Note: Tubbo, Philza, Tommy, Jack and Sneeg curse because they do that.
This is partially speculation on the history of Tubbo's current Origin, and partly a challenge to for myself to get Tubbo's characterization on the OrginsSMP right.
It was a surprisingly quiet day up in the pub. Tubbo, Jack and Charlie were having a mead identification contest again. Tommy and Philza were chilling nearby watching the trio as Charlie and Jack put small shots of mead on the counter for Tubbo to identify.
Jack looked incredibly smug, while Charlie was getting increasingly frustrated. The younger Blazeborn man had known Tubbo for a while, so whenever he started brewing up new alcohols with honey, he always got Tubbo to taste test. It was the pair's favorite little game to mess with people by getting them to bet on if Tubbo was able to identify the plants the honey used in the mead came from.
Philza smiled as the trio's voices rose as they got more excited.
A sharp rap on the door to the pub startled the five within the building. They were all so used to everyone knowing that this was a public space, that knocking was incredibly uncommon. The door opened, and a tall blonde female in golden crystalline armor, carrying a shield made of the same stuff as her armor, entered. Her features were sharp, the way she carried herself just screaming 'well-trained soldier'.
But the most interesting thing about her was her black antennae and matched pair of translucent wings, basically identical to Tubbo's. "Tubbo." She stated, her voice flat and monotone. "Come."
Tubbo's cheery expression had fallen flat as soon as the woman spoke. He held up a hand to Jack who had set a new shot of mead on the counter for him. "Hold up. I'll be right back." He slowly stood, and took a bracing breath. "I hope." His last statement was barely audible, but those who did hear it felt a wash of concern for the young bee.
As soon as Tubbo left and closed the door, Philza sighed and dropped his head into his hands. "Fuck sake." He growled.
"What's up, Phil?" Jack asked. He picked up the shot glass on the counter, eyed it then knocked it back. He was never one to let good alcohol go to waste, after all.
Philza let out an aggravated sigh, and shook his head. "I had hoped that those lot would leave Tubbo alone. They were the ones who kicked him out, after all."
"Who are 'those lot'?" Charlie asked, cocking his head in curiosity.
"Tubbo's OG Hive. You know how wild hives have a Queen and a bunch of workers who are also her daughters, right? Well, before a Queen dies, she produces a Princess, and a bunch of drones. When the princess is old enough, she mates with a couple of drones and takes over the hive after eliminating the previous queen." He shook his head sadly. "The drones that don't get mated with either get to bum around the hive waiting for a chance to breed with the queen, or get kicked out."
"And, what does this have to do with Tubbo?" Tommy asked, his brow furrowed.
"Well, Tubbo's people also have a very female dominated society, with males being born only from the queen. They are usually seen as breeders only, and are either treated very well, or very poorly, depending on the hive. Tubbo, from what he told me, is from one of the former."
"If he's from one of the ones that treated him well, why did he get kicked out?" Jack chimed in.
"Well, you know how Tubbo is really good at tinkering and engineering? That's why. He was too smart." Philza stated.
"Oh!" Charlie said, nodding. "You said the males are generally seen as breeders, so I'm guessing that they want to keep the males nearby to have babies with. Uh. Hold one, let me get the thought together...Like that one story someone told me about with the race that requires three individuals to have kids. The culture keeps the third sex repressed so they can have babies whenever and they are scared that if the third sex learns they can do whateve they want, their species will die out, right?"
"Along those lines, yeah." Philza nodded. "I'm...not a fan of the bee culture, but it's their culture and they have had pressure to change from others before. Tubbo's people pushed back. Hard. It wasn't pretty. Full on war."
Tommy's expression had fallen as he listened. "Will he need to go back?" He asked, his voice soft.
"I don't know, Tommy. I don't know." Philza said.
"Fucking no!" The loud angry voice of Tubbo came from just outside the door. "Never. No way in hell! Get out!"
The door of the pub slammed open, and an angry Tubbo stomped in. The female stood just outside the door, her expression unchanged. "She is sure you will change your mind, Tubbo." She said, raising her voice so all within the pub could hear her.
