PSPPSPS ITS THE SILLIES

oh my gosh we're cat twins

I need to see cute pics of cats or I’ll explode

Not me imagining a world now where Nightmare dies over and over and over. If it were to ever occur in an universe, how would it affect Nightmare? How might it affect the balance as a whole?

Would the corruption slowly vanish, eventually revealing Pass!Nightmare beneath it all? Like- give Passive some ability to think a little more and take control if hes still there? Then if thats the case, it brings the question of can Passive's form even survive without the corruption? But then begs the question if Passive is even there at all.

Or maybe Passive is the first soul, the first apple Dream kills when his arrow goes through Nightmare's apple(and what if the remains of Passive was important to NM's entire existence in some way. What if its needed to keep his form together? Do his powers change and he has to relearn them all over(like maybe the way he absorbs negativity and inflicts others with it? Maybe its more slow, laggy, like its a reluctant child. Can he be labeled a guardian in a Check without an part of Passive being there? Where does that leave NM? )

What if with every death Nightmare is now slowly falling apart, struggling more to keep himself together. Every day slogging atop his paths, form constantly getting stuck between the tiles, one hand fused together more similar to the tentacles on his back. In the absent room where his papers are allocated, no one would find him with a mouth(unnecessary to put power into when hes alone, unless there's a lovely drink left next to his books). With every life lost, Nightmare's body is falling apart, becoming more similar to the amalgamations from the lab than an skeleton.

Now how does DREAM react to this? Was the first death accidental? Or purposeful. He wanted to make the universe better, or he was just exhausted. Will he be less careful with his shots knowing NM can die as much as a human? Or will he pull his arrows totry and not kill NM? And saying he goes through with trying to take down NM, goes on the aggressive, and isn't afraid to strike at the soul of his corrupted brother. Would he feel good about seeing Nightmare fall apart or would he cry himself to sleep(he definitely cries himself to sleep)?

You could go even further- what side effects occur within the multiverse? NM would probably get more aggressive, but with ever apple killed, theres technically less negativity. Theres emotions that could be changed so Dream could more easily spread positivity. If NM is weaker with ever apple taken, then it would slowly get easier to fight him(NM's still like a cockroach about dying though). One could say theres a chance the universe could be balanced again, just at the exchange of making his once-brother suffer(I headcannon that making the multiverse perfectly balanced between positivity and negativity is nigh impossible with so many of the positivity apples being gone. I like to think its possible, but fr poor Dream will never get to sleep even if monsters want to be good and lean towards positivity naturally).

And AAAA isn't that such a interesting moral dilemma? Dream dissociating from it. Refusing to call NM by his name, and keeps blaming NM's behavior on the corruption. Imagine he makes a(or another) grave for the memory of his lost brother so he can move on and help make the world a better place. Maybe they'd reach a truce call before NM dies(I don't think NM would let himself get close. The truce is to buy time I'd bet, and Dream knows it too. But its nice to not have to fight everyday, it gives Dream more time to scrub down all his weapons with bleach and longer rests on a couch). Just dealing with it day by day, at some point not counting how many tally marks are beneath the banner on his wall, just marking down another everytime he comes home with blood on his hands(because he'd be a fool to not at least keep track. He can't bring himself to ask Blue or Core to do that, then Ink would just forget).

Then how much of themselves would be lost in the process?! They're already traumatized to the stars and back, this adds another layer to it all. Could this be something they can heal from or might it only end in tragedy if Dream decision falls upon landing a bullseye in an apple for the next decade of his life? This is NOT going to end well for them ever lmao

Dream ate 1 golden apple that became his soul, Nightmare ate 999 black apples, now he has 999 souls

Yes, Nightmare has 999 lives like a spiteful angry lil cat

Me screaming about it on discord vhvjvjuv

Dream's HP is constantly fluctuating!!(I know this isn't how HP or HOPE is portrayed in the game if I'm remembering correctly. This idea stems from the idea that Sans has such low HP due to his bad mental health).

This comes from the influence of the Positive Apple inside of Dream's soul! That apple's existence defines Positive things- peoples dreams, their wishes, past and current achievements. The thing every human, monster, and animal feels when they see their loved ones, or spot a crying newborn baby with a button nose. But the feeling isn't consistent for everyone, nor the entire universe. These things the apple exist on directly impact Dream's HP- his HOPE.

His range of HP is influenced by how Dream is currently feeling. Say his average HP when hopeful is 550-650, his range of HP when he's losing hope is from 500-600. It's not stagnant, and has dipped lower than that on heavy, dark days for Dream. But every single fight his HOPE is a different number since the positivity levels and Dream's mental health never stay the same. It's uncommon to not see Dream's HP changing day by day, and often Dream feels conflicted when its stable because that's just not normal. Sometimes, after a series of attacks of AUs which are severely impacted (he failed to protect them), Dream has experienced his HP dipping below 300 as a result.

