Nems ponders, thinking back to a couple days ago, when he first brought it up with Ink. All he wanted was to investigate what was going on with AUs that were in danger of disappearing. As each week went on, the books in his library decreased, which is a reasonable cause for concern… Where are these AUs going? Why are they disappearing? Who–
“Well you can’t do that alone.” Ink replied, crossing his arms as he stared at the books on one of the shelves.
“uh… why? is it that dangerous?”
Ink smirked at him in Ink-fashion, “Yeah! I can’t risk another one of my most precious partnerships dying too!”
Partnerships? Too? Was he just a co-worker to him?
“but i gotta know what’s going on.”
Ink’s eyelights lingered on Nems’ face for a while as they stared at each other in silence.
“...I’ll tell you what, you can go investigate, oooonly if you go with someone.”
“please don’t tell me it’s…”
“Here’s to our first mission together!!!”
Loud and pretentious as he is, Trickster loudly commemorates as confetti shoots everywhere, some landing on Nems’ skull.
Here they are, on some random mountainside forest they had just stepped foot in 3 seconds ago, and this guy’s already getting on his nerves. Nems stares at Trickster holding a now empty confetti cannon. Where does he even keep those?
Trickster laughs at his face, “C’mon, where’s your whimsy? Your sense of wonder??? You’re gonna get older if you don’t smile, ever heard of that?”
“ever heard of being quiet? stealthy?” Nems says with a scowl. “for all we know, we could be in enemy territory–”
Trickster hits his shoulder, cutting him off. “Pshhhhhh chillax, you worry too much!”
Nems rubs his shoulder, looking away from him. He’s clearly holding back his annoyance. What’s with this dynamic? Is he supposed to watch over this guy? He’s a loose cannon!
“...why the hell did Ink pair us up again?”
Trickster smiles at Nems’ question like he was gonna ask the same thing. “Aww… do you not like little ol’ me?”
“do i have to answer that?”
“Well, you’ll be happy to know that I don’t agree with this arrangement either! Why’d I get paired up with a boring guy like you?”
Why did Ink think this was a good idea?
“the guy that broke into my library??????” Nems stood up from his seat, not even trying to hide his concern (and vexation.)
Ink laughed up a storm, “Yeah!!! That guy! He’s really not a bad guy, and plus… he’s knowledgeable.”
What, the guy who kept shooting confetti and blowing party horns in his library without so much as a Hi??? He basically broke into his house. He tried searching the library for anything that came remotely close to this guy, but got nothing.
Well, all that was important to Nems was that he was the only way he could get out there. Which brings him to the present. Now standing right in front of Trickster, covered in confetti. Joy.
He’ll just file a complaint letter later, one that Ink wouldn’t read anyway. But then again, when has Ink ever listened to anyone?
Trickster starts walking ahead of him without looking back, his cloak flowing with the wind. Nems follows in uncomfortable silence.
Trickster’s surprising silence and swiftness while passing through this forest isn’t what he would’ve expected… and it’s getting awkward. It isn’t until several minutes pass when Nems decides to finally start up a conversation.
“ink said there are signs of corruption here; objects disappearing, people missing… checks all the boxes. same stuff was happening in all the other universes that disappeared.”
Nems notices Trickster kicking several rocks, getting distracted by small branches on the dirt still ahead of him. Is he even listening?
“ink also said that this is the first big pacifist timeline that virus is coming for.”
So far, this “virus” had only been going after smaller AUs, feeding on them to grow its power. Could it be that it’s gained enough strength to chase after bigger spoils? How much does Trickster know about this?
It’s then when suddenly a low-pitched rumble, discernible from behind one of the trees, stops both skeletons in their tracks.
Corrupted, glitched, unrecognizable… A slouched over monster slowly approaches them. It’s like a zombie straight out of a video game, except it’s probably not after their brains. No, it's after something else, something that must be connected to that virus. Is this person trying to talk to them? It quickly becomes apparent that it won’t be a pleasant conversation.
Nems steps forward towards them, those questions repeatedly playing in his head. Can it be that they can establish some sort of connection with it? “uh, hey–”
That is when Trickster comes up from behind the entity and slashes it in half with ease, giving no time to even let Nems see the weapon. The entity falls onto the dirt, the top half of its body still reaching its arm to Trickster, grabbing the fluffy end of his cloak. Its rumbling noises continue unsettlingly. Trickster steps his sharp heel into its back, pressing against it until it stops moving. The glitches, seemingly “melting” from it, flow upward into the sky. It’s dying. Wait. Shit. It’s dying!
“why’d you kill it so fast? what even is it?!” Nems inveighs, “we could’ve saved them…”
And maybe it had useful information.
Trickster looks at Nems, his expression hidden under his hood as always.
“Riiight right, this is your first time seeing something like this!” he says condescendingly. “You’ve only witnessed these AUs after they get eaten…”
Trickster steps off the body, the last remaining pieces of it dissipating into the atmosphere. “They’re called doppels. People become those when they get corrupted. The one we just saw… These types aren’t people anymore. Whoever they were, they’re long gone.”
That’s when reality hits. These worlds aren’t only disappearing…
They’re getting consumed from the inside out. And yet why does he sound like he doesn’t have a care in the world? He’s saying it like it’s normal that these people are getting turned into zombies. It’s infuriating.
…Is what he’s saying even true? For all he could know, he could’ve just killed a person.
“Whatcha lookin’ at?” Trickster crosses his arms, noticing Nems’ apparent disdain. Even so, Trickster keeps that stupid smile on his face.
Nems clears his throat, “i see now why Ink is so interested in you.”
Silence follows the odd exchange.
They continue walking, sunlight leaking through the leaves and hitting their skulls. For Nems, it has been a while since he last felt that warmth. For Trickster… who knows where he’s been. It’s been a long time since Nems has had so much trouble reading someone’s visage, not like he makes it easy. But he’ll put that aside for now. They’re finally reaching the end of the forest, to find a cliff that’s overlooking a city.
They stand over the precipice as the rising sun paints the city in shades of fiery orange. Now then, what do you have in store this time, Underfell?
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