#tiny!eret

Tommy could only imagine Wilbur had fed his own hatred of Tommy to his brother. His species was known for being extremely close to family, even going as far as to sacrifice themselves to keep the rest of the family safe. So rationally, Tommy knew Wilbur’s brother would be much like Wilbur. 

A knock sounded on his door, forcing Tommy to collect his thoughts and stand up. He took one more glance out the window and noticed the ship slowing down and the yellow and orange atmosphere of the Arcturus region growing brighter around them. They must almost be at the port.

Tommy rested his hand on the door lock, listening to the quiet click before it slid to the side, revealing Techno shifting back and forth on his hooves. He perked up as the door opened, poorly concealing his excitement at seeing Tommy as he pretended to look apathetic.

“Phil wanted me to collect you, we’re almost at the port and you may have to help load some stuff on the ship.”

Tommy smiled down at Techno and stepped out of his room, letting the door slide shut behind him. 

“I figured that would be the case. Let’s not keep him waiting! We got some cargo to pick up!”

Tommy continued unconsciously fiddling with his hands as they made their way to the ship’s loading dock, feeling the ship shutter as they touched ground at the loading port. Techno followed wordlessly, occasionally glancing over at the human.

The two of them made it to the dock and both stood there awkwardly, waiting for Phil to open the doors so they could load up the ship. Tommy felt his hands begin to clam up and he began fidgeting more, occasionally scratching at his skin in an attempt to distract himself.

He was so out of it he didn’t notice Techno walk away for a moment, only registering the boar left as soon as he heard his returning footsteps. He glanced down at Techno in confusion only to startle as Techno suddenly placed a small, cold object in his hand. Tommy stared at the boar with wide eyes, trying to figure out what was going on but Techno just pointedly ignored it.

Tommy lifted the object to his face and gasped as he realized it was a familiar red gemstone. He twisted it around for a bit, trying to confirm that it was real, before looking back down at Techno, mouth agape.

“Did-did you just hand me a ruby?! Where- why- what is going on?” Techno finally looked back up at Tommy and reached up, forcefully closing Tommy’s hand around the gem and pushing it towards the human. He huffed happily as Tommy kept it close to his chest and patted the human’s leg.

“You looked lost, so I got you a gem. Simple.”

Tommy just stared at Techno in pure confusion as the boar just went back to standing next to Tommy and waited for Phil to open the door, acting like nothing strange just happened. Tommy glanced down at the gemstone and studied it for a moment before realization dawned on him.

He smiled softly and carefully tucked the precious gem into his pocket, making sure it was secure. Couldn’t go and lose a gift after all.

A few moments later, familiar, quiet wingbeats approached, making Tommy and Techno turn around to face the incoming avian. Phil stopped in front of Tommy and landed in his now outstretched hand, getting himself comfortable. It seemed like Phil quickly took a liking to be held by Tommy, but he wasn’t complaining. He was just happy the small alien had so much trust in him.

“Change of plans! There’s a group of Shades here to load the ship, they were all paid to come help since it was big furniture and they knew we were mainly a smaller crew. So we’re gonna go find Wilbur and his brother… and Tubbo because he fucked off somewhere and I genuinely don’t know where he went.”

Any nerves that Tommy had managed to calm came back full force. He squashed down the nervousness however and reached his hand into his pocket, the coolness of the ruby oddly soothing. He wasn’t sure that Techno gave it to him to be utilized like that, but it was extremely helpful regardless.

“Don’t have to tell me twice, didn’t wanna do work anyways- Techno?” Tommy startled as Techno suddenly latched onto Tommy’s free hand. He didn’t miss the slight trembling of the boar as he held onto him. Before he could ask again what was wrong, Phil spoke up.

“Shades just make him nervous, don’t worry. There was a particularly tall one that scared him half to death when they met. His best friend’s boyfriend actually. He thinks it’s embarrassing but honestly I don’t blame him, they are a slightly creepy looking species when you meet them for the first time. But anyways, go on and head out. Wilbur said they were meeting at Gate N-4. I have to stay to help direct the Shades on where to put stuff.”

Tommy nodded and shifted his hand around, making Techno whine a bit before he gently grabbed his hooved hand. Techno froze but let himself be gently pulled forwards as Tommy made his way off the ship.

Tommy paused for a moment to stare in awe at the aliens who he could only assume were the Shades. They were tall to say the least, even taller than Tommy. As he scanned the shadowy looking aliens, he determined he came up to the shoulders of the shortest one, which was rather insane knowing how small most other species looked compared to him.

He was about to move on, not wanting to make the aliens uncomfortable with his staring until he was startled by a small blue figure suddenly barreling towards them, slamming into Techno and knocking him down. Tommy yelped and quickly went to help Techno before stopping himself as he took in the scene.

