CW: Dissociation, Body Horror, Lucid Dreaming, Derealization, generally losing control of your body(please tell me if I missed any, thank you!)
An AU where the MTT + Cross are all trapped within a nightmare, created in part by Pass!NM in a desperate attempt to create a loving, nurturing family, then Corrupted in an effort to survive. All of them aren't in control of themselves, only able l to watch and listen as their bodies move and speak without input from themselves. Someone else is in the drivers seat and the gang is sat in the back, forced to watch as the bad, bad driver continue down the road.
They know this is wrong. Killer being overly emotional, Horror endlessly cooking, Dust talking, and Cross being a big ol' baby. Nothing about this is normal. Especially not the little kid running around.
In the real world they actually lowkey only tolerate each other. Every single one too afraid of Nightmare to try anything in particular. With Killer having been recently replaced and all, it wouldn't bode well to try and cause conflict. But tldr; they have bare minimum tolerance for each other and new Killer is still a complete, negative bubbling mess trying to get their head together. They have basic respect. That does not entail having movie nights or cuddle piles(DEFINITELY not cuddle piles. Eugh Dust barely got enough control of his wheel to escape that night).
Regardless, they can all tell this dream they're in isn't real. Waving to each other each morning with a smile isn't them. And now its up to the four to break free from Nightmare's control and escape from whatever hellish alternative nightmare this is.
Teehee Dream doing enough damage to Nightmare to cause his form to start falling down and, desperately trying to survive, pulling his four subordinates into a horrific nightmare(being a loving family). Making little Passive happy too is key to his survival. Imagine Passive and whatever magic corrupt used is pretty much all Corrupt had left. So now its a tale of making Passive happy, making him eager for the future, and by proxy Corrupt's life. Then Corrupt absorbing all the negative feelings of his subordinates tied like puppet strings. Only ever planning to release them once he's recovered enough to retain his usual physical form. That is.. if they make it to that point.
Imagine that through how much energy Corrupted is draining from his gang they physically cannot keep up with the demand. Corrupted is slowly draining their souls away, taking piece by piece of all the Negativity out. They can only watch as Passive cries and is asking why one of them is dying and want nothing more than to turn away, only able to feel the core of happiness left inside them. They're on a clock to try and escape from this paradise.
Oh and pass!NM being the eldritch horror of this dream. Hes nigh unpredictable. Whatever he says goes. Reading a book to bed, hugs, long, exhausting talks. Anything he wants WILL happen. It doesn't matter how much resistant one has developed. He randomly appears in places, as if theres teleportation. The rooms he's in are always brighter and the shadows hug him tightly.
They are definitely stuck in an world with a little, sad kid with hundreds of issues which they cannot upset at all giggle
Short version of my headcannon, while Dream was trapped in stone, the only sense he had access too was his Empathic ability to feel others' emotions. After only having access to that sense, it's extremely powerful and sensitive to the world around Dream! He could wear a blindfold, cover his ears, and have his arms around his back and navigate through a new area with ease through a flick of his fingers. aka Dream has emotional echolocation!!
Long version: Going on with the idea that once Dream was trapped in stone he was still conscious for a period of time he'd lack all his senses. There is nothing to hear, the rock was all over every phalange, nose, and eyes. Even if there was a chance to taste something, that too was gone, covered in a layer of gray. For the time he is conscious, Dream loses access to all his senses besides one- his empathy. The magical ability to feel the emotions of others and the world around.
When someone loses their eyesight, its often found that their hearing gets better as a result do to lacking that sense. This is what Dream experiences while stuck as stone. That subtle, innate ability to feel what others are becomes more sensitive, growing and reaching out in strands to absorb all it can under Dream's distress. As a kid, Dream always knew that emotions remained inside of objects, and that emotions could be left over them. Often, it took some focus to tap into these feelings, but didn't take up any magical. After being trapped, feeling the emotions from the grass becomes as natural as breathing, grabbing onto the distant bundle of negativity is like his soul beating, and anything any being comes close to Dream the powerful magic curls around them. Not feeling any of the emotions around is a sentence for fading, so it seeks the emotions the villagers left behind for weeks in the dust, magic desperately holding onto blood and poison, staying inside the melancholic cloth for as long as it's able. Dream's magic grabs at it all- negative and positive- and, sadly, results in Dream staying conscious much longer than another monster would have.
