#dragon!ink

What claims does Error have?

Error is a bit of a mix bag of magic elements tbh, mostly cuz I want to include all his eye colours XD His main claim is Carnage, and he is a demi god of that element to aid the Maid of Bones. He has a light and water sub claims as well, most likely due to either carrying or having absorbed magic items. He also has a slight connection to the Void, but he’s also terrified of the Void realm and magic.

What do the bad Sanses think of Cross and Epic being together? Especially since they don't have kids together

They were VERY suspicious about Epic when they realised who he was and that Cross had picked him as a talonmate. Epic is technically Cross’ first mate, he just didn’t talk about Epic to the others because while he loves them it was also kind of nice to disconnect from the Nights and Stars from time to time. Cross is probably the most relaxed and dorky when with Epic because Epic gives the same energy back.

When the other’s did find out about their relationship they were all basically like over protective parents, following Epic around, doing background checks, questioning him once Cross actually invited him to the dens, etc. Epic was none too phased about it, but Cross was a bit embarrassed XD

Even while they were all cold towards him at first they all eventually warmed up to him. Nightmare was the last, but when Cross came to him to ask if he could help with Epic’s eye and nightmares he kind of developed a soft spot for him.

Epic actually ends up joining the Night flight eventually! The other’s are very relaxed and open minded so they never take issue with them becoming heartmates despite not wanting eggs together.

I’d love to hear more about Blue, i haven't asked much about him

Blue is a lightning guardian! He was very determined to join the royal flight and capture a human someday, but those ideas changed when he came across a few books about dragons and human riders. He’s been enamoured by the idea of having a human partner ever since, but he still keeps up the act of wanting to fight one instead.

His brother is a fire scout who was sure Blue would end up as a nurse due to his sweet and caring character, and was a little alarmed when Blue started growing scales and became a guardian. Little Blue is very determined to be a royal guard after all uvu

Is Ink romantically involved with anyone? Is he aroace like canon?

He is aroace! He’s technically talonmates with Dream and Blue, but it’s more a queer platonic relationship and doesn't follow the traditional definition of talons. He’s of course also thornmates with Error, and I’m playing with the idea of him being at least wingmates with Cross since I like the two of them having some kind of bond.

Does Geno exist? What is he like? Does he have a brotherly bond with Fresh and Error?

He does! He’s stuck in the Void but I haven’t thought too much of his side of the story yet. I think I’d like him to have some kind of connection to Fresh and Error, probably mostly Fresh at the start since I can see Error being terrified of the Void.

Do dragons follow the rule of males being more colorful to attract females?

• What is Ink's job? Does he have a paintbrush substitute? Do the star sanses (dragons?) get along with eachother? (Since in canon Dream and Ink don't like eachother)

Similar to canon, Ink's job is to protect the multiverse! Not really an official job given to him by a god like Error or Reaper, not from what he remembers at least, but a “natural calling” that he follows. 

This also made me realize I never explained how this multiverse works, but basically in this setting AUs are like clusters of orbs. They’re created by the gods to work as decoys to protect the True universe from being found by the Stalker of Void, who has a bad habit of wanting to destroy or alter creations made by the other gods. The further an AU is from the True one the more differences it will have from the original, and Alternate Timelines are the ones who cluster closest around the True one. 

The gods don’t always finish their decoy universes, so there’s a lot of small or unfinished orbs in the multiverses. Ink is able to help those AUs grow and catch the attention of the gods again. These AUs are also the most likely to be attacked by Error, who is tasked by the Maid of Bones to destroy decaying, incomplete, and “defective” AUs. The cycle of creation and destruction is an important balance.

As for the other questions, Ink does have an ink like magic in the tip of his tail that looks like a brush head. This magic is able to create things, and definitely breaks some rules of magic and physical laws in the universe, which is very similar to how void magic works and looks 👀  

And the Stars do get along, and have a flight of their own together with some other friendly faces, like Red and Outer! Ink and Dream do have a similar disagreement to canon at one point, where Ink is set in protecting the natural state of AUs even if they’re negative and their inhabitants are suffering. Dream does not agree with this at all at first, but around the time when he and Nightmare call their truce he’s beginning to understand the balance of the multiverse and the necessity of those aus. He doesn't like it, and doesn't feel any better about it, but he understands it and Ink’s job, making them able to keep being friends and flightmates.

• Does Nightmare ever open up about his past? And does he have favorites in the gang? (Say, how he normally favors Cross in fanon works because Cross is super obedient)

Nightmare does open up eventually, but not fully. The others know bits and pieces, but Dream is the only one who has a full picture. Which btw isn’t the same as canon, much less “lets bully the lil kid until he breaks” and more “lets guilt this scaleless lil scholar into going to war with us by convincing him it will keep his brother safe, and then manipulate and traumatize him to the point where he starts to grow scales and shifts sub-class to a guardian!”

