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Ink, Meet Ink
Ink stared at the mini him sitting on his bedroom floor. Ink and Dusty had just gotten back from welcoming new prisoners in the dungeon when the mini Ink fell out of a portal.
The mini Ink, who was very short, stood up and looked around the room curiously. His eye lights, currently a green question mark and a red swirl, seemed to linger on the red paint splatters and knives. He spun around on his heal, taking the whole room in.
“Ehem!”
Blinking, eye lights shifting between colors and shapes, mini Ink stopped spinning and looked up at the annoyed face of his counterpart. His face lit up and his eye lights changed to a yellow flower and a purple star. “Hello! My name is Ink! Wow, you’re really tall!”
Ink smirked at the childish compliment. “Thank you. So your name is Ink, huh?”
“Yep! I’m from another multiverse.” Mini Ink glances around some more and spies Dusty hiding behind Ink. He waves at the poor skeleton. “Hello! What’s your name?”
Dusty tugs at his hood and looks to Ink for direction. Ink nods and Dusty steps forward. “Hi, my name is Dusty.”
He jumps back when Mini Ink is suddenly in his face. He distantly notes the Ink is shorter than him. “Cool! I have a friend named Dusty back home.” Mini Ink squats and stares at Dusty’s eye lights. “His eyes look crazy like yours too. Are you from Dusttale? My Dusty is from Dusttale.”
Ink’s smirk grows as he watches Dusty squirm under the attention of the tiny Ink. The kid, because he must be if those stripes mean the same thing in his multiverse as they do here, is very curious and has no sense of personal space. He has no qualms about asking delicate questions that might hurt others.
Ink noticed the vials strapped to the kid’s chest. It seems that even in a completely different multiverse Ink is still cursed to live off of false emotions. Ever since he discovered torture gave him real emotions, Ink hadn’t bothered with his vials. It would appear the same isn’t true for this Ink.
Satisfied with his interrogation, mini Ink turned back to Ink. Ink had sat down on his bed to enjoy the suffering. He swung his arms around and bounced on his bare toes, eye lights a red triangle and a blue X. “I want to play a game. Let’s do something fun!”
Ink tapped his chin. He had noticed that at least one of the smaller hims eye lights kept returning to red. That was interesting. The color red is often associated with anger and determination. Back when Ink was still on good terms with his friends, before Dream was released from his stone prison and discovered Ink's emotionlessness, his eye lights would cycle between colors pretty evenly. There was and equal chance of blue, green, and yellow as there was red. Unless he drank a substantial amount of one color then his eye lights were consistently random.
This kid’s however…
The child appeared happy, babbling on and on about the fun games he would play with his friends back home. Ugh, he’s friends with the glitch? Gross. Anyway, his demeaner suggested someone who drank a lot of yellow. And yet, his eye lights displayed red.
“Hmmm…” Ink narrows his own red crosshair eye lights at his other self. He’s planning something.
Ink comes to a decision.
He claps to get the others’ attention and stands up. “I know a fun game we can play.”
Dusty shrank into himself when Ink looked at him as he said that. He had a feeling he wouldn't like this game.
Oblivious of his new friend's dilemma, mini Ink jumps up and down in excitement. “Really?! Rad! What are we playing?”
“Follow me and I’ll show you.”
“Okay!”
.
.
While Ink played with Dusty, his young counterpart sat on a stool just outside the cell. The cell was locked so if he decided to intervene, he wouldn't be able to.
He yawned, his jaws stretching wide.
It wasn't that the torture didn't affect him, but what could he do about it from out here? He had seen all the ouchies on Dusty. He knew what caused them. Who caused them. But again, there was nothing he could do about it.
...
Yet.
Mini Ink hopped off the stool. He picked up a rock and started banging on the bars. “Can we blow something up instead?”
Ink stopped and pulled out his knife from between Dusty's ribs. He stared incredulously at his tiny self, not having expected that to come out of his mouth. “What? Why?”
“Because explosions are awesome! Please, can we blow something up?”
Ink glanced back at Dusty handing on the wall. He had passed out nearly an hour ago anyway. Ink shrugs and tosses the knife on the table. “Sure, why not?”
