#Cw: implied torture

[terriblywhumpy]

Once he was a prince…

[evegoldenwoods]

Coworker

[whumpanini]

"I know it hurts, I know. You can take it. That's a good whumpee. Good job, shhhh."

[malsfefanfics]

FERDIBERT

Again? Okay, but it's some hurt. and no comfort.

Sand. Metal. Bile. As his body swayed over the floor, Hubert felt the blistering dryness of his tongue swollen in his throat. The cuffs around his wrists burned into his skin any time he attempted a spell. After the first three days, he'd given up trying to focus on his surroundings. They were the same. Mold growing on rotting vines curling around and up the stone walls. The metal grate of the cell was rusted, but still thick and study. You would need to be rather bulky to rip them off the hinges. Or just know a decent incantation to cause an explosion.

But such an explosion wasn't possible. Not with the guards around him. Not with these damned cuffs. He looked over at the guards, one of them showing off the blood stained dagger in his hand. It was the one from Hubert's boot. The very same one that had given him a lovely souvenir on his side just moments ago.

He'd been there for weeks, not long after a failed mission where his target somehow managed to get the better of him. And he'd come to the conclusion not long after, that he would probably die in here.

Still, better he than her Majesty, he figured. Better he than....

Closing his eyes, he imagined warm, honey gold eyes watching him from across the table. A vibrant smile as they laughed over tea. The shine of the sunset on those long, silken locks. As his mind faded to slumber, all he could hear the final words they'd said to each other.

"Return home swiftly and safely, Hubert. Promise me."

"I will certainly try."

"No. You must promise. Otherwise, you may not step out of this room. Or warp away. Promise me you will return home."

"....Very well. I promise."

He'd lost count of how many days he'd been locked away. He should have been home already. No doubt they were beginning to worry. He was probably sick with it. Knowing him, Ferdinand would be trying to rally a search party by now. A fruitless endeavor, to be sure.

I'm sorry, Hubert thought. I'm sorry for lying to you.

[thelancer27]

Excerpts from The UNS-CV Nile: Explinations

[Ashlyn sat in the waiting room of the medical bay. Hand locked tightly with Prism’s. She wasn’t sure what to do. Lemon was still under and she’d witnessed something a normal human likely wouldn’t be able to handle, and now it was all crashing down at once.]

[She was glad she could still feel Prism’s hand in hers, otherwise she doubted she’d think any of this was real. Maybe a hallucination or dream, some sick torture from whatever came out of the Horizon Needle? She wouldn’t be surprised at this rate.]

[She was snapped out of her thoughts when the door opened, and Arthur stepped into the room.]

Hey kids…

Arthur. We need to talk.

I figured. Before we do I-

- Ashlyn is hurting. Arthur is hurting. Be gentle please.

I’ll try.

Okay, listen. I would’ve rather not had to do… what I did back there-

Rather not have? Arthur you- I don’t know what you did but you violated her subjectivity! Whatever you did took Lemon away and put… put something that isn’t her in her place! How could you-

- Ashlyn. Please let Arthur explain.

How can anyone explain that?! Arthur that was beyond wrong! You- I don’t even know how to explain that! Why?!

Ash, let me explain. I-

Please, explain! Explain how taking away Lemon did anything to-

- ASHLYN. Let Arthur explain. Please.

[Prism squeezed Ashlyn’s hand, bringing her back to reality]

I… sorry, continue.

It’s fine, if I was you I’d be angry too. I am angry. But let me explain, that phrase… it’s a trigger phrase, implanted after what we can only imagine was torture and invasive treatments. What it does is… it brings out the monster, or hound or whatever they called it. It used to be a lot worse, but she’s been getting better. Ash what her old… handler did to her, it was beyond wrong, and I hate myself every day for taking their position as her Handler, and holding the power that phrase has over her. I hate myself for not finding her sooner, for even using the phrase at all, and for how fucked the galaxy is for this to happen to her in the first place. I would only ever use that phrase if Lemon gave me an explicit okay.

I… I believe you. I’m sorry I’m just still trying to wrap my head around all this shit. First I got to look at some abominable horror and then I confess to Prism and now Lemon’s still out of it because they had a trigger phrase that turns them into a… a rabid pilot and I just don’t! Know! What! To do! It feels like my life is just falling apart all over again! Even with Windvale dead it’s like they’re still haunting me! I don’t even know if this is real sometimes! For all I know the Horizon Needle did go off for real and I’m dead again and Windvale is- and-

[Prism and Arthur would pull Ashlyn into a tight hug]

Hey, we’re here Ash, we’re here. This is all real, I promise you this is all real.

