Chapter Text
Long ago, in a tale told and retold till the truth of the situation blurred, a dragon in the shape of a human killed a dragon in the shape of a terrifying beast. For six days and six nights the two dragons fought, neither backing down. Eventually, the dragon that the world would later come to know as Philza Minecraft came out victorious.
The “Gods” who prompted him on his quest rewarded him greatly. Dragons were as unique creatures as they were rare. While hybrids and shifters were not a foreign concept to the world at large, dragons could be neither.
Always born in the shape of a human, dragons grew more into a draconian countenance as they aged. Some managed to keep their humanity, like the champions those who could be considered “Gods” had chosen. Others over time lost it, like the dragon who once held dominion over the realm known as The End. That is why the dragon who lost itself needed to be slain by a dragon that hadn’t.
To their champion, the Gods gave great laurels and the name of Philza Minecraft became well known across the lands as one of the most powerful living dragons, even if it wasn’t always the truth. Across realms and servers and webs of interconnected worlds, people regarded him as a legend and a true ruler. Such was his reward for besting the beast, a reward that he’d never asked for.
Time slowly passed and the dragon simply known as Phil eventually settled down. As one of the last dragons, and one of the strongest that was presently known, many pushed him to take a wife. His first marriage was an arranged one. From it were born three boys, triplets, who he gave the names of Technoblade, Wilhelm, and Gilgamesh.
In the middle of the night their mother fled, not caring for what her life had become or the marriage she’d been forced into as much as her new husband. Phil didn’t particularly mind the loss of such a loveless marriage. Where the marriage itself had been void of all emotions, the dragon loved his three sons deeply.
The youngest and the middle child, later simply known as Techno and Wilbur, were identical whereas their third triplet was not. Taking more after their mother, they weren’t dragons but instead piglin shifters. As it was impossible for dragons to be hybrids, following a rather you are or you aren’t pattern, the father worried he’d see the day where he outlived his sons. Luckily for him and his family, the two were each favored by a God who took it upon themselves to ensure both boys inherited the lifespan of their father and eldest triplet. A gift to the twins as much as their sire.
The first born took after his father. He wasn’t a particularly powerful dragon, only being a creature known as a lesser dragon. When dragons were once plentiful they had been split into three categories. Lesser, average, and greater. Where greater dragons were practically unheard of, Philza Minecraft stood out by being average, one of the last known dragons to be able to claim such. But the eldest twin was only a lesser dragon.
Neither father nor son shared the stereotypical dragon look either, as dragon was more a classification than a species. Anything from a hydra to a basilisk could technically fall under the umbrella, and both father and son fell outside the classical descriptors with their large feathery wings and antlers protruding from the father’s head.
Despite only being a lesser dragon, due to their rarity young dragons were things sought after greatly. It put a target on the oldest’s back and under the darkness of nightfall he was spirited away from his unsuspecting family who knew not the full breadth of human greed. Only five years old at the time, even if the oldest triplet managed to survive whatever future awaited him there was no chance of him finding his way back home, it would have taken nothing short of a miracle.
Phil blamed himself, and the youngest triplet Techno did as well. It was made no better by the fact the youngest slowly began to grow into the greatest blessing and the worst curse of his patron God, the Chat of the Blood God. Phil could do nothing but mourn his oldest and try to keep his youngest sane. Their family grew cold.
The trio changed servers after deeming the one they currently occupied notably unsafe. They traveled across the world known as the Server Hub, the safest way to change servers, until they ended up in a land known as SMP Earth. Phil and Techno wasted no time in becoming the rulers of the Antarctic Empire and over time even Wilbur grew to take up the mantle of the server’s lead Admin.
It was at eighteen years old that Wilbur fell madly in love with a kitsune that had been made into a siren. Together they brought into the world a son. A baby kitsune who was given the name Floris by his grandfather, a boy who’d later come to be known as Fundy.
Unfortunately, Wilbur and Fundy’s time with Sally was cut short. Sirens were a form of lesser dragons, and she’d been forced into her current form in order to be made into a servant by an ocean God that didn’t particularly care for their relationship. The God ordered Sally to return, and Sally couldn’t refuse. Leaving Wilbur to raise his new child utterly alone with only a promise that she’d never stop loving either of them.
It was at nineteen years old when Wilbur and Techno, the older doing his best to raise Fundy, watched their father fall in love for perhaps the first time in their lives. He fell for a woman who held kindness and ferocity in equal measures and loved both boys dearly as though they were her own. To the family of three, the woman who called herself Kristen was perfect, and they all slowly began to thaw.
