Ink was obsessed with the mirror. When he had first entered into his Doodlesphere he hadn't thought twice about it, but now that he knew he could talk to Misfit and Glitch through it, he checked it every time he entered his domain. So far, the mirror hadn't activated again, but still he checked it every time he entered the Doodlesphere.
He wasn't in his Doodlesphere everyday at the moment since Error often came over to help him with controlling his portals, but he still got to visit it on his off days and for a few hours on others. Ink was content with that, but would be disappointed when he'd visit the Doodlesphere and the mirror would only reflect himself back. He liked playing with his guardians, but they could get busy with other things sometimes which left Ink to his own devices. Even Dust was busy helping Horror clean up and fix a common area for him to play in within the Castle most days.
Ink had been given his usual day off from portal lessons for the week and Dust had allowed him to run off to his Doodlesphere once again. He was greeted by his reflection in the mirror again, much to his ever growing disappointment, but quickly turned to explore his islands and the different doors.
He explored a few islands that he hadn't looked at before for a little while before going to some of the doors he'd already been to. Ink stopped on the island with stardust scattered about and tilted his head at the dark blue door with its six pointed gold star. 'Is this Outertale's door?' Ink wondered silently. It was the only AU Ink had been to before and the door definitely fit the feeling of the AU, but Ink couldn't tell for sure. He contemplated opening it and peeking through for just a moment before shaking his head and swiftly scurrying away to the island with the door that had a scythe on it.
Nightmare had told him to never go through the doors without one of them and with his uncontrolled portals at the moment he'd rather not risk ending up somewhere his Guardians might not be able to reach him. Instead he settled onto the Scythe door island and played in the small circle of flowers that surrounded it.
He was just peeking over the edge of the island to look down at another island below when he felt a shadow fall over him. Turning his attention up, Ink blinked at the sight of the extremely tall and colorful skeleton that stood over him with a wide grin.
The skeleton was taller than even Horror in height with a red and yellow hat with a propeller at the top of it and a pair of sunglasses on that had the words 'was up?' on the lenses. His jacket and pants were just as colorful while the fanny pack around his waist had the word 'swag' in bold across it. It honestly looked like somebody had thrown a box of crayons onto the tall skeleton with how bright and colorful he was.
Ink had a brief jolt of surprise snap through him causing him to stumble back from the skeleton and nearly off the edge of the island. Before he could even have a spike of fear shoot through him, the tall Skeleton shot his hand out and caught Ink's arm to reel him back towards the center of the island with an ever widening grin.
"Easy little broski, don't want to fall and hurt yourself now." The skeleton said in a chipper voice as Ink blinked in surprise once more.
"How do you get in here?" Ink asked with a tilt of his head.
He was pretty sure no one could get in without him letting them in. The Gang could come in because there was a door and they'd been given previous access before it existed, but Ink was pretty sure he'd never seen this skeleton before. No definitely hadn't, he'd remember someone so colorful.
"I don't know what you mean, breh. The better question is, how did you get here?" The skeleton responded, his grin never wavering.
"This is my Doodlesphere, no one should be able to enter without me letting them!" Ink huffed, stomping his foot slightly as he glared up at the other.
The tall skeleton tilted his head to the side slightly, giving Ink the feeling that he was being scrutinized heavily before squatting down to be more eye level with Ink. Not that it worked, the skeleton was so tall that Ink didn't think even sitting on the ground would put him on eye level with him.
"You must have only found your Domain recently for me to have never seen ya before broski. I suppose that explains the recent change in colors here." The skeleton said.
It sounded more like he was speaking to himself rather than to Ink, not that Ink minded. He had learned quickly that people said way more if they thought he didn't hear them then if they knew he was listening. It's why he knew that even though he could see Dust's ghostly Paps that the others couldn't. It was why he knew that Horror sometimes got lost in his own mumbles while cooking and would scratch at his injury when he became too anxious; why he knew Killer used to mutter to himself to keep himself from dropping into stage 3 after missions before he'd fixed the bad code.
In fact the only one who seemed to pick up on the fact that Ink was always listening even when it seemed like he wasn't, was Nightmare. While the other wouldn't necessarily watch what he said around Ink, he did sometimes stop speaking if Ink came into the room when giving orders to the others. Ink was under no impression that his Guardian was kind all the time, the Doodlesphere had helped him understand that a Guardian of Negativity had a job to do and that often meant doing things that were probably questionable and immoral. But as long as Nightmare was always kind to Ink, he could care less what his guardian did to fulfill his duty as Guardian of Negativity.
Ink's attention snapped back to the mystery skeleton as the other shifted slightly. He froze as he realized the other had leaned closer to put his face nearly nose cavity to nose cavity with Ink. His smile widened again as if he was waiting for a response from Ink, but he was unsure of what and decided since he wasn't going to tell him how he got into the Doodlesphere, he'd ask a different question.
