#AEJ chapter 1

[secret-time-is-here]

Errored Birthday Party 2023

It's gonna stay a sketch because otherwise I'd never finish it. Also, this drawing is made as if AEJ actually finished (I never finished the story, but the ending is available via the epilogue/epitaph) and Lapse's design based upon the God portraits I did, available under under the aej tag.

All the Error's (minus Template, Errored, and Strings) are from my various series. Also finally nailed a design for cocoa lol, been having trouble drawing him for his series tlato (the lonely and the one).

Snippets of all the Error's stories and a bonus screenshot will be under the cut.

Cocoa -> my current/most recent series, The lonely and the one (only on ao3, although the og chapters are on tumblr) - Error is a lonely and near forgotten god, a terrifying myth that has been left behind even by his eternal enemy. But one hasn't forgotten, and has been waiting his whole life to meet Error.

Strings and Glitch -> Double Stitched (Rewrite) - Trust me rewrite is way better than the OG fanfic, Glitch accidentally ended up in a swapped universe, what will happen with this new chance he’s been given?

Survivor/Viver -> Putting Together Savorless Decisions (PTSD) - Short, but wholesome, nice hurt/comfort with a different take on the Ink and Error relationship

Ru -> I should - More Nightmare focused, still enjoyable and a different take on Nightmare with a more poetic one shot that evolved into a short story.

Star -> The Hidden Star - Ink cheats on Error, and overall chaos ensues. Started off with the idea of ink being a "wolf in sheep's clothing" but it evolved a lot.

Edwin and Neil -> The King and His Aid (Season 1) Nightmare is heir to the throne, and must find a queen, but he doesn’t want a queen, he just wants Edwin (Season 2) With a new start, what will happen? Who will they meet? Who’s Gene?

Balance -> From Memories to Trees - Also started as a one shot, much more extreme takes on opposite ends of the spectrum for Dream and Nightmare mixed with some internal problems and alternate beginnings.

Lapse & Chronic -> An Error’s Journey - Error’s been having these weird dreams… How does it affect his family and how will it change everything around him? Started as a headcanon story for Error’s past and now is a 12 page plot doc with the series at 100K+ words. If you want a very slow burn story full of world building that pulls out at all stops for everything with a focus for the small details, I strongly recommend reading it.

And the bonus screenshot because Neil and Edwin are too fuckin cute and need their own panel

[secret-time-is-here]

So I just realized 1) I somehow magically missed the link connecting AEJ Chapter 61 to 62, and 2) forgot to connect the og The lonely and the one to the new rewrite. Oops. Its fixed now though

[secret-time-is-here]

An Error’s Journey

Chapter 1

Previous - First - Next

The universe and its sciences have always been a finicky thing. Laws discovered and written down. Certain rules set in place. Despite the world of magic that he lives in, even possessing magic of his own, there’s a uniqueness to logic and how it manages to touch everything.

As a living and walking skeleton, he lives off magic, yet, he has his limits. There’s a logic behind popping his bones out of his sockets. Logic behind a broken bone. Logic behind the eyelights that he has instead of the standard eyeballs that most have.

Although, when he met another version of himself, logic had been metaphorically thrown out his lab window.

At first, he wasn’t sure what or who he was looking at, the other drastically different from himself. An open neon pink sleeveless jacket hung off his shoulders, bright and colorful compared to his stale white lab coat. A black leather choker around his neck and a black deep v-neck crop top far less modest than his bright blue turtleneck rested on his shoulders. Black tights and bright neon blue boots, not unlike the ones that his brother Papyrus always talked about having, adorned his legs and feet while he simply wore slacks and sneakers. 

Even his magic color was different, sleek winged eyeliner traced sockets holding amethyst purple lights stared back at his own glass wearing sapphire blue eyes. They both also had the same body, small round face, wide sockets, short chubby body. Although the copy was more fit and thin than he was.

