Abominations for Solutions

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Gradient was so alone. He crossed his arms, heading down the one darkened hallway that Palette had showed him earlier. He didn't look back. His teeth clattered slightly.

Where was he?

He had to be here somewhere.

The cold hurt so much. A deadly negative aura hung in the air as almost every single one of the floating orbs of light were cast into deep blues and indigo.

"Palette?" Gradient dared to whisper as the darkness began to steal what was left of his vision.

Gradient stopped, bringing his hands to his eyes, tears beginning to well in them. He felt himself glitching again. The glitches have been happening more and more and he didn't know what to do about them. "Palette?" He tried again.

"Here..."

Gradient gasped, pulling his hands away from his eyes as he saw an arm extend up from a pile of blue glowing dots which lay a way ahead down the main hall.

Gradient pumped his arms and knelt by the pile, which began to disband as the starry-eyed skeleton emerged from it. He looked different, somehow, like his eyes were a bit duller or his face was a bit greyer than usual.

"Palette??"

Palette just sat there for a moment, still, unspeaking. His eyes occasionally drifted somewhere, and he fiddled slightly with his scarf.

Gradient on an impulse pulled Palette by the scarf and blew a dramatic sob into his chest. Palette's eyes widened as tears from somewhere inside of him began to fall. "I'm sorry you had to see that. But I told you, she, Lux means well. She's just... worried." There was a restraint to Palette's voice that suggested there was so much more he felt about that statement than he was willing to communicate.

"Worried about what? Pal-"

"It's just... there's a lot on her mind. It's really complicated, I'll explain later, ok?" Palette pat Gradient's shoulder, squeezing it playfully. Although the way his voice wobbled definitely showed he himself was shaken by all of this. His voice, though, there was something familiar to it. Gradient couldn't define what exactly; his mind was too frazzled.

"Ok..." Gradient sighed, closing his eyes to let the soft whirr of the void lull him.

"Wh-what is she going to do with... that thing. Crescent's thing? The tentacle..." Gradient spoke up, whispering, shuddering into his own scarf.

Palette's grip clutched Gradient's shoulder, harder, squeezing it in almost a painful way. He chuckled. "That's the thing. Chopping it off is only the beginning of the journey." Palette brought Gradient up so the two of them looked each other dead in the eye. Palette's mouth clenched. "Do you smell that? It's almost done."

"You mean- actually?"

"Yeah, actually."

Before either one of them knew it, Palette and Gradient walked down the long corridor, their clammy cold hands intertwined tightly. Their footsteps seemed to scream in this dead hanging silence. Their heartbeats accelerated as they neared the rectangle of light ahead of them.

Palette stopped Gradient just before the two of them stepped into the light, into the main living area. "Just play along." Palette's mouth tilted up into what he intended to be a smile. A reassurance? He wasn't fooling anyone. Everyone knew this was going to be a disaster.

Palette let go of Gradient's hand as they emerged from the darkness, into a kitchen-like area, which Gradient had never seen the likes of during his time in the bland Antivoid. They delved deeper into the area, into an atmosphere that reeked of poison and something that could only be described as acid. With hints of oil and spices.