Children of Chaos

Chapter 8

Erratum quickly finished the new puppets, including him and Blue. He carefully stitched their names on the backs of their skulls. All his puppets were made to scale, with one inch (or ~2.5 cm) on the puppet corresponding to one foot (~30 cm) on the person. Erratum then began making new clothes, since his old ones were irreparable (except, luckily, the scarf) and Blue didn't have winter clothing.

He formed a light gray hoodie for Blue. It had strands of sky blue woven into it, and, though thin, it would keep him warm no matter what. A sky blue hat soon joined it. It had cat ears sewed onto it, with the same light gray in the middle. He also made long black pants. Everything was waterproof (because magic) and super durable (also because magic). For himself, Erratum made the same thing, except where there was light gray, there was black, and where there was sky blue, it was midnight blue, except for the hat, which was black with red ear things. He decided to make boots later.

Glancing at the clock, he saw it said '4 am', whatever that meant. Blue might have taught him a lot of things, but, at the end of the day, Erratum had still lived in the Anti-VOID, where time was meaningless. 'His' Nightmare's gang didn't exactly keep 'normal' or even consistent hours, so they were no help, either. Oh, wait! He remembered now! Blue said once that he woke up at 6 am to get ready for the day. That meant 2 more hours... he thought. Why was time so difficult?

Regardless, Erratum figured he might as well work on the boots while he can, before there was a chance of Nightmare or the others seeing him use his strings. 4 am was early, right? He couldn't hear anyone moving around, so they were probably all asleep. He summoned his strings and began to make sky blue boots with light gray fluff on the insides. Boots were pretty complicated, apparently, and he had just finished the second one when he heard Blue stir, whimpering.

"Error!" cried Blue, sitting up suddenly. "ŤhÅţ'$ m3, ßłŲəßiŘđ," replied Erratum calmly. Blue was instantly awake. Launching himself out of bed, he tackled Erratum, who simply accepted that he was now a pillow as Blue buried his skull into Erratum's chest. "I-I had a dream that you- that you died," said Blue, sobbing quietly. "I-Inky killed you in- in the big fight, and I had to watch as you- as you turned to d-dust..." Erratum rubbed his back soothingly. "1ț'$ øĶăÝ, ßłŲə. 1'm Åł1v3, ă$ ý0û €ăŃ ś3ə." They stayed like that for a while, not even noticing when Nightmare creaked the door open.

Nightmare awoke to a shout. Quickly getting out of bed, he checked on the kids. Pausing at the door for a second, he could hear Blue crying and telling Erratum about his dream. "-killed you in- in the big fight, and I had to watch as you- as you turned to d-dust..." Erratum was quick to reassure Blue, and when Nightmare creaked the door open after a few seconds, he saw Erratum holding Blue comfortingly.

As cute as the scene was, Nightmare was still worried. Blue dreamt of a... past event? A big fight, where Erratum apparently survived by the skin of his teeth. Except, in the dream, Erratum died? And Blue was forced to watch? This had horrible implications. Before he could theorize more, Nightmare noticed the small pile of puppets and clothing that was definitely not there yesterday. He had no idea how they got there, but Erratum probably had something to do with it. He sighed, going back to his room. He was far too tired for this.

Eventually, Blue calmed down enough to wriggle out of Erratum's grasp, though he did not go back to sleep. Instead, he watched intently as Erratum continued forming clothes. A blood-red turtleneck, black boots with red fluff, a midnight blue turtleneck, and two pairs of fuzzy black socks were soon tossed onto the towering pile of clothing and puppets. Erratum had just desummoned his strings when the door was suddenly kicked open.

This caused several things to happen at almost exactly the same time. First, Erratum, startled by the sudden noise, summoned his strings to defend himself. Second, Blue tackled Erratum, pinning his arms to his sides before he can attack anyone. Third, Dust entered the room to tell the kids it was time for breakfast. Fourth, the previously-summoned strings, responding to Erratum's panic, tried to grab Dust's SOUL, but they were only a couple feet long, so they just sort of fell limply about 5 feet from Dust. Fifth, overwhelmed by everything, Erratum crashed with a loud sound.

