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The Doodle Sphere was quieter today.
Not silent. It was never really silent here. Somewhere in the distance, unfinished sketches floated through the empty white space while bits of paint drifted around like weightless stars. Colors moved where they shouldn’t, shapes appeared and disappeared, and somehow it all still made sense here.
Or at least, as much sense as anything involving Ink could make.
“And THIS one” Ink continued dramatically, pointing his brush toward another floating screen-like portal, “was an AU where everybody swapped personalities halfway through the timeline! It got SUPER confusing after the third reset!”
You stared at the scene curiously as two versions of Sans argued for reasons you couldn’t fully understand.
“Wouldn’t that completely mess up the timeline consistency?” you asked.
“YUP!”
“And people liked it?”
“DOUBLE YUP!”
You snorted quietly. Ink was currently floating upside down, rambling excitedly while paint dripped from the edge of his scarf. “OH! OH! And there’s another one where Papyrus became the royal scientist instead and-”
“You really like talking about these things, huh?”
He blinked. Then grinned immediately. “Of course I do! Every AU is different! Different stories, different choices, different endings-” He spun in the air before pointing directly at you. “AND some are disasters in the BEST way possible!”
“That explains why you like Error so much”
“I DON’T like Error!”
“You argue with him constantly”
“That’s DIFFERENT”
“You literally sound like divorced parents every time I see you together”
Ink gasped dramatically. “WOW. Okay. Emotional damage”
You laughed softly, adjusting yourself against the floor of your workshop space. During his rambling, you remembered something.
“Oh right. You still have your brush?”
“Why wouldn’t I?”
“I don’t know. You lose things. You lost your scarf last week”
“That was temporary!”
“You found it wrapped around your own neck”
Ink immediately ignored that. “ANYWAY! Why?”
You held your hand out. “Can I borrow it for a second?”
He paused for exactly two seconds before handing it over. Honestly, that probably said a lot about how much he trusted you by now. You carefully grabbed the paintbrush, pulling something small from your bag—metallic, compact, and covered in tiny glowing lines.
Ink leaned closer immediately. “Ooooooh”
Without another word, you attached it near the center of the brush handle. The device clicked softly into place before lighting up faintly.
“What’s that?”
“A Draft Engine 50.0.”
Silence. Then- “A WHAT?”
You smiled slightly at his reaction. “It’s a prototype attachment. I’ve been working on it for a while. It lets you create temporary AU drafts. You can generate temporary universes using your own magic as a base. Modify structures, alter narrative direction, test outcomes. Basically… you can create AUs yourself temporarily”
Ink stared at you. Then at the brush. Then back at you.
“YOU MADE THIS??”
“It’s still unfinished” you warned. “And it’s only a demo version”
“YOU MADE A THING THAT LETS ME CREATE TEMPORARY AUS?!”
“Yes. That’s usually how inventions work”
Ink made a sound somewhere between excitement and emotional collapse. “Ohmygosh ohmygosh OHMYGOSH-”
“You can only make fifty at max” you added quickly before he exploded. “And they’re temporary. The system deletes them after a while anyway”
Ink was barely listening. “You mean I can make WHATEVER I WANT??”
“Within reason”
“THERE IS NO REASON IN ART!”
“That sentence alone is exactly why I almost didn’t give this to you”
Ink laughed loudly before immediately activating the brush. The space around him flickered. Paint spiraled outward unnaturally fast, then suddenly, Ink choked.
You sat up as black ink spilled from his mouth. “Ink?”
He coughed again before waving a hand dismissively. “TOTALLY FINE!!”
“That doesn’t look fine”
“It happens sometimes! No big deal!”
You narrowed your eyes. You’d seen him do that before, but it still unsettled you. “...Maybe don’t overuse it immediately” you muttered.
Ink wiped his mouth, grinning like nothing happened. “YOU ARE VERY UNDERESTIMATING MY SELF CONTROL RIGHT NOW”
“That sentence means nothing to me”
“Rude”
You sighed, shaking your head as you stood up. “It’s still a demo version. You’ll probably only be able to handle one AU at a time realistically. Temporary draft creation still takes energy”
Ink nodded rapidly, but the look on his face told you he was absolutely not listening.
