Thomas was determined to make Joan and Talyn proud with his videos. Granted, they uploaded way slower, but his other friends like Camden and Leo were there to help him, along with Quil.

He couldn't tell you how many times he broke down those first few months. He opened up a merch store, which is something Joan and Talyn wanted to do but Thomas was hesitant on. He was certain of this though, it would honor their memories. That was bringing in enough money in order to support himself and a couple of the others, which he was thankful for. Although he seriously considered it, he never moved back in with his parents.

The day of the anniversary of the Decimation rolled around, and the world was silent. They were putting up a monument of all those who had been lost to it today and Thomas said he would go if he could but he was bogged down in work and felt that he just couldn't bring himself to go.

He set up to record, going into the bathroom and getting dressed in his Roman costume. Talyn was usually in here to help-.

Stop thinking about them.

Thomas sighed, running a hand over his face. Camden knocked on the door and asked if he was okay.

"I'm okay," Thomas said, repeating the phrase in a lower tone until he truely felt okay enough to record. Thomas sure didn't feel like it though.

Everyone's birthdays were the hardest. All Thomas had left were Camden, Leo, Quil, and Adri. All of his family had been snapped, all of his friends. Thomas had never felt so alone.

He ended up needing to get a second job just to pay for the Sanders Sides stuff. He didn't want his friends trying to provide for something he made. Plus, Thomas liked to pay his friends because a lot of the time they were stuck at the office until the early morning hours editing the videos.

When he wasn't filming or editing for Sanders Sides he was working at the library, or if he wasn't doing either of those he was writing for the videos or contacting people who could help.

The year 2019 through the beginning of 2020 was Thomas' biggest year when it came to Sanders Sides. He introduced three new sides with videos coming out every other month. He loved his fans reacted to the Sides, and occasionally found himself reading fanfiction while at the library (his boss didn't care if he read on the computer, what mattered to the boss was that Thomas was even reading). Of course, there were some... interesting ones, but his favorites were the ones that had a new story in each chapter. He knew they were called something like One-Shots, and each day at work when he wasn't working on Sanders Sides he was reading those books. The funniest ones to read were what the fans called "Crack fics" because they were so short and often modeled after Vines.

Speaking of Vine, the original creator was still around in the winter of 2019 and, since he wanted to bring some happiness to the world he relaunched the app, making it free.

Thomas got right back into Story Times, and as he kept making these vines he found himself getting happier and happier. Of course, he still missed everyone like crazy, but he got more friends.

In January of 2020 Mark Fischbach, also known as Markiplier, reached out to the nearly thirty-year-old and asked if he wanted to do a collab of sorts, combining Mark's egos and Thomas' sides.

Thomas agreed pretty quickly, and as soon as Mark told him what dates he would be in Florida Thomas got the time off work at the library. Mark would be sleeping at his apartment with him, and would probably hang out for another week afterward so he could go to Disney World (as one does when visiting Florida with a ton of money).

By mid-February, Thomas was scrambling around the apartment getting it ready to go. His sugar glider Lucy was sitting on his shoulder, eating a small bite of food. Thomas was humming something, and when he heard Lucy screaming he gently grabbed her and let her jump to the couch just as a knock rang out on the door.

Thomas opened the door, seeing the man staring down at the ground.

"Hey Mark," Thomas said, smiling. Mark was about to reply but Lucy screamed from inside. Mark laughed, and Thomas helped grab Mark's bags and bring them in.

As soon as Thomas stepped into the living room Lucy jumped onto his shoulder, making Mark gasp behind him. "Oh my gosh, she is so cute!"

Thomas laughed, rubbing Lucy's head, "Thank you. I got her about a year ago. Do you wanna get settled in and I'll order us pizzas?"

Mark nodded, "That sounds good." And with that Thomas led Mark to his temporary room, getting his pizza order and then going back downstairs to both start ordering and write the script for the episode.

A month later that video would become the channel's most viewed video. Thomas also blew up shortly after, boosting his channel to a height where he could actually pay his friends to work for him. He felt safe.

That year at VidCon, he and Mark had a panel together. It was a little weird, considering one did Comedy and the other did Gaming. But it didn't matter because the two of them liked it.

As the two were walking out of the convention building, however, they found themselves cornered in an alley by three guys.

Thomas' heart pounded in his chest as he cowered behind Mark. He had told Mark not to walk home, to just take a cab.

"Guys, please just leave us alone," Mark said, reaching his arm behind him slightly. Thomas thought about grabbing it, but the thought of getting stabbed in the stomach made him wrap his arms around his torso tighter. Thomas could feel his legs quaking.

"Oh, it's not you we want," one of the men growled, pointing the knife to Thomas, "We want the pretty boy here. You may be handsome, but he's going to enjoy it."

Flattering and disgusting all at the same time.

"You'll have to fight me for him," Mark replied.

Thomas' stomach dropped as one of the men launched forward. Mark quickly twisted his arm around and kicked him, sending him towards one of the guys and knocking them over. A bone snapped as Mark punched the other one through the wall. Thomas screamed a little, backing away as the second man got up from under the first and began to run at Mark with another knife. Mark ducked under the knife and tackled the man, throwing him onto the ground.

With the men sufficiently knocked the crap out, Thomas let out a sigh of relief, running forward to hug Mark and repeating the words "Thank you" and "oh my god" like a mantra.

Mark chuckled, pulling away, "Let's get back to the hotel."

Thomas nodded, following behind Mark as they continued to walk. Thomas couldn't help but think back to how Mark sent the one guy through the wall like there was nothing there in the first place. It scared him.