Chapter Text
Tommy had never been anyone's first choice or even their first priority for anything, it had been seen again and again since he joined the Dream Smp.
With Dream that was to be expected, George, Sapnap, and Bad took the top 3 there. Wilbur put L'manburg and Fundy before Tommy. With Techno, well Chaos, Phil, and Will were all before Tommy. Even now after the war and all, no one thought about how much Tommy might need someone to put him first for a change.
No one noticed how Tommy started to quiet down, how he didn't yell quite as loud or often as he used to, no one realized how much he actually gave to both the creation of L'manburg and the fight to reclaim it. No one realized that maybe the way Tommy was acting was a cry for help. For Tommy knew, his flame was dying out, he also knew what that meant.
When one sacrifices too much of their self to a cause or person, a small number of things happen. Their eyes lose their original color and become mundane gray, they become quieter and eventually lose their voice, they run away from the place/people who took too much, and their flame burns out. This rarely happens as most people are too selfish to give enough to get to this state, and most people think Tommy is that sort of person, but Tommy just never corrected them on that as a big man doesn't admit weakness, even now he wasn't gonna admit how much of himself he has sacrificed since joining this server.
Tommy woke up, his throat feeling sore, something that had been going on since the 17th. He looked at his communicator, The date is the 30th of November, 2 weeks after the big war. He gets up and goes about getting dressed and ready for the day, he went to brush his hair and teeth and froze upon seeing his eyes in the mirror, eyes once vibrant firey blue now looked blue-gray, heading towards mundane gray. Every child is warned at a young age to never give too much of themselves to something or someone, or you will lose yourself, and your flame. Tommy knew that lesson and had done so anyway.
Tommy remembered that time he talked about running away with Tubbo, and decided that while he still had some flame left, to leave and make himself a small farm off in a distant part of the server, not like anyone would miss him anyways.
........................................................................................6 Months Later.................................................................................................
Eret was the first to notice how quiet the server seemed lately. They brushed it off after a bit but couldn't quite shake the feeling something was very wrong.
Tubbo hadn't realized that he hadn't seen Tommy in 6 months as he had been caught up in presidential duties and the L'manburg reconstruction efforts.
Phil has been so caught up in the whole Ghostbur/Orphaned Fundy situation that he hadn't noticed that Tommy hadn't stopped by to chat.
Techno was the first to notice signs of someone having left the main area of the SMP.
It was Niki who finally noticed exactly who was missing.
Niki ran into Eret while searching L'manburg and Dream's part of the SMP looking for Tommy. "Oh, Hi Eret, have you seen Tommy recently by chance?" "No, why? Has he done something?" "No, I haven't seen him in a while actually and he would normally have caused some sort of chaos by now." "I'll help you look then, who have you asked so far?" "Sapnap and George, neither of them have heard a thing from him." "Have you checked his house?" "Good idea, I haven't done that yet." They walked over to Tommy's house and knocked on the door, receiving no answer they opened the door, only to find darkness and cobwebs, as well as a few mobs that had taken shelter in the dark empty house from the sun. "This place looks deserted." "Do you think something has happened to him, Eret?" "Considering the dust layering the furniture and floor, he hasn't been here in a while. I think we should call everyone together and see if anyone knows anything." Eret sends out a message using his communicator saying: Everyone, meeting at community center now, very important!
When they arrive at the community center everyone, Including Techno is there, except Tommy.
Eret clears their throat
"Okay, so the reason behind this meeting is that Tommy is Missing. Niki and I just came from Tommy's house where everything is dark, mob filled, and covered in dust, the place looks like it hasn't been used in a while. So when was the last time anyone saw Tommy?"
No one had any clear idea of how long it had been since Tommy had been seen. Then Fundy came to the horrific thought "What if Tommy's flame went out?", then realized he said that aloud when Everyone else looked horrified at the thought.
"Why would it go out though?" asked Techno, "Tommy is pretty selfish."
"Actually he isn't." said Niki somewhat hesitantly, "He selflessly fought the duel for L'manburg's freedom and gave up both of his original prized discs when he lost the duel in exchange for that freedom, then he put so much effort into trying to get back L'manburg from Schlatt not to mention the effort put into the election, and then even with his dream of being president one day, stepped aside so that Tubbo, who everyone clearly wanted as president more, could be elected."
Then it dawned on Phil "When was the last time anyone put Tommy first for anything at all?"
When no one could answer that, Dream pulled up his admin screens to see if he could find Tommy's cords, to his surprise they were within the server's boundaries but very far out.
"He's still within the server's borders, but really far out."
"How far out?" Asked Phil.
"A full 2 days travel from here."
"Alright, so we need to decide who is going and who is staying."
After much deliberation and nearly sunset later, the search party was decided to be made up of Phil, Tubbo, Techno, Eret, Niki, and Dream.
"Alright," said Phil, " We leave the day after tomorrow and we need to prepare supplies tomorrow."
With that everyone besides Niki and Eret headed off to their homes/wherever they lived.
"Do you think Tommy is Alright?" Asked Niki.
"I don't honestly know, Niki, no one exactly paid attention to Tommy when he needed us so he very well could be very not fine at all."
"I hope he is okay, Eret, I feel so guilty about not figuring this out sooner."
"I know that feeling. Well, we'd best get some sleep, see you tomorrow."
"Night, Eret."