The castle was filled with laughter and dishes colliding with utensils. The dining room was a place for allies to catch up over a hefty meal prepared. Error sat next to the head of the table with a simple glass of water. His magic would react poorly to any solid foods and he could just barely tolerate water, just managing to hold it down. It wasn't necessary but Nightmare insisted he at least dine with them, even if he just drinks the clear liquid. Error has been avoiding the gang since the 'Truce' Ink agreed to. In turn for not destroying, he was beaten and bruised, forced to listen to Fate's child to his pleasure. Fate has let him off as her child was happy with his new toy. He was considered an object by the both of them and only now had Ink decided he should be with his friends. How Ink said friends had Error paranoid as shit, but anything from the likes of Ink would have his bones rattling from the reminder of his last destructive spree.
It took years, centuries for Nightmare to even convince Error to step into the dead universe he considered his and even longer to just get him to agree to an alliance and eventual friendship.
The wine glass filled with water was shaking with fear as Error stared at it. The soul sinking feeling in his empty stomach had him hesitant for even a sip. Nightmare, despite not needing to eat, did indulge himself. He looked at the torn god in anticipation. "Are you not going to drink anything?" The sudden acknowledgement of Error's lack of action had everyone's eyes slowly drift to the ex destroyer as the conversations faded into silence. If Error's bones weren't shaking before they definitely were now. The staring got to him and his stomach felt worse, his mind was screaming at him to flee ̶t̶o̶ ̶j̶u̶s̶t̶ ̶g̶o̶ ̶b̶a̶c̶k̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶I̶n̶k̶ ̶w̶h̶e̶r̶e̶ ̶h̶e̶ ̶k̶n̶e̶w̶ ̶w̶h̶a̶t̶ ̶w̶o̶u̶l̶d̶ ̶h̶a̶p̶p̶e̶n̶ ̶. He felt Nightmare tried to calm him with his magic but it did little to actually comfort him. He swallowed down what could be blood or actual saliva and hesitantly picked up the wine glass and took a small sip. He kept it close to his chest and continued to look down into the liquid. To him, it looked like the glass was moving but that could've been his terrible vision. He took a few more sips, the stares continuing to bore into his skull. He made eye contact with Nightmare who was leaning on an arm to hold his head on the table. He slowly uncurled himself and let out a small cough. Nightmare's eyelight glowed in interest before he could stop a brigade of coughs that came from his mouth.
His throat felt sore and anything that went into his mouth--air, spit, blood-- only made it harder to breathe and burned his throat. He grabbed onto the table and coughed into the floor, cutlery resumed and conversations continued from where they left off and Error was left nearly kneeling on the floor in pain. A tentacle from Nightmare carried his face and body back into the seat while Error was now coughing up blood and specks of magic. This wasn't his usual reaction to drinking water, he's done it before. Any other reaction from drinking Ink's paints was him coughing sure, but they weren't edible. At least from what he's gathered he thinks it is. No one could just drink that stuff, no one besides Ink maybe.
"Calm down, you're overreacting. It's just thallium"
"tHA--? *COUGH*" He couldn't even get out a single word before he coughed out bouts of magic. His magic was trying to ingest this 'thallium' which was effectively killing it and had him spewing out magic onto the floor and back into that damned wine glass.
"Yes, thallium. It's in everyone's drink you'll be fine" And as if to rub salt in the wound, Nightmare took a sip out from his wine glass and everyone followed suit. They didn't have the outward reaction that Error did and Killer even pretended to choke and die which got a laugh from everyone at the table. Error took deep breaths and tried to breath normally without coughing out blood or magic. He resumed his seat at the table and kept his coughs to himself. Deciding not to indulge himself in his water which Nightmare didn't seem to mind. Maybe he was just overreacting. Everyone else was fine. No one was coughing out their guts or anything. He was fine.
