Chapter Text
Most days, Dream didn’t bother to join his parents on anything they were doing that day. He was a grown-ass adult, a whole almost-twenty, and didn’t need to do anything they told him… Except that this was his birthday and free shit was a wonderful incentive.
So, here he was standing in an old antique shop as his parents got sidetracked next door. Well, more like his mom was distracted buying another million candles and needed his dad’s half-hearted input. Thankfully, it was still his birthday so he wasn’t trapped in the suffocating store.
At least, not that suffocating store. This one still fits the bill, even if the scent of lavender and blueberry pancake candles wasn’t burning his nose. Instead, it was stale, the air dead and dust thick. Whoever owned the store clearly didn’t bother to clean it or ever watch the register. Unless it was their break? Didn’t matter, he decided.
Despite the layer of dust, it was a pretty decent distraction. Fancy vases and lamps and jewelry in scratched glass display cases from decades past glinting dully in the yellowed lights. He never really cared for the stuff but there was something mesmerizing about fifty-year-old jewelry that was easily a hundred dollars. Things that had a story were interesting no matter how dull the object.
Bookshelves lined the walls and made thin rows that had Dream glad he never became the extremely buff guy his twelve-year-old self always dreamed of. They towered to the ceiling, leaning on their bases enough to make him worried they’d fall. Books were crammed in, old spines with smudged-off covers facing him.
Other shelves were displaying objects. An old pirate ship in a bottle here, a painted skull he was only mostly sure wasn’t real there, and a globe so old the soviet union was still painted on in sepia colors. Dust stuck to his fingers as he spun it, brass squeaking in protest. Nothing too interesting, just old.
Green caught the corner of his eye, his favorite color and so much brighter than the world around it. Turning, he spied a single table with a propped-up book, smaller nicknacks piled around it like engraved spoons and fancy rocks. Jade, or maybe peridot, was set into the center.
Leather was only relatively clean under his fingers, wrinkled and worn. Stained gold reflected dull and black with what looked like soot, thin leather strings wrapping it shut. Only the gem was eye-catching, pristine despite everything else.
Eighty dollars was a pretty high price but it was his birthday and he did have his mom’s card. Besides, it would be beautiful after a little shine and could sit on his shelf doing nothing but looking pretty. Or he could do journaling or something. He’d probably find a use for it eventually.
There was a clerk behind the desk when he walked back to the front, book in hand and fingers tracing the expensive gem. She was a kindly-looking old lady, age spots dotting her face and a soft smile across her lips as she read from a book seemingly just as old as the rest of the store. Grayed hair splayed down her shoulders, eyes soft.
“Find what you’re looking for?” She asked without looking up, voice warm. Dream nodded, then felt stupid for a moment as he realized she couldn’t see him. He set the book down gently in front of her.
“Yeah, just this,” He answered with a smile, another stupid action because he was literally wearing a mask. It was easy to forget about since he wore the damn thing so much. The old lady set down her own book, finally meeting his eyes.
“That’ll be eighty dollars, be nice to the old guy, would you?” She smiled at him, opening up an old black plastic cash drawer with a silver key. Dream fumbled for his wallet, nearly dropping it as he grabbed his mom’s card. How did she know how much it cost? Surely she couldn’t remember the price of everything ?
“Neat trick, you didn’t even have to look at it,” Dream complimented as he handed her the card. It was a bit of an awkward wait as she entered the price into a portable card swiper with shaky hands. Old people and technology didn’t mix, Dream mused as he waited.
“It’s a gift, I remember everything,” She answered with a laugh, “Even my late husband’s laugh, and he’s been gone for twenty years!” She inserted the card and tapped the edge of a black and white photo. Two thirty-something stood in it, a vintage car behind them as they smiled lovingly at each other.
“Oh…” Dream faltered, “I’m sorry for your loss ma’am.” And it just got awkward. Great going Dream, perfect score at socializing. What next? Gonna call her ugly and tell her how she’ll die? He gave a tense smile, hopefully, he’d seem sympathetic for it.
“It’s fine dear, I have this lovely place, he may as well still be here,” Her eyes glinted, her smile softening further into something almost wistful, “and please, just call me Darlene.” She didn’t seem insulted, just a little sad. Dream would call that a win in his book.
“Nice to meet you, Ms. Darlene, I’m Dream,” He paused awkwardly as the card reader pinged loudly. It was rather shrill, like it was personally insulted that the credit card was still in it. Darlene startled a little, hand against her chest. She recovered quickly, pulling out the card and passing it back.
