Tommy had been living in the cabin for well over a week before the subject of Wilbur leaving got brought up again.

Techno was fairly stressed about it - or as stressed as he usually allowed himself to become about anything. Overall, he considered himself to be a practical person and concentrated on whatever was in front of him. There was no use worrying over things he couldn't reasonably control.

But Phil was on edge too. He had questions that went without answers, festering inside his ribcage. Tommy was the only one who was there when Wilbur left, so he was the only one who could say what exactly happened. Techno knew Phil well enough to be able to tell how much the uncertainty was killing the old man. Techno also knew Phil was not going to pry. He was going to stew in it like he always did. And if they had to wait for Tommy to share on his own accord, they'd probably be waiting until the Nether froze over.

Techno wasn't one to prompt difficult conversations though, especially not with a sick person. The pneumonia he had predicted Tommy would catch from being stuck in a snow drift never came, though he did feel under the weather for a couple of days. So for that time, Techno was happy to ignore the elephant in the room and concentrate on making sure the blizzard hadn't done any significant damage. Getting distracted was good. He didn't need to ask about Wilbur.

That didn't really help with all the other aspects of the situation which stressed Techno out.

Tommy was in his house. He was eating Techno's food and occupying Techno's couch and there was something there, settled at the periphery of his mind. Forgiveness was a far cry from forgetting. Techno was just good at pretending he'd moved past things. He didn't know how Tommy felt about it either, so that was… fine.

Tommy seemed to have bigger issues anyway. Techno could sense it in every breath. He could feel it in the way Tommy insisted on coming with him to chop wood or how he'd practically glue himself to Phil's side whenever the avian dropped by.

E
E
Separation anxiety
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He's like a puppy now
E
I think Wilbur leaving really messed him up
Lol
E
Just get rid of him

Techno swallowed around Chat's chanting and continued shoveling the snow that had piled up in front of Carl's stable. The horse exhaled a warm puff of air against his cheek, pressing its snout into Techno's shoulder. Maybe he could sense the stress basically dripping off his owner.

"Catch!" Tommy yelled, seconds before a snowball hit Techno in the back of the head.

"Seriously?" Techno asked, half turned around already. Tommy had the decency to look a little bit regretful.

"You told me to clear the snow," he said.

"With a shovel, not your hands."

Tommy shrugged, bending down to make another snowball. Techno knew where this was going. But the paddock was cleared enough anyway, so he didn't really mind. They could goof off for a bit. Meanwhile, Chat urged him to start an all-out snow war.

E
E
Destroy the child
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GG EZ
Blood for the blood god
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Kill him /j
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Blood for the blood god
Snow for the snow god

It was tempting enough. It wouldn't even be a challenge to kick Tommy's butt.

Before it could get that far, Phil touched down between them. The snowball Tommy had just chucked at Techno knocked into one of Phil's wings. The appendage twitched slightly, feathers wet with sleet. They'd recovered well from the explosion and Phil had only started being able to use them again for short flights since a couple of months ago.

Tommy laughed at Phil's deadpan stare.

"What are you doing?" Phil asked.

"We're shoveling the snow," Tommy said before Techno cleared his throat to correct him.

"I'm shoveling snow. Tommy is not doing that."

"You're not being very pog right now," Tommy accused. He walked over to the fence, leaning against it dejectedly at having his game so rudely interrupted. Techno could never figure that kid out, his mood seemed all over the place.

Ghostboo was floating in front of their house, petting one of the cows that had strayed out of the farm. The fences were starting to degrade, but Techno hadn't found the energy to fix them yet. He still gave Ranboo's old house a wide berth.

"Ranboo! Hey, Ranboo!" Tommy waved excitedly at the ghost. "How are you with snowballs? I bet we could 2v2 these pricks."

Phil made eye contact with Techno, the grin on his face betraying more amusement than annoyance at Tommy's attitude. And maybe a tad of maniacal glee.

One didn't challenge Philza 'Angel of Death' Minecraft to a fight unless they had a death wish.

