Chapter Text
4 Years Prior, Tuesday, July 26th, 5 AE
“Stars, about time?"
The creator let the door slam and slumped onto the patchy swivel chair, overlooking a giant aqua blue screen. It was the only light in the otherwise pitch black room, which reeked of the reheated nachos his lousy employees failed to waft out before the end of their shift. God he hated the smell of cheese.
"Yes Sir."
It was late at night and black craters had already began to form around Ink’s sockets. His head turned to face Alphys currently scribbling down a few notes, her yellow skin green due to the screen’s blue glow. “Well are you gonna spill the info pal or am I sitting here just for fun?” Ink mumbled, head in hand. It's been a long night. Really, Ink couldn't remember the last time he went home because he practically lived at the laboratory at this point. A few screens popped up as he accidentally leaned too far.
“It’s something… big. R-really really big.” Alphys swallowed and swiped a few notches on the screen, pulling up percentages and numbers listed in puffy white font. Alphys’s voice grew in intensity, not with fear, but with some kind of joyous vigor. “I was just surveying the multiverse as usual, until I hit some kind of weird energy pocket. A-and of course, I had to investigate, naturally, so I used the dimensional plier and shot an artificial portal at it. And well, I found a room. Actually, it's more of a place. I-I didn’t even know it was possible, but it goes on forever, like an entire world. Like… an AU." Alphys took a deep breath and squared her shoulders. "After all this time. Ink, Sir, we found something." She clasped her hands together and chuckled, watching Ink raise his head with a neutral expression stuck on his face. "It should be impossible, for the longest time I did think it was impossible. B-but-"
A myriad of shapes flickered inside Ink’s sockets, his face illuminated by soft blue lighting. His spine was a little straighter, his gaze fixed on Alphys. “So you're telling me good ol' Error actually missed a bunch? He was always so meticulous. Before he died.. unexpectedly." Ink muttered to himself, drumming his fingers along the table in sync with the planes whizzing by outside. He frowned, gaining a new sense of curiosity and direction. He got up and began swiping at the large screen dominating the small circular room. Alphys made a squealing noise and nearly fell off her stool as she subtly shooed Ink to the side.
"Sir! Hey, you're going to- just let me." Her face flushed, embarrassed at her own spurt of panic. She chuckled and tapped a small file, dozens of images emerged, popping up in a nice neat pile. Her finger twitched with either excitement or some kind of mad energy as the images bloomed across the screen.
Ink's brows furrowed.
“What is this?”
“I-I don’t know…” Alphys stammered, flipping through the images. “That’s what I’ve been trying to show you.” All yellow rooms. Then the yellow rooms transitioned into tiled ones with pools. Strange meadows. Colorful ball pits and dark skies at high noon. “There’s more… a lot of different kinds.”
Ink shook his head, feeling a bit queasy due to the speed of Alphys’s scrolling.
“B-but strangely that’s not even the weirdest thing about all of this. You see this reading right here?” She pointed a claw at a particular line of code in the top right corner. "I have no idea what this is measuring or what it's for... but it's big and quite influential. Its presence is remarkable in every single one of these rooms, or worlds... or I'm not too sure what to call them actually."
"Are there any citizens," Ink interrupted, sockets focused on the screen.
"N-no. But y-yes. Not quite. There are... beings." Alphys clicked another file and enlarged a photo with her two stubby fingers. It was some kind of figure. Half of its form was hidden behind a yellow wall but Ink was able to tell it had a lanky, dark form with wiry arms.
Alphys continued. "I've never seen a monster like that in any AU. The only conclusion I could make was that its some kind of new class or some variant of an existing role. Perhaps a sans variant or amalgamation of some sort? Anyway, I was able to send a small drone into the portal last night and capture this picture." Alphys looked over at Ink's rigid form leaned over the screen. "But this was the last thing it was able to send over before being brutally demolished by the life form." She nodded her head. "So far data suggests the inhabitants are hostile."
"It's beautiful." Ink said, wistfully, eyes narrowed and rapidly gliding up and down the screen.
"I mean, I suppose it is, Sir?"
"All of it is." The creator held his head in his hand and stared at the image of this creature for a few quiet minutes. Alphys simply stood still; Ink's expression was slightly unnerving. He turned his head to face his colleague. "Do you know what this means?" He giggled, shrill and airy. "Creation survives." A wide smile spread across though his body sat perched on the stool like a statue. His hand crept to his chest and pinched empty fabric. Old habit. The sash on his chest was replaced long ago with jingling capsules in his pocket, filled with synthetic pills.