“It’s lovely to meet you, dear. Take care of this little guy for me, okay?” Darlene passed him the book without asking for a receipt. She turned back to her book, cover barely visible and pages yellowed. Peter pan, Dream made out, colored in blues and whites.
Fingers traced around the gold rimmed gem, Dream hesitated for reasons he couldn’t explain. There was something in the air, a decision he wasn’t sure about. Whichever one it was, he didn’t even know. Probably the whole ‘dead husband thing’, he decided. Shaking his head, he left the store.
It took a good half an hour for his mother to get done with candles. The book was put in a plastic bag and nearly forgotten for the rest of the day. Ice cream and shopping and fancy steak dinners took up his attention. Shiny things and bright laughs wiping away his worries.
Purples and pinks and golds colored the sky as they pulled into the driveway. Black clouds stuck stubbornly in the sky, leftover rays burning his eyes as they stumbled into the house. His parents disappeared upstairs, wine drunk and giggling like teenagers doing something they weren’t supposed to.
Considering Dream had nearly died three times on the way home, they absolutely had. He sighed, rolling his shoulders as he dumped the many shopping bags on the floor. Two of them were pretty much just candles, clinking worryingly against hardwood. He had exactly zero fucks to give about his mom’s candle hoarding though.
Dropping onto his bed without bothering changing, he stared at his ceiling in minor discomfort because jeans sucked. Another sigh left him, decompressing hard into his bed. A square of remaining light shone directly into his eye.
Reluctantly, he sat up to close his blinds when a glint of green caught his eye again. The leather book was slumped out of the plastic bag, gem face up in that horrible square of light. It was already wrinkled and creased, but now bent at a bad angle. Part of him felt bad for the old thing.
Tugging the blinds closed, he reluctantly trotted over to the old book. It landed on his desk with a heavy thunk, him following behind it in a chair as he unwrapped it. Who knows, he might find something exciting about the old owner in it. If not, he could always add something.
Page one was empty, as was page two and three and fifteen and thirty and this book was completely blank. Dream didn’t think that a book so old would be blank but he had enough empty notebooks to think it was perfectly possible. One of the one’s in his shelf was from freshman year and hadn’t seen the sun since.
“Fuck,” Dream cursed as he cut his finger on the page, paper far too sharp for its own good. Blood beaded at his finger, cover dropped as he clutched his wrist. Lightheadedness washed over him all at once, vision blurring as his head filled with cotton.
It was almost slow motion as a drop of blood dripped onto the page, eyes hazy as he watched it fall. Crimson red soaked into the paper, yellow bleeding out until the red dripped over the edges like a waterfall. Distantly, Dream realized that was far too much blood for what left his body.
Then, the darkness descended on him. His head knocked against the edge of his desk but his body never hit the ground. All that remained was an innocent leather book, green gem missing from its casing as if it was never even there.
…
Dream opened his eyes to a gray, cloudless sky. Sun filtered bland and white through the clouds, not even burning in its low setting. The ground beneath his was clear and smooth and this was not his room, what the absolute fuck .
He shot up, blood rushing to his head suddenly and finger stinging as he pushed with his hands. The pain and disorientation ruled out the idea this could be a dream, the idea barely living for two fragile moments. Dream had never felt pain in his dreams, and this was far too bland to be one of his.
Perfectly square glass tiles stretched out around him, illuminated underneath by a strange while light. The twisted up and down, vaguely mimicking a landscape and the unclear shape of buildings. Away they stretched into the sky, hard to look at with the everpresent light.
No sound came from him as he stumbled on his feet, glass slippery under his feet but not sounding like normal glass. Stomping made no sound, speaking made no sound, screaming made no sound. The beginnings of panic welled up in his throat.
Fists curled tight, unable to break any of the pains but the feeling of something solid stinging his knuckles kept him grounded. Nothing ringed but his own ears, lack of noise horrible. His nail pressed crescents into his palm.
“Now now, there’s no need for that,” A voice echoed around him, “you humans are rather fragile.” Dream jolted, almost slipping on the titles. That voice, a horrible sound in the nothingness. It rebounded off the many false walls, looping in on itself into a violent cacophony of noise.
Words tried, and failed, to leave his mouth. A soundless demand to know what was going on in a brash decision fueled only by panic. He twisted around, spinning in circles but seeing nothing but neutral whites and grays.
“Be not afraid, I am not here to harm you,” A figure appeared from the glass, it molded around them like heated metal before sliding back into its original form as if nothing had touched it. A towering frame almost as tall as the endless fake buildings stood before, dwarfing him in its size. Two steps shook the landscape.
