Chapter Text
Reality pushed himself up with shaky arms, his skull ringing slightly from a headache as he blinked away the bright, blinding burst of white he'd seen upon going through the portal. The first thing he was aware of was the crusty dead grass under him starting to regain some life, becoming more green and vibrant as he stood there, seemingly in the middle of a grassy field. The second thing he was aware of was Shattered's theme playing, a second glitching theme mixing into it.
The next thing he was aware of was the amount of negativity, not just here but everywhere. This whole multiverse seemed to be so angry, sad, scared, you name it on the negative side of the emotional spectrum. It was especially negative here, actually, and he could sense Shattered and someone else-
"look out!" Reality was thrown out of the way of several tentacles he hadn't noticed as blue magic grabbed his soul, sending him flying back.
Reality looked up in confusion, looking around for who sounded like Error, but he didn't see him. Instead he saw glitching black bones in front of him, which had pixels coming from them that were every color of the rainbow. He looked past them to see the source, and his eye sockets widened in surprise. He'd known that this multiverse would have things reversed, but he'd never expected this.
Error was standing there, but... different. His eye sockets and nasal cavity were dark blue instead of red, and his left eyelight was a swirl of rainbow colors with a black pupil while his right eyelight was white. His right eye socket had a red, an orange, and a yellow stripe coming down from it, and his left had a green, a light blue, and a purple stripe, similar to Error's blue markings. He still had the blue scarf, and he was wearing a loose black jacket, his left sleeve ending in a blur of red, orange, and yellow while his right ended in a blur of light and dark blue, purple, and pink, and the bottom of the jacket itself faded down to green.
He was wearing a light blue shirt, and a dark brown sash with seven pockets on it, each latch a color of the rainbow. His pants were black, fading to inverses of his sleeves, and he was wearing black socks and brown fingerless gloves. His segments of his fingers had different colors, too, those being orange and yellow, and upon closer inspection his toes did too, his heels green while his toes were light blue to dark blue to purple. His teeth were a lighter shade of yellow than Error's were, too, but the angry look on his face and the error signs matched Error's to a T.
"you pest!!!" Shattered snapped at the other version of Error, who smirked slightly.
"what? you didn't think i'd let you get away that easily, did you?" He asked, dodging more of Shattered's tentacles with agility Reality didn't think Error was capable of, doing a backflip and landing in a crouch a bit away, "who else did you terrorize, huh?"
"that's really none of your business." Shattered responded, rolling his eyelight, "now stay out of my damn way, error."
"ha! not a chance!" The glitch laughed, summoning several Gaster Blasters, which were black and had his eyelights, eye sockets, and streaks under them, and they fired bright, rainbow lights at Shattered, who dodged them, "it's nice knowing i give you such a problem, though! for you to have to go wherever that was through that portal to get away from me!"
"i didn't even go there willingly!" Shattered snapped.
"yeah well you sure as hell didn't wanna leave, now did you?" The Error's opposite replied, dodging more tentacles while using some rainbow strings to cut through them, "just admit it, i put up too much of a fight for you!"
"you do not!!" Shattered snarled.
"then how come you haven't landed a hit on me yet, huh?" He grinned, and Shattered growled, increasing the frequency of his attacks, Error's counterpart laughing while dodging them.
Reality could sense the swapped version of Error's emotions, and while he was angry, he was also having a blast. It was like he was purposely egging Shattered on to amuse himself, making him positive, and in the process, making Shattered lack in immediate negativity. It was a strategy Reality hadn't seen before, and he liked it. He teleported out from behind the bone shield in a plume of black and glittering gold smoke, landing next to the glitch and using his purple blades to slice through some of Shattered's tentacles that had stabbed out of the ground behind him.
"reality!! stay out of this!!" Shattered hissed.
"nope." Reality refused, and he looked over at the other Error, "you up for a team up?"
"if it pisses off shattered? then absolutely." He nodded, and Reality nodded back.
They both teleported out of the way as Shattered stabbed more tentacles down at them, Reality reappearing to his left while the Error lookalike teleported to his right. The anomaly sent sharp bones and Gaster Blasters at him while Reality used his purple knives and claws, the two of them slicing and blasting through Shattered's tentacles to try and do some damage. Reality was well aware he couldn't really injure Shattered that much, but the glitch's surprising positivity was fueling him, giving his blades a yellow sheen that burned Shattered at contact. Reality smirked as Shattered looked at him in surprise, and he kept attacking. Error's swapped counterpart was fighting similar to how Error did, which made sense, and it also allowed Reality to play off of his fighting techniques.
