When the Stars Die

Chapter 2

(Me: Okay, now to write the next chapter!

Me: ....

Me: What the heck do I write now--

Btw this A/N is on the unnecessarily longer side to try and lengthen the chapter. So feel free to skip past all of this.

Also someone explain to me how I can't come up with chapter ideas for books that I actually had plans to write, but I have 3 chapters for my Mad Father Dreamtale AU out.

Idk if I said it in the first chapter, but there's probably gonna be an inconsistency in chapter length. Right now I'm struggling from writer's block and, with the more uneventful chapters, I have no idea what to write about. So, uh, I'm trying. I'm glad some of you are enjoying the story!

So with that all being said, this is just a small update to let you all know I'm still alive and this story isn't being abandoned or discontinued. But updates may take longer than either of us would like. Since I normally have no idea what to do in the beginning chapters and uneventful ones, I honestly might just skip right into the start of things. Would you guys prefer that rather than me dragging out chapters with uneventful stuff and super long Author's Notes like these ones?

The first chapter was at almost 2,000 words. This one is almost at 1,000 words. Nice.)

The rest of the day seemed to drag on forever.

For the past few weeks, there hadn't been much of anything going on. Don't get them wrong, they were beyond relieved to get a breathing period, but... everything was just so boring now. Not to mention that they were always required to be on guard, even when there were no threats. The Doodle Sphere was one of the few places where they could unwind, and whenever they did finally relax, they realized how exhausted they were. During the first few missions they'd ever had as a group, Blue and Dream would collapse from how tired they were.

As of right now they were doing absolutely nothing. Blue was playing a game on his phone, pulling gacha rolls to try and get the new event-limited character. Dream was laying in a hammock that Ink had whipped together with Broomie in a few seconds, his yellow cape draped over him like a blanket. Ink was looking out over the AUs surrounding them, biting the inside of his cheek.

"Oh, to be Dream and sleep all day long," Blue mused, sighing as he tilted his head back. "How does he fall asleep so easily?"

"Simple. He runs around all week long without getting any," Ink replied.

He turned his attention back to the sea of AUs. There were nearly infinite AUs, and in each of those alternate universes stemmed out infinite timelines. Ink had sensed hundreds of things coming from the AUs. Nightmare's corruption with the Apple Incident, Dream being turned to stone and the curse in reverse, the creation of Error, characters like Horror and Dust being severed from their AUs by Nightmare, the destruction of the RESET button in Glitchtale. The list went on forever, but one of the most traumatizing things he'd felt from the AUs had to have occurred in Reapertale.

He wasn't quite sure where it was coming from, but he could just... sense that something was out there. It was a dark presence, one that was unlike anything he had ever felt before. For all of the other occurrences, he'd been able to track them down. He'd never done anything because they were parts of the AUs' stories, all of them except for....

Ink shook his head, stuffing the memory to the back of his mind. He wasn't supposed to interfere with the stories of the AUs. He physically could, but the way the AUs were programmed and designed, it would have drastic consequences. He'd learned that the hard way.

Back to the topic at hand. He couldn't track this source down immediately. If he was able to focus on it for some time, maybe a few hours or an entire day, he would have some results to work with. Whatever it was had to be much bigger of a threat than even Error was to the AUs, not to mention how it was able to slip under his radar like that. Or that could mean it was extremely weak, weaker than Horror. But with the anxiousness and feeling of dread in his gut, he didn't think that was the case.

No. Whatever this was, it was a threat to the AUs, and he had to take every measure necessary to fend it off.

He was brought out of his thoughts when he felt a tug on his arm. He looked behind him, seeing Blue standing there. 

"What's up?" He asked.

"Ink, just standing there and staring out at the AUs doesn't make you look cool," Blue said. "Come take a nap!"

After a bit of arguing, Blue had finally managed to convince Ink to take a nap with him and Dream. Or at least stop staring at the AUs. Ink threw some paint onto the sides of the hammock, making it grow in width. Dream, who was sleeping without a care in the world, turned over. Ink jumped up and climbed into the hammock, nestling himself up against Dream's back. Blue jumped onto both of them, using both of them as extra cushioning. Ink let Dream's cape fall back over the three of them, letting out a small laugh when Blue nuzzled into his chest.

And just like that, the three Star Sanses had taken yet another nap to pass the time by.