Chapter Text
Error tore through another one of Ink's disgusting AUs. The bastard kept making more and more, and it irritated him to no end. Did Ink have nothing better to do than annoy him until he finally snapped!? Well, jokes on him, Error can take out his frustrations on the abominations and their poor excuse of a world.
However, the routine of destroying an AU was mind-numbingly easy at this point. Find the determined kid and kill the flower, take their soul so they can't reset, and rip apart the abominations and world until he grew bored and simply collapsed the codes.
He could tear them limb by limb, crunch their bones, slice and dice their souls before they could even blink, even have some fun puppeting their soul with his strings. And yet...
It was never enough anymore.
Something endlessly kept building up and threatening to eat him alive if he didn't do something , but nothing was enough to relieve it. Not by much.
AU after AU. Destroyed. Decimated. Beyond any repair Ink and his rag-tag group could possibly fix. No one to save and hide away in that Omega timeline of theirs. Absolutely nothing beyond stalling for the same inevitable fate. Ink and Error were equal in battle, yet he always knew how to get on Error's nerves and force him to leave. It was infuriating to deal with, but that never stopped him from coming back to finish the job.
Anomalies should be wiped from the multiverse after all.
But despite how much Error has to deal with.. another group had entered the multiversal stage.
Nightmare and his gang. Almost equally abominable as Ink's except for one catch: they actually attempted to help Error. Which made them worse . Worse than even Dream, as ironic as it may sound. That ray of sunshine is almost delusional in his pathetic attempts to help others that never work on him.
But how, you may be asking yourself? Well. They were much smarter in their approaches. And, admittedly, had good deals. That stupid goopy octopus was to blame for being so clever and stupidly observant.
All of that was why Error stood face to face with Nightmare once more, right before he was about to end another AU's existence. Nightmare himself was unreadable, save for occasional sway of his tentacles—something Error refused to interpret. A waste of time, really, for someone he won't be friends with. Nightmare was more of a... business partner. Something something the enemy of my enemy is my friend.
Behind Nightmare was.. actually, no one was there. Odd, considering his gang always followed him like little ducks. But so what, if he was alone. It didn't make much of a difference, less annoyances to deal with now if anything.
Nightmare's deep voice spoke up. "Error. I'll cut to the chase. Have you considered our last conversation about that offer?"
Error simply glared at him. Offer? What offer? He doesn't remember their last conversation since he's too busy doing his time-consuming job of destruction.
And of course, Nightmare easily picked up on his unspoken confusion and reminded him. "The one from last week about staying with us for a while."
"R̴i̴g̸h̴t̷.̵ ̷T̸h̸a̵t̷.̵ " Error grumbled as he crossed his arms, tapping his foot impatiently. He didn't remember fully, but he did recall vaguely something about staying in Nightmare's mansion and having chocolate. "W̸h̴a̶t̶ ̶a̸b̷o̸u̴t̷ ̴i̵t̶?̵ ̶I̴'̶l̵l̸ ̸a̶d̸m̷i̶t̶ ̸t̸h̵a̵t̷ ̶t̵h̸e̶ ̴s̷u̶p̸p̵l̷y̶ ̷o̵f̶ ̴c̷h̷o̶c̷o̷l̴a̵t̷e̵ ̸i̷s̶ ̶t̵e̵m̷p̶t̷i̶n̴g̴,̶ ̶b̸u̵t̷ ̸w̶h̷y̴ ̵t̸h̸e̴ ̵h̸e̴l̵l̴ ̷w̴o̴u̵l̶d̵ ̸I̷ ̷h̸a̴n̶g̴ ̸a̷r̵o̵u̶n̶d̶ ̸y̵o̸u̵ ̶f̶r̷e̸a̷k̴s̸ ̵w̵h̶e̴n̶ ̵I̸ ̸h̴a̷v̵e̵ ̸a̸ ̴p̸e̷r̵f̶e̴c̶t̵l̶y̴ ̶g̵o̴o̷d̵ ̴s̶p̸a̶c̵e̴ ̴i̵n̴ ̴t̶h̶e̶ ̴A̶n̵t̶i̶-̸V̶o̴i̷d̷.̶"
Nightmare's tentacles twitched, but he kept the same unreadable face and posture as he adjusted his jacket and replied. "I can't say much for the Anti-Void myself. However, I do remember you wanted a vacation from those voices you mentioned before. I believe a temporary space at my place could at least give you some.. reprieve from that."
