#dragon!nightmare

[yakutarts]

It’s them again, your honor.

Please take a look at this post for context and reference!

When I decided to color these sketches with watercolor I was expecting it to not look good and then I would erase it and repaint with other brushes.

But then boom! It was actually starting to look even professional-like the more I kept coloring. I was surprised because my every attempt at watercolor looked like a 7 year old trying with the school’s shitty art supply.

I found out later it ended up looking great on accident, because before I started coloring, I thought the canvas looked to bland, the sketches didn’t pop out, so I used a technique I learned by watching YouTube Shorts on how to use Procreate to give the canvas a paper-like texture.

Basically I used several texture brushes on a different layer, painting with light desaturated warm colors and occasionally a pinch of strong yellows, browns and oranges. Then duplicated it, set one above the sketch on overlay and one below on really low opacity.

Turns out that does wonders when painting with watercolor, really looks like actual ink on paper with the way it melts and creates extra shades of color.

Also little silly thing I noticed after a while, with the way I colored and textured Dream’s body, it makes him look like a underbaked oily bagel 🥯

I really want to take a bite of him, I’m hungry.

If you really liked this and want one, I have my commissions open!

Dream & Nightmare belong to @/Jokublog

[prehnite-soul]

Oh he’s mad

THANKS @corruptinmyself FOR REMINDING ME OF HIM!!!!

[[ Dracotaurus!Nightmare belongs to me ]]

[sometimesanartdragon]

More of the wonderful dragons from @paintedkinzy-88's wonderful AU

say hello to the twins. Nightmare is a very spiky bastard but I finally got it. so many spikes... I feel Dream needed a bit more floof though just a little to show it goes over his whole body but alas maybe next time.

and yes there is still more to come. they designed a lot of dragons even if these are the only ones actually in the au. [Ink/Error]

[Life/Reaper]

[canyon-tale]

So! I had a few questions, (most of them are about Cross I just fell in love with him):

• Since the Bad Sans Poly is going on, does he show some more affection than others?

• Does he have equivalents to XGaster, Chara and Frisk (and the others)?

• Can Nightmare shrink his body down from his size or is he always stuck on a giant scale?

• Does Cross use the X on his tail as a weapon?

• And I'd just love to know more about Void corrupt Killer, I'm super curious about him!

Thank you!! 🫶

Oooh, these are some great questions! Some of them will have quite long answers so I will put them all under the cut to avoid a long post!

Here we go!

• Since the Bad Sans Poly is going on, does Cross show some more affection than others? The Bad Poly is pretty rocky in the beginning of the au, mostly due to two of them being void corrupted and all of them packing quite a lot of trauma, but I would say both Cross and Horror are the ones who show the most affection out of the bunch! Cross’ affections come more in acts of service at first, like just making sure all his flightmates have what they need and want without really making it obvious. He will also take hits and protect them in battles, which the others strongly dislike (they would prefer him not getting hurt on their behalf, thank you very much!). But later he’s also really physically affectionate, loves to flop on top of the others and get some good cuddles! He also ask around to find out how dragons court and such to make sure he’s showing his love an affection in a way the others can understand, since him being raised around humans and human culture often make misunderstandings happen, poor bean. 

• Does Cross have equivalents to XGaster, Chara and Frisk (and the others)? He does! The dragon au is also a multiverse and what I have planned so far is that all the monster characters will be dragons, while the humans will stay human. xGaster wanted a universe where humans and dragons could coexist (in the saurian universes humans and dragons are often at war with each other, and dragons actually created humans!) and thanks to a magic items he he would make several tweaks to the au, and of course restarted it several times. 

Some of the tweaks involved dragons to have a more human-like nature, which is why the classes in Cross’s au were gender orientated (guardians and scouts being male, while nurses and scholars were female). This is why I’ll sometimes describe Cross struggling with dragon culture, and might sometimes suffer with gender dysphoria (being a fluffy guardian/male which makes people assume he’s a nurse/female). Cross being fluffy is also directly caused by the several rewrites of the au, as Cross was “programed” to be a Nurse in some past iterations. His current form is an accidental mix of his past Nurse and Guardian forms. 

Chara and Frisk also have a magic item to reset the au, and humans using magic items tend to be more powerful than dragons, causing the reset/rewrite tug-of-war between them and xGaster. This eventually ends up similarly to the end of XTale, with a lot of death and bloodshed, and with Cross ending up alone in a slowly dying au. Which is where Nightmare eventually finds him! Not sure how/if they others will be involved after that point, but they might!

