Chapter Text
Living over 5 thousand miles away from your best friends was shit. It had its perks, such as not needing to get put together when they talked over discord, and the ability to still make content together despite their distance. But it was mainly shit. Technoblade never got to go over to his friend’s house after a long day or go to the movies together. He never got comforting hugs from his friends when he needed them, and talking about feelings is much harder online.
It was an impulse decision mainly, not much thought was put into buying a plane ticket at 2 in the morning while 5 hours into a late-night discord call. The tickets were for a week out, so techno could have canceled if he wanted to, but truth be told he thanked his sleepy counterpart. Techno was not one to impose on others, but his sleepy side was very good at asking if he could join the next SBI meetup. Wilbur, Tommy, and Phil have been planing this meetup for months, and the fans were thrilled. They did not know that the fourth member would be flying across the globe to join them.
Mornings were never Techno’s thing, but the flight at 7 forced him up. That was another perk of being a YouTuber, he could sleep in however late he wanted. Making general noises of discontent he managed to throw all the last-minute items into his carry-on, like a few stim toys and his stuffed pig. He had had the stuffie since he was four, and he still slept with it every night, even when not little. Techno kept his regression a secret, not even his therapist knew about it. He regressed about twice a week and was a little concerned about how he was going to make it through the two-week meetup, but he was convinced he would make do. With the now packed backpack on his back, mediocre coffee in a travel mug in one hand, and his other pulling the suitcase, he made it to the car. The ride to the airport was rather uneventful, with Techno keeping to himself on his phone, with the uber driver not bothering him much.
Once Techno had made it through security and to his terminal he sat down restlessly. He had never been a fan of flights, but he was old enough to deal with it on his own so he pushed his worries back, instead putting on headphones and opening a fan-made technoblade inspired playlist as he began to scroll through Twitter. As cliche as it was Technoblade really enjoyed fan content, and they somehow managed to nail his music taste through his character, so one of his guilty pleasures was listening to these playlists for hours. He was glad that he could sit now, with a fidget toy in hand, blocking out the world through music. He was never a fan of loud noises and never left the house without his special headphones, in case it became too much. They were very good at noise canceling, which is why he jumped so much when a hand reached out to his shoulder. He noticed that the man started to talk to him, so he pulled off his headphones.
“-orry to bother you, but the planes boarding and you didn’t get up. I’m assuming it’s for you?”
Techno looked around to see the crowded terminal, now empty except for a few people still making their way over to the plane.
“Thanks” Techno replied, walking onto the plane. He put his suitcase above his seat and scooted in, as he had booked the window seat. Although for many people it was the opposite, Techno actually preferred confined spaces when stressed. Everything was going fine, until a child and their dad sat down next to him. The child that was next to him, well more a teen, wore heavy eyeliner and massive black boots. Easy to say techno was scared by this, what 15 year old? Minding his own business he went back to looking out the window of the plane and fidgeting with his stim toy, still listening to his playlist. It stayed this way for about 15 more minutes, as the last people boarded the plane and Techno remained too scared to look back over at them. He couldn’t hear what they were talking about due to the headphones, but the teen and their dad were shaving a rather animated conversation. Techno could not wait for this to be over. The plane started moving and took off. Techo wasn’t scared per se, just nervous about all the things that could go wrong. Tubbo had gone on for hours about flight tracking, and all the planes he has seen in SOS mode. After the plane started remaining constant, not ascending anymore Technoblade finally calmed down. Grabbing his Ipad from out of his backpack he queued up gravity falls, his comfort show. He watched about three hours of this show before taking his first break. It was a ten-hour flight so he had downloaded a lot of content to keep him busy. He took off his headphones, looking around as a way to destress.
Now the first three hours of the flight had been very chill. Technoblade sat in his own world, engrossed in gravity falls and noise-canceling headphones. Sure he was a little anxious about being in a metal coffin in the air, but he could easily forget by instead focusing on the world of dipper and mable. But when he decided to be brave, and give his mind a break-even for a minute things went downhill quickly.
He glanced over to see that the teenager was on youtube, scrolling through recommended looking for a video. Ok, a little less threatening he thought to himself. What wasn’t calming was seeing a manhunt video pop up, much less seeing them click it. Trying to be rational Technoblade thought to himself. Dream is super popular, right? So a random teen watching a video isn’t that rare. The newest video has like 20 million views and it just came out. This would be ok. A majority of dream fans didn’t even know about Technoblade, right? Wrong, apparently. After not even thirty seconds of the into they skipped the entire video, apparently not that interested. Techno would have to mock dream about his viewer retention. What he wasn’t prepared for was the next video that autoplayed to be the potato wars. The teen seemed happy with this one and seemed to get comfier in their seat.
Shit. Shit. Shit. What was happening. What the actual shit was happening. Techno had never once had a fan come up to him, much less watch a video of him in front of him, much less be stuck on a ten-hour flight next to him. Right, when technoblade thought things couldn’t get worse their dad leaned over, and upon seeing the video he said “That’s the potato guy, isn’t it?” Shit. Even their dad knew about him?!?! This was going to be one hectic plane ride.
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The children
Pig: Phil
Pig: Phil
Pig: Phil
Pig: I realize you won’t see this because I’m in a plane like 10 fucking thousand feet on the air but the person next to me is watching techno blade
Pig: Like on their phone
Pig: And I’m sat here and I don’t know what to do
Pig; cause I cant say anything or they’ll know my voice
Pig: ahhhhhhh
Pig: Phil as soon as you get this please let me know
Pig: I’m freaking outtttt
Pig: Philllll
Philza was sitting in the car with Wilbur and tommy, who were sat arguing over music taste in the back seat when his phone went off. The sudden noise of the texts sending frightened him, but once Phil read them he let out a small chuckle. Only techno had this bad luck.
Dad: hey m8
Dad: this just came through
Dad: u landed?
Pig: Yes oh my god
Pig: they haven’t said anything
Pig: they’re asleep now, but they fell asleep to *techno blade talking about Greek mythology but calming*
Pig: WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK
Child: dude that’s kind of amazing
Child: like, I didn’t know a person could have such shit luck.
Wilby: Shut up child
Phil heard a distinct “Hey” yelled from the back, and turned to see both boys on their phones
Wilby: Seriously tho, are you ok?
Pig: I’m so stressed. We are getting off now. See you soon.
All three got out of the parked car and made there way to the gate. Tommy had made an embarrassingly large cardboard sign with obnoxious poster leaders spelling out Tech.
Technoblade finally got all the way unboarded and out of security, he saw his pseudo family. While it was obviously in good nature, the large sign only served to freak techno out even more. What if a fan saw? Techno was already anxious enough, just about his voice being recognized, much less being with three easily identifiable YouTubers. Briefly hugging Phil he started walking twords the car, and Phil followed suit. Wilbur and tommy continued arguing, this time about weather or not to throw away the sign, but followed behind none the less.
“Are you ok?” Phil asked, worried for Technoblade
“Yes, just stressed. Can I sit in the back?”
“Sure, you’ll have to ask one of the boys to switch with you though.”
“Can one of you stop arguing for one moment and trade sets with me?”
“I voulenteer” Wilbur shouted, over Tommy’s immediate hand raise. “I need a break from the gremlin child.”
“Looks like your stuck with me techie”
Techno groaned audibly, partially to play up the older brother role, but partially directed at his little mindset, which was growing even closer after the nickname, already close to begin with due to the stress of the flight.
Now at Phil’s car the group clambered in, and techno attempted to get comfortable in the back set. This was going to be a long ride.