#utmv fanfiction

[mikimakiboo]

Happier Somewhere Else

It's been a while since I wrote some Nightmare angst :)

Thankfully @somegrumpynerd posted a wonderful thought that gave me a boost of inspiration :D ( surprise surprise hope you enjoy :) )

Tw: some self hatred, mention of past bullying, slight abandonment issue, basically just Nightmare badly needing therapy and having a bad time™

- What would you like to do ?

Nightmare asked as Killer turned to look at him, taken aback by the question. His boss rarely asked him about what he would like to do, surely because the determination dripping skeleton always seemed pleased with everything. He was always so enthusiastic about everything Nightmare asked him to do or anywhere he asked him to go, that Nightmare just didn't think Killer would want something else. But his henchman had looked quite... down, lately, he often found him looking through the window, lost in his thoughts, spacing out during dinner or mid conversation, and so he had been worried that he could be longing for something else that Nightmare didn't think of providing, but now that a truce had been established with his brother, it would be easier to satisfy whatever need he had.

Killer thought for a moment, glancing at the window before looking back at Nightmare. Something he wanted to do ? He didn't want to do anything special, but... he did want to go out... did that count as something to do ?

- I... I want to go in the Omega Timeline... to see Color...

Nightmare didn't respond right away, and Killer saw him frown a little, was his answer not what Nightmare expected ? Should he have asked to watch TV instead ?

Nightmare kept staring at him for a few seconds before realizing that he was waiting for an answer.

- I.. sure, you can.. you can go see him...

He hesitated. Killer smiled, giving him a hug that Nightmare didn't know how to reciprocate, before letting him go and leaving to go to his room.

- I'm gonna pack my bag, I'll be back in five minutes !

Nightmare watched him leave, a feeling that he hadn't felt in years emerged in his soul and he had to take a deep breath to try and suppress it. He looked out the window. It was autumn, his favorite season, he loved watching the trees change color and the leaves falling on the ground, the trees in Dreamtale never did that, his AU had been stucked in a perpetual spring due to the Tree of Feelings. His boys always teased him when he called it autumn instead of fall, they always said he was so fancy and sophisticated.

- Hey, uh.. you're good ?

Nightmare turned, Killer was back with his bag on his shoulder. He looked worried. Nightmare forced a smile.

- Yeah, I'm good, I'll take you to the Omega Timeline.

He wrapped a tentacle around Killer's wrist and the two of them dissappear in a puddle, when the reappeared they were in a white void, a spot in the Omega Timeline that was far enough from the city as to not be seen. Nightmare wasn't welcomed here.

Color was already there, Killer must have sent him a message. He looked at Nightmare with suspicion, as he always did, not trusting him near his friend. The black skeleton let go of Killer, watching him run to his friend to hug him full force, his soul radiating happiness and excitation while Nightmare's soul only clenched in his ribcage. When Killer turned around, Nightmare was already gone.

Nightmare reappeared back in the living room, alone, his whole chest burning from the inside. He felt Dust's presence behind him.

- Hey, uh, I saw Killer running out of his room with a bag, you dropped him somewhere ?

- He's.. in the Omega Timeline..

Nightmare answered without turning around. Dust laughed.

- Off being gay with his rainbow boyfriend again ?

Nightmare forced himself to chuckle but he already felt his lips trembling.

- Yeah.. I'll.. be in my office, I have work to do, do not disturb me..

He said before teleporting, leaving Dust in the living room, confused.

He locked the door and went to sit on his chair. What had he done ? Why did he let him go ? Why did he let Killer leave ? Why did he want to leave in the first place ? Wasn't he happy here with them ? He thought he had been happy, he was always so.. so joyful when they were all together... had he been secretly miserable ? So miserable that now that there was a truce he saw his chance to leave ? To go be happy with his friend, like Dust said, because he wasn't truly happy here ? What did Nightmare do wrong, what did he not see, for Killer to want to leave this soon ?

Nightmare felt terrible, like a giant weight was crushing him and couldn't get up, he could never get up. He had thought that Killer was happy, he truly believed it, but he asked him to leave, and Nightmare hadn't found the strength to tell him no, to keep him away from someone who made him smile more then they could ever had. He didn't find the strength to say no, to lock him here and watch him be miserable and knowing he was the cause of his misery. Not again.

He didn't want to be the cause of anybody's misery, not again, not anymore. He had felt so bad, so guilty, each time a villager accused him of causing harm to them or their family. He didn't want to harm anyone, all he wanted was play under the tree with his brother, his brother was always so happy to be with him. He harmed him too. He harmed him each time there was a storm, Dream didn't like thunder, it always made him cry when it was too loud, he was scared. But where did fear come from ? It came from him. From his apples. He knew that if Dream was scared it was because of him, because he guarded those feelings, each time someone felt fear or sadness or despair it was because of him. He knew it. So if Killer was unhappy, it must have been because of him.

His gaze fell on the picture on his desk, a picture taken by Killer, on which there was everyone. They were smiling, Nightmare was in the back, watching them fondly, his boys, his family. He grabbed the frame carefully, holding it with both hands. He loved them so much... were they happy here ? Did they want to go too ? Should he let them go ? He wanted them to be happy, even if it meant they would be far from him...

He sighed, putting the frame back on his desk, he teleported to his room and fell on his bed. Dinner was almost ready, judging by the time, but he wasn't hungry. Horror wouldn't be pleased with him skipping a meal, but he felt like he would throw up if he ate anything. His chest felt too full, ready to explode, he felt like he had something in his throat making his cheeks tingle. He rolled on the other side of his bed, holding a pillow in his arms as his tentacles curled around him in a protective manner. He was breathing faster, louder, his lips were shaking. He felt pathetic. He didn't have the right to cry. He didn't have the right to feel sad that Killer was happy. He should be happy for him ! He should be happy Killer had someone who cared about him ! He should... he should have seen something was wrong... he should have guessed... it wasn't rocket science, he could never make someone happy, that was his brother's role, not his, it had never been his. His role was to make people miserable, and he was good at this job, so good that he himself felt so miserable at that moment.

He didn't find sleep this night, he just kept rolling over and over and over, listening to the others go to bed too. Horror had knocked at his door, informing him that his plate was in the fridge if he was hungry later. He wasn't hungry. He wanted to throw up. He felt disgusted, disgusted of himself for having neglected Killer so much he didn't notice he wasn't happy.

He got out of bed in the morning, later than usual, he felt heavy. He managed to drag himself to the kitchen and sit at the table where the others, minus Killer, were already having breakfast.

- Mornin' Night, want coffee ?

Horror asked, already making some pancakes. Nightmare nodded, not feeling like talking this morning.

- You look down, bad night ?

Cross asked him, worried, Nightmare was usually the first to get up. He nodded again and gave a small smile to Horror when he gave him his mug, sipping on the hot liquid.

He listened to them as they were having their conversation. Did they want to leave too ? Did they have places to go, people to meet, where they would be happier than here ? Did they know Killer wouldn't come back ? Did he already tell them goodbye ?

- You're sure you're okay ?

Dust asked, pulling him out of his thoughts. His hands were shaking on his empty mug. He looked at the hooded skeleton, and the hooded skeleton looked back at him, squinting. Nightmare looked down.

- I'm fine, just.. just thinking about.. about stuff..

He mumbled, not at all convincing, and he knew it. He got up before any of them could ask anything else and teleported back in his office.

Would they also leave him one day ? He couldn't stop thinking about it. Were they unhappy too ? If Killer was unhappy, were they too ? Would he be strong enough to let them go ? Would he be strong enough to get up after their departure ? Would he be strong enough to keep living without them ? Would he live or just exist ? Would they even want to hang out with him from time to time ? To ask how he was doing ? Who would they ask that ? Dream maybe ? How would Dream know ? They haven't spend time with each other for so long... maybe it was time for Nightmare to catch up with his brother ? Maybe it was time he finally did something right in his life ? Something good, instead of making everyone he met feel like a piece of garbage ? Maybe Dream would stay a little... ? At least out of pity... ? He was always so nice, surely he would accept to keep him company from time to time...

His phone buzzed on his desk. Nightmare looked at it, frowning, he rarely received any messages. He grabbed it, unlocking it quickly to see who wanted to contact him. It was Killer.

" You can come pick me up now :D waiting at the usual spot kiss kiss •3• "

Nightmare stared at his screen for a while, reading the message over and over again, until his phone locked itself on its own after being left untouched for too long. He saw his reflection in the black screen. He felt ridiculous. So ridiculous. He wanted to laugh, and he laughed, he laughed at the absurdity of the situation, he laughed until it turned into crying, until he cried and choked on all those tears he was fighting since he dropped Killer in the Omega Timeline, the tears he was fighting in bed, during breakfast, he let his soul pound faster and harder, his chest burn, his throat hurt, and his eye and cheeks sting.

He thought he had lost him, he thought he was gone forever and that he would lose the others too, he had been so scared, and for what ? For nothing. For nothing at all. Killer wanted to come back home, he didn't want to leave, he wanted to come back. He had been so scared, so scared to be alone again, to be this lonely little child again, this little child with no friends, no one to talk to, to play with... a terrified little child who just wanted to love and loved... he didn't want to go back to that, he wanted to stay with his boys, he wanted them to stay with him, they were so precious to him, his whole reason to live, he didn't bear the thought of losing them...

But Killer wasn't gone, they were all still here, all at home, they were with him, and he would make it last as long as possible...

- Hey you sure he got connection in this old ass castle ?

Color asked Killer. They have been waiting for Nightmare for almost an hour when he would usually show up not one minute after Killer sent a message.

- He probably got his head in a book, he's such a bookworm I swear.

Killer chuckled, sitting on him bag, humming happily. How could he not be happy ? He spent the whole day with his best friend and was now going back home to play with his other besties !

He truly couldn't be happier.

[mellybabbles]

Misplaced Royalty - An Undertale Fanfic

Bad sanses x nonbinary afab reader I have high hopes for this one Info under cut!

Misplaced Royalty - Chapter 1 - MelatoninDepicts - Undertale (Video Game) [Archive of Our Own] Hello! I've been thinking about a concept like this for a while, and thanks to the help of @swiftmitsu, I've finally gotten around to starting it!

Here are the designs, some are big differences, others not so much.

Killer - Butler

Dust - Assassin

Cross - Knight/guard

Horror - ???

Nightmare - Outcast

(Art is by me, please do not repost) REBLOGS ARE SUPER SUPER APPRECIATED!! Please do consider giving the fic a shot

[silverstormsxx]

utmv au/fanfic idea

daydreaming about a fanfic where we (the readers) get yoinked into the bodies of one of the sanses (my first thoughts were fresh or ink or blue but could be whatever you want) kris dreemurr style and now we can experience the multiverse firsthand via controlling them :)

it'd be like an interactive story where the readers get to make a decision at the end of every chapter

(feel free to use/expand on this idea however you'd like!)

[ask-codeearasure]

The Outer Realms -- Chapter 17

<-[Previous Chapter]

[Next Chapter]->

Wish to refill Ink's Paints? Go to our Ask Box!

—-----

Chapter Seventeen:

Opposition

—----

“You can’t escape the past. Right? Be a shame if I had to put them on again. Cast Irons… well, it’s hard to clean.” – Vander (Arcane)

—-

“What the hell is that supposed to mean?” asked Error, confused.

Ink had just finished filling him in on the information he got from Edge. Error was right, Dream was not dead, but technically he was dying or in critical condition. Whatever golden apples that other skeleton threw at them back in Dreamtale were probably sick twisted copies of his friend’s soul, but it also implied they probably knew where Dream was.

“I don’t know, who knows where these… Outer-what-ever is at…” Ink shrugged, “I just want to check on my dads before we even begin trying to find it.”

Zephyrtop was the last AU in the lineup anyways. For Error, sorting through the code there would be a breeze while Ink caught up with Gaster, Aster, and his four brothers. And considering the former two were the technical creators of Zephyrtop altogether, the probability of it staying destroyed if they were too late was second to none.

Besides, with two of the very few creators left in the multiverse secure under his belt and held highly in his figurative heart, maybe they could help Ink find Dream. Error could only do so much with a being who had no code to his existence anyways.

“My guess is we’ll have to pick a direction and then just keep going until we find something.” Error huffed, cleaning his glasses with his scarf. He was already annoyed with the prospect of another AU he had to recode, remove another destruction code, and-or adding that blasted counter-command just to keep that weird copy of himself from destroying another AU.

“But what if we go in the wrong direction?” Ink asked.

“Then we can loop around. If they called this place the Inner Circle, then the best assumption we have is that everything is in a circle, we can loop around until we find your side-piece.” Error stated as if it were a simple matter. 

“Dream is not my ‘side-piece’, Error,” Ink hissed through his teeth.

The glitch rolled his eyelights. Though he had to admit, he was downplaying the entire thing. Who knew how many AUs were technically out there. It could be hundreds to millions, a good amount of said AUs likely being destroyed by the copy-cat and thus just being blank white nothingness. So if they made the wrong assumption as to how far they could go or not would mean they’d be searching for days to even years.

Even Error understood they didn’t have much time, but there really was not much they could do outside of participate in these fucking guessing games. At this point playing a game of Russian Roulette would get them closer to finding Dream. They could split up, but Ink and his memory problems were as untrustworthy as a pipe bomb with a broken timer the size of a tactical nuke. You don’t know whether or not you defused the damn thing, and even if you did, would you really trust your life with it? So he was stuck here.

Plus, there was that husk running around, that stupid fucking anomaly wearing Ink’s face without a single care in the world. If there was the copy-cat and the husk, that meant there was the likely chance that they both have a similar history to him and Ink. They likely both fought each other over the same reasons and since that anomaly was a pain in the ass to take down, that meant that the other glitch was also going to be a problem.

Either that, or the only things they had going for them was at face-value.

Or he was overthinking it.

He probably was overthinking it.

Definitely.

There is no way Error couldn’t kick BOTH of those impostors’ asses SINGLE HANDEDLY, NO SWEAT, NO FUCKS GIVEN!

Ink tapped him on the forehead, prompting Error to jump and swat their smaller hand away. His friend wasn’t phased.

“Whatcha thinkin’ about?”

The glitch snorted. “Not much. Are we going to your weird parents’ place or what?”

“Awww, did ya finally wanna meet my old men?” Ink playfully rocked back on his heels, loosely crossing his arms behind his back. “It’s about time, they’ve been asking about you for ages!”

He’s…? There is no way they’ve been talking about him to their fucking parents…? Why would they?

“Uh huh. Sure they were.” Error clicked his tongues in repulsion. “No, I just want to get this over with then go back to my Anti-Void and pretend none of this ever happened.”

“Oh. Okay.” Ink’s face fell, but at least they didn’t push the issue. They opened a portal to Zephyrtop’s motherboard and jumped in. Error followed suit, wishing that one day Ink would learn another way to make portals with literally anything else but paint. He hated the texture.

Both outcodes arrived, Ink pleasantly surprised at the fact Zephyrtop’s motherboard was actually decorated, and Error looking through every nook and cranny of the space to find the coding ‘screen’. 

The motherboard looked like a warehouse, storing blueprints and bullet point-filled cork boards, whiteboards only half cleaned, couches, coffee tables, a couple TV screens overlooking the main plaza, circus, and mansion where Ink’s fathers and siblings lived. It was obvious that through thick and thin, this universe was a well cared for outlier in comparison to the neglect all the others had gone through.

Knowing all this sooner would have made Error’s job so much easier in the past, but now that he’s thinking about this in the current day, any kind of prideful satisfaction the younger him would have gotten was nonexistent. Instead, the destroyer could only define one thing he felt from staring at the larger picture for so long.

Pity.

But of course, only Ink’s family would have given enough of a damn about their home to keep it this vibrant and alive, efficiently and effectively meeting the needs and wants of the characters inhabiting this universe.

It’s almost like being caretakers was a common theme in Ink’s family, and Error definitely didn’t fit the part. He didn’t even understand why he found this revelation so intriguing. It was unsettling, but Error had already been unsettled since before Ink made the portal.

He couldn’t shake the feeling that something was off, like they were being watched.

“I can’t find it,” Error set down the couch he had lifted and flopped on top of it. Since Gaster and Aster were still around and thriving, what was the point of going through this universe’s code? They probably had already thought of something to keep every creation of theirs protected.

“Maybe we should leave; take our chances looking for Dream without them.”

Ink shook his head, but didn’t look his friend in the eye and fiddled with the empty vials on his sash. It didn’t take rocket science for Error to tell he was anxious. The artist had been nothing short of distressed this entire time, both with and without sufficient doses of his paints.

“I can’t do that, Error, I need– I just need to see my dads, man. Maybe they don’t know what’s going on. I mean, they barely get out as is…”

“So what makes you think they’d know what to do?” Error sat up, grabbing a pillow and squeezing it, venting his frustration little by little into the carefully embroidered floral design in the fabric. “You just said they don’t leave as much. They don’t know the multiverse like we do.”

“Yeah, I know that, it’s just–... They’re creators, Error. They have access to some influence over all universes that we don’t!”

“So did XGaster, and look at what happened to him.”

Whatever train of thought Ink was trying so hard to uplift might as well have just crashed and exploded into a trillion pieces. The artist’s hands dropped from their sash, and they didn’t do much aside from stare at the floor. Right. Him. How could he forget?

“XGaster had… ambitions, I guess, but asking any help out of him would’ve been like pulling chicken’s teeth. Impossible,” Ink started. “I don’t really… know where that guy went either.”

“Oh, he's as good as dead,” Error’s tone lightened, using one of his arms to cushion his head and pulled a thread out of his eyesocket with the free one to fiddle with.

“Last I heard, he got killed by his own creations! If only I could’ve seen it myself, but when I went to XTale for any kind of entertainment, nothing was left.”

“Really?” Ink looked up, eyes wide. “Nothing left?”