──────•✦•──────
A day passed after that. You were busy, buried in blueprints and floating machine parts. Ink hadn’t shown up, which was normal, sometimes he disappeared for days. You didn’t question it.
Not until the ink puddle appeared directly in the middle of your workshop floor.
Ink practically threw himself out of it. He landed awkwardly, then stood up too quickly.
“Ink?”
“HEY!!”
“Why are you yelling?”
“I’M NOT”
“You absolutely are”
Ink pointed at you dramatically. “OKAY SO. FUN FACT. WE MAY OR MAY NOT HAVE A TINY PROBLEM”
You slowly lowered your screwdriver. “A tiny problem?”
“YUP!”
You paused. “...What did you do?”
“WOW. Okay. First of all, rude”
You stared at him properly now. His scarf was messier than usual, and the Draft Engine flickered faintly like it had been running nonstop.
“Ink...”
“SO ANYWAY!” he interrupted loudly. “I need you to come with me right now immediately ASAP”
“Why?”
“No reason!”
“That sounds suspicious”
Before he could answer, the entire workshop glitched. The lights flickered violently. Space itself tore open behind him, and black strings snapped across the room.
Error stood there, looking murderous. “WeLl wElL WeLl. I JuSt lEfT FoR OnE DaY…”
Your eyes flicked to Ink, who was suddenly very interested in literally everything except you.
“…How many AUs did you make?”
Silence. Ink laughed nervously. “Hypothetically?”
“Ink...”
“…Fifty?”
The room went silent. Then Error snapped.
“fIfTy?!” Glitch strings exploded, slicing through floating machine parts. “ArE YoU BoTh oUtTa yOuR DaMn mInDs?!”
Ink pointed at you immediately. “IN MY DEFENSE SHE SAID THERE WAS A LIMIT”
Your jaw dropped. The audacity? “That doesn’t mean you hit the limit in one day you sentient art supply”
“yOu mAdE A MuLtIvErSe cReAtIoN DeViCe!” Error pointed aggressively at you.
“Temporary creation device” you corrected automatically.
“tHaT’S NoT BeTtEr. Do yOu hAvE AnY IdEa wHaT YoU JuSt dId? ThE EnTiRe aNtI-VoId’s bEeN GlItChInG FoR HoUrS BeCaUsE Of tHoSe tHiNgS”
You frowned. That wasn’t supposed to happen. The Draft Engine was designed to erase data cleanly. Unless... your thoughts stopped. You noticed the instability hadn’t disappeared. Tiny distortions still flickered around the brush.
“Ink” you said slowly. “How long ago did you make them?”
“Yesterday?”
Silence. Your eyes widened. Yesterday. Which meant they should have started disappearing already.
Before you could explain, Ink suddenly grabbed you. “OKAY!! WE ARE LEAVING.”
Error glitched violently. “oH No yOu dOn’t-”
Ink slashed paint across the air, ripping a portal open. “BYEEEE ERROR!”
“gEt bAcK HeRe yOu gLoRiFiEd dOoDlE!”
The portal snapped shut just as dozens of glitch strings shot through the air. And one second later, the chase across the multiverse officially began.
──────•✦•──────
The portal threw both of you out so fast you barely had time to process what happened before your feet hit the ground. Then immediately slipped.
“WOAH-”
Ink caught you before you completely ate the floor. “Gotcha!”
You grabbed onto his scarf automatically while trying to regain balance. “Could you maybe warn me before throwing us through dimensions next time?!”
“Counterpoint!” Ink pointed behind both of you dramatically. “We were being hunted!”
“That doesn’t make this better!”
The world around you flickered strangely. At first glance, it looked normal enough, a small town, empty streets, buildings standing upright. Quiet. Then one of the houses suddenly lost color halfway through existing.
