Antique Secrets

Chapter 3: Obsidian Covered Amethyst

summary:
at what point does video game logic not become a reasonable explanation?

dream isn't sure but he is very quickly reaching that point.

notes:
this man... is a dumbass /pos

a self aware dumbass but we love him nonetheless.

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chapter text:

between staring down xd and staring down techno, dream would’ve preferred the god. xd may be of eternal power and inhuman but that was strange enough that dream could laugh at his very concept. a god playing as a game system was ridiculous to begin with.

nothing about techno was funny. his dry humor was the exception but it wasn’t like techno was trying to make a joke. no, instead he seemed serious about… whatever it was he was trying to confront dream on. he couldn’t think of anything he’d done wrong. just his horrible social skills that did not belay the apparent four, which might be a five with that modifier, he had in charisma.

“what are you?” dream snapped out of his thoughts at the unexpected question. out of everything that had happened in the past few hours, that was not something he thought he’d be asked about. maybe ‘why did you transfer here’ or ‘how are you liking the school’ or something more normal. not a question about… what? his species?

“huh?” dream tilted his head, confusion plain to see. he thought it was pretty obvious he was human, he didn’t have pointy ears or shiny scales or massive wings. techno didn’t seem to agree, glowering further. at least, the glow didn’t get any stronger.

“i’m asking what you are,” techno repeated, eye twitching as he was forced to ask again. dream took a step back, suddenly and queerly aware of how easily the man could kill him. those muscles weren’t for show and a static energy in the air held the potential for things dream couldn’t even begin to guess.

“human, just human, why?” dream replied, voice shaking from nerves. it was an honest reply, nothing in his character sheet implied he’d become anything but human. the words ‘human’ were literally right there. not that he could just show that to techno, or say it like that without sounding insane.

“you expect me to believe that after the stunt you pulled?” techno was… actually dream had no idea what emotion that was. a stressed tone but almost confused gleam mixed with a nearly invisible shaking in his body. dream took a step back, techno took a step forward.

“yes?” dream answered despite having no idea what his ‘stunt’ even was, “why? want to know if we’re compatible?” fuck, no, god damnit , don’t just say things like that! he flinched at his own words. was this the flirt skill acting up or was he really so stupid? he didn’t want to believe he was but the evidence was piling up quickly.

as if physically shocked, techno jerked back. tension snapped in the air like a twig as dream decided he was already in far too deep and had literally nothing left to lose. he leaned in, fluttering his eyelashes in the most obnoxious way possible and clutching his hands over his chest. if the ground weren’t solid concrete, he would’ve fake swooned too. just really top off his dumb decision making skills.

“there is something seriously wrong with you,” techno decided, rolling his eyes so hard it hurt to look at. or maybe that was his body trying to reject the rock in his hand because it began to hurt like a motherfucker. lacing pains all up his arm as it hummed and hawed. it was offensive or maybe he’d somehow offended the thing by… by something.

“there is,” dream agreed like an idiot, “i’m hungry, anywhere i could get some food ‘round here?” now that… was not a lie. it was just a bad redirection of the conversation as he balled his hand into a fist and tried not to cry. well, no, it wasn’t that painful but fuck if the didn’t want to claw it out of his hand. it was just not worth the effort.