sat in as they all wished him and each other goodbye.
Slowly each of the different Tommy’s let their eyes fall closed, disconnecting from the meeting and fading back into whatever alternative universe they’d come from.
Tom suddenly paused the two newest members of the meeting before they left, holding out a hand. “Hey you two,” he called out. The Tommy in all black and the Tommy with the hockey Jersey both opened their eyes.
“Thanks for joining us, I hope you had a good time,” he smiled. “Maybe next week, now that you’ve seen how the meetings go, you can join in with highs and lows of the week.”
“Uh, yeah,” the one in all black said cautiously. “That would be um… cool,” he gave a short thumbs up before closing his eyes and fading back to his universe. The other Tommy with the hockey jersey smiled lightly and nodded. “Yeah you guys are… pretty chaotic,” he smirked. “Reminds me a bit of some people I know from my world.”
Tom brightened at that. “Maybe you can tell us about them next week!” He said, cheerfully.
“Yeah…” he replied, as if the thought intrigued him. “Maybe,” he smiled a bit. “See you,” he said with a small wave, before closing his eyes and disappearing slowly.
Tom turned around to see the only ones left were Tommy Innes and the vigilante who’d been wearing the green hoodie. They were talking quietly to each other and he couldn’t quite hear what they were saying. He supposed that was alright though, it wasn’t his place to intrude. After a heartbeat he watched them exchange an awkward hug of sorts, before they too fell back into their universes.
Tom let out a long sigh and he stood in the middle of an empty circle of plastic folding chairs. This had been a long day, and definitely a deeper and more emotional meeting than past weeks. Finally he closed his eyes as well, snapping his fingers and in a flash of light he’d appeared in a massive white quartz room with an open roof to let light stream in. The center of the massive hall had a circular table and he let out a sigh of relief at the familiar faces sitting there.
“Tom!!” Tom grinned, seeing Dream and Phil waiting for him there. Ranboo was also sitting in his seat, feet propped up on the marble top. Purpled and Fundy sat next to him. Several others were still missing, Tubbo, Techno, and Wilbur among them, so he assumed their meetings must be running long.
“How’d your session go? Dream asked, smiling brightly at him. Tom sighed heavily. “It was a deep one this week. I’m so fucked up guys, what’s wrong with me?” He groaned. Dream snorted.
“You want to talk about fucked up?” He laughed. “I had to deal with one half of my circle yelling at the other half for hurting their Tommy or George, while the others attempted to brag about how best to manipulate people,” he rolled his eyes. “I’m such an arrogant bastard, it gets really annoying at times,” he sighed.
Phil rolled his eyes, amused. “I attempted to give my group good parenting exercises but I’ll be honest most are pretty shit when it comes to that.” Ranboo just laughed at them all.
“Well my meeting went great,” he grinned. “We talked about the best way to cook a cake to kill god. It was awesome.”
Tom just huffed loudly and flopped on the table, putting his head in his hands dramatically.
“At least we have a week before the next one!” Dream exclaimed, attempting to be positive.
Tom lifted his head on his chin. “What, one more week for those stupid fuckin authors to make my life even more difficult? Like honestly, who gives a shit about character development?” He sighed. “Can’t they write anything but angst these days?“ he shook his head sorrowfully.
Dream and Ranboo nodded. “Honestly it’s like those authors think we don’t exist, how rude of them,” Purpled shook his head.
“Maybe they’ll give us a break next week?” Phil suggested. “They update so much, it’s hard to keep up.”
“Like the Tommy Innes Golden Gate Bridge incident,” Tom shuddered. “If that author had waited just one more day it could’ve saved me so much trouble,” he sighed loudly.
“Alas,” Ranboo put a hand against his head. “We sit here in this abyss waiting for our much less than expert therapy advice to come of use,” he exclaimed dramatically.
“Rip,” Dream nodded.
“Where’s Drista when you need her,” Tom sighed. Then he looked directly at the screen staring at you , the reader. Maybe you're an author, maybe you’re just an average sad little ao3 surfer, maybe you're a mix. Whatever you are, Tom is staring at you right now, glaring very intently because one way or another you have taken part in this angst business.
“Just give them a break please,” he sighed exasperatedly. “It really would make our lives so much easier.”