"What's your name? I'm Ink!" Ink asked before introducing himself with a chirp and a grin.
He was proud of the name Nightmare gave him. It was the first thing that his guardian gave him when he came to live with him.
The tall skeleton seemed to twitch at the question before pulling back slightly and seeming to stare at him in confusion. Ink couldn't really tell for sure since the sunglasses hid his eyelights, but if the question marks that popped on the lenses were any clue, he'd assume he was at least close.
"Names Fresh lil' Broski. Surprised you aren't running away kiddo." The skeleton, Fresh, replied, seeming to raise a nonexistent eyebrow.
"Why would I run away from you? You aren't scary." Ink inquired.
Fresh tilted his head at him curiously before slowly reaching out as if expecting Ink to flinch from him. But Ink didn't flinch. He simply stood there as he let the other set his hand on his head and pat it for a second.
"You certainly are an interesting lil dude." Fresh stated, getting a giggle in return.
"I'm not the one who looked like a Rainbow threw up on me." Ink teased ducking out from under the hand and sticking his tongue out at him.
"Hey don't dis the threads broski."
Ink giggled at Fresh's playfully offended tone before looking at the skeleton once more. Fresh was watching him in turn as if waiting for him to begin running away or to realize something. He couldn't understand why the skeleton wasn't doing anything. He was a monster just like Ink was.
'Parasite.' Something whispered to Ink's mind making him blink in slight surprise. He vaguely recognized the whisper, he'd heard it before when he would silently wonder over something. It was the same whisper that had told him the name of his Domain. Did that mean the Doodlesphere was correcting his assumption? Was Fresh not a Monster?
'Parasite. Safe.' The Doodlesphere whispered again this time with a tone of reassurance as if concerned Ink would be afraid. Ink wasn't afraid though, if Fresh was a parasite that was fine he hadn't done anything to Ink so he had no reason to be afraid of him still. Instead, he blinked back to attention and grinned up at the colorful skeleton.
"Do you wanna play with me?" Ink asked excitedly, keeping his smile even as the other seemed to freeze at the question.
"Sure lil Broski, I can play with ya." Fresh replied, his grin once again widening.
Ink's own grin grew and he grabbed the other's hand to drag him off to some of the more distant islands to explore. He had his eye on a light brown door with origami cat's on its tiled island, never noticing the slightly confused expression on Fresh's face.
Killer had been tasked with retrieving Ink for dinner this time. They had finally sealed the alliance with Edge and Underfell which meant he had a few days off now instead of being in Underfell for days on end. This also meant in the near future they would be leaving Ink with Edge in order to handle some AUs Boss had been putting off for the last few months. He snickered as he imagined the look on Edge's face when they dropped off the child and told him to babysit for a few days.
He stepped into the Doodlesphere as he finally found where the door had decided to manifest that day, it only ever appeared at Ink's will from what Killer could tell. He was met by an empty main island, but stayed calm as he heard the soothing sound of Ink's giggles coming from a few island's up and over.
"Ink! It's dinner time!" Killer called leaning against the door as he waited for the child to come to his call.
However, instead of a call announcing the child's approach the sound of what Killer could only call a confetti explosion and a burst of a bright colorful cloud appeared a few feet away from him. He froze and terror filled him as a tall colorful skeleton appeared from the cloud with an all too familiar child on his shoulders. Both were grinning at Killer, but the parasite's grin was more menacing than Ink's welcoming one. Killer summoned a knife to his hand as he tried to curse only to find his words colorfully replaced with family friendly alternatives.
"Not cool broski, lil broski doesn't need to hear such terrible words." The parasite said with a slight frown as his glasses flashed the words 'not cool' across them.
Killer thought about flipping the bastard off, but was interrupted by Ink's growing giggle and Nightmare manifesting beside him with a snarl.
"It's okay Fresh, that's Killer and Nightmare. They take care of me." Ink said as he looked down at the top of the parasite's hat covered skull.
Boss appeared even less amused than Killer was by the situation and didn't hesitate to shoot a tentacle at the parasite while a second snatched Ink off its shoulders when it dodged.
"That wasn't nice bruh." Fresh huffed, dancing away from the attacking appendage and dodging a knife Killer threw at his skull.
"Fudge nice!" Killer cursed at him, throwing another knife.
Fresh grinned at him almost menacingly as he poofed away only to appear beside Killer and send him flying with a bat.
"Killer!" Ink called a little worried. Killer twisted in the air easily and skidded across the ground ready to meet the parasite if he came at him again only to see that he had set the bat down to lean against as he grinned at Nightmare.
"Fresh be nice!" Ink exclaimed, glaring at the parasite from where he was safely wrapped in one of Boss' tentacles.
Killer blinked in surprise as the parasite froze for a moment before straightening and vanishing his bat with a shrug.
"I was only defending myself, Inky broski." Fresh responded, taking a few steps back as he shoved his hands in his jacket pockets.