(Truthfully, Dream doesn't know if he can actually die or not. He isn't going to test it, but on those multitudes of hopeless days of his foot stills right before the golden portal.)

Although due to Dream's childhood trauma, clinging onto his brother's last words, and trying to manage his way in completely new worlds while fighting said brother- his own HOPE has almost never reached its max amount.

I imagine in AUs where multiversal balanced is considered when Dream first breaks free from Stone he's easily below 50 HP. Then until balance is resorted, he'll never reach a "healthy" amount of HP in comparison to the gods, their followers, and the negative au's he's regularly fighting (or his HP as seen in a balanced multiverse). It's not uncommon at all for Dream to be the one with the lowest HP out on the battlefield until Blue comes along.

Then when HOPE is abundant, Dream becomes a literal tank. It's more likely Dream's going to run out of stamina before being taken down. Yes, he takes hits for his allies in these situations! It's often a hopeful spiral up from here. But even with the HP presented prior in a balanced multiverse, Dream's still someone that can take a lot more hits than your average combatants!

Referring to my previous post on Emotional Echolocation Dream (this post), I wanted to share more thoughts on NM's side of his Empathic abiltiies! Just like his twin, Passive NM could feel feelings from an object with some time and focus. Before the gifts to NM trickled into the void, most gifts to NM were trembling with the echoes of a cornered dog, growling with its tail between its legs (most of the time he waited until Dream had wandered to take the gifts from their hiding place. NM refused to let Dream tap into these gifts full of what ifs and a looming bear. Then after collecting them using the gifts as much as possible while thinking of old memories of just Dream and himself atop their hill).

Passive NM could feel a lightness, a joy, in the gifts too, but he often paused with wider eyes. The villager must've been having happy memories of wrapping another childs present. Simple mistakes happen all the time, so Nightmare leaves out these little positive ones to let Dream feel them too. His twins smile mixed with a few claps and dancing toes makes NM grin through the trees of guilt.

After consuming the apples, feeling the emotions inside one specific object became... difficult to say the least. His abilties spanned over au's. Growing large and pulling itself to every corner. Focusing on something as little as a shirt was difficult and a waste of time.

Although, it wasn't something he particularly cared about. Feeling the Negativity directly from the source was much more filling. Nightmare doesn't need to feel the emotions inside an object. He can conclude those for himself afterall. He is quite the horrifying creature for someone to meet inside their safe space. After a century, that mindset changes purely out of bordem(and a little curiosity), he starts practicing on trying to feel specific objects.

Nightmare conculded that one, trying to sense the emotions of something smaller than a chair was simply fruitles. It is near impossible to focus all his powers all at once on such a miniscule and worthless object. Two, it is much simpler to take the average emotion of a building/larger area. For example, to feel everything inside a apartment complex, then put it all in a blender, mix it together, and take a drink that way. It becomes one big glorious rock, full of negativity thanks to the being itself sitting atop their roofs. If the Source of the initial negativity is a main meal, the rock of generalized feelings Nightmare absorbs are dessert(these taste different depending on the AU. Nightmare's favorite AU's at this point in the multiverse consist of Underfells and Horrortales. The length of their despair is so old its engraved into their very existence. The best places to recover after an battle).

Lastly, after another 45 years of experiments, Nightmare made a break through. If all the tentacles were holding different small objects, then his hands held holding another two, with immense focus and time, Nightmare could list the emotions from the individual objects. It would be ineffective in almost any future scenario due to the average length of the operations, he'd write down after, but it is good knowledge to know. He only does anything similar later on if an object holds critical information relating to an AU(emotions tell stories. A pathway full of stones could leave a touch of despair as their vicitm runs) or a member of his gang(Cross is one he used this abilty on once he was back at the castle. There wasn't much to feel in the empty AU, and that made focusing on feeling the papers and pens emotions even easier Nightmare later notes. X-Tale will continue to be useful).

c!Tommy and his black and white views.

 /rp

I was pacing and thinking about Techno's speech and about Thesues, and how he said “So you want to be a hero Tommy?” He said want. And that sparked my interest. Which then redeemed this rant on Tommy’s character. ( I’m new to this please be nice to me. This was just a ramble I did on a discord in a #lore channel. This includes a few of the concepts we’ve came together with on the discord and that have been developed, Dream’s character being a big reason. )

He's the only character on the SMP with black and white views. Everyone else has some form of gray in their choices, can acknowledge they messed up from people around them. The only people I see relating to Tommy's views closely are Schaltt and Dream. Schaltt never admitted he was good, never admitted he was bad either. But he desired power. And everyone left him. Everyone hated him. He was left alone and in his final moments acknowledged he was in the bad. Saw that he was the bad guy to everyone.

