Darkest Descent (Multiversal Mayhem: Chapter 2)
Shadow furled across the clearing as malformed tendrils snapped at the stars, moonlight splaying along the spire as it marred the night sky like a dagger in the chest. Glinting off glistening gargoyles, light tapered and slid across the dour door-frame, accentuating every bend and line in the screaming skulls. But beyond the curve of those skeletal features, the light died- devoured by the darkness of the looming door. Not even the slightest shimmer blessed its onyx obsidian.
Lines spread beneath my sockets as trillions of butterflies took flight within my chest, the slimiest shadows of emotion dawning their wings. For as long as I could remember, I had stood as an opposite to Error. Belief, demeanor; in every aspect he was my anti-thesis, and I was his. Never more so than on our views of the Multiverse. Where Error seen every Alternate Universe as a 'mistake', a 'perversion', I seen every one as art. As beautiful. Deserving of life and the ability to flourish. I had never once swayed in that view. EVERY universe deserved to exist. To bloom.
I felt the same for this one. Deformed and horrifying as it was, I desperately searched for some feature- some reason- it too deserved my protection from Error's detrimental existence.
I found n̴̯̓o̴͓͛t̷̺͘ḣ̴͖ȋ̷̢n̵̻͝g̷͈̽.̵͔̎.
Tree and boulder were never meant to mix like that... I thought, watching a spiteful snake of mountain and forest arc and spit at the starlight. Beneath the burning of my broken rib, I felt a single butterfly, a single color, a single emotion, begin to overpower the dreary sleet within me.
Obsidian winter seared through my marrow.
Twice. Only twice before had I ever felt the emotion- color- dread. It was a dark thing. Deep and abysmal- a shadow to swallow all the sunshine and rainbows of joy; the mauves and maroons of tearful farewells; even the cancerous gangrene of an emotion stirred by Error dwindled before its devouring darkness. The muddy murk swirling inside fared no better: gobbled up and gulped down by the ever-spreading vantablack wings. My throat tightened as wringing wights locked their cold, dead fingers around my neck- the unrelenting chill of winter ripping the heat from my skeleton.
This dread was deeper, darker, than the other two times. Practically a whole new emotion. The last two times were a simple worry compared to the abyss yawning inside of me now.
‘Something Core doesn't know about...?’ Confusing as omnipresence was, there was one thing I knew without a doubt: omnipresence was the ability to know everything. EVERYTHING. No exceptions. Ever.
‘... and yet, here one stands; well, err, floats,’ I thought. ‘Something Core doesn't know about. Something that surprises even them.’
I should have felt differently. Felt the bright passion of inspiration glowing within my chest. The erratic golden of intrigue. Even something as mediocre of the pearl of pleasant surprise. This was a feat worth celebrating! Investigating! And yet the shadow of dread grew. Each slow, methodical wing-beat gnawing away at what little warmth was left inside me. Breathing through what felt like a straw, all forms of happiness withered and died... flowers wilting after the first frost.
I even found myself my begin to wonder if... Error was right. If some Universes were... wrong.
Fist clenching so tightly around the handle of my brush that I feared it would snap, I shoved the blighting butterfly from within me. "NO." I hissed aloud, my eyes fading to a near white, "I am NOT Error." Lines scrawling and snaking across my skull, I ripped my brush forward, blue paint flooding over the grass before me. The ground rumbled, much like an earthquake; and stairs surged forth from the paint, shooting towards the leviathan looming above.
I could feel my scowl shiver as my rage crackled with crimson electricity. I’'m not Error. I'll never be Error. If I have to head up there to prove it, so be it.’
A flutter of sky blue twinkled within the scarlet storm. A snippet of calm- of patience.
Like static shoved into rubber, my fury quelled, my body relaxing as I sighed. ‘Cool it, Ink’. I thought as I closed my sockets, ‘You're only monster; no need to go all Edge Lord because you thought one terrible thought.’ Inhaling deeply, I raised my hands so they were level with my cheeks. Then I brought them downwards as I exhaled. ‘Yeah, just calm down. You're not Fell, either. Don't strain yourself 'communing with your inner Edge'. Leave that to Underfell.’
Letting my sockets open, I gazed upwards at my goal.
Slipping my brush into the sheath on my back, I spread my hands and breathed; long and deep. ‘Everything is all about perception, Ink. Remember that. You go up there angry, you're going to see everything angry’. After a small exhale, I smiled and put my hands on my hips. ‘So chill. Everything's gonna be OK.’
"Yeah, everything's gonna be--"
"OK?" Another voice asked, a few feet across the clearing. I turned, brows raised as my eyes fell on their diminutive black-and-white figure. "No, Ink. Everything is not going to be 'OK'," Core Frisk said, crossing their arms and tilting their head. "Far from it, actually."
For a moment, I felt dread's dreary wings descend upon me again- but I shoved it aside, forcing a chuckle as I looked away from them. "Come on, Frisk! You're just being pessimistic..." Careful not to let them see, I gulped. Much as I wanted to believe those words, I could feel in my non-existent gut, how wrong I was.