Tommy's face went white and he scrambled to his feet to get to his friend as soon as possible. Jack held out a full mug of mead to the seething bee. Tubbo took it and took a long draw. "Fuckin' bitches," He growled.
Jack frowned at the woman who still stood at the entrance to the Pub. He let out a frustrated sigh, and stepped out from behind the counter. "Look lady. You are obviously not from around here, and you seem to be causing a problem with one of my regular 'customers'. As such, I will have to ask you to leave the premises immediately." He stared her down until she turned and leapt off the edge of the floating island and flew away.
"Thanks Jack…" Tubbo mumbled.
"Bah." Jack waved a hand dismissively. "She rubbed me the wrong way the second she opened her mouth. Makin' demands of my friends like she owned the place. Makes me wanna stab her with a rusty sword and pin her to the wall in a glass case." Jack shook his head and headed back behind the counter to refill Tubbo's mug of mead.
Tubbo sipped the mead, his wings occasionally buzzing slightly. Tommy had known Tubbo long enough to know that his wings doing that meant he was Not Happy. It was difficult to pin down exactly what Tubbo was probably feeling, but Tommy could take an educated guess.
The young Avian perched on the stool beside the one Tubbo was on. After knowing him for so long, he felt that Tubbo just needed someone nearby, for now.
Tubbo slammed the switch within his workshop that closed the door. He didn't want anyone intruding right now.
He perched on his work stool and stared down at the blank roll of graphing paper, his fingers itching to draw out the plans in his head. He shook his head, frustrated. When he had left the hive of his birth, he had sworn to never pay them any more 'favors'.
The soft Vwoop of his partner teleporting into the room made him turn and half smile at the lanky young man. "Mornin' Ranboo."
"Hey. Tommy and Charlie said something happened. Well, Tommy babbled what happened at me. Could barely understand him." He leaned against one of the less cluttered tables. "Want to talk about it?"
Tubbo pursed his mouth, considering. He let out a sigh. "One of the soldiers from my old hive found me. The Queen wants me to do something. But I'm scared, Ranboo. What if this 'just one thing' turns into 'well, you did the one thing, what's another'?" He shook his head.
Ranboo nodded somberly. "You made your choice when you left. This is your choice now. None of us can make it for you." He shrugged. "But, I know you. You'll make the right choice for you." He smiled slightly.
Tubbo sighed and rubbed his face. "Yeah. Thanks. I'll be out in a bit." He half watched as Ranboo vwooped out of the workshop. With a sigh, he turned back to the graphing paper. He stared down at the paper and pencil on the table. He shoved away from the table, and stood. While plans were buzzing in his head, he had to distract himself from the past.
His hand rested on the lever that unlocked the door to his workshop, and he paused. His head dropped back and he groaned. He turned back to the table, grabbed the pencil and began sketching out the plans.
It didn't take long, being a simple design. Tubbo dropped the pencil and sighed. He stood, flipped the lever and left the blueprint on the table in the dark. He stood outside the room, squeezing his eyes closed. He let out a slow breath and closed up his workshop.
The plans and the uninvited guest were almost gone from his mind again, until they weren't. The soldier was waiting outside the Bee Inc. Ammo Shoppe, and her presence immediately soured his mood.
Sneeg was perched on the counter inside with a very displeased look on his face. He was carefully and pointedly sharpening his sword, his gaze trying to burn a whole in the back of the soldier's head.
"Tubbo." The soldier stated, upon spying the young bee. "We must speak."
Tubbo glared at the woman, and felt a small flash of amusement when she took a step back. "No."
Sneeg, upon spotting Tubbo, hopped down from the counter and scurried out the small hatch that had been installed for him. "Hey boss!" He said. "This bitch," he jerked a thumb toward the soldier bee, "has been here since before I got here. Want me to chase her off?"
The soldier's hand drifted to the handle of the short sword at her side, her eyes narrowing.
Tubbo took a breath, and turned to face the woman. "Piss off. You aren't welcome here."
She glared, her hand fully resting on the handle of her short sword now. She smirked. "Telling me to go away. Hah! I shall take it as an admission that you are utterly incapable of completing the project."
