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theminecraftbee · 8 months

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Normally, traitors aren’t frog-marched to the Emperors themselves, regardless of what rank of information they had. These aren’t normal circumstances, though, Techno bemoans to himself. For one, the man is refusing to speak anything but French and a tiny amount of broken Bayesh. For another, on being made, he immediately handed over about three folders of classified information then loudly waited for handcuffs to be put on him.

Phil is lounging in his throne; he’d never been one for propriety. This leaves Techno to be, uh, the actually serious one. The one adorned in uniform, sitting and glowering down. It’s lucky that the traitor isn’t a pigman, because Techno isn’t actually great at glowering, but humans are weird about pigman facial expressions so he should be fine?

The traitor stands before them and grins. In perfect Bayesh, he says: “Finally. It took way too long for you to catch me, bitch.”

Techno pauses. He stares. In Piglish, he barks to his guards: “Everyone out. It’s Leader business.”

They file out. They’ll be waiting outside. Phil straightens in his seat and reaches for his own sword.

Techno, laboriously, drags his hand across his face. He switches back to Bayesh. God, does he regret being fluent in multiple languages sometimes. “What are you doing here, Tommy.”

“Showing you your intelligence weak points, fucker. Do you know how easy it is to slip Bayesh spies in here? I was smooth. A smooth customer. I was hearing classified milkitary secrets—”

“You were caught within two hours,” Techno says.

“That’s—that’s just what you think, innit?” Tommy says. Phil laughs. He’s the real traitor here.

“Tommy. I don’t wanna have to cause an international incident, but I’ve had a really long day, so if you just tell me who hired you to run a spy op, and why you decided it was a good idea to run it yourself, instead of sending one of your experts…”

“No one,” Tommy says.

“Hey, don’t lie you little shit. Techno might not want to start an incident but I don’t care,” Phil says. He grins and holds up his sword. “You wanna wake up in a jail cell and reveal some secrets? We may all be Leaders but it won’t stop torture from hurting.”

“What the fuck, Phil,” Tommy says.

“No one’s torturing anyone. We’ll just bomb them later if we must,” Techno says.

“And I wasn’t lying. It’s—can I take the wig off by the way? It fucking itches.”

“I despise you.”

Tommy takes off the black wig, revealing his blonde hair. “Anyway, I don’t want to work with you guys either, so I figured I’d get your attention by like, acting like we’re enemies and stuff. Got hired for espionage enough back in the day to pick up that much.”

“Who the fuck wanted you as a spy?” Phil asks.

“Fuck you,” Tommy says and doesn’t elaborate.

“Please just tell us what you want,” Techno says. “Please. I can’t handle this much you at any given time.”

“This needs to be Leader to Leader,” Tommy says, and something heavy laces his words. The hairs on Techno’s arms stand up.

“You coulda asked,” he says, in one final desperate bid for normality.

“No, I couldn’t have,” Tommy says. “I think Chip’s dead.”

Techno doesn’t notice that he’s standing until he is.

“What?”

“Yeah,” Tommy says. “Yeah. And, uh, I fucking. Need your help to figure out what happened. Before we get blamed. And I know, politically, you’ve got no reason, but if we don’t figure out—”

Techno sits back down, heavy.

“I know you understand Piglish. Let me talk in my native language. Phil.”

“Yeah, mate?”

“Go get the stuff.”

Phil’s eyes darken. “Right. That. Well, I’ll be back.”

Tommy’s voice, for the first time since Techno met him as a newly-minted Leader, standing on a wooden bench and yelling about executions, is small.

“You believe me?” he says.

“Why else would you come here?” Techno asks. “Not like we like you.”

“Good, because I’m shit at infiltrations. Would have been embarrassing if you, like, didn’t know your enemy well enough to know that,” Tommy says. He’s saying something else underneath it. Techno is neither good enough at Bayesh or at Tommy to guess what.

“Let’s work out an excuse to make a treaty. And you tell me everything.”

