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Technoblade valued many things about living far away from other people, with just him and Phil--well, and Tubbo and Michael and apparently Ranboo’s ghost (which he had a lot of unexplored feelings about that were going to stay unexplored--who was he, Puffy? Wilbur? terrible thought, no thanks), and Connor? Maybe not Connor, unless he was sleeping on the floor in that half-finished dirt shack of his.
Okay, so “away from people” was perhaps not the most accurate definition of his house anymore. Phil and Chat had both made fun of him for that.
technoloser
Techno rolled his eyes and gave the closest wolf a good scratch between the ears. This wasn’t even one of his--a random wolf had followed Phil’s crows in and decided to stay.
Or maybe Ranboo had tamed it--it’d liked watching him from across the yard, after all.
Nope. Not going to deal with feelings.
technocare
shh let him repress his emotions
no
rip
we miss him too
Techno let out a slow breath, the air crystallizing in deep and gentle swirls, and stepped out of the fence surrounding the commune. He’d had a goal this entire time, that was why he left the house and risked seeing the ghost of his dead apprentice in the first place. Firewood for Michael. Kid was probably used to the cold now, having lived in Snowchester for so long, but the commune wasn’t just cold. It was cold, and Techno couldn’t risk that. He couldn’t do that to Ranboo.
The thought jerked him up short, sending him staggering into the fence. He stared blankly at the trees ahead.
Nope. Not doing emotions.
Chat murmured in soft concern, but didn’t press. At least a few of them were crying already, and under no circumstances was Techno touching that with a ten foot pole. Or one that was twenty feet, for that matter.
He took a deliberately even breath, pointedly staring at the way his breath clouded, and stepped towards the forest, sinking nearly up to his knees in the deep snow. Wood. Michael needed wood.
He successfully made his way to a good-sized tree. Chopped it down. Broke it into pieces small enough he could cram them in his inventory. All without touching any more emotions. And, by the time his inventory was so full it was starting to ache a little from pressing against the magic for it, he’d put a noticeable dent in all the trees surrounding him.
He walked over to where he’d been laying saplings as he came across them, then took them one-by-one and carefully planted each of them in the now-empty spaces from the trees he’d felled. It was hard, what with the dirt frozen under the snow, but the concentration it required--crack open the earth, put the tiny tree in, put the dirt back and snow over the whole thing so there was plenty of water available--kept him focused until the forest was cast in a distinctly orange light.
His inventory full of logs, baby trees planted, and dark rapidly falling, Techno gave the clearing one last look over. Nature really was beautiful, in the way it was pretty and also greatly increased his property value.
Hopefully Tubbo wouldn’t want to build something as ungainly as that mansion in Snowchester. That would definitely ruin the property value. Well, he noted critically as he rounded the corner and eyed Connor’s dirt shack, maybe a giant mansion wouldn’t be the worst thing that had ever happened to his property value.
Michael and Tubbo were standing outside Ranboo’s house, Tubbo fussing over Michael’s bulky coat and Michael patiently standing with his arms stuck out to the side. Techno wasn’t sure Michael could put them down if he tried.
“Hullo,” Techno greeted. Might as well stack the firewood near Ranboo’s house. It wasn’t going to do any good if it was too far away.
“Hello,” Tubbo said amicably, gaze still fixed on Michael’s outfit. Michael gave Techno a long-suffering look. “Are there any places we should avoid on our walk this evening?”
Techno immediately thought of the Syndicate room and nodded. “Phil’s got most of the place mob proofed so long as you stay inside the fence. There’s a couple of lava pits around, though. Don’t fall in them.”
Michael noticeably perked up at the mention of lava.
“No.” Tubbo gave Michael a stern look. “We’ve talked about this. You still don’t know how to swim.”
Michael rolled his eye.
Chat paused in their cooing at Michael, then went entirely silent--all hundreds of thousands of voices.
Techno tensed.
falling
sky person
loser doesn’t know how to fly
As if he could hear Chat--which he couldn’t, or he definitely would have said something by now because Tubbo had the insatiable curiosity of a mad scientist--Tubbo’s gaze turned up, his eyes widening, and Techno whirled to see a shadow cut across the stars and across the moon before crashing into the ground in front of his house with a deafening crash. Snow exploded in an all-enveloping cloud of tiny crystals that covered nearly the entirety of Phil and Techno’s houses, and the wolves started howling.
Techno and Tubbo stared at the cloud for a long moment before glancing at each other. Tubbo turned, ushering Michael inside, and Techno summoned his axe from its normal spot in his inventory.
new mob?
it’s him
is he dead
let the wolves eat him pog
rude
rude
rude
no but really who is him
he. who is he
nobody has time for proper grammar
“What are you talking about?!” Techno hissed, staring at the landing ground for whatever had just plummeted from the sky. Had he seen wings? No- no, he didn’t think so. Phil wouldn’t be so foolish as to try flying again, would he? He craned his neck back and forth, but couldn’t see any signs of feathers in the slowly-settling crystalline cloud.
property damage pog
Techno shifted his grip on his axe and his weight between his feet. No, no, he knew what Phil looked like- that hadn’t been Phil. Couldn’t have been Phil. “Not my property value,” he said instead of voicing any of that.
Tubbo laughed, closing Ranboo’s door with Michael inside--laughed! Techno never should have befriended him.
technoloser
technosoft
lol emotions
sky dude is probably dead right?
Techno gave Tubbo a flat look. Tubbo grinned, the true menace he was, and Techno turned away, the worry for Phil returning full-force.
Without bothering to talk to Tubbo, Techno strode forward, faster than a stalk in case it was Phil and he needed help but still plenty careful in case this was danger. Tubbo followed anyway, hands crammed in his very-not-armored pockets and stepping in Techno’s footprints in the snow--which was downright hilarious, actually, because Techno’s legs were so much longer than Tubbo’s that he was practically hopping between them.
(Briefly, Techno wondered if he should give Tubbo some armor to wear--but no, he didn’t have anything sized properly, and all his equipment was in his house, which was right next to the crash zone anyway-
oh no.)
