The beautiful design for Lune was created by the amazing Luneforrune herself. She also created a super cool dragon-Error, which, although not his design in this story, I love.

——★——

ᴀɴᴅ sᴏ ᴛʜᴇ ᴘʟᴏᴛ ᴛʜɪᴄᴋᴇɴs...
ɪ ʜᴏᴘᴇ ᴛʜᴀᴛ ᴍʏ ɪᴅɪᴏᴛ ʙʀᴏᴛʜᴇʀ ᴡɪʟʟ ʙᴇʜᴀᴠᴇ ғᴏʀ ᴏɴᴄᴇ.

Ƭꃅꀤꌗ'꒒꒒ ßꍟ ꍏ Ŧꀎꈤ ꁅꍏꎭꍟ...
(This'll be a fun game...)
ꂦꋪ ꍏƬ ꒒ꍟꍏꌗƬ Ŧꂦꋪ ꎭꍟ ꀤƬ ꅏꀤ꒒꒒.
(Or at least for me it will.)
ꀤ ꃅꂦᖘꍟ ꌩꂦꀎ'ꋪꍟ ꋪꍟꍏꀸꌩ...
(I hope you're ready...)
ßꍟꉓꍏꀎꌗꍟ ꀤ ßꋪꀤꈤꁅ ꉓꃅꍏꂦƬꀤꉓ ßꍏꀸ Ƭꀤꎭꍟꌗ.
(Because I bring chaotic bad times.)
ꃅꍟꃅ ꃅꍟꃅ ꃅꍟꃅ.
(Heh heh heh.)

* Oh, my child... Fate has been harsh to you.
* But now, you've changed your Destiny, so I can finally intervene.
* Although I can't change the past, I can nudge your future in the right direction.
* My child, my Chosen, I promise, you will finally have a family.

* Destiny, ᴏʀᴅᴇʀ, and ꉓꃅꍏꂦꌗ are all involved in our game now... time to shake it up.
* My Chosen is still a part of it, and he is a powerful pawn indeed.

————⊰↺◊↻⊱————

Error's POV
Error woke up slowly, blinking as he looked around the familiar, yet still so unfamiliar room. It looked like the Snowdin house, but not in any of the AUs he was familiar with. The air was also charged with magic, much stronger than any AU he had been in before, stronger even than the Original AUs, like Underswap and Underfell. It was also oddly familiar, like he'd felt it before, but yet not. He began to slowly slide himself off the couch, but then he saw something he'd never seen before, in any AU.

It was a tiny dragon, black with a long tail tipped with ice-coated fins, and with small horn-ear things also coated with ice on its head. It was around 6 feet long including the tail, and was somehow wearing a blue jacket with fur around the hood, very similar to Classic Sans' jacket, but with a starry gradient. He checked it, and the screen came up, showing who the dragon was.

【⚔Fight】【♡Act】【💰Item】【🛡Defend】【❇Mercy】
♡ Check
Comic Lucida Sans
LV: 1【EXP: 0】
HP: 1【+10】
DEF: 1
ATK: 1【+KR】
* The last of the Frost Furies, and the last daughter of the Stars.
* Goes by Snow.
* Don't mess with her little sister unless you want to have a ＢＡＤ ＴＩＭＥ.
* Saved you from being lost to the Void.
* The Judge and Guardian of this AU.

'Huh... so that's what she is. A Frost Fury. Cool. But if she has a sister, how would she be the last daughter of the Stars? The logic for that doesn't work. Admittedly, I don't even know what a "daughter of the Stars" is, so whatever. It could just be a title or something like that.'

After processing that, he continued to slowly slide himself off the couch, not wanting to disturb the sleeping dragon.

As he moved, the dragon's ear-thingies twitched, and he froze in place. Her eyes lit up with icy blue eyelights.

She yawned and stretched, before somehow turning into a skeleton a bit shorter than himself, and wearing the same jacket she had been wearing before, but with a shirt and shorts on as well.

