An Error's Doll

Chapter 8

"Woah, woah, calm down Error, it's not that bad, is it?" you asked nervously, holding your hands up in a placating gesture. You don't think it worked with the death glare he sent you.

"CALM DOWN? SERIOUSLY?!" he seethed. You were getting a bit antsy when you noticed his hands clench into fists. Who knew he'd get so angry?! Sure, you expected him to throw a fit and spout some curses, but now you were getting worried it'd get physically violent.

"Yes, you need the help, right? And you can't ask anyone else, can you?" you tried explaining calmly. This felt almost like trying to calm a savage dog, with the way he began to bare his teeth in his outrage. You could almost imagine him foaming at the mouth.

"Who said I needed help? Besides, what could that octopus possibly do besides irritate me?" he said venomously. Yikes, he really doesn't like Nightmare. You wondered why, but you hadn't met the skeleton so you couldn't even make a guess. I mean, you could assume it has to do with how other Nightmares behaved, but there was no proof he was like that here, so you'd just have to meet him to know.

"For one, his abilities could be useful. Secondly, he and his gang would make for good distractions against the Stars-"

"His 'gang' is nothing more than a group of wannabe delinquents with brother issues, they couldn't help with anything, let alone something as important as the balance," he snarled, cutting you off. You gave him a stern stare, waiting until he sat back from looming over you before continuing where you left off.

"And lastly, you've been doing this alone for this long with no progress, why don't you take a chance and see if that can change?" you finished softly. You understood this was a tough subject for him, but he needed to understand that continuing as he has been won't change anything, and everyone will end up suffering for it.

He glared, long and hard, his expression twisting and changing as he thought over your words. He didn't appear to want to believe you, but that didn't change the fact that what you said was true. If things didn't change now, they never would.

"...and how are we supposed to convince him even if we wanted his help?" he finally grits out, his voice strained. Your tense figure relaxed a little, it seemed he was at least willing to consider it, even if begrudgingly. You smiled slightly.

"We offer to assistant him with his side of the balance," you said simply. He raised a bonebrow, looking at you skeptically.

"How are you sure his balance needs help in the first place?" he questioned. You weren't sure, but you had a reason for thinking so, you just hoped Error saw it the same way.

"Think about it, if the balance of creation and destruction is unstable, what do you think that does to the emotional balance?" you asked. You could practically see the gears turning in his head as he considered it. You knew you had him when he sighed heavily.

"I get it, but what do you want me to do about it? Destroy a whole bunch of universes and say "Look, your problem's solved, now help me with mine", because that doesn't sound like it'll work," he grumbled. Well... he had a point. That probably wouldn't do anything but create a temporary stalemate that'd break as soon as Ink created more AUs to replace the ones lost.

You contemplated. What was something that could permanently fix the emotional balance? You could maybe deal with Ink first, but you had a feeling Nightmare would refuse to help unless he got immediate benefits from it. As stated before, destroying AUs would only be a temporary solution. It's not like you could force both guardians to stop spreading emotions and then stop Ink either, you doubted they'd be willing to do that.