Silence reigned for a few seconds as Blue got off him. Finally, Dust spoke. "What the hel- I mean heck was THAT?" Blue took a few seconds to answer, glancing at Erratum's frozen figure. "That was a crash. Erratum crashes when he's too overwhelmed by things. In this case, it was the combination of you kicking the door open and me tackling him."

Dust nodded. "Why did you tackle him, anyway?" he asked. Blue tensed, eyelights darting around the room as if locating exits. "Erratum can tell you that later," he eventually said. "Ť-ț-Ťə£*ł #¡-1-įM_₩hÅ/ț £!æŤę+Ř¿" asked Erratum from where he lay on the ground. Dust could barely understand him from all the static. Usually it was just in the background, like a bad connection on the radio, but now it was almost louder than the actual words. "Why I had to tackle you after he kicked the door open," replied Blue. 'It would only worry him,' he added in sign language. 'If we do tell him, we should tell the rest of the gang, too, at the same time.'

(Yes, Blue knows sign language. Erratum taught him. The signs will be different from this multiverse's signs because I said so, but they'll be similar enough that someone who's well-versed in sign language could understand some, if not most, of it.)

Dust blinked. He didn't know they knew sign language. He couldn't understand what they said, but it was probably something they didn't want him to know, or Blue would have said it out loud. "Wait, what are these?" he asked, noticing the strings on the ground. "And where did all these clothes come from?" he added thoughtfully, bending to touch one of the light blue strings.

Erratum, panicking slightly, yanked the strings away. Dust looked up at him. He caught a glimpse of the strings, realizing they were wrapped around his fingers and coming from his eyesockets, before Erratum turned away. "Wha-"
"Not the time, Dust," Blue said, cutting him off. "You came in here for a reason?"
"Oh yeah!" Dust exclaimed, sufficiently distracted. "It's time for breakfast!"

Blue yanked Erratum to his feet. "BREAKFAST!" he yelled, grabbing Dust's hand as well as Erratum's and dragging them out of the room. "$-ş£ø₩ đ0-đ0wŅ-ñ^ßłŰə!" Erratum cried as he was dragged towards the stairs. "This is NOT safe!" Dust added frantically, digging in his heels. Blue seemed unaffected. He knew that if Erratum really didn't want to go down the stairs at hyper-speed, he could and would stop them easily.

Luckily, Blue didn't trip. For the first flight of stairs, that is. About three steps down the next one, Blue lost his balance and fell, reflexively letting go of Erratum and Dust. Dust managed to grab onto the railing, stopping himself from going down with Blue, but Erratum wasn't on the side with the railing. Instead, he fell with Blue, manipulating himself in midair to cushion the more fragile skeleton. A sickening CRACK was heard as his skull slammed into the hardwood at the foot of the stairs.

"Oh stars! Oh stars!" Blue shouted, leaping up. "Are you okay?!?" Erratum tried to nod, but stopped, wincing slightly. "1'm FįŅə," he replied, getting up. "Hø₩ bÅđ í$ īŢ?" He ran his fingers lightly over the back of his skull. Noting a new crack and what was probably blood, he sighed. "...₩ə $h0ų£đ Pŕ0bÅb£ý FíŅđ $øMə ßąŅđÅğ3ş."
"Yeah," Blue agreed. "We should also probably tell Nightmare, but the bandages come first."

Dust, who had been standing where he was, in shock, ran down the stairs. "Oh, sh!t! Erratum, are you okay? That sounded pretty bad! Is that BLOOD?" His voice went up an octave on 'blood'. "He's fine," Blue answered for Erratum. "We just need some bandages." He pulled Erratum's hood over his skull so Dust couldn't see just how bad it was and tugged Erratum towards the nearest bathroom.
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I know I haven't updated this book in like forever, I'm sorry. Things came up, you know? Anyways, it was getting a little long, so...

Make sure to comment any questions, comments, or concerns!