#Watching and dreamswap Daze

[p1nk-dem0n]

Can I play pattycake with Daze?

You can sure try!

But it most likely will not end well-

[p1nk-dem0n]

AH-

Crying rn /pos

Quasar is protecting the child-

I’m dying of cuteness- but it’s also sadddd and- RAAAHHH /vpos

Niko, mayhaps I gift Quasar a chibi version of my fella?

(It is kinda like a stray cat with new people- as long as Quasar gives it food and a bit to adjust they won’t cause too much havoc)

[sleepyfan-blog]

As an ending to the slave trilogy, can Ink somehow revert the brainwashing and get all three out and then Dream puts a bounty on his head to cover the last square? Please with a cherry on top?

I hope that you enjoy the ending :D

prompt : Bounty On Their Head

Final ficlet in this series. Previous here.

Fandom: Dreamswap by @onebizarrekai

Characters and pairing: DS Ink, DS Error, DS Cross, DS Nightmare, DS Dream, DS Blue, Meme Squad Poly, DS Errink

Warnings: death threat, cursing, past brainwashing, implied unhealthy relationships

Word count: 2,433

Summary: Ink schemes and plans and manages to pull of saving the meme squad

It took months for Ink to figure out what in the fresh hell Dream had done to his boyfriend and the other’s two only friends. It seemed to be a mix of standard brainwashing techniques along with using the other’s powerful emotive aura in order to influence the other three… There was also the fact that the bastard had somehow figured out how to change Nightmare from a negative spirit into a positive one…

On one hand, Ink could stand being around the other more as the other’s presence didn’t cause him to feel shitty feelings (he was careful not to drink any of his vials that contained negative emotions - he didn’t want Dream to realize what his true thoughts and genuine feelings about this whole damned situation was - he knew that the other could influence him super fucking easily due to his soullessness)… On the other hand, Dream had completely reworked another being’s entire magical makeup because that’s what he decided was best for them.

Ink had also noticed that the brainwashing had to be reinforced regularly - which was one of the main reasons why Dream had politely insisted that Blue and Cross stay in Justice Reigns - along with the fact that he could see the manipulative feathered ass starting in on Blue - albeit in a much more subtle manner, so as not to cause the mercurial outcode to grab his prize and flee to some unknown corner of the multiverse. Whether or not it was due to the unusual nature of their beings - Error was an outcode, Cross had half a Determined Human’s soul and Nightmare, in addition to being quite powerful, was also an emotive guardian and somewhat resistant to Dream’s powers. Moreso than the rest of the multiverse, at least.

It took him an additional four months of carefully planned interruptions in those brainwashing sessions - a small emergency here, a call from a crucial backer there, the discovery of a dangerous and sneaky cult or a gang that had manage to steal a couple of JR’s dimensionally capable cars and wreaking havoc - but they were starting to come back to themselves. It also took that long for him to get the other two to agree to allow him to watch the three of them play video games in his rooms within Justice Reigns while Blue was off being sketchy and Dream was chasing down the last of the gang of surprisingly well-armed criminals. One of the three of them needed to stay here - they couldn’t let the public think that the head of JR was worried about those assholes, now could they?

Interestingly enough, Cross was the first to actually wake up, his eye lights brightening suddenly into focus, and a long string of colorful curses before the other tackled him to the floor, hissing “Ink, if you don’t get this power suppressing collar off of me, I will figure out if I can strangle you to death with my bare fucking hands, do you understand?”

Ink couldn’t stop a relieved grin from appearing on his face as he started to fumble with the lock a little “Thank the fucking stars. Hopefully you can help me get the other two back to their senses as well.”

This took a lot of the aggression out of Cross, who let him go and stared in confused surprise “I… What? Wait - don’t tell me you were the one engineering all of that bullshit for the past year or so? I… Why would you do that. You’re loyal to Dream, aren’t you? I mean… You betrayed me for him.” this was said with no small amount of bitter suspicion. “What are you planning, you soulless fuck?”