Chat came to the realization at the same time he did.
the wolves!
doggos!
oh no!
technodogs!
the hound army!
Techno darted forward, bracing himself for the worst, Chat endlessly supplying an ever-growing list of what “the worst” could be--and came to a screeching halt at the sight of an actual crater destroying the majority of his yard. A limp figure laid at the bottom of it, disappearing into the dark as their snowmelt pond rushing into the open space.
was that a person
Tubbo, as if he could hear Chat, jumped forward. His heavy boots dug into the thick snow, sending what little that hadn’t been disturbed already flying up in dramatic puffs as he covered the distance to the edge of the crater, plowing through the snow like the bow of a ship plowed through the ocean.
the drinking water nooo
nooo
now it’s stranger soup
soup
soup
soup
mmm soup
soup
get some clothes for me there
why are you getting clothes at soup
soup
Tubbo slid down the edge of the crater. “Techno!” he shouted, voice pleading.
Techno’s eyes widened and he rushed the rest of the way over, skidding to a stop at the edge himself. He’d known there was an underwater spring under the pool, but there was no denying it as the water flowed and flowed and flowed into the space. The water was perfectly clear, displaying an unmoving figure at the bottom and Tubbo desperately working his way around him.
Then the shapes launched towards the surface, Tubbo’s gasp breaking the night sharply. Techno crouched, immediately reaching out for him.
Someone was slumped on Tubbo’s shoulder.
“Take him!” Tubbo gasped. His lips already seemed blue in the light of the moon.
Techno grabbed the stranger’s arm, dragging him to the bank. His hair and skin and clothes and dark lensed glasses immediately began to cloud with frost.
oh crap
is that...him?
Techno reached down again and yanked Tubbo out of the water, ignoring the icy spray already freezing on his clothes and armor. He, however, could not ignore the slowly-growing red stains on the snow underneath the stranger, or the layer of ice solidifying over him.
At least it would slow the bleeding.
“Right.” He scooped Tubbo up in one arm and threw the stranger over his other shoulder. “Inside, before we all freeze.”
Tubbo gave a thumbs up from where he dangled. Techno decided that was enough of an acknowledgment and dragged the both of them to Phil’s house. He couldn’t open the door with his hands occupied, so he simply kicked it in.
He wasn’t going to trust a stranger who fell from the sky and destroyed his front yard in his house. Chat could yell at him for breaking Phil’s door later--goodness knew Phil would--but right now Chat was silent. Not saying anything. Hadn’t said anything since Techno had pulled the guy to the shore of the new-bigger-pond.
That was very weird, actually. Concerningly so. Chat never shut up, even if they weren’t talking to Techno, and now they’d done it twice in five minutes?
But here he was, standing in a completely quiet living room. Tubbo had gone still, the stranger was unconscious, and Chat was pressing so hard against the inside of his skull he had no doubt they were transfixed with watching this.
Techno dumped both Tubbo and the stranger on the floor, and neither made a sound. He propped Phil’s door back in a half-hearted attempt to keep out some of the cold, then strode over to the low embers of Phil’s fireplace and immediately began stoking it.
He pulled his cloak off and turned to Tubbo, stripping the worst of his soaked clothes from him. He didn’t dare strip him entirely, even though that would be considerably safer for Tubbo, but instead left him decent and wrapped him tightly in his own cloak before pushing him near the fire to get warm and hopefully keep breathing.
He paused for a moment, then opened the door and darted across to his own house, wincing at the cold wind biting into him. He rushed to a particular chest and pulled out as many totems as he could fit in one hand, then darted back into the cold (properly closing his own door) and then to Tubbo’s side once more.
He carefully tucked one of the totems in with Tubbo. Hypothermia was no joke, and Ranboo would never forgive Techno if Tubbo died on his watch.
That done, he turned to the stranger. He was breathing still, somehow, so shallowly his chest wasn’t moving and each breath grated against Techno’s ears. Blood was spreading across Phil’s nice hardwood floor, the stranger’s red coat too saturated with ice already to catch any of it. One of his glasses lenses was cracked, too, some part of Techno noted, but that was definitely not a priority.
The stranger seemed familiar, somehow.
He was clearly very badly injured, though, so Techno set about stripping the wet clothes off him, too. They got dropped in a heap with Tubbo’s--laundry could come much later--and a horrific web of battle scars greeted Techno from the little skin he could see under the blood. Several arrow wounds leaked blood heavily, the shafts snapped off but still clearly embedded in the man’s shoulder and leg. A knife hilt stuck out of the side of his torso, stuck so deep part of the hilt itself was embedded in the stab wound. Blood ran down the side of his head, still so fresh it glistened even with the dunk in water.
isn’t he supposed to be dead
This particular voice from Chat was one who’d been around since the beginning, since Chat had first made itself known. (He wasn’t entirely sure when, exactly, that had been--sometime after the ceremony marking him as chosen for the Blood God and definitely before leaving that world for this one.)
“Heh?” Techno asked.
The voice, and Chat at large, didn’t respond.
Techno frowned, reaching for the stranger’s shredded shirt. He pressed it against the worst and most concentrated cluster of wounds, fully aware it wouldn’t do much if he bled out from all the other ones.
Where would someone even get these kinds of injuries? It almost looked like he’d been in a war, but- Techno knew he was out of touch on news around the place, but he was pretty sure he’d have heard if another war started up.
How had the stranger ended up falling from the sky, anyway? Where had he come from?
Techno reached for his communicator, checking the message status. Phil was listed as online, and so were Eret and Niki. Several others were, too, and Tubbo’s status had gone to idle, which would have been an amusing way of describing someone on the verge of dying from hypothermia if Techno wasn’t so concerned.
(Not about Tubbo--of course not. No, no, he- well. He couldn’t be the cause for another one of Tubbo’s lives. Not when Ranboo had so clearly been so scared of that, hiding things from Techno about Tubbo and Michael. The last thing he wanted was to prove those fears right.)
