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Road trips. Techno had always loved road trips. He loved them when it was just him, Phil, and Wilbur when he was younger, even after his little brother Tommy came along. On road trip nights Tubbo and Tommy would stay with Tubbo’s aunt Puffy. He loved them when it was Dream and Schlatt he was with all of the time after Wilbur and Tommy moved. He loved them when he went with Eret and Eret alone.
Techno first fell in love with them when his father, Phil, needed to go to another state temporarily for his work. However, he couldn't find a babysitter for the both of them and Puffy was having her first kid so she wasn’t able to watch them. Instead his twin brother Will had suggested that they both go with him. Phil, although hesitant at first, agreed. He wanted the best for his sons. He wanted them to become just as in love with travelling as he had. And he had wanted them to see the world and be anything but afraid to try something new in a new place. Techno has seen where he can while still in the Americas. He’s traveled all over the US and seen some of the most beautiful and historical sites. He’s traveled all through Canada and Mexico (that he could) and became quickly obsessed with Tim Horton’s coffee.
That day the three packed their bags and hopped in the car, Phil in the front seat with Wilbur and Techno sitting in the back. Techno can remember Will immediately pulling the top part of his seat belt over his head and putting it on the seat behind him as he turned and threw his legs over Techno’s lap in their tiny car. That first day of travel was admittedly rough. This was the first time that Techno and Will had gone on a long road trip and Techno with his, at the time, undiagnosed ADHD and Will with his short attention span (he hadn’t found the beauty of music at the time). It was utter chaos. After about 12 hours of driving, Phil had called up a friend who ran an AirBnB in a town they were going to be in within the hour and got a room. At the time the man and the two 7 year olds were able to easily fit into one bed.
The day after that, however, was much easier. Phil had put on an audiobook he had downloaded the night before. It was one that Phil had listened to before, the one he and his wife had listened to on their first road trip together, and one that he would listen to a million times if he had the time. It meant even more to him now that she had passed. He knew his boys would enjoy it, the both of them becoming book worms the minute they had the ability to read. It was a historical fantasy book. One where kids went on an adventure in the world of Greek Mythology (like Percy Jackson but not Percy Jackson as Techno seems to have a personal vendetta against the series). That most definitely kept the two kids interested and when the family of three pulled into a motel that night the book was all that they could talk about. Talking about their favourite characters, their favourite moments, what they liked about the book. That night Phil had chuckled when his sons acted out their collective favourite scene before bed as he downloaded the other four books to listen with the boys during this and hopefully future trips.
The boys were honestly sad when the trip ended just five hours after they left the motel in the morning. Phil had pulled into a hotel, much to the boys’ confusion, and explained that they were where they needed to go. After that road trips became a common thing. There was a perk to being a teacher and getting breaks at the same time as the kids. Spring Break comes around? They’re going to Vancouver. Summer vacation comes along? Month long road trip along the west coast.
And as the boys hit middle school it got much easier to do them. Techno, now on ADHD meds, was able to sit and stare at the world around them with his thoughts wandering while Wilbur played whatever instrument he had decided to pick up. Usually it was the ukulele as they’re much more portable. Also as the two got older they were able to pull into a parking lot and sleep in the car. Will and Phil in the front seats reclined and Techno stretched across the backseat. Sure their backs were sore and they’re limbs hurt like hell when they woke up, but that was the fun of it. It also saved money.
Once they hit highschool Techno spent his time on the little laptop he got for Christmas one year writing a novel. One that would be published in the coming years. If he wasn’t doing that he and Phil were helping Will write lyrics for his latest song. Songs that would help him and his eventual band blow up during college. The three started being able to go all day by taking turns driving after the twins learned how to. Phil is tired? Wilbur who just woke up from a nap would drive while Phil slept in the back of the car. He and Techno would talk in the car, mostly about highschool and relationships (thanks to Will), until the brunette got tired. Then Techno would take over until the two woke up and wanted food. Then whoever was driving would pull into whatever random diner was on the side of the road and buy their greasiest food. After that they head back into their car and fall asleep in the parking lot.
But that didn’t last forever. Eventually Wilbur got accepted into a college in Brighton. Tommy had begged Wilbur to let him come with him and Phil, albeit reluctantly, accepted alongside Wilbur. Tubbo had wanted to go and Will was more than willing to take him but Tubbo’s parents weren’t fond of the idea. Then Phil had gone off and met a woman named Kristin who he fell absolutely head-over-heels for and eventually got married to.