- Prism understands… and Prism is here for you Ashlyn. Prism will never let go if you do not want too.

[Prism holds Ashlyn’s hand up]

- We are real. We won’t let you forget that, kid.

[The three stay like that, sitting together in the waiting room, until Sevak arrives, having stayed with Lemons since they returned to the ship]

My friends, Lemon is awake, I think she’d like to see everyone.

[fili-oeuvre]

before you continue, I wanted to give a quick warning to please read the content warnings listed in the tags, if anything listed there disturbs you or makes you uncomfortable, please do not read this

{ INT. CONTAINMENT LABS - HALLWAY }

Cosmos said nothing as he was led through the hallway by Proctor.

He wanted to keep as much distance between him and this strange tailed one as possible, but he feared what would happen if the tailed one thought he was trying to escape.

This one called Proctor had come to his room that morning saying something about how he was “perfect” for answering a question that he had. Cosmos wasn’t sure that question was, but he didn’t really want to ask for fear of it being something dreadful.

Though, he tried not to get his hopes up.

He looked down at the ground for the rest of the walk, but he couldn’t help but look at the long tail that swayed behind the person in front of him.

He wondered about why none of the other ones seemed to have one.

Guess he’ll add that to the growing list of questions about this strange furless species.

——————

{ INT. CONTAINMENT LABS - OUTSIDE THE MENAGERIE }

After a while of walking, they came to a large set of doors that opened down the middle.

It looked like a completely different part of the lab that he hadn’t seen before. It had numerous black doors stacked on top of each other and seemed to extend at least five squares up.

He figured that these must be other rooms, since that’s the only thing that he could think of.

Proctor stepped onto a section in between one of the room and Cosmos followed suit. Almost immediately, the part of the floor underneath them started to float up.

Once it reached the fourth floor, the platform stopped and Proctor stepped off, with Cosmos doing the same. They walked down the elevated walkway until Proctor stopped at a room with the label: “Menagerie B: 454”. Proctor looked at the door and within a moment, the black door parted to reveal the captive inside.

What he saw almost made him gasp from shock and fright.

Inside the room was a large creature. It….it looked like a member of the Kin of the Bear. Only it was missing various parts of its fur. Mange came to mind, but he had seen mange and this didn’t look like mange.

Though that wasn’t what drew his attention. There were five thick “vines” attached to the wall beside it that looked similar to the ones that Samantha had put on him before, but these ones were a dark black and were much thicker. They even appeared to be pumping something into the bear as a soft “thudding” sound came from them along with an eerie dark magenta glow where it was attached to the skin.

The skin looked a sickly color, like this creature was both a moment away from death but was for some reason still alive. Scars were littered across its body, some looked like claw marks while others looked like whole pieces of its flesh were torn out and healed but didn’t replace the missing flesh.

The stomach of the bear looked bloated and unnatural, as if it had eaten too much. It was completely furless, having dark magenta vein-like markings stretching across it like thin roots from around the stomach where some fur still remained. One area was completely without fur, showing a trail of dark veins stretching up from the stomach to the neck and across the face of the bear.

Both of its ears were torn as if something had tried to rip them off. He could see the metallic chip on its right ear, just like the one that they had given him.

The legs and arms of the bear were chained to the floor with those same transparent bindings that had been used on him before. Not that it seemed like the bear could even attempt to escape. The claws on all limbs seemed to have completely torn out as if they’d been removed completely. Saliva dripped from its maw as its mouth hung open from its cries.

It sounded like every labored breath it took was excruciating.

This thing. It smelled like rot and blood. He could practically feel its pain radiating off of its tortured mass of a body. The fur on his body stood on end as he could only stare at the writhing creature as it let out soft cries of pure agony. A wave of nausea crept up from his stomach to the back of his throat, adding to the sense of sheer discomfort and fear he was already feeling.

A small trail of purplish-red liquid trickled down its face from one of its bloodshot eyes. Almost as if it was crying.

From where he was, he could see that the bear’s teeth had all been made flat or were completely missing.

Beside him, Proctor looked down at the pitiful sight.

