Boxed In

Boxed In

With Dust

Masterlist

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“Y/N.”

You looked up from the couch to see Dust standing in the doorway. He ignored Killer egging Cross on again and gestured for you to follow. Excusing yourself, you hurried to catch up to his determined pace, mostly out of curiosity. Dust never asked you for anything let alone to follow him.

“What’s up, Dust?” You questioned as you fell in step next to him.

His pace didn’t slow for a second. “Training.” Was his blunt answer.

When he didn’t continue, you pressed on. “Foooor?”

“Any situation where you get stuck or caught.” His eyelight flicked at you for a second, leaving an unspoken ‘again.’ “Break away techniques, distractions, dodging, deflection. How to deal with a magic wielder without magic.”

You fell a pace behind and subconsciously tugged at your makeshift sling. “Oh.” You frowned.

“We won’t be going over all that today.” He gave a pointed look at your arm. “Today will mostly be dodging and deflection.”

“Okay.”

Dust didn’t continue until you reached the training hall. He led you to the weapons rack that you don’t remember being there when you first joined the gang. “Pick a weapon. You won’t end up using it today but you should get familiar with carrying something around.”

You observed the options. The rack contained axes, quarter staffs, swords, short swords, daggers, and a few other miscellaneous weapons like nunchucks and morning stars. A portion of the rack was just giant hammers and anime style swords that looked far too heavy to lift but your eyes went after the smaller weapons. You prided yourself on your speed and dexterity so you didn’t want anything big enough to slow you down or hinder your movement. Your eyes caught on a glint of metal as you approached the rack. It was a dagger no longer than your hand. The hilt and sheath had no decor and it was just the right colour to blend in with your outfit. After checking how easily it moved in and out of the sheath, you chose it.

When you turned around the show Dust your choice, you couldn’t see his eyelights.

“Dust?” You asked, concerned.

His lights came back and he walked into the fighting arena. “Strap it on and let’s get started.”

It took you a minute and some pointers from Dust before the sheath was properly secured at your hip and you hopped into the arena. It wasn’t like a boxing arena. More like if you took a chunk of terrain and dropped it in a building. There were rocks to climb on, hide behind, and trip over. The floor was mostly dirt and gravel that could kick up clouds of dust if moved too quickly. You knew from when you watched Cross and Killer spar before that there were hidden sprinklers that would clear out the dust clouds after a fight.

“Ready?” Dust said. You stood across from him and readied your stance before nodding. There was a charging sound as a blaster appeared beside him.

He was starting with the big guns first?!?!

You leapt behind the closest boulder just in time as it blasted the wall behind you. “WHY’D YOU HAVE TO START WITH THAT?!?!?!!?” You shouted, dodging a few bones that came after you.

“You said you were ready.” There was a smile in his voice.

The bones brought you into Dust’s line of sight again and you saw his eyelights blazing a piercing red with blue in his left. He summoned more bones that flew at you. You kept dodging. That was all you could do. That was all you were supposed to do. You were smacked in the knee with a blunt bone. Your health fell a few points and the attacks stopped.

“Keep your knees bent.” Dust said, standing over you as you huffed. He stared with his hands in his pockets. “Look, listen, feel. Your opponent will almost always repeat the same action for an attack. Blasters make a sound before they’re even summoned. Bones shake the ground before appearing. Rest up and try again.”

Much to Dust’s disappointment, you flopped on the floor outside the arena. He quickly directed you to walk around and stretch to keep you from getting sore and handed you a monster candy to regain the health you’d lost.

By the time you caught your breath, Dust was beckoning you back into the arena. You sighed but followed him anyways. Each round you learned different cues to keep in mind. The ground did in fact rumble before bones would shoot out. There was a subtle crackling sound before a blaster would appear and as soon as it started charging, the blaster wouldn’t change direction even if you moved. Dust, while he rarely moved or generally reacted, did give away when he was about to attack with an almost unnoticeable pulse of light from his eyes like a heartbeat. You learned how to react and dodge quickly as you used the terrain to your advantage, darting in and out of sight. Despite this knowledge, you still couldn’t dodge him forever and each round ended if he so much as hit you once.

