Work Text:
Walking through the darkened corridors, Ranboo could hear a faint buzzing from behind the stones in the walls, his ears twitching. Nothing at all like the machinery in the lab that Tubbo had shown him, it was something much bigger.
And that no one else seemed to hear it.
When Ranboo looked around at Phil and Niki walking beside him, they didn’t seem bothered by it at all. Actually, Phil seemed relatively relaxed for what was going on. His feathers were slightly puffed out in content and he hummed a quiet tune under his breath, his thumbs resting in the loops on his belt that held his tools.
On the other hand, Ranboo fidgeted with his hands, twisting the rings on his fingers and picking at his claws until he felt the sting of pain. Each footstep made him nearly flinch, every clack of Techno’s hooves or the thumping of Niki’s boots sent him on edge. He passed by a torch that popped and sent sparks flickering in the air and Ranboo had to bite down on his lower lip to keep from yelping.
Phil walked next to him, his wings slightly extended and the feathers brushed against Ranboo’s arm. Ranboo swallowed thickly. He tried to still the movement of his tail and stop the way it was whipping back and forth.
Suddenly, Techno stopped in front of a large iron door that stretched a foot or so above Ranboo’s head. He turned to face the three of them, a glint of something sparkling in his eyes. Ranboo shivered and unconsciously took a step back. Already his nerves were shot, and something about this weird labyrinth was setting off alarms in his head.
All of it was so painfully familiar yet Ranboo was sure that he had never seen something like this. The buzzing in his ears seemed to get louder as he got closer to what was behind those doors.
Technoblade spread his arms in a wide arc, taking a step backwards as he swung the door open and presented the room hidden behind it.
Lava spilled down from Blackstone pillars, collecting in the rim of a wide basin marked off with a short wall. Along the walls were markings and intricate carvings dug into the stone. Banners hung from the ceiling behind chairs that surrounded the centerpiece of the room.
A large table that nearly took up the entire floor space spread out. The deep cyan-colored wood seemed well polished and neatly dusted. There was even a pot of flowers in the center of it which would’ve been a lovely sight if it wasn’t for the state of decay that settled along their petals. The border of the table was made of a different material than the wood in the center. Similar in color but with a white-ish color intertwined with it. Grooves dotted along the edge in groups of three on each side, they seemed to be thought out in their placement and didn’t seem to be much bigger than the palm of Ranboo’s hand.
The moment that he laid eyes on the room, Ranboo felt a pit of dread start to eat away at his stomach. He hated everything about the room, especially the table.
It was as if everything had momentarily gone silent except for the buzzing that rang in his ears and the anxiety that was eating away at his insides. The hallway suddenly felt much too small to house the 8 ft tall enderman hybrid. Ranboo clenched his fingers around the fabric of his cloak, running his thumb over the fur along the edge.
Phil glanced over at Ranboo as he passed him, his eyebrows furrowing with something that Ranboo didn’t bother to catch. His gaze was too focused on the center of the room, his eyes wide like a deer in the headlights. Phil followed Techno into the room.
Ranboo could still chicken out, he hadn’t heard any of the information. He still had a chance to back out. He just needed to move his feet, turn around, and walk away. Techno would understand. Or at least Phil would understand. Phil always understood somehow.
But then Niki was stepping into the room, her eyes full of awe as she stared at the decorations that adorned the room. Her boots scuffed against the floor as she walked, hands swinging excitedly by her side. She ran her fingers along the back of one of the chairs.
Phil and Techno had already taken a spot at the table, and Niki soon to sit down. And now Techno was looking at Ranboo with an expectant look on his face. His sudden stop in the conversation caused Phil to look over as well. Ranboo was scarcely breathing.
“Are you just gonna stand there gawking or come sit down?” Techno asked gruffly, a hint of humor in his voice. Ranboo made a noise akin to a cough or a choke and forced his legs to carry him into the room.
He sat down in one of the chairs, curling in on himself and sitting as still as possible, curling his paws. Phil was sitting across from him, he tried to catch Ranboo’s gaze but it didn’t work. Ranboo was too busy staring at the dip in the border of the table near where he was sitting.
If his hands weren’t firmly folded in his lap, clutched tightly together, he would’ve reached out to run his fingers over the groove. Normally he would be curious about something like this, wanting to know what it was or what it would do.