"Oh! You're awake!"

"wнo, no, wнaт are yoυ, dragon-gιrl?! And wнere ιn тнe ѕтarѕdaмned Mυlтιverѕe aм ι?"

"My name is Snow, and we're in my home here in Startale."

"Wнere are мy ғrιendѕ?!"

"They're upstairs, in my sister's room. My friend Chara is watching over them."

"Good. I waѕ worrιed aвoυт тнeм."

"Awe, Error! You care!" Blue chirped from the bottom of the stairs.

"Yoυ ayoυ ѕpread ĸnew cared, Blυe. Iғ ι dιdn'т тнen wнy woυld ι нave aѕĸed Sтreтcн тo geт yoυ oυт oғ тнe way wнen Inĸ and ι ғoυgнт? ιғ ι dιdn'т care, тнen yoυ woυld've gone мad ιn тнe Anтι-Voιd," Error said.

"I knew, but it's nice to hear you say it!" Blue said cheerfully.

"What AU did you come from, Blue?" Snow asked.

"Oh, I'm from Underswap," Blue said.

"Beғore yoυ aѕĸ мe, ι don'т ĸnow wнaт AU ι'м ғroм," Error said.

"Huh. Weird," Snow muttered. "By the way, Blue, did you see Chara asleep up there, and is your bro still asleep?"

"Yes, they're both asleep, and you can call my brother Stretch."

Outside the window, a certain colorful skeleton popped up.

"Oʜ GᴏD! NOᴛ HɪM!" Error screeched, glitching violently.

"Who?" Snow and Blue asked.

"Freѕн. He'ѕ really annoyιng, and a paraѕιтe."

"Oh, Fresh? He lives here in Startale sometimes."

"Wнy ιѕ тнaт мy lυcĸ..?" Error groaned.

"What, you don't like him?"

"He enjoyѕ annoyιng мe, and wнen ι ѕaιd нe waѕ a paraѕιтe, ι мeanт ιт qυιтe lιтerally. Alѕo, нιѕ 90's lιngo ιѕ oвnoхιoυѕ."

"Well, do you mind if I let him in? Otherwise he'll stand outside the window and stare at us until we do, and that's just creepy," Snow said calmly.

"Fιne, ιғ yoυ ιnѕιѕт," said Error, sighing irritatedly. "I'd raтнer нave нιм ιn нere тнan ѕтarιng aт мe тнroυgн тнe wιndow, ι gυeѕѕ."

"Sup, my radical broski!"

"Pleaѕe Fresн... leave. Jυѕт leave."

"Bro, your radical glitches! They're mostly gone!"

"Freѕн... ɢᴇᴛ ᴏUT!"

"Fine, broski. I'll leave. But first I have some important stuff to share with ya- trust me, brah, you want to know this. Ink's on the warpath- he really wants to find you. Also, Nightmare and Dream are looking for ya, but they won't tell Ink. They know about that radical balance, so they're on your side brah."

"Tнanĸѕ Freѕн. Now geт oυт."

"Fine, brah! Have a radtastic day!"

"Bye Fresh!" Snow and Blue chorused.

"Good rιddance," muttered Error.

"Ink... I know that name," muttered Snow. "But from where?"

"He'ѕ тнe ѕo-called Creaтor, and an oвlιvιoυѕ ιdιoт," said Error. "I waѕ ѕтolen ғroм мy нoмe, or aт leaѕт ι тнιnĸ so, ι don'т ĸnow dυe тo мy мeмorιeѕ вeιng ѕнaттered вecaυѕe нe dιdn'т gιve a carp aвoυт- FRESH, WHY! THAT ISN'T EVEN A BAD WORD!"

Blue laughed at that, causing Error to glare at him irately. But his laughter was infectious, and soon they were all giggling like schoolchildren, even Error.