When he is finally free from stone, between suddenly having 5 more senses and his sixth being so sensitive, it's all too much, and sensory overloads are overwhelmingly common for a long while (they don't ever leave though. Dream only learns how to live with them). He doesn't have a clue how long he was conscious inside the stone, but by the end only there through fleeting moments of birds making nests and mice finding a filling meal. It's not uncommon to find Dream curled up, trying only to tune into his Empathy. His sixth sense being more sensitive never ever leaves even after getting his other weakened 5 senses back (foods never tasted as vibrant as it did when he was with his brother, Dream likes to believe that's nostalgia speaking). Later on in the aging universe, it's not uncommon to find him wearing soundproof headphones, and gloves are simply a permanent fixture.
Dream is able to feel the feeling inside something as miniscule as a leaf (someone had touched it one day ago, leaving behind a lackluster combination of screeching and a warm, endearing smile). If his eyes are shut, with a flick of his finger he can see and navigate a busy street without much strain. Although, clicking his tongue to send out the wave of magic always makes him smile, giggling as the feelings map themselves out (he refuses to do this with anyone else around, the action held close to his soul behind a brick wall).
Safe to say he has spooked Blue with this bat-like ability multiple times. Blue has walked into the room and Dream's looked completely the other way with headphones and an eye-mask on, only to turn and wave at him. It becomes near impossible to hide from Dream if you're nearby. A simple wave of the hand can reveal all the hugs in one's scarf, the screaming from a blade, or the childish laughter from worn shoes.
(Dream keeps this last fact a secret: Stuck surrounded by his own brothers' emotions for so long, his powers clung to Nightmare's feelings. Easily, without question, Dream would always be able to pick out Nightmare in a large crowd. Inside an au, his Empathy targets the strained ball of negativity and tells Dream where his general location is without even thinking twice about it. Sometimes it happens so unconsciously Dream doesn't realize, stuck with a sad smile and lost laughter aches.)
Referring to my previous post on Emotional Echolocation Dream (this post), I wanted to share more thoughts on NM's side of his Empathic abiltiies! Just like his twin, Passive NM could feel feelings from an object with some time and focus. Before the gifts to NM trickled into the void, most gifts to NM were trembling with the echoes of a cornered dog, growling with its tail between its legs (most of the time he waited until Dream had wandered to take the gifts from their hiding place. NM refused to let Dream tap into these gifts full of what ifs and a looming bear. Then after collecting them using the gifts as much as possible while thinking of old memories of just Dream and himself atop their hill).
Passive NM could feel a lightness, a joy, in the gifts too, but he often paused with wider eyes. The villager must've been having happy memories of wrapping another childs present. Simple mistakes happen all the time, so Nightmare leaves out these little positive ones to let Dream feel them too. His twins smile mixed with a few claps and dancing toes makes NM grin through the trees of guilt.
After consuming the apples, feeling the emotions inside one specific object became... difficult to say the least. His abilties spanned over au's. Growing large and pulling itself to every corner. Focusing on something as little as a shirt was difficult and a waste of time.
Although, it wasn't something he particularly cared about. Feeling the Negativity directly from the source was much more filling. Nightmare doesn't need to feel the emotions inside an object. He can conclude those for himself afterall. He is quite the horrifying creature for someone to meet inside their safe space. After a century, that mindset changes purely out of bordem(and a little curiosity), he starts practicing on trying to feel specific objects.
Nightmare conculded that one, trying to sense the emotions of something smaller than a chair was simply fruitles. It is near impossible to focus all his powers all at once on such a miniscule and worthless object. Two, it is much simpler to take the average emotion of a building/larger area. For example, to feel everything inside a apartment complex, then put it all in a blender, mix it together, and take a drink that way. It becomes one big glorious rock, full of negativity thanks to the being itself sitting atop their roofs. If the Source of the initial negativity is a main meal, the rock of generalized feelings Nightmare absorbs are dessert(these taste different depending on the AU. Nightmare's favorite AU's at this point in the multiverse consist of Underfells and Horrortales. The length of their despair is so old its engraved into their very existence. The best places to recover after an battle).
Lastly, after another 45 years of experiments, Nightmare made a break through. If all the tentacles were holding different small objects, then his hands held holding another two, with immense focus and time, Nightmare could list the emotions from the individual objects. It would be ineffective in almost any future scenario due to the average length of the operations, he'd write down after, but it is good knowledge to know. He only does anything similar later on if an object holds critical information relating to an AU(emotions tell stories. A pathway full of stones could leave a touch of despair as their vicitm runs) or a member of his gang(Cross is one he used this abilty on once he was back at the castle. There wasn't much to feel in the empty AU, and that made focusing on feeling the papers and pens emotions even easier Nightmare later notes. X-Tale will continue to be useful).
Dream's HP is constantly fluctuating!!(I know this isn't how HP or HOPE is portrayed in the game if I'm remembering correctly. This idea stems from the idea that Sans has such low HP due to his bad mental health).
