Chapter Text
When Tommy was first found, Philza was concerned for the kid what with finding him alone in a dark oak forest on his hardcore world and grew even more concerned about the kid’s tale of his parents being gods and some called Lord English attacking them causing him and people he considered family and friends to be separated between universes. Sure, he knew the gods existed being married to the goddess of death and all but he never had heard of these so called players and when asking Kristan, she had no clue either. So while Phil played along, he really didn’t believe the boy, not even years later when he still claimed it to be true. He had snapped once at Tommy after a particularly stressful day, saying to stop with the make believe and accept that either his parents died or abandoned him. Tommy ignored him for at least a week after that.
Luckily, after a quiet discussion over hot chocolate, Tommy finally started to talk to him again. Phil didn’t think that Tommy ever fully forgave him but he treated him the same as before, though he never spoke of his bio family again after that. Though he feels like if he had Phil would have found out sooner that Tommy never really used his inventory the same way he did or damage didn’t seem to go away after eating food.
It was a surprisingly calm way Phil found out or not depending on who you ask. It was when Tommy had moved onto the sleepy bois inc home server, both Wilbur and Techno were out on other servers and the two had decided to collect some wood that was need for an build Phil and Wilbur had been planning together and since Wilbur had left to go see some friends and Tommy was bored, Phil offered and the kid agreed to join.
Phil had honestly thought he had lit up the area but of course there was that one creeper that snuck up on them. They had been working for quite a while so they were also hungry so Phil was quick to shove Tommy some food his way but instead of eating the boy just kind of stared at it. “Tommy if you don’t eat then your not going to heal as quick and I’m not wasting heal potions on a creeper explosion” sighed Phil as he knew the boy had tendence to drink potions instead letting his body heal naturally heal, both Techno and Wilbur had mention it as they knew that Tommy would steal their potions when he ran out of his own, it was a subject of many arguments.
“Phil my man, it doesn’t work like that with me” reply Tommy giving him an exhausted expression like he had explained this too many times,
“Look Tommy i know you like to use potions but you can’t always use them and food is an easier resource for healing” retorted Phil,
“Not for me” stated Tommy like it was fact and when Phil try to deny it Tommy just held up his hand, “I can’t heal like that I don’t have hearts like you guys or a hunger bar”, he waved his arm out to the side like how players do to show their sats but nothing came, “for fucks sake I don’t have an inventory or well I do but my definitely doesn’t work like yours would”.
It was quiet for a moment before Phil decided to respond “Tommy what the fuck are you talking about, I’ve seen you use your inventory”,
“Yeah because I somehow by sure luck picked Captchalogue deck as well as a Strife deck that worked similar to your guys ‘inventory’ but other than I do not work like you kinds of players for fuck sake, I shouldn’t even be called a player, my parents were players but not your kind and they were called that for entirely different reasons” answered Tommy as he made a potion appear and start to drink it, finally fixing up his injuries.
Phil was caught of guard at the mention of Tommy’s parents as it been a good year since their argument about them and as much as Phil felt like he should argue that Tommy was wrong and of course he was player or why else was he able to be registered to their server and hub world or the fact that respawn still worked for him, Phil knew that this was a point in time that he should just listen.
“Ok fine then how do you know you're hungry or on your last heart?” he question know while it may sound stupid, it was probably a good place to start,
“Through feeling it I guess, you guys still feel pain and hunger but have an easier way of tracking it” replied Tommy, “I unfortunately I have to guess work how bad I am in either instance”,
“And you use potions because you don’t have quick way to heal” continued Phil,
“Yep unlike you big man, a broken bone would take 6 to 8 weeks for me” said Tommy nonchalantly like that did sound like hell,
Phil blinked in surprise, “and you just have to live with the pain until it heals”,
“Yeah, although I think my dad used something called paracetamol to keep the pain to a minimum” responded Tommy, “or at least that’s what papa explained after he stopped calling Dad an idiot for not using his think pan”.
After that they sat in silence as Phil was left to mull over the information that Tommy had just given him while Tommy got up to finish the task they came out here to do. After that Phil had been very caution around Tommy when he got hurt and was quick to explain Tommy’s predicament to both Wilbur and Techno and while they didn’t look like they believed it at first. They made sure that Tommy had enough potions after Tommy was badly injured after a mansion raid and the food was not helping him. Phil even kept it in mind after joining the DSMP.
He was not close with Tommy especially after Doomsday and Phil feels like his harsh words back then came back to haunt him. As people seemed to think he was Tommy’s father and while he was Phil had grown to see him like a son but the statement was clearly not shared as the boy was quick to deny saying that he was just someone who took him in and that he had parents who were alive just out of reach.