Chapter Text
The Omega Timeline.
It had grown over the years, with the truce in place and all. The settled peace had allowed the safe haven to thrive, cities growing and an entire society developing in the space Core Frisk had provided for the refugees. Heck, it even opened up to allow visitors in if they had the right qualifications, and now it felt like everyone lived there now. Some might have even forgotten that it was originally just an empty void to begin with, but with everyone’s help, it was everything it needed to be and more.
Though of course, with all the spare time the now retired ‘Star Sanses’ had, more and more outcodes were being found by the day. Every last one they found varied in age, from toddlers to grown adults, and the large amount was starting to become a slight issue- especially since most, if not all of them, had no clue what the multiverse entailed.
(Plus, Ink couldn’t possibly keep all of them in his house, let alone keep an eye on them..)
So with that, the council got together and came up with the idea to put a school in place, covering a wide range of grades and information, while also providing dorms for the older outcodes that could handle themselves. Naturally, the younger ones were placed in the care of monsters willing to care for them, making sure everyone was settled before the school finally opened..
The amount of people in the area was stressful to say the least, and the flood of emotions from everyone was even more so. First day of school jitters were now on his list of least favorite things, Dream had decided, the small hand of one of the toddlers he’d been tasked with taking care of held in his own. This small skeleton at least seemed somewhat relaxed with the situation, large blue-yellow stars peering up at him from under a hat that was just slightly big for his head. The guardian looked down at the young outcode, putting a soft smile on his face as he crouched down to his level and slid the little bag off his shoulder, handing it to the toddler.
“Alright, Palette. Are you ready?” Dream fixed the hat on the child’s head, helping adjust the backpack before standing up. The small one nodded, beaming up at him as he grabbed onto his hand tighter and pulling. Very ready , he thought, relief washing over him.
“Okay, let’s go, then.” He released Palette’s hand, keeping close while the child excitedly ran through the crowd towards the large front doors of the building. Dream gazed up at the intricate design on the outside- Ink had probably put far too much effort into it, now that he was really looking at it, though it couldn’t be helped now.
The guardian went in, making sure the little one made it with the correct teacher- a tall sans dressed in robes with a delta rune- signing the papers confirming Palette’s attendance. Before leaving, he waved a small farewell to the child and promised his return at the end of the day, watching as he was led away with the rest of the class.
“It sure is busy, isn’t it?”
Dream jumped, not expecting someone to come up right behind him. He turned, laughing softly when he saw Ink standing behind him with a pair of incredibly bored looking teenagers.
“Yeah, it sure is. I knew there were a lot of them but.. I didn’t expect them all to actually show up.” He gave a polite little wave to the two accompanying Ink, only one of them actually waving back- the other was focused on a tablet of some kind.
“Well of course they all showed up, I was the one shooing them out of my house!” Ink huffed, waving off Dream’s comment. “But yeah, still.. It’s a ton of kids. Apparently there's still a few more wandering about according to some of the ones that can travel the multiverse.” Ink grinned when he saw Dream cringe. “Oh, don’t worry though, I won’t toss you another one unless you wanna! By the way, this is Paperjam and Gradient, they’ll be staying in the West Wing dorms.”
Oh, right. He remembered those two, they were in the first group they’d come across when cleaning up the old battlefields. The inky one had put up quite the fight, arguing that they were all doing perfectly fine and ‘didn’t need help’- Dream shuddered, remembering the state they’d found them in. He was still surprised at how much of everyone’s magic there was laying around, enough to create all the outcodes gathering into the school at the moment.
“Right, hello again.” Dream made another attempt to greet them both, only to get a glare from Paperjam as he wandered off to find his teacher.. Probably. Thankfully, Gradient at least gave him a soft ‘hello’ in response before heading off in a different direction. Ink laughed.
“Don’t mind them, they’re just upset they had to get up so early.” The protector grabbed Dream by the hand, leading him back out the front doors of the school and around the side to where a few classes had already gathered for an outside physical education lesson. “You know, I really think this was a good idea. Not just to get my house a little a lot more empty, but to also keep a better eye on all of them and make sure they, y’know, get a little education!”
Dream gave him a doubting look, convinced that at least fifty percent of Ink’s agreement to the school was to get all the loud children out of his home. He moved his attention to the groups of teens- mostly skeletons, he noted- settled in different places in the field. Multiple games were set up for them all to cycle through, including hurdles around the track.
“I’m glad it was all set up without much trouble. It’ll be good for them.” The guardian hummed, taking a seat on the grass and watching as one of the classes started lining up to take laps around the track.
“Definitely. I’m a little surprised that Blue took in so many of the little guys- well, more surprised that Stretch is letting him take them all in.” Ink said with a teasing tone, taking a seat next to Dream.
“Oh, you know he’ll just spend his time out at one of the Muffet’s or Grillby’s.” Dream sighed, hissing an inhale as he watched a taller student’s foot get caught on one of the hurdles, the skeleton completely eating the ground below them. Another one quickly got distracted while laughing at their misfortune and tripped as well.
“The kids sure are.. Lively.”
“Right? I think I recognize those two, too. I’m pretty sure that’s one of the classes that has a huge amount of the uh.. ‘bad sans’ outcodes.” Ink cringed slightly. No one had been very happy that the council had decided to split up some of the classes the way they did, but the majority of the votes were clearly in favor of it. “It’s.. Mirage, I think? One of them. The other I’m not sure of.”
Dream didn’t blame him. There were too many to remember
everyone’s
names.
“Ah, well.. It is what it is, I guess..” He’d been one of the ones to vote for random class assignment instead of the designated grouping. “It looks like they’re alright, though.” Dream watched for a little longer- it seemed the one that had tripped first wasn’t very good with the hurdles. Maybe depth perception? He’d have to bring up eye testing to the head of the school. The guardian eventually got up from his seat on the ground, brushing grass off his pants.
“Well, I’m going to go take a nap for a bit. Palette’s a little more rowdy than you might think.”
Ink’s eyelights changed a few times. “Oh, right! I’m glad he’s doing well, y’know.” He hummed, also getting up and stretching a few times. “I totally get it, too. Go get that rest! As long as you wake up in time to come pick him up.”
Dream nodded. “Of course. I’m not that careless.” He sighed, bidding a quick farewell to his friend and heading back home.
“I just hope everyone’s first day goes alright..”