The first thing Dream did with that information was plug the name GeorgeNotFound into every website he could under the cover of the night. There was no way George didn't know what Dream was doing when Dream excused himself from the dinner table early, but that was fine; Dream figured conducting investigation right there in front of George would be a tad rude.

The results were strange, to say the least.

Nothing popped up when he typed the name into Instagram or Twitter, but there were multiple for other platforms. GeorgeNotFound on YouTube was a small channel with less than a hundred subscribers. GeorgeNotFound on Twitch had an even fewer amount of followers. Both platforms had the same profile picture and biography. In fact, they linked to each other, meaning George must've had at least some videos up.

But it was all expunged. It was like somebody had gone through everything manually and wiped it clean.

George couldn't have done it himself right before Dream uploaded his video. He wouldn't have. George had trusted him with what could be the key to his past life; Dream would put his trust in George, too. Besides, George didn't seem to care too much about what happened to his identity online after he died. The only person who did was...

Ah. His friend must've purged those accounts.

But why would that friend leave the accounts themselves behind? He surely must've known how to completely wipe them from existence if he completely purged the rest of George's identity everywhere else. On top of that, the profile picture and biographies were left completely untouched. If he went as far as deleting every video that was uploaded or streamed, why not delete those, too?

Dream looked further. No channel was listed under George's affiliated channels or his streamer suggestions. They were either deleted or nonexistent.

There he was at another dead end. George clearly thought there was something more here; he wouldn't have chosen this specifically as a hint otherwise. There had to be something more beyond the surface.

... Was he seriously going to write another Java script to scrape for any mention of GeorgeNotFound? That seemed to be the only option left.

That and George had trusted him with that username for a reason. He had made that bet for a reason. Even if he didn't want to outright tell Dream about his past life, he set the breadcrumbs in a methodical manner in front of Dream, trusting he was smart and determined enough to crack the case. Trusting he cared enough to crack the case.

And he was right: Dream cared more than he liked to admit.

Dream groaned and opened Eclipse.

The plug-in for his next video would have to wait. George was far more important than any YouTube video.

Actually...

Dream opened his video on YouTube and scrolled down to the description. He had included a link to his Twitter in the description, but maybe he should—

Yeah.

Dream smiled and read the new addition to himself.

"Special thanks to George :)"

*

"What script is this for?" George asked, pausing from his humming. He swung his legs back and forth from his spot on a clean part of Dream's work desk. "You were working in Python for the client from yesterday, weren't you?"

Dream shrugged and opened a word document. He typed, Project for a new client. Kinda threw the Python project on someone else.

George scoffed and rolled his eyes, but Dream spotted the split second smile from the reflection of his monitor. "You're the worst type of coworker, you know that?"

Dream only shrugged and laughed.

"But, you know," George said, turning his head back down to browse through various documents on Dream's desk. "I've been dead for quite a while now. You start to miss stuff like work, even the numbing, soulless kind."

Work? George was a freelance programmer. He probably wasn't talking about the same type of work Dream was thinking of, was he?

What, did you not have any hobbies or anything? Dream typed with a smile on his face to indicate he was joking.

Thankfully, George laughed at that. "I had hobbies, Dream, I wasn't a complete loser. But the biggest part of my life was my work, yeah." He sighed and looked off at nothing, nostalgia and fondness lacing his tone. "I kind of miss it sometimes. I wasn't, like... passionate about a lot of things, but I did enjoy my work."

Work. To George, that was coding.

Dream knew what to do.

Code with me then, Dream typed. You're probably better at coding than me. I could use the help for coding my next plug-in.

Then the shine in George's eyes... exploded into a galaxy of stars, all its light shining down on Dream right now. A bright grin stretched across his face, and Dream's heart melted under the sheer warmth of it.

He was an angel. Of course, Dream had known that since the moment he met him, but god, he was so overwhelmingly radiant Dream felt like the sun itself was shining down on him.

"I'd love to," George said, almost giggling through his words. "How much of the plug-in have you already done? What're you planning to do for your next video? Do you have a list?"

As George rattled off more questions than Dream knew what to do with, Dream turned back to his computer and melted in his seat, thankful George couldn't see the red blooming on his face.

*

The script to scrape for GeorgeNotFound had been easy enough to program. So many pages searched through yielded only one result: a link back to someone with the handle @AlyssaNotFound on Twitter.

