I'm a Healer, But...

34

Potion ingredients and empty bottles line Techno's cabinet, and Tommy cocks his head as he looks through it. "What am I looking for again, big man?""Nether wart, golden carrots, and fermented spider eyes. It's all labeled," Techno answers as he hauls Tommy's brand new gilded brewing stand to his desk. He's in a weirdly good mood, for him. "Also grab three empty bottles. Do not carry everythin' all at once, you'll drop them."Tommy grumbles, but makes multiple trips to bring the bottles and jars to the desk. He's pretty sure most of this shit is expensive or hard to get, so he's not gonna mess around. Too much. "So... there's a lot of types of potions, right? What are you gonna make with this?" He picks up the jar of fermented spider eyes, swirling it around and watching the bulging, mutated orbs rotate. "...this is gonna be nasty, isn't it.""Can't even taste them," Techno promises, though it might be a lie. He picks up the bottles and fills them with water from a large jug. "Here's the first step- you're gonna be infusin' the potion, not just mixin' the raw ingredients together, so the bottles need to be filled with water. That's universal, every potion needs that."Tommy hums and watches as Techno pulls out a bright yellow powder, filling the center of the brewing stand with it. With a twist of a knob, the powder sparks and starts a fire beneath the potions. "You still didn't say what you're making.""Somethin' you'll find fun. The second step of potions- nether wart." Techno gestures to the container, and Tommy pops open the lid. Techno uses tweezers to pull out a piece and put it into the top of the stand. The blaze powder melts it, and it slowly drips into the tubes below. "Every potion except Weakness uses this.""Weakness?" Tommy's knowledge of potions is near zero. Heroes can sometimes use Healing potions, he knows, but Dream didn't have to, so he doesn't think he's even seen one. Besides that, he's got nothing.Techno looks at him for a moment before realizing what he's asking. "Oh, uh... Weakness does what it sounds like. Makes you weaker. Toss it at someone and they won't be able to stand. It also works as an extreme painkiller, at the cost of not bein' able to move for a few minutes."Tommy just hums. "Okay, so we're not making that one.""No, we're not." The brewing stand bubbles as the last of the melted nether wart drains. "Next, we take our first ingredient- in this case, golden carrots." That goes into the top of the brewing stand as well, and Tommy crinkles up his nose in disgust as it also starts to melt and drip into the potions. There's no way this isn't going to be nasty."Shouldn't carrots be more solid than that?" he asks, and Techno chuckles."It's the blaze powder, mostly. You'll get used to it." Techno straightens one of the tubes, and the melted gold dribbles faster. "Now, this will turn it into a potion of Night Vision. Perfect sight even in the darkest areas."...he's never been so disappointed in his life. "What, that's what I'm supposed to find fun? Well- I guess I could freak out Wilbur in the middle of the night..." Not that he hasn't done that enough, recently."You're forgettin' about this." He holds up the jar of fermented spider eyes. "These corrupt potions.""...the fuck do you mean, corrupt?""It'll change the effect of most potions. Healin' becomes Harmin', Swiftness becomes Slowness..." When the last of the golden carrot is gone, Techno drops in the spider eye. "Or in this case? Night Vision becomes Invisibility. "Tommy stares at him, and then down at the potion. Fuck scaring Wilbur. He's going to freak Sapnap out so bad he burns down the whole casino. "You're kidding me. So what, like-?""It only lasts three minutes," Techno warns. "Up to eight, if you add some redstone at the end of brewin' it. I've been tryin' to find some alternate solutions to extend the duration, but... new magic isn't exactly my forte. I stick to the old stuff."Tommy frowns, eyeing the brewing stand again. "Wait, this is new magic?"Techno pauses, looking at him. "...what did you think potions were?"He immediately bristles. "How the fuck should I know? It's not like it came up in my homeschooling! Dream was never like 'here, have an extensive textbook on magic,' he was just like 'go learn some math and don't touch my magic shit mimimimimi I'm a bitch'. And he said it exactly like that." Tommy crosses his arms and scrunches into himself.Techno chuffs at him, and Tommy almost immediately relaxes a bit. "Right, right. Yes, potions are new magic. A sacrifice of a few items and you get an effect, but it's short-lived. With Old Magic, it'd be more like... you could turn invisible at the price of never turning back, or somethin' along those lines." He shrugs. "I was never interested enough in it to look into the topic until potions became a bit more common knowledge.""Right. Because you were a bit too busy