You blinked. “Ink”
“Yeeees?”
“The building just erased itself”
“Yup!”
“Should I be concerned?”
“Probably!”
You stared at him, then at the world again. The sky itself looked unfinished; large parts of it remained completely white, like someone forgot to color them in. Some buildings were detailed while others looked like rough sketches made in five minutes. And then, one of the background NPCs walked directly into a wall. Repeated the same movement. Then did it again.
“Oh my god”
Ink laughed nervously. “Okay! So! Funny story!”
You slowly turned toward him. “No. Start with the important story first” You pointed aggressively at him. “How did you even make fifty AUs in one day?!”
Ink rubbed the back of his skull sheepishly. “In my defense, I got curious”
“That explains literally nothing”
“You said it’d take a lotta energy to make them, right? So I started small!”
You blinked. “Small”
“Tiny little sketch AUs! Barely any details! Then I kept going and accidentally got REALLY invested.”
You stared at him blankly. “Ink...”
“THEN I MADE A WESTERN AU”
“Oh my god”
“AND a pirate one!”
“Ink”
“AND there’s one where everybody communicates through interpretive dance-”
You smacked the side of his skull immediately. BONK.
“OW!”
“That was for your ‘self control’ speech”
Ink dramatically grabbed his head. “VIOLENCE”
“You literally told me I was underestimating your self control”
“I WAS CONFIDENT”
“You were stupid”
“That too!”
A loud glitch tore through the sky above you. Both of you looked up immediately. “He found us already?” you muttered.
“Error’s annoyingly good at tracking stuff”
“Maybe because you created fifty unstable universes”
“Again, you are being VERY judgmental right now”
You ignored him and looked around properly. Now that you were paying attention, you could see the differences more clearly. Some AUs were barely functional. One world nearby looked entirely hand-sketched, moving pencil lines jittering unnaturally as unfinished characters walked around without faces. Another looked strangely polished, except nobody inside had dialogue. The inhabitants simply wandered aimlessly in silence like background props waiting for instructions.
Then another portal flickered nearby, showing a familiar Snowdin layout, except underwater.
“Did you make an aquatic Undertale AU?”
Ink looked weirdly proud. “The fish loved it”
“You gave Sans fucking gills”
“He adapted!”
You pinched the bridge of your nose. This was insane. Not because the AUs existed, but because somehow… they worked. Messy, unstable, incomplete, but functional enough to exist. That should not have been possible this quickly.
Your thoughts stopped the moment space behind you distorted violently.
“Ink”
“Yep”
Blue strings shot across the unfinished streets instantly. Both of you jumped apart as Error Sans tore straight through the AU wall behind you.
“fOuNd yOu”
“Oh come ON” Ink groaned dramatically. “Do you EVER take breaks?”
Error’s eye twitched violently. “YoU MaDe fIfTy uNsTaBlE WoRlDs aNd yOu’rE AsKiNg mE If i tAkE BrEaKs?!”
The glitch strings snapped toward both of you immediately. Ink reacted first. His brush spun through the air, and bright paint exploded into a massive shield. CRACK. The strings slammed against it hard enough to shake the entire area.
And somehow… that only made Error look angrier.
“Oh great,” you muttered quietly. “He’s entering the terrifyingly calm phase”
“He gAvE ThAt aNoMaLy fUcKiNg gIlLs!” Error suddenly snapped.
“THEY WERE REMOVABLE!”
“You’re both insane”
The shield shattered violently. Ink immediately grabbed your wrist before another wave of strings tore across the ground beneath you. The unfinished AU glitched around all three of you now. Buildings flickered. The sketch characters froze mid-motion. Even the sky distorted strangely overhead.
Error noticed immediately. “ThE WoRlD’S CoLlApSiNg aLrEaDy”
Your stomach tightened. Too early. That was way too early.
“Ink” you started quietly.
“Little busy!”
