Before this starts, I'd just like to thank MoonArrow10 and DustyDusterz for giving me some great ideas of getting new names for certain characters, thank you!
Also, I'm incredibly sorry for such a late chapter, writer's block is hard to overcome when there's so little inspiration ;-;
Anyway, I hope you enjoy this (hopefully not terrible) chapter.
Misprint, after being forced to sleep with someone he was comfortable with (since everyone got a bad feeling when thinking about leaving him alone for the night), woke up. At first, he was wondering how he got there, then after replaying the day before in his head, calmed down. Then he noticed he was once again sleeping next to someone, but instead of it being Lapis, he was laying next to Paint, who was basically cuddling him in his sleep with their tails entertwining together, which was enough to make Misprint light up the room in a bright yellow.
Trying to get out of Paint's hold without waking him was a challenge in itself, and in the end he just laid there, waiting either for Paint to wake up on his own, or for someone to come into the room and help him get out. Eventually, after a while of doing nothing but think, he felt Paint stirr a little, groan and felt his hand move from the place on his ribs to his skull, most likely to rub his eyesocket or something.
Though it was when he started getting up that made him just as embarrased as Misprint had been and still was.
"W-what the h-heck!? Why are our tails tangled up so badly, I didn't even know it was possible to get it this bad. Ugh, I'm too tired to deal with this, I'mma just text Lapis, see if he can help."
After giving Lapis a brief and sorta embarrassing summary of the situation they were in, they convinced their friend to help them before they made the tangled mess worse. Misprint was sure that his strings, which he probably sommoned in his sleep, had somehow gotten tangled overnight which inevitably got Misprint's red, black and blue tail entangled with Paints' rainbow gradiant one.
Then, Lapis came in.
"Okay, I'm here. What's the emerge- Oh. Wow, you did not mention how bad of a knot this is. Alright I'll help you if you can help me help you by helping me in helping you." he said, then swam next to the sponge-like bed and started to take out all of the loose strings that were making the knot worse. Eventually, the two who are being unknotted got over their embarrassed state and helped Lapis in removing the infinite amount of strings that seemed to be there.
After what felt like hours, they finally got all the strings out and Misprint and Paint were finally able to stretch like how they originally wanted to when they first woke up. Apparently though, this was the perfect time for Lapis to tease the two, making Misprint cocoon himself in his strings, and for Paint to leave the room completely flustered.
Lapis chuckled quietly to himself. "Hey Misprint! Once you're done hiding in that glowing blue cocoon you made for yourself, come downstairs for breakfast, and if you don't I will personally drag you down there myself whether you like it or not. Also, you might wanna prepare yourself for the rest of the introductions to our friend group this afternoon, just thought you'd appreciate a warning." And with that, he left, leaving the dark skeleton alone with his thoughts.
His thoughts were all going in different directions, one, he was still a bit flustered about what had happened that morning, two he was wondering what Lapis meant by 'glowing blue cocoon'. He was sure that his strings didn't glow and they definitely weren't glowing now, as he was surrounded by the comforting blue of his strings, so maybe it was just the outside that was glowing? Or maybe, his strings glowed according to how he felt? But that shouldn't be possible as he was sure that it never happened in his original multiverse. Though then again he wasn't choking in fate's strings anymore, so maybe it was something that always happened, and Fate just removed the ability 'cuz it probably saved more magic than it would have otherwise.
He unsummoned the strings so he could get out of the cocoon he made for himself, and decided to string a couple of fingers just to see what Lapis was talking about. Once he did so, he realized he had no idea what to do next, but magic was all about intent right? So if he had the intent to make it do something that wasn't what he normally used it for (aka killing/stringing people/souls up) then it would do something different right?
While this was going on, Paint finally managed to calm down and decided to check on Misprint, seeing as he seemed just as flustered as he was before going to hide in that glowing cocoon of his. However, when he reached the door, he saw a golden colour glowing through the spaces in between the wall and the thin rock that acted as the door.
