(i've used three bases here. one for edd, one for tom, and one for the background. they're by the awesome basemaker EddsWorld-Base and can be found here, here, and here.)
(really getting the plot going with this one, they do be discussing red leader doe. bit long so under the cut again,)
It's around 19:45, a few minutes after Tom was set to meet with Edd in his room, just as planned.
Edd picks up a piece of paper from his desk.
"And this is the article I printed off about the Red Army's war with Denmark, the first they'd taken as a proper country, just after Norway."
"That was months ago."
"Yeah, that's the problem." Edd begins, "It was months ago. Shortly after the incident."
"And not only that - they're theorised to be using some never-before-seen technology in their weapons. Technology I remember seeing sketches for when we were teenagers - you remember how I wasn't the only one of us to be glued to his notebooks in highschool, right?"
"Honestly, I just thought your brother was a bit of a loser nerd."
"You're a dick, anyways, combining this, some documents, some more recent articles, and now that broadcast..." Edd's sentence trails off as he begins to think again.
"...You've, uh, certainly put some thought into this, huh?" Tom asks nervously, rubbing the back of his neck.
"Of course I fucking have, Thomas, we might find him with all this knowledge!"
"Somewhere in Denmark is the first proper 'branch' of this army. Do you know what that means?"
"That you're looking into this too hard?"
"No."
"That you're making connections that aren't there?"
"Wrong again."
"Then... what?"
"It means that if we find some way to get there, we can get closer. We can solve this, I know we can." Edd explains as though this was meant to be obvious.
"But what do we do if it is him?"
"We take him down."
"Seriously? I-I mean, not that I'd argue with that, it's just... surprising, coming from you, is all."
"Seriously. He's taking this all too far. Don't you want to stop him too?"
"Honestly, I just wanna finish what I started." Tom admits, adding "but how are we going to even get to the base?"
"Well, the coordinates to the location are somewhere around..." Edd rattles off some numbers, the lat and long, then continues with "so if we start heading east in about a week, we can maybe make it there in a couple months on-"
A cellphone rings, interrupting Edd's planning.
He answers, pulling it up to his head, and is surprised to hear a familiar voice come through the line.
"Ded? What's got you calling? We haven't spoken in, like, a year! How are your geckos?"
"That's great to hear."
"Missing? No, I was just... busy with some stuff." Edd hesitates, biting his lip. He didn't want the caller on the other side to know what he was actually doing.
Tom listens idly to the conversation, only able to make out Edd's side.
"Yeah, I think I can come over to y'all's place. I've been meaning to take a vacation anyhow - how's next week work for y'all?"
"Fantastic, you notify the others."
"Yeah, love ya too, see ya, buddy."
Edd hangs up, and turns to the side.
"Tom?"
"Yeah?"
"I think we got our ticket, they're out towards the east side of the UK, which gets us at least a little closer. Go tell Matt we'll be visiting our brothers for a while. Don't tell him, or them, why we're actually there."
Tom swallows - were they really going? That soon?
"Alright." he nods, "But promise me this."
"Anything, Tom."
"You're not going to get yourself killed while we're out there."
"Tom, we've been through zombies, we've gone to hell, we've dealt with a ghost, for fuck's sake you're the crazy bastard with the harpoons! We've done a lot and come out the other side alive - I'm going to be fine, as are you." Edd grins, finally feeling reinvigorated. There's a certain tone to the sentence, one that Tom hasn't heard since before the incident, and certainly not since Edd's been holing up in his room for weeks at a time obsessing over things.
Tom smirks, for the first time in a long while, he felt as if things were going to be okay.
(base by the ever-incredible EddsWorld-Base on Deviantart, can be found here!)
(tw for alcoholism mention, and general angst.)
"So, yeah..." Tom says awkwardly, scratching at the back of his neck, "I was uh... wondering if we could stay here for a few nights."
"Well, I don't see why you couldn't," Sharpay begins with a smile, "We have a spare room, and-"
"He absolutely canNOT." Tim interrupts, glaring at the only other eyeless man in all of Europe, "Not after everything."
"C-Come on, Tim... I thought we put all that behind us!" Tom stutters as he attempts to reason with his brother, "It's... it's been years, th-this is really important, a-and I, well... I..."
"...I missed you..." he murmurs, barely audible as he glances away.
"Oh, you missed me?" Tim sneers, "Of all the people in the world, my lowlife drunk of a brother, who threw his entire career away in one night, who never wanted to see me again, that's the guy who misses me? Give me a damn break."
