Mer!verse Error (continuation)

Chapter 3

After force-feeding Misprint, aka later in the afternoon, someone came in, pushing the stone back in place after entering.

"PAINT! RAY! I'M BACK!"

Paint swam to the front door and tackle-hugged this new person. They looked a lot like Blue, so he's guessing that this is Blue's alternate. He was also holding what seemed to be shopping bags but instead of a bag - since everything would probably just float out - it was a cart that could open and close. While Misprint was looking at his friends' alternate, said person surprised him by looking in his direction.

"Hello! I don't believe we've met before! My name is Lapis, what's yours? Also, I gotta know, are you ok?! You're covered in bandages, do you want me to heal you?" Lapis asked, acting just like Blue had when they first met.

"HeH, My NaMe'S mIsPrInT, AnD, nO, wE hAvEn'T mEt BeFoRe. To AnSwEr YoUr LaSt 2 QuEsTiOnS, YeS i'M FiNe, and nO, yOu CaN't HeAl Me, yOu'd lItErAlLy Be WaStInG YoUr MaGiC oN mE." Lapis flinched when he heard his glitchy voice, not being used to it - like the others had when they first heard him speak - and seemed a little saddened by his responce for his last question. Suddenly, he perked up again, seeming to have an idea as his eye pupils turned to stars.

"I have an idea! Why don't we introduce him to the rest of our friends? That way he can feel a little bit more comfortable here, as he's obviously new, and we can have another friend join our group!"

"B-bUt-"

"No buts."

After a bit of convicing, they finally coaxed Misprint into coming with them, but that doesn't mean he wasn't nervous of meeting them, as last time he saw their alternates, they beat him down in the ground.

So, with that, Ray and Paint helped Lapis put away the groceries in the various boxes strapped onto the shelves on the walls in what seems to be the kitchen. Then, they grabbed Misprint by the arm, half dragging, half leading him to wherever their friends were. However, when they got to their other friends, a loud, high pitched beeping noise could be heard, and when they turned around, Misprints eye sockets were covered in glithes, some that said 'Error' and some not, most of his body was like this too. Above his head were the words "Rebooting: 5%". This both confused and scared the poor mer-skele hybrids out of their minds, thinking that they did something wrong.

After a while - like an hour or so - Misprint stopped rebooting, and looked around, confused as to where he was. Then he was tackled by a concerned Lapis, his friends not too far behind. To avoid another crash, he swam backwards a few paces until they were out of reach. 

"GuYs? WhAt'S wRo- OoF" Just as he was about to ask what was wrong, everybody attempted to tackled him again, this time succeeding. Before he could crash again, as it could be very painful to have back-to-back reboots, he - in panic - wrapped everyone about to tackle him in his infamous blue strings. Everyone in said strings looked at him, many emotions present on their faces, the main ones being confusion and a little to a lot of fear. That, however, changed when they saw Misprint covered in 'Error' signs again, and on the verge of another reboot, being once again temporarily blinded.

Paint looked at him and replayed what had just happened. It was then he realized that this was what happened when someone touches him without warning, and that he had to help fix this since most of his friends didn't know about his fear of being touched.

"Misprint? It's okay, you're okay, and I understand that you're scared and/or confused, but instead of doing this, please, just tell us that you don't want to be touched. It makes life a lot easier when we have good comunication. Point is, you can let us down now, and I can promise that no one's going to touch you, okay?" It seemed like that snapped him out of it, making hi visibly flinch before loosening the strings enough that they wouldn't get hurt, but not enough to fully escape from. Poor guy was still terrified.

"Y-yOu PrOmIsE yOu Wo-Wo-Wo-WoN't T-tOuCh Me AgAiN?" He asked so quietly and broken, his glitched and repeated words were barely heard, and the signs in his eyesockets were starting to disapear, so he was able to see a little clearer. Luckily Paint knew what he said and responded. 

"Of course I promise. I'll make sure no one else will touch you again either, okay?"

Everyone sighed in relief as they felt the strings leave their souls and body completely, but then quickly realized that Misprint had started to cry, leaving them heart broken. Lapis slowly went up to him, making sure that he was well within his line of sight and out of his personal space or even within two arms length. He wanted to ask if he could help when Misprint suddenly jumped forward, pushing off the ground with his tail, and into Lapis' arms, forcing him to hold the shaking skeleton to his chest. Everyone was confused by this, and partly sacred for them as it seemed bad for Misprint to be touching someone at the moment, but when a few moments had passed and nothing bad happened, they all released a breath they didn't know they were holding.

"How about we bring him inside, its probably been a long day for him." Ray suggested, everyone agreeing, going inside their friends home, helping Lapis get the glitchy bean comfortably settled in his lap, as he didn't seem to want to let go.

Heya! So, I'm sorry that this was such a short chapter, it only had 966 words, I'm sad. This was a hard chapter to write for some reason, like I really struggled to write this over the week and, in my opion, it didn't even come out good. The first 2 chapters I wrote in less than a day or two and it came out beautiful, I don't understand. T^T

Anyway, hope you enjoyed this (crappy) chapter and enjoy the rest of your day/night. Bye~