So, a while back, I made this post. It was a concept for a potential Dreamtale Au or rewrite that I had drummed up. Now, almost two months later, I've got a more fleshed out version that I'd like to share with the world.
(Before I start, massive thanks to @mimorobo for help with this! You're great, and you've been a massive help!
Oh, and tiny note of clarification since some people seemed confused: These are not sanses. Dawn is an Asgore, Dusk is a Toriel, Day is an Asriel, and Night is a chara. Alright, thats all, bye! :D)
Long ago, living in the Dreamscape, there were two guardians. Dawn, and Dusk. Guardians of emotions, one positive, the other negative.
The guardians were beloved, among those who knew them. They were powerful, they were wise, they kept the balance between positive and negative, and peace was kept thanks to their efforts.
But for them, all was not well. Deep within them, a selfish desire began to stir. For centuries, they had witnessed time and again, alternate versions of themselves have what they themselves could not. A family.
They ignored it for a long, long time. They told themselves they were happy, that what they were doing was far too important. But eventually, it grew too much. And they gave in.
So channeling their powers, and creating a tie between them and their offspring, they created two new guardians, Day and Night.
For a time, all was well. The family was happy, and they thrived together. Dawn and Dusk taught the children about the world, about their powers, their responsibilities, and all the things they would need to know in life.
But, one day, their actions began to catch up to them. You see, Dawn and Dusk were incapable of creating entirely new beings. Their power was that of a god, and it would not so easily allow itself to be replicated. To circumvent this issue, Dawn and Dusk had funneled their own power into the children, thus creating no more, but rather instead moving it from one location to another.
They knew that one day, this meant that finally, their immortal lives would come to an end. They knew that when they created their children, and they accepted the consequences of that.
What they did not anticipate was its speed. Dawn and Dusk, in all their wisdom and understanding of their own powers had underestimated how quickly the process would occur. The unprecedented ritual could not have been entirely understood by them before they set out to do it.
And so, what they had anticipated to be decades upon decades of life for them to spend with their children, and more than enough time to teach and prepare them so that when they passed, the multiverse would be in good hands, shriveled to a mere 12 years.
So, at the age of 12, the children, not even teenagers, sat at their parents death bed, as the last of their strength flowed from them into their children.
So Day and Night were left as the guardians of all emotions, two grieving, unprepared children. And the problems began to amount quickly.
Almost immediately, the surreal world of the Dreamscape began to grow more restless and chaotic with their passing.
In their time, the Dreamscape had been calm, tame, never predictable, but almost always safe. The combination of their incredible control of their power, preventing too much of it from flowing into that world, and their balancing forces of positivity and negativity ensured it.
But when they passed, the power began to leak out of the children. They could not control it nearly as well as their parents had learned to over the centuries. Even if they had, their grief would have overwhelmed them. The sorrow of a god would not be so easily contained.
And so the Dreamscape grew more and more hostile, and the people within grew nervous.
Meanwhile, both the twins suffered.
Day was worked day in and day out, rushing to repair damage caused by and calm parts of the Dreamscape that threatened to harm those who were near, helping those in need, and often, being exploited for those powers which so few truly understood, much less their purpose. The boy felt he was being ground near to dust, never a moments rest for their beloved guardian.
Meanwhile, Night was despised. Many had already disliked them before the passing of their parents. They found them unnerving, strange, and considered them someone to be avoided. But when Dawn and Dusk died, that disdain turned to hate.
Their power flowed out of them uncontrollably, amplified by their grief where Day's were weakened by it, warping the Dreamscape into the more dangerous land it was becoming, and sometimes even hurting those to whom they had no ill will.
And the people despised them.
They blamed them for their problems, for how strange and unfamiliar the land was becoming. They shunned them, and Night was left with few sympathizers and fewer friends.
It all came to a head, when both children, tired, frightened, grieving, and angry, fought as they never had before, creating a rift between them that had never been there before.
And so, that night, both sat. And they thought.
They were so, so tired. They had lost everything, and yet they were expected to still keep going. They just wanted it to be over. They wanted somebody to give these people what they wanted. They didn't want this power, this horrible power that they couldn't control, that hurt people they cared about, that drove them to be worked like a dog, that put burdens on them they couldn't have possibly been prepared for, that power that had killed their parents.
And so, each of them reached deep inside of themselves. And each thought that they would finally, finally be what everyone expected them to be.
Reaching in, grabbing hold of that divine part of themselves, the twins grabbed... and pulled. Each of them ripped from their own souls their divine nature, their power as gods, slowly, painfully. But they endured.
They pushed through, until finally, they were rid of it. And from this rejected power sprung two new beings.
Each imbued with the divine purpose of their respective power, and the intent of their creator, yet without the grounding influence of a mortal aspect.
Daydream and Nightmare each awoke with a purpose.
Daydream awoke, with an absolute certainty of what he needed to do. He had to spread positivity, he had to end people's suffering, he had to make the world as happy as he possibly could. And so, fashioning wings out of his power to carry the frail and weak body the divine aspect had meagerly cobbled together, a body which only survived because of the incredible amounts of power flowing from him at all times as a gift of the intent of his creation, he flew off to fulfill this goal.
Nightmare awoke. And then died.
Nightmare awoke to a body that was being burned and choked alive. Nightmare was being killed by their own power, a power far, far too massive to be held by the pathetic body that had been fashioned for them when they'd been separated from Night. And so it spewed out of them, destroying them. But the power would not allow itself to die so easily. It was immortal. It was a god.
And so, out of the power, the sludge that had destroyed their original form, they were granted a new form. One made entirely out of their divine power, with no mortal form to contain it.
And all the pain, all the horrible, horrible pain that they endured within their first moments of living, suddenly came with a solution. Their purpose. To be the monster that everyone had expected Night to be. To be what they wanted Night to be, the false belief that they hated them for. And Nightmare, in their newly awoken mind, as though just exiting the deep reaches of sleep and in their misery and pain, sprung upon the opportunity.
Both were created with a different intent, but both held one common, mirrored trait. Both were motivated by the divine power they were made of to
Without the grounding mortal part that Dawn and Dusk had, and that Day and Night still retained, they were left without anything to check this urge, to reign in this purpose and turn it into something rational. No, both of these corrupted guardians were determined to do what they knew they were made to do, no matter what, and no matter the cost.
Day and Night awoke to a burned and ruined home. A Dreamscape that was ruined and distorted in ways they had never seen. And the horrible knowledge that what had just happened was their fault.
And they'd given up the power to stop it.
Alright, wow! That was a lot. Still! I hope you liked it, and, if you want to learn more about this, there will be more on the way! For now, here are some Extras that should be fun. They'll be expanded on as we go!
