Broken Hourglass (Sanscest Multiship)

Chapter 4 - 20 Questions

Error booted up the retro tv xe "found" as xe liked to put it. "Stole" was the correct term, but everyone's the hero of their own story.

The thing was ancient, a flatscreen from the late 2010s, but it worked. Xe was about to use it for scrap when something started playing. A woman in a poofy dress was crying on screen.

"Pero, Ferdinand...yo amo tu hermano."

Spanish. Error hadn't heard Spanish in a long time. There wasn't much need for it since most people spoke Common, but it was still something xe knew.

The camera zoomed in on a male's face, presumably Ferdinand, with a shocked expression.

"Mi esposa. Te amo. Pero ?Por que? mi hermano es asesino."

Ferdinand's wife put the back of her hand to her forehead and nearly fainted. "Estoy embarazada"

The words "To be continued..." popped up on screen as the credits started rolling and suddenly Error was no longer interested in scrapping the thing. This show, which xe was currently unaware was part of a genre called telenovelas, was way more interesting.

And suddenly, Error had a way to pass the time.

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Error looked at xyr assigned training partner, Ink. Something about him seemed off. The artist had gone back to his chalk drawing immediately after the presentation ended. On any other day the image would have been nothing but having just been told that the timeline was falling apart, a coiled serpent around an hourglass filled with souls seemed a bit ominous. There were 13 souls shown, a bit too much of a coincidence.

Still, Error had never been the superstitious type, so xe let it go.

"What are you drawing?," Error asked.

"A thing," Ink answered with basically no emotion. He still focused on his work, not even bothering to look at the skeleton trying to have a conversation with him.

"So... is it a symbol or just a thing you made up? Have you seen it before?"

"I don't know."Ink was not much of a talker.

Error still pushed forward, determined to learn something about xyr training partner. More simple, he could definitely respond to that. "Do you have a favorite color?"

The chalk in the artist's hand snapped audibly. "I don't like white."

Everything he said was monotonous, but this was the first time he stated his opinion. Baby steps. It's progress.

Ink seemed annoyed so instead of bothering him, Error decided to ask a question to Fresh. "So, who are we working for?"

"They call themselves the council. Pretty obnoxious for two people, but so far every time it deviates from whatever the council has said is correct, things get really bad," Fresh explained. "No one's ever actually seen them, as far as I know. Anyhow, first training exercise is just sparring. I need to know what you got to know how to train you."

They were being expected to fight? Error could do that, but xe wasn't sure how hard to go, since xe didn't know how much experience Ink had.

"Ok," Ink said, finally responding to what was going on. Without any warning, he punched Error dead in the face, hard.

The glitchy skeleton staggered back, holding xyr face before falling over. Xe got up and tackled Ink, and then they were both rolling on the floor, kicking and punching each other like children.

"Stop it, both of you!" Fresh yelled at them. "This is so not disco broskis!"

They paused. They looked really stupid right now, and the judgmental looks that everyone gave them let them know they were not going to live this down.