————⊰↺◊↻⊱————

Shortly after Fresh left, Chara came down the stairs. She looked like she had just woken up, and she immediately headed to the kitchen. They could hear her muttering "need chocolate," which Blue found hilarious, and Error just wanted some chocolate too.

Error followed her into the kitchen to see what kind of chocolate she was talking about, and was intrigued to see that she had a mug of some steaming brown liquid and the entire kitchen smelled like chocolate.

"Uм, Cнara? Wнaт ιѕ тнaт? Is ιт cнocolaтe? Iғ ιт'ѕ cнocolaтe can ι тry ѕoмe?"

Chara grumbled and said, "It's called hot chocolate. I'll tell you about it after I've finished mine. Lemme alone until I'm done."

"Oĸay. I can waιт. I'м raтнer cυrιoυѕ aвoυт тнιѕ нoт cнocolaтe ѕтυғғ."

Chara irritably headed into the living room, where she settled on the couch to drink her chocolate. Error followed her, bored and curious.

"Hmph. Go away until I'm finished unless you want to die."

Error yawned and went over to sit next to Snow on the blanket.

"Yeah, she can be a bit of a grump in the morning until she's finished her hot chocolate. Azzy and I are pretty much the only people she's okay with before that. Just wait a little while, give her some time. She'll perk up soon," said Snow quietly. "In the meantime, I'll show you how to make hot chocolate."

Snow led the way into the kitchen, Error following her like a lost puppy.

"Oh, great! The water's still hot from her chocolate, it'll only take a minute to heat up all the way. Hey Error, do you want whipped cream or marshmallows on yours?"

"Wнaт ιѕ wнιpped creaм? Wнaт are мarѕнмallowѕ?"

"Oh. I'm going to put some whipped cream on yours, it'll make it taste even better."

Snow turned off the stove and used blue magic to lift the kettle full of hot water and pour some into two mugs, one shaped like an owl and the other covered in colorful polkadots. She had already added the hot chocolate base, so all she had to do was stir it and add the whipped cream. Snow burned very easily, so she used blue magic to stir them as well, before adding whipped cream. She then used her icy magic to cool them to a drinkable temperature, and handed Error the color dotted mug.

Snow knew that hers would still burn her mouth, so she continued to cool it until it was more of a lukewarm chocolate than a hot chocolate. She then added a lot more whipped cream and began to drink it while using her blue magic to put everything away and clean up. Normally she would've cleaned up by hand, but she wanted to keep an eye on Error.

It turned out that she really needn't have worried about Error- he was sitting next to Blue, and they were whispering, something about how lazy Stretch was and when would he wake up.

Snow wandered over and settled next to Chara on the couch, ignoring her irritated grumbles. She took a sip of her mostly-whipped cream not-so-hot chocolate, and turned on the tv. Their tv only got one channel, M&N, but it was normally decent.
Currently it was just news, so she settled in to ignore everything and drink her chocolate while the news played, even though she had already heard all of it. There was rarely anything interesting that happened here that actually made it onto the news before it had spread as gossip.

Error finished his hot chocolate, and asked, "Hey, wнere ѕнoυld ι pυт тнιѕ? I ғeel lιĸe ι proвaвly ѕнoυldn'т dυмp ιт ιnтo Underғell lιĸe ι do мoѕт тнιngѕ, aѕ ιт'ѕ a raтнer nιce мυg."

"Eh, just put it in the sink," Snow said, still sipping her own chocolate.

Blue and Error continued to talk quietly to each other, ignoring Snow and Chara, who were drinking their chocolate and spacing out while staring at the news.

Eventually they finished their chocolate and put their mugs in the sink before joining in the conversation just in time to make some terrible puns. The group then just chatted and messed around, waiting for Stretch to wake up.

————⊰↺◊↻⊱————

The group was sitting downstairs on the floor and the couch, getting to know each other, when they heard a loud noise from upstairs.