The other skeleton was careful to explain things to him, that the theorem of a multiverse was true, that he was one of many versions of himself, sadly not even the original Sans, although close. Not one of the first Alternate Universes, or AUs, but one of the first timelines of the original.

Even now, as he walked down the hall to his lab, months after the unexpected meeting, it was a crazy thought.

“Morning, Sci.” his guest spoke when he opened the door, sitting on one of his lab counters with a book of notes in hand and a steaming cup in the other. He hummed back morning in reply as he switched his hoodie out with his lab coat. “Come on, thought I’d get a little more than that.”

“Good morning, Lust.” He rolled his eyes, the other skeleton’s skull lit up with a smile. “Any new information? Or breakthroughs?”

“Mmm, not that I can think of, I only got here a few minutes ago.”

After Lust had abruptly shown up and explained that there was a whole multiverse out there he began to talk about why he came to Sci’s timeline. Lust’s world is filled with a life-altering sickness, as he put it, an injection that was supposed to help them move past a tragedy and in a way did, but didn’t help them with anything else.

Thankfully, the sickness isn’t contagious, but the rest of the multiverse looks down upon Lust’s world, not wanting anything to do with any of them. For a while, Lust was okay with living with the sickness, until the humans began passing through the underground, and finally, the seventh human came through.

The seventh human, or Ace as Lust calls them, managed to break the barrier, but they met unexpected issues after reaching the surface. The humans want nothing to do with any of the monsters until their sickness is cured, so despite the barrier being broken, everyone is still stuck underground. Ace is the only one allowed to leave, mainly to slowly work through the issues and stereotypes humanity has on monsters so that when the monsters are finally allowed above ground everyone can intermingle safely.

Lust bringing up the fact that there was a large cultural difference between the two species as well. With the sickness came a feverish heat that never seemed to give out, causing culture even in snowdin to have more summer fitting clothes. Hence his crop top and thin tights.

Lust held back any more information than that, merely stating that he was afraid if Sci knew all of it that he would back out of helping with the cure. Although he was adamant that it didn’t impact anything.

With none of the multiverse wanting to help, Lust’s only choice was to find a timeline close by that was unaware of the multiverse. Sci’s timeline happened to fit that description.

Good morning, all. His colleague came walking in, signing to both of them in Wingdings. A nearly lost language that only three in his underground understood, himself included. But, thankfully one Lust was fluent in.

“Morning Doc’.” He waved before looking over his notes on the sickness and cure again.

“Morning, Doctor Gaster.” Lust politely called, legs swinging as he lounged, sipping at a cup of iced tea.

Gaster was another skeleton, the Royal Scientist and his father. A tall man with a long cracked face, a crack running down to his right eye coupled with another crack running up to his left eye, scars from the war the locked monsterkind underground-leaving only one of his eyes working. He also had holes in the metacarpals of his hands, said to also be scars from the war. He wore a plain white turtleneck underneath his long black trench coat, the coat a gift from Sci and his brother Papyrus years ago, but cherished nonetheless.

Gaster was Sci’s inspiration to join the field of Science, always intrigued by his old man’s experiments as a child and having a gift for it like his father. Papyrus also working towards the science field but wanting to achieve what’s currently impossible, being an Astronaut and venturing into the stars. The most Gaster and Sci could do at the moment is to push him towards other hobbies, ones that don’t need them to be broken out of the underground to be achieved.

The room went contently silent as everyone focused back on the notes, Gaster or Sci chatting with Lust to clarify something or other on notes. Hours passed in quick succession, soon enough Gaster signed that he was leaving for lunch, and Lust had draped himself over Sci’s shoulders.

“Shouldn’t you get some lunch too, Darling?” Lusts arms wrapped loosely around his neck, head resting next to his own.

“Shouldn’t you, eye strain?” The other chuckled at that, “I’ll get something to eat in a few, feeling close to a breakthrough...” He circled a few things lightly in his notes before focusing back on his computer.

“If you’re that close, I can wait another hour to be cured. We may be skeletons but we gotta eat, don’t want Paps to think you missed a meal.”

