Inkwhumptobertale 2024

Day Twelve

Penguin - Starvation, Underground Caverns, Cannibalism, "Just a little more." 

Happy penguin day! :p

Trigger warnings: violence, semi-graphic descriptions.

Comments are welcome and appreciated! 

Please enjoy!

~~~~~

Cross wasn't a fan of checking in on Horrortale AUs. It wasn't that he had anything against them, and he knew that his boss helped them out for a reason..he just didn't like checking on AUs in general, and the possibility that he would be eaten in the process didn't fuel any affection for these types. Horror was a great guy, and Cross enjoyed spending time with him, but..Horror was very much unlike those who still lived in their Horrortale AUs. He could control himself when it came to food, and he didn't hunt living beings like prey any longer (except for rare occasions when he took a day off in a different universe to sate his urges); Nightmare and the others had helped him a lot before Cross had come into the picture, certainly. Horror could hold a conversation, he had interests, and his mind wasn't completely geared towards his next meal. He was a good teammate and friend, and Cross wouldn't trade him for the world. 

He just wished that all the other Horrortale types could at least try to be a little less..ravenous. 

Every Horrortale that Nightmare had control over, except for Horror's own, was still stuck in their old ways. They didn't recognize the monthly food shipments as a guarantee, and they continued to search for their own means to survive alongside their enjoyment of the food provided. They hoarded every last scrap they could, and they fought eachother over those scraps voraciously. They were a great source of negativity for Nightmare, but..they had always been hard to handle. The trust that Horror had instilled in his own universe didn't carry over to the others, and that meant that no one from those universes trusted Nightmare despite his concessions. This was a symbiotic relationship, but it wasn't a cordial one; the gang could always count on being attacked when checking in on these AUs, and today, it was Cross's turn. 

In Snowdin Forest, Cross stepped out of his portal, recoiling a bit at the pungent smell of dust and blood in the air; this was definitely one of the newest acquisitions, as Nightmare had heavily discouraged killing in the ones he'd had for long enough to try - dead people didn't give him anything in the way of emotions. Today was just a check-in, though; Cross wouldn't be doing much aside from checking the local food reserves (he could already tell what the report would be: empty, because every Horrortale always reported the food stores empty!) and examining the overall mental condition of the inhabitants. So he made his way to the town, and he met his first inhabitant: the local Dogamy. Cross didn't want to know where his wife was.

"Uh, hello?" Cross greeted, trying to appear kind and calm.

"Talking? Person?" The canine looked at Cross, squinting a bit before coming over to sniff the skeleton. 

Cross was..very well acquainted with dogs smelling him. Dog monsters identified others by scent instead of vision, and they were very good at it; they could identify many characteristics beyond outward appearance just by scent, and although it was a bit unsettling at first, it was easy to get used to. Someone's scent could betray their personality, LV, and any other identifying factors with great accuracy, and Cross could predict almost exactly what this canine would say: that Cross was a skeleton with high LV. From that, the most common assumption would be that he was a gang member (the correct assumption), and if the guess was incorrect, he would correct the other. It was a tried and true method that Cross had been through time and time again, and-

"Penguin!" The dog panted happily.

What.

"Uh..I'm a skeleton.." Cross blinked.

"Penguin!" Dogamy repeated. "Come, penguin!"

..This had to be a joke, right?

Cross, desperately hoping that this was some kind of complex jape, followed Dogamy to the town square, where several of the universe's inhabitants were gathered..for some reason? Horrortale residents were usually holed up in their houses..why were these ones gathered here like this? Everyone stared at Cross as he came closer, and he suddenly became rather self-conscious about it; this was..odd.

"What is it, Dogamy?" One of the residents inquired.

"A penguin!" Dogamy announced. 

"I am not a penguin!" Cross refuted. "I'm a skeleton!"

"Well..skeletons are white or gray." The librarian informed. "Penguins are black and white."

"He's black and white." An icecap noticed. "He must be a penguin."

"Can we eat penguins?" Someone else in the crowd asked.

"I'm not a penguin!" Cross restated. "You can't eat me! I'm here to check on this AU on behalf of Nightmare's gang - you know, the group who's been supplying you with food?"

"..You can't eat nightmares." The librarian informed. "But penguins are mammals..animals. Fleshy, bloody creatures..we can eat them."

"We can eat it!" Someone shouted.

As soon as the words were spoken, the group descended upon Cross, and the skeleton startled, starting to run. This was definitely a newer acquisition; they were trying to eat him! Cross let out a yelp as sharp claws raked across his spine, and he decided to leave this universe as soon as possible, teleporting far into the forest before making a portal back to the castle; he was not going to stick around to risk being eaten! This universe would just have to be handled by someone else in the future. 

Surely, Nightmare would understand..