/M/n POV/

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I blew a piece of hair out of my face. It felt so strange to have a brown streak in my hair. I had always produced white hair, so it was different.

I'm sorry.

It's not your fault, darling.

Can you leave your mask off ? You're so pretty, I wanna see you.

My hand moved on their own, storing my mask in my inventory.

Dream shifted on the floor. He had been laying in that position for fourteen minutes. The shackles on his wrist clinked. I glanced at them and cringed.

Brings back bad memories.

Mine, not Ghostburs'.

Except restraints had been made of a much stronger material. I subconsciously rubbed my wrists. I could still feel the ghosts of old metal, rubbing harshly against my skin. My hand then traveled down to my ankles. Ankle chains were always a pain.

I heard a rustling from across the cell, and I raised my head. Dream had switched his seating position, he was now sitting with his legs tucked, fiddling with his fingers. I looked at him for a second before opening my inventory.

"Here," I said, handing him the object. Dream reached for it but cursed as his handcuffs got caught. Pursing my lip, I let out a huff of air through my nose. Cracking my neck, I sat up.

Reaching towards Dream, I paused as he flinched.

That surprised me. From what I had heard the others say, he was some kind of maniac that could and would manipulate you if he got the chance. A confident ex-leader that would fight until the end. Someone to fear.

But now, as I looked at him, I realized that he was so much more messed up then he let on. What happened while he was in here?

When he stilled, I continued to reach. My eyes flickered to his cuffs, and he noticed. He raised his arms slightly, and I took a gentle hold of the chain.

Can you help him?

Smiling slightly, I squeezed my hand, I could hear the chains creak. Squeezing harder, they bent. Then, they snapped. Small chunks of metal fell into my hand, which I threw behind me. Into the wall of lava.

Dream stared at his hand, opening and closing it. Stretching his fingers. He looked at me for a second before looking at the toy I had given him. It was a small plastic circle made of linking pieces, so it would move in different directions.

"What is this?" he whispered, quickly becoming transfixed with the toy. I smiled lightly as he wound the toy between his fingers, twisting and winding it to his hearts' content.

"I call it a Tangle", I said, watching in amusement as his fingers got caught.

(This is an actual thing irl, it's a fidget toy)

I covered a forming smile with my hand, and Dream paused. He looked at me, then the Tangle, then back at me. "Can I keep this?" he asked quietly, and I was taken aback.

"Huh?"

"Can I keep this? I never have anything to do in here, I can't focus on anything, and it's driving me nuts," Dream explained. I barely hesitated, "Yeah, sure keep it." Then we just sat there. In silence.

I bit the inside of my cheek. This is frustratingly awkward.

"So, I'm guessing you don't have much to do in here?" I inquired, and Dream nodded.

He twisted the toy again, "Yeah", he hummed, "All there really is to do is stare at the lava wall, write in one of the books, or try to sleep. Sometimes I'll get visitors. Sometimes an old friend, sometimes," Dream shivered, "A tormentor. Other than that, I think everyone else hates me."

After that sentence, he trailed off. And for a while, it was quiet again. Until...

"Do you hate me?"

I hesitated this time. "I-,"

Did I hate him?

"I don't know," I said, shaking my head. "I don't hate you in particular. I just hate what you've done to everyone. The wars, the exile, the trauma you've caused those kids. I care about them, obviously," I paused and sighed heavily.

"But for some reason, I also care about you. You may have been a leader, maybe even a king at one point. But now? You're just a broken kid in an obsidian cell. Cut off from all his friends and family. Stuck for the rest of his life.

You've done some fucked up things, most of which you probably won't be forgiven for. People hate you, hate what you've caused. But in my experience, there are always those who will stick by you. Even if it's just yourself. Even if you haven't met them yet.

People hurt. They cause hurt. They experience hurt. It's a part of life. But some people learn to live with it, to heal it. Maybe not by themselves, but everything heals. Eventually, with time. It may not disappear completely, but it will fade.

And there are those days where you feel like the world is going to implode on itself. Rip itself to shreds while you can only stand and watch. Some people are afraid of chaos, some thrive in it. The only difference is that one of them has let go.

You'll only be destroyed if you let it happen. I may not like your Dream, but somewhere in there, there's a heart. Believe it or not. Tommy told me about the revive book. As much as you want to believe, the book won't make you a god, it only brings people back from the dead. Which Kristin wasn't very happy with, by the way.

At the end of the day, you're still human. You can be killed, just like anyone else. Luckily for you, I have no such intentions. I can't say that the others don't, though.

Basically", I continued, "I don't hate you. But you're a shit person, you've hurt a lot of people, and I honestly don't know if you're capable or willing to change."

