Reaper hadn't been expecting to hear from Red and Edge together for months. Red had come over to play with Goth a few times since his and his son's ill-fated (Why did that word make him angry? He'd never felt angry about that word before…) encounter with Edge in their Underfell the other day. He'd been so scared for Goth at first. Edge before the Christmas Party was… not the greatest person at interacting with strangers. He was still stuck in Underfell's "kill or be killed" attitude. Red had said he was working on him, though. Maybe it was going better than Reaper had thought? Why else would both Red and Edge be standing in his living room waiting for him once he got back from work?
"s'up, red?" Reaper said genially, preparing to set his weapons on the front hall table. Edge's eye lights were huge as he stared at the scythes. Reaper couldn't resist flourishing them, y'know, just to tease him. His flinch was a wonderful reward.
"uh… hey, reaps," Red said nervously. Red's ground state was to do things nervously. Anxiety does that to a person. "dream said to let you know about anyone new, so, we, uh…"
That got Reaper's interest. He focused on Red and Edge fully. "you saw someone new?"
They both nodded, but Edge was the one who spoke. "YES, OH GOD OF DEATH. MY… APOLOGIES FOR HOW I TREATED YOU AND YOUR SON… WAS HE MY NEPHEW, GOTH, THAT I HAVE HEARD ABOUT?"
Reaper nodded. "yeah, that was goth. he's got a whole slideshow for you when you're ready to meet him, but i want to hear about this new skeleton you saw. they were a skeleton, right?"
Red swallowed and exchanged a look with Edge before saying, "we think."
"you think?" Reaper questioned archly.
Edge took over the narrative from his nervous brother. "YES, WE THINK. THEY WAS THE ODDEST LOOKING SKELETON MY BROTHER SAYS HE'S EVER SEEN, INCLUDING SOMEONE CALLED NIGHTMARE WHO SOUNDS MORE LIKE A GRUMPY OCTOPUS THAN A SKELETON. THIS STRANGER HAD MULTICOLOURED BONES. MOST OF THEM WERE BLACK AS THE DARKNESS IN WATERFALL, BUT THEIR HANDS AND FEET HAD RED AND YELLOW PHALANGES. THE DEPTHS OF THEIR SKULL APPEARED TO BE RED, AND THEIR EYE LIGHTS WERE MISMATCHED. ONE WAS SMALL AND GREY. THE OTHER WAS BLUE WITH A YELLOW RING AROUND IT. NEITHER EYE SOCKET WAS THE SAME SIZE, AND THE GREY EYE LIGHT DID NOT SEEM TO BE MOVING IN TIME WITH THE OTHER."
Red jumped in at that point. "and that wasn't the weirdest thing! they had glitches, but not like geno did. their glitches were random, all over their body, and they looked more like bars of them had just wandered off for a smoke. there were also white error messages like you get with a computer warning!"
Edge coughed. "I BELIEVE THAT THEY WAS INJURED AND IN PAIN. WHEN WE SAW THEM, THEY WAS CRAWLING ON THE GROUND AND WHIMPERING. THEY DRAGGED THEMSELF THROUGH A PORTAL AND LEFT BEFORE WE COULD TALK TO THEM, THOUGH. THEY LOOKED LIKE IT HURT THEM TO TURN AWAY FROM US. I HAVE NEVER SEEN ANYTHING LIKE THAT FROM SOMEONE BEFORE."
Red grimaced. "i have. they look like you do when you have to leave goth with us for a while and you don't know when you can see him again. it was like that, only i swear neither of us have seen this skeleton before, reaps."
Reaper considered for a moment, then said, slowly, "interesting. they might have… no, life said he wouldn't be able to remember anything… but they is new, and they is in pain… can you guys spread the word to the aus? i know you can speak to the council, red, and edge… i'll ask grim to show you how to contact the other papyri. grim's my brother. it's a good skill to have, and they're probably worried sick about you. i'd let 'em know myself, but most people run at the sight of me and grim. can't imagine why."
Red rolled his eye lights ironically at that, but Edge took it literally. "IT'S BECAUSE YOU'RE THE LITERAL EMBODIMENTS OF DEATH. BOTH OF YOU."
Reaper was about to say something sarcastic, but he was interrupted by the familiar sensation of a small figure running skull-first into his knees. He wobbled but heroically managed to stay upright. Well, standing. He leaned over far enough to see his son hugging his legs. "hey, gothy. s'up?"