“Nada!” Error twirled the string around his index finger, grinning to himself in amusement. “If anything did survive, maybe Dream or that BUG Core!Frisk got to them first.”

Maybe Ink should check the Omega Timeline for them later. He slightly recalled the XTale inhabitants primarily having a black and white color palette for their clothing, but because he had to juggle an overabundance of creators around the same time that AU was active, it’s not like he could go out of his way to give it any special attention.

Oh, how the tables have turned since then.

“Well if you don’t want to go, that’s okay, but I really want to.” Ink reached back for Broomie, but then the motherboard shifted. 

The both of them froze immediately, then whipped around to stare at each other. Ink cleared his throat and slowly took down his hand.

“Did uh… Error, did you do something?”

“You think I’d be quiet if I did???”

“Good point, good point…”

Suddenly, there were teal strings that quickly ripped through the ground beneath Ink in the shape of an ‘x’, the air was rushing towards the strange hole they made, dragging the artist with it. Error used his own string to ground himself as he grabbed Ink’s hand. The rushing air was unrelenting as if it was demanding Ink be dragged into whatever hell it had in waiting. Error could see that the window frame his string was tied to was starting to break, forcing him to make a choice.

Either he let go of Ink, or he went with them.

He undid the string and they both were dragged in.

The portal was unlike anything they had ever seen. It was like an endless hole of cubes that made reality. He could sense it was like the Anti-Void, but also not. This was nothing like his home, but it had the same energy as it. When they finally crashed into the ground, it was as if they had fallen off of a twelve story skyscraper.

As Error got up, he saw the ground was blocky and uneven, as if it was destroyed, remade and re-destroyed endlessly, glitching out like some awful video game that had been both incomplete and re-coded constantly.

He looked over to Ink who was rubbing his head and popping his neck, the impact obviously still affecting him somewhat.

Then he heard it.

A glitch-filled laugh.

“Really? I thought I was doin’ yous a favor ‘ere,” said the voice.

How the fuck did Ink mistake that guy for him? Color him insulted to the highest degree.

The glitch barely looked anything like him! In fact, there were more differences than there were similarities. The most prominent thing was the hood of the jacket. It was easily comparable to a large lion’s mane, almost like Mufasa got skinned after everyone left. Bright golden fur was so long that it reached the glitch’s knees. The jacket was black and lined with neon blue but also had teal diamond markings, showing where it had been resown together on the sleeves. Even his shorts had the same markings. He wore a dark maroon turtleneck and a gold and gray-indigo vest over it. There was also an odd neon blue animal skull on the side of the jacket, right below where the hood started. He also carried a similar colored sickle with a golden chain wrapped around his waist. Another thing was his left eyelight. It had the shape of an ‘x’ with several rings around it.

He didn’t even wear his Papyrus’ scarf.

If he did, then Error would at the very least believe Ink had some reason to mistake them for Geno. But no. Their stupidity truly outweighed the odds.

Maybe he should lend Ink his glasses sometime.

“Really, Error?” asked the glitch, “Yous just had ta follow tha idiot ‘ere?”

“And what’s it to you, of all anomalies?” Error himself straightened his posture, already reaching up to his eyesockets for more strings. In the corner of his vision, Ink was already on their feet, their grip on Broomie firm and ready for a fight.

“Oh nothin’,” the glitch hummed, he touched the corners of his own eyesockets but instead of summoning strings like the way Error himself did, they did come, but rather they stood straight like claws, “I was just gonna take ‘im out for ya as a little practice run for when I have ta put up wit’ an idiot of my own.”

Error heard Ink suck in a breath, the artist inching closer to him. Something about this new guy pissed him off beyond what he considered the normal annoyance, which is what every other anomaly had become to him these days.

But no. As far as the destroyer was concerned, this fucker’s intentions were clear.

He wanted to take his place. That very thought on its own made his marrow boil, his teeth baring to match his growing hatred.

“I see what you’re putting on the table, and my answer is FUCK NO.”

“Really think ya had a choice in dis?” the glitch asked when suddenly two large blocks of the land suddenly appeared and collided with Ink from two different sides. Sandwiching him before two teal strings cut right through them. “I was merely tellin’ yous what was about ta happen.”

Ink rematerialized next to Error, a portal painted below him. Broomie’s length was already chopped in half, and the artist’s hands were sporting new cuts, spewing his namesake out from between the joints, a stark contrast to the pristine white Error expected to see every time.

The guardian of the AUs blinked several times, his eyelights spinning several shades of red in different shapes before settling on a triangle and a target symbol.

“WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT FOR!? THAT WAS A TOTAL SUCKER PUNCH!!!”

“Awes, ya pretendin’ ta be mad at lil’ ol’ me…” the glitch cooed, calmly walking off to the side, not really paying much attention to them. This was his domain, and it was clear he was beyond comfortable and confident here. “It’s real cute that ya pretend ta have emotions, Inky-boy. But ya really shouldn’t be playin’ wit’ people’s emotions, things can get real messy.”

The other error’s new target opened his mouth to interrupt, but then shut it, the accusation taking him off guard.

“What…? I don’t do that!”

“Suuure ya don’t. Like the way ya don’t treat everyone around ya, like they ain’t people? Like they’re jus’ some characters in a book that ya can interfere wit’, o’ watch dem struggle in tha misery planned fo’ em. Like tha way you don’t see me an’ Error as people?” the copy-cat stated, he checked his claws for a second and shrugged. He paused and looked directly at Ink, “Ya only go around an’ play hero, an don’t even care if dey get killed off anyways. Horrortale, Somethin’ New, Dusttale, or the otha AUs’ my friends are from. Ya don’ care about anyone or anythin’ but ya own entertainment.”

Error squinted bullets at the other, his freakish New York accent was getting annoying, and really fucking quick too. He’s sounding a hell of a lot like Nightmare with all that YAPPING.

“Ink, he’s fucking with you.”

Ink went to answer, but nothing he could possibly say came to mind. He wasn’t guilty of whatever the Error-copy was getting at, at least currently, he was free from it, but where the hell did he get that information? Why use it against them now? Was their decision and work to change completely ignored?

Error shifted, looking at his friend from the very edge of his vision.

“Ink?”

“I know he’s fucking with me! I want to know why.”

“Am I now?” the glitch snickered, “Ink, can ya really say I’m lyin’ ‘ere? I mean, let’s look at yer history! Tha moment yous get bored wit’ an AU your first tactic is ta ignore it like a child does wit’ a toy they’ve grown tired of, an’ if it still ain’t entertainin’ enough you let it destroy itself. Isn’t that why ya let Error run around? Yous was bored with Underswap an’ so ya let him keep that Swap!Sans around and let him do whatever he wanted?”

“Hey- HEY- NO, YOU THINK I KNEW WHAT HE DID TO BLUE??” Realizing what had happened to his friend had devastated Ink back then, almost to the point he genuinely thought of killing Error like Blue already tried. Where the fuck did this guy get off on assuming he didn’t care!?

“No, but yous expected it.” the glitch frowned, “I mean, yous had every opportunity ta stop ‘im before an’ after. But instead, ya just ran off wit’ tha rest of tha AU, replaced ‘im tha first chance ya got because ya realized far too late that tha poor guy was too far gone. I mean, it’s not like ya leave Error alive because ya like him. Ya don’t even actually feel anythin’. If ya did then… well yous a shit friend. Constantly leavin’ ya friends ta die in horrific ways, be it a Killer bein toyed with by Nightmare, Error ‘imself destroyin their AUs, Horrortales being allowed ta exist, leavin Dream ta get shot by Edelweiss– Oh…” he grinned as he feigned it as a ‘slip of the tongue’, “Oh right… Ol’ Dreamy gettin shot and put on life-support. And yous… yous was nowhere ta be found! Talk about carin’ ‘bout yer friends!”

“I DIDN’T KNOW ANY OF THAT UNTIL CURRENTLY, I–” Ink’s ribcage rattled, an indication of his frustration, which would only continue to spike to higher heights as their opponent kept talking.

Before Error could catch onto what the artist planned next, Ink was already gone, having summoned a gray and black gaster blaster and shot after the other error.

Error raced after him, letting his strings fly to as many lengths as possible, mainly in hope of grabbing his friend and dragging him back, but Ink had a head start and was too far ahead than what the glitch had accounted for.

Ink’s blaster wasn’t used to shoot their new adversary out of the air, but to propel him forward to fight him head-on. He did feel! His emotions were his own! And if he had known sooner what happened to Dream, he would have tracked down whoever had him themself just so they could be at his side! Whatever he needed and it was HIS!

But soon enough, the only thing Ink began to see for certain was the blind red of unrelenting rage.

“I’LL MAKE YOU EAT THOSE WORDS!”

The glitch dodged Ink in an extremely odd way, Ink just…fazed right through him. The glitch patted his body down and grumbled, “So uncivilized…”

Error almost froze when he saw the scene. The glitch destablized himself. He turned himself into a string of code.

The copy-cat used his strings to grab Ink in a near identical way he did the first time when they met. But rather, they wrapped around his joints. "Oh what's tha matta Inky boy? I was jus’ sayin' tha truth! Ya neva thought we even truly felt pain, or despair. It was only until ya really started lookin' around that you toyed wit’ dat idea, and even then... can we really trust that ya learned yer lesson? That ya see us as people? Tell me, Ink, if ya really cared, then what would ya do on instinct if I were ta... order my friend ta kill that twerp Dream? Would ya even try ta care? Or would ya sit back an’ watch tha show jus’ ta see what’ll happen?”

They didn’t even answer, summoning bucketfuls worth of ink from between their joints, materializing bones and blasters to barrage the glitch with. 

Error blasted the other’s strings, freeing Ink for only a second before they were snagged again in his own contraption of electric blue strings, yanking them back to his side as he reached out for the code to this place, only for the singular thing for Error to hit was a barrier.

The glitch swerved his blaster sideways, ducking under a floating, disembodied wall he recognized as corrupted, carefully crafted code as well, but appeared in the form of organized rubble.

“Why didn’t you hit him too, Error? He wants to hurt Dream!” Ink pulled himself up and struggled against his bindings. Error only tightened them, which served to enrage the artist further.

“WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?”

“WE DON’T HAVE TIME FOR THIS, DUMBASS!” Error shot back, continuing to dodge and weave between chunks of rubble and ruin. He noticed all of them had a particular pattern, grays and whites, teals and reds, some gold here and there. It was like his prior-known ‘copy’ themed this Anti-Void after himself! 

As much as he hated other errors more than anything else, there was a certain danger that came from being in another glitch’s direct territory. Given two other errors had almost succeeded in wiping him off the census in the past, Error wasn’t about to risk his neck a third time.

“He wanted to get a rise out of you, Ink! He was manipulating you–” Error looked back as he made another turn, only to see the artist gone, and his strings cut through. 

“ARE YOU KIDDING ME!?”

“He didn’t really think dat through, did he?” asked the other glitch.

Error screamed, spinning around to face the other error, the strings hanging from his fingers and eyes whipping forward to snag a grip on him, but all their intended victim had to do to avoid them was lean backwards.

“How rude of me, I didn’t even introduce myself!” the glitch snickered, “The name is Digital Klezmer! Nice ta meetcha. Though it really don’ matta, I mean ya probably gonna die ‘ere too. Speakin’ o’ which, why’s you helpin’ that guy anyways? I thought you wanted ‘im dead.”

A gaster blaster that had the skull of some animal, maybe some sort of badger, appeared right beside Klezmer, aimed right at Error, ready to fire. Error mimicked the threat, doubling the amount of blasters on his end off the bat. His voice began to mutate, the tone fluctuating and basic voice changing dangerously. Error’s blasters fired.

“MIND YOUR OWN BUSINESS!”

Klezmer’s blaster fired off its own blast but it had a secondary action, shielding Klezmer enough to escape, teleporting behind Error and sitting down on one of the pieces of blocky rubble, “Oh Error, don’ tell me dat ya think he’s ya friend! That he cares about ya!”

The fellow glitch cackled, “Oh, dat’s RICH!” He summoned several bones to impale Error, but Error summoned another blaster to take the hit, the bones going right through it before both weapons dispersed. 

Error bit his tongues. He wasn’t giving this freaking psycho more fuel to tend with. He already had more than enough to make Ink snap, and Error had to find that idiot squid before Digital Klezmer did.

He teleported back to where he and Ink were first dragged in, leaving Klezmer in the dust like he fucking deserved, only to find no sign of him there.

“IIIIINNNNNNNNNNNKKKKKKKKKKK!!!!!!” 

Error’s voice echoed off the Anti-Void’s floating walls and ruins, and he took to scouring the area close enough to the ‘floor’, keeping all his senses geared for any and every fucking noise that might give away the artist’s location. Ink was so fucking DEAD once he found them. He was so tempted to POP THAT LITTLE HEAD OFF THEIR MIDGET BODY AND CHUCK IT INTO THE NEAREST HOTLAND LAVAPOOL.

—----------

Klezmer sighed when he saw Error teleported away. He shook his head and teleported to a deeper part of his Anti-Void. He really wasn’t going to get an answer to that question, now was he. He knew where Ink was, but what was the fun of going after the guy directly?

Nah.

Too boring. He wanted to see them squirm.

So he settled himself in his seat at his piano and began playing one of his favorite songs, Altale. Whoever wrote that song was more insane than Katagma. It was an oddly upbeat song. But it was also oddly fitting for this little moment between the two knuckleheads he dragged here, letting their hopes rise with the song. Now all he had to do was keep playing. Sure, he was leaving himself as an ‘open target’. But who said he didn’t know everything that was going on in his own territory? Not him.

And like magic, his bait had an impressive effect, and of course it was the Inner Realm’s husk that took it the quickest.

Ink materialized next to him, and could have smacked him upside the head with what was left of his ginormous paintbrush if he didn’t dematerialize into raw code a second before.

Klezmer summoned a gaster blaster that bit down on Ink’s torso, as he spoke, “Oh buddy, I really thought ya had more brains than my husk. I really did. Thanks for correctin’ me.”

Once again, Ink didn’t answer. One of their own blasters was summoned, chomping down on Klezmer’s own and yanking it back, dislodging Ink from its grip. The artist’s namesake dripped to the floor, showing the enemy’s blaster did in fact cut through parts of his ribcage, staining his colorful clothing, but he didn’t seem to care about the weight of his own survival.

Then finally, the shortstack spoke up, his voice shaking with emotion, dominated by an overwhelming layer of rage.

“How dare you.”

They looked second to an animal, a feral beast. More ink leaked out between their barred teeth, some trails dripping from their sockets as the red of their eyelights glowed brighter.

But one look at their sash made it clear every one of their regular vials had already been drunk dry, and it was several days ago too. So the only source of this extra power could only be one thing, and Digital Klezmer already knew well.

Sketch had tried to kill Error before, when both stooges were in the Doodlesphere, and Sketch’s defeat led to the loss of its backpack. That was the only extra source of power Ink had access to.

Ink dropped Broomie, the tool useless to him and broken beyond use. Not even the bristles were in functional order anymore. Everything the artist was using now came directly from his body, from his will.

“I don’t know what hurt you this badly in the past, dude, but whatever you’re after now isn’t worth it. Seriously.”

“What I’m after isn’t worth it?” Klezmer cackled, rubbing his face under his glasses, he stopped almost as quickly as he had started, “Just die.” Two spears made of his strings appeared right from under Ink, unfurling and lifting him up to slam him down on another platform deep in the Anti-Void.

“I wanna reverse all negative creation.” Klezmer growled, “All of it! No more of dis needless sufferin’ ya view as cheap entertainment! And unfortunately I need dat useless guardian alive ta do it! Yous husks are nothin’ but a nuisance! Ya don’t feel, ya don’t care about nobody but yaselves! Hell, if yous an’ Error were ta make some stupid deal, ya’d grow bored of it instantly and jus’ find some bullshit loophole ta find somethin’ you think would be more entertainin’ ta yous and only you!”

The ribbon spears dragged the still tied up artist into a wall of the blocky rubble.

“And yous think that ya know anythin’?! I’ve watched ya long enough ta know that you’re only playin’ wit’ everyone’s emotions ‘ere! How long till ya get bored of Dream an’ Error? What about dem Swap-folk? How long till dey just bore ya? A week?! You’d probably drag a Dust over dere just for sick kicks! At least what I do is merciful, unlike yous!”

He let go of Ink to see if he’s still breathing. Letting the cloud of smoke from the destruction clear.

“Never…”

The second thing he got was a rough cough, but as the smoke cleared, Ink pulled himself back up, the ink in his body surfacing to repair the damage done to his body. Some of the artist’s clothing had been torn off, revealing tattoos that looked like random scribbles covering his lower arms and ribcage, and other discolored, gray patches of bone. The rage in their eyes didn’t subside.

“I will NEVER get bored of them. Not any one of them.”

He met Digital Klezmer’s eye, a spiteful smile gracing his face instead of the twisted snarl the glitch had plastered on it minutes ago. 

“But of course you won’t believe that, since you already profiled me based on the other guy that tried to kill my FRIEND, right? Who’s the dumbass now?”

Ink coughed again, dispensing a pool of ink at his feet as his body struggled to cope again with the amount of damage this new error wanted so badly to remain in place. This guy wasn’t at all like Error, Ink knew this now.

He was worse, really, and that was from a mostly unbiased opinion.

“I don’t care what you assume of me. I would have been devastated if it succeeded, and I would have been devastated all the same if Dream died too!”

The artist stretched his arms out, the ink creating another Broomie right in his waiting hands.

“So fuck you.”

The glitch stared at Ink, almost as though he was seeing the words Ink spoke right before him in material form. Klezmer couldn’t help but mentally compare Ink to Sketch, chuckling. “I guess you’re right. Ya ain’t nothin’ like Sketch. Unlike Sketch, ya don’t just show off your emotionlessness, or selfishness… well, not anymore… And you are right, I don’t believe you’ve changed. Whether or not you have actually started to understand tha sufferin’ of those around yous or even have a speck of empathy. But you definitely ain’t anythin’ like Sketch.”