“I think you’re getting to know me too well...” He could feel Lust’s smile against his cheek, he sighed, “Alright, I’ll go get some lunch. Make sure you eat too.”

“I will, Ace and their Mom planned some big meal for everyone, so I’ll have plenty to eat.” Sci hummed, hugging the arms slung around him for a moment before letting Lust pull away, both of them getting up.

They cleaned up their work areas for a moment before switching out their lab coats for their outerwear, Lust and his open jacket, Sci and his hoodie.

They shared another quiet hug, then Lust left through a purple portal and Sci turned off the light before heading out of the Core.

The walk home wasn’t all too long, going through a few halls and passing the throne room, two young children jumped out.

One was a goat monster with white fur and dark eyes wearing a lime green and buttermilk yellow striped sweater, dark pants, and a golden heart necklace. One of the children of the Dreemurrs, Asriel. A good kid but a downright rascal when he was with his sibling. 

The other was a human, the first fallen and the hope of the underground, Chara. They had pale skin from being in the underground for so long with them, and dark eyes-looking nearly scarlet red in the right lighting peeked out from syrup brown hair. Matching with their brother, they also wore a striped sweater with the same colors and a golden heart necklace, but unlike Asriel, they wore mocha brown pants.

“BOO!” They yelled out, “Did we scare you?”

“Right out of my skin, pipsqueaks.” He ruffled their hair, “Shouldn’t you Royals be in the dining hall with your parents?”

“But we wanted to see our favorite punny Uncle!” Chara argued, whining slightly, “We haven’t sawed you much- not after the new project.” Sci chuckled at the mispronunciation, both of them still oh so young.

“Sorry kiddos,” Sci spoke, kneeling to their height, “It takes a lot of my time-”

“Like a lover?” Chara teased, Asriel chuckling.

“...Something like that.” His socket twitched, the human always seemed to get right to his soul.

“Who is it? Who is it?!” Asriel chanted, jumping up and down impatiently. Sci tried to protest, “Come on! We runned all the way over here, we know it’s gotta be someone!”

“When you’re older I’ll say, how about that?” The Royals pouted, “Now hurry to lunch, don’t want you two getting in trouble for running off without supervision now, do we?”

The Prince and the Royal wisely ran back through the throne room and out through another doorway. Once he was sure they were out of his sight and heading to where they were supposed to be, he continued his journey.

A few elevator lifts and he was already in New Home, not far from his family's small townhouse. Opening the door, kicking off his sneakers, and slipping on his slippers he walked into the kitchen.

“I’m home!”

Welcome, Sans. His father signed at him, sitting at a small table centered in their kitchen. I was wondering when you would show.

“Welcome Home Brother!” Papyrus spoke confidently, flipping a grilled cheese.

Papyrus was also tall with a longer face like his father, despite being younger than Sci, still in high school, although today was a weekend for him. Papyrus happily wore a tank top with a fun slogan on it and some athletic pants, clothes that he found in the dump that Sci had helped him fix-up.

He let his lazy grin show off now that he wasn’t at work or the Castle, relaxing as his brother dished him and his Dad some sandwiches.

He closed his eyes as he ate. Enjoying the taste, but excited to get back to the lab, the image of Lust’s playful smile playing in his head.

-

Everyone belongs to their respected creators

[secret-time-is-here]

We Know - AEJ

Chapter 1 - Nightmare

AEJ - Previous - First - Next

This chapter takes place during chapter 54 and 57.5 of AEJ

It was a struggle to stay elusive. They knew them all well, and he knew which ones to avoid for fear of detection. He clung to shadows and snuck through halls. The cutest little mice and the looming darkness in the corner. Everything they needed to be.

They were not worried about Error finding him out. The other was far too stuck in his own difficulties to pay them much more mind than a brief thought of a flicker of light or wandering remnants of mortal superstition and imagination. When he was ready, he would realize Chronic was there, or when Core is ready, they will reveal themself.

