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Techno was running.
Techno could also swear that he was an eloquent person; he had been raised well, after all!
At that moment, however, the only thought that Techno could form was to state the obvious fact that he had to run. The voices did enough informing for the rest of the situation.
TURN RIGHT
THERE’S A RAVINE
HE STUMBLED, KILL HIM
KILL
BLOOD
E
E
BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD
LAVA!!
E
TURN TURN TURN
He trusted them at times like these- so Techno turned right despite the clear path that he had seen ahead of him.
He first entered a cave; then, he found himself travelling on a ledge, bordering on a pit of lava. Finally, he ran through dark red bricks layered precariously to form a structure that was known mainly for its abandoned state- a nether fortress.
FORTRESS
GOLD
FORTRESS
BLAZES
WOAH
is this allowed?
woah! a fortress! nice luck!
KEEP RUNNING BRO KEEP GOING
if you die im telling mom
don’t stop!! turn the corner so he loses sight of you!
he can’t follow you! good job!
HE CAN’T GO
LMAO HE’S STUCK
“God, chat, can you just shut up for a minute?” Techno grumbled, despite going along and following their advice anyway- after all, it did make sense to keep going.
Techno finally stopped after turning several corners, avoiding the wandering husks of piglins that had been hit by an ancient plague.
Soon, he found himself in a well-room, and let himself curl up in the corner of the room, his face lit by the lava bubbling and popping inside of the dark brick well. Okay, so maybe this could be helpful. He could hear the distant shouting of the hunters, yelling out at him, calling him a coward for hiding in a forbidden area.
Techno didn’t care if they called him a coward- all tactics were viable in times of life or death.
“Alright chat, let’s sit tight for a little while, yeah?” He mumbled as he leaned back and pulled off his satchel- with that, he also took the opportunity to remove the boar’s skull that he always kept precariously fixated against his face.
Seriously, Techno could never get a moment’s rest, could he?
Well… not until now.
He hated that he was so tired. He hated that he needed to sleep so soon after escaping certain death. And he hated going to sleep when he wasn’t sure that he was fully free from danger.
Still, the normally chaotic voices in his head had quieted down significantly, and he was now stuck hearing the soothing, gentle voices of the more parental, sympathetic place in his mind.
He’s gone, he can’t get you
It’s abandoned, he has no idea
Go to sleep, sleep depravation is worst for you
The voices get worse when you need sleep, go to bed.
Rest
rest up!
please sleep
hey, techno, we’ll wake you up if there’s danger, you know us
That last message was the one that truly managed to convince him that he was safe enough to sleep. With that reassuring fact that the voices were definitely loud enough to wake him up at any signs of danger, Techno curled up on the floor, wrapped in his cloak, and let himself drift off to sleep
~o~
When he woke up the next morning- no, scratch that, morning wasn’t a thing in the nether. When he woke up well rested a few hours later, Techno sat up from where he had slept on the floor and immediately started digging through his satchel for something to eat.
He was almost immediately greeted by the sound of the voices, and their typical morning routine- spam.
E
E
e
E
E
E
E
e
e
good morning- jk E
E
“Yeah, cool, good morning to you guys too,” He said as he started to eat one of the potatoes stashed at the bottom of his satchel. After eating that one, he took a moment to count his reserve.
24 heavy ass potatoes
12 carrots
2 golden apples
5 regular apples
and a bag filled with some salty beef jerky
Alright, not too shabby- he could live for a proper two weeks off of that, probably even longer considering that most of the plants that had overgrown into the fortress were most definitely edible- especially to Techno, who found himself immune to poisons and harmful magical effects.
As someone who was genetically built to live in the nether, Techno was so glad that he didn’t necessarily need water to survive. It was a wonderful thing, but he could live just as easily off of the blood he would find in meat, and the juice and nectar from the different plants thriving in warped and crimson forests.
Pulling his boar mask back on and slinging his satchel back over his shoulder, Techno continued on his trek through the fortress.
If he was gonna be stuck in here, he might as well find some good abandoned loot from the unemptied chests from the ancient societies previously residing in the fortress.
There was only one chest with loot still inside of it, which was worrying. Explorers normally searched the whole fortress at least three times to get every single piece of loot, so he wasn’t sure if he was extremely lucky for finding the chest, or extremely unlucky with the amount of loot he had found by the time he rounded the fortress twice.
