You can call me whatever you like. These days, I’m usually called Duck or Ducky, but my blog nickname is perfectly fine too. I’m not particularly concerned about pronouns.
I’m Korean, and I communicate mostly through translators. Sometimes things get translated in ways I didn’t intend, but I try to correct them whenever I notice. At the moment, Tumblr is my main platform, and I’m not publicly active on any other social media.
I enjoy drawing and talking about UT/AU, especially Nightmare. Most of my posts focus on character dynamics, worldbuilding, and my personal interpretations of Dreamtale. My interpretations often differ from the original source material, and I enjoy looking at characters from a variety of perspectives.
The settings and interpretations I talk about are ultimately my own creative reinterpretations. They reflect my personal tastes and ideas, so I care about them deeply, but I don’t consider them more valid than anyone else’s interpretations, nor do I claim ownership over any of the characters.
Unless stated otherwise, all of my posts are written from a non-shipping perspective. You're free to interpret things however you'd like, but I may not be comfortable responding to direct discussions about ships.
I always enjoy reading comments, reblogs, and tags. Thank you for sharing your thoughts with me! 🥹 Even if I can’t reply to every comment, they genuinely make me happy.
Please do not repost, edit, or use my artwork for AI training or AI-generated content. Personal use such as profile pictures is fine as long as proper credit is given. Please keep it within reasonable and respectful boundaries.
Ask Box
I accept questions and requests through my ask box. However, I may not be able to answer every ask, and I sometimes choose not to respond depending on the topic. Thank you for understanding.
In particular, I’m unlikely to accept requests involving characters I don’t usually work with or ship-related requests. I truly appreciate the interest, but my interests tend to be fairly specific, and I prefer focusing on the subjects I genuinely enjoy rather than branching into areas I’m unfamiliar with.
Please do not attach other artists’ artwork when sending asks. Just as I hope my own work is respected, I would like to respect the work of other creators as well.
I tend to write rather long responses, so it can take me quite a while to answer asks. 😅
Even so, I'm always working through them little by little, so I'd be grateful if you don't mind waiting. Thank you for your patience, and I'm always happy to receive your messages!
Below you'll find my tag guide, which I hope will make browsing the blog a little easier!
I hope my drawings and stories can bring you some enjoyment as well. I hope we can continue enjoying these stories together for a long time.
Thank you for reading, and have a wonderful day! 😚💕
Tag guide
I’ve ended up accumulating a lot more posts than I expected, so I reorganized my tags a little to make things easier to browse/search through.
Posts that include drawings are now tagged by character as well. For ideas that started as small doodles but somehow kept coming back multiple times, I also made separate IF tags. In those cases, posts with drawings are grouped under the IF tags, while lighter stories and extra ideas from asks are separated under the talk tags.
I’ll probably keep adding more tags over time, so I’ll pin this post and update it whenever needed. I might forget a tag or accidentally use the wrong one sometimes, but I’ll fix it whenever I notice 😉
Main tags
#my art
#my asks
#Shipping post
#humanization
character name tags
IF tags
#Skeledoggy IF
#Skeledoggy IF talk
#Skelekitty IF
#Cat Dream IF
#Cat Dream IF talk
#Dog Dream IF talk
Hihiii, I was wondering what kinda powers does Nightmare and Dream have? Seeing that Nightmare can hide in shadows too, I assume they have other powers other than emotion bassed ones! 👀
Hello! Oh, that's an interesting topic 🤔
It's actually not something I've thought about in great detail before, so I took this opportunity to organize my thoughts. That said, I don't always stick to the exact same interpretation, so please just take this as a bit of fun ☺️
This is probably going to be a long one, so I'll put it under a cut!
Before answering your question, I'd like to first explain how I personally interpret the twins.
One of the things I like most is the idea that the twins were originally spirits who simply received physical vessels. At their core, they are neither humans nor monsters, but beings much closer to myths and fantasies than ordinary living creatures.
After obtaining the apples, however, they became embodiments of emotion itself. Rather than remaining ordinary spirits, they came to represent the very concepts of positivity and negativity.
Because of that, most of the abilities I imagine for them begin with the question of how they make use of emotions. Nightmare hiding within shadows, which you mentioned, would also fall into that category.
Although the extent of their abilities differs depending on how many apples they consumed and how much time they've had to study them, the foundation is always the same. Every ability branches from that shared principle, and I generally divide them into two broad categories.
First, the twins are able to perceive the emotions of others and make use of them however they wish. They can use those emotions to amplify their own power, transform abstract feelings into tangible phenomena, or manifest them in countless different ways. These are abilities that either emerged—or were dramatically enhanced—after they became embodiments of emotion by consuming the apples.
On the other hand, abilities such as influencing dreams or healing magic are skills they could have learned naturally while growing as spirits. Although they now function very differently after becoming intertwined with emotional power, their true origin still lies in their nature as spirits.
Even reinforcing their physical bodies with magic or adding physical force to their attacks falls into this category. Spirits were never meant to possess physical forms in the first place, so the Mother Tree created specially adapted vessels for the twins, allowing them to use magic in ways ordinary spirits never could.
With that foundation in mind, I think it's much more interesting to look at how each of them makes use of those abilities. They both begin with the same principles, yet the way they apply them is just as different as the way they think.
Since Nightmare has had far more time than Dream to explore and refine his powers, he naturally uses them in much broader and more practical ways. The greatest difference between them begins with how he perceives emotions themselves.
Nightmare's emotional perception covers a vastly greater range than Dream's. This is a consequence of the difference in the number of apples they consumed, and it was also one of the primary reasons he remained trapped in madness for so long immediately after his corruption.
The easiest way to explain it would be to compare other people's emotions to radio broadcasts. To Nightmare, it feels as though he is constantly surrounded by countless radios, each one playing at once. None of them can ever be completely switched off, leaving him immersed in an endless sea of noise. After living like this for so long, however, it has become little more than ordinary background noise to him.
