Chapter Text
He kneels over, obsidian scratching his knees, and shakily pulls out his handkerchief. Blood already stains his hands, dragging long lines of crimson on the polished black walls that he desperately crawled at to keep his balance before he fell to his knees. Blood dribbles from his filled mouth as he coughs up his lungs into his handkerchief, choking on a congealed piece of blood that shows his bronchial tubes.
He kneels there for a moment, staring at the large solid blood. Another fit bubbles in his lungs, scratching his throat on it's way up and filling his mouth with the iron-y taste as he coughs so much and long enough to feel his tonsils ache and throat burnt with the force of his coughing.
The handkerchief is well over stained red, dripping onto the polished black stone beneath him. He keeps coughing, wheezing for breaths in between as he folds it up and tosses it to the long pile of bloodied handkerchiefs on the Warden's previously pristine table that wasn't covered in blood. He coughs blood into another handkerchief.
It isn't until 10 are ruined where he drags himself into his sleeping quarters with a bucket that he spills his blood into. Still, he wakes up from his slumber with a pile of blood coming from his mouth underneath him. It seeped into the obsidian, filling the cracks where it bubbles put slowly from the lava that boils it and the bucket is filled to the brim. He throws it into the lava, bucket and all, and leaves the blood to evaporate naturally.
Of course, he's dealt with his health his whole life. Having been a weak little child, he refused to be confined to a bed his whole life like others who suffered the same in his village, finding out that all he needed was some warmer air and to get a little active no matter his symptoms dragged him down.
It still affected him during the SMP, though it was easy to hide and the blood wouldn't deep through an entire handkerchief. It got worse in Pandora, coughing into his fists and throwing the pooled blood into the lava curtain to hide the smell.
Then the torture began, and it tenfold; he now coughed up so much blood he could barely breathe, body wracked with infection and fever on a constant basis. Injuries took far longer to heal with a body like his, and so he was forced to suffer with the bloodied handkerchiefs on the Warden's Table being the proof.
Dream hacked up more blood, coughing into his fists. When it ended, his fist was covered in sticky blood that he used his water bucket to wash. The swirling colours of brown bled into his eyes as he heaved painfully, throat feeling destroyed.
He worked himself up and made himself walk straight to the portal room— where a crow with a letter gripped in its beak was standing on the lectern?
He hummed to himself, regretting the decision when another coughing fit bubbled in his chest. Blood dribbled from his mouth as he took the letter, staining it with his blood stained fingers. The black wax seal was the picture of a wither. It soon turned red when drops of his blood from another cough landed on it.
"What-What's this fo—" he coughed, spilling more blood that soiled his shirt and armour from him mouth. The crow looked at him worriedly, tilting it's head. "—for?"
Dream ripped open the seal, stopping to cough some more and swearing when blood stained the paper. He hoped the writing hadn't been ruined yet, as he wouldn't be able to read it later. Hopefully, the inks used were made out of something waterproof like iron alloys instead of charcoal or else he'd have trouble reading it.
To whom it may concern
"What the fuck." He muttered, spilling more blood out of his mouth. Below it, the writing was expanded from his blood, making it a little hard to read.
We are in dire need of assistance only few (like you) can do
"A different handwriting?" Dream flicked his eyes to the crow, looking like it was traumatized. He looked to where it was looking and saw the blood that covered his entire front shirt.
Also, you owed me a favour lol
"Techno...?"
There's a parasitic egg ravaging this server. We need another person who can also help.
And this is still you needing to repay the favour lmao
"Serious—" he hacked up more blood. He sighed exasperatedly, looking at the signed names.
The Syndicate
Dream raised his brow. On one bloodied hand, there's helping to take down a massive threat to the server but on the other equally bloodied hand, there is getting caught. Also, who the hell is the 'Syndicate'? But, he's already avenged what he needed, and a favour is a favour —
He reignites the portal, the crow choosing to land on his shoulder. He looks at it in confusion before he sees the other handkerchief on the other side of the table clutched in its beak, unfortunately soaked with a bit of blood from the sheer volume dripping on the other end. He accepts it gracefully, wiping down his armour and coughing into it as he leaves his safe space.
"Have a name?" He mutters, holding back a fit. It stares at him and meows. He blinks back. "Okay."
Under the cover of night with a meowing crow on his shoulder, he falls into a portal while coughing his lungs out and sluggishly makes his way to the tundra where his symptoms suddenly take a turn for the worst not even 5 minutes in.
The blood on his handkerchief is a hot pink. Not a very good sign, as every winter the people in his village would often die when it happened. The chunks are more present than ever, making his breathing a little hard to acquire. Beforehand, his body could handle maybe 3 hours in a tundra depending on the day but maybe the torture did do something more.
He coughs into his handkerchief again, forcing himself to keep moving. The crow flies over and ahead, showing him the way with a cat-like meow. Still, how is it meowing? Shouldn't it be cawing or something? Was it a shapeshifter? He knows some animals can be shapeshifters that changed into another animal. He's personally seen a squid shift into a phantom before. That was a little surprising.
There's probably a snowstorm right now. There's a lot of snow hailing the area and Dream can't help but basically throw up blood into his now soaked handkerchief. Honestly, he should have brought more than one, but he plans to lean on the wool in his inventory that he'll craft into more handkerchiefs. Or maybe a large blanket-handkerchief-thing that he could spill blood into all he wants. It sounds somewhat better.
Until he sees the three cabins —actually, wasn't there supposed to only be two?— off in the distance, the meowing crow doesn't land on him. Now, with it on his forearm, he can see what makes it less of a crow— claws that didn't seem too in or out like they were retractable, a meow instead of that foreboding caw crows have and fucking whiskers on its black beak. Yep. Shapeshifter.
"Shap—" he pulls his soaking handkerchief to his mouth, getting all of the pooled blood out first. He sighs, pushing himself past the weird fence opening. "Shapeshifter?"
The crow meows, then goes up in a small puff of pink smoke where a cat that's not quite a cat hangs off his shoulders for better balance. It's a cute little thing, beady black eyes and like a standard cat. Though it's multicoloured fur looked more like little individual feathers rather than fur, much like a crow. Pretty cool, actually.
"Hmm." He hums, wiping his chin free of blood. His clambers up the stairs, staring at the big polar bear outside of Technoblade's cabin. He supposed he should go to his cabin, as it was the only logical reason. It's not like there's a secret place where the man congregates with two or people, right?
He raps his fist onto the wooden door because he does considers his manners just a bit. He pulls his mask down, enchantments encasing his entire body in a void black film. He spills more blood into his handkerchief, wiping his chin and cheeks free of bloody traces, and shoves it into his pockets when the door opens to the piglin hybrid who scrunches up his nose first thing.
"Bruh." He does his shaky wording, a signature of his, if you will. Dream can't help but scoff a bit, knowing exactly what his strong sense of smell might as well say. "No offence, but you reek of blood."