SOULless.
Emotionless.
That's what he was.
Not that any of the others knew, afterall all of them absolutely hated Floweys. All of them declaring their hate of SOULless beings constantly when the topic is brought up. Ink didn't want to wager his existence on any of them being any kind of okay with him if they knew.
Ink could logically understand that that had more to do with Floweys habit of dusting Monsters and RESETing constantly, and that therefore they had started to hate SOULless beings, but that didn't make anything any better. Ink wasn't eager to find out what they would think of him when they found out. They wouldn't always be placated by saying that he had found a way for him to shield his SOUL from being pulled out and therefore reacting to Magic.
His Vials were also becoming more and more suspicious to the others. Luckily Dream already knew, afterall, Dream had been the one to find him wandering the Multiverse, and taught him all he knew about emotions. He hadn't told Blue, but he probably already knew from Error when he was captured by him. Blue met him after the kidnapping, and from the way he had been cautious around him at the start, it was pretty obvious he knew.
The Council would probably start to avoid him, or maybe even try to take over? It was very difficult to predict their behaviour. If Classic took lead, than there would be no problems but if anyone else did... he couldn't imagine any other peaceful ones speaking up. And Blue was still in his AU, while Dream had finally listened to him about taking a vacation.
Ink went for his Pastel Yellow, Contend, and quickly uncorked it. He downed a mouthful, but just as he swallowed the liquid, Stretch opened the door and saw him. Sanses from all kinds of AU's were peering inside and frowning at him.
"Ink? Why are you drinking your paints? Aren't they attacks?" Stretch frowned at him.
Ink panicked and blurted out the first thing that came to his mind. "I wanted to know how they tasted!"
Really, Ink? That was the best you could come up with?
Stretch looked disgusted and said: "It tastes like paint, Ink. Did the paint fumes get to you or something?"
"I, heh, I..." Ink shrugged, smiling sheepishly at them, "I got nothing. I guess maybe?"
Stretch rolled his eyelights and strolled into the room, immediately taking a seat on the opposite end of the table as far from where Ink was usually seated. Slowly the others trickled into the room, taking their places. Meetings took place once a month, to make sure that the AU's were running the way the should.
As the Meeting progressed, it was obvious to everyone that nothing unusual was happening. Ink smiled, "I'm glad everything is okay! Dream will be happy to hear that nothing bad happened! I guess that this is the end of the Meeting of this month!"
Everyone nodded and slowly started to gather their things. Most of those things were small pillows, or a notebook and pen in the case of the Sci and the Fell AU's, which were most of the time ordered to gather info for any possible threats.
Ink got up and went to walk to the door when he heard a bunch of gasps. Frowning, he turned around and was met with the sight of all the Monsters looking fearfully at him. He looked around and noticed that Stretch had his hands out of his pockets and was trying to use Blue Magic on him. Ink froze, before trying to save the situation.
"Guys, I thought I told you that magic wouldn't work here!" Ink tried to laugh it off, though it sounded a bit too panicked to be normal.
Stretch glared at him before suddenly lifting Red from his place with magic, proving that it should've worked. "Why doesn't your SOUL respond to magic, Ink?"
"---- don't ---- one." Ink mumbled.
"I can't hear you, speak up. Ink."
"I said, it's 'cuz I don't have one..." Ink spoke up.
Everyone backed away a bit, some were starting to glare at him while some were getting scared. Classic stood up and tried to calm everyone down, pointing out that Ink could clearly still feel, and that he always tried to protect the AU's. It worked from some but Stretch slammed his hands to the table.
"I don't want my brother anywhere near this psycho! Everyone knows how the SOULless are! And I doubt he's actually feeling anything, he is probably faking it!"
Despite it being the truth, it hurt a lot to hear his fears come true, especially when several more Sanses spoke up and started agreeing with Stretch.
Ink's eyelights shrunk, "You know that I would never hurt Blue!"
He tried to guess what Stretch's emotions were, but he looked too angry. That's when he noticed it, a malicious glint had appeared in Stretch's eyelights, and Ink knew that Stretch would stretch this out as much as possible. He had never liked him, never given him a chance, and now Stretch had found a way to get rid of him.
Not that he didn't deserve it. He was SOULless afterall, the worst thing a Monster could imagine, something normally impossible without science. Something he had brought upon himself.
-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-
The next couple of weeks consisted of being subtly attacked, making it seem like he tripped or didn't see that one wall, but the week before the next Meeting they abandoned any notion of subtlety and outright attacked him. The day of the Meeting, Ink dreaded going, but cheered up when he remembered that Dream would be coming back. He had missed him, the Pink paint not being included in his normal paint mix when Dream wasn't there.
Ink giggled slightly and reached for the regular pink vial, back on his sash in its rightful place now that Dream was back, and drank a mouthful from it. A pink heart appeared in his left socket, before his eyelight reverted back to its weird changing ways, changing with each blink.
His hearing picked up on the sound of a Gaster Blaster charging from behind him, and he quickly turned around to see the threat. He sighed when he saw it was Stretch, knowing that if he defended himself, Stretch would find a way to spin it into Ink attacking him. Well, he would try even if he didn't defend himself, but it would be better not to bother. It's not like he can die anyway.
He saw the Blaster fire, but before it could hit him, Dream appeared between the Papyrus and Ink, an arrow already notched and ready to shoot Stretch if he tried to attack Ink once more.
