#enjoy the ramble vjvjvjvjvh

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HEYO, do you think your Regina GeorgeTM Nightmare would ever have moments of his past self just...idk how to word it rn, just like he slips back. He's there. Something that Nightmare wouldn't normally do, but just this once or twice?

Whether it's drawing the line at children. Killers can kill them. Nightmare would prefer to not....just, something about it is a little too similar for his liking. And if Killer asks, the answer is just 'I have standards' or something to try and cover it up?

Or, maybe a rare 'olive branch' between him and Dream? Perhaps he remembers a small detail and does something nice for once, even if it's a small thing, before going back to his bitchy self? Like, a tiny piece of candy Dream used to like. Or a moment of 'that's MY brother asshole', even if Nightmare still a piece of shit?

Or, not even a moments. What about small mannerisms he has from before, that he doesn't even realize he still has? Maybe it's posture. Maybe it's the way he tilts his head when listening or curious(as a child, it was much more innocent compared to now).

Just a thought I wanted your opinion on!

Hello!! Glad to see you in my inbox again! :D

That’s it Regina GeorgeTM Nightmare is what I’m calling him from now on chchhcchhc /hj

Ok thank you for asking that cause i wanted to ramble about how i view Nightmare for a long time and now the time has come, cause i usually talk about him in fragments, bits and pieces here and there, never fully diving into his personality as a whole

Thing is, corrupted or not, i like to believe he’s still Nightmare y’know? Beneath all that bitchiness, he’s still the same quiet loner little guy that was just never dealt a fair hand by life

I have talked before very quickly about how i think Nightmare has moments of kindness

And even talked a bit in depth about why i think Nightmare is extremely bitchy

And you better believe i love to think Nightmare has those little moments in which he has a kind thought that just seems out of character for him, but it’s truly not, it’s just that little guy inside is still there, it’s just harder for Nightmare to truly think clearly with all the corruption that consumes him

Not only that but i absolutely love to think a lot of his habits are still the same, maybe developed or slightly changed but still very much the same

and i even sketched a few sketches concerning these two points, i just never shared them

In the first sketch, Nightmare is thinking about bringing Killer to Ccino’s Cat cafe, bringing killer to the cafe has no benefit to Nightmare whatsoever, it only serves to make Killer happy (something that completely opposes Nightmare’s goal of spreading negativity) yet he still thought about it, it’s just one of those moments where his little guy self just shines through

In the second sketch, it shows a lil headcanon of mine that Nightmare never broke a habit (and even something of a coping mechanism /comfort) of finding a tree to sit by when he reads, it helps clear his head, and i like to fully believe Nightmare doesn’t truly realize he does this cause it reminds him of better simpler times when he was just a happy content child reading a book under his mom’s leaves

That aside, sometimes i love to include little details in my art that people usually don’t really notice most the time, one little detail is that i love to have Dream and Nightmare grip their clothes as a child would when they are distressed (especially if it’s specifically anxiety/fear)

That’s just plays into a little headcanon of mine that it’s a habit Dream and Nightmare had since childhood and neither of them broke it, nor they’re ever gonna truly break it, what I’m saying is Nightmare’s child-like behavior is very prominent when he’s distressed, and i love to think so cause Nightmare is first and foremost, a wounded fearful lonely child, someone who’s inner child never healed, so when things scare or distress him, his inner child just takes over and such habits make themselves known

To me Nightmare is still Nightmare, it’s just that the corruption has taken over and made his pain worse and by extension he wants to let that pain out by inflecting it on others, all while not truly realizing that he does it to let his own pain out, in fact, I wholeheartedly believe that if someone (say Killer for example) kept pressing him by questions as to why he does what he does, eventually Nightmare would hit a wall only to realize “huh… why am i doing this?” Cause Nightmare would never settle for a bitchy answer like “why not?” It’s beneath him

Not only that but i fully believe Nightmare can get those moments of weakness in which the past just eats away at him, something I sketched for too :’)

And when it comes to Dream, he definitely has those moments of hesitation that he himself doesn’t fully understand, he fully believes that he doesn’t care for Dream at all, even tho it’s not true

I even talked about Dream and Nightmare coexisting before

And even this animatic, in which Nightmare (while being unphased/ unresponsive to Dream’s affection at first) still allowed Dream to show him his affection and let Dream hug him, only to return it by a very subtle head tilt leaning towards Dream before returning to his bitchy self

And I even wanna bring attention to this lil comic (and the ramble I made in the reblog about it dhhxhx) cause I feel like it also explores Nightmare’s fears to an extent

Fears of feeling weak, cause Nightmare definitely developed the mindset that the strong devours the weak, i like to think Nightmare hates feeling weak cause who would protect him but himself?

That being said, he maybe a bitch, but he’s also a deeply traumatized individual with an inner child who’s in dire need to heal, my man needs therapy and love <33333