Dreamcrash

Ten: The Art Dome

I open my eyes and look around. I'm in some... room, I guess. But it seems to go on forever. Everywhere I look, I see a bright blue the color of the sky on a cloudless summer day. Floating around the space were papers a golden color I've never seen before. In what I guess is the middle of the area is a bigger paper with several smaller ones around it. It's simple, but beautiful.

As I look around, I notice the smaller papers by the massive one disappear, then I feel someone moving around behind it, someone feeling peaceful and relaxed. It comes into view, its back towards me. I see it's a goat monster, wearing a green and blue striped shirt, brown pants, and black shoes. He's holding a notepad. He goes over to another paper and studies it, then writes something on the notepad. I sense interest and curiosity.

Then he sees me. I feel shock, a bit of annoyance, and nervousness from him. 

"Um... Howdy, who are you?" He asks. "And what are you doing here?"

"I... uh... my name is Night. I'm looking for my brother."

"Well, you've come to the right place. My name is Seed. This is the Art Dome, the place where every AU in this Multiverse is accessible."

Wow, so it IS real... I think. I can't believe it.

"Nice to meet you, Seed." Huh, that name sounds familiar... I wonder why. "So, do you know where my brother is?"

"Sadly, no. We can't see any inhabitants of AUs besides for the ones who are supposed to be here. So he could be anywhere."

"Wait, 'We'? There's more of you?"

"Of cou-"

A sudden crashing noise fills the room, along with a scream for help.

"What was that?" I ask, guard up.

"Oh, that would be my friends." Seed replies calmly. 

"SEED!" A voice yells. "HELP US OUT, WILL YA?!?!" 

Seed sighs. "Yes, coming." He walked out of my sight and came back a few minutes later followed by two people who looked thoroughly exhausted and beat up. One was a human, the other was a skeleton. The skeleton had glowing dark red eyelights and two ink splotches on his cheek and forehead. He's wearing a brown shirt, a tan scarf, dark brown loose shorts, a purple jacket, and purple and brown shoes. He also has a blue bag with some art supplies hanging out. I sense anger and annoyance from the human but nothing from the skeleton, even though he looks like he's about to explode.

"Geez, what happened? You guys look awful." Seed asks.

The skeleton takes a deep breath in.

"Oh, great," The human says. "Here we go again."

"WELL, if you REALLY want to know, we were doing our rounds, WITHOUT INTERFERING IN THE SLIGHTEST, when that IDIOT SKELETON decided it would be FUNNY to MESS WITH THE INHABITANTS' CODE AND GET THEM TO ATTACK US!" The skeleton yelled. "That ABSOLUTE IDIOTIC SKELETON, I'm going to KILL HIM ONE DAY!"

"Pen also had to do a slight overdose on his anger ink to fight them off." The human adds.

"Ah. that makes sense." Seed nods then turns to me. "Sorry about them. This happens every now and then. Pen, you have a guest."

"I... I do? The skeleton says, his eyes slowly fading to a mint color. "Wow, that hasn't happened since you two. HELLO! I'm Pen, the Protector of this Multiverse. These are my helpers. SO, new person, who are you and what brings you to my home?" 

"Um- I-" I stammer.

"...Night?" The human looks at me. I take in his dark skin and hair, messed up purple hoodie, and familiar brownish reddish eyes. "What are you doing here? And for Asgore's sake WHY DIDN'T YOU LISTEN TO ME?"

"Well... I tried, I really did, but-"

"Something went wrong? Something else happened? I should have guessed."

"Patch, I'm sorry-"

"Nah, it's not your fault. I should have known this wouldn't work out... nothing infected ever does."

Infected? What's he talking about?

"Patch, how do you know this skeleton?" Seed asks.

"This is Nightmare, from the Dreamtale line Pen brought in a while ago." Patch said. "He's the one who's been giving me some trouble."

"Oh." 

"Well," Pen says, "Maybe if you had left the timeline to me, this wouldn't have happened."

"Well, my apologies, Mr I-can't-heal-codes-and-was-busy-being-knocked-out."

"You know full well I could have handled that."

"No, you couldn't have! I'm the Codewriter here, I'm the one who does that stuff!"

"I still think it should have been me. I have way more experience with this, therefore I would be better."

"Why you little..." Patch held out his hand and a knife made entirely out of some red glowing substance appeared. 

"Oh, so that's how we're doing this? Okay then." Pen pulls out something from the pouch around him and sticks it into his arm for a moment. His eyelights turn dark red in the shape of an upside down teardrop.

Seed walks over to me. "Oh no..."

"Is this... normal?" I ask.

"Well, yes. They fight. A lot."

I look back at them. They're now trying to attack each other, but Patch dodges everything and Pen blocks all the attacks.  "Well, hopefully, no one gets hurt."

I looked back in time to see Pen hit Patch. "OW!" Patch yells. "You're going to pay for that one!"

"That's my cue." Seed said before disappearing. After a moment, he reappeared on the other side of the fight.

"HEY! CALM DOWN!" He hollers. And he's really loud. Pen and Patch look at him for a moment, then go back to fighting.

"You're idiots, both of you." Seed said, then snapped. Vines erupted out of the ground and wrapped around Pen and Patch's arms and legs, holding them in place. "I think you misheard. I said, you both need to calm down, right now. Pen, have some ink before you lose the ability to feel emotions. Patch, Pen didn't mean what he said."

The two of them looked at each other, then Pen said, "I can't grab my ink if you're holding me here."

Seed released one of his arms and Pen grabbed a vial of ink from his pouch, then drank the whole thing. 

Silence fills the space, except for Pen and Patch's heavy breathing. I feel their anger slowly fade.

"Seed, I think we're good now." Patch said, and I emotion sensed him to find he's calm. Seed nods and releases the two. Pen and Patch share a look as if apologizing with their eyes. Seed walks over to me.

"Uh... What just happened?" I asked.'

"Like I said, they fight a lot. If it gets too rough, I'll step in. So, you're here to find your brother, right? Pen! Patch"

"Mmhmm?"

"Night's looking for his brother. Since we know the Multiverse pretty well, I think we should help him."

"Alright. I don't mind. Traveling AUs is fun."

"Sure! Maybe while we're traveling, we'll run into Thread so I can kick his butt all the way to the next Multiverse!"

I smile. Looks like I got some help.