#smp earth #WELL THAT'S A TAG I HAVEN'T HAD TO USE IN A WHILE.#a bee fic #anyway have you ever had to excise a story hook that's appeared in your head?#anyway: in which business bay gets framed for murdering chip and unfortunately as much as tommy would like the notoriety #he can't afford to let a guy who could kill chip just run around. also no one believes him.#so he goes to the antarctic empire hoping to ruffle enough feathers to at least get them out of the way #and technoblade immediately goes 'oh god something that incredibly stupid WOULD happen to you. oh no.'#AND THEN THEY ARE FORCED TO WORK TOGETHER TO CATCH THE GODKILLER #for the record. i probably won't write this.#if you're in a certain server with me please ignore how much i've been going 'but i COULD write bedrock bros' recently i PROBABLY WONT #anyway. i thought maybe you all would like this. the worldbuilding is like. ADJACENT to empires earth? with a lot of months in-between #like it definitely has influences from when i was doing the empires earth stuff.

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nomsfaultau · 4 months

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au idea with bedrock bros and with a bit of mandatory family reunion

basically Tommy is a billionaire’s kid and wants a brother and what’s this? An English teacher who complimented him once because he didn’t write a dogshit essay?

yeah that’s his brother now, congrats

mandatory family reunion except techno really IS just a guy but Tommy latches onto him bc Techno actually sees his potential and knows how to pull out his best work without being overbearing. so Philza shrugs and goes ‘new kid ig’ just like he does when Tommy brings home his millionth pet. To the degree of when Tommy is first talking abt bringing techno home Philza has already ordered like a massive dog bed just in case this is another cow. Tbf if the em duo first interaction is ‘OH! Wait you’re human?’ It’s still leagues better than MFR’s hasty threats. Anyway Tommy does puppy eyes so of course they have to get a new Techno.

They hire him as a private teacher and since you know billionaires it’s actually not totally out of the realm of them just having him live there like the servants do in this weirdly remote and fortified mansion. Tommy is actively calling him brother and Techno just rolls his eyes bc clingy goblin. What of course Techno is going to pay attention to him and play w him it’s called engaging the creative mind. And Tommy is the most engaged student he’s ever had (bc ulterior motives) and he’s getting paid bucket loads and doesn’t quite know what normal boundaries for private in house teachers are bc he’s some poor shmuck.

Anyway if these Crafts have an ounce more brains than they do in MFR and he is a free range Techno, it could be like five months before he realizes they’ve forcefully adopted him.

Techno tries to do his taxes and panics bc it came back saying the ID section is filled out entirely wrong, help did someone steal his identity!? Ah!?!?!?

And then Phil is passing through and is like ‘oops forgot to tell you we changed your last name. Sorry mate I’ll fix that for you’ and Techno does a spit take.

#And since he isn’t the Nether’s property techno wouldn’t get rekidnapped and find out how ruthless the Angel is #Happy ending (?)#Sbi au #bedrock bros fic #bedrock bros #technoblade #tommyinnit #philza #3/4 alas #Wilbur gets shunted in MFR too his arc was so funky bc I stared at him the whole time going ????!?#something to nom on #Ask

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if-loki-was-a-fox · 9 months

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There's this one conversation c!Ranboo and c!Techno have about c!Tommy, where c!Techno is joking about how c!Tommy would totally kill his pets (in this case Steve) and then go all "you can't hold me accountable for that, it was a full minute ago, I'm a changed person!" and what I find really funny about that conversation is how much it sounds like something someone might say about c!Technoblade.

(It sounds exactly like how c!Techno reacts to people bringing up c!Tubbo's execution)

Like c!Tommy and c!Techno both hate each other for their shared flaws. They say the same things when arguing why the other sucks.

But also on top of that, they both make up the same flaws for each other that the other doesn't even have. Like neither c!Tommy nor c!Techno would ever lay a hand on someone's pet (outside of self-defense), but they both think the other would.

