Reaper stepped into Sharktale. He also stepped into absolute chaos. He'd thought he'd opened a portal into the cold-water equivalent of Snowdin, but it looked like he'd missed his mark and ended up in the current to Hotland. That was close enough to walk it, and he didn't have to worry about anyone bumping into him. Everyone in Sharktale swam, including the little diver humans who worked with them. Besides, the only sharks that would be on the floor of this section of ocean were slow enough that he could dodge them. It turns out that binge-watching Shark Week with his son had its uses.
A few hours later Reaper ran into the monster (or, rather, god) that he was looking for. Dream waved at him from the window of his cave complex in the rock forest of Snowdin. Reaper smiled and waved back at him, then grimaced when Dream moved to open the door. It wasn't that he disliked Dream. It was just that Reaper knew that Palette would be there, too, and Reaper hadn't brought Goth. He still wasn't sure how to react to the knowledge that Goth had a crush. So, instead of reacting, he'd decided to ignore it.
The door opening up was what interrupted Reaper's thoughts. Sure enough, the first thing that happened was a little white blur racing out of the house and tackling him at the knees. Reaper was once again glad that he'd convinced the other gods to let Palette become a little immortal. Goth needed someone his own age to play with who wasn't going to die.
"hey, pal-pal. goth has been talking about you," he said, testing the waters to see what Palette's reaction was going to be.
Palette turned an enormous grin up at him. "HE HAS?! I'VE BEEN TALKING ABOUT HIM, TOO. I'VE BEEN TELLING MOM THAT GOTH SHOWED ME HOW TO MAKE A PORTAL! HE'S SO COOL! I LOVE HIM THIS MUCH!" Palette said, holding his hands as far apart as he could.
Reaper smiled, but inside he was panicking. Love? Palette loved Goth? That much? Reaper really hoped he just meant as a friend. "that's great, palette. i'm sorry i don't have goth with me today. i actually came to talk to your mom. do you think you could find something to do that would be fun to do while dream and i talk?"
Palette nodded. "YEP! I'M WORKING ON A GIFT FOR GOTH! IT'S A SECRET, THOUGH, SO DON'T TELL HIM."
Reaper smiled a little queasily. He definitely wasn't prepared to deal with this. "i promise i won't tell him, pal-pal. now you go get working on that present! goth is really looking forward to seeing you again."
The little skeleton beamed at Reaper, saluted him, and ran back inside. The sound of Dream's laughter, muffled as it was by the water between them, drew Reaper's attention. Dream looked… good. He was smiling, and that smile was more than the shadow Reaper had grown used to on his bad days. Palette did that to him. Goth did, too. Reaper couldn't blame him. They were both absolute delights.
"He's a little gem, isn't he?" Dream said softly, coming over to stand by Reaper. "Even the most horrible situations can have a little light in them, right?"
Reaper winced. He could recognize false cheer when he heard it. Then again, that was Dream's job. He was the God of Positivity. He had to try and make people feel better. Reaper could understand that. He hated his job sometimes, too.
"i can't possibly imagine what good could come of me losing geno, dream. he's…" He trailed to a stop.
"Well, you got to spend some more quality time with your son, right? That has to count as a positive!" Dream said determinedly. Reaper sighed. He should just give in to being cheered up instead of moping, but… after what he had found out from Life about Geno's current condition, that was hard. He just wanted to curl up and cry, but he'd already done so much of that that his voice was sore.
"i guess… that's actually why i'm here. geno, not spending time with goth." It was Dream's turn to wince. Reaper quickly explained, "i have some new information. life found out… she found out… geno's changed. she says something even more powerful than she is messed with him. he probably won't remember us. so, i'm here to warn you about it, and ask if you can maybe check for any new souls? she said his soul has been changed, so maybe you could find him this time."
Dream sighed. Reaper could already feel his aura shifting. He hoped he wouldn't trigger an episode, but he needed to know if Geno was okay. Maybe Life couldn't find him but Dream could? All Reaper really had at this point was hope.