Proctor: This one was quite a disappointment. *he walked closer to the creature* *his tail flicked dismissively at the creature’s soft pained cries* But, even the disappointments have their uses. Its mind may be insufficient, but its body and blood has proven quite useful. *he kneeled down and in one shift motion, cut with his claw-like finger into the side of the creature, causing a slightly louder cry of pain to emit from it* *a small stream of dark magenta blood flowed from the wound* *he pulled his finger away and looked at the blood before his mouth seemed to slightly open just enough for what looked like a black tongue to slip out and lick the blood away* *he stuck his finger into his mouth and even seem to make a sound of enjoyment like when someone is trying their favorite food* Delicious. *there was a hint of something like sheer pleasure in his voice*

Proctor turned his head to look at the horrified fox.

Proctor: Come here.

Cosmos didn’t move.

Proctor: Did you not hear me? Come here. *he sounded like an annoyed parent trying to make his kid behave*

Cosmos still couldn’t move. His body felt like it was locked in place.

Proctor: *expression changed to what looked like a scowl* Move now, or next time I won’t bother to knock you out before cutting open that little body of yours.

That snapped Cosmos out of the freeze state of mind, bringing his attention back to the human who was eyeing him down now.

With shaky legs, he began to walk over to where the tailed scientist was.

Proctor’s scowl turned to a neutral expression once again upon seeing that Cosmos was doing what he said now. His tail flicked slightly as if beckoning Cosmos closer.

In spite of the waves of discomfort and fear that rested on him like an unwanted heavy blanket, Cosmos couldn’t take his eyes off of the creature before him. He stopped a few feet away from the scientist, he didn’t want to get any closer to… it.

Proctor: This one gave us quite a hard time, you see. *he patted the side the creature* Killed quite a few of my workers before we got him under control. Normally, I would’ve simply terminated him and be done with it, but that would be such a waste. It’s not often that we manage to get our hands on this big of a specimen. *his face contorted into an imitation of a smile* So, I thought I’d test his limitations. *his eyes filled with what looked like pride* And it turned out better than I could have ever hoped.

Cosmos watched with wide horrified eyes as Proctor casually jabbed his hand back onto the small cut he had made. The creature let out half a shriek as its vocal cords sounded like they were straining to make noise any louder than a soft cry. When he pulled his hand back, it was covered in blood that didn’t look quite right as it looked to be a dark shade of red than normal.

He wasn’t sure why, but he couldn’t pull his gaze away from the no-fur as Proctor licked the blood from his hand. Repulsion and disgust welled up in his stomach at the sight.

Proctor: *quickly finished licking the blood before a sound almost like the purr of a satisfied cat emitted from the two black holes on his face* Delicious indeed~. *he turned to look at the fox yet again* I want to know what you think of it.

Cosmos: what? *his voice was no more than a whisper*

Proctor: Try some. *he said it so casually like he was just offering him an apple*

Cosmos’s breathing began to quicken and he looked between the two figures in the room. His full body went stiff as he once again froze in place.

Was he seriously asking him to… eat that?

Without even meaning to, he took a step back. His heart felt like it was trying to break through his ribs and run away from this awful room. He shook his head in disbelief.

Proctor didn’t like that.

Before he could even blink, a mechanical hand shot out from Proctor’s lower back, grabbing Cosmos’s around his stomach and forcefully bringing him closer. The hand covered the entirely of his stomach and lower back where it had grabbed him. Its grip was tight and unyielding, the cold metal of it sending shivers across his body. Or that could’ve just been the fear.

Proctor stared down at him with those cold gray eyes.

Proctor: And, what makes you think you have a choice? *another mechanical hand came around to hold down one of Cosmos’s arms, leaving only one of them free*

With his main hands, Proctor grabbed Cosmos’s other arm with a bruising grip, before securely holding his wrist in his other hand. He then moved the hand towards the bleeding wound.

Cosmos’s mind screamed at him to stop what was happening, but all he could do was kick his feet in a futile attempt to escape the vice grip of the hands. He could do nothing as his hand was forced closer and closer to the wound.

Warm blood met his hand as it was pressed on top of the wound. He wanted to throw up. He had had blood on his hands before, but never like this. This was nothing like the quick kills he had done when hunting. That was out of necessity, and he always made sure to kill them quickly. But this? This is was just…. cruel.