(They both think the other is selfish and aggressive and doesn't care about anyone but themself, but in reality they're both kind and fiercely protective under all the layers of gruffness and abrasiveness, though in different ways)

#they actually have so many parallels and it makes my brian purr #both get put on pedestals and used by their supposed teammates and betrayed again and again #and both are always looking for friendship but unable to open up and actually develop one #I just think they're cool #they misunderstand each other and everything they hate on to each other #but they also do still care about each other to some extent #(the fact that they even tried ro work together post exile makes that obvious)#(and how c!Tevhno included c!Tommy in his will)#rambling about blorbos #bedrockbros #bedrock bros #ctechno #ctommy #technoblade #tommyinnit #my 100+ note posts

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fictionadventurer · 8 months

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There's nothing quite like the euphoria of finding a book at exactly the right time. A book that you might mildly enjoy or even dislike at another time, but you happen to come across it in just the right mood or mindset, or at just the right age or just the right time of year, so it fits perfectly into your heart and it's elevated into something spectacular.

#books #random thought of the day #at the moment this is about the james whitcomb riley poetry book #it's just an old poetry book #an offhanded impulse library borrow #most of the time it'd be something i set aside after getting home and never actually read #but there's something about it that perfectly captures how i feel when i step outside this time of year #it's almost overwhelming just how unexpectedly strongly i'm reacting to what is fairly basic poetry #but i'm loving the experience #a similar thing happened when reading 'the dean's watch' during advent #it's an excellent book but reading it that time of year made it life-changing #reading lord of the rings during lent made it hit much harder than before #turned it from something i appreciated but didn't particularly like into part of the bedrock of my inner life #and as much as i lament the years i spent not reading gaskell i'm so glad i found wives and daughters when i did #because i might not have appreciated it if i found it earlier

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zeb-z · 6 months

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bbh finally realized his insistence on revenge at the cost of himself isnt worth it and hurts his loved ones! and it only took seeing someone he loves also burn themselves in their hunt for vengeance in a way that’s somehow far more deadly and self destructive

#bad watched cellbit dig past bedrock and realized rock bottom is not where he should be #it only took four bodies to get the point across #crazy how that gives someone perspective I guess #anyways. here’s to hoping bad can do what everyone else has done for him which is dig in with their heels and keep him upright by sheer will #the power of love WILL prevail. or I’m going to blow things up #mcyt #qsmp #q!bbh #q!cellbit #cellbit #bbh #z speaks

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arandomintern · 10 months

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☆ . ★ ☆ . ★ . ☆

#how do i get my friend a divorce without him knowing? | intern speaks #tagging it as that for now as i don't have a tag for this #i wanted to try web weaving and i don't entirely like putting it together but the end result is lovely #i may take asks for this actually #if i do make reqs for web weaving i'll edit the tags later #web weaving #web weave #quotes #crimeboys #bedrock bros #golden duo #this is not an act of spite #tinaaos #mcyt

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trashyclementine · 4 months

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you think ctommy tried to bring himself to apologize to ctechno after doomsday but couldn’t bring himself to

even if sbi isn’t canon I think betraying someone who sheltered and provided for you and then trying to apologize to them would eat me alive

#I might be wrong #This is just how I see it #bedrock bros #All of my posts are my headcanons and opinions don’t get me please #c!technoblade #c!tommy

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delicatemusickingdom · 9 days

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Book 1 Part 1 Chapter 2.1

Chapter 2: The Grey Alleyways

The girl stretched her hand out from the railing. In her hands was a wooden bucket, and she raised it skywards like an offering. The bucket trembled precariously in her hands.

In front of her, a waterfall the width of a fully grown adult crashed down. It was far enough from the railings that the girl could barely reach it with her fingertips. The girl stretched her arms as far as she could, trying to catch as much water as she could into the bucket.

“If you lean too far out, you’ll fall.”

Yuri’s voice startled the girl, and she quickly jumped back. The water sloshed around in the bucket as she moved.

Yuri was careful not to spill his own bucket of water as he loaded it onto the cart. Inside the cart, there lined buckets of various sizes, all already filled with water.

