It had all began after Error's latest fight with Ink about two months and two and a half weeks ago.
The two had fought in his Doodle Sphere, an annoyingly bright yellow dome that housed every alternate universe and alternate timeline on a single piece of paper held up by magic.
Error could remember the pieces that he had shredded, about a half-quarter of the papers of the dome had fallen like snow. But he knew better than to assume Ink hadn't figured out a way to repair the broken ones, like how he'd done many times before.
Ink was always going too far with his contribute to creation, Error would think. Always not thinking with his head and doing whatever the hell they pleased.
Within Error's anti-void, it was the opposite. Pure white, numerous souls of both monster and human alike head up by blue string that glowed like fairy lights. Of course, the singular red bean bag was plopped wherever the area of the anti-void it was in.
The anti-void was a place beyond the save screen, after all. It wasn't meant to be found, nor meant to exist. But after glitching out his code futher than the save screen, he had ended up here.
The only entertainment Error would usually have is overseeing an alternate universe where the typical Undertale was a telenovela- using a glitched portal he could see through or go through. In that universe, Asgore was a mafia boss and had an ex-wife who went by just Tori. The alternate him in that universe, Vel Sans, was a run-way debt carrying gambler who had snagged Tori along the way. Action packed, lovey dovey, things that would make any good show, really.
"Error, y'know you're sulking, right?" A voice spoke up, concerned and firm. "You aren't even paying attention to the show! You didn't do Asgore commentary!" The voice kept nagging Error.
"Swap, can you calm down? I'm perfectly fine. Just... thinking." Error rebuttled, leaning back into his bean bag and staring up at the souls hanging above.
Swap didn't look confused, his eye sockets somehow narrowing before he gave up on his staring and turned his attention back to the show. Magical skeletons, what else could Error say?
Where was he at? Right.
After that fiasco, Ink had called visited Error in the anti-void, saying scraps of paper from an alternate universe was missing. He counted, yes. Always kept writing down the updated number on the inside of that stupid brown scarf he wore.
Just one- but it was enough to be weird. The paint freak? Missing an alternate universe? The thing he obsesses over? Absured. Impossible, even.
After that meeting, FATE, a mysterious entity, had ceased contact with him. He no longer heard voices, meaning the anti-void was quieter than ever... which brings us to the present.
He mainly had Swap around because he was a chatter box. Plus, it felt less... scary? No. Less intimidating. Yes.
"Swap, I have a question." Error suddenly asked, standing up from his bean bag which startled the other to rise from his spot from the flat surface.
"Yeah? What'dya need?" Swap asked, picking up his helmet and placing it atop his head. "It better not be about chocolate. I nearly got killed by Fell last time-" Swap paused himself, taking in the frustrated look on Error's face.
"Say, what would you do if a certain idiot who obsesses over something lost the same thing he obsessed over?" Error blunty asked, the glitch in his voice becoming more prominent with his attitude starting to bubble to the surface.
"Obsesses... You mean Ink? Seriously, you don't even try to hide it." Swap mumbled, then instantly freezing and quickly processed the information given.
"INK LOST SOMETHING? IMPOSSIBLE!" Swap yelled, springing like a coil and facing Error, shaking the shorter by the shoulders. "HE NEVER LOSES ANYTHING UNLESS IT ISN'T WRITTEN ON THAN DAMN SCARF OF HIS! IT MAKES NO SENSE!"
Error had to hold the other back with his strings. Thank lord it was Swap. Anyone else touching him so suddenly sent shivers down his spine just at the thought alone.
"The damn squid lost an alternate universe." Error clarified, seeing the horrified look on Swap's face.
"Error... he might have us search the whole multiverse for that single alternate universe! Who knows how long that'll take! Decades!" Swap groaned, being relased from Error's strings and letting himself fall to the ground.
His armor made a cluttering sound as he hit the floor, curling up into a fetal position as if trying to deny the truth.
"Seriously... I'm as stunned as you are, really." Error sighed, staring down at Swap while the other sulked about the possibility of being doomed to a life of search and recover.
...
Meanwhile, for Ink, it was a nightmare.
