Ink bounced down the hall towards the kitchen with Dust following close behind him. Their newest addition had been Ink's main playmate for the last couple weeks, which had seemed to make it much easier for Nightmare to leave the castle. Ink still got anxious when Nightmare would leave, but having Dust there with him made it easier. He still held onto the circlet whenever Nightmare would leave, going so far as to wear it on his own head if Nightmare was gone for more than a few hours.
He bounced into the kitchen where he happily greeted Horror. The tall skeleton turned and smiled at him from where he stood at the stove. Killer and Nightmare were out of the castle at the moment, leaving only Horror and Dust in the castle with Ink. It seemed that with the addition of Dust, Nightmare had also allowed for Ink to talk and interact with Horror a little more freely, which Ink found fun. He had already learned to make cookies from Horror and Dust had been the taste tester.
"What are you making?" Ink asked eagerly as Dust lifted him into one of the chairs at the table.
"French toast, bacon and breakfast potatoes." Horror answered easily, plating the food.
Ink perked up at the list of foods eager to eat something that required syrup. Dust smiled as he set a cup of milk in front of Ink and then sat down with his own. Horror brought the food over and set each plate down before sitting himself and sliding the syrup over to Ink. The smallest skeleton eagerly picked up the syrup and drowned the french toast in syrup and put a little bit over his bacon as well before he offered it to Dust who took it with a nod.
As usual Ink chattered away as they ate, neither older skeleton appearing bothered by it. Dust would even get a little amused when he would include Paps during the conversation. Ink wasn't sure why the other's seemed amused when he included Paps, after all he was always with Dust he should be included too. They finished up breakfast and Horror got to work cleaning up the dishes while Dust helped him down.
Ink scurried out of the kitchen once he was down from the table, Dust following after him at a slower pace. He was going to go collect some books from the library and get Dust to read them to him. Since Dust joined, Ink got a bedtime story every night and sometimes if he pouted enough Dust would read to him during the day too. He hurried down the hall, ignoring Dust calling for him to slow down only to feel his SOUL skip as the floor disappeared under his feet. A short scream was all he was able to get out as he fell through the sudden portal, barely catching the sound of Dust calling out to him before he found himself in endless white.
Error was just settling into his beanbag to start an Undernovela Marathon when the sudden sound of a short scream and a thump interrupted him. He snapped around, pulling strings from one of his eyes as his eyelights locked on a small blurry figure. He readied to lash his strings out at the figure when the sudden sound of a wail had him hesitating. That didn't sound like a threat that sounded like a kid.
Hesitantly, Error moved a bit closer and checked the being, his eyes squinting as he read the text.
Name: Ink
Original Universe: _tale
Role: Protector of Creation
Height: 2.0ft
LV: 1
EXP: [DATA INACCESSIBLE]
HP: [DATA INACCESSIBLE]
ATK: [DATA INACCESSIBLE]
DEF: [DATA INACCESSIBLE]
Abilities: Portals, Codes, [DATA INACCESSIBLE]
CHECK
Baby Bones
Doesn't wanna be here
Scared
Want's Nightmare
Error stared at the check for a moment before his glitches went a little haywire in his shock at the kid's role, trying his hardest to ignore the high pitched creator voice that echoed in his head about a Baby Bones. How the hell was a child running around with such a major role and without supervision. No, that wasn't accurate. He stared at the name Nightmare with a slight glare before he turned his blurry vision on the still wailing child. Sighing, Error stepped forward as he flicked his hand.
He reached the kid who sounded like they were having a panic attack as they stared down at the white emptiness below them. The strings above shifted and moved after he flicked his hand and slowly brought down one of the dolls he had sewn. This one happened to be one of Anomaly 13. He scowled at it before allowing his strings to dangle the doll in the child's face, making them jolt back in surprise.
"Stop crying, you're fine." Error said, drawing the child's attention to him before he shook the strings holding the doll.
The child tentatively reached out and took the doll.
"How'd you get here, kid?" Error asked, meeting a pair of very teary eye sockets.
"I don't know." The child, Ink, sniffled, hugging the doll close. Error sighed at the response. Well it looked like he'd be having a meeting with Nightmare.
"Well come on small fry, let's get you back to that goopy bastard." Error stated, using some of his strings to wrap around the kid and pick him up.
He felt Ink tug on some of the strings, but didn't wriggle too much. Error ripped a portal open to the entrance of Nightmare's castle and stepped through dragging Ink behind him. He jolted and tensed as Nightmare appeared in front of him immediately and three other Sans came rushing into the entrance area with attacks ready. He summoned a glitched blaster to aim at the three additions before pausing as Nightmare shot past him to the kid.
"Ink are you okay?!" Nightmare asked frantically, making Error blink at him.
"I don't like going back there!" Ink wailed, wriggling in Error's strings as he reached for Nightmare.
