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hey, how fucked up are nightmare’s legs? like, does he half to use tentacles to support himself sometimes, or are they fine unless he’s weakened? also, does Dream or any of his gang know thats his weak spot? does he even know himself but gaslights himself into believing he’s fine and not weak?

I just really like this headcanon and would love for you to share more about it <33

Extremely fucked up

As in, he will not be able to feel, or move them at all had it not been for his negativity goop fucked up

They’re mostly fine unless he gets weakened, even if weakened a little, it could cause him problems with using them

I say that they’re mostly fine cause i like to believe Nightmare can’t use them for long periods even when he isn’t weakened at all

That’s why generally you’d see Nightmare sitting if he doesn’t need to stand/walk or use his legs, he tries to keep them as comfortable as possible cause otherwise they’re gonna give him trouble

And while he can use his tentacles to support himself and even walk with them instead of using his legs, Nightmare prefers not to, as they are directly connected to his spine, which means any wrong move/jolt could cause him immense pain/discomfort, and that pain /discomfort can last for days before finally letting up a bit (so you can imagine the pain Nightmare is in after missions as Nightmare primarily uses his tentacles to fight)

In fact, I’d say Nightmare suffers from chronic pain when it comes to his back and legs

The thing about Nightmare tho is that he’s super used to pain, as there’s no pain worse than what he felt when he first got corrupted, and he lived with that chronic pain and the problem with his legs for over 500 years, so despite any pain Nightmare might feel, you genuinely wouldn’t know it cause it will not be apparent on him at all, like looking from the outside you’d think he’s pain free with how collected he looks

But of course, he’s just collected in front of people cause he absolutely would not want to look weak in front of anyone, when he’s alone he’s more open with the pain/discomfort he feels, and believe me it makes him mad

Nightmare is completely aware of his legs’ problem, he just tends to be in denial about it when they give him trouble, that’s why this panel exists in the “on the topic of kindness comic”

Nightmare unfortunately tends to associate his disability with being weak, it’s half internalized ableism, and half trauma related response

So yes, he’s fully aware of it, he just tends to lie to himself about it, and that’s not really productive when it comes to making his life easier by admitting that he has a problem

Instead of taking measures to make sure his health is taken care of, he ignores the fact he’s disabled and mostly just does the bare minimum just to make sure he doesn’t get to a point in which he loses his ability to move them at all

Otherwise he just lives with his chronic pain and dysfunctional legs without giving them much thought, cause i mean, isn’t it normal to live with such pain and disability without any aids? (It’s not normal but Nightmare never got to know otherwise)

When it comes to others knowing about his disability, the only ones who know are Killer, Color, and Dream

Killer knows cause he tends to observe Nightmare like a lil lab rat, Killer knows so many things he shouldn’t about Nightmare (Nightmares is unaware of Killer’s knowledge of his disability), Killer keeps it to himself like he does with so many other things he knows about Nightmare

Color knows cause he saw Nightmare’s struggle with his ability to use his legs himself (on the topic of kindness comic), it was easy for him to put 2 and 2 together, Color never tells anyone about Nightmare’s disability, cause he doesn’t believe it’s his place to do so

Dream knows cause he’s seen Nightmare’s state after he’s injured by his positivity arrows, Dream knows Nightmare isn’t comfortable with his disability becoming common knowledge, and so he pretends he doesn’t know and keeps it a secret, it’s the least he could do as simple basic respect, he also doesn’t believe it’s his place to tell anyone about it

Otherwise, no one knows, Nightmare’s great at playing pretend after all