"No." They said blatantly. Plainly. "I am being honest, Ink. Unlike you." I flinched. Core simply sighed. "Ink, listen, I know you want to ignore me. Prove me wrong. Prove yourself wrong." They hesitated a brief moment, then said, "Prove Error wrong." Clenching my fist, I turned away and ground my teeth together. Again Frisk sighed. "Ink, I kno--"
"Stop." I said, thrusting out a fingerless-gloved hand, "just stop, OK?" Sighing, I lifted my left hand to my sash as I let my right fall against my side. "Just..." I exhaled. "I know you know, alright? And I know you know I know. Confusing as that is. Could you just not..." I glanced at them, my eyes faltering square and triangle, "not say it out loud? I... just can't bare to hear you say it for everyone and everything to hear, all right?" I watched as their sockets widened in the slightest fraction, then they nodded faintly.
"Thank you." I said as my gaze fell to the vials at my chest. My skeletal fingers fiddled and fumbled with the crystalline containers, one by one- aimlessly. Red for rage, determination, competitiveness; green for gentleness, caring, compassion; blue for, well, feeling blue, somber, but also reflective, intrigued; sky for shyness, patience, placidity... puns; yellow for YEET, passion, joy-- and pigheadedness; purple for perseverance, persistence, perception, as well as sarcasm; and orange for originality, pep, fight over flight, bravery and... fear. So many colors. So many emotions. But not a drop of them my own. All of them stolen. Taken. Snatched from the source of this world's wonders.
Sure the Doodle Sphere- as I had named it- was beautiful and lush because I had taken these colors. These emotions. It had been nothing more than a blank slate when I'd awoken here. Empty. Blank. Pale.
Like me.
Looking up, I felt my broken rib flare as the spire filled my vision.
‘Maybe the Doodle Sphere was never meant to be beautiful. Colorful. Unique. Maybe I tainted it,’ I thought, like I tainted myself with these stolen emotions. All so I could validate myself... Prove that I deserved to feel like so many others.’
Dimly, I felt my hand placidly ball into a fist as my face creased. I never used to think like that. Never used to feel so... inadequate.
Before, when I'd first awoken- first FELT- nothing could put me down. Every day was an adventure! Every feeling a blessing! So many things to discover! To make!! I... I was enraptured. Never more so than when the first fraction of Core Code- the fundamental building blocks of a universe- had opened here. I was in awe! But also terrified. I'd found myself hiding behind my Gaster Blaster. Distantly, I heard myself give a hollow chuckle. ‘Those had been the times. Those first Universes. My first adventures. So wondrous and amazing. Back when the Multiverse was first forming.’ They almost felt like another life now. Because now...
I looked upwards, at the warped floating isle, feeling as empty, as pale, as when I'd first awoken in my home.
Now everything was fading.
Despite all of my efforts, everything I cared for- all I existed for- all those Universes and stories- were disappearing. The Multiverse- the thing I'd elected myself to protect- was dying. The colors, emotions, I needed to remain myself, were dwindling. They barely fell here anymore. The creativity of those responsible for my friends, myself, the Doodle Sphere, and everything beyond; was drying up. I felt like a fish watching as the pond I lived in shriveled and died. And all I could do, was flop and gasp as I lost the very thing I needed to live.
‘The islands are even creating themselves now, I thought dimly. They don't even let me make the glamour for their Core Code.’ I thought as reminisced over how I spent days painstakingly crafting and painting an island to surround the crude, coarse seam in time and space leading to the new addition of the Multiverse. How I'd force myself to jump through the terrible, grating vortex of zeroes and ones to see what kind of isle would best suit the world beyond. ‘I enjoyed that.’ I thought as my eyes dimmed, and flickered to the ground, ‘spending so much time working out every little detail. Making each splash of color perfect, every leaf gorgeous, even the individual speckles of dirt precise.’ I smiled faintly. ‘I really enjoyed that... I really di--’
My head snapped up, my sockets shooting wide, ‘WAIT!’ I thought, realization hitting me like a freight train. ‘I didn't make that island! It-- It made itself!’ My mouth sliced downwards as a frown shivered on my skull, ‘Core Code doesn't do that! It's always just numbers and- well, code! Nothing more!’ Chest ricocheting with agony as my rib blazed with my sudden adrenaline, my eyes snapped back and forth over the islands every detail.
Tentacles of root mashed together with rock, animated and slashing- as if conscious. Jagged, haggard, cliffs and peaks piercing deep into the sky from the islands underbelly. The screaming, screeching malformed faces spliced together to form the undulating, writhing door-frame. And towering above it all, silent, unmoving, solid, unrelenting shadow; the door loomed, glaring down at me. All of it- every speck of it- was an impossibility. Core Code was physically incapable of making so much as rock here- let alone an entire island. The only thing capable of making an island to glamour a wormhole leading into a world would be... ‘a person. Another person.’ A vice squeezed my already burning ribs as the implications sunk in. ‘Someone who lives there made that island.’
Instantly, as if something hit a switch, the island rumbled.
A mass of centipedes, the faces in the door frame contorted and warped as shadows lengthened their agonized features. Flailing and shaking, I watched from below as the maw into darkness widened further and further- as if to swallow the sky. Darkness devouring the light, the island roared as geysers of thick purple mist erupted into the air like fountains of alien blood. Beneath me the ground shook as the shock-wave made the forest bend and groan. But I found my bones already rattling, my body trembling as fear's oily fingers spread along my skeleton. Up above, my eyes locked on a terrible sight.
Standing tall, foreboding, oozing contempt; the door to the Universe beyond that island... was flung wide.
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Core!Frisk belongs to @dokudoki
Ink!Sans belongs to @comyet
Undertale belongs to Toby Fox
Eyes of Red AU and writing belong to me, @eyesofredau