with wood carving to look into fucking magic. Sure.""Actually, that was durin' my embroidery phase." He says it with a straight face, and Tommy can't tell if he's joking or if he just honestly doesn't find it embarrassing.And good for him if it's true. That's some big man shit right there. "...add that on the list of shit you're teaching me."Techno's expression cracks into a smile, but he quickly turns to face the brewing stand again to hide it. Tommy's about to call him out, but Techno twists the knob, turning off the brewing stand. He picks up one of the bottles, the shimmery gray potion inside swirling as he does. Techno hands it over before collecting the other two. "You can do whatever you want with that. Just try not to give Phil a heart attack."Tommy grumbles and trails after Techno as he takes the other potions to a locked cabinet. When he's opened it, it's full of potions, organized by color- or probably by effect, actually. "Holy shit. Are you prepping for war, big man?""I like to be prepared," Techno says. "And they don't go bad." He adds the Invisibility potions to their brethren.But there's so much more in there, more than Tommy can recognize. He leans forward to get a better look. He realizes there are small labels, and he squints to read them- Fire Res, Strength II, Poison+- he's never heard of most of these. It's wild....what could he do with all this at his disposal? "Big man, we've got a lot of lessons ahead."Techno hums, a copy of Tommy's from earlier. "Sounds good." He stands in front of the cabinet, looking over the contents for a long while. "...Theseus.""Yeah?""Did you, uh. I know everythin's been... a lot, since the holidays, but. Did you ever think more about... what we offered you?"Tommy tries not to grimace. He's thought about it, yeah. He thinks he's decided. No, he has decided, it's just- he doesn't want to say it out loud. Not when he might change his mind before going through with it. Not when, despite everything he tells himself, the thought of being immortal terrifies him because, if things ever went wrong, if he became too annoying for them or if they decided they only wanted him for his powers-He'd never be able to get away. Not really. Even if he ran, it'd only be so long until they found him. Even if 'so long' was decades, they'd still find him eventually if they wanted, because they'd have forever to do so. It would literally always be hanging over his head.So it's terrifying to think about putting himself in that situation."A little bit," he says, staring down at the Invisibility potion in his hand."...do you. Want to talk about it?"Tommy grumbles and sets the potion down on a nearby surface. "I want to say yes. I guess. It's just-" he groans. "I know it's fine. I know it, right? It's not- it's just-" He takes a second to collect himself. "I want to believe you guys won't... change. Like Dream did. It's just hard to convince myself."Techno chuffs, and once again Tommy relaxes slightly. "I understand.""...I trust you the most, though. It's mostly Phil and Wilbur my brain's worried about. And mostly mostly Wilbur."Techno turns his head, watching Tommy with interest. "Why Wilbur?"Tommy crosses his arms, already ready to rant. "Because he's an obsessive fuck! He decided I was going to be his brother within like, five seconds, so what happens when he changes his mind just as fast? I'm gonna get fucked over!""He won't," Techno says with certainty. "The problem with Wilbur," he starts, taking a seat at his desk and facing Tommy, "is that he gets attached to the temporary. People and things that are doomed to die and rot. If you... ran away, didn't take eternity- in another few hundred years, he'd still be talkin' about you."Tommy bites the inside of his mouth to stop himself from reacting- he wants to grin like an idiot at the thought of being remembered like that. At someone giving a shit long after he's gone. "You don't know that.""I know Wilbur." Techno's expression straightens out, and he tilts his head back, staring up at the ceiling. "Eternity does kinda... freeze you a little bit. He'll probably always be the same type of person he was at twenty-four. Egotistical, self-absorbed, and narcissistic. Y'know, like a normal young adult."Now, Tommy's gonna have to worry about whatever the fuck 'eternity freezes you' means a little later. "...aren't you like. Basically Wilbur's age."Techno snorts. "I didn't grow up a spoiled prince, like he did."Tommy leans against the side of the desk, interested. "How did you grow up, then?"For a minute, he thinks maybe that was a fucked up thing to ask. Techno tilts his head away, but he still gets a glimpse of something pained, and Tommy racks his brain to find a joke or something to change the subject, but- "With Phil."Tommy blinks at him. "...with Phil?""With Phil," Techno repeats, looking back at him. "I, uh... I've never told you about my power." It's not a question. "It's luck." Before Tommy can even process that, because what the fuck? What the fuck? Why would he not know that- how would Dream not know that- Techno continues. "Not like Dream's. Mine is bad luck. For everyone around me. I lost my whole sounder to it- just a variety of accidents and mishaps before they could realize it was my fault and send me out.""Oh," Tommy says quietly. "That's fucked up."Techno smiles slightly. "Yup. Don't worry about it. I don't even remember them. I was tryin' to survive on my own, but, uh, I was a shoat myself. Phil stumbled on me when I was starvin' to death, and I pretty much, uh.... grabbed onto him and refused to let go."