Tubbo scowled at her words. "I left because of that exact sentence. I do not take challenges of my knowledge lightly. Be glad that I don't want to start a war because of killing you." He stomped toward the door, opening it just wide enough that he was able to enter, then slammed it in the woman's face.
Sneeg ducked in through his hole and deftly climbed up on the counter. "Give me the order boss, and I'll make sure that she...ahem, 'encounters a venomous creature on her way home'."
A smile tugged at the corners of Tubbo's mouth. "Nah. It's fine. I've dealt with this sort of crap before. Being rude as hell is the best way to get them to piss off."
Tubbo slammed his fist against his workroom table, some of the smaller bits jumping at the plans were spread across the table below the parts and the unfinished device. He grabbed his pencil and scribbled on the plans, altering them slightly. He let out a frustrated sigh, and picked up the thin tongs and mallet to try and get the device to work.
He had taken the challenge personally, as he did any challenge of his knowledge. Ranboo had been concerned when he came home and beelined it straight for his workshop.
Tubbo carefully slotted the price into place and tapped the activation plate. The Maxine briefly hummed to life then shut down after a few seconds. Progress. Awful progress but still progress. He popped the plate off and extracted the circuit beneath. He clamped it so he could work on it more precisely and pulled down his goggles swapping to a magnifying lens.
The feeling of making a thing and having it work was always a glorious one. It didn't take long to finish the modifications, and he slotted the circuit back in place. He replaced the activation plate and tapped on it. The machine hummed to life, and Tubbo waited, with bated breath. It hummed for about a minute, made a low ding and shut off.
Tubbo grinned, and picked up the machine, moving it off the plans. He rolled the paper up and stuffed it in his inventory bag. He picked up the machine and flew out of his workroom. "I'll be back, Ranboo!" He called out, heading through the Nether portal.
Tubbo flew through the portal to the Pub and out the door, startling Tommy. "Tub-!" Tommy started.
"No time! Bye!"
Tubbo found the woman exactly where he expected. Outside the Ammo Shoppe. He paused, then leveled a glare. "This is the one and only time I will do this. If anyone comes looking for another 'favor', I will kill them."
The woman shrugged. "Very well. I will pass your desires on to the Queen."
Tubbo extracted the device from his bag.
"TUBBO!" The familiar voice of Tommy interrupted. "DON'T YOU DARE!"
Tubbo froze as Tommy came barreling out of the sky, ramming into the shorter 's body jerked at the force and his arms lost their grip on the device, dropping it to the solid stone patio outside the shop.
There was a long silence from the trio. Tubbo whipped around, leveling Tommy with a glare. "Tommy. What the fuck."
Tommy froze, staring at the badly dented machine on the ground. "Whelp! I need to go!" He said, his voice pitched higher than usual. "Goodbye!" He turned and bolted.
Tubbo drew his shortbow, ran the flat of an arrowhead across the inside of his wrist, coating it with his poison. He knocked the arrow, drew and fired. It sliced past Tommy's arm, delivering the poison quickly.
Tommy stumbled as the slight paralyzation effect set in, and Tubbo shook his head. He drew the plan from his bag and held them out. "Here. This will help the egg-heads build a new version. Again. I don't want anyone coming to me ever again. The plans work. Bye."
The woman took the rolled paper, and nodded stiffly. She spread her wings and took off like a shot.
Tubbo sighed and shook his head. He hoped that they would keep their word. He didn't doubt that they would, but the queens were clever. He spread his own wings and flew up to the pub. Tommy was gulping down a glass of milk when he arrived.
Tubbo whacked the back of Tommy's head, delivering another sting. Tommy's arms stiffened. "What the fuck, man!" Tommy yelped, stiffly bringing the glass up to take another sip.
Ranboo Vwooped in, and saw Tommy basically folded over a glass of milk and Tubbo looking disappointed. "Okay. What happened?" He sighed.
Tubbo grinned, feeling more relaxed than he had in a little while. "I shot him!"
Hi. I wanted to have this out earlier this week, but I got my second vaccine stab on Sunday and it knocked me over really hard Monday and Tuesday. Have to say tho, it's worth it. I've got no set schedule for getting these shorts out; they'll come out when they are ready.