Goodbye Internet | A Phan Oneshot

Goodbye Internet

"Hello Internet," Dan said waving to the camera as he had done hundreds of times throughout the years. He took a deep breath, returning his hands to his lap and twiddling his thumbs. He looked up at Phil, who was sitting behind the tripod, giving a reassuring and encouraging nod for him to continue.

"I have filmed this video many, many times, and to be frank, I've never been able to make it through. This is by far, the most difficult decision I have ever had to make in my life, and trying to find the right way to put my thoughts into words for this video has been a challenge that has come along with it. "

The brown haired boy returned his gaze to his feet, unable to look at that blinking red light a moment longer. This is where he always choked up, this is where he hit a loss for words. He ran his fingers through his fringe, not caring if it messed up his hair at this point. A physical knot began to form in the anxious man's throat.

"Dan? Are you alright?" His concerned friend said after a few seconds, he couldn't stand to see Dan sad. Dan looked back up and gave Phil a thankful smile, glad that he had someone like Phil to support him through this. Looking into his blue eyes, he somehow found strength to push forward, knowing that he had someone here to help him if he fell back. A familiar warm feeling grew in his chest, remembering all the times Phil had done just that.

"October 16th, 2009, I published my first ever YouTube video, titled 'Hello Internet.' At the time, I was just a normal teenage boy living in Berkshire, stressing over what I was going to do with my life. As you all know, the reason I became a content creator is because I met Phil. He encouraged me to continue, so I uploaded my next video only two days later.

"In 2010, I decided to take a leap of faith and drop out of university and move to Manchester.

"August, 2011, I move in with Phil in his flat in Manchester. It was a great opportunity to live with someone who also creates content on YouTube, so if him or I were ever found ourself not knowing what to do for a video, we could come to each other. Later that year, a few days before Christmas, we got a phone call from BBC Radio 1, asking us if we would like to host the Christmas Special. Apparently we didn't suck too bad, because they asked us to host it the following year.

"2013- wait, what else did we do in 2012?" Phil pondered Dan's question for a moment, trying to recall his memory, but all of the years had muddled together in his mind.

"We moved to London...?" He replied, unsure of what else they had done.

"Oh yeah, we moved to London. Now, 2013 was quite a big year. We got a weekly radio show on BBC Radio 1, which was a big deal back then, and it was definitely a good experience. I hit one million subscribers in February, which was a totally surreal, yet scary moment. And only a few months later, I hit two frickin million, that was definitely crazy. I think it was around that time that I became fully aware of how large my audience really was. And to be frank, it was terrifying to think that whatever I put out there on my channel would be shared with two million people. But I eventually got over that hurdle and told myself that I would use my platform to put out positive messages instead of negative, which meant monitoring what I said before posting, which I should have been doing anyways.

"September 12th, 2014, Phil and I started DanandPhilGAMES, which you guys seem to enjoy to this day, and we still have fun making the videos.

"January 3oth of 2015, Big Hero 6 came out to theaters here in the UK, in which Phil and I voiced the two technicians, which was pretty cool. We announced our book, The Amazing Book Is Not On Fire, in March, and we were not prepared for all of the support and excitement from you guys. And once it was released in October and we received so much positive feedback from all of you, it made me realize how genuinely accepting and caring you guys are.