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The first thing Dream noticed when he came to was the softness of cushions beneath his body.
As his senses registered within his freshly awake mind, he was quickly confused by the setting around him. He didn’t remember falling asleep on a couch, much less in a house as lavish as this one. The room he was in appeared to be as big as his and Punz’s bunker all by itself. He sat up quickly. Punz. He needed to find Punz.
Dream felt his chest tighten the more he studied the room. Abruptly, he realized that he didn’t quite recognize anything in this room. The cat bed by the fireplace, the television hanging above, and the leftover snacks strewn about the coffee table in front of the sofa. Was he moved in his sleep? Was this some kind of bizarre, hyper realistic dream? His mouth curled into a small frown. The best thing he could do was try to find some more information.
He reached down to open his inventory first. After a few attempts, the realization dawned on him that he couldn’t open it. Gods, he didn’t even have his armor on. He was wearing his black undershirt with a dark yellow-green cape on top, along with some black, baggy jeans that flowed down to some tall boots. His mask was clipped to a belt that wrapped around his waist. He bit his bottom lip nervously. Great. No weapons, no protection, no materials, in a completely unfamiliar location.
“Dream? I don’t remember you falling asleep on the couch last night. What are you wearing?”
The unexpected voice pulled him away from his thoughts abruptly, resulting in him standing up and turning so fast he thought he might pass out. He recognized the voice instantly, yet it felt so unfamiliar at the same time.
Dream wasn’t prepared to meet the eyes of the man who had once promised to kill him- the man who used to be his best friend.
Yet, it was just that. His eyes. The rest of this man’s physical appearance looked completely different. He was wearing baggy clothes, clothed in a sweatshirt with some kind of drawing on it along with black sweatpants. His hair was covered with a baseball cap. His ears were human. They weren’t pointed like the ones of the fire demon he knew. Despite every physical difference, the voice and the eyes assured Dream he knew exactly who had just brought his thoughts to a halt.
Suddenly, those same eyes stretched wide with something along the lines of horror.
“Wh- what the fuck?! Dream, what happened to you?!” Sapnap’s voice was high pitched with mild terror as he took a step back.
Dream flinched at the volume of his voice, immediately entering a defensive position. “What do you mean?! What happened to you?”
Sapnap’s eyebrows furrowed with confusion. “I’ve been at the house? Dude, what happened to your face? Where did all those scars come from? And why do you look like you just came from a D&D session? What the fuck, Dream?!”
Beginning to feel overwhelmed, Dream could feel his throat tighten. He could barely register all the questions being hurled in his direction, especially due to the mention of his scars. He wasn’t surprised that Sapnap didn’t know. However, the idea of uttering the explanation out loud caused him even more terror.
Seemingly out of nowhere, Dream could hear footsteps racing down the hall towards the room the two were standing in. He immediately whipped his head around towards the direction of the sound.
Everything around him seemed to stop when he saw the first figure round the corner.
It wasn’t possible. There was no way. This man was presumed to be lost- not physically, but mentally. Caught in a fictional dreamscape. Dream knew because he had gone to him. He had spent hours sitting by him, waiting for him to wake. His soft pleading had turned to begging, that had turned to yelling at the man for leaving him for a false reality, leaving Dream to deal with the hell that was his own. Devastated, Dream had left once he realized there was nothing he could have done to wake up his friend.
This man’s face looked much closer to the one he recognized, although his signature glasses were nowhere to be seen. Unlike his regular cottagecore aesthetic, he wore a simple t-shirt and shorts.
His almond-brown irises hadn’t changed since the day Dream last saw him.
George gasped lightly when he caught sight of Dream, his eyes stretching wide. He mumbled under his breath, but Dream couldn’t quite catch what he said.
The second figure who rounded the corner caused Dream’s heart to stop.
This wasn’t possible. This couldn’t be possible. He had the same facial hair, the same freckles, and the same light brown, fluffy hair (although Dream’s was more matted and infected by gray streaks).
The two weren’t all the same. Of course, this imposter’s face didn’t hold a single scar upon it. His features were much softer, making him look much younger than Dream. He lacked the heavy eyebags that resided under Dream’s eyes, and the deeper wrinkles that traced every crease in his skin.
The imposter’s eyes were the last feature that caught Dream’s attention. Of course it was the eyes again.
Unlike Sapnap and George, the imposter’s eyes were completely different from Dream’s. The imposter had irises that were a deep green, making his pupils look wider and softer. He’d almost compare the eyes to that of a dog, or some kind of deer.
Dream’s own eyes were such a bright green that they glowed in dark settings. They were a green that pierced through anyone’s soul, making him immediately intimidating to any that approached him. The more emotion he felt, the brighter they became. Quackity used to test Dream’s limits to see how far he could go, just to see how bright his eyes could go.
