#dragon!killer

• Since the Bad Sans Poly is going on, does Cross show some more affection than others? The Bad Poly is pretty rocky in the beginning of the au, mostly due to two of them being void corrupted and all of them packing quite a lot of trauma, but I would say both Cross and Horror are the ones who show the most affection out of the bunch! Cross’ affections come more in acts of service at first, like just making sure all his flightmates have what they need and want without really making it obvious. He will also take hits and protect them in battles, which the others strongly dislike (they would prefer him not getting hurt on their behalf, thank you very much!). But later he’s also really physically affectionate, loves to flop on top of the others and get some good cuddles! He also ask around to find out how dragons court and such to make sure he’s showing his love an affection in a way the others can understand, since him being raised around humans and human culture often make misunderstandings happen, poor bean. 

• Does Cross have equivalents to XGaster, Chara and Frisk (and the others)? He does! The dragon au is also a multiverse and what I have planned so far is that all the monster characters will be dragons, while the humans will stay human. xGaster wanted a universe where humans and dragons could coexist (in the saurian universes humans and dragons are often at war with each other, and dragons actually created humans!) and thanks to a magic items he he would make several tweaks to the au, and of course restarted it several times. 

Some of the tweaks involved dragons to have a more human-like nature, which is why the classes in Cross’s au were gender orientated (guardians and scouts being male, while nurses and scholars were female). This is why I’ll sometimes describe Cross struggling with dragon culture, and might sometimes suffer with gender dysphoria (being a fluffy guardian/male which makes people assume he’s a nurse/female). Cross being fluffy is also directly caused by the several rewrites of the au, as Cross was “programed” to be a Nurse in some past iterations. His current form is an accidental mix of his past Nurse and Guardian forms. 

Chara and Frisk also have a magic item to reset the au, and humans using magic items tend to be more powerful than dragons, causing the reset/rewrite tug-of-war between them and xGaster. This eventually ends up similarly to the end of XTale, with a lot of death and bloodshed, and with Cross ending up alone in a slowly dying au. Which is where Nightmare eventually finds him! Not sure how/if they others will be involved after that point, but they might!

• Can Nightmare shrink his body down from his size or is he always stuck on a giant scale? He can shrink himself, but he rarely does! Later in the au he is also freed from his void corruption, along with Killer, at which point he returns to the size he was before the corruption, which is a similar size to Dust and Dream. Due to being corrupted for so long he can still gather enough void magic to gain back his larger form, but it takes a lot of energy and he can’t maintain it for very long.

• Does Cross use the X on his tail as a weapon? Yes! The X is four spikes on his tail that he can relax to hide under his fur, and flare up to use as a weapon in a fight.

• And I'd just love to know more about Void corrupt Killer, I'm super curious about him! Right, so Void corrupt Killer is a special lil bean, and Void itself is a pretty special element! The other elemental gods only have to lay a claim on a dragon for their magic to take hold, but to become a Void elemental the dragon has to accept the claim from the god. Dragons know not to do this, there’s many tales of the Stalker of Void being evil and only using their children for their own chaotic gain, but this is why the Stalker approaches dragons who are desperate enough to accept its magic.

Killer was originally an Ice Scholar (like any Sans who branches off from Classic) but had a magic item forced onto him by his Frisk/Chara, and as mentioned before, magic items used by humans tend to become more powerful. The items forced on him is the Carnage crystal in his chest, making him go berserk with Carnage magic and kill every member of his flight, as well as the human. Once he gained a little bit of clarity he was lost in devastation and despair, and the depression caused him to lose his claim of the Ice god. Dragons will suffer if they have no claim, as it’s the claim that fills their bodies with magic, and the Carnage crystal only changes magic that’s already there. So devastated and in pain Killer accepted the Stalker’s claim when they found him, hoping it would end his sufferings. 

Generally speaking, void corrupt dragons are like zombies in a way. They rarely have a mind of their own and they’re more or less puppets for the Stalker of Void to order around. Left to their own devices they start attacking and consuming everything around them that contains magic, usually other dragons or magic creatures.

