heres a new au i came up with and @lordknight helped me flesh out and also with designs heehoo art by him♥
it’s called Demon City AU, because the bad sanses (night, killer, and horror) are all demons living in some city somewhere on the surface. theyre chill, just vibing and living together, trying to heal together. nightmare is actually a fallen angel, hed eaten Appleys that were off limits and was cast out. he made a home for himself on the surface, become the strongest demon around by feeding on all the human negativity. hes a multimillionaire now, owns stock in like, tesla or something idk. killer was stuck in a pact with a human child, forced to kill a shitload of humans, until night came along and found a loophole in the contract for him, because hes amazing at that. killer would go to the ends of the earth for him. horror used to be in a travelling circus/freakshow, and night busted him out of it. he bought out a local cafe PURELY for horror and made him a manager, and horror absolutely LOVES it. he bakes all the cakes by himself, and makes the best coffee youve ever tasted. it might take him a while, and you have to take it to the table yourself, but its WAY worth it.
so, along comes dust, a normal monster, moves to the city and lives there long enough to see just how awful humans are. and decides, fuck it, why should i stand by idly and watch them be racist and shitty towards other monsters? so he starts killing people who like, hurt monsters. eventually, he figures out the best way to find out whos the worst is becoming a priest at the church, because humans go there every sunday to just?? spill out all the dirt theyve done???? so he does that, but the priest is Also a racist, and wont let dust become a pries because itd be 'sacrilegious'. however, he lets dust become a nun (bc at first he thinks hes a girl?? just bc his magic is purple??) bc dust talks to his phantom paps and humans think he can speak to god. so dust now has access to people who are awful, and kills them overnight
killer finds him during a kill once, bc nightmare can obviously sense the fear and despair, and dust thinks hes gonna be ratted out, but killer just? helps him clean up and hide the evidence?? and night bribes the police but shhhh. somehow they end up inviting dust into the little poly thing theyve got going, and its really nice. but the priest Does Not Like his churchgoers just disappearing, and believes there is a demon in the city killing them, so he calls the Exorcist hotline 18004206969
and cross the exorcist comes along to Figure it out. hed lost his brother on a job and has a bit of a vendetta against demons, and YEP! there are demons in this town, even a blind exorcist would sense it, and theyre SO EASY to find too. but they just. dont do anything. he tails them for ages, but they just, dont do anything. horror does his cafe things, night spends thousands on stuff he doesnt need, killer is at his side like all the time, they go on dates, but they dont Hurt a Fly. so hes ?????????
and it takes him So long to figure out that its dust killing all the humans, because it didnt occur to him! but by then hes so deep into this mystery that Killer (whose aura is so thick and strong with the scent of death, he mustve killed THOUSANDS before winding up here) has asked him on a date twice, and he knows more about these demons than he does about himself and Nightmare offers him a place to stay when they dragged his loneliness and fear out of him, eventually, and he has to fight with himself between his job and these demons (DEMONS! DEMONS! whats WRONG with you, Cross!)who give him an offer worthy of the strongest Greed demon, without any of the drawbacks (and FUCK hed already chosen hasnt he? especially when the priest ends up dead after confessing his own sins and Dust takes his place as the head of the church)
they have all entrusted their souls to nightmare, because hes the strongest one of them, and it makes him feel like theyre in less danger even if he isnt around, and he keeps them all in his ribcage for protection. the others cant die without their souls present, but can be hurt.
they all have a magic tattoo of a little crescent moon on their cervical vertebrae to show that they "belong" to nightmare. he hates when they say they belong to him bc they dont, but its become an inside joke for them. dust's is obvs hidden by his nun thing, but easy to get to.......
and since dust has to wear a nun uniform, he gave his scarf to nightmare, who wears it 24/7! nightmare also wears horrors old hoodie, and the local newspaper has stopped reporting on how shitty he dresses years ago