Alphys clutched her hands to her chest and looked over at Ink, nodding. "So surely we should tell the citizens about the news tomorrow?"
"No." Ink practically barked. "No. I think we should wait."
"Why?"
Ink's right hand jittered at his side, it was the only part of him moving, as if it was the first bodily appendage to thaw after a cold outing. "To plan. I need to plan."
"So in a week?"
"Alphys walk with me here. I know you're smarter than this pal." Ink inhaled and got up, pacing around the room.
"I don't understand..."
"New worlds. Space to live. Population growth. More creativity." Ink clasped his hands to his chest and grinned widely. "Obviously, we pop a few Omega Timeline residents into those rooms, probably the most creative ones obviously, and let them run free, do whatever they want. Be creative, have a few creative kids, then they have creative kids. Boom, a civilization of creative people." Ink's voice accelerated so fast he was almost foaming at the mouth."
The scientist stared at Ink with a gaping mouth. "So, you want to throw creative people into those rooms as a living space so that they be creative and eventually populate more creative people? For.. what reason, and how, and why?"
"So that I can recharge my creative energy, obviously! I don't know if you've noticed, but the Omega Timeline is running low on creative spirit. And I can't exactly do my job and be their leader if I can't do leader stuff!" Ink continued pacing the room, obvious to Alphys's bewildered expression. He gazed out the large window overlooking the Omega Timeline. His city. "The population is growing. Rapidly." He whispered to himself, though Alphys could obviously hear plain as day. "
"But that wasn't the original plan, remember? I thought we were just searching for new AUs simply to restore hope. Not to shove people into them..." Alphys trailed off, watching the smile form on Ink's face.
"And that's exactly what you'll tell everyone else at the meeting tomorrow. We found new worlds and we're gonna get rid of all those scary guys, polish the place up? Then we'll tell the public we found nice docile AUs, making the multiverse feel cozier. That's all. It's a housewarming ambiance thing. A 'hey there are other AUs out there after all, the multiverse is back to normal' thing. Because that's what everyone wants, right? To feel less alone in this great vast nothingness." He shook his head and laughed. "I'm not actually gonna tell people I want them to start colonies in there! It's too radical, Al." Ink walked over and pat the back of Alphys' head.
She shuddered to herself.
"Don't you think that sounds kind of like a, for lack of better terms, a science experiment? Like little ants in a glass?"
Ink smacked his mouth. "Everything's a science experiment if you think about it. I ate a pop tart this morning and who knows where it is now!"
"That doesn't make any-"
"So what are there, like a dozen rooms, thirteen?"
Alphys was still petrified. She pushed up her glasses. "There are infinite, Sir."
The scientist hadn't seen this expression on Ink in a long time. Pure unbridled joy. He lunged forward and wrapped her into a lethal hug, squealing and twirling her around the room. "My god I could literally tie you up in a bow and marry you right now you're telling me there's limitless empty creative space in there!?"
"Can I-" Alphys began to speak just so that Ink would set her down. "Sir!" Ink practically dropped her onto the floor, she regained her footing and tried not to wobble out of her heels. "Can I at least name one of the rooms."
Ink pressed his mouth and Alphys already knew how this conversation was going to go.
"I'd like to name something around here for once, I don't feel like I'm helping."
“You helped! I let you name a street after yourself.”
“It was an avenue. A col de sac, really.”
“A col de sac of love!” Ink tinkered with his business shirt and dashed right over to the cabinet, rooting around for loose paper.
"Back to the thing. If we're going to make this place livable, we got to do something about those hostile guys. Like... taming. Or close contact. Or something." Ink snapped his fingers. "Call the team in for an early 5AM meeting. And start thinking of protective gear designs. Actually I'll just do that, I already have so many ideas haha! We need a new name for this project too, like something 'Ink'. Spelunk Ink. Ink Crawlers. No. How many anagrams of 'Ink' are there?"
Alphys didn’t even get to say anything else before Ink’s brown platforms clicked across the floor, followed by the creaking door. She let out a huge sigh and stared shellshocked at the wall.
"Hey." Ink popped his head back into the room. "Remember, do not tell them anything about my plan, ok? All they need to know is we need those rooms cleaned up and sparkling. That's it." Ink snapped his fingers. "Oh and call the kids saying I said goodnight."
"Ok." Alphys croaked, still staring at the wall.
The door closed for the last time.
Her head jerked to the side when the computer let out a series of distressed beeps. A number flashed up in the top left corner.
3497. A little update jingle rang and the screen was immediately flooded with a cluster of new files.
There were 3497 images. And more were currently being fed in.
If only she could forget the sounds of that thing as it ripped the drone apart.