CHAPTER 3 of the official Purple Glitch AU fanfiction released! 💜
Brief Synopsis:
When 16-year-old Nightmare hits his breaking point under the cruelty of Dreamtale’s villagers, a violent outburst of his negativity fractures reality itself. Across the space of the Multiverse, a dying Geno Sans escapes into a blank Save Screen. Two identical bursts of agony resonate, forcing the system code to crash and opening a glitching portal between two lonely, rejected souls. Heavy AU story focused on psychological drama, angst, and slow-burn tragedy.
Chapter 1 ---> [Read] Chapter 2 ---> [Read]
Chapter 3 is available right below! Please enjoy the read.✨
Credits:
Geno Sans (Aftertale) belongs to @loverofpiggies
(Crayon Queen) Nightmare Sans (Dreamtale) belongs to @jokublog
Original !Purple Glitch story and artwork cover by me (@pastelmore32)
# PURPLE GLITCH: VOLUME 1. THE RESONANCE OF PAIN
## CHAPTER 3: THE BITTER TASTE OF ADULTHOOD
The castle courtyard of Dreamtale was drowning in an oppressive ocean of gold. Streamers of pure light danced between the marble pillars, and the laughter of hundreds of villagers echoed off the pristine walls. Today, the kingdom was celebrating. The grand princes, the twin guardians, had finally reached their eighteenth year. It was the long-awaited threshold of adulthood.
Dream stood at the absolute epicenter of the adoring crowd, practically drowning in the adoration of his people. His golden crown gleaming, reflecting the perfect sunbeams. He was radiant, a living manifestation of pure, blinding joy. The guardian of Positivity smiled, waved, and laughed, completely wrapped in the suffocating warmth of positive emotions. To Dream, the world was perfect today. But out in the courtyard's periphery, half-hidden beneath the heavy, quiet shadows of the Tree of Feelings, it was a Nightmare. As always, he stood in the dark. He pressed his back against the cool, shaded bark of the Tree of Feelings, watching the grand celebration from afar. His purple jacket felt tight, his shoulders broader, but his soul felt entirely hollow.
Suddenly, the crowd parted. Scanning the crowd, Dream's eyes instantly locked onto his twin. Dream had noticed him. Breaking away from his admirers, the golden prince ran over, stepping into the shadows with a bright, cheerful grin.
" - Nighty, come on! " Dream called out, his voice full of genuine, heartfelt excitement, gesturing toward the cheering crowd. " - Come join us! This is our shared day, remember? Everyone is so happy to see you! "
Nightmare shifted uncomfortably, his eye sockets narrowing as he surveyed the celebratory square. He looked at the faces of the villagers. To Nightmare, they seemed to wear plastic, festive grins. A wave of intense nausea hit the back of his throat at the sheer, suffocating hypocrisy of it all. “They will never understand you. Fools. Pathetic hypocrites,” something foreign whispered inside Nightmare's head, as if spitting venom. He shook his head, blinking with a vacant stare.
He forced a weak, practiced smile, letting out a skeptical, quiet huff.
" - This is your moment of happiness, Dream, not mine. Enjoy it for both of us. I'll just... stay right here. "
" - Are you sure? " Dream blinked in surprise. His smile faltered slightly. Golden eyes dimming with a sudden, rare flicker of deep worry. He leaned in closer, looking past Nightmare's forced demeanor. " - Coming of age only happens once in a lifetime, even if we have an eternity to live ... You look so pale, Night. Are you genuinely okay? "
For a fraction of a second, Dream lingered. He stood completely torn, caught in a fragile limbo between his brother's quiet isolation and the demanding, joyful roars of the crowd calling his name.
Nightmare's heart squeezed, but he swallowed the lump in his throat and gave a firmer, reassuring nod. " - I'm perfectly fine, Dream. Go on. They are waiting for you. Have the absolute time of your life out there, dear brother. " Dream's golden eyes flickered. For just a second, his smile wavered. He felt something cold brush against the edge of his soul. A shadow. It’s so sharp it made him flinch. " - Night... you're in pain. I can feel it, " Dream whispered, his hand trembling slightly.
Nightmare clenched his jaw, turning his gaze aside. He looks away from his brother, who says he can feel his pain and heavy emotions. For one terrible, breathless moment, he thought Dream actually saw him. Truly saw him.
But before the silence could stretch, a young child called out Dream's name from the crowd, laughing and playfully tugging at his golden sleeve. Instantly, a massive wave of warmth and adoration flooded back into Dream's chest, completely washing away the cold shadow. Dream blinked, looking confused for a split second, as if waking up from a heavy trance. The system of positivity simply wouldn't allow him to hold onto the dark reality. " - Oh, I know! I'll be right back, I promise! Just wait here a second. Please!... " Dream shouted over his shoulder as he bolted back to the thick of the celebration.