The God of Positivity got that far away look Reaper recognized as him searching. He stood by, ready to act if Dream-
Dream froze, his eye lights going black and his whole body going rigid. Damn. Reaper reached out to touch Dream and wake him from this stupor. Dream could be stuck like this all day if he didn't. It was a consequence of Dream's time trapped in stone. Humans called it dissociation, and it was a scary thing. Dream had once said that it felt like he wasn't attached to his body anymore. His senses were all dulled and so was his mind. If Dream could even manage to respond it seldom made sense. It was part of why Dream was rarely left alone.
Everyone knew what to do when he got like this. The first step was to speak to him. "dream. it's me, reaper. i'm going to touch you, okay?" He said. There was no response, which Reaper knew to expect.
He moved on to the next step, which was to gently touch Dream in a safe place. Reaper picked his arm to touch, not above the fabric of his sleeves, but still on his upper arm. Dream didn't react to the initial touch, but as Reaper began to rub little circles into his arm Dream started to move. First there came a breath. Then a blink. Two. Then Dream's head turned, agonizingly slowly, to face Reaper.
"hey, dream. take your time, but try to come back to yourself, okay?" Reaper said. Pinpricks of light appeared in Dream's dark sockets. They slowly grew into actual orbs. They were still faint, but at least they were there. Reaper counted that as a win. "that's it, dream. good job. do you think you can speak? you can say whatever you want, just say something."
Dream sipped a lungful of air, then let it out. He repeated this twice before he actually spoke. "... I had another episode, didn't I?"
Reaper nodded. Honesty was always best. "yeah, dream, you did. it's okay, though. it didn't last nearly as long as some of your others have. you were out for maybe ten minutes max, and you didn't relapse at all. that's good!"
Dream smiled weakly. "Thanks for your help. I'm sorry I'm not more use for you. What was it that got me started into the haze?"
"i asked you if you could try and find new souls that could be geno. it's okay that you didn't succeed. life already told me we wouldn't be able to find them, but… i'd hoped that she was wrong. i shouldn't have asked you to do that. i'm sorry," Reaper apologized.
Dream's smile grew a little bit in strength. "That's okay, Reaper. I understand. If I hear about or feel any new souls I'll let you know, okay?"
Reaper recognized a dismissal when he heard one, but he had one more thing to talk about. "dream? um, i don't know how to put this, but… goth has a crush on palette. can you tell what kind of crush it is?"
Dream blinked at him and laughed, bright and clear. Reaper smiled. That was good. He hated to leave Dream in a bad frame of mind. "Are you just discovering this now, Reaper? They've been dating for over a year. It's sweet. They're always talking about each other and constantly want to be together. They make each other gifts and share all their discoveries with each other. Palette's soul beat speeds up every time he sees Goth, and Gothy's soul skips a beat when he sees him. I couldn't tell you what kind of relationship they have, though. I just know that it's real."
Great. There went Reaper's little fantasy about the two kids. There was only one thing to do now. He had to find out. "so, how many people knew about this before i did?"
"Quite a lot, I'm afraid," Dream tittered, "although if we knew you didn't know we would have done something about that. There's even a little fanclub for their ship. People give them art supplies and toys to give to each other, that sort of thing. It's called the Poth Fanclub! I can give you the list of people who are in it if you want."
Reaper nodded. He could feel his dark aura swirling around him. He had a thing or two to say to these people who would encourage two little kids in something like this. It was very rude to ship real people, and doubly so for children. Reaper knew what he was going to be doing next. These people needed to have a lesson in manners, and Goth needed to be reminded about taking gifts from strangers.
Dream giggled. "It's all people you know, Reaper. Grim is in it. So are Mercy and me. Classic, Blue, and Red each have their part in it, as do their brothers. I think the only person you'd have doubts about is Ink. We've kept him away from Goth like you wanted, but he is the one giving most of the art supplies to Palette. He is his son, after all."
