Drama! Action! Bloodshed?- wait no, that's Mettaton. And even if it wasn't that still won't be for another chapter or two.

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Quill walked in from the art section of the studio-lab, bits of black ink splattered on his hands. He seemed to be in a very good mood, art always tended to do that for him.

"Oh, hey Quill! You're here early!" Snow exclaimed.

"Yup. So, what's in the box? Did you get any of Muffet's famous donuts?"

"I actually don't know. She packed it up for us as a surprise, apparently she baked some new stuff and wanted us to try it," Snow said. "I think we should open it up after we discuss some stuff though, it can be our mid-meeting snack."

"Oh, yeah, and I brought pie," said Quill cheerfully.

"Yay! I love your pie!"

"It's time to begin the meeting now," said Chara, rather impatiently.

"Okay, okay. Calm down Chara. We will start the meeting now."

"Thank you."

"HEY! All of y'all get over to this table right now!"

Lune and Stretch walked on over, still chatting about something, probably dimensional differences.

Chara, Snow, and Quill had already settled into their spots at the large round table, which was made of paint-splattered wood and had chunks missing in various places, although most notably around the spot where Snow was sitting. There were also several gashes and scrapes that seemed like they could've possibly been from a knife.

"Okay. Now that we're all here, let's begin the meeting by introducing ourselves, for Stretch's sake. I'm Snow. Judge of Startale."

"I'm Lune. I'm kinda the Royal Scientist? Maybe? And I'm a Kitsune, if you couldn't tell."

"I'm Chara. I came here from Storyshift, and now I'm one of the adopted children of the Queen, alongside my brother, Azzy."

"Quill, Keeper of the Ruins. I came here from InkSwap."

"I'm Stretch, although you already know that. I'm here due to accidentally portalling into the Void whilst fleeing from Ink, and then we ended up here."

"Well, that explains how you and your little brother still have AU links but are here," said Chara.

"I've been wondering... what do you mean by AU links?"

"AU links are the connection you have to your home AU, in your case, Underswap. If you don't have an AU link, then you're an Outcode, like your friend Error... although I'm not sure if he's truly an Outcode, as he seems to have an extremely weak link to an unidentifiable AU," explained Snow.
"The reason Startale exists is to allow Outcodes to find a new home- its magic is strong enough to create AU links if someone stays through a reset, they'll become linked. AU links are actually what provide Judges with their karmatic power boost. It gives them a link to all of the inhabitants of the AU, and each time one of them is killed, their magic is added to the karma, and the Judge can use it for their final judgement."

"Um, Snow, if Startale links those who are here through a reset to it, does that that if Blue and I stay here we'll end up part of this AU, even though we're connected to Underswap?"

"I actually don't know," Snow said. "We've never had anything like this happen before."

"I'll risk staying here. I don't want to lose my home, but I feel like Error needs me and Blue. We're the closest thing he's got to a family."

"Hey, Stretch, What can you tell us about Error?" Chara asked.

"Well, he was forced into being the Destroyer of AUs and Ink's balance, and his original AU is unknown. He was trapped in the Anti-Void, an empty, blank white place between worlds, for a very long time, all alone. Fresh is one of his two adopted brothers, but Error is scared of him, although he pretends to hate him. He also really likes chocolate, and he enjoys spending time with Blue. I don't know much else, and the people who told me some of that probably know more, but I have no way to contact them."

"Who told you about Error?"

"Dream and Nightmare - the guardians of Positive and Negative emotions, as well as, obviously, dreams and nightmares. They're cool."

"Ah. I think I've heard a bit about them from Fresh. He seems to know everyone," said Quill.

"Sadly, as far as I know, they are unable to get here. So we can't reliably talk to them."

"It's okay! We've got things to do anyway. We need to find a place for you, your brother, and Error to stay. You can't stay in my place forever, my sister's been staying with Undyne for the last couple of days, and those two get a bit crazy after too long in close quarters," said Snow.

"Yo brah, you can stay at my radical place. It's the home in Summer Snowdin (I still don't know what to call it). Don't tell Error it's mine, he'll probably refuse to stay there," said Fresh. "I'm normally out and about wandering the Multiverse, so I don't really need it. It should actually be like your rad place, it's a Swap AU house. Hope ya like it dawg!"

"Well that was weird," mumbled Lune.

"Yeah, Fresh is... strange and mysterious, but he's normally pretty helpful. Doesn't mean that he isn't weird though. He is the definition of weird," said Snow.

"True. He's very weird," agreed Quill. "But he's a good person nevertheless. Even if he is a parasite from a 90's nightmare."

"Well, now that a place for Stretch, Blue and Error to stay has been decided, we can move on to the next topic. What to do if it's a genocide run."

"I was thinking that we hide those three in your basement, as it's outside of the laws of reset, and then fight the human in the Judgment Hall as a group. We can give them a seriously bad time if we work together," said Chara.

"Chara has a good plan there, but I'm not sure how well the basement will work if the timeline gets a geno-erasure. I know it stays through normal resets, but... if the human manages to defeat you three, then they erase the timeline. Admittedly, it will return, but it erases the timeline entirely- the basement is merely safe from regular resets... not erasures. I don't think Gaster made it to defend against that. Personally, I think we should allow Stretch, Blue, and Error to fight," said Lune, who had pondered it and decided that was probably their best chance at survival.

"I have to admit that Lune's got a point, but I'd revise her plan a bit. Allow Error and Stretch to fight, but have Blue help supervise the evacuation. He is Syrah's equivalent, and my little sister could never bring herself to kill a human, not even if they tried to harm her. Blue is too sweet and innocent to be involved in such a thing, so let's keep him safe and away from the danger of a genocide human," said Snow.

"Snow, I have to agree with you. The only problem is, Blue is stubborn as a mule. He won't leave his friends for anything. He does know how to fight though, so he can defend himself. If we explain what'll happen to Error if the timeline is erased, Blue will fight and he might even kill the human. He's very strong, although he doesn't know how to summon large Blasters. Maybe we should all have a training session, and get used to each other's fighting styles, as well as train Blue in the art of blasting things," said Stretch.

"Yeah. That's a good idea. I can work with that," said Chara.

The others agreed, and they decided to open up the boxes, and make sure there were no cookies, for everyone's sake. Blue gets... a bit crazy when he has cookies.

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Well, this chapter wasn't as interesting as I was hoping for, but it was decent. Lots of dialogue. I'm pretty good with dialogue, but I suck at writing essays. It's a bit of a problem really.

- Snow ❄️