Phil and Niki would help with the stranger, Techno decided, flicking to a conversation always at the top of his very brief private messages list. (He ignored the two at the bottom, ones he hadn’t opened since Pogtopia.) Eret could watch Michael.
Technoblade: I need you home right now
Ph1LzA: omw
Ph1LzA: what happened m8
Technoblade: so much Phil
Technoblade: our property value is ruined
Technoblade: I don’t want two ghosts Phil
Ph1LzA: is Tubbo okay???
Technoblade: I wouldn’t go that far no
Technoblade: sorry about your house
That was probably the worst place to leave the conversation, but Techno had people to contact still and an uneasily familiar stranger bleeding out on Phil’s floor.
Technoblade: come to Phil’s house
Technoblade: bring medical supplies
Nihachu: be there soon
Niki was great. She really was. He didn’t have to give her any details. She’d want some later, of course, and that was reasonable. Hopefully she’d figure out he had as many answers as she did, though.
There was no conversation history in the private messages between Eret and Techno, for obvious reasons. Still, as Techno glanced to the tightly-bundled form of Tubbo, he didn’t know who else to trust with Tubbo and Michael. Kid didn’t exactly have a lot of friends, and Techno wasn’t about to call Tommy up here. He wasn’t ready- He just couldn’t do that right now.
Technoblade: you need to babysit
The_Eret: of course
The_Eret: did something happen to Tubbo?
The_Eret: I would have expected this message to come from him
Technoblade: he’s a little unconscious right now
The_Eret: I see
The_Eret: I’ll be over as soon as I can
Technoblade: quickly, Eret, quickly
The door opened dramatically, only to list comically to the side where Techno had broken the hinges. Phil stared at it blankly for a moment, his feathers still bristled with clear panic, before his gaze moved to the living room and took in the blood pooling on his floor.
“Oh,” he said, rather unhelpfully. He stepped inside, propping his door where it used to go, and walked past to his chests. “Where’d he come from?”
“The sky, Phil. He fell from the sky.”
Phil paused, head rising from the chest a bit, before tilting his head and going back to rummaging. “That would explain the front garden.”
Techno simply nodded and eyed the stranger again. He still seemed familiar, and Chat was still weirdly quiet.
Phil pulled familiar medical supplies out of his chest and passed them to Techno before bustling around. He set water on to boil, pulled more supplies out of chests as Techno did his best to dab away the worst of the blood to see what they were even working with and reveal an entire network of shallow cuts on the back of the stranger’s shoulder--definitely claw marks of some kind, he’d have to watch those to make sure they didn’t get infected--and helped Techno move the stranger onto a tattered and blood-stained blanket so he wouldn’t freeze on the floor.
Another knock sounded, nearly sending Phil’s door tumbling to the door again. Niki and Eret stood on the other side of it, eyeing each other with obvious curiosity and comfortable familiarity echoing between them.
Techno just pointed to Tubbo. “Michael’s in Ranboo’s house. Keep them both safe in there. He got completely dunked, so keep a close eye.”
Eret nodded.
tubburito
Techno would never be rid of that mental image, which was great actually. Kept him from thinking about how much danger Tubbo was in from hypothermia.
Still, as Niki returned from Ranboo’s house without Eret and Tubbo and propped the door back up against the doorframe again, he had an entire sky stranger to keep from dying in Phil’s living room. Ranboo’s ghost was unnerving enough--a second one would definitely wreck whatever was left of his property value.
The three of them worked in relative silence to keep the stranger from dying. None of them had much to say, in any case, and none of them balked at the severity of the injuries. Of course, Phil and Techno were more than used to treating each other, no matter how terrible the wound. And Niki had been in multiple wars and had helped treat Tubbo’s execution injuries in Pogtopia.
“He’s slipping,” Phil warned, blood-coated fingers pressed against the stranger’s neck. “How much more regen do we have?”
“I’ve got more in my chests,” Techno said before he could stop himself.
Niki nodded, going to get them. As soon as she’d propped the door closed, Phil narrowed his eyes at Techno. Techno winced.
“Chat recognizes him,” he said.
He knew it was true, and yet Chat was still quiet. At least the endless calls for blood and violence were easy to deal with. He didn’t even know what the voices wanted here.
don’t you recognize him?
“Chat recognizes him,” he murmured again, this time softer, “but I don’t.”
Phil’s sharp intake of breath was all the answer Techno needed about it. “You sure you want to know, mate? That’s probably not a good sign.”
keep him alive
we need him
tubbo needs him
another god-chosen pog
technoforget
it’s been too long why would he remember
didn’t we leave his corpse behind
no body no death
obviously he survived he’s right here
Techno shrugged, not even bothering to try and figure out the mess of voices. “I need to know, Phil. I need to know.”
Phil nodded, just once, wings pulled in tight.
And then Niki returned, and they worked in silence once more.
Dawn peeked through the windows by the time they were staring at the stranger with relative confidence they’d done all they could. Niki’s hands were starting to shake from the strain of the precision removing the arrows had taken, and Phil’s hands were coated in red to the elbows from all the stitches he’d done. Techno’s own fingers felt borderline raw after all the bandages that’d run past them.
Phil rolled his shoulders and leaned back on his heels. His wings knocked into the impromptu pile of empty potion bottles, most of them smeared with blood just like Niki’s cheek.
“Let’s get this guy somewhere comfortable for him to rest,” Phil murmured, exhaustion blatant in the way his voice dulled and his bones snapped as he stretched. “We’ve got to get cleaned up before we all sleep.”
Getting up was a process for all three of them, joints stiff from their work. Niki was up first, though, immediately turning her attention to cleaning. Phil nodded, but instead turned to the ladder up to his upper floor. Techno waited until Phil was opening the trap door up, then carefully slung the stranger over one shoulder and began the climb up as well.
“Go ahead and put him in my bed,” Phil said, very obviously putting a fresh pair of sheets on the bed as he spoke. The mattress was still half showing and everything. “It’ll keep him out of the way, but I’ll still be able to watch him.”