It was at twenty years old that both boys met their baby brother for the first time. Only months before the woman they’d grown to lovingly call their mother suffered the same fate as the eldest triplet once had. Leaving her family to once again freeze and her new baby son to weather that winter alone.
Phil gave his youngest the name Theseus, seeing only human traits and a short human life span. Theseus Minecraft would later claim the name itself to be one of the only gifts his father gave him during his childhood. A gift he surely came to despite.
There is always more to a story than one single character’s point of view is privy to. There are secrets that Techno and Phil hid away under the scars of losing two family members. Truths that they simply didn’t want to address and would much rather bury than look into the eyes of. For an immortal dragon and an immortal acolyte of the Blood God, it wasn’t easy to dare meet the eyes of a child born seemingly perfectly human with no Gods to offer him their shared immortality.
After losing two family members far too soon, they couldn’t bear to try growing attached to a third that would inevitably leave them.
In the end, it was Wilbur who raised his youngest brother right alongside his son who was two years older.
Time passed, and even then, that attention slowly began to dry up. The God who ruled over Sally made an exception and gave her permission to take custody over her son for a couple of years. It was only temporary, but with Fundy gone with Sally, Wilbur was left with nothing but hurt and he threw himself into his Admin duties.
Theseus, admittedly not for the first time, was left alone. It was okay though. There were plenty of servants in the castle of the Antarctic. He still saw his family in passing as they went about their day to day work. It was okay until suddenly it wasn’t.
At ten years old, perhaps if someone, anyone, had paid more attention Theseus then they would have seen the first signs of what he really was peaking through the cracks in what looked like humanity. They would have seen the first sparks of what blessings and boons he’d actually been granted.
At ten years old he accidentally crossed the border of the server, magic he didn’t know how to control sparking to life, and he entered into another server. One simply known as RLCraft. A server which had been set to hardcore. One life, that was all you got. Tommy hardly even balked at the prospect.
RLCraft was where the young Theseus met a younger Boffy, a young Admin and an average dragon. An unstable Admin.
Some people were made into Admins over time, others were born with the power. Those who were born as Admins could sometimes become what was most commonly referred to as being a “unstable” Admin. Especially during their younger years when their powers had yet to settle.
The server that Theseus found himself in had been a hell of the nine year old’s own creation, his personal prison. His family had been doing their best to try and keep Boffy safe since unstable Admins were often the cause of their own early demise, but there was only so much they could do. It was Boffy’s decision to try and isolate himself when Theseus first arrived.
It took months for any form of trust to build between the two. Boffy was scared. Constantly terrified his powers would go wild and he’d kill this child barely older than him. Theseus was stubborn and determined. He recognized that deeper than his fear of his own powers was Boffy’s fear of being truly alone. Being the cause of that loneliness. Boffy wouldn’t be abandoned, not by him.
It took them a full year to defeat the False Ender Dragon that Boffy had accidentally created as guardian of the realm, allowing them to finally return home. After it was dead, the pair were free, and Boffy’s powers as an Admin settled down during his time with Theseus. For some reason, in the presence of this absolute spitfire of an older boy, he’d become Stable. Neither was entirely sure why, but they were too young to really question it deeply.
When they left RLCraft, Boffy made a promise. He told Theseus that he’d never forget them and he’d never forget how important friends they were. Theseus promised the same. What they survived had created a string of fate unable to be snapped by hands normal or divine. They weren’t letting go.
Before the pair left the server, Boffy created two gifts using his powers and presented them to Theseus. The first was a music disc with the name of Mellohi. Using Boffy’s power it had been enchanted with fire resistance and renamed in such a way that you’d only notice if you went digging through the code. He’d renamed it the Dragon’s Waltz and called it a token of their time on the server.
The second gift was by far the most important gift Theseus ever had and probably ever would receive. To the boy who’d been cursed by his father to fall, Boffy gave him another option in the form of a new name. The name Tommy became his first set of wings.
Tommy. He liked that name. It was better than Theseus, and it actually meant something when the boy who’d become so dear whispered it quietly in their goodbye.
Wilbur and Techno had nicknames. Fundy had a nickname. Even Phil had a nickname. None of them had ever given Tommy one. So he held the word close to his chest and clung to their worth as the two stepped outside of the RLCraft server to return to their respective families. It was the only thing that kept him warm against the chill of the arctic winds when Boffy’s family was waiting but no one actually came to greet him. Tommy’s absence hadn’t even been noticed.
After all, what was a year in a human’s little life to the eternities shared by dragons and their more blessed kin?