However, Techno didn’t give up on road tripping. No, he met cousins Dream and Schlatt through Tubbo when he and the two of them came over to say goodbye to his brothers. Schlatt and Techno had kept relatively close and when Techno invited his friend on a road trip, Schlatt had proposed they brought Dream with them. Dream hated being cooped up in the same town/state all of the time and Schlatt figured this would be a nice breath of fresh air for his dear cousin.
The three 18 year old boys packed their things and took off. Techno wanted the guys’ first time to be an experience. He drove them all the way across the US on about a month and a half long trip. Once they hit Florida they traveled all the way up the east coast and slept in field after field either outside on the roof of Techno’ car or inside it on rainy, stormy, or cold nights.
Once they had all turned 19, they drove all the way up to Canada--one of the first places Phil had taken Will and himself--and pulled into a bar. That night boys legally drank then went to stay in a motel near the bar they were at (cause they smart and shit). And no one needs to know if the three drunk adults fell asleep on the one bed in the room in a cuddle pile. No one needs to know that the next morning Techno had woken up with a massive headache and two cousins on his relatively large chest.
No one needs to know about the times the guys ended up driving down the road--and almost crashing the car--screaming whatever music they were listening to. And no one especially needs to know about the love ballads that they would cry to while holding hands every once in a while. It was later learned that the first trip they ever went on stuck with Dream as he had gone on to write a song about once he had blown up.
Just like with Wilbur and Phil, nothing lasts forever. After two years of the group travelling together they split. Dream moved to Florida, which he absolutely fell in love with after his first visit there, and moved in with his online best friend Sapnap and eventually George, who they met through Will back at college in Brighton. Techno later learned that Dream had gotten the two of them into road tripping as well and Sapnap had met his, now, two fiances Karl and Quackity. Schlatt had chosen to go live in New York after Tubbo and his new friend, Ranboo, went to stay with Wilbur and Tommy in the UK.
Finally, Techno had decided to settle himself down temporarily as well. He applied for a college for an English Major and History Minor. However after a year he decided that it wasn’t for him and he was much happier with his life travelling. He had made a solid enough living with sales by the time his second novel was published.
As much as Techno liked traveling, he hated travelling alone. It’s too quiet no matter how loud he turns up the music. There isn’t any conversation or screaming to keep him awake. He isn’t able to switch off seats to take a nap with someone meaning he can’t go as far, and he has to constantly focus on the road meaning he can’t write. So after he ran out of people to go around with he stopped travelling. That took so much out of him, in all honesty. Techno had really lost his motivation to write, as he writes based on a lot of his own experiences. He lost all reason to really do anything.
However, that didn’t last long. As Techno had met Eret through his writing. At the time Eret was a book editor living in the Netherlands with their best friend, Fundy. Techno had sent in the story he had written during college. It talks about his struggles with his first year of college, expressing how even though he loves learning he wants to go down a different path and it’s okay that he does. That it should be okay for everyone to go down their own path without judgment from the people around him.
Eret had absolutely fallen in love with his writing and story-telling once he got around to looking over it and editing it--they were a relatively popular editor with an elegant way of wording things so a lot of people sent in their novels to them. So, they looked up the author and found him on Instagram. After stalking for a bit and deciding that the author didn’t seem like a serial killer they decided to message the pink-haired man.
Instantly the two hit it off. Talking about everything and anything. It started out simple, Eret had DMed him and told him that they were the editor that was working on his short story and was in love with it. Then it turned to their experiences breaking gender roles. Eret with their cross-dressing and undefined pronouns and Techno with his long, pink coloured hair--in which he had done a few years previous due to a dare by Schlatt but ended up loving it (Will wasn’t fond of it because his identical twin was no longer identical to him, but gotta respect the drip man).
They continued to talk for months, with Eret inspiring Techno to write and Techno sitting on call with Eret for hours while they edited books. Neither cared about their major difference in time zones as they both had absolutely fucked sleep schedules.
One day, Eret messaged Techno with a singular picture. It was a plane ticket to California. Eret was going to be staying with Techno in California for an indiscernible amount of time. Techno was so much more than excited as Eret had shown interest in going on road trips after Techno went on a rant about his love for them on time while the two were on a call.