While Techno looked startled to have been tackled, he seemed oddly content with what looked like an excited Jeweloid sat on top of him. The pale blue skin of the alien was covered in giant chunks of what appeared to be bright, translucent blue diamond. Tommy had seen Jeweloids before, but none seemed to be this energetic. They tended to be more lethargic and stern, not energetic and rowdy. And despite their small stature, Tommy knew from a fact how strong they were, their gem covered claws looked big for their small bodies but man did these aliens know how to use them.

“Techno! I knew it was gonna be you guys, with you telling me about your new human brother! And Bad didn’t believe me. Where is he? I have to meet him.”

Tommy froze as the Jeweloid, who definitely knew Techno, referred to Tommy as Techno’s human brother. His brother. He was so caught up in his own shock and embarrassment that he didn’t notice Techno’s eyes widening and his face turning pinker as the Jeweloid looked around, locking his gaze on Tommy with an excited look.

The gem alien scrambled off of Techno, earning a pained grunt from the boar as he quickly ran up to Tommy, sticking a sharp hand out.

“You must be Tommy! Name’s Skeppy, I’m Techno’s beeeeeeeest friend!”

Tommy blinked at the small alien now dubbed Skeppy before squatting down and gently taking their outstretched hand, wincing as the sharp hand dug into his skin. It wasn’t the first time he’s had contact with a Jeweloid though, so it was fairly easy to ignore the pain for the time being. He gave the alien a small smile, carefully hiding his teeth so as to not threaten him.

“That’s me! Nice to meet you-” “GEPPY! WHERE ARE YOU?! YOU BETTER NOT BE- oh hi, Techno!”

Tommy watched as Techno’s eyes widened and he visibly flinched back as an abnormally tall Shade came into view. Tommy watched in awe as the tall alien stepped closer, a happy look plastered on their face as their tail waved behind them. They had to be at least two feet taller than himself, they were huge!

Techno just stood there, frozen in shock (or maybe that was fear?) as the Shade just walked past him and towards Tommy and Skeppy. They gave Tommy an apologetic grimace before leaning down and grabbed a particularly large diamond on his back before lifting him into the air with ease. He watched in shock as Skeppy just shrugged and went limp, letting himself be picked up like a baby kitten.

“So sorry about him, he gets excited easily. Now come on Geppy, we’re supposed to be doing a job!”

Skeppy just happily waved at Tommy as the Shade carried him away. “Bye Tommy! Till next time!”

Tommy just sat there and watched as the two strange aliens disappeared from sight. Slowly, he stood up and walked over to Techno, offering an outstretched hand which the boar gratefully took. Techno used Tommy’s hand to pull himself to his hooves, but didn’t let go, tightly gripping onto the human’s hand.

“Sooooo, was that the Shade the Jeweloid is dating? The one that scares you?”

Techno nodded and took a deep breath. “Bad. That’s his name. Skeppy is my best friend and he’s dating Bad. I don’t want to be scared but… he’s so tall.”

Tommy reached over a ruffled Techno’s fur on his head, earning a soft chuff as the boar leaned into the touch. He sure as hell didn’t blame Techno for being scared, if Bad was tall to Tommy then he was massive to Techno.

“Yea, he was pretty tall. How about we just head to the gate and go meet up with Wilbur and his brother?” Techno nodded at that and began pulling Tommy along to the gate. Tommy just followed wordlessly, examining the port in awe.

He actually hadn’t been into the Arcturus Galaxy before so it was all new to him. The dusty orange and yellow sky was mesmerizing to look at, as were most galaxies with stardust in the atmosphere. He’s just glad nothing was on the surface. Those stuffy suits you had to wear when traversing through stardust laden planets were the worst. Humans couldn’t breathe that stuff in, it supposedly causes health issues, though Tommy had never actually heard of a case yet.

The thick vine-like foliage that curled around everything was beautiful too, in its own strange way. The red vines curled around anything tall enough to climb and always seemed to end with endless curls on the edges. Some violet stalks rose from the ground in the distance as well, the tall pillars of foliage reaching into the bright sky above and the tops hiding behind clouds of stardust.

Before he could take in any more of the breathtaking sights, Techno began to slow down as they reached a platform. Tommy belatedly noted that they had already passed through the gate, he must’ve been too engrossed in the scenery to realize what they were doing.

In front of them stood two lizard aliens, happily chattering with a mixture of hisses and clicks. Tommy froze. One of them was the familiar alien of Wilbur, the other was a slightly more purple version of the alien who hated him.

They looked nearly identical, the only differences being their coloring and that Wilbur’s brother had a bit less plating over their body. They even looked the same age. Nobody mentioned that they were twins.

Suddenly, all of Tommy’s nerves about meeting Wilbur’s brother hit him full force again. He began trembling and averted his gaze, instead opting to stare at the sunset colored horizon instead. His free hand snaked into his pocket and gently grabbed at the cold ruby sitting in his pocket, the chilliness of the gem being slightly comforting.

