Chapter Text
Dream frowned slightly seeing a small server pop up with an extreme spike in the use of magic. It caught his attention for a moment, but he shrugged it off. He leaned back in his bed as he glanced through a few domains that he had a connection with still. Most servers he had lost the ability to cross into after he had run away from the Watchers. But, a few servers remained untainted by the powerful beings' hands. Including his own.
Normally a sudden increase in magic temporarily wasn't a big deal. It was pretty common to see around a big update, a server gaining or losing a member. Or of course, an admin needing to step in and influence the world. They were abnormal, sure, but nothing to be concerned about.
However, over the next few days, it continued to raise, and fall, dramatic amounts. He was trying to figure out what the server was, when his friend, George, walked in startling him.
"Hey dude!"
"George!" Dream hissed annoyed, more so that he had accidentally reset the last several lines of code to open the server.
George winced at the harsh tone from his winged friend, who was currently hunched over a command centre, with his hair messy, and his hoodie rumpled.
"Sorry Dream. . ." he shrugged coming in and settled into the chair next to him. "You didn't show up to play with us today, and nobody has seen you for ages. Plus you've barely even come downstairs today. I've barely seen you and we live together ."
Dream sighed softly and moved the glowing window to the side. Galactic, his natural language, flashed across the screen. Although George was right, he had holed himself in trying to solve this.
About a year ago, when he and George moved in together, he had come clean on what he was. Well used to be. He was a "Watcher" a being that wasn't quite human. They were able to easily travel between servers, and dimensions. Most originated from either the Nether, or End. The first ones. These things would help guide servers to updates, or create them. Of course there were other powerful beings like them, who also had the ability to create world's, but Dream had never explained it.
George glanced at the cryptic screen, symbols rolling and shifting across the screen, sometimes in a fluid motion, and sometimes flashing rapidly. Curiosity got the better of him.
"Is this what you've been working on?"
Dream nodded, brushing some blonde strands from his face. "This server, it's seen a huge influence of magic. And I can't pinpoint why. It doesn't seem to be the admin, and it's not a Watchers doing either."
"How do you know?" George started to ask but a cold glare from his friend was the only response he got. "R.. Right."
Dream sighed putting his head in his hands, "It's just weird. It's rare for so much of a server to be coded in Galactic. Something's really wrong."
"Could I help?" George offered.
"Help? Mmmmmmmmaybe? Do you know Galatic?" Dream raised an eyebrow.
"A little? I know a bit, why?"
"You get to play translator with me."
"What?" George furrowed his brow at the request.
Dream had pulled the single glowing panel into three "It's constantly shifting, but this seems static?" He was talking to himself more than to George.
He moved one that wasn't shifting it's images towards George, "This is a message. I need to figure out what's going on with the admin, but I need to dig for it. Could you translate this?"
George hesitated, he wasn't fluent in his friends language, but if it would help, and it meant he got some time with him, then he'd do it. He looked over the screen
ℸ ̣ ⍑╎ᓭ ╎ᓭ ||𝙹⚍∷ ⎓ᔑ⚍ꖎℸ ̣ , ╎ℸ ̣ 'ᓭ 𝙹リꖎ|| ⋮⚍ᓭℸ ̣ ʖᒷ⊣⚍リ.
∴⍑||? ∴⍑ᔑℸ ̣ ↸╎↸ ℸ ̣ ⍑ᒷ|| ↸𝙹?
||𝙹⚍ ℸ ̣ 𝙹𝙹ꖌ ᒷ⍊ᒷ∷||ℸ ̣ ⍑╎リ⊣ ⎓∷𝙹ᒲ ᒲᒷ, ᓭ𝙹 ╎ℸ ̣ ╎ᓭ ᒲ|| ℸ ̣ ⚍∷リ ℸ ̣ 𝙹 ℸ ̣ ᔑꖌᒷ ᒷ⍊ᒷ∷||ℸ ̣ ⍑╎リ⊣ ⎓∷𝙹ᒲ ||𝙹⚍
Dream relaxed a bit, one less thing he had to worry about. He managed to force the server to retrieve the member list and pulled that to the side. The main panel was the magic used in the last week.
リ!¡ᓵ ⊣∷╎ᔑリ - ℸ ̣ ᒷꖎᒷ!¡𝙹∷ℸ ̣ ᔑℸ ̣ ╎𝙹リ
n!¡ᓵ ⊣∷╎ᔑリ - ᒲᒷᒲʖᒷ∷ ᓭ⚍ᓭ!¡ᒷリᓭ╎𝙹リ
n!¡ᓵ ⊣∷╎ᔑリ - ᒲᒷᒲʖᒷ∷ ᓭ⚍ᓭ!¡ᒷリᓭ╎𝙹リ
n!¡ᓵ ⊣∷╎ᔑリ - !¡ꖎᔑ||ᒷ∷ !¡ᒷ∷ᒲᔑリᒷリℸ ̣ ᔑ⎓ꖌ
The list continued, a mix of suspension, and permanently afk players. At least that's what it appeared to show in the code. He set it aside and pulled up the member list, this one thankfully in English. Two things immediately caught his eye.
First, there was no admin showing. Well there was, but it was bugged, and showed that the player no longer existed. That couldn't be right, without an admin, magic wasn't possible, nor an ongoing server stable enough to support players.
Something was deeply wrong, and codes weren't going to answer it, he looked at the name above the member list.
"George."
His friend glanced up. "Hmm?"
"We're going to Hermitcraft."