Naturally, after enduring this state for such a long time, he's developed his own methods of coping with it. He can tune himself to a particular frequency, focus on a specific channel, or raise and lower the volume as needed. It's much like concentrating on a single conversation in a crowded room—once his attention settles on one voice, the others gradually fade into the background.
Because of this, he's exceptionally skilled at reading emotions with remarkable precision and isolating exactly the feelings he's looking for. That skill is all the more impressive because it wasn't something he chose to pursue. It was simply the result of adapting in order to survive without losing his sanity.
Had he never learned to control it, he would have remained trapped within that endless noise forever, unable to think clearly—just as he was during the earliest days of his corruption. Over time, he learned to treat the countless emotions that once tormented him not as meaningless noise, but as information he could understand and make use of.
In fact, this is also why he brought Killer into his group. For someone who constantly experiences emotions as if they were radio broadcasts, finding a radio that produces no signal at all would be unimaginably rare—even if the silence exists only because something inside it is broken.
As a side note, I'm only comparing it to sound because it's the easiest way to explain. Just as we say that we "hear" sounds without ever explaining what hearing itself actually feels like, sensing emotions is simply one of the twins' natural senses. Nightmare has spent countless years analyzing that sense in order to understand and make use of it, so he can at least describe it through analogies like this. Dream, on the other hand, would probably struggle to put it into words at all. It's much like asking someone, "What does the sense of touch actually feel like?"—it's the kind of question that's almost impossible to answer properly.
Anyway, because of that foundation, Nightmare is exceptionally skilled at sorting through other people's emotions and judging how useful they are. Being able to read emotions makes it easy to analyze someone, and once he has analyzed them thoroughly enough, manipulating them becomes much easier.
Predicting the way someone thinks by observing their behavior, manner of speaking, expressions, and emotional responses, then controlling them through carefully chosen reactions and information, is practically an ability in its own right. In a sense, he's the type of person who can turn even language itself into a weapon.
For example, when Nightmare deliberately chooses someone as his target, he almost never relies on physical force. Instead, he prefers to tighten the noose little by little, breaking them down psychologically, and his abilities have naturally developed and specialized in that direction.
He connects his consciousness to whatever evokes a person's fear and observes them through it. By exploiting their psychological weaknesses, he creates anxiety using common sources of fear—most often the darkness lurking in corners or the dead of night. His ability to hide within shadows is simply one application of this.
A pair of eyes watching from the darkness. Strange voices that seem impossible to explain. The illusion that the shadows themselves are moving. A growing distrust of everyone around them. Nightmare throws his target's mind into turmoil through things like these, filling them with uneasy nightmares until even sleep is no longer a place of rest. As that interference continues, the target gradually falls apart, eventually reaching the point where they can no longer distinguish dreams from reality. In the end, the worst ending that once existed only in their nightmares becomes reality itself.
The core of his methods, however, does not lie in those external stimuli. The easiest way to break someone psychologically is to make them doubt themselves. Once a person can no longer trust even themselves, they can no longer trust anyone else either. They reject even the help offered to them and, in the end, choose their own destruction.
That is the point Nightmare chooses to exploit. He prefers to guide his targets toward collapsing under their own weight rather than destroying them himself. In his view, someone who does not wish to be saved can never truly be saved. Just as Dream can never save Nightmare, no matter how desperately he tries.
As the guardian of the Apple of Negative Feelings, Nightmare's original role was to awaken fear through nightmares, keep people from becoming complacent within their dreams, and remind them of the value of reality so they could move toward the right path. He was never meant to live someone else's life for them. His role was simply to show them a reason to keep living on their own.
The overall principle remains much the same. The difference is simply that Nightmare now uses it to lead others toward ruin. He awakens fear through nightmares, prevents people from escaping into dreams, and turns reality itself into something terrifying, pushing those who have walked themselves to the edge of the cliff over the brink. The method is exactly the same. Only the direction in which he gives that final push has completely changed.
Now that I've spent quite a while talking about how Nightmare uses his abilities to break people down, I'd like to move on to something a little lighter. More specifically, the practical ways he uses them in everyday situations.
As I mentioned earlier, his ability to connect his consciousness through things that evoke fear—such as darkness and shadows—can naturally be used for eavesdropping, surveillance, and even movement.
Within his castle, he mainly uses it to manage his possessions. Nightmare always leaves a small part of his consciousness within the shadows of his gang. To go back to the radio analogy, it's like going about his own business while keeping their broadcasts playing a little closer in the background. He doesn't pay attention to every single word, but whenever a particular phrase catches his interest, he can simply tune in and listen.
His awareness extends beyond the shadows of his gang—the entire castle falls within his perception. Nightmare deliberately keeps his castle shrouded in darkness, with perpetual night hanging over it. The only light comes from dim teal torches saturated with his magic, preserving an atmosphere that is bleak, oppressive, and unsettling. His negative aura makes the very air inside the castle feel heavier and colder. Fear naturally arises in such an environment, and Nightmare uses the lingering traces of those emotions like windows through which he can observe everything beyond them.
Because of that, it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that Nightmare is practically omniscient within his own castle. The castle he resides in—the one that once belonged to the wealthiest kingdom among Dreamtale's ancient ruins—has been shaped so that every aspect of it serves his needs and the way he uses his abilities. To step inside his castle is to place yourself in the palm of his hand, where every movement can be watched.
It doesn't necessarily have to be his castle, either. Any environment capable of naturally fostering negative emotions can be used as though it were his own territory. He could even gather every trace of negativity from an overwhelmingly positive world to create something resembling a vast black dome. However, because doing so drains nearly all of the surrounding negativity, the area is left with little but positive emotions for quite some time afterward, making it an inefficient approach in the long run.
Then there are abilities like shapeshifting. Nightmare usually uses it to take the form of whatever his target fears most in order to provoke that fear, but in reality, reading emotions and shapeshifting are two completely separate abilities.