“Oh my god.” They were the first words to leave the imposter’s mouth, and the sound of him sent panic crashing through Dream’s body.
This wasn’t right. He had to wake up. He had to leave. He could feel all three pairs of eyes staring at him in silence, as if waiting for him to speak and explain himself. No. He had to get out of here.
He gave himself a few seconds to frantically look around, locating an exit door and making a dash towards it.
Dream could feel his heart thumping loudly in his chest, especially when he heard Sapnap’s voice call out from behind him. Dream practically crashed into the door, feeling his heartbeat pounding like a drum throughout his entire body. It was so loud and overwhelming that he wished he could just curl up into a ball and try to forget the past few minutes. He shook the thought away, focusing back on the door. He had to escape.
Trying the doorknob wasn’t successful. The door had probably been locked while the three were asleep overnight. Dream began to fumble with a lock above the doorknob, aware of footsteps becoming louder from behind him. His panic rising, he took in a shallow gasp instead of a breath. He had to get out- he just had to get the lock and then he’d be free and he could run to gods knows where and he-
An unfamiliar hand on Dream’s shoulder caused a jolt of terror to travel through every ounce of his already shaking body.
His arms moved on their own without giving his brain a second of time to think. All he knew was that he had to get this person away before anything else could happen.
He plowed a punch right into the side of Sapnap’s face.
Dream hadn’t even realized that it was Sapnap until his eyes focused on the man sprawled on the floor, holding a hand to his cheek, his eyes wide with shock and pain.
“Nick!” George was immediately at Sapnap’s side, helping Sapnap to sit up. George’s eyes met Dream’s, and Dream could immediately tell he was scared.
Oh. They were scared of him.
“What the fuck, man?!” Sapnap was still holding a hand to his cheek. Instead of his confused stare from before, he was sending Dream a harsh glare. “I was trying to help you!”
Quite suddenly, Dream felt his previous panic returning. “I-I don’t-” He struggled to get out any kind of coherent sentence as he backed himself against the door, his legs beginning to give out beneath him as he found it difficult to suck in any air at all.
Dream’s eyes met the imposter’s again, who held an expression entirely different from Sapnap and George’s. Complete and utter dread. A gaze that practically screamed regret. If Dream didn’t know better, he could’ve sworn that the imposter seemed to know who he was. Dream found that meeting the imposter’s eyes only made the weight on his chest feel heavier. His legs completely gave way beneath him.
Dream had absolutely no idea what was going on. He didn’t know where Punz was, or if he was safe. He didn’t know who this imposter was. He didn’t know why George and Sapnap looked so different, and why they acted as if they’d never seen him before. He felt hot tears form in his eyes, the ringing in his ears becoming louder and louder. He shut his eyes tightly. He couldn’t quite feel anything anymore.
“-eam? Dream? Hey, listen to me. I need you to look at me.”
The imposter’s voice cut through the fog in his brain. His name. That was Dream’s name.
Dream lifted his head slightly and opened his eyes again. Instead of terror, or anger, or shock, the imposter’s eyes were now filled with sympathy.
“Okay- uh- good. Now, just follow my breathing, ‘kay? Take deep breaths.” The imposter continued to speak, and Dream focused on the voice, allowing the ringing in his ears to subside slightly.
The imposter’s chest rose as he took in a breath, and Dream did his best to follow along despite the way his chest spasmed as his body continued to try and breathe in sharp gasps. Still, Dream focused his ears on the sound of the imposter’s breaths, trying his best to follow the rhythm until he found that he was no longer hyperventilating.
Brought back to his body, Dream quickly noticed that he had tear stains on his cheeks. He wiped them away as quickly as possible, hoping none of the others had noticed them. He stayed sitting on the ground, but he was no longer curled up as tightly as before. He once again looked towards the imposter.
“Um, thanks.” Dream mumbled, mildly humiliated by being caught in such a panicked state. He sniffled one.
The imposter gave him a slight smile. “It’s no problem,” He responded, as if it was a natural occurrence to talk to someone who looked like some kind of fucked up clone of himself.
If Dream didn’t know better, he could have sworn he saw tears in the imposter’s eyes.
Dream noticed that Sapnap was now sitting upright, George knelt down beside him. They looked concerned and still confused. The imposter clearly understood this situation better than anyone else in the room, including Dream.
“So-” The imposter broke the silence. “I think I might have an idea of what’s happened here.”
“I’d sure hope so. You know my name,” Dream replied, regaining a bit of his hostility. Despite the help, he still didn’t trust any three of these people.
The imposter laughed uncomfortably. “Uh, yeah, I kind of just assumed? I mean, you’re me. Well, not me me, but like, alternate me.”
“What?!” Dream didn’t have a chance to respond before Sapnap spoke, looking at the imposter as if he was crazy. “Are you saying he’s from some kind of alternate universe? You know that’s insane. Shit- that’s actually not possible.”