They knew everyone in Error’s life quite well, those to avoid and how to avoid them, then those who he could reveal himself without much thought about it. Ccino would think nothing more, Nega would not care. Nightmare and Dream were his biggest concerns, and unfortunately, the ones he ran into the most.

Constantly being put into a situation of the potential to interact with two people on completely different ends of the spectrum was tiresome.

Nightmare was smart and cunning, brilliance and emotion hid behind a stoic poker face. If he so much as glimpses at the shadow Chronic’s hiding in, he’s going to know. A small mouse or insect he could care less about. Dream on the other hand somehow manages both to be oblivious and smart. He is strong with his interpersonal skills and can talk his way innocently to any information he wants. He’s just as cunning as Nightmare but even more so observant. He is careful of shadows and even takes small animals into mind. It’s best to avoid being anywhere close to him and if forced, the best action is to blend into Dream’s blind spot and cling to the one thing he would never second guess, his own shadow.

Death was next on his list of worrisome people. Thankfully interactions between them were highly rare unless they were trailing after Error. Death is quiet but smart and observant. He will notice them, but make no comment or obvious movement that he has. The soft change in his eye sharpening or fidgeting fingers hidden under long sleeves is the only deceivers. It’s best to blend with his crows, Kingston was a good friend, willing enough to let him join their murder. Sure, his shadows tended to look like “fluff” when he was an animal, but Reaper didn’t seem to care.

Ink was a weird conundrum, which he wasn’t sure where to put on his list of worries. For sure, they weren’t his lowest priority, the gang was wary, but could care less about moving shadows and random mice about the castle. On the other hand, some days Ink was shockingly observant, staring at the shadow they hid in for hours without break, other days Chronic wasn’t quick enough to hide, barely darting around a corner or behind some furniture and Ink would just wave a greeting before going about their day. It was frustrating, to say the least.

Ink took care of their balance well enough, creating at random before finding some new thing and getting distracted before going back to work again. Nightmare, while scrounging to keep things together, did well at keeping negativity somewhat balanced. It left him mostly dealing with the most observant yet stupid people. 

He’s dealt with all of this before. He has grown smarter and has a right to call them stupid. No Core, we’re not listening. They’re stupid and that’s that.

It was when Core instructed them to reveal themself to Error and Error alone that their work grew progressively more difficult.

At first, leading Error through visions and structured dreams scripted by Core was easy enough. Warping the dreamscape of Error’s mind with their fused powers and pulling him along. Baiting. Scheming. It was when he listened in afterward, Nightmare offering to watch over and bring Dream into it, that Chronic truly feared anything. He could handle one of them alone, but both? With Nim’s guardians together any plan was doomed. 

The pair while different and yet the same worked well together when they had to, contrasting each other perfectly and working anything in their favor. The only up-hand he had was that Dream could not walk into night terrors without consequence and likewise for Nightmare and dreams.

He didn’t want to expose any of them, but he was left with no choice but to find much more clever ways to pull away Error from Nightmare’s careful control. Their weapon was an easy clue to him, and for a detail-oriented being like Nightmare, it would be trivial for Nightmare to figure them out. But, with not much other choice, he nearly comically continued to pull Error from Nightmare’s safe hands with their scythe. Their charms dangling and clanging against the metal and harsh momentum. He could practically see the gold reflected across Nightmare’s eye, and at that moment, it was clear the pieces were falling together in his mind.

Error was unfortunately miserable for the time they spent together, he counted himself lucky that Nightmare had not called on Dream for help. But all the while he barely executed what Core wanted them to, much too worried over the prospect of Nim’s duo coming for him. The worry of having to relive the multiverse for a third time…

They tried not to entertain that thought as much as possible. At least with so many souls knocking around in one body, if one person goes overboard they have a few others to pull them back. Just like Core planned.

Of course, they weren’t discovered at all by Nightmare. Even when Core revealed Chronic to Error. It was when he wanted to check on Error that he accidentally revealed them.

