If there's one thing Ink knows how to do like a normal person it's being supportive of the arts ♡
I think that Dream's power makes it hard for him to "do" emotions like anyone else. Focus on "your" emotions doesn't really mean anything if your emotions are also everyone else's emotions. What are "you" feeling when surrounded by 100 people feeling completely differing emotions doesn't particularly have any significance. It doesn't matter what you're feeling, there's 100 people you also have the emotions of. That's why Dream focusing on other people's emotions instead of his own kind of is the best option for him. It's way easier to get everyone around you to be happy, for you to also be happy. It's also why he leaves to be completely alone when he's upset and wants to concentrate on those feelings (like we see in the Color comic). He doesn't WANT other people around him when he's upset because he CAN'T process those emotions if someone else's is getting in the way!!
Not mentioned much here, but Ink and his Doodlesphere are very helpful for Dream in this capacity. Because it's just Ink, and he can control his emotions, he can effectively just control what Dream is feeling too, and Dream can also influence Ink's emotions through his aura (in my universe where I allow their powers to affect each other)
The Doodlesphere is also in the centre of it all so all the emotions become a much more pleasant background noise. It's very peaceful for Dream there, though nothing truly lets him escape feeling the broad stokes of universe's emotions. He would still be able to tell if something terrible was happening somewhere.
No, there's no way to escape from everything, but maybe
"He tried to talk with his brother because of the bruises he saw, but Nightmare lied to him. "It's okay, I just tripped, it was nothing". Nightmare's intention wasn't to trick Dream, it was to protect him. He didn't want his brother to complain to the others, who might take revenge on him. He couldn't allow his brother to feel the same pain that he was feeling" - Dreamtale, Pg 11
Little did he know, Dream was hiding pain from him as well.
But no scenario would have prevented what comes next.
Slightly out of order here since Dream already has his cape, but we'll consider that this isn't the first time it has happened and both things are progressing throughout the same time frame.
Everyone talks about being parasocial with creators in the "I love them so much they're like my best friend way" but no one talks about the equally damaging parasociallism that is the parasocial hater. The person that follows someone solely to take every minor grievance and put it on blast as though it's 10 times worse than it was. The person that digs through every post on every social media site to find anything that could be considered bigoted and then refuses to talk about the creator going forward without prefacing it with "I do not condone" and constantly mentioning their ___phobia or racism or misogyny. The person that makes a blog dedicated to keeping it in the public eye until the end of time, removed of all context. The people that claim over and over and over all the creator has to do is acknowledge and apologize but if they do, well, it wasn't good enough or they only did it because they got called out which is proof they're not genuine. And, if they leave social media, that's actually them avoiding responsibility and causing fans to harass the people who rightfully called them out. The people that have made it their moral duty to stalk, harass, and degrade their least favoruite minor internet celebrity and claim it's for social justice. And much of the time, the abuse from their campagin is worse than anything the creator did originally. The people who, if you question why they hate someone they don't know this much and put this much time and effort into hurting them, they say, you too must be a supporter of the bigotry or actions they committed.
I think these people should be treated as engaging in just as unhealthy a behaviour as the parasocial fans, and it's pretty shocking just how many people engage in this behaviour, even if just passively.
I think Dream and Killer have one of the most interesting dynamics in the fandom. And it is not in fact one where Dream forcibly tries to help Killer, but rather, one where he recognizes he cannot and what that means. You could get away with a much younger Dream not understanding this as well, but an older Dream knows when pushing only makes it worse. Sometimes you have to wait for the other person to be ready to accept your help. (Shout out Underverse, only story that ever did Dream right)
not only that, but Killer is still an existential threat to him. He is genuinely everything that unnerves him, someone he shouldn’t have any reason to be kind to and still will be. Someone who will hurt him and hurt him and hurt him and hurt him because Killer does not trust him.