Void corrupt Killer was given to Nightmare, who’s also void corrupt but still has a mind of his own thanks to being a demi-god and a child of the Wielder of Mind. Nightmare was allowed to use Killer as he pleased but Killer being an empty puppet not being able to think or act for himself frustrated him. So, thanks to his mind magic, Nightmare allowed Killer some basic emotions to be able to function without his command. 

Killer at the beginning of the au is a bit all over the place. At times appearing very blank and empty with no care for his well being, or sometimes only expressing base emotions or aggression. At times, when Nightmare let him go, he would be more like “himself”, but should he show too much of his own personality or feelings, Nightmare would often throw him into the void for a while to “reset” him. 

This eventually stopped when Nightmare started to grow more attached to his boys, which in turn frustrated the Stalker. To retaliate against Nightmare’s “rebellion” they removed their claim from Killer, once again leaving him claimless and without magic. Nightmare was able to keep him alive by transferring his own magic, but he’s just a demi-god and can not substitute a claim. Once Nightmare and Dream manage to get rid of Nightmare’s own void corruption, after a long battle with the Stalker, he managed to convince his mother the Rogue of Veil to claim Killer, which made him a Shadow elemental.

Killer stayed a bit blank right after that, but with the help of his friends he eventually started coming out of his shell and grew into the much more confident Shadow Scout he is now!

At some point a bond forms between them but they don’t really acknowledge it at the time, but they do grow a kind of symbiotic partnership. Dust has an abundance of magic in his body, often growing too strong for him to physically handle, freezing his body and leaving him immobile. Horror has the opposite condition and due to starvation is suffering from what’s called “dull eyes” which is when a dragon lacks magic and their eyes almost return to their baby greys. There isn’t enough food for him to be able to use his magic and it’s really only the magic of the domain keeping him alive. To solve both their issues Horror starts drinking Dust’s blood, giving him a much needed magic boost while Dust’s magic stays at a reasonable level.

Eventually Nightmare finds them, looking for more dragons to join him. He had only been after Horror, but was delighted to find Dust as well. He gives them a deal, he will save them from Horror’s dying au if they will work for him and if they can defeat Killer. Horror and Dust were very weak and malnourished at this point and Killer, being void corrupted and not feeling any pain or fear, definitely had the advantage. Only after making use of their bond and working together do they manage to pin down their void corrupt alter, at which point Nightmare allows them to join his “flight”. 

Horror was very protective of his food a good while after, and for the longest time he only really trusted Dust around him when eating.

Did horror, killer and dust become friends fast and how did they bond?

Very slowly actually. Of course Dust and Horror bonded in Horror’s au, and they were the two that could be called friends first, but they were still very distant with each other for a long time. Like they relied on each other, they had each other’s backs, but they weren’t super close. Horror did start caring for Killer’s physical health early on, as being void corrupted made it so he didn’t really register his physical needs. Horror would just keep an eye on him to make sure he wasn’t too cold or overheated, etc.

Horror and Dust do become closer at some point after Cross joins, and eventually become talonmates. They don’t really become close friends with Killer until after the void corruption is broken, but when it does Dust is actually the first to bond with Killer, Horror and Cross soon thereafter.

Who is the sweetest of the gang?

Tie between Cross and Horror! They’re both really soft sweethearts inside :D 

Have the gang met lust and if they did/didn’t how would or did they act?

Yes, Lust is technically part of the Star flight so they have met him in battle at the very least. He’s kind of a dangerous enemy since he’s an arcane elemental, same as Epic, and arcane magic works in two ways. One being “power” which is what Epic uses, very strong magic energy blasts and constructs. The other is “precision” which is what Lust uses, it works on a much smaller level but can be used to block or redirect magic flow within elemental creatures, which either disable magic use or really fuck someone up.

First fight with Lust the gang didn’t really take him seriously, he’s a nurse on a battlefield (and sure Dream is a nurse too but also a demi-god), they underestimated him and lost the battle because of it. They were a lot more cautious in the future after that and they all quickly grew a kind of respect for him.