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Tubbo grinned, placing down a row of obsidian down as a barrier between the test site and the viewing area, "Alright, do we want to wait for Fit, or do we want to set off a test bomb first." He glanced back at Ramón and Sunny, the three of them gathered a clearing between Fit and Ramón's junkyard and Fobo, ready to test the new bombs that Ramón had made with some help from Pac and Tubbo.
Tubbo grabbed one of the prototype test bombs from Ramón's backpack, and then walked over to the obsidian platform in the center of the testing area. The bombs worked on the same mechanics as an end crystal, a ghast tear aligned above a shining nether star. The only difference was that Ramón's design utilized a liquid ghast tear in a small vial. While an end crystal required a lot less precision in it's construction and had a large blast radius, this bomb Ramón had created was supposed to be concentrated into a smaller blast area with even greater damage. It didn't look particularly similar to an end crystal, but it was still obvious they both drew on the same magic of a nether star. Instead of spinning glass and purple light, the bomb was a short metal cylinder with Galactic swirling around the sides in streaks of purple.
He was gentle as he set the cylinder down on the obsidian platform, the Galactic runes glowing brighter as the nether star's magic activated and the bomb floated gently up, hovering a few inches above the obsidian. Tubbo was excited for this, it had been a while since he'd been able to see a project tested that would have such exciting results, both in success and failure.
The bomb's trigger mechanism was a long thin piece of string, and a pull on it would pull the vial of re-liquefied ghast tears into the nether star, hopefully triggering a small but powerful explosion. Tubbo trailed the string across the testing area and towards the barrier that Ramón and Sunny were standing behind.
Ramón clapped his hands together excitedly, practically humming in the same frequency as his bomb prototype as he and Sunny waited behind the protective obsidian barrier.
"What the hell is that?!"
Tubbo spun around to see Fit rushing over, his eyes not leaving the prototype bomb. He laid the trigger over the barrier and stepped closer to Fit, "What? We're just testing Ramón's prototype? Like I messaged you about?" Tubbo was confused, it was pretty obvious from the test site and the floating prototype what was going on. And Ramón was Fit's son! He should be well aware of what he had been building for the last several weeks.
"Ramón, you didn't say you were making a-" he gestured wildly at the prototype, "Whatever this is? An end crystal knockoff! Do you know how dangerous nether stars are?" His fists clenched and eyebrows furrowed as he stared at the prototype bomb.
Tubbo stepped closer, holding an arm out to try and calm the American, "Woah! Calm down man, we have the barrier, we're well out of the blast radius."
Fit was shaking his head, still looking at the bomb with wide eyes that seemed unfocused, almost as if he wasn't really seeing anything but the bomb. He reached out to Tubbo, pulling him further away from the testing site.
Finally turning away from the bomb, Fit looked back at the kids, "Move back!" his voice was harsher than Tubbo had ever heard it before, firm and biting, and it seemed that Ramón and Sunny had picked up on it too, both of them backing away from the barrier without question as Fit whipped his head back around to look at the bomb.
"Fit, mate, what the hell is wrong with you? Don't talk to them like that." Clearly something was wrong with Fit, but he shouldn't be yelling at the kids like that. But Fit wasn't listening, looking almost hypnotized by the swirling Galactic and glowing purple.
"Fit?"
Tubbo turned to look at the bomb and saw it, a quick brightening of the purple, and then it was condensing, pulling in on itself before blowing back out-
Two hands shoved at his chest- hard- pushing him back into the barrier and sprawling over the obsidian. He caught the explosion out of the corner of his eye, the brilliant starburst of purple and white he recognized from the few end crystal explosions he'd seen. All he felt though was a rush of hot air over them, the explosion contained to the blast radius they had calculated. Tubbo looked back up, meeting eyes with Fit, who was standing in front of him, arms still extended, chest heaving, looking over his shoulder at the test site. That unfocused look was back in his eyes, unseeing and unsettling.
Tubbo pushed himself up on his elbows, moving so the obsidian barrier was no longer digging into his back. He nudged at Fit's leg with his foot, trying to get the other man to move back so he could stand up, "Hey, Fit…" He moved back a step, but was still frozen, staring at the obsidian pedestal that the bomb had been on. Tubbo stood, moving to try and get into Fit's eyeline. He waved a hand in front of his face, "Hellooooo… Earth to Fit?"
There was no response.
Sunny and Ramón came closer again, the latter tugging at his Dad's pant leg, but was unsuccessful in getting a response.
Tubbo had no idea what to do. Fit was frozen, looking like a deer in headlights with every muscle in his body tensed. He pushed at Fit's shoulder, but the other man didn't move.
"Fit, you're starting to scare me," a nervous laugh bubbled up from Tubbo's chest, and he started tapping at Fit's shoulders, "Fit,"
He wasn't sure what took over him, but he pulled his arm back, landing a slap straight across Fit's cheek.
Fit's eyes widened, and he jumped back, shocked, looking around, "What the fuck was that Tubbo!"
"What the fuck me? What the fuck you!" Tubbo's hands were starting to shake, "The bomb worked as planned, well within the blast radius we planned, why are you freaking out!"
Fit's head was shaking again, and his voice rose, "You don't understand!" his hand came up to rub over his head, "There is a reason end crystals are made how they are, nether stars are incredibly volatile and you have to be so careful mixing them with crystalized ghast tears-"
Tubbo cut him off, "Well, we were using liquefied ghast tears,"
"NO!" Fit reached out to grab Tubbo's shoulders, "What the hell Tubbo, that's worse! In liquid form it'll really go off on a hair trigger, it is so hard to control an explosion like that! Tubbo look at me," they made eye contact, and the wild look in Fit's eyes made Tubbo want to back away, "that shit is so dangerous please tell me you don't have more of those."