...oh, he can just picture it. A tiny little Techno- literally exactly like he is now but scaled down, which is totally inaccurate but it's the funniest fucking mental image- just nabbing Phil's ankles and clinging as Phil tries to walk away. Tommy has to bite his mouth again to not laugh out loud."Yeah, yeah, sounds stupid," Techno has to try not to laugh too. "But he took eternity so he'd be, uh, more resilient to any possible accidents while I figured out how to shut off my powers. Pretty sure he was already plannin' to take eternity, but, y'know, good excuse. He raised me- we were survivalists, adventurers, and I grew up knowin' the value of hard work. When I took eternity, I had that mindset... and I still have it. Wilbur took it as a prince, and he still expects to get whatever he wants the second he wants it.""What about Phil?"Techno smiles more. "He's got that... what'd you call it? Mama bird instinct. He took eternity as an adventurer, yeah, but raisin' a kid was his highest priority. Pretty sure that's why he tries to adopt any sad-lookin' orphan he can find."...so Wilbur's going to care about Tommy forever because he's just as greedy as Tommy. Phil will because he's 'family-oriented' or what the fuck ever. Techno's Techno. It should be fine, right?Literally it's all spelled out in front of him. Every piece of evidence says 'it will be okay you stupid fuck', and yet he's still, still thinking about that stupid fucking what if-"Sooo..." Techno interrupts his thoughts. "Question. Is this really worse than when you showed up to our house not knowin' anything about us? I mean, we're villains. Pretty much guaranteed you would have died under most circumstances, but you walked straight in here and didn't even hesitate, so... why is it a problem now that you do know us?"That's an easy question. "I mean, I didn't feel like I was in danger. I mean, I kind of was, because I got got by some of your traps, but like... I had a deal for you. We were going to be business partners, yeah? Who'd be scared of a business partner ?"Techno falls quiet as Tommy rambles on a little further- about how he realized the art of the deal when he got treated like a god in Las Nevadas just because he was working with Ace, how he could get whatever he wanted in exchange for a book or a healing session- before interrupting yet again. "So... this maybe isn't the healthiest option, but why don't you just come up with another deal?"Tommy blinks at him. "What?""You can't convince yourself that we're not goin' to change. So... make a deal. Somethin' you think is fair, that would keep you safe." Techno looks back up, avoiding eye contact. "I don't know what kind of deal- uh, we never renegotiated your healin' contract if you took eternity? You could do somethin' with that."...a deal. What the fuck kind of deal could keep him safe forever? Being a good healer would keep him safe long enough for a human lifetime, but what the fuck could possibly be worth eternity? He racks his brain- maybe if he experimented with his powers more, tried to make them even stronger? Or if he got more involved in their villainy shit, made himself useful, like an actual partner instead of just an employee? Or if he-"Oh," Tommy says out loud. "Oh, fuck. I've got it.""...well, that was faster than I thought. What is it?""Not telling." Techno lets out an offended noise, and Tommy turns towards the cabinet of potions. Techno may have shut it, but he never locked it, so Tommy throws it open and pokes through them. "I'm taking one of these. I'll pay you back- uh, we'll make more of it later!"He shoves it in his pocket as Techno stands up. "Wait, what one did you just-""Don't worry about it! I've gotta go do something, thanks for the lesson and the potion and the idea, holy shit Tech this is gonna be good- ""Wait. Wait, Theseus-"It's too late, Tommy's already out the door. He slams it behind him and bolts, almost slipping as the hall rug slides under him, but he manages to stop himself from falling and keeps running. He's got a plan and he's going to put it in action right now and then they'll owe him literally forever and he can finally, finally fucking relax! Nothing can stop him right now-Except running straight into Phil.