Error suddenly vanished. Your eyes widened immediately. “Ink! LEFT-”
Ink twisted instantly just as Error reappeared beside him, blue strings already mid-swing. CLANG. Ink blocked it with the brush directly. The impact exploded outward hard enough to crack the ground beneath them.
“wOuLd yOu sToP DoDgInG?!” Error snapped.
“Would you STOP trying to murder us?!”
“NO”
Fair enough. Another wave of strings suddenly shot toward you instead. You froze instinctively. Ink reacted faster. Paint exploded around you both again, forming another shield just before the strings hit.
Error glitched violently. “oH ThAt’s iT”
“That sounds bad” you muttered.
Error raised both hands. The entire AU trembled. Every blue strings around the area began multiplying at once.
“Ink”
“I see it”
“That’s a lot of strings”
“That is DEFINITELY a lotta strings”
Then Error attacked. Everything happened at once. The ground split apart. Buildings shattered. The sky itself glitched violently overhead, and suddenly Ink grabbed you.
“Hold on!”
“What-”
Then he threw you. Straight upward.
“INK?!”
You shot high above the collapsing AU just as dozens of strings ripped through the space where you’d been standing seconds earlier. For one horrifying second, all you saw beneath you was collapsing sketches, broken buildings, and Error glitching violently in the center of it all.
Then arms wrapped around you smoothly midair. “Gotcha again!”
You grabbed Ink immediately before gravity remembered you existed. “You cannot keep throwing me!”
“In my defense, it keeps working!”
“That’s not a defense!”
Ink laughed loudly before spinning the brush again. Another portal tore open beside both of you. Below, Error looked absolutely furious.
“gEt bAcK HeRe yOu oVeRgRoWn cOlOrInG BoOk!”
“LOVE YOU TOO, ERROR!”
Then both of you disappeared through the portal again just as the unfinished AU finally started collapsing behind you.
──────•✦•──────
The next portal threw both of you directly into sunlight. Warm sunlight. Wind. Music? You blinked rapidly as your shoes hit solid ground again.
“Why do I hear dramatic guitar?”
Ink immediately froze beside you. “Oh no”
You looked around. The AU looked normal at first, fancy mansion, marble fountain, a perfectly manicured garden. Then somewhere nearby, a woman gasped loud enough to echo.
“No puede ser-!”
You slowly turned toward Ink. “Why do you sound terrified?”
Ink grabbed your shoulders immediately. “We need to leave RIGHT NOW”
“Why?”
“Because this is UnderNovela AU!”
Silence. “I’m sorry?”
The background music suddenly intensified for absolutely no reason. Ink looked genuinely stressed. “This AU forces people into story roles! Telenovela roles! Dramatic betrayals! Love triangles! People fainting every seven seconds!”
“That sounds fake”
Right on cue, someone screamed in the distance: “YOU WERE MY SISTER THIS ENTIRE TIME?!”
“Okay, maybe not”
Ink grabbed your wrist. “C’mon c’mon c’mon we gotta move before the AU assigns us-”
Too late. The entire world suddenly zoomed in on both of your faces.
“Ink”
“Don’t panic”
“Why did the world just camera angle us?”
A loud narrator voice echoed from nowhere. “Will Señora Y/N escape the painful conflict between love… and destiny?”
Slowly, Ink turned toward you. “Oh no”
Before you could ask what he meant, blue strings suddenly exploded from behind nearby pillars. Error stepped out, except he was wearing a sharp black suit with a red rose tucked into the collar.
You stared. Error stared back. Then he looked down at himself. “WhY Am i dReSsEd lIkE ThIs?”
The background music intensified. Ink pointed immediately. “HE FOUND US”
Error glitched aggressively. “nO Sh-”
Suddenly the AU cut him off. The wind blew violently through his clothes for dramatic effect. A random thunder sound played despite the clear weather. Error looked offended. “oH CoMe oN”
Then the AU assigned the roles. You felt the narrative locking into place. Ink grabbed his skull. “NOPE. NO THANK YOU”
The narrator returned. “After years apart… Señora Y/N reunites with her dangerous former lover… Señor Error”
You blinked. Error blinked. Then both of you pointed at each other.