Including Yuri, there were five or six people surrounding the cart, but all of them were children. Some of them were even younger than him. There were no adults.

Yuri set down his load with a pant. He looked around. Their party, along with the cart, was in a small square. In front of them towered a giant wall. The waterfall cascaded down from high above, directly into a pond that bordered the wall. There was a platform that jutted out over the pond, and the children used that to draw water from the waterfall.

The wall was large, ancient, and intimidating. It stretched all the way out on both sides, extending as far as the eye could see, half-obstructed by the buildings leaning on it, until it gently curved and disappeared from sight. It was also incredibly tall. Even the tallest buildings from the lower quarter were shorter than its halfway point. The waterfall flowed out from a lofty point in the wall.

The sky was clear, but their surroundings were dim here. The enormous shadow cast by the wall covered the whole area in darkness. From above, Yuri and the others probably looked like ants crawling around.

But when Yuri looked up, he could still see a hint of greenery peeking out from the top of the wall. Yuri knew it was a roadside tree from the citizen’s quarter. As he looked up from within the shadows, the tree appeared to be shining, as though it was emitting light.

Beyond that, he could see a row of spires. They had distinctive shapes, and were spaced out at equal intervals. These were the barrier blastia that protected the Imperial Capital. According to Hanks, its main body stood right in the middle of the Imperial Capital, while the spires were devices to help support it.

‘Other side of the wall’. Those words unconsciously appeared in Yuri’s mind. The other children probably thought the same thing.

This was the great wall that surrounded the Imperial Capital, Zaphias. And, it was also the line that divided the lower quarter from the rest of the city. A ‘borderline’. For the boy who had yet to understand everything, he at least understood that the word held numerous meanings. Most of them were bitter ones.

The castle gates were never closed, probably because of the barrier. They stayed open, even to the residents of the lower quarter. But to the residents of the lower quarter, the citizen’s quarter remained a distant place, and not one they could visit freely.

Yuri once visited the place out of curiosity. He remembered the looks of pity and contempt on the people’s faces, even though he was a commoner, just like them.

Whatever. Yuri squashed down the feelings beginning to well up inside of him. It doesn’t bother me. They don’t care about us, and we shouldn’t care about them.

The girl from earlier came back, struggling to carry a bucket that was too big for her to handle.

“Thanks for the hard work.”

Yuri said as he helped her load it into the cart.

That was the last bucket. The children all nodded, and surrounded the cart. At a signal, they all shifted their weight and started to push the cart.

Weighed down by the water, its wheels creaking, the cart slowly began to move. The children carefully made their way back to the lower quarter. Occasionally they would call out to each other, or let out exhausted groans.

Apart from rain — which happened irregularly — the waterfall that flowed from the castle walls was the only water source for the lower quarter. That precious water was quite literally their lifeline. The waterfall came from the waterworks system that extended throughout the citizen’s quarters and flowed out. The decorations on the waterfall’s outlet were similar to that of the Fountain Alley’s — namesake’s — fountain. It seemed like the fountain used to be one of the many extravagant devices used by the Imperial Capital, though it had long since dried up.

Apparently a long time ago, the walls didn’t exist, and the Imperial Capital extended further beyond the lower quarter. Remains of buildings from that era were scattered throughout the lower quarter area, and Some of them were even being used as residences.

They say the artificial waterfall was abandoned when the people retreated behind the city walls. No one really cared about its origin now, though. The water was safe to drink and there was a safe way to obtain it — that was all that mattered. Most of the water that flowed through the lower quarter was sewage water from the ‘other side of the wall’. The ruins underground blocked the water veins so wells couldn’t run, and the lands outside the Imperial Capital was fraught with danger.

As a result, for the lower quarter residents, fetching water from the waterfall was an indispensable part of their daily routine. In the poorer areas of the lower quarter, not just the adults, but the children too had to perform all kinds of manual labour, but the task of fetching water was an especially arduous one.

