I TRUST MY GUT

mmmm….Waiter waiter, tonight i will have investigator tim. smile.

wat if after toby killed his old man & burnt the house down and went missing, tim was hired much later by connie to try and find him…….cos the cops have basically declared him a dead end. they just think he’s dead! but connie lost everything, she could never ever believe that he’s dead. if he’s dead then that means she has nothing to show for all this pain. & tim is,,,, not rlly believing that toby’s alive. he’s investigating, sure, but nawwwt rlly… could be doing more.

imagine his surprise when he gets a lead though

methinks toby would slip up here and there, cos he’s not actively trying to disappear. he never was!!! he just kinda got swept away,, but sure enough, it…..seems like he’s alive. bizarrely. but it’s not concrete evidence. it’s mainly like… alleged sightings, rlly shitty 2000s surveillance footage, and toby also doesn’t have like. a fake name. he just gives his name out in the rare moment he’s social. so tim’s gotta keep digginggggg

i think he keeps poking too close to the wasp’s nest and he’s none the wiser. he’s not actually that good at his job lol but he’s juuuust good enough to be in the right area consistently. i think that toby would catch onto this.

it’s less of a threat to him and more of a game of cat and mouse. a lil dance between strangers,, he’s actually managed to live a very isolated life after everything. he doesn’t have too many people interested in him, so it’s novelty! a mundane break from the murderer lifestyle

dunno what his end goal would be. it’d probably change depending on the day in all honesty

ughjfjg. it’s not even outlaw x sheriff it’s just like,,, outlaw (bad) x outlaw (good) . neither are wanted by the community per se but amongst themselves there is still not quite comfort to be found… tim rlly doesn’t like toby here. and on the other side, toby is infatuated with tim. thinks he’s so curious. why’re you sitting loyal to the people who outcasted you cowboy? he can’t understand it.

he keeps shoehorning himself into whatever tim’s doing and it gets really frustrating at some point LOL like god leave that man alone he’s trying to help.

toby is very foxlike here. sharp tongue, witty, charming, and soooo playful. it’s really a game for him at the end of the day. it’s why he can’t fathom why tim is so serious & trying to do good when the people around this part would rather him in the ground. just wants to get a look in that head.

and in all honesty, toby’s gotten rather lonely riding solo so long. cos he used to have a lil pack of people with him, but it’s been a long time since then. this may be him and tim’s only similarity- not that he’d ever find that out.

he’s gonna wrangle that cowboy and save a horse in the process

secret between you and me, i think that tim likes the thrill toby provides. it’s why he let the lil bastard tail him for so long without putting his foot down. gotta keep himself entertained somehow

toby’s a lot here. he’s sharp but he’s also got a pretty bad temper sometimes, mainly when it comes to the townsfolk. people treated him pretty badly as a boy & it really came out to this ugly resentment that festered and he’ll take it out on any place he winds up at. don’t think he stays too close to home. was probably always one place or the next up until tim rlly caught his interest, then suddenly, he was just wherever tim was.

two wandering cowboys

they struggle to have a productive conversation at all at any point. toby gets so frustrated with tim because he’s too willing to show his soft underbelly to the people who’d gut him. tim just wants to be good, but he will never be seen as a good man. not as long as the story of what happened to “that other fella” is circulating. and then tim doesn’t put up with toby’s berating. he doesn’t need that.

the company is nice anyway. they’ve both been lonely men; unpleasant company is still company.

lotta opportunities for really cute scenes here too… taking a pit stop on a journey to wherever whenever in a long stretch of field. it’s nice, and tim’s letting his guard down. because he knows toby isn’t a threat, even if he’s unpredictable from time to time. so he sits down, hat over his eyes, stereotypical cowboy- just missing that piece of straw.

but of course toby isn’t one to sit and enjoy the scenery. hell, he didn’t even wanna stop, but tim insisted on it. so he’s definitely stealing the hat. just walked over and plucked it straight off his head. and tim’s actually tired, not feeling up to the chase, so he sighs and doesn’t make effort to chase him. at least toby’s standing in front of him, so he’s not grumbling about the sun. he cracks an eye open at him, & y’know what. the sight isn’t half bad. ‘s cute, even. he always has super mussed up hair, really looks like someone always just tousled it when you weren’t looking; sticks up and out of the hat in a way that’s overall charming. and, oh man, he’s staring down at tim with this crooked grin and crinkled eyes, he looks so proud of himself.

