Dream is dead, and that was now a fact. He's gone to Limbo and a ghost named Delusion's now running around in his place in the Overworld.
The ghost was, well, pretty different from Dream. They are different entities, after all, so of course they would be different. How to say it...he's like a less matured Dream.
Yeah, that seems appropriate.
Because he lacked the memories from after the onset of bedlam, his personality was more...mild, so to speak. Certainly, he's not without his own traumas, but the ghost can't seem to remember much anyways.
Especially the sad parts of life. Who'd want to remember those?
Not even talking about how his mind's always wondering, as if his thoughts were boats in a typhoon, swirling around and around until his consciousness catches one and pushes it onto dry land- until that, too, gets swept back into the frenzy.
What a blessing it is, to live a life like that? Uncaring for the constant madness besides him, not even hurtful words can break his spirit.
Isn't that funny?
• • •
It was... a dark space. Well, maybe not. It's a little hard to tell when everything tries to escape his gaze.
However, he could tell tell there was a path–after all he was walking on it–intertwining and twisting through a black forest of some kind. Perhaps the forest was white, too. Who knows?
At the end of that path, which was very long–mind you–was a bunch of rocks. Boulders, to be specific, arranged in a disorderly way that somehow ends up looking not chaotic.
𝐆𝐨𝐨𝐝 𝐠𝐨𝐝𝐬, 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐚𝐥𝐰𝐚𝐲𝐬 𝐦𝐚𝐤𝐞𝐬 𝐦𝐲 𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐝 𝐡𝐮𝐫𝐭. He grunted, walking closer and closer to the arrangement of stone.
"𝐌𝐚𝐧, 𝐰𝐡𝐲'𝐝 𝐡𝐞 𝐠𝐨𝐭𝐭𝐚 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐲 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐬𝐨𝐫𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐜𝐞? 𝐖𝐞𝐥𝐥, 𝐈 𝐠𝐮𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐢𝐭'𝐬 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞 𝐡𝐞 𝐡𝐚𝐬 𝐚 𝐜𝐡𝐨𝐢𝐜𝐞. 𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫."
Suddenly, the whole space shook, as if some sleeping giant had awoken and was angry at the disturbance. A booming voice rung out.
"𝒲𝒽𝓎 𝒶𝓇𝑒 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝒾𝓃 𝒫𝒶𝓇𝒶𝒹𝑜𝓍, 𝒩𝒾𝑔𝒽𝓉𝓂𝒶𝓇𝑒?" It echoed out.
"𝐖𝐞𝐥𝐥 𝐈'𝐯𝐞 𝐠𝐨𝐭 𝐬𝐨𝐦𝐞 𝐧𝐞𝐰𝐬 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐲𝐚~"
"𝒩𝑒𝓌𝓈?"
There was a brief moment of silence, but then everything shock again. This time, the tremor stronger.
The rock formation began to break apart. Some pieces seemed to melt away, while others merely sunk into the ground. In the center of the arrangement, now vacant, was a splash of cyan, as if someone dropped a jar of bright blue ink onto the ground.
On it sat a chair–well, it could probably be called a throne for its appearance–and on it, a person.
Was it even a person?
It stood up and walked towards Nightmare, stone crumbling off of its shoulders as he moved. He stopped.
"𝒲𝒽𝒶𝓉 𝓃𝑒𝓌𝓈?" It spoke.
Nightmare smiled. "𝐆𝐨𝐨𝐝 𝐭𝐨 𝐬𝐞𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐭𝐨𝐨, 𝐋𝐮𝐜𝐢𝐝."
• • •
Having found two boulders for them to rest on, Nightmare told Lucid about his findings. This, of course, included Dream's death and Delusion's emergence.
"𝒟𝓇𝑒𝒶𝓂 𝒾𝓈...𝒹𝑒𝒶𝒹?" Lucid mumbled, clearly shocked at the information.
"𝐖𝐞𝐥𝐥, 𝐲𝐞𝐚𝐡. 𝐈𝐭'𝐬 𝐛𝐞𝐞𝐧 𝐚 𝐰𝐡𝐢𝐥𝐞 𝐭𝐨𝐨, 𝐚𝐩𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐥𝐲, 𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐩𝐞𝐧𝐞𝐝. 𝐘𝐨𝐮 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐤 𝐰𝐞 𝐜𝐚𝐧 𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐟𝐢𝐧𝐝 𝐡𝐢𝐦?"
Lucid stayed silent. "𝒩𝑜. 𝐿𝒾𝓂𝒷𝑜 𝒾𝓈 𝒶 𝓇𝑒𝒶𝓁𝓂 𝑜𝒻 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝒢𝑜𝒹𝒹𝑒𝓈𝓈. 𝐼𝒻 𝓌𝑒 𝓌𝑒𝓇𝑒 𝓉𝑜 𝒾𝓃𝓉𝓇𝓊𝒹𝑒, 𝓉𝒽𝒾𝓃𝑔𝓈 𝒸𝑜𝓊𝓁𝒹 𝓉𝒶𝓀𝑒 𝒶𝓃 𝓊𝓃𝒻𝒶𝓋𝑜𝓇𝒶𝒷𝓁𝑒 𝓉𝓊𝓇𝓃."
"𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐚𝐚𝐭? 𝐁𝐮𝐭 𝐰𝐞'𝐫𝐞 𝐚 𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐡𝐢𝐦. 𝐖𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝𝐧'𝐭 𝐢𝐭 𝐛𝐞 𝐟𝐢𝐧𝐞?" Nightmare whined, glancing at Lucid's face.
"𝒩𝑜 𝒾𝓈 𝓃𝑜, 𝒩𝒾𝑔𝒽𝓉𝓂𝒶𝓇𝑒."
"𝐎𝐤𝐚𝐲 𝐟𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐞𝐞." He pouted. "𝐀𝐧𝐲𝐰𝐚𝐲𝐬, 𝐡𝐨𝐰 𝐜𝐚𝐧 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐲 𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞? 𝐋𝐨𝐨𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚𝐧𝐲𝐰𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐦𝐚𝐤𝐞𝐬 𝐦𝐲 𝐛𝐫𝐚𝐢𝐧 𝐡𝐮𝐫𝐭."
"𝒯𝒽𝒶𝓉'𝓈 𝓌𝒽𝓎 𝒾𝓉'𝓈 𝒸𝒶𝓁𝓁𝑒𝒹 𝒫𝒶𝓇𝒶𝒹𝑜𝓍. 𝐼𝓉 𝒾𝓈 𝒶 𝓅𝓇𝒾𝓈𝑜𝓃, 𝒶𝒻𝓉𝑒𝓇 𝒶𝓁𝓁, 𝒶𝓁𝓉𝒽𝑜𝓊𝑔𝒽 𝒾𝓉 𝒽𝒶𝓈 𝒷𝑒𝑒𝓃 𝓌𝑒𝒶𝓀𝑒𝓃𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝓁𝒶𝓉𝑒𝓁𝓎..." A pause. "𝐵𝓊𝓉 𝑜𝓃𝒸𝑒 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝑔𝑒𝓉 𝓊𝓈𝑒𝒹 𝓉𝑜 𝒾𝓉, 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝓅𝒶𝒾𝓃 𝓈𝓊𝒷𝓈𝒾𝒹𝑒𝓈"
"𝐇𝐦...𝐚𝐥𝐫𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭. 𝐖𝐞𝐥𝐥, 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭'𝐬 𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐈'𝐯𝐞 𝐠𝐨𝐭." Nightmare jumped onto the ground.
"𝒲𝒽𝑒𝓇𝑒 𝒶𝓇𝑒 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝑔𝑜𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝓃𝑜𝓌?"
"𝐆𝐨𝐧𝐧𝐚 𝐟𝐢𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐠𝐡𝐨𝐬𝐭 𝐚𝐠𝐚𝐢𝐧. 𝐈 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐤 𝐡𝐞'𝐬 𝐡𝐢𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐬𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠. 𝐍𝐨𝐭 𝐬𝐮𝐫𝐞, 𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡." He raised an eyebrow. "𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭, 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐧𝐞𝐞𝐝 𝐬𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠?"
"𝐼 𝓌𝒾𝓁𝓁 𝑔𝑜 𝓌𝒾𝓉𝒽 𝓎𝑜𝓊."
"𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭???" Nightmare gasped. "𝐇𝐨𝐰?"
"𝒩𝑜𝓌 𝓉𝒽𝒶𝓉 𝒟𝓇𝑒𝒶𝓂'𝓈 𝒹𝑒𝒶𝒹, 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝓇𝑒𝓈𝓉𝓇𝒶𝒾𝓃𝓉𝓈 𝒽𝒶𝓋𝑒 𝒷𝑒𝑒𝓃 𝒶𝓃𝓃𝓊𝓁𝓁𝑒𝒹. 𝒯𝒽𝑒𝓇𝑒 𝒶𝓇𝑒 𝒶 𝒻𝑒𝓌 𝓉𝒽𝒾𝓃𝑔𝓈 𝐼 𝓂𝓊𝓈𝓉 𝓀𝓃𝑜𝓌 𝒻𝓇𝑜𝓂 𝓉𝒽𝒶𝓉 𝑔𝒽𝑜𝓈𝓉...𝒟𝑒𝓁𝓊𝓈𝒾𝑜𝓃, 𝓌𝒶𝓈 𝒾𝓉?"
"𝐘𝐞𝐚𝐡...𝐚𝐥𝐫𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭. 𝐒𝐮𝐫𝐞. 𝐃𝐢𝐝𝐧'𝐭 𝐤𝐧𝐨𝐰 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐣𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐝𝐨 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭, 𝐛𝐮𝐭 𝐨𝐤𝐚𝐲." He sighed. "𝐅𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐨𝐰 𝐦𝐞."
They walked down the path once more, for who knows how long.
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
I swear these fonts are going to be the death of me.
Anyways, relatively short chapter this time, but at least there's Lucid and Nightmare. For my AU, they are in a way a part of Dream, but also their own beings at the same time. It's a little confusing but bear with me- it'll get better.
Returning with Techno and Delusion next time! But that will be in 2023 👀
New book coming out either tomorrow or late today, so if you want more angst, check it out!
Happy New Year everyone! Hopefully next year will treat humanity a little better :)
(To be continued)
YOU ARE READING
Finally, Free
FanfictionOn the dark obsidian floor lied a man. He's quite famous, actually, known as the biggest, baddest villain on the entire SMP. So bad were his crimes that he is now contained in a small, black room that doesn't even fit to be called a prison. He hasn'...