Tommy never told a soul about the year he’d spent in RLCraft since he knew he wouldn’t be able to lie about how desperately his hollow return had stung.
With that in mind, it made sense that at twelve years old Tommy left home for the first time without the intention of ever coming back.
No one batted an eye. Wilbur and Techno had done the same, and Fundy had long since left with Sally. Why was Tommy leaving any different?
Maybe it should have been treated differently though. Because Tommy had never been taught the laws of survival by Phil. Because Tommy didn’t have the voices of thousands bound to him by the Blood God telling him where to strike. Because Tommy didn’t have the warmth of a God ruling over music and luck and sunshine keeping him safe. Because Tommy left alone and unprepared. He died more times than a child at the age of twelve should have to.
Perhaps there was at least one God peering over his shoulder at the time of his first meeting with Wisp. Wisp was older than Tommy and immediately took the role of begrudging babysitter when he realized how alone this actual child was. Tommy founded Business Bay and Wisp was the first to join.
For a while, it was them against the world. Tommy slowly began to learn how things worked, the things he was never taught. He mimicked his family for a while, using the skills he’d seen in passing. Survival skills he’d seen Phil use in passing, fighting techniques he’d noted while watching Techno, cheating and conning and charming like he’d watched Wilbur practice on the servants and guards.
Despite his mimicry, Tommy was still just a child and a lot of the responsibility of helping upkeep Business Bay fell to Wisp who over time became fonder and fonder of this little spit fire of a child who couldn’t be left alone for more than ten minutes without some form of separation anxiety kicking in.
It was understandable, to Wisp at least, when Tommy lashed out against the Empire and Newfoundland. Some bitter resentment masking the fact it was just a cry for the attention he’d never gotten.
A lot of people on the server didn’t really treat Tommy like a child, let alone with any form of kindness. He was a kid trying to form a country and they either found it sad, hilarious, or exploitable. He got teamed up on and picked on a lot and there was only so much Wisp could do for the pair of them.
Perhaps when it was his family members bullying him, it was under some pretense of misguided kindness. An attempt at convincing Tommy to be stronger, self reliant, toughen him up through tough experiences. No one but the three men could say with any certainty. All the actions themselves did was embitter the child and traumatize him when other members of the server took the Empire’s actions as a free pass to attack Business Bay.
His family was at least cognizant of when to hold back. Other countries on the server didn’t follow that lead.
When Techno offered Wisp a place in the Antarctic Empire, maybe an older Wisp with an older Tommy would have agreed. Maybe if Tommy was ready to be on his own, was fifteen instead of twelve, maybe if Wisp knew his presence to be more of a drain on the country than a benefit, then maybe Wisp would have agreed. He would have left Tommy with the thought of riches in his head and the knowledge that a fifteen year old Tommy could bare his fangs at the world and get scratched up but still win. But his Tommy, this Tommy, was twelve years old and had nightmares from the crippling loneliness combined with the battles he shouldn’t have ever had to see. Wars.
Sure, they were battles that didn’t leave scars. Sure, there was always the ability to freely respawn. Wisp of all people though, Wisp knew that nothing erased the fear and pain of dying for the first time. Wisp who wasn’t at all unused to crawling into Tommy’s bed in the middle of the night to shush him and hum, rubbing the dip between his shoulder blades when the half muffled screams managed to escape his sleep lagged body. When he couldn’t just grip his jaws a little tighter and whimpers pushed past clamped lips and caused tense shoulders to quiver in ways that people twice his age shouldn’t have to deal with.
Tommy had gotten used to fighting and the agony of a respawn, and maybe there was a small part of Wisp who resented the Empire when he finally realized who Tommy’s actual family was.
No, that wasn’t the right word for it. Who Tommy’s biological family was. As far as Wisp was concerned, the moment he started trying to coax Tommy into a peaceful night’s sleep after a nightmare about treaties and bridges, he’d become Tommy’s actual family.
When Technoblade asked, Wisp had to hold himself back from making a bigger mess for himself and Tommy when he declined.
Over time their little country grew. Log Lagoon formed as an offshoot territory that was technically a colony belonging to them. Three new members even joined Business Bay proper. Bitzel, Luke, and Deo. The first two, Bitz and Luke, were closer to Tommy’s age though a little bit older. Thirteen when Tommy was still twelve but growing closer by the day. Deo was the closest to Wisp’s age and in turn the closest thing he had to help, considering Deo was only three years his younger.
Considering they were a group of kids, they still weren’t the strongest country. They made due, though. Each new member slowly became enraptured by Tommy’s sunny moments and furious in the moment where his brightness dimmed under the touch of bad memories and the anxiety he tried so hard to hide.