When Nightmare was corrupted, his original body was almost completely destroyed, leaving him as something closer to a mass of formless black liquid than a physical being. Because of that, he can reshape himself into whatever form he wishes. Even the appearance he has now is simply a recreation of a chosen form. Transforming into whatever his target fears most isn't an inherent function of shapeshifting itself, but rather an application that combines his ability to read emotions with the freedom of his fluid body.
As for the limits of his shapeshifting, I honestly don't think they're easy to define. The same goes for its size or volume. Under normal circumstances, what you're looking at is an enormous amount of magical liquid compressed endlessly into his current form. The sheer quantity of magic he contains is absurd, so the smaller the shape he takes, the greater its density becomes.
I'll leave it up to your imagination just how far he could actually spread. One thing is certain, though: when Dreamtale fell, he was less a living being than a disaster itself—a black tide overflowing as it swept relentlessly across the land.
Surprisingly, after everything I've talked about so far... as I mentioned at the beginning, Nightmare is actually capable of healing magic. It's neither particularly powerful nor something he uses often, and for the most part, he behaves as though he'd forgotten it even exists.
Despite the way he deliberately avoids it, there's nothing inherently wrong with Nightmare's healing magic. It's a power he possessed long before his corruption, back when he was still a spirit. The twins were originally guardians of the Tree of Feelings and its apples, and their ability to nurture nature and life was simply an extension of their role as protectors of the tree.
It was never powerful enough to heal severe injuries, but cuts and minor wounds could be treated with little difficulty. At its core, it's a power that accelerates regeneration, meaning it could also be used to encourage the growth of plants. Considering the purpose for which the twins were originally created, that was probably its intended use all along.
After his corruption, however, Nightmare deliberately abandoned that power, treating it as though it had never existed. Healing was too deeply intertwined with his childhood, and the thought of using a gift inherited from the mother he had killed felt fundamentally wrong to him. It became even harder to accept when he remembered that the power had originally existed to protect her in the first place.
He wanted to bury every part of his past. Besides, He believed he would never again have any reason to heal someone for the rest of his life. He believed he existed only to destroy. That's all he believed he would ever be.
As a result, his healing ability has deteriorated compared to what it once was in his childhood. Since it has nothing to do with emotions, it shouldn't have been affected in the first place. But much like a part of the body that becomes difficult to use after years of neglect, he simply grew clumsy with healing magic because he stopped using it. It's a bitter irony when you remember how naturally he used to heal Dream whenever he got hurt while they were playing, or quietly mend his own injuries before anyone noticed.
I'm sure there are plenty of other applications for his abilities beyond the ones I've mentioned here, but these are the first that come to mind. Nightmare has spent such a long time refining his powers that he can use them in almost every way one could reasonably imagine, and he may well continue discovering new ways to apply them in the future.
He's never been particularly flexible in the way he thinks, so ideas that lie outside his own assumptions don't come to him easily. It wouldn't be surprising if there were still clever applications he simply hasn't thought of yet. Perhaps he'll find the hint he needs from someone around him.
It's gotten fairly long, so this time I'd like to move on to Dream.
Because their experiences and ways of thinking are so different, Dream doesn't use his abilities in nearly as complex a way as Nightmare does. Instead, he tends to approach them with a clear purpose in mind, using them in ways that are simple, direct, and straightforward. Because of that, I think Dream's section is less about the abilities themselves and more about the way he thinks.
If Nightmare's greatest strength has always been his ability to think, then Dream's has always been his ability to act. He was the kind of child who cared more about what he wanted to do than what he was supposed to do, and that simple sense of purpose often became the clearest guide of all. Much like how, when you've lost your way, a single bright North Star can be the most reassuring thing to follow.
That same quality is reflected in the way Dream uses his powers. He specializes in responding to positive emotions and manifesting hope. It's nothing particularly flashy. He draws small spheres of light from another person's positive feelings and lets them guide the way like little beacons. Their glow is gentle, almost like fireflies, and though they're small, they bring warmth, reassurance, and hope to those who see them.
As a spirit, Dream's role was to show people hope and guide them so they wouldn't lose their way. That's why he draws light from another person's emotions and gives visible form to dreams that normally cannot be seen, allowing people to recognize that hope truly exists. His purpose was to give them the strength to stand back up on their own, and to remind them that they still had a reason to keep living.
Originally, the twins were never meant to become deeply involved in the lives of mortals. Much like dreams themselves, they were only meant to appear when needed, offering guidance from one step removed without deciding everything on someone else's behalf. Too much intervention would only rob people of the chance to stand on their own.
Almost as though he's painfully aware of that fact—perhaps even too aware of it—Dream is surprisingly difficult to become close to despite his gentle demeanor. He's always kind and warm toward everyone, but he rarely allows anyone to come beyond a certain distance. He constantly pays attention to the boundaries between himself and others, making a conscious effort not to let anyone get too close.
Perhaps because of that, Dream feels uncomfortable even with his own ability to perceive emotions. As a child, it was simply another natural sense, something he never questioned. But after awakening from the stone, something about him changed. He became overly conscious of the boundaries between himself and other people, almost as though he had come to some painful realization, and gradually stopped allowing anyone to see who he truly was. Instead, he focused on preserving the image of the ideal guardian, no matter what.
To Dream, however, the heightened emotional perception brought about by the apple feels uncomfortably close to prying open someone else's heart. It's like walking into another person's home and opening their wardrobe without permission—an act that feels deeply rude and invasive. Even more so because it was never something he asked for in the first place. Just as he hopes others won't cross into his own personal space without invitation, Dream has no desire to intrude upon theirs in the same way.
Even so, Dream knows he can't simply get rid of this ability. It may make him uncomfortable at times, but the sense itself is still familiar to him. The way he views it has changed, but the sensation itself has been a part of him for as long as he can remember.