"you're outnumbered again, shattered! give it up!" Reality told him.
"since when have i lost when outnumbered?" Shattered questioned lowly.
"since today!" Error's opposite yelled, and he lunged forward, landing a punch against Shattered's face that sent him flying back, something Reality had not anticipated.
Error had haphephobia; he refused to get into close proximity with someone, and this one just... punched the hell out of Shattered. Reality looked at Error's swapped version's hands, seeing some sharp bones between his fingers, and there was some deep gouges out of Shattered's face that were quickly healing. He threw the sharp bones into the air, which glitched to be absolutely gigantic, and they stabbed down at Shattered, trapping him inside. The other version of Error summoned Gaster Blasters again, creating them between the bones, and they blasted down at him.
This happened in less than a second. A bright, rainbow light engulfed the area, momentarily blinding Reality as it sent him flying back a bit, landing on his tailbone, and he had to blink several times to clear his vision. He rubbed as his eye sockets as the effects of the blast dissipated, revealing a massive crater in the ground, and Shattered was nowhere in sight, and from what Reality could sense, he'd teleported away. It made sense that Errors were all at least somewhat destructive, and this one... definitely was. Wow.
"haha!! coward!!!" Error's swapped version laughed a bit away from him, gloating, and Reality sighed quietly, shaking his skull.
Yup, he was still an Error...
The other Error vanished in a glitch of colorful pixels before reappearing in front of Reality, offering him his hand to help him up, something that was again surprising Reality.
"hey, you ok?" He asked, and Reality accepted his hand, quickly pulled to his feet.
"yeah, thanks, umm..." Reality trailed off.
"oh! i'm error! i don't recognize you, so you must be a somewhat new au, right? wait, then how did he know you-" Error's opposite froze, before grinning, both eyelights stars. "are you from another multiverse?! i mean i'm assuming that's where shattered was, but are you from there too?!"
That amount of excitement and curiosity was... wow... it was a lot. This Error was so different from the one Reality knew, but it was kind of nice seeing a version of him that wasn't a childish, sadistic brat.
"i uh.. i'm actually from this one. my name's reality." Reality introduced himself, "i uh... it's a very long story about what happened..."
"well then let's go! i know just the spot we can talk where ol' sludge-bucket can't eavesdrop!" He prompted, snapping his fingers.
The crater in the ground sealed up with a few glitches, replaced by a grassy plain, just like what had been there before. The next thing Reality knew the ground was out from under his feet, and they were... somewhere else. Reality looked around to see what looked like a giant galaxy, matching in colors to the Outertale, but it was... somehow such more beautiful, filled with stars and colorful clouds.
The next thing Reality noticed about it were the countless pixelated vortexes all around the area, all colorful and having holographic, colorful labels next to them that displayed their name and a number, probably an ID on their variant. There was some Reality recognized, but others he didn't, and he knew Abyss or Sci would freak if they saw this place. Reality and Error's swapped version were floating in a space without a vortex present, and there were some colorful beanbag chairs, all having at least a few stickers or patches on them. The other Error sat on a blue one, getting comfortable on it, and Reality sat on a yellow one.
"do you want anything to drink or eat?" The glitch offered, "i can make pretty much anything in this multiverse appear here! other than souls, that is- well, i can bring people here, but i can't just create copies of them!"
"i'm ok, thank you." Reality declined, this version of Error's enthusiasm and all around friendliness downright shocking, "what umm... what is this place?"
"oh this? this is like a multiversal hub! i can access any au from here, and i can access pretty much any code, but only here!" He explained, "otherwise i'm limited to the au i'm in. so, umm... what was this story about shattered? did he get his coccyx kicked a lot?!"
Error's opposite grew a lot more excited at the last sentence, and Reality laughed a bit. He was still reeling from seeing a version of Error like this, but he was getting used to it. His positivity was helping a bit, and so was his friendliness, as Reality honestly found it endearing. He just... he still wasn't used to anyone being so friendly and eager to talk to him; his time in the other multiverse with Dream and the others still hadn't gotten him fully used to anyone wanting to be friends with him. This was... honestly kind of nice.