He summoned several strings and drew them back from a ring that circled them like a giant slingshot.

“Dis… might sting a bit.”

He let go. The makeshift arrow shot right through Ink, impaling him straight through the sternum and the vertebrae leading behind it, but before Klezmer could do anything more with it, a blast of energy snapped it into pieces at the midpoint, Error’s cobalt blue strings were flung about the immediate area, snatching Ink away.

If Ink’s rage was considered animalistic, Error’s was a different lifeform entirely. The glitch’s eyesockets were clogged with his namesake, binary code spinning in his skull like miniature supercells, collecting more and more power to properly launch the amount of destruction it considered a basic portion. The creature before the two other skeletons snarled, the glitching only amplifying the volume and distorting it beyond recognition.

It was debatable if Error could speak properly in this state, with his body barely keeping itself in one piece, but somehow he managed navigating his way all the way here from the other side of the Anti-Void. 

“yOU SHOuLD KnoW BEtteR ThAN TO BREAK mY ThINgs.”

Ink could barely tell what the fuck dragged itself by its arms out of Error’s mouth, or if it even came out of his mouth in the first place. Before he knew it, his friend began to clog the area with electric blue strings, drowning their perception of the area in wires tying them down. Ink couldn’t get a word in, his body creaking under the weight and the tightness of what was, hopefully, a very temporary prison.

The sounds outside were muted to him, but he could figure they were fighting out there.

“--- .... / .-. . .- .-.. .-.. -.--?” Klezmer didn’t even open his mouth, rather the sound – the morse code just emanated from him. He didn’t seem to be shocked, rather his reaction was one that showed he knew what it was like to be in the very state Error was in.

He didn’t even struggle against the strings, rather he destablized himself and kept moving. Now he was the one on the run. Whether or not he had expected it was unknown.

Error pursued him immediately, blasting through entire walls of code that blocked his way. If he was saying anything, emitting any noise at all, it was unintelligible to him. Meaningless. 

He used to destroy everything he hated to fuel his will to live, including minor glitches distantly related to the monstrosity he truly was. But at the same time, none of it made sense. None of the semantics surrounding his past were important. Only the anomaly attempting escape before his eyes, destabilized code bunched together in a being that only knew suffering and grief, abandonment and anger.

So much like him but at the same time so, so different.

It was PATHETIC.

The entity let out a deafening roar behind Klezmer, causing the code closest to him to glitch out momentarily, then proceed to function as it was a second after.

Of course, not all gods went through life unchallenged. There were rules to the madness they shared and pain they carried. Rules not even they understood clear as crystal. 

Klezmer used one of his strings to create a portal only for himself, a split second to get far from Error and to a higher ground, where he made hundreds of spears of his strings and even fractured bones. All with their own rings of strings like crossbows, all aimed at Error. With a golden smirk, he let them loose, each one doing thrice the amount of damage they did to Ink. All the while he made a crossbow for himself. One he could wield. But this one wouldn’t shoot a spear or bone. Rather the sickle’s chain that was previously tied to his waist and now having a small sharp knife made of his strings to ensure it went right through his target.

“Didn’t think I’d ‘ave ta use dis…” he mumbled to himself. “But color me surprised… bastard got a bigger temper ‘dan Wiess.”

There was a click in the Anti-Void as the hurricane of projectiles chased their target, just a shift in the layout code, like something just went missing. 

Then, it was like the ‘ceiling’ grew a corn maze of red bones, stretching half a horizon across the new, demented plaza, connected to a million more blue strings. The ground shook with another haunting scream, and the source of the challenge pulled down the floodgates right behind Klezmer’s projectiles, snapping some in two every which way, cracking down on the ‘floor’ and disembodied walls, splitting some into smaller chunks than they were initially. Dust and grime filled the atmosphere, blocking a clear shot of wherever the target was.

Laughter without a direct source echoed off of what remained of the walls around them, morphing the acoustics and Klezmer couldn’t help but laugh alongside Error. He took aim with his crossbow as several portals opened up with more shots of the crossbow-spears and bones.

He saw the game Error was playing and he’d happily play along, but this was his domain, not Error’s. Thus, he knew every inch Error ran through. Every spot he paused. Every weak point. And thus, he fired the chain. With a rattling sound, it took off and the strings extended and extended further and farther than it would’ve otherwise, dragging the blade with it right towards Error’s soul.

The sickle wasn’t anything that the two idiots had ever faced. It was an Outer Realms specialty. A weapon that specifically did True Damage. There were specific damage types in the Outer Realms, and True Damage was a specialty that Klezmer had thanks to the weapon, specifically only the weapon really. It could bypass all resistances, all armor and specifically target the soul of the opponent, even going as far as latching onto it if the opponent could survive the attack. Meaning that they’d have the weapon stuck onto their soul and out for Klezmer to attack directly. It almost felt like cheating, but it wasn’t his fault someone was stupid enough to stand still long enough to get hit by it.

—------------

Ink made progress centimeter by centimeter, trying to ignore the sound of destruction, screams, and even more destruction. He thought back to the decay of Underfell, the compounding collapse of reality itself before everything imploded into white. Pure white.

He shivered and pressed on, cutting more divots into his bones in the process so more ink could join with the ‘floor’ underneath him.

Then came Error’s roar, the ring of the sound breaking his nonexistent ears, and then the ‘ground’ rumbled. Ink felt something slip under them, and the cocoon around them loosened, but not by much. They were a sitting duck like this, and whether Error wanted his help or not, Ink was convinced he’d die out there.

He had gotten an odd feeling this other Error was vastly more powerful than initially given credit when he was dragged kicking and screaming into this version of the Anti-Void, He didn’t know whether it had an actual name aside from that, but it’s not like they could afford to care, not when so much was at stake.

He wanted them both dead. He made that message abundantly clear.

Ink felt the hole in his sternum and vertebrae mend, and he could finally dematerialize enough to slip through the dozens of layers of strings that bound him. They knew they were getting weaker, having lost more paint than any other fight they could recall, and the migraine had come pounding in when he was dragged in this place too.

Error was right. They really didn’t have the position to fight in confidence here, but they doubted his impostor was manipulating either of them. The things he screamed several minutes ago were in complete confidence and backed with indescribable pain.

Think, Ink, think!

The ground rumbled again, knocking Ink back down in a pool of his own fluids. Another scream, and in the distance, he spotted one of the biggest walls in the area come crashing down, glitching back into the air in far more pieces than it started out as.

Summoning a gaster blaster, Ink jumped on its head and sped his way towards the ensuing fight, ripping off a lock of Error’s abandoned string as they zoomed by.

—-------------

Pain was the one thing Error knew best, but this was too much in one sitting. The glitch ripped out one of the stupid arrows that managed to snag him and snapped it in half, not bothering to watch the material crumble as he went to tend to another spot right next to it.

No matter how much his STATs fluctuated, flying up and down the border of 0 HP and MAXED HP to cope with the sheer amount of stress he just put his body through, Error felt it wouldn’t heal as quickly as he wanted it to, and it was just his luck that his sight cleared just enough before Klezmer pelted him with another barrage of projectiles, overloading his body.

He didn’t want to die like this, but begging was so far out of bounds of the question at hand that it was practically nonexistent, even as Klezmer shot another attack right at him, one the blur of his vision could not keep up with, not even if it were slowed down to fit his needs. 

It was gold. Thin and gold and probably heavy, but boy did it look ugly either way.

It was already too late when Error finally registered the real weight of what was to come, if it were even possible for him. The glitch jolted backwards, a wildfire of agony igniting his body in response to its inability to move and its broken down state.

Then a dark blue blur of his own strings shot its way across his vision, wrapping around the attack. Ink entered the edge of Error’s sight, tugging the chain in his direction, ending up in pieces.

It happened far too quickly for anyone to truly realize what exactly the situation was. The crunching of bone or the splatter of thick globules of ink splashing on the destroyed ground. The most that the two glitches got was the horror on Error’s face and sheer shock on Klezmer’s own, but the thud of the body was heard and the moment the black and gray gaster blaster turned to a pool of ink in an attempt to save its master.

In that moment the two glitches realized exactly what had happened.

Ink had jumped in front of the attack to protect Error, sacrificing himself to the blade of the sickle.

“INK!”

Error jumped and tried to catch Ink but barely made it in time, catching Ink’s husk in mere centimeters before it hit the ground – if one could call it that, considering it still somewhat did. Ink’s husk was flayed, sliced clean in half, only leaving behind the rib cage and up. The last bits of ink from the blaster served itself to heal its master as much as it could but it wouldn’t reawaken him.

“Nononononononono—” Error’s glitching getting worse and far more unstable the more he spoke.

All the while Klezmer couldn’t comprehend the sight before him.

Ink had jumped in front of a fatal shot just to save someone that wasn’t himself.

He didn’t even dare speak. But all he could do was mentally argue with himself to try to comprehend the situation and what to do about it. He took a long deep breath and tore open a portal, bringing his chain back to himself.

“I’m gonna regret dis later, I jus’ know it.” he thought to himself. Out of the portal he got a vial of mixed oil paints.

Carefully he walked over to the fellow glitch, placed the vial and used a string to teleport Error, the vial, and the husk out of the Anti-Void without issues. He stood alone for a moment before sitting down at his piano and played a song he had received from Katagma who got it from some random game… something called Laura Plays the Piano. Whatever game it was, he was told it was depressing.

As if…

As he played though, he couldn’t get the image of Ink jumping in front of the sickle out of his mind. No, emotionless husk would do that. Sketch wouldn’t do it even if someone paid him.

No. That Ink did feel. And he felt a lot. He stopped playing and sighed, “Yeah… fuck me. I am tha dumbass ‘ere, I suppose.”

—------------

His soul raced a million miles a second, a trillion miles a zeptosecond, and no matter what Error said or how much he screamed, the body in his hands didn’t respond or move. Not an inch. Not a millimeter. Nothing.

And even then, as far as Error was concerned, nothing outside of him and what used to be Ink mattered. 

The multiverse could burn.

It was like Error’s vision was set ablaze itself, both with glitches and tears he never thought he’d cry again, those blue-transparent pearls landing on Ink’s face, brushing away bits of their namesake, their blood. 

Error felt the ground below them change to something softer, and air clearer, holding the weight of life, but what use was it if his friend wasn’t here? The one person who bothered to spend time and energy on him since they met, regardless of how destructive his behavior was by itself, was doomed, and the glitch knew exactly why.

Ink was low on paints, their literal fucking lifeforce, but he would have rather died instead of him, even if he didn’t truly understand how hard he’d be hit, or how many pieces their little body would end up in. 

The destroyer’s vision began to black out, and Error heard the crunching of grass up ahead of them. 

Danger. Danger. DANGER. He came to finish the job.

“G-GET AWAY FROM US— I’M WARNING YOU!!!”

The figure in the distance was colossal, bearing the slight reflection of light glasses would get from the sun at just the right angle, and it was just tall enough to be the threat at hand. It hesitated, then continued with another step forward, its voice ringing in and out of Error’s fried senses.

“Hell–..-? A|3 y0– 0;ay…—-?”

Its shape muddled further, the darkness closing in. Error knew he summoned something, some degree of magic in an attempt to scare them off, but he didn’t get to witness the result.

[plasma-studios]

more on mercy thoughts Cross' character is tied inextricably to the idea of freedom. will not spoil XGaster's role in the story, but yknow, it's XGaster. obviously there's some history there that may or may not be related to the themes of control and freedom.

Cross’ freedom lies at the hands of XGaster, Dream and Nightmare, and each of these relationships is a different take on freedom that all together demonstrates the Cross’ experience with freedom.

Nightmare’s relationship with Cross goes along the lines of:

“What is freedom when survival opposes it?”

even from the very first chapter, Cross' answer to that question is "survival over freedom"; he consistently priorities Nightmare's orders over his own wants, for the sake of his survival. even if it means sacrificing his own sense of autonomy. he is even resigned to this fact. and it makes sense; he had to adapt to survive, and this is what was left with him.

interestingly enough this differs with Dream; when Dream allows him freedoms with strings attached, he is so often irritated and frustrated, at least internally with some level of suppression. this goes to the question that their relationship explores in the current arc:

"What is gaining freedom if it is conditional?

again, he does not greet the granted leeway with gratitude or anything remotely positive. which obviously makes sense, he's not stupid, but if we look at it at a closer level: the increased freedom holds little value, because survival is prioritised above it. think about it. if survival is linked to Nightmare's orders, Dream's granted freedoms in order to persuade him to betray Nightmare represent the conditional freedom being contradictory to survival.

and then we get to the question shared between both relationships:

“Is loyalty a form of freedom or a form of bondage?”

with nightmare, his 'loyalty' is rooted in survival. his survival is bound to his will. however, interestingly enough, this strict hierarchy allows him to focus on survival without being swamped with turmoil: he is perfectly clear on his and Nightmare's relationship. he knows very well that his loyalty is transactional. he can and has detached himself emotionally from the idea of loyalty being a moral obligation, and rather a necessity. we see this impact the way he acted as his time as a council spy: he was emotionally distanced from everyone, even CORE, because loyalty was no longer by emotional allegiance, but a tool for survival.

with dream, freedom does not mean his loyalty, because conditional freedom is contradictory to his survival. he cannot embrace this sort of freedom as there is always the risk compromising his survival. so he must reject it. survival must take precedence over any loyalty that risks his existence. true freedom cannot coexist with the threat of loss.

[tereox]

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Undertale (Video Game) Rating: General Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Sans & Sans (Undertale) Characters: Sans (Undertale), Sans Ensemble (Undertale) Additional Tags: Horrortale Sans (Undertale), Dusttale Sans (Undertale), Killer Sans (Undertale), Bad Sanses | Nightmare's Gang (Undertale), Pranks and Practical Jokes Series: Part 16 of Halloween 2024

Summary:

Dust decides to mess with Killer. Horror would like to have no part in it, please and thank you.

[saints-helen]

Hehe, first suggestive piece >:333

Basically, crepic foreplay with some sad bits, I'm excited to post this!~

(if anyone thinks cross could dominate you are WRONG. he is a princess in bed and should be treated as such 😌)

cross's breaths were soft, warm, where they fanned against the side of epic's head, his fingertips trailing across his lover's ecto as he laid back in bed, all comfortable and presumably very, Very warm.

he pressed soft kisses against his neck, not biting, not yet, just pressing against the skin, breathing him in, and delighting when cross turned his head to the side, still panting, to give him better access.

"e-epic" he breathed out, and he couldn't help the soft chuckle that escaped him, grinning, as he lifted his head to look at cross, both of their bodies sweaty with all the heat in the room.

and oh.. what a sight he was.

flushed, barely trembling, his eyes lidded and desperate, mouth slightly open so Invitingly that epic Had to force his eyes away, lest he lose himself in the sight.

"yeah?" he answered, and cross took a deep shaky breath, almost whining as he threw his arm over his eyes to hide his face, head turned away from epic.

"don't- look at me like that" he prefaced, then, peeking out, he said "don't tease"

he hummed, "but i like teasing", tugging away cross's arm away from his face resulted in such a pretty little whine escaping him, his brow bones knitting in a near Pout as he tried to glare at him.

"don't Tease" he said again, and epic nuzzled his nose against his cheek, intertwining their fingers together as he kissed the bone beneath his mouth, enjoying the way he felt cross's pulse quicken at the gesture.

"not teasing, then" he replied, his smile ever present; he couldn't help it, not really, not when cross looked This pretty and tempting.

"buttering you up," he said "getting you ready"

"don't wanna" cross huffed out.

"ya gotta" he teased back, earning him yet another whine.

he'd come to find this evening that cross was a very, Very whiny person, and he'd never been as delighted at a discovery like this since he learned how Easy it was to make the man blush.

"stoopppp" he whined, turning his head from side to side in disapproval, panting with eyes squeezed shut.

"i hate you"

"you wouldn't be letting me do this if ya did~" he teases back, only to be met with silence.

ah, right, a bit too soon then, his bad for forgetting.

before it can spiral into anything more, he soothes it away with another purr, nuzzling his nose against his lover's jaw and counting it as a win when he huffs in annoyance.

"bothersome.." he mutters, and epic simply responds "i love you too~"

he's never been one not to listen, however, so he actually begins getting him ready, then.

his fingers gliding down cross's chest to his stomach, enjoying the way his breath Sputters at the sudden change in pace.

he won't go too quickly though, oh no, he's going to savour every single Second of this, commit it to memory, commit Him to memory too, as his hands smooth over the quivering 'skin".

