#cw implied self-harm

[btm-txt]

The Animal I Have Become...

'Help me believe it's not the real me Somebody help me tame this animal'

Ko-fi Sketch for @charleecat-bat of Shepherd's Monster AU werewolf form, that I might have went a bit too hard on. I couldn't help it I'm a sucker for Charlees's bois... and werewolves!🤩 Had an absolute blast getting lost in this piece, thank you so much for commissioning Charlee and getting me all hyped up over werewolves!

Got some sketch commissions open, come check it out if you're interested! :3

[sunyandmony]

"ꋊꏂꅐ ֮ϐׁυׁׅtׁׅ ….σℓ∂?" |Cato and Reader drabble(?)|

Cato but if he was a… Mer? Fish? Dunno- I'll see what I can do- The design comes first though- So yep- that's why it comes out very badly and late 😔

Just to be safe, I'm gonna add extra trigger warnings..

Tw:body horror(?), implied gore, potty mouth author/reader, self-harm mentioned(ig??)

B̶i̶g̶ f̶i̶s̶h̶ a̶r̶e̶ d̶a̶n̶g̶e̶r̶o̶u̶s̶ no̶w̶- B̶u̶t̶ a̶l̶s̶o̶… V̶e̶r̶y̶ s̶m̶a̶s̶h̶a̶b̶l̶e̶- I M̶E̶A̶N̶ H̶U̶H̶?̶!̶- D̶O̶N̶'̶T̶ L̶O̶O̶K̶ H̶E̶R̶E̶ D̶A̶N̶G̶-

Start reading under cut ⬇

—-------

You were NOT gonna make it out alive, not out of this one, nope, all the instructions did not tell you about a humongously tall half-human and half-fish, dangerous and about to probably rip you into pieces creature who currently had a staring contest with you, scarlet eyes glowing straight towards you, pentagrams sending daggers(?) your way as you prepared for the worst yet to come..

╰•°`°•>3 𝑚𝑜𝑛𝑡ℎ𝑠 𝑏𝑒𝑓𝑜𝑟𝑒..<•°`°•╯

You finally managed to get out of that ridiculously uncomfortable seat, your mind trailing with thoughts of how your life is changing so fast, it hasn't even been that long since your parents handed out this house to you, and you knew they weren't poor, but neither that rich, you might've been wrong about that- What you're looking for was right in front of you as soon as you looked up from your phone and compared the screenshot to the actual thing.

The house itself wasn't much of a house itself,..a beach house? Could it be considered one at its size? Probably- But you didn't really care, this was now your new home, along with your dog of course, who's been following you all along, practically trying to get your attention to feed them, but you can't right now, it's too much to unpack now and so, she'd have to wait for a bit, you already gave her treats not long ago before getting out of the taxi.

Your dog was mostly fluffy and pretty friendly towards everyone, mostly children and especially you, the owner, the fur on her body being like a rough, colorfully coat. Black, brown and white adding to her fit, her ears dropped over her head as if acting sad from your denial for more treats, slowing down her rhythm ever so often while running off to the docks while you opened the door to your house, a key you almost forgot you had in your jacket that lazily draped over your persona.

This was much better than being locked in your apartment 24/7 working from home for the stupid makeup company your mom told you would be 'best for you' even though you barely liked makeup in general, not phased by it or anyone wearing it, because unlike everyone else, your parents just sent you off and said that it's fine to just retire all of a sudden, and not even bothering to tell you why, just 'waving' you off the best way through a call at midnight.

It wasn't new for them to ask you to do something, but this? You surely haven't expected things to go out this way, not when they planned on you being the one to take over their company when you're older, no not the make-up one, that's just another job you rather forget about now, because you hated every moment being there, not one moment did you enjoy working with uncooperative people at your side and trying to get projects done before they're overdue, so you took it pretty well actually, a chance to start fresh.

You slowly unlocked the door with a click and looked inside, the curtains having been left closed from the last time someone was probably, which you doubted was recent due to how private this part of the town was, nobody even stepping here and just going another way to avoid this place as if they couldn't step on the beach near this house, and you assumed it's your parents who bought this place for sure, because unlike your cousins you're not that easily gonna gloss over it and just, enjoy the kind of wealth? Not quite though, and the beach beside it, how do they have the money? A total mystery you don't ever wanna find anything about.