Techno gently patted Tommy’s leg and gave him a small smile. Tommy slightly relaxed and shot a thankful look, happy he had Techno there and it wasn’t just him and the other two.

“Eret! Long time no see!” Tommy tensed up as Techno called out to who he could only assume was Wilbur’s brother. He watched warily as the purple alien turned towards them and clasped their hands in happiness.

Tommy kept still as they approached and gave Techno a quick hug. They seemed friendly enough but hadn’t acknowledged him yet. He was just hoping Wilbur didn’t make them hate him already.

“Techno! It’s been a while, hasn’t it? I am glad to see you are doing well though!” He turned towards Tommy and gave a small grin. “And you must be Tommy, the human! It’s wonderful to meet… you?”

Tommy tensed up as he trailed off, his face slightly falling and an unknown expression crossed his face. Oh Prime, he already hated him didn’t he? Wilbur already made his brother hate him. He was doomed to be hated by this family wasn’t he?

Eret suddenly shook it off and gave Tommy a grin again, as if none of that never happened. Though Tommy could still see the slight confusion in their expression, throwing his thoughts off once more. He’d be better off ignoring it for now though, no need to work himself up right now.

“Good to meet you too! Wish I could say I’ve heard a lot, but someone doesn’t like sharing information with me.”

Tommy watched in shock as Eret rolled his eyes and glared at Wilbur, who looked offended at the look. Wait, what in the world was happening?!

“Yea, he’s a straight up idiot. He’ll come around. Just be warned, the lizard brain gets clingy once he warms up to people.” Eret laughed as Wilbur began sputtering out angry protests, and Tommy couldn’t help but chuckle too. Eret leaned in and gestured for Tommy to lean down before loudly whispering, “He’s proving my point, he just won’t admit it.”

As Wilbur started trying to explain himself something hit the boat causing all three men to fall to the ground scrambling to get back up as the boat just continued shaking, Techno grabbed a piece of nearby rope time Eret and Wilbur together and got help from Eret to tie himself to her. Techno took Eret's hand and started leading their siblings towards the lifeboat, the three screamed as they fell to the ground again and felt the entire boat shaking.

Techno pulled Eret and Wilbur into a hug as a giant shadow loomed over them and he locked eyes with a red scaly creature that had vibrant blue eyes, Long messy blonde hair with seaweed tangled into it, and a very sharp and pointy mouth that smiled down at them. Suddenly all three found themselves thrown up into the air and landing into the water below their boat capsized, Techno quickly swimmed to the surface of the water looking around frantically for his brothers as the rope that tied them together had come undone.

Techno screened out their names noticing the creature from earlier was gone and became terrified it had taken his brother's to God now's here, he started swimming back towards the capsized boat hoping he might be able to save the radio and send out a distress signal. Techno was only a few feet away from the sinking boat when he felt something soft and squishy wrap around his leg and yank him underneath the water, he quickly took in a deep breath closing his eyes as whatever grabbed him dragged him deeper and deeper underwater.

Techno opened his eyes for a moment looking up towards the surface and seeing razor sharp teeth that closed behind him trapping him inside of a giant mouth, the water inside slowly drained out leaving him resting on top of a giant tongue that started licking at him. Techno kicked and punched at the tongue desperately climbing his way towards the front of the mouth, he tried prying the teeth apart but just cut his hands along the sharp jagged teeth.

The strawberry-haired piglin yelped as the tongue beneath him through him back towards the monster's throat and instantly felt his head get dragged into the tight muscles, Techno tried reaching forward to grab something but just got his hands covered in slime as he continued getting pulled down the monster's throat. Techno just hoped he wouldn't see his brothers anytime soon as he closed his eyes and passed out.

He didn't want to be awake for this next part.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It was dark and slimy….which just concerned Techno as he slowly started to wake up looking around his prison extremely confused but relieved considering he was all alone, the piglin slowly set up right wiping slime off his face and kicking the cramped stomach he was stuck in. This police was completely disgusting and Techno decided he had every right and convenience of this creature as much as possible so he started kicking and punching at the walls around him.

Techno smiled as he heard noises of pain and discomfort emanating from the best that ate him and continued punching and kicking away at their walls, he yelped as the walls caved in around him squeezing him and trapping his arms and legs in place. Techno growled out as he was slowly pushed up the creature's throat and found himself back in their mouth.

The pink haired piglin surprisingly found himself sped up onto a cold cave floor absolutely covered in slime, he started wiping all of it off completely ignoring the creature behind him that growled and hissed trying to get his attention. Techno slowly stood up and sat down in a different spot still facing away from the creature and still getting slime off himself.

"....You know it's kind of rude to ignore someone that saved your life mate" an unfamiliar voice echoed from behind Techno, he slowly turned around to face the giant mar seeing that they were resting there down on the cave floor to be closer to Techno. The piglin huffed and went back to cleaning the slime off his clothes.

