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The first time it happened, Techno had just graduated from college and had currently been going through the act of moving into his very first apartment. Well, an apartment that wasn’t a teeny tiny college dorm but just for him and without an annoying roommate, who never cleaned their half of the room.
It was fair to say that Techno was glad to finally have his space.
What he hadn’t expected though, was that on the 21st of October, (the first day he slept in a fully furnished bedroom), he would not wake up in the same place.
Quite the opposite in fact because where Techno did wake up was somewhere in the middle of nowhere. He opened his eyes, slowly blinking and instead of looking up at his off-white ceiling, where the paint was starting to peel off in some corners, he stared directly into the open sun above him. Confused, he sat up, and noticed that the tickling he had thought was his blanket had actually been the grass beneath him.
If he hadn’t been so tired (recently ex-college students weren’t known for their healthy sleep schedules after all), Techno would’ve probably freaked out. As it was though, he was just completely and utterly confused.
Slowly standing up, he noticed that a road was not far away, he just hadn’t seen it with all the greenery in his face. But where he had expected to see the familiar darkness of asphalt, there was only rough gravel. The road was almost completely empty, the only exception being a man who was walking along it, coming nearer and nearer.
He was whistling a song Techno didn’t recognise, completely entranced in his own little world, and definitely not noticing the random dude standing in the middle of a field. When he did see Techno though, the man let out an indigent squeak and jumped into the air as if he were a frightened deer.
Techno laughed and made his way onto the road as well.
“Well, hullo there”, he said, and waved awkwardly after his laughing had died down.
“Hello, mate!” The man answered, then he paused a bit, squinting his eyes.. “You sure are something .”
Techno shot him a questioning look and the man pointed at his everything and raised an eyebrow, as if to tell him what he thought of his appearance.
And sure, sue him, Techno had slept in a merch-shirt of his favourite anime and matching, long pyjama pants that were actually a bit too long for him. And he was standing there barefoot, but under any other circumstance he shouldn’t stand out that much.
It was, in fact, the other person who looked completely out of place in the modern world. He was wearing a big straw hat with a reed stuck in its band and his general attire was strange as well. The simple tunic was green and had a white hem all around the edges and sleeves, on his waist a leather pouch was being held by a thick belt and his sturdy boots, reaching up to the middle of his sheens, were also made of leather.
“Are you real?” The man asked “Or did I inhale too much rotting fruit yesterday?”
“I could ask you the same question, bro, but I don’t think either of us are somehow inebriated or high.”
“Hm”, is all the man said. Then he was silent for a few moments before he shrugged, having seemingly decided on something. “I’m Phillip.” He introduced himself and held out a hand for Techno “But I normally go by Phil.”
“Technoblade.” Techno took the hand and shook it. “You can call me Techno, though.”
The man laughed, a bright smile adorned his face and somehow, even though they had just met, Techno knew that this man would change his life.
And right he was, because after they had introduced themselves, Phil had invited Techno to come back to his house after he had found out that Techno had neither an idea on where he was nor how he got there. Not having a reason to say no, Techno had agreed.
Phil seemed kind enough and since he hadn’t attempted to rob and/or murder Techno yet, he figured nothing could go that wrong.
As suspected, he was right, and they spent the day in Phil’s humble home, cramped into a small living room, drinking ale (that tasted much too watery for Techno’s preferences) and talking.
Somehow they established the current year and that Techno was definitely from the future, (which they found out by comparing famous Ancient Greek philosophers), and that neither of them had any idea on how the fuck this happened or how to send Techno back to his proper time.
Once or twice Techno was close to falling into a proper panic attack, but Phil dragged him out every time, distracting him by making a stupid joke or reassuring him that everything would be fine. He was also apparent on the fact that regardless of what happened, Techno could spend as much time in Phil’s home as needed.
When evening came and there was no sign of him ever going back to his apartment, Techno took him up on the offer. Phil, gracious host that he was, even lent him some of his spare clothes, even though he had not many to spare. And Techno went to bed that night not knowing what would await him.
