Chapter Text
Error was getting ready. He needed to do this. He just had to.
Do you really have to wear that every time you go?
By wearing that, he respects those he had to kill. For Error, it is like dressing formally for a funeral.
The style does seem to add to the weight of the visit.
You shouldn’t even respect them! You're supposed to not feel anything for them!
He ignored them as he prepared. Error was wearing his black robe, the string design making it look like he was wrapped in his own strings. He put the hood over his head, steeling himself before going. Error had always dressed like this when he entered the tapestry hall.
Error went to the back of his string house. At the edge of the floor was a long blue stairway, Error made a new stair for every AU he destroyed, it grew higher each time and Error always climbed every step. He never dared to use his strings to pull him up to the hall, he felt he had to go to the hall on his own two legs, as punishment for the lives he took. After the long and nerve-wracking trend up, he made it to the second floor. Error had long ago made a narrow level just for tapestry hall, it was a pitch black floor that stood out in the surrounding colors of the hall. White could barely be seen in tapestry hall despite being so high up. Error’s strings had overlapped in layers, only speckles of white could be seen through them behind the tapestries. The hall was dark without the glowing white of the anti-void, but it had its own source of light that added to the guilt Error had for destroying the AUs.
The hall was more like two rows of tapestries that hung from the blue strings higher up in the anti-void. Each tapestry was designed to show the moment he destroyed a world. In a small way, they were the last evidence that the AU ever existed. At the bottom of each tapestry was the AU’s name and the copy number. Each showed the moment in the timeline when Error destroyed them. The background would have one of the locations; ruins, snowdin, waterfall, hotland, the capital, judgment hall, or the throne room.
The determined human was placed in the center, if the timeline was pacifist they would have a stick in their hand, if it was neutral they would have a clean knife, and if it was genocide they would have a dusty knife. Their red soul would be in front of them, wrapped in Error’s blue strings. Surrounding the bottom and up the edges would be the black shadows of the monsters Error killed, in front of them, their souls were shattered by the blue threads. Those shadows in the tapestries always looked lifeless, like they could not feel pain as Error killed them, which is what Error made sure of. In some tapestries, there was a monster in front of the human; Asgore in the throne room, Toriel in front of the ruins door, Sans in the judgment hall, Undyne in waterfall, or Papyrus in snowdin.
On the top of each tapestry was a replicate of Error, standing emotionless over the scene. Tears came from his eyes, becoming the strings that wrapped around his fingers, used to shatter the souls, and connected to the weaving in the border of the tapestry. The borders were his signature blue color.
If the AU had collected human souls, Error had destroyed them. However, they had an odd effect on some of his strings. The strings Error used to shatter the colored souls changed to the color of the soul they shattered. Even after the AU was gone, they glowed in the color of the souls. Error collected the strings and made them into lamps like he had seen some humans do for decoration. These lamps needed no light source, for they glowed brightly in their sphere shape. Error placed three soul lamps on each side of their respective tapestry, their burning glow reminding him if his own sins. The red human souls were not shattered. Error did not want to continually kill the monsters, so he captured the human soul and stored them before killing the rest of the Underground. After the AU fell Error secured the determined souls in string lamps, placing them above the tapestry of their AU. The souls and lamps lit the hall, they were reminders for Error of how close the AUs were to their freedom.
Error walked down tapestry hall slowly, letting his sins crawl on his soul as he walked past each woven masterpiece. He let the guilt add on as he glanced at each scene, looked at each colored glow, and relived each moment written in those two long rows of memories. Error believed he deserved to go through this, this was his everlasting punishment for his actions. This was how he judged himself, as a murderer who will live through the consequences of his actions, every time he comes here. If Error was a normal monster, the weight of this would have killed him. But Error was a god and he was capable of surviving through this endless torture.
Even the cruelest voices remained silent as Error walked. Adding anything more to hurt him just seemed wrong, even they knew to stop in this scene.
The god of destruction eventually got to the end, where the first and largest tapestry was hung. It was the Swapfell copy he destroyed, the first AU he ever used his powers on. After Error had cried that day, he spent hours making this tapestry, learned which copy it was and weaved every drop of guilt he had into it. It was the only tapestry with Error hunched over and covering his face as tears flooded from his hands. It was the only tapestry with children’s shadows and little monster souls. This one was the only tapestry that showed Error’s guilt and sadness for his actions, the disliking of his position so much that it made him grieve. This tapestry was easily twice to three times the size of the others, it symbolized the real beginning of Error, the god of destruction.
Error fell to his knees before the Swapfell tapestry, his first murder, as tears came down his skull. The tears became strings and were lifted above the tapestries, blocking out more white and darkening the hall, adding to the others that hung above him making a ceiling of blue. He recited the words he always said when he entered his hall of sins;
“fOReVEr aM i GUily FoR tHEse LiveS I hAve tAkEn. alWAyS i WiLL reMEmBEr tHe PAin i HAvE cAUseD. etERnEllY tHeSE SiNS wILL hAUnt Me, HUrt mE, aND toRMeNt ME.”
Error repeated those words a hundred and sixty-five times. The same as the number of tapestries that hung in the hall. He remained there for hours before getting up to walk down the hall again. Error willingly let the pain continue until he descended to the bottom of the stairs.
Only when Error touched the first floor did he let down his hood, taking a deep breath as the lingering pain washed over him.
Must you always hurt yourself like this? This seems too much, even for your actions.
While it is necessary for murderers to be punished, this torture is not needed.
Error returned to his room and took off his robe, under it were his sweatpants with yellow lines going down the sides and his red turtleneck. He neatly folded the robe, put it away, and reached for his black trench coat with blue stitching.
“thIS iS whAt i deSerVe. SoMeoNe liKe mE dOes noT Get tO atoNe foR thEIr sInS.”
Why did you go anyway? You only do that after you finish another tapestry.
“iT feLt likE SomEtHINg i haD tO Do. befORE i stARt.”
So Swapfell is next. And you feel you have to make up to them for destroying a copy of their world so carelessly.
“...YeAh.”
Error had never forgiven himself for that. He did not take what he was capable of seriously back then. He had hurt so many monsters, monsters that already had a hard enough life.
“I wON’t fAiL tHEm tHIS TimE. tHEy dESeRve fAr bETeR.”
The God of Mercy walked out of his house, past his beanbag and coffee table full of sweets and packaged foods, pushing the blue and yellow curtain door between two windows closed black curtains with red lines crossing them out of the way, passing his pots full of flowers. He gazed at the ornaments and trinkets that hung on his strings, most were hand-made by HIS AU’s residences. Error stopped close to the edge of the floor, a foot from the new railing.
A while ago Error had added a rope railing for ‘charm’ as some people say. Every four feet there was a black three-foot tall pole, connecting them was a thick yellow rope looping around the tops of the poles tightly. Error thought that the rail put a little more color in his plain white world.
He took a deep breath before opening a portal to Swapfell 99. The sight was as gruesome as he had expected. The human was covered from head to toe with monster dust, their knife was equally as covered and there, standing in their way, was Sans.
Error looked at the scene DETERMINED. He would not fail this AU. He would protect this AU.
He would make it HIS.
Error would become their GOD. Their God of Mercy.
He was now prepared for this. And no matter what, he will succeed.
He was GOM, the God Of Mercy.
Swapfell copy 99 will be given all his Mercy.
Nothing could stop him now.