Their attention was dragged away by a tug on Fit's pant leg by Ramón, the boy holding up a sign:
I made them Fit, I have a few more in my backpack.
He pointed towards the barrier, where one of Ramón's backpack straps could be seen peeking around the side of the obsidian wall.
Fit's eyes widened again, and he reached out, hands wrapping around Sunny and Ramón's arms, tugging them back quickly, away from Ramón's backpack.
He gestured with his head, eyes full of that same wild look again, "Get over here Tubbo it isn't safe."
Tubbo obeyed, if only to ease Fit's returning panic, "Look, Fit, it's fine, I can go get rid of the other bombs and you can watch Sunny and Ramón."
He took a step back, but Fit was quicker, dropping the kid's hands and grabbing Tubbo's shoulders.
"NO!" Fit's breath was coming quicker again, and Tubbo was back to not knowing what was going on. Something about the bombs was freaking Fit out, but if he couldn't get rid of them, how was Fit going to stop freaking out?
Fit was rambling, "You can't, Tubbo, you can't get crystaled you don't understand, Tubbo, it, please, you-"
Tubbo reached for his communicator, flipping it open and to his messages with Pac, he hastily typed a message.
<Tubbo_> can you coem to teh clearning behind fobo
<Tubbo_> fit is freakng idk what to do
<pactw> im coming
<pactw> is he okay?
<pactw> tubbo?
It was fine, surely Pac would know what to do, Fit was his boyfriend after all, maybe he'd seen this before.
Looking back up at Fit though, he wasn't sure if Pac would make it in time to stop… whatever this was. His breathing was fast, hands shaking as he stood there on the obsidian platform.
Tubbo felt pretty useless, just standing there watching, his friend panicking over the bombs, his daughter and Ramón watching with concern obvious throughout their whole bodies. He reached out, placing a hand on Fit's shoulder again, trying to reassure him.
"Uh, it's okay, Fit, I called Pac, maybe he can help?" His voice sounded as unsure as he felt. He felt something brush against his leg, and he looked down to see Sunny pressing her face into his side, arms coming up to wrap around his waist.
I'm scared Pa
Tubbo reached down to pat her once on the head, "I know, poppet, Fit will be okay though, he's just panicking a bit." Tubbo's chest clenched, and he was beginning to think he was getting panicked too.
Fit's breathing was still way too fast, and his eyes were darting everywhere, but still unable to focus on anything in particular. He was shaking underneath Tubbo's hand, he realized, underneath the heaving of his chest as he gulped down lungfuls of air, his whole body trembled.
"Okay, Fit, you're going to have to take a deep breath, you're freaking me out a bit." He patted at Fit's shoulder again, "Come on, Fit, you need to breathe."
"What's wrong!" called from across the clearing. It was Pac, hurrying over to where Tubbo and the kids were gathered around Fit.
Ramón started scribbling out an explanation to Pac, and Tubbo returned his attention to Fit. His chest wasn't heaving with his rapid, gasping breath anymore, but as Tubbo looked up to Fit's face, he realized the other had stopped breathing entirely, his face starting to turn red.
His eyes widened, voice coming quick and panicked, "Okay now you really do need to breathe Fit!" he tapped at Fit's shoulders again, and as Pac moved closer to the two of them he considered. The slap had helped last time…
Tubbo had hardly thought of the idea before he pulled a hand back, moving around to the side of Fit, and hit him square in the back. With a gasp and a cough, Fit sucked in a long breath, and sunk to the floor.
"There we go, thank god," Fit's breathing had mostly returned to normal but he was still shaking.
"I'm sorry." It was quiet and muffled through Fit's hands, which were pressed tight to his face.
Pac and Tubbo make eye contact before Pac turned back to Fit, crouching in front of him, "It's alright, are you okay?"
Fit nodded, and Tubbo spoke up, "Sorry, I guess we don't know enough about end crystals?" Tubbo wasn't sure if that's what set Fit off, or if it was something else about the situation that sent him into a panic.
Fit finally looked up from his hands, "No, I'm sorry, I don't know what the hell that was. Just got scared for no reason. Its stupid."
A sign was placed down next to Pac, and Tubbo looked to see what Ramón had written.
Are you okay Fit?
Fit smiled, "Yeah, I'm okay Ramón, don't worry about me." Ramón smiled at him, and then launched himself at his dad. Fit caught him with a soft 'oof', wrapping his arms around Ramón. After a moment, he looked back up at Tubbo, and Pac, "Sorry, I don't know, seeing the bomb was like I was back on 2b2t," he laughed, but Tubbo could tell it wasn't really humor.
Tubbo smiled back though, trying to ease the situation, "Sorry for hitting you."
"For hitting me twice you mean?" one of Fit's eyebrows raised, and then he smiled, "It actually helped, don't worry about it Tubbo."
Tubbo opened his mouth to reply, but his attention was dragged away from Fit as Sunny wrapped her arms around his shoulders, burying her face into Tubbo's shoulder.
Pac was already looking at him when he looked up, "You can go, we can figure this out while you take care of Sunny."
Tubbo nodded, scooping up Sunny and starting to head back towards Fobo. Sunny didn't usually like to be carried, but she just held onto Tubbo's neck as he walked them through the forest.
Will Fit be okay?
Tubbo rubbed a hand up and down her back, "Yeah, he'll be just fine. I think the bomb just reminded him of 2b2t and scared him a bit."
Sunny kicked her legs, squirming until Tubbo put her down and let her walk.
Hopefully his face won't hurt.
Tubbo was confused for a second before he burst out laughing, "Oh, you mean because I hit him, yeah I think he'll be okay. Don't try that when someone is panicking in the future though, that's probably not a good idea."
Sunny giggled as well, and they continued on their way back to Fobo.