HC: Theobald and Shoebilly // AirStrike Duo ( THIS IS A LONG ONE. )
They first met when Theo was in his early training with Minecarts. And their meeting wasn't by surprise or anything. Theo, with his big attitude and his above-average minecart skills, wanted to find a challenge for himself. And with this name of " Billy the Butcher " on the rise, his mind went, “Why not? If I could kill him, I could get all the fame and attention.”
So he travels around to find this “butcher. " When he first met him, Billy was just finishing from his latest work and was also hurting at the moment from the job. His back got this ugly scar mark from it. And then comes Theo, who wanders into his territory and asks him boldly.
" Are you Billy the Butcher? "
" I'm here to beat you up "
Let's just say it did not go well for Theo. He was surviving, but he's not winning, and he whines the whole time as well. Amused and kind of impressed with this whole attitude of the guy, Billy asks him for his name, and after a few unpleasantries, he asks Theo if he would like to be taught some BASICS. Offended by this, bro denies and quickly scurries away...after a day or two, he came back for revenge and got his ass kicked again.
Then he ran off, and after a third time of this, he finally ... reluctantly accepted the offer before Billy changed his mind and killed him off for being a nuisance. The first thing he asks him is whether he has friends or any allies at all. Of course, with the big attitude of Theo, he has basically no one. Billy teaches him his first lesson: friends = bad, friends will drag him down, and having friends or someone dear to him will hurt him in the long run. Theo doesn't understand the real concept of this much since he doesn’t have friends at the moment, but he understands the whole gist of what Billy tries to say.
Their daily routine consists of around three things: Training, Resting, Hunting for food. It was that simple. If only the training was that simple. Billy made him do a lot of things, from carrying buckets until his inventory is full to punching 100 trees in 1 hour, and that's just a warm-up. He taught him the basics of PVP, how to adjust his inventory, and how to dodge attacks. He even taught him a new attitude, small things like how he needed to lift his chin up, how he was supposed to talk, and carry himself so he would be even more confident.
Safe to say, most of the time, ShoeBilly is a good model. There are some things that Theo finds weird, but he didn’t really call Billy out for it like how he didn’t stop players from killing an innocent player when he could have or how he would laugh as a weaker player got slaughtered. He does know of ShoeBilly ideals, but it still rubs him the wrong way; he just doesn’t know what it is.
They spent nights and days together. ShoeBilly lives in a big ass tree near the mangrove swamps biome (because he really likes the colors of the wood… and also… easy to access food. ) Theo doesn't really like the swamp much, so Billy has to make a little corner for him in his house using some leaves and jungle wood. He also stockpiles a lot of seeds. At first, he thought Theo could just eat fish, but bro stares at him when he drops a big ass salmon on the floor for him, so he switches to collecting seeds.
He makes Theo do all the chores around their little nest. Usually, Billy just sits around, goes hunting, or does his job ( he's still an assassin ). Sometimes he takes Theo with him; sometimes he doesn’t. As you can see it is quite peaceful they didn't really have conflict that much they do bicker often but it was all in good fun.
After training with Billy for a while, Theo started to develop the same habits as him. Just small things: the way he carries himself, the way he looks down on others, and even the way he dresses. Then one day, another topic of having friends arises. They were talking casually about Theo meeting old acquaintances, and Billy reminded him about their first lesson. It goes something like:
" Okay, if having friends makes me weak, then what are we? Are we not friends? "
" Like I know you're going on and on about having someone you care about could make them be a target, but then am I not your one weakness then? "
" Then what am I to you?"
To that, Billy did not respond and gave him a very annoyed look and basically said he's done with the conversation. After that, Theo was a bit down for a while since, well, the person he looked up to just straight up told him that they are not friends. It created a " small " rift, but after a while, they resumed talking like nothing had happened. Theo didn't question him about it much again.
Now let's talk about how Billy viewed Theo in most of this.
I didn't draw much of this, but he really likes Theo as a person and as a student of his, he doesn't really have a student he doesn’t even want to teach anyone until, of course, he finds this stupid ass bird trying to one-up him in a fight. And usually, if he finds someone trying to pull a stunt like this, he would immediately ban them without a single thought, but since it was another fellow bird (which he didn't encounter in a while) and it also came with an attitude, he decided it might be worthwhile taking it in under his wings.
Billy takes care of Theo well, providing him with food and shelter, helping him preen and get himself together, and he even taught him a thing or two about his work and some advanced fighting techniques. He learned to really cherish this fat, ahh cockatiel as something dear to him, a very cute student. He has pictures of him all over the walls in his room, trust, but he'd never let bro see that shit. Although he was cold on the outside, he very much is the opposite on the inside; he really appreciates having a company in his house.
So when the question of what situationship they are arises, it makes him feel a bit conflicted.
Here's the thing about ShoeBilly:
2) He hates "having friends."
3) Although he treats him as a very close friend, the thought of saying something that goes against HIS OWN ideals chokes him.
So basically, he told him to shut up and don't think about it. He does feel a bit bad seeing Theo sulk around their place, but he thought he'd get over it anyway, so like… yeah.
Spoilers: He did not get over it.
They continue on with their day like nothing happened. They live their life like normal, and Billy always shuts down the same kind of conversation with Theo.
After Theo actually gets good at minecarts, they decided to go on a mission together for a commission that Billy received from someone he wanted Theo to partake in. They travel to the Farlands around this time. Along the way, they meet and kill a bunch of the mafias, and Theo learns to really dislike them SO MUCH because they pester them a LOT. After traveling for a while, he's seen what they are capable of and holds a little bit of a grudge against them every time he sees any of them. He wanted to chase them down, and every time Billy stops him, he was more than annoyed.
At this point, it comes to a point where he finally said he will go after them, and Billy can go do his commission alone. Billy insists that he came with him because he doesn’t want Theo to go alone. But Theo was so fed up because all these times he travels, never once has Billy let him do whatever he wants. It’s always " no, Theo, you can’t do that. " or " No, Theo, you need to listen to me. " So he was done. And he made it clear that " no, I am going. You can't stop me. "
And that was the first time they had a full-blown argument, and it came to a point where Billy threatened to cut him off entirely. But Theo really didn't give a shit anymore. He was so ready to leave the nest... so with a final effort, Billy asked him to just come with him:
" Theo, you're making a mistake. Just- come with me. "
" No? Like you're just going to order me to do this or order me to do that? I am done, bro. If you want to do whatever mission so badly you can do it alone, I'm not doing this shit anymore. I'm just done. You do whatever you want. I’m-“
" IF YOU DON'T COME WITH ME- I WON'T BE ABLE TO PROTECT YOU
Theo, I won't be able to .. so just come with me and we can talk about it later. "
There was a long silence, but the answer came after a while as Theo threw his own uniform to the ground and just responded.
That was how they parted. Theo went on his own ways to do his own thing because he's really fed up with getting controlled and dragged around by ShoeBilly. While ShoeBilly was left to pick up the pieces of his one and only friend. He took the hoodie, of course. He felt like his world fell apart for a moment there, but there's really nothing he could do. He wished he could word it differently or convince him again, but he can’t, and if he could go back in time a little bit, he might have told him he did view him as a friend.
Idk who will read it to this point, and if you did, I applaud you. I might draw some scene later
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