• Can Nightmare shrink his body down from his size or is he always stuck on a giant scale? He can shrink himself, but he rarely does! Later in the au he is also freed from his void corruption, along with Killer, at which point he returns to the size he was before the corruption, which is a similar size to Dust and Dream. Due to being corrupted for so long he can still gather enough void magic to gain back his larger form, but it takes a lot of energy and he can’t maintain it for very long.

• Does Cross use the X on his tail as a weapon? Yes! The X is four spikes on his tail that he can relax to hide under his fur, and flare up to use as a weapon in a fight.

• And I'd just love to know more about Void corrupt Killer, I'm super curious about him! Right, so Void corrupt Killer is a special lil bean, and Void itself is a pretty special element! The other elemental gods only have to lay a claim on a dragon for their magic to take hold, but to become a Void elemental the dragon has to accept the claim from the god. Dragons know not to do this, there’s many tales of the Stalker of Void being evil and only using their children for their own chaotic gain, but this is why the Stalker approaches dragons who are desperate enough to accept its magic.

Killer was originally an Ice Scholar (like any Sans who branches off from Classic) but had a magic item forced onto him by his Frisk/Chara, and as mentioned before, magic items used by humans tend to become more powerful. The items forced on him is the Carnage crystal in his chest, making him go berserk with Carnage magic and kill every member of his flight, as well as the human. Once he gained a little bit of clarity he was lost in devastation and despair, and the depression caused him to lose his claim of the Ice god. Dragons will suffer if they have no claim, as it’s the claim that fills their bodies with magic, and the Carnage crystal only changes magic that’s already there. So devastated and in pain Killer accepted the Stalker’s claim when they found him, hoping it would end his sufferings. 

Generally speaking, void corrupt dragons are like zombies in a way. They rarely have a mind of their own and they’re more or less puppets for the Stalker of Void to order around. Left to their own devices they start attacking and consuming everything around them that contains magic, usually other dragons or magic creatures.

Void corrupt Killer was given to Nightmare, who’s also void corrupt but still has a mind of his own thanks to being a demi-god and a child of the Wielder of Mind. Nightmare was allowed to use Killer as he pleased but Killer being an empty puppet not being able to think or act for himself frustrated him. So, thanks to his mind magic, Nightmare allowed Killer some basic emotions to be able to function without his command. 

Killer at the beginning of the au is a bit all over the place. At times appearing very blank and empty with no care for his well being, or sometimes only expressing base emotions or aggression. At times, when Nightmare let him go, he would be more like “himself”, but should he show too much of his own personality or feelings, Nightmare would often throw him into the void for a while to “reset” him. 

This eventually stopped when Nightmare started to grow more attached to his boys, which in turn frustrated the Stalker. To retaliate against Nightmare’s “rebellion” they removed their claim from Killer, once again leaving him claimless and without magic. Nightmare was able to keep him alive by transferring his own magic, but he’s just a demi-god and can not substitute a claim. Once Nightmare and Dream manage to get rid of Nightmare’s own void corruption, after a long battle with the Stalker, he managed to convince his mother the Rogue of Veil to claim Killer, which made him a Shadow elemental.

Killer stayed a bit blank right after that, but with the help of his friends he eventually started coming out of his shell and grew into the much more confident Shadow Scout he is now!

Thank you so much for the ask! Let me know if anything needs to be clarified or if you have any follow up questions ^u^

[prehnite-soul]

sjdjkgahjdka I had FUNN~

So I read @imtrashraccoon's Bad Sansuary posts, right? And at day 26 Tumble wrote something..... interesting.

(Spoilers for Tumbles Bad Sansuary project underneath, go read it its magnificent!)

SO ABOUT HIS DRAGON FORM--

I- I might like this man a bit much and yes this is rushed please forgive me I wanted to post this HHH

And yes, I made his first form dripy cause I liked that idea :3

(Also, as I was looking for inspiration on Pinterest, I found a GORGEOUS and BRILLIANT IDEA by @/_doodles_i_guess on TikTok, and used their base, so please go check them out too!!!)

Anyway, DRAGONTAURUS NIGHTMARE CAUSE I LOVED THIS CONCEPT HELLO????

[canyon-tale]

Can dragons change their relationships? Say, for example, Cross and Nightmare are talonmates, for a short period of time they become heartmates and then go back, or in reverse, they become wingmates. do dragons decide what bond they have with others?

They do! While they don't decide who they bond with, they are in complete control of what kind of relationship they share with their bonded.

