Current Joys || DNF

16

This beginning part is a bit different from the general format of this story. I try to put comprehensibility over these kinds of explanations but we'll see how it goes!

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The brain is complicated. Layers and layers of intricate wiring that were so similar in anatomy yet so different in every other way when it came to individuals. Dream would know. He spent hours pouring over human psychology books, both in school and before he started his journey into the film industry a few years back.

He never gambled unless he was more than fifty percent sure of the outcome. Youtube was a risky wager, but it wasn't a stupid one. He understood what people wanted at a scientific level. Intense music at boring moments, comedic silence at misinterpretable dialogue, solutions pulled out effortlessly in impossible situations. All of this was deliberate to provide the maximum entertainment while achieving the results he desired. Although it wasn't a guarantee, Dream was willing to place his bets on the platform, not because of his hope for luck, but because of his faith in his knowledge.

His understanding of people also allowed him to make decisions wisely. He learned to look for both physical and verbal indications. Physical being the movement of the pupils, shifting of fingers, and overall body posture, but most importantly, the reading of facial expressions. On the other hand, verbal indications were additionally complicated. The analysis of silence, interpretation of personality, and a full-proof lie-detecting tactic, among others, helped him understand how to approach the specific person.

He trained himself to execute these processes in the short time of a simple introduction. If it was evident someone was trying to befriend him for opportunistic intentions, he'd call them out in either an obvious or inconspicuous manner, depending on his mood. A shy character? He'll gently help them into the conversation, finding a common ground for the other to thrive.

Dream didn't claim this method to be perfect, but he learned from his mistakes when he miscalculated an anomalous personality, refining the routine as much as his experience would allow.

With time, he grew used to knowing what people wanted, their emotions and even their reactions ahead of time. Imagine the utter bewilderment when he met the certain brunette-haired Brit that defied the entirety of his process.

George confused him to put it simply. He didn't show emotions like others so evidently did. He was able to subconsciously control his body language to such an extent that it was impossible to understand what he was feeling, unless the other wanted him to. Dream befriended the man for the sole purpose of figuring him out.

The blonde was never one to give up. Dream kept him talking, fruitlessly analyzing the dialogue and pulling out his dusty old textbooks to try and find something, anything to figure this dude out. He found that it was useless, something psychologists called an emotional outlier. These were people who either have the natural ability or mastered the ability to completely conceal emotional response.

There was something so exciting about not being able to predict the other's reactions. He even spent weeks of his time learning to code plugins into Minecraft, what he thought was a useless skill at the time, just to catch the man's attention and hold a conversation. He found himself being drawn to George, making every excuse to spend time with him.

When he stopped obsessing over the fact that he couldn't read George like he could everyone else and started enjoying his company, he realized that the Brit's personality was as interesting as his natural psychology. By the time he recognized his feelings, there was nothing he could do. He had already fallen for George.

He was able to use his interpersonal skills to obscure his raw feelings, filtering his words into seemingly meaningless compliments and teasing as they gained popularity. Their friendship grew stronger through the years and he forced himself to tuck away his feelings, neatly locking them away into the file cabinet that was his mind.