At least he had gotten two diamonds out of this.
~o~
His time in the fortress continued on like that- he would search in or around the fortress, then retreat back to the same well-room within the fortress to sleep and eat and speak to the voices more than he had the patience for.
It had gotten to the point where he would play tic tac toe and bingo with the voices- both with no prizes, not that Techno or the voices cared. The boredom was more unbearable than the lack of reward for playing together.
Though the voices hadn’t caught onto it, Techno had noticed that he was running out of food faster than he should have been.
It hadn’t been so long, but he was sure that his food stash had already been halved.
Techno didn’t care much though- he didn’t mind having to hunt hoglins and striders for food, or to resort to eating poisonous plants
When he did start to mind, however, was when he couldn’t find the netherite ingots that he had worked hard to grind for.
Food? He could just make more.
Sleep? He was already deprived of it.
Safety? He was never actually safe anyway, so honestly, who cared?
But his netherite? That got in the way of his actual survival. That was the only way he could dictate whether he lived or died in a world where just existing was a death wish for his kind.
That netherite could have tilted the scales.
A sword, an axe, armour.
The possibilities were gone.
The voices were as livid as he was.
Netherite!
INGOTS!!
top left! they’re gone!
did you use the ingots?
ummm netherite? hello?
kill
KILL
BLOOD
BLOOD
KILL
BLOOD
Okay, they were more livid than Techno, that much was pretty clear to him.
Still, he couldn’t let whoever that thief was take more of his shit, because letting himself be pushed around would only lead to bad things.
Techno set off to find himself some more netherite, leaving the fortress behind for a couple hours. In that time, he got back the amount that he had lost, plus a ton extra. He had more than enough netherite to last him through at least two wars, so hopefully it was enough for his next plan.
He climbed up his handmade staircase to get back into the fortress, then again up the fortress stairs until he finally got back into the well-room. With that, he made a single, simple trap for the thief.
Honestly? The trap really sucked- he made it specifically to trick nether mobs into thinking that he was an idiot. He poured lava around his things.
To a nether mob, that would basically prove that he was human, which meant that they would underestimate him. Which also meant that they wouldn’t notice that he was most definitely not asleep.
Sure, his eyes were closed, but the voices were omniscient, to a certain degree. They could see everything if Techno was physically there, no matter if he could see or not.
Sometimes, he was glad that they existed.
Someone’s here!
Oh SHIT
fire man!
blazeborn!
blaze!
the thief!!1!
Ah, there it is. Techno waited in silence, eyes still shut and his hand uncomfortably far from his sword.
He’s in the lava
ON FIRE
MORE ON FIRE
haha that’s pretty hot (please kill me)
he’s grabbing shit!
oop
chest’s open!
GET HIM
GO GO GO
CHEST
NETHERITE
KILL
BLOOD
BLOOD
E
Okay, now the voices were going a bit too far.
Techno gripped his sword in his hand and, as quickly as he did when his brain would be rushing with adrenaline, he jumped up and pressed his sword directly against the thief’s jugular, unable to stop the grin that stretched across his features.
“Hey, buddy, what do you think you’re doing with that netherite, huh?” He asked the thief while looking him up and down.
Okay, so maybe Techno felt a little bit bad for attacking a literal child… but in his defense, the voices hadn’t said that the kid with a sword currently pressing on his throat couldn’t be any older than 15.
The kid in question had extremely short brown hair, brown eyes, was producing flames from his whole body, and had rods of pure solid heat floating around him. His otherwise pale skin would split apart at certain places to show streams of magma coursing through it. He was dressed plainly- an orange T-shirt that was obviously too big on him, and a pair of black shorts that went down to his scuffed up knees.
“Yo- you’re the one that’s trespassing on my territory! Get out of my fortress! You’re not allowed to be here!” Ah, crap, the kid was yelling at him now. What did kids like again?
“Uh.. do you want candy? I’ll get you candy if you stop stealing my shi- my stuff,” He said, sword still pressed against the kid’s throat. Sure, he was a kid, but Techno had killed people before when he was a kid, so he really had no proper idea of what a child’s moral code was supposed to look like.
Said child gave him a deadpan stare that seemed to tell Techno that the kid did not, in fact, like candy. Okay, fuck, what else could he do?
