Dreamland University Redux
by RadiantSeraphina is a massive, ongoing university AU of Kirby. It has an in-progress prequel, Crown Jewel of Dreamland as well as a few shorts in A Swirling of Snowflakes.
Dreamland University Redux follows Kirby Stellarum, an art student with rare, magical powers, to his first semester at the prestigious Dreamland University. Once there, he's aided by Meta Knight de Brillante Armadura, who is the personal assistant of Lord Dedede, the son of a duchess. Kirby befriends them, along with their roommate Bandanna Dee. All seems well. However, Kirby soon finds himself fighting evil wizards, involving himself in royal conspiracies, and discovering the depth of his father's secrets.
In this fanfic you will find:
- Abusive Parents: Queen Alera, Nightmare and Dark Mind, both of the emotional and physical variety. But Nightmare wasn't always like that.
- Adaptational Heroism: While more of an Anti-Hero in the main series, Dedede is a downright teddy bear in this fic. The same can be said for Magolor and Taranza.
- Sectonia is more of an Alpha Bitch With A Heart Of Gold, rather than full-blown Evil Queen.
- Dark Meta Knight, of all people, is a pretty chill guy, too.
- According to Galaxia, Nightmare was a kind and loving father towards Meta Knight prior to his possession by Dark Nebula.
- Drawcia is the gang's Cool Teacher and former A.M.B.E.R agent who was more then willing let Nightmare ruin her career if it meant she could report him for child abuse and neglect toward Meta Knight and Kirby (respectively).
- Zigzagged for Susie. While she is still planning on forcing Kirby into being Star Dream's admin, it's clear she is only doing it because she wants Haltmann back and she is showing signs of regretting it. She also is clearly uncomfortable when Queen Alera orders her to "reeducate" Meta Knight, Dedede, Delilah, Nightmare, and Sectonia with Star Dream.
- Marx, while still not a total sweetheart, is mostly just a prankster who is Vitriolic Best Buds with Magolor.
- Action Girl: Sectonia
- Affectionate Nickname: Dedede has a host of them for Meta Knight, among them Mety, Meta, Mety Knighty, and Caballerito ("little knight").
- When Meta Knight was a child, Nightmare called him "kleine fledermaus," or "little bat."
- Ain't Too Proud to Beg: When Dark Nebula asks Bikaia to beg in order to take Elise's place, Bikaia does so without hesitation.
- And Now You Must Marry Me: Nightmare to Galaxia, made especially creepy because Nightmare forces her into a wedding dress and tells Meta Knight that he should be happy his closest friend and partner is being forced into marriage because he'll finally have the mother he always wanted.
- An Ice Person: Elise
- Aristocrats Are Evil: While Bikaia is a kind-hearted prince, Bikaia's grandfather, father, and siblings are all greedy war-mongers.
- Badass Adorable: Kirby and Bandanna Dee
- Considering his canonical appearance, Meta Knight likely qualifies as well. Dedede describes him as having "that sort of 'you can trust me to walk your grandma 'cross the street' face."
- Bad Future: When Sectonia gazes into the Dimension Mirror in the dream-world, she has a vision of a future where she's a dictatorial queen of Dreamland who kills Meta Knight and, presumably, is prepared to kill Kirby, Dedede, and Taranza as well.
- Badass in Distress: Meta Knight during the Amazing Mirror arc.
- Badass Teacher: Bikaia's mentor is Galacta Knight, the Greatest Warrior in the Galaxy.
- Bathe Her and Bring Her to Me: Happens to Meta Knight when he's captured by Dark Mind and trapped in the Mirror World, although it's somewhat justified. Not only does Meta Knight have injuries that need treated, but he'd previously been in a fight and spent some time in a dungeon.
- Benevolent Boss: Bikaia, having seen how horrifically his family treats their servants, assumes that his servitude to Galacta Knight will be likewise horrific, but instead, Galacta Knight treats him very kindly and is genuinely invested in furthering his development.
- Bikaia himself also qualifies.