Ever so slowly, you set your bags near what looks like a desk with many drawers that had already been here for a long time, the dust having gathered onto it, the way this place looked like couldn't be described better then a abandoned house, a whole bunch of old garbage and dust laying around for who knows how long now, bookshelves full of books that somehow fit in the shelves for how many there were, old furniture somehow still intact as well but as everything else here, dusty, but overall organized. Huh, it seems whoever was last here at least left less chores for you to do, you assume that they're more responsible than you are though.

As soon as you hear the creaking of the porch behind you, ever so slowly getting closer, you open the door as your dog, which you so decided to call 'Jua', since the name fitted her pretty well. After she got in, you shut the door closed, making sure to check if it would budge before groaning to yourself, your thoughts running a mile an hour for whatever reason as you slumped towards the middle couch, letting yourself fall on it face first and not thinking twice before closing your eyes, trying to get some good night's rest.

… Turns out that's just impossible the moment you got your phone out and started scrolling through media, again, trying to pass the time and looking through 'Tuza', a popular app today that mostly had everything you could wish for, aside from the hackers, that's something you'd rather not get involved with, yet… At least if it's not necessary..

You didn't realize just how much your eyes hurt until you blinked once, finally coming to a stop from scrolling through Tuza, closing the app and then closing your phone, the screen turning black as you set the said device on the coffee table next to you, closing your eyes and uncomfortably shifting on the couch, trying to find a comfortable position to fall asleep in, but none of the positions helped one bit with your sleepy state, you wanted to sleep so badly, yet couldn't, shifting eve more, as if it would help at all.

You grip your already messy hair and pull on it, the silence abruptly cut short as droplets of water started pouring down from the sky above on the roof of your house and everywhere else outside. You have not watched the news for a while, so you weren't expecting rain at almost 4 AM in the morning, and to say you were tired was a lie.. You were exhausted, spent and done staying up just because of your thoughts, stupid, awful thoughts..

What thoughts were they to be so bad? You don't even know, all you know they're so bad they keep you awake, and a bonus with that constant scratching noise from outside, and you already forgot what you were even talking about a moment later. You slowly loosen your grip on your hair, looking up to be met with the said rain outside that kept on pouring down on your windows. It was actually pretty quiet except the sound of your breathing and Jua's on the floor next to the couch, somewhere in the pitch blackness in front of you.

A deep sigh and you stand up, strolling closer to the window and looking outside, it was all normal. The palm tree ravishing with the violent wind outside, leaves thrown around by the force. You squint your eyes, and then you're met with another, much bigger, much weirder face staring back at you. You scramble back, breathing heavily. What is that? Whatever it is, it's not human, but it wasn't gone even when you looked back out, it started almost right through you.

You gave it a small wave, more out of curiosity than anything, and it returned the gesture, much to your horror. Yep, so it could see you through the darkness from a distance of at least a hundred yards away. Great. You understand why your parents had so many books about mythical creatures now, given one is staring at you. You come back to the present and skip back to your room, picking up a few clothes and changing into them. They were soft and somewhat comfortable on your cold skin, but it wasn't time to think. You put on the hat and then throw a raincoat around yourself, plucking the buttons on it close and putting on the hood before putting on some much needed boots and putting your phone in your pants pocket under the raincoat before running outside, bursting the door open and then closing behind yourself.

If you were gonna see a creature, you would see it up close to make sure it is real and not a trick or your imagination. Humid and wet sand crunched up under your feet and the wind blowing past you so rapidly made it impossible to concentrate on the current mission. Mostly because you forgot to bring a flashlight, so you had to base yourself at the bare minimum that you could see outside in the rain with the bare moonlight slipping through the heavy clouds.

A particular hard swoosh of the wind almost knocked you off your feet, but you grounded yourself, breathing heavily under the collar of your shirt, trying to warm up your breath somewhat before continuing on. You weren't seeing anything as of yet, given how low you are on the ground at the moment, and it felt like forever but you hit somewhat of a checkpoint, a rock in the middle of the beach that you sat down behind to rest on the sand, the wind not as effective now as it was before.

Were you seriously risking your life just to prove a thing to yourself? While it would satisfy your curiosity, it could also satisfy your death wish. A shiver ran down your spine. No, you were not going to die, if it was dangerous you knew you could run, some creatures of the ocean couldn't always stay on the ground before needing to go right back into the water. But given the rain right now, it didn't count, but they could still be out given the chance, and you weren't taking a 'no' as an answer from your brain.

