Credits to Firehedgehog for being my RP buddy for this madness.

"Wanna go explore? I'm pretty sure that Snowdin should be that way," says Weaver, pointing in the direction of the town.

"Yeah, but I think it's that way," responds Hope, pointing in the opposite direction.

"Blu-Hope, that leads to the Ruins."

"I'm not good with knowing directions in the snow, Erry! I'm from a swap AU, remember? We've got a nice, easily navigated forest, without this white schist everywhere, making it all look the same!"

Weaver laughs. "Just call it what it is, you goof. It's not like Stretch or Dreamy are here, they can't give you that disappointed look for ruining their image of you being the perfectly pure picture of innocence by," he gasps dramatically, "swearing."

Hope sighs. Error always had been too sassy for his own good, getting into lots of fights with Ink due to antagonizing the other with sass, sarcasm, and being generally annoying, and it seemed that had carried over to his new form.

———

From behind a tree, a skeleton watched the newcomers curiously, observing their friendly banter.

———

"Right, let's get on with it," Hope says with a grin, and starts walking.

And then turns around and walks in the other direction when Weaver starts laughing.

Stupid Weaver and his sense of direction.

"I agree, have no sense of direction myself," Fire giggles.

"Ehh... mine's not that bad, but I'm still good at getting lost somehow," says Snow. "Now, I think these two need to move on- they've been here too long already, that portal would've left a trace that at least one of the Dreamswap Outcodes can sense."

"Hope, Weaver, wanna visit Snowdin, or skip it?" Fire asks.

"Depends on what AU this is... we're in a Dreamswap Multiverse, but it's still got lots of normal AUs, I think," said Weaver, opening a panel of code to see where they were.

"Tacotale! Tacotale!" Hope says excitedly, holding up a certain plushie.

Snow sighs. "Hope, where did you get that, anyway?"

"It was in the box!"

"You stole it from the Shellverse, didn't you? Along with the hammer," Weaver says dryly.

"I'm only borrowing it," Hope answers, pouting.

"You're going to set that Ink off on us, and he'd wipe this multiverse off the map easily," Weaver responds. He knows very well that Shellverse Ink is ridiculously powerful.

"I'm taking that back, Hope," says Snow, as the doll begins to glow an icy blue. "That 'verse's Blue will probably care a lot more about his doll disappearing than the hammer."

Hope sighs sadly, but allows her to return it.

"Although there isn't a Tacotale in this Multiverse, you might want to take another a look in the box. There are still some fun goodies in there for you."

———

Meanwhile, in the nearby Shellverse, Ink smirked, and gave the doll back to Blue.

No other universe would have Tacotale yet.

"Come on, you have a Blessed Sans to give a talk to, then you promised we'd go see Tacotale," Blue said.

"Right, let's go," Ink said, and Blue, Dream and himself vanished.

"Now, back to your regularly scheduled story!"

———

"Goodies?" Hope exclaims excitedly, grinning.

He runs back to the box, and jumps straight in.

Somehow, he disappears entirely into it.

Weaver rolls his eyes, ignoring Hope's blatant breaking of the laws of physics and reality yet again.

"Found it!" the smaller skeleton shouts.

———

Cross watched the two, his jaw dropping. How the heck did the smaller skeleton just... vanish?!

That box... was it a box of holding?
Like in DnD?

He needed it.

———

Weaver pauses, his 'someone is thinking something stupid meter' going off.

He glares into the forest, unknowingly looking straight at where Cross was hiding.

After exiting the box again, Hope silently wonders if it could turn into something a bit less unwieldy than a wooden crate. Then he hears the screeching laughter of one of the fangirls, before they pipe up again.

"Ask and you shall receive," says Snow, cackling all the while.

The box shimmers and transforms into a beaded bag, reminding Hope of a book he had once read, although he couldn't remember what book it was.

"Yes, Hope, you're right. I did steal it from a book," says Snow, snickering.

"Can I... personalize it?" Weaver asks, staring at the... rather unpleasant... coloration of the bag.

"As long as it doesn't mess up the runes on the inside, do whatever you want," answers Snow.

"Hmm..." Weaver says, and summons his strings, which thankfully don't come from under his eyes like they previously had. Instead they simply appear like, well, magic.

He changes the colors of his threads- which he notes are naturally white now, like normal magic attacks- to a gold and dark red that look good together. He then, using his threads, transforms the bag into a deep crimson with golden runes and drawstrings, leaving the beaded parts untouched. In a moment of humor, he even adds a tiny hammer keychain to it. Now the bag matches their own outfits.

Snow laughs even harder. "That's- hahaha- PERFECT! Those colors- they're- just yes!"

"Aha! You left those books in the Storyverse, didn't you Snow?" Fire asks, sighing.

"Maybe...?" Snow answers sheepishly.

"Let's mosey!" Hope chirps excitedly, heading in the wrong direction, again.

Weaver just looks at him, and Hope turns around to start going the other way, already knowing what he was going to say.

———

'Who... who even ARE they?' Cross wondered. Was he crazy, or had the taller one just summoned strings like Error did?

Unfortunately, Cross wouldn't find out yet, because the fangirls were done with this chapter.

———

"See you all next time on the Price is Right...
I mean...
Next time on It's A Beautiful Day!"

Also, this chapter has lots of references. Find them all, and I will reward you with a cookie. 🍪