Day 6 - Hypothermia with hurt!Techno

Other characters: Ranboo

Other tags: Dream smp, hypothermia, broken bones, altered mental state (confusion/drowsiness)

Summary: Techno slips in the snow and it takes a while for somebody to find him


It was cold.

Chat had to laugh at him for that - they'd laugh at anything but this… this was his own fault, wasn't it? As a piglin, maybe moving to the arctic was a bad idea.

(maybe that's why Techno kept doing it? Nothing about this place reminded him of the Nether, of a sounder destroyed)

He couldn't feel his fingers anymore though. He couldn't really feel his legs either but presumably that was because he broke one of them and had been putting too much weight on the shattered bone. What exactly had happened was slipping his mind now, thoughts all loose and transparent and much too hard to grasp. But his back hurt, and he couldn't get up, and he'd been stuck in the snow for… a while.

The screen of his communicator didn't light up anymore. It'd been smashed in the same fall that had gotten him stuck in the first place. Techno thought he sent some messages, trembling and shaking, when he hoped this would be a minor inconvenience at best. How long ago had that been?

He wasn't shaking anymore.

Which… bad sign, very bad sign. But exhaling on the numb skin of his hands didn't do much more than draw attention to how shaky his breath was becoming. The tingling sensation didn't cease. His head hurt, he was tired.

Really, Techno could do with a nap.

He winced. Chat did not like that, did not like that at all. Of all the times they decide to start screaming. Techno still closed his eyes, but smiled.

"'m not sleeping, Chat. J'st… resting my eyes."

Phil was probably home by now. Techno hoped he was. The snowstorm was pretty bad, he hated the thought of Phil getting stuck in that. Phil promised he'd be home, Ranboo would be too. Both of them were probably inside, safe and warm.

And Phil promised stew too, the one made with golden carrot instead of regular ones and a dash of sugar that melted into the broth. Techno always asked him to share the recipe and Phil always said he would but then it ended up slipping their mind somehow and really, why would Techno need it anyway? If he wanted stew, he could badger Phil into making some for him.

He couldn't remember if he left the fire lit for Steve. His fur was probably dense enough to keep the blizzard's chill from creeping through, but the inside of the cabin always got so much colder during one. The wind snuck in through cracks in the wood and Techno had been telling himself to put in some insulation for weeks now but he kept putting it off. Chat needed to remind him later.

Later.

He was so, so tired.

He wasn't cold though. It felt nice.

"-chno?"

Oh great, now somebody was talking to him. And he was just about to drift off too.

Whoever it was must not like being ignored because they grabbed him and started shaking him rather roughly and Techno would have gladly pushed them off if the hypothermia hadn't frozen his muscles into unyielding stiffness.

"Te—? -ou hear me? Oh Prime— echno?" They made noises like broken static, phasing in and out. Techno wanted to go back to sleep really, so he tried doing that.

The person did not like that either. Techno's cheek burst with sharp, sudden pain and it took him a second but then he realized they'd slapped him - hard. The sensation of it was distant, but it did help to bring his mind back to awareness.

"Sorry!" The person said, panicky. "Just, don't go to sleep okay?"

Techno blinked, finally able to muster up some type of rational thinking. "Ranboo?"

A pitched nervous little hum was his answer. Ranboo was (poorly) attempting to scoop him up by his armpits. Techno should probably try and help by shifting his weight but putting any pressure on his leg felt like a bad idea.

"How did you find me?" Techno asked instead.

"You sent out your coordinates. You don't remember that? Oh, that's uh... that's not good." He pulled out something from his bag. It was a large, blue cloak. Techno's cloak, one he usually wore for Syndicate meetings. Every member had a matching cape.

Techno had sewn them, Niki had embroidered them.

"No, no, I do." Vaguely, he remembered that. "It took you a bit to get here though."

It wasn't an accusation, and clearly Ranboo didn't take it as one either because he laughed a little.

"Yeah, you, well- you mixed up the numbers. Like, 34 when it should be 43 type thing?"

"Oh..." It was too cold for his face to heat up in embarrassment. "No, shut up Chat. Shut up, this could have happened to anyone. I'm not taking the L on this one."

"You're definitely taking the L," Ranboo told him. "After we get you home. Chat, be nice."

Against all odds, they quietened a little at Ranboo's prompting. Goes to figure the voices in his own head liked Ranboo better than him.

They finally got him standing, with Techno leaning his weight on the shoulder supporting him and his unbroken leg. Getting back would be a pain in the ass, but with both Ranboo's arm and the heavy cloak over his shoulder keeping him warm again, Techno knew he could bear it.