"epic.." he pants out again, more desperation than complaint this time, a soft "a- hah!" escaping him when epic nips at the soft flesh of his neck, quickly pressing a soft kiss against it before moving a bit and doing it again.

he's always gentle with cross, would be even if cross didn't ask him a million times beforehand to be. he'd never been the rough sort of lover, and he knew it was a good thing, as he didn't think cross could handle anything But soft, at least not yet.

he knew the man's life had not been gentle, knew praise was never offered when it should've and that, when someone gripped him, it was never really just to Feel him, never for the sake of it, always was for something else.

he intended to be the exact opposite, refusing to be added to the list of shitty ex lovers who'd never treated him like he'd deserved, who'd taken advantage of his desperate need to please to get what they wanted.

oh.. no, epic would Never be like that, not with a gun pressed to his head.

he'd make sure cross was well taken care of, he'd praise him all throughout , and he knew what cross's inevitable answer would be,

"i didn't even do anything"

it seemed to be his catchphrase, almost, the thing he always said as he blushed, looking off side to side in confusion when epic would randomly tell him how pretty he was, how he loved him,

"but i didn't even do anything"

a denial, almost, a reminder, a plea that he did Not deserve this, even when epic consistently insisted that he did.

always downplaying the work he did around here, how he looked, how lovely he spoke and how funny he joked. it seemed to epic his lover wore the exact Opposite of rose tinted glasses, seeming to see himself as the devil incarnate if he didn't earn Every Little Thing.

he knew cross would feel guilty after this, he knew because he knew him, knew he hated to take an inch without giving a Mile in return, and still feeling like it wasn't enough.

how much effort did this take, then? how much work and careful wording "I enjoy this, I like spoiling my partners" the amount of wordplay needed, convincing, for cross to let him lay him back in bed, looking all pretty, and let epic do all the work?

it Was true, however, he Did like spoiling his partners, even more so if they didn't think they deserved it,

even more so if they've never experienced it before.

epic didn't Like cross's previous partners, didn't like the mark they'd left on his sweet, hilarious, kind lover.

didn't like the way they made every insecurity the man already had ten times worse, so much so that, even now, his claws digging into epic's back, finally unclenching from their place in the bed, hesitant, (and oh how he'd Beg the stars that cross left his mark there), fingers flexing and curling, he still had his clothing on, refusing, even in these most intimite moments, epic the right to look at all of him.

it took long just to get him to unbutton his Shirt all the way, and epic wasn't willing to push anymore than that lest the sweet man get nervous, so he currently admired what of him he Could see, eyes drinking it up with Hunger he'd never dare to hide.

he wantsd cross to know Exactly what he thought of him.

another thing he rememberered, then, when the hand not at his back flew to cross's mouth, eyes squeezed shut at a particularly teasing bite in a place he knew was sensitive, he saw his tempting, far too tempting sharp fangs dig into his palm hard enough to Bleed.

epic, always attentive no matter how hazy his eyes got with lust, put a stop to that quickly, tugging the hand away by the wrist and, using a kiss to the wrist to sneak a look at the wound, assessed the damage.

not too bad, thankfully, just barely broke 'skin', and his eyes were eventually drawn back to his lover as he tried to yank his hand away, eyes dazed as the tried to focus on him, the newest victim to those teeth the lip caught between them

"please..." he half whined weakly, and epic met his eyes for a moment before pressing the nicked palm to his cheek, then kissing the cut.

"you're pretty when you beg," he murmured, "but i don't like to see you bleeding. don't do this, please" he says, the last word added to make absolutely sure that what he said did Not sound like an order.

it scared him, he'd admit, when cross looked at him like what he'd said was an order.

he hated it with a passion.

"sorry..." he mutters, face turned to the side, and epic will take it,

at least he didn't add "sir" to the end of it this time, by reflex. it never failed to make him nauseous whenever he did.

right, so where was he? ah, yes, he was trailing circles with his thumb against the dip in his hip, a spot he found he Especially liked to tease.

it was very pretty. cross was very pretty. he never understood how anyone couldn't see that, because even if he found himself with his eyes closed, his hands would still shake as he imagined the curves of that body as he smoothed them over it.

cross never liked being too loud, and epic knew it would translate to this, too, because whenever his voice got a pitch higher than he wanted his mouth would always clamp shut.

it wasn't difficult to figure out what cross needed, what he wanted, not at all, and he wasn't quite sure what all the Fuss was about.

cross had told him, hours before they began this because yes, it took him hours to soothe the anxiety enough for them to start, that sex had never really been all that.. tempting, for him before. (understandable, considering his orientation.) that he'd never craved it with anyone as much as he did so with epic.

(and oh.. how Delightful that was to hear, his soul soaring as he grinned.. but before he could inevitably tease him about it cross had thrown a pillow in his face, so he figured he'd keep his mouth shut for now)

that, with those he'd been with before, it always seemed like a dreadful ticking time clock of patience that would eventually run out, when the "I'm not ready yet" would start to be met with frustration instead of care, when the "I'm sorry. are you mad at me?" would stop being met with a response altogether.

again, he didn't know what all the Fuss was about, so what if cross wasn't willing to have sex on the first date? or second? or the thirtieth?

so what if he needed some extra time to feel up to it? to feel comfortable enough being in such an incredibly vulnerable position that required an amount of trust from the man that, frankly, most people took for granted?

epic was happy to have cross in any way cross let him, whether it be his friend, his lover, his queer platonic partner, you name it. as long as he got to stay at his side, making him happy, he was content.

he didn't Need the sex, he'd enjoy it sure, but it was far from a deal-breaker for him, he'd wait for as long as cross needed him to, hell, he'd wait Forever if that's what cross needed him to do.

because he deserved it, he absolutely Deserved it, and he'd said so, too, only for cross to deny him his conviction under the argument that "some people Do need it, epic."

it was absolute bull, the rushing the man was always subject to, but he was too busy listening to cross tell him about always eventually Caving, initiating the act under the guilt of "depriving them" just so they'd smile at him again, stop looking at him with a look that screamed "When?", the lingering looks shot to him, when they thought he couldn't see, when they both were watching a movie that happened to have an intimate scene, where cross, ever so perceptive, fascinating cross, Knew Exactly what they were thinking. He was too busy - he was never the sort to get so angry - controlling his breathing to argue his point.

"pretty thing.." he purred, cross's breath hitching as he bit him again, a calculated move, as he knew cross was about to deny it again.

"doing so good for me.. singing so sweetly.. " a whine "pretty bird~"

he extended his claws, dragging them across cross's abdomen and down his pants, feeling him squirm and writhe beneath him, and stars, he'd never been more turned on in his Life.

cross's arms both wrapped around his neck, holding on tightly as he buried his face in his shoulder, and epic could feel the tenseness in his legs as he tried not to kick them, toes curling.

he didn't enter him, yet, didn't even tease it, still trailing slow sensual circles into his inner thighs, getting a soft moan as a reward for his efforts.

he wanted cross to enjoy this, he wanted him to enjoy it as much as he possibly could, and despite his earlier protests at epic teasing him, he figured cross wouldn't want to go too fast either.

he didn't want to make him feel used, god forbid let him think epic was getting Impatient with him, so for now, and for a while yet, he'll continue to get him wet without actually doing much of anything.

he liked it better that way, anyway.

[little-buzz]

Showcase for One

This silly idea hit me while I was driving. I wanted to explore male presenting Sanses wearing skirts. I think we should normalize UT characters wearing gender nonconforming clothes.

“Boss, c’mere!” called Killer.

Nightmare sighed, pinching the space between his nasal bridge. “Are you three done with the fashion show? We got our supplies from this AU. I’m not dealing with my brother and his posse because you choose to stay in this store.”

“We won’t… be much… longer,” replied Axe.

Nightmare rolled his eyelight. He turned the corner away from the window. He was met with his boys standing outside the dressing rooms. He wasn’t surprised to find Killer holding an outfit.

“Can you try this on?” asked the eyeless skeleton. 

The guardian sent him a dark glower. One of his tentacles twitched with annoyance. “Why would I do that?” he countered.

“Killer said he’d clean the kitchen and the living room for a week if ya do this,” said Dust nonchalantly.

Said monster whipped his skull towards the hooded skeleton. “The fuck? I never said—” 

Axe elbowed the side of Killer’s ribcage. He murmured something to him that Nightmare couldn’t make out. 

The boss felt his eye socket twitch. “We’re leaving now. Enough with your childish nonsense,” demanded Nightmare.

Like clockwork, his boys deflated like a balloon. Killer lowered the clothes from his hand. His three members were the equivalent of kicked puppies.

“I will only humor this request if you all clean the castle from top to bottom next week. The dungeon is in dire need of fixing.”

The guardian was smug from seeing the boys’ sour reaction. Killer sighed loudly, offering the outfit to him. He took it with an appendage, closing the fitting room behind him. 

Nightmare viewed the clothes with a quirked browbone. He reluctantly dressed himself in the new outfit. After the guardian finished changing, he fiddled with the collar of his purple sweater. He smoothed the cream white pleated shirt, checking his outfit in the mirror. 

He… didn’t hate the attire, but it wasn’t his first pick.

Nightmare wondered if he had worn a skirt ever. He could vaguely recall the villagers giving Dream clothes which no longer fit their children. Of course, his brother would rope him along for an outfit change. Thinking about it, Nightmare didn't mind what Dream encouraged him to wear.

At least… if he remembered correctly.

The guardian shook his head and quickly removed the outfit. He switched into his previous clothes, sighing with relief. He stepped out of the dressing room, tossing the clothes to Killer. 

“Return it. We’re leaving now.”

Killed blinked dumbly at the clothes, then at Nightmare. “Why aren’t you wearing it?” he sputtered.

The goopy skeleton grinned wickedly. “I did wear it. You didn’t specify I was supposed to showcase it.”

The eyeless skeleton cursed before he stomped away to return the clothes. Nightmare opened a portal as Dust and Axe trotted toward him. 

Dust cracked a small smile. “Astute as always, boss.”

Nightmare hummed. “You’re not getting out of this, Dust. I thought you wouldn’t stoop so low to one of Killer’s stunts,” he commented. 

Dust paused before he hopped into the portal. “Eh, I thought it was worth a shot. ‘Sides, you need more variety with your clothes. You need to give me some credit, this was mostly Killer’s idea.”

Nightmare sighed again. He waited for Killer to enter the portal as well. He watched as his team member sadly jumped into it. The guardian curled his appendage on his shoulder almost comfortingly as he followed suit.

[ancha-aus]

I did it

I actually did it.

What did I do you may ask?

I finished it.

I just completed the main story for Ancients & Champions!!

The story I am talking about.

Rambling under the read more line

Okay! So. Obviously this is not the final final wordcount. Seeing as I will still need to edit the chapters and reread stuff but this is about the final wordcount.

And let me tell you. The last time i did an update like this I had just hit chapter 91 with writing and felt like I was close to the ending and said that if I had to write another 10 chapters I would go insane.

Oh silly me. Oh how I was wrong.

Because here we are. Not only did I write those last ten chapters but i OVERSHOT it.

It feels strange at this point to actually be done with writing the main story and main storyline. Again it isn't yet finished finished but the story has ended and it is... strange.

I should be relieved honestly. I have been writing this in my off time since we were still in a pandemic, 2021, and I am close to counting three years with writing it.

It was a journey and a half and honestly I think I am a better writer now than when I started. Hell when i reread some of the stuff i wrote near the start i still get the feeling i want to change some wording or characterization because along the process i really settled on hwo i wanted everyone to act and be. (really considering rewriting the sidestory about Error's backstory but i will contain myself for now)

The thing is. I never actually finished a fanficiton before. (and then she writes a 430K thing yes i can see the irony) it is just. I lost interest in the stories i wrote before so it is strange to actually finish this absolute monster of a fanfiction (aaayyyy i will show myself out)

I am not done with this universe I ended up creating just yet. The fact I started this whole thing because i wanted NightmareXSansXError things is still real funny to me. It just got out of hand so quickly and because i started with just writing for only myself it just kept growing.

But I loved the journey and everyone who on AO3 followed along and the few people here who are nice enough to follow me and my story.

It was a fun ride and as i said. I am not quite done with this universe just yet. But I would be lying if it isn't great that i now have more space to write other ideas i had. and i had quite a few ideas. We will see what the future brings.

See you people around and if i see you at the story, remember, updates every sunday until we are done.

See you sunday.

[melatonindepicts]

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR 9K HITS!

Dreamscape | Bit(ty) by Bit(ty) - Chapter 39 - MelatoninDepicts_KraiAddax - Multifandom [Archive of Our Own]

While short, this ones vicious that goes both ways Spoiler art for newer Dreamscape chapters under cut

Quick sketch of Dream's new design!

P.S bump for disc

[secret-time-is-here]

I wanted to get something out for Our Covers Lie (aka The lonely and the one) by the end of the year, but I have zero time (I leave home tomorrow to go be gay with a long distance friend for new years yippe) so enjoy what little I could get done.

Context: first, this is a draft (the actual thing will be much better) and second this is to help practice Error and Cross's dynamic for OCL. So not canon in anyway, and all important points in this will be made again in the actual series. Also for those who are new, OCL au is heavy focus on religion and Error is a god and Cross is an assassin trained to kill him, because all good romances are enemies to lovers obviously (sarcasm).

Concept: Soulmate AU: First sentence your soulmate says to you is written on your wrist.

The kingdom rests, only steps drifting through the halls, yet none of the night guard hears Error. Carefully, he traverses the trims of the castle, tails swaying as his talons catch on the painted brick.

For years, he was alone, the little company he kept was happenstance at best. Despite Nightmare’s gentle reminders and open arms, it wasn’t his place, wasn’t right, wasn’t tradition. How pathetic of a God he is to home under another.

He went about his duties. AUs were killed when needed, Reapertale stayed watched, Nightmare and his rag tag bunch were in check, Ink kept away. Then the cycle broke, Ink returned and things were falling to ruin.

Nightmare had began looking for him, had it already been a months since he last visited? Reapertale stayed the same, but his mind itched to make sure. AUs were holding on by threads he had no control over and slipping into the hands of Ink.

Get Ink in check again. Fix the Aus. Check on Reapertale. Apologize to Nightmare.

The bright casual is wonderfully dim in the night. Few lights interrupt the sleeping town, but only one is out of place. Light glows from one of the towers of the palace.

[mikimakiboo]

Your meat isn't dead, it's still moving

Hi :D I'm here for another fanfic for @ancha-aus :D

But this time it's for the Ghost & Medium AU !

This fic takes place after Dust met Killer and Cross, and it is now time to meet Horror !

Tw: mention of death, forced starvation, sect, Killer flirting

- Stopping for a little snack ?

Dust's passenger asked as he stopped his van in front of the butcher's shop. He didn't even look at him, knowing he would see Cross grinning at him, well, not Cross, his body yes, but Cross wasn't in his body anymore, Killer has possessed him when he was supposed to be exorcized, and now he followed Dust anywhere he went. Cross was there too though, his spirit sitting on the back of the van, clearly displeased by the whole situation. Ash, Dust's ghost brother, was next to him, squinting disapprovingly at Killer like he always did when he flirted with Dust.

- I'm here for work.

- Oooh can I-

- You can't come.

Dust cut him before he could ask. He heard Killer whine but he couldn't care less, he couldn't take him with him, judging by what the butcher said the ghost haunting the shop wasn't a normal one, he couldn't risk bringing another inside without first making sure that it was safe, aside from his brother but he had a necklace to protect him, and even if it was a normal ghost he really didn't want Killer to bother him.

- You're not alone, you have Cross, talk to him.

He reassured the ghost.

- I don't want to talk to that body thief.

Cross said, still bitter about the whole possession thing. Dust could understand, he would be mad too if someone possessed him to go flirt with a random guy.

- You both stay here.

He commanded as he grabbed all the material he needed to communicate with the ghost, closed the van and went to the shop, Ash following him.

From what the butcher said over the phone this ghost had been haunting his shop for about two months now, they would throw the packages off the counter, slam the walk-in fridges' doors, detach the pigs' and cows' pieces from the hooks and generally just throw food around. Nothing weird so far, just a regular poltergeist, but what seemed off to Dust was that the shop had been there for years and it was the first time something like that happened, and no one had died in or near the shop these past few month, so that meant the spirit came to haunt this particular place, just like Killer did with the last house he was in, and seeing how it turned out, Dust wanted to be extra careful with this one.

The butcher was in front of the door, waiting to greet Dust.

- Ah ! You're here, perfect ! I hope you can do something about this.. haunting thing, I'm starting to lose customers and I can't afford to lose my business.

Dust saluted him with a nod.

- I will do everything I can.

- I don't doubt it. The keys are on the door, you do your things, I have a delivery to make so you can just leave them in the mailbox once you're done.

Dust nodded again, watching the butcher get in his own truck before sighing.

- Alright, let's see who's inside..

- IF IT FLIRTS LIKE THE OTHER ONE I AM LEAVING THIS PLACE.

Ash commented.

- I hope not, Killer's annoying enough I don't need a second one.

He pushed the door open, closing it behind him. The shop was dark, the curtains were down, indicating it was closed for the day. There was still enough light to navigate though and Dust went directly behind the counter in the staff area, as it was where there was the most activity.

- Hello ? I came here to talk, if you're okay with that.

He choose a table to put his radio and ouija board, looking around, there were pieces of meat everywhere, some scattered on the floor, it looked like an animal came to make a mess before leaving. He didn't see anyone. Maybe this spirit wasn't that strong ?

- IT DOESN'T KNOW HOW TO CLEAN APPARENTLY.

- Ash, please, don't be rude.

Ash huffed but didn't add anything, letting his brother do his job.

- Are you in here ? I heard you liked throwing pieces of meat on the ground, if I put one on the table, could you make it move so I know you're here ?

He asked, but the radio stayed silent and the ouija didn't move.

- I'm going to put his steak on the table, okay ?

He bent down, reaching for a steak that was already on the ground. Just as he grabbed it he thought he saw a glimpse of red but it was gone when he looked up. He slowly stood up, put the steak on the table, and waited for it to move.

He didn't wait long, just as he backed up the steak flew across the room and hit the wall before falling on the ground once again. Dust saw a vague silhouette in front of him, a tall and large one, but he couldn't see much more for now. Dust smiled.

- Hello. My name is Dust, glad to know you're here. If it's okay with you, would you mind telling me your name ?

The silhouette shifted, and Dust saw a bright red eyelight staring directly at him, before disappearing. In the distance, he heard a door shut, probably a fridge as he heard the noise of hooks being moved.

- YOU SCARED IT.

Dust frowned, but ignored his brother. He grabbed his radio and board and went to the fridge, knocking on the door to announce his presence.

- I'm gonna come in, okay ? I just want to talk, I'm not here to hurt you or take your food.

He said, assuming that the spirit's obsession over the meat meant they felt like it was theirs. He pushed the door open, shivering at the change of temperature, and closed it again. He could see the silhouette, this time a little more clearly, sitting in one of the corners of the fridge, all curled up. Dust stopped in the middle of the room to leave space for the ghost, sitting down, he put his material in front of him.