Whoever ItsAlyssa was didn't seem to post very much. In fact, it had taken less than a minute to scroll all the way down to the bottom of her Twitter page and read the very first tweet.

ItsAlyssa @AlyssaNotFound
@georgenotfound is my favorite person

Was this... Was this the best friend George had been talking about all this time? It couldn't be, right? Then again, Alyssa could use he/him pronouns. Nothing on Alyssa's profile confirmed nor denied that. Dream could always scrape for Alyssa's name, but he was certain Alyssa was still alive. He'd just feel like a creep then.

And that was how Dream ended up rambling about the ethics of searching too deeply into people's names to George at five in the morning over a lukewarm bowl of cereal.

"Dream, slow down," George said, rolling his eyes. "I can feel you're gonna choke on cereal and I'm gonna have to perform a Heimlich Maneuver on you. Can you summarize all of that but slowly?"

Dream chewed carefully before swallowing the bit of cereal in his mouth. He took a moment before speaking again. "The only thing your hint led me to was this person named Alyssa, but I feel kinda... I don't know, iffy about the morals of searching that extensively into a person."

"Yeah, you probably shouldn't."

"I know, I'm not going to." That was a decision he had made early into his search that night: no stalking people's online identities unless he had their explicit permission. It felt too much like encroaching boundaries.

But there had to be something deeper. There had to be a meaning behind George's hint.

"Is Alyssa the best friend you were talking about?" Dream asked.

George shrugged, then gave him a cheeky grin. Bastard. "I don't know, is she?"

"... She's not, isn't she? You didn't use those pronouns when you were talking about your best friend."

"Why don't you ask her?"

Contacting people who had known George in his past. Now, that was a new one.

Dream frowned at George's trembling hand moving to pick up his cup of water. "Is that really okay?"

"Of course it is. Why wouldn't it be?"

"You're shaking."

"It's a tad cold."

It was the middle of summer in Florida, and the weather was clear. There was no reason for anyone to be cold. And while Dream wasn't sure how temperature worked with non-human entities, he doubted George was cold enough to tremble like that.

"I won't keep searching if you don't want me to," Dream said.

George shook his head after taking a sip of his drink. "I told you the hint. You can do what you want with it."

"I'm serious."

"I'm serious, too."

And he was. George's hand had stopped shivering. It gripped the bottom of the cup, his other hand wrapped around the handle. He sat straight up, and everything around him radiated security. His gaze was hardened, focused. He was completely at attention, ready to refute any argument Dream threw his way. Dream couldn't win against that.

"You look so British right now," Dream breathed.

Then the entire atmosphere shattered, and fits of laughter were released in its stead.

"Dream, what the hell?" George said, laughing. He moved his mouth as if he wanted to say more, but laughter interrupted anything he tried to say after that.

Dream's chest rose and fell erratically as he wheezed out laugh after laugh, his abdomen starting to ache from overuse.

The conversation switched to a different topic. It was only when Dream lied in bed later that night when he realized George had never answered Dream's indirect accusations.

*

The exact words had taken four hours to formulate, but when they did, Dream didn't hesitate on pressing the send button on the Twitter DM.

Dreamwastaken [12:06] Hey, sorry to interrupt your day, but I wanted to ask if you happen to know GeorgeNotFound? Or are open to talking about him?

Dream let out a sigh of relief and leaned back in his seat.

It was lunchtime in the office, but Dream's lunch had gone forgotten on his desk. With George looking away respectfully ("I'm texting my mom, get out," Dream had jokingly said) and scouring through various scripts on Dream's computer. Client confidentiality was probably an issue, but Dream didn't think standard legal procedures applied to angels. Dream was seated in his chair facing the entrance to his cubicle while George stood over the computer.

While Alyssa didn't seem to post a lot, the Tweets in her liked tab were recent enough Dream had good reason to believe she was relatively active on Twitter. And—

Oh. She replied.

Dream tapped on the incoming DM faster than he would've liked to admit.

AlyssaNotFound [12:07] Who's asking?

Dream caught his laugh before it could escape.

That was ominous. It felt like the response of a mafia member who was asked about the boss by somebody on the street. Image of George as a mafia boss notwithstanding, Dream responded.

Dreamwastaken [12:07] I was an online friend of George's. Your profile was the only place I could find George again.

AlyssaNotFound [12:07] How did you meet him?

Good. Not a question he hadn't already thought about, even if he feels bad about lying.