When Proctor pulled his hand away, a few drops of blood dripped from it onto the skin of the creature. He then brought his hand back to show him his blood-soaked palm and fingers.

Proctor looked at him expectantly.

Cosmos looked with terrified eyes at his hand. He felt like he was shaking, but he wasn’t sure if that was really him shaking or the hands maybe. He couldn’t tell.

Proctor made a sound like an annoyed sigh. A hand roughly grabbed his face, angling his chin up and cold fingers forcibly opened his mouth.

Without a moment of hesitation, Proctor shoved Cosmos’s hand into his mouth.

The metallic taste of blood coated his tongue. His sharp teeth poked at his hand, but luckily didn’t seem to break the skin. He wanted to gag, but he couldn’t. His widened eyes stared to look at Proctor’s cold unblinking eyes.

He knew what Proctor wanted him to do.

Nausea became to climb up from his stomach as he licked the blood from his own hand. He didn’t stop until it felt like his palm was clean.

After a few more moments, Proctor pulled the hand from Cosmos’s mouth, who gasped in barely hidden relief. Blood was still smeared around his mouth, but he paid no mind to it at that moment. His hand was covered in small traces of blood as well as his own saliva, but he was too shocked to even feel disgusted by it.

Proctor: Well?

Cosmos looked down at the ground, his vision was blurry from the welled up tears. He coughed indignantly as he breathed heavily.

He composed himself enough to speak as to not anger the tailed one further.

Cosmos: It’s *his voice sounded rough* ….fine. *shame and nausea whirled inside his stomach and mind like a whole school of fish fresh out of water* *he felt so ashamed and sick and disgusting and he just wanted to leave and never return to this cursed room*

Proctor hummed at his answer.

Proctor: Good enough.

——————

A little while later, Cosmos was thrown back into his cell. He had barely registered anything the whole way back, his mind still reeling from what he had been forced to do.

He was sure that he had vomited at some point, he couldn’t recall. Though, he could taste the bile in his mouth, the only real proof that that had happened.

He weakly crawled over to the corner of the room opposite of the bed and curled into a little ball.

——————

Part 8 :1

………

Cosmos: This is the worst day of my life.

Proctor: The worst day of your life so far.

Previous: Part 7

Next: Part 9

[thou-confess-to-thy-servant]

I’m… very sorry you’ve been put in this situation

Hmm?

....

Oh....

You must be..... The one that got.... Crescent to come.... Over.....

It's fine.....

....

CW: Implied abuse and torture

I'm used to it.

[heartfull-gardener]

pintrest

I still have my set like this. I like newer toys of course, but the craftsmanship as gone down for sure.

Oh when I bring out this kit you should see the fear in their eyes. It flays skin from flesh, and rips flesh from bone so well.

[decrsum]

𝐖 𝐈 𝐒 𝐇 𝐋 𝐈 𝐒 𝐓 :

your muse finds Mattheo on the brink of death. The asshole still tries to make jokes, and STILL TRIES to be flirty while your muse is in tears/in a panic, trying to keep them alive until the healers come. However, it's not looking great for him. And he knows that.

His situation either being the result of his father going too far, or Mattheo crossed paths with the villain by accident. (If Hogwarts verse - maybe an unforgivable curse has been used.)

[whump-in-the-closet]

royal whump scenario where a servant witnesses the heir to the throne makes a mistake in their training—they flinch away during sparring. They dare to raise a hand to protect their face.

The heir, without waiting for their trainer to speak, drops to their knees and pulls their shirt off over their head. Their bottom lip trembles. They don’t beg they don’t speak they merely bow their head with the full crushing knowledge that mistakes cannot be made. Their back is already scarred with winding lines that crisscross their skin. And their trainer lifts a short-handled whip, “I really thought you would have learned courage by now.”

The servant presses back into the corner, a hand clasped over their mouth, horror burning like a newborn flame. They make brief eye contact with the heir and see fear— raw and pleading. The heir‘s gaze darts away almost instantly, faster than a moth in flight, as the whip cracks down

[peachymune]

Your story is changing.

[koipepo]

Cassian is NOT having a good time under Imperial's interrogation 🫠

(the full art is nsfvv and very heavy on noncon hence the crop, but if anyone is interested in seeing the whole thing I'll try uploading it on ao3)

[loaffofbred]

on the same page

a normal qlandduo convo :)

[an-albino-pinetree]

Critical sass levels.