Also, they didn’t know whether the pond that the waterfall flowed into mixed with dirty water or not, but it definitely wasn’t clean — in the summer, area around the pond was filled with a stench worse than that of the sewage water. With the abundant humidity in the shadow of the walls, no one was willing to live nearby. And so, fetching water always involved collecting it as it came down, and then carrying it all the way back to the lower quarter. Furthermore, there were fields on the outskirts of the lower quarter that the residents managed. Water had to be delivered there too.

The lower quarter was an existence half-abandoned by the Imperial Capital's government. There was no chance a new water system would ever be installed there. Anger, doubt, and even hope… those feelings of the residents had already been lost many generations ago.

****

Even as they pushed the cart, the children continued to chatter. Doing so distracted them from the pain and monotony of their work. Even if they were poor, they weren’t slaves. As long as they went about it carefully, the adults didn’t make too much of a fuss about it.

Yuri was silent, and kept to himself. As an older child, it was his responsibility to supervise those younger than him, since fetching water was an important job no matter who did it. He didn’t mean to neglect that, but his mind was occupied by something else.

A month had passed since his unexpected confrontation with Flynn.

The season for flowers had come and gone, and there were gradually more and more days where it didn’t get cold, even at night.

After that incident, Yuri had never once visited the area where Flynn was. He had no reason to. He hadn’t seen Flynn since then, either.

He wasn’t sure if he wanted to meet Flynn again, or what he would do if they did. He tried not to think about it too much.

Despite thinking that, from time to time he would find himself thinking back to that scene. He’d recall Flynn’s movements, and then contemplate how he’d respond to them. If he comes from the right, I’d do this, if he comes from below, I’d do that. Once he became aware of it he would try to focus on something else, but soon he would find his thoughts leading back to the same place.

The adults were a different matter, but for Yuri, he’d never lagged behind any of the kids in the lower quarter. Winning and losing aside, he was surprised at how affected he was by the whole thing.

When he asked around, he was told Flynn was the same age as him. Maybe that was why.

Yuri grew irritated, and the fact that he couldn’t pinpoint the exact reason why irritated him even more. The other children were keenly aware of Yuri’s moodiness, and even those older than him didn’t dare bother him.

Regardless of the various childrens’ behaviour, the cart continued to creak as it rolled forward.

Their work had its own dangers. The Imperial Capital sat on a single hill, which sloped gently — or sometimes abruptly — the farther away you got from its centre. Naturally, the road back to the lower quarter was a downhill slope, so if they lost control of the heavily loaded cart and let it gather momentum as it rolled down, it could lead to a disaster.

And even if they reached the lower quarter, their job didn’t end there. Their job also included delivering water to the elderly and those who were unable to come and collect water on their own. Anyone would feel like not doing anything for a while after ferrying heavy buckets to and fro in the lower quarter, but Yuri actually welcomed it. If he worked until he was exhausted, he wouldn’t have the energy to think about unnecessary things.

If the days continued to pass like this, eventually Yuri might stop worrying about Flynn altogether.

It looked like Jareth and the rest hadn’t messed with Flynn ever since that day either. If that was the case, good. Let it stay that way.

……Is what he thought, but he was too naive.

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As an addendum, here's a picture of what the Imperial Capital looks like in the game overworld!

The river over there totally doesn't come into play later in the novels or anything...

#Tales of Vesperia #Genealogy of the Condemned #Danzaisha no Keifu #Tales of Vesperia: Genealogy of the Condemned #delicate posts #delicate translations #love it when the narration clowns on the characters. 'boy i sure hope it stays like this' 'it in fact did not.'#this is how yuri starts to get obsessed with flynn /j #as a side note how did they manage to dig a well post vesperia if wells don't work did the adephagos earthquake destroy the bedrock or smth

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deepwoundsandfadedscars · 5 months

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The fun of squishing your blorbo like a stressball vs the anguish of trying to figure out how to put them back together again

#i write myself into this hole and then try to figure out how to construct a ladder back out #and then get annoyed when the writing turns into a pickaxe chunking away at the bedrock #kee speaks

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galactia · 5 months

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Zhongli, in literally every human form he takes: slim, grabbable waist

