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The snowfall outside was starting to turn from a light flutter to a thicker storm. Technoblade watched the white flakes drift outside the window for a moment, then turned away to prod the sputtering logs in the fireplace with the fire poker in his hand. As the hot coals finally began to send warm flames crawling up the largest of the three logs, Techno set the fire poker aside and watched the orange light grow inside the room.
"I hope Ranboo comes back soon." A familiar voice mumbled thoughtfully behind him. Techno looked over his shoulder at Philza, who was standing and staring out the window at the quickening snowfall outside. His tone of voice sounded bored, but the way the blonde was holding his wings betrayed that he was worried about the newest addition to the small "team" they made up. Techno smirked gently at his friend.
"The kid can survive a little snow. He left with his armor on, right?"
"Yeah."
"Then he'll be fine. He's survived worse than frozen water." Techno rumbled humorously, turning back to stab at the igniting logs again. A small flurry of sparks shot up from the coals as he shifted a mostly-unscathed log onto them, similarly causing a flurry of voices to rattle in his brain for a moment. Arson? Arson! ARSONBLADE! Quiet down, guys. At his own internal reply, the voices changed topic and continued their usual muttering- which was no less annoying, but much quieter, and Techno focused again on the fire with a sigh. Watching the sap on the log start to boil and pop, he added, "Maybe we can use the stasis chambers, if he's out too long."
"Maybe." There was still a underlying tightness to Phil's words, but Techno didn't bother continuing. That's just Philza for you, he sighed internally with a smirk, always worrying about whatever orphan he's spontaneously adopted this week. He could still remember when Phil had brought home Wilbur; just a little brown-haired scrap with a barely functional guitar in one hand and a fistful of Phil's black cloak in the other. Techno could hardly remember now where Philza had found the little guy, but what still burned clear in his mind was the intensity in his friend's eyes when he told Techno he was keeping Wilbur. It had shut down any possible objections Techno could've had- of which he'd had very few, anyways.
The habit of taking in whatever lone kid wandered Philza's way was one of the amusing things about him. It was more surprising for Techno to stop by on his travels and find Philza well-rested and alone than it was to find him slowly coaxing some new kid out of a hiding spot, gently telling them to say hello to the gigantic two-legged pig sitting in the living room and drinking tea.
Since Wilbur's death, though, that habit had seemed to shut off for a while. Techno had been too surprised to say anything when he'd come back from a day in the Nether to find Ranboo nervously petting each of the hounds while Philza watched. Even after the initial shock, he was too glad to have that part of Phil back to ever object. It'd been too long since there'd been that glowing determination and gentleness in his friend's eyes. Besides- the hybrids were always Techno's favorites to meet when he stopped by.
A sharp squeal sent Techno's train of thought off the tracks and into a canyon. It took him a moment- plus a blur of green clothes and black feathers rushing out of sight into the next room over- for Techno to process the sound was a kettle, not someone dying. LOUD loud volume check, chattered the voices ever so helpfully. He let them prattle on as he got up.
"I didn't know we had any tea left." He murmured as he leaned into the small kitchen area.
"Ah, we had just enough for one final teapot." Phil shrugged. "I figured I'd make it now, to warm everyone up." Techno accepted one of the cups in his hooves as it was offered to him. Tea pog! a lone voice announced happily before fading back into the chatter. He smirked and took a sip from the teacup, ears perking. "I forgot that you actually put effort into your tea. I just throw some milk in there and call it a day, what- what is this sorcery?" His grin widened.
Phil laughed and turned back to fixing up the other two cups. One of the dogs shook off from the other room.
Wait.
The dogs are outside.
The piglin whipped around and headed for the main room, toward the source of the noise. The voices began to mutter a little louder and tenser. A cold draft met his face and he blinked against it as it cut off and the door swung shut, leaving only a black-and-white blur once again shaking snow off like a dog.
Mismatched red and green eyes stared back at Techno. Ah. "Afternoon to you too, Ranboo." Techno nodded.
"Sorry, some of the snow got under my armor and started to melt. I-I kinda panicked there." The enderman hybrid looked apologetically around at the small pieces of snow scattered on the wall and floor around him. The damage was nonexistent, of course, but he still seemed worried, and once again Techno was almost amazed by the complete difference between his behavior and Tommy's. Ignoring the delighted cheering of the voices going, Ranboo! Ranboo pog! ITS HE! RANBOO!, Techno quickly said, "It's fine, it'll melt. Maybe go get tea from Phil before you freeze to death, though." The voices faded back to their normal background fuzz again as the hybrid nodded and headed in the direction Techno had just came from.
Glancing out the window, he could see the snowfall was getting pretty heavy. He wasn't sure how long he stared out into the shifting white landscape, but Phil was suddenly beside him, sets of black wings fluttering gently with interest as he too inspected the snow, and Techno got the impression he'd stood there both for only a second and a few minutes. "It'll be real heavy tonight." Phil remarked. His eyes traced the crackles of frost on the window.