Four hp lost and the sixth round ended.

“Alright, that’s all for dodging.”

You gave a tired yet enthusiastic; “Yes!”

“Time for deflection.”

“Ugh!” You groaned as you stumbled out of the arena.

Dust chuckled at you. “You can use your weapon next time. I’ll teach you how to use it to shield yourself first.”

You looked down at the dagger that was barely bigger than your hand. “Uhh…”

“Any weapon can be used. The smaller it is the faster you can react.” Dust assured you. After a quick break he showed you how to knock an attack away instead of blocking like you tried to do. He sent single, slow bones at you, gradually increasing the speed. “It’s not a shield, it’s a weapon. Attack the threats. Don’t block them.” When he was satisfied with your stance and aim, he entered the arena again.

As soon as you reached your normal starting position, Dust attacked. Multiple bones came flying at you and you knock away a few with a swing of your knife while dodging what you missed. “Again??” You complained at the surprise attack.

“Gotta learn to stay on your toes somehow, kiddo.” A subtle crackle.

You leapt away from the blaster and launched yourself over a rock as bones came out of the ground. More bones were deflected and dodged as you tried not to strain your burnt arm. It wouldn’t help if you hurt yourself again. You decided to try to mix things up this time now that you had a better chance with the knife. What if you tried to get close to Dust instead of just waiting for him to hit you? A smirk pulled at your cheek. You turned toward your opponent and pressed forward. His lights flickered at you and more attacks came flying. You ducked, dodged, and knocked attacks away as you (very) slowly made progress in his direction.

When you got within three yards of Dust, a wall of bones sprung up between you. You slashed it away with your knife and immediately felt like something was wrong. As if the air had changed. You looked into Dust’s empty sockets and realized what was wrong as a manic grin split his face. He laughed a heartless laugh as his eyelights blazed back to life, piercing into you, not showing the faintest recognition.

His eyes flashed brightly.

You dove under a barrage of attacks and rolled before jumping off the rumbling ground. Five separate crackling noises had you scrambling for cover. Miraculously, you avoided an additional five burn marks before hurrying away from Dust. You had to hide. Or get Nightmare. Or literally anything!

You stumbled back with a yelp as Dust appeared between you and the door. “Dust! It’s me! Y/N! Please calm down!”

He tipped his head to the side, grin spreading, and red sliding behind his shoulder.

Wait, red-?

His eyes flashed and the ground rumbled.

Despite your best efforts, a bone nicked your leg taking much more health than his controlled training attacks. You yelped and hurried into the only cover in the room. The arena with burn marks on the walls. Only the walls. With a burst of inspiration and a crackle of energy, you turned to the summoned blaster and lowered yourself to the ground. Blaster charging and ground rumbling, you rolled away fled again. As you’d hoped, the blast hit the ground and sent up a huge cloud of dust and debris. You weaved through the arena by memory and touch to a hidden nook you’d found earlier and held your breath.

There was tense silence.

No blasters. No bones.

Then footsteps.

“C’mon, kiddo!” Came Dust’s mocking voice. “You should have seen this coming! After all, you started this route.” There was hatred in those words. “Are you really hiding from me?”

You really hoped Nightmare would notice the fear pouring out of you as you tried not to move further into your hiding place. The knife was held in front of you just in case.

“Coward.” Dust laughed. “Come on! I’ll only kill you a lot!” A longer, creepier laugh, the footsteps getting closer.

Desperate for air, you tried to take a calming breath which came out more like a breathless squeak. You froze as the footsteps stopped. You prayed that he hadn’t just heard you when he appeared in the opening of your cubby.

“Hey.” The walls rumbled.

Against your better judgment, you dove and rolled into Dust’s reach as bones stabbed where you’d just been. He grabbed your wrist and twisted making you drop the knife. “Gotten a little stabby, huh?” He yanked you closer and there was a sharp pain in your shoulder. “Mind if I return a favor?” He chuckled as he pushed the bone further into your arm.

You cried out.

Suddenly, Dust was much further away from you as his back slammed into the wall. A tentacle wrapped around your waist and up your arm to keep you from grabbing at the bone still in your shoulder.