"heh, kinda. i'm uh... i dunno how to explain this, but i'm from this multiverse- shattered's au, actually." Reality replied.
"oh! you mean dreamtale?" Error's swapped version asked.
"yeah, i wasn't sure if the names were the same here for aus or not." Reality nodded.
"well, some of them might be the same! oh! i wonder which aus the multiverses share! wait- how come i didn't see you in dreamtale? i searched that au top to bottom except for shattered's lair, and i never saw anyone like you there." The other Error questioned.
So that's where I was? In Shattered's lair in this multiverse?...
"yeah, i was probably trapped in stone there..." Reality sighed.
"he trapped you in stone?!" The glitch exclaimed, anger flaring up inside him as his voice grew much more glitchy and distorted.
"no, no, he didn't, i don't think..." Reality said, "i uh... i don't know how i got trapped, but i know it was when my brother died... he was dream."
"i'm sorry for your loss..." He apologized, and Reality could sense some sympathy from him, another surprise, and it seemed to click, "wait, shattered is what became of the corrupted positivity guardian- dream! wait, shattered is your brother?!"
"that thing is not my brother." Reality stated, "he's just.. what remains of him, unfortunately. dream would.. he would probably hate himself if he knew what that thing was doing, and i'm trying to do right by him by stopping shattered, or at the very least protecting and helping who i can. it's what he would want."
The other Error nodded a bit, "that makes sense... it's honestly a really noble thing for you to do, reality. honoring your brother like that... don't take this the wrong way or anything, but uh... shattered's the worst."
"oh i'm not denying that." Reality laughed a bit, "i hate that thing, but uh... the other multiverse was nice. i uh... i got to see my brother again."
"dream? wait, he wasn't shattered over there?" He asked in surprise.
"yeah," Reality nodded, and he looked off to the side with a grimace, "instead, i uh... i was... i don't know who was worse, honestly. shattered did some messed up crap over there, but i don't think i ever learned the full extents of what that thing possessing that other me's corpse did before i got there, but i know dream had a lot of trouble with him for a while..."
Reality looked down, thinking about how many times Dream and Nightmare had fought each other. How much Dream was probably hurt by seeing someone attacking him with a twisted version of his face. Dream told him for a while he'd believed Nightmare was him before realizing the truth, and Reality could only imagine what Nightmare did to torment him. It almost made him sick.
"hey..." The other version of Error spoke up, getting Reality's attention, "i can guess what you're thinking, and... look, it wasn't your fault. you yourself said that shattered isn't dream, and that other version of you isn't you. don't let yourself get upset over what happened over there, since it wasn't you. there was nothing that other version of you could've done to prevent it from happening, and there was nothing you could've done to prevent what happened to dream. some things are just... scripted."
Reality nodded a little, and he looked down at his hands again, "i know, i just... i can't help but think that somehow it was my fault-"
"reality." Error's opposite cut him off, "it wasn't your fault. all aus have stories; they all have set paths that can't be changed, and unfortunately this was yours, and it was that other version of your au's. it's awful, but inevitable."
". . . thank you..." Reality mumbled, "why... why are you so nice to me? i mean, with shattered in this multiverse, this place has to be hell."
"well, it mainly is." He replied, "see, shattered was around before i was, and from what i can tell, anyone without a lot of determination is... very twisted. there's been so much pain and suffering, so much cruelty and hatred... it was awful forever, and sure, some aus like underfell are a lot tamer than others- actually some of the safest aus to be in, but... things got a lot better after shattered vanished."
Underfell? Safe?!
"that doesn't make sense... shattered is attached to this multiverse, any effects he's had on this multiverse wouldn't have just vanished." Reality thought out loud, and then realization hit, "wait, that's when i woke up over there... do you think...?"
"that you helped balance things out? that's exactly what i think!" The other version of Error nodded, "monsters started acting a lot less feral and dusthungry, so it's completely possible..."
"well, umm... you're welcome?" Reality responded, and the other skeleton laughed, snorting a little through giggles.
"better late than never!" The glitch snickered, "oh! i never introduced myself, did i?"
"no? i mean there was an error in the other multiverse, i wasn't sure if that was your name too or not." Reality answered.
"it is!" He confirmed, "well, kinda! i never really thought about another nickname other than the nametags."
He flicked an error sign with a finger for emphasis, and Reality snorted a bit, "nametags? oh i am so using that against him once i find a way back there to visit- if you don't mind, of course!"