Alarmed, he went inside only to see Misprint just floating in the middle of the room, but that wasn't the surprising part. What was surprising was the fact that glowing golden strings were coming out of his eyesockets, and were wrapping themselves around his entire body. Misprint didn't even seem to be awake for this, either that or he had crashed from surprise or shock or something. In just a couple of seconds, the strings suddenly disapeared, and Misprint slowly drifted down so he was laying on his stomach, arms on either side of his skull, which was facing the opposite direction of the door.
Groaning, he sat up, setting a hand to his skull, as if in pain, only to stare at himself, then growing more frantic and checking himself even more. Paint had no idea what he was so frantic about, so he swam closer, hoping to calm him down even a little bit. When he sat next to Misprint, he realized what was wrong. There weren't any scars, chips, or anything on his bones anymore. The black, red and yellow bones were completely smooth, nothing to give people the idea that he had been in litteral hell and back.
"M-Misprint? What happened? And what were those golden strings?"
"G-gOlDeN sTrInGs? I'vE nEvEr oNcE uSeD gOlDeN sTrInGs BeFoRe, ThEy WeRe ALwAyS a BlUe Of SoMe KiNd. tHoUgH tHeY mUsT'vE bEeN tHe ReSuLt Of WhAt I wAs TrYiNg To Do EaRlIEr. bUt WhErE ThE HeCk dId AlL mY sCaRs Go?! I wIlL nEvEr GeT uSeD tO HoW sMoOtH ThIs fEeLs. aLsO tHe FaCt I dOn'T HuRt AnYwHeRe AnYmOrE"
"Okay, two things: 1) You were hurting and didn't think of mentioning anything to anybody?! Why?! And 2) What were you trying to do before? Before I came in."
"WeLl, UmM, fIrSt OfF, i hAvE a HiGh PaIn ToLeRaNcE. I dIdN'T tHiNk It wAs tHaT ImPoRtAnT. SeCoNd, I wAs TrYiNg To UsE tHe GlOwInG bLuE sTrInGs I aPpArEnTlY uSeD bEfOrE fOr mY lItTlE cOcOoN. tHaT fAiLeD mIsErAbLy ThOuGh, CoNsIdErInG... tHiS." He gestured vaguely to himself, probably for the now non-existant scars. "Whelp. There's nothing we can really do about it, and besides this is a good thing! Why are you making it sound bad?" Paint asked, with a look of... with a lot of emotions on his face.
"W-wElL, bEcAuSe, I don't deserve it." Misprint responded, shocked that his voice had stopped changing pitches randomly towards the end of his sentence, which he had mumbled out so quietly he kind of doubted that Paint had heard him. "I'm sorry? I didn't quite catch that." Misprint just shook his head instead of speaking, for some reason not really wanting the other to hear him without his glitchy voice.
"*Sigh* Alright then, I'll give you some time alone until I can't hold Lapis back anymore from coming to get you so we can make you eat. Which, in other words, means ten to fifteen minutes, ok?" After seeing Misprint nod, Paint left the room, closing the door about halfway on his way out.
Once he made sure he was alone, he sighed, still surprised that it didn't glitch, then raised a hand to his skull, only to freeze. It... It wasn't glitchy...? No wait, i-it's turning white?! The yellow parts of his fingers were slowly turning a pearly white which was spreading down his fingers on the palm to his wrists, and slowly made it's way down to the elbow. He looked at the other hand only to see the exact same thing going on. It was nearing his shoulders now, how was it so fast?! Did the golden strings do this? So many questions...
While Misprint was thinking, he did not notice how, when turned white, there were unique symbol-like prints swirling around his fingers and arms, and slowly showing on his ribs as well, since it already changed his skull, not that he noticed mind you, he didn't exactly have a mirror around anywhere near him. The swirl prints went around his eyes, and continued on either side near the middle of his skull, just above the fins and connected in the middle of the back of his head. (I'll try to draw it if you guys want me too)
His tear marks had dissapeared as well, but he was still able to use his strings to their full extent like he did in his original multiverse, and probably more.