Because of that, Dream uses it to read people's emotions, ease their hearts, and nurture their hope. Even if, every now and then, it leaves him with the uncomfortable feeling that he's reading someone else's heart as though it were an answer sheet.
Of course, Dream's abilities don't end with reading emotions and creating light. His other powers operate on the same underlying principles, simply taking different forms. Healing is probably the best example.
In Dream's case, his healing magic is something that originated in childhood, but it has also been greatly amplified by the power of positivity. Building upon his natural healing abilities, Dream draws out a person's hope—the belief that they can recover—and uses it to strengthen the magic itself. The stronger that hope is, the more powerful the healing becomes.
To an outside observer, it might look as though Dream is performing miracles. In fact, there are people who regard him as a savior because of it. Dream, however, doesn't see it that way, and he feels uncomfortable being called one. To him, none of it would have been possible without the other person's own faith, so he'd much rather give the credit to the one who found the strength to believe than accept it for himself.
Of course, miracles alone aren't the reason people see Dream as a savior. He's genuinely helped an incredible number of people, and he's well known for checking in on those he rescues afterward to make sure they're still doing well. Perhaps it's that quiet thoughtfulness, more than anything else, that leads people to see him that way.
To those who know him a little better, however, that habit of constantly checking in on people is also something they can't help but worry about.
Dream is genuinely kind, and he truly enjoys seeing the people he's rescued move forward with hope. Watching them rebuild their lives gives him the strength to keep trying, and it fills him with enough joy and quiet pride to bring a sincere smile to his face.
The problem is that there aren't just one or two people he's saved. From the moment he helps someone, Dream places that person's life within the boundaries of his own responsibility. Because of that, if tragedy ever befalls them afterward, he tends to see it as his own failure—even when there was nothing he could have done to prevent it.
More than that, once Dream has helped someone—once he's shown them hope—he feels an overwhelming compulsion to take responsibility for everything that comes afterward. After guiding someone to safety, he'll begin worrying about where they'll live, how they'll make a living, whether they'll ever find themselves in danger again, and countless other details. If there's anything left that he can do, he'll gladly take that burden upon himself as well. It's almost as though he's simply happy to have something more he can do for them.
Because of this, it's not unusual for Dream to work himself to exhaustion, going days without proper sleep. His friends are constantly trying to make him stop and get some rest. Dream is aware of this compulsion himself, but he doesn't believe it's something he can change. So even while listening to the endless lectures from the people around him, he simply smiles back with an expression that seems equal parts apologetic and quietly resigned.
Ironically, these two compulsions often come into direct conflict with one another. One urges him to keep a certain distance from other people, while the other compels him to take responsibility for their lives as though they were his own. Depending on the situation, one side of him tries to preserve those boundaries, while the other inevitably tears them down out of a desperate need to protect the person standing before him.
Yet Dream can't abandon either of them. In the end, he always resolves that conflict by sacrificing himself instead. To him, both are equally impossible to let go of. One is an instinctive compulsion to keep others at arm's length so that he never has to lose everything again. The other is a rational compulsion to prove his own worth and become the guardian he believes he ought to be.
Sometimes, Dream wonders what it would be like if someone other than the twins possessed the same ability he does. If someone could look into his heart the way he can look into theirs. He wonders whether the world would come to despise him the way it despises Nightmare once they saw what he truly thinks. And if that ever happened... he wonders whether his brother would still accept him.
No matter how much the world has changed since then, there's one thing Dream knows for certain: he never wants to lose anything ever again. In the end, the reason he keeps the world at a distance is because he can no longer place the same trust he once did in people who wish for his brother's death.
Fortunately, despite everything he keeps hidden inside, Dream still presents himself as the ideal guardian. He's polite, kind, and never hesitates to put himself in harm's way for someone else. No matter how many thoughts he conceals behind his smile, the kindness he shows others is always genuine.
Because of that, Dream's magic has always centered around hope, healing, and protection. Even in battle, while he certainly knows when to evade an attack, he just as often chooses to defend instead. More often than not, he's fighting to protect someone else.
For that reason, his defensive magic is also heavily influenced by how strongly the other person believes that he will protect them. Dream himself uses it with absolute confidence that he can keep them safe, but the faith others place in him strengthens his magic even further, making his barriers all the more resilient.
What's interesting is that Nightmare approaches combat in almost the exact opposite way. While Dream instinctively chooses to defend in order to protect others, Nightmare fights under the assumption that he simply won't be hit in the first place. To him, defending isn't the optimal choice—it means he was already a step too slow to avoid the attack altogether.
As a result, battles between the twins usually unfold in much the same pattern. Nightmare relentlessly pressures Dream with overwhelming attacks, while Dream focuses on defense, waiting patiently for the one opening that will let him land a decisive blow. By all accounts, it should be nearly impossible for Dream to survive on his own. Yet whether anyone else interferes or not, Nightmare always ends up giving him that opportunity, and Dream somehow manages to seize it and survive.
Dream has questioned that fact more than once. At the same time, however, the killing intent he feels from Nightmare has never been anything less than genuine. He has never once dismissed that hostility, and every time they clash, he fights with complete sincerity, determined to survive.
In the end, although the twins share the same fundamental abilities, they've each developed them in completely different ways. Overall, Dream has developed his powers around protection and guidance rather than offense, while Nightmare has honed his into tools for manipulating and controlling others.
Given how different the circumstances they were given have been, it's only natural that the way they use their abilities has diverged so much. Still, if Dream were given more time, I think he'd eventually come up with all sorts of new applications as well. He always had a knack for solving problems in ways Nightmare would never have thought of.
Even when they were children, coming up with completely unexpected ideas just to catch his overly serious brother off guard was one of Dream's little talents. Nightmare probably wouldn't laugh the way he used to anymore, but seeing his arrogant older brother genuinely caught by surprise might still be far too entertaining to resist.
Well... this ended up being much longer than I expected. Once I started writing down everything I wanted to talk about, I couldn't seem to stop myself again... I just hope it wasn't too boring to read. It was a genuinely fun topic to think about.