"help yourself! what was this other me like, anyways?" He asked.
"well, he was fed up with nightmare and shattered, that's for sure." Reality answered, "he was uh... not exactly a model skeleton, though."
"nightmare's the name of the corrupted version of you, right?" He questioned, and Reality nodded, "just checking! wait, what'd this other version of me do, anyways? he couldn't have been that bad, it's not like i was purposely destroying aus or anything." Reality grimaced a bit, looking off to the side. "right?... reality?"
". . . like i said, not a model skeleton..." Reality sighed.
"WHAT?!" Error's swapped version exclaimed, shocked, horrified, and mildly outraged.
His eye sockets filled with an array of colors and error messages, and he went motionless, going into a crash like Error tended to. A rebooting screen popped up in his eye sockets, and after a few moments, the error messages and colors vanished. It took him a moment to collect himself and remember what he'd heard, Reality sensing when that realization hit a second time.
"alright, yup! name change! i am not going to be associated with someone like that!" He decided.
"it's an opposite multiverse, and i'm the only one besides shattered who's been there!" Reality pointed out.
He didn't want Error's opposite thinking he had to change his name just because of another version of him.... Reality only did it because of association and it just kind of stuck. If anything, he was pissed that thing stole his name.
"yeah, exactly! any time shattered says my name, he'll be mocking me because of that other version of me! seriously, how could any version of me destroy an au or want to hurt anyone in them?!" He questioned, dumbfounded, and he started to pace on the invisible floor.
"because according to him, 'they're all anomalies and dirty glitches'." Reality sighed.
"ugh, that version of me sounds like bleach..." He groaned, flopping back on the blue beanbag again.
Bleach? Another version of Ink, maybe...
"you still don't have to change your name, error. really!" Reality told him.
"oh yes i do! shattered will just use it to piss me off, and i don't wanna be associated with someone like that! either his or my name changes, no if, ands, or buts! . . . heh, butts..." He giggled, snorting a little, and Reality sighed.
So he was still childish, just... not at all a brat... Reality could live with that.
Reality sighed, shaking his skull at the joke, and he asked, "how awful are you at nicknames, anyways?"
". . . i don't think you want to know the answer to that." Error's opposite winced, and Reality laughed a little.
"so pretty bad, got it..." Reality said, and he hummed, "hmm... you're kinda glitchy and pixelated, and glitch is probably much more of an insult, so... pixel?"
Error's swapped version looked at him with wide eye sockets before grinning, eyelights stars, "yes!! i love it! thank you!"
There was that enthusiasm again, and... wow, yeah, Reality still wasn't used to that. The other version of Error- Pixel, was definitely enthusiastic, and Reality was actually getting overwhelmed by how positive he was right now.
"you're welcome." Reality smiled, Pixel's good mood contagious, "so umm... you've been fighting shattered this whole time?"
"yeah, he's such a pain!" Pixel sighed, becoming more annoyed, "bleach is, too- he's the one destroying things here, and he's almost worse than shattered! core's a brat, and speaking of, they're probably still looking for shattered, if they haven't found him already..."
Core was evil here? And knew Shattered?...
"you haven't had any help?" Reality questioned.
"well, everyone usually looks out for themselves or someone occasionally helps out, but otherwise not really. thankfully core doesn't fight and bleach and shattered both despise each other so i never have to worry about them teaming up, but otherwise... not really much help. most of the time unless we're both in the same area." Pixel answered.
"well, i'll be helping out now, and you'll definitely need the help. shattered learned about creating teams, and he's probably gonna be recruiting..." Reality sighed.
"that... will definitely be a problem." Pixel groaned, "- shattered recruiting, that is! having an ally in combat will be amazing! i don't really have any help with fights, and for the aus i can't save, that's where dev comes in!"
"dev?" Reality asked, confused.
"oh, they're the coolest! i'll have to take you to meet them!" Pixel responded, "hey, if you know which aus were enemies over in the other multiverse, would you be able to use that knowledge to find allies here?"
That... was honestly a really good idea...
"i could try? i know xtale is-" Reality started, but Pixel cut him off.
"nope. nuh uh. definitely not an ally." Pixel stated.
"really?" Reality questioned, "the sans there was an enemy in the other multiverse."
"yeah, well, let me say this much, the xtale sans is not a good guy. at all. i don't run into him often, but he's... yeah, you need to hope you don't run into him..." Pixel said, "he doesn't really have a name, but you know him when you see him."