[purpleglitch]

TW: Blood, Injuries, Scars and Bruises

C!Dream in pain :( doodle that got out of hand while i'm sick 🤕

Guys drawing blood is so fun help

Zoom in for the details, recommended high screen brightness for better view ^_^

[ask-codeearasure]

Time to ramble I suppose

Y'know I'm pretty well versed in the canon stories of the major players of the fandom (Ink, dream/NM, Error, Core frisk, etc) and I've been stuck thinking about something I had thought of when thinking about dreamtales canon. Specifically the 3 (technically 4) endings.

The one I wanted to talk about was the bad ending, in which corrupted nightmare kills dream and the entire multiverse is plunged into eternal negative damnation because without the golden apple (that became dreams soul) no positive emotions can exist.

The real question is, what happens afterward? Does corrupted Nightmare just pull an error and try to off itself because its No.1 job has been completed? (It wouldn't btw as it basks in negativity, and even if it wanted to it couldn't because only positivity (from dream) can kill it. ) Joku’s only touched the surface level of this ending and it could be so fascinating to explore 

Now I ask you, what happens to the others? Like for Ink… all the scripts are ruined. I understand that in some respective canons all Au’s that are meddled with wind up creating an alternate that's never been affected, but since error’s existence is canon in dreamtale and that’s where that rule comes from wouldn’t that mean that the whole negativity thing wouldn’t happen? 

*INSERT LOUD INCORRECT BUZZER NOISE* 

WRONG! Because dream and nightmare aren’t even made up of coding, so their magic doesn’t follow those rules (Check underneath the line to hear my tangent on that), and even if it did, the apples control the ENTIRE MULTIVERSE’S EMOTIONS, so now matter how many times an au splits itself in an attempt to try and stay the same, the fact that all positive emotions are gone means that every person in the entire multiverse can no longer feel positivity.They no longer can love, or love each other. They will never feel joy again because the last golden apple is the last one, and its gone forever. 

And Ink and Core Frisk seem to be the only ones who can.The sole reasons being inks vials are his emotions and frisk’s body and just everything about them doesn’t work like a normal person would. What are they going to do now? 

This is where it turns into a horror story for the both of them, because everyone else will either kill others or uh, kill themselves in this multiverse. Ink now has no purpose because all the scripts are permanently ruined, there's no way to fix them, nor would creators stick around in a multiverse filled with only negativity. There would be no development for their character because most tales call for positive emotion to be present in order for that to happen. Without that, the only thing people are going to do is sink deeper into despair with no chance of changing.The only ending for them would be either them killing others and/or eventually themselves. Sure, you could argue the fact that there are a bunch of creators who enjoy dark tales, but even then there's a chance the newer Au’s wouldn’t last more than a few minutes before becoming unstable and collapsing because of the amount of negativity in the multiverse.

I think people forget that Corrupted nightmare, even with Dream still around, has enough negativity to nuke an entire AU to oblivion. A lesser known fact but still jarring to say the least.  Because of that, any place that thing goes means all the Au’s around it would just unravel under the pressure of so much negativity. Wouldn’t put it past the corruption to purposely head to newer/existing Au’s for the sole purpose of watching ink suffer emotionally as his presence annihilates the AU’s. And if the mechanics of the multiverse say that newer Au’s are the weakest, then ink’s going to have to say adios to those Au’s and the creators because no way are they sticking around when there are better multiverses out there. 

Not only that, but Zephrytale would suffer as well. Even though they're out of reach for basically everyone, they still exist within the multiverse and the apple's influence spans beyond protective coding. So ink trying to keep his parents safe from themselves and each other (which works both ways because their alternate versions of themselves- g-get it?) would become the only job he would have.

Core frisk on the other hand would have no choice but to watch their home crumble as the safe haven known as the omega timeline is no longer safe. Their family such as their adopted children, poppy, dusty, and rust aren’t safe either. You could argue that rust is pretty safe due to being a robot, but it wouldn’t change the fact that he could be snatched and harmed just to hurt core frisk emotionally, nor does it mean that rust is immune to dying or losing it watching his home sink into depravity. 