Techno nodded, waiting until the bottom sheet was on properly before plopping the stranger down and straightening him out. After a moment’s contemplation, he pulled the stranger’s dark glasses off and set them on Phil’s bedside table. That would not be comfortable to sleep in, honestly, and the dude’s day was already sucking enough.
didn’t he get yeeted by the wither?
That was a very odd thing to say about someone, even for someone who fell from the sky, and especially when there’d been no telltale wither discoloration anywhere on the stranger’s body--and Techno had, in fact, seen all of it there was to see and then some.
pretty sure he got yeeted
most of us weren’t around then we wouldn’t know
yeah
techno doesn’t recognize him
i think he’s blocked most of those memories
technoforgot
technotrauma
the pit
shh no don’t
lots of blood
it was fun
not all of us liked the blood
loser
loser
loser
Well, Techno decided as he carefully tucked the stranger in (which was an optimistic way of describing haphazardly throwing a blanket or six over him as Phil flitted around and piled blankets and pillows around the dude to basically make a nest so he didn’t freeze), at least Chat was talking again.
“He looks really small like that.” Phil stretched his wings again, making a face as his old joints cracked.
“He’s only a little bigger than Tubbo.”
Phil hummed in agreement, but simply turned to his work in the corner of the room and examined the project in process. “I’ll keep an eye on him for a bit, mate. You make sure Niki gets some rest before heading home and go check on Tubbo.” He paused, glancing over his shoulder. “Then I think we need to talk about what went down.”
Techno stared at the stranger, as if he’d get any answers from someone who hadn’t so much as flinched under surgery for arrows that had killed others. Chat murmured at that, all too overlapping for Techno to make out anything but concern.
“I don’t really have answers for you, Phil,” he rumbled instead. “But I gotta know.”
Phil shrugged and gestured for Techno to go.
Techno gave the stranger one last look, some unbidden memory stirring under the centuries of trying to forget, and did as Phil asked.
Niki looked up from where she was washing the empty bottles. She stared at him for a moment as he approached before her expression set. “So who is that?” She nodded to upstairs. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen him around before.”
Techno shrugged, stepping up to join her in the chore. “Wish I knew. He fell from the sky, already looking like that. Wasn’t awake then and still hasn’t woken up now.”
Niki paused at that, expression furrowing before she crammed the washcloth inside the bottle she was holding and swirled it around with too much vigor for the simple chore. She didn’t say anything for a long moment, and Techno, of all people, was not about to make her talk if she didn’t want to.
“I don’t think I like that,” she admitted.
“Me neither.” Techno stared down at the water, at his faint distorted reflection. “But Tubbo jumped in to save him, without even hesitatin’.” He frowned, now sure how to properly express his feelings about it when he was still trying to avoid them. “Couldn’t just do nothing after that.”
Niki raised her eyebrows, dumped out the dirty water in the bottle, and handed it to him to rinse. “Since when do you care what Tubbo thinks of you?”
“Since he’s Ranboo’s husband.”
Niki fell silent at that, looking up and out the window over the sink to the tall ghost mingling with the cows. Beyond that, Michael stared out the window of Ranboo’s house, clearly trying to understand it as much as Techno was.
“Yeah,” she finally said. “I can understand that.”
Eret’s silhouette crossed by Michael, scooping him up and taking him up the stairs. The light to the downstairs flicked off, leaving Techno’s heart feeling as empty as the space the light had once filled.
technosoft
technomourn
michael bb boy
They washed the rest of the bottles in silence, their shared grief for Ranboo filling all the space between them and then some. If this was what Tommy had felt when Tubbo had died to Techno’s own hand, if this was what he’d dealt with in the hours between Tubbo’s final breath and his first again at midnight- well, Techno thought he might understand, now, why Tommy had gotten in the pit. Why Tommy had chosen Tubbo over him, time and time again.
Ranboo had chosen Tubbo, too. And he’d seen what Techno did when Tommy had, and with the only thing left for Techno to destroy being his family-
The bitterness of the realization sank all the way to his heart.
lol technoguilt
willing to help tubbo die for his beliefs but not do it himself
we’ve had this discussion he’s changed now
half of us don’t have morals what were you expecting
personally I was hoping for soup
soup
soup
mmm morals soup
sounds messy lol
unlike murder
murder soup
murder soup!
“You should get some sleep,” Techno said, taking the last bottle from Niki. “You’ve been up all night.”
She smiled softly. “I can curl up in my cloak somewhere-”
He immediately shook his head. “There’s a spare bed crammed in a chest in my house. Go use it. You gotta be nice to your spine, Niki. You’ve only got one.”
She laughed--short, just one note, but a laugh all the same. “You’re going to sleep too?”
“I’m going to check on Tubbo first. Then make Phil get some rest. Old man needs it.”
She laughed again, softer this time. “I’ll see you later, then. Good luck with Phil.”
Techno nodded, ignoring her retreat in favor of grabbing a bucket to soak dirty clothes in to wash later. Niki even got the door propped up nicely.
Clothes in water and Niki in bed, Techno ventured over to Ranboo’s house and took a quick look in. The first floor was empty, but Eret and Michael were crammed in bed with Tubbo, pressed firmly on either side of him. Michael was asleep. Eret gave him a thumbs up.
Okay.
Now he had to talk to Phil. About the past he’d tried very hard to forget as much about as possible. And he wasn’t scared of Phil--he and Phil had been best friends for hundreds of years now. But sometimes Phil was a bit intimidating in the way he saw through all of Techno’s excuses.
Phil was making a blanket nest on the couch when Techno walked back in. He patted the open seat in the middle of it, and grinned when Techno unhesitatingly took off his armor and piled it in front of the door before plopping himself in the spot.
“So,” Phil said, sitting at Techno’s feet and offering a wing. Techno took that unhesitatingly, too, fingers running through the ruffled feathers with practiced ease. “A stranger Chat recognizes but you don’t.”
“Yeah.”
“And he fell from the sky but doesn’t have wings.”
He nodded.
from the void?
we can ask his chat
his chat is scary
“And that’s all we know about him?”