"If I had to guess, my brother just fell off the bed. He'll be fine though," said Blue. "I'm going to go see if he even woke up. He's been known to sleep through more than that. If he doesn't- Hey, do you guys have any honey?"

"Yeah? Why?"

"Oh, he has a bit of a drinking problem. I'd hide it if I were you," said Blue. "If you have some you'd be willing to give me, I can probably get him up."

"Did someone say honey?!" Stretch yelled from upstairs.

"Well seems like he's awake," said Blue, not even concerned about his brother going on a hunt for honey now.

"Yup," was all that Snow said, before running into the kitchen to hide her sister's honey that she used for cooking. She also hid her own treats, a few containers of whipped cream, in the back of the fridge, as well as Chara's chocolate syrup. Hopefully nobody would take them, as Chara got very cranky without chocolate, and Snow herself tended to get irritable without her whipped cream, although chocolate would also make her very happy. Chara liked the whipped cream for the hot chocolate she made, they all did. She also hid the pastel marshmallows she had gotten for Quill to give to him for Gyftmas, he loved those and they were hard to get.

Barely a second after she had finished tidying up, Stretch ambled into the kitchen, most likely on the hunt for honey.

"No, I'm sorry, but we don't have any honey. I was looking for some to give to your brother to get you to wake up, and there wasn't any," said Snow.

"Actually, I had some stuff to talk about with whoever helped us. I was told that you, Chara, and another Papyrus were the ones, so do you think I could talk to all of you? It's important," said Stretch.

"Hmmm... I think I can get the gang together. How about in a few hours, after lunch? We can meet at my friend Lune's studio, she can remember resets and already knows about your arrival, plus she really wanted to meet y'all," said Snow. "I'll call them now, you tell Chara, okay?"

"Alright," said Stretch.

Poking her head into the living room, Snow yelled, "Guys! I'm going to be on the phone for a while so please don't disturb me!"

A chorus of various affirmations came from the group, and Snow ducked back into the kitchen and shut the door.

"Okay, I'll start with Lune."

≻✆≺
Hey Lune, is it okay if the rest of the gang and the newcomers meet at your studio?
Yeah?
Thank you so much!
Yes, you can ask them questions. I won't guarantee answers though.
Bye Lune!
≻✆≺

≻✆≺
Hey Quill!
What's wrong? You sound sad.
Oh, you ran out of paper? Don't worry, I'm sure Lune has some, and you're invited to a meeting at her studio this afternoon.
Yup, another meeting. You can meet the newcomers, they're finally awake!
Okay, bye Quill!
≻✆≺

"Well, at least I've gotten that over with. Now I need to talk to Chara," said Snow.

She walked back into the living room to find Stretch laying on the couch, making terrible puns, with Blue climbing all over him and trying to stop his punning. Error and Chara were watching amusedly, not interfering in the siblings' game.

Snow walked over to Error and Chara, and sat down on her fuzzy blanket next to them. She then turned to Chara to ask her about Azzy coming to join the group here while they had a meeting.

"Chara, do you think you could invite Azzy over here this afternoon? Syrah will be coming back here while we have a meeting, and I think it would be good for them to spend some more time together. It'd also be a good opportunity to introduce Blue, Error and Stretch to Syrah and Azzy," said Snow.

"Hmm... okay. I'll text Tori about sending him down here after lunch," said Chara, before pulling out her phone to text the queen.

"Well, that gets me thinking... what should we have for lunch?"

"Grillbys," said Chara.

"Good idea. Let's get everyone together so we can go," said Snow.

"HEY!!! ALL OF Y'ALL GET OVER HERE!!! LUNCH!!!" Snow yelled, getting their attention almost immediately. As they had slept in very late, they hadn't eaten breakfast and were very hungry.

"So, guys, what should we have for lunch? I was thinking Grillbys, since it's close and inexpensive."

"I'm fine with whatever," said Stretch.

