Work Text:
Object permanence is something most believe they gain by a certain developmental period in their childhood. There's a new awareness that people do not suddenly disappear and instead a realization forms that they are just hidden. Hidden out of plain view, but one that could easily be logically explained. There was a resolute logic that people gained as they grew up that people don’t just disappear, they’re somewhere else for now.
Techno would argue that object permanence is lost when someone dies. There’s a strange need to find the dead in thin air and the anger that comes when they never show up. There’s no logic or understanding of the fact that they are dead and gone forever. It's like he’s a child again hoping that his brother is hiding from him with his hands over his face and giggling instead of accepting that Tommy just died. He knew that Tommy wasn’t just messing with his cognitive mind, but it was better than admitting he was dead.
Techno could barely remember Tommy. It was getting harder to pretend like he remembered what he sounded like or the color of his eyes. It wasn’t until Techno stared into the very familiar cow and couldn’t think of its eyes that he knew that Tommy wouldn’t come back.
It was a stupid hope that stayed throughout the years of Techno’s travels. That his little brother would appear one day with a bright grin and tease Techno for thinking that his baby brother was dead. But the worst part about mourning for years and with Techno’s job was that he didn’t know if he could tell the difference between the real Tommy or the fake. Nowadays he would settle for a demon that was slowly draining his life away in order for it to steal his memories and mimic his brother to remember what Tommy looked and sounded like.
It was worse whenever he would visit Phil or Ranboo or Niki and find out the date and realize that Tommy had been dead for decades now instead of just a couple of years like Techno foolishly hoped for.
He could see the shifts in his behavior over the years as he got deeper and deeper into his mourning. The lack of care for when a blade sliced him and he never bothered to try to cover it or the way he didn’t pause when the forest got too silent for a predator not to be in his vicinity. He figured if death wanted him, then it was easier to give into it.
It was why he took on the mission to help hunt down the Siren against the wishes of his teammates.
There was nothing really to truly worry about anymore. It wasn’t like he had a soulmate to care for. His sword never lit up in the presence of anyone unlike Phil and Kristen or Ranboo and Tubbo. He used to watch with Tommy as the soulmates practiced seeing that they couldn’t hurt each other with their own weapons. It was always fascinating seeing a killing blow hit and never actually kill anyone.
Tommy had whined about not finding his soulmate yet and then would tease that at least he wasn’t as old as Techno who still hadn’t found his. Techno would argue that it was the best situation for when he laid his brother to the ground and was happy that he didn’t have to deal with Tommy’s soulmate crying over him, if he ever even had one. Perhaps fate knew Tommy would die too young and never get to be someone’s half in war and peace.
It was even better for Techno, he didn’t have to worry about anyone mourning after him when he took riskier and riskier jobs. It was easier for him to deal with missions that left himself no time to think rather than sitting around realizing how much time had passed.
So when Techno wandered the streets of La Jolla for the rumored Siren and his deadly revolver, he wandered it confidently. There was no real fear of walking the streets of California at night in a city that seemed to shine even at the darkest points of the night. It was quite peaceful.
Until Techno was stopped by the Siren. The man in front of him was disappointing for what Techno was expecting. He looked like every other college student with a yellow vest and slacks. If Techno didn’t know better he would have brushed him aside as if he was nothing. But even he couldn’t ignore the cold gray of his revolver hanging from his hand. Of course even that image had to be ruin due to the bright blue sheep charm that was tied to it and swinging in the air.
Even without the revolver swinging out in the middle of the night, Techno could feel his power radiating off of him. There was always an aura signifying he had more power than the typical citizen and he knew that he was radiating the same powerful aura.
“Are you here to kill me?” the man titled his head with a smirk. “You know many have failed.”
“I won’t,” Techno promises, but it's not one he really cares about fulfilling. It’s not like the stupid promises Tommy would demand from him about letting him see the cows on the road or get ice cream when they finished a job. But he still pulled out his blade and pointed it to the man.
“You’re killing me without even knowing me? Are you the monster here or am I?”
“I really don’t care,” Techno said. He could care less about this man or his ideas of justice and if Techno is on the right side or not. He really just wanted to go home and pretend to not still be mourning over his little brother. “Can’t you just die?”
The man pretended to think about it for a few seconds before tilting his head, “nope. Sorry!”