“Chat’s said a few things about him, but I don’t know how true they are.” Techno hesitated, fingers pausing in their work. “Said he got hit by a wither. Came from the void. And apparently he has a chat, too.”
Phil paused at that, wiggling his wing pointedly. “We’ll keep an eye out for wither, but if he’d been hit with it I doubt he’d still be here.” His wing stilled as Techno began working again. “They’re sure about the other two?”
yes
his chat is older
he’s probably pretty powerful
he was nice to us
“Yeah. They’re sure.”
“Huh.” Phil leaned his head back to give Techno a curious look. “Do you think he came from the same place you did?”
the pit
he was in 8
they called him the Captain
he was very good in the pit
his chat was always angry
something was wrong with his goddess i think
i thought she betrayed him
“Chat’s bein’ pretty talkative about it. He was, uh- he was a few doors down from me.” His fingers slowed in Phil’s feathers at that, remembering the dingy hall. Door 8 was the only other one with a permanent occupant. Every other one got someone who died at least once. “His chat is angry. Chat thinks his goddess betrayed him.”
Phil winced at that, so sharply his wings jerked away and would have damaged the feathers if Techno hadn’t been being careful.
Techno didn’t exactly have the fondest relationship with the Blood God, but he’d never been actively betrayed by him either. Phil had a much closer relationship with Lady Death--he was married to her, after all--and his following shudder proved just how much the thought of betrayal bothered him.
“Chat says he was nice the last time I saw him.”
“That’s... something, I suppose,” Phil murmured, settling back against Techno’s legs. “Not that ‘nice’ means all that much if you only knew him before he was abandoned.”
Techno grunted. He hardly recognized the guy. Saying he knew him was a bit of an overstatement. Still, it was a good point. It had literally been centuries since Techno had left the pit--through the void, actually, which raised the very important question of how the stranger had survived that agony if he’d been falling for the centuries since.
(Techno had jumped into the void just once, out of pure desperation to escape from the world he’d been born on. He’d taken portals and waypoints since, made quite the name for himself on several hub worlds, but those ten minutes in the void were seared into his back and shoulders in the scars it had left.
He hadn’t seen any void burns on the stranger.)
maybe his goddess protected him
oooo
oo
drama
no point in speculating
what else are we gonna do we don’t have bodies
crime
i wish
murder is always fun
blood ouo
blood?
blood
blood!
Techno groaned and dug the heels of his palms into his eyes. “Chat’s workin’ into a frenzy.”
“Chat.” Phil twisted, shooting the incorporeal voices a disappointed look. “Please. We have a guest. We can go murder a village once he’s not at risk of dying in the middle of the night.”
“Don’t encourage them, Phil.”
Phil laughed brightly.
---
Techno wasn’t sure when he fell asleep, but he woke to Phil shaking him urgently with concern written across his entire form.
The stranger had spiked a fever hot enough even Techno could feel it. His breathing was rough and pained, his entire body tensing like the string on a bow--and something about that comparison felt fitting. He’d probably used one in the pit.
Of course, the stranger’s weapon choice in the pit wasn’t the important thing here. No, the important thing was the ashy gray spreading through his veins from his shoulder, creeping up his neck and under the bandages wrapped around his injuries.
Wither.
It was light, for now--held off by the health and regen potions they’d used on him, probably. Still, those would only last for so long, and Techno could hardly hand over a golden apple when the dude was too unconscious to eat.
told you
“We’re gonna have to find a way to wake him up before the wither spreads,” Techno muttered. “He’s gonna need the gapple saturation to fight off the wither.”
Phil scoffed. “Dude fell from the sky, mate. If that and a near-drowning aren’t enough to wake him, I don’t think we can.”
Techno shrugged. “Nothing we did is going to matter if the wither kills him.”
There were things he could try, from the Nether. They were risky, though, on someone who didn’t have Nether blood running through them--wither was hot, and a few of the mushrooms found in the crimson and warped forests had different properties, but- it would take time to gather everything, and there was no guarantee it would work.
“Maybe,” Phil said. “But it’s spreading slowly.” His fingers traced the visible ash gently. “We've had him here for half a day, and this is the first sign of it. Most people are already dead by now.”
god-chosen are built different
oh he sure is did you see how buff he is
techno is literally seven feet tall
techno is built different
the captain was extra different tho
yeah didn’t he have extra hearts
Techno blinked slowly at that last voice, staring at the stranger. “We should get him hooked up to a communicator. It’ll track the wither progress.” And reveal if the stranger really did have extra hearts, of all things.
“We don’t have a spare communicator.”
“Tubbo can make one.”
Both of them whirled to stare at Boo, who blinked at them slowly before turning his gaze to the stranger on Phil’s bed.
“Tubbo made them before, way back when,” Boo added, leaning over to examine the stranger more closely. He still kept a noticeable distance, though. “I’m sure it wouldn’t be much trouble for him. Besides, he likes tinkering, and oh boy does he need to relax.”
Techno and Phil stared at each other before Phil shrugged.
“I’ll go see if he’s awake,” Phil said mildly--and then left Techno with the ghost of his apprentice and the unconscious form of someone from Techno’s past.
This was terrible. His day couldn’t get worse.
---
His day had gotten worse.
Tubbo had agreed to make the communicator, but that meant Eret had stayed to keep watching Michael--the two of them were making snow sculptures in the back. Niki and Boo were with them, but not actively participating.
Phil had gone to the Nether to collect the things they would need to try to fight the wither slowly spreading across the stranger.
The problem with all of that was Techno was left in the room with the stranger, to keep an eye on him, and Tubbo. And he and Tubbo were chill now, and Tubbo didn’t seem particularly inclined to ask about Techno or the stranger.
He hadn’t asked a single thing in the time he’d been here, actually. Hadn’t shut up long enough to do so.
“I should probably make an update for the server,” Tubbo was saying, nearly an hour deep into his thoughts on the communication server he’d made years ago, “one that lets people change their display name so they can change what people call them if they want. Even if it’s just silly nicknames.”