Blue and Error just seemed confused for a second, before Error nodded quickly, and Blue just shrugged, going along with whatever, as he didn't know what the Grillby of this AU might do. This AU was very different from his own after all, perhaps their Grillby was like Muffet?

It was just a short walk through the fluffy white snow to the fire elemental's restaurant. They found Grillby busily tidying the various tables before the majority of his customers arrived for their lunch break.

'Hey Snow, Chara. How's life? Who are the new folks?' Grillby asked.

"Grillby, meet Error, Blue, and Stretch. They're new here, and we were thinking about introducing them to the best chef in Snowdin," said Snow.

'Aww, you flatter me. Your sister is a wonderful chef as well.'

"No, Syrah's the best baker in Snowdin. She can't grill a good burger, not like you."

'Oh, thank you! You always brighten my day. Now, what do you and your friends want to eat? It's on the house.'

"I was thinking burgers for all of us, plus the regular for me and Chara."

"Could we add a bottle of honey to that?" Stretch asked.

'Got it. Five burgers, a bottle of chocolate syrup, a glass of whipped cream, and a bottle of honey, coming right up!'

"Hey Snow! What'd you get?!" Blue asked.

"Oh, just a glass of whipped cream and a burger."

"WHAT?! YOU'RE LIKE MY BROTHER WITH HIS HONEY, AREN'T YOU! JUST WITH WHIPPED CREAM!"

"Yup."

Blue grumbled quietly about weird eating habits, before Grillby came over with the food, and handed it to Snow, who passed part of it to Blue. They passed it out, giving everyone their burger, and Chara immediately snatched her chocolate syrup. Snow then passed Stretch his honey and, shifting into her fury form to make it easier, began to lick up her own whipped cream.

"Welp, Chara's little brother Azzy should be here any time now. Let's just eat really quickly so we won't be late," said Snow. "

"I'm already done!" Blue chirped.

"Why am I not surprised," muttered Snow.

"Lemme finish my chocolate syrup, Azzy will be annoyed if he sees me with it," Chara complained.

"Error, are you okay? You've been kinda quiet," Stretch asked.

"I'м fine, don'т worry abouт мe," said Error, his voice glitching only slightly.

"Error, I care about you, okay bud? I'm going to worry about you," said Stretch.

"Wнy? Wнy do yoυ care? No one, вeѕιdeѕ Blυe (and Nightmare's gang), ever cared aвoυт мe aѕ ғar вacĸ aѕ ι can reмeмвer..."

"Because you're my friend Error. I care about my friends."

"I ѕтιll don'т ғυlly υnderѕтand... вυт ι'll accepт ιт."

———

After they finished eating, they left Grillbys and Asriel ran into Error on his way over to his sister. Error made a string of beeping noises, the error noises from a crappy old windows XP computer, and although the beeps did sound oddly like Megalovania, he didn't crash or anything, which was very surprising. Normally, he would've crashed and required rebooting from being rammed into like that.

Blue had an expression of surprise and confusion on his face- he had been expecting to have to reboot Error. Error himself was busy trying to silence the annoying error song, as it wouldn't stop.

"I тнιnĸ тнιѕ мιgнт вe worѕe тнan craѕнιng..." Error grumbled, unable to find a way to shut the music off. "I нope тнιѕ ѕтopѕ ѕoon. I'll never вe aвle тo go oυт ιn pυвlιc agaιn ιғ ιт doeѕn'т."

After around two minutes, the beeping finally stopped and Error relaxed. "Well, aт leaѕт ιт тooĸ leѕѕ тιмe тo recover ғroм тнan craѕнιng. Reвooтιng norмally тaĸeѕ ғιve тo тen мιnυтeѕ, тнaт only тooĸ тwo."

"It was much more entertaining than crashing too! And it was a nice tune, I liked it!" Blue squealed.

"Oғ coυrѕe yoυ dιd Blυe. Sнoυld ι even вe ѕυrprιѕed?" Error muttered under his breath.

