Inkwhumptobertale 2024

Day Sixteen

Forbidden - Necrosis, Swamp, Wound Cleaning, "No, I can't feel anything." 

Trigger warnings: child abuse, child neglect, violence, blood, injury, and Ink being an idiot.

Comments are welcome and appreciated! 

Please enjoy!

~~~~~

Ink was beginning to realize that parenthood wasn't the best thing for him. 

About a year ago, Ink had been exploring some older AUs that he hadn't taken the time to visit before, and he'd come across one named "Dreamtale," in which he had found a stone statue of a skeleton child. Except..it hadn't been a statue at all; there had been a real child in that statue, and Ink had somehow been there at the right time to watch the child hatch from the stone. There had been a lot of tears and panicking, and Ink had done the best thing possible at the time: pawn the child off on someone else, because he didn't know what to do with a crying child! Unfortunately, Fell hadn't taken well to the idea of parenthood, either, and he had shipped the child (now known as Dream) back to Ink, claiming that Dream was so nice and friendly that he would "die the second he stepped outside." So..Ink had taken on the task of raising Dream himself. It was more the fact that no one else wanted to than anything else, but it didn't change the facts. 

Dream was..a very interesting person! He tried to be kind at all times, even when faced with people who wanted to kill him, and Ink had often had to protect him from such people! He would have made Dream stay home, but..Ink didn't exactly have a home, either, aside from the Doodlesphere, and Dream would probably drown or something there if he was left alone..so Dream just stayed by Ink's side all the time! He was like Ink's partner in crime, except Ink wasn't committing crimes (except when he was)! 

Dream also cared a lot about the Guardian of Negativity, for some reason, which was another interesting thing! Ink could totally relate; he'd once been interested in the escapades of this weird Gaster once, and it had been super fun to watch that guy go about his villainous duties! Ink made sure to let Dream watch Nightmare from afar whenever the child pleased, but he didn't let Dream go too close - Nightmare was kinda dangerous, and no offense to Dream, but being nice to that guy? Nuh-uh. Dream would totally get hurt, and while Ink was okay with the whole fanboy thing, he wasn't going to let Dream get into any close-calls with the multiverse's.. 

Uh..

Nightmare was, like, the eighth-most-dangerous villain in the multiverse, right? Something like that. Ink would have to check later.

But, of course, Ink wasn't one to discourage people's desires, and that had led to his getting Dream a camera and a scrapbook! Dream had seemed to love the idea, and now he had a scrapbook half-full of pictures of him and Nightmare! They were mostly selfies taken from afar, but occasionally Ink would take a picture for Dream in order to get him a better shot. It was actually super fun, and Dream seemed happier every time he got a new picture to look at! He really idolized Nightmare, to the point that he actually called him his brother! Ink wouldn't have gone that far with fanboying, but Dream was young, and Ink didn't see the harm in it. Ink's multiversal..associates thought it was a horrible idea, but they had obviously never been interested in celebrities other than their in-universe robots - they simply didn't understand. Everything was going well, and Dream was a happy child! 

Well..until today, that was. 

Today was Dream's seventh birthday, and he'd decided (without telling Ink) that he was going to take his fanboying to the next step and try to speak with Nightmare - something Ink had never let him do before, and for good reason! While Ink had been preoccupied with a painting (he typically painted while Dream was taking his pictures), Dream had slipped out from behind the rubble that Ink had used to shelter him, and he had approached Nightmare. By the time Ink noticed Dream's disappearance, Dream had made it all the way to Nightmare, looking up at his idol (Ink had assumed Nightmare was Dream's idol, anyway) with starry eyelights and starting a conversation.