These are simply my own ideas, of course, and I'm sure there are plenty of other ways their abilities could be interpreted. There are probably countless possibilities I haven't thought of myself, and if you'd ever like to share your own ideas, I'd genuinely have a lot of fun reading them as well 😚
As always, thank you so much for reading! And thank you for the ask—I hope you have a wonderful day! 💕
Dream is actually much more straightforward than people might expect. He puts so much effort into being polite and considerate of other people's feelings that it's not always obvious, though.
But when he was younger... well, to put it nicely, he was very honest. Less nicely, he had absolutely no filter. Since he wasn't human to begin with, that sense of disconnect in the way he spoke and thought was even stronger.
Before the apple incident, that never really changed, simply because no one was there to correct him. Nightmare was in a very similar situation himself, and on top of that, he had a huge soft spot for Dream. So Dream remained exactly the same—blunt, a little unsettling, and casually speaking from a perspective fundamentally different from everyone else's. He was, quite literally, a spirit wearing the appearance of a child.
Because that was the kind of person Dream was, adapting to the world after awakening from the stone couldn't have been easy. The incident made him much calmer, and a bit more melancholic, but he was still unbelievably stubborn.
Fortunately, he was never an aggressive person by nature, so learning to be considerate of others and compromise wasn't the difficult part. The real challenge was learning when to hold back the things he saw as perfectly natural, but which came from a perspective fundamentally different from everyone else's.
Luckily, Dream had good friends by his side. Ink had once gone through much the same confusion Dream experienced after awakening, so he was able to share the social norms and little tricks he'd learned along the way. Whenever they found themselves unsure about something, Blue's common sense and moral compass helped fill in the gaps.
Thanks to his friends, Dream adapted surprisingly quickly. He even adjusted faster than Nightmare, who understands society well enough but has never really felt the need to become part of it.
That said, there are still parts of Dream that never changed. His stubbornness was simply part of who he was, and ironically, because he was so stubborn, he never wanted to change that part of himself either. It may have softened over time, but it never disappeared.
In fact, while Dream is opposed to Nightmare, he's generally much more careful with his words. It's almost as if he's constantly trying not to give anyone the slightest reason to criticize or nitpick him. Which also means that, if he and Nightmare were ever on good terms again, that old blunt side of him would probably come out much more easily.
So... that's basically how it is. Dream is constantly keeping that straightforward side of himself in check with the social skills he learned later in life. Those blunt thoughts are still the first things that come to mind—they just get revised before they ever leave his mouth.
If we could actually hear Dream's inner thoughts, I'm convinced we'd find far more rude comments than the polite ones he works so hard to present on the outside. Thankfully, most people can't read minds.
I'm just glad Dream had such good teachers... Unlike someone who doesn't even pretend to try 👀
I don’t say this enough but I absolutely adore your dreamtale twin art, dynamic, writing!! It’s an absolute delight to see it 🥹🥹
Hello! Oh, thank you so much! I'm really happy to hear that 🥹
I really love drawing them and thinking about them too... No matter how many times I do it, I never seem to get tired of it. If you think about it, I feel like I'm always talking about the same things, yet somehow it never gets old. It's always fun.
The Dreamtale twins have so much incredible potential. Their relationship, personalities, story, preferences, and even the way they act leave room for so many different interpretations. There are also so many interesting ways to connect them with well-known myths and ideas. Balance, positivity and negativity, spirits and nature... I love that they touch on so many themes I naturally enjoy thinking about.
When it comes to fiction... I've always been drawn to characters who aren't human. The further they are from humanity—and the more mischievous or even cruel they are—the more interesting I tend to find them. Characters who aren't bound by the ordinary rules of society always have a certain sense of freedom to me, regardless of whether I agree with them or not. I also enjoy looking at those kinds of beings through a human perspective and imagining how they would be understood.
I think that's exactly what I love most about the twins, too. From the very beginning, they were never meant to be like people. They're different even from humans or monsters—they feel like beings that exist outside of society, with no need to belong to it in the first place. Quite literally, they're spirits.
They were never meant to need a community. They were created simply to live as they were born and fulfill the purpose they were given. That's why I love seeing beings like them gradually become involved with people, slowly learning about society and becoming part of a world they were never meant to belong to.
As fundamentally different beings, they eventually had to set aside their own way of seeing the world and learn about one they were never supposed to become so deeply involved with. Thinking about where that path ultimately led them always gives me a lot to reflect on.
The idea that they may have gained many things through their relationships with people, yet perhaps lost something even greater... the fact that, once they've become part of that world, they can never truly separate themselves from it again... and even the possibility that, with such long lives ahead of them, they may still have even more to gain in the future—I love thinking about all of it.
I also love the sense of alienation they experience in everyday life because of what they are, and because everything they've been through has left them wary of people. It feels like the dissonance that comes from beings who were never meant to coexist trying to find a place in the same world anyway.
And of course, stories become more interesting the more twists and hardships they have... Part of me wants them to be happy, but honestly... I can't help loving it when the twins go through all kinds of hardships. They always make for such wonderful stories... 🫠
To me, the twins have an appeal that's simply impossible to resist... I'd love to keep talking about them for a long time to come. There are still so many things I haven't had the chance to share yet. The only problem is my stamina, haha.
Thank you for enjoying them together with me! I hope we can continue enjoying them together for a long time. Have a wonderful day! 💕
Hello! Oh, well... maybe that was the whole point.
I mean... he's Nightmare, after all. He'd probably love the idea of someone having nightmares... Maybe that's exactly what I planned for him...? 👀
Unfortunately... I really love it when Nightmare does bizarre things like they're completely normal. He literally acts like a nightmare, and half the time he doesn't even mean to. It's not that he lacks common sense—it's just that, to him, those things are perfectly normal, so he does them without a second thought... Like a free-spirited, evil little goopy.