Stretch, who was standing right next to Error, snorted quietly, trying not to laugh.

"Well, Asriel, you should head back to the house. My sister, Syrah, should be there any time now. Are the rest of y'all ready to go? We need to leave now if we want to stop by Muffet's and get some snacks for the meeting, and she makes the best treats, well, other than Quill's pie," said Snow.

"Yup. I'm ready," said Stretch. "Oh and Snow? Please don't let Blue have any cookies. He goes crazy."

"Hey, I'm right here you know!" Blue said indignantly.

"Yes, but I don't trust you around cookies, Blue. Not after last time."

"Wнaт laѕт тιмe?" Error asked, curious now.

"I'll tell you later," said Blue. "When my brother isn't around to comment on it."

"Well, we should be going now Stretch, otherwise no honey. We can stop by Muffet's if we leave now, so come on! I want some of her chocolate macaroons," said Chara.

"Okay, okay, I'm coming!" Stretch said, ambling over and taking the hand offered to him by Snow.

She shortcutted all three of them to Muffet's, as Chara was unable to teleport long distances, and Stretch hadn't been to their Muffet's so he was also unable to shortcut there.

Then she quickly returned and took Blue and Error, dropping them off with Lune to save her a trip.

They quickly walked across the grass into the lovely little bakery, where Muffet was sitting behind the counter, busily doing paperwork.

"Hey Muffet! Whatcha got today? Anything special?"

"Well, dearie, you came on a good day! I actually made a variety of new treats from a cookbook a friend brought me, and they look lovely. I'm quite sure that they will taste wonderful as well, as the one I tried was absolutely heavenly. Here, let me show you what we have!"

Muffet handed them a small menu, and the treats shown on it really were beautiful.

"I believe that the recipes were based off of a book or something, as the majority of them seem to be based off of characters. The odd thing is, some of these names are people from around the underground. It's rather strange, really. My own special recipe for spider donuts was in it, and I've never shared that with anyone. Oh, and Chara, this is for you, it's on the house," Muffet said, handing Chara a small box of green and yellow, blue and purple, and rainbow striped macaroons. "I know you love the chocolate ones, so I made the green and yellow ones while I was testing out a new recipe for chocolate filling. Make sure to tell me what you think, okay?"

"Sure, Muffet."

"Also, Snow, I made you a little something special. I heard your birthday was a few weeks ago, and I never gave you something, so here it is- an entire box of bottles of whipped cream. You can come get it whenever you want."

"Errr, Muffet, we're kinda running on a deadline."

"Okay then, here, let me make you up a nice box of treats. In exchange, I want all of you to visit here for a nice chat sometime soon!"

"Okay Muffet. Thank you so much."

"Oh, don't worry about it dearie. I'm always up-to-date on what's going on in the Multiverse."

"Uhhh what?" Stretch said, incredibly confused by Muffet and her seemingly all-knowingness.

"Oh, Fresh is her boyfriend. He tells her all the news and gossip about the Multiverse."

"Oh. Okay."

"Ah, my handsome, colorful boyfriend. I love him just the way he is- parasitic tendencies and all," said Muffet dreamily while tucking pastries into the box.

"Here! A nice box of pastries for you and your friends. There are a few for your siblings in the bottom, you'll be able to tell whose are whose," said Muffet cheerfully, handing Stretch the large purple box of treats. "Oh, and for you, dearie, there's a bottle of honey in there too. Fresh told me you liked that."

"Huh. I'll have to thank him next time I see him."

"Well, come on Chara, take my hand. Don't worry about it Stretch, your hands are full so I'll hold your arm for the group shortcut."

Snow grabbed Stretch's arm with her free hand, Chara holding onto the other, and they shortcutted to Lune's studio. It was a cute little building on the border of Waterfall and Hotland, with the some of the beautiful falls that gave Waterfall its name creating glowing pools not far away, but it was where the warming heat of Hotland could reach it. The studio was bright and cheerful, painted with a variety of patterns and colors that somehow managed to not clash.