Techno wasn’t hard to find in the airport. Both him and Eret were relatively tall compared to most people and Techno well, Techno had quite the unique hair colour. Techno had to admit that it felt absolutely amazing to be held in a warm embrace after cutting off connection from the real world after college (of course he still talked to his amazing parents, brothers, and friends he just didn’t get to see them in person. Especially after Kristin and Phil moved to the UK). Eret took a few days to settle into Techno’s quaint apartment and soon they were on the road with the new dog the two had adopted named Floof.
The pair worked great on their road trips. When Techno was driving, he was helping Eret edit. And when Eret was driving, they would help Techno work on the next book of his series. And when each book got finished Eret would be the one to edit and send in the book. They ended up helping Techno with his books so much that their name was included with his as well as their information joining his on their about info at the end of the book on Techno’s next series. If they weren’t working then the two were talking. Talking about anything and everything. Anything their hour long conversations wandered to.
“Tech…” Techno hears from beside him. He blinks and shakes his head, readjusting his glasses that got knocked askew from the sudden action. He turns to Eret who is pulling into a gas station. They park the car near the back of the parking lot and the two of them run inside. They head to the bathroom and then grab some shitty but lovable gas station coffee then go to settle back into Techno’s old car. Techno grabs his laptop and opens it to some live video, placing it between the two of them.
“And now, we welcome star Wilbur Craft to the show. In case you somehow don’t know this man. He started writing songs in highschool and seemed to blow up over night when he joined a band in college. He’s an overnight American legend that’s come to live here in the UK.” The newscaster says, looking towards the curly haired brunette sitting in the chair adjacent to him, “Welcome to the show Will.”
“Yes, thank you for having me mate.” Wilbur said to the newscaster, hands folded neatly on his lap.
“So you come from America, no?”
“Yeah, so I was technically born here in the UK.”
“Were you now?”
“Yeah. My parents lived here and eventually had me and my twin brother but we moved to the States when we were young after my mom died.”
“So you came back here for college?”
“Yeah, I decided that I wanted to come back to my birth place, even if it wasn’t Brighton. I moved here with my little brother, who wanted to see the UK and we’ve stayed ever since.”
“And you’re living with three other people are you not?”
“Yeah I am. I’m living with my little brother and his friend as well as his friend’s friend who moved here a few years ago to come live with the two of us.”
“That’s nice. Now, you mentioned something about helping your parents move. Did they move here?”
“Yeah, they did. My dad and step mom actually moved back to my dad’s hometown, where my twin and I were born.”
“Of course, but what about your twin?”
“Oh, he’s still living in America with his friend. He never cared to move with any of my family.”
“Interesting. Now, you’ve said in another interview that you actually didn’t write a lot of your songs alone, so if you don’t mind me asking, who all helped write your songs?”
“No I don’t mind. Most of the songs that I’ve written with my band were with the help of my band, of course. However a lot of my earlier, and even some of my newer solos songs, were with the help of my father and twin brother Techno.”
“Really now?” The interviewer crosses one leg over the other and leans on the side of his knee.
“Yeah. My dad is actually a teacher and my twin, Techno, is an author. The three of us used to go on road trips all of the time when we were growing up and Techno and I developed our artistic sides there. My dad and I helped Techno with ideas and in return the two helped me out with my songwriting and development.” He pauses to take a breath and looks down to the folded hands in his lap, “In all honesty, I couldn’t be more proud of my twin. He has multiple book series out now.”
“Does he?”
“Yeah, I really owe all of my fame to him and my dad.”
“Techno Craft right?” Once the interviewer gets a nod from Wilbur he continues, “Our States branch did an interview with another popular man, someone around the same age as you. He went by the name Dream and talked about how Techno inspired his first song by taking him on a road trip for the first time. Have you heard of him?”
“Yeah I have. He’s my little brother’s friend’s cousin, as confusing as that sounds.” Wil laughs moving one of his hands to the back of his neck, “Techno had gone on a road trip with him and his cousin. They were his travel buddies once my father and I weren’t able to be.”
“That’s wonderful. Now…” The interviewer goes on, but Techno isn’t listening. Instead he’s smiling fondly at his twin brother. Just like Wilbur had said for him, he couldn’t be more proud of his twin. And he knew well that Phil was proud of the both of them.