Chapter Text
“Why do I have to be the one holding it?”, Error complained as he shook the Annoying Dog in his hand, the lantern it held swaying slightly while still illuminating the dark path ahead.
“Because I hate dogs,” Dream said bluntly. He had already caught this pathlighter, he wasn’t going to touch that furry thing again.
They walked through the gently rippling amalgamation, the faces of the mixed shadows in the lighted area staring back at them, Error occasionally glancing over them to see who he could name, pointless but strangely entertaining, Dream giving his friend a nudge in the hip when he noticed the distraction.
This journey was only halfly mean to going on a journey, there were rumors of some butterflies appearing in a residential area in this cluster, the infamous Butterfly was close enough that his butterflies could be seen, that- not very good.
They were lucky enough to catch a pathlighter and flee first, the residential area in this cluster was quite large but pathlighters were disappearing lately, it seemed some multiverse dwellers had tried their luck, too bad.
They passed a firey themed Swap pathlighter leading a newbie, the Ink was bowing his head and mumbling unintelligibly, he didn't seem to notice them.
“That guy, we’ve come a long way huh”, Error realized that Swap, the guy was quite a veteran, he was the guide of one of the first residents of the residential area next to this spiral cluster.
“Then Butterfly shouldn’t be a worry anymore”, Dream relaxed a bit, they had already left the starting point a few dozen clusters behind then, this finally felt like a journey.
Error just shrugged out of habit, who knew what they would encounter.
“Oh”
“They know how to aim,” Dream chucked in a contemptuous tone.
A pathway blocked the way ahead, distinguishable from the rest of the amalgamation despite both being dark and bottomless.
Error leaned in a little as if he could see the path’s destination, “So… what now?”
“I don’t see a reason to respond to the cries of fools,” Dream rolled his eyes. If they needed an Error so badly, go revive their, Reaper would do the job just fine if that guy were desperate enough.
Holding the Annoying Dog out in front to try illuminate the pathway, it provided a little more light, but not by much. “But it’s not like we have anything better to do.”
And Error didn’t think there were any residential areas around here, and this area usually had clusters that had gone through more than a few expansions, it was rare for a cluster-wide expansion, driving a multiverse of this type to destruction seemed a little unbelievable.
“It’s been a while since we’ve been guests,” Error mused as he stared at the pathway, the memory of how he’d caused his universe dead was biting his ass, but it had always hurt, so it was fine.
“Glass, do you remember last time, do you?”, Dream sighed as he bent down a bit to be eye level with the black skeleton.
They did their ass off and the locals of that multiverse dearly closed the pathway upon hearing that their multiverse was going to die, they really thought that cornering the visitors would force them to try their best to save their beloved home.
“We barely escaped!, and we even got separated from Blind”, who knows how their Cross guy is now, Dream wished he had stabbed that Sci more while he still had the chance.
Glass slumped a bit, but forced a faint smile as he looked over at Fade, “He’s almost a wayfarer, he’ll be fine”
Fade stopped when he realized he had misspoken, “sorry”
Dream’s words felt dry in his throat, can I ever stop being an asshole?, he wondered.
He wished Blind was here right now so he could yell at him to stop taking his frustrations out on others.
“You’re right, he’ll be fine”
Blind was the toughest, also a bastard but he was nicer than him, Fade could be sure of it.
“It’s okay,” Glass patted his friend’s shoulder to comfort him.
Suddenly the light became dimmer and flickering, Error had the Annoying Dog under his armpit while patting his friend’s shoulder, it wagging tail, its legs wiggled and it blinked. Glass froze for a moment then started grimacing in disgust, “Ew!”
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Fade muttered as he picked up the pathlighter by the leather of its back, removing it from Glass. He’d never heard of them returning to normal after accepting their fate as pathlighters, there was some reaction but that was it.
And this. No judgement, Dream knew there were those who couldn’t take it anymore and chose to use lust as a way to escape the harsh reality but really, a dog.
He grimaced and straightened up, holding the Annoying Dog out in front of him, this was new, and not the way Fade liked it.
“There’s reason to be guest, I need to clean up wherever I touched that thing,” Glass said as he brushed his hand away, he even reached out to brush it away for added effect.
“Yeah, but is it worth it?”, the last experience hadn’t been a pleasant one, the question was whether they were willing to bet. The odds of this kind of trip were never good, and Fade didn’t like it looking like they were doing charity work and being used as a substitute, they helped if they could, but that was it.
Glass looked at the pathway, the fate of this multiverse are in their decision.
He didn't know how to feel, well he knew he had a soft spot for multiverses on the brink of destruction in general, ‘thanks’ Blind, and Fade would punch him for taking a risk for a stupid reason.
“Well, isn't it fun to fuck around?, might as well stick around for a bit.”
Error raised his hands in mock surrender as Fade looked over at him with a sharp gaze, “Hey!, my point still holds, we're full time idlers!”
Fade glanced over at the Annoying Dog, whose light had stopped flickering since he tightened his grip. He then looked at the pathway and then at Glass.
“Fine, we have nothing better to do anyway,” he sighed as he handed the pathlighter to Error.
The two of them looked at the pathway a little warily, then at each other, and shrugged.
“Here it go, fuckerrrr!” the ex-overseer yelled from within the pathway.
“Oh psycho!” Glass threw the Annoying Dog that was wagging its tail at him behind and jumped down after his friend.
“Shit!” Dream had forgotten how much he hated the feeling of free falling.
“Whoahooo!!”