"It's also rude to knock over someone's boat and then eat them." Techno pointed out in a monotone voice not even bothering to look at the green mark. There was silence between the two for a few moments until the green mer finally cleared his throat.

"I didn't realize a mer knocked over your boat, where did you get hurt at all?" Techno was a bit surprised at the mers concern and slowly turned around to face him, he started checking himself over thankfully finding no injury.

"No but I don't know where my brothers are…did you see them in the water?" The piglin asked hoping Eret and Wilbur were safe somewhere, Techno slowly lost that hope with how confused the green mer looked.

"No I only saw you, if I had seen them I would have sent them down to my storage with you." The mer explained "Did you see what the mer that knocked over your boat looked like? If they're anywhere they're probably with them."

Techno thought it over for a moment and shook his head "I only saw red vibrant scales and then I was in the water and lost sight of my brothers." He watched as the Giant mer thought over the detail and pinched the bridge of his nose grumbling.

"I know who has them…a young mer did this, I can take you to him but you'll have to go back into my storage for the trip." The green mer explained resting his clawed hand down next to Techno.

Techno just stared at the hand for a few moments letting out a deep sigh "First, before I let you eat me again, I think we should do some proper introduction. My name is Techno, who are you and how do you know the young mer?"

"My name is Philza, the lil shit that most likely knocked over your boat is my son." Philza explained smiling and showing off his sharp pointy teeth, Techno shivered a bit at that and slowly climbed on to the mers hand. The piglin yelped as the hand suddenly moved forward and lifted him up into the air in front of the row of sharp pointy teeth.

Techno watched as a tongue stuck out of the mouth and just stayed there, he slowly put two and two together and started crawling into Philza's mouth. He really hoped this wasn't going to be a long trip.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Philza quickly swam through the water looking for Tommy and really hoping the kid didn't get himself into any more trouble, he rubbed at his brooding pouch to make sure Techno was ok and smiled as he got a small kick back. The green mer quickly sped up as he spotted some shining red scales.

The giant whale shark mer quickly reached forward and grabbed the red mer by the tail before he could run off and pulled the child into his arms. Being careful of the small bump on the boy's belly, he started swimming back towards their home not listening to a single excuse that came out of Tommy's mouth. "You capsized a boat and kidnapped two humans! You're lucky there aren't any hunters out looking for you!"

Tommy just started crying primarily due to the pain in his brooding pouch and went completely limp in Philza's arms "I-Im sorry…t-the humans are ok- but they’re mean-"

"They’re not mean Tommy, they're scared, humans don't have brooding pouches like us so they get really scared when they're put in there." Philza glaring down at his son and feeling a bit bad for the young mer, he picked up the pace and started swimming a bit more quickly towards their home "Let's get the humans out of there and explain to them what happened, ok?"

Tommy sniffled and nodded his head swimming at the same Pace as his father "O-Ok."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It took a bit to actually get Eret and Wilbur out of the brooding pouch considering the young mer Tommy didn't know how to get a human out and considering his small size getting two humans out at once was extra hard on Tommy, Techno hugged his brother and sister clothes double checking to make sure they didn't get hurt well being brought up the mers throat and also helping the two calm down. The three humans still needed to get a proper apology from the young mer and that would be much easier if they weren't freaking out.

Wilbur was of course more pissed off than panicked so he definitely wasn't allowed to talk with the kid, Eret sadly had lost their glasses so she was more confused by the situation and obviously didn't want to get closer, and then there was Techno. Quite frankly Techno just wanted to go home and could care less for the apology but if the kid didn't properly understand what he did was wrong this could happen again.

The piglin side hesitantly walked over to the red mer who only had the top of his head sticking out of the water and watched Techno fearfully, he sat down at the edge of the pool and motioned for the kid to come closer. Tommy hesitantly did so and started shaking.

"Sooo you ate my brothers." Techno stated in a deadpan voice noticing the guilt instantly appearing on the kids face "Why did you capsize a boat and do that?"

Tommy hesitantly rose out of the water leaning his arms on the cave floor next Techno "I thought it was a piece of driftwood…I'm not used to being so big yet and I've never seen a human boat before", Techno did his best to hold back a snicker at the fact that the kids simply thought their boat was a piece of driftwood.

"How the hell does a boat look like driftwood!?" Wilbur yelled out causing the kid to flinch back and quickly dive under the water splashing Techno, Eret located where her twin was and proceeded to punch him in the arm.

"Why would you yell at him!? He's just a baby!" Eret proclaimed still punching Wilbur in the arm, Wilbur covered his head with his arms sitting on the floor and grumbling.

"He ate us! I'm not going to be nice to some punk that ate us!" Wilbur defended himself while looking over at Techno for help, the pink haired piglin shrugged his shoulders.