Both Core Frisk and Ink would have no choice but to stay inside a broken multiverse,This is a literal nightmare for the both of them, and they can’t escape it either. Neither have the ability to traverse multiverses, so they're trapped in a decaying, unstable multiverse filled with people who either have given up or thrive on the pain and suffering of others. Sadism isn’t a positive emotion despite having the root feeling being joy because it also has its roots in the harming of others which is negative, so a LOT of people are going to find ecstasy in hurting others because of this since it’s the only joy they CAN feel. 

Frisk wouldn’t have to worry about becoming a target to this per say, as they don’t have a physical body that could be harmed, but like I said beforehand,  it doesn’t change the fact they also have loved ones that could be used to hurt them emotionally just for the sake of it. Ink on the other hand is screwed because if i'm remembering correctly, ink CAN feel pain. Not just a lot. His info doesn’t say he quite literally cannot feel pain, rather it’s worded in a way to imply that he just has high pain tolerance. (you could argue because comyet’s french they may have used a translator so the words might be implying the wrong thing but I don’t think they’ve ever stated having problems with their english so I doubt that's the case)  This means that if ink got captured by someone with that mindset and can’t escape, Their doubly screwed.

And that’s not even mentioning the fact that corrupted nightmare here is all powerful and probably bored.

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Bonus, how does dreamtale function? Dreamtale isn't an Au and came from OUTSIDE the barriers of the UTMV media- meaning dreamtale and all related to it aren't made out of code so how are they able to affect, heck, interact with the multiverse made of code??

(it's not like joku’s going to answer anyways, she's too busy in the hazbin fandom )

The most logical answer is that it's like a literal god lowering themself to talk to a mortal but still maintaining their god?-likeness.  Like a small amount of coding is mixed within the entirety of dreamtale which only allows them to interact with the multiverse, but keeps them incapable of dying by things in the multiverse made of code. The twins have this property, and are just gods with latent abilities inside them considering what happens in the true ending of dreamtale (that where dream gets that awful human design but apparently defeats the corruption and becomes a true guardian like his mother unleashing his “true power”)This is supported by the fact that Dream and Nightmares skeleton bodies were mimicked/copied after a swap sans whos world was in early development. So their true forms were made out of magic, but their physical skeletal bodies were made of code which allows them to interact with the multiverse. Maybe some aspect of this stick even after nightmare dies and his body is taken by the corruption. The twins skeletal body can be harmed (blood can be shown on both of the twins bodies in official art) But since the corruption is purely made of apples, on positivity FROM THE APPLES can kill it (originally extreme light could only harm it but i'm not sure if it's been stated to be non-canon now, but it's canon until proven otherwise to me)

But then I came to a realization. Both dream and NM can bypass the spaghetti code of the omega timeline, as their magic is tied to the emotions of a person, not the person's coding, and since the twins true forms are magic and not coding, the magic should be able to be enough to allow them to pass into the OT without the usage of the doors. Hm.

DOES NO ONE UNDERSTAND THE IMPLICATIONS??? THAT CORE FRISK CAN’T SEE INTO DREAMTALE NOR CAN THEY TELEPORT THERE??? Not only that but anyone that comes across dream/nightmare must feel that SOMETHINGS off, and it's not just because of their auras. Ink must’ve spazzed out when he first met dream because he’s never seen anyone like dream!!!

Excuse the late response, buddy, I needed a few hours to complete an exam, recollect my braincells, and put on Sum41 (highly recommend this band for these topics), and boy did I need them for this.

Let me add one more thing to your first infodump, because I very much agree the multiverse will fall into shit the second Nightmare wins, and while this could be a mistranslation, on the first page of Dreamtale, it says that the Tree of Feelings, Tree of Magic, and the Tree of Life are all vital to the livelihoods of multiverses, not just a collection of universes within a singular multiverse. And since Dreamtale didn't initially exist within the bounds of the Undertale Multiverse, this could mean a possibility that just like Fresh, Dream and Nightmare may or may not have the ability to jump multiverses. There is also the implication that Nightmare wants to go after the other guardians too.

If we take this information legitimately as presented, and going with your theory that Nightmare would only continue to exist instead of killing himself off once completing his goal, it's implied that he could travel to other multiverses to ensure the same pattern of destruction and misery.

So say once Nightmare finally succeeds, he eventually jumps to another multiverse and does this process all over again regardless of "fandom" or if there are other guardians/forces of positivity existing there. Hell, maybe he could find a way to jump timelines within the same multiverse so he can kill the Dream existing there again and again and again. Maybe he'd compete with or form alliances with the other Nightmares he might find there too. But I vibe more with the competing option, because what if his hunger for power extends even to these other versions of himself and he absorbs them in a similar process Pride did to Gluttony from Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood?

