Soul doesn't wake up all at once. He has to struggle and fight for consciousness. Multiple times, Soul starts to regain sensation in his body, only to sink back into oblivion. The splitting headache that knocked Soul out is thankfully gone. What remains is a dull ache all throughout his body.
The first thing Soul comes to realize is that he's not laying on the floor. Someone set him down on a bed. Considering the absolute chaos Soul caused in the meeting hall, the gesture strikes him as oddly nice. Soul is laying on top of the blankets. The chill in the air is what probably woke him up. Soul blinks sleepily, staring at the wall he's facing.
His mind keeps replaying the utter disaster that was his introduction to the Multiverse. If Soul wasn't still feeling bad for betraying Error's trust, then he would say it's the worse he's ever felt. This new situation is only the icing on the 'misery' flavored cake. Soul was too busy trying to escape at the time, but now that he has time to think, all Soul can see is the fearful look that people gave him. Why did he have to lose it and attack Fresh like that? Everyone must think that Soul is a monster no better than Fresh himself. Is Soul any better? Leeching off other monsters like he does? Soul doesn't kill his hosts, but he does steal a piece of their time, a piece of their life. Cherry is stuck in this awkward situation with Soul just because the small skeleton tried to help.
Uncomfortable and becoming increasingly anxious with his thoughts, Soul gets a hold of himself and sits up. The world spins for a moment when he performs the action way too fast. Soul shakes his head to try and get rid of the black spots while crossing his legs on the bed.
This room doesn't look like something meant to hold a prisoner. Three walls are a bright blue with the forth being a white accent wall. Plush carpet lines the floor. There's even a small writing desk and a chair up against one wall. Even the bed is strangely comfortable. As Soul slowly looks around the room, his eyes land on the room's door. That giant hole in the wall used to be a plain wooden door, at least. It's now been replaced with a door made of iron bars.
Staring at Soul, another monster is seated on a stool just beyond the bars. Soul startles so badly that he can't suppress his whole-body flinch. He just barely chokes back a yelp of surprise. Ink says nothing. He continues staring at Soul, one eye lit up with a green question mark.
".........Hi?" Soul eventually says, but it comes out as a question.
Ink blinks a few times as if he's just now noticing that Soul is awake. The shapes in his eyes change repeatedly but come back to that green question mark. "Oh, hey! You said your name was Soul, right?" Ink jumps to his feet and grabs the bars, pressing his face against the door. "What kind of name is that? I can't think of any AU it could be connected to. I don't remember anyone like you, and neither does Dream. He remembers things a lot better than me. I think Dream said something about glitches, but you don't look very glitchy. Oh, and is there some reason why you-"
Ink talks so fast and changes topics so rapidly that Soul can't keep or even attempt to answer any questions. Soul finally interrupts with the first thing Ink mentioned. "Yes! My name is Soul."
"Soul," Ink repeats the name. His eyes have settled on a blue star and that same green question mark. "What are you?"
"....... I don't know," Soul answers honestly. He has no idea what exactly he is or where he came from. It's one the few questions that Soul has been asking for as long as he can remember, which admittedly isn't very long.
"Did you come from an AU?
"I don't know that either."
"What's your favorite color?"
"Dark blue, I guess," Soul answers, weirded out by the sudden irrelevant question. Soul sits up a little straighter when some of Cherry's boldness creeps in. His next words have a fair bit of attitude. "If you're going to interrogate me, than I want to ask some of my own questions."
Ink pauses. He stares at Soul again with that unreadable expression. Soul might have ducked and looked away if he wasn't in a Fell Sans's body. The bitter emptiness that surrounds Ink is at odds with his over exaggerated personality and actions. It makes Soul uncomfortable. Ink finally speaks after some internal debate is won in his head. "Okay."
Surprised, it takes Soul a moment to come up with a question. "........ What's your favorite color?" He blurts out in a moment of trepidation. Stupid. That's the stupidest thing he could have asked.
