He smiles as he tucks in the mountain of blankets on top of you, leaving no room for a chill to creep in. His gaze softens when he spots your red-tipped nose and the dark circles under your eyes.

“How are you feeling, my love?”

“Like my days are counted.”

“What’s wrong?”

“Better question is what’s right. My throat hurts, my head is pounding, and my body can’t decide if it’s hot or cold.” You look up at him, lips in a deep pout. “Hold me?”

To your surprise, he doesn’t even hesitate, creating an opening in the blankets and sliding in next to you. You sigh contentedly as your head meets his shoulder, his familiar heat and smell already bringing a sense of relief to your exhausted body. His lips graze your ear.

“I got you, sweetheart.”

You settle into his hold, cold fingers curling tight around his sleeve. “Sorry in advance if I get you sick,” you whisper.

He chuckles, deep and vibrating against you. “I think I’ll be fine.”

Famous last words.

The next day, Bucky “I don’t get sick” Barnes wakes up freezing and sniffling and moaning and groaning. You stir when you hear him shuffle into the bathroom, a hacking cough trailing after him that he covers up poorly.

“No, no, no,” you hear him whine. He comes running out of the bathroom, curled in on himself and visibly trembling. “I’m sick,” he cries, blue eyes watery, skin pale. “You got me sick.”

“Bucky—“

“I haven’t…I never get sick. You…what did you do to me?”

You struggle to sit up, the cold still claiming ownership over your body. “I didn’t do anything — you insisted on kissing me after I told you not to.”

“Because I don’t get sick!”

You roll your eyes. “And I’m a virgin. Now come back to bed, you need to rest.”

Bucky looks on the verge of tears, shaking in front of you in nothing but his briefs and a t-shirt. “But…work…”

“Honey,” you laugh, watching your big, strong man come undone by a little illness. “You’re sick. Accept it and take the excuse to lay in bed with me all day, or make yourself suffer and go to work.”

He deflates, arms wrapping around his middle as if to keep himself together. You hold the blankets open, shuffling closer and raising an eyebrow at him. Bucky gives a pathetic little cough before falling into bed, immediately resting his head on your chest and intertwining every limb; you run your hands gently down his back, pulling him close. He whimpers.

“I’m sorry,” you murmur. “You’ll be okay.”

“Everything hurts. I can’t breathe. Start looking at headstones.”

“You’re more dramatic than me,” you giggle.

“There’s no end in sight,” he wheezes.

“Alright, alright,” you soothe. “I got you, you baby. I’ll take care of you.”

He groans, burying his face into your chest. “That’s supposed to be my job.”

“We’ll make an exception this time. How about some tea?”

Bucky holds you tighter, letting out a small sniffle.

“In a little bit. Can you just…hold me?”

Partway through development of SinDec, Dismal took a break and decided to work on a separate fangame called Null & Void. I didn't actually know about this until he came back from this break and shared what he made, which wasn't much.

It got about partway through Zone 1 and then just stopped, it was very cryptic and very strange, and had an obsession with Eyes and Teeth as a symbolic motif. You played as a blank-faced Batter who was berated by two Hugos with exclusively Eyes and Teeth respectively, and you had to accept the boon of Eyes or Teeth from one of them to even hope to contend with the inverse rules of that broken world. This also reflected in the Batter gaining Eyes or Teeth based on your choice.

The experience itself stuck with me despite it being so short, and a good while later I suggested we add it into the Sheol segment as a fun "Game within a game" thing. It never became a full-fledged game within SinDec, for obvious reasons lol

Dismal's particular aesthetic flare made it a perfect fit for SinDec, and it was eventually incorporated a little further into the more meta parts of the game, particularly with Hugo and the Save Files. Ultimately though, the purpose of N&V is pretty obvious, and I guess it's double confirmed now since I asked Dismal if it was okay to talk about this, and he gave me this to quote him on:

Honestly only thing I can add in is that I wanted a place to dump lore that didn't fit in. It was also a kind of mean way to poke fun at people who dug too deep.

That last bit was also why the biggest chunk of it is in Sheol.