Dreamwastaken [12:07] On MunchyMC

AlyssaNotFound [12:07] Around when?

Dreamwastaken [12:07] Like three to four years ago?

AlyssaNotFound [12:07] And... you know he's not on this planet anymore, right?

Dreamwastaken [12:07] Yeah.

AlyssaNotFound [12:08] Oh.
AlyssaNotFound [12:08] I'm sorry. Give me a moment please.

The messages stopped after that. Dream pocketed his phone with a frown.

Was that the right move? He had tried his best to be gentle with the reminder of a lost friend, but sometimes no amount of carefulness could lighten the hurt from such a reminder. Maybe he should've let bygones be bygones and allowed the subject to finally—

"Dream."

Dream snapped his head up and swung his chair to face George, only for his heart to leap up into his throat from the sheer brightness of George's smile.

"You've coded so much for this company," George said. He turned back to the computer screen, scrolling through years worth of code. "You should look back through them sometime. You've really improved a lot."

Yeah, no. Dream had a feeling he'd throw up if he tried to look at the spaghetti code he had written as an eighteen year old.

But George's smile. He had loved his smile from day one, hadn't he?

*

AlyssaNotFound [19:40] Hey

AlyssaNotFound [19:40] I'm not the best person to talk about this, so is it ok if I hook you up with a friend instead?

The text had come in the middle of a walk in the park with George, silence amongst them as Dream watched George admire the scenery. Or possibly it wasn't simply admiring the scenery, but feeling everything the world had to offer. George had walked out of his apartment as a human, after all. He could feel the intense rays of the summer sun, the savior that was the light breeze, the sound of leaves being tickled by the wind—all the sensations he had taken for granted three years ago.

Dream couldn't know. He wasn't a mind reader, but sometimes he wished he was a bit better at reading George.

Either way, George glanced up when Dream's phone vibrated in his pocket and asked, "Is it anything important?"

"Just a text from my sister," Dream said.

George returned to drifting in his own world without complaint. Dream had the feeling they both needed this moment of silence.

Dreamwastaken [19:41] Yeah, it's totally cool

Dreamwastaken [19:41] Sorry if this just came out from left field by the way, didn't mean to surprise you

AlyssaNotFound [19:41] No worries! I'm gonna redirect you to my friend @CallahanIsCool

AlyssaNotFound [19:41] He can explain this better than I can

Dreamwastaken [19:41] Thank you!

AlyssaNotFound [19:41] No problem!

The texts felt awfully corporate, but Dream busy enough trying to craft his next Twitter DM. It felt like an eternity before he finally found the right words to say.

Dreamwastaken [19:44] Hey, Alyssa redirected me to you?

CallahanIsCool [19:44] yeah

CallahanIsCool [19:44] you play minecraft?

Dreamwastaken [19:45] yeah? A lot actually

CallahanIsCool [19:45] you play on Munchy?

Dreamwastaken [19:45] yeah

CallahanIsCool [19:45] what's your user

Dreamwastaken [19:45] dream

CallahanIsCool [19:45] just dream?

Dreamwastaken [19:45] yeah

Dreamwastaken [19:45] i used to be dreamonpvp, but im dream now
CallahanIsCool [19:46] alright hold up

"Dream, look at this."

Dream looked up from his phone and offered George a smile. "Yeah?"

"I've never seen this type of flower before," George said, holding up a purple flower with five short stems protruding from the middle. Thinner, longer strands of purple were extended all around the flower just above the typical array of petals.

Oh! Dream's definitely seen those around his mother's garden before.

Dream reached a hand out to stroke the petal of the flower. "It's a passion flower. They grow a lot here in Florida."

"Oh. They definitely don't in the UK."

"No shit, idiot." Dream took his hand off the flower and offered him a smile. "Passion flowers are pretty cool. Did a project on them in third grade, I think."

"What'd you learn?"

"Absolutely nothing."

George laughed. Dream followed suit soon after.

"It was a project from over a decade ago," Dream said, chuckling. "What did you expect?"

Even after George's laughter faded away, a grin remained on his face. "Better, I suppose." But his smile melted into something sadder as he glanced back down at the flower.

Dream frowned. "You alright?"

"Yeah. Just thinking."

And there was nothing anyone could do to bug the thoughts out of George when he said that. Dream had to let him keep his distance, and it was the hardest thing he's ever had to do.

His phone buzzed again. Great timing, Callahan.