Reaper shuddered. It wasn't that he didn't like Ink… no, that was a lie. Reaper hated Ink. After what he had learned about him lately, why wouldn't he? Ink was a menace. "thanks for keeping him away from goth. i just-"
"I understand, Reaper. I just wish you could forgive him. I have," Dream said pointedly.
"heh. you know me, dream. death is notorious for holding a grudge," Reaper said, chuckling. How exactly that rumor had gotten started was beyond him, but that didn't really matter. It was useful, so he let the rumor hang around.
Dream sighed. "I know. Say hello to Goth for me when you see him!"
"i will. see you later, dream!" Reaper said, waving as he opened a portal back to Reapertale. "i will."
Error tumbled out of the Anti-Void and fell flat on his face in the snow. It was almost comical how much effort it took him to pry his skull off of the ice. It finally came free with a wet slurp that was completely inappropriate for the action that caused it. He grumbled to himself, "Stupid ice. Stupid portal. Stupid Fate."
Where are we, anyway? Does anyone know what universe we're in? One of the more helpful voices asked.
Error looked around, but he couldn't tell just by looking. There was no dust scattered in this section of the Snowdin forest. No traps littered the ground. The only things he could see from here were the door to the Ruins, the bridge that every Papyrus built with bars too wide, and the branch that the Sans would use to prank the human. Huh. Guess he wouldn't find out until he ran into a monster. Hopefully it would be the Sans. Actually, scratch that. Hopefully there was no one in this world. He really didn't want to kill people. If he had to destroy it would be better to do so without killing anyone.
Oh! You should go knock on the door first! It would be so cute to see you talk to a Toriel again! Another voice, much younger in tone, said.
Error shivered. He really didn't want to, but… he had to start somewhere. He had to do this to protect his family, no matter how much he hated it. He trudged through the thick, unbroken snow to the looming door in the cliffside. Habit, long forgotten in his crazy life, led him to sit against the door with his back to it. He knocked twice loudly and waited for a reply. Under his breath he muttered, "Knock knock."
"Who is there?" An agonizingly familiar voice carried through the door.
Error winced and closed his eye sockets. So there was a Toriel here after all. Great. "Um… glitch?" He said on the fly. It had been a long time since he'd made a knock knock joke like this.
"Glitch who?" Toriel asked.
"Glitch is… I mean, I'm sorry about glitch," Error said wretchedly.
"heh. sorry about what, pal?" A third voice joined in. Error's eye sockets flew open.
There, floating in front of him with a genial expression, was a Sans. He looked like a ghost that had never had a rough day in his life. He had a substantial ponch, soft eyes, and a wide grin. Oh, how Error hated that grin. He was about to kill someone who looked happy and welcoming. Damn Fate to hell and back.
Ooh, we're in Ghosttale! Isn't that one of yours, Nnnnn? Error couldn't work out what that one voice had said, but he didn't really need to. He didn't want the voices to have names. That would be awful for his sanity.
"uh, bud? you there?"
The words were almost overrun by the voice of Fate. Do your job, Destroyer. My patience wears thin.
Error flinched from the voice. The ghost Sans seemed to be worried. "hey, bud, why don't you come with me? my brother's a healer. i'm sure we can help you with… whatever is wrong with you. i promise we're not going to hurt you, and i hate to make promises. okay?"
"Please don't say that," Error pleaded as he stood up, reaching for his magic to call his blasters, "because I can't say the same thing to you."
The ghost Sans tilted his head. "and what do you mean by that, bud?"
Those were his last words before Error's blaster that he had summoned behind him tore through him with magical fire. Error stared at the dust that floated in the wind. He felt absolutely sick to his stomach. As he heard the ghost Toriel opening the door behind him and prepared to attack, he whispered to the wind, "I'm sorry."
