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Everyone blinked in surprise. Dream had called the whole, the actual entirety of the land to the center of his country for important information.
"I've decided to end this today, taking a page out of Wilbur's and Philza's book. The bombs go too far down and are too many to remove. Also I've already started the detonation so unless you find and disable the detonator they'll go off anyway."
That was a strong start to a meeting, that's for sure. And after that was said he allowed questions. Any questions.
"Are you INSANE?!?" "Probably, yeah."
"Aren't you gonna die too from this?" "Nah, I've been through similar before."
"What even are you?" "Really, gonna ask me that now? I'm sure my former friends could've told you that."
"We didn't." Sapnap shouts from the crowd, earning a shrug. Dream simply replies. "Just a highly intellegent and illusion-causing slime that happens to be immortal. That's all."
There was a pause. "How can we believe you're immortal?"
Dream laughs, his form shifting a little and going a bit green before going normal.
"Man, I don't know what's higher, the amount of times I should've died or the amount of times people questioned my claims."
"Why are you like this?"
Dream made a sound, clearly thinking on how to answer.
"That's hard to answer, but I guess the short version is I'm tired of war and strife and misery and death. Everytime new lives with souls come here, someone decides the harmony isn't the type they want and it always ends with most to all dead. I'm just trying to get this one over with. Maybe this will be traumatic enough for your souls to remember next life."
There was a pause before one more question.
"How... How much time to defuse the bombs? You know, find the detonator?"
"About 15 minutes. Good luck!"
With that, Dream changed to a form he was much more comfortable with, mask moved to another area than the front as he darted off.
Chaos insued in the whole of the residents. Some trying to figure out where it would be hidden, some wanting to make solutions that could allow them to potentially survive, and some simply giving up, planning on seeing how many bonds can be reformed before the explosion.
The only one who didn't seem to be going with other groups was George, who had slipped his shades back on right before Dream slinked away. He had a specific direction he was heading.
And, despite taking a different path, ends up where Dream stopped to wait things out.
"Hey," George says to get Dream's attention.
Dream looks up, seeming to be actually surprised that George was already there. He hadn't managed to fix his colors beyond the "clothes", one of which was just a different shade of green.
"How'd you even-"
"Would you believe intuition?" George says, cutting the slime before him off.
There's a pause and then a groan. "You're a cheater."
"If you going full slime to get away faster I can use my foresight."
Dream exhaled a bit, trying not to laugh. 'Foresight' was a very interesting, but accurate, way to describe George's ability.
"You knew before I did on where I was going."
"Not really. Odds were in my favor though."
Another semi-laugh from the slime, leading to him looking away.
"What do you even want? Our history isn't gonna make me tell you where the detonator is, or how to safely remove it."
George didn't say anything. He instead just smirked and tapped his goggles. "Gotta say that's definitely a strange place to hide it."
There's a pause as the two of them just sat there, the mood clearly a different negative for them than the rest.
"Why did you do it?"
The question from George brought reality back, and Dream tilted his head, hoping it would come across as quizzical and not smug. "Why'd I do what?"
George rubs his face with his palms, pushing the clout goggles up temporarily as he does so.
"Everything, Dream. The manipulation. The fanning of flames. The attempts at making everyone fight! The... The lies..."
Ah. Right. Dream shrugged a bit, glad emotions can't come through visually, and gave the simple answer people are usually willing to believe. "It's fun and-"
"Bullshit!"
George's word made Dream jump and look over. Despite the thick, mystic glass in front of them, his eyes were piercing through to Dream. It would've been intimidating to another creature, that's for sure.
"I may not know you as well as I thought, but there's always a greater reason for you! So I'll ask again, why'd you do all those awful things?"
Dream sits there, mostly silent beyond the occasional "hmm". He eventually answers properly.
"It just never ends. Other highly sentient beings are born, they get along, someone decides things aren't good enough, fights break loose, people die, the history disappears, rinse and repeat. No matter what I do this seems to be the case."
"So you manipulate people?"
"Usually not this hard or long! I just try and speed to the end of the loop once it shows a loop's happening again. It's not easy being exact on it though, even if the souls will recycle sometimes."
George was curious on that, but time was a factor and small talk was out of the question.
"So why'd you wait so long this time? You probably could've done something like this during the creation of L'Manburg."
A laugh is heard. It sounds hollow, barren. It was lime Dream was going through the motions of a laugh but it had no real feeling to it.
"Do you know what the hardest thing about being immortal is?"
George tries not to show irritation. He didn't answer the question provided and was just wasting time! He decided to play along. "What?"
"Making connections is pointless. Everyone else will die, leaving you all alone. Even if you technically see them in another form, they're not the same."
"Ok, but didn't you-"
"Sometimes others assume. Most previous lives, after about the third one, I managed to avoid recuperating these bonds, regardless of type."
George stayed quiet after that, waiting to see if Dream was done.
"Sometimes I fail." At that, Dream looks at George, just for a bit, but long enough to have it noticed.
"So...?" George says, feeling this topic wasn't done and may be connected to the answer to his question.
Dream readjusts, certian George is in fact listening to his ramblings. "So in instances when I habe people I concider friends, family, partners, it gets hard to speedrun the tragedy."
The use of the term speedrun caused a small smile from George, but it didn't last too long. "So you have gotten close to others? Then why-"
"You guys got the truth known and started avoiding me! I did bad, sure, but it still hurts!"
"Probably shouldn't have manipulated and lied to people then..."
