Inkwhumptobertale 2024

Day Twenty-Three

I called - Forced Choice, Public Display, Broken Pedestal, "I'm doing this for you." 

The Inktobertale prompts for today and tomorrow are supposed to be related..ehhhhh, the Whumptober prompts don't really mesh, though, unless there's reluctant nuclear warfare involved..

"Reluctant nuclear warfare." Ah, yes, my favorite. 

Nah man I'm sold gimme that two-parter.

Trigger warnings: reluctant nuclear warfare, mean creators (I actually love the creators lore it's so cool), and suicidal thoughts.

Also, as a side note, the couple shorts that I have about Nightmare being an absolute jerk to the gang and kidnapping Dream (found on days thirteen and twenty-two) will be made into a full story! Yay! Thank you so much for the suggestion, Error119! (I will remove your name from here if you want me to, but I really wanted to thank you ^v^) So, keep an eye out for that sometime in November, and I may add another installment before this month is out! I do not have a title yet, but I've got time to think of an absolutely apropos alliteration, so fear not!

Comments are welcome and appreciated! 

Please enjoy!

~~~~~

Dream's hands were shaking.

Three days ago, a new corruption-based disease had popped up in an obscure universe, only detected because of corruption scanners. Thanks to the early detection, the multiverse had caught it before it could spread far, but it was highly contagious, and corruption-based illnesses were both uncurable and terminal. All those people who had been affected..they would have to die to protect the rest of the multiverse. Dream hated these sorts of meetings; discussing the deaths of innocent people just felt so wrong! But it had to be done, because the rest of the universe was salvageable; only a few thousand people out of the billions living there had been affected, rendering most of the usual ways to handle these situations (bribing Error to destroy the universe for the greater good, mostly) invalid. But no one could go in and do the deed..personally, either - it was too contagious, and anyone who tried would have been overcome by the disease before they could complete their goal. That left few options..

And one of them was the council's main talking point today.

"You want to launch a nuclear warhead?" One of the judges was dumbfounded. "That..that would cause irreparable damage!"

"But it would cleanse the landscape." Core Frisk pointed out. "The plant and animal life there has been affected by the corruption, too, and if it is allowed to spread.."

"We understand the severity of the corruption, but..using a nuclear bomb?" Dream shook his skull. 

"It would be painless." Ink pointed out. "A perimeter has already been enforced, but those animals are a danger; if any long-range travelers leave without our noticing, the harm could be horrible. A nuke would ensure that nothing escapes, and they won't feel a thing."

"..This is a horrible world that we live in." Dream buried his face in his hands. "Are..are we sure there are no other options?" 

"No cures, and no way to clear land. " Core Frisk repeated what they all knew. "I don't think there's any choice in the matter. It's horrible, but..Ink's right - they won't feel it."

"Thousands of people are going to die, and everything in that entire area will die.."

"They'd die anyway; we can at least end their suffering early." 

"..I wish we had more time to consider this." Dream bowed his skull. "But we don't, so..I guess there is really no choice. Ink?"

"One moment!" Ink put a finger up before creating a portal to the universe in question.