“You are here for a very important reason, mortal,” The voice, something Dream couldn’t call male or female, shrunk to a size still towering but no longer suffocating. Flowing green fabric made up its form, seemingly nothing underneath as it danced in an unseen and unfelt breeze. A porcelain ball seemed to make up its head, static face staring him down.
Dream was very very tempted to call this thing out on its bullshit. In fact, he definitely would have if only he weren’t forced to be muted along with the rest of this makeshift world. Here? For a reason ? He didn’t care if there was a reason! He just wanted to know where he was at all. He was literally in his room five minutes ago .
“If you would calm down, I could explain many things. For instance, that peculiar gem in your hand,” It spoke, the echo effect only getting worse with each and every word. Calm down? Yeah, why didn’t he think about that. It was sooooo simple, he should’ve realized.
Scowling at the thing without a name, who could’ve at least introduced itself if it was going to hoard sound like this, Dream purposefully didn’t look at his hand. He would know if he was holding a gem and he wasn’t and he wasn’t going to let whatever this was get a gotcha moment on him. Instead, he just curled his fists tighter.
It twisted its head, markings spinning as it seemed to become amused at his actions. How that read as amused, Dream wasn’t sure, but a feeling in his gut told him he was being made fun of. This thing found his pain and panic funny .
“Don’t be like that, this is a serious situation,” It scolded, but its voice sounded amused. A string of color, vibrantly green, shot out from its many layers of fabric to wrap around his wrist. A painful jerk pulled at his shoulder, forcing his hand in front of him.
Jade, or maybe peridot, shone from his hand where it replaced the skin. It glinted like the gem, edges seemingly hard and smooth, but moved with his hand like the skin it was pretending to be. He wiggled his fingers, the patch just next to where his thumb met the back of his hand. Skin looked torn around it, edges jagged but not acting like it had been cut.
Seamless, as if it was always there. It didn’t hurt, it wasn’t uncomfortable, he hadn’t even noticed it. A dark pit wormed in his chest as he stared and moved his hand. Every time he expected it to jut out, to loosen, to do anything , it didn’t. Uncanny didn’t touch how he felt about it.
“This is your focus, how you will interact with the world around you. I highly recommend not losing it as the bloodloss will likely get you before I do,” The thing, XD his mind seemed to supply for him, seemed to be trying to imply it was a joke. It sounded very much like a threat.
Interact with the world… Dream had no idea what that meant but, at the same time, he was too busy staring at the new blemish on his skin to worry too much about that. Only part of him listened as XD continued.
“If you would, you can pull up the important screens by thinking about them. Consider this some sort of video game if you must , whatever it is that works for you,” XD mused, string releasing Dream’s wrist. His arm fell down, tired and sore from being held like that. Like a puppet on strings… how morbid.
Video game? The words registered slowly. What ‘game’? This was from a book, not his computer. Not that this being some sort of VR nightmare made any more sense than a magic book portal. He tracked his eyes up to XD.
One brief staring contest later, something he could hardly win when XD didn’t even have eyes, Dream decided to hell with it. The worst thing that could happen was that nothing would happen. Best case scenario, he woke up at home.
…
*Ping*
- Main Menu -
- Character Sheet -
- Inventory -
- Reputation -
- Exit -
…
“Don’t bother,” XD interrupted his thoughts, “That merely exits the menu, it will not bring you home.” Could XD read his mind or something? Considering the situation, Dream wouldn’t be surprised. Either way, he chose to glare at them for interrupting his thought process, it was all he had here.
“What I would recommend doing is starting at the top,” XD continued, “I’m sure everything will be self-explanatory from there.” Well, yeah, Dream wasn’t stupid and did know what an RPG was, even if he didn’t understand how a book put him into one and implanted a rock into his hand .
With great reluctance, because he quite literally had nothing else he could do, Dream opened his ‘Character Sheet’. It was kind of weird because his entire body was convinced he was hallucinating the words since they didn’t seem to exist. But they did, floating there in simple black lettering.
A pop-up of his face appeared first and foremost, a close-up shot similar to a driver’s license. Words scrawled into existence beneath it, looping like cursive before straightening out into the same simple print. Rather overdramatic, really.
…
Character Sheet
Name: Dream
Age: 20
Race: Human
-=- Stats -=-
STRENGTH 1/5
DEXTERITY 4/5
ENDURANCE 3/5
INTELLIGENCE 3/5
WISDOM 2/5
CHARISMA 4/5 (+1 modifier)
Status: Panicked
-=- Traits -=-
[Overachiever]
When met with a challenge, one must face it
head on.
Holder has to accept ‘challenges’.