A few more deep breaths and you got off the ground, steadying yourself with the help of the rock given at hand before walking around it and continuing your adventure towards the rocky hill, trying hard to not fall over because of the rain picking up and the wind blowing past you becoming much, much colder and harder to ignore.

A particular area nearby the rocks started rocking along with the wind, and the moment you got too close to it, the wind picked up and the boulder on top fell over, rolling off its spot.

You were so focused on it that before you knew it, darkness ate at your eyes and you collapsed completely under the boulder that continued to crush your body. You were too weak, too stupid to defend yourself against a rock, much less an unknown creature. It ate at your thoughts.

. . .

And suddenly, you took a deep intake of breaths as something heavy was lifted off of you as simply as a feather, you shot up and held a hand over your heart, trying to calm yourself. Your back was most likely not gonna help you, and neither were your most likely broken legs, well, not that broken, you still could move them, given your stupid attempt to get up off the ground.

A harsh gasp came from you, and you sat back down, feeling with your free hand at your ankles and lower leg, trying to see if it was fractured. On the inside it felt intact, on the outside however it felt like it was all scratched and bruised, for both legs had the same problem, but your right leg aches more given the weight that was put on it the most. More thoughts came about and then you raised your head, looking up to be met with what you could describe only as some sort of mer or even, leviathan. It couldn't be put in words at how silent it was, it was leaning close and stabilized with two hands on the ground, holding its body upwards.

You couldn't help your curiosity growing even more, despite the dread you were feeling, knowing that you were probably just prey in its eyes. It inched closer to you, and you had to hold back the shiver that ran down your spine once its immense, wet face was right in front of you, blocking out everything else, all you could see were the obvious scarlet, glowing eyes. To say you were one second away from running wasn't a mistake, but even if you tried, your legs would've given out the moment you get up, given just how much damage has been done already to your body.

The moment you took in a deep breath, it seemed to back away just the slightest bit, you were sure it was more scared of you then you were of it, even though it obviously had an advantage over you in most things. The first obvious one is the height, given you're about the size of an ant to it at this point. You weren't sure what to do, this was just a long staring contest between the both of you.

While most people would've run for their life or fight back, even do as much as flinch, you barely even took in a breath when it inched much closer to you than before. Not to mention it had an unreadable expression on its face, which, from your point of view, looked like a crescent moon and the variety of curves on its face couldn't give it away better than that. You wish you knew more about…Whatever this thing was, so as to know at least what would trigger its fight or flight response.

More harder given how dark it still was right now, and the fact it was still raining, but the creature's body somewhat loomed over you so much it blocked out the rain drops, it was probably trying to trick you into thinking it wasn't dangerous and then just finish you off without a second thought.

It was more than frustrating to think you would be done so easily, given all your life built up to this point, the silence is deafening, it's not a good sign, neither is the way it's inspecting you so closely. You forgot you were still in danger, given it hasn't moved a single bit, well, except for its head, but its body was as still as ever. Was it having some sort of debate on what to do with you? Okay, stop thinking that way, this creature is definitely not as dumb as you thought it would be, it's more like the smart type amongst its species. It's weird to say that too, you don't even know what it is.

It then shifted, leaning away all at once, and you once more had to hold back your breath, though that didn't prepare you for it to smirk at you. The sharp, razor teeth didn't help the matter much. It literally looked like it was about to eat you alive, not like it would be different from when you tried to do it to yourself, but glossing over that- You squeaked the moment the ground left you, and your raincoat not being helpful anymore, given how far off the ground was, you didn't dare look down knowing it would make it worse.

A sound revertabrated from its chest as you didn't move a muscle in its hold. It was so, SO, slippery and wet, yet it had such a hold. The grip around you tightened and your breath was taken away. It slipped closer and closer to the water, using its other hand, clawed tips dragging along the sand, dragging you along against your own will. A momentary midair view of the stars and then darkness.

Water surrounded you the next moment almost instantly, luckily for you, it wasn't as cold as you thought it would be, it was actually pretty warm water. Would be logical, given how hot it was outside not long ago. You blinked several times, adjusting your vision and looking around your surroundings, yep, confirmed you're being dragged deep into the ocean. It wasn't so hard to guess, seeing as many fish started to appear the more your vision cleared, yet your lungs didn't appreciate being so abused, bubbles left your mouth in an attempt to breathe.

