The Artist, the Glitch, and the Multiverse

Where Am I?

    The next thing I know, I'm blinking under a bright light, no longer in the white void. The last thing I remember is a pushing sensation, like being swept away by a sudden current. Then I realize...I can move. I'm me again.

I look around at the strange place. I seem to be just outside the Ruins door of an AU, but everything is white. Only the shadows show any difference in color. So, I do the only thing I can think of; I walk on. Past the bridge, past Sans's sentry station, past Papyrus's puzzles.

Well, where Papyrus's puzzles would be. Instead there are strange contraptions filled with gears, some completed, some abandoned in mid-production. Not going to lie, the whole thing is pretty freaky.

Where am I?

I kept walking, ignoring the strange contraptions I go by. There are so many of them. And what's strange is that they don't seem to serve any purpose. Even the completed ones. They're just there. Just existing.

I suddenly stop in my tracks and stare right in front of me. I'm at the Snowdin Save Point but...where was Snowdin? The world just seemed to drop off and cease to exist in a void of whiteness.

And glitches.

It was the same material as the portals we kept seeing engulfing AUs everywhere. This is the thing destroying the Multiverse.

I can't touch it. I don't know what will happen to me if I do. I can't throw anything through it. There's nothing around to test besides those machines, and for some reason, I really don't feel like touching those things right now. I have no idea what to do.

I was about to turn around and leave to try and find my way out of this place when I feel a light tapping on my heel. I do a one-eighty and look down only to see a single pencil roll from between my legs and straight into the whiteness.

A pencil.

Ink's pencil.

Before I know it, I'm flashing back to the time it happened. Ink had chucked a pencil through the white portal in the Anti-Void. And I'm positive that was his pencil that just rolled by. I'm positive. I make my decision and start walking.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you."

I whip around, my soul racing. Standing a little ways away is a version of Toriel I have never seen before. Her fur is white, like most, but so is the rest of her design. All white, like the rest of the AU. The only color on her is the Deltarune symbol on her dress, which is bright gold. 

"Who are you?" I manage to speak in my surprise. It only adds to the shock when I discover my voice isn't glitchy like usual. "My voice. It..." 

"Yes, my child. You are whole here." Toriel speaks gently and reassuringly, like a mother would to a child. "No one is flawed here, child. Physically, of course. To change who someone truly is would be to make them not themselves at all." 

"Where is 'here', exactly?" 

"Why, Nowhere, of course."

"Nowhere?"

"Yes. You see, Nowhere is, in fact a place. Nowhere is Everywhere, and Everywhere is Nowhere."

"I'm afraid I don't quite understand."

"That is expected, my child. Come now, and I shall take you to the others."

***

Toriel insisted on sticking as close to me as possible. Me by her side, we walked back through the empty puzzle areas and to the doors of the Ruins, which she placed her hand on. After a few seconds, I hear the clicking and shifting of gears from the other side of the door. A small skeleton pokes his head out from around the door, his golden eye lights sparkling with intelligence. 

"Lady Tutorial," he says in a mildly high-pitched voice. 

"Hello Sector," she greets him. 

A Sans, dressed in coveralls, boots, and steam-punk-like goggles. Again, everything he's wearing is white. The only source of color on the little guy are his eyelights; golden rings.

"I have a visitor," Toriel continues. "If you would not mind letting him pass." 

"Oh, not at all Lady Tutorial!" Sector cries, opening the door to the Ruins wider. "Please, come in."

The inside of the Ruins are not at all like the regular timeline's. All the monsters are crammed into the network of rooms and passages, transforming it into something like a colony. Froggits and Pyropes shamble from place to place. A group of Whimsuns and a Shyren mingle in a corner. And Jerrys...are being themselves. But everything is white. I mean, seriously, the only color I've seen in this place is on Toriel's dress and in Sector's eyes.

All of these monsters remind me of G, the Sans that ran into the Eraser. I crane my neck, trying to see if he's here, but I don't see any trace of the skeleton.

"So," I say, trying to strike up a conversation. "Tutorial, what's with all the white? Is it some sort of theme or...?" 

"Oh, child, please. Just call me Toriel. You are much more accustomed to that name, yes?" 

I shrug. She continues.

"As for the white...Well, in Nowhere, we don't have color like Everywhere does. You see, we are stuck with white because Nowhere is exactly that. Nowhere. We do not have the advantages of being Everywhere. You understand a little more, yes?"

"I'm sorry. I'm afraid I'm just as confused as before."

"That is quite alright, child. Come, we are almost to the Access Point."

That was a new one. 

"Access Point..." I mumble. "I recognize that term. An Access Point is a place that connects devices to the same network." 

"You are correct," Toriel approves my statement. 

We move on in silence through the sea of monsters as I let that information sink in. They have an Access Point. They can connect any device to this place. That means from there they can access any device connected to it.

The possibilities are endless.

"It was a virus, wasn't it?" I ask suddenly. It's all falling into place now. "Once the virus was detected, someone, something, somehow, got a hold on it and started to erase everything." 

Toriel nods sadly, looking around before her eyes landing on me. 

"It was a terrible thing. At some points we were able to take control and bring the monsters it touched here, to Nowhere, but our efforts weren't enough."

I blink in surprise. "You saved all these monsters?" 

Toriel nods again and brings us to a stop at another door. 

"We are here, my child."

As she knocks, I hold my breath. A familiar voice asks, "Name and business?" 

"Tutorial Dreamweaver. Restoring the data for the two-hundred-and-thirty-first Multiverse." She smiles at me. "And getting a young man home."

The door opens, and there stands Sector, his unmistakable golden eyes shining with amusement. 

"Heh, access granted," he jokes, opening the door to let us in. Toriel walks through the door, with me in close pursuit.

"Welcome, child, to the Access Point."

~~~~~~~

A/N

i did some research for the tech terms and stuff. sorry if they're not all correct lol