Chapter Text
New spawns have happened to him before. Not in recent years, but he knew how it should have gone. One sudden change in your world's code, and you were thrown into another one with no warning. This time, they had planned everything. His friends told him where they would go. It always went along nicely, the chances of anything happening to him were extremely small.
They told him they would find each other back on a small island, dune of sand from a purple land, surrounded by ocean waters. It would be nice, and they would start over once more.
But he wasn't in the right place.
He knew something went wrong. It was way too silent.
He had fallen onto teal grass, spruce trees towering over him and covering the ground in soft shadows. The forest seemed nice, calm, but it wasn’t what he expected. There wasn’t any wind from the sea, he couldn't smell the salt from the sea, or hear the babbling of everyone else… There was only the stillness of the forest and its faint breeze, rustling through the leaves far up in the canopy.
There was no one waiting for him. This was a whole other world; a wrong one.
He got up with a sigh, brushing grass blades off of him. The forest felt empty, but despite its emptiness, he spotted footprints, crushed turf, dirt trails spread around. People had clearly been here before him, but apparently they had gone elsewhere.
It could have been his friends, the players he knew and had lived with for years. But they would have left something behind, telling him where to go if he had truly spawned late. No, those strange prints were from unknown people. He had a gut feeling about it.
He walked past the strange markings, carefully listening for any signs of life. But the forest didn't reply, leaving him in a hushed silence. He followed a thin path in the tall grass, until he stumbled upon a wall. A man-made wall to be exact, the cobblestones falling apart at places.
Then… this world was far from new. If it already had ruins, a lot of things could have possibly happened before he arrived. And he could only wonder who the people living in this world were.
He hesitantly got past the wall, through a whole dug at its feet amidst the debris. The forest beyond it was more sparse, opening on a more flat area downhill. The makeshift path in the grass led him towards small buildings in the distance, just slightly visible over the hilly terrain. A large grassland, lodged between forests and rocky hills.
He didn’t know what to expect of this place. The other people in this world were probably strangers to him, and he didn't have any clues about whether they'd be friendly to newcomers or not, including him.
He wasn't expecting anybody to be waiting for somebody new to come, and yet—
“Well I’m glad you didn't run away. Makes it easier to find you.”
The sudden voice startled him to a point where he nearly fell over again. Raising his hands defensively to cover his face, he looked around wildly, trying to find the source of the voice. But when he found it, what he saw made him hide a startled gasp.
Casually crouching atop the cobblestone wall, a bright white creature was laughing under its breath, seemingly amused by the fright it caused him. The neon green and deep black patterns on its limbs contrasted with the nearby trees, to a point where the creature almost looked unreal or even fake. A purple armour covered parts of its body, a material he had never seen before.
It stopped laughing before straightening its back, jumping down the wall without a sound. It looked like nothing he had ever seen before — it was quite disproportionate, almost twice his size; it had a round face with a large smile, and long arms with giant claws. It felt like a flat character drawn on thin air, despite seemingly being made of flesh and fur.
It stretched a paw toward him.
“Grian, right?” It asked, but didn’t give him time to answer the question. “Name's Dream. I'm the admin.”
He didn't want to shake its — his? — paw. Or his hand, whatever. Grian stood there hesitantly, the creature's smile beginning to feel insistent despite it remaining unchanged. Eventually, the smaller being in red nervously stretched his hand out towards the creature, ridiculously tiny in comparison.
Dream shook it briefly before dropping it, instead patting the newcomer’s shoulder. What was probably meant to be a reassuring tap ended up making Grian trip, causing the creature to chuckle.
“So you've already seen the spawn chunk;” Dream started, “there’s nothing much to see here. But I can show you around the main area.” He turned around, gesturing with his arms for Grian to follow him to the path downhill.
“What is this place?” Grian asked, jogging to catch up with the creature's pace. His voice sounded rough, like he hadn't talked in days.
“My land,” Dream answered simply. His stance was very different now that he was walking. His back was hunched over, arms falling to his side, and he kept a lumbering pace. He looked more like a wild animal than a player, almost like a predator looking for prey despite the constant, friendly smile on his face.
Grian frowned. Was Dream the only player here? If so, how could he have fallen here? The creature had mentioned being an admin though; single players didn't usually present themselves as such.
“Why am I here?” he dared to ask, to which Dream chuckled once again, throwing up his hands.
“No idea!” he said. “Nobody knows. Could be luck. Or could be fate. A dozen others fell and asked the same thing before you.”
