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Phil wasn't sure about adopting another child.
He saw the way his biological son and his adopted son Tommy got along and he really didn't want to break that bond.
But looking at this piglin hybrid child, clearly younger than Tommy, malnourished and trembling with fever, he couldn't help but open up his heart and home to compassion.
It was the right decision, Technoblade, as he later disclosed his name as, became an integral part of the family, mature beyond his years yet still filling the slot of youngest brother perfectly.
They never did find out exactly how old he was anyway, they placed him two years behind Tommy, but once he hit ten he had a massive growth spurt. From then on Techno towered over Phil himself, in fact he was almost as tall as Wilbur.
Friends of the family naturally assumed that Techno was at least the middle child, certainly older than Tommy who took years in comparison to reach the levels of maturity that his younger brother seemed to have in abundance.
Phil didn't know where he went wrong, but it was probably some time around then.
When he allowed Techno to age beyond his years- not delivering on the childhood he promised that shivering, feverish piglin child so many years before. When he allowed Techno and Wilbur to baby Tommy, preventing him from growing and maturing as quickly as his brothers. When he allowed strangers to see their odd family and make assumptions that they never bothered to correct.
If he was being truthful with himself, he knew it was before that, it was when he took on two new sons before he was ready, but he didn't regret it, he couldn't regret it, he loved his boys too much for that.
He loved them so much that when the time came, he reluctantly let them go.
Tension had been brewing in the air, Wilbur was getting antsy, feeling squashed and isolated, so one day he picked up his guitar and left.
He made his way to a new server and wrote to Tommy, asking him to join him.
Tommy was fifteen.
Phil reluctantly agreed, making him promise to keep in touch.
Techno stared wistfully from the window, Phil did not let him join his brothers yet, despite his proficiency with a blade. He, at least, was far too young to leave yet.
And so Tommy and Wilbur wrote, every week Techno and Phil sat down together to hear the news of this exciting new world that they explored.
They were messing around with the admin, making friends having fun.
Tommy found some discs, Wilbur made a nation, there was going to be an election.
One day the letters stopped.
And with them Phil’s heart grew heavier.
A month went by.
Then two.
Finally a letter came, a ripped scrap of paper stained worryingly with a rusty brown colour.
It was a call to war.
Techno’s brothers were asking him to join them, to win a war and take back their nation.
Phil looked at his youngest son, the only one left.
As much as his gut protested he knew that Techno would leave whether he gave his blessing or not, so against his better wishes, he forged Techno a new blade and sent him off on his way.
If anything, this was the decision he regretted.
When Techno arrived at the ravine his brothers called home he was shocked.
This was a far cry from the comfort he enjoyed with Phil, more reminiscent of his time in the Nether where food was scarce but allies were scarcer still.
Something about Wilbur and Tommy had changed.
Their eyes were hardened, cheeks gaunt, and their smiles when they saw him weren’t quite wide enough to be believable.
Techno quickly squashed his feeling of unease.
These were his brothers, surely they’d never hurt him?
Braving the dark of the ravine, he settled in quickly.
Techno made a potato farm, one he monitored for hours at a time, working tirelessly to set up a stable food source.
He knew they didn’t invite him here for his company, only the skills he had to offer in survival.
He was, afterall, the only one of the three who had truly known hardship before, who knew how to fight to survive.
The feeling of unease, the shiver of wrong that settled deep in his bones never seemed to leave him.
The damp, dark walls never seemed like home to him.
So he stayed in the one place that was familiar, the dark fields of the potato farm.
Day and night, Techno farmed and farmed, almost forgetting himself in the process.
He slept when he collapsed, face first, into the dirt out of exhaustion.
He ate some of his harvest, raw and chewy.
He sought no one out. And in return, he was left alone.
Sometimes the harvest he left in chests was collected, he assumed that the others in the ravine ate them, but he was never thanked for his work. Nor did he expect to be.
Techno was scared by how quickly he fell into his old survival mindset, the way he lived before Phil.
He couldn’t seem to escape the haze of his mind, of his routine.
He felt lost in some instinct, pressing desperately on the walls of his mind, but unable to seek help or show his distress.
One day, as he he trawled up and down the rows of crop, lost in the monotony of his work, something had to give.
There was a familiar presence behind him, someone following him, talking to him.
But Techno still couldn’t bring himself out of the haze he found himself stuck in.
He desperately wanted to look up, to talk to his older brothers.
But it was too overwhelming for him.
After what felt like an age, he was left alone again.
A small part of him fell away inside.
He wanted so so badly to leave this field, to take his brothers by the hand and to run back to the safety of Phil’s cozy cottage where he knew they’d all be safe.
