Healing the Cracks (Nightmare x Trepidation [OC])

Welcome, Chaos Crew

They visited him in his dreams again. They always visited his dreams. His wife, Jasmine, and his daughter, Bree. He knew they were fake, figments of his imagination, but to see them every night when he slept was always nice. A mercy, in a small way. Unless they were nightmares, but thanks to Dream, they usually weren't. A constant beep interrupted his time with them, slowly making them fade from his arms as he started to wake. "No- no! Don't leave me again!" Trep begged his wife and infant child. This is why he didn't have an alarm clock in his room. He hated when he was torn from them. But wait, if there was an alarm going off... where was he?

Trep blinked his eye awake as the alarm was shut off by Dream. What was he doing in Dream's room? He was usually good about going to his own room? "Trep? What are you doing in here? I thought you had left so Nightmare and I could talk?" Dream asked in confusion. All at once, it came to Trep. Nightmare's rude words to him and how Dream just... let it happen. Trep looked away, feeling the betrayal all over again. "I don't know. I'll leave." Trep started to get up and walk away. Dream quickly caught his arm though. "Wait!" Trep looked back. Dream flinched a little at the look Trep was giving him. "I'm sorry about Nightmare. He's... not the best with his words. He meant well though..." Trep eased up a little, but tugged away. "It wasn't just Nightmare. You didn't even try to stand up for me." He sighed. "But, I'll give you the benefit of the doubt, this time." Dream smiled in relief. "I'll be better next time! We are friends and I do value you!" Trep gave a soft nod and headed out to prepare himself for the others.

It wasn't uncommon for Trep to tap or whistle or hum. This was because he had sedatephobia. A fear of silence. Most of the time it was tapping, it helped him to keep the time. Considering the time now, he had roughly 900 taps until Nightmare came back. 900 seconds until he was stuck with that monster and his group. 15 minutes. He almost felt that he was trading one hell for another now, not that he would go back. He would rather deal with Nightmare than deal with Frisk and get the daily reminder of what happened to his loved ones.

"Hello Trep, I need to ask you something." Wine was straightforward with his wants and needs. Trep could respect that. "Hey, Wine. What's up?" Trep asked with a tilt of his skull. "I need your honest opinion on this merge. I know we all decided to give this a shot, but surely you don't like it? Even if he's Dream's twin?" Trep frowned. Everyone in the Star Alliance knew how close he was to Dream. He was almost always on Dream's side for everything. "Honestly? I don't like this at all. I got the 'pleasure' of meeting the guy and he was an ass." Wine looked pleasantly surprised for a moment. Then he narrowed his sockets. "But?" Trep shifted his position. Wine knew him well. "But first impressions aren't everything. As much as this sucks, we are kinda stuck with it now. We should go. Five minutes until they get here." Trep wanted to know how much worse it was going to get.

Dream was hoping everyone would be there to welcome Nightmare. Unfortunately, only a few arrived. Sans was one. Geno and Flowerfell were a couple others. Same with the Echotale crew, Aroace, and Sci. Trep made it too. Dream doubted they came here to actually welcome Nightmare and his gang, some, like Sci, were just curious. Some, like G, were made to. Some, like Echo, believed in second chances. And Some, like Trep, came to support Dream and he was grateful for it. Especially with how he acted with Trepidation earlier. Blue and Ink would've been here as well, waiting for the gang to appear, but they were currently trying to gather the rest of the alliance, so that they could all meet properly and hopefully hit it off. Dream felt a shift and a dark purple and cyan portal started to open. It was time for the moment of truth.

The first to step through was the alleged emotionless skeleton, Killer. His unnerving smile curled up more at the corner of his mouth, the liquid hate from his sockets seeming to thicken. "My, my, my, look at these poor, miserable SOULs...I wonder how much EXP I could get from a worthless lot like you." He chuckled, pulling a knife out of his pocket and beginning to twirl it. He walked forward, suddenly jabbing a knife into the wall next to Trep. He leaned close in, far closer than he had any business being. "You look kinda like our big fella, don't you? Wonder if you were starving and eating humans just like him- heh, only time will tell, huh, crackhead?" Trepidation instantly hated this guy. "Killer, could you not antagonize Trep?" Next through the portal was a hunched over skeleton, their face completely obscured by their hood. "Huh...I was expecting more people. Shame." The hooded skeleton muttered, just loud enough to be heard. Killer ignored the words of the golden guardian and whirled around to the hooded skeleton with that unmoving grin. "Dust! Look, didja see! I found Horror's fucked up twin~ He's even uglier." His tone pitched down at the end, his smile falling into a disgusted frown as he pulled his knife from the wall and walked over to Dust. Just like that, the smile returned, and the third member left the portal. Trep's guard, which was already up, was now up to the max; someone far too similar to himself left that portal. The large skeleton had his phalanges hooked into his empty socket, and the two seemed to catch each other's eye for a second. Whereas Trep felt a sort of understanding, at least some semblance of 'I see your pain', the other snarled and glared back, more pissed off than comforted by someone with a similar head wound.