I want Dream to be able to say the exact things Color will later say, and for it to simply not work, because Killer does not trust Dream, not while he’s with Nightmare. Not until a long time afterwards. Dream is everything that unnerves Killer. The ability to read emotions, the cheerful demeanour hiding his real emotions underneath, his role as a protector of positivity making his help seem fake or forced, he will both not accept help because he doesn’t think he deserves it yet and because Dream is the one offering it.
but he does find Dream interesting. He doesn’t really understand Dream. He wants to understand Dream, but he fundamentally misunderstands Dream. That’s why Dream keeps landing hits back on him. He sees Dream as an inverse of Nightmare. See Killer has a very interesting hook to his character and that’s his emotionlessness. If I were to describe to you what I think is the most interesting thing about him, I would say, he is a character that did the unthinkable to escape emotional numbness and experience some form of joy at something new, and the unthinkable was so devastating that the only solution was to return to a complete deprivation of emotion to avoid ever facing what he did. In this sense, from where he stands, both positivity and negativity did him wrong. He cannot go back to feeling, and the only way he ever improves, the only way things get better, is if he does. This is the conflict at the heart of his character. Literally.
however, there is one other option. The ultimate never feeling anything again: death. Which is canonically what Killer was about to do (erase himself) just before Nightmare showed up and took him away. There’s a comic about it hiding out somewhere on Rahaf’s blog, but that is canon in this comic too.
If you’re wondering about Chara, they’re a hallucination. Appeared in the old comics, haven't seen them mentioned much since, so I don't know if Rahaf still uses them, but I like the concept of Killer being berated by his own conscience after Killer murdered Chara
lastly, if you were curious what universe Dream brought Killer to, I just somewhat made it up: imagine a god of hyperdeath style ending only the player becomes a part of it and that is the only character left. The god of hyperdeath controlled by the player. They’re friendly, don’t worry. But sorry Killer, Dream is in fact right.
Dream left to heal and get Ink to figure out what to do with Killer, but Nightmare had already found him by the time they returned.
You should always check that link to all the comics to see where in the timeline a comic I'm writing is being place given the amount I'm jumping around LOL.
Also, remember, even when I use another comic's plot as the basis, it does not make every single thing that happened in that comic canon to my own, but rather, uses your knowledge of those events to help me skip over some events in my own. From there on out it could diverge significantly.
Anyways, I truly have very little to go off for Color so I'm really just vibing, really just throwing ideas at the wall. Dream's aura helps significantly, but not being Ink also helps quite a bit too. Actually, the Dream getting called a kid here WAS accidental. Color spent too long isolated in no where talking to almost no one except a bunch of children in his head and Gaster LMAO. It will be funny to see whether I continue to stand by my writing of him as his comics progress or if I will look back and go, hm, should have changed that there and this here.
Though they're both friendly with each other, neither of them are particularly willing to share more than they have to. I keep SAYING Dream would likely keep his nature somewhat on the down low but all the characters he's been interacting with so far already know about it, so here's finally my chance to show exactly how he avoids revealing information he think could hurt his ability to help someone (like talking about his empathy powers). Color's ONLY hint here is that Dream is not a Sans, and he's 500 years old, but even then, Color thinks its a joke. Even though it seems like Color is being open with Dream, he's really just sharing what was immediately on his mind from his interaction with Ink. He is keeping the rest hush hush for now, too.
I would like to note for everyone, Dream in these comics will blush whenever he's happy (or embarrassed) NOT because he's romantically interested in someone. Call it my headcanon for how his positive energy works. The more it goes up, the more his face turns gold.
Unfortunately for Ink and their deal, Dream's chaotic good nature will see him finding exceptions to the deal any time the greater good means breaking the deal. Sorry. Luckily for Dream, Ink doesn't actually care about loyalty all that much. He's moreso impressed with Dream's ability to deal with characters in general, and he's being a help in general, so. Maybe he could even learn a thing or two...
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