The Price of Power

6 - Dancing

I know nothing about ballet - please forgive me if the beginning is weird. I looked up random ballet terms and visualized them based on the descriptions, soo..

Comments are welcome and appreciated!

Please enjoy!

~~~~~

There was nothing like dancing. 

Careful steps treaded across the wooden floor, with a chassé leading into an en pointe pirouette. The music was light, and so the dancer was, too. The pirouette turned into a spinning arabesque, and as the spin died out, a plié provided the spring for a small jeté, which-

The door slammed.

"Ink!" Core Frisk let out a groan, turning off their music. 

"Sorry!" Ink chuckled nervously. "Uh, how goes it?"

"I was practicing." Frisk crossed their arms. "How many times have we discussed the door?"

"Probably a lot..sorry.."

"..It's fine; I'll just have to start over.."

Most people who looked at Core Frisk assumed that they were from an Undertale copy, and honestly, Frisk couldn't blame them; they looked the part. But their birth universe was anything but a classic timeline - it had been a Dancetale, and Frisk had once been an aspiring ballerina. Well..they hadn't given the hobby, up, but they certainly weren't just aspiring anymore; they were serious about it. But, with the Omega Timeline being so important, they didn't always have time to practice; others came first. Recently, though, Frisk had gotten a good chunk of time to practice; Nightmare's gang had been quiet for the past few days, and Error hadn't been doing much, either, leaving them with free time! They did prefer it when people knocked before entering, but..Ink was still learning such etiquette. He would get it right eventually, they supposed. 

"What do you need, Ink?" Core Frisk asked, leaning against the barre on the wall. 

"Uh, have you seen Dream recently?" Ink inquired. "He sorta disappeared about a week ago, and I've had no luck finding him; Blue's getting worried, so I promised him I'd ask you!"

"Oh.." Frisk hummed. "Let me see.."

Frisk thought about Dream, searching through the multiverse with their omnipresence at a quick pace. Truthfully, Frisk hadn't thought about Dream for a while; the entire past week had either been work or ballet, and Frisk picked ballet whenever they could (the inhabitants of the other existing Dancetales loved doing collaborations with them!). After a couple minutes, though, Frisk looked up at Ink, frowning. 

"I..don't see him." They admitted. "He's not anywhere I can get to. Have you checked the Doodlesphere?"

"Yeah, and the Anti-Void!" Ink confirmed. "Error kicked me out, like, ten times, before agreeing to help me look for him, but we didn't even find him!"

"..That's not good. Where was the last place you saw him?" 

"At the base, during breakfast, uh..I think last Saturday? Something like that. He said he had a meeting with someone, but he didn't say who, and then he just didn't come back!"

"..A meeting?" Frisk paused, a looming sense of dread coming over them. 

"That's all he said."

Core Frisk was the only other person who knew about Dream's secret meetings with his brother, and Dream had made them promise not to tell anyone..unless something happened. It seemed as if something had happened, unfortunately, and if Frisk was right..they were going to have a lot less time to practice their ballet. Frisk had tried to warn Dream about his brother, but the positive guardian hadn't been swayed; he'd insisted that the meetings were safe, despite Frisk's front-row seat to the hundreds of other encounters that Nightmare had had with his victims. Frisk had seen the Guardian of Negativity do and say a lot of things that had made people fall for his tricks, but even that knowledge hadn't stopped Dream from falling right into his trap, it seemed.