Error let the strings slacken and release Ink as Nightmare took the kid in his arms. The baby bones immediately started to calm down and snuggled into the goopy skeleton with Anomaly 13 tucked close to his chest.
"How did he end up with you, Error?" Nightmare asked, turning to the glitched skeleton, "And how did you know to bring him here?"
"No idea how he ended up in my Anti-void, but his Check mentioned he wanted you. So when were you gonna tell me you had The Protector?" Error responded, narrowing his eyes at Nightmare.
"What? I got new recruits, but not the Protector. Those three have just helped make it easier to care for Ink." Nightmare said, looking at him in confusion.
"No, not those idiots." Error huffed, ignoring the curse from one of the three other skeletons, "I'm talking about the kid."
The whole room fell silent at his suggestion. Error could feel four sets of eyelights fall on him as he heard Ink finally calm down completely. He tensed at the sudden attention and stepped back slightly so that he knew his back was towards a wall rather than the three lackeys standing on the stairs. The silence stretched on so long that Error's glitches got worse out of irritation.
"What?!" He snapped.
"Ink's the Protector?" One of the lackeys asked, the question seeming to be aimed at Nightmare.
The Guardian ignored the question and instead adjusted Ink in his arms before focusing back on Error.
"Why do you think Ink is the Protector?" Nightmare asked.
"I don't think, I know. I Checked him." Error said, offended that he was being questioned about this.
Nightmare seemed to jolt at that and shifted to look at Ink. Error jolted as what was clearly a check appeared in the air. He was still close enough that he could make out what it said.
Name: Ink
Original Universe: _tale
Role: Protector of Creation
Height: 2.0ft
LV: 1
EXP: [DATA INACCESSIBLE]
HP: [DATA INACCESSIBLE]
ATK: [DATA INACCESSIBLE]
DEF: [DATA INACCESSIBLE]
Abilities: Portals, Codes, [DATA INACCESSIBLE]
CHECK
Baby Bones
Want's Horror's hot cocoa
Likes the doll the strange skeleton gave him
Feels safe with you
Error knew that the last part of the Check was probably aimed specifically towards Nightmare since he had done the check, but he did feel slightly insulted about being called strange. However, he quickly forgot the insult as he realized something.
"Wait, are you telling me you've been caring for this kid, but never checked him?" Error asked, looking at Nightmare before looking at the blurs that would be his three new lackeys.
"There was no need to. At least I didn't think there was. Ink came from an unfinished AU, it was a mystery I had even found him." Nightmare responded, allowing the check to fade as Ink began wriggling in his hold.
Nightmare adjusted and set the kid on his feet before releasing him. It appeared Ink had fully recovered from being upset, because the moment he was free the small skeleton scurried away from Nightmare and eagerly scurried up to the tallest blur.
"Horror, can we have hot cocoa?" Ink asked eagerly as a second blur came in and scooped Ink off his feet and into their own arms.
"Of course, why don't we let the Boss talk with Error while we go make hot cocoa." The tall one said, leading the way further into the castle.
The one holding Ink followed after them, but the final blur stayed where he stood at the top of the stairs. Error could feel a cold chill on his spine that typically came from the more hostile Sans' he'd come across, telling him all he needed to know about the final lackey. He was no threat to him, but he'd allow him to think he was for now.
"So, the brat comes from an unfinished AU? Why'd you only take him then if that's the case?" Error asked.
The three new lackey's were clearly Sans' he could feel it in the stares he got, especially in the one still there. While some AU's could have multiple Sans' due to experiments gone wrong or other such possibilities, if Ink's world was unfinished then he should've been the only Sans in the world at the time.
"The AU was barely even started. Ink was the only one that was considered complete enough to have a SOUL and besides a few sketches of other beings that had been unfinished there was nothing of substance in the world." Nightmare replied, crossing his arms as he looked at Error.
"That would explain his reaction to my Anti-void." Error said thoughtfully.
It would also explain why the child had been surprised by his presence. If Ink had been the only one with a SOUL, he may not have had any interactions with the other beings that weren't instigated by himself.
"Ink doesn't like white spaces, luckily there isn't any in the castle, but wide expanses of white such as paper make him uncomfortable." Nightmare agreed easily, "It's nice to finally know how he ended up in Dusttale though, I never thought he was opening portals."
"I'd be more concerned with the Codes ability he appears to have. If anyone in the Omega Timeline, especially the scientists, figure out he's capable of codes they will stop at nothing to get him from you." Error said, the mere thought of Core!Frisk and their stupid timeline made him scowl heavily.
Due to the corruption he had toned back on his usual Destructive streaks, putting most of his focus on destroying corrupted AUs and Timelines that were too far gone for any assistance. As much as the call for Destruction rang through him constantly, even he understood that due to Corruption, the balance of Destruction and Creation was being heavily weighed in his favor. The creators he could hear were doing as much as they could to create new timelines and AUs to balance things out, but even then the Corruption outnumbered their contributions. However, with the arrival of Ink, that meant there was a chance to more balance out the two sides.