He's such a terrible noot, but I might start spreading This Man propaganda for his sake… If I get sent to prison, please mourn me. I don't think I'd survive years without blogging 💀
Thank you for the ask! I hope you have pleasant dreams! 💕
Rabbits are just so adorable. I'd give this little one anything it wanted to eat... I'd happily let it eat my entire blog if it wanted to. I really would...
I just hope I can give it enough to keep it full. It's been so hot lately that I've been lying around like a puddle for a while now 😭
Thank you for the ask! I hope you have a nice, full day! 💕
Hello! I'm really glad to hear you thought it turned out well ☺️
To be honest, I hadn't even planned on writing a post like that in the first place, so I spent some time looking through other blogs' introduction posts to see what people usually include... Even now, I'm still not entirely sure what I should be writing, haha.
If there's anything else you think would be good to add, I'd really appreciate you letting me know. I've never really managed a blog like this before, especially one that so many people would end up seeing. I never expected this many people to find my blog in the first place.
I'm not trying to make it perfect, but I do always hope to make a good first impression if I can 😌
Thank you for the ask! I hope you have a wonderful day 💕
for me, I’ve been doing great lately. I got back my motivation for creating content, which im very glad for. im gonna go on a vacation this upcoming days—very excited for that(maybe next time I should try staying at a pension with my friends too like you mentioned 👀 although it might be a bit chaotic considering my choice of friends🥹)!
recently, I’ve decided to try and get a “lucid dream,” because some people have said that you could learn to direct/control your dreams once you get the hang of it. that sounds very interesting, so I’m trying to do that 👀
it’s getting very hot where I live… like, unbearably hot, but the air gets cooler in the afternoon, so that’s alright.
I hope everything’s gonna go well for you in this month of July❤️ your works are wonderful and I’m very glad you’re sharing them to us. stay happy, ducky!! :)
Hello! Thank you for checking in with me again, Timmy.
To be honest, my reply ended up really late... But I figured I should at least answer before July is over. Otherwise, it'd feel a little out of season 👀
I feel like this July has been incredibly hectic for me. It's not that my schedule was especially busy, but maybe because of the weather, I've been feeling completely drained. It's the middle of summer where I live, and the heat and humidity have been so intense that I've been waking up several times every night.
Because of that, I've ended up with a huge pile of asks I want to answer, requests I want to draw, drawings I simply want to make, and stories I want to tell... Unfortunately, I just haven't had the energy to do any of it. I guess it's finally time to turn the exercise routine I've been putting off into an actual habit 😂😂
I really hope the weather cools down soon. The sunlight has been so intense that whenever I go outside, it feels like the top of my head is on fire. I was thinking about going camping this summer, but it was hard to find a time that worked for all my friends, and honestly, standing around in a grassy field in this weather didn't sound very appealing either... So instead, we decided to gather at one friend's house and play Nintendo Switch together. Rhythm Heaven is such a fun game, even if I'm terrible at keeping the beat.
Anyway, I hope you had a wonderful vacation! Trying lucid dreaming sounds really fun. I was actually interested in lucid dreaming when I was younger too, but since I'd always loved scary stories, I was worried those creepy lucid dream urban legends might actually come true, haha. I'm really curious how it went for you. If you ended up having any interesting dreams, I'd love to hear about them!
I'm really glad you've found your motivation to create again. Even though it's been too hot for me to have the energy to get up and actually make anything, maybe because of that, I've been coming up with all sorts of things I want to create... Doesn't it always feel like ideas come the easiest when you're in the worst possible position to actually work on them?
I've come up with an interesting idea recently too… I'm not sure how long it'll take, but I hope I'll be able to finish it and share it someday. I think I'd better leave it at that for now, though. If I explain it in too much detail, I'll probably end up feeling like I have to finish it. It's definitely a challenging project, but I really love the idea. Even if I never manage to finish it, I think I'll still share the idea someday 😌
Anyway... I ended up rambling quite a bit! I hope you had a wonderful July, Timmy. I hope August brings you nothing but good things as well. Even though I've been low on energy lately, talking with everyone here is always something that makes me happy. I'll try to reply a little sooner next time 😂
As always, thank you for checking in on me! I hope you have a wonderful day 💕
I really loved your latest comics!! Especially the one where you swapped Dream and Nightmare’s bodies 😭 You’re insanely creative, omg!! 사랑해요!! 나 진짜 너 1호 팬임 ㄹㅇ!!💕💕
영어 조금 알아? 아니면 항상 번역 써? 우리 그냥 한국어로 써줄까??
Hello! Aww, that's so sweet of you. Thank you so much for enjoying my comics! 😚😚
I actually like that little "what if" scenario quite a lot myself. I even drew a few extra scenes for it, but never really found a good chance to post them. I'm happy I finally get to share them.
One of the things I love about the twins is that, despite giving completely opposite first impressions, they actually have a lot of similar features once you look closely. In fact, it's hard to find similarities in either their usual expressions or their personalities.
Visually, it's especially difficult to realize they're twins at first glance. Nightmare is covered in constantly flowing black liquid, making it difficult to even make out his silhouette at times, while Dream has bright white bones that almost seem to glow and always keeps himself neat and tidy.
But if you look closely, you'll notice that their facial features are actually incredibly similar. Because of that, people who have had the chance to closely observe both of their faces usually have no trouble realizing they look exactly alike—even though half of Nightmare's face is covered.
Dream heard it most often from Ink. Back when they had just started spending time together, after nearly every battle with Nightmare, Ink would say something like, "Wow, you two really do have the exact same face!" He must have said it well over ten times. Ink has always been incredibly observant, especially when it comes to distinguishing physical features.
Dream always loved hearing that. No one else ever tells him he looks like his brother anymore, but Ink kept repeating it as if it were the most obvious thing in the world—even if it was only because he'd forgotten he'd already said it before. Honestly, I think that might've been one of the reasons Dream grew attached to Ink so quickly. Even during one of the most painful and confusing periods of his life, those words brought Dream a great deal of comfort.