Nightmare watched him go, the tight smile dropping instantly from his face. “Promises mean nothing in a world like this,” he thought bitterly. But Dream wasn't done. He broke away from the crowd again, running back to his brother with something in his hands. Full of joy, he shoved it into the hands of a startled Nightmare. He looked down at his hands. Dream had left him with a single plate, holding one colorful, perfect slice of cake. Then, his gaze accidentally shifted to the villagers behind Dream. He recognized the very same people who just days ago had dragged him through the dirt and thrown heavy stones at his skull. Now, under Dream's watchful eye, they forced polite, fake smiles onto their faces. It was a disgusting, sickening farce. The royal guards watched from a distance too. Their faces instantly hardening into cold, defensive stares the moment Dream stepped near his twin.
" - Oh, uh… Thank you, brother," Nightmare whispered hesitantly beneath the weight of all those evaluating glances.
Dream hesitated for one more agonizing heartbeat, his gaze swimming with doubt. The carefreeness took over. He offered a quick, apologetic smile. " - I… I have to go," Dream said, shaking his head and pulling his brilliant smile back on. " - B-but we'll talk later. I promise! Happy birthday, Nighty."
He ran back to the light. And Nightmare was left alone in the dark again.
He stood alone beneath the rustling canopy of the Tree, staring at the plate with cake in his hands. One slice. One single piece of sweetness for his entire eighteenth birthday. Yet, he didn't feel angry. Instead, a wave of nervous, dizzying excitement washed over his soul. He reached into his dark jacket pocket, his fingers brushing against the flawlessly smooth, shimmering skin. The perfect golden. An apple he had spent months finding. And he knew exactly who he wanted to share it with.
Giving the sacred fruit alongside a slice of cake felt like a clumsy, foolish idea, so he smiled softly, almost chuckled to himself. This entire festival belonged to Dream, but this cake... this was his own tiny piece of stolen happiness. And he wanted nothing more than to give it to the person who had become his entire universe.
Ensuring no judgmental eyes were watching, Nightmare raised his slightly unsteady hand. His dark magic sliced cleanly through the air, ripping open a familiar, tearing portal into the stagnant, silent canvas of the Save Screen.
— The portal ripped open, and Nightmare stepped into the absolute, silent whiteness of the Save Screen. His heart was hammering with a strange, nervous pride. He was eighteen now. He was finally a man.
The blinding, infinite whiteness of the void welcomed him with its heavy, protective silence. Geno sat exactly where he always did, hunched over on the sterile floor beneath the flickering, artificial glow of floating system screens. His red scarf pooled around him. His single eye socket fixed on his usual book that Nightmare had once brought him from Dreamtale. Nightmare walked over with a soft smile and sat down beside him, carefully placing the piece of cake between them, then placed his hands on his lap, clenching them into tight fists. " - Hey, Geno… brought you a piece of the cake. " Nightmare murmured, his voice dropping to a fragile whisper as he looked directly into the older man's eyes. " - I wanted so badly to share it with you…” Geno paused. He stared at the glowing golden apple Nightmare had also pulled out of his pocket. The fruit Nightmare had spent months studying down to the very last pixel. For a fleeting moment, something warm flickered in Geno's eye socket -genuine curiosity, perhaps even a spark of long-dead hope.
" - Well, well. Look who finally showed up. The birthday boy, u-huh," Geno huffed, a rare, soft wave of genuine warmth creeping into his raspy voice. " - I figured you'd be stuck in those royal banquet halls all day, gorging on kingly feasts." Then, his gaze drifted up to Nightmare's face, taking in the desperate, pleading, and deeply vulnerable look in those purple eyes.
" - Oh, uh... Celebrations already over? How did your long-awaited day go, kiddo?"
Nightmare didn't answer right away. His fingers trembled slightly as he sank onto his knees directly in front of the sitting warrior. Carefully, almost reverently, he placed the plate with the cake onto the white floor. Then, with a pounding heart, he started to speak: " - Geno," Nightmare said, his voice dropping to a nervous whisper, his cheekbones flushing a faint purple. It was a soft, unmistakable violet blush stained the edges of his cheekbones. " - I... I turned eighteen today. I'm officially an adult..." Nightmare was practically begging to be seen. To be recognized as an equal. As someone who could finally protect him. And somewhere deep in his fractured, glitching code, a memory stirred. A brutal, agonizing memory of another tall, younger skeleton who used to look at him with that exact same fierce, desperate loyalty. A brother who was turned to dust, gone forever. Geno's expression instantly hardened. A wall of sheer psychological terror slammed down in his mind. He couldn't go through that again. He couldn't let himself hope, because hope meant he had something left to lose. He had to push him away. Establish boundaries. Before it was too late. Geno watched blank-faced as Nightmare continued to mutter: “ - I can... I can finally stand by your side as an equal, you know? And that's not all. I think I finally found a guaranteed way to help you-–"
" - You're a good kid, Nightmare," Geno said softly, his voice completely devoid of the romantic gravity Nightmare so desperately craved. He reached out and gave Nightmare’s head a heavy, patronizing, fatherly pat. " - You always have been. Just like… Heh."
