Dream SMP Sickfics

Meltdown: Tubbo's Autism Pt.3

Today was the day he'd be going to VidCon, and Tubbo had been excited for months. It was supposed to be fun.

By the last week, he could think about nothing else.

On the plane to America (because that's where VidCon would be) he had even rambled to the stranger sitting next to him about it for minutes on end until Ranboo stopped him and proceeded to apologise about a thousand times. The man just smiled kindly and congratulated them with a short half-promise to watch Tubbo's streams.

In conclusion, Tubbo had really been looking forward to today.

But as soon as the convention started and the thousands upon thousands of loud, excited fans flooded into the convention centre, the sound of it all hit Tubbo in the face like a truck.

It hadn't even been fifteen minutes yet, but Tubbo was already getting overwhelmed. He didn't know where to look.

There was so much noise and blaring bright lights, too many new faces and unfamiliar smells, and it was overall just too much.

Tubbo took a deep breath. Most of his friends weren't around at the moment. most of the people he knew were in the specifically Dream SMP section of the convention, probably doing some sort of Q&A or something.

Ranboo, whom he would usually go to in situations like these, was currently being swarmed by fans a few floors down.

The only person around here that he actually knew was Tommy, who thank god had purposely set up his stand right next to Tubbo's.

'You alright there, man?' He heard the familiar male ask, bringing him out of his panicked thoughts. Tubbo swallowed.

'Y-yeah. 'm fine. 's just... a lot.' He laughed nervously and Tommy gave him a sympathetic smile.

'Yeah, I know. A lot more people than I remembered.' And he was right. There were about 700,000 people here, and that was just what Tubbo had seen. He had no doubts that there might even be double that.

Their conversation was interrupted as Tubbo was asked to sign a fan's shirt and Tommy was handed a poster and asked to draw himself.

Come on, Tubbo he thought. It's just a bit of noise. You have three more hours to go until you have a half an hour break, then five more until you can go back home and collapse on the hotel bed. You can do this.

As soon as the speakers blasted on, he decided that he could not do this. There was only one coherent thought in his head right now, and that was RUN.

So he did.

He ran as fast as he could, away from the loud noise and into the first quiet and abandoned hallway he could find.

There he curled up into a ball. When he was scared, Tubbo always tried to make himself seem as small as possible, and now was one of those times.

He brought his fist up to his head and hit himself as hard as he could in his weakened state. And then again. And again.

It's another weird thing he did when having meltdowns like this, which he never actually understood why he did. Hitting himself would bring out the anxiety and tension he had been holding in for a while too long.

He kept landing not-so-fierce punches at himself until he felt something- no, someone grab his wrist firmly to stop him from hurting himself.

Huh. Weird. He didn't even hear the person approaching.

He wailed, scrambling to get away from whoever had just touched him. He soon found that he had started to sob uncontrollably, shaking. He must look so pathetic right now, but at this point he just couldn't bring himself to care.

He heard a familiar voice penetrate the loud sound of his sobs.

'Toby- Tubbo, Tubbo, bud. Can you hear me?' He quietened his crying by a barely noticeable amount to show Tommy that he was listening.

'Can- can I come closer?' The smaller boy gave a slight nod after a moment of hesitation. A moment later he heard soft footfalls next to him as Tommy engulfed him in a gentle hug.

Tubbo, who was still shaking from his sobs, returned the affection, burying his face in his pseudo brother's chest. Tommy didn't protest as his shirt slowly became wet with tears and instead just got comfortable on the cold floor, rubbing gentle circles on the brunette's back.

'I-I'm sorry-' Tubbo managed in between his sobs.

'You did nothing wrong, Tubs. There's nothing to be sorry for.'

They stayed like that for another hour or so, Tubbo not wanting to get away from his brother's comfort.

Tubbo's crying slowly calmed down and eventually stopped, and he fell asleep in Tommy's arms.

That put Tommy in a bit of a dilemma, considering they kind of needed to go back and interact with fans cuz that's really what they're here for, but he also didn't want to wake Tubbo up or force him into another meltdown.

Thank the gods, Tubbo did wake up on his own ten minutes after that, and agreed to go back outside once he'd composed himself a bit more.

'You sure you're okay to go back out now?' Tommy made sure.

'Yes.' Tubbo nodded, and Tommy smiled.

'Great! Let's go! I texted the others and i think they actually finished early. It's 1 pm, so how about we go to the Mac Donald's across the road and have some lunch?' Tommy suggested, and Tubbo grinned, nodding.

'Okay!' He flapped his hands in excitement, standing up. He held Tommy's hand as they walked out and back towards the convention area.

There they met the others (Ranboo, Dream, George, Sapnap, Phil, you get the point), who were overly happy to see that Tubbo was okay again. Maybe a bit nervous around people, but much better than he was an hour ago.

After that they went to Mac Donald's, just like Tommy had promised.

They also made sure to mostly keep away from larger crowds or triggering sounds for the rest of their time at the convention, thank the gods.

Overall, the rest of the day went pretty well. Tubbo couldn't thank his friends enough for how kind and accepting they were to him. It often made him wonder what he could even have possibly done to deserve such prosperity.

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A/N:

This chapter is a lot shorter than usual, sorry about that! Also the fact that posts have slowed down a bit recently..

I'm going on holiday with my family for over a week, so I won't be able to post then. I hope that's okay :)

Written: May 2nd, 2022

Published: July 21st, 2022

1138 Words