“ABSOLUTELY NOT”
“eW”
Meanwhile, the camera dramatically zoomed into Ink’s face. “And her devoted fiancé… Señor Ink”
Ink looked horrified. “Why do I have a title?”
The music swelled. Suddenly, Error glitched beside you and grabbed your wrist. You yelped. “What are you doing?!”
“I DoN’T FuCkInG KnOw”
The AU apparently disagreed. Wind exploded around you both. “yOu bElOnG WiTh mE, y/n!” Error suddenly shouted. He immediately looked disgusted with himself. “I WoUlD NeVeR SaY ThAt”
Ink pointed dramatically from across the garden. “UNHAND MY FIANCÉ, VILLAIN!”
“Ink”
“I CAN'T CONTROL IT” Ink dropped to one knee. “Even if the world itself stands against us… my heart shall forever belong to you, Señora!”
You stared at him, then burst out laughing. “You’re enjoying this a little too much”
“THE AU IS POSSESSING ME”
Despite the fact that Error Sans secretly treated this AU like free entertainment whenever he watched it through his glitch portals, actually being stuck inside it was apparently a completely different experience.
Error looked one second away from deleting the entire dimension. “ThIs pLaCe iS DiSgUsTiNg”
Suddenly the music stopped. An old lady nearby gasped. “She cannot marry Señor Ink! Because she still loves Señor Error!”
Error looked deeply offended. Ink gasped loudly. “NOOOOOOO-!”
“WHY ARE YOU COMMITTING TO THE ROLE?!” you shouted.
“I DON’T KNOW ANYMORE”
The AU forced tears into your eyes. You grabbed your chest dramatically. “I… I cannot choose between the two men I love-!”
“yOu dOn’t lOvE EiThEr oF Us lIkE ThAt” Error snapped.
The sky darkened. Thunder cracked. Ink reached toward you. “Come with me, my love!”
Error pulled you back. “sHe’s nOt gOiNg aNyWhErE WiTh yOu”
“Oh now YOU’RE participating?”
“i’m tRyInG To sUrViVe”
The camera zoomed into your face. The AU gave you dialogue. “I’m sorry…” Both skeletons froze. You slowly reached toward Error. “…But I love Señor Error”
Error made the most horrified expression you had ever seen. Then you turned toward Ink. “But… I still wish to marry you, Señor Ink”
Ink gasped. “THE FORBIDDEN LOVE-”
“sToP EnCoUrAgInG It”
The emotional stress became too much for the AU. You placed the back of your hand against your forehead. “I cannot bear this pain any longer…”
Ink immediately understood. “Oh my god”
Then both of you simultaneously fainted backward, directly into the ink portal Ink opened underneath you. Error stared blankly as you disappeared.
Silence. Then nearby, the old woman screamed again. “THE LOVERS HAVE VANISHED!”
Error glitched violently. “i hAtE ThIs aU”
──────•✦•──────
By the time the two of you escaped UnderNovela AU, you were exhausted. Mentally. Emotionally. Spiritually.
“I cannot BELIEVE you committed to the fiancé role” you muttered while stepping out of the portal.
“I was under pressure!”
“You called me the light of your soul”
“It was method acting!”
“You fake cried!”
“THE AU ADDED TEARS”
The moment both of you landed back inside the Doodle Sphere, you froze.
“Oh...”
Ink stopped talking immediately. The Doodle Sphere was a complete mess. Floating AU windows flickered uncontrollably. Some glitched violently while others faded out of existence entirely. Sketch worlds collapsed into paint, and distorted fragments drifted around the Sphere like broken glass. One AU folded into itself while you watched.
“That’s probably bad” Ink muttered.
“That is EXTREMELY bad”
Another AU disappeared with a loud pop. Then another. And another. You stared at them carefully. “Wait...”
Before you could answer, blue strings exploded around you both.
“Oh COME ON” Ink groaned.