Techno hummed noncommittally.
change your server name to technodude
steve
he can’t steal steve’s name
george
lol
make him really not found
error 404 name not found
“What would you change your name to, if you could?” Tubbo asked. Which, considering Tubbo’s full name, was a fair question.
“Uh,” Techno said eloquently. He turned away from the stranger to stare at Tubbo, who was already holding what looked to be most of a completed communicator in his hands. “I like my name.”
Tubbo nodded understandingly. “Me too.” Which was news. Since. Tuberculosis and all. “But just to mess with people, y’know?”
Techno raised his eyebrows. “Just for the chaos?”
Tubbo grinned sharply.
steve
george
steal a name
go by orange juice it’ll keep people on their toes
hamilton dangerfield the fourth for me personally
hamilton dangerfield sounds very pog
“Phil.” Techno looked Tubbo straight in the eyes. “I’d pick Phil.”
noooo
noo
lol
he’ll kill you
death by old man
Tubbo laughed, pure delight bouncing off the rafters. He threw his head back and everything, the sudden sound somehow making the air of the room much lighter and more tolerable.
“That’s fucking fantastic, boss man.” Tubbo’s eyes sparkled with clear delight. “Your courage is admirable.”
Despite himself, Techno chuckled.
Tubbo grinned again, screwing a last bit of casing on. He stretched, almost exactly like Ranboo used to, then hopped to his feet and held the communicator up.
“I’ve just got to boot it up, big man. You know how to link one of these to this dude?”
Techno shook his head.
“Well,” Tubbo put one hand on his hip and stared down at the stranger, “I’d wager he’s got registration data from somewhere else. The stuff’s soulbound, so-” He leaned forward and pushed a couple of buttons on the communicator, bringing up the familiar registration screen. Then he plapped it onto the stranger’s face.
The screen pondered this for a moment, a little cursor blinking against the dark background before typing out:
P R O C E S S I N G
“Look’s like he’s got registration then.” Tubbo nodded firmly. “I mean, we won’t have heard of him, but at least we’ll have some sort of thing to call him.”
Techno nodded. “The stranger” was getting to be pretty tiresome in his mental narration.
think how the author feels
no no there’s no author what do you mean
don’t break the fourth wall
no <3
i do not want to put up with this
stop this is a crime and you’re under arrest
REGISTRATION: C O M P L E T E
Techno and Tubbo’s communicators chimed, the stranger’s defaulting to the homescreen, and yeah- he-
Techno blinked at the sheer number of hearts at the bottom of the screen.
check your communicator
told you he has extra hearts
get his name
what do you mean get his name we told him what his name is
“Uh,” Tubbo said.
Techno slowly looked at his communicator.
[CaptainSparklez joined the server.]
“Bruh.”
“Y’know,” Tubbo said, remarkably calmly for just finding out the person he’d saved from dying the night before was none other than a walking legend, “I think that’s a bit of an understated way to say ‘holy-fucking-shit’.”
“Bruh.”
bruh
yooo
oh he’s THAT captain
eh puffy’s better
you have not seen this dude ride a wither
well no wonder he got withered
bruh
rule of cool
clearly not
awesamdude: nobody’s at spawn
FoolishG: how would you know that if you’re not at spawn
awesamdude: nobody else is at spawn
FoolishG: what if they’re naked and invisible
CaptainPuffy: why are you making everyone read this conversation
TommyInnit: CaptainSparkelz is allowed to do what he wants
WilburSoot: I, for one, would like him to do me. At his earliest convenience
CaptainPuffy: WHY ARE YOU MAKING EVERYONE READ THIS
Tubbo_: maybe he’s taking a nap
Quackity: right after getting here?
Tubbo_: who am I to question the sleeping habits of a legend
TommyInnit: a hypocrite
Tubbo_: exactly
Tubbo_: though I will have you know I in fact did get a full night’s sleep last night
The_Eret: I am 1000% sure it was involuntary on your part
Tubbo_: what do you want for nothing
Techno scoffed. Tubbo threw his hands into the air.
“Bullies,” he declared, rather affectionately. “Bullies, the lot of them.”
They both fell silent at that, staring at apparently the Captain unconscious in Phil’s bed. He seemed smaller than the legends had made him out to be, and not just because he was near-death.
Techno knew the legends of the Captain--most did, it seemed, with the way all three of the communicators were still going off as people reacted to the news. He eyed his communicator again, wondering if anyone was looking for the Captain--but there was no possible way anyone could figure out the Captain arrived at the world not through the spawn portal.
Thankfully, the communicator on the Captain’s face went dark as it entered sleep mode, one set of notifications falling silent.
“He’s really out, huh.” Tubbo leaned over the Captain, examining him closely. “I mean, we knew that. But still.”
Techno grunted. “You missed it while the screen was on--he’s got four rows of hearts.”
Tubbo whirled to stare at him, eyes wide. “Permanent ones?”
Techno shrugged, his cloak falling back around his arms. “Most of ‘em were empty and I could still see them. The five left were definitely withered.”
They already knew that, though. It was creeping up the Captain’s neck, ash and char threatening to overtake. As soon as it reached his heart- that would be a battle they wouldn’t win.
Tubbo nodded thoughtfully. “I wonder if whatever gave him the extra hearts is what’s making the wither spread so slowly.” He tapped his fingers against the bedframe, then shrugged. “We can ask him later.”
“Not if he dies we can’t.”
“He’ll respawn. I’m sure he’s got more lives left.”
Techno grimaced, and the air in the room dropped with Tubbo’s expression. Tubbo’s gaze flicked to the Captain, then to Techno, and he frowned.
“I’m... pretty sure he and I have met before,” Techno said, voice low. “Where I’m from.”
Tubbo’s frown deepened. His fingers tapped against the bedframe again. He nodded. “Assume he’s got one life. Right.” He took a deep breath and straightened his shoulders, beginning to pace. “Okay. So we’ve got to figure out the whole wither part.” He paused, rocking back and forth on his heels as he stared at the Captain before turning to Techno. “What if we wake him up?”
“I don’t know how we’d do that?” Techno gestured to the ruined front yard visible through Phil’s window. “He’s slept through a lot so far.”