“Radical! I love blowing things up! Sometimes I blow things up when I’m helping Ruru. That’s my nickname for Error. He destroys broken worlds. That’s a very big job and it takes sooo loooooong! So I help him so we can play sooner.” Mini Ink shakes his fingers to mimic rain. He almost runs into a wall, but Ink nudges him in the right direction. "I like to make it rain bombs. Its super fun to watch the explosions. My favorites are the ones in Hotlands. The lava goes reeeaally high!"
“So, you help destroy entire worlds?”
"Yep."
"Doesn't that involves killing people?"
"Yep." Mini Ink stops in the hallway to inspect a bug crawling along the edge of the wall. "But Core doesn't like it when we do."
"Who's Core?"
"This really weird girl with no color. She looks like people from those old movies Nightmare watches." The little Ink shivers, and it has nothing to do with the cold. "She's freaky."
Intrigued by that but deciding to hold off on it for now, Ink asks, "How's throwing bombs different from what I do? You're still hurting people."
“Boooring! Killing is boring! When people are dead they just sit there, doing nothing and they can't play with you. I just like blowing stuff up. Did you know you can even make bombs that make different color fire? It is so pretty!”
“Maybe next time you can give it a try? You never know if you might like something until you’ve tried it.”
“Um, maybe, but it looks super boring.” Mini Ink rolled his eye lights. “Where are we going right now?”
“We’re going on a mission.”
“A mission?”
“Yep, there’s a rebel base I’ve been meaning to pay a visit. We can go blow it up. Maybe you can show me those colorful bombs, too.”
Mini Ink tilts his head, thinks about the lives that’ll be lost, and nods his head. His eye lights are a red X and a green diamond. He smiles brightly up at his counterpart, grabbing his hand and rushing up the stairs. “Come on then! Let’s go!”
.
.
The small Ink skips down the ridiculously long hallway. It's a good thing he learned all those really neat songs! They make it almost fun!
"There's a song that gets on everybody's nerves~ A song that never ends~"
"What is that infernal racket? Is this some kind of new torture?!"
Mini Ink giggled as he approached the door. Two High Ranks brandished their swords.
"Who are you?"
"You're not supposed to be down here!"
Mini Ink morphed his face into a scowl, his eye lights a red X and crosshair. "Who do you think I am, stupid?!" He shouted.
The guard to the left shifted his weight and pointed his sword at the tiny Ink's neck. "You look like some kid who's where he doesn't belong. Run back to your mommy before I teach you a lesson."
The mini Ink's glare intensifies and he hisses, "How dare you? I could have you thrown in the dungeon for a month for this!"
The other guard shares an unimpressed look with his comrade. "Look kid, just because you dress like the dictator before he took over doesn't mean you get to boss us around."
"I am dictator, you moron! One of the scientists stupid experiments backfired and now I'm stuck like this for the next hour." He takes a knife out of his overalls and takes a menacing step toward the guards. "So unless you want to join him for two months worth of torture..."
The High Ranks glance at each other again. They're starting to wonder if maybe they misread the situation.
"MOVE!"
That gets them moving. They salute and scurry off, metaphorical tails between their legs.
Once they were out of sight, the mini Ink took a sip of light blue to calm himself down. He drank a liiitle too much red earlier. He wanted to be convincing, but too much red gave him a headache.
He rubbed his skull as he hacked the keypad, just like Ruru showed him how. The door swung open silently.
Inside the room there was a glass cage. Inside the cage sat a skeleton with black bones, his yellow and red fingers smoothing out a newly knit scarf. He doesn't bother looking up to see who's entered the room. Probably just Ink or some High Rank come to taunt him again.
Then the cage door opens.
Error stiffens. That door only opens when Dusty comes to visit and when Ink comes to visit.
Error holds a breath he doesn't need, waiting for the first blow.
But it doesn't come.
"Are you just gonna sit there?”
"Huh?" Error's head snaps up. He did not expect to see what he did. A tiny Sans dressed like Ink when he was a Star Sans. And if he was a kid.
"Who are you supposed to be?" Error asks. He glanced outside his cell, but saw no one else around. And both doors were open...
"Hello!" The kid shoves his face into Error, causing him to flinch back. "Are you slow or something? Come on! Let's go!"