“Nightmare!” You gasped.

Nightmare grunted at you as he confronted the still manic skeleton. “Stay still and he won’t hit you again.” Before you could respond, the tentacle around you pulled you to hover right behind him, hiding you from Dust.

Dust lashed out at the tentacles that slowly closed in on him. Bones and blasters went flying across the entire training hall. As soon as his attention focused on one tentacle, the other shot forward and wrapped around his arms. Dust yelled and thrashed as Nightmare sighed in relief. While his captive continued to thrash, the goopy skeleton turned to you. His gaze settled on your shoulder. “Don’t move. Don’t touch it. Removing the obstruction could make you bleed out. Are you hurt anywhere else?”

You shook your head. “Not anything too major. Dust taught me to dodge most of his attacks.” You glanced at the respective skeleton.

“Good.” The noise from Dust slowed. “I’m glad. You need to know all you can.” Nightmare carefully reached for your shoulder, hesitant. “What have you learned?” He glanced between you and the wound you barely felt.

You knew he was trying to distract you but went for it anyway, refraining from looking at the wound yourself in case it made you feel more pain if you saw it. You shrugged and winced. “Look, listen, feel. He taught me the listen for the- AAGGHH!!!!”

Nightmare yanked the bone out and pressed his hands against your shoulder. Your teeth grinded together angrily as he nodded at you. “Continue.” He said calmly.

“You pulled a Fucking BONE OUT OF MY ARM!!!!!” You snapped.

“Yes, you’d disturbed and opened the wound when you shrugged.” He gave you a very pointed look. “I told you not to move. Now please continue.”

You growled, mostly at the pain now flooding your body.

“Y/N?”

A tentacle brought Dust into view over Nightmare’s shoulder. “Mind telling me what happened here, Dust?”

Dust stared at you. Then at your bleeding shoulder. Then back at you. His eyelights went out.

“Dust?”

“Uh, yes.” Dust looked away from you. “We were training. I guess Y/N got confident because, after I taught her to deflect attacks, she came at me.” He stopped for a moment before Nightmare gently shook him out of his thoughts. “I saw Frisk.”

Nightmare nodded thoughtfully. “So you responded like you were back there?” Nod. “Well, whatever you taught Y/N worked. She survived.”

Dust’s eyelights flicked up to look at you. You gave him a pained yet genuine smile. He looked down.

“Do you know what exactly set you off?”

Dust grunted. “The knife.”

Your heart fell. You really kept messing everything up didn’t you? “I’m s-”

“No.” Nightmare warned you. “Don’t you go apologizing for something you knew nothing about. It’s not your fault. Never was.” Dust nodded.

You hissed as Nightmare shifted to hold your shoulder with one hand as he reached into his pocket. “Could you not?” You growled.

“Nope. Stop moving.” Nightmare responded unapologetically. He pulled the salve you remember Horror using from his pocket. “This will help. Don’t move.”

“I’m not- AH!!!!” You clamped your mouth shut as he applied the salve directly to the wound. You somehow managed not to move as you hissed out a breath. “Little warning?”

Nightmare chuckled at your anger. “Next time. That should keep it from bleeding more and fight off any potential infection.” He noted aloud. “You are the highest maintenance human I have ever met.”

A smirk tugged at Dust’s teeth. “How many humans have you actually met?”

Nightmare waved his hand dismissively. “Like, five.” Smirk.

Dust let a smile cross his face for a moment. You chose to speak up. “I’m sorry for causing an episode, Dust. I wish there had been some way I could have avoided it.” Nightmare squinted his eye at you. “I know.” You added at him.

Dust shook his head at you. “Nah. It was my fault. I should’ve asked you to pick something else or at the very least warned you. I thought it’d be fine.” Nightmare gently set him down. “I’m sorry I didn’t say anything.”

“Woah! What’d I miss out on?!?”

You looked over to see Killer in the doorway to the training hall. His blipped over to you all. He peered around Nightmare’s tentacles. “What’d you stab your shoulder for? Do you just hate that arm? If you really want it gone, I can help.” His brows bounced across his forehead.