"It was kind of mean to yell at him." Wilbur took off his soaked and ruined coat, throwing it at Techno's face.

The three siblings all erupted into a big fight now, actually yelling and arguing with each other as Philza returned to the small cave watching the humans in confusion, he growled loudly, getting their attention immediately and crossing his arms. "I thought I told you four to talk things out, why are you three fighting while Tommy's hiding in the shallow end?"

"Wilbur started it." Eret started cutting both of her brothers off and earning a glare from Wilbur, the brunette crossed his arms grumbling.

"I did not! I was pointing at the obvious because you too are usually not to focus on the fact that they ate us!"

Techno shrugged his shoulders "The kid did let you guys out and you weren't harmed in any way so it's not that big of a deal."

The piglin stepped out of the way as a shoe was thrown at him and hite Philza arm that was resting on the stony floor of the cave, everyone gave Wilbur a deadpan stare glaring at him a bit.

"I did eat them…" Tommy peight in poking his head out of the water "And he does have a right to be mad, I'm sorry mister Wilbur- I should have known better and not eat you and your brother."

Wilbur stared down at the ground grumbling, Eret and Techno smacked their brother on the head making him say what he was mumbling out loud "I guess you're forgiven…child"

Philza sighed, pinching the brim of his nose, he looked over at Techno. "And since my son did ruin your day out on the sea, I would like to propose a trip to the beach."

"Well there are other humans there?" Techno asked, looking up at Philza instantly noticing the small smirk on his face.

"Nope. Humans never go to this beach because of how is mers visit it, so do you three want to go?" Philza rested his hands down in front of the three siblings patiently waiting for them to climb on.

Eret was the first to get up and carefully climb onto the giant hand with some help, Techno was the second to climb on and sat down next to Eret, and Wilbur on the other hand just sat there grumbly staring at his brothers like they were crazy. Thankfully a chaotic small mer scooped the grumpy brunette up into his hands holding the human close to his chest.

"Let's get going!" Tommy proclaimed as he shoved Wilbur into his mouth and quickly swallowed the human down to his brooding pouch diving underneath the water, Philza shook his head and opened his mouth wide letting these two humans climb in on their own. Techno helped Eret in and climbed in right after her.

Philza closed his mouth around the two, easily swallowing them down and then dove back into the water taking off after his son, wanting to make sure the mirror was actually going the right direction and not swimming into dangerous territory.

He had tough skin. He could normally handle shit like this but this time it was really getting under his skin. It was one thing if someone said it to him while he was in person but when someone in chat actively made sure to mention borrowers in the one setting, he thought he was safe from the world's mistreatment and lies about borrowers.

Wilbur was shaken back to focus from a voice call from Phil and he tried to smooth out his frazzled tail, slowly uncurling it from his leg, being as discreet as plausible in order to avoid people possibly seeing the appendage.

He clicked the answer on the call and plastered a more neutral expression, forcing a small smile.

"Hey Phil!"

"Hey Wil! How's the late night streaming?"

'Huh...was it just him or was Phil sounding a little...less cheery? It sounded forced more than anything and he would know since he was also forcing a thin layer of joy.'

He was about to continue before he felt a buzz from his phone and almost froze up.

From Dadza at 10:59

'Hey Wil you really might wanna check what's being said in your chat.'

Wilbur swallowed nervously, his tail already beginning to tightly wrap around his leg again to the point where he had to gently pry it away to make sure he didn't cut off his own circulation.

From Wilbur at 11:00

'Hey Phil, uh what are you getting at? Can you send me a few screenshots from like-a little while ago? I don't want to alert chat that anything is happening.'

He glanced up from his phone, smiling at his web camera again.

“Nothing is wrong at all chat, I'm just getting some important texts. I might have to unfortunately end the stream a little earlier than I had anticipated."

The lie came easily. He had adapted to lying to anyone and everyone he didn't talk to everyday. It was pretty easy to lie about being upset and uncomfortable at restaurants as well. The waiters and waitresses would always ask if he wanted a borrower or if he wanted an accommodating area.

They wouldn't ask in a polite way though. They sounded like it was a pain in the ass to go out of their way to ensure that a borrower, another person, was comfortable, felt safe while they went to do a basic thing. It boiled his blood and he wanted to let it boil out.

Of course, he kept his control on stream though. He didn't want to erupt while everyone was watching because naturally rumors and 'conspiracy' theories would come out and everything would surely get worse from there.

He glanced down at his phone and a shiver ran up and back down his spine at the pictures that made their way across the screen.

Nausea. That was the word he could and would use to describe how sick he felt in the current moment.

’No hate but I really don’t get why Wilbur likes borrowers.’

’Yeah I don’t either. They aren’t really even people lol’

’Just something for a person to snack on to be honest. I’ve had one. They taste pretty good-‘

Phil kept sending picture after picture with things that only further made him want to throw up everything and anything he could.

