Inception {Dreamnotfound}

27 | Endgame | 27

Disclaimer: this chapter is pretty confusing, please bear with me.
Enjoy. Love ya <3 ~ Owl

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-George's POV-

"What?!"

Only Tubbo and Karl voice the question uniformly, but I know everyone else must be thinking it too. "What do you mean it wasn't always there?!"

I notice an equal look of confusion in Skeppy's eyes, which only makes this worse. He tries to catch his soulmate's gaze subtly, failing when Darryl turns away from him. If I didn't know any better, I'd think it was in favour of answering Tubbo and Karl, but the suffocating look of guilt in his eyes makes it hard to believe.

"The hunter's system wasn't always there," Darryl repeats again, if only to make it sink in. "I told you there was one before Tommy: the very first Lost Soul. The current leader of The Deception's best friend. They wore their band, and it created the second system."

I catch Clay glaring at Tommy's band, and tug his arm in hopes it'll distract him.

"So... someone put on a band that wasn't theirs, and it created the hunters and targets... thing?" he asks the room, something in his tone making the question sound borderline delirious.

"I think so," Darryl shrugs, shuffling away from Clay awkwardly. "Pretty sure bands are supposed to disappear after a few days, but they don't if you wear them, and that might be why they sting you if you put them on: to stop you from trying to prevent their disappearance."

"This world isn't merciful; it never has been. So I also don't think being assigned a hunter and a target at eighteen is just so kids can live their childhoods more freely. Especially considering we're assigned soulmates at birth. I think The Deception's leader made it that way. They wore a seventeen-year-old's band at eighteen, so the system probably split the age gap there for that reason."

There's a quiet pause, everyone too absorbed in their own thoughts and theories to keep conversation going. Darryl only stands there patiently, doing anything to not meet Skeppy's eyes.

"Probably created it because the Lost Souls count as defiance against the system. Someone is rejecting their soulmate in favour of their best friend. The hunter's system would be to combat this, creating a threat to the current leader's soulmate's safety in the hopes the leader will take off the band, so their soulmate doesn't die."

Silence.

"Okay, but..." Karl stutters eventually, and Darryl looks far too relived to be occupied with something once more. "Why does nobody remember any of this?! I mean, that guy isn't that old, is he?"

The brunette stumbles through his thoughts clumsily, curling his fingers into strange gestures in hopes of conveying what's in his head. "By your logic, someone must remember a time where there wasn't a system, so why have none of us heard about it?" Sapnap offers instead, and Karl gives him a bashful thumbs up in thanks. "Nimrod," the younger of the two teases, ruffling his boyfriend's hair.

There's an envious glare in Skeppy's eyes as he watches them from across the room, and Karl seems to notice it, awkwardly stepping far enough away from Sapnap that his hand slips away.

"Selective amnesia," Darryl explains, and my thoughts stall on the last word. "If the world can create a second system, it can probably implement some sort of amnesia into it too. Keep anyone from noticing the difference."

There's an uncomfortably thick silence suffocating the room, most likely from everyone trying to process the fact that theoretically, they've had part of their memory erased. Miserably though, of course, it's nothing new to me, and I'm more bothered by the question of 'how did this happen again?' than how it happened at all.