“Alright, um, well I can’t leave? Ya see, there may or may not have been a hunter wandering around this area? He tried to kill me, so I hid inside of here since they can’t kill hybrids when they’re in hybrid-owned communities… You- you wouldn’t let some stranger die, would you?” He said, stuttering slightly over his words. Fuck, he wanted to sound confident, but it seemed, at that moment, that maybe Techno had a soft spot for kids.
Damn it all.
Awe you like him!
dont kill the kid!
kill the kid!
technosoft!
TECHNOSOFT
TECHNOSOFT!
technosoft!!
technosoft
aww soft
cute
Great, now the voices also knew that he had a soft spot for kids. Just great.
The kid in question sent him a glare, the fire around him growing brighter, apparently going off of his mood.
“Fine, fine! I’ll share my things with you. Just don’t take the netherite, got that? It’s kind of important for me to, ya know, stay alive, ” Techno grumbled as he lowered his sword and sheathed it back at his belt.
The kid sighed and rubbed his neck once the blade was taken away from it, sending a hot glare in Techno’s direction, but giving him a short, curt nod anyway.
“You’d better keep your word there. Give me your name, and I might forgive you properly,” the kid said as he crossed his arms over his chest.
Techno sighed and held out a single hand in the kid’s direction, making sure to wear his most bored expression possible, “Name’s Technoblade,” He said gruffly.
The kid smiled slightly and shook his hand, laughing a bit as he spoke, “Wow, with a name like that, gotta wonder what your mom thought of you. My name is Jack.. Jack Manifold.”
Techno felt a shiver go down his spine- oh, god no. Alright, he lost control and blurted out something that one of the voices said. Welp, there goes their truce.
“I killed my mother. My father too,” He said.
On the outside? He probably looked nonchalant, uncomfortably casual, and borderline sociopathic.
On the inside? He was panicking, and so were the voices.
OH SHIT
WHY DID YOU TELL HIM THAT
WHO MADE HIM SAY THAT
AYO WHAT THE FUCK
DON’T SAY THAT
THAT’S NOT HOW CONVERSATIONS GO
DON’T- WHAT THE FUCK
WHO DID IT
WHAT VOICE
WHICH ONE OF US
WHY
Was his luck that good? Or that bad? Because Jack just started to laugh at his statement. Good-hearted laughter that rang through the whole fortress.
Seriously, the kid must have been laughing and chuckling to himself for a good ten minutes before he finally relaxed.
“What a coincidence..! You know… My parents tried to kill me. So I think we might be even here,” Jack said, a large grin having spread across his face.
Okay, so maybe this wasn’t such a bad situation, that’s good, at least.
Did Techno really, seriously make a friend based off of their shitty parents? Were they friends? Jack was smiling at him, that sounded like they were friends… maybe.
Techno really had to learn more about this socializing concept. He didn’t really get it as much as he probably should.
Still, he smiled back at the kid as sincerely as he found feasable and sat back down on the hot brick floor. At that moment, he remembered that his mask wasn’t on, and fit it back snuggly over his face to whole area above his mouth. Jack had already seen his face, sure, but Techno felt more comfortable with it on anyway.
Knowing people could see his face always gave Techno goosebumps.
“Alright Jack, where do you even sleep in here? I’m sure I explored the whole fortress,” He questioned, feeling himself relax, along with the voices at the introduction of his mask.
Okay, so maybe that’s why he had gotten way more worked up than usual just before.
The blaze sat down in front of him, gladly settling down in the handmade lavapit like one would sit down on a pillow.
“Well… I normally sleep down at the bottom of the well.. I built myself a little base down there,” The kid said, flinching a bit when Techno immediately, and maybe a bit too quickly, turned his head to look at the lava well. The kid had been hiding out there the whole time? Seriously?
“Alright then, you’re definitely smarter than you look, kid. Expected you to say that you didn’t sleep in the fortress, or just lie.”
Jack looked a bit proud of Techno’s statement, like a kid that was praised for doing chores.
Fuck, were they forming a bond?
Why the hell did Techno like the kid so much?
The voices agreed with him too, upsettingly.
Aw! Keep him!
Let’s keep him!
Adopt the kid
he’s ours now
technobro?
brotherblade
ADOPT
We have a brother now!
Welp, we can’t not keep him.