Error tore through the void looking absolutely done with existence. “yOu tWo aRe tHe wOrSt vAcAtIoN I’Ve eVeR HaD”
“In our defense-” Ink started.
“YoU DoN’T GeT A FuCkInG DeFeNsE AnYmOrE”
The strings shot forward. Ink shoved you backward just as dozens wrapped violently around him instead. “INK-” The strings yanked him upward, slamming him against floating debris. “OW”
Error appeared in front of you next. A string wrapped tightly around your wrist. You hissed as he pulled you closer.
“Well?” Error snapped. “Got any last words before I erase this stupid little science project permanently?”
You stared at him for a second, then pointed behind him. “You might wanna look first”
Error turned around slowly. Another AU vanished. Then another. Entire draft worlds collapsed, dissolving into loose paint. The unstable distortions began settling. The glitches weakened. Until eventually, only the original AUs remained.
Even Error stopped moving. “wHaT”
You carefully pulled your wrist against the string. “They were temporary”
Error looked back at you. “TcH... nIcE TrY”
“I’m serious. The Draft Engine doesn’t actually create permanent universes” You glanced toward the collapsing remnants. “It replicates existing timeline data as temporary draft structures. Like copied code. They were always designed to erase themselves after a certain amount of time”
Silence. Then slowly, Error’s expression shifted. Not calmer, just confused. “YoU MaDe a mAcHiNe tHaT MaKeS FaKe uNiVeRsEs”
“Temporary simulated structures” you corrected.
“tHaT’S JuSt a fAnCy wAy oF SaYiNg fAkE”
“...Fair enough”
Above both of you, Ink finally untangled himself. “Ohhhhh”
You looked up at him. “You didn’t read the instructions, did you?”
“I skimmed them!”
“You made fifty unstable realities after skimming scientific instructions?”
“In hindsight that sounds bad”
Error looked physically exhausted. “You are both unbelievable.” He gestured toward the entire Doodle Sphere. “…So aLl oF ThIs wAs oVeR A BrOkEn gImMiCk”
“…Technically yes?”
Error covered his face with one hand. “I LoSt mY EnTiRe rEsT DaY OvEr sHiTtY ArTs aNd cRaFtS”
Ink gasped. “IT WAS SCIENCE”
“iT WaS StUpId”
The Doodle Sphere finally stabilized. But Error wasn’t looking at the broken attachment; he was looking at you. Carefully. Thinking.
“yOu rEpLiCaTeD MuLtIvErSaL CrEaTiOn cOdInG”
You frowned slightly. “Not fully”
“bUt eNoUgH To mAkE ThE UnIvErSe uNsTaBlE”
The blue strings around him twitched. For the first time, Error looked genuinely concerned. “dO YoU HaVe aNy iDeA WhAt hApPeNs iF SoMeBoDy fIgUrEs oUt hOw tO MaKe tHoSe pErMaNeNt?”
You didn’t answer. You had already thought about it. Error noticed your silence instantly. “yEaH. tHaT’S WhAt i tHoUgHt”
The strings around you finally disappeared. “yOu’rE LuCkY. yOu’rE NoT An oUtCoDe... YeT” Error’s gaze narrowed. “bUt tHiS Is tHe lAsT TiMe i’m oVeRlOoKiNg sOmEtHiNg lIkE ThIs. AnD HoNeStLy? If yOu fInD A WaY BaCk tO YoUr oRiGiNaL DiMeNsIoN… tHe mUlTiVeRsE WoUlD PrObAbLy bE SaFeR FoR It”
Silence settled. Not angry, just honest. Then Error tore another glitch portal open. “AnD KeEp hIm aWaY FrOm pRoToTyPeS”
“RUDE” Ink complained.
Error ignored him, disappearing into the Anti-Void. The Doodle Sphere finally fell quiet. You exhaled slowly. Beside you, Ink poked the broken attachment hopefully.
“Maybe if I hit it”
“It’s broken”
“…Maybe aggressively”
“You are never touching my inventions again”
“YOU SAY WHAT NOW?”