“What I’ve been planning is to get the three of you un-brainwashed, you salty asshole. Error and I have been dating for three years. We’ve been keeping it on the down low, and I’ve been passing him information about where JR and the feathered shitbag is going to be going as best as I can. Surely you’ve noticed that the three of you have been running into a lot fewer of their patrols before you got fucking captured.”

“Wait, you’re Error’s boyfriend who works in JR who managed to rescue him before we did that one time? Hoooly shit. That… No that does make a lot of sense. Nightmare said that based off of the intel that you were able to give us, you had to be pretty close. I just wasn’t expecting the person to be Dream’s number one assassin… And thank you for not leaving us to rot.” Cross grumbled grudgingly, folding his arms over his chest before he realized what he was wearing “… Eugh.  Please tell me you’ve got a spare set of my actual outfit? I can’t believe that I ever agreed to wear this.”

Ink snorted. The light blue shirt and dark grey pants actually looked pretty good on Cross - they also complemented Blue’s colors - which was the point. “Of course. I recreated all three of yours’ usual outfits. I was going to recommend you change anyways, because I wouldn’t put it past Blue to have sewn some sort of tracker in your clothes - magical or otherwise. You don’t have one actually one you. None of you do. I already checked for that.”

“Thanks for that little bit of nightmare fuel. I’m also going to use the shower really quick… You know who and feather butt aren’t going to be back for a while, right? Or are you expecting one of them to come in at any moment?” Cross asked, unsure as to what was going to happen and deeply suspicious of this whole situation. But Ink did appear to be completely genuine, so far at least.

“Dream is chasing criminals across half of the multiverse, and Blue is trying to gather information about how they managed to steal four of JR’s interdimensional cars. Rumor is that they stole a shipment of the latest vehicles from one of the testing facilities while it was in transit.” Ink answered “They shouldn’t be back here for days, and one of us has to keep an eye on the three of you, so. Here I am. I was hoping that all three of you would shake out of it… Because otherwise-”

“Nightmare will go wandering back to Dream, tell him where we are and then we’re all so much more fucked than we were before.” Cross grumbled, rubbing his face with his hands “Right, I’m going to have a shower. Good luck trying to un-brainwash Nightmare.” For the briefest moment, a look of consideration and uncertainty flashes across the taller skeleton’s face, as if he’s thinking about doing or saying something. But all Cross does is sigh and silently walk into the bathroom, closing the door behind him.

Error who - bless his soul - has had flashes of lucidity for the better part of a month - suddenly stiffens up and sobs a little “N-No… N-Not again…” and curls in on himself.

Ink is instantly at the other’s side, with Nightmare frowning in dazed concern at his friend. “Hey… Shh… It’s going to be okay. I’m going to get the three of you to safety, alright? I’ve been trying to get you in your right mind for a while…”

“I… I… You’re right. Thank… Thank you, Ink. You’ve been kind and supportive and trying to get me and my friends back to their true selves… Also, thank you for trying to distract Blue away from Cross - he’s… Very good at manipulating others, and turning them into his loyal little puppets…” Error muttered, burying his face in his hands and trembling a little, before murmuring quietly “… You didn’t just take me and run. You… You’re… My friends, you’ve been trying to…”

“Well,yeah. You are about them. I may be a soulless asshole… But I’m your soulless asshole and I want you to be happy. They make you happy.” Ink explained, fidgeting a little and trying not to blush at the soft expression on his boyfriend’s face.  Honestly, it wasn’t that big a deal. If he was going to betray Dream and piss him off, he might as well go whole hog and save all three of them. Error would never forgive him if he left his two best friends to be twisted like this and try to save them… And Ink could admit to himself that he wouldn’t be able to forgive himself if he tried to be that selfish, either. Somehow he’d acquired a conscience and it wasn’t due to Dream.

Nightmare groaned quietly, pressing his hands to his face, his shoulders shaking a little. It Took INk a minute to figure out that the formerly negative spirit was crying a little. He edged towards the nearest exit, unsure as to what to do, and having never got along him as well. “Don’t you dare fucking try to leave. You… He had a stars damned illusionary spell placed on me to help fuck with my head. It just faded away. He’s been… I don’t know what all he’s done to me… But you better not fucking decide to fuck off back to Dream. I will find a way to kill you.”