Techno put his shovel against the side of the stable, gave Carl another quick brush through his mane, and then walked over.

"Oh, I wish," Techno heard Ghostboo say when he got close enough to understand the ghost's muttered words. "I'm afraid snow is… It's no good. No good for me."

"It burns you?" Phil asked, a tad of sharpness in his voice.

"It burned Ranboo too," Ghostboo said. "This burns differently though. I think it burns less, but that doesn't mean I want to go rolling around in it. Dying wasn't fun the first time either." They smiled, the corners of it stretching their cheeks.

There was a beat of uncomfortable silence during which even Tommy seemed to fall uncharacteristically quiet. Techno wouldn't be able to tell what he was thinking.

E
E
Missing Ranboo?
Missing Wilbur I think
E
So no snowball fight? :(
E

"I shouldn't have brought them up," Ghostboo said suddenly. "It's my bad for bringing them up."

"Bringing who up?" Tommy asked. He was looking ahead so intently, that Techno could only see the side of his face.

"Ranboo!" Ghostboo shifted in the wind, a movement so close to the nervous jitter of their alive counterpart it made Techno uncomfortable to watch. "I know you guys miss them so I'm trying not to mention them. Sometimes I think it'd be better if I didn't bring them up at all. Or maybe it'd be better if I wasn't around as much."

"Of course we miss Ranboo. That doesn't mean we mind having you around," Phil said quickly. His voice had an almost monotone quality to it, strained.

Techno was unpleasantly reminded of watching Phil interact with Ghostbur back in the day. Something so artificial and fragile about it. The tired bags beneath Phil's eyes and the forced nature of his smile when he assured Techno he was fine.

It was fine. All of them were fine.

(All of them were pretending this was fine.)

"It really fucking sucks we can't just find Dream and beat him up until he gives us the revival book," Tommy said casually. His eyes were a little too wide, too desperate.

Techno didn't like it.

"We might not need the book," Phil said.

Surprised, Techno took a step forward. His fingers curled around Phil's elbow automatically. Phil patted his hand twice.

"Just something I've been working on. I'll tell you about it later."

"What the fuck does that mean?" Tommy complained. The fact he didn't immediately jump into badgering Phil until he told them was pretty telling though. Tommy had become remarkably good at being kept out of the loop, and Techno didn't mean that in a good way. Perhaps it was just another evidence of Wilbur leaving his mark.

"If you bring Ranboo back, maybe you should look into bringing Wilbur back as well," Ghostboo said. "I think people would like that. They've been asking about him."

"Who has?" Phil inclined his head.

"Hm, lots of people. Quackity and Niki and that guy with the serious face that I don't like."

Techno crossed his arms. "You're socializing with Quackity?"

"I socialize with everybody! I'm different from Ranboo in that way." Ghostboo seemed a little proud of that fact.

As if there was some happiness in defying expectations. Techno would never quite get the hang of this whole 'ghosts not being the same as their living counterparts' thing. He missed Ranboo.

"I don't think Wilbur is ever coming back," Tommy said. He waved his hand dismissively, completely missing how Phil's back straightened at his words. "He was pretty fucking happy never to see us again."

"Did he tell you where he was going?" Phil asked.

And there it was. Tommy looked at them as he leaned into the fence more, making Techno happy that he had made it pretty sturdy. Phil was waiting, hoping. He had that look on his face like he didn't quite know if what he was about to hear would hurt, so he was bracing himself ahead of time to be sure.

"Some place called Utah," Tommy said. "You know he took me around first? He told me he wanted to do better and he apologized to all these people. Like he wanted to make things work out." Tommy scowled at the memory. "And then he just like, got on a fucking boat and went off. Didn't even matter to him what I thought about it." A small pause, a shaky exhale. "He's a fucking prick for that. Making me think he was getting better."

Tommy hitched a breath, rubbing at his eyes with the sleeves of his cardigan. The fibers were frozen and clumped together. They didn't properly wipe away the tears.