I could feel Dream staring at me through his mask. His presence has shrunk since I had started talking. "Why do you talk like that?" He asked, tilting his head to one side. My eyebrow raised. Of course, I knew exactly what he was talking about. But I wanted to hear it in his own words.

"You talk like you've seen it all. Everything that's ever happened, or will happen. You talk like you know everyone, who they are, who they will be. Like you made them. During your whole, speech," Dream said, making quotation marks around 'speech', "You never stumbled, not once. You knew what you were going to say before you said it.

My eyes scrunched slightly as I smiled. "Believe it or not", I said, "I'm older than you think I am. I'm not some baby that was born yesterday."

"...How old are you?" Dream asked, pointing at me.

I shrugged, "I stopped counting after twenty-seven years. So I'm not exactly sure."

You're older than I am!

I twitched slightly, I forgot Ghosbur was there.

Dream made a clicking sound with his mouth and sighed. "How much longer are you going to be here?" I pursed my lip, but my ear twitched when I heard something from outside the cell. "Not much", I whispered, nodding my head in the direction of the lava wall. I could hear faint talking, and then a soft 'heh?'

"Techno's here", I muttered, and Dream visibly recoiled. "Why?" He hissed, and I just shrugged and snapped my fingers. "No clue", I said as Secret appeared next to me, "But you can tell me when your sentence is up," I said, smiling.

But his sentence is forever?

Exactly.

Dream opened his mouth to say something, but Secret teleported me at that moment.

I reappeared inside my house. "Thank you Secret", I said, and Secret bowed, then teleported away. There was a knock at my door. Opening it, I was met with the faces of Tommy and Ranboo. "Whoa, what happened to you?" Ranboo asked, referring to my... new look.

Tommy!

"It's not important, what's up?" I asked, moving to the side so they could enter. Tommy shook his head, "We don't mean to stay here that long. Ranboo was just wondering some stuff about endermen, and you were the only person we could think of to come to."

Ranbo just nodded eagerly, and I smiled. "Sure, what's up?"

Ranboo held up a finger, "Okay, you know how when you", he paused, cringing, "kill, an enderman, they drop an enderpearl, right?"

I nodded.

"Their eyes are purple, so why is the ender pearl a green color?" he finished, and I let out a soft 'ahh'.

I've been wondering that, too.

"That's because", I started, "The enderpearls they drop aren't the ones they use to see."

"So where the heck is the enderpearl kept?" Tommy asked, "They don't have fuckin secret pockets that they can keep them in."

"They do, actually."

Tommy startled, "Huh?"

"The enderpearls are kept in a secret pocket of the endermens skin. More like a skin flap, but anyway. It's basically a socket with a skin covering to keep the pearl out of view. Ranboo, can you turn around for me?" I asked, and he complied.

Walking over to Ranboo, I gently lifted a small portion of his hair and placed my fingers over a specific spot. It was kind of in that area where your neck folds in when it gets tickled. "Hmm", I hummed, "I don't know if you have one. But you're younger, so it might not have developed yet."

"I might get one?" Ranboo asked, and he turned around, practical stars in his eyes. I tilted my hand side to side, in a 'so-so' motion. "Kind of. Enderman hybrids typically have the ability to teleport, just shorter distances. So the enderpearls would be smaller."

"Do you have one?" Tommy asked, he looked just as interested as Ranboo.

"Do I-, yes, I do actually? Do you guys wanna see?"

They both nodded, hard.

I took hold of my hair and shifted it over my shoulder. Pressing the back of my neck, I found the thin fold of skin and carefully pried it up. I gestured for both of them to go behind me and Tommy yelped.

"What the fuck?!" He shrieked, "It blinked at me!"

I laughed, "Oh yeah, did I forget to mention that part? The eyes are perfectly functioning, we just don't use them."

"That is so weird", Ranboo whispered in aw, waving his hand in front of it. I could feel it move to look at him, which was honestly the worst part.

Tommy's hand moved, "Tommy if you poke it, I swear to XD," I said, and his hand went back to his side.

"YӨЦ ᄃΛᄂᄂΣD?" Came a voice from behind me, in my house, Tommy and Ranboo shrieked. "Boys", I said, pointing towards the door, "Out. Now."

"But-"

"Now," I said firmly, and the two bolted out.

"Now", I said turning around to confront the thing before me, "What is it you want...

XD?"

TBC-

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I watched my first MCC Championship today :D

Ranboos POV

Congrats Orange Ocelots, good job Grian.

I only saw Eret for a second, but omfg I loved the skin they had chosen.