A New Home

An unexpected dream

Balance had never slept so well as he did on the tentacles of the giant mer. It was surprisingly soft and completely surrounded him. This gave Balance a feeling of calm, relaxation and safety. It was one of his best experiences ever.

Had he actually slept before? If he slept before Nobody came, he didn't remember it. But after meeting Nobody? He had never slept during this time! Not even since he got here. Wow, was that his first sleep? It was definitely pleasant. If it always was, Balance would love to do it again. But could he sleep outside of these tentacles, where it was no longer safe and he had to be careful all the time that these Mers don't use him again to vent their anger? He'd rather stay here forever. Nothing could hurt him here. No Mers and certainly no voic-

“Mistake, he's finally here! Really, his sleep cycle is worse than yours.” Balance heard a voice wail and fear gripped his soul. Could the voices reach him better here in his sleep? He knew he shouldn't have hoped they were gone. Just because they had been quiet since arriving in this world, he should have known that they would eventually catch up with him again.

"Shut up, Squid. You're absolutely not helping.”, said another voice. And this time it sounded... familiar. So Balance made an effort and tried to remember how he could know that voice. It still took him some time, but in the end he knew it again. It was one of the few nice voices!

Balance carefully opened his eyes and was amazed to find that he was in a place split in two. One side was white, like his Doodle Void at the beginning. However, there were blue strings hanging from the ceiling and wrapped around a few dolls. The other side was a light, neutral yellow. There were various white pieces of paper hanging on strings of different lengths, which, if he moved correctly, seemed to show a scene thatBalace couldn’t see.. But what surprised him most were the two Mers, who were sitting some distance away from him, bickering like little children. But in spite of everything, Balance could only taste of trust from their colors. So there were friendly arguments too?

"Who are you?" Asked Balance curiously and drew their attention. The two Mers looked at each other briefly before the one who was sitting by the threads and dolls and who had the familiar voice began to talk.

"I'm Mistake.", the Mer introduced himself. Balance eyed him curiously. After all, he had never seen another mer with black bones. The blue stripes on his face looked very nice too. But what was most intriguing was the mer's tail. This mer appeared to be a seahorse if he remembered correctly. The tail itself was a strong, juicy red. In addition there were the yellow tips at the tail and fin ends. The blue circles around the tail made the whole thing an interesting mix. Balance was a little jealous. He wished he was so handsome. Maybe others would like him more then?

“And I'm Paint!” Even though the other mer's voice was enthusiastic, there was still something about it that made Balance feel uncomfortable. He sounded a little bit like that very nasty, very loud voice that used to yell at him at first. But still, Balance took a closer look at this mer too. The tail itself was short and thick, and a deep black, the same color as the spot on the mer's cheek. But Balance could make out spikes on his back that stretched to the tail fin and were the colors of the rainbow. The tail fin also seemed to shimmer in rainbow colors. The most interesting thing, however, was the ball, shimmering in rainbow colors, which was attached to the back of the Mers head with the help of a black thread and therefore dangled a little above the eye sockets. What was also nice about the mer, however, were the many small patterns on the light gray bones.

And even now that Balance had caught their attention, Balance couldn't taste anything but trust, pride, and... love from them. It was confusing. Why did they treat him so intimately when they first met?

"What is this place? And why am I here?“, Asked Balance and looked at the two Mers confused but also curious. Because although he was excited to meet these apparently friendly Mers, this environment confused him. It made him feel safe and dangerous all at once.

“You could call it a small space in your soul that was created when you were created. Paint and I live here.We tried to contact you before, but Fate successfully blocked the connection between us. And now that you are out of her reach, we were just waiting for a suitable opportunity.”, Mistake told him after thinking for a while. He probably didn't know how to phrase it.

“Glitchy here had been worried all along. With the connection blocked, it was quite difficult to keep an eye on you.” Paint chuckled, nudging Mistake on the cheek. "You are such a mom, Mistake~"

With a small smile, Balance watched as the two started arguing again. Seeing them like that made him feel like family, which Balance really enjoyed. It also had a surprisingly calming effect. But unfortunately he couldn't enjoy it much longer because his vision seemed to darken again. He heard the two Mers say something else, but he didn't understand the words.

Blinking, Balance opened his eyes again and found himself facing Dream's worried face.

"You're awake! You slept for days, Balance. We were worried!"