"What the Stars happened while I was gone?" Dream glared, before deeming Stretch no longer a threat for now and turning around to fuss over Ink. "And you! I thought I taught you to dodge a Blaster if it fires at you! What the Stars where you doing, just standing there and ready to let the blast hit you!"
A pink heart appeared once more in Ink's left socket, flickering away before appearing back in its place. He didn't answer and just grinned at Dream before tackling him into a hug. Dream managed to stay standing, making it so Ink was holding on to Dream like a koala.
"Dreamboat! I missed you!"
"D-don't think I didn't realise that you avoided my questions! But- but I missed you too..." Dream hugged Ink back, before continuing, "Now. really, what did I miss? Stretch, why did you attack Ink?"
"He's SOULless!" Stretch replied, thinking that Dream wouldn't know and would be disgusted. He doubted that the Guardian of Positivity would be okay with a SOULless being. Others started to yell insults and... just generally bad things about Ink, sure that Dream would be on their side.
Dream looked surprised, before his expression darkened. "And why would that make it okay to attack him?"
"W-what?" Stretch looked baffled.
"What? Did you think that I didn't know? I can sense emotions, and Ink's feel artificial. Not to mention that I have been with him for centuries, I am older than all of you despite how I might look or behave sometimes." Dream started to glare at all of the Monsters present. "I can't believe that any of you would behave like this. Ink has never done any of you harm, even when he can. Not to mention that you probably have set back any progress I had made with Ink! Stars, I can't believe this."
"It doesn't matter," Stretch spoke up, "We refuse to have a SOULless being as the Leader of the Council. Or even have it be any part in the decision making. You should keep your pet away from things it shouldn't know, the only reason we would need it is to fight."
Dream seemed to be shaking in anger, "First of all, Ink isn't the Leader, he's the co-founder, I'm the Leader. Second of all, it's HE. Not It. He's a person, not a doll or an object or a pet. Third of all, what makes you think that you can kick him out? Who the fuck gave you that authority? Who do you think that you are?"
Ink realised that Dream was moments away from shooting all of them in the face, he swore, so he quickly tried to calm him down. "C'mon Dreamy! It doesn't matter! You can just tell me what's going on after the Meetings."
"Look! I had managed to instill self-perseverance into him but because of all of you assholes, any and all progress is gone!" Dream yelled at them, before smirking, "I wonder what Blue will think of all of you, especially you, Stretch."
"I'm sure that my bro will understand." Stretch retorted.
"Are You Sure About That?" A voice sounded behind him. "Because I Can Reassure You That You Are Very Wrong."
"B-bro?" Stretch panicked.
"No Stretch. I Cannot Believe In You After This. After All That You Have Tried... I Can't See You As My Little Brother Anymore. I Didn't Raise You Like This." Blue told him, moving around him and walking towards Dream and Ink.
"But- but he's SOULless." Stretch sounded lost.
"I Know."
"Blue, I don't know if you're willing to come with us, but I'm not staying here. I'm taking Ink and going to my brother." Dream told Blue, shifting Ink so that he was on his back.
"I'm Coming With You. I Haven't Seen The Gang For A Few Months." Blue reassured him.
Dream nodded and murmured to Ink, "Can you open a portal from there or should I set you down?"
Shaking his head, Ink grabbed Broomie and swiped at the wall closest to him. "Grab Blue and think of where to go, I don't know where their base is."
Dream grabbed Blue and walked through the portal, Ink closed it with a finger snap. All three looked at the massive castle in the desolate AU, before starting to walk towards it.
-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-
Blue took the lead, having been here multiple times, and knocked on the giant front door. They heard some voices arguing, before they heard someone ask who they were. Blue grinned and yelled, "It's me, Blue! And friends!"
The door opened and they saw Dust, Killer, Horror and Cross in front of them. Cross's eyelights shrunk upon seeing Ink and Dream, and he yelled, "Nightmare! Dream is here!"
Upon hearing that, Nightmare immediately appeared, glaring at them and growling out to Blue, "Why did you bring them here?"
"You could just hear it straight from us, brother." Dream sighed at him. Dust giggled at 'straight' mumbling 'no we're not' causing Killer to laugh slightly.
"What do you want?" Nightmare glared.
"We want to join you."
"What?!"
"I said, we want to join you." Dream repeated.
"And why would I allow you two to join? Blue already could join whenever, but why should I trust you two?"
Dream took a deep breath, before setting Ink down. Ink had a pretty good view of Dream's back, so he went to Blue, knowing what Dream meant to do.
"Brother please allow us to join you." Dream bowed to Nightmare, four black tentacles with a golden glint appearing from his back and attempted to show how serious he was.
Nightmare's eyelight shrunk at seeing the tentacles, his own immediately moving away from Dream. Dream was unable to summon those unless he was feeling a lot of anger. "Very well."
________
A/N: Hello everyone! I would like to apologise for how long it always takes me to update, but honestly, life gets in the way a lot. Especially since I'm trying to raise my grades so that when I finish High School, I will be able to go to the University I want to.
Anyway! Enough about school. If anyone wants to continue this one, feel free to! Just please leave a comment or message me to let me know and where I'll be able to find it, because I really want to see what you'd write! At some point I will most likely create an Idea book where you can do what I just said xD.
Thank you everyone for enduring my monologue, well, if you didn't skip it that is. Heheh...
Comment please to let me know I'm not just sending this out into the Void, I would still upload at times, but
*Knowing that people want you to update fills you with DETERMINATION.