"A color? How could I just pick one? I love them all!" Ink smiles wider. "Summer or winter?"
"Winter is much prettier. What's your favorite AU?"
"That's a tough one. SurfaceTale? OceanTale? I don't dislike any of them. Yours?"
"Definitely Underswap. It's really fun to be a Swap Sans!"
"Actually, how does that work?" Ink asks, becoming more serious, "Can you take over anyone's body?"
"I guess so?" Soul starts hesitantly, "I've never found someone I couldn't hitch a ride with, but there could be people I've never met."
"And all you have to do is touch someone?"
"That's actually pretty new. Until recently, I just wake up in a random AU after each reset," Soul explains. He pauses for a moment, trying to figure out what to ask. His eyes land on Ink's paintbrush. "Where'd you get your paintbrush? I've never seen someone fight with one before. It looks really heavy."
"I..... don't actually know where Broomy comes from," Ink hums in thought. "I don't actually know where I came from, either. I guess that we have that in common!"
Soul finds the coincidence interesting. How come the seemingly oldest beings in the Multiverse have no knowledge one the universe's beginnings? Soul doesn't know exactly how long he's been around but assumes that it's been a lot longer than most. If Error ever talks to him again, Soul wants to ask Error how much he knows. The thought sours Soul's mood all over again. He looks hesitantly back at Ink. "Do you...... Why do you hate Error?"
Ink loses his smile. That was the wrong question to ask. The Creator doesn't answer right away. He gives Soul a sour and annoyed face. One of Ink's eyes turn red. "Isn't it obvious?"
"......... Well, Error doesn't hate you."
Ink doesn't know how to process that, and after a moment of thought, discards it as a lie. Error hates everybody. Ink's already forgotten about the weird report on Error in the Omega Timeline and can't connect the dots. Being lied to grates on Ink's nerves more than anything else. He doesn't feel like playing with this interesting monster anymore. Ink stands up and turns to go without a word.
"W-Wait, are you just gonna leave!?" Soul splutters.
Ink freezes, suddenly remembering what he was supposed to be doing. "Oh, that's right!" Ink bends down a grabs a tray from just out of sight and slides it under the gap in the door. "Dream asked me to give you some food." With that, Ink raises his brush to rest on one shoulder before turning around and walking off down the hall. Soul watches him go in stunned silence.
The deafening silence creeps back in. Ever since his melt down with Dream, Soul has hated silence. It's a suspicious quirk that Dream himself dealt with. Needing something to do, Soul slips off the bed and stands up. He's almost immediately hit with a wave of vertigo. Soul plans to never jump through so many people ever again. He's been unconscious for at least a day, and even now, Soul body feels weak and achy. Cherry will definitely be owed an apology after this.
The food that Ink left isn't actually bad. Soul sits cross-legged right on the floor in front of the door while he eats. It's easy to look down the hallway in either direction through the door's bars. A few more doors line the hall, but Soul isn't completely sure about where he is. Is this the same building as the meeting hall? Would they have risked moving him to a different AU? Soul can use a reset to escape if this is a normal AU.
Despite listening as closely as he can, Soul hears nothing but his own quiet breathing. He's alone. Soul has been trying his best to avoid being alone for some time now. He considers letting himself be swallowed up by Cherry's memories and personality, but this isn't a normal situation. Soul already feels guilty for invading AUs stealing a piece of someone's life. To do it here, a position that his host would have never gotten into, unsettles Soul. It's already hard to justify his own existence. Soul doesn't want to use someone else as tool more than he's already been doing.
Absentmindedly, Soul rubs his arm where his bones ache. For now, he's alone with his self deprecating and depressive thoughts.
YOU ARE READING
Lost Soul
FanfictionSans doesn't remember a time when he had his own name. He always wakes up as a Sans, but everything else is constantly changing. He is an observer meant to simply watch the AUs, not change them. He has believed this for a very long time. When Sans b...