#[ I make a distinction because his hybrid dragon form Does have a nice waist but he is Larger in that form #and don't get me wrong #I definitely have more HCs about how his body would actually look even in a human form but!!#Waist.#Grabbable. ]#even bedrock may turn to dust//crack

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tarantula-hawk-wasp · 3 months

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Im going to have to learn new depths of emotional maturity to handle the field school this season tbh

#several people I would rather NOT spend my summer doing manual work with are going AND the director said she’s moving me from my trench of #2 years to a different trench bc of some valid reasons of what I know a lot about BUT that trench is MY baby and we were FINALLY through th #roof tile layer and I spent 2 years waiting for that #and my dig wife isn’t going this year 😭😭😭😫😫😫😫#she’s moving me to the trench that they found a forge in and didn’t get to bedrock yet in and I wrote my thesis on tools so like fair #but I fucking worked my ass off for that other trench and I don’t get to be there for the fruit of my labors #last season was HARD it rained so much and we were so busy and couldn’t excavate very many hours and the professional archaeologist assigned #to my trench had a different commitment so I was In Charge of that trench and fighting for my life to keep the mood up of the undergrads I #was supervising and I was in charge of making HARD decisions about how to excavate that trench #and now I’m being put at a different trench and like they already found the evidence of the forge like what more am I going to find there #but despite my gentle and polite protestations I am being reassigned to be in charge of that unit #which fine I’ll do my absolute best but I’m still upset

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lacystar · 9 months

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I missed amongus server drama? 🥲

Qwerty no amount of update accounts could describe what happened

#don’t stop the party #his ass did not get hired NDA loving wife potato farm swag priest I’ll use him later the interview cyrus copper house Cyrus farm underside #the village armor spells out chef well he underwater mines tools named after master chef winners red light district what amendment is the ri #ght ti remain silent THEYRE fuckinng at the red light district all the time clings reciting poetry maybe if I finish his gift he’ll like me #when is the divorce is clings socks son because he’s mixed who is the father church so trinkets the pope then is it priest or pastor I’m not #calling him father cyrus how are you doing Cyrus I’m feeling swaggy bedrock minecraft isn’t on mac Nintendo online is $20 a year you did #lore and you’re not even on our server can I get the family tree when will my husband return from the war cyrus has the nda why are you at #the red light district trinket crying laughing #I’m gonna listen to YCGMA is your husband faithful oh well he works csn cyrus deafen the king solomon baby story recited from a techno quote #in a Cyrus fic please areus don’t tell you know clings I just want my family to be okay you don’t know what this would do to him please #he doesn’t even have a priest outfit you are not allowed to build in swag nation afyer some debate the council has considered you for the #job of pastor so how are Andy and clings related #cyrus gets tagged 5 times consecutively on a burger post. clings is in the backrooms. it’s jover.#amogus server #asks #qwerty

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nomsfaultau · 6 months

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24) Screaming//Sacrifice

Bonus 11) Torture and 22) Survivor’s guilt

Disclaimer: this blurb is set in the SCP SBI AU I have called Fault. No specific part of the timeline, summoning sessions happen so often it doesn’t matter. Explanation of AU; tldr.

You’re not supposed to scream.

That had been one of the hardest lessons of the summoning ritual for Tommy to learn. Screaming was a form of manipulation. It was a horrible, nasty trick to try on the humans, so of course a rotten monster like him had to be taught not to. He wasn’t supposed to exploit their mercy like that, and yet for some reason Tommy couldn’t manage to stop for the longest time.

But given enough time even the most basic of instincts could be broken. Lessons beaten so deep even the terror of mortal panic could not override the need to obey. Little rules built together, each lesson learned a little harsher, until eventually Tommy was the perfect docile altar lamb.

He learned to throttle his screams before the humans could do it for him. The whimpers, too, stifled alongside his sobs. Begging was forbidden, though that was easier to abandon given talking was already harshly discouraged. Tommy turned instead to silent, desperate pleading for salvation. He didn’t know if The Blood God listened to prayers.