It had gotten so terrible that the Guardian of Positivity himself, Dream, one of his closest allies, had to drag him to Fluffytale just so the other would calm down at Ccino Sans' coffee shop.
"Ink, I don't understand how that could even happen! You always put your AU's back together." Dream tried comforting the smaller, a reassuring hand rubbing circles into Ink's back while the other was bawling those black-colored tears.
"Dream, it's horrible! I've practically broken my vow of protection!" Ink cried, letting out a high pitched wail that made Dream wince and pull his hand away from Ink's back. Ink was practically balling, hands clawing at the wooden counter with anguish.
"Ink, please calm down. Could you just re-tell me the whole story? We could retrace the scrap if you give an account of what happened?" Dream suggested, then staying quiet as he rememebered. Ink can't remember anything to save his damn soul.
"Forget I said anything. The most you'd know is that you had one missing AU, and had fought Error previously." Dream sighed, burrying his skull into his yellow-gloved hands. The frustration was real, sure, but Ink was still his friend! Friend's... help each other.
"If only Swap was here. He's probably with Error right about now." -Ink perked up at that, using his wrists in an attempt to wipe away the fat globs of ink pouring from his eyes.
"We could ask Swap to ask Error. As much as I hate that stupid Windows error message, he's clearly the only lead I have." Ink scoffed, his colorful eyelights glancing down to the porcelain cup that had espresso inside.
A soft blue, a somber color that reflected his mood.
Ink sighed, taking a glowing yellow vial from the sash across his chest and pulling the cork off to pour some in his drink.
"... That isn't healthy." Dream mumbled, knowing his words fell upon deaf ears.
Ink was... a character. Dream knew it. He had no real empathy or any sort of emotion. He was nothing more than an insensitive immitator of himself and Swap. An imprinter.
He had no true understanding of emotion. Most times he was insensitive and unnessecarily cruel, like when he said Swap should be grateful to have a brother when Dream hadn't after a particular dramatizing mission against Nightmare.
It nearly got on his nerves each time- the feeling of artificial positivity. Seriously... If only Dream knew why Ink acted that way, maybe he'd be less gulity about hating him sometimes.
So. Guilty.
"Let's contact Swap so he can meet us at neutral territory with Error, okay? Don't try picking a fight." Dream mumbled, turning his gaze away as Ink began downing that espresso like his life depended upon it.
"Yeah! Totally!" Ink had those stars in his eyes- the once sad blue becoming a vivid yellow that made Dream flinch at the sheer brightness.
Dream couldn't help but feel... partially disgusted at that smile Ink had given him.
Ink was his friend, right?
Sometimes Dream couldn't stand him. Him and his fake smile and fake act. If he ate that apple instead of Night, he wondered if this was what it felt like. That prickling sensation in your soul as it expands and seemingly tears it into pieces.
Painful indeed. Then it pierce the skull, tearing through bone as if the same paper that held together the vast AUs.
Dream had to question how he got to this point. If only he could have done something sooner...
Too late to dwell on the past.
Dream stood up, yanking Ink off his chair by the scarf and handing Ccino a few gold and a bit more.
...
"Please, please, please! Error, I'm begging you!" Ink pleaded, knealing in front of Error as the other had a look of disgust on his face.
"Stop your damn begging you stupid squid!" Error felt disgusted listening to the squid beg and plead over and over again. It was practically making his non-existent ears ring. "I'll help, so shut your damn mouth!" Error yelled, and the glitches were apparent in his tone.
"Really? Oh, thank you Error! You won't regret it!" Ink stared up at Error with bright eyes, practically glowing with those sort of stars people had when admiring something.
"... You're so gross." Error mumbled, glaring down at Ink with clear disgust in his tone. "Seriously, stop acting like a damn dog and stand up on your feet. You have them for a reason." Error swore he'd need tea to soothe the headache he was due for.
"Listen 'ere you damn paint freak. We can do it together, got it? But I got terms. Do that creepy groveling again though, and i'll make sure I let your AU's rot." The threat was clear, and Ink knew Error would act on it with the chance given.
"So mean... but, alright!" Ink smiled, hopping back onto his feet.
From there, a temporary truce.
One that would surely never last, and was truly fragile.