Having three more members of the group dedicated, loyal, and less traumatized than Tommy admittedly helped a lot. Having kids close to Tommy’s age who could seemingly ‘speak his language’ while understanding eerily well where the fragile parts of him were helped more than Wisp could have ever imagined.
Tommy, Wisp, and Deo, together handled most of the fighting. Wisp taught them all that he could and Deo was better than anticipated. Bitz and Luke did most of the building, the redstone, and the resource gathering, doing what they could to teach Tommy how to do the same. Other kids close to Tommy’s age also came and went. A boy weirdly named Thunder who Tommy liked to tease. A boy named Purpled who lived in Log Lagoon and was technically under Business Bay’s flag. A strange half enderman that Wisp didn’t know the name of but he came and went and only ever seemed to remember one thing with clarity. Tommy.
It was when Tommy had just turned thirteen that their group got into a fight with one of the server’s local Admins. Josh. The members of Business Bay didn’t particularly like the way that he seemed to notice something about Tommy that they didn’t. The way that Josh looked at Tommy like an object. Some kind of pet or prize. Sure, Tommy was important and valuable to them as well, but something Josh noticed that they didn’t seemed to twist its meaning.
That little spark of value made him fight tooth and nail to try and gain possession of him. Business Bay at one point even tried to get Tommy’s family involved, saying it was an actual emergency. They didn’t believe Wisp though, and Wilbur apparently trusted his fellow Admin more than Wisp’s words, so it turned into a battle between Business Bay alone and the man they jokingly called a God.
Of course there was a difference between an Admin and those people considered to be “Old Gods’ or ‘True Gods’. There were people who could put Admins like Josh in check. None of them saw their little scuffle though, none who could intervene. So it turned into a fight. One that no one thought they would win, not even Business Bay themselves. No one, except for Tommy.
Admins were scary, sure, but they were still beatable.
So, fittingly enough, it was Tommy at thirteen years old who landed the final hit on Josh. The Admin could just respawn, but the battle and subsequent death message had drawn enough attention that he couldn’t really try anything with Tommy. After that, things became peaceful. As peaceful as things could be when Tommy was the owner of their faction.
It was then that Tommy met Tubbo and without hesitation the two clicked like they’d always meant to be a single whole. Wisp had heard of love at first sight before but never friendship at first sight, though the duo made him believe it well enough. Deo at the time had muttered something about platonic soulmates and Tommy being snatched away from him, the two having been the closest at the time, but joking aside he seemed happy.
Happy never last long for the boy named Theseus.
He was at the tail end of thirteen when SMP Earth announced that it would be shutting down. Wilbur, for reasons unknown, had grabbed up Tommy out of the blue and convinced the boy that they should join the same server that Wilbur had gotten access to. Apparently Fundy would be joining the new server as well.
Business Bay wasn’t terribly pleased. Why was Wilbur paying attention now, so suddenly? Tommy was a bit hesitant, but the rest of Business Bay was extremely hesitant and they tried to convince Tommy it was a poor decision. Still, Tommy was starved for the attention of the family he’d been born into and ultimately he agreed.
The final gift the Business Bay gave to him before they all parted ways was a single music disc by the name of Cat. A homage to Tommy’s story about Boffy and Mellohi.
Tommy left SMP Earth hopeful, his hand interlocked with the older brother he thought had left them behind. In a wonderful turn of fate, even Tubbo would apparently be joining them, so maybe things would turn out okay.
Tommy was fourteen when he joined his first real war, a war for independence. A war where he could actually lose his life.
He was fourteen when the Admin of their new server reminded them that they all had three lives and if they wasted them, they’d die for good. Tommy was fourteen when he got his first real scars and the light in his eyes started to sputter out as Fundy and Tubbo silently fell apart. Fourteen when he lost his first life. Fourteen when he lost his second life. Fourteen when he sold his most precious two possessions for the freedom of a country that wasn’t his, but his brother's.
He was fifteen when they finally won and only fifteen when they were almost immediately cast out of the home that he’d fought for and died for by its new president.
He watched, unable to do anything, as Wilbur slowly began to go insane and Techno misinterpreted Tommy’s actions and decisions. In large part, thanks to Wilbur.
He’d never wanted Techno to sweep in and defeat Schlatt for him. What he’d wanted was for Techno to defeat Wilbur’s demons. To save their brother from himself. Maybe Tommy should have been more clear, could have been more clear, but how do you tell someone you love them when they never taught you how to love? That was a lesson no one had figured out how to teach Tommy, not in a familial sense only in terms of friends, and now they all had to deal with those consequences.