"I know, but Killer didn't know you weren't a threat." Ink admonished, seeming to have shocked Boss enough that he remained frozen in place.
"Inkling I think it's time we teach you stranger danger." Killer called back, snapping Boss out of his stupor finally as the Guardian quickly moved further away from the parasite.
"But Fresh has been playing with me the whole time." Ink called back with a pout.
The whole time? Okay, yeah they definitely need to reduce the time Ink is left alone without being checked on while in the Doodlesphere. Which brought the question. How the hell did the damn parasite even get in here?
"How did you get in here?!" Nightmare demanded angrily, as he narrowed his singular socket at the pest.
"I go where I please bruh." Fresh replied with a growing grin.
"The Doodlesphere said he was safe, Nightmare." Ink chirped as Killer made his way to stand beside the Guardian.
"Just because you aren't a snack for him Ink doesn't mean he's safe." Nightmare replied, not removing his gaze from Fresh.
The huff from their charge told Killer that Ink did not agree with that statement in the slightest.
"If he wasn't safe the Doodlesphere never would've allowed him in here." Ink said stubbornly, making Fresh's grin grow again.
"Yeah broski's. I ain't a threat to the baby bones. Be foolish for me to harm the Protector after all." Wrong thing to say.
Nightmare's tentacles immediately shot at the parasite in an attempt to skewer it. Killer didn't even get to take a step to join before he found himself with an armful of Ink as Boss shot after the snickering pest.
"Uh oh." Ink muttered as Killer blinked at Nightmare's clear rage.
"I can't tell if that move was smart or stupid." Killer commented watching as Nightmare went after Fresh as if he was possessed.
"Do you think Fresh will survive?" Ink asked curiously, tilting his head from where he sat in Killer's arms before looking at him.
Killer tilted his head as well and narrowed his sockets as he watched the fight for a moment.
"Unfortunately, but I'm pretty sure Boss will rough him up enough that he'll think twice about tangling with him again." Killer said calmly, Ink looking back to the fight as well.
"We should probably stop them then. Fresh really was just playing with me." Ink said with a pout, huffing when Killer made no move to stop the rampaging guardian.
"Let's give Boss like ten minutes, I'm sure the parasite will be fine." Killer said without worry.
Boss had told all of them about the three major threats that they would have to avoid while working for him, well all but Ink apparently. The first was the Guardian of Positivity, Dream, the second had been a monochrome child called Core!Frisk. The third had been Fresh himself.
Dream was to be avoided since Nightmare said they had a rough history and that the other guardian would see them as threats no matter what they said. Core was the leader of the Omega Timeline and viewed Nightmare as a threat much like Dream did, making Killer wonder if their Boss was the only one who knew about the balance the Multiverse required to continue functioning.
Fresh was the most dangerous out of the three that Boss had shown them. While the Guardian of Negativity didn't believe any of the gang would be a target for a Host of the parasite, that wouldn't mean the parasite wouldn't kill them if he deemed them a nuisance to him. It would be just their luck that out of the three Ink would somehow befriend the parasite like some sort of stray cat.
Killer let the fight go far beyond the ten minute mark he'd said to Ink and it was only Horror coming to hunt them down that even pulled their attention away from it. They all then quickly learned to never dare be late for a meal when it came to Horror, he wasn't even lenient on Fresh who appeared quite surprised to be dragged into the lecture of his fellow tall skeleton. Ink giggled the whole time and eventually saved them all from the lecture when he wriggled free from Killer's arms to demand Horror take him to dinner because he was hungry.
Horror agreed and forced all of them, including Fresh, out of the Doodlesphere and into the Castle hallways and led the march to the kitchen. Once there Horror forced them all to sit down where Dust was amusedly watching the whole scene. Ink eagerly told Dust of his new friend, the insane skeleton slightly tensing as he realized what the colorful skeleton was but made no move to get rid of him when Horror gave them all a pointed look as he left to retrieve another chair for himself now that Fresh had joined them.
"We gonna just let this slide Boss?" Killer asked glaring at Fresh.
"I have a feeling Horror will go on a rampage if we don't." Nightmare replied, also glaring at the parasite.
Fresh simply grinned at them and ate his food as if he really required it. Ink giggled at the interaction and ate his food while telling Dust about being extremely interested in a new island that had origami cats on it. Horror returned and they finished up dinner with Ink filling it with chatter as usual, though Fresh gladly joined the child as he eventually dragged Ink into a debate on what games they should play next time he was in the Doodlesphere.
Nightmare and Killer both sagged in defeat as they realized there would be no getting rid of the parasite and if they tried Ink would most likely throw a fit since he was one of the few playmates he currently had. 'Well it could be worse I suppose.' Killer thought as he finished his food.
If Killer had known Nightmare had jinxed them with his thoughts a few weeks back, he definitely would've been knocking on the wooden table in hopes of avoiding whatever event he'd just jinxed them with.