I'd say thornmates are the one that get changed the most, since being bonded for a long time usually ends up with the dragons warming up to each other. Then again, a lot of them keep referring to each other as thorns just to get at each other. They're close now, but they will keep antagonising the other out of love :D

Going back and forth between wings and talons isn't that rare either, as sometimes they wanna test the water, and at times realise they work better platonically and so one.

Heartmates are the ones that rarely ever change. The bond between hearts is really strong and it's not a relationship that's made lightly. If they were to go back to talons there would probably be a lot of regret involved and there's a high chance they will become heartmates again after. Heartmates only truly split up upon death or if there's some really strong betrayal involved.

[canyon-tale]

I feel like I'm asking too much I'M SORRY I just love this AU ;; I got some new questions, I think these would be like less paragraph and more easy answers to not bother you-

• Do Dream and Nightmare preen their wings from time to time? Taking in mind they have feathers instead of membrane

• Where did Epic and Cross meet?

• Is there an Error equivalent? And is he involved into the gang?

• How does the gang (mainly Cross, since you mentioned he lived with them) react to humans? Did Cross stop trusting them after the war with X!Gaster and them?

Never worry about sending in asks! They always make my day and they're honestly the best for me to collect the jumbled info I have in my brain and finally get it out without delaying it. So asks are really appreciated, feel free to send in as many as you like XD

Also you underestimate my ability to ramble! The answer to the Epic one turned long since I haven’t really talked about Epic’s place in the au until now and he’s actually one of my favs 👀

Answers under the cut!



• Do Dream and Nightmare preen their wings from time to time? Taking in mind they have feathers instead of membrane Dream is the only one with feathers but yes, he does preen them and he loves to get help with it! It a very nice bonding activity for him, and something I can see the Stars doing together a lot~

• Where did Epic and Cross meet? Epic and Cross technically meet for the first time twice! The very first time was in the XTale version before the current one, in which Cross was actually a completely normal Guardian covered fully with mostly black scales. The meetings were mostly between their respective Gasters but they ended up striking up a friendship that was progressing into something more, until Xtale once again reset and the new version of Cross remembered nothing of Epic until much later.

The second time is when the current version of Cross is kind of between factions. Dream has been trying to convince Cross to join his side as Cross grows less vengeful over his past, which eventually leads him to lose his Carnage claim. This in turn leads to Nightmare growing distrustful of Cross, eventually ordering the others to kill him as he's convinced the guardian has joined Dream's side.

Cross manages to escape, mostly due to Dust sparing him, and he ends up traveling between aus to stay hidden. It's during these travels where he eventually bumps into Epic, who at first doesn't recognize him but slowly connects the dots and figures out who he is. Epic himself is gathering intel from different aus and makes that his main excuse to tag along with Cross while trying to reconnect.

Cross is at first put off with having someone who knows a past version of him following him around, but eventually grows curious and closer with Epic. During this Cross is trying to decide who's side he's really on in the battle between Nightmare and Dream, still holding some loyalty to Night despite everything but also feeling a strong sense of trust towards Dream. Epic is a nice distraction from those troubling thoughts.

After everything, when Nightmare and Dream temporarily defeats the Stalker (impossible to defeat a god completely, but it got them off their tails for a while) and calls a tentative truce, Cross joins Nightmare again but also helps out the Stars when he can. Between that he also visits Epic who he quickly starts to see as his best friend, and someone he can keep to himself without all the drama between his flights, so it takes quite some time for the others to clue into their connection. Cross never quite remembers Epic from the point of view of his past self, he has some small memories and recollections, but not a lot. Epic never tells Cross that they were growing to be more than friends in the past, not wanting to influence Cross' feeling for him, but they do eventually reach that point in their friendship again <3

• Is there an Error equivalent? And is he involved into the gang? Yes there is! Error is part of Nightmare's flight, but he's rarely seen around the others in the beginning. He's a demi-god like Nightmare, but through a gifted claim rather than by blood. He's around Nightmare's size but can and will regulate his size to what he finds the most comfortable or convenient. He is also Nightmare's first mate, something that no one catches onto for the longest time and which pretty much makes Killer see him as a rival for a time (Killer was very determined to become Night's first mate, only to have his hopes crushed when he realized he already had one. It left him quite bitter with Error for a while!) Error also bit off one of Nightmare's tails off when they first met, which is why big void corrupt Night only has three tails instead of four!