The two fell silent, Grian slowly falling a bit behind as they walked. He had somehow drifted apart from his friends during the world switch. The smaller one didn't have a lot of knowledge about universe code, but he was sure that his admin wouldn't have left any of them behind. An error, he decided. It had to be an error.
“Come on,” Dream called, noticing how much Grian had fallen behind. “I still have things to show you. Can’t let you go into the wild like that.”
They continued down the path in an awkward silence, Grian still trailing after Dream. They went by a tall obsidian portal, clumsily decorated with a mixture of different types of stone. “We have a nether hub, but the bridges are pretty dangerous out there,” Dream mentioned offhandedly as they passed it by.
The portal's hill was just above what seemed to be the main settlement of the world. Seeing it up close, Grian noticed that the builds were damaged in many ways, dented and missing bits and pieces. A straight path ran through the middle of the whole area, small builds randomly placed on both sides of the road. Remains of old builds, trash, and debris were left scattered across the floor.
A stairway led them down the hill, joining back to the wooden path at a lake, where a brick house stood in the middle of it. The path went through the symmetrical house, splitting the lake into four directions with four identical paths.
Dream gestured towards the area “That's the main area. Most of us have settled there.” He headed down the steps. “You can settle somewhere around that area. I don't think the others would have a problem with that.”
The creature led the smaller one toward the building over the lake. Walking over the floating deck, Grian took a quick glance over the water. He still looked like a child despite having years to his name, not that it ever bothered him. His brownish hair was long enough that it almost covered his dark eyes, and the bottom of his face was hidden by the large collar of his red jumper. He could see the straps of the black harness holding the jumper close to his chest.
At least he was still himself.
He lingered behind for a while, distantly hearing Dream talking about the building — how it was a communal house, and that he could take stuff from there if he wanted to. But Grian was drifting in his thoughts. When was the last time he fell into a new world, knowing nothing about it? How much time did it take for him to get along with the other players? How long would he have to stay here?
Next thing he knew, Dream was standing right next to him, towering over his body.
“Did you hear me?” he asked, startling Grian. He tilted his head.
“Uh— yeah, the community house, right?” said Grian, laughing nervously.
The creature chuckled once more. It was a laugh that had started becoming familiar to him, by the number of times Dream had laughed so far.
“Take this,” Dream eventually said, holding out two objects in his hands that Grian recognised.
The first was a gray bag, serving as an inventory. The second was a small device with a screen, for communication and coordinates. Grian took them, slinging the bag over one shoulder. Those were items that players got from the beginning, when spawning somewhere new. Even if it took a bit of time, depending on the world, they would get it within minutes of exploring their new surroundings
It wasn't until that moment that Grian realised he had nothing on him so far.
“This world is… Well let’s just say it acts weirdly sometimes,” Dream said, shrugging. “I have to do stuff on my own to keep things working.”
"Hm." Grian glanced at Dream. "Thanks," he said before throwing a quick look at the screen. It was the same as any other world — his name was written already, and the screen was filled with technical information on one side, and the chat on the other.
232 / 63 / -245, plain biome, day 394, 14 players awake.
So far, the chat comprised of a line that said 'Grian fell' and a bunch of 'hi's or surprised messages from other people.
Dream gave another pat on Grian's shoulder. This time, the smaller one didn't trip.
“There's probably some food in the chests if you need it. I didn't check,” Dream said, coming back on his steps from minutes earlier. “You'll meet the others soon. They're nice enough.”
Just as Dream seemed ready to leave, he raised his head, thinking visibly for a moment before turning back towards Grian and gesturing with his long arms.
“And one last thing. You may hear about something called… L'Manberg .” As he spoke, Dream's smile looked deadly serious, more menacing than before. “Don't join them. You're worth better than that.”
Once again, Grian didn't get the chance to reply, the creature leaving before he could get a word in edgewise.
And so, he found himself standing alone in the doorway of the Community House. Lost and stuck in a random world where people seemed to have fallen in by mistake, with an admin who left Grian with an eerie feeling despite his cheery attitude and smiling demeanor. An admin who seemed perfectly fine with strangers dropping into his world, stuck there with no escape."
Grian sighed, holding the new stuff he got close to his chest. If he had to stay in these strange lands for a while, he should at least try to set himself up somewhere, get himself a small house to wait in. Moving away from the Community House, Grian followed the path, hoping to find a place that was less crowded.
He already wanted to leave. What could he even expect from this world, ruled by a bizarre green and white character? His friends would be waiting for him, looking for him, trying to find out why their last member hadn't made it.
Or so he hoped.
If not, then… He'd have to look for a way out of Dream's territory. Grian had to get to HC-7, like he should have been.