Dream once held a large part of Tommy's views. Dream wanted to be the hero. He wants a era of peace, he wants a Dystopia. A group of people aligned under laws intended to create peace, but in the end will cause chaos. Maybe not terribly bad laws, but enough to hold peace as he cares for those within his kingdom. He cares for justice and will enforce the laws, no matter what it takes. He wants a land of peace. A land where friends can all be "one big happy family." Dream realized that promoting peace, promoting pacifist ideals wouldn't achieve those desires. First he offered peace to L'manburg, and when they denied to raise the white flags? Second, he attacked. He was enforcing the law and believing he was enforcing peace within his nation, when all he was brewing was war. He saw himself as the good guy. The leader trying to create peace for his nation. Then this desire became impossible with Tommy. Dream always took brash actions to get what he desired, - take banning Tommy on his first day due to the chaos he brought to the server, or exploding L’manburg, - he takes the steps he needs to enforce the peace, believing he's the hero all along the way. Tommy existing has created chaos. Ruined peace. L'manburg disrupted his peace. Wilbur was apart of this chaos, and Dream got rid of him. Dream is willing to become the bad guy to protect his nation and help bring it to peace, even if that means he needs to become the villain in everyone's eyes. ( Or he got corrupted by chaos and power. ) "You either die a hero, or live long enough to become the villain." He tried to be the hero, - possibly still tries to be the hero, - and became the bad guy. ( This was heavily iffy. Learning new things about Dream's character after writing some more. )

Tommy tries to be the hero.

Tommy has his black and white views. No matter what - Tommy is always in the right. ( When we are reading a story, there's our protagonist and antagonist. Usually our protagonist, - Tommy, - is in the morally right. ) Spite him stealing and griefing others houses, blowing them up and teasing others. Being blatantly rude, even towards his friends at times. Doesn't listen to orders and goes against them, is brash and quickly jumps to fighting. ( How much of this is morally good? ) Tommy's always in the right. He's the hero in his own story no matter how bad he is. He'll never admit he's in the wrong. He can't admit the such. Look at what happened to Wilbur? What if I became the same? Went insane and died? I promised to not be Wilbur- I refuse to be Wilbur. 

Tommy tried to be the hero, and did good things! ( Theseus tried to be the hero, and did good slaying the Minotaur. ) Tommy had to be good. No matter what. He'll never see himself as the villain, he’ll never be a bad guy, never be the villain. No one else believes there is a hero. No one else has the purely black and white views. Only Tommy does. Tommy is the hero. He's the only option - the only person who can truly fit being the hero. He's the only one who truly believes there's a hero.

"So you want to be the hero Tommy? Then die like one!"

I have a really stupid hc: nightmare takes better care of his minions than dream/ dreams actually really toxic. Like, yes he's the bad guy, but he takes really good care of his lackeys when they need help mentally and stuff, when dream is so focused on spreading positivity that he doesn't even realize he's hurting the others not caring for them and not letting them do basic things like eat and sleep properly

I’ve seen that headcanon around actually and I think it’s funny /pos

Like I love the idea of Dream being way too focused to realize the damage he causes while Nightmare has a better grasp on things

But also kinda gets into the shaky grounds of “asshole Dream” if not written well

I’m not really a fan of “bad guy” Dream, or the interpretation of Dream being that he’s an asshole who doesn’t care at all

The thing is, I’d love to see that headcanon actually be connected to the twins’ traumas, as I often see people portray them that way and only go for how Nightmare’s is kind and his trauma made him a better leader but Dream is just an asshole, and i’m here like.. WHY????

Like why make Nightmare a better written character just cause you sympathize with him? Why not sympathize with Dream too? Why is Dream’s trauma and the abuse he went through immediately ignored for the sake of making Nightmare kind? Making Nightmare the “better twin”?

Why not make both twins have both good and bad behaviors? Why simply reduce them to black and white?

Like I genuinely would enjoy the idea of Dream being toxic while showing that it’s not his intent, showing that he genuinely doesn’t mean to be toxic, it’s that his toxic behaviors are born out of how his trauma blinded him and how his actions are just the effect of a pre-existing cause, rather than just reducing Dream’s character to a bad guy or an asshole and that’s it y’know?

Like honestly toxic Dream for the win if it shows his vulnerability and how his trauma takes part of it

For me, when it comes to my own interpretation of Nightmare and Dream, I love to think of the opposite but only to an extent?

