Thanks again snow! and pretty much co-writer on some scenes really and the chapter name quote is taken from Persona. The poem before the story is mien though

I was born in a moment

A tragedy

A moment that should have been joyful

Torn asunder

Ying from Yang

Soul from its sea embrace

I am thou... Thou art I... From the sea of thy soul, I come...

Shattered and rebuilt

I seek the sea

My home

My shelter

But the waves force me away

Waving me away

Take me home cold sea

Soul and sea once more

Ink sat in the Doodle sphere, not drawing or peering into the AUs.

He was sitting down on the overly vibrant green grass, his eyelights dim, barely a step from being blank.

Why did it still hurt, why did he feel even more empty then usual?

He hadn't taken his paint vial... but he knew it wasn't just that.

But why?

OoOoO

The situation Dream found himself in could only be described as weird.

Yes, weird was the word he would use.

Why, for the love of the Stars, was the Destroyer at Blue's place?

He found himself in a comfy chair that was so plush that one simply melted into it, it was a lovely light blue in color and so very cozy. Maybe if he asked, Blue would tell him where he got it, because he wanted one.

Error was still on the couch, but now Blue had joined him there, and the petite blue-bandanna'd Sans... was using the dark-boned destroyer as a teddy bear.

Wait, didn't Error have haphephobia- the fear of being touched?

The silence was definitely getting rather awkward though.

"Zzz... snort... zzz..."

"Did... Blue just fall asleep?" Dream asked in disbelief.

"He had a training session earlier," Error said, using his strings to grab a blanket to cover the softly snoring smaller Sans. "After one of those, he can sleep through anything."

"I had, well... I thought I'd be having this talk with Blue," said Dream with a small smile.

"I was about to leave when you arrived," said Error tiredly, sighing.

"...Error, I need to know the truth," said Dream unhappily.

"It won't make you happy, in fact it will make many people very unhappy," Error said, a strange calmness in his voice.

And then he summoned his soul.

His soul.

"Wha..." Dream said in disbelief.

"Yeah, there's that," Error said to the shocked Dream.

"Wait... why does that soul feel like Ink?" Dream asked in disbelief.

"Because it is Ink's soul," Error said simply. He didn't bother with pulling the soul back inside, knowing that Dream would not attack him while it was out.

"How is that possible!" Dream said in barely a whisper.

"It started a long time ago, when Ink was just the creator and alone... and had a soul," Error began.

A very long time ago:

The Creator, nicknamed Ink by those that knew of his existence, smiled as he looked at the code in front of himself. It was complicated and beautiful, he was using the basic code shape known as 'Sans' for this.

He rather liked the Sans code, they could go so many ways. In fact, the form he'd created for himself was based on the Sans code.

So it was very pleasing to him that the soon-to-be-born being in front of him would be a Sans too.

Humming, he adjusted the Sans to be a bit taller.

He paused with a sigh as he continued on, he had to be careful with this code, as this Sans would be staying by his side.

While he was the Creator god of this Multiverse, he was only a lowercase 'g' god, and those like him rarely interacted with each other. The Big 'G' Gods were all too busy to visit at all, and those above them the Incarnation... yeah, he was too low to even meet one of those guys.

In the end he was lonely, as his creations were mortal, in the end they would die, and it was too rare for them to be comfortable around himself.

When was the last time he even talked to anyone? Oh, yes, twenty years ago when he had to fix the core code to Undertale.

The humans had just trapped the monsters within a barrier, deep underground, where time went much slower- in fact, it had the possibility to become a time loop if things played out a certain way.

The humans had almost corrupted their own AU with that stunt... Idiots.

"Well, the codes look good as they're going to get. I'll leave the personality blank to form on its own, now onto the soul," Ink mumbled to himself, saving the new core codes.

He had to be careful- this soul would be special. After all, it would be different from a normal Sans', being based off of his own.

A frown formed on his face as he fiddled with the soul's specs, it had to be perfect- almost like a lower g was, but not one- he didn't have the power to create another godling.

He didn't want his soon-to-be friend to die too easily, or be lost to old age too quickly. Of course, they would have free will, though, so he could only hope the being he created wouldn't decide to leave.

"That looks like it should work," Ink murmured thoughtfully. He cleared up the extra data, leaving him in the Anti-Void, all alone but for the condensed data of his companion-to-be.

"Welp.. let's do this," he said nervously, pressing the godly version of the enter button on the code.

It quickly began to go wrong.

"Sh*t," Ink said as the coding seemed to implode, the data cascading and being lost to the Void.

Yet, it was still trying to create the other's soul.

What Ink didn't realize that there was a reason any god, big, little, or Incarnations, didn't create souls to close to their own. They couldn't exist other then naturally born demigods.

"Wha!" Ink yelped as his own soul was forcefully summoned by the corrupting data.

Then, the final bit of data exploded.

Ink was ejected from the Anti-Void.

His soul stayed, though, the coding holding it in place.

The corrupted soul data fizzled out.

And Ink's soul floated in the blankness, all alone in the Anti-Void.

There were so many other mistakes he could've made, so many things that could go wrong.

Yet it was Ink's own ultimate creation that became his downfall.

They really should give new godlings classes on how things work, amirite? 

"Oh my stars... that explains so much," Dream moaned.

The undeniable fact that Ink's soul was floating right in front of him led him to not even try to protest.

The golden-caped guardian started to panic as some things suddenly became so much clearer, while others were still about as clear as mud.

Dream was so shocked and alarmed that he started going into a panic attack.

"DREAM!" a voice shouted.

"Ink?" he said in surprise, looking around for his crush, yet... he wasn't there.

"Dream, focus on my voice and breathe," Error said, Dream took a deep breath, calming himself.

"I thought I heard Ink?" Dream questioned.

"You did... well, kinda," said Error, the last word uncorrupted, and the voice so very familiar.

"You... sound like Ink, when your voice isn't corrupted," Dream said, his eyelights widening into enormous golden discs.

"It's best for me to just continue explaining," said Error, continuing on in... well, Ink's voice.

He explained his own birth, the Balance, Ink's ever-failing memory and the terrible choices that Error had been forced to make.

And, importantly, the fact only Ink could expand their multiverse. Without his soul and the knowledge of how to do so, the Multiverse would become too crowded and AUs would collide, causing a chain reaction of widespread destruction, with a horrifying death toll.

And the awkward moment, when Error explained that the main core of their being- which was Ink- had to accept his soul back.

The guardian of Positivity wanted to cry.

"This is a mess, and Ink can't even remember day to day half the time. No reason you're having such a hard time," Dream finally said, his voice as dry as dust.

And... wow. That cleared up everything, some a bit too much so.

"Welcome to the club," mumbled Blue's sleepy voice from within the nest of blankets.

"We have cookies," Error said, before actually passing him a chocolate chip cookie. "The chocolate will help, I promise."