For all of Error’s memory recovery, Death and Nightmare stuck together side by side. It wasn’t a good time for Death to stop doing his job, but that’s what Chronic was there for, to pick up the slack of the idiotic youngling Gods. It was when life and Death were nearly balanced again that he allowed them to go check up on Error.

They were careful as they had always been, shapeshifting to a little mouse and scurrying in the darkness, climbing up shelves to get a good view of Error. The fractional soul lay still in their recovery, breathing softly as if they had never become a God. Their mortal body never matched the soul they were given. One of their souls panged empathetically.

It was then that Nightmare’s eye shot to them as if seeing them for the first time. Death sleeping away on his shoulder.

“You…” Stoic face as if not betraying a thought, “...You might as well come down. I can feel you.”

He moved to the front, jumping off the shelf and shifting back to their chaotic shadowy form, towering in the room. He could reach his arm out and touch the ceiling if he wanted.

“A mistake on our part, I assure you.”

“Our…? Ah, that would explain things.” Nightmare smiled, “A mistake indeed, I’m sure you knew better than to reveal yourself to me. After all…”

“Yes yes, we were very aware you were to immediately be aware of us. Unfortunately, we weren’t left with much choice.”

“It wasn’t your scythe that gave you away.”

“It wasn’t?” Their voice suddenly changed, as he was pushed to the side, their towering form falling to Nightmare’s height. The dark guardian smiled knowingly.

“You thought I wouldn’t recognize our aura?”

“Ah, of course. That would make sense. I could never hide that from you-” The pushed back to the front, “Stars, here I thought I would be allowed to handle this… I apologize for them, the lovable idiots that they are.”

“Hmm, I always wondered if that was a trait shared across all of us…” Nightmare looked off dreamingly, glancing at a still asleep Reaper before looking over at Error.

“Not quite… you just got it from me, if Core gave that trait to others I do not know.” The words sank into Nightmare, and they had to give him credit, for Nightmare didn’t flinch at all, merely his eye-widening as the dots connected. “Hmm, I am sorry for that as well. I thought you had figured that out as well.”

Nightmare's free arm moved, hand drifting to hover over his souls. His arm moved to do the same, and Nightmare’s eye shot back to him. Not stopping him, but just as wary as always.

With an easy pull, his magic reacting back to him he traced the corrupted apple before them. “It’s been a while since I’ve seen them… ours don’t quite look like that anymore.” Their shadowy hand glowed yellow for a second, changing the corrupted apple.

The corrupted apple seemed to attempt to change into a positive one before battling against it. The corruption still plaguing it. It shook with magic and indecision before concluding to a wisping green one.

“Nim… this was Nim’s color. Was it not?”

“Yes, it was. And it’s the color I share now.”

“But… but you hold magenta magic, I have seen your eyes glow with it myself. Every time your voice changes-”

“Ah… you thought there were only two of us?” Nightmare’s eyes dawned with shock, “I know, ‘mare… he’ll be fine. Just always be there fer him. That’s what he needs. Remind him every chance ya get. It may hurt ‘im, he will drown himself in guilt fer not taking your help sooner, but he cannot die. Help him every chance ya get… even if you have to take away his choices. Ya have to help him. He can’t do this alone and neither can you. None of you can.”

Their hands flashed purple, and the green smoking apple turned back to the black diamond sheen. They stood back up. “You all belong together… you cannot exist stably without each other. Do not be afraid to seek one another out.” He smirked, and Nightmare seemed to finally reach some conclusion in his mind, “You are not weak for doing so, you are strong…” It was the barest movement, but he could see Nightmare’s breath hitch, the dark tears bubbling, “...but do not hold on too tight. We don’t need two Chronic’s in the multiverse. You all have one major mistake you’ve made, Error will know when the time comes. You know yours.”

Nightmare stayed silent, only nodding with a quiet gulp, and Chronic walked away into the shadows, back to Core.

“Well done.” Core smiled.

“We didn’t do what you asked… you didn’t want me to reveal ourself to them.”