As for Nightmare, naturally, it's not something he hears very often. His social circle is extremely small to begin with. Besides, bringing up Dream is practically stepping on a landmine for him... There aren't many people who could say something like that to his face and live to tell the tale. Error just happens to be one of those rare exceptions.
Error is blunt, and he isn't the type to throw around empty compliments. He's always angry, and even more so whenever Nightmare is around. Ironically, that's exactly why, when Error casually remarked, "You two really are twins, huh," with no anger or mockery behind it—just simple curiosity—Nightmare couldn't find anything insulting about it. He couldn't even come up with an excuse to get angry. Instead, he just looked completely drained, left almost immediately, and acted as though the whole thing had never happened afterward.
When Dream hears that he looks like his brother, he feels longing, sadness, relief, and happiness all at once. They're complicated emotions, but they're undeniably warm ones. They remind him of old memories, reassure him that he and his brother are still connected somehow, and let him hope that things might still get better.
For Nightmare, it's much more complicated. Those words reopen one of his oldest wounds, yet at the same time they offer a kind of comfort he can never fully reject. Most of the time, his immediate reaction is defensive anger, followed by a sense of emptiness. Once the anger burns itself out, the quiet gloom he's lived with for so long simply settles back in.
Whenever Nightmare experiences emotions that intense, they're almost always related to Dream. Those small emotional outbursts eventually turn into resentment toward him. Poor Dream ends up taking the blame for something that was never his fault.
That's why, even in a small "what if" scenario like this one where the twins have made up, Nightmare still refuses to believe they look alike. It's the complete opposite of Dream, who has become so confident in his brother's love that he treasures the fact that they share the same face even more.
The funny part is that Nightmare genuinely believes Dream is adorable. Dream gets embarrassed whenever his brother says things like that, but at the same time, it makes him incredibly happy, so he only ends up acting even more spoiled around him.
That's why Dream can't help wondering, "If my brother says I'm cute, then why can't he accept it when I say his face is cute? We have the same face." It's difficult for him to understand that Nightmare simply can't accept the very premise that the two of them look alike.
Ironically, though, Nightmare doesn't look exactly like Dream only because they're twins. After his corruption, when he first tried to recreate his own appearance, he could barely remember what his original face had looked like. Standing before the statue of his younger brother, frozen forever with a look of despair, he tried to reconstruct his own face by using Dream's as a reference.
As a result, the face he has now is essentially his own appearance recreated from fading memories, using young Dream's face as the primary reference. In a way, that actually makes him look even more like Dream than Passive Nightmare ever did. After all, the face right in front of him was far more reliable than memories he could barely hold onto.
And yet, he can never accept that they look the same. No matter how carefully Dream lays out every piece of evidence, Nightmare has no logical rebuttal. He just stubbornly repeats, "That's different," over and over like a child throwing a tantrum. It's simply that sensitive of a subject for him.
Well, there I go rambling about them again... Anyway, those were the thoughts going through my head while I was drawing that comic. Since Nightmare doesn't even like looking at mirrors, I figured seeing his own face behaving like Dream would make him deeply uncomfortable. It's become such a familiar discomfort that he probably mistakes it for nothing more than simple disgust.
I've spent a long time thinking about this topic, so it's a lot of fun to talk about—but this has gotten long enough already, so I'll stop here! There were still a few other things you mentioned that I wanted to respond to.
So, Thank you so much for being considerate about my native language! I'm not fluent in English, but I'm comfortable enough to read it and try to understand it. I do rely on dictionaries and translators quite a bit because there are still lots of words I don't know. Honestly, internet slang is probably the hardest part 😌
So please feel free to use whichever language is most comfortable for you. Of course, seeing my native language always makes me happy and comfortable, but I also try to write in the language that most people visiting my blog can understand.
And honestly... I've noticed that I've learned quite a few new words from doing this. Reading has gotten faster, too. Even though I still rely heavily on translators, I don't feel like I'm standing still, so I'd like to keep trying. People always say the best way to learn a language is to keep using it 😆
Thank you again for being so thoughtful in so many ways. I'm really happy that you enjoy my work, and thanks to you I got to ramble about these two again, which was a lot of fun. I hope we can keep enjoying these stories together in the future.
Dude seriously your art kills me I literally can't live without your art, Your human designs are so niiiiiiiiiice,Not just nice, I M M A C U L A T E. Also, What do you think of the Star Sanses and the Bad Sanses thingy? Do you prefer the Canon Nightmare or the Fanon Nightmare that just loves his subordinates(And being a cutie pie omg aah!)
Hello! I'm really happy to hear that you enjoy my art and designs 🥹
Oh, I absolutely love both the Stars and the Gang! I really enjoy seeing people with completely different personalities and beliefs working together like a well-trained team.
The Stars, in particular, may seem like they all share one clear goal, but they actually have surprisingly different perspectives.
Ink is especially neutral. He doesn't really want to interfere with the Gang causing trouble across the multiverse. To him, that's simply part of who they are. Just as Dream was created to help others, he believes Nightmare was created to harm others.
Ink tends to observe rather than intervene. He enjoys watching events unfold up close, studying how people behave, what motivates them, and how they feel, but by default, he prefers to remain an observer.
To Ink, everything in existence is someone's creation. Because of that, he believes everything has meaning. He wants to watch, respect, and learn from it all. It's not that he's indifferent—quite the opposite. He cares too much about those stories to interfere with or damage them. After all, if nothing in the world has meaning, then Ink, who was abandoned even by his own creator, would be the first one to become truly meaningless.
Ink is always wondering whether there's a place for him in the story that the Creator is writing. That's why he tries so hard not to disrupt it, yet he can never quite stop himself from peeking in, wondering if perhaps there's a role waiting for him somewhere. He's a bit like a child quietly hoping to be loved while trying not to be a bother.
