At Their Mercy

Chapter 6: What's one more?

A/N: Oh hey, it's me again. This chapter was more establishing Erratum's presence in the universe and revealing their existence. I have finals coming up, so not sure when I'll post next. I'll keep doing my best though, as this keeps me sane during it all. Enjoy!

Geno became a slightly different monster after their confrontation with Erratum. The god didn't view this as a bad thing, rather it seemed to have a positive impact on him. He didn't spend much of his time alone, sulking and refusing to acknowledge his environment anymore. The skeleton seemed to become more fascinated with everything, in fact, including Erratum. Erratum supposed this was due to his original lack of trust and belief in them originally. He asked a lot of questions, and the god didn't mind indulging him most of the time. They tried to avoid anything regarding the other's world, not certain if they were ready to explain that.

Overall, life was peaceful.

Erratum reflected upon that as they delved through the codes of Aftertale, as they had come to learn it as. They occasionally returned here alone to study the base components and makeup of the world to discover a solution for Geno. They had promised to try, and they would be remiss to ignore that. Sanses had something about promises.

Just as Erratum expected, this universe appeared to have a full story completely outlined for it. It appeared as if someone had canceled an execution command, at least that's how it presented to Erratum's mind. They attempted to understand the creator's logic in this decision; were they unhappy with how he originally designed this world? Did he plan to change aspects of the story? Whatever it was, he had left this world in a state of incompletion, and now Erratum was trying to sort out the mess. The god grumbled quietly to themselves, reminding themselves once again not to hold contempt, as they pulled up both Geno and the replacement copy of Sans side by side. Cross-referencing these two, the god found them to be nearly identical. The biggest issue they were stumped on was Geno's determination. As far as they knew, this wasn't a property they could simply strip from him either; it was an essential integration of his code. Perhaps the appearance of this replacement Sans is what prompted the creator to pause this story? Maybe they were attempting to find a way to incorporate both of them into this story.

Erratum had a bad habit of making excuses for Ink.

"Other copies in different universes exist with determination properties. There should theoretically be no reason why Geno couldn't survive within the world. Correct?" The god glanced over at a screen that popped up, which simply gave them a question mark in response. They waved away the unhelpful response from their program. "That was rhetorical. Perhaps if I dig deep enough, I may discover the completed timeline for this story. In the event that I am able to, I could force execute it through admin permissions. I would have to bring Geno back, however, and force them through the events of everything..." It wasn't ideal, but once it reached a resolution, Erratum could fix the messy bits up again. Perhaps they could even lock the world back down again, perhaps like their own plane existed. This would allow Erratum to come and go as they pleased, as well as anyone Geno allowed them to program in. A part of them hoped the creator would not be on that access list.

Erratum paused as warning signs began to pop all over their screen and in various windows. They glanced up in alarm as the sound of bubbling liquid filled the black space. They quickly closed all their windows and made a hasty retreat. The last way they wanted their first meeting to go was while they were actively pulling apart from one of his precious worlds. Call it a tactical retreat, for now. They breathed a sigh of relief as the portal closed to Geno's world. Looks like sniffing out that storyline would have to wait until another time. Still, they were onto a good lead, and they finally had some information they could give to Geno. That should put a little hope into the monster.