#S3I is a pun

[nomsfaultau]

The Promised Neverland au for S3I. 

Starts out with Tommy in a strong Emma position, only he’s younger and has a different type of intelligence. Less genius, more charisma type ringleading people. When he goes to return the left toy and learns the truth, he’s alone. Tommy immediately tells Techno and Phil, two older boys he trusts. While at first they claim they don’t believe him (and tease quite a bit about it) they’re clever enough to figure it out once given the push. Not doing well under the pressure, Tommy’s already mediocre grades start to slip. Phil and Techno help tutor him which makes for an excellent cover for planning their escape. Young, naive, and optimistic Tommy is determined to break out everyone.

Techno (Ray-ish) is a lot more jaded, thinking about themselves getting out first and foremost, and planning to start a revolution against the tyrannical system once they’re out. Leads to terse conflict between him and Tommy, because Techno isn’t going to die like a hero would. He doesn’t have perfect recall, but instead schizophrenia that he had to learn to deal with fast and silently. The paranoia aspects were what led him to be so suspicious and eventually realize the truth, but until Tommy confirmed it he’d been plagued with doubt that it was a hallucination. As the situation grows more dire, his mentality switches from escape to turning the orphanage into a crater. What he tries is less self immolation and more anarchist firebombing combined with a (potentially manic) conviction that Technoblade Never Dies.

Philza (Norman-ish) wants everyone out, but doesn’t see a practical way, and deep down is a realist. He’d also sacrifice himself for the others in a heartbeat, but doesn’t see how that would do any good (at first). Philza is ruthless and cunning when it comes to protecting his family. He puts a lot of pressure on himself to always put the younger kids first  since he’s the oldest (only by a few months) and tries to comfort them. But he’s not perfect at it, since he is just a kid and it’s a lot of responsibility. Had Philza been a girl he would’ve been offered the role of Mom. But he isn’t. And since the other children always come before himself, when the time comes Philza accepts his ‘adoption’ and is devoured to buy more time. For real because I don’t like that plot twist. 

New troubles arise from things like Tommy struggling to keep high enough grades to not get adopted next, Philza being easier to tempt to doomsday thinking, Techno not being as adept a liar as Ray for the double crossing spy aspect (or perhaps Mom gaslit him instead?). Another huge problem is that Tommy actually is easier to manipulate, and for a while is convinced that Mom doesn’t know and is their friend while Techno and Philza desperately try to prevent the younger kid from going to Mom for help.