CRIMINAL AMNESIAC

CHAPTER 3: EVIL COSTUME SWITCH

(I'm posting this one early [at around 7PM in the same day I posted the last one on] just because :P)

(aka: the disappointing chapter [oh who am I kidding they all are-)

(including a reference that I'm assuming no one will get-)

(the next day...)

Nightmare wasn't exactly sure how to properly "welcome" Dream into the group. He supposed the first way to start would be... the outfit. Dream's usual taste in clothing involved pleasant, cheerful, often bright colors... which Nightmare despised. Such a color palette was out of place among the rest of them anyway. On top of that, Dream's clothes had been torn in the previous battle (which Nightmare had explained as Dream having been hurt by the Bad Guys' arch enemies, the Star Sanses... Dream's friends [though it wasn't as if Dream remembered that). He needed a wardrobe change.

So, Nightmare had ordered the others to... just find whatever they could and put together something for Dream to wear.

Thus, we now have the other Bad Guys on a shopping spree.

Overworked mall employees of random universes often didn't care who the customers were, as long as they got paid.

So, the group could just waltz around the places and shop, and the bystanders could do nothing about it (and some just didn't care anyway).

While they'd usually just shoplift everything, Killer had, about a week ago, pushed his luck and gotten caught in the very mall they were in (somewhere on the surface in Undertale. Nowhere near Mount Ebott. However, they did not care for the location anyway, so it didn't matter). So, this time, they had to pay using money.

Fortunately for them, they had already stolen more than enough of that over the years.

"Well, where should we start looking?" Killer asked. "There's a lot of shops here."

"Screw picking a specific store! Clothes are clothes! To the clearance sales!" Cross shouted, charging ahead of the others. The others continued to walk at a leisurely pace regardless.

Once they entered a store, the many random citizens already there reacted by trying to avoid eye contact, hide, or otherwise showing their fear and nervousness. The group had a reputation for evil, after all.

Outside of the clearly dead-inside workers, of course.

Since the group wasn't aiming to cause any trouble, everyone else could breathe a sigh of relief and get back to shopping... still with a lingering feeling of a nervousness.

Thankfully for them, the group was just looking for cheap clothing that no one wanted.

~~~~~

5̶ m̶i̶n̶u̶t̶e̶s̶ l̶a̶t̶e̶r̶ Meanwhile, back at the castle, Dream had decided to look around the place. After all, according to his brother, he lived there too. He had every right to explore, right?

The place seemed very... dark. Not just the lighting, but also the colors. Black and gray were clearly dominant around the place. It was certainly... dusty there (hopefully] not monster dust, that is, just normal house dust that accumulated in places that weren't cleaned often [if at all).

On top of that, the place... gave off weird vibes to him. Some kind of... negative energy. In all honesty, he felt that same energy coming from his brother too.

However, it was probably just all in his head, right?

...

The place didn't seem to be very well taken care of.

None of the beds were made, there were dust and cobwebs everywhere, there was a mysterious stain on the couch...

Did he really live somewhere like this? Did the amnesia somehow change his personality? Would he just have to get used to it (again)?

Eventually, he found himself having wandered around the entire place. Finally, he had reached the front door.

He decided he'd go outside for just a little while. He could use some fresh air.

However, as soon as he put his hand on the doorknob, he was interrupted.

"What are you doing?"

Swiftly, he turned around.

It was none other than Nightmare... whom he hadn't seen while walking around. Dream found this unsettling. Was he following him or something?

"Oh, uh, hey, Nightmare! I-I just wanted to get some fresh air."

"Your head still hasn't healed yet, and you still haven't recovered all of your memories. Until then, I'm not letting you leave."

"B-But-"

"Look, trust me. It's safer this way."

After a moment of silence, Dream sighed.

"Ok. I'm sorry."

~~~~~

The group had finally gotten back.

Now, Dream was trying on his new outfit.

It was pretty plain, consisting of just a gray t-shirt, slate blue pants and gloves, and light gray boots. The most interesting part was the last piece: a short slate blue cape, with a shoddily made "button" (pretty much: it was some kind of black button with a sticker of a skull face put on it), that was burnt and torn at the end (apparently Killer thought that setting it on fire would make it cooler... it didn't work out).

The only part of his original outfit that he kept on was his yellow circlet.

He wasn't exactly sure what to think. He both liked it and preferred his original outfit at the same time (for some reason, parting with his old yellow cape was particularly hard). However, he supposed he shouldn't complain. He stuffed his old, ripped clothes in the closet.