To Each Their Own, and Their Own to Each

A Scare and a New Face

Tommy stayed really close to the other three when they walked through the streets. They seemed to as well, noticing his discomfort. He could already tell that others recognized him.

They passed Gringle's and Tommy shuddered, the memory of bodies laying on those planks seared into his memory. A finger pushed his head to face forward. Techno had started to walk beside him and had poked him. Tommy took a shaky breath as they continued past the stalls.

"THERE HE IS!"

Tommy jumped at the scream. He whipped around, the others doing the same. A young girl was pointing at him in shock.

"RUN! HE'S GONNA KILL US ALL!" She screeched and took off in another direction.

Tommy felt everything as a blur. People ran in all different directions, some of them closer to him. One god even built a barrier between him and what looked like his own children as they cried out. Tommy latched onto someone's sleeve, Phil's apparently, trembling as tears pricked into his eyes. A few gods stood up, their eyes grave as they made their way over to him. Techno and Phil moved to stand in front of him while Phil held his shoulders.

"Rats. You don't belong in this place as a whole. I thought we banned YOU a long time ago for killing Echo." One of them pointed at Techno, a nasty glare plastered on his face. Tommy gave a small squeak of shock.

"And I'd do it again. That woman was a sorry excuse for a goddess." Techno's sudden aggression surprised Tommy.

"Techno."

Phil fixed him with a shake of his head and stepped forward.

"Sorry for the disruption, though I expected everyone to respect a new god as he learns to understand what's happening to him, yes?" Phil's expression was neutral.

The god seemed to contemplate this for a moment.

"Keep your boys under control, Philza. You always go for the murderous ones." He glared for one moment longer and then turned and disappeared.

Tommy shook all over. His breath hitched from the god's words. Phil turned at the noise and put two hands on the boy's shoulders.

"Steady, mate. Don't listen to them." He supplied, grabbing Tommy's hand and trying to lead him away. Tommy stumbled after him, regaining his awareness of those around him.

They finally made it to the building Phil was looking for. Tommy had been silent the entire time while they had walked. Nobody had pressed him to speak either. After Phil's statement, people started coming around a little, but most were still very afraid. He had kinda made dead bodies one way or another.

The little house looked like something out of a chinese storybook. The four corners of the roof curled up and swirled. Phil knocked on the door.

Tommy didn't know what he was expecting to see, but not a black and white boy that stood several inches taller than him.

"Hey Ranboo. We need your help."

Ranboo nodded and opened the door wider. Tommy stared.

"Holy fuck."

Techno rolled his eyes.

"It's rude to stare, Tommy."

Tommy wasn't sure how they ended up here, but he sat in a rather comfortable chair with his arm under a microscope.

"This is fascinating! I've never seen any tattoos like this before, and trust me, I've seen a lot." Ranboo took another look into the microscope.

"There's like an entire book on your arm! There's fine print and everything!" Ranboo flipped his arm over.

Tommy narrowed his eyes at the way the boy obsessed over his arm.

"A lot of the arm brandings appear in Ender so a lot of people come to Ranboo for help since that's the gift he's been given." Phil explained, sitting back in his chair.

God of Ender? Sounds lame...

"Can you just tell us what it means already?"

Ranboo squinted.

"Nope."

Tommy scoffed.

"What do you mean no? You're supposed to be the expert!"

"I'm an expert on Ender, not every single language ever!" Ranboo protested and pushed his arm off the pedestal.

Tommy felt really frustrated. He wanted to know what this stupid thing meant, but then again, did it even matter?

"I'll keep researching if you'd like? I'm sure I've got some books in here somewhere." He motioned to all of the books surrounding them.

"Please, and thank you, Ranboo."

They headed back to the house after thanking him. Luckily Tommy didn't have to deal with bitch boy for too long. This Ranboo guy was no help at all.

"Sorry we couldn't find anything, Tommy." Phil said, glancing back at him as he kicked a rock.

"S'fine." He mumbled.

He didn't really care what his power was. Now that he was in this city, he wouldn't have to hide. Well, maybe besides the people being scared of him, but if he never used this power again, he'd be fine.