That would be perfectly gruesome and fitting for this variation of Nightmare, me thinks. He'd become such a force of melancholy and torment for others that he doesn't want to stop, even if that means facing himself as he jumps from one reality to another.

It would be FASCINATING to have a story where a version of Nightmare that succeeded shows up in another multiverse timeline or complete other multiverse to fuck everyone over, because he genuinely enjoys the suffering his presence compounds on everyone around him.

But also imagine how much more powerful he could become not only because he has 1,000 apples in his arsenal now but because there is no competition against him anymore, at least no competition that changes anything anyway.

It's said that Nightmare's presence in a singular universe will influence the whole thing for the worse, but that's while Dream is alive and constantly traveling to fix the damage Nightmare left behind. With Dream gone, Nightmare may grow so powerful that it takes his simple presence in a multiverse to make it keel over under him.

And what about his ability to full on corrupt entire universes like he did to Dreamtale right after the Apple Incident and Haventale in the deleted Cream comic? Say there are universes rebelling against his new "order". He wouldn't need to do anything substantial to shut them up, all he'd have to do is show up and corrupt the entire universe, and that universe will become yet another instance of a negative cesspool full of those lizard-eating zombie things.

His form might change as well, because between you and me, even though Nightmare's design makes narrative sense and he is a shapeshifter, there comes a point where that knowledge just isn't enough for me. I need something more stimulating, I need a true horror to behold. I need a design that would scare me shitless. For a being as powerful and grandiose as Nightmare, I like to imagine he takes more fucked up and complex forms regularly, before and after he finally kills Dream and takes the last apple for himself.

Since Ink and Core!Frisk would be just a handful of people somewhat unaffected by Nightmare's new reign of sorts, they'd quickly find there's not much they can do to change this outcome.

You know more about Core!Frisk than I do, so I'm gonna explore what could be going on in Ink's head for the rest of this post.

Ink might gradually fall into a massive depression in comparison to just about everyone else, whose lives go down the shitter instantaneously. Because Ink has no soul and relies on paints to keep living, Nightmare's aura has no effect on him, nor can Nightmare sense him like he can everyone else.

With this new absence of purpose, Ink wouldn't know what to do with themself, and chances are that even if they stretched themself thin to keep their parents and brothers alive, their efforts would be in vain. Gaster, Aster, the Undertop brothers, and the Zephyrtale brothers would all end up dead, either out of desperation for relief or a loss of hope and drive to live. Perhaps one of those deaths would have been a mercy killing, something that would haunt Ink for their limited time left functional. Ink would end up completely and utterly alone, as he could only do so much, and if he were to find Core!Frisk, he'd depend on them to an insanely unhealthy amount, terrified of being completely alone and forgotten.

But at some point, the isolation and lack of knowledge about Ink from others will weigh down on them, and their mind might start wandering for every worse alternative in the book. Perhaps being forgotten after all of this might be a relief. At this point any outcome would be better than whatever he's experiencing now. There is nothing to do, no one to stick by him, no source of affection and care he needs anymore. The loneliness and boredom would weigh him down and only exaggerate that gaping hole of loss left behind in their family's deaths.

Ink would spiral so far into this hypothetical depression he'd do anything to feel something again, because he still wants to live, but continuing on empty is a feeling they can't stand no matter what way they spin it. He'd resort to self-harm to escape that empty feeling.

Everyone they've ever loved is gone. Every AU is ruined. Too many creators have moved onto other projects to keep waiting for them. There is nothing left for Ink and Core!Frisk's efforts to keep him company aren't enough to quench the need to be needed anymore.

And eventually, once Ink runs out of paints and refills, there's nothing else Core!Frisk can do but watch Ink crumble from a devastated tool to a motionless, lifeless husk on the ground. The best they can provide is not leaving Ink's side as they go through this process.

They can't even give him a proper final resting place before Nightmare shows up and hides the body. Or perhaps he can use the body as a henchman through the use of his corruption as he jumps from reality to reality. Ink is once again a tool, but to someone who if they were still present, would genuinely hate.

Core!Frisk is the last survivor of this multiverse, forever wandering through Nightmare's corruption left behind.

-- Sarco