A Guide To Medicine and War

Eight

"Gather around, men! And women! And everyone! Get over here, fuckers!" Someone with a distinctive southern accent yells, then trips as he leaves the stage, a yowling sound coming from his bag.

"Sapnap, you can't say that!" Dream yells, though the smudged neon pink smile makes him considerably less intimidating.

"Why the fuck not?!" He yells back, ignoring the fact that they are standing less than three feet away from one another.

"It's rude!"

"You go Sapnap! Who gives a shit if people think it's rude?!" Tommy yells, inserting himself into the conversation with a talent that he does not possess. Purpled rolls his eyes, smiling slightly. Sapnap, however, grins excitedly and runs over to Tommy, looking up and ruffling his hair.

Tommy hisses, and Sapnap boops him in the nose in reply.

"Sapnap, you're a general! Stop fucking around, please!" Dream begs, and it's fairly obvious, to Tommy and Purpled at least, that Dream does not actually give a single shit. He's just yelling at Sapnap because he has to.

Governments.

The only real stupidity in the world.

Tommy and Purpled sigh in sync with each other, brain's clearly coming to the same conclusion.

"Alright Dream, how about we just start telling the people what we need to do, instead of yelling at each other," Sapnap suggests, oddly calm for someone who's been repeatedly reported as having anger issues. Dream looks at him carefully (at least Tommy assumes, the mask hides his expressions) and then holds out a hand.

The two of them do an incredibly complicated handshake, ending with twin screams.

George looks at the two of them, his self proclaimed brother and decidedly not brother, with a small smile on his face as he walks towards the makeshift stage. And then he slaps Dream's ass.

Dream's head turns, and barely audible kissing noises are heard, to which George blushes.

Sapnap, clearly used to their antics, elects to ignore them and instead sit on the grimy and only slightly blood covered ground, allowing Patches to leave his backpack for a little bit. Patches jumps out happily, walking around and stretching, then walking up to random people and head butting them. Everyone finds it to be both hilarious and very adorable.

When Patches comes up to Purpled, he smiles and pats her head, expecting her to move in quickly. Instead, she paws at his leg until he sits, then jumps up on his shoulder, moving into his hood. She then curls into it, purring quietly. Purpled is frozen in place, barely breathing with his muscles clenched tightly.

"Purpled, she'll be fine! You can move," Sapnap chirps, laughing lightly. Purpled relaxes minutely, reaching for Tommy's hand in a panic. Tommy grips it tightly, and everything is okay.

Purpled's breath evens out, and Tommy's hand combined with Patches' purring cause him to relax, calmer than usual.

Everything is okay.

"Alright! Now that Patches is situated, we can start the less important things! So! Today we're gonna be speed—sorry, we're going to be crossing the river! Purpled and Tommy will be leading alongside the three of us, since we all end up on the frontlines anyway! The goal is to get the river, because once we have it we control the main source of water! The syndicate also has supply stores right across—if you can see the group of black tents, that's where they are!" Dream shouts, Sapnap at his left and George to the right.

From where they are standing, close to the cliff face, they have to turn around to see the river.

It's past the battlefield, a barren land filled only with blood and trenches. The river is streaked with pink, though that will likely change soon, and the sun shimmers over it, the small ripples tipped with reflections of the sunrise. The tents are barely visible, black lumps in the distance that mean nothing.