I wouldn’t really say Nightmare has a favorite, since the Night flight is poly he loves all his boys equality and in different ways. I am currently working on a post explaining flight dynamics and bonds, but basically dragons are naturally polyamorous and can have three types of mates! They tend to have a lot of platonic mates (wingmates, think close familial bonds), a few intimate mates (talonmates, don’t actually have to be romantic but basically dating or QPRs), and then a couple of mates they have eggs and raise kids with (heartmates, pretty much marriage). 

Cross, Dust, and Horror are talonmates to Nightmare, while Killer and Error are his heartmates, but he shares a strong bond with all of them and he favors them all individually in specific areas.

As for Cross specifically, Nightmare really values his strategies and battle knowledge. Nightmare is very knowledgeable in this area himself, since he's been in war in the past, but he values Cross' input and always let him in on mission planning and such. In their down times they often enjoy games of chess together.

Let me know if there's any other specific ships you want to know more about, otherwise I will ramble on forever XD;

• That brings me to, does Cross favor anyone in the gang and/or in the star sanses? Is he closer to some than others? What about with Ink?

Nightmare, Killer, Horror, and Dust are Cross' talonmates and his heartmates are Dream and Epic! His and Epic’s relationship is a bit controversial since heartmates are traditionally meant to have kids together, and while the saurian dragons are also hermaphrodites Cross’ don’t personally want to carry eggs due to his gender dysphoria, and Epic don’t really want kids. They’re just two romantic dudebros! Now Cream on the other, will def have a ship kid in the future uwu

Ink and Cross were close before Cross joined Nightmare. Similar to Underverse, Ink did spend quite a bit of time with Cross in his dying au where they befriended each other, until Ink being Ink eventually started forgetting to visit. Cross was quite hostile toward Ink after that, feeling abandoned and betrayed, and would often focus his attacks on Ink when the Night and Star flights would clash. After the truce they did manage to patch up their past relationship and would eventually become wingmates.

I was able to dig out this old shipping grid, which I made for one of my saurian aus (when I used just the word “saurian” instead of “saurian dragons” I mean the AU setting in which saurians are humanoid dragon shapeshifters, this au!). Some of these have probably changed in the dragon au, but with a quick glance over, it mostly still corrects for what I have planned!

Tho as always, if you have other preferred ships you are more than welcome to ship those within this AU setting, or make your own version of the au! Go nuts!

• What does Dust use his cobra hood for? Is it like Cross' ability to puff his fur up to seem bigger and more threatening?

Exactly! The hood is pretty unique to Dust, as it was part of his mutation after getting his carnage subclaim, but it isn’t rare for scholar class dragons to have a threat display like that. Since they’re scaleless they’re pretty vulnerable to close up physical attacks so many develop some kind of intimidation tactic that can deter enemies or predators from wanting to attack them.

• Has Dream ever tried to uncorrupt Nightmare? (Like, earlier on, I know he gets to be uncorrupted but did Dream like try idk how to explain)

He did, but there's technically no way to break a void corruption in normal cases. Once you’ve been claimed by the Stalker there is no turning back, there’s no reason for it to unclaim you. The only reason Killer and Night both broke the corruption was because the Stalker never had full control over Nightmare. It definitely influenced his thoughts, but it couldn’t turn him into a puppet due to Nightmare being a Mind demi-god. The only reason why it unclaimed Killer was to use Killer as leverage against Nightmare when he started to turn against it. It then unclaimed him as well, when Nightmare and Dream entered the void realm to fight it, simply to remove the small advantage the claim would give Night in the realm.

So Dream would read up on ways to break the corruption early on, maybe tried one or two things, but quickly came to the conclusion that it wouldn’t work.

• Did Dream get frozen up into stone? I saw once you did share an image of different age sizes and Nightmare seemed the biggest so I assumed he's still old.

Yes! Going to talk about this in the future because Dream is not the only one affected by this condition, but the dragons have a kind of failsafe instinct in which they can use the magic in their body to encase themselves in crystals. This basically puts them in stasis for the indefinite future, there’s no guarantee of when or if they will wake up.

This can only happen if the dragon has a lot of magic stored up, so a dragon who’s been in battle and used a lot of their magic wouldn’t be able to attempt to save themselves like this. 

In Dream’s case it was actually Nightmare who made him trigger this, using his mind magic, as a way to protect him. Of course Night couldn’t have known Dream would stay in his crystal shell for 500+ years, and when Dream finally broke out, Nightmare wasn’t anywhere to be found, leading him to leave the au in search for answers.

• If I place my hand on Cross' fur does it just sink on forever?