I like to think Nightmare would be abusive/toxic to his minions, but not to the point they collapse, (unless he was in a really bad mood and he had some sort of emotional outburst) but generally, he doesn’t care about what they do but he makes sure to make it clear that he expects them to eat and sleep and do whatever basics they need to do, as well as give them leisure/ down time for them to do whatever they want as long as they keep up, as he’s extremely practical and would not want to have them unfit for missions or plans he wants to carry (not out of the kindness of his heart but rather cause it would inconvenient him)

All while trying to show that Nightmare has a genuine sense of humanity (for a lack of better word) to him, show that he’s the way he is cause of the trauma he went through, show that he’s not all abusive and show that he has a kind side to him while showing how he squashes that kindness inside him due to trauma

While Dream is actually quite genuinely kind and loves helping people, and is genuinely trying his best to better himself every day, but is quite destructive to himself, he would not accept help from others, and feels the need to save others without saving himself, completely sacrificing his physical and mental health, and assuming he’s the only one who can fix things, a savior complex if you will, he’d work himself down to the bone without relying on his friends or anyone else, (this is a part of how he has his fallout with Ink in my interpretation) he’s too blinded to the fact others can share the weight with him

It’s completely unhealthy to his own self and by extension, he can appear overbearing and someone who gets his nonexistent nose into the business of others without considering their feelings or thoughts about it, and also appear as tho he thinks others are too incompetent to deal with either what he himself deals with, or what others deal with in their own lives, that he’s better than them in a way (it’s not his intent as he genuinely tries his best to be mindful of other’s feelings) but his self destructive behavior is something that Blue is trying to get through his thick skull, but Dream is too stubborn (a characteristic he ironically shares with Nightmare)

So I guess my interpretation of the two is the opposite to what is usually portrayed in the fandom, but I mean, there isn’t many interpretations I agree with in the fandom to begin with Hdhdhxhhd

my entry for @thestrongestjewel 's DTIYS !!!

i had SOSO much fun with this piece :3 as a trans guy, it brings me joy and comfort knowing cross is canonly transcoded. seeing the absolute SURGE of trans cross art lately makes my heart so happy 🫶🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍⚧️ i had to contribute !!!

Cross belongs to @jakei95 💛

Grian signing Mumbo up for Mayor

It’s the best and smallest and happiest boulder around. No questioning the alive boulder, it is beauty and shall be loved as it is <3

?????????

CW: Dissociation, Body Horror, Lucid Dreaming, Derealization, generally losing control of your body(please tell me if I missed any, thank you!)

An AU where the MTT + Cross are all trapped within a nightmare, created in part by Pass!NM in a desperate attempt to create a loving, nurturing family, then Corrupted in an effort to survive. All of them aren't in control of themselves, only able l to watch and listen as their bodies move and speak without input from themselves. Someone else is in the drivers seat and the gang is sat in the back, forced to watch as the bad, bad driver continue down the road.

They know this is wrong. Killer being overly emotional, Horror endlessly cooking, Dust talking, and Cross being a big ol' baby. Nothing about this is normal. Especially not the little kid running around.

In the real world they actually lowkey only tolerate each other. Every single one too afraid of Nightmare to try anything in particular. With Killer having been recently replaced and all, it wouldn't bode well to try and cause conflict. But tldr; they have bare minimum tolerance for each other and new Killer is still a complete, negative bubbling mess trying to get their head together. They have basic respect. That does not entail having movie nights or cuddle piles(DEFINITELY not cuddle piles. Eugh Dust barely got enough control of his wheel to escape that night).

Regardless, they can all tell this dream they're in isn't real. Waving to each other each morning with a smile isn't them. And now its up to the four to break free from Nightmare's control and escape from whatever hellish alternative nightmare this is.

Teehee Dream doing enough damage to Nightmare to cause his form to start falling down and, desperately trying to survive, pulling his four subordinates into a horrific nightmare(being a loving family). Making little Passive happy too is key to his survival. Imagine Passive and whatever magic corrupt used is pretty much all Corrupt had left. So now its a tale of making Passive happy, making him eager for the future, and by proxy Corrupt's life. Then Corrupt absorbing all the negative feelings of his subordinates tied like puppet strings. Only ever planning to release them once he's recovered enough to retain his usual physical form. That is.. if they make it to that point.

Imagine that through how much energy Corrupted is draining from his gang they physically cannot keep up with the demand. Corrupted is slowly draining their souls away, taking piece by piece of all the Negativity out. They can only watch as Passive cries and is asking why one of them is dying and want nothing more than to turn away, only able to feel the core of happiness left inside them. They're on a clock to try and escape from this paradise.

Oh and pass!NM being the eldritch horror of this dream. Hes nigh unpredictable. Whatever he says goes. Reading a book to bed, hugs, long, exhausting talks. Anything he wants WILL happen. It doesn't matter how much resistant one has developed. He randomly appears in places, as if theres teleportation. The rooms he's in are always brighter and the shadows hug him tightly.

They are definitely stuck in an world with a little, sad kid with hundreds of issues which they cannot upset at all giggle