“real funny,” he’d gruff. probably close his eyes again. he’s keeping the imagery at the forefront of his mind though. toby would quip something back here, maybe “don’t i know it” and probably plop down beside tim. and tim becomes a very disgruntled old man because now that toby isn’t standing in front of him, and the lil bastard stole his hat, the sun is staring him right in the face. cue snickers from the peanut gallery.

current thought: toby still being very new to it all, on a mission with tim, & tim gets very injured.

i think it's fun. i think his empathy is a little skewed, sure, but i also believe that toby would latch onto tim rlly hard initially, never really grows outta it either. they have a weird relationship where they're both really harsh with one and other, but ultimately they're still sticking around each other. careful ladies, people might go around thinkin you like each other

but yeah they're on a mission & tim gets seriously injured. like he's-going-to-die injured LOL and going really slendermansion compliant, they're just gonna wake up back there no matter what. but this hasn't happened on a mission with tobes yet. he knows logically that he's gonna be fine, but he's also kinda frozen. deer in headlights staring at tim slumped on the ground against this tree. just to please my brain, we will be putting this injury nicely in the stomach. stab wound? bullet? dunno. something in there though. but it's a lot of blood. staring at tim and he's just frozen because surely the man's saying something to him, prolly telling him to get a move on, but he's just. wide eyed.

eventually kinda snaps out of it, but not really. it's like desperation taking hold. he's new to this all, he's really caught up on the what if of if tim doesn't come back for whatever reason. and so obviously he's dropping to his knees in front of tim- who is still trying to talk to him, but it's kinda just static in the wind for toby LOL doesn't help that his mouth keeps filling with blood. so toby surely knows first aid, i'm sure that was drilled into his head as an accident prone boy, but he's panicking. hands desperately trying to apply pressure, ignoring the way tim's hissing and cursing him out because surely it hurts, but toby can't sympathize! he's afraid, he's so afraid, probably mumbling under his breath just completely frantic.

he prolly tries to press his hands underneath tim's jacket to apply direct pressure, and i'm sure tim's pushing his hands away, & it's A MESS. i think toby might cry under the pressure here, but he's also really mad. "just- just let me help you, please, i want to- i want to help, please, please, please," desperate. voice cracking. he's quite young here, it's hard to not feel bad about this.

it's at this point where tim does get ahold of toby's hands, holding both by the wrist and kinda bringing them up so toby has to look up and look tim in the face, kinda. that fucking mask is still on. i think he kept it on because to die in front of someone is a whole lot of vulnerability. so toby is panicked out of his mind, and tim tried to ground him here, but they don't know each other enough for this. not even slightly. telling toby that it's okay & that it won't be permanent isn't enough, & he just keeps replying i know, but what if- and it's not an easy battle.

it's honestly both a mercy and curse that the mask is still on. the sight of tim bleeding from the mouth would definitely not ease any nerves, but also it feels so distant from tim himself, that it's hard to get any comfort from what he's saying.

i think he eventually gets him to calm down, kind of. not really. but they sit side by side, shoulders touching. toby is still freaking out thinking tim's going to die, but he can't do anything about this. nothing meaningful anyway. so he's sitting there and digging his nails into his hands, trying to not think about it.

tim, through some pained breaths, is telling him how to get back to the mansion (lol), but toby cuts him off hissing out that he won't drive that fucking car. he won't. and tim would usually put up more of a fight about this, but he is kinda actively bleeding out, and feels a little for the kid, so he goes Okay. and after a second repeats it to himself.

tim eventually does bleed out and there's not much fanfare for it. i don't think they'd be talking here. it's just,,, coexisting in a really bad spot. but yea tim bleeds out, and obviously he does somehow end up back at the mansion later but toby isn't going to know that. he stands up after some time, just staring down at tim. he might lift up the mask here, not that he'd tell tim that (cos he'd get MAD), and just look at him.

he knows how to get back on foot, and he does think about it, pacing. but he keeps stopping in front of tim, nudges him every so often too. but there's nothing.

i think he's still paranoid about tim not coming back, but he's just. very drained at this point. it's been a lot, this experience. i think he'd leave it up to the gamble of if the operator does really bring you back. slice his stomach open horizontal, tugging his sweater down to cover the wound, and sitting back down next to tim in silence. it's a lot quicker considering how big he made the wound, but he pretends that it isn't there. he closes his eyes and pretends that they're sitting in the sun on a rest break after a long car ride.

obv he does wake back up, and tim is like Why did you do that , Are you stupid. you could've just gone back. & toby is having a lot of feelings on the matter so he doesn't give him much of a response.