While Phil was seemingly typing and getting more he took the opportunity to message him.

From Wilbur at 11:10

’Hey Phil uh-I’ve seen enough of the screenshots. I’m gonna get off now. Could you go and make sure all these people are banned?’

He shakily breathed in and out. He mentally reminded himself that he couldn’t feel his leg and forced his tail off his leg.

“Alright chat I’m gonna head off-It’s late for me and I’m really exhausted at this point.”

Most of chat seemed to buy it but some seemed to continue spouting their horribly nauseating thoughts though he was glad to see his mods banning them immediately.

He clicked off the stream and turned his monitor off, taking a deep, stressed out breath as he curled his tail and uncurled it.

He stood up and stretched before walking towards his kitchen. He should just get some water, go to bed and relax. He needed some time to himself after tonight.

Though one thing that had made this shit night a little better was the fact that Phil had reached out. He knew that Phil was human and he hadn’t exactly told Phil his species yet but the blond had cared. He had seen Wilbur was uncomfortable and he had gone out of his way to see if he was ok.

There was a small part of Wilbur that told him, for the sake of his well-being, he shouldn’t look at Twitter.

He knew it’d be a disaster the second he turned on his phone, curling up in his bed, pulling the covers up as much as possible.

Twitter had been, oddly enough, the reasons laws had been passed that ensured borrowers weren’t just murdered so he held a small level of respect for the site…

Well he supposed he had held a level of respect for the social media giant in the beginning. The site was now more or less a place where people argued about borrowers rights and usually it was for borrowers to get less rights. It was bad enough they couldn’t vote for government positions or run in anything-no apparently to some people, borrowers should be Sold off as food and other products.

It was so bad he had once seen someone trying to ask for an exterminator to gas out their house, of which had several borrowers apparently, so they could cut the tails off and use them as makeup brushes.

Just thinking about it made him feel ill and he closed his eyes, flicking his tail close to his chest before running his hand along it, running his fingers through the fluffy fur at the tip.

He took deep, calming breaths in and out, allowing himself to focus on things that made him happy. ‘Friends…Games…Music and writing…the love and support of his friends(He longed to say families) provided him. The warmth and earnestness of their laughs…’

Once he was done with calming his nerves, his tail swung back down and light coiled around his ankle while he opened up twitter, already preparing to need another break.

He was beginning to remember why he hated Twitter, most notably, the trending page…

He was already met with the most trending in gaming and, shockingly, his name was there.

He felt that familiar anxiety begin to curl much like his tail was unknowingly doing.

He had options here. He could personally go and look at the posts there. Rip a hypothetical bandaid off…

….or he could simply ignore it, turn off his phone, possibly have another nightmare like the makeup brush incident. (He was sure he had made sure that stream was deleted right? He couldn’t remember.) Hell, he could simply let his thoughts pester him with ‘What if’s’ and endless questions till he accidentally slipped up while streaming.

It was against his better judgement he supposed. Checking Twitter had been a huge mistake in the past but third times the charm yeah?

He opened the app back up and took a deep breath before tapping the trending tab and going to his name.

He bit his lip before sucking in a deep breath as he opened it and his heart immediately sunk, a pit of dread filling his stomach. He felt like he was going to vomit or pass out and he wasn’t sure which one would be better.

His tail wrapped around his leg tighter, cutting his circulation off but he couldn’t quite tell, his mind fogging up and his breath growing shallow. He felt like he was being suffocated from within his chest.

He didn’t even notice as he began hyperventilating, frantically scrolling and clicking on any posts that had any pictures or screenshots from the stream.

His mind was only now just registering how much his body was shaking, how much his heart was racing and primes he couldn’t feel his fucking foot.

There were pictures. Seemingly innocent pictures. Most of the detailing the screenshots Phil had sent but some of them had been entirely out of left field.

Sure, they might be a joke but he was sure they weren’t jokes.

’Did anyone see a tail for a second or was it just me?’

’Oh yeah I just got a picture of it.’

’Is Wilbur a borrower lmao-?’

‘i don’t know but like-ew if he is. I’ll literally go and find a borrower right now and go squish it.’

Wilbur swiftly turned off his phone, pressing his palms to his eyes as he began to sob, frantically shaking as he tried to stop the stupid pictures and words from making there way into his head.

He grabbed at his sweater, trying to ground himself as his tail continued tightening around his already numb leg. The fog in his brain cleared a little as he took note of his numb leg and he released it, choosing to wrap his tail around a pillow instead while he sobbed.

…The day couldn’t possibly get any worse right?

Wrong as per usual. Go figures. His phone starts to vibrate and although he’d love to ignore it and call whomever or text whoever later he knows he shouldn’t.

Mostly because he’s positive it has something to do with his best pal Twitter.

