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Techno didn’t know how he had gotten into this predicament, but he was definitely here now.
Today was supposed to be a good day, no matter what. There was no school, Tommy was at Tubbo’s house, Wilbur had spent the night with Niki, Minx, and Schlatt over at Schlatt’s house, and Phil had just left for work, all in which means Techno had the house to himself for a few hours.
“I know today is your day of rest, but all that I ask is that you vacuum the living room before I get home.” Phil had requested, “and maybe if you’re up for it you could run into town and get yourself some breakfast, you’ve been such a help recently I think you truly deserve it, I’ll leave you some money on the table.” Techno only nodded in response seeing he was too busy trying not to fall back sleep in his seat at the dining table, he decided he’d vacuum first.
But now he was sat on the floor in the living room going over his small, self-soothing rituals, trying to calm himself down.
‘I really should’ve be sitting on the floor, ‘ Techno thought, ‘It must be dirty if Phil wanted it vacuumed, I’ll need to shower now.’ Techno sighed at the thought before thinking for a second,
‘Well, I’ll have to wait until after I vacuum to shower because I’ll get hot all and sweaty,’ He decided, before realizing something else,
’I’m pretty hungry and since we don’t have much food in the house, I’ll have to go into town, but I have to shower first.’
’But I’m too hungry to focus on vacuuming right now and I have to vacuum before I can shower and I have to shower before I can go get food.’
Techno was suddenly very aware of every little fiber of his clothes that rubbed even slightly the wrong way, he could feel the roughness of the carpet, he could hear the ticking of the clock that sat on the mantle of the fireplace, everything just became too much all at once and Techno was 90% sure he’d heard himself let out a small whine so he was grateful for the empty house.
‘Vacuuming in this state would be mental torture and I’m not willing to put up with the sensory assault that comes with it, but I can’t shower until I vacuum and I can’t eat until I shower and I’m so hungry, I hope Phil isn’t too upset with me when he get’s home.’
Phil getting home was a long way away, Phil started work at 8 o’clock and got off at 4, ad it was only 9:15 currently. Wow. Techno had sent an entire hour freaking hour by himself on the living room floor. Phil would understand... right?
Phil always understood, Techno didn’t deserve a dad as good as him, he’d always been so supportive and understanding of every little thing. He’d let Techno do whatever rituals he needed to do, he’d help Wilbur on the days where he couldn’t get out of his bed, he’d let Tommy do his homework while standing up because Tommy wouldn’t be able to concentrate when he was sitting down without becoming to overwhelmed, he’d got them all officially diagnosed and fought with the school board to get them accommodations. He’d even helped Eret, who was Tubbo’s older brother and legal guardian, on the path of getting Tubbo help when they realized he was struggling so badly in school.
Techno thought back to the day Phil decided maybe there was something more than just ‘perfectionism’ and ‘odd tendencies’ going on with Techno.
Techno was around the age of 5, whatever age he was in kindergarten, and today was his turn to be the trash collector. The job was simple, everyone had a job in the class, it was meant to teach the kids about responsibility, but Techno had never been trash collector before. After craft time, he’d go around with the trash can to everyone’s table and collect all of their garbage or scraps, then he’d put the can in the hallway for the custodians to pick up later, once he finished and the teacher deemed the classroom clean enough, she’d let them all have their snack time.
Techno walked around to all of the small, circular tables and collected everything he needed too, the teacher walked around and congratulated him on a job well done and sent him over to the classroom sink to wash his hands, but Techno couldn’t shake the feeling of the germs that must’ve been crawling on his hands after touching the trash can. He’d even washed his hands twice at the sink, but nothing made the feeling go away. He sat back down at his seat, seeing the styrofoam bowl of crackers waiting for him, but how was he supposed to touch them if he had all of these germs on his hands?
”Are you not hungry, Techno?” His teacher had asked, crouching down to his level.
”My hands’re still dirty from the trash can.” Techno commented,
She furrowed her brow in confusion, “Would you like to go wash them again?”
”I can try,” and so he went back to the sink and washed his hands yet again, the teacher even helped dry them off,
Techno stood for a second and thought before finally deciding, “No, they’re still dirty.”
The teacher sighed, clearly unsure of what to do next, “well, the days almost over, we just have to do our daily journal, so how about we go back to our seat and finish up, you can even keep your snack if you’d like!” The teacher suggested, Techno agreed just so she wouldn’t be mad at him but he couldn’t understand how he’d be able to write his journal if his hands were still dirty, he didn’t want to get germs all over his pencil too,
The teacher asked the class through their daily journal assignment and the walked around to collect them while parents came into to pick up and sign out their kids.
The teacher paused and looked down at Techno’s blank paper, “Is there a reason you didn’t participate in today’s journal?” She asked, her voice was still soft, but also holding him accountable for not paying attention,
“Well, I couldn’t get all the germ on my pencil because then I wouldn’t be able to use the pencil again, and that’s my only pencil.” Techno explained, the teacher nodded, feigning her understanding and suggested they try and wash his hands again while they wait for his dad to come pick him up.