"I haven't had to shovel snow in at least a century. Guess my streak ends here." Techno chuffed humorously.
"I doubt you've ever had to shovel snow in your life," came the amused response. "I'll bet that Blood God temple of yours had a janitor staff or something."
"You say that like you weren't sent to kill me. I wasn't- wasn't too popular with the local mortals, Phil, in case ya can't guess." They both laughed.
"So was I supposed to hear this conversation? Because I really want the clarification before I put anything in my book." Both of them turned around at the enderman hybrid standing behind them. Phil shrugged nonchalantly.
"I mean, I didn't think it was any big secret or anything. Just, nobody thinks about it for some reason. Congratulations on being the only one from this era to figure out we're immortal, though- that is, aside from Wilbur, back when he was alive and all."
"Oh." Ranboo's look got ever more puzzled. Techno just smirked and sat down by the fire again. He grabbed the fire poker in one hooved hand, and tossed a new log onto the blackened remains of the old ones and sending up a brilliant storm of sparks and ash. The piglin then returned to stabbing it with the pointed end of the iron poker while sparks and embers flew up and back down again. The voices chattered idly about arson for the trillionth time.
"Do I- do I get to know what any of that meant? Blood god, murders... what's all this?" When Ranboo spoke again, the tone was far from demanding. For all the curiosity clearly present in his expression, it was obvious the enderman would've settled with knowing nothing else about the two aside from this snippet of conversation. But the story of Techno and Phil's first encounter was hilarious to them, looking back on it now, and his voices always got quiet at the promise of getting "lore" from him. So, Techno just waved one hand, setting aside the poker with the other. "I guess I have the energy to tell a story with Phil real quick, but I'm not yelling it from across the room. Sit down, beanpole." Ranboo did as told, pointed ears flicking with curiosity as he settled on one of the open cushions near the fire. Phil flopped down on another cushion with an oof, his multiple black wings settling in every direction. Techno nodded to him.
The blonde lifted two of his wings high- whether to accentuate his words or simply because he was excited, the answer was most likely both- and started off the story. "It was way, way back. No idea what year- we didn't keep track then and we still don't keep good track now, but I'd guess it's been at least six or seven centuries, yeah?" Techno lightly grunted confirmation from his own seat. Phil continued. "So, Techno was literally a Blood God back then. Specifically, I believe he was the God of Blood, War, Chaos, Anarchy... I dunno what else, honestly. Importantly, he was also overlord of the all the land and the cities that surrounded his ridiculously big temple. Including mine. And he was like, the definition of a tyrannical ruler, except more frustrating and genuinely capable of wiping us all out if the people didn't bring him sacrifices in protest of him."
"Don't phrase it like that, it makes it sound like you nerds brought me live humans to eat." Techno butted in. "It was like, a singular pint of blood from any citizen, and it just fueled my powers a little."
"Anyways, eventually I was in the picture, and I got sent off to kill him by our, like, mayor or something. Gods can live forever, but they have three lives like all of us, so if you kill them, they'll die. I think. It's still never been observed, but I was still gonna do it. That was the plan anyways." Phil waved a wing dismissively.
Techno jumped in for the next part of the story. "So this little wingless pipsqueak Phil comes along, tells me I'm going to die by his hand or something, and about halfway through beating him I decided someone who can survive more than a minute fighting me is more useful on my side than against me. So I made him Angel of... Death, right? Death?" Phil just shrugged in reply, and Techno rolled his eyes and continued. "It's not that important I guess. It was just in exchange for stopping the sacrifices and in general me being less evil or something."
"And now we're friends!" Phil clapped his hands together.
"You guys skipped like, 600 years in there." Ranboo laughed.
"Well you do better at spontaneous storytelling then, nerd!" Techno shot back, but there was a wide grin on his face.
"Watch me!" Ranboo replied.
The three of them ended up swapping stories for long past when the sun disappeared. Despite his memory issues, Ranboo surprisingly still knew some enderman folktales and legends from the barely-remembered times when he still walked among them. In return, Techno told stories of vibrant victories in war, his travels across many lands to both end and start wars. Phil told stories of everything he'd seen, too, some of them stories he'd yet to even have opportunity to tell Techno- the lands he'd travelled, the times he'd watched villages rise and fall. Phil and Techno's shared victories were by far the most fun in Techno's opinion, though. The snow outside still fell heavily by the time the sounds of their laughing and chatting began to cease, and slowly each of them went to bed.
Alone in the room now, Techno stared into the final flickering embers of the fire. After long moments of silence, he smiled.
Despite all his time travelling alone, he had to admit company now and then was rarely ever a bad idea.