Suddenly, in a flash, I was awake again. It seemed as if no time had passed, yet judging by the colors and images around me, I felt that much had changed; I had drifted far. This time, I was fully awake. Glancing around, I searched my surroundings. After some twisting and turning, I managed to pick out a form in the distance. that must be that other skeleton. Wracking my foggy memory from before, I tried to recall how he had engaged "gravity." After struggling for a while, I eventually twisted the right way and came crashing down. Even though I was hovering only about a foot from the ground, it was still unpleasant.

Getting to my feet, I hesitantly started wandering towards the stranger. Curious, along the way, I tried to pet the strange color critters, which I deemed "Wigglers." My hand passed through them like water, but they didn't seem to mind. The floating pictures, which I decided to call "Windows," were stranger; they seemed to try to keep away from me, as if I was a magnet of the same polarity. Finally, I made it to the skeleton.

Once again, his attention was devoted to a worn sketchbook. Since I had approached from behind, he hadn't noticed me. Chin in hands, he lay partially suspended in the air, absentmindedly kicking his feet up and down as he flicked through the pages of the sketchbook. Occasionally he would tap one, and to my surprise, a "Window" would materialize above the paper. After gazing at it for a minute, seemingly in search of something, he would flick his hand and it would drift away. Eventually, I decided he wouldn't be looking up anytime soon, and hesitantly said—

"…hello?"

I might as well have set off a bomb. The skeleton shrieked in surprise and fell to the invisible floor, bounced up, and whipped out his giant paintbrush while whirling to face me. I'll admit, it was rather intimidating, and I took a surprised step back. But the moment the artist realized who I was, he smiled wide.

"Oh! It's you!" He swung his paintbrush around to his back; it magically stayed there. "Sorry! I shoulda known you'd be up. You figured out how to land, huh? I should have warned you, don't want you to land wrong, that would hurt. You didn't get hurt, did you?"

"well… it wasn't much, but—" Suddenly, his smile melted into a look of shock. "what is it?" I asked.

"Stand up straight, will you?" he murmured. Confused, I complied.

Staring at me, he took a step closer and eyed the distance. what is he...? His eyes flashed excitedly and he carefully traced his hand from the top of his head to mine. His jaw dropped and he tried again. With a sudden gasp of delight, he jumped up and down, and squealed—

"Oh, YES! YES! It's happened, it's finally happened! Oh I KNEW this day would come!"

"what?"

"I'm taller than you!" he exclaimed.

"um… yeah, i'm pretty short," I muttered with a shrug. The skeleton turned his now wide and serious eyes on me.

"Yes. You are. Thank you so much! Oh, I knew I wasn't the smallest!" He seemed to get a semi-sad, faraway look on his face for a moment. "Well, I mean, other than Blue…" he paused, then snapped out of the daze. "I couldn't tell until now, I mean, earlier you were floating, but I hoped I was taller, but you weren't standing, I couldn't tell. You're so little!" what is up with this guy? "It's so wonderful, I'm not the only smol one! You're—"

Suddenly, without warning, he went rigid, his eye lights went out, and… he barfed. Leaping back, I gaped at the river of black gushing from his mouth. The torrent only lasted a few seconds. After a moment of acute silence, he pulled his sleeve across his face, shook his head, and went back to normal.

"That happens sometimes. No harm done!" he insisted as the liquid evaporated from the ground. "And! I have something!" Apparently convinced the explanation was sufficient, the skeleton started digging through a brown bag that had dropped from the air when he did.

"ah… okay," I murmured, unsure what else to say. After another minute of silence, I pushed past my confusion and got to the important stuff. "so… who exactly—" the skeleton pulled a brand new sketchbook and pencil packet from the bag and handed them to me with an elated smile, "are you?" I finished, "and where am i?" For a moment, he gazed at me with a blank stare. After a few seconds, his eye lights flashed back on and he seemed to snap out of the daze.

"What now?" he asked.

"who are you, and where am i?" I asked again, a bit more pronouncedly, as if spelling it out for a child, convinced this guy was loony.

"Oh that's easy!" he declared, sitting down and snooping through the bag once more. "I'm Ink, and this is the Doodle Sphere!" he exclaimed, waving a hand as if to encompass everything. ink, huh? well, that fits.

"um, okay, none of that means anything to me," I murmured to myself, "so… how did i get here?" I asked.

"I scooped your code out of the void," Ink explained calmly, pulling handfuls of colored pencils from the bag and rolling them towards me. I stared down at the sketchbook, balking at the fact the relatively small bag could hold so much stuff. "I'd been watching your universe for a while; it stood out from the other worlds. A genocidal hacker. That's truly awful. But before I could intervene, you took matters into your own hands. You were dusting fast when I got to you, but somehow you stayed together just long enough for me to get you here." This was a lot to take in, and I numbly sat down among the growing mountain of art supplies at my feet.

"did it work?" I whispered. Ink gave me a questioning glance. "did the human get… booted out of the world?" To my absolute relief, Ink nodded. To my absolute horror, he then shook his head… then shrugged.