Error scoots back and stands up. "Um, where are we going?"
"Escaping, duh!"
"Oh."
Error followed the kid out of the cage and down the hallway. He wasn't sure what to make of this child, but he knew one thing. This had to be the strangest rescue attempt yet. And that's counting the time two Underfell Papyri dressed as woman to distract the guards.
Sometimes Error wonders if they lost a bet or something.
He glances at the kid. The kid is humming some tune to himself while swinging his arms. Not a care in the world.
They don’t get far down the hall before they’re stopped by Ink and a bunch of High Ranks.
Ink raises an unimpressed bone brow at them. “I expected better than this, mini me.” He tsks, shaking his head. “You made this way too easy.”
Mini Ink smiled, his eye lights an orange spiral and a green sun. He clasps his hands behind his back and rocks on his heels. “Did I?”
“You did.” Ink nods, crossing his arms. “I’m actually disappointed. I thought another me would be smarter this and have a better plan. I will admit, impersonating me was a good touch.”
“Thanks!”
“You’re welcome. Now I have to send you to the dungeon.” Ink then smiles cruelly. “We’re going to have so much fun.”
“Nah.”
“I’m afraid you don’t have a choice in this.”
The little Ink just continues to smile up at his counterpart. The High Ranks are starting to get a little unnerved by the child’s behavior. Ink was just becoming annoyed.
“What are you idiots doing standing around? Lock Error back up and take the kid to the dungeons.” Ink glared at the little brat who tried to steal his prisoner. “I’ll deal with the kid personally.”
The little Ink’s smile quirks into a smirk.
Before the High Ranks can move-
FRESH POOF!
A cloud color dissipates between the two groups and reveals a six-foot-tall skeleton, roughly resembling a Sans, dressed in a garish 90’s nightmare aesthetic.
Ink blinks, completely baffled by this strange individual.
“Wazzup, broskis? How’s it hanging?” Fresh throws the dictator finger guns.
“How did you get in here?!”
Fresh smirks. “Like dis”, he says. He poofs next to Ink, swing his arm around the shorter skeleton.
Fresh spots the little Ink waving at him and grins. “Yo! There ya are lil' artist! I’ve been looking all over for ya.”
“Hi, Dad! I’m breaking the law!”
“Is an evil law?”
“Yep!”
“Cool. You do that then.”
Ink squawks indignantly and shoves Fresh’s arm off him. No one encourages anarchy in his empire and got away with it.
“Excuse me-“
“Yer excused.”
Ink glares at him, seething. “I don’t know who you are, or how you got passed the shields, but you-“
Fresh covers Ink’s mouth with a finger. “Let me stop ya right there, broski. Before you go on with the junk threats on my life, take into consideration who you're messing with.” He leans down, purple light leaking over the tops of his glasses that now read RU-N.
Ink shoves him away. "High Ranks, arrest them."
The High Ranks step forward, pulling out hand cuffs.
Fresh smirks sharply and pulls a whiffle bat out of his inventory. Purple smoke leaks from his glasses and the light in the hallway dims.
"Don't say I didn't warn ya..."
.
.
Error stared wide eyed at the scene before him.
What.
Just.
Happened.
Fresh dusted himself off and propped his whiffle bat on his shoulder. "Welp, now that's all taken care of..."
"We can get ice cream!?"
Fresh's glasses go blank and he gives the little Ink a deadpan look.
The young Ink gives him the bigest puppy dog eyes he can muster. His eye lights two big orange and yellow stars.
Fresh's glasses return to their usual YOLO and he rolls his eye. He shrugs. "Yeah, sure. Whatev you want, Ink."
The little Ink pumps the air. "Yes!"
Fresh finally adresses the last standing native. "Now might be a fine time to skeddle. Someone's going to notice the big wig is missing sooner or later."
Error nods dumbly. "Right, right, of course..."
The little Ink runs and jumps up into Fresh's arms. He waves at Error. "Bye! Have fun overthrowing the government!"
Fresh gives him a two fingered salute. "See ya on the flip side, broseph."
FRESH POOF!
Error stands there, among the broken body of the dictator and piles of dust, for what feels like an hour.
Finally he has to ask himself.
"Who were those people?"