- Hey, sorry if I scared you, I didn't mean to.

The ghost didn't move, but they were staring at him. They looked like a male skeleton monster, with one glowing red eyelight and what seemed to be a hole in their skull, which was most likely the cause of their death as no-one could survive such an injury. But why were they haunting a butcher's shop then ? They were dressed with a big coat, some thicc sweatpants and winter boots.

- Would you mind telling me your name and pronouns so I can know how to address you ? You can use either the radio or the board.

The ghost stayed silent for a little while before muttering something, not using either instrument.

- Horror... I'm a man...

He had a deep raspy voice. Dust tilted his head, he didn't expect this spirit to be powerful enough to speak without help.

- Hello Horror, I'm going to ask you some questions, okay ?

He told him. Horror didn't respond, but he didn't flee either, so Dust took it as a sign he was okay with that.

- What are you doing in such a place ? Did something happen here ?

- There's... food...

Horror answered slowly, searching for the right words. Dust let him speak at his own speed, judging by his injury he probably had trouble speaking, no need to rush him.

- Are you here for the food ?

He asked. Horror nodded.

- I'm hungry...

Dust frowned. Hungry ? Spirits couldn't get hungry, they didn't have any body to feed, Dust should know, he had a ghost brother and Killer almost panicked when he heard his, well, Cross's, stomach gurgle.

- Do you feel hungry ? Or do you remember feeling hungry ?

He asked. Maybe this spirit had been hungry before he died and this feeling made him haunt the shop ?

Horror looked down, thinking about what the medium said. Was he hungry ? He couldn't feel his stomach, it didn't hurt anymore either. Was it because he wasn't hungry ? Or because he became so used to hunger that he couldn't feel it anymore ? He had been hungry all of his life, he knew what it felt like, he had felt it so strongly when he was there, in this dark room, but he didn't feel it now... he didn't feel anything... his head didn't hurt... was he... was he dead... ? Was that what death felt like... ? Was it why he couldn't eat... ?

- Heyyyyy Dusty ! Ya missed me ? Of course ya missed me ! Oh ! Who's that with you ?

An excited voice yelled, followed by another, less excited, voice.

- I tried to stop him ! I swear I did but he wouldn't listen !

Dust let out a loud sigh, not even needing to turn around to see that Killer was behind him with Cross.

- I told you to stay in the car.

- Yeah I know but then I thought you might be in danger, so I came to the rescue !

Killer argued, feeling very proud of himself.

- I am not in danger, Killer.

- Yeah yeah anyway, who's the newbie ?

It was no surprise that Killer could see Horror, as he was a spirit too, and Cross had gained this ability too since he wasn't in his body anymore and had entered the spirit realm.

- He.. doesn't look okay...

Cross noticed, seeing how Horror was still looking at the ground, his arms around his knees, not paying attention to Killer who was now very close to him, crounching down.

- I DO WONDER WHY.

Ash sarcastically said, squinting at Killer.

- You invaded his space without his consent.

- Well first of all it's Killer's fault, and second of all he really doesn't look good, and not just because we're here...

- What do you mean he doesn't look good ? He looks fine as hell. ~

Killer said with that particular tone of voice that always made Ash gag.

- Now's not the time for that, Killer.

Dust sighed again, sometimes he really regretted accepting going to Killer's house, he couldn't even do his job properly now !

- You're new here, huh ?

Killer asked, ignoring Dust. Horror looked up at him, only now realizing that two more persons were here.

- What killed ya ?

- Killer.

Dust got up, ready to grab Killer by the hood to drag him outside if he continued to mess with his work. The only thing stopping him from doing so was when he heard Horror answer.

- ... Hunger... I... died of hunger... I think...

He seemed so unsure that Dust's anger almost vanished. This ghost didn't know he was dead, it was obvious now, he wasn't here to scare people, he was here because he died hungry and wanted to eat, not realizing he didn't need to anymore.

- Ah yes, hunger, I know how it feels.

Killer confessed with a serious tone that almost caught Dust off guard.

- But it's okay, you won't get hungry anymore now, you're free ! You can do anything you want and go anywhere you want !

Horror blinked, still slowly processing the new information.

- I don't know... anywhere else to go...

- Aww come on, don't you got a dream destination ? Somewhere you really want to visit ?

Dust searched through his pockets to find his notebook, wanting to take notes on the conversation as Killer was surprisingly getting better results than he did.

Horror shook his head.

- Couldn't go out... needed to stay.. inside the walls... our leader said... outside was unworthy of.. of our presence...

- THAT SOUNDS LIKE A SECT.

Ash commented, and even if Dust would have preferred him to be less direct, he was right, that sounded like a sect. Was Horror in a sect before ? Did he die of hunger because they starved him on purpose ? Or did he go outside those "walls" and couldn't provide for himself ? Was it how he got hurt ?

- I know it must be hard for you, but would you mind telling us more about your.. your leader and the walls ?

Dust asked, trying not to jump to conclusions by calling it a sect, even though it clearly was.

- The walls.. protected us... Undyne was chosen by the gods... she decided who was worthy... and who was not...

- Worthy of what ?

Killer asked before Dust could.

- Food...

Dust frowned, that explained his choice in the place to haunt.

- Did she say you were unworthy ?

Dust asked softly, talking about death could be traumatizing and his goal wasn't to scare Horror, it was to understand his life, and death, better in order to help him rest, but he needed to ask questions for that.

Horror nodded after thinking for a minute.

- She didn't like... that I questioned her way... she said it was a shame... I had been worthy all my life...

- What made that change ?

Horror shriveled down a little bit more on himself.

- My brother... wasn't worthy...

No one responded to that as they could all imagine what happened. Horror continued.

- We had a room... for the unworthy... couldn't have food when... when inside... couldn't go out...

Dust looked up from his notes. They starved them. They starved Horror's brother and then they starved Horror, and he died of hunger.

- That must have been horrible, I'm sorry it happened to you...

Horror looked up at him.

- But Killer is right.

It pained him to say that, and it pained him even more to see Killer's smug expression.

- You are free now, you don't have to stay here.

- Can... go with you... ? Don't want... to be alone...

- Wh-

- Oh my God of course you can ! The more the merrier come on ! We'll have such a good time together !

Killer responded with excitement before Dust could even say anything.

Horror looked at Killer for a second before smiling hesitantly, quite relieved, and finally getting up as Killer already stood up. He was... tall. Like, very tall. But that didn't stop Killer from smiling brightly.

And then Dust felt it. He felt a link forming, a thread connected to his soul, the thread that formed between a spirit and the place, or person in this case, they haunted. The third thread, not counting Cross as he was still connected to his own body.

His third ghost.

He came here to exorcize the place, and instead gained another ghost.

Well... at least the butcher would be happy.

...

Where was Dust going to find enough place for everyone ? Why did it have to happen to him ?

He already felt a headache coming. God, he really regretted meeting Killer.

[emeraldhazeidentity]

(Hey look! The first time I get to use my cover art!)

Chapter 14 of Solace is now up!

[askmonolith]

MONOLITH EPISODE ONE

(The series where I give all your favorite AU Sanses therapy)

(Credit to Mixkit for sound effects. TWs in tags!)

Dream was exhausted, but he had to keep moving. He had to keep pushing himself, because this was his job, his duty, and it didn’t matter if he was tired, or hurt, or if he just wanted to give up. The multiverse was more important.

Earlier that day, he, Ink, and Blue had gotten in another fight with his brother, leaving them all injured. The three had to spend hours treating hurt monsters, depleting them of their magic stores, but there were more hurt even after that. Blue had volunteered to stay behind and look after those remaining in the AU. Only an hour later, Error had attempted to destroy another AU, and Ink and Dream left to fight him. About half an hour into the battle, Ink had dismissed Dream, since someone needed to check on the AUs. Dream knew Ink was capable of fighting on his own, but he still worried, so using almost all of the tiny store of magic he had left in him, he healed Ink to the best of his ability before leaving. 

That left Dream to patrol the doodlesphere on his own, checking each AU for any inconsistencies and damages. He tried not to think about how, despite being a god, his eye sockets felt heavy, and his joints felt weak. He felt like he could fall over in an instant, collapsing into a pile of dust. He knew that wouldn’t happen though, considering his status as the guardian of positivity, and since he wouldn’t be permanently damaged, it would be illogical for him to stop and take a break.

Even so, he began to notice his pace slowing down, as he tried to reach an Underfell spinoff which was radiating unusual levels of negativity. He couldn’t stop to rest, he had to- he had- Wait, what?

No matter how hard he pushed off the ground, he wasn’t moving forward. He paused in confusion, and very quickly he began to be pulled back. What?!

Glancing over his shoulder, he noticed a portal had opened to one of the AUs, one he hadn’t even sensed as he passed by. He panicked as he felt himself getting dragged closer and closer to the AU, trying to grasp onto anything just to pull himself away. He didn’t know what could be in there, and he was far too exhausted to fight-

In his struggling, he slipped, before being pulled legs first into the swirling blue and purple portal.

Everything was white. A strange wind seemed to surround Dream on all sides, surrounding him completely. He could hear whispering, from two voices, one high pitched and cheery, the other low pitched and whining. He could barely make out their words. It wasn’t that they were too quiet or mumbled, even if they were whispering. It was more like there was a filter between those speaking and Dream. This was something he was not supposed to be hearing.

The strange voices slowly became louder, though still indecipherable. They created a cacophony of sound, overwhelming in a way that caused an almost primal anxiety to run through Dream. His breath quickened beyond his control, and all of his limbs were tense. He felt as if he were about to be attacked. He could feel a presence, getting closer and closer, wrapping itself around him yet unable to make contact. Suddenly, whatever barrier was protecting Dream from the threat shattered, cutting lines across his face in many directions, and the creature lunged-

Dream screamed as he was thrown out the other end of the portal and into a pile of snow, scrambling in a panic to get away from whatever that thing was. Snow quickly made its way inside his eye sockets, and he cringed in disgust for a moment, before sitting up and frantically checking the portal behind him.

It swirled peacefully. Nothing had followed him through. He couldn’t even feel any scratches on his face. Had… had that been a hallucination?

Dream leaned his head down, carefully patting the back of his skull to get the snow out. Gross. 

It took a moment for him to realize it, but he wasn’t alone. As he got the last chunk of snow out of his skull, he realized there was something emitting mass amounts of both positive and negative emotion standing right in front of him. He looked up, shocked, before spotting a skeleton (they looked like a Sans?) nervously holding their hand out to him, as an offer to help him up. They hesitated, before turning their hand over, in a similar way to how some Sanses judged, yet different at the same time.

Their appearance was definitely interesting, but it wasn’t the most bizarre or unique that Dream had ever seen. Some Sanses had been through a lot, leading to somewhat… unsettling appearances, on occasion. This Sans had clearly been through something to end up how they were. Their magic was escaping through their skull, bursting out in scribble-like patterns, parts breaking off and crumbling, being slowly consumed by the world.

Their AU was slowly depleting all of their magic.

Dream knew that he, Ink, and Blue were fully capable of restoring their magic, as well as most monsters under normal circumstances, but he’d never seen a world consuming the magic of one of its own inhabitants. If it were taking magic from a monster, essentially using that monster to keep itself stable… that would mean there was no magic left in that world.

Dream stood on his own, a concerned expression overtaking his features. If this kept up for too long, this Sans could die! And, based on their surroundings, there likely wasn’t a human to reset the timeline and bring them back.

Speaking of their surroundings, the two of them were standing on a small snow island in the middle of a completely flat ocean. What appeared to be stars twinkled above them, but upon closer inspection, the ‘stars’ were actually stores of magic, slowly burning out in the distance. It was almost eerie, the idea that all of that was being taken from this one monster.

Now that Dream was thinking, he noticed yet another strange thing about them. They had a very peculiar aura. It was rather weak, likely due to their magic constantly being fed on, but it was vibrant at the same time, like if you took a bright color but turned down the opacity, or something like that. Ink would probably be able to come up with a better description. It had the vibrancy of a guardian, but the power of a monster that’d fallen down.

It took Dream a moment to realize it, but the Sans in front of him had been trying to get his attention. Ugh, stupid, he should’ve been listening. It didn’t matter if he was tired, that was no excuse to ignore someone who probably needs help!

“-ello? Have you, uh….  You look… sick. You can rest here for now, if you’d liKE-” The monster jumped in surprise as Dream rushed forward, a heavy look of worry plastered on his face.

“Are you okay? You need to have your magic restored, you’re already dangerously low!” he stated, although just the idea of trying to restore their magic made him even more fatigued. “I can hea-” Dream rushed out, before being interrupted just as hastily.

“No! No, don’t use your magic on me, you’re much lower than I am. I, um, I should be giving you magic. I can, uh, sorry, let me just…” They struggled with their words for a moment, seemingly out of practice. Looking around, it wasn’t hard to figure out why. Even their voice itself sounded weird, strangely light, almost ethereal. Like it would be more likely to come from a god than a dying mortal. Everything about this monster contradicted itself.

The monster reached out towards Dream, and he panicked. If they tried to heal him, they could die! Without thinking, Dream extended his arm, dodging their hand, and firmly placed his palm on the front of their skull, pushing nearly all of his tiny morsel of magic into healing the Sans.

The last thing he saw was a terrified expression on their face, before everything went dark.

Dream felt like he’d fallen out of a tree. He’d actually done that once, back before… well, everything. Nightmare had freaked out when he’d landed face first on the ground next to him. It’d been kinda funny, until his head was overtaken by piercing pain. Nightmare had immediately rushed to take care of him, ensuring that he wasn’t permanently harmed by his minor concussion. He hadn’t realized how the villagers had been treating Nightmare while Dream was too weak to go out into the village and distract them. Pushing that thought away for a brief moment, he focused on the almost bittersweet nostalgia. While Dream was better at appeasing the villagers, and ensuring that they remain happy, Nightmare had always been better at keeping others calm, and making sure their physical health would be taken care of.

Although he was surprised about it, he was glad that his reminiscing wasn’t tainted by guilt for once. He usually wasn’t able to just… think back on things positively, even if he was the guardian of positivity. 

Slowly, he opened his eyes. He could feel unfamiliar magic tingling in his arms, although it wasn’t unfamiliar in a bad way. It felt almost like a hug, but in the form of intangible healing magic.

He was clearly still on the snow island. He’d been lying in the snow, but he didn’t feel at all cold. Even upon moving his hand slightly, the snow felt fluffy, but not cold. In fact, it almost felt warm, like he was lying in feathers.

Carefully, he sat up, mindful of the ache in his magic stores. They were back at normal levels, but he’d clearly used them to a dangerous degree. He locked eyes with the other skeleton still in the AU, who had been standing and watching over him cautiously, as if he was going to randomly dust in his sleep. There was a tense silence for a moment, neither quite sure what to say.

Eventually though, one of them had to speak. “You… didn’t have to do that, you know. I would’ve been fine, you should’ve saved your magic for yourself,” he stated slowly, not trusting himself to speak responsibly without thoroughly working through his sentence in his head first. 

The skeleton shook their head. “You were very close to collapsing. You need to take care of yourself, even if it means relying on someone else briefly.”

“Yes, but-”

The monster fixed him with a stern but affirming look. “You cannot help others if you’re completely exhausted. Don’t use my… state, as an excuse.” The look in their eye turned softer, and almost reminiscent in a way. “You can rest here. This world can’t hold more than two people at a time, so you won’t have to fight while you’re in it.”

Dream considered this offer. The other monster was being a clear hypocrite, encouraging Dream to take care of himself while running on minimal magic levels themself. Dream scrutinized them for a moment, before coming to a decision.

“I’ll stay and rest, but you have to at least accept some magic replenishing food, and answer some of my questions!” After a moment, he amended, “... well, you only have to answer the questions if you’re comfortable with them, of course.” The skeleton hesitated for a moment, and it wasn’t hard to read why. They were very tempted to encourage Dream to eat the food himself, and looked close to voicing those concerns, before sighing resignedly.

“Alright. Just please make sure to find some way to replenish your magic further once you leave,” they stated, before sitting down about a foot and a half away from Dream, waiting for his questions.

Dream stared into the completely flat water surrounding the island. “Okay, uh, first I should probably ask, what’s your name?” He passed them a piece of bread that a rabbit monster from the AU he’d helped to protect earlier had gifted him. He hadn’t felt as if he had time to stop and eat. Besides, eating could make him sluggish if there was an attack on an AU.

“Oh, sorry, that was rude of me, wasn’t it? My name’s Sans,” they responded, scratching the back of their skull nervously.

Dream paused. “Well, um, no, uh, this is awkward. My name’s Sans too, there’s… a lot of us, who are named Sans. Because of that, most of us have nicknames or something, so for example, most people call me Dream.” 

The other skeleton raised a bone-brow at this new information, but took it in stride. “Oh. Alright. I’ve never had a nickname, so I’m not quite sure what to pick.”

Dream smiled politely, saying, “Most of us base ours off of our AU’s name, or based on characteristics that differentiate us from the original.” At the look of confusion on the other skeleton’s face, he added, “Don’t worry about that, I’ll explain after you’ve eaten,” before shoving a piece of bread into their hands. “I can… I can give you one if you can’t think of anything?” Ink was usually the one to think of nicknames, since he’d always speak before Dream could even begin to consider it. Blue came up with nicknames on occasion too, but Dream never did. It couldn’t be too hard, though, right?

Before Dream could consider it further, the other monster replied, “Is Monolith fine?”

Dream grinned. “Of course! It’s nice to meet you, Monolith. I already said this, but my name’s Dream!” His grin grew as he watched Monolith take a bite of the bread, the magic flowing out of their skull seeming a little bit more healthy with even just a morsel of extra energy. “So, I should probably explain everything. It’d definitely make asking my questions easier!”

