A Shadow of the Past

Raspberry

Meanwhile, in the Doodlesphere....

Ink spent hours, maybe even days, searching for Error. In that time, AUs crashed into each other, causing several more to crash into them, which crashed into more, and so on. Ink was forced to watch despairingly as his hard work was destroyed. The irony was, Ink was to blame. And to think Error didn't have a reason.

He'd been trying to prevent this.

Somehow, Error had foreseen this. He had fought Ink to save the multiverse, not annihilate it. And Ink was just making things worse.

It all made sense, now! Error's refusal to kill Ink when he had the chance, the regret in his eyelights, sparing Blueberry, targeting the newer AUs.... Ink felt horrible. He thought Error just hated him. Well, he was gonna fix this, even if he had to beg Error's forgiveness.

He had to find him first.

Ink entered the small cottage he'd created in the Doodlesphere for himself. He plopped down on the couch, feeling guilty and frustrated. The multiverse was just way too big to search thoroughly, considering each universe was made up of thousands of galaxies, each consisting of millions of planets. He could be imprisoned anywhere!

Ink's head perked up at the pitter-patter of tiny feet. How...?

He stood up, reaching for his paintbrush. Slowly making his way to the kitchen, he readied some red paint. The color reminded him of that dried pool of blood he'd found in the Anti-Void where he had expected to find Error. Grimacing, he tore his eyelights from it. Damn, he reall needed to apologize to the glitchy skeleton when he found him. If he finds him.

Ink jumped into the kitchen in a defensive position to startle the intruder; instead, he found a small, strange creature sitting on the counter next to the refrigerator. In its beak was a piece of paper with what looked like writing on it.

He slowly approached the cotton candy blue creature, and tore the note from its grip. The writing was rushed and disjointed, making it difficult to read. He turned it this way and that, catching various words and phrases, and eventually caught on to what it was about. Whoever wrote it was asking for reinforcements for... something. It mentioned the creature in front of him would show him where to go, but he had to cover his eyesockets.

Ink scratched his head. Why would he need to cover his eyesockets? He shrugged, then did as he was instructed, just to see what would happen. He heard the same pitter-pattering feet leave the room, then come back in a few minutes later. He cautiously opened his eyesockets and found the same creature from before, holding another, neon-colored paper in its beak.

"Aaaah! Don't eat that! That's an AU!"
Ink quickly snatched the paper from the creature and checked it for damage. He examined it more closely, now, eyeing the creature that had brought it to him. Underfresh? He doesn't remember this one. He narrowed his eyes at the creature, then decided to put the paper down, walk out of the room, and see what it does. The note said it would show him, so now he would wait.

A few moments later, Dream entered the cottage. He tilted his head to the side in confusion when he saw Ink sitting on the couch, staring intently at the ceiling, his hands behind his head.

"Uh, Ink? What are you doing?"

"..."

"Hello? Dream to cloud nine?"
He waved a hand in front of Ink's face. Ink looked at him, then back at the ceiling, blinking once.

"...hey, Dream."

"What are you doing?"

"...Waiting..."