"I... you... it..." Tom fumbles for words, silent for a moment before he finds his voice, "It wasn't that I never wanted to - it's that you left me in the fucking dirt when I needed your help the fucking most, Timothy." he growls out the name of his more successful twin, "We were supposed to make it together. You weren't supposed to just walk away because I picked up a little drinking habit that you couldn't handle because it ruined our perfect, squeakly-fucking-clean image!" Tom raises his voice as he speaks, shouting the final few words.
"It wasn't a little habit - you damned near took me down with you!" Tim gestures with air quotes around 'little habit', voice taking on a mocking tone for a moment, "What was I supposed to do? Sacrifice myself for some loser who couldn't make it half a show without passing out? There was a reason I split off to do my own solo act!"
"It would have only been a little habit had you the mind to stop me!"
"Well maybe I didn't want to stop you!"
"What, would you be better off if I drank myself to death?!"
"Maybe I would be, you worthless alcoholic bastard!"
"Fine! Then maybe I will! This stupid world doesn't need saving anyway!" Tom shouts as he begins to storm away.
He is stopped as someone grabs his hoodie.
"Wh-" he can't finish the sentence as he's yanked into the house.
"You can stay." Sharpay says with a warm, friendly smile, pulling Tom close to himself, letting go of his hood to gently drape an arm over the man's shoulders, before he turns to Tim, only saying one word to the guitarist.
"Out."
"You can't tell me to leave, I live here!"
"And I'm the one paying the rent." Sharpay sighs, "So you can simply get over yourself and act like an adult, or you can leave."
"Psh, whatever." Tim scoffs, walking away, "Not like I want to be here anyhow."
Edd just kind of stands there, having been naught but a helpless spectator, before finally speaking up with a cough "...Should I... uh..." he pauses, at a loss for words, "You know..."
"No, no, it's okay! You can stay here too!" Sharpay gestures for Edd to come closer, smiling as though nothing had occurred, "I know you've been so eager to see Ded again, after all!"
"No offence, but how did you know? Did he tell you or something?"
"No, I've been spying on you." Sharpay deadpans, before snickering a little, "Of course he told me! He hasn't piped down about it since you called!"
"I mean... I can't blame him. It has been five years, after all." Edd shrugs a bit, stepping inside and shutting the front door behind him, "You got any coke in here?" he asks as he looks around.
"Nah, but we do have that... Mr. Salt? Or whatever it's called." Sharpay states idly, "But I could go out and-"
"It's alright, I can deal with Dr. Pepper." Edd smiles, while it hadn't been his favourite soda, he'd take most anything as substitute - just as long as it wasn't Pepsi.
He walks off to the kitchen, leaving Pay and Tom alone.
"And as for you..." he begins, a sly smile slowly spreading across his face "I'm not done with you just yet."
"Wh... what does that mean?" Tom asks cautiously.
"Whatever you want it to mean, dear." Pay grins, "I am the host, after all - and it's my job to make a guest feel welcome in my holes- my home."
~What the ones spoken of only in whispers are up to.~
"Pat, are you sure this is the place?" Pau asks, looking rather uncertain as the plane lands and the area outside comes into view of the windshield.
"Absolutely, this is where we were directed to fly." Pat confirms, glancing up at his husband. He could be such a pain sometimes.
"It doesn't look like the kind of place we'd go to pick up supplies, unlike what he said..." he whimpers, beginning to tremble a little. He didn't care much for the 'scary' missions, and on some level, Red Leader knew this - but he also knew that Pau and Pat were the most trustworthy, and thus, the go-to for specific missions.
"Ah, he just wanted you to come with on the mission."
"Now come on, quit whining, and ready your gun - we've got a rebellion to crush here in Sweden."
"Why can't I ever just be assigned the normal tasks...?" Pau murmurs to himself, sighing.
He really didn't want to be here - but he couldn't just refuse an assignment.
After all, "the only ones who would refuse are traitors to our cause", right?
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(base by the wonderful EddsWorld-Base on Deviantart, can be found here!)
(also this was originally gonna be an ooc post like the red leader design post but i thought of some dialogue, soooo-)
(also yes by this point Tord's already taken Norway, Sweden, and Denmark lmao, he did start again in his home... and then the neighbouring two countries. and no, the swedish ppl are NOT happy lmao)