Error just rolled his eyelights, clearly annoyed by this whole conversation already. "I̵ ̵d̷o̶n̴'̷t̴ ̶r̸e̶m̵e̷m̴b̷e̸r̴ ̸t̸e̷l̴l̴i̴n̶g̶ ̴y̴o̵u̴ ̶t̴h̶a̴t̸.̴"
"Am I wrong?" He asked simply.
Error just glared more without answering. So what if Nightmare was right? The voices were the bane of his existence as much as it was his only real company. He couldn't imagine without them now. Who needed company from AU abominations when he had his own collection of them? Certainly not him.
Nightmare let out a quiet sigh. "I'm not saying you have to stay there for long. I'm just offering my space to visit freely. Horror can make you some new chocolate desserts if you so choose, take from a stash, or simply just stay in a room to do whatever you want. That's all. So, I'll leave you be for now." Then he simply turned to open a portal back to wherever the hell his mansion was.
"H̸e̴y̷!̶" Error yelled for reasons unknown to him. "H̴o̵w̵ ̴a̶m̵ ̵I̷ ̵e̷v̴e̴n̸ ̵s̷u̴p̸p̴o̵s̷e̴d̸ ̴t̸o̶ ̴v̷i̷s̵i̵t̸ ̴i̸f̷ ̶I̷ ̵d̴o̸n̵'̴t̴ ̸k̴n̷o̸w̷ ̴w̷h̴e̶r̷e̸ ̸i̵t̸ ̴i̵s̴?̴"
Nightmare paused for a moment before fishing out of his pocket.. a device? Oh wait, a phone. He threw it over and simply said, "Text or call me." And then disappeared into his goopy portal without another word.
Error caught it and just stood there for a moment before slowly looking over it. He was sure he had a phone at some point in time, but he never needed one since he basically had no one to talk to or really had use for it.
And now, since he did have one... maybe he could—
Before he could finish his thought, Ink and his buddies hopped out of a portal to confront him with their usual spiel. And the phone got crushed a bit in his hand as his grip tightened. Already irritated again, he threw open a portal and chucked the phone somewhere in the Anti-Void. And promptly fought against Ink.
It wasn't till a day or two later that Error collapsed back into the Anti-Void, onto his trusty beanbag, all dirty and bruised from endless destruction and battles. He healed on his own, but injuries were still annoying all the same. At least he got back at Ink, too. So he tried to take some satisfaction in that and relax a bit. But of course... he can never fully relax with the voices around him.
And the voices were loud.
Annoying as ever, grating on his nonexistent ears with their endless questions and rambles. He just wanted them to stop for once, yet they never shut up . In fact, they only get worse the longer he's away. They're needy, selfish, curious, and always never satisfied with his work. It's always more. And more. It's never enough.
Error curled up tighter on the beanbag, his fists gripping it hard enough it could rip it. The only thing remotely comfortable and grounding against the harsh white environment. If only he could go visit Outertale without being interrupted by that stupid inky blot, knit something nice or make another doll. But nooooooooo , of course he can't do anything on his own without being bothered to hell.
Nonetheless, Error will knit and ignore the voices demanding attention out of pure spite. The only best reason to do anything, really. So he slowly sat himself up from his beanbag to look for his glasses and knitting needles. But before he could go much further than a few steps, something cracked a bit under his foot. Confused, he lifted up his foot to reveal.. a phone?
Right, Nightmare gave that to him some time ago.
Error picked it up with his strings and turned it over. Just a standard flip phone—the kind all Sanses had in their AUs. The only difference was the color: dark blue with accented gold lining. It matched his outfit. His eyes, even. It would've looked nice, if it wasn’t cracked all to hell. But considering how pissed Ink made him that day, it wasn’t that surprising.
Not that he cared. Why would he? It was just a stupid device, probably packed with ulterior motives. Nightmare literally fed off the multiverse’s misery—like hell he was being nice out of the goodness of his black goopy heart. He didn't even have one as far as he was concerned.
And yet... Error didn't throw it away.
He just shoved it into his pocket, grabbed his shit, and simply plopped back onto his beanbag to knit with his strings Just to pass the time. Not at all thinking about Nightmare's offer to contact him and chill there. Nope. The voices were just curious and nosy . That's why his thoughts kept drifting there. Definitely not considering it. Just like his fingers weren't twitching every few minutes with the urge to grab the phone from his pocket. Just a heavy, useless piece of inferior tech sitting too close for comfort.
And yet—no matter how many times he thought about chucking it across the Anti-Void..
He never did.
