Inktobertale 2022 : Compilation of novels

16th of October : Memories

To many, it would have been negligible. Worth a double-check at the most. It was nothing fancy, or never-seen-before. But so was Ink. And when Ink  found it, it was the most lively thing he had ever seen. This naked skeleton, still wet from the paint who and just splashed him, and lit up the whole place, picked it up. Inspected it. Gave it a name. Made a friend of it. A confident. A brother. Before he even found out what it allowed him to do, he was already strongly attached to it. It could have gone differently in a million ways. It was just a tool, a wooden pole with some hair on the tip. But this person who hadn't even discovered his passion for his art made a masterpiece of it. Turned the most basic of things into a friend. If it could have manifested gratitude, it would have never stopped doing so.

Gaster kept progressing. He had to. When crossing the AU hub, he always tried to keep his eyes shut. If he could, he'd erase everything he had seen every time he was done walking through it. Unfortunately, all outcode he was, teleporting had its limits. Sometimes, the hub was the better solution. How did this place even work ?! It changed appearance, colors, the AUs changed forms... was there any kind of order to that ? He suddenly stopped. He thought he'd heard something. Another outcode ? From his personal experience, the further he was from any of them, the better. He remained still for a dozen of second, still unsure of whether he'd imagined this manifestation or not, until he felt a drop splash on his hat. There was no such thing as rain here. Immediately, Gaster raised his hand towards the possible threat, as two fancy-looking blasters with colorful top hats appeared, aimed in that same direction. But Gaster's face switched from threatening to astonished in a split-second as he looked at the child standing on an island floating over him. The small silhouette jumped from his perch, and landed right at Gaster's feet. 

"Well, it was bound to happen, right ? I knew sooner or later, you'd catch me spying on you, during your various trips through the Doodle Sphere. Undertop Gaster, am I right ?" cheerfully asked the little skeleton.

As used as he was to mind-blowing stuff, Gaster still had a lot of trouble believing his eyes in front of this smaller, artist-styled version of his son.

"...and so our performance concludes, but fear not dear audience ! The artists may be putting down their instruments, but the show is eternal, for it will keep on living in your hearts and in ours." 

As the orchestra played its final notes and the applauses of the public filled the big top, Gaster retreated into the artists' lounges with the rest of his troop. Normally, he would just continue his routine, have dinner and go sleep in his caravan. But tonight wasn't just any normal night.

Nearly all the audience had exited the big top now, but two silhouettes had remained seated. Aster grabbed another sole kernel of pop corn and calmly munched it, as Ink was enjoying his rainbow ice cream. Eventually, Gaster came back into the big top and sat next to them, still dressed in his fancy ringleader clothes, which could be seen as everyday clothes for him. "So, what did you think ?" asked the artist. 

"I liked the acrobats," said Aster, as he brushed bits of pop corn off his clothes. "Especially this... tarpeze number. It's always amazing how easily these people seem to fly through the sky, on their own !"

"Well personally, I loved the whole thing as always, but what always bugged me is the lack of clowns in your show. Clowns are funny, they make pranks, they may seem unnecessary to an artistic show like this, but they really bring the public's attention over..." started rambling Ink, as the two others watched him, then shared a stare as they tried holding back their smiles. 

"Anyways," said Gaster, "I thought you'd like these better than those little snacks you have." He took 4 packages from behind his back, and opened them, revealing four hotdogs. 

"Wow ! You even got one for Broomie !" said Ink as his eyes literally sparkled and he grabbed two from the hands of his friend. Of course, everyone knew he'd eat them both, but one way or the other, the attention was appreciated nonetheless. Gaster stretched as he handed Aster his hotdog and sat next to him. The three, or four friends remained like this, for a bit, enjoying their food and chatting about meaningless little things. Especially Aster and Gaster who, ever since Ink had introduced them to one-another seemed to only get along better and better with time. So much that Ink had started conceiving a crazy idea in his head...