"that's.... a change. his name was cross in the other multiverse... what's his deal, anyways?" Reality asked.
"well, his au is the only one without color." Pixel said, pointing to a distant point that Reality couldn't see, "other than some purple pixels, maybe. not sure what his deal is, that's more of a legend question- someone else you definitely need to meet, but otherwise... yeah, never go to that au, he's bad news."
"would shattered recruit him?" Reality questioned, and Pixel's eye sockets widened a bit.
"y'know, he's messed up enough he just might work for him. he doesn't really take orders that well, but he might put up with shattered if he feels like he needs to to entertain himself..." Pixel mumbled, probably mostly to himself.
Chronic boredom? XTale?... . . . Oh. Uh oh... Knife, or well, Killer.
"wait, did uh... did he kill everyone?" Reality asked, and Pixel's eye sockets narrowed in confusion at the urgency in his voice.
"well, yeah. countless times, actually... why?" Pixel answered.
"i... i think i know who he is, going off of the other multiverse, anyways..." Reality frowned.
"who?" Pixel questioned.
"trouble." Reality sighed, "definite trouble..."
"told ya he was bad news." Pixel mentioned.
"yeah, we definitely need to get a team together." Reality said, "soon. shattered's probably already working on that, and his knowledge of this multiverse and who he could recruit could be a serious advantage for him..."
"i never really looked into recruiting allies before... you're sure we'll need to? we make a really good team!" Pixel asked.
"yeah, i'm sure.. i'd rather not be horrifically outnumbered..." Reality answered.
"well, i hate dragging people into this, but we could talk to dev; see if they know anything..." Pixel said, "besides, you're gonna need somewhere to stay, anyways..."
While Reality was wracking his mind for who Dev could be, Pixel opened a glitching white portal on the floor, and Reality yelped as his beanbag chair tilted forward. He slid into the portal as Pixel jumped in, laughing a bit, and Reality landed on his coccyx on soft ground which thankfully didn't hurt too bad. He took a moment to examine his surroundings, and his eye sockets widened in shock. The ground was made of fluffy grass, and he could sense positivity emanating from the area, and while negativity was still present, it wasn't too bad.
He could hear laughter from playing children, along with idle, relaxed conversations between older monsters, most of which seeming to be Underfell variants, but there were some exceptions. The surrounding buildings were relatively nice, ranging from apartment buildings, hotels, businesses, restaurants, and there was even a park nearby. Looking up, Reality saw a sunset- an actual sky in this timeline, and it was sunset. The sky was filled with several shades of orange, pink, purple, and yellow, and it was honestly beautiful. It almost allowed him to forget the fact that Pixel had just dumped him into a portal!
"uh... pixel? where are we?" Reality questioned, looking up at him as he pulled him up to his feet, "i mean i know you said someone named dev would be here, but which timeline is this?"
"oh! this is something we call the beta timeline! it's a sanctuary dev made out of an abandoned timeline, and the best part is, only certain people can get in here!" Pixel grinned, "so it's one of the safest, most secure places in the multiverse! aside from where i stay, but practically no one can get there!" Pixel paused, mumbling, "i really need a better name for it..."
Huh, so this was the Omega Timeline over here...
"I've been telling you that for a while, Error." A new voice spoke up, walking over to them.
They looked... kind of like Core, but also like Player. They looked like Player but with Core's color scheme, their body black and different shades of gray. They had light gray, shoulder-length hair, almost white skin, a dark gray sweater and kilt with black stripes, along with black boots. Their eyes were black voids with white dots in the center, and their mouth just seemed like a black void.
"hey, dev!" Pixel greeted, "i made a new friend! his name's reality!"
Dev smiled a bit, saying, "Hey, Reality. Welcome to the Beta Timeline. Feel free to look around and make yourself at home. Let me guess... Bleach destroyed your AU, right?"
"not exactly... shattered's back, and-" Pixel sighed.
"Ugh, there goes our break..." Dev groaned, "He corrupted your AU, didn't he?"
"no, just... he's complicated. he's possessing the corpse of my brother." Reality explained, and their eyes widened.
"Oh my god... You're Nightmare!" Dev exclaimed, "I've been looking into Dreamtale for years, and I heard a lot about a second brother, but I could never find you!"