But in this case, something in his gut told him that if he touched the table, something bad was going to happen.
So Ranboo sat with his hands in his lap and his chair pushed out just a little bit. He curled his tail around his waist and one hand moved to smooth down the fluff at the end of it.
Techno had started talking about something, his voice only filling in with the white noise that clouded Ranboo’s mind. Everything else was so loud already.
The buzzing in the walls.
Niki tapping her nails against the table.
Phil’s soft humming.
The buzzing.
The ringing in his ears.
The lava bubbled and popped.
Monsters skittered around inside of the walls.
Techno’s quill scratching against the paper as he wrote something down.
Phil shifted, his chair scratching against the floor and Ranboo winced. He wrung his hands over and over again, forcing his lungs to suck in each breath that seemed not to be anywhere near the amount of oxygen that he was needing.
Why wouldn’t the buzzing go away?
Where was it coming from?
Ranboo bit down on his tongue, swallowing back the distressed keen that threatened to surface. He rubbed his thumb over the back of his hand, massaging the skin until it started to run raw.
Techno was still talking. Ranboo was supposed to be listening.
His ears hurt. They drooped and the jingling of his earrings startled him.
A large book was placed on the table and Ranboo realized that he probably should be writing some of this stuff down in his memory book, or if not at least pay attention now so he can record the details later. But if he tried to focus his gaze or try to listen to what was being said, his thoughts got all fuzzy and his head hurt from the effort.
His ears were ringing. There was a buzzing in his head and Phil was staring at him now. He wasn’t even trying to hide the way that he would examine Ranboo’s face like he was trying to search for some hidden meaning behind Ranboo’s expression.
Ranboo pulled at a loose string on his shirt, tugging at it until it stretched far beyond what it had originally started as. He didn’t try to break it off, he just stretched it out until it eventually got bored of this game and broke itself off. All the while Ranboo was trying to ignore the cacophony of noise that only he seemed to be affected by.
How could the others not hear the echo that surrounded the room? Ranboo couldn’t stand it. The table seemed to be working as a big empty chamber and Ranboo wanted so badly to brush his fingers along its white and cyan edges. He clenched his hands together tighter.
“Ranboo?”
Ranboo looked up upon hearing his name, alarm spiking in his chest. He couldn’t breathe.
“You’re not falling asleep over there are you?” Techno asked, he raised one eyebrow, leaning back in his chair.
“No… no…” Ranboo said, his voice didn’t even sound like his own and he internally cringed. Techno seemed to accept that answer. His gaze lingered on Ranboo’s face for a few more seconds before he went back to what he was talking about.
There was a slight pressure growing from behind Ranboo’s eyes and he winced, clenching his jaw. His chest constricted painfully and he pressed the heels of his palms against his eyes. He rubbed hard enough until he started to see stars behind the darkness of his eyelids.
Please not now. He couldn’t fall asleep right now.
Everything is too loud, he can’t focus.
His muscles were numb, his movements sluggish.
The buzzing in his head got stronger with the pressure building behind his eyes. He sucked in quick, shallow breaths. Reaching up and rubbing at his ears, tugging at the earrings that dangled and made noise whenever he moved.
Something was wrong with him. He wasn’t functioning right. His ears were still ringing.
Techno was talking. Niki was tapping her fingers against the table. Phil shifted in his chair again. The table buzzed. Lava popped from its everlasting fountain pressed deep into the wall.
Ranboo’s heart was fluttering. Hearts aren’t supposed to beat that fast, Ranboo concluded. Even though he was a non-human hybrid and wasn’t really sure what his normal heartbeat should sound like.
Everything wasn’t supposed to hurt.
Ranboo blinked, he pulled at the fluff at the end of his tail, some of the strands coming loose and tangling with his fingers. He rocked back and forth, swallowing sounds that threatened to come from his throat. It was already too loud, he didn’t need to be loud with it.
His head was starting to hurt. Phil was still staring. Niki kept glancing over at him. Ranboo clenched his hands tightly, digging his nails into the palms of his hands.
Ranboo blinked. Buzzing. Tapping. Creaking. Groaning.
The table in front of him was blurry.
Ranboo blinked again.
Silence.