Finally coming out of his thoughts, Misprint looked at himself again and said, and I quote: "WHAT THE FUNK?!" This time he was pretty sure he would've crashed, but because he no longer glitched so much, he merely just stayed still from shock as his mind tried to process what it just saw. His entire body was white, had no scars, wasn't constantly glitching, and had swirl like prints all over his ribs and, to top it all of, his tail also changed. It's colours had stayed pretty much the same but there were white swirls spreading all the way down to the tip of his tail, and as he was kinda still adjusting to having a tail in the first place, having it suddenly change on him like that made him do the equivilent of a crash without actually doing one.
Suddenly, Lapis burst into the room - Paint and Ray not too far behind, but, oddly enough, out of breath - with the tools necessary to get Misprint to eat, making him jump (outta his skin! Sorry that probably wasn't very humerous. But I'm bone to continue making more skele-puns for those who like bad jokes (sorry for those who don't)) and turned around. He noticed they're shocked expressions and wondered what his skull looked like for them to make those faces.
"Who? What?? When??? HOW???? Wha alkdjfo;-;aihfgalksdnflkdsaklsafnkashkjsadfn-"
"Whelp, I think we successfully broke Lapis." Misprint said, shocked at how smooth and deep-ish his voice was without any random changes in pitch and the never ending static that always happened when he spoke. He rather liked this new voice actually, still doesn't think he deserves it though. "Hey Paint! Hi Ray!"
"Are you aware of... umm..." Ray gestured vaguely towards the not-so-glitchy mer-skele, hoping he didn't have to finish the sentence he wasn't sure how to end.
"Yes, I am quite aware my looks have changed. Into what? No idea seeing as there aren't any surfaces I can see myself with." He was honestly hoping there wouldn't be a way to do so, so that he wouldn't have to see how his skull looks like. Part of him was saying that I'd be too ugly and that he's better off not knowing, while the other part of him was genuinely curious of his new look, while the smallest part of him simply didn't care.
"Would you like to know? I mean, we do have a mirror somewhere around here. At least I'm pretty sure we do anyway..." Paint started mumbling to himself about how he could show him his new look if they didn't have a mirror he could use. He and Ray didn't understand anything that was said because Lapis was still screaming random letters that didn't even make sense - not that it did before either - in the background, until someone's stomach rumbled. It was quiet in the room until Paint, Ray and Lapis turned their heads towards Misprint, who's stomach was surprisingly responsible for the noise. Misprint, who had no idea what that noise was, simply looked perplexed, that is until he looked up and saw the faces the others were making and immediately felt scared. He dashed out of the room, the other three not far behind him.
Knowing that if he went to the left he'd be trapped at the end of the hallway, Misprint turned right, into the kitchen, which he immediately regretted, seeing as the group of friends he had yet to meet were staring at him. Sensing the Star Sans' alternates coming closer he went straight for the basement, and quickly found a hiding spot near the opening that he came in from. This way, they will pass by him, and he'll be able to sneak upstairs and go out the door or something.
The first part of his plan had worked, they passed by him, he snuck upstairs, and saw everybody there with the same look as Lapis had when he found out that Misprint never ate. Then he realized that he had no escape route since there were so many people here and that he was screwed. So, he simply teleprted in the room he woke up in that morning, and went in the closet, going on the floor in the very back and putting everything the way it was back its place using his strings, then closing the door and desumoning his strings so they wouldn't know where he was. And just in the nick of time too, as the door suddenly burst open, monster hybrids searching the room to tie him to a chair so they can force feed him.
Let the game of catching Misprint b e g i n .
2340 words for this chapter! Yay! Anyway, I had a really hard time figuring a way to fit more dialogue as well as more description so I can have more to write about. The plot too actually. I really had a hard time with plot development 'cuz up until now I had no idea what the heck I was doing. I really hope you enjoy this chapter for a while since the next one might take a while to plan out (if I'm even able to do that), so don't expect this to update for a while.
Now it is midnight right now, and I am having trouble typing/keeping my eyes open, so I'll see you next time!
(Please point out any mistakes that I may or may not have made in this chapter)