"yeah, uh... i was stuck in stone for a while. not an experience i'd recommend..." Reality grimaced.
"yeah, he got out after shattered disappeared! apparently they were in a whole other multiverse, one opposite to ours! he was fighting shattered over there, and now he's here to help us!" Pixel explained, "speaking of, after learning some... things about the other version of me, i have officially decided to, with reality's help, give myself a new name! he thought of pixel, and i really like it!"
"Pixel? It's got a nice ring to it. Love's gonna love it." Dev mentioned, "What'd the other version of you do, anyways?"
"what bleach does! can you believe it?!" Pixel exclaimed, "how could a version of me be so awful to do that?!"
"you're never gonna let that go, are you?" Reality asked.
"He's not." "i'm not!" They replied in sync.
Reality sighed a bit, pinching the bridge of his nasal cavity as he shook his skull a bit. For a multiverse that's been dealing with Shattered for centuries, the two people he'd encountered so far were surprisingly nice, meaning that either he was really lucky, or something was wrong. He couldn't sense any bad intentions from either of them, especially not Pixel, who was thrilled to have him as a friend and ally, and Dev didn't have any hidden intentions either. They were exasperated with Shattered, but they seemed almost... hopeful?
"hey, uh... don't take this the wrong way, but... why are you being so nice to me?" Reality questioned, Pixel and Dev exchanging a look.
"look, like i said, not many people help me fight shattered, and you... you're a good person, reality. a genuinely good person. i can see it, and so can dev." Pixel replied, Dev nodding.
"Besides, you have this... this aura around you." Dev mentioned, "It's... I dunno, kinda relaxing? It doesn't really mess with your head, but it's reassuring almost?"
Reality hadn't noticed that, honestly. He'd known from the others and from Dream himself that he had Dream had a similar aura, but he'd never known that he had that as well. It made some sense, he supposed, but it was still a bit of a surprise to learn. Then again, he'd somewhat figured out how to use positivity in his attacks back in Outertale, but he wasn't sure how he did it.
"yeah, that too! besides, shattered doesn't seem to like you, so any enemy of shattered's is a friend of mine!" Pixel grinned, slinging an arm around Reality's shoulders, "besides, not that many people put up with me! i'm too 'energetic'."
"you do act like you're on a constant sugar high." Dev mentioned, "You've been taking it easy on the chocolate, haven't you?"
"of course i have!" Pixel responded, though he was lying from what Reality could sense, and Dev didn't seem to need to be an empath to tell that Pixel was lying.
"Riiiiiiggghhht." Dev said, unconvinced, "Look, how about I get Reality set up somewhere, and you help with the decorating."
"actually, before we do that, which- YAY, DECORATING! but um.." Pixel cleared his throat, "reality had some bad news. from what he said, shattered had made a team over in the other multiverse, and reality thinks he might try it again over here, and he wants to beat him to it. do you know anyone here who might wanna help us?"
Dev thought for a moment, looking off to the side, "That... would definitely not be good; he's already a problem... I might be able to put some fliers up and get in contact with some people. I don't think Love would help since she doesn't like combat, Legend wouldn't be too interested either... . . . I could call Azrael?"
"azrael? like- angel of death, azrael?" Reality questioned, remembering the name from some books he used to read.
"That's who he's named after, yeah. Last time I saw him was when Shattered hit Birdtale a while ago, and Azreal might be open to helping?" Dev shrugged, "I could talk with Void when he swings by again too, he should be coming to update his multiverse guide in a week or two."
"multiverse guide?" Reality asked in confusion.
Void? Could that be Abyss?...
"Yeah, he writes guides on the multiverse for people who can AU hop, letting them know which AUs are safe, which are dangerous, etc." Dev explained, "He drops by a few times a month, and he was just here yesterday. You two might hit it off."
"do you think he would help?" Pixel questioned Dev, "i mean, what happened was awful, but it wasn't his fault..."
"wait, who?" Reality asked.
Pixel and Dev exchanged a glance, Dev sighing, "His AU.... there was a genocide loop, which I'm assuming you know about, but... he was one of the more sane people, and the human went through killing everyone over and over again, since Shattered corrupted their mind. His Determination was a curse for him, and he took some measures to try stopping it, and we think Shattered was involved there, too, but we aren't a hundred percent on that. Soot's been here for a few years now, though, and he hasn't gone easier on himself..."
Soot?... Dust? They sounded similar enough, with their similar stories.