Waking up again, Techno immediately noticed the soft feeling of his mattress beneath him and thought everything had been a dream. It had to be because anything else would be utterly ridiculous, and he did think himself as a somewhat rational person. The fact that he still remembered how he acted in his dream was only confirmation because, surely, if he ever was in such a situation, he would try to figure things out before becoming besties with a random mediaeval peasant.
Getting up, he noticed though, that he was not wearing the anime pyjamas he had so adored. But instead, after pinching himself three times to make sure he was actually awake, a bland tunic was what adorned his body.
“Hehhh?”
He went about his day as normal, arrived at work on time and left it with the same accuracy. He went to bed that night in the tunic again, wanting to see what had triggered it and if he could replicate yesterday’s magic/sorcery/whatever the fuck that was.
But when he woke up again, he was still in his own flat.
Day after day he wished he would wake up in that field again, wished he could talk to Phil just one more time. But it never happened.
As the months went by, the tunic started gathering dust in the deepest corner of his closet and as time went on, Techno started losing hope. If the obvious garment hadn’t been in his possession, he would’ve marked everything as a weird but super-realistic dream, but alas, there was no real way of denying such obvious physical evidence.
He even had a friend over, Niki, who was an avid ren faire enjoyer, and asked her about her opinion on the tunic, just to make sure he wasn’t hallucinating it. She had been shocked by the historical accuracy of it, had asked why the fuck Techno owned such a thing without ever telling her, and why he had never gone with her to one if he owned such a great outfit..
Techno lied, had said that he got it on Etsy for far too much money and that he wanted to surprise her by taking her to a ren faire on her birthday. Because she had tried to get him to tag along for years now.
Niki had been delighted, had dragged him into a hug and proclaimed him officially as her best friend and offered him free muffins from her bakery as a thanks.
And well, a few months later, on her birthday, Techno did indeed go to the ren faire with her. After that, though, the tunic really did not see any more use and Techno slowly started to accept the fact that it had just been a one-time thing.
Almost a year went by without any incident, but then, on a cold October night, Techno went to bed and when he woke up again, he was once again lying in the middle of the field.
Techno normally wasn’t the person who cried a lot, but something about this moment (the feeling of fresh air around him, the smell of green grass and the knowledge that he had gotten a second chance), caused him to tear up a bit.
Unlike last time, there was no sight of anybody nearby, and so Techno decided to trek his way into the village himself and to knock on Phil’s door. It opened with the same creaking Techno had still ingrained into his memory after all this time, and it took the man a second to realise who was standing in front of him, but once he did, a gasp escaped him, and he fell into Techno’s arms.
Once again they spent the entire day talking, catching up on what happened in their last year until the conversation drifted to the spot Techno had woken up in for the second time now.
“What about this field is so special, do you think?” Phil asked.
“I did a bit of research”, Techno answered, taking a sip of his drink. “I even went to a museum and the city archives for it. Turns out that my current apartment is built on that field. In fact, I'd wager quite a lot that the spot I wake up in when I’m here, is where my bed usually is.”
“Huh.” Phil furrowed his eyebrows.
“Well, not exactly the same spot, ‘cause I live on the fourth floor. But I should probably be grateful that I don’t spawn in the middle of the air”, he snorted.
Phil laughed: “That is probably for the best, yes.”
Once again Techno slept when the night got too dark for the meagre candle Phil had set up, and as expected this time, Techno once again woke up in his own bed.
Now, though, he wasn’t sad.
No, this time he was excited to figure out the pattern of this strange phenomenon and couldn’t wait for the next time to come. He planned on writing a little notebook and sleeping with it in his pocket every night in hopes of it being transported with him when he travelled to Phil, so the information exchange would be easier. Maybe, he could even bring his Switch with him or an old Game Boy that was still lying around in his flat somewhere, just to see how Phil would react.
And that’s how Techno, unbeknownst to even his closest friends, keeps in touch with a mediaeval peasant once a year during October!