niki✶

If there's one thing Ink knows how to do like a normal person it's being supportive of the arts ♡

I think that Dream's power makes it hard for him to "do" emotions like anyone else. Focus on "your" emotions doesn't really mean anything if your emotions are also everyone else's emotions. What are "you" feeling when surrounded by 100 people feeling completely differing emotions doesn't particularly have any significance. It doesn't matter what you're feeling, there's 100 people you also have the emotions of. That's why Dream focusing on other people's emotions instead of his own kind of is the best option for him. It's way easier to get everyone around you to be happy, for you to also be happy. It's also why he leaves to be completely alone when he's upset and wants to concentrate on those feelings (like we see in the Color comic). He doesn't WANT other people around him when he's upset because he CAN'T process those emotions if someone else's is getting in the way!!

Not mentioned much here, but Ink and his Doodlesphere are very helpful for Dream in this capacity. Because it's just Ink, and he can control his emotions, he can effectively just control what Dream is feeling too, and Dream can also influence Ink's emotions through his aura (in my universe where I allow their powers to affect each other)

The Doodlesphere is also in the centre of it all so all the emotions become a much more pleasant background noise. It's very peaceful for Dream there, though nothing truly lets him escape feeling the broad stokes of universe's emotions. He would still be able to tell if something terrible was happening somewhere.