Fresh New Antivirus

Ch. 12 - Time to Th(Ink)

Back with Ink he was feeling ... well. Not what he should be as he looked out at the starscape of the Original Outertale.

He was feeling amused, frustrated and a little smug. Among other, less prominent things swirling in his magic system. Under the new paints he was drinking, there were still the faintest hints of blue still leaving his system.

He vomited another rainbow. He cleaned the ink.

Never mind the rainbow showed how he 'really' feels. Ink tends to throw up when emotionally overwhelmed; Rainbow for negative or a strong single emotion, and black for positive or overly complicated feelings.

Rather counter intuitive, right? Normally one would think the colorful version would mean good things. But in reality it was his system rejecting the imbalance of positive feelings to force negative ones upfront.

But, still. Ink was fine! Totally fine.

Who cares that by choice the most negative feeling he could experience on average was anger in the absence of fear or sadness? At least anger made him feel alive and not like he was dying. Ink was convinced he wasn't exaggerating about that, even when Dream said it was because he didn't let himself 'process' long enough or whatever it was. He couldn't really remember.

But. he. is. Fine.

He was even humming a tune (A/N: ... megalovania? That's a little passive aggressive, but ok) as he thought about something to draw while waiting for the blue to wear off and for the positives to stick better. He tapped his fingers on the binder irritated.

Perhaps a calming scenery?

The stars of the original Outertale glimmered as Ink sat alone over the Void. He wished he had been the one to think of this AU, but that honor went to the real creator. Ink only ever made Copies lately unless there was something specific needed - like with Underconstruction.

He hummed in thought.

At least he hadn't snapped at his friends, guessing that he wasn't truly mad. When times like that pop up, he needs a moment to think about how he should act rather than just go with the emotion. Apparently he makes a weird face when that happens because those that know him well are cautious when he's 'feeling' like that, as he was quick to 'anger.'

It's made him consider also dropping the reds as well, but usually he can't feel guilty without blue and a pinch of purple, so he doesn't - besides, that would just open up the chance for him to be off his paints completely if he 'felt' bad enough while only having positives, and that would be much worse than mere anger for everyone involved ...

Which has always bugged him a little. He's soulless. Always has been, as far as he remembers. So why do his paints sometimes act unpredictably when he's the one to pick them? Thinking about it always gave him a headache - like he was trying really hard to remember something but couldn't.

Maybe that guy was right. Ink should take more breaks.

He finally opened his sketchbook trying to distract himself from his headache. He flipped to a blank white page as he sat alone on the edge.

Ink gasped and suddenly clutched his skull.

...

Alone. White. Nothing. No one. He was so scared. So alone for so long. Just make it go away! He cried. Something was in front of him and somehow he knew it was the reason for the feeling. He ripped it apart hoping to stop the fear .

Only ... it worked too well.

"Nooo!" A voice called out in horror.

Huh. He ... wasn't as alone as he had thought ... but it was too late.

He didn't care anymore.

...

Color. Feelings. A job. A warm presence. The feeling of making so many new AU's, of their few copies. It was so much fun! He asked ---- if things could stay like that forever.

He complained about how Error had to destroy for the balance. How it wasn't fair.

She said she would be right back.

...

A red string.

...

"Why!?"

The sound of a woman crying. A crack like thunder. Pain. Unexplainable sadness. Consuming Fear. A rainbow.

There must be too much purple. Too much Blue. He wanted it to stop!

"How could you forget me! You can't forget. Y-you ... I'm sorry, sob. This is my fault. Try ... try to remember."

A ... hug? Warm.

"It's me, ----. I'm your-"

...

Ink vomited a rainbow.

What was he doing?

Oh Yeah! Inner monologue. He was thinking about what might have made him run from ... Fresh. His name was Fresh. They were brothers now - not 'that guy' - Fresh. He had to remember.

He couldn't forget someone so important.

Ink wrote a note on his scarf so he wouldn't forget about Fresh, and gave a small smile.

Then he cleaned his mess as he has many times before and started to draw, now humming a happier tune.

Ink slowly remembered why he ran.

When Ink started to feel mad at the realization that Fresh could help him feel normal, he made sure to think the situation through to figure out why that would cause a negative spike.

He should have been happy. Isn't that what he's always wanted? But 'happy' wasn't right it seemed. It didn't take long for him to guess why.

Ink was afraid to be afraid. Ridiculous, really.

If he got his emotions working 'normally,' then would he even be himself anymore? Who was he if he couldn't be the fearless Protector? He didn't know.

He couldn't remember any more.

So he ran away to calm down. Forcefully drinking more paints just caused another rainbow, so waiting it out was the way to go this time. No one liked a grumpy Ink - not even Ink.

In another world, this edge had claimed one of his creations because he had been more curious than worried about what would happen at the time. It was frustrating how delicate a universe could be.

He checked his scarf and found a note he had countless times before: 'make AU copies to stop Error from destroying the multiverse.' Next to it was a new note: 'Fresh the 90's skeleton is your brother.'

Ink couldn't stay idle any more. The multiverse was counting on him. And now, he also had a brother to protect.

He snapped his sketchbook closed, and the perfect replica of the sky disappeared into his Inventory.

He gave the sky a determined look.

The whole time he had been playing around, he had been ignoring the tiny tug that let him know that AU's were disappearing. That Error was destroying them.

1, 5, 20, 34, 100, more. Ink couldn't know as he wasn't counting - probably wouldn't have remembered if he had been and ... Ink had let him do it.

Just so he could make a new friend who turned into a brother.

Ink was selfish, soulless, forgetful, impulsive and not the Protector or friend anyone deserved. He knew that. But he didn't have the motivation or time to change. The multiverse needed him now.

As the last of the blue was used up, he couldn't even feel sad for the AU being destroyed as he stood ... but he could feel angry for them.

Ink was looking for a fight.

Just as he was about to portal to Error, the AU crumbled.

Dammit! Now how was he going to-

A glitchy portal opened to Outertale.