-----

Sans- er, Monolith was having a hard time processing everything that Dream had just said. Their mind was reeling with the new information. Yes, back when they’d been a scientist (god, that’d been ages ago, hadn’t it? They’d worked at the lab when they were 20, so that means that by the time the event happened, it’d been 14 years. Damn.) they’d had suspicions, but to have actual confirmation of alternate universes existing?

Not to mention that the ball of positivity in front of them was their first point of communication in who knows how long. It was hard to keep track of time when there was barely anything to look at, barely anything that changed. It didn’t help that they’d slept most of their time there. Hearing him talk so much, and having so many opportunities to talk themself, it was almost overwhelming. They weren’t unhappy though, quite the opposite. It may have been a struggle to get through each sentence, and it may have been difficult to figure out how to have a conversation after being out of practice for so long, but they were going to give it their best shot. They couldn’t lose their only conversation partner in what felt like decades.

“Oh, and me, Blue, and Ink make up the star sanses! The two of them are dealing with other stuff right now, so I’m on my own at the moment,” Dream continued, building off of his previous introductions of his two friends. 

“So, I’m assuming the three of you had been in a battle before you got here?”

Dream paused, frowning. “Huh?”

Monolith scratched the back of their skull again, sheepishly. “Oh, uh, you were covered in scratches when you got here, and your magic was very low.”

Dream relaxed slightly. “Right. Yeah, uh, we were fighting the Bad Sanses. I already explained them, I think.” He had, in fact, already explained them. Monolith hadn’t missed his grimace at the mention of Nightmare, presumably someone related to him based off of their naming conventions. 

“That sounds like… a lot of pressure. Especially for just three people,” they commented, careful to keep anything that sounded too close to pity out of their tone. It wasn’t like they pitied Dream. He was clearly a very strong individual. They were more just… concerned. He reminded them a lot of someone who they used to care about greatly. They didn’t want Dream falling into the same fate.

Dream’s smile strained slightly, and he stared at the ground opposite to Monolith. “It’s fine, really. I mean, we’re the only ones with both the power and the will to do this, so we kind of have to?” He winced, probably realising how bad that sounded. “I mean, I want to do it! I enjoy helping others, it just gets kind of tiring sometimes is all.” Now his smile looked almost nervous, and he was actively avoiding Monolith’s gaze.

Shit. They held back their own emotions at Dream’s statement, despite it causing old memories to crash back into them in a tidal wave. This wasn’t about them. They had to help. They had to help or- They had to help him. They couldn’t make this about themself, that would be selfish. And shit, that sounded really bad even in their own head. They were making this about themself. Respond, respond, respond, don’t be selfish-

“That doesn’t mean you have to hold it all in, though. I understand that you think you have an obligation to do this, and I’m not going to try to argue with you, since I don’t exactly know the full extent of what’s happening, but… it’s weighing on you, isn’t it? You don’t have to hide your emotions, or appear completely resilient just for the sake of others. You’re already incredibly strong, and I’m sure that nobody would judge you for showing that all of this is affecting you. You deserve to be taken care of too.”

It took a few seconds, but Dream’s smile fell completely. He looked away from Monolith the moment he noticed, barely keeping his emotions in check. Monolith panicked slightly, reaching out, worried they’d done something wrong.

All it took was Monolith hesitantly squeezing his hand for the tears to finally flow over. He let out a violent sob, shakily getting out, “I just met you. I’m sorry, I- I can’t believe I’m… Ugh, I’m such a babybones.” He let out a bitter laugh, furiously scrubbing away at his eye sockets with his gloves. He’d begun muttering to himself quietly, clearly not intending for Monolith to hear. They’d heard anyways, even if they felt bad eavesdropping on his private conversation with himself. “All those years of effort, and the second someone asks you just… he’d call you pathetic right now, if he was here, stupid, stupid, stupid-”

Monolith gave him a meaningful look, even if he wouldn’t see it. “It’s okay to cry. I’m not upset at you, you should never have to feel like you can’t express your troubles. You deserve someone to talk to as well, regardless of if it’s me or someone else. Based on what you’ve said, there are people who care about you a lot. They will not be upset at you for having emotions. Even if you need to be a guardian, someone who protects and saves others, you still feel things like everybody else, and you deserve a space to express those things, just like everybody else. You are extremely selfless. It’s not selfish to take care of yourself, or to let others help take care of you.”

Dream let out another loud sob, not bothering to smother it as much this time. It was followed by another, and another, until his face was completely soaked with tears. “I just- it feels so stupid, to be breaking down like this, over something one person said? I guess I’m just- I guess I’m just exhausted emotionally already, but- I… I feel like an idiot, I should- I need to be able to deal with this, I have responsibili- I need to be strong, for-” Another loud sob broke his sentence, and he turned away once again in humiliation.

Monolith squeezed his hand in a way that they hoped was comforting (it was hard to tell, since they hadn’t interacted with another person in a very long time), before responding in a soft voice, “Crying isn’t a bad thing, and it isn’t stupid. What you’re dealing with, what you’re going through, is extremely difficult. It’s awful to have to feel trapped in something that exhausts you constantly. It’s awful to feel trapped in general. It’s reasonable to cry about that. This kind of feels like it was a long time coming, and I’m glad that you’ve at least been able to let it out a bit now. You’re very strong, regardless of your tears.” They wondered if the last part was too much. They barely knew him. It’d just slipped out. He just… he reminded them so much of-

They froze as they felt arms wrap around them. The shorter skeleton was still being wracked by sobs, but he’d tilted his face as to not get anything on Monolith’s sweater. Hesitantly, they hugged him back, rubbing soothing circles on his back.

Slowly, as his sobs became less volatile, and he was able to speak clearly once again, Dream pulled away. He opened his mouth, his expression betraying his intention to apologize, before he caught Monolith’s look. He closed his mouth once again, smiling slightly, before instead saying, “Thank you.” Monolith froze in slight surprise. Fuck, don’t cry now, Dream’s the priority. They subtly exhaled, before smiling back.

“Of course. I’m just happy that you were able to express that, at least a bit.”

Dream rubbed at his eyes, getting the last of his tears out, and sniffled slightly. “I, uh, I think I might still have some stuff to work on, but that helped a lot. I can sense that Ink and Blue are back. I’ll try and talk to them about it as soon as possible. I have to leave for now, but I promise I’ll try and find a way back here, and I might bring Blue or Ink next time! Again, thank you.” Dream hesitantly stood up, before offering his hand to Monolith to help them stand as well. They took it, and he pulled them up with surprising strength.

Frankly, they were terrified. They didn’t want to go back to being completely alone with their thoughts. At the same time though, they were somewhat apathetic to the idea. They knew it was going to happen at some point. There wasn’t anything they could do to change it.

“Alright, kiddo. Just remember to take care of yourself, okay?”

Dream looked deeply offended, his somewhat comedic expression contrasting the wetness still on his cheekbones. “I’m probably like, 500 years older than you!” It wasn’t hard to tell that he wasn’t actually all that upset, so Monolith just patted his head. “Oh, crap, Ink and Blue are looking for me. I can tell they’re worried, I really should get back. I promise I’ll find you again!” And with that, Dream rushed through the portal on the other side of the snow island, leaving Monolith alone once again.

“Kiddo…”

-----

“Alright, kiddo. Just remember to hold on tight!” Sans advised, before racing off in the direction the kid sitting on top of their shoulders was pointing.

Papyrus screamed happily, giggling when Sans almost ran directly into a tree. “THE GREAT PAPYRUS RIDES HIS STEED INTO BATTLE, PREPARED TO CAPTURE HIS FOES!” Sans wasn’t exactly one for exercise, but they’d do anything for their bro. They’d probably give up ketchup, if that’s what’d make him happy.

Noticing the time, however, Sans said, “Sorry, bro, but I think it might be time to ride your steed back to the house for lunch.” At this, Papyrus of course whined disappointedly.

“FINE. BUT ONLY BECAUSE MY STEED IS ALSO MY BROTHER, WHO IS VERY GOOD AT MAKING CEREAL,” Papyrus conceded, patting Sans on the head to let them know it was fine. They’d felt a weird discomfort at the usage of the word brother, as always, but passed it off as nothing. They guessed that terms like that just weren’t their kind of thing, even if that didn’t quite feel like the reason, but they weren’t gonna tell Paps to stop calling them that, since it made him happy. 

Since it made him happy.

That didn’t end up being enough, though, huh?

It really is quite sad.

A real tragedy.

MONOLITH IS NOW DAYDREAMING OPEN FOR ASKS.

[ask-codeearasure]

The Outer Realms - Chapter 1

Next Chapter ---->

Chapter One:

Sleep’s Claim

—

“Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there wondering, fearing,

Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before” - Edgar Allen Poe (The Raven)

—----------------

Dream couldn’t help but stare from a distance as a human child with a purple and pink outfit, and the ability to transform their arms into blades and summon a pink scythe. She was flailing around, trying to escape the world she was in, but couldn’t succeed. Everything was deteriorating, going surreal. The earth around her began to look like it was made by giant cotton balls. Suddenly, teal strings tied around her and she flailed and struggled, only to be pinned to the ground by the strings that were seemingly invincible. The air around them was becoming suffocating and crushing.

Eventually, her body also became corrupted, far beyond that of her surroundings. She looked like she was cut from crumpled paper. The world was tearing her apart.

“Do you wish to die as well?” asked a dark voice that sounded like it was coming from an ancient radio.

Dream found himself being wrapped in the same teal strings, but instead he was pulled through a portal and…

—-------------

Dream rolled off of the couch, hitting his head painfully on the coffee table. He groaned as he sat up. He looked around the rather humble living room he was in and remembered that he was still in Underswap with Ink. He clutched his chest as he panted heavily, slowly but surely calming himself.

“It was only a dream….”

–

Dream stared at the breakfast Indigo had made for them: Pancakes. They were perfect as always but, the dream he had gave him an odd feeling, and he couldn’t stop thinking over it. He took a deep breath and started eating, keeping his problems to himself—especially from Ink, who would just brush them off as per the new usual.

He did his best to not make eye contact with Carrot, who had been perplexed by his silence. He didn’t want to burden him or his brother, even though Indigo would be elated to talk to him whenever. But that idea just didn’t feel right to Dream. He considered Indigo a friend, sure, but not only did he not want any of them to worry about him, it’s just the resident Sans reminded him too much of someone he lost. Which was okay! It wasn’t Indigo’s fault.

It wasn't odd, though. Dream himself knew he was more than a bit on the hyperactively positive spectrum of a persona. He had no other choice in the matter, considering his situation. He couldn't give up hope. He had to hold on for dear life. Carrot always saw him be positive and hopeful. Always smiling. Even when he was coughing up blood, Dream remained hopeful.

But that dream he had that night…

Something about it made his soul hurt.

Something about it made him feel cold.

Dream found himself halfway through his pancakes, but he couldn't finish them. They were delicious but with the mindset he was in, he didn’t think he could stomach much more.

“I'm sorry… I guess I'm not that hungry…”

He felt like he had to run out of the house to try to get his emotions under control. He made his way deep into the Snowdin forest until he felt comfortable enough to just breathe. He paced back and forth trying to release the emotions but it wasn't enough. As he collapsed against a tree, he found the word that could describe what it was he was feeling.

Anxiety.

But why?

“You okay?”

Dream nearly jumped a foot in the air, finding Carrot was present, who was smoking a cigarette and staring at him.

“Um-”

“I know something's bothering you. You have the same look my brother had when he told me he was joining the guard.”

Shit. Of course Carrot would be able to read him. Dream rubbed his face and tried to calm himself. “I had a really bad dream and I don't know why it's bothering me so much.”

Carrot walked over and sat beside him, “Wanna tell me about it?”

Dream looked down at his gloved hands and shrugged. “Yeah… sure…”

Carrot didn't ask any questions as Dream described it which Dream appreciated. He just sat and listened. When Dream finished, Carrot exhaled a cloud of smoke and said “Sounds like hell.”

“What’s that?” Dream asked.

“Eh, this weird place that humans theorized their souls will go to if they commit too many bad things in their life, or are just plain evil. They say their souls will be tortured for all eternity.” Carrot shrugged.

“That's horrifying.” Dream frowned.

“Like that nightmare you had.” Carrot nodded.

“I don't know why I had it though…” Dream murmured.

There was a small moment of silence before Carrot got up, stretching his bones before taking a long drag to finish off his cigarette and using magic to dispose of the butt of it.

“Ya know, before you and Ink came here, I looked through the Royal Library a bit, and they have a lot of human books. Some humans have books on the symbolism of dreams and nightmares. Possible meanings and whether or not they can predict the future.” said Carrot, rotating his wrist.

“What's that supposed to mean?” asked Dream, his voice was a bit shaky.

“I mean, your nightmare could be your subconscious trying to tell you something. It could be that you're stressed out, but refusing to acknowledge it. Or something completely different, who knows. Your namesake isn't something anyone understands.” Carrot suddenly smiled. “It's best to not dwell on something that cryptic.”

Dream thought about it for a moment, nodded, and then got up.

“Come on, I want to go with you and Ink to that weird Doodlesphere-place that you two keep talking about. It sounds interesting.” Carrot smiled.

Dream smiled back a bit, still feeling a bit anxious but far more relaxed after talking to Carrot. He was such a good friend. When they both got back to Carrot’s house he and Blue talked a lot about what they were going to do for the day once Ink showed up. Dream ignored them and went through a small notebook he kept to himself. It listed the many things he wished to say to his own brother…

Nightmare.

That strange possession he went through. The destruction of their Alternate Universe (AU). All of it replayed in his head. He just wanted his brother back, but it always seemed impossible. He wanted to be able to reunite with his brother. He wanted to show his brother the many wondrous AUs he’s been to. He wanted to be able to just–

“Hey guys! I’m back!” Ink said, opening the door happily, his eyelights starry and bright.

Dream waved and Carrot gave a nod.

“You hungry?” Indigo asked, “I can–”

“Nope. Thanks, though!” Ink said, practically running over to Dream. “I found a really interesting Underfell timeline! It has no sign of human activity yet!”

Dream held back a grimace. “Great!”

“I know, right?” Ink exclaimed.

“Underfell?” Carrot asked.

“It’s an alternate universe where monsters are cartoonishly evil. They tend to kill each other and humans for even the most minor of reasons!” Ink explained. “It’s very cruel, but so different compared to most universes!” he looked back at Dream, “You have to come with me there. If we’re lucky, we’ll be able to find the human before any other monsters do! Wouldn’t that be interesting?”

“Or dangerous.” Dream mumbled. Charas tended to be genocidal depending on the AU. With it being an Underfell, the Chara there would be genocidal. But if they were a Frisk, they’d likely be sweet and kind, but it was always a fifty-fifty chance as to what he’d be walking into. He remembered the time Ink dragged him into a genocide run. The prospect of going to Underfell was not a good idea at all, and Ink wanting to interfere with its story, even on a small level, was a peculiar thing for Ink to make in general. Out of all his friend’s chaotic tendencies, that was the one decision Dream almost never saw Ink fall back on.

It piqued Carrot’s curiosity though. “Mind if I tag along?” Carrot asked.

Ink grinned, “Of course not!”

Ink went on and on about how interesting he found Underfell to be as he opened up a portal to the Doodlesphere.

“It just looks interesting to me! I mean an entire universe where everyone is cartoonishly evil villains is just… so weird and so funny to me!” Ink grinned as they walked through the bright void that was the Doodlesphere to find this AU.

Dream rolled his eyelights as he tried to tune it out. What Ink wasn’t saying was that this was the twelfth one they found in the past year, though this would be Carrot’s first interaction with one. Dream then paused as he heard in the distance a strange hissing sound. He turned around but it was gone as quickly as it appeared. He turned and saw that the others didn’t seem to hear it.

“I must be on edge…” he thought, “That dream really got to me.”

He caught up with them and followed Ink to this new timeline. Dream couldn’t help frown as he was annoyed with these ones, so the most he could say was that it gave him a strong dislike and discomfort. He couldn’t really function to his full capabilities because of the general and consistent lack of positivity available. He couldn’t make a portal out. He couldn’t be at top form there. The hate, the despair, it was overpowering. But he knew Nightmare loved those emotions. He loved it all. So Dream had no choice but to go there anyway. These AUs that give him a lack of access, solely locked away from him unless he followed Ink or anyone else capable of opening portals. He did his best to help out as much as he could regardless

He watched as Ink pointed at the page that was Underfell. “That one right there!” he used his brush to open a portal, and Dream sighed internally. This wasn’t going to be fun for him.

When they walked through the forest of the Snowdin of Underfell, Carrot looked around, amazed that it wasn’t that different from his own. It was when they were in the town that he found many differences. There were a lot of… destroyed and boarded-up buildings. It was sad to look at.

When a small Doggo Pup tripped and fell, he and Carrot helped them up, but they gave them a puzzled but confused and almost mortified look. But what became a new habit for him, Dream simply said, “You don’t owe us anything, just be careful next time. The snow can be so troublesome sometimes!”

The pup, still confused, just nodded their head and ran off as fast as they could in the opposite direction.

“What was that about?” Carrot asked.

“This universe doesn’t have a lot of kindness in any way. No sincerity or love. Just… hate, despair, and fear…” Dream grumbled, “They view acts of kindness as something that deserves payment with one’s own life- like selling your soul for food, or your autonomy for a shirt. That sort of thing. Not even one’s own family is an exception.” he shivered. The fact that these AUs existed made him feel a sense of disgust.

“That… is the saddest thing I’ve ever heard.” Carrot said, stunned.

It was when they walked to Waterfall that they were met with a terrifying sight. The cave walls were flickering in and out of reality, transforming from balls of cotton or sloshes of acrylic, pictures of the sea, or even many different clocks ticking down time as if counting down the minutes till… the sight was indescribable.

“Ink, what’s going on?” Dream asked, his voice trembling.

The resident Sans was blasting at the now clocks where the cave walls should be, but they turned into boulders, then crystals, then mirrors, then crayon scribbled on paper.