The imposter turned his head. “Nick, there’s a man sitting in front of me with my face and my name. It’s clearly entirely possible.”
“What kind of “universe” do you reckon he’s from, then?” George was the next to speak, his tone dripping with sarcasm. He clearly also didn’t believe in this theory.
“The DreamSMP.”
Dream perked up immediately. His head was swirling and lost between all these mentions of alternate universes, but that was a name he recognized. His home. Fuck, was this imposter suggesting that he had traveled to a different universe? While that theory explained a lot of what he had seen, it failed to provide him any more of a sense of security.
Sapnap and George appeared to be dumbfounded, even more so when Dream visibly reacted to the name of the server. Sapnap laughed slightly, covering his face.
“No. Nope. I’ve gone crazy! Dream, this is insane!” He reiterated, raising his voice sharply as he brought his hands back down.
“Think about it! The- the outfit! The scars! It all makes sense. Look- I’ll prove it.” The imposter turned around to look at Dream again.
“I’m not a test subject,” Dream glared at the imposter, his back still pressed against the front door.
“I’m not using you- just need you to answer two questions so I can figure out how to help you.” The imposter said, keeping his tone surprisingly calm.
“Why should I answer any of your questions? You’re all basically strangers,” Dream’s fists were clenched tightly, his nails digging into the palms of his hands.
The imposter pursed his lips for a moment. “Come on, please? Th- they’re easy, I promise.”
Dream narrowed his eyes skeptically. On one hand, he didn’t owe this man anything. On the other hand, the imposter had mentioned that answering these questions would allow him to help Dream. He didn’t really have anywhere else to go, especially considering the possibility that this place was an entirely different universe.
“Fine. Ask away.”
The imposter’s eyes widened slightly for a moment. “Oh! Okay, uh-” He reached out an arm, pointing towards Sapnap. “You probably know someone like him, like Sapnap, but this isn’t your Sapnap. What happened the last time you spoke to your Sapnap?”
Dream felt his shoulders tense. “I had just escaped from prison. He refused to give me my armor back, and so I set off for Kinoko instead.”
Nodding along, the imposter then gestured towards George. “And, your George?”
“I haven’t spoken to him in ages. As far as I know, he’s been asleep. No one can wake him up,” Dream answered concisely.
When Dream focused back in on the present, Sapnap was staring at Dream incredulously, George holding a similar expression.
“Holy shit.” Sapnap spoke, taking off his baseball cap and running a hand through his hair before putting it back on.
“See? I told you guys. It’s him!” The imposter almost seemed excited, perhaps by the adrenaline of the moment, seeing how high pitched his voice had gotten.
“Will someone please explain to me what’s going on?!” Dream finally raised his voice, done with being left in the dark by the other three. “What the hell did you mean by “alternate me”? How do you know the name of my home?”
“Oh, right. I haven’t really explained.” The imposter exhaled, as if preparing himself. “So, you are in an alternate world. Here, us three-” He gestured to himself, Sapnap, and George “- are content creators. We record videos and put them on the internet for anyone to watch.”
Dream was barely following the nonsense this clone of himself was spewing, but nodded along despite himself.
“In our world, your world is- it exists. As- as a part of a video game. That’s how we know so much about your life.” The imposter stumbled through his sentences and fidgeted with the rings on his fingers as he spoke.
Dream’s mouth was open slightly with mild shock. His entire life- a part of some video game? A game for everyone to view for entertainment? He felt his mouth go dry. Did these people watch him waste away in an obsidian box as Quackity beat down any hope he had left day by day? Did they let him?
Dream’s counterpart seemed to notice his expression growing panicked again. “Come on, you should probably get out from in front of our front door. Don’t want you losing yourself in your thoughts all day right here.”
His counterpart pushed himself to his feet and held out a hand towards Dream. After mildly flinching away from the hand, Dream reluctantly took it, pulling himself back up to his feet. Sapnap and George were also getting up next to him.
“Well, Sapnap, at least I don’t think you’re as weak anymore. You got the shit punched out of you by a trained fighter.” George teased.
“He caught me off guard! I would've been able to defend myself otherwise!” Sapnap playfully shoved George, causing him to stumble back to hit Dream’s counterpart with a small giggle.
“You’re seriously going to start bickering now?” The counterpart rolled his eyes.
Sapnap scoffed. “George literally started it when he called me weak.”
“Liar! I never said you were exclusively weak. I just said you weren’t as weak anymore,” George argued in response.
“That’s the same thing, idiot!” Sapnap laughed as he tackled George towards the ground, the two of them beginning to wrestle playfully.
“Guys! We have more important issues going on here!” Dream’s counterpart laughed as he ran up to the other two, attempting to break them apart.