"I really thought he was fucking getting better," Tommy choked out.

(The 'I'm such an idiot for thinking that' was silently implied, Techno could tell.)

Phil reached out a hand to grasp Tommy's shoulder, giving it a squeeze. "I thought so too."

For a moment, Techno felt horribly awkward for standing there and watching it go down. Like he was intruding on an intimacy he shouldn't be. Wilbur and he had never been as close. Close enough for Techno to care, close enough for betrayal to sting. But not this.

Ghostboo hovered sideways, oblivious to the weird tension in the air. But maybe that was a good thing, as it prompted them to change the subject.

"What's Utah?"

"I think it was a place on SMP Earth," Techno said.

"Wait, WHAT?!" Tommy reared back. His eyes were still wet and puffy from crying, but apparently what Techno said came as a surprise to him.

"It is?" Phil asked. He also didn't remember.

Techno knew studying those maps every hour of the day would come in handy.

"Yeah, not sure where though."

"Wait, what's SMP Earth?" Ghostboo asked.

"Another server." Techno's fingers tugged on the clasp holding his cloak closed, the blazing sun symbol crafted out of gold and beset with sapphires. "Phil and I used to pretty much own the entire place."

"We ran a little faction called the Antarctic Empire," Phil said with a mischievous glint in his eyes. He dropped his hand from Tommy's shoulder when it was shrugged off.

"Last I remember your little faction was disbanded for war crimes," Tommy laughed. "Unlike Business Bay, the coolest nation to ever exist."

"We managed to sway the judges." Techno shrugged.

E
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Man, that's so long ago
E
ANTARCTIC EMPIRE NEVER DIES
E
Good times, good times
E
Wilbur went to fucking UTAH?

Yeah, Techno was wondering about that too. He thought the entire server was taken out of commission. Maybe Wilbur knew something they didn't.

"If you used to run an empire, isn't that a little bit hypocritical for a literal anarchist?" Ghostboo asked sincerely. "No offense."

Tommy smirked as if this was the first time this particular contradiction was brought up to him. "Hey, yeah! What the fuck, Techno?"

"People can change their minds," Techno said smugly. He knew the non-answer would piss Tommy off and that was good. Getting Tommy heated was better than having him sobbing.

Besides, the true reason - that experience was the best teacher and it's exactly because Techno has known firsthand the damage of tyranny that he knows the importance of anarchy - was probably not half as interesting.

The last thing he needed was to start a political debate with Tommy.

Tommy opened his mouth, no doubt primed to sling some other witty retort his way (sarcasm on the witty part) but was interrupted by a snowball hitting him in the face. This time Phil was the assailant.

"SMP Earth is where I got my nickname, remember." Phil was already rolling up another round of ammunition. "Are you sure Bussiness Bay wants to challenge the Antarctic Empire again?"

Techno was no idiot. He could tell what Phil was doing.

Since he had even less of a desire to process his emotions - not to mention Tommy's emotions - than Phil did, he wasn't going to intervene.

E
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I think that's called avoidant behavior or something
E
Blood for the blood god
Antarctic Empire ftw!
E
They just need to ignore the Wilbur thing I think
E
No emotions pog

Chat could think about that whatever they wanted.

"You're on!" Tommy said - instantly intercut by another one of Phil's snowballs nailing him in the forehead.

(Ghostboo watched them, silent. The entire commune had felt so quiet for so long.)

And if afterward found them sitting on the couch, one of Phil's wings draped over Techno's shoulder and the other around Tommy who was lying against Phil's side soundly asleep, as Ghostboo petted Steve and listened to them recount more stories about the Antarctic Empire in the glory days, then Techno could find peace in that.

He didn't know how long this would last. He had seen the unrest in Tommy, the itch in Phil's desire to fix things. This might only be the beginning of something else entirely. Something none of them would ever be ready for.

But that could be fine too.

It didn't feel half bad to fall asleep to Tommy's soft snoring and Phil's voice speaking about snow-peaked palace walls and laughter ringing across a bridge - simpler times.