CallahanIsCool [19:50] k im back

CallahanIsCool [19:50] you cool with passing your phone number to my friend?

CallahanIsCool [19:50] i think youre good, but he still wants to make sure of something first

Huh. What was the first rule of Internet safety he had learned for his cybersecurity certification? Wow, he wondered.

"Hey, George," Dream called. "Do you trust your friends are good people?"

It took George a couple seconds to process what Dream had said before he looked up with furrowed eyebrows. "Yeah? I mean, I would've have been friends with them if I didn't think they were good people."

"Right. Thanks."

George's gaze lingered on him, but he eventually turned to study something else.

Dreamwastaken [19:51] can i know who this friend is first?

CallahanIsCool [19:51] @Punztw

Punztw. He was relatively active on Twitter just like Alyssa, but he tended to post more often than he liked other posts. Links to his other social media outlets were posted in the biography. Scrolling through the last couple of his tweets... he didn't seem like a bad person. Not at all. So was it worth it?

It was for George. That was enough by itself. That, and he could always tank this guy's YouTube and Twitch career if he did anything terrible.

But he'd better double-check.

Dreamwastaken [19:52] Hi, are you Callahan's friend?

Punztw [19:52] yup

Okay. That mystery was solved.

Dream narrowed his eyes as he typed out his phone number to someone he hadn't even known for an hour, all his cybersecurity training be damned.

CallahanIsCool [19:52] thanks
CallahanIsCool [19:52] we'll get back to you in like an hour or smth

He was starting to think this was a scam.

But whatever. Dream pocketed his phone and watched as George reached his hand out to another flower, his smile just as bright as when he looked at the passion flower.

That smile promptly disappeared when Dream tripped over nothing and almost got his head banged up by a boulder, but he appreciated the moment while it lasted.

*

Whatever was causing the hold up must've been exacerbated, because it took far longer than an hour for them to get back to him.

UNKNOWN NUMBER [23:42]: hey this is Punz. is this the right number?

Dream squinted at the screen and turned off auto-rotate to read the message.

Both him and George had agreed to go to sleep earlier that night (mostly because the sleepier Dream got, the clumsier he was, but he preferred to think he was just taking care of his health), and Dream couldn't be more thankful for that. He renamed the contact in his phone before texting back.

Dream [23:43] yeah, right number

Punz [23:43] ok good

Punz [23:43] sorry for the wait, we were checking some background stuff

Well, that was ominous. But Punz sent another text before Dream could ask.

Punz [23:44] you free right now?

Dream [23:44] i guess so yeah

Punz [23:44] cool

Punz [23:44] get on munchy

Punz [23:44] you should have access to a new thing now

A new thing? How vague.

Punz [23:44] oh by the way
Punz [23:45] i dont mean to scare you or anything like that but

Punz [23:45] lmao actually i do

Punz [23:45] we're trusting youre who you say you are
Punz [23:45] we have your phone number

Punz [23:45] if you mess up anything on that thing you have access to

Punz [23:45] i'll personally destroy your life :)

Punz [23:45] the others will too but me especially

Oh, huh. They meant business. But there was one flaw with that argument.

Dream [23:46] don't i have your phone number too?

Punz [23:46] burner phone

Dream [23:46] oh ok

Dream [23:46] well you have no need to worry

Punz [23:46] for all of our sakes, i hope you mean that

And he did. For George, and for every single one of his friends.

Dream climbed out of bed and crawled onto his chair, booting up his computer with a yawn. By the way Patches (who had apparently fallen asleep on the floor next to him) stretched and paused before jumping up into his lap, he supposed Patches had been woken up from his footsteps. He murmured a quick apology before logging onto Minecraft and opening the server.

He hadn't been on in some time, actually. The hub still looked the same as always, with the same character avatars standing in their respective places. Being the middle of the night during the summer, the server had a good amount of people in it.

But there was something new in his hotbar: an enchanted golden helmet labeled "404".

Huh. That was strange.

Dream hovered over the item in his hotbar and right-clicked, only to be taken to a loading screen.

And when the world finally loaded, his world screeched to a halt.

.

.

.

Punz [13:22] dude you didnt delete that tweet???
Alyssa [13:22] of course i didnt
Alyssa [13:22] how could i
Alyssa [13:22] george is my favorite person. it's the truth and i will defend it
Alyssa [13:22] no matter what.
Alyssa [13:23] and i know you know the feeling punz.
Punz [13:23] ...