Mer!verse Error (continuation)

Chapter 10

Nightmare was currently trying to wrestle his camouflaged tentacles to get free from the seaweed, which was a lot harder than you'd think. Firstly, his tentacles weren't cooperating, secondly, there were eight, practically invisible limbs hanging onto the seaweed as if he'd die if he let it go. Then there was also the fact that the water surrounding him was washing away his goop, and honestly, he's surprised that it took this long for it too wash off, though considering that the goop sorta just piled over and over on his body and he never took a shower - since that would turn him into his passive form - it makes sense. Maybe that's why he's so much taller when corrupted than in his original form.

Shaking the thought from his head, he tried once more to remove the seaweed with, once again, failure. Deciding that he'd try one more time before simply cutting it off, Nightmare reached for it again, only to find that he was no longer holding anything with those particular tentacles. He shrugged it off, thinking it was just because he was stressed, and turned around and started swimming, only to nearly bump into someone in the process.

"Ah! I'm so sorry-" 

"No no, it's okay-"

"I wasn't looking where I was going-"

"You don't have to apologize, Nightmare."

"...? How do you know my name?"

"Does nobody recognise me anymore? Night, it's me, Error. Though I go by Misprint now so- again? Really?"

Nightmare couldn't stop himself. He knew that Error had haphaphobia, and that he should let go from the hug, but he couldn't stop shaking. It wasn't until Erro- Misprint wiped his tears away that he realized that he was crying. His shaking only worsened when he realized that his bones were a pearly white, and that the whole 'appearence' situation just got a whole lot worse.

Suddenly, someone took me from Misprint's hold, which made me lash out at whoever was holding me, all his tentacles finally reacting the way he wanted them to, instead of just squirting ink and shooting downwards, into the sand.

"LET ME GO!" Nightmare yelled, thrashing in the firm but surprisingly gentle grip. He managed to turn and angle his head enough to bite into the arm of the skeleton holding him, and he bit hard, hard enough to hear tiny cracks from the bone and draw out tiny drops of golden marrow. He flinched when a hand began petting his head, as if to sooth him, and his eyesockets widened (or maybe his eyelights shrunk) as it hit Nightmare as to who was holding him right now.

Quickly releasing Dream's arm, he got out of his grasp and swam into the seaweed, and borrowed into the sand after he was far away enough, making sure he camouflaged. He looked up at the sound of his name, just in time to see someone swim over him, blocking out some of the sunlight. Deciding that it was time to stop hiding everytime something scared him he got up from the sandy floor, trying to get the pale shade of yellow to go away - failing miserably by the way - when he heard someone rustling the seaweed behind him. Fighting the urge to dive back into his little hole he made for himself about 30 seconds ago, he turned around, only to see the last person he wanted to cross paths with for at least another week and a half.

"Brother, I'm sorry, I shouldn't have hugged you from behind so suddenly like that. And don't go blaming yourself either, because even without sensing your emotions, I can tell that you're already doing so anyway. Please, I'm not mad at you, I could never be mad at you. Not when it wasn't even your fault."

Nightmare just turned away from Dream, curling in a little as he did so. He honestly wanted a hug but he didn't want to hurt his brother like he did earlier again. Suddenly, he felt someone, presumably Dream, hesitantly pulling him into a hug, which he imediatly latched onto the person holding him, once again crying.

"Oh... Nighty, it's ok. Let it out, you'll feel better afterwards, nobody would jugde you for how you look, and if they do, then I'll give them my best death glare! Or would it be my worst? I don't know, but I bet that it'll be so scary that no one will want to do anything to anger me. What do you think? Uh, Nighty? Are you... Laughing? Or crying? I can (physically) feel and hear both..."

"I'm *sniff* not quite sure anymore. I wish you could tell me by sensing it instead"

"Yeah, me too. Though that reminds me, what happened to the goopy stuff that used to cover you head to toe? Though, I suppose it's tentacle now, huh?" Nightmare took a few seconds to wipe his tears away, before hugging Dream again.

"Yeah, I suppose it is. Also the water washed it away while I bumped into Error- I mean Misprint. Dang, that's gonna take some getting used to. Speaking of which, where is he? So I can go and beat the shiz out of him for leaving us. I also got to go back to that clearing and gather everyone to the rock in the middle-ish of the surprisingly large clearing... Wait... How do we get back? I have no idea how we got here, since I was in a blind panic basically the entire time, and I already know that you're sense of direction actually sucks. Don't take it personally brother, I'm just stating a fact. Which leaves yelling for someone to help us, but that might attract unwanted attention..." Nightmare trailed off, not seeing the look of surprise he got from Dream after calling him 'brother', which, need I remind you, he didn't say for over a century or something. 

The seaweed next to them began to rustle, and Misprint came falling out, but because gravity doesn't really work underwater, he just flipped at least 3 times before stopping upside down. He stayed like that for a bit, probably waiting for whatever dizziness that was caused by the action to disappear before opening his eyesockets. Misprint seemed confused for a second, looking down (up for him), then up (down for him), before looking straight, more specifically at Dream and Nightmare.

"I'm upside down, aren't I?"

"Pffft- Hahahahahaha-"

"Brother, it's not that funny-"

"Y-yes it is! It's usually Dust who makes those kind of stupid statements and it's hilarious when Err-Misprint - who's usually on the serious side with his job and all - says something like that and it's just so unexpected that it's funny and-" Nightmare's eyesockets rimmed with tears with how hard he was laughing, and ended up sideways, with his back facing the ground, and curled up, arms hugging his non-existent stomach. Dream and Misprint - who was still upside down - looked at each other before shrugging and looking back at Nightmare, who was now wheezing, trying to recover from his laughing fit. The other two just waited it out, happy that Nightmare was able to laugh, especially since no one in his suposed 'gang' had ever heard him laugh before, not even Dream could remember the last time his brother last laughed care-free like this. Eventually, Nightmare caught his breath and uncurled, but was nearly set off again when he saw that Misprint was still upside down.

"Are you done?" Misprint asked with his eye-brows? Bone brows? raised. When I nodded, he simply sighed, not a sad one, more of a content one, before trying to flip himself upright again. After many failed (amusing) attempts, Dream decided to stop his suffering and helped him righten him. Nightmare simply watched, triying to hold in his laughs.

It was surprisingly Dream who spoke up about they're current predicament.

"So uh, Misprint, right? I'd like to ask about that but now isn't really the best time for that."

"Wow, you actually know how to hold back your curiosity, I'm surprised."

"Oh, be quiet Nightmare. Anyway, Misprint, do you know how to get back to the clearing we all woke up in?"

There was a long pause after that. Finally Misprint spoke up.

". . . Crap."

2029 words! I feel so proud of myself, especially when my teachers have been dumping so much friggen homework, oh my goooooooooooooooood.

Anyway, I'm so so sorry for dissapearing like that with a cliffhanger ontop of all that omg I feel so terrible. I hope this satisfies you for now, and expect a long wait before the next chapter, I got so much work to catch up on. Also one last thing I - for whatever reason - found really funny. Thank my english teacher for giving me more ideas than what I came up with over what feels like 3 months, in reality it's probably been only one though. 

But yeah, wish I could have kept on writing but my mom is yelling at me to go to sleep so uh, have a great day/night!

(Please tell me if I made a mistake anywhere, I'll fix it asap, I just didn't get a chance to proof read this.)