As Phil walked in, techno immediately ran over to him, smiling. He threw his hands around his adoptive father and was seemingly completely cured now that a comforting and familiar face was in the room. Phil walked over to the sign out sheet but the teacher intercepted him before he could make it to his destination,
“Sorry, Mr. Watson, if you’re not busy, would we be able to have a short conference about Techno?” She asked,
Phil raised an eyebrow, “I sure hope he’s not causing any trouble in class,” He said,
“Oh no, Techno is one of the most well behaved kids in my class. It’s about some concerning behavior I saw today.”
The trio all took a seat around the teachers desk, “So we try to give our students jobs in the classroom, to teach them the beginnings of responsibility, and today was Techno’s first day as garbage man. All he has to do is take the recycling bin around and collect the scrap paper from arts and crafts and the set it in the hallway.”
”Everything seemed fine but techno kept saying his hands were still dirty, we washed them a total of 4 times but he didn’t eat his snack nor did he participate in our final assignment for the day, all because he said his hands were too dirty.”
Phil processed the teacher’s words before speaking, ”Alright...” he trailed off,
”I don’t think techno should be punished because of this at all, but I do think this may be an early sign of OCD. I recommend getting him tested and learning as much about it as you can to get an early grasp at this before anything gets too out of control.”
Within the week, Techno was diagnosed with OCD.
His compulsions and rituals were never much of any concern until Techno hit 9th grade, moving from the middle school to the high school was a very stressful experience, and it hit his OCD even harder.
One morning Techno woke up with a strange feeling nagging in the back of his brain. He’d walked down the stairs and into the kitchen just like every other morning, but he couldn’t help the uneasy tension that he was holding in his shoulders. He said good morning to Phil and during the good morning hug Wilbur walked into the kitchen and took Techno’s usual seat, Techno tensed,
“That’s my spot.” He spoke tightly,
“Now techno, it’ll be alright if Will sits there for tod-”
”No. That’s my seat. It always has been.” Techno spat out. Phil glanced back, looking awake from the scrambled eggs he was making and saw the way the oldest twin’s hands were starting to shake,
“Will, give Techno his seat back.” Luckily fro Phil, Wilbur decided not to put up a fight this morning and moved back into his normal seat, ”There you go Tech,”
”But-but I can’t sit there now, it’s-it’s wrong.” Techno stuttered out, breathing starting to pick up, ”I-I can’t fix it.”
Phil moved the skillet of eggs onto an unlit burner, “Techno look at me,” Phil started, “We’re gonna go through your checklist, okay?”Techno nodded,
“Alright, what’s making you upset?”
”I can’t sit in my chair, which means I can’t eat breakfast because it’ll-it’ll be wrong”
”And what will happen if you sit there and eat breakfast anyways?”
Techno thought for a moment, “I’ll choke.” he concluded,
“Can chairs make you choke?”
”Well, no but-”
”Can the chair hurt me?”
”N-No, but-”
”Can the chair hurt Wilbur?”
”No,”
“What will happen if you sit in the chair?”
“Nothing will happen.” techno said, more or less trying to convince himself.
“Will sitting in a different chair be any different?”
”Probably not...”
”What makes this chair different than any others?”
”Nothing,”
”What will happen if you sit in your chair and you eat your breakfast?”
“Nothing will happen, but I might be a little stressed.”
“But will you choke?”
”Probably not.”
”You can do this Techno. Do you want to try an sit in it?” Phil asked, techno nodded slowly, holding Phil’s hand as he sat down.
Nothing exploded, the house didn’t catch on fire, no one got hurt, and Techno din’t choke on his eggs and Phil let him eat them as slowly as he needed. Techno liked the checklist, it helped him think more logically, it helped him feel more in control of his thoughts,
”I’m proud of you.” Phil said, rubbing a thumb across the back on Techno’s hand.
”-echno? Techno? Are you alright?” Techno looked up to see Phil crouched in front of him, brow creased with worry, “What happened, Tech?”
“I’m stuck in a loop.” Techno whispered, Phil pulled techno into a hug, even if Techno was technically taller than Phil was, it didn’t mean he couldn’t comfort his oldest son.
”Want to explain it to me?” Phil asked lightly,
”You asked me to vacuum but I wanted to shower, but I couldn’t shower until after I vacuumed because I’d get sweaty and gross, but I was hungry and I wanted to go into town to get food, but I couldn’t go into town until I showered and I couldn’t shower until i vacuumed and I couldn’t vacuum because I was too hungry and I started to get really stressed out and I knew that the vacuum would be too much for me to handle, but that meant that I couldn’t shower which meant that I couldn’t go into town, so i couldn’t eat so I was too hungry to vacuum. God, dad, I just wanted to shower.” Techno ranted while pressed into Phil’s shirt..
“I am so proud of you for recognizing what was making you upset, though. How about I’ll make you some food from here and then you can go rest upstairs. I’m guessing you haven’t eaten yet today?” Phil commented, while watching the clock.
”I’m sorry.” Techno mumbled,
”DOn’t worry about it, tech. Wilbur’s staying another night at Schlatt’s and Tommy won’t be coming home until after dinner, so we can take some time to focus on you.” And for the first time that day, Techno felt himself smile.