“I have no idea.” Ink said, looking around. The artist blinked multiple times, then shook his head, struggling to process the environmental scramble around them.

Carrot ran to Sans and quickly asked, “What’s going on?”

Sans flinched and turned to see Carrot, looking even more horrified. He tried to impale Carrot with a line of bones, but he teleported behind Sans and asked again, even grabbing him by the shoulders. “Look, I know I probably look like ya brother, but ya gotta calm down and tell me what’s happening. We’re here to help.”

Sans looked over at Dream and Ink who were in the process of investigation, even touching the cave wall. Dream even felt the shift in texture with each flicker.

“Y-... you can see it?”, Sans asked.

Carrot nodded.

“It’s been happening for weeks.” Sans said, “It’s been happening, but I’m the only one who can see it for some reason. No one believes me. They think that the Ruins and Hotlands are still there, but they’re not. They disappeared yesterday. But they can’t see that. Some just walk into the… nothingness and disappear!”

There was a loud bang and the reality cracked like glass. Ink summoned his paintbrush and made a new portal out. Dream ran over and said quickly as he pulled their hands, “We need to get out, now! ”

The entire universe was crumbling away into garbled code and dust. They jumped through the portal as everyone else seemed to not care. It was mayhem and maddening to witness. Reality didn’t look like reality. It was surreal and horrific, a corrupt infection. Dream would’ve thought he ate something contaminated or was sick – which was abnormal even for him, a rarity – but no, Carrot saw it too. Ink, who already had left the universe, saw something that he wasn’t at all expecting. The universe was falling apart, and there was no direct link to what caused it.

All the universes in the Doodlesphere looked like pieces of paper floating around, in this particular case, the piece of paper that personified Underfell burst into flames, soon blowing away in the form of ash.

The trio jumped through the portal and fell on top of Ink, who didn’t have time to dodge. His eyelights were rather large and fully a light violet, indicative of his worry.

“Are you all okay?” asked Ink.

Dream dusted himself off. He could feel his soul beating, magic racing, as though it wanted to jump right out of his ribcage and keep flying off.  It was just… terrifying.

Dream simply nodded, not wishing to speak for the other two.

“What the hell was that ?” asked Carrot, his tone harsh and a bit shaky.

“My universe…”, Sans couldn’t take his eyelights off of his reality, which was now reaching the final corner of the page and falling away into nothing, “It’s gone…”

He seemed to be in shock.

Ink shook his head, “I don’t know. I’ve never seen anything like it before. Maybe Error figured out a way to—”

“Can’t be.” Carrot said, interrupting Ink. He lit a cigarette and put it between his teeth, took a long drag of it, and exhaled a long cloud of smoke as he took the cigarette with two fingers, “Error has never done anything like this from your stories or what I’ve seen. I doubt he’d even spend the time to figure it out.”

Dream nodded again, “It was… like I was dreaming, but it was real. How would he even…” he couldn’t continue.

“Nightmare, then?” Ink asked.

Dream shook his head. Ink must have forgotten. “No, Nightmare only wants to spread negativity, remember? And Killer has never displayed such… abilities? You know what I mean. Neither of them even have reality-destroying capabilities”

“Okay, can someone tell me what the fuck is going on?”, Sans asked harshly. It took them a moment to remember… Sans had never encountered them until that day, let alone knew the concept of being an outcode.

They all glanced at each other, and in a silent agreement, they decided to go to their favorite hideout… Carrot’s timeline.

—---

It took almost three hours to explain what they could about their predicament.

"So… to simplify this bullshit," Sans grumbled as he pinched his brow bone. "You all are just running amok in this… Doodlesphere because your– " he pointed to Dream, "--brother is an insecure baby and decided to go around torturing people for his own benefit, and using a mentally broken version of us as his attack dog, and because you stupidly left him to his own devices before all of this, he turned out this way and you're actually genuinely surprised by this fact. And you –" he pointed at Ink, "are trying to stop another mentally broken version of us who has been completely transformed by the Anti-Void or gods or whatever and is trying to destroy universes because he views them as unnatural." He then looked at Carrot who was sitting with his older brother, Indigo, "And you two have been housing these two and are also basically if my universe wasn't bullshit and are mine and my brother's roles… just swapped."

"Basically," Carrot shrugged.

“I wouldn’t summarize it like that but yeah, pretty much!” Indigo replied.

Sans rolled his eyelights. "But you all seriously don't know what destroyed my world?"

Everyone shook their heads.

"I'm sorry, but we've never encountered anything like it." Carrot sighed.

"We'll figure it out though, I promise." Dream stated.

Sans didn't seem to believe him.

Indigo got up from his seat, and in an attempt to lighten the mood, stated he was going to get started on making dinner. Dream went off to help him.

He had offered to chop some tomatoes when Indigo spoke to him in a whisper. "Are you okay?"

Dream looked up from the cutting board, "Yeah, why?"

"Well this is the second time it's happened, isn't it?"

"Second time what happened?"

Indigo frowned, "That someone insulted your brother."

Dream paused. Now that he thought about it, he remembered when Carrot first encountered Nightmare.

The words rang out in his mind.

"Your brother is a demon."

Carrot did apologize for it. Hell, he even sensed that Carrot was still a bit apologetic over it. But why was Indigo asking about that?

"I thought you'd be angry about that… or at least a little upset," Indigo mumbled.

"Oh. No, I’m not.” Dream said simply.

Indigo looked at him with a confused expression. "...what do you mean by that?"

Dream paused his slicing again, "I can't blame them. I mean, they don't understand what's going on and even if they did, I still can't blame them. It does hurt a bit, but if anything, at some point, someday, I'll find a way to make it all stop. I won’t give up on my brother.”

Indigo gave him a very worried look but Dream returned it with a brave smile.

"I'm okay, I promise." Dream said.

The dinner was awkward, but Sans seemed to be adapting nicely. Dream had him take the couch while he himself worked with a sleeping bag in Indigo’s room. When he and Indigo were setting it up, they talked about how they could think of this like a sleepover. Come night, however, Dream couldn't sleep. He didn't know why. His mind was racing but never settling on a single thought or question. He looked over at the sleeping Indigo and frowned.

Yeah, he wasn't getting rest tonight.

He got up and got dressed as he tried to figure out something his mind could settle on. Perhaps he could focus on figuring out what happened to that Underfell timeline? Perhaps the whole universe as well, since the paper of it in the Doodlesphere vanished entirely. As he silently went down the stairs, he found that the light was on and that Sans was up, laying on the couch and staring at the ceiling.

Sans glanced over to Dream, "What's keeping you up?"

Dream gave a nervous laugh and went over, "Just can't stop thinking about what happened."

"You and me both." Sans grumbled, "It's so weird to see that Carrot guy… never thought I'd see a day where my little brother would be nice . Guess I was half right."

Dream shrugged and hummed, "I'll make us some hot chocolate."

Sans gave him an odd look, watching as Dream ran off to the kitchen.

He was even more put off by how the drinks looked. Whipped cream, a stick of cinnamon, chocolate shavings, sprinkles, and star shaped marshmallows.

He sat up and took the drink, mumbling a thanks. He didn't really know what else to say, but Dream didn't seem to care.

They sat in silence for a bit before Dream suddenly spoke up.

"I'm sorry we couldn't save your timeline, or your universe..."

Sans seemed a bit shocked by it but he shook his head, "It's fine. I mean, all that shit happened so suddenly and all of you did say you didn't know what was going on, so it makes sense you couldn't do much."

Dream could feel Sans was forcing his frustration down to try to be as understanding as possible.

"I know you're frustrated and confused about it all, and that’s okay." Dream said, "I just wish I could've done something to stop it. But I promise we'll find out who did it."

Fell finally gave a genuine smile.

"Thanks."

—--

The next day was rough, to say the least. They all decided to try and track down Error, much to Dream's confusion. Ink had insisted that no one else could be the culprit, he even thought of the perfect bait…

Chara.

Carrot, Dream, and Indigo were appalled, but couldn't argue with Ink properly when he was in one of his rare fixation modes. Sans was horrified when he saw Chara, even summoning a Gaster Blaster on the kid, but Carrot was able to get him to calm down.

Indigo couldn't help but call him Edge , because of how edgy Sans behaved. The nickname stuck.

Edge couldn't help it, and was annoyed but he was as unnerved by how the brothers were interacting with Chara. They were so cheery and calm, but the mere mention of Frisk sent them into a panic.

Edge then got the idea as to why they were going to use Chara as live bait, but at the same time, he was even more put off by it.

This had the possibility to fail, and real quickly at that. He and Dream tried to help Carrot and Indigo argue with Ink again, but the artist’s insistence persevered.

Going back to the Doodlesphere made Edge shiver. He hated how quiet it was.

He just hoped that everything went smoothly.

As they were wandering the blankness, Carrot holding tightly onto Chara's little hand, they saw something odd. Cobalt strings.

So many of them, tied around the pages that represented the other universes. All of them were strung up rather tightly and there were moments as though someone was lightly tugging on them, rippling the pages around the edges ever so slightly. Dream had paused, then summoned his bow, and attempted to shoot one of the universes free.

No success. If anything, the strings pulled tighter around their delicate hostages.

"What in the world?" Dream mumbled.

Ink seemed confused as well.

Carrot tried to blast them, but the strings remained. They continued walking a bit further, but the farther they went, the more strings they saw.

That's when Edge heard it. The sound of a piano playing a rather somber and lonely song, as though the piano itself was almost in mourning.

They followed the music, soon finding themselves before a rather unusual skeleton sitting alone at a classical piano, playing the gothic melody. Edge could just make out the name of the song on the pages that sat against the piano.

Lacrimosa D minor.

It was such a slow and methodical tune.

The odd skeleton paid them no mind. Edge noticed that the strings all tied to each other and led down to the stranger's fingers.

The odd skeleton's bones were all black minus for his phalanges, which were in an odd coloration. His hoodie was also black with golden fur. His glasses were red and greenish. The oddity of all oddities as Edge was concerned.

He looked up from his piano when he finished with the final notes and grinned with a mouth of golden teeth.

Edge couldn't help but get the feeling that something was beyond off here.

Dream could feel it too. That emotion… It was such an odd one. Why was Error satisfied with everything? Especially their presence. But it also felt malicious. Dark… so much darker than what Dream was used to sensing from the destroyer.

"What did you do to Edge's AU, Error?" Ink asked harshly.

Error clicked his tongue and got up from his seat, then snapped his fingers.

The pain was unbearable. It was so little but so much- like being burned from the inside out.

Strings went straight through everyone except Chara. They kept everyone still, but the decision to kill wasn’t made. Why?

That's when Error summoned Chara’s soul with blue magic and dragged them closer.

Error touched the tear-streak-like stripes on his skull, summoning more strings to appear but rather, they were on the tips of his fingers, as though they were claws. He reared back his hand.

There was a crack, then a scream, and blood sprayed from the wound.

Why was there so much blood?

Chara fell, but before they could hit the ground, Error kicked them over to Carrot just as the strings that were once holding everyone were retracted. Before anyone could react, Error pulled the last string, and the Doodlesphere erupted into an explosion of shredded paper.

Edge couldn't take his eyes off Chara, the horrified look on the child’s face burning into his memory. The hole in their chest where a heart should have been hardly seemed to matter in comparison.

Where did the piano go?

Dream shot an arrow at Error, but it was stopped by something. He couldn't see what it was until the arrow landed behind him.

A string?

What kind of magic was this? Since when could Error’s strings deflect projectiles?

Error fidgeted with the human’s heart, trailing a claw down the middle before stripping the flesh, revealing the soul inside. He wrapped it in the strange strings, where it disappeared in quick succession.

Then Error too disappeared, as though he was a computer program that was causing the mainframe to glitch uncontrollably.

Edge and Dream were jumped back to reality again. The first thing they registered was the despair of the Underswap brothers, and the confused murmurings of Ink.

Lacrimosa.

Edge put a hand on Carrot's shoulder.

"Let's.. go back to your world… we can't leave them here… ya know?"

Carrot gave a mournful nod as Dream opened up a portal to the Underswap universe.

Lacrimosa.

The burial was quick. The Queen, Toriel, made sure of that. She was distraught with the whole ordeal, but she made Carrot, Dream, and Indigo, and even Edge himself, promise to never allow Ink to drag a human out to the Doodlesphere ever again.

They agreed.

She was being lenient, Edge had noted.

Asgore would've had their heads for that…

Their Asgore couldn't stop crying.

Never had he'd seen him as such a softy…

Lacrimosa.

Days passed and they still hadn't heard from Ink. They were visited by Alphys – the buff head of the Royal Guard – and Undyne – the Royal Scientist and a total twig.

Undyne was fascinated with Edge but more concerned about her friends. When he got the chance to, he finally asked her a question he had been wondering for a while.

He had to grab her hand, causing her to jump a little, her scales barely hid the deep blush she had when she looked at him. “Um hey… uh I have a question for ya…”

Stars, if she blushed any more, her glasses would fog up. Can she calm down for a second? She stammered, “Sure! Sure. What’s the question?”

"What does Lacrimosa mean?"

"Oh? Uh…" Undyne cleaned her classes as she spoke, "It means weeping , or tearful . Why?"

Edge felt his soul run cold as he took his hand back.

Weeping or tearful?

It was a somber song.

Slow and uneasy.

There were so many strings.

The pain.

He had the piano there.

"He planned it out…" Edge said in a whisper. "That was the name of the song that Error guy was playing…"

How the hell was he going to explain it to the others? Fuck…. He wasn’t exactly the gentle type.

[plasma-studios]

On Mercy (ao3: x)

The Council has been at war with the Emperor (more colloquially known as the King of Nightmares) for a long, long time. After defeat after defeat, they find themselves with no option but to request help from his fabled twin.

However, Dream will not help them for free; he locks eyes with Cross, and decides he wants him in exchange for the war victory. It is an easy choice to make.

But Cross is terribly apprehensive, because he his loyalty is not to the Council, but to Nightmare as a spy, and Dream is Nightmare's mortal enemy. Moreover he suspects Dream chose him knowing this, wanting information about his twin; and the issue is, Nightmare is absolutely unforgiving of traitors.

But he cannot offend Dream, for he too is an Immortal and God. He cannot forget that both Dream and Nightmare is dangerous, that any wrong move will end in his demise or worse.

(He forgets, however, that he himself is mortal.)

[OR: A Empire/Kingdoms UTMV AU, where Cross is caught between the crossfire of Immortal/Gods! Dreamtale Twins and some involvement with God!Errorink too.]

Inspired by love, in fire and blood by cicer

Chapter 1-11: (x)

Chapter 12: FLASHBACK II - THE IMMUTABILITY OF FATE

the errorink flashback chapter! w/ dreamtale twins ofc <3

Daydream awoke to the smell of beeswax. The warm, honeyed scent clung to his breath, strong enough that he could almost taste it, but light enough that he awoke gently. Could it be? As he clambered out of bed, Ink’s clear laughter sounded out. 

“I see you’re awake.”

Ink was leaning against his desk, right next to the burning candle. His smile was amused and light.  

“Why do you always light a candle to wake me?” Daydream’s voice was still heavy with sleep. He let out a yawn, and Ink made an amused noise as he stretched.

“Would you rather me shake you awake, little star?” He stepped closer to playfully poke him in the ribs. It didn’t actually hurt, but he fake-winced. Ink had definitely caught onto the act and gave him another curt, amused smile. “I thought this was a gentler way to rouse you.”

“You never do it to Nightmare,” He complained without any real heat. Before Ink could interject, he got to his feet and made his way to the armoire.

“Well, he wakes up on time. You, on the other hand…” Ink shook his head, but his expression betrayed the laughter he was keeping at bay. Daydream’s own face probably was doing the same. “Have a penchant for sleeping in. Shall I help you dress, my Prince?” 

His tone was coy, and Daydream had to bite back his own laughter. 

Ink’s smile widened. “Don’t worry, I promise not to make a fuss.”

Even as Daydream began selecting his attire, Ink continued with his playful banter until he was torn between exasperation and laughter. “What’s the occasion?” Daydream randomly selected his attire after a few glances over. “You’re awfully… accommodating, today.”

“Big word. I should reward your language tutor.”

“Which just so happens to be you,” He said, deadpan.

“Hey, it’s not my fault your old language tutor sucked. I’m a great replacement. And don’t forget that today’s a very special day, Your Highness.”

Daydream paused. What was important about today? He was quiet for a few moments, thinking and contemplating, before drawing up an utter blank.

“And why is it special?” He finally asked. Ink smiled gently.

“It’s your birthday, remember? Now, shall we proceed to breakfast once you’re dressed, or do you have any more complaints about my morning rituals?”

Daydream laughed, shaking his head. “No more complaints. I’ll get dressed.” ***

Daydream was the last to enter the banquet hall.

“Could’ve sworn that tardiness was a cardinal sin.” Nightmare’s dry humour was rewarded with Daydream letting out a sigh, and Ink shaking his head with amusement. 

“At least one of us goes to bed at a reasonable hour,” Daydream countered. The coy smile on Nightmare’s face quickly fell away as Ink turned his gaze on him.

“You caught me reading in the night one time—”

“And I’m sure that was the outlier.” Ink’s gaze was knowing, and Nightmare grimaced slightly. 

“Yes, well, I suppose I am rather fond of staying up late when there’s something interesting at hand.”

Daydream raised his eyebrows, but Ink beat him to it. “I can tell, from the cadences in your speech.”

He raised his hands up in mock-surrender. “Guilty as charged.” A pause. “Is it, uh, bad ? Do I sound pretentious?” 

Ink's eyes softened as he shook his head. “Not at all. Besides, a bit of eloquence never hurt anyone.”

Daydream slowly closed his mouth. 

Ink looked at him no less softly. “Not that you aren’t well-spoken, Daydream. You’re refreshingly direct; take it as a different kind of eloquence.”

