#the chair was so Bella had somewhere to sit while waiting for Nightmare to jump on-stage

[moonfurthetemmie]

ok so hear me out actually. i have an idea for how nightmare could actually stop Petruccio and Gonzalo

through a series of very unusual events, Petruccio (and only Petruccio) is captured and taken to JR.

Gonzalo spends several days frantically searching for him, and eventually he runs into the Meme Squad. They think he's a little off, but when he tells them he's looking for a dear friend of his who went missing they're like "oh. that'll do it" and just accept it.

Then he tells them that Petruccio is a corrupt and they all go "oooooh. uh...do you perhaps know if people wearing gold pins with the letters 'JR' had anything to do with your friend's disappearance"

"...what do you know."

they point him to JR and tell him about Dream.

Gonzalo wastes no time in tracking this mother fucker down and attacks him. With the element of surprise and Dream severely underestimating how violent and murderous a radiant could be, Gonzalo pins him down and manages to get Petruccio's location out of Dream.

Dream isn't fatally injured, but boy did he get a rough and painful wake-up call. Gonzalo leaves him, with the vague threat of a fate worse than death if he finds out Petruccio is dead.

Petruccio's alive and mostly well. He was freaking the fuck out these past few days but aside from that and being treated like a rabid animal in confinement, he's fine.

Gonzalo breaks him out. Big hugs and apologies and shit. They find the Meme Squad again to thank the three for their help.

They end up hanging out with the Meme Squad for a while, and the pair decides that they quite like these three.

Nightmare, thinking that it's mostly common knowledge and that they'll find out anyways if they hang out long enough, mentions his and Dream's destiny bond. Upon prompting he explains what that is and is like "you were probably going to hear about it anyways, sooo"

And Gonzalo and Petruccio go "...ah. that's...an issue."

Nightmare: ...Why?

Gonzalo, tapping his chin: Well...We like you. We like you a lot. You're fun.

Gonzalo: Dream, however, needs to go.

Nightmare: Nightmare: uh

Petruccio: ...You said he's trying to kill you, though. That must mean he's working on a way to break that bond.

Nightmare: Uh?

Gonzalo, grinning: Oh, I think I have a wonderful idea.

And they leave before the Meme Squad can properly process any of that.

Gonzalo and Petruccio drop Francisco off at JR and tell him to offer help in breaking Dream and Nightmare's destiny bond. They explain everything he needs to know, but tell him that if he tries to betray them they'll know and he better fucking not.

he decides he doesn't want to find out what they'll do to him if he does, so he quietly does as he's told.

Dream finds something strange about this, but when asked Francisco's face becomes Afraid and Regretful for a split second. And then he smiles and shrugs and says "I just thought I'd see if I could help."

Something about Francisco also reminds Dream very much of Petruccio and Gonzalo, but he can't place what. it's the magic tracker they put on him btw. dream can sense it. it's faint enough though that anyone who isn't them won't know what it is.

fast forward and Gonzalo and Petruccio get a message from Francisco saying that the soul bond has been severed, and Dream is now dedicating most of his resources to finding and catching Nightmare.

Gonzalo and Petruccio crack their knuckles and start setting something up.

they're basically planning on making a big show of trying to quickly and forcefully making him a vessel for Yighraru. They're not even sure how well it'll go, but either they'll get the perfect revenge, or he will have a gruesome, painful death, or he'll be left a mere shell of his former self from the trauma. All of which is a win for them!

Either way. They set up a little stage somewhere. Dream vanishes for a few days around when they start setting that up. And then they day arrives, and the whole team comes. Bella hides off-stage. Antonio, Bea, and Lodo hide in the audience and wait for their cue. They're all in costume. They won't be recognized.

Gonzalo and Petruccio made absolutely sure that the Meme Squad would be nearby when they started.

Dream is tied up and dragged onstage. He's pretty beat-up. A crowd quickly forms, but the stage isn't easily accessible unless you frequently hop/vault/climb over 3-4 foot objects, so they mostly just murmur nervously. it helps that Gonzalo and Petruccio's faces have been on the news and no one is too eager to fuck with a corrupt and a clearly deranged and exceptionally pissed radiant.

They have their speech about how Dream was teeechnically right about Petruccio, but Gonzalo's just as bad if not worse. Also Petruccio was like this while he was still the positive spirit. They basically just poke huge holes into Dream's deep-seated beliefs about positivity and negativity while laughing at him. Publicly. There's probably at least one camera that they planted so that it'd get on the news at some point, in case no one filmed the thing themselves. It'd be no fun if there was no video recordings of their show!

Petruccio and Gonzalo realized pretty quickly after meetings him that, despite being reasonably upset about Dream's bullshit, Nightmare still really cares about him.

So, as expected, when the Squad rolls up to the show Nightmare goes "HEY WHAT THE FUCK??" and runs over to try and help Dream, Cross and Error in tow.