"I think so," he said. "Probably. It's glitched to the point where even I cannot see inside anymore." While he spoke, he distractedly rose and wandered over to another floating bag. Alarmed at all this, I leapt up and followed him.

"what's that mean? and, how can you 'see' into worlds anyway? wait, worlds, plural? what do you mean? how many are there?" Ink stopped rummaging through the sack to count on his fingers and in his head. After a minute—

"No idea," he answered, shrugging. "Lots."

Before I could even comprehend this crazy information, something even crazier happened. There was a flash of light as a swirly design of gold, sky blue, and white appeared in the air… along with the faint smell of apples. Then, leaping from the light, emerged another skeleton! And he looked like Ink and me! Sleepiness didn't help dull my shock this time. I dropped in surprise and scrambled back.

"Hello Dream!" Ink called, waving. Apparently, doppelgangers dropping out of nowhere had no effect on him.

"Hi, Ink!" Dream exclaimed, his voice chipper. "Is our new friend awake?" Ink nodded, and Dream caught sight of me.

Summery yellow eyes gazed at me curiously. Around his forehead was a thin, golden circlet of some sort, like a crown. A cape of similar color, clasped with a large star pendant, fluttered down past his sky-blue shirt and lake-blue pants, down to his golden boots, which had blue ties. Around his waist was a golden belt, a large badge with the letters "DS" engraved in it. Whenever he moved, a quiet jingling could be heard; small, blueberry-like bells were attached to the side of his belt. He clasped his golden-gloved hands together in delight.

"Hello there! I'm Dream, you must be Serif! It's wonderful to meet you!" he chattered in a rush, holding his hand out to me. But I was frozen.

"you… called me serif," I whispered, fear lodging in my throat. That was what the human called me. all that glitters is not gold, all that is gold is not good… Dream looked confused.

"Why, yes. That's you're name."

"no, my name is sans." Slowly, secretly, I prepared an attack. "the only times anyone has called me that other name… was when they tried to kill me!"

I sprang up and summoned a Gaster Blaster. Dream froze in shock, and as it fired, there was a rainbow burst. When the light cleared, I saw a shimmering wall of color between me and the other two skeletons; Ink had used his paintbrush. Panic rose in my mind.

i shouldn't have been so complacent, i should have been more careful! i shouldn't have trusted these monsters! what was I thinking? Magic static flickered nervously in the air around me, seconds away from materializing into another attack.

"Serif, stop!" Ink ordered. Dream moved from behind the wall and approached me.

"Serif, listen—"

"stay away from me!" I shrieked, sending a barrage of bones flying. Dream calmly watched them approach. A long, golden staff, crested with a star on each end, materialized in his hands and he knocked the attacks from their path at the last second.

Turning, I started running. I had to get out of here. A strange pang of sadness filled me. i thought i could trust ink. he seemed genuine… Ink teleported in front of me, and for a moment, I thought I glimpsed concern in his eyes.

"We're no threat—" I cut him off with an attack; it glanced off his shoulder.

"i don't believe you!" I retorted, running faster. "the last person who called me that name drove a blade through my soul! multiple times!" I searched desperately for an exit. There didn't seem to be one. "i won't go through this, not again, not again!"

"Serif…" Dream called.

There was something in his kind voice that made me hesitate. But in that moment of hesitation, suddenly, the ground beneath my feet was slick with paint. Dream teleported directly in front of me, hands outstretched as if to stop me. Unable to get any traction, I skidded right into his arms. Panicked, I struggled, but he wouldn't let go.

"Everything's alright," he soothed.

"nothing's alright!" I argued, freaking out.

I sensed Dream reach for something—his weapon, probably. I tried to ping his soul. Nothing happened. I tried to summon attacks. Nothing happened. So, I simply stood there, trembling in fear, waiting for the strike. Instead of killing me, Dream started humming. It sounded… vaguely familiar. But before I could place the tune, I heard the faint jingling of one of his bells, and suddenly, I was surrounded by images. And in those images, I saw… papyrus?

I gazed in awe at the streams of memories—my memories—materializing before my eyes.

I remembered the first time I got to hold my baby brother. His smile was so cute, and that bright giggle lit up my life. He was everything to me. Everything.

There I was, from when I was so young, walking around Snowdin with little Papyrus clinging to my hand, jabbering excitedly about his hopes for one day being in the Royal Guard. I told him to never give up. He looked so happy…

There was the day he had come in from playing outside. Absolutely luckless, he was scratched up and half frozen because he had fallen from his makeshift tree house… into the river. I'd patched him up, scrounged together all the blankets, monster candy, and videos I could find, and then spent the rest of the day with him on the couch, beneath piles of blankets, laughing at silly movies because we were on a sugar high.

Again, there we were again, laughing together, smiling. And again. And again…

The memories stopped as fast as they started and I realized unbidden tears were slipping down my face. They dissolved into a sprinkle of golden light as Dream held me at arm's length and smiled.

"Let's try this again," he said, "because based on your reaction… I don't think Ink explained things to you. And there are a lot of things you should know."