Dream turned away. "You have 7 minutes to get the detonator and turn it off. Might wanna do whatever it is you were planning on doing."
He debates this for a while, unsure. He could try and stab and scoop, which might be easiest with a pickaxe, but that has a large chance of failing and causing an earlier explosion. He could try and convince Dream to just let it out, but that's... Highly unlikely to work. Also there's the possibility it isn't even possible for him to get items out of his form once their quickly. This means he'd have to...
He ignored the raising feelings building at the thought. Instead he shook his head and lifted his clout goggles to ask a question and garuntee the answer. "What do you actually want to happen?"
Dream went to answer, only to see that George's eyes glazed over, losing the vividness of there usual brown. Less of the color of a bronzite gem and more the color of a dark wood with a layer of dust. He wasn't asking for Dream's spoken answer, but for the actually possible to happen futures that were answers.
Before the cloud left his eyes, his face started turning red and he put the goggles back on.
"You... You uh... Never mentioned having... Uh..."
"Only about 6 minutes, get to it."
"You... Ro-romantic feelings... Me?" George's mind was foggy, and not from the foresight this time.
Dream looks at him, head tilted almost too much. "What did you think my comments were?"
George's face instantly went bright red. "I don't know, teasing? Friendly jabs? Maybe some ignorance on normal interaction? I didn't think you were genuinely flirting!"
"Why would I pretend to flirt?"
George groans a bit, face in hands again. A lot of obvious things about the present would evade him. He wasn't someone who did well at preventing things that would happen either. He's juat some guy with the ability to see too many possible outcomes, with nothing to predict which timeline he's in.
"Why are you bringing this up now?"
George's head shot up so fast his glasses fell passed his eyes a bit. Face red, he struggled to get words out.
"A-again Dream, I didn't- I never thought- it's just-" he inhaled, readjusting the clout goggles and ttying to lessen the pigment on his face. "I-I thought you just saw me as a friend, not something romantic." He then looks over at the slime nearby who was just shrugging "had I known you had romantic feelings I probably would've confessed sooner..."
That made Dream whip to face George with his full body. After staring for a bit he spoke, voice icy.
"You're trying something aren't you?"
George shook his head, eyes wide enough to almost be seen under the thick shades. "No! I-I promise it's just like, the worst time possible to confess!"
Dream continues to stare at George. The lack of emotional replies that the mask gives. Even with him knowing it's just Dream analyzing for signs of lying, it still was unnerving for George.
"Prove it."
"Hunh?"
Dream gets a bit closer to George. "Prove. It." The repetition is emphasized.
George had a quick pause, swallowing down his fear, before going for it.
Dream's form was human enough that it allowed this to even be possible, thankfully, as George grabbed the other's head, removed the mask, and kissed him directly on the lips.
The kiss was strange, a bit more sticky than one normally would be, but also slick. Probably what one should expect kissing a slime creature. There was enough solid and proper to know this isn't either members' first kiss, too. That's how Dream worked, a mix of what he knew and what those around him expected made his form.
Once George pulls away he hands Dream his mask back. The immortal slime's eyes were practically glowing with joy and surprise.
George couldn't help but laugh as Dream's form melted a bit while he put his mask back on.
"Kinda wish I had more time for us to actually date..." George said somewhat quietly, not expecting a reply.
Dream responds by grabbing George's hand and putting it up against his side. "Grab it."
George's eyes definitely were visible under the clout goggles this time. "What?"
"You have a little over two minutes. My form's more slime right now. Just reach in and grab it."
George wasn't sure on this. "Won't it hurt?"
"Not as much as the explosion and such. Grab it."
Well, from one strange experience to another, George reached into the slime body. Some oozed out of the area he reached in, and both flinched. It wasn't pleasent, even slightly, for them, unlike the kiss. Once he had ahold of the detonator George didn't think twice on yanking his hand out with full force, getting a pained sound out of Dream.
"Sorry!" George says as a reply as he fiddles with the detonator, wiping some inner ooze off the thing to see it better. Turns out it was just a simple button. Guess he wanted it easy for whoever managed to get it if anyone did.
A click of the button and a tone was heard. He flipped it around and wiped off the screen.
1:48. Disarmed. That's what the screen showed. That's how much time was left when it was disarmed. Soon others will know. Soon they'll calm.
But then what? Dream juat threatened everyone's lives. He almost succeeded in killing all of them in one fell swoop. George ended up muttering aloud "now what?"
"Don't ask me, Prophet Boy. You should know."
George knew many possible outcomes, but needed to try and figure the most likely. He removed his goggles again to get a good look at the timelines. He sighed as it dwindled to two most likely outcomes.
"Well, you're either going to be caught and jailed for an indeterminate amount of time, or you're going to become a bit of a fugitive, finding a good place or set of rotating places to hide, and you'll be doing that for an equally indeterminate time."
Dream laughed, this time one that wasn't hollow. "So regardless I don't know how long until people forgive me? Fun."
George stood up. "I'm gonna head back to the center. Try and contact me if you manage to get into hiding, ok?"
Dream grabbed his arm. Without saying a word he pulled him back down and gave him a hug. He's soft and slick, like an otter or similar usually wet mammal, complete with a warmth that only comes from warm-blooded animals.
The two let go at the same time, and Dream immediately went to his true form and slipped away.
George hopes to actually see him again without it being a jail visit. Until then he needs to tell the others about his success. Omitting certian details, of course.