As a little side note, I also love how this contrasts with Error. He believes almost the exact opposite. If everything is nothing more than someone's creation, then none of it is truly real, so none of it has any meaning. That's what he convinces himself of, and it's where so much of his anger and resentment comes from.
If everything really does have meaning, then every loss and every bit of suffering he experienced would have meaning too. To him, that almost feels like having the right to be angry taken away. I really like that, despite holding completely opposite beliefs, they both ultimately end up wondering, "If what I believe isn't true... then what am I?"
Anyway, while that's Ink's perspective, Dream and Blue are much more willing to get involved. In the end, even Ink always ends up joining them after they convince him. Although, to be fair, most of the time it happens because he wandered over to watch the fight, got attacked, and had no choice but to fight back.
Dream and Blue generally work toward similar goals. Both of them want to help people and stop the Gang's crimes, though their reasons are a little different.
Dream understands that negativity is necessary, and that Nightmare himself exists to fulfill that role. What worries him is that Nightmare spreads far more negativity than necessary and chooses unnecessarily cruel methods. Not to mention the fact that he's constantly trying to kill him.
Blue, on the other hand, doesn't completely understand the balance that Dream talks about. He's driven more by compassion and a genuine desire to help people. He always hopes people can smile instead of suffer, and he wants to save everyone within his reach. Besides... hearing someone say "thank you" never gets old.
Dream also knows that the Gang makes confronting Nightmare much more difficult. They instinctively respond to Nightmare's hostility by directing it toward Dream, attacking him more fiercely than almost anyone else. Blue always stands by Dream's side, but taking on the entire Gang without Ink would be incredibly difficult.
In reality, Nightmare has no interest in making an enemy of Error, so the Gang usually doesn't attack Blue with genuine intent to kill—but the Stars have no way of knowing that.
That's why Dream and Blue are always the ones persuading Ink to come along. Ink has a soft spot for his friends. As much as he wants to remain a bystander, he also doesn't want to lose the people who always understand him.
So he inevitably ends up lingering nearby to watch, gets caught in the middle of the fight, sighs as if he has no choice, and starts fighting back. That's why they're known together as the "Stars." In truth, they're really just three friends who always travel together.
I could probably talk about the Gang in the same way... but I think I'll stop here for now. I rarely get the chance to talk about the Stars in this much detail, while the Gang is something I already find myself talking about pretty often.
Now then, onto your second question!
Personally, I don't think I really favor one interpretation over the other. Every interpretation is something its creator carefully shaped with their own passion and preferences, and I think that's exactly why they each have their own charm.
Canon Nightmare is cold and cruel, while fanon Nightmare tends to be much more human. Personally, I think those two aspects can coexist, but I also enjoy interpretations that lean heavily toward either side. I simply enjoy seeing all the different sides of his character.
That said, I personally prefer to treat Nightmare's tragedy and his crimes as two separate things. I like interpretations that give his actions understandable reasons or internal logic, but interpretations that ultimately justify those actions aren't quite my preference.
Personally, one of the things I enjoy most about villain characters is that they're allowed to remain villains. In fact, I think Nightmare is at his most interesting when a tragic past and a villainous present coexist within the same person.
No matter how much I like Nightmare as a character, I don't think his actions are something that can simply be excused. A villain may once have been kind. They may still be capable of caring for someone, treating them gently, or being someone's beloved family member. But none of that erases the harm they've caused. That's a distinction I always try to preserve whenever I write or interpret him.
Along similar lines, I prefer interpreting Passive Nightmare and Corrupted Nightmare as one continuous life. I like the idea that both the wounds he suffered and the terrible things he later did remain part of the same person's history.
Of course, there are countless ways to interpret them as separate characters depending on the additional worldbuilding, and I've seen many incredibly creative and compelling takes on that idea as well. I genuinely enjoy reading those interpretations, and I like imagining different possibilities for that idea myself as well.
Because of that, rather than choosing one version over the other, I like imagining the journey that naturally connects the two. The version of Nightmare I write is essentially a compromise built from all the aspects I personally find most compelling.
The way I write Nightmare, he takes care of the Gang, but he doesn't see them as family at all. That place has always been reserved for Dream and their mother. (Well... the Guardian is a separate case.) Every relationship he forms after his corruption is driven far more by possessiveness and control than affection. To Nightmare, the Gang are his possessions, and he cares for them the way someone carefully maintains something they own.
The Gang's relationships with each other are similar. They've unquestionably grown attached to one another, but they're still aggressive, cautious around each other, and uncomfortable showing weakness. Calling each other "family" would probably be the one thing they'd avoid the most. Each of them already has someone whose place in their heart can never truly be replaced.
I actually first discovered Nightmare through fanfiction. After becoming interested in him, I started reading the canon material as well as all sorts of different fan interpretations, and I found myself thinking about him more and more. Rather than limiting myself to any one version, I wanted to explore the direction that genuinely resonated with me. Over time, all of those preferences gradually came together and became the interpretation I have today.
I've enjoyed thinking about him for a very long time, so this interpretation is really a collection of everything I love most about the character. That doesn't mean I think it's better than anyone else's, though. Everyone is drawn to different aspects of him, and I think that diversity is exactly what allows me to enjoy so many different stories about Nightmare.
One of the things I love most about the UT/AU fandom is its creativity. There are always so many talented creators sharing amazing ideas, and they constantly inspire me to reconsider characters from entirely new perspectives. I honestly think that's one of the fandom's greatest strengths.
Well... before I wander even further off topic, let me circle back to where we started 😌
I actually prepared a little humanized twins sketch! Since I know human designs aren't everyone's cup of tea, I'll tuck it under a read more below.
I'm really happy that you like their designs! I had a wonderful time creating them, and they've become something I'm very attached to. It genuinely makes me happy that I get to share these designs with all of you.
Thank you so much for the ask! This turned into a much longer answer than I expected, haha. I hope you enjoyed reading it, and I hope you have a wonderful day! 💕