Snow walked up to the door, eye glowing brightly. It pinged and hissed open.

A Kitsune in a paint-splattered lab coat came running over, looking very nervous.

"Hey Chara, Snow! And you must be Stretch, it's nice to meet you," Lune said.

Chara gave Lune a hug before running off into the studio to find Quill, while Snow walked over to a table and set down the box of pastries before giving Lune a hug.

"Oooh, is that a box from Muffet's I see- can I have some?"

"Not yet, wait for Quill."

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.

Error froze, glitches covering him entirely. He made a small beep within a few seconds and the glitches faded away, leaving him attempting to blink away the ones in his eyes, they always seemed to take the longest to go away.

Nobody really noticed Error's glitching besides Quill and Blue, Blue knowing that it was better to wait it out, whilst Quill was promptly distracted by the box of treats.

"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'll 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 science.

Chara, Snow, and Quill had already settled into their spots at the large round table, which was made of paint-splattered wood and had long scratches and strange white burn(?) marks 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, particularly over by where Chara was.

"Okay. Now that we're all here, let's begin the meeting by introducing ourselves, for our new friends. 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, and that's my brother Blue, although you probably already know that. We're here due to Error accidentally portalling into the Void whilst fleeing from Ink, and then we ended up here."

"Well, that explains how you and Blue 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 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 pool, and the Judge can use it to power their final judgement."

"Um, Lune, 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," Lune said. "We've never had anything like this happen before."

"I'll risk staying here. I feel like Error needs me. We're the closest thing he's got to a family," said Blue.

"Yoυ тwo... yoυ're тoo ĸιnd. I don'т wanт yoυ тo loѕe yoυr нoмe вecaυѕe oғ мe," said Error quietly. "I ѕυppoѕe ι oυgнт тo ιnтrodυce мyѕelғ, rιgнт?"

"Feel free to, pal," said Chara.

"Oĸay тнen. I'м Error. Tнe Forced Deѕтroyer oғ Worldѕ. Keeper oғ тнe Mυlтιverѕal Balance. Chosen of Destiny."

"Wait, what was that last one?" Quill asked.

"Keeper oғ тнe Mυlтιverѕal Balance?" Error said bemusedly.

"Eh, whatever," said Quill. 'I probably just misheard him...'

"Error, do you remember anything at all about your original AU?" Snow asked.

"Nᴏ- 0ᴡ ᴍʏ ʜ34ᴅ..."
[ERROR: FILE NOT FOUND]

The screen that popped up when he crashed wasn't the average 'Error.exe has crashed, reboot?' screen though. It instead said 'ERROR: FILE NOT FOUND. Search Again?' with the normal yes or no options.

Blue looked alarmed- he had never seen something like this happen with Error before. As he knew Error the best out of probably anyone in the Multiverse, this new thing made him worry.

Blue hit the yes button, and it made a small beep, before dissipating into glitch particles. A loading bar appeared, and slowly made its way to around halfway before dissipating and causing the error message to return. Blue then decided that it might be better to just go ahead and hit the no button, so he did. The others just watched, rather confused.

"What just happened?" Lune asked, curious about this odd phenomenon.

"I think Error crashed," said Blue. "But it isn't normal, the error message is different."

"Huh... weird. Do you think he's okay?" Quill asked.

With a series of glitchy static quickly attracting everyone's attention, Error came back online.

"Wнy'ѕ everyone looĸιng aт мe? Dιd ι do ѕoмeтнιng?"

"It's fine, you just had a weird crash," Blue told Error.

"How waѕ ιт weιrd?"

"Well, it said 'Error: File Not Found' instead of 'Error.exe has crashed,' and it took you much less time to recover than a crash," Blue informed him.

