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Dream hated the cold.
The SMP proper and world spawn were set to a warmer climate for a reason, and it wasn't just to prevent the newest visitors to the world from freezing to death in their first hours.
Dream hated the cold.
Tucking his hands a little deeper into his pockets, the green figure bemoans the journey a little more. Was it helpful? No, but it gave him something to do as he scanned the horizon for the familiar wooden cabin.
"He's gotta be some kind of idiot to hide out here," comes his muttering, muffled even to his own ears by the snowfall, "Mm I suppose idiot is right though."
Surely enough, the cobbled tower looms into view. Ugly, obtrusive, and painfully Tommy. There was no way the pig could deny his accusations this time; especially not with this monstrosity on his front lawn.
Lights in the wooden cabin twinkle through the snowfall, beckoning the chilled figure ever nearer.
Though no sanctuary was offered to the man by the wooden walls, there would at least be safety from the biting cold indoors.
Hopefully anyway.
"Hallo Dream!" The pig is unusually welcoming as he acends the stairs to the front of the house, "Thank God you're here, my audience retention was dropping!"
Dream doesn't bother looking over his shoulder for this unseen 'audience', he'd dealt with the bizarre ramblings of the fighter often enough to know he would find only an empty room.
"How are you doing on this lovely afternoon?"
He could feel frost starting to collect in the hair that peeked out of his hood, his mask was icy cold against his face, and his legs were burning after wading through snow to get here.
"Yeah pretty good, pretty good," a polite lie, nothing more, "I was just admiring this construction next door."
Said construction was a miserable heap of wooden planks and poorly assembled stone walls. Unfinished, ugly, and obtrusive.
Attempting to catch the mighty Technoblade in a lie was like scooping water with a sieve. No matter how much evidence was stacked against him, the beast of a man seemed to slither away from any consequence.
The crumbling house was Ghostbur's, the cobbled eyesore was naturally generated, the word 'cringe' was difficult, the man just wanted some female company.
Evidently there was little point trying to be subtle.
"I know Tommy's been here."
The silence was deafening.
Technobade's shoulders tensed, and Dream could see his lips shifting in minute movements; almost speech but not quite. There would be nothing the King pig could say to wriggle out of this, no lie he could spin here.
The silence dragged on.
Twitching had seemed to set in now, his hands tensing and untensing as his mouth moved to form words that never came. The only answer he could give would be admission, he'd been caught feeding Dream bullshit and it ended here.
After what felt like a lifetime the unstable behaviour seemed to still. The masked figure settles slightly in front of the home's door and watches the mess that is the 'blood god' shift to his usual relaxed stance.
"Thank you DuckoTaco for the one hundred."
Laughter tears from his throat, this was a new one for sure.
"Uh... ColdBoy thank you for the fifty, ArchangelBeing thank you for the fifty."
The pig's sanity had never been a matter of contention, pretty much everyone on the server knew that Technoblade was prone to sudden acts of horrific violence for seemingly no reason, but few knew how deeply this psychosis seemed to be rooted.
He had once mentioned to Dream years prior, that he was plagued by voices. Silly things that whispered to him about nothing in particular. They would count, or make ridiculous observations, tell him he'd missed resources that were never there, or hum repetitive sounds to drown out those he was speaking to.
Nothing the King couldn't manage.
Nowadays it seemed he had a harder time doing that.
"Go on Dream I'm listening," He wasn't, he was glancing at the ladder leading to the attic and thanking someone called 'Duce' for 'twenty'.
As the ramblings continued, it became obvious Dream wasn't going to have a meaningful conversation here today. Served him right for not coming with Phil like he'd originally intended, the blond seemed to be the only one who could coax Techno to see reason. Tubbo was an idiot to put him under house arrest when he needed him, there would be words had about that later though.
Technoblade seemed to be edging closer to the attic ladder each time he spoke, expression unreadable. Manic energy seemed to roll from his caped shoulders and spread throughout the room like a misplaced water source.
"Tech- Techno," He attempts, doing his best to make eye contact through his mask and gain some control over the situation, "Look, this should get your attention."
"I-I, I'm sorry my family member just walked in," the room was empty save for the two of them and a lost looking enderman perched in a boat, "I've gotta mute."
Baffled by this, Dream watches in stunned silence as the pig's eyes seem to cloud over slightly more and his expression slackens.
Something was incredibly wrong here.
Tommyinnit may have been a thorn in his side, and a nightmare to control but this was not a safe environment. The pig truly had lost it this time.
Another startled laugh graces his lips, what the hell was he spouting? He'd ruined Tommy, poked holes through his mental state; already stretched thin by Wilbur's betrayal. What did he care about his dwellings being safe, his allies being mentally sound?
Techno's descent to further madness was no fault but his own, boating himself out to the most frozen isolated point he could find, living alone for weeks following the deaths of his close allies. It was his decision to hide Tommy, and surely it can't end in any way other than blood.
So be it.
Dream turns and opens the thick wooden door, leaving the mad King chattering away in the room to himself and his unseen audience. As his boots crush the freshly fallen snow, and he traces his half covered footsteps back to the ocean shore, he notes the distant sound of a bell ringing. The sound carries over the snow covered hills like a crack of lighting.
Then silence once more.