His apology came with a swing of his gun towards Techno. He dodged out of the way when the bullet finally fired, but the ringing in his ear followed him through. He pulled --- closer to his body and swung at the man. He could hear himself say what needs to be fixed in his positioning, the same way he would with Tommy. Tommy had not retained anything, but instead he would yell before trying to tackle his big brother with his sword.
It was practically a habit at this point to lose himself to the fight. There was no need to care about where his foot was placed when the man in front of him kept shooting, but instead he let himself fall back into his memories. It was something that Niki would note with sad eyes even though he knew that she never shed a tear for Tommy. There was some weird anger she had against him, but Techno never let it get to him.
‘Left foot parallel to your shoulder, gives you more stability’ Techno had pushed Tommy to the floor to show the mistake. ‘You never want to give your opponent the chance to push you down with a sword.’
In all honesty, Techno could care less about proper form, so when the man pushed him to the ground and aimed his gun between Techno’s eyes, he didn’t care for a single moment that he was about to die. He did care when the gun seemed to jam.
Both of their eyes widened as they looked at the gun. The man pulled it closer to him and they both watched as purple veins of light began to surround it. Techno had found his soulmate in a monster.
“Are you fucking kidding me?” the man yelled. He pointed the gun at Techno again and tried to rapidly shoot the gun. “This can’t be serious.”
Techno banged his head against the floor and looked up at the sky. He was supposed to retire . Instead he found his soulmate in someone who couldn’t even fire the gun properly. There was no hope for him and he was sure Tommy was laughing somewhere at Techno’s bad luck.
The man pointed his gun at him again, “I’ll kill you!”
“Do it,” Techno sighed. “I’m sure it’ll work on your tenth try. Can’t you just kill me the old fashion way?”
“Shut up!”
“Bruh, you can’t even kill your enemy. I was wrong, you’re not a monster. You just suck.”
“Thank you!” The man paused, then turned back to Techno with angry eyes. “Wait, no! I’m not a monster, but I can kill you!”
Techno knew that this fight would be pointless. His sword would just go through the man without hurting him and he knew that nothing would fix this situation. He would go back home and tell Phil that he couldn’t kill the Siren and say nothing about them being soulmates.
“Where are you going?” Siren demanded.
“Home? We’re done aren’t we?”
“No!” the man argued. “We are not done until you’re dead!”
“With what gun?”
And for the question, Techno got a gun punted at him. The gun fell to the floor without firing a shot, but still Techno looked at Siren with the most betrayed eyes he could muster. “Did you just throw a gun at me?”
“Yes!” Siren was proud of his actions.
“Okay…?”
The man started to laugh hysterically. Techno watched silently as the man seemed to realize what kind of situation they ended up in. He picked up Siren’s revolver and twisted it around to get a better look at the design and blue sheep hanging from it.
“Why a sheep?”
The man looked at him with a raised eyebrow, “is that your only question right now? We’re supposed to kill each other right now and we CAN’T!”
“Eh, I’m kind of over that.”
“It just fucking happened!” the man screamed. “How are you so calm?!”
“My little brother used to attempt to stab me with my own sword,” Techno said with a smile. “That actually managed to hurt me, but you can’t even shoot your gun and I’m holding your gun. This is like the least scary situation for me to be in right now.”
“I am trying to KILL YOU!”
“Do better,” Techno said. “Really F minus work here. It’s quite pathetic.”
“I hate you,” the man sighed. He looked at Techno and held out his hand, “gun please.”
“Why?”
“So I can kill someone that isn’t you?”
“Nah,” Techno swung the gun around. “It’s my job to stop you.”
“Feel free to kill me,” the man offered. “We can see if it works from your side.”
“That sounds like too much work.”
The man looked at him before his head fell down to stare at the floor in misery. “My name is Wilbur.”
“Wilbur,” Techno stared at his soulmate. “I’m Technoblade.”
“Oh, fuck off,” Wilbur said. “I can’t be soulmates with someone named Technoblade .”
“You think I want to be soulmates with someone named Wilbur? I’m the one really suffering here.”
Wilbur chuckled and looked at Techno with annoyance, “I won’t get my gun back today, will I?”
“Nope.”
“Fuck. Let’s go get dinner or something, I’m starving.”
“It does take a lot of energy to not kill someone.”
“Shut up.”