• How does the gang (mainly Cross, since you mentioned he lived with them) react to humans? Did Cross stop trusting them after the war with X!Gaster and them? Generally speaking most of them dislike or are down right hostile towards humans since basically all of them have had bad past experiences. Cross is probably the most tolerable out of them all, he will act friendly or neutral but still have a hard time shaking off his distrust for them. He and Nightmare are the only ones who can fluently speak, write, and read the human language. I actually imagine that Cross would know more of the human language and struggle with draconic writing/reading, and easily stumble over his words at times. Killer, Dust, and Horror prefer to avoid humans and will attack without hesitation if they think they, or anyone in their flight, is being threatened.

[canyon-tale]

. . I'm back, did you miss me 😋

Nonetheless, more dragon AU questions!

• What is Ink's job? Does he have a paintbrush substitute? Do the star sanses (dragons?) get along with eachother? (Since in canon Dream and Ink don't like eachother)

• Does Nightmare ever open up about his past? And does he have favorites in the gang? (Say, how he normally favors Cross in fanon works because Cross is super obedient)

• That brings me to, does Cross favor anyone in the gang and/or in the star sanses? Is he closer to some than others? What about with Ink?

• What does Dust use his cobra hood for? Is it like Cross' ability to puff his fur up to seem bigger and more threatening?

• Has Dream ever tried to uncorrupt Nightmare? (Like, earlier on, I know he gets to be uncorrupted but did Dream like try idk how to explain)

• Did Dream get frozen up into stone? I saw once you did share an image of different age sizes and Nightmare seemed the biggest so I assumed he's still old.

• If I place my hand on Cross' fur does it just sink on forever? (Joke question, you don't have to answer)

I get a lot of ideas as I go and this au is literally my favorite thing I want to know everything

Hello again :D!

Fhslkhfsajfk I'm honestly so flattered you enjoy this au so much! And I'm sure other people who follow it appreciate the questions as well since it helps me write more info about it!

Some long answers again, so just like before, replies under the cut ✨

• What is Ink's job? Does he have a paintbrush substitute? Do the star sanses (dragons?) get along with eachother? (Since in canon Dream and Ink don't like eachother)

Similar to canon, Ink's job is to protect the multiverse! Not really an official job given to him by a god like Error or Reaper, not from what he remembers at least, but a “natural calling” that he follows. 

This also made me realize I never explained how this multiverse works, but basically in this setting AUs are like clusters of orbs. They’re created by the gods to work as decoys to protect the True universe from being found by the Stalker of Void, who has a bad habit of wanting to destroy or alter creations made by the other gods. The further an AU is from the True one the more differences it will have from the original, and Alternate Timelines are the ones who cluster closest around the True one. 

The gods don’t always finish their decoy universes, so there’s a lot of small or unfinished orbs in the multiverses. Ink is able to help those AUs grow and catch the attention of the gods again. These AUs are also the most likely to be attacked by Error, who is tasked by the Maid of Bones to destroy decaying, incomplete, and “defective” AUs. The cycle of creation and destruction is an important balance.

As for the other questions, Ink does have an ink like magic in the tip of his tail that looks like a brush head. This magic is able to create things, and definitely breaks some rules of magic and physical laws in the universe, which is very similar to how void magic works and looks 👀  

And the Stars do get along, and have a flight of their own together with some other friendly faces, like Red and Outer! Ink and Dream do have a similar disagreement to canon at one point, where Ink is set in protecting the natural state of AUs even if they’re negative and their inhabitants are suffering. Dream does not agree with this at all at first, but around the time when he and Nightmare call their truce he’s beginning to understand the balance of the multiverse and the necessity of those aus. He doesn't like it, and doesn't feel any better about it, but he understands it and Ink’s job, making them able to keep being friends and flightmates.

• Does Nightmare ever open up about his past? And does he have favorites in the gang? (Say, how he normally favors Cross in fanon works because Cross is super obedient)

Nightmare does open up eventually, but not fully. The others know bits and pieces, but Dream is the only one who has a full picture. Which btw isn’t the same as canon, much less “lets bully the lil kid until he breaks” and more “lets guilt this scaleless lil scholar into going to war with us by convincing him it will keep his brother safe, and then manipulate and traumatize him to the point where he starts to grow scales and shifts sub-class to a guardian!”

I wouldn’t really say Nightmare has a favorite, since the Night flight is poly he loves all his boys equality and in different ways. I am currently working on a post explaining flight dynamics and bonds, but basically dragons are naturally polyamorous and can have three types of mates! They tend to have a lot of platonic mates (wingmates, think close familial bonds), a few intimate mates (talonmates, don’t actually have to be romantic but basically dating or QPRs), and then a couple of mates they have eggs and raise kids with (heartmates, pretty much marriage). 