Antonio, the strongest, catches Cross and physically restrains her.

Lodo grabs Error and holds her arms behind her back, trying to ignore how badly Error's freaking out about being touched at all.

Bea just holds her arm out. Nightmare skids to a stop to avoid getting sliced by her fucking CLAWS and she grabs him from behind, pinning one of his arms to his body, and putting the blades on her gloves right under his chin.

Antonio and Bea mumble apologies. Lodo, not that Error can see it, slowly nods. she is also very sorry for this.

Petruccio and Gonzalo act surprised, and then go "aww, did you want to help him? After all these years of him hunting you down for the crime of being born a certain way, you don't want to watch him die? How heroic! You could learn something from him, Angel boy. A shame you won't have the chance to."

they pick on Dream some more about how fucking Nightmare just tried to come save him.

After a few moments of this Petruccio yanks Dream's head up by his hair and Gonzalo presses the blade of his dagger against his neck-

Nightmare "manages" to break free of Bea's hold, summons his spear, and jumps onto the stage, only to be grabbed by oddly familiar blue strings and yoinked mid-air. When he stops rolling he finds himself wrapped up in strings like the worst kind of mummy, almost entirely unable to move, and Bella steps onto the stage.

She kicks him (rather gently, but he still yelps) and goes "Don't you know it's rude to disrupt a theater production? Now look at you. So much for a hero."

She joins Petruccio and Gonzalo, and they start the 'real' show.

the crowd does not like the real show but they can't find it in them to turn away. Even Bea's straining to hear as much as she can.

but unbeknowst to everyone except Cross and Error, Nightmare has ooonnee little trick up his sleeve.

or more specifically. a pocketknife in his boot.

the eldritch magic being displayed and the way Dream's starting to freak out as his magic slowly turns blue isn't distracting the crowd so much that they don't notice as Nightmare trying to inchworm away and try to grab the knife. He can bend his spine and his knees and shit, he just can't move anything else. so he's just. awkwardly trying to contort his body so he can get that LITTLE FUCKING KNIFE and trying not to swear and draw attention to himself.

he manages to get it. freezes and looks back at the three trying to summon something. starts trying to cut the strings without cutting himself too badly. He gets one arm free, than the other, then his legs. As he's doing this he's trying to think of some way he can get Dream out of this. There's no way in hell he can take all three of them in a fight, and he's sure their lackeys that grabbed him and his friends are going to help bring him down. He's going to need something better than his spear, but what?

as he scrambles to his feet and looks around frantically, he is quite surprised to see the perfect weapon.

He exits stage left. and then quickly enters again and swings a metal folding chair at Gonzalo, Petruccio, and Bella's heads.

with three rather sickening BANGs, the three of them crumple to the ground. Dream slumps to the floor as well, alive but exhausted and in great pain. Everyone stares at the three in silent shock. Nightmare slowly lowers the chair and says, shakily, a little awed himself, "why did they even have this back there?"

Cross and Error wheeze and yell, loud enough for everyone to hear, "What's this?? It's Nightmare with the metal chair!"

the crowd starts laughing too, relieved that Dream is alright, and actually starts. cheering?

nightmare blinks. why are they cheering. what the hell

and then Gonzalo and Petruccio stir. Whether or not Bella survived this I'm not wholly sure, but the two spirits are quite durable.

Nightmare immediately goes "oh FUCK", drops the chair, and drags Dream's half-concious ass off stage.

Antonio, Lodo, and Bea step back and Bea's like "did...did he actually hit them with a metal folding chair?? holy shit."

Lodo signs something about being surprised that Gonzalo and Petruccio didn't account for the 100+ year-old wanted criminal having a back-up weapon and being very resourceful. They really shouldn't have had that chair.

Some people from the crowd get to the stage before Cross and Error do, and help Nightmare get Dream down. Dream's bonds are cut, a portal is made, and they get out.

While Gonzalo and Petruccio still very much want Dream dead and are really pissed about what happened, they're not too keen on fucking with any of them again after the Metal Chair Incident.

Francisco spills the beans to Dream when he gets better, and Dream goes 'oh christ. okay. do you want to stay here we can put you in witness protection and probably get rid of that tracker thing'. there may be gay shit after. maybe. too soon to know

Nightmare's face is once again circulating around the internet, but for once everyone is praising him. and he is still so fucking confused

Unrelated to the last post (joke) do you think an eldritch creature could take advantage of a destiny bond to fuck with DS Nightmare and Dream? because if yes they definitely will need extra help because Nightmare is in no shape to try and stop H!Lear and H!Puck.

The thing’s influence might be too powerful once he gets near the main sources of its power in this dimension (the rings), and when he gets there he suddenly can’t remember what he was trying to stop them from doing and just joins them