Your personal Tumblr journey starts here
Not me imagining a world now where Nightmare dies over and over and over. If it were to ever occur in an universe, how would it affect Nightmare? How might it affect the balance as a whole?
Would the corruption slowly vanish, eventually revealing Pass!Nightmare beneath it all? Like- give Passive some ability to think a little more and take control if hes still there? Then if thats the case, it brings the question of can Passive's form even survive without the corruption? But then begs the question if Passive is even there at all.
Or maybe Passive is the first soul, the first apple Dream kills when his arrow goes through Nightmare's apple(and what if the remains of Passive was important to NM's entire existence in some way. What if its needed to keep his form together? Do his powers change and he has to relearn them all over(like maybe the way he absorbs negativity and inflicts others with it? Maybe its more slow, laggy, like its a reluctant child. Can he be labeled a guardian in a Check without an part of Passive being there? Where does that leave NM? )
What if with every death Nightmare is now slowly falling apart, struggling more to keep himself together. Every day slogging atop his paths, form constantly getting stuck between the tiles, one hand fused together more similar to the tentacles on his back. In the absent room where his papers are allocated, no one would find him with a mouth(unnecessary to put power into when hes alone, unless there's a lovely drink left next to his books). With every life lost, Nightmare's body is falling apart, becoming more similar to the amalgamations from the lab than an skeleton.
Now how does DREAM react to this? Was the first death accidental? Or purposeful. He wanted to make the universe better, or he was just exhausted. Will he be less careful with his shots knowing NM can die as much as a human? Or will he pull his arrows totry and not kill NM? And saying he goes through with trying to take down NM, goes on the aggressive, and isn't afraid to strike at the soul of his corrupted brother. Would he feel good about seeing Nightmare fall apart or would he cry himself to sleep(he definitely cries himself to sleep)?
You could go even further- what side effects occur within the multiverse? NM would probably get more aggressive, but with ever apple killed, theres technically less negativity. Theres emotions that could be changed so Dream could more easily spread positivity. If NM is weaker with ever apple taken, then it would slowly get easier to fight him(NM's still like a cockroach about dying though). One could say theres a chance the universe could be balanced again, just at the exchange of making his once-brother suffer(I headcannon that making the multiverse perfectly balanced between positivity and negativity is nigh impossible with so many of the positivity apples being gone. I like to think its possible, but fr poor Dream will never get to sleep even if monsters want to be good and lean towards positivity naturally).
And AAAA isn't that such a interesting moral dilemma? Dream dissociating from it. Refusing to call NM by his name, and keeps blaming NM's behavior on the corruption. Imagine he makes a(or another) grave for the memory of his lost brother so he can move on and help make the world a better place. Maybe they'd reach a truce call before NM dies(I don't think NM would let himself get close. The truce is to buy time I'd bet, and Dream knows it too. But its nice to not have to fight everyday, it gives Dream more time to scrub down all his weapons with bleach and longer rests on a couch). Just dealing with it day by day, at some point not counting how many tally marks are beneath the banner on his wall, just marking down another everytime he comes home with blood on his hands(because he'd be a fool to not at least keep track. He can't bring himself to ask Blue or Core to do that, then Ink would just forget).
Then how much of themselves would be lost in the process?! They're already traumatized to the stars and back, this adds another layer to it all. Could this be something they can heal from or might it only end in tragedy if Dream decision falls upon landing a bullseye in an apple for the next decade of his life? This is NOT going to end well for them ever lmao
Dream ate 1 golden apple that became his soul, Nightmare ate 999 black apples, now he has 999 souls
Yes, Nightmare has 999 lives like a spiteful angry lil cat
Me screaming about it on discord vhvjvjuv