I'm on a roll :)
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When George was sure they couldn't be heard from the camp anymore, he stopped and let go of Dream's arm. "How could I be so stupid?!", he hissed, facepalming. "You don't know the cultural specialties of the merfolk!"
Great. Now I'm stuck with a clueless siren pretending to be a citizen of a town I've barely know heading straight for a war. How the fuck did this happen?
One month ago the worst thing I had to do was sit in the most boring private class in the whole ocean and pretend I give a fuck about it while watching my little sister sleep with fake open eyes painted on her eyelids.
Neptune, I miss her... and Skeppy... and maybe even dad a little bit. He may not care about me a lot, but he's still my dad. And maybe, maybe somewhere deep inside he does care...
Ugh, what am I thinking?! I don't need him to care! I don't need him at all! I've survived being captured by humans, laying on the surface for way too long, and so on! I even spend weeks with a siren! Which is... swimming right in front of me waiting for me to continue...
He cleared his throat. "Um, anyway... I'm gonna have to teach you the basics. For example, the handshake is something we took over from the humans when we first had contact with them-"
"But not now", Dream interrupted. "Why not?", George asked. "Because right now we're being left behind by a bunch of soldiers, which it took us forever to find", Dream pointed out.
"We're being left behind?!" Alarmed, George looked over to the group of tents, only to see that there weren't any tents anymore.
A group of about thirty mermen was waiting in the middle of the clearing while Punz was doing a roll call.
"Quick!" George pulled Dream back to the others and they got in the line just as Punz reached them. "Dream?", he asked. "Present", Dream responded.
"Dream's wierd friend?" "Prese- hold up. Did you just call me "Dream's wierd friend"?!" George stared at the merman with a murderous look in the eyes. As if that's all that describes me! My connection to Dream doesn't define my entire existance!
"Well, I don't know your name. "Punz shrugged.
"Excuse me, my name is George you-" George started rambling a bunch of unpleasant names. While the soon-to-be-soldiers including Dream looked terrified by his knowledge of language, Punz' look was blank. Finally, he interrupted: "Fine. George then?" Satisfied, George nodded. "Present.", he said proudly.
"Alright then", Punz sighed, "Let's go."