Wherever you were being dragged to, it wasn't your home any longer. You covered your mouth with your palms, not doing much but giving you some sort of feeling that gave just the slightest bit of hope you wouldn't drown while being carried away. Was this really a reality? Or is it a dream? It feels too real to be one. The thing holding you was more than real, given that it looked at you from time to time. Your lungs didn't last long, and you started to lose consciousness, your vision blurring out most things around you. It was too much silence.

Wherever you were going to get dragged to, you just hoped it would have some air pocket space. This was the least you could think about before everything suddenly went dark, a warm embrace amongst the sudden cold in the deeper sea. It felt…Comfortable… The light was getting far too close for your liking….

𓆝~°^•*`°•End of prologue⌕`*•°^`•𓆜𖤐

@artistkeval , your blorbo.

FEESH, am I right? 🤔

[autistic-katara]

TELL ME MORE ABOUT CATRIONA!!! what's she like . can i squeeze her like a stress ball and put her in a blender

AAAHHH TYSM FOR ASKING !! (made it kinda long oops)

anyways uhh not sure what u want to know but her birthday is the 22nd of July, she’s 15 years old, she’s lived her whole life in Scotland, she’s lesbian, she was raised non-religious until she was placed with a hyper-christian foster family (her parents died when she was 11 // religious trauma frfr), she has a little sister named Francis who she was separated from after her parents died, one of her earliest memories is watching her dad try and learn arabic from a family friend (his parents were west asian immigrants who gave him up for adoption when he was a baby so he never got to learn his parents language), she has ptsd from what happened to her in her foster home + her parents dying, she was the second person in the group to leave home and find the flat (the first being Liam), she loves cats (there’s a stray who sometimes sleeps inside the stairwell of the apartment building, she named her Faye), all she wants is to find her sister, she doesn’t cope with her problems well (none of them do), she hates the scars on her legs (scared of what others would think but glad it’s unlikely anyone’ll see them), she’s autistic (undiagnosed bcz the system sucks), she straightened her hair everyday for almost 3 years because her (white) foster family couldn’t be bothered to figure out how to take care of curly hair, she and Ella start dating after a good few months of living together in the flag (she wonders what she would think of her scars, she knows she wishes Liam would stop), she often wonders how long it’ll take to fuck-up the little family of the 6 of them (forcing her alone again), she hopes it won’t happen for a while, she’s scared it’ll be her fault.

[bloodyrosesnthorns]

I'm sorry mom.

[merildae]

Some self indulgent (and undoubtedly cringe) skk angst

[sleepsucks]

[holy-reference-in-a-username]

You need to learn to communicate (a toxic TomTord comic)

Content warnings: depiction of SA, self harm, suggestive content, blood, needles (minor)

[idiot-mushroom]

drawing ttnm raph bc it cures my depression

[tsbs-darksun-confessions]

All you do is cause problems, Sol

You keep pushing people away and lashing out. Like what the actual fuck was that with Pan? They were freaked out and you decided to take that as an insult?? They're defending you right now, and I bet all you're doing is fuming and having a little hissy fit

Maybe Pan was right. Maybe you ate a litttlle bit too much of your beloved Lune, because lashing out like that is a Moon trait. Eclipse's get it, yes, but they get it from their Moons

Pan clearly holds onto you really dearly, Sol. I mean, why else would they be so freaked out by that picture? Hell, have you even seen them interacting with anyone before that wasn't you or Ruin? At least not in passing? Have you ever seen them relax around anyone who isn't you? Maybe you just meant more to them than they did to you.

And you pushed them away

Thats all you do, really. Push people away. Lune. Solar. Even Ruin. And now Pan

God, you really are a Moon

[betweenblackberrybranches]

Warning. The following contains references to SH in Arc3. Please be carefull if this might be triggereing to you!

Okay here the update on my personal au now containing Arc3 i hope this will be readable its all gotten a bit small! I am just making a whole new post for this updated version so its all in one place

Sorry if its hard to read id recommend reading the light and dark parts top to bottom on Arc3

[m0rgu3pr1ncess]

BLOOD BLOOD BLOOD

fake blood

[fantomeeee]

cw: implied self harm

[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

[ghostedtea]

lovesick

[hajihiko]

Violent Impulses