[Permanent]
[Pretty Boy]
Winning the genetic lottery has its benefits
Holder has permanent +1 Charisma
[Permanent]
-=-Skills-=-
[Running]
Run Boy Run, Like the Devil’s On Your Tail
+50% movement speed
[Conditional]
[Sprinting]
Hermes has bless you
+80% movement speed, 20% chance of [Exhausted]
[Conditional]
[Flirt]
When in doubt, compliment, and maybe get their number
+30% REP Gain for Five minutes
[Conditional]
…
‘You think I’m pretty?’ Dream wanted to say but couldn’t. He thought about it though, real hard at the part of him that thought XD could read his mind. That porcelain ball of a head jerked slightly. XD did not degin him with a response.
“The various elements have been automatically generated with your past and body as a basis,” XD droned, as much of an answer as Dream was going to get. He skimmed over the rest of his sheet, pitifully empty. Or maybe it was full? He had exactly no reference for what a full one looked like.
On the bright side, this was a great distraction from the budding panic attack that scratched like ants under his skin. Of which he was now thinking about… Right, what was the next screen? His ‘Inventory’? This really was a glorified video game.
The screen snapped closed mid sentence from XD, probably an explanation that Dream didn’t care to listen to. Really, what was he, the tutorial guy? He was acting like one, all big and important but ultimately something Dream wished he could skip.
…
Inventory
[Phone]
Ring Ring Ring Banana Phone
[Durability: 100/100]
[Emerald Earrings]
Gives an aura of wealth
[Durability: 100/100]
…
Dream was one hundred percent certain that that, at least, was what an empty inventory looked like. He had literally just set down everything he had when he laid down, something he really wished he’d chosen to keep doing despite the sun. At least he had two things? Even if his earrings weren’t that important. Maybe he could pawn them, he wondered as he chewed his lip.
“This,” XD sounded irritated, “is where items will appear. Some will be quest items, others can be anything you pick up from the ground. It does have a limit, do not try to find it.” Yeah, because Dream was capable of overloading a magic backpack. He wasn’t a hoarder.
But his phone… would that work here? Could he call his parents? They probably thought he was kidnapped, unless his body was still in his room. Would they think him dead then? Would they mourn him? Bury him alive? Or did that papercut magically ‘kill’ him?
Was he dead?
What an unsettling thought.
“Items can’t be taken out here, only added in,” XD continued, as if they couldn’t read his thoughts. Rude, he was trying to panic here, why couldn’t he? It was like a block… He was blaming XD. The tutorial man got him here so it was probably their fault.
“You got yourself here,” XD interrupted themself this time, “I did not force you to buy the memoir.” Oh, so they were acknowledging XD could read his mind then? Good, good. Glad to know they weren’t lying to themselves.
That still meant that XD was the reason he couldn’t react properly to this completely insane situation though. Even if thinking about it caused the words to slide off like sand through his fingers. Guess if he was incapable of thinking about the situation, he couldn’t worry about it either. Dream snorted silently, yeah cause that’s totally how that works. Definitely doesn’t make the situation worse.
“The reputation screen ,” XD continued with a noticeable force. They closed the screen with a snap, bringing the next one up. Really taking his role as the tutorial to heart, even if they were also an invasive asshole. XD’s head stilled, body freezing in time. They stuttered back into motion after a few moments.
…
Reputation
[XD]
The Allmighty God Above
[REP: ERROR-Integer Overflow]
…
“As you can see, you have no friends, so the screen is empty,” XD shot back. Rude, Dream had friends! Just not ones in this bullshit magic realm he was in. Even then, it’s not like he could help that. He didn’t even know what he bought! And of course he was capable of feeling angry but not scared or sad, skipping through the seven stages of grief like fucking hopscotch.
XD was on the screen, Dream noticed, but their lack of reputation was just further proof this was their fault. The game literally didn’t categorize them beyond being a person. Unless animals were also on the screen? Dream was willing to call the tutorial man an animal. They were hardly human.
“Mortal,” XD interrupted his thoughts, “now that you understand the situation,” he absolutely did not understand, “we can begin. I recommend closing your eyes.” Before Dream could even think to comply, the strange white light increased in strength.
It grew and grew, curling around XD in a brilliant glow and burned. Dream squinted, then flinched and pressed his hands into his eyes. The light burnt through him, bright and vibrant. It seared against his skin and turned his vision red, horribly impossibly bright.
For several horrifying moments, he feared he’d go blind, that the light would never go away. The fear bled into something real and sharp, needles under his skin and gnats crawling through his veins. His breath stuttered in his chest.
