Random Idea Factory

Nightmare's Screaming

     "He's screaming..." 

     Nightmare had always been... Alone. Even with the gang he usually kept to himself unless giving them orders or keeping them out of trouble. 

     No one had much of an idea of what went on in Nightmare's mind. Most assumed he just thought evil things all the time or something. Others assumed he was just focused on conquering the multiverse. I guess it depends on which multiverse's Nightmare your talking about, but not this one. 

     I mean, how could Nightmare focus on that when he had other things to worry about. Like avoiding Dream, spreading negativity, making sure his gang doesn't burn down the kitchen for some stupid reason again, keeping his gang from fighting, and not letting A N Y O N E close. 

     Nightmare HATES showing vulnerability. If he is in pain, he will do everything in his power to not let anyone know. If the pain is bad enough then he may show it outwardly, but not purposefully. There was also the fact that he was always internally screaming. Not like just the stressed kind but, like all his hidden pain and agony is stored up over time and gathers up. 

     When Nightmare sleeps, he only dreams of screaming. Not because of a bad dream or anything, it's just him alone in a dark room screaming. 

     This Nightmare is in a near constant state of pain. When feeling an overly negative feeling like not just anger but pure rage than it becomes more painful, but he ignores it because he is too angry to focus on that. If he is in a really deep depression and trapped in a spiral of anxious negative thoughts that continue to darken he may also feel more pain than normal and he may also start coughing up goop even though he's already in his corrupt form. 

      Also the coughing hurts. Nightmare's own negativity can hurt him if he's overly negative. The happier he is the more the pain lessens. The pain also started after the apple incident. 

     One day, Nightmare passes out from pain while him and his gang go against the Star Sanses. Dream passes out as well since Nightmare accidentally released more negativity than he usually did. The bad sanses and star sanses make a truce to get both the apple twins help. Dream wakes up first, and is immediately concerned about his brother. The Bad Sanses are wary but Dream says that he felt a larger amount of negativity from Nightmare than normal and thinks that might be somehow connected to why  both he and Nightmare passed out. 

     Sci ends up suggesting that they could go into Nightmare's mind to find out what was wrong. Sci warned Dream that he may pass out again. ...But Dream was persistent so Sci gave Dream some pills that would ensure Dream wouldn't pass out from feeling too much negativity, though feeling too much negativity would still weaken Dream. Once they go inside, everything seems silent. Then they encounter "Nightmare" acting like a bit more of a jerk than normal. 

     Dream realizes this is not Nightmare because what "Nightmare" was saying didn't match Nightmare's emotions that Dream could sense. Not that he could often sense what Nightmare was feeling, and when he did usually not to the full extent. The wall that was behind the "Nightmare" crumbled. They moved forward. The first encounters would be parts or the whole of Nightmare's front he put up to keep anyone from getting close to him. 

     The further they journey into Nightmare's mind the more Dream can sense about his brother's emotions, though still very hard to do.