When Phil killed Wilbur, he took away the only member of their family that Tommy thought had cared about him. He tried to make amends with Fundy, accepted and acknowledge the assumed betrayals had been in the name of working as a spy, but with Wilbur’s death something between even the two of them soured and shattered and Tommy felt entirely alone.
He was sixteen when Dream got him exiled from his country for the second time, forced Tubbo to be the one to pull the trigger on the gun that Dream knew damn well he was holding. Over a crime people on the server had committed time and time before but suddenly it was oh so bad when Tommy did it. Because Tommy was bad and wrong.
He didn’t blame Tubbo. He despised Dream.
It hurt so much. Dream was far from kind, and Tommy felt as though he was trapped every time he fell under the older man’s gaze. Time and time again, Tommy’s Logstedshire was blown up as the ghost of the brother who abandoned him haunted him and his other brother only came to visit once with a sour expression while his father was nowhere to be found.
Dream mentioned where Techno was living off handedly.
When Dream found his secret supply room, Tommy didn’t go that direction.
Instead, he turned towards something familiar. Tommy knew family found in friendship. He recognized familiar kindnesses that were genuine. It was for that reason, Tommy went instead to Sam. With open arms and no extra conditions, Sam welcomed him home and though he could make no promises about the discs Tommy had so dearly loved he could make promises of safety and love.
He knew he was better off with Sam even if he missed Techno. Tommy knew his older brother. Knew the rules he played by. They had never spoken the same languages, that much was evident. They couldn’t understand each other, and that was no fault of Tommy’s own. Still. He couldn’t bear the thought of going to Techno when Sam cared about him, but there was still a desperate part of Tommy that cried out for his family, so after telling Sam he quietly left. A visit, it was supposed to be a short safe visit because Dream shouldn’t have known that Tommy was alive.
Techno didn’t particularly welcome him, but he wasn’t rejected either, so Tommy would stay for a couple of days. At least, that was the plan. Till Dream showed up and demanded Tommy come back with him. Neither was prepared and Tommy, frozen in fear, didn’t think to hide. Dream threatened to burn Tommy’s discs and for a moment he thought this was the end.
Till Techno stepped in, shining in the glory of the brother Tommy thought he might have, protecting the youngest of the family. Then Techno mentioned a favor and Tommy’s blood ran cold. Dream declined with a sound in his voice that reminded Tommy of a smirk, as though this little entrance had been nothing more than a way to prove something to Tommy. Something that Dream had said a long time ago.
“You have no friends. No one but me is on your side, Tommy. Everyone else will betray you the moment you don’t have any worth. Can’t you see? I’m everything you have. I’m the only one who loves you. So just, stay with me, alright?”
Tommy snuck out that night without Techno noticing, he never turned back.
He stayed with Sam quietly, watching as the man worked on his redstone and thought of the family he loved far away in distant servers. He thought of the ache in his chest as his real family had never truly wanted him as much as they’d wanted his mother.
When Techno, Dream, and Phil started Doomsday, he sided with L’Manberg.
L’Manberg blamed him and his discs.
They came to Tommy’s aid when he and Tubbo were pressed against the wall and forced to fight Dream, but there was a part of Tommy that knew he was alone on the server after that. And it hurt. It hurt no matter how much he pretended it didn’t. The hotel didn’t numb the ache. Spending time with Tubbo only worsened the ache. Sam couldn't soothe the ache.
So Tommy, looking for some kind of balm, visited Dream in prison. Got stuck with Dream in prison. Died with Dream in prison. Tommy stayed in that prison until he couldn’t stand it anymore and Dream couldn’t stand him after the death of the little cat called Hope. So Dream killed him. Beat him to death with a potato.
Lightning struck the prison the moment Tommy died just as lightning had struck when Doomsday ended and lightning had struck during his battle against Josh. The lightning that followed Tommy welcomed him with open arms as his final life was taken by a mad man with a potato who cheekily started to recite the incantations locked away in the revival book until the panic set in when they simply didn’t work. When the corpse under his hands stayed bloody and battered and grew colder by the moment.
And that panic slowly turned into little more than agitation as the attention he once held for the boy was lost and his focus turned back to his other plans. His real plans.
The Dream SMP saw the death message. Many people on the server woke up and realized that the brightest star had left from their sky, leaving little more than a misery filled chill in the air. Nothing but the bitter taste of regret and time to reflect on their actions. Others denied the truth. No matter how much proof was given.
This was the end of the story about Theseus “Tommy” Minecraft.
However, a story always needs to end before the next can begin.