The ground met his knees hard, concrete scraping through his pants as he fell. Light faded to darkness as he knelt there and panted. His back ached at the angle, new injuries stinging. Dream couldn’t bring himself to care.
Hands shaking, he pulled them away from his eyes. Spots danced in his vision, head dreadfully heavy as he forced himself to stand. The clothes he was wearing weren't his, the area around him was horribly unfamiliar, and Dream was officially done with this whole situation.
Buildings reminiscent of a college in the barest sense spread out around him, leaving him standing in a circular intersection with students milling by him. None of them even glanced at him, passing by with blurry faces like he wasn’t even there. Dream didn’t have the energy to correct them.
A statue stood in the center, bronze and impressive if only he could care. He looked past it, eyes centering on a simple metal bench. Three of them took up space around the intersection, set between where pathways intercepted it. One of them was probably where he was supposed to go.
Dream didn’t really care where he was supposed to go right now. An insistent pinging started in his head, distantly familiar as the same noise the starting screen had made. It didn’t go away no matter how much he tried to ignore it. It wanted to be seen but Dream didn’t want to admit it was there.
Metal was cold and hard under him as he sat down, hunching his shoulders and cupping his face in his hands. He stared at the cracked concrete through his fingers, counting tiles and blades of grass poking up from in between. Each breath was short and choppy as he tried to get some level of control over himself.
It didn’t work, he shouldn’t have expected it to. He literally died and some mother fucker who didn’t have a nick decided he was going to play guinea pig in a fucking rpg . Nothing about that resembled anything remotely sane
Or maybe XD’s meddling with his emotions made it worse, Dream considered in a brief moment of hysteria. Ignoring problems usually makes them a lot worse to deal with in the long run. The fact that applied to magic emotional bullshit was hardly the weirdest thing to happen to him recently.
Something only barely resembling a laugh choked out of his throat, eyes watering. There goes his old life and his fancy college dreams. Instead he was going to play puppet to some tutorial sounding bitch for their amusement. Unless he could somehow not do that. He didn’t even know what XD wanted him to do beyond play the game.
What even was this game? Nothing about it was specific and XD hardly explained anything. Sure, Dream wasn’t paying the best attention but he felt that was pretty justified. Another wet laugh left him, some part of him amused at the thought that any part of this could be labeled justified .
“Stupid meddling gods,” He snarled to himself, voice weak in his state. That’s what XD was to him now, huh? A god, or maybe the devil considering the situation. His hands drifted up his face, fingers tangling in his hair.
“Uh, you good?” A flat toned voiced broke through the fog of his head. Dream barely moved enough to glance at the person out of the corner of his eyes, then took a double take. The man was… unexpected.
Long curling pink hair cascaded in waves down his back, golden eyes hidden behind pink tinted glasses. Gold coated his person in riches, earrings and rings and necklaces and piercings. At a glance, Dream could tell this was one rich man.
Every bit of him screamed pride, from the way the stranger stood with his back straight to the expensive leather bag displayed at his side. A hair clip resembling a crown held back his bangs and like every other accessory seemed to be made of solid gold. Intelligent eyes burnt through him.
Dream glanced away, if only to spare his eyes from the glitter and calm the tinting of his cheeks. It did not matter that this stranger was tall and built like a brick wall. He needed to worry about the whole being sorta-not-quite dead thing and not… not simp over someone who’s name he didn’t even know.
“Hullo? Am I being ignored?” There was a tilt of amusement to the stranger’s voice, plush lip barely tilting up into a smile revealing sharp inhuman teeth. Dream looked back, meeting shimmering eyes and a delicately raised eyebrow. He focused on the long scars on the stranger’s face, looking almost like claw marks. He was not at all staring at the man’s lips or admiring him because Dream had priorities damnit.
“Yeah, sorry. Just… having a long day,” Dream smiled back, grateful that at least his mask had stayed, “I’m Dream, you?” He asked out of politeness. The stranger looked him up and down, causing Dream to straighten his back as he tensed. It wasn’t quite a judging look but whatever he saw, it was hopefully good.
“Techno, you’re new around here, aren’t you?” Techno replied, offering out a perfectly manicured hand to shake. Long black nails with golden tips and smooth hands that made Dream wonder about his nightly routine as he shook it. He quickly ignored those thoughts and re-
…
*Ping*
[Character Added]
[Quest Unlocked] X 2
…
And Dream did nothing but hang his head and sigh, feeling some mixture of emotions he couldn’t name and almost didn’t want to. Techno stared down at him in mild concern.
This was going to be a very very long day.