Did Techno actually accidentally get himself a brother? That easily?
He wanted to be worried, to be cautious, and to be apprehensive of the kid. He felt that way towards literally everyone! But for some reason? Techno felt protective of Jack.
For the first time ever, he felt that he actually trusted someone.
“So, Jack. I guess, since we’re gonna be stuck together for a while.. I should probably tell you shit,” He started, somewhat awkwardly. At Jack’s approving nod, Techno continued, “My name’s Technoblade, and for the sake of being brief, I have a couple hundred voices living inside my head that comment on everything happening around me. If you see me talking out loud to no one in particular, that would be why. They like you, by the way.”
As expected, Jack seemed shocked by that development.
That’s fine, it’s not like it happened often to meet someone that heard and spoke to voices in his head.
“So… they like me? That’s good.. Does that mean you also like me?” Techno felt his brain short circuit for a moment before he actually realized what it was that Jack just said.
“You could be my brother and I would be happy,” Was his response, fueled by the loudest of voices that also seemed to have something against him because he really hadn’t wanted to tell the kid that.
They both stared at one another, shocked by what Techno had just blurted out.
Jack then allowed a grin to spread across his face as he spoke up, seemingly unable to hide the excitement from his voice, “I’d love to be your younger brother..!”
Oh. Ok. That was actually pretty easy.
~o~
So Techno had spent another month harbouring a brand spanking new younger brother and waiting for the dumbass hunter to leave them alone.
He still didn’t know the green dude’s name, but he did know that he was obnoxiously persistent, camped out just outside of the fortress, right beside a nether portal that he had built so his buddies in the overworld could bring him food every day.
The fucker.
Techno had been patient enough, honestly.
He had held out for Jack, for the whole month. He didn’t mind eating shit food, or the searing heat, or the unchanging environment of red, on red, on red, on red shades of colour to accentuate that red. What had pushed him over the edge, however, was when he had eavesdropped on the hunter’s conversation with his buddies one time.
They would always chatter about, usually it was about how things were going in the overworld, and, disgustingly, conversations often went on about the hybrids they would capture or kill.
Techno usually tried to ignore those conversations, but while the green one pulled off his porcelain mask to eat, the other hunters mentioned finding an avian that could actually fly, and suddenly his interest had been fully piqued.
Avian hybrids were typically known to be flightless bird hybrids, mostly due to the size of their wings in relation to their size. They could still jump up extremely high in the air, they could run faster than any human by using their wings, and their wings were still big enough to allow them to glide for short distances.
Techno wanted to meet the avian. The voices seemed just as interested as he was too.
Is that even possible?
woah, flying avian?
did they mistake the gliding for flying?
I WANNA SEE THEM
yooo that sounds so cool
NEW HYBRID POG?
wtf is happening??
Okay, so between him and the voices, they all wanted to go check out the cool avian. Great.
Now what about Jack?
An awkward conversation ensued rather quickly, where Techno sat Jack down in the lava-well room, handing him a golden carrot to snack on while he spoke.
“Okay, so I was listening to the hunters earlier… So uh.. How would you like to try exploring a different realm?” Techno asked smoothly, arms crossed comfortably over his chest.
Jack dropped his carrot in- shock? Yeah, shock.
“The overworld? You want to take me to the overworld? Isn’t it like- really cold?” Jack asked, he seemed both excited and worried at the news, which was great for Techno. He wanted Jack to come along, but he wanted the kid to remain cautious, especially in a new environment.
“It is a bit colder in the overworld, but I don’t mind carrying a lava bucket with us everywhere we go for you, at least until we’d find someplace to settle down. Honestly, I want to go back because I heard something very interesting. An avian that can fly. It sounds crazy enough to be true, and I don’t want them to be stuck with the hunters any longer than they need to. So… What do you say?”
Jack’s previously shocked face shifted into an ecstatic expression at that, and he nodded excitedly before picking up his carrot and dusting it off a bit to resume eating it.
“Alright, awesome, in that case, we’re gonna have to stop eating so many golden carrots. How do you feel about piglin trading?”
~o~
With that prompting began their goal to bypass the hunter and get to the overworld. There were a couple things that Techno already knew:
First of all, the hunters’ portal didn’t lead to a proper base, but rather something like a camp. The portal hadn’t been there when he escaped the green guy, and there was no way that they could have built a whole base around the portal.