Tubbo nodded slowly, then pointed a single finger straight up at the ceiling. “How often do you get lightning here?”
“Absolutely not.”
---
In the end, Tubbo wrote down the things they tried to wake up the Captain “for science,” and Techno let him so they could show it to Phil. The list went approximately like this:
Tubbo dumped water on the Captain, poked him in various places with his finger, poked him in various places with a fork, poked him in various places with a channeling trident, screamed at him, and shoved him out of the bed into a rather funny-looking heap on the floor.
Techno did not, however, let Tubbo try some of the more extreme ideas he had, much to the disappointment of both Tubbo and Chat. Like summoning actual lightning to hit the guy with.
The dude had hardly so much as stirred by the time the door downstairs clattered against the floor in lieu of being opened. Phil’s curse rang out loudly, and Niki laughed. With no progress made, Techno and Tubbo both went downstairs to see Phil putting down an assortment of things from the Nether as Niki washed blood off her hands.
“How’d it go?” Techno asked, picking the door up and putting it back.
Phil’s wings bristled and Phil whirled, fire in his eyes. “Tech, did you fucking know who fell out of the sky?”
“In that we’ve met before? Yes.” He ignored the way Niki’s head shot up at that. “In that we’ve never actually spoken to each other? No.” He shifted uneasily. “Names weren’t really important in the Pit.”
Tubbo and Niki gave each other a long look. Phil just nodded, though his feathers were still bristled.
“Right. Well, nothing we can do about that now,” Niki said. She nodded to Tubbo. “I’m here now to help out, you can go be with Michael-”
“Hello?”
They all froze.
Tubbo moved first, darting to the ladder and scaling it so quickly it was a miracle he didn’t fall and crack his skull open. “Hello! How’s the floor?”
Phil slowly raised his eyebrows, turning to give Techno a frosty glare. “Mate,” he said softly, dangerously, “why is he on the floor?”
“Science.”
Phil spluttered something, but Techno was already climbing up the ladder after Tubbo.
The Captain was sitting leaning up against Phil’s bedframe, confusion and exhaustion both warring across his face as he took in Tubbo. He still hadn’t responded properly to Tubbo’s question, but the tight grip he had on his shoulder told Techno plenty about how he felt.
The Captain’s gaze flicked to Techno, and he froze. His gaze darted around the room, lingering on the sky visible through the windows, before he scrutinized Techno himself.
hoo boy his chat is loud
there aren’t as many of them but they put some of us to shame
oh hey it’s been a while since i heard that voice how’s it goin’
“Hullo.” Techno pulled himself fully into view, moving slowly so he didn’t make the Captain pull a weapon out--he almost certainly had one. He’d fallen into the void in the middle of the Pit, of course he’d be armed.
The Captain gave him a long look, taking in his arctic clothing: lingering on the quality of the work, the enchantments embroidered into them for durability, his signature half-skull mask fastened to his belt for obligatory dramatic moments.
“...Hi.”
Techno scooted out of the way of the ladder and folded himself up in the space as small as he could go--which wasn’t very, but he tried.
you’re both awkward lol
“Where am I?” the Captain asked slowly. His voice didn’t shake, but he was hardly speaking loudly.
“Phil’s bedroom. House. Both.” Techno nodded decisively. “You fell out of the sky into our front yard.”
Tubbo nodded in agreement. “Plopped right into the water there. Made the pond bigger, actually.”
The Captain glanced at the bandages around his injuries. His hand tightened on his shoulder. The wither visible under his fingers pulsed softly, darkening.
Phil’s head popped into the room, and the Captain noticeably flinched. Phil held up a hand placatingly. “Hey mate.” He looked at Tubbo. “I’m gonna start some breakfast- what’s Michael like the most?”
“Oh!” Tubbo brightened. “Pancakes, usually. With berries, if you have them.”
Phil nodded and disappeared down the ladder again.
sneaky old man
don’t scare the captain with too many new people
phil has good ideas
<3 phil
how did you make that sound with your mouth
none of us have mouths
how are we talking
oh no
oops
ohhh no
nooo
existential crisis time wheee
“How- how long was I out?” the Captain finally asked.
“Overnight, give or take a few hundred years.”
The Captain gave Techno a long look. It felt pretty familiar, actually. He’d given it to the Pit guards whenever they’d come to his cell for a fight. It was cautious, unimpressed, evaluating.
“You’ve been here since last night,” Tubbo confirmed. “Don’t know how long you were falling, though.”
“I’m pretty sure you came from the void.”
The Captain nodded, recognition settling in his expression at that, the sort of recognition of someone who’d confronted the void and come out the other side. “Yeah, I- I was knocked in.” He paused, eyes searching Techno. “You were waiting in the wings for your turn, before the Wither blew a hole in the bedrock.”
Techno nodded. “That was over two hundred years ago, yep.”
The Captain frowned. Blinked. Frowned deeper, fingers of his withered arm rubbing together as if to confirm the existence of his body.
“Huh,” he said.
The wither was on his fingertips now, ashy gray unsettling.
“C’mon,” Techno said, shuffling back towards the ladder. “Let’s properly treat that wither now that you’re awake.”
---
The Captian’s name, as it turned out, was Jordan--which seemed laughably normal after a registration of CaptainSparklez.
Granted, Techno had only ever had his registered name, so what would he know? And he stole that, too, from a dude he killed--soulbound and all.
Not that he was thinking about that much. Treating wither was always hard, so the topic of names was a nice low-key topic in the background. He learned all sorts of things about his friends as he did his best:
Niki had a normal name through typical origins. Jordan nodded at that, only to flinch as Techno put regen on the worst of the spreading wither.
Phil’s was pretty standard, too, though when he mentioned the “za” part of his name was “a sort of family name, in a not-surname sort of way”, Niki had to physically stop Tubbo from asking a slew of questions.
Eret, once Tubbo got him and Michael for breakfast, didn’t know where his name came from. “My parents, I presume,” though he didn’t actually remember them--which opened up another can of worms as big as the char in creeping up the side of Jordan’s throat and the edge of his jaw. (It was still spreading--why was it still spreading? The potions were supposed to do something, anything, by now.)