“Exactly as I wanted. I know you could not keep it up for long. Nightmare needed to hear that… you did everything perfectly.”

[secret-time-is-here]

Something I remembered while going through and making chapter titles: I don't think I ever mentioned this, but originally AEJ was going to be 100x more confusing and a little less complicated plus far less satisfying story.

The original plan that has long since been diverged from was that Error would experience all the memories essentially together. Chapter 1 stayed as Sci, but 2 would've been the "first" time as Sans, 3 would be Geno, then 4 as the first moments of insanity. I changed it very last minute, to a point where what would've been chapter 2--it became chapter 21--was mostly prewritten. So when the time to post 21 came I only had to change some key details and rework a few parts before posting. Also another thing that was changed from the OG...

If I followed the OG plot that I originally wrote for AEJ, it would be over right now. (It would actually long be over I believe, somewhere around 50-70 chapters originally)

The OG plot was just Error's memories and a "what if Error suddenly started remembering his past life/lives and how would it affect everything?" Hence "An Error's Journey" although that is more obvious. It was later that I realized a perfect plot and actual ending to it that made Core's warnings and BS make sense. Over time you can see the focus change in the plot through my writing, but that might just be me noticing that. Or I can pretend that the focus changed as Error grew more as a character... whatever works.

[secret-time-is-here]

Pausing AEJ briefly for a side story I'm titling "We Know", in which everyone but Error (and I guess you all) know. Know what? Well, if you can't figure it out before the end of the series--like another 20ish chapters--then you'll find out at the end of the series. Although I'm still surprised you guys haven't figured out both Core's slip up (chapter 50) and Chronic's identity.

Chapter 1 - Nightmare

Chapter 2 - Dream

Chapter 3 - Death

Chapter 4 - Ink

Chapter 5 - The Gang

[secret-time-is-here]

I recently got a psychology book titled "The Subtle Art Of Not Giving A Fuck" By Mark Manson, and although I've never laughed so hard at a non-fiction book I'm convinced Nightmare has read the book at some point. In fact, I'm making it canon Nightmare has read this book and actively refers to it for 'wisdom' in AEJ.

For an idea of why I'm laughing so much at a psychology book, I'll pull my favorite quote from the first two chapters:

"These moments of non-fuckery are the moments that define our lives. The major switch in careers; the spontaneous choice to drop out of college and join a rock band; the decision to finally dump that deadbeat boyfriend whom you caught wearing your pantyhose a few too many times." Chapter 1 "Don't Try", page 12

"While not giving a fuck may seem simple on the surface, it's a whole new bag of burritos under the hood. I don't even know what that sentence means, but I don't give a fuck. A bag of burritos sounds awesome, so let's just go with it." Also Chapter 1 "Don't Try" page 12

"If I could invent a superhero, I would invent one called Disappointment Panda... his superpower would be to tell people harsh truths about themselves that they needed to hear but didn't want to accept. He would go door-to-door like a Bible salesman and ring doorbells and say things like, 'sure, making a lot of money makes you feel good, but it won't make your kids love you,' or 'If you have to ask yourself if you trust your wife, you probably don't,'..." Chapter 2 "Happiness Is a Problem" page 26/27

"You may salivate at the thought of a problem-free life full of everlasting happiness and eternal compassion, but back here on earth problems never cease. Seriously, problems don't end. Disappointment Panda just dropped by. We had margaritas, and he told me all about it: problems never fucking go away, he said-they just improve... a moment passed, and I wondered where the fuck the talking panda came from. And while we're at it, who made these margaritas?" Chapter 2 "Happiness Is a Problem" page 30

[secret-time-is-here]

Would anyone be interested if I made a discord server? For the most part I would answer questions and show sneak peaks of different stories, or give more often updates, like how I have chapter 1 done of AEJ. (And you would probably see the less professional side of me, where I rant about the little details I have in different stories, and how no one seems to notice them. Also where I’d likely rant about the random headcanons I have and think up.)