this world we have built is burning down around us | Dream SMP Time Travel Fic

stand for a nation not your own (not anymore)

Theseus hummed the tune of L'manberg's anthem to himself quietly, eyes flickering towards the stage where each party stood, talking amongst one another.

He couldn't hear them, being so far away, though he was sure they could be yelling and he wouldn't catch a word of it, but that was another matter entirely. He didn't need to know what they were saying, anyway; truly, the only important words he would ever truly need to hear would be Schlatt's own blather once he began his inauguration speech, but Theseus already knew that monologue by heart (deep within the dark hole where the rest of his trauma resided).

He pulled out an arrow, careful to avoid pricking his exposed fingertips on the poisonous point, nocking it and letting it rest on the shelf. His fingers pressed around the top of the grip on the wooden riser, flexing slightly as he adjusted comfortably and let them rest at the front. Clicking his tongue, he used his other hand to tug briefly at the string, assuring once more that it still held its tension. Satisfied, he placed his index finger above the arrow and the other two below, letting the string settle into the calloused crease nearest to the tips of his fingers, and pulled it taught until his index came to rest under his chin and the thick string of spider silk pressed against his lips and the tip of his nose.

His muscles were tense as he pointed his single eye through the riser's sight window, suddenly nervous. This would be his first time shooting a bow since he was half blinded, and for as good a shot he knew he was, there was very little room for error here. All he could do now was hope his practice and resulting skill was enough.

He waited patiently, thankfully not for more than a few minutes, until most of the people on the stage had stepped off, observing as detachedly as he could as Wilbur's mouth moved as he, presumably, announced votes, as Tommy's face fell when he inevitably heard the result of the coalition, as Quackity gasped in delight, as Schlatt smiled smugly, as George barely paid much attention with half-lidded eyes that remained just so throughout the ordeal.

He couldn't hear Schlatt as he began to speak, even with the microphone helping to project his voice across the crowd below, but he could still hear the words in his head, a memory that remained seared into his brain; he could still hear the grate of the alcoholic's triumph, the way he laughed and mocked his "easy" win and their country altogether, the way he spat in their faces and so easily deemed their lives forfeit simply for having lost power in a country they'd still created from the ground up, with their blood, sweat, and tears.

He remained still, though, keeping his hands steady and stance firm as he waited until Schlatt leaned forward, almost draping himself over the podium in a dramatic pose used just to gloat; it was what Theseus considered the perfect opportunity, where the newly-appointed President was vulnerable, stuck in a position that would take just a second too long to move from if he were to somehow see the arrow before it hit its mark. The ram wouldn't budge, not until he decided to throw out a finger and spur Wilbur and Tommy into turning heel and fleeing.

The soldier took a breath, hollowing himself out to take yet another life, to prepare himself for sleeping through more nights with extra blood on his hands, just as he'd always done when locking away every horror he'd witnessed and committed into a small box he'd shoved aside—so very aware of its existence but so very numb to it all the same—and then nearly shrieked. Because Schlatt, just as he shouldn't have, moved, standing upright and ruining Theseus's perfect, precious shot. If he was any less aware of himself, the blond would have released the arrow out of sheer surprise; instead, he only let the tension bleed from the string, lowering his weapon and aim to the rooftop, and searched for whatever had nudged his target just enough to ruin his plan.

When he did catch sight of the disturbance, he nearly tossed himself from the building's roof then and there, though whether that was due to shock or simple exasperation, even Theseus couldn't say.