"we could try talking to him?" Reality shrugged, "he seems like an opposite version of an enemy i had in the other multiverse, and he had a counterpart who was actually a friend of mine."
"That makes sense. Some Dusttales have different endings, and it makes sense for some to be good after the genocide while some choose evil." Dev mused, "I'll make some calls and I'll let you know who bites tomorrow. Azrael should hopefully help out, just don't mind if he's a bit... you'll see."
"i don't actually need to sleep or eat or anything, i don't need a place to-" Reality started, but Dev shook their head, holding a hand up.
"Reality, look, you're going to need a place to recharge and relax. Besides, once you get some allies, you'll probably want a place for everyone to hang out, right?" Dev mentioned, and Reality sighed a bit, realizing they had a point.
"besides, when i wanna visit you, i need somewhere to go instead of just... i dunno, a park or something. no friend of mine is gonna live on a bench." Pixel said.
"i wouldn't be living in a park-" Reality started.
"great, so you're accepting help! let's go! i know just the spot!" Pixel grabbed his hand before running forward, pulling Reality along behind him.
He stumbled a bit before he managed to keep up, running behind him. Pixel was surprisingly fast, and while Reality was able to keep up, Pixel was still fast. The area around him blurred from their speed, and while Reality tried paying attention to his surroundings, he couldn't read most signs and addresses. They ran through a neighborhood around the edge of a forest, and after a few minutes all together of running, they got to an open clearing in the woods.
Reality... felt a bit more at home around all the trees, and he wondered if Pixel did that on purpose, though he suspected he did. Pixel was a lot more thoughtful than Error was, and while Error was intelligent, he just wasn't nearly as emotionally aware as Pixel seemed to be. It was a surprise, but it was a pleasant one. Pixel stood confidently in front of a clearing, hands on his hips after he released Reality's hand, and they both looked to their right as the space there glitched a bit, Dev teleporting there.
"So, Reality, how do you feel about treehouses?" Dev questioned.
A treehouse?... Reality used to sleep on the branches on the Tree of Feelings a lot, be it hiding from bullies or just to relax for a bit, and while he missed it, he never considered the possibility of being able to do so again... Though what they had in mind was probably a bit different.
"i... would be ok with one, i guess?" Reality answered.
Dev nodded, snapping their fingers as a massive weeping willow formed, Reality having to tilt his skull up just to see it completely. It had a spiraling staircase wrapping around it's trunk, seeming to be made of smooth amethyst with dark purple cushions on each step, and the tree had long branches with green leaves, some of the branches almost reaching the ground. Reality could see platforms nestled between large branches of the tree, connected together by ladders or bridges, and the platforms had either walls or fences around them. Reality would be lying if he said his jaw didn't drop a bit in awe, taking a moment to process what he was seeing.
"Do you like it?" Dev asked, "I can alter it however you want."
"it's amazing!" Reality reassured, trying and failing to hide his enthusiasm.
Pixel laughed a bit, grinning, "dev is the best at making places to live! they've offered to make me a house a few times, but... i dunno... didn't wanna lose my view?"
"well how about i make you a room here? that way you can hang out here whenever you want, and you can go back to that spot in the multiversal hub anytime you want?" Reality offered.
"you're the best!" Pixel exclaimed, and Reality quickly found himself tackled in a hug.
He grunted a bit as he hit the ground before laughing, patting his back a bit. Pixel's positivity was still intense, but it was also quite contagious, Dev laughing a bit as they watched them. He hadn't expected his first day back to go anything like this, but he was pleasantly surprised.
Pixel was definitely someone to get used to, that was for sure; he was a bundle of energy and excitement, and while the visual of Error acting like this was hilarious, he would keep that to himself for the sake of Pixel seemingly hating Error. Dev was nice too, kind of like Core but also like Player; they weren't nearly as energetic as Pixel was, thankfully, since that much energy was exhausting just to watch. Reality suddenly found himself pulled up by Pixel again, who was bouncing on his feet slightly in excitement.
"now, for the best part!" Pixel grinned.
"what's that?" Reality asked, though he could guess the answer.
"decorating!!" Pixel beamed, grabbing his hand before running towards the treehouse, Reality stumbling and laughing as he followed after him.
Reality didn't need sleep. He didn't even get tired very easily, but he could just tell he would be exhausted by the time they were done decorating, wow...