Before Nightmare could even finish his sentence, Geno reached out. With a soft, deeply patronizing, and paternal movement, he reached forward and gently patted Nightmare on the head, rumpling his skull exactly the way he had done two years ago.
" - Eighteen, ey? Wow, time really flies, "
Geno sighed quietly, his single reddish iris clouding over with the suffocating fog of agonizing memories. The heavy, suffocating ghost of Papyrus hung between them like an unbreakable concrete wall.
" - You know, kiddo... my Papyrus was supposed to turn eighteen, too. He was just like you, a stubborn boy. Always trying to act older and more serious than he actually was, constantly burning the kitchen with that terrible cooking of his..."
Geno let out a bitter, hollow chuckle, slowly pulling his hand back. He turned his face away from the treats entirely, his gaze drifting up to a floating pixelated screen where a flickering image of a living Papyrus from an alternate timeline was displayed.
Geno was looking right through him.
To Geno, Nightmare hadn't changed at all. He wasn't a man. He was still just that same frightened, crying sixteen-year-old boy who had stumbled out of a dark portal. A fragile child who needed to be wrapped in a scarlet scarf and fiercely shielded from the cold. Nightmare wasn't an equal partner or a pillar of support; he was simply a comfort for Geno's crushing isolation. A surrogate for a ghost.
" - Thanks for the cake. But you shouldn't be wasting your birthday hanging around a place like this. Go back home. Go back to Dream."
Geno stared blankly at the code floating before him. He failed to notice how Nightmare looked and what he was feeling at that moment. A fatal mistake. " - My data is permanently locked in this cage anyway. These numbers don't mean a thing to me anymore. But for you... there's still hope, pal. Don't waste it. "
Nightmare’s world completely shattered. The words struck Nightmare square in the chest with the force of a physical blow, completely stealing the air from his lungs.
He realized the bitter, crushing truth: it didn't matter if he turned eighteen, twenty, or a hundred. To Geno, he was just a child. A fragile burden. A pathetic, temporary replacement for a dead brother.
Every beautiful, delicate illusion he had spent eighteen months meticulously building shattered into absolute dust in a single second. The tiny piece of happiness he had carried across dimensions, guarding it with his life, was entirely worthless. Geno didn't see him as equal. The one thing he feared above all else. And it had just come true.
Mechanically, Nightmare’s trembling hand reached out and scooped the golden apple off the floor. His voice cracking into a hollow, dead whisper.
" - Right..." He breathed, refusing to meet Geno's eyes as he slowly stood up on his shaking legs. " -You're right. I... I should go. The festival isn't over. Please, eat cake for me and… "
He turned around, so Geno wouldn't see the dark violet tears swelling in his eyes. He stopped for a split second, forcing his hands not to shake. Making a heavy step toward the portal, Nightmare choked out: “ - T-thank you. ” A desperate scream clawing at the inside of his throat. He wanted to say something else. Something vital. Something that could rip the blindfold off Geno's eyes and change everything. But there were no words left. Only a suffocating knot in his throat and a golden fruit that felt like burning coal against his palm.
Without looking back, he stepped through the tear, and the white void vanished. Nightmare disappeared into the dark.
---
The portal snapped shut behind him, plunging him back into the shadows of the Dreamtale courtyard. It was completely empty now, the villagers having moved the celebration to the lower valley. The moon hung high in a cold sky. Nightmare collapsed onto his knees at the roots of the Tree of Feelings, sobbing silently, his hands clawing at his chest. The rejection from Geno had ripped open a wound far deeper than any stone thrown by a villager.
Guardian of the Negativity opened his fist, staring down at the apple. But the moment he looked at it, his breath hitched. He pulled it out and screamed in horror. The apple was entirely black. It wasn't gold anymore. Under the immense, crushing weight of the suppressed negativity he had swallowed for seventeen years, combined with the absolute agony of his broken heart tonight, the fruit had completely rotted. Dark, tar-like veins were pulsing violently across its skin. His desperate cries dissolved into the suffocating silence of the empty courtyard. " - Why... No... No, no!" Nightmare’s head began to spin. Nobody heard him. Nobody was there to save him. And from the deepest, darkest corners of his mind, the foreign voice whispered once more. This time, it wasn't a warning.
It was a welcome. ...