This comes from the influence of the Positive Apple inside of Dream's soul! That apple's existence defines Positive things- peoples dreams, their wishes, past and current achievements. The thing every human, monster, and animal feels when they see their loved ones, or spot a crying newborn baby with a button nose. But the feeling isn't consistent for everyone, nor the entire universe. These things the apple exist on directly impact Dream's HP- his HOPE.
His range of HP is influenced by how Dream is currently feeling. Say his average HP when hopeful is 550-650, his range of HP when he's losing hope is from 500-600. It's not stagnant, and has dipped lower than that on heavy, dark days for Dream. But every single fight his HOPE is a different number since the positivity levels and Dream's mental health never stay the same. It's uncommon to not see Dream's HP changing day by day, and often Dream feels conflicted when its stable because that's just not normal. Sometimes, after a series of attacks of AUs which are severely impacted (he failed to protect them), Dream has experienced his HP dipping below 300 as a result.
(Truthfully, Dream doesn't know if he can actually die or not. He isn't going to test it, but on those multitudes of hopeless days of his foot stills right before the golden portal.)
Although due to Dream's childhood trauma, clinging onto his brother's last words, and trying to manage his way in completely new worlds while fighting said brother- his own HOPE has almost never reached its max amount.
I imagine in AUs where multiversal balanced is considered when Dream first breaks free from Stone he's easily below 50 HP. Then until balance is resorted, he'll never reach a "healthy" amount of HP in comparison to the gods, their followers, and the negative au's he's regularly fighting (or his HP as seen in a balanced multiverse). It's not uncommon at all for Dream to be the one with the lowest HP out on the battlefield until Blue comes along.
Then when HOPE is abundant, Dream becomes a literal tank. It's more likely Dream's going to run out of stamina before being taken down. Yes, he takes hits for his allies in these situations! It's often a hopeful spiral up from here. But even with the HP presented prior in a balanced multiverse, Dream's still someone that can take a lot more hits than your average combatants!
An AU where Ink, still just Sans, has dreams about different worlds. Ones full of colors, of smiling friends, a warm looking grass, navy skies, and white, far away dots atop dark purples. Sans learns from a skeleton with yellow eyelights, discovers a lively human(a human!! He excitedly tells Papy ALL about that one), sees oceans of paint and collesiums of monsters. Its... so much. Everytime he awakens, white eyelights glance out into the emptiness, moving at a snails pace to take in the nothing.Inside these dreams, there's tons of Toriel's, galleries of books to come across, and rainbows to see(theres more of Papy too, but they're... different. Or maybe he and Papy are different. Why are they different?)! So when theres nothing besides a few streaks of graphite, he snuggles back into his scarf, squeezing his eyes shut and ignoring he itch developing underneath his eyesockets.
Oftentimes, multiple new names appear. "Ink," is most commonly spoken. Sans lost how many times it was said long ago. Same goes with "Error," or "Doodlesphere." After that came phrases see; undertale, dream, creators. One interesting phrase was "Alternate Universe," thats one after it being spoken hundreds of times- or its shorter version, "AU"- Papy never stops hearing Sans repeat that one!
Sadly for Sans a lot of these dreams eventually slip his mind. With nothing to record any of these dreams/experiences he was having the old ones felt near nonexistent. But he tries his best to recall them all, telling all the friends he has now about these marvelous adventures! Papy is always a wonderful listener, everyone here is truthfully (none are as good as Blue, or the Gasters, or even the humans) an great listener, so they will hear about his dreams! He'll repeat one dream until he begins to forget it, and Papy has to pat him on the head and guide him back to the scarf-pillow.
At least, thats all it is until one day where Papy was weird. Papy was there when Sans fell asleep, then wasn't there when he awakened. Papy never did that. Papy always stayed to listen, putting a replica of a smile on his face for Sans. So leaving behind the musical whistles full of color, Sans starts looking for his brother. Unlike these dreams, this place is empty and definitely a miniscule sized in comparsion. So, he finds Papy standing over a rain-puddle(tears) in a nice amount of time. A reassuring one. His brother hadn't gone far!
With a gasp and smile, Sans bolts towards Papy, "this is where you went!"
With their usual stutter, Papy turns, head barely reaching the others direction by the time Sans is at his side. "What did ya get up to this time, brother?"
Papy's blink lasts seconds and Sans smiles wider, watching his dragging movement. It was like being under super duper deep and dark water(this he experienced in a dream, it was definitely similar to Papy's movement). His brother's hand curls, one finger crackling itself apart, stumbling to separate from the fist and aim towards the white ground.
There, on the ground, reflecting nonexistent light, was something grayish and... yellowish. Similar to a humans skin. Frosted around the edges, the entire blob sat unevenly in itself, and Sans couldn't see the white through it.