“I wasn’t planning on it. If you don’t remember, Error was also kidnapped and he… That bastard hurt him almost as much as he hurt you. I was going to knock on the door to the bathroom because Cross is taking a shower. There are spare sets of your normal outfits in the bedroom over there for you to change into, to get rid of any trackers you might currently be wearing.” Ink answered bluntly, edging closer to the bathroom door. The water stopped running, which was a good thing.

“… I suppose I’ll believe you for now. I’m guessing you’re Error’s mysterious boyfriend?” Nightmare responded, his voice shaking still, but his eye sockets were devoid of tears as the other looked at him with faded golden eye sockets. “… So what now? Do you have a place for us to run to, or was this an impulsive thing?”

“I’ve been in negotiations with Core Frisk. They don’t trust me worth a damn, which. I mean is fair, but they’ll shelter you three and I’ll be able to stay if I work on the ‘non-destructive’ side of my powers with them. I have no idea what the hell they mean by that, but it’s the only place I can think of that Dream can’t reach. Hell, as far as I know, he has no idea it even exists. They only contacted me after I started working with each of you to try to wake up. How they knew that I really wanted to save you from their bullshit, I don’t know.” Ink responded with a shrug.

“Right, well I’m going to go get dressed - we should probably stock up on supplies before we head to the omega timeline - food and the like is kind of limited there.” Nightmare responded, his eye lights still dull and miserable, standing up and rubbing his face a little. “I never thought that Dream would go quite that far but… Hey, at least I’m not dead.”

“I’ve been stockpiling things at that house that you three have there for the better part of a year. I helped Core make a large section of farmable land before they even agreed to let me stay there more than to drop crap off for them and their little band of refugees. All I’ve been waiting on is the three of you waking up. I’ll get a portal ready.” Ink responded, summoning his brush as Error and Nightmare got up and changed their clothes. The soulless skeleton was aware that Error, Nightmare and Cross were also dating - whether he would be included in their cuddle sessions was up to the three of them. He was simply glad to have a piece of his beloved’s heart.

Cross wandered through the area wearing nothing but a towel and entering the bedroom for clothes, closing it behind them. Ink sat down on the couch, twirling his brush as he concentrated on opening a portal. He was one of the very few people allowed to open portals by the wards that protected this AU. Technically they could go via walking through a door and thinking about the coordinates to the Omega Timeline… But Ink doubted that any one of the three of them would be able to focus enough to do that. Not with the enormity of what had done to them was starting to hit home.

The three of them came out a couple of moments later, Error’s strings curled around a couple of both Nightmare and Cross’s fingers - one of his versions of holding hands, given his aversion to touch. Ink smiled a little at that, startling when he felt a couple of the other’s strings wrap around one of his wrist. Error caught his gaze and murmured softly “Thank you.”

“… You know I’d do anything for you, Error.” Ink murmured. It had taken him longer than he’d like to admit to get his head out of his ass and realize just what Dream really was… But he’d follow Error through hell and back again.

~

The four of them were sitting down on the slightly squashy but very comfortable couch in their home,  hours later after they sorted through the stuff that Ink had grabbed for them, taking a break to watch  Undernovella when a breaking news bulletin interrupted their show. It was Lord Fuckface himself “And I regret to inform you that my personal assistant Ink, for reasons unknown, has kidnapped my mate, Nightmare. Because of this I have placed a bounty on his capture of six million G. If you have seen or know where he might be, there is a confidential phone line you can call. If you have seen my mate, please call. I miss him dearly.”

“Miss me being your obedient toy, more like.” Nightmare muttered angrily from his seat, sandwiched between Cross and Error, scowling darkly. The scowl dropped from his face after a moment, and he whispered softly to himself, as if trying to convince himself “… I don’t miss him. I don’t.”

“… I still sometimes miss Blue. Even after all the stuff he did to me.” Error and Cross admit.

Cross clarified “I mean. Before all of the recent bullshit. And yet, still part of me still misses him greatly. But we’ll heal and grow stronger.”

Nightmare nodded shakily, and the four of them continued to watch the soap opera.