There they could heal together, and become a family again.
But that was just wishful thinking.
So Techno toiled away at his field, sinking further into the depths of despair, unaware of his brother’s plans.
Wilbur was, quite frankly, concerned about Technoblade.
When he had left home he had never expected to end up in this position, cold, homeless and afraid.
But it never mattered to him because his younger brother Tommy was there to keep him company.
They kept each other sane, no matter what hardship they faced.
But there was an absence too, one they both felt keenly.
They were missing their brother, the youngest of the three but one that completed their trio.
Being too embarrassed to ask for him because they missed him, they instead wrote asking for his help in the stupid war they were fighting.
Wilbur would tell no one, but he may have embellished the truth of their situation to entice Techno here more.
He wasn’t proud of it, but he knew that by implying he and Tommy were in real danger Techno would be faster to arrive, always desperate to prove himself to his older brothers.
When Techno arrived they tried to be welcoming, to fit back into their old patterns, but Techno quickly disappeared to get to work.
Wilbur worried, but ultimately couldn’t say anything.
He couldn’t blow their cover that they weren’t actually in danger.
He knew that before being adopted by Phil, Techno had a bad childhood.
He remembered the malnourished piglin who arrived at his home, barely conscious and scared of everything.
He also knew that because of this Techno had developed a fierce loyalty to his family.
But he never guessed that he would fall so easily back into old patterns of little self-care, and instead focusing on survival.
It seemed that nothing could break the trance that Techno had lost himself in.
It was not for lack of trying, he and Tommy had done everything they could think of to get Techno to respond, to apologise to him and restart this new chapter of their life together, but to no avail.
Wilbur could not stop the guilt that ate him up inside.
His brother was safe at home, protected by Phil.
Now he was lost to himself and his past, reliving things that no on should have to go through once, let alone twice.
Let alone someone as young as Techno.
And this was all Wilbur’s fault.
So, with a heavy heart, Wilbur wrote home to Phil.
Begging his dad for help.
When Tommy first heard that Wilbur had written to Phil he was mad.
How dare Will do something without asking the advice of his favouritest younger brother first?
But eventually, he saw the sense.
It scared him how Techno was acting, how nothing seemed to be able to pull him out of the trance he was in.
Too often Tommy had gone down to the potato farm to visit him, to see if anything had changed.
It broke his heart every time he saw his younger brother listless and unresponsive, even worse were the times where he was found lying unconscious face in the dirt.
They only tried once to move him when he was like that, it ended with a fight, a black eye, and gut-wrenching mutterings about not being good enough if he couldn’t complete his task.
They couldn’t stomach moving him after that, so even though Techno was clearly getting worse, they let him be.
Waiting for Phil was agonising.
Tommy felt stuck between his younger and older brothers.
Wilbur was worried and clearly getting worse, Tommy hoped that Phil would be able to help him as well, whilst Techno seemed to be disappearing more and more with every passing hour.
He hoped his dad would be here soon.
Yet Tommy slightly resented that they even needed his help, that he and Wilbur let things get this bad in the first place.
He couldn’t think of anything that was important enough to be such a big distraction that he didn’t notice when Techno needed his help, or when it was too late.
There was little Tommy could do now to help but wait for Phil.
Tommy was quiet when Phil arrived, a frantic jumble of feathers and swears.
He melted into the darkness of the ravine, watching, uncharacteristically silently, as Wilbur led him to the farm.
He noted the way Wilbur wrung his hands, twisting his fingers nervously. He noted Phil’s calculating gaze, clouded with worry for his three sons. He noted Techno’s far off stare, not even taking in the arrival of his father.
“Oh, mate.”
Phil breathed out, breaking the heavy silence that had hung in the ravine for weeks.
He rushed forward, gently taking the diamond hoe from Techno’s hand and placing it on the ground.
Tommy watched as Techno blinked slowly, before swaying slightly back and forth, bony limbs shaking.
He watched as Techno collapsed into Phil’s waiting arms and he could not stop the sob that wrenched its way up his throat at the recognition of his failure.
He fell to the ground, finally sobbing, he felt Wilbur’s arms curl around him, and Tommy took comfort in the embrace of his older brother (the comfort that neither was able to provide to their youngest).
When Techno awoke he was disoriented by the softness beneath him.
Head pounding, he blearily opened his eyes to see a comforting yet strange sight before him.
Tommy was curled up in an armchair next to his bed, he was wrapped up in Wilbur’s arms, drooling a little on his shoulder.
Phil was sat next to them, holding both Techno and Wilbur’s hands, but with his head thrown back and snoring.
A smile creeping on his face, Techno closed his eyes again.
His family, his brothers, they would be alright.
And so would he.