He listened to pain, though.

A flinch jolted him at the brush of contact upon his throat, and at once he tried to smother it, shoving down the instinct. Tommy very carefully didn’t move, holding rigidly still as uncertain fingers prodded at the bruises already there from last session. His breathing hitched, heartbeat slamming against the hands resuming their place ensnaring his throat. The Blood God would be summoned right before Tommy drew his last breath and not a second sooner.

He’d lost count of how many last breaths he’d taken. The familiar burn of his lungs, screaming at him to save them. That instinctual thrashing against the countless hands pinning him to the floor, a dance well memorized by his worn body. Minutes passed, the convulsions beginning as his diaphragm desperately compressed and contracted, trying to force air down. Writhing as fire ate through his chest, screaming for release that would never come, could never be allowed to come.

Black ink pooled in the edge of his vision, death approaching. He didn’t fight it. He wasn’t allowed to. Even on the verge of his own murder was obedient, the lessons engraved into him. It was a resistance long broken in him, long before the current summoning session. First, still the want to fight. Things like swinging and kicking at the soldiers were discouraged quickly given their meager effects were repaid tenfold. Things like biting or scratching at the hands upon him were not approved of, though they were mostly reserved to occurring during the throes of panic when he had little awareness left. Still, enough punishment and even that stopped.

He had one act of rebellion, though. Eventually, they’d stopped caring enough to punish it, and Tommy clung desperately to the one piece of the ritual that was his. At the very start, when the soldiers dragged him into the summoning room, before the session began. Tommy stared every one of his sacrificers in the eyes. He couldn’t remember every face, they blurred together after so long. Still, it didn’t feel right not to try. Someone had to commemorate them, and if they succeeded Tommy would be the only one left who could. So Tommy locked eyes with each of his torturers.

And then he apologized to them.

He had to do it at the start, when he could still speak. Sometimes he wondered what they were told. Were they told how awful he was and know exactly how deserved this was, or did they think him some poor yet necessary cost in the name of countless civilian lives? Did they know they would be the ones to chain The Blood God once more? Were they simply following orders? Did they know nothing at all?

Surely no one told them Tommy wasn’t the only sacrifice in the room.

Or maybe they knew. Maybe they’d accepted their roles, just like he’d accepted his. Maybe they were willing, enthusiastic even, ready to become martyrs for the sake of humanity. Tommy didn’t know. He couldn’t ask. He was permitted his apology and no more.

Tommy forced himself to remember the details of the person choking him to death. The curve of their nose, the few strands of hair escaping the biohazard face shield that was splattered with scarlet. The features blurred as darkness swallowed his vision, but he caught the flash of fear as the pool of ruby haloing Tommy rippled unaturally and surged outwards. Ruby runes carved themselves across the padded cell floor, smearing The Blood God’s name into existence.

In the hesitation of confusion-awe-terror, the vice on his throat eased just the slightest. Tommy gasped, only for the grip to immediately tighten, gloved fingers clawing into the mottled bruises staining his neck in the dark shadow of a noose. Pulverising, and Tommy’s panic spiked. They should’ve let go, they needed to run. But the human was determined to finish the job even as scarlet light blossomed around Tommy.

The strangulation abruptly stopped as The Blood God tore the human off him. They were ripped apart in seconds. Death fell upon the room, swift and brutal in his conquest. Tommy couldn’t save them, simply curling into himself where he lay in a pool of crimson. Each sucked down rasp of air hurt. Greedy, given the growing plethora of last breaths claimed by The Blood God. He alone would continue to breathe out of all of them. Each one hurt.

Only once the last of them were dead could he speak again. The same words, over and over, no matter how it felt like choking out broken glass. The mantras Philza had given him to ward off the guilt of what he’d done.

You didn’t choose this.

They deserve it.

It’s not your fault.

Tommy began to sob, and it was just as suffocating as the strangulation had been. The blood of his fellow sacrifices tangled in the glowing sigils of the summoning circle radiating out from him.

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