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"Are you kidding me?" She gapes. "Who is he? Only the biggest name in all of the Village. He's the reason why this place exploded with so much business. People flock to come see his statue! I'm surprised you're here and you don't know him, I thought you were going to visit his memorial as well."
Dream blinks, while smiling in confusion. he feels guilty for lying to her, but Nightmare always said that it's okay to lie if he's suspicious of a stranger. "I'm sorry...? I just happened to be nearby and thought to stop by."
"You look so much like him, too! You and the Angel, it's like you're twins. Oh, I hope that isn't mean, your features are really alike." She heartily laughs, guiding him with a hand on his back. Dream tries not to visibly squirm in discomfort. The touch is unwanted, it's too close to his spine. It's as if his entire body is crawling with ants. "You should become a <celebrity> performer. You'd make so much gold just showing up to people's birthday parties and stuff. All you need are the wings, but I think they'd probably know you're a faker by then. Hoh hoh."
He feels a weird, itchy feeling up his arms and back, wandering along at her behest. He's not sure where they're going, either- the Village really does look so much more... different, and apparently it's been centuries since he was turned to stone. It's probably best not to mention that he's the statue they were mentioning... When he woke up covered in flowers, it was a bit scary. Not to mention that big window... like he was a display at a toy shop. It was lucky no one was there.
"Um, yeah..." he doesn't really know what a <celebrity> is. It must be a new word. All of the things she's saying sound sort of like words he understands and also completely not, but it's clearly all the same language. Maybe? Dream wishes he read more books like Nightmare told him to, maybe he'd understand more. All he knows is that he's going somewhere and there's an Angel.
He realizes a bit too late into the lady's chattering that they're going back to the place he woke up. His steps stutter to a halt. He still feels a flare of panic seeing the Tree totally behest of any fruit, an instinctive wrongness flaring up in his throat and tensing his shoulders. His arms squeeze where they're folded over his chest. The other monster gives pause, glancing over at him in mild concern and confusion. "What's wrong?"
"Oh, um..." Dream stumbles over his words. "I-I just feel kind of sick... I must have... eaten something that was off."
She lowers her brows more, which makes him feel even more nervous. Her frown reveals more of her sharp, yellow teeth, her muzzle curling back. "Something that was...?"
All of a sudden, Dream worries that he talks too weird and he'll be taken in by the local guard he sees patrolling the streets. The Village is so large and no one he knows is still alive and everything's too noisy and bright and there's no more familiar shops or houses or even fountains. Everything is made of glass and expensive metals and there's the brand of the Angel everywhere, even though it doesn't... look the same as the Angel he knows.
"Do you want to go to the <doctor's?>"
His brow furrows slightly. "I-I don't need the healer, it's no big deal. I'm a bit overwhelmed, is all."
"No, the <hospital,>" she emphasizes. "You look... unwell."
She's totally onto him. Dream wishes his brother were here. It's embarassing, his eyes start to water and his head hurts and everything is so awfully loud and- Dream turns away. He sniffles, pressing his mouth into a thin line, and now she's cooing and touching him too much, and he tries to pull away but she follows him. The words she says are slightly slurred. "You poor thing, you must be so <lost.> You can come back to my house and rest for a bit, why don't I make you some tea?"
"I-I really... please stop touching me, I'm really alright."
"I insist." She says, and there's something about her voice that makes him feel very scared. Dream tries to pry her hands off of him, but someone else does. A louder voice calls out, "What are you doing to him?" And suddenly there's a commotion, and then there's flashes of bright, red anger, and everyone is now yelling and fighting over one another. The previous even current of positivity he felt is now violently disturbed, peeling back to reveal a complex and twisted mix of anger and frustration and fear and hatred and despair. Now they're all crying out, all of the golden flakes scraping off. He doesn't understand what's happening, just that it's all so noisy and everyone's grabbing at him, pulling him different directions and touching him too much.
"Brother!" He cries. That feeling he had when he woke up, that knowledge that Nightmare was well and truly gone and would never come back, he pushes it down and screams out for help anyway. "Where are you?"
"Shhh."
Just like that, it's all gone. The noise, the people, the negativity- it's back to that shiny mirror finish, calm and undisturbed, smooth and gilded. Dream hiccups, the only sound in the totally quiet mob, his knees scraped and his arms and legs sore from being tugged about like a doll. The hands clutching him squeeze, as if resisting some silent command, before loosening and falling to their owners' sides. He stares up from a sea of towering legs, at faces and heads looking away in eerie unision to a single point in the distance.
He hears the flap of great wings, and a breeze gusts past. He tries to peek through everyone's legs, peering through the gaps, but all he sees is a bright light.
"Give me the boy." The Angel's voice is a bell that rings through the entire land. He shudders with its power, curling up as he's gently corralled forward. It's smooth, everyone works in perfect unison to do as he says. They whisper to him, "you're so lucky" and "he's chosen you."
When he clambers out of the cage of hands, he keeps his eyes averted from the light. This Angel, it's like him. Made of purely positivity, but so much more powerful, concentrated into a tight supernova mass that is brilliant and terrible and wonderful and awesome. He shivers, his head bowed, because he briefly senses the smallest disappointment that it has. It's only his first hour being alive again, and he's already failed someone.
"Look at you." It hums. The mob backs away, far away, as it begins to advance. Dream frantically looks back between it and the rest of the monsters, who stare into its brilliance without any falter. Their eyes are bloodshot and dilated, mouths parted in awe, but they instinctively push and pull like the tides to get closer, before drawing away in fear of being burnt. He tries to step back, but its hand snatches him by his wrist. It feels weird, like the light is streaming through him, into his skull and through his bones, down to his toes and shaping him into a star. It burns, but doesn't hurt, and he's scared.
For a moment, Dream wonders if he will die here.
"I was wondering when you'd wake up, my little dove." It gently wipes his tears with its finger. Nightmare used to do the same thing, the same way. Dream's mouth wobbles. "You're lucky I came here in time, or you'd be ripped to shreds by those ants."
"Do you know where my brother is?" He blurts out. He can't stop crying. His face feels really hot. It's been here for so long, and the village leader is the one who knows everything, and this is the village leader, so it has to know. "H-His name is Night-"
"Shh. Don't you worry about a thing." It taps his nose. "I'm already looking for him."