“You should read more, though,” Nightmare added. Dream let out a huff. 

Ink chimed in, “Speaking as your tutor, yes.”

Daydream raised his arms up, not too dissimilar from what Nightmare had done a moment ago. “It’s not my fault the texts are so boring!”

“Hey, I teach you those texts.” Ink’s voice held not even a note of offence. “As a Prince, you have to know more literature than bedtime stories.”

“Nightmare’s good enough for both of us. And your stories are good!” He protested. 

“Seconded.”

Ink let out an exasperated sigh. “Fine. I’ll tell you both more stories later. But, on that note,” And it was when he picked up his fork that both Daydream and Nightmare remembered the spread before them. “You two should probably start eating before the food gets cold.”

Daydream blinked, then glanced at the table laden with an array of breakfast delicacies: freshly baked pastries, ripe fruit, and an assortment of cheeses and loaves of bread. His stomach rumbled in agreement.

“You’re right,” Daydream said a moment after, both amused and slightly sheepish. 

“It would be a shame to let all this go to waste,” Nightmare admitted. He reached over to serve himself a generous portion of fruit, paused, and sent Daydream a mischievous look. 

“I know that look,” He breathed. “Don’t you dare finish that by yourself—”

Ink chuckled while spreading some butter on a warm roll. “Well, it’s both your birthdays, so I expect you to share.” 

“I was going to. Obviously.” Nightmare huffed as Daydream snatched an orange slice from his plate. “Childish.”

“We’re the same age,” He retorted. Ink shook his head with amusement and said nothing more of it. He watched the two fill their plates with food, then consume them with enough frenzy that made him remind them that they would choke. He let out an amused sigh. The two were still children, after all. It was good that their birthday was starting off on a high note.

“Ink?” Daydream’s voice snapped him out of his thoughts.

“Hm? Yes?”

He was looking at him, as if he was confused. “Why aren’t you eating?” Ink blinked.

“Oh, I ate earlier. You know, while waiting for you to wake up.”

Nightmare let out a sound of amusement, but he noticed his gaze lingering on Ink for a moment longer: as if he too was realising it.

“Come on, it’s your birthday, I wouldn’t want to take away from your birthday feast—”

“Are you sure you’re—” Daydream’s voice was cut off by the doors to the banquet hall swinging open. 

The attendant that stepped into the room was unassuming. Dressed in a simple, yet elegant livery of muted green and gold, the attendant’s attire was understated but well maintained. Their hair was neatly tied back, and they bowed before they spoke. “Sir, there’s a visitor for you.”

“Oh?” Ink rose to his feet. “For who?”

The attendant lifted their head, and responded, “For you, sir.”

“Ah. Well, seeing as we’re in the company of His Highnesses, it would have been best for you to address them first.” 

The attendant’s expression shifted slightly, their composure faltering. Daydream frowned. He glanced at Nightmare, who shook his head, as if to say: don’t interfere.

“Please abide by proper protocol in future. Is the visitor urgent?” 

“Well—” The attendant swallowed. “He demanded an audience with you, and mentioned something about an important matter that couldn’t wait.”

Ink made a considering noise. “Conveniently vague. I don’t suppose you have any other details about him?”

The attendant blinked. “Well, he was… also dressed somewhat casually. Inappropriately for Palace etiquette, if I may.”

Ink blinked. 

“Is that so?”

“Do you know him?” Nightmare asked, putting down his fork. 

Ink didn’t glance at him. He scanned the attendant again. “I might.”

“You should go, then,” Daydream suggested. “Don’t keep someone you might know waiting.”

Nightmare glanced at him, but didn’t respond.

Ink eventually let out a sigh. “I’ll have to attend to the visitor, then. Don’t wait on the food on my behalf.”

“We won’t.” Nightmare’s voice was dry, but there wasn’t really any mocking in it. 

The moment the doors closed on the two, Daydream turned to him. “What was that?” 

Nightmare shook his head. “I don’t know, either.”

“I feel kind of bad for the attendant. Why did Ink want him to stick to protocol? It’s not like we ourselves follow it perfectly.”

Nightmare hesitated. “Well— protocol isn’t just protocol. There’s a lot of things that play into it. Him choosing to address Ink before us was sort of implicitly saying that Ink was more important than us. It was basically saying something like, ‘oh, the Princes do everything he tells them to, anyway. Might as well speak to him directly’, y’know?”

Daydream’s eyebrows drew together. “We do do what he wants us to, though.”

“Yeah, but it’s more of a respect thing?” Nightmare sighed. “Don’t let it spoil the day. I don’t think the attendant was doing it on purpose, but things set precedents, you know?”

“Mhm.” Daydream was still slightly uncomfortable with the whole affair. “Hope he returns soon.”

“Me too.” He sighed, then turned his attention back to the food. “Better not let it get cold.”  ***

Ink found Error waiting in the parlour. Once he stepped into the room, Error’s gaze landed squarely on him, and his pacing came to a stop. His mismatched pupils were glitching so much they lingered on any colour for less than a fraction of a second, but even as his fingers were twitching, he did nothing else; as if he was waiting for Ink to speak first.

Ink gazed back at him. Ink didn’t.

Minutes of just silence must have passed when Error finally opened his mouth.

“So,” He said. “This is where you’ve been?” ***

Before this, Error must have had some other life. A family, perhaps. On quieter days his mind wandered too much; on those days there was little noise to take the edge off envy when he took the lives of fearful families clustered together, begging for mercy, like a child stomping on tiny ants. The envy would come, nestled in some deep pit within himself, but it was a small price to pay for the calm of the quiet. 

On worse days, noisier days, he often could not think at all. It was only after, when his clothes were entirely dipped in blood and his fingers caked in dust, that he’d finally remember himself and feel no envy, but regret. Just a sliver.

His oldest memory was shrouded in fear and mystery; even now, he suspected him forgetting it was intentional on his part. All he could remember of it was sharp, debilitating pain: pain so agonising it was worse than death. He never dwelled on the memory for long. The rest of his memories were splintered, fractured enough, that he was never tempted to search them anyway.

Perhaps it was just a dream. Perhaps he never had a life before this. It had been a long, long time since the first time he’d crushed a soul into dust, and certainly not the last. It had been a long, long time for any existence beyond destruction. 

Stories inevitably began to arise, speaking of a creature with the body of a man, the mind of an animal, and the power of a God. They began calling him the Harbinger. God of Slaughter. Then they began calling him the Destruction God, in tales of a merciless monster to be feared and to be reviled. 

He never cared much for stories, anyway. 

There was no reason for his destruction, none at all. But he still did it. Why? Even he understood almost nothing about himself. What was he looking for? His body and mind craved violence and blood, but no joy ever came of it. But if he tried to restrain himself, his own soul would rebel against him until his mind was screaming in his ear: Blood! Blood!

He’d shredded his eardrums into dust, before. Perhaps if he ridded himself of all noise, there would be peace. He tried with his eyes, too. The peace never lasted.

People had tried to offer him things in exchange for his mercy. Coin. Land. Crown. In the beginning, he’d accepted and went away for a time, hoping he would finally be satisfied.

He never was.

Error stopped accepting the offers. There was only ever one thing that could put his mind at ease, even for just a while, and that was blood. 

In the brief bouts of peace on the worse days, he prayed. To any God, really, but himself. Let me die soon enough. How long had this existence gone on? His very being brought ruin to all, even himself. Had he committed some sin, that this was his punishment? Hadn’t this all been punishment enough?

Vaguely, he knew that he should not have lived this long. He’d claimed the lives of armoured Guards, silver-haired wise women, demure Princesses and arrogant Kings, generation after generation. He claimed mothers, then their sons, then the children of those sons.

It became a game, to see just what it would take for a moment of peace. Some days it was a life. Some days it was thousands of.

And then there was the Artist. There were so many stories about him, though they spoke of beautiful watercolours and enigmatic sightings rather than bloodshed. 

The first time they met, it was just another day of ruin. Or it was going to be. Error had caught the first unsuspecting soul in his strings and was ready to crush it to dust when someone tapped him on the shoulder.

“Hello, friend!” And he would grin, but there would be something in his eyes that made Error’s head whisper: Danger! “I wouldn’t advise on doing that.”

Error had jerked back from the touch. “Doing what?” And his voice had been glitching so severely. 

His smile had been gentle, but not kind.

“I know who you are. I know of the devastation you bring. Just because I’ve never hunted you down, doesn’t mean I’ll allow you to bring about your pathetic ruin in my presence.”

Error had blinked squarely. He released the still unaware soul.

Perhaps he should’ve spoken more then, but what did he have to say? Error understood the threat with crystal clarity. He had never run from anyone because his mind had never understood anything beyond its want for blood, but in that moment he had felt something he hadn’t in a long time: fear. It seemed only wise to act upon it. 

He let him leave without much other fuss. Decades had passed the next time he met the strange person. It was a circumstance that could not have been more different: he’d gone to his then spot that could bring him some comfort. It was near the river, where the loud rush of the flowing riverwater drowning out his own thoughts was the rare instance where noise brought him some peace. 

He’d found the Artist there, focused on capturing the river with paint on a canvas. 

And he’d remember, decades ago, when it had been this Artist that made him know fear for the first time.

And, as he realised neither of them had aged, he heard his own voice think: Is he like me?

It was him that spoke first, asking the Artist for his name. He gave it: Ink. Fitting of an Artist. He sat beside him, the soft rustle of the paintbrush filtering into the noise of the running river, and watched him paint.

Ink asked him for his name. He had been the first to.

Probably because he’d been the first to survive Error’s company for long enough to get to his name.

The moment was respite. Ink painted beautifully.

“Why do you do what you do?” He had asked him. He’d done so casually, not looking up from his painting, as if he was discussing anything less complex and contradictory than Error’s head.

“I don’t know,” He admitted. “It’s the only thing that brings me calm?”

“Calm?” His tone had been curious, not fearful. Though, perhaps the curiosity had been a mere farce so not as to scare him off as the first time had.

“I hear everything loudly.” He paused. “Everything is too much to me. When I break things, they go silent. It’s peaceful. I—” Once he started, he couldn’t stop. “I tried to keep away from everything. I made it so I couldn’t hear. But if I don’t spill blood, my mind runs away from me. And everything healed in the end.”

There was quiet.

“I won’t say I understand you.” Ink’s voice had been free of fear, free of emotion. But as he looked his way, there was something in his gaze that Error would later learn to love. “But thank you, for telling me.”

Error had let out a breath. 

“Will you kill me?”

Silence.

The memories of children clambering to their feet only to die, of mothers bent over their children with silent weeping when it meant nothing in the end, they both still died, suddenly came to mind. They had all begged to live. And here he was, asking to die.

“It would be mercy,” He murmured. “Please. I don’t know why, but I don’t age. I cannot die. It would be a mercy, for both the world and I.”

Ink smiled, not gently, but kindly. Somewhat, anyway.

Or was it pity when he looked upon him?

“Error,” He spoke gently, with pity, with sadness. “I cannot.”

Desperation seized him like nothing had ever before. “Please.”

“It’s not that I’m unwilling. It’s that, well… you cannot die, Error.”

He blinked. What?

“You cannot die. Your soul, it’s—” And this was where he paused. Error felt the soul in his chest beating erratically, as it always did, and felt nothing but confusion. 

“Error, your soul cannot die. It’s hardly a soul, at this point. It’s been put through hell, held together by— you should be dead, basically. It’s seriously fucked up. But it’s so fucked up, it doesn’t even know it’s supposed to be dead.” There was kindness, but there was no mercy in those words.

And, in some moment, he understood. He would never die. This was not hell. This was limbo. And that was worse.

“I can’t die, either,” He said quietly. “If that makes it better.”

The surprise took the edge of the grief, if only for a moment. 

“What?”

“I’m a God,” He said simply. “I’m immortal.”

“An actual God?” He stopped. What did the stories call him? The Slaughter God? The Destruction God? But those were just stories, he wasn’t an actual God.

He believed Ink was a God even before he nodded to confirm it.

“I’m not a God,” He uttered before he could stop himself. 

Ink let out a laugh. 

“I know. We would’ve met long before if you were. This world isn't so big if you spend eternity with it.”

He paused. “How old are you?”

“Much, much older than you,” He said plainly. So plainly, it made Error almost laugh. Wasn’t that a miracle? 

So he wasn’t always immortal. Had he had a life before this, a family, a home? 

“Are there other Gods?”

A shorter pause. “Yes.”

“Tell me more.” Please?

Ink let out a light chuckle. “Not about Gods. But sure.” And he told him about meadows, about oil lamps, about flowers, about the mistakes he’d made, the lessons he’d learnt, and so much more.

For a time, Ink brought respite. Peace.

As if in fear of him, his head didn’t dare demand destruction for days after.

His head couldn’t be kept at bay for very long, of course, and soon he had to spill more blood for more peace. By then, he was no longer with Ink, but now he knew where to find him. More or less. It was mostly Ink that came and found him. He shouldn’t have been surprised. He did leave a trail of destruction everywhere he went. 

His head soon adapted to Ink’s presence. If you cannot kill him, because that was unthinkable, his head still feared Ink, make him join you. Spill blood together. It will be peace, twofold. 

Obviously, Error never tried to convince Ink. There was no world where he’d succeed, anyway.

The company with Ink never brought to him again the same amount of peace it had the first time, now that his head had adjusted. But it was still something, and any peace was respite enough. Home became him and his first and only friend: Ink, the Artist, the God, and his dearest friend.

Then one day, he realised he had not talked to Ink in decades. Centuries? Weeks? His only measure of the passage of time had become the days with Ink. And, indeed, he could no longer remember the last time they’d spoken.

Error searched for him, through empty meadows and bustling (hellish) villages, through wastelands and through battlefields, but he found merely air in place of his old friend. He destroyed, was cruel in it, in hopes his friend would arrive and terrorise his mind back into submission (his mind was no more louder than it usually was, this was all him) but he never did.

What did he know, anyway, about Gods? 

He’d begun to lose hope, when he heard of it from stories. It was a tale lacking some immortal monster like himself, or some enigmatic God like his friend. It was a simple tragedy of mortals and misfortune: a Queen that perished in childbirth, leaving behind two twin brothers as mere babes. 

Poor children, someone had spoken. They must have become pawns in the power struggle. 

Someone interjected: Surprisingly, no. I heard many people wanted to take advantage of them, but this new tutor arrived out of nowhere and’s been defending them tooth and nail. 

He was named directly by the Queen as their caretaker, too, so there’s nothing anyone can do about it.

Oh? I guess there’s some luck in every misfortune. And he had stopped listening shortly after.

Some part of him began to quiver. Some part of him, not his bloodthirsty mind, some other part of him, began to whisper: Could it be? He’d imagined it to have been centuries, but had it really been that long? Maybe his head had just twisted it into a time longer than it actually had been, just to torment Error more than it already was.

He found his way to the Kingdom in question, marched into the Palace and demanded an audience with ‘Ink’, and now he was staring his old friend in the face.

But his friend was looking at him as if he was a stranger. He waited for him to speak, as he always did. Tell me why, he begged silently. Tell me why you left. You must have had a reason, right? You always do. He waited. 

Ink just gazed back at him.

It must have been years of silence between them when Error finally broke the ice. 

“So,” He said, the breath in his throat slowing down his words, as if he did not want to utter a word. “This is where you’ve been?”

“Why are you here, Error?” Ink’s tone was flat. Cold. 

Error did not physically flinch. There it was, his mind, clambering to whisper cruel things in his ear.

“You were gone,” He tried. He could not quite explain the tight fury-grief-relief in him, least of all with words.

“I am here,” He said simply.

“To care for two fledgling Princes?” There it was, bitter laughter bubbling up his throat and threatening to spill over. His fingers twitched again. The glitches in his body were fierce, but they burned painlessly in comparison to the bitterness in his throat.

“Their mother is dead.” His tone was flat. 

“So?” It was cruel of him, he knew. It was nothing compared to the words his mind was feeding him. But it was true. They’d seen death. Hell, he’d been the harbinger of it for thousands of souls, if not more.

Then, as if everything had collapsed in on his old friend, all the tension left him.

“She had been my friend.” His tone was flat. No, not flat. Tired.

Error realised it, and his head went silent. His friend was tired.

And, in that moment, he did not care why Ink had left him. He did not care about any of it.

“Can I do anything to help?” ***

“Can I do anything to help?”

Ink’s first instinct was a no, even though it would hurt to reject his friend. But Error, though he had been getting better, was too much of a risk to Nim’s children. Nim had left them to him. He would never forgive himself if they were hurt. He cared about his friend dearly, but—

Nightmare might need him.

He stilled.

Nim had spoken of what she hoped Nightmare would become, and what she prayed he would not, in that last letter. Ink tried, but he was not one with life. He did not love or fear as the living did, and true to Nim’s wish, Daydream and Nightmare were so much less God than the two of them were.

He could only theorise about the way Daydream slept for longer and longer, as if his dreams kept him entranced and enraptured enough that it was harder for him to wake up than stay living, or about Nightmare’s night terrors, or the way he could find fear in everything if he thought long enough about it, the way he fretted over tomorrows, the way he wanted power for the assurance he gave him, the way he constantly sought to know more just in case he needed to, just in case, just in case.

He looked at his friend, and thought, Would you understand them, old friend? ***

Ink should’ve rejected him. Error was too unstable, too cruel— but perhaps he saw something in him, or someone, because he shrugged.

“Maybe. We’ll see.”

A pause.

“Will you stay?”

The same laughter bubbled up in his throat, but it was not bitter. 

And there was humour in Ink’s gaze, too, tired as he was. He was still his friend, after all this time.

“Believe me, you’re never getting rid of me again. Tell me everything.”

Ink’s laugh was mudded by the fatigue bleeding through. 

“Oh, you won’t believe the century I’ve had, old friend.”