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“Man this place is fucking packed.” Tommy muttered as he drifted through the crowd of various players in the World Hub.
Normally today would be a day Tommy tried to avoid, as it was a grand opening of a few new SMPs thus there would be tons of people vying to join or at least become citizens of these worlds. But today was different as Tommy was aiming for his own slot on a new SMP… well a slot for him and Shroud.
Tommy peeked down to the toddler, still sound asleep in his arms despite all the noise and commotion. This was why he was doing this… one of the reasons at least. The Dream SMP had been hell for years now and now that Dream is broken out and Ranboo is dead Tommy not only fears for his own life but the life of his sweet little spiderling.
So Tommy for the months beforehand kept an eye on the Main Hub SMP openings listings so that if Dream ever did escape he could book it to the hub, get on a new server where Dream wasn’t whitelisted, and keep him and Shroud safe.
Unfortunately that day came and Tommy didn’t even get to mourn his friend or say goodbyes to those he still had a decent relationship with as Dream had already begun to hunt for Tommy with the gear he had hidden in exile so long ago. So Tommy grab his meager belongings and his son, before making a b-line for the hub portal making sure to blow up his com before entering the portal so the notification wouldn’t go through.
Now Tommy was standing in the crowd of people trying to decide which server to go to and how safe each one was.
Hypixel was automatically out as Dream had a membership and knew where Tommy’s skyblock island is. SMP Earth was a dead server so it was auto out as well.
Hermitcraft was still accepting citizens but as nice as the hermits were, Grian had strong ties to Wilbur, Techno, and Phil and the less chance of his family finding him, the less chance Dream could get him and drag him back to that hell server. So, a no to hermitcraft (which was a shame as he was sure Shroud would love the S9 world.)
That left one open world taking civilians.
Empires.
Problem was; there were 13 empires and he’d have to choose one to live in. And so far that was the main crux of his indecision.
Animalia seemed nice if not a bit unhinged with all the strange anthropomorphic animal villagers would only communicate in strange chitters and croaks.
Sanctuary was pretty looking and the promise of taking in anyone of need of help was very nice, but possible threats there from this king the leader was talking about.
The God dude who ran Stratos... Yeah no. Dude already sounds like a prick.
Chromia gave him a headache just from looking at the stand from the bright colors and clashing patterns.
Evermore’s leader seemed very kind… but the promises of a cursed swamp that ate souls was not a peaceful living area.
Dawn seemed like the least unhinged he had seen so he was about to head to that booth when another caught his eye.
The booth was made from old oak with a hand knit blanket sitting on top of it. The decorations showed off many blocks of terracotta and gold, and a single block of TNT.
Now normally the trauma Tommy had endured from L’manburg and exile would make Tommy run for the hills at the block but the man at the booth made Tommy near forget the blocks existence.
The man wore hand-made clothes made from wool and leather a bit messily dyed if the stain marks have anything to say about it. His vest was embroidered with various flowers and patterns in the same brown color to give it some life. He wore thick leather booths that jingled with the spurs as he moved and matched the cowboy hat that rested on the man’s head.
But the real eye catcher was the golden star he wore on his lapel that read in bold shining letters; The Sheriff.
Tommy’s eyes drifted to the sign above the man letting Tommy know what empire he was looking at.
The Mesa Empire: Tumbletown.
Emperor: Sheriff Jimmy Solidarity
Tumbletown.
Tommy looked at the few who had joined this empire, noticing there wasn’t a whole lot but they looked like nice calm people looking for a new life and weren't afraid of a little hard work. People of all kinds, humans, hybrids, there were even a few kids running around.
This place looked hopeful to the broken demon hybrid looking for safety. This place looked safe.
Without a second thought, Tommy signed his and Shroud’s name to the ledger. The man- The sheriff smiled at them and offered his hand out.
“Welcome to Tumbletown mate. Glad to have ya!” He stated with a cheerful tone.
Getting to the mesa once the server was opened was easy enough. What was difficult was Shroud finally waking from his nap and trying to run off in every direction because ‘wow this is new, I must run off and see everything and scare the living shit out of my dad as I run too close to every mob hotspot I can!’
Thankfully one of the other settlers of Tumbletown, a woman by the name Rosemary who also had a toddler and some older kids taught him a life changing crafting recipe.
A toddler lead.
Now Shroud can run to his heart content and Tommy can keep him in a safe range.
Finally when they reached the mesa Sheriff Jimmy had already set up a base camp for the settlers and started cooking up some food over the campfires. Meals of beans, pork, cornbread, and for those who didn’t eat meat some nice veggie stew. No one was going hungry that night. The kind hearted sheriff was making sure of that.
Soon enough the food was eaten and the kids ran off, playing in the safety of the camp zone trying to catch fireflies leaving the adults to clean up and plan out the starts of this humble empire.
Many took up different jobs to help the town, taking on roles so that this barren land could flourish into a wonderful place to live.
Rosemary took up the job of the school teacher and minder for the children when their parents were busy. A pair of piglin hybrids by the name Jane and Jenny volunteered to mine for gold as they had a keen eye for it. An avian couple by the name Kathy and Liam and their two kids took up running the general goods shop as they knew a good trade when they saw them. Xia volunteered to be the tavern barkeep as they loved the friendly atmosphere and had been a bartender on their last server.
When it came to Tommy he had thought long and hard before settling on something.
Ever since L’manburg he had been slacking in his devotion to Lady Prime, and he hated that. He loved his religion to the fact he had been once ordained as a priest of Prime before his exile. Throughout his hard times, Prime had been there and gave him hope, gave him love, and eventually led to him finding his son hidden among the pews of the decaying church prime on the Dream SMP.