"Is that Uncle Edge?" Goth said, vibrating with excitement. "Does he remember me now?"
Reaper looked up at Edge, letting him handle answering. "I AM UNCLE EDGE, BUT I DO NOT REMEMBER YOU. HOWEVER, I AM LOOKING FORWARD TO MAKING NEW MEMORIES WITH YOU, IF THAT IS AN ACCEPTABLE ALTERNATIVE. CAN WE REACH A BARGAIN?"
Goth considered this seriously for a moment. Then, with all the gravitas he could muster, he said, "No."
"NO?" Edge questioned, surprised.
"No! Because I want to show you my slideshow about how we met! And I'm not sure if that's a new memory or an old one!" Goth proclaimed. He had learned both the style and the stance from Edge.
"HMM… YOU DRIVE A HARD BARGAIN, SON OF DEATH," Edge said, posing dramatically. Then he grinned. "BUT I ACCEPT!"
Red and Reaper exchanged a look. It was a happy one. Maybe this wasn't so bad after all.
QUIT FEELING SORRY FOR YOURSELF AND DO YOUR JOB, DESTROYER! OR DO I NEED TO REMIND YOU OF THE CONSEQUENCES?
With the agony in his bones still high, Error forced himself to get up. He hurt bad, but he'd hurt worse when he was in the Save Screen. He could still function like this, but he knew none of his family would be able to. Well, maybe Fresh. Pain meant nothing to a parasite like him.
Go easy on him, Fate! You just were hurting him! How do you expect him to work after that?
Yeah! He might have a high pain tolerance, but that doesn't mean that he should have to handle this much! Be nice!
QUIET, CREATORS. YOUR INPUT IS NOT WELCOME HERE.
Error staggered under the weight of that voice. Fate was pissed. He really didn't want to find out what she would do if she lost her temper. He raised a hand shakily and opened a portal to a world he knew well, but one that had been abandoned for a long time: FishdomTale. The monsters here had been wiped out by the poisoning of their world's oceans that humans had done carelessly. The humans there had died for the same reason. He only knew it because Reaper had taken him there on a few dates. It was nice, but he knew that no one but Reaper and him would be affected by its destruction.
HMM. NOT BAD FOR A START, BUT EMPTY WORLDS DON'T TAKE UP NEARLY AS MUCH SPACE AS POPULATED ONES. YOU'LL HAVE TO DESTROY AT LEAST FIVE IN ORDER TO MAKE UP FOR REFUSING TO DESTROY MY CHOICE. OR, OF COURSE, YOU COULD LET ME TAKE YOU TO A WORLD WITH PEOPLE IN IT. THAT WOULD TAKE LESS TIME AND MAGIC ON YOUR PART, AND YOU WOULD BE LESS LIKELY TO BE SEEN.
Error shook his head, fingering the fading picture in his pocket of the family he would do anything to protect. "I don't trust you not to send me somewhere with people I love."
Yay, Error! Stand up to that bitch! Show her you-
Error flinched as Fate screamed in his head wordlessly. The voice that had insulted her screamed in pain. He never heard from them again. Instead, he hurried through the portal and got to work.
It was in his 4th universe that Error ran into him. "Ran into" being code, in this case, for "was attacked by". He turned around as acid burned into his clothes and bones to face one individual he had never realized he could hate more than he already did. Ink was dressed differently than he had been the last time Error had seen him. He had on some stupid overalls now with the top flapping loose, a weird cropped jacket over a white shirt, absolutely no shoes or socks whatsoever, and his external memory device and emotional regulation medication- aka his scarf and ink bottles. His eye lights were a green question mark and a red target that quickly shifted into a red heart. Fuck.
"Hey, handsome~ Don't think I've ever seen you before. I'm Ink. You might have heard of me; I'm the Guardian of Creation. Pretty impressive, huh? I'm sure we could come to some kind of agreement where you won't destroy my creations. Why don't you come with me and we can get a bite to eat together?" Wait. Was Ink seriously flirting with him? Ew…
Aww, yes, some Errink! OTP for the win!
Error growled at him and the voice and dragged out two blasters to charge. Then he let his most insane grin spread across his face. "Hi there, Ink. I don't think you've met this me yet, but my name's Error. I doubt we can reach any such agreement for one simple reason. It's my job, as Guardian of Destruction, to destroy your creations. Let's just get this fight over with. Now."