With some hesitation, he sat up, taking a fee more deep breaths to ground himself in reality before beginning to rummage through his blankets.

Once he found the buzzing device a flash of relief hit him as hard as a truck. ‘Eret’. Eret was the only person that knew about his being a borrower that he trusted. Granted, Eret was just like him but still-it was nice to be able to talk to somebody about this without seeming too enthusiastic or passionate.

He clicked the answer button and brought the phone to his ear only to get a few panicked questions about if he was okay and he moved the device from his ear, setting it in speaker.

“Heeeey Eret-uh…you probably want to know about the twitter thing don’t you-“

There was no response for a moment, then another before Eret cleared their throat.

“Yes Wilbur Twitter is why I’m calling you-do not go and look at-wait how did you know this was about Twitter-?”

Another bout of awkward silence. “Wilbur are you still here?”

“…yeah I already saw Twitter Eret. I saw…I saw it.”

The silence lingered around much longer this time and both could tell the other was trying to figure out a way to comfort or reassure the other.

“I-Wilbur I’m sure they were joking around…sure I didn’t see everything cause I wanted to call you but-“

“Eret they got a picture of my tail and I don’t even know how cause I made sure my tail was always out of frame and-and-“

Wilbur was already working himself back up so he just decided to focus on the call screen and his breathing.

“Wilbur, they probably edited your tail in. I was watching the stream the entire time. And I know for a fact I never saw your ears either-“

If that was supposed to comfort him it only made it worse. He forgot to be more focused on his very obvious ears!!! He was able to hide his tail easily but his ears were close to his face which meant they were the center of focus!!

Wilbur heard Eret begin to say something else but he cut them off with a simple, ‘end call’.

Wilbur had pretty much ended up laying down in his bed, trying to mentally gather his thought and collectively calm the fuck down. Maybe Eret was right in saying that he was pretty much overreacting but that didn't matter because it was still a very real, terrifying possibility. He really wanted to limit the number of people that knew he was a borrower.

He had gotten insanely lucky with Eret who had also happened to be a borrower and who had happened to politely message him about it appearing in a video. That time, nobody had seemingly noticed it, probably focused on the game so all he had done was take down the vod and edit the YouTube video. (Eret had so kindly helped in skimming through the video to certain points, telling him exactly where his tail had appeared on screen.)

From that point forward it usually ended up being Eret who vented his frustrations about borrowers and the current conditions...and who told him to, for the love of all things, avoid Twitter.

Naturally, this only seemed to make Wilbur go onto it actively and use it.

While Eret had stopped using Twitter, they had simultaneously led Wilbur to its suffocating chokehold that would eventually lead to his first of many errors he was now coming to realize.

The next error had been allowing himself to be invited on a little thing called 'The Dream SMP.'

He hadn't had any qualms with the server at first. Hell, he had been the one to suggest and start making it a lore and roleplay-based server...

It hadn't really occurred to him that Dream would ask everyone if they wanted to add in some mods that allowed people to be shrank down. He gave his reasoning as it would make it more exciting and overall, more interesting.

An overwhelming number of people, including Eret, had said yes.

Wilbur had immediately typed a no.

Not a moment later there was a dm waiting for him.

From Dream at 12:45pm

'Why don't you want the mods? You wanna call about it because most if not everyone is alright with them.'

Dream had already started up a call and Wilbur hadn't even gotten to type a simple no and then an explanation before he was thrust into the call.

"Wilbur?"

Immediately, a jolt of anxiety and his tail snuck its way around his leg and constricted around tightly. "H-Hey Dream..."

"Would you care to tell me about you issue with the mods? Because a majority of people have no issues with the mod and I really don't want to flat out refuse adding the mod because one person is uncomfortable with it." The other spoke calmly and firmly. It was clear that he wanted an answer even from beyond the screen that lit up when he spoke.

Wilbur swallowed nervously, impulsively tugging at his hat to cover his ears even though his camera wasn't on. "They make me really uncomfortable. What with the situation about borrowers and their ri-"

"Why should the rights of borrower's concern you? They're just small, insignificant creatures that pose as humanoids."

Wilbur felt sick. Dream didn't...didn't care about borrowers. He felt his breathing begin to pick up a little and his chest felt like it was closing in around his lungs.

If he didn't care about borrowers, he didn't care about him or Eret or anyone else who was a borrower...He should have just kept his mouth shut because everything was going to shit. Primes he should have just let the mod get added and sucked it up.

“...Wilbur are you alright?"

Dream broke the silence, but he was only met with heavy, labored breathing while Wilbur pressed at his eyes, trying to take deep breaths in and out.

"Wilbur, can you breathe for me? Can you follow along with my breathing please?"

Wilbur followed along with the instructions, listening to the breathing on the other end as he sat with his legs pulled close to his chest as he watched the calming green lighting of Dreams icon every time he took a deep breath in and out.

