Shattered Souls [sequel]

Broken Promises

"Ink, where are you off too?"

Rats! While trying to sneak out of Blue's house (where the Star Sanses  had a sleepover), Ink had been caught by Blue leaving for... Something he wasn't supposed to be doing.

Well technically he hadn't been caught yet, since he could just lie...

"I was just um," Ink panicked and darted his mismatched eyelights over the notes on his scarf, "Going to see how that uh, new AU is getting on-!" Crap, crap, crap! That wasn't the right thing to lie, he wasn't supposed to be going there anyway!

"Ink! You know you can't help the creators with new AUs anymore! It'll break your and Error's truce."

Previous plans forgotten in a moment, Ink was desperate to argue the unfairness of this, "But they need me Blue! It's what I was made for - literally! And look:" The colourful skeleton gestured to his sash of paints, "I know when they're sad, and I want to help them!-"

It was true that Ink's paint sash did seem to have a more melancholy colour scheme lately, but Ink was also without empathy - and Blue didn't believe he felt sorry for the creators.

"-And besides, I want to feel other things too, not just grumpy and sad."

Ah, that made more sense. But maybe Blue wasn't giving him enough credit. Maybe one of those paints helped him with caring about other people's emotions? Who knew...

It was at that time Dream came downstairs. The yellow-clad guardian yawned, indicating a poor-quality sleep. "What're you guys arguing about?"

Blue crossed his arms, "Ink was trying to break the truce again."

"But I need too!"

Dream sighed, "Ink you can't keep doing this, if Error finds out... We'd have to go back to how things were before."

"Were they really that bad?"

Neither Blue, Dream, or perhaps Ink himself knew whether that was a genuine question or not so Dream answered, "Yes, they were." A shadow came across the guardian's skull and he mumbled, "Running into an AU... seeing monsters and humans dying left right and centre... Feeling their pain... I don't want to do that again. We weren't always able to save them. Remember?"

And with the obnoxious flair that was going to get him murdered one day Ink replied, "And I don't want to keep doing this anymore! It's practically torture - creating is my purpose, Dream."

"I'm sorry Ink, you can't break your truce." Dream left.

Blue and Ink looked at eachother. Dream was really on edge these days, and it worried Blue sometimes... Or maybe Ink was just more annoying.
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Kill them.

Error took a bite of chocolate, and turned over on his beanbag in a fruitless effort to ignore the voices.

You useless glitch, eliminate them!

Maybe Undernovela was on? The glitching skeleton opened a portal to the AU, hoping to find some entertainment. No such luck - it was only re-runs of the episodes from last week.

Why should you even be here if you won't fulfil your purpose?

Error closed the AU portal, and summoned his strings. From the endless 'roof' of the anitvoid, a sewing tin and half finished doll fell. Error snatched them up and left the anitvoid.

Destroy those filthy abominations!

Looking onto the vast expanse of space in Outertale always calmed Error's mind, and sewing was his second favourite hobby - the first being deleting others' code from existence.

Stop being lazy.

Was Error being lazy? No, he decided, because sewing and stargazing was an excellent way to spend one's time. If he'd judged the time right, he might also fit in a bit of 'socialising' those brats at the Bad Sanses were always going on about.

Over the shouting in his skull, Error heard the sound of little feet pit-pattering behind him, and a blue-and-orange patterned boot came into view. Error looked up and saw a human smiling back at him. Some days Error smiled back, but today he just couldn't manage it.

The resident Frisk of this particular pacifist Outertale was somewhat an enigma, and slowly they and Error had formed a... Not friendship, but something close to a peaceful coexistence.

Neither skeleton nor human spoke, but occasionally Error would present a certain stitch to Frisk who would give a thumbs up or down, and occasionally Frisk would point out a loose stitch which Error would patiently correct.

Or sometimes they just watched the stars.

Frisk must've noticed Error's bad mood (well, worse than normal anyway) because after some time they turned to the destroyer of worlds with a worried yet caring look.

"'Ts Nothing kid, just the creators."

The 'kid' raised one eyebrow.

"Alright, so maybe I'm annoyed about something, what do you care?"

Frisk had a stern expression now.

"Leave it."

Sometimes, facial expressions and gestures were not enough to get one's point across, so Frisk had taken the time to learn to sign. With sharp hand movements, they said, "Tell me."

"No" Error growled.

"I'll just keep asking~" Frisk smirked.

"Then I'll leave."

"You wouldn't"

"I can destroy this world in an instant you know?" Error said, brandishing his still-threaded needle like a mini sword, which definitely took some danger out of the threat.

"You wouldn't" They repeated.

Error just frowned and unpicked his last stitch which had been pulled too tight, before resuming the doll.

Frisk tapped on Error's shoulder lightly to get the other's attention.

"Who are you stitching?"

Error looked at the doll in his hands with it's brown scarf and mismatched eyelights, "Just some nobody".

Frisk new that wasn't true, but they also knew Error was finished talking, so the two went back to comfortable silence.
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Strings woven between sheets of paper, a single thread to pull would rip them all apart.

If Ink was going to dance around the edges of the truce, then so was Error. What's the harm in being prepared?

Of course Ink couldn't keep the truce for long, of course that stupid squid would slip up, make a mistake.

Well, maybe it was Error's time to give the creators what they wanted. Just one tug. Just one little pull.

When Ink decided to start secretly helping the creators again, just an AU here and there, Error took it as a sign that their truce was broken.

And if the truce was broken... then there was nothing stopping Error from pulling the string right?

In the half-baked antigravity, the doodlephere looked like a snow globe with half the snow still suspended in the air.

Beautiful.
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1146 words

Bit of a meh chapter, but I wasn't really sure how to start it so much. Next one will be better!

Any suggestions for names? I want to give outertale!Frisk a nickname like the outcodes get but I just don't know what.

Sincerely, a litre water bottle