“No!” You shoved his face away with your good arm, a smirk on your face. “It was an accident. We were training.”

“I stabbed her.” Dust said bluntly. You sputtered.

Killer leaned over Nightmare towards Dust. “Gettin’ tired of her already, huh?”

Dust scoffed. “She swung a knife at me.”

“I did not swing it at you!”

“And I reacted out of habit.” Dust finished.

Killer’s sockets widened. “You went back?” At Dust’s nod, Killer looked over at you. “How did you survive that? No offense, but you’re not exactly sturdy.”

“Killer.”

“What?? I’m being honest!! I can’t be honest anymore??” Killer faked offense.

“To answer your question, Killer.” You pointed at Dust. “He taught me a lot beforehand.”

Killer deflated over the tentacle he was leaned over. “I’m always missing the cool stuff…” He looked back up at you hopefully. “Could you do it again?”

“NO!”

Reference for the Ribbon Dragon under the cut

Ribbon Dragon

-13 prehensile ‘ribbons’

-omnivore

-lives in a herd/pod

-very territorial and aggressive

(square blep)

But…

Part One.

Masterlist

/ Next

HE LOOKS SO COOL!!!!!! I LOVE HOW YOU DREW HIM!!!!! OH MY GOSHCGFHFDNGFDHGRSHGFCJGFDHGRS?!?!!?!?!!>!!! ,

Can you draw my boy Matrix?

You can do whatever you want with him!

Sure! I think he's cool

So as a lucid dreamer myself, I was wondering how Dream or Nightmare would react to me or any lucid dreamer.

Like, as soon as I know I’m dreaming, I will shapeshift into a hawk or dragon or whatever I need/want. And while lucid I can feel everything in the dreamscape. So, if something moved that shouldn’t, I’d know immediately. I’m also very aggressive in my dreams. I have been torn apart in my dreams so I will attack first without hesitation. I don’t know about y’all but I prefer not to die over and over again. My attack forms are either human or dragon. A very specific dragon that I will draw in the future.

Let’s say Nightmare entered my dream, because let’s be fair he has more of a reason to with the whole spreading negativity thing, I’d feel the second he entered and my dreamscape would seal off protectively, effectively trapping the intruder inside my dream. I’d confront and, seeing his size and extra appendages, I’d go dragon. I’d attack first. Whether or not I win, I don’t know, but I’d fight dirty. The ground would roll and buckle under my influence and I’d move fast as thought despite my size. As soon as he realized he was trapped, Nightmare would fight out of desperation, giving him a boost.

After the fight, I would start questioning him, which I really should have started with. Most likely, I would have him restrained by then or we’d be glaring at each other, both severely wounded but I can’t die and won’t kill him.

If for some reason I met Dream first, the dreamscape would close off same as before but I would approach in human form. His bright colours would make me curious but I would still attack first. He’d probably talk me down during the fight or just outright surrender to show that he means no harm. If for some reason the fight continued, I would definitely cheat and go dragon until I restrained Dream.

Either way, the dreamscape wouldn’t loosen until I trusted the intruder and dreams can last years in a single night. So they’re stuck with me until I relax. Which, again, could be years later. Ironically, I don’t need sleep in my dreams.

I might turn this into a series or something, who knows?

POV: You started thinking what if Error was almost the exact opposite. As in, he loves touch and is happy all the time. And all of a sudden there's a destroyer running around in your head giving people hugs and buttons. Like, he somehow has a collection of buttons that he just gives to people he thinks needs it! And if he gets too excited he crashes.

And now there are two gremlins in your head because if Error crashes when he's happy then Ink pukes when he's stressed.

Now there's an Ink with anger issues that hates how loud Error is. Ink is lazy and tired all the time but can still hold himself up in a fight if need be. He still creates but now he creates so much in one space that the au’s start running into each other and tearing each other apart. Error comes in, saves who he can and destroys the merging au’s before they form an amalgam universe.

Error and Core Frisk have their own secret alliance because everyone still sees him as the destroyer but Core knows why he has to.

Core has many gift buttons.

I woke up thinking this.