This continued month after month whenever Error came to visit. He would drink a beverage offered by Nightmare or one of his charges, and he would cough and spit up blood or pass out or his magic would shift and change. At times he couldn't breathe and it only made it more difficult to function or even trust NIghtmare enough to come back. But it was that or stay with Ink.
He would take the weird liquids over physical beatings anyday.
That was what he would go through just to stay away from Ink.
Arriving at Nightmare's abode, he tried to recover from what had happened with Ink earlier and was offered a drink. Nightmare joined him in the kitchen and was waiting for him to take a sip. His ribs were torn out one by one and now he was missing a rib cage. He wasn't really visiting but more so forced to by Ink. He'd get his ribs back after a full 12 hours at Nightmare. It was like Ink knew what was happening over there and did this as a way to play with his mind even further. He also wasn't able to sleep during these visitations, not like he slept anyway. Error's life was turned into a game, a comedy show, something Ink played around and found entertaining to push the limits to. If he killed off Error that would be merciful to the glitch.
He didn't have the mental capacity to want to question Nightmare about his tainted liquids, and curiosity also led to bad situations. As the saying goes; "Curiosity killed the cat."
"But satisfaction brought it back"
"...NiGHtmare..."
"Yes?"
"wHAt exaCtly is In this..."
"Hot chocolate"
"hOt...chOcolatE...?"
"Chocolate, whipped cream, buprenorphine, milk. The usual ingredients''
"..."
"..."
"whipped...crEaM?
"Yep"
"whAT did thE cREam dO?"
"What?"
"whY whIP tHe Cream?"
"No, it's just made of heavy cream whisked until light and creamy"
"ok...whAT is...bio...brun...?The B inGrediant?"
"Buprenorphine? Makes the hot chocolate hot"
Nightmare, Ink, and really anyone who's lived a seemingly normal life were more knowledgeable in anything and everything that was considered normal. Error was not.
The way Nightmare talked about something that could cause dizziness and may close up one's throat was manipulative but he didn't care. He knew a person could very well go into a coma if taken irresponsibly and unfortunately for Error, Nightmare had put in more than enough for it to be an overdose. Nightmare knew what he was doing, effectively and blatantly poisoning the destroyer using liquids with simultaneously gaslighting him. It was morally wrong but his entire person thrives on the negativity of others. Like how nice cream or a good legendary sandwich is a person's favorite food, Error's negative emotions were absolute gold to him. It was unfortunate that some poisons couldn't take the liquid form and those cases called for more physical methods.
One of two things could happen, 1; Error was offered food laced with the poison, 2; he forces the poison down his throat. Of course he acted as if he didn't just assault the destroyer, constantly gaslighting the idiot and making him question "the norm". Peer pressure can go a long way, even for a complete outcast like him.
Nightmare's consistent poisons had an effect on Error's body. It knew it would be poisoned, so it forced anything that came close to its mouth to be immediately rejected. He couldn't drink water, ingest paint, and even when he got better. Even when Ink was found out to be the sadistic soulless monster he truly was, Error still couldn't eat or drink anything. Dream tried everything, Swap tried everything. He tried so hard to recover but his body was too damaged to accept anything. He cried and pulled at his sockets everytime they tried to have him take a sip of water. He would always have to spit it out if he didn't want to dismiss all the excess magic he gathered up.
His body was not the only thing damaged. He continuously watched over his magic reserves, never using any more than he needed to incase Ink ever sent him out on a spree. Yes Ink was dead, killed by Dream himself and locked away, but that didn't mean that Error wasn't still scared from his previous destruction. His Magic rates were slow but improving and stable enough to not be overly concerned. He was terrified of eating anything because he was poisoned. He knew if he did eat something he would lose all the magic he gained. He was afraid of losing all that magic and his body and mind would lose consciousness if any magic were lost. He couldn't deal with the sudden loss of Magic as it would remind him of the one and only time it was all forced out of him. He was broken. He was scared. And no amount of healing would help. He wanted to be fixed. To be something of the person he once was. But he can't. No matter how hard he tried he just couldn't.