But if the Omega Timeline got ahold of Ink, well he'd be fighting an imbalance of creation instead of just an imbalance of destruction.
"You're right. I will have to look into creating more AU alliances. It's clear Ink isn't in control of his portals and all it will take is one wrong portal creation to put him into a dangerous situation." Nightmare agreed.
"He's too young to fully learn how to control the portal creation, so leaving him alone is probably not gonna be a good idea."
"That shouldn't be too difficult. So far I have had no reason to take more than Killer anywhere to handle a situation."
"That could change though Boss." The lackey called, causing Error to look towards his blur, "We should probably really focus on building alliances and find an AU we can trust to leave Ink in incase of emergencies."
Error could see Nightmare move in what was most likely a nod, before the Destroyer shifted.
"Well if you need to wrangle the brat, you know where to find me." Error said, turning to open a portal. The decisions they needed to make didn't really involve him. He wasn't Nightmare's lackey and quite frankly while they had an understanding he didn't work with the Guardian in any way.
"Thank you, again Error." Nightmare called as he left with a wave.
It wasn't until he was settling in to watch Undernovela again that Error realized he had let the tiny little portal jumper run off with Anomaly 13. Error cursed viciously and contemplated going back to retrieve it before thinking back on Nightmare's check of the child. He supposed he could let the kid have that one and he'd just make another one. Or he could make a different one for the kid to trade for the one he ran off with. That thought in mind, he pulled out his glasses and sewing supplies before he fully settled and got to work while watching Undernovela.
Nightmare sighed after Error left and turned fully to Killer from where he now leaned against the banister.
"Start keeping an eye out for more negative falling Neutral AUs and Timelines that would be willing to do a proper alliance. Anything that already falls into Negative is already my domain but is too dangerous to even consider as possible places to take Ink incase of emergencies." Nightmare ordered as he made his way up the stairs.
It had been terrifying when Dust's panic had hit him and near paralyzing to realize that for the second time within two weeks Ink had slipped into random portals. Now to learn that these weren't portals being created by the corruption, but by Ink himself who had no control of his powers was something he never even considered. His fear had only increased now that he realized that places such as the Anti-void would make it hard for him to track Ink if he ended up in such places. Error wasn't exaggerating when he said it would be dangerous if Ink ended up in the Omega Timeline. He could believe that Core and Dream wouldn't intentionally do anything to harm Ink, but unintentional harm was sometimes worse.
Nightmare passed Killer and they both headed for the kitchen.
"Did you want me to start after lunch?" Killer asked.
"Yes." Nightmare agreed as they stepped into the kitchen.
"Nightmare!" Ink called as soon as he saw his main Guardian. Nightmare smiled and went over to where Ink sat at the table playing with a doll he hadn't noticed before.
"Oh, looks like you managed to slip away with Error's doll without him noticing." Nightmare commented, chuckling slightly as Ink grinned at him and waved it around so he could see it.
It appeared to be a doll replicated to look like Underfell!Sans and while he knew Error seemed to especially hate Underfell and it's Sans, it was interesting to see that the doll appeared to be just as detailed and perfected as any other doll he'd seen Error make.
"He's probably gonna be back for that, little one." Nightmare said gently as he sat next to Ink.
The tiny skeleton immediately frowned and hugged the doll close.
"But he gave it to me." Ink said in confusion.
"He did, but Error is very… possessive of his dolls. If he does come back for it, I'll go and get you something similar." Nightmare replied, petting Ink's head when he pouted down at the doll.
"We probably should get him some things to entertain him anyway, Boss. While it's great that baby bones is such an avid reader, he should have options of other things to do besides that and exploring." Dust suggested from Ink's other side, leaning against his hand as Ink perked up and showed off the doll to him.
"I will send you to Aftertale Neutral tomorrow to get some supplies, Killer already has an assignment to get working on after lunch, so he will be unable to." Nightmare agreed easily, turning to the lunch Horror brought to all of them.
"You got it Boss." Dust responded easily, digging into the strange cheesy pasta dish Horror had made.
Ink immediately dug into the dish as well, humming happily as he ate. He was being quieter then he usually would be, but Nightmare supposed the Anti-void had probably affected him more then he let on. He didn't press him though. Ink didn't have any feelings of distress or fear in him anymore, so Nightmare saw no need to push the little one by asking if he was okay.
Lunch was quiet for the most part and when they were done Dust whisked Ink off by scooping him into his arms. Nightmare could understand why the other didn't want him walking on his own after yet another accidental portal. Ink babbled to Dust as they left, the doll clutched in his arm making Nightmare come to the conclusion he might have to find a way to bribe Error into letting him keep it.
"Ready to go when you are Boss?" Killer said, pulling his attention to him.
Nightmare nodded and opened a portal for his SIC, who didn't hesitate to go through the portal first. He waited a moment, focusing on the calm bubbly emotions coming from Ink for a moment longer before following.