"Hυн. Yoυ're rιgнт, тнaт ιѕ ѕтrange. I wonder wнaт coυld've caυѕed ιт?"

"Maybe the question about his original AU caused it," said Quill, "Error, don't try to remember- you'll probably just crash again."

"Oĸay. I've goт a qυeѕтιon, тнoυgн. Qυιll, coυld yoυ тell мe aвoυт yoυr AU? Becaυѕe ι ѕwear ι ĸnow yoυ, and ι don'т ĸnow нow or wнy."

"Huh... my memories of pretty much all of it are really fuzzy, but I'm from InkSwap. It was an AU full of many talented artists, and it was almost always peaceful. I visited other AUs as well- I have the ability to make portals. My favorites were probably... oh, darn. I thought I remembered something, but it's gone again."

"It's okay, we've got things to do. We need to find a place for y'all 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. "They're going to blow something up soon if they haven't already..."

"Yo brah, you can stay at my radical place. It's on the Starlit Isle, tucked away but not far from Muffet's," said Fresh, skateboarding out of a rainbow tear in the Multiverse's fabric. "I'm normally out and about wandering the Multiverse, so I don't really need it. It should actually be very similar to your rad place, swap broskis. Hope ya like it dawgs!"

"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 someone's 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 that Doc 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 Blue could help supervise evacuation. He is Syrah's equivalent, I think, and my little sister could never bring herself to kill a human, not even if they tried to harm her," said Snow.

"Mweheh, you thought! I'm nowhere nearly as innocent as you guys seem to think I am. I've fought in the Last Corridor. I've seen my brother die. I can remember all of the times I've died over the resets. I've killed the human before- I don't like doing it, but I will if I have to. I'm not innocent, just optimistic," said Blue, a sharper edge to his voice coming out.

"Snow, although I want to agree with you, Blue's right," said Stretch. "He's fought in the Last Corridor alongside me, and he also has the powers of the Judge- he can use Karmic Retribution. Plus, he's stubborn as a mule, he won't leave his friends for anything, and he'll fight to the very end. He's very strong, stronger than me, but he only uses his true power when he knows that there is no other choice."

"Okay then," said Snow. "I guess that Blue can fight too, if it comes to that. But hopefully it won't."

"I think that's all the stuff concerning our new friends- they should probably go take a look at that house the parasite mentioned," said Quill, his eyes shifting between colors painfully fast. "Just to make sure it isn't all neon on the inside."

"Tнaт ѕeeмѕ lιĸe тнe ĸιnd oғ тнιng тнaт Freѕн woυld do... so ι тнιnĸ ι wιll do тнaт," said Error. "Sтreтcн, woυld yoυ мιnd ѕтayιng нere wнιle Blυe and ι go cнecĸ ιт oυт?"

"No problem! I want to get into the honey," said Stretch happily.

"Well тнen, Blυe? Wanna go see?"

"Of course, but we'll need to know where it is, right?" Blue said. "So we can get there?"

"Don'т worry. I тнιnĸ тнaт Qυιll coυld gιve υѕ a porтal тнere, ιғ нe wanтѕ υѕ тo leave ѕo вadly..."

'Darn. He caught on. I just want to be able to think straight, gosh darn it! Error's presence is giving me a headache,' Quill thought. 'Probably for the same reason he glitched out when he saw me. Which is to say, I don't know!'

"Just go, please," said Quill, drawing a neat oval on the wall with his pen. A portal formed, neatly compacting the distance from Lune's studio to Muffet's into merely a step through. "I'll explain why later."

"Promise?" Blue asked.

"I promise," said Quill, willing to do most anything if it would make his skull stop feeling like it would explode.

——★——

This was a semi-prewritten chapter, it'll probably take me a while to get any more out... sorry!

This chapter is 6000+ words- the longest chapters we'll have in this entire book, I expect, at more than twice the length of the average chapter.

Published 7/24/2019