"That's it...are you with me now Wilbur?"

There were a few beats of silence before Wilbur gathered up his thoughts, making sure it would be coherent sounding.

“Y-Yeah I'm with you now Dream..." He was met with a sigh of relief from the other end, and it almost made him smile till he reminded himself that Dream had purposefully and had outright stated how little he thought of his kind and the ghost of a smile fell.

"...Wilbur, why did you start freaking out at the mention of borrowers? I was just joking about them not being people but it's obvious that it upset you......"

A pause and then words that Wilbur had been dreading to ever hear.

"Wait. You're a borrower...aren't you?"

His mouth went dry and the call was silent. His hand hovered over the ‘leave call’ button but before he could hit it Dream spoke up.

“Wilbur, turn on your camera please. Remove your hat.”

Wilbur tried to pick out any indications of Dreams voice but he couldn’t find anything and reluctantly turned off his camera.

“Hat off Wilbur.” Dream’s voice was calm and cold.

He listened, taking off his hat and revealing his ears which appeared to droop down a little.

And before he could even realize he was spurting out random words while his tail swung around.

“D-Dream please don’t tell anyone-my life will be a hellfire and-and I’ll lose all of my friends-and Dream please don’t take my life-my everything-from me! I can’t imagine doing anything aside this for my life! It’s what keeps me sane!”

Wilbur was pleading. Begging for this one thing. For primes sake-Dream could blackmail him now! Do whatever he wished to him and his reputation!

Dream didn’t speak. He hadn’t spoken the whole time he was rambling in his wild, fearful panic.

The silence was growing uncomfortable.

There was a deep breath heard from his speaker.

And then Dream was laughing. It started out normal sounding before growing manic and cruel. The sound sent chills down his spine.

He opened his mouth to speak before Dream began to speak again. “Oh Wilbur….Wilbur…” The humans clicked his tongue.

“You really should be more careful with whom you share this information with…”

Wilbur’s blood went cold. “Wilbur you know that I now have this conversation on a video recording and several pictures of you now yes?”

He couldn’t even find words so he nodded his head, hearing Dream let out a dark chuckle.

“Good…I can already guess you know that I’ll be using these pictures and videos when I deem I must?”

Wilbur tearfully nodded, choking back a building sob.

“Good. You’re good with the mod then right? And you’ll utilize it right?”

He nodded before he heard Dream again.

“No, I want you to verbally tell me.”

He shakily breathed in and out, clenching his hands into fists. “Yes I will use the mod and I’m good with it-“ He snapped.

“Watch your tone Borrower. Remember who has more power out of the two of us.” Dream spat.

That made Wilbur pissed more than frightened and it sent him over the edge.

“Uh you certainly don’t possess a lot of power in this case. You’re pathetic enough to blackmail me like a spineless welp. I have half the mind to report you to Ph-“

“Ah yes-go crawling back your owner borrower. Go whine to him about what the ‘Horrible’ human threatened.”

“Don’t make me laugh. Do you really think Phil would care? He’s just like me.”

“O-Of course Phil’d care! He cares about everyone and everything!” Wilbur shouted, glaring at the screen to mask his horrible thoughts that lingered too long.

Phil was a good person. He was kind and he made sure the people he cared about were ok! It wouldn’t matter to him surely if Wilbur was a borrower right?

“Oh come now Wilbur….he’s a human…you know all the things a human could do to you right?”

Wilbur went to argue when Dream decided to continue his spiel.

“As a matter of fact Wilbur-most of the humans wouldn’t lift a finger if I were to grab you and try anything. They’d just let me do what I would like.”

“I’m dying to know if anyone wants to eat you. Oh how cruel and funny it would be if Tommy did the deed.”

Wilbur appeared to lose all confidence in his prior statements at the last sentence.

Tommy also happened to be human. Most if not all his…his ‘friends’ were humans actually…

Which meant Dream was probably right. No human would ever care…

Wilbur quickly turned off his monitor, not wanting to hear anymore of Dream's words.

There was a moment of quiet save for his shallow breathing and pounding heart.

The situation finally hit him full force and he gasped, grabbing at his tail and wringing it in his hands as he swiftly stood up.

Dream was going to blackmail him. He already was blackmailing him. The human he had wanted to tell was Phil but after the talk with Dream his brain couldn’t help but think that Phil would do the same as Dream. It was probably better it had been him.

If it had been Phil he knew he wouldn’t be able to fully recover. If anything he would probably…

Holy primes Phil would have probably tried to find where he lived or-or he’d find a way to take Wilbur and then who knew what he’d do-

He was lucky Dream had found out. (The other half of him said he wasn’t lucky. It told him that if Phil had found out he would be nothing but kind.)

He forced the other thoughts away. He was certain, as much as it sucked, Dream was right.

No human would care about him. No one would look out for him. He would get hurt if he trusted any human.