“I know my way around a church. You need a preacher? You’ve fucking got one.” Tommy stated with a smirk.
Jimmy laughed, not a hateful or one of dismissal, but one of joy. “Never heard a preacher swear like a sailor before but I’m here for it!”
Tommy's smile grew before looking to the night sky in wonder.
Things were looking up.
“FUCK THAT PIECE OF SHIT GOD-FUCKER!” Tommy yelled as he slammed the door into his church.
Tommy had been with Tumbletown for nearly six months now, his church being nearly attended by everyone in the town on Sunday and a potluck afterwards showing the community coming together. Shroud was getting schooling and making friends, Tommy was making friends of his own and even started a second build for the town as a park where people could relax and the kids could play.
Everything was going great… Until that Stratos fucker started shit.
Fucker started talking this old tale about a toy sheriff and how the sheriff was actually a toy. When Jimmy disputed this, trying to get treated as a person and with respect like all the other emperors the man-child of a god began cursing the town.
It started with Xia. One minute they were walking down the street towards the general store to get some more sugar, the next they were struck by lightning and now their body was that of living cloth and plush skin. They were turned into a living stuffed animal and while she could still talk, eat, work, and all that it was very uncomfortable.
Then others were stuck with this curse. The farmer turned into a ratchet doll, the carpenter into a wooden soldier, the doctor into a marionette… Ms. Rosemary into a toy rabbit. Even some of the children were now living breathing toys.
One day the dumbass god try to strike him with the curse but when the lightning struck… nothing happened.
When Jimmy asked Tommy lied and said as he was blessed by Prime he was protected as long as he wore this charm. He said he had one other charm from Prime that he gave his son. In actuality it was a blessing from his mother, Kristen the goddess of death, in the form of a charm for his son, but his demi god status protected him.
…He was glad he gave that charm to Shroud as that fucker tried to strike him with the curse. The poor kid was so shaken by the incident he had been sobbing into Tommy’s side for nearly two hours.
Now Shroud was finally asleep Tommy wandered into the night into his church letting out his rage.
That sky god fuck try to hurt his kid. It’s one thing to try and hurt him, but his kid? Now he’s fucked up.
Tommy looked up to the altar of Prime, his tail swishing as anger had his firm grasp on him.
“Forgive me Lady Prime, for what I’m about to do.”
Tommy took off his preacher coat and went downstairs towards the basement where he kept spare chairs, books, and cleaning supplies… but also down here he kept a secret room.
He opened the secret door hidden behind a tapestry revealing a room decked out in weapons, armor, and tools. Tommy had taken a note from Technoblade about being prepared and took it to heart making sure he would be ready for anything.
Tommy pulled out a black leather coat that drifted down to his knees and buttoned it closed. He pulled out a black cowboy hat one of the members of the church had since long forgotten and left here. And finally he went to his enderchest, pulling out the old worn bandana from it and tying it around his face hiding his nose and mouth.
He looked down to his supplies… It was time to get to work.
Joel awoke the the smell of ash and soot.
The eleven foot god had just finished work on his project for the day, collected the profits from the toy barn, and put Hermes to bed when he went to bed himself.
Now he was waking up in the middle of the night to the smell of something burning. He carefully looked over his sky floating builds to see nothing was on fire and he was never so relieved to see Hermes' room was flame free as well.
That meant something in Lower Stratos was burning.
Joel quickly looked over the edge and saw it… He really should have saw it before from how bright it was burning in flames of orange and blue.
His toy barn was engulfed in fire.
Joel grabbed water buckets by the handful and rushed down, when he noticed someone was standing in front of it. A man dressed in black with a single bit of green covering his face.
He would deal with that later if he needed to save his business. He flew up high and began dumping the water hoping it would go out… only for the flames to get higher. The water was making it worse.
“Nothing can put this blaze out once its’ started.”
Joel's gaze drifted down to the man in a glare. This welp started the fire, it was a clear as could be.
The man flicked a lighter in his hand before speaking in a southern draw, “Ground netherrack, soul sand, gunpowder, and oil. This shit burns until nothing is left, leaving unusable ground. Nothing will grow here, nothing can be built here ever again.”
Joel snarled before drawing up a lightning bolt. This fool would be sorry once he was turned into a toy. With a quick flick of his wrist the bolt fired and… nothing happened.
Joel threw another and another and another… until the man looked at him with cold hate filled eyes.
“You’re magic won’t work on me. Magic like that doesn’t work on demigods.” The man stated with a chuckle.
A Demigod?!
“I am a GOD!” Joel declared in rage pulling more lightning bolts at his side.
The man scoffed, "You're a God? Well then consider me the devil you forgot and I'm bringing hell with me.”
The man gave a sharp whistle before a horse as dark as night comes running in and he hops on pulling out a crossbow with a firework locked and loaded.
“Take my warning. You continue the shit you're pulling a lot more than this barn is going down. I ain't like you. I don't target citizens for others' misdoings so everything I burn and salt to ash will be yours."
The man fires at the ground and the world goes white for a moment… and when his vision returns the man and the horse are gone leaving the burning ruins of his toy barn.
The next day the news spreads like wildfire. A masked vigilante with a southern drawn burned down the toy barn and stood his ground against the god of Stratos.
For the first time in ages since the curse had begun, Tumbletown had hope.
They called him Nightingale, the avenger of the citizens.
And Tommy in secret wore that title with pride.
It was supposed to be a one night thing… but now?
Looks like Tommy’s life just got interesting again.
END