Those were definitely not tears.
It was familiar. Like an old childhood home. Something Sans experienced only behind closed eyes while hugging a paint brush and sticking a tongue out. Something that came in tarnished reds, drained blues, and serene greens. The thing that stained paper, the liquid that faded into the earths layers, sinking into rocks, creating the soil and letting someone breath in life.
Papy breathed, hand shaking as his mouth creaks like an old door, "pa__t?"
Sans hadn't gotten to make many decisions in his short life. There wasn't much to make decisions on. Going left or right would always lead him right back to Snowdin, he could talk to anyone anytime, there was no story, no plot, no costs or losts in any choice(a completely blank slate). Making impactful decisions was reserved for his dreams. The tense ones, who to fight, which au to protect, which bad guy to stop.
Stepping into the puddle and falling into an ocean of rainbows was the easiest decision Sans had ever made.
It’s a criminal mastermind. It saw Scar’s antics last season and wanted to take it to the next level. Seeing all that beautiful copper and a free wheel around, it yoinked it. The Entity believes it looks like a bow. Very similar to Scar’s little hat at the start of Season 8. It wants to look pretty. That’ll attract more people, right? ( Adding on to this: Loadstone compass. )
Grian mentions that The Entity stole this part of the Copper wheel. He leaves this relatively unexplained and up to interpretation. So- the entity likes taking things. I’ve mentioned it absorbing items and the world around it+what it touches, could be same here since the Wheel would likely need a strong hold to be held the way it is with its center of weight looking a lot more left heavy, so it should be falling off. But nope, the entity wanted a bow and it got a bow. Maybe it can affect the elements of the world somehow, influence them, or maybe can make inanimate objects, animate. It controls them and can live through them. Hence how the entity very, very slowly nudged an copper wheel onto the top of itself.
Touching more onto the making inanimate objects animate objects with some form of control that is unexplained because Eldritch Rock <3, it helped create the scientific lab next to it through the elements and aiding the previous land owners. Grian was the one to bring it back to life and clean it up once he discovered the entity at the start of season 9, or whenever it started talking to him. Perhaps there is something The Entity wants him to know located within the lab?
It throws little rock dance parties by controlling them. That is all. Is there any reason behind this? No, it’d just be cute. ( And if it appears in the April Fools box sign up that Grian created, all I’m saying is I called it. )
What the Grian what the grian what the grain what the grain-
Grian: The boulder- the Entity, it kinda took over. It spoke to me, it said “I don’t want to be a house.”
It speaks to you- YEAH THIS THING IS SENTIENT ( I.E me hearing a comment and taking it way out of context into lore. )
Grian mentioned that, after the creation of his starter house, he aims for the vibe of sort of studying the boulder- The Entity <3.
It’s all a faux. Grian actually is The Entity, or connected in some way, and he’s building the starter base to hide this fact from the other hermits. They can’t know where, why, and how it exists. You aren’t supposed to question The Entity after all.
Grian found the heart of The Entity in the hermitisspi It was before a majority of the hermits had arrived in s9. He had taken the heart and hid it in his inventory, it called and spoke to him. When Grian set up shop, it just had the chance of the heart attaching onto stone block and Grian now is doing his best to make the boulder look pretty.
The water circle around the heart is there to hold its heart in place. But it also provides life to the outside area. So despite the area being covered in stone, some hermits where highly confused on the first day when flowers and half grown trees got left in Grian’s wake after getting shoved into the river.
Mumbo got to hold the heart once, only once because Grian was fumbling around and now he is very, very concerned. The heartbeat was nothing like Grian had described it to be calming, majestic, the newest song around! It was just weird and disgusting, nothing even close to the “siren song,” Grian described. So maybe he was alright with Grian setting up a place to study The Entity, and maybe he might be taking copies of those notes whenever he asks to read about them.
Okay, I’m new to Hermitcraft and all the Watcher Grain jazz but I have fallen in love. But yet I haven’t seen anyone mention the fact that at the end of s8, for all the boatem crew - besides Mumbo who doesn’t include the void ending, - only sees the nether portal particles besides GRIAN. ( Everyone else has the nether portal particles and what looks like black concrete that they’re standing on. )
Grian’s POV has both the nether portal particles AND the end portal texture. We see him turn off and stare into the distance. People say they see a portal here, but personally I don’t see anything at all besides Grian trying to find a way to end his video.
But Grian’s the only one who sees the end portal texture. Watcher Grian- please no guns- no the end portal void blocks in the middle aren’t there just because we needed a transition to s9 or Grian just wanted that no- no stop- its Watcher Grian lore- THIS MEANS SOMETHING