Michael of course, was named by Tubbo and Ranboo. This seemed to attract Boo, who wandered in and cooed at Michael. Jordan stared at the ghost for a long moment before just nodding.
Tubbo’s full name was Tuberculosis, because-
A knock pounded on the door. Not Phil’s, because it would have fallen over and immediately revealed who was causing the racket, but Techno’s. Which meant the culprit was one of a very select number of people who were both not here and who knew which house was Techno’s.
Not they needed to look to see who it was.
“Techno!” Dream shouted. “I know you’re here!”
Tubbo clamped his hand over Michael’s mouth as his own snapped shut, standing with him in arms. Phil jerked his head to the ladder, and Tubbo darted over with Eret in close pursuit. Boo hummed softly, drifting up directly through the boards that made up both ceiling of this room and the floor of the one above.
Phil jumped up, too, and immediately gathered the spare plates and the cooking pan. Techno stared at him for a moment before getting up from his own seat.
“Hide in the back room,” Phil urged softly, and Jordan shot the door a scrutinizing look before complying, a bit unsteady in how he walked what with the arrow and knife wounds. Niki followed him closely, hands held ready to catch him if he fell.
“Techno!”
Techno opened Phil’s door. It immediately fell onto the porch between the two houses.
Dream whirled, dressed to the nines in full enchanted Netherite, and stared at it for a minute. Then his gaze turned to inside Phil’s house. Techno followed it, and--yeah, good, the only one visible was Phil at the sink, very obviously doing dishes.
“What?” Techno asked. “Why are you here?”
Dream looked at the broken door again, then Phil.
Techno had hidden someone like this before, but that didn’t make him feel better about it now.
“C’mon, get your stuff.” Dream, thankfully, couldn’t read Techno’s thoughts. “I need your help finding CaptainSparklez.”
“No.”
Dream did a double-take. Laughed. “No?”
“No.” Techno raised his eyebrows. “I’m finishing breakfast. I’m certainly not interrupting it to go with you or look for anyone. I don’t owe you anything.”
Dream laughed again, disbelief echoing across his tone. “It’s not a favor, Techno! It’s- it’s an adventure!”
“No.”
Dream came to a complete stop, making Techno uncomfortably aware of how Dream always shifted around a bunch. “Why? It’s not like Ranboo can get any more dead if you leave his ghost.” He paused, gaze flickering to where Boo drifted near the ceiling now. “I... could bring him back, y’know.”
take the chance
you don’t have to turn the captain in you just have to lead dream on a wild goosde chase
goosde chase
goosde chase
Except both Techno and Dream knew Dream wouldn’t be satisfied until he found Jordan. Until Dream had his hands on someone who didn’t know anything that had happened here, someone who knew things about Techno’s past that he did not, under any circumstances, want Dream to know.
And it hurt. But he couldn’t. He couldn’t hand a legend over to Dream. Not even for Ranboo.
“No.”
“I thought you... liked Ranboo?” Dream tilted his head, voice soft. “You stayed behind to try and save him after all.”
“Past tense, Dream.” The words left a bitter taste in his mouth. He pulled his axe out of his inventory--it was still otherwise full of wood, unfortunately--and moved it at the ready. Not the Axe of Peace. The one Ranboo made for him.
Dream’s expression shifted.
“My hounds know the meanin’ of the word no better than you do,” Techno said dryly. “You don’t have a favor to call in. Get off my property.”
Dream chuckled softly, holding a hand up casually. The other summoned an axe of his own. Diamond. “Speaking of, there wasn’t that mess in the front yard the last time I was here. Looks like something, or someone, hit the ground pretty hard.”
“I missed my trident throw,” Phil said plainly, voice as mild and as soft as his footsteps as he walked over. He spread his wings, showing off the non-functioning one. “Caught air when I didn’t mean to and went down a bit off target.”
Dream laughed, a bit incredulously and bitterly. “What? No, it’s all frozen over-”
“Because it happened last night.” Phil folded his wings comfortably against his back. A crimson vine slid off the back of his clothes and silently plopped to the floor. “I’m all healed up, but we haven’t gotten the time to fix the space yet.” He fixed Dream with a hard look. “Now. Techno told you to leave. You should do that.”
Dream scoffed. “I’m not going anywhere-”
Phill summoned his sword from his inventory.
Dream took a step back.
The three of them all stood there for a long moment before Dream finally took a full step back.
“You’re making a mistake.”
“I just said I’m not goin’ with you,” Techno pointed out cooly. “Why the threat?”
“It’s not a threat,” Dream spat. “The Captain is a threat to everything we’ve worked for.”
most of what you’ve both worked for has been destruction
yeah
l’manburg
l’manburg again
the prison
i mean really the man has goals but what’s that supposed to mean
“He hasn’t even talked in chat,” Techno said. “Did he burn something down already?”
He said the last part jokingly, not expecting Dream to throw his hands into the air.
“Yes! He was seen with Tommy earlier, lighting a forest on fire. We do not need another Tommy on our hands.”
liar
liar
liar
we’ve always known he lies about tommy none of this is new guys
lol next techno is going to learn dream manipulated mansplained malewifed his way to doomsday
don’t be silly he already knew he just did it because he was mad at tommy for not wanting to kill the best friend now vibing inside phil’s house
“Well, then you should be able to find the Captain just fine without me. A forest fire’s hardly subtle.”
Dream gave one last exasperated sigh before storming off.
Techno and Phil watched him go before they returned their weapons to their inventories. Phil turned back to the house, leaving Techno to pick up the door and lean it back up where it had been before.
Jordan stood there when he turned back, expression wary. He glanced at Tubbo, climbing down the ladder, before his gaze returned to Techno’s, eyes as full of god-given power as Techno’s own.
And then he spoke, his words making Niki and Phil freeze and Tubbo fall off the ladder.
“Does someone want to tell me what Doomsday is and what Dream has to do with it?”