Emotion fluttered within Dream’s chest. This all seemed so natural to the trio. For so long Dream had wished he could go back to the early days of the SMP. He longed for the days that the sun would beat down as he, Sapnap, and George worked on the community house, building it up brick by brick in each other’s company. He so badly wanted to hear the sound of their laughter again, the bickering, the behavior that appeared so normal to these three on the floor. Dream’s eyes wandered over to his counterpart.
This man had it easy. This man didn’t have to fight in bloody wars. This man didn’t have to watch as everyone he knew turned on him in an instant. This man didn’t have to endure nearly a year of complete isolation. This man doesn’t know anything.
His counterpart seemed to notice the angry expression on Dream’s face, and broke away from the play-fighting to approach Dream with a comforting smile.
“Sorry for leaving you in the dust there. Are you okay? This is probably super overwhelming. I know if I ended up in the DreamSMP with no explanation I’d be terrified.” Gods, this man was certainly a talker.
Dream wasn’t quite sure how to respond to him. Of course he wasn’t okay. But that wasn’t something he’d just say to anyone. He’d taught himself to close off his emotions so he wouldn’t develop unnecessary attachments that would distract him from the endgame. The only person he would ever dare to confide in is Punz. He’d honestly scared himself the first time he broke down in front of Punz, rambling on and on about the prison. Punz had listened to every word, and he even let Dream sleep next to him to provide comfort at night.
“I’m going to take that silence as a no.” Shit, Dream had forgotten to respond when he had been thinking.
The counterpart chuckled uncomfortably. “We have an extra bedroom you can stay in. Well- we have a few for our friends to stay in when they visit. Don’t worry, there’s no one else in the house right now.”
Dream nodded. “You talk a lot.”
His counterpart flushed mildly, embarrassed. “I’d almost say you don’t talk enough.”
Humming, Dream shrugged. “Touché.”
A silence hung between the two of them before Dream’s counterpart broke it.
“What’s it like?”
Dream furrowed his eyebrows. “What?”
The counterpart laughed at himself, shaking his head. “Sorry- what’s the DreamSMP like? What’s it like to actually be in it?
Dream blinked, a bit surprised by the question. “It’s not…bad. It used to be much prettier. We- I used to watch the sunset every night while working on the community house. A lot has been built now. It’s hard to find those truly natural moments within all the chaos, anyway. No one is in their right mind anymore.”
The counterpart snickered. “And you say I talk a lot.”
Dream’s face went red. “Shut up.”
His counterpart laughed a bit louder. “Sorry, Sorry.” His laugh died back down, and he looked at Dream, his soft pupils meeting Dream’s harshly bright irises. “The server sounds beautiful.”
“Yeah. Wish I hadn’t been locked up for a year of it,” Dream responded dryly.
Dream noticed his counterpart’s expression change again, flashing towards one of guilt before it was immediately corrected. Strange. Dream was too exhausted to even possibly ponder on what that could mean.
“Hey-” His counterpart started to speak again, his voice quieter. “This might sound really stupid- but you’re safe here, okay? No one in his house is ever going to try to hurt you.”
Something about that statement felt reassuring instantly. Maybe it was his counterpart’s soft, comforting voice. Maybe it was his expression of genuine sympathy. Dream couldn’t be sure. Nevertheless, an instant feeling of solace washed over him. Safety. Real safety.
“It’s not stupid. Thanks,” Dream mumbled in response.
His counterpart nodded, still holding that compassionate smile on his face.
“Come on, I’ll let you pick out some clothes from my wardrobe so you don’t have to wear all that gear,” the counterpart said, gesturing for Dream to follow him.
Dream nodded, stealing one last glance towards Sapnap and George. The two had finished their play fighting and were now leaning against each other as they caught their breath, calming down from the bickering. Dream would be lying if he said he didn’t feel resentment towards them. Why couldn’t he have that?
Yet, the more Dream thought, the more his jealousy dwindled into a sense of comfort. Yes, this wasn’t his Sapnap. This wasn’t his George. This Dream wasn’t him. And yet, the six counterparts stayed intertwined. Dream had once been friends with Sapnap and George in the same way that his counterpart was a part of his own trio. They all fought the same and laughed the same. Dream recognized Sapnap's playfulness and George's sarcasm as identical to what his friends had once.
Perhaps, if he could believe it for even a second, the bond of this trio of friends could be some sort of sign. Maybe, someday, once Dream’s plan was finished, he could reunite with George and Sapnap. He pictured George waking up and running outside to Dream, giving him a tight hug. He imagined Sapnap joining the two of him with his big, wonderful, smile. He thought about the three of them adventuring off together, away from the server, where they could just be themselves once again. They would have all the time in the world to explore places untouched by any other member of the SMP. The perfect trio. The Dream Team.
Dream took a deep breath, closing his eyes for just a moment. He supposed, until he could return home, he could get to know these three strangers better.
That wouldn’t be such an impossible task.