Second, the green guy slept sitting up perfectly straight, and the mask over his face always made it seem like he was awake. He knew that because a hunter had once come to their side and made a big deal out of the fact that the green one was asleep like that.
And lastly- they only had to worry about four people- the green one, a guy with white-rimmed glasses, a taller guy wearing a bandanna, and a taller man wearing a red and black cloak that hid most of his face and body.
They could do this if they used their skills, and their brains- two things that Techno excelled at.
So, while Techno traded with piglins for an obnoxious amount of time to get what he needed, Jack would dig for gold all around the place.
Then, when they had all the things they needed, Techno allowed Jack to get to brewing potions with the help of the guide he always kept in his satchel while he himself got to hammering metal and diamond and netherite to stock up on both his, but also Jack’s armour and weapons.
As much as the kid enjoyed sticking to the same dual swords, Techno found that it would be handy to supply him with more options- better to have any weapon, rather than none at all.
It took them about a week and a half to get everything ready, but when they had everything they needed, it was absolutely glorious.
After tapping their potion bottles together, the two hybrids chugged invisibility potions and shoved all their weapons in their now-invisible bags.
Then, slowly, they walked out of the fortress, making sure not to make any noise as they moved all the way to where the hunter was still sitting, still watching the fortress with an obnoxious determination.
Not that it mattered, because they made it through the portal with ease.
Of course, Jack wasn’t able to stop himself from gasping in surprise at his first view of the overworld, filled to the brim with colours that he had likely never even encountered before, or at least, never on such a huge scale.
They had appeared in a small campsite in a forest- two tents were pitched up, and a campfire was burning hot in the center of the site. Techno could see smoke in the distance- it was probably a village, maybe even the one where he had almost been captured in the first place.
He forced himself to turn his attention back to the immediate situation and grabbed hold of Jack’s arm, tugging once to break him out of his shock and to silently tell him to follow.
At first, they walked as silently as possible.
Then, the potions’ effects wore off, and Techno found himself able to see himself and Jack.
So they started to run while gearing up, pulling on the armour they’d hidden in their bags and strapping weapons clumsily around their waists and backs as they ran as far from the camp as they could.
That was so easy!
yo, they expected none of that
lmao that’s what happens when there’s no activity for a month
there wasn’t even anyone!
pog!!
poggers
technoblade never dies yooo
AYYY WE DID IT
Techno forced Jack to keep running alongside him, up until nightfall, when he found that they were far enough from the campsite and the village to not be found by the hunters or by anyone going out hunting for food.
They found a small area in the woods, surrounded by large rocks, and Techno finally settled down on the ground, using his cape as a blanket so he and Jack could sit comfortably.
“You doin’ okay there, Jack? Sorry ‘bout makin’ you run so much when you don’t even know anythin’ ‘bout the overworld,” Techno turned to Jack, expecting the kid to respond to his apology.
He hadn’t expected to find the Blazeborn laying on his back, staring straight up at the sky with a look of pure awe written across his face.
Right, Jack had never seen the sky before.
Techno smiled and laid down next to Jack, crossing his arms behind his head as he watched the stars with his kid brother.
He then pointed up at one of the constellations.
“You see that one up there? Those stars that are kinda shaped like a spoon? That one’s called the big dipper.”
Jack’s head spun to look at him for a moment, then turned back up to the sky, a wide smile on his face.
“The big dipper… Can you teach me more?”
“Jack, as your brother, it’s my job to teach you all of this.”
Needless to say, they spent the entire night laying there, pointing out constellations. When they ran out of constellations to point out, Jack started to make up his own, his grin growing wider and wider until it finally disappeared as he fell asleep, a proper, genuine, child-like smile having appeared on his face for the first time since Techno had met him.
And if Techno saw a winged figure soaring through the night sky after Jack had fallen asleep, he didn’t say anything.
And if he opted to not search for that figure, in favour of relaxing with his brother, he didn’t say anything about that either.
For now?
He just let himself drift off to a peaceful slumber, lulled to sleep by the sound of the mature voices returning.
You’re safe
go sleep
we’ll watch out
the flying avian won’t be gone tomorrow
you’re tired, so go to sleep.
Yeah, Techno couldn’t help but be glad that he’d been chased into that fortress.