Cross, Dust, and Horror are talonmates to Nightmare, while Killer and Error are his heartmates, but he shares a strong bond with all of them and he favors them all individually in specific areas.

As for Cross specifically, Nightmare really values his strategies and battle knowledge. Nightmare is very knowledgeable in this area himself, since he's been in war in the past, but he values Cross' input and always let him in on mission planning and such. In their down times they often enjoy games of chess together.

Let me know if there's any other specific ships you want to know more about, otherwise I will ramble on forever XD;

• That brings me to, does Cross favor anyone in the gang and/or in the star sanses? Is he closer to some than others? What about with Ink?

Nightmare, Killer, Horror, and Dust are Cross' talonmates and his heartmates are Dream and Epic! His and Epic’s relationship is a bit controversial since heartmates are traditionally meant to have kids together, and while the saurian dragons are also hermaphrodites Cross’ don’t personally want to carry eggs due to his gender dysphoria, and Epic don’t really want kids. They’re just two romantic dudebros! Now Cream on the other, will def have a ship kid in the future uwu

Ink and Cross were close before Cross joined Nightmare. Similar to Underverse, Ink did spend quite a bit of time with Cross in his dying au where they befriended each other, until Ink being Ink eventually started forgetting to visit. Cross was quite hostile toward Ink after that, feeling abandoned and betrayed, and would often focus his attacks on Ink when the Night and Star flights would clash. After the truce they did manage to patch up their past relationship and would eventually become wingmates.

I was able to dig out this old shipping grid, which I made for one of my saurian aus (when I used just the word “saurian” instead of “saurian dragons” I mean the AU setting in which saurians are humanoid dragon shapeshifters, this au!). Some of these have probably changed in the dragon au, but with a quick glance over, it mostly still corrects for what I have planned!

Tho as always, if you have other preferred ships you are more than welcome to ship those within this AU setting, or make your own version of the au! Go nuts!

• What does Dust use his cobra hood for? Is it like Cross' ability to puff his fur up to seem bigger and more threatening?

Exactly! The hood is pretty unique to Dust, as it was part of his mutation after getting his carnage subclaim, but it isn’t rare for scholar class dragons to have a threat display like that. Since they’re scaleless they’re pretty vulnerable to close up physical attacks so many develop some kind of intimidation tactic that can deter enemies or predators from wanting to attack them.

• Has Dream ever tried to uncorrupt Nightmare? (Like, earlier on, I know he gets to be uncorrupted but did Dream like try idk how to explain)

He did, but there's technically no way to break a void corruption in normal cases. Once you’ve been claimed by the Stalker there is no turning back, there’s no reason for it to unclaim you. The only reason Killer and Night both broke the corruption was because the Stalker never had full control over Nightmare. It definitely influenced his thoughts, but it couldn’t turn him into a puppet due to Nightmare being a Mind demi-god. The only reason why it unclaimed Killer was to use Killer as leverage against Nightmare when he started to turn against it. It then unclaimed him as well, when Nightmare and Dream entered the void realm to fight it, simply to remove the small advantage the claim would give Night in the realm.

So Dream would read up on ways to break the corruption early on, maybe tried one or two things, but quickly came to the conclusion that it wouldn’t work.

• Did Dream get frozen up into stone? I saw once you did share an image of different age sizes and Nightmare seemed the biggest so I assumed he's still old.

Yes! Going to talk about this in the future because Dream is not the only one affected by this condition, but the dragons have a kind of failsafe instinct in which they can use the magic in their body to encase themselves in crystals. This basically puts them in stasis for the indefinite future, there’s no guarantee of when or if they will wake up.

This can only happen if the dragon has a lot of magic stored up, so a dragon who’s been in battle and used a lot of their magic wouldn’t be able to attempt to save themselves like this. 

In Dream’s case it was actually Nightmare who made him trigger this, using his mind magic, as a way to protect him. Of course Night couldn’t have known Dream would stay in his crystal shell for 500+ years, and when Dream finally broke out, Nightmare wasn’t anywhere to be found, leading him to leave the au in search for answers.

• If I place my hand on Cross' fur does it just sink on forever? 

Absolutely, be prepared to sink into the softest and fluffiest heaven! Or hell, depending on if you’re a willing victim or not... You might be trapped in the fluff void for a while uwu