- Bilingual Bonus:
- It can be seen in the last names Kirby Stellarum ("of the stars") and Meta Knight de Brillante Armadura ("in shining armor").
- Meta Knight is also fluent in Spanish, and, sometimes, he and Dedede have skewed conversations in it.
- Nightmare, Meta Knight, and the Haltmanns also speak fluent German.
- Bond Creatures: Meta Knight is bonded with Galaxia, a sentient, magical sword.
- Bullying a Dragon: King Adstellam evidently imprisoned Nova, the patron goddess of Dreamland, and forced her to help him fight a war against Halcandra. Once rescued, Nova fled and decided to let the aristocracy fall and to allow Dreamland to erupt into a civil war. Galacta Knight persuaded her otherwise by inviting her to mentor Prince Bikaia with her.
- Chainmail Bikini: Meta Knight and Kirby watch a bad fantasy movie where the female cast wears them.
- Culture Clash: Bikaia has never met a Halcandran woman before and was never allowed to learn of Halcandran culture. He is horrified to discover that Galacta Knight bathes twice every day, is mystified by Galacta Knight's indoor plumbing, and is initially mortified at seeing Galacta Knight's bare ankles.
- Dark Is Not Evil: Meta Knight
- Dashing Hispanic: Both Dark and Daroach have shades of this, although it's, at least, partly a performance for both of them.
- Death Is Cheap:
- Dragons have multiple lives and can give them to whoever they wish.
- As the reincarnation of Landia, Bandanna Dee seems to have inherited this power. When he's killed by Dark Mind, he comes alive again once the ice shard Dark Mind attacked him with melts.
- Don't Go in the Woods: Bikaia is told of the dangers of the forest somewhere near the palace, and while there is at least one evil wizard (Necrodeus) living there, Galacta Knight also lives there and is quite nice.
- Dreaming of Times Gone By: Dedede appears to have dreams of his past life whenever he comes into contact with Nightmare's magic. Meta Knight dreams about the past, too, although it's primarily because Galaxia takes control of his dreams.
- Evil Twin: Averted with Dark and Shadow. While Dark initially fights and imprisons Meta Knight in the Mirror World, Dark doesn't seem especially evil, just something of a morally ambiguous extremist, and Shadow is actually very friendly and cheerful.
- Forced Transformation: When the cast enters the dream-world, Nightmare's magic transforms Bandanna Dee into a dragon.
- Gentleman Thief: Daroach
- Glamour Failure: One of the Dimension Mirror's powers.
- God Save Us from the Queen!: Sectonia's mother, Queen Alera, refuses to allow A.M.B.E.R. to investigate Dedede's disappearance, does nothing to save the failing house of another royal, publicly punishes her daughter for entering the Mirror World to save Meta Knight, and may have allowed her husband to be murdered to serve both her political ambitions and her bitterness at being his second choice for a wife. Alera also has Yin-Yarn force the king of Patchland into signing over his kingdom to Dreamland and has a distinct disdain towards Halcandrans, a disdain which she tries to unify her country around.
- Alera also pettily forced Delilah, Dedede's mother and Alera's once-romantic rival, to take care of Meta Knight when he was an infant and in A.M.B.E.R. custody, and Alera did this soon after Delilah learned she was infertile.
- Good Is Not Nice: The goddess Nova seals Necrodeus away in his own staff for abducting Bikaia and then, leaves Bikaia chained up in a house, refusing to rescue him because of her vendetta with Dreamland's royalty. Nova does tell Galacta Knight where Bikaia is, so she can rescue him, but Nova doesn't tell Bikaia that's her plan.
- Good Parents: Duchess Delilah. She lets her son live his life without interference but doesn't hesitate to get involved when he or his friends need her.
- Heroes Prefer Swords: Bikaia and Meta Knight. Amusingly subverted with Kirby, Bikaia's reincarnation, who "just isn't interested" in swordplay.
- Heroic Bastard: Prince Bikaia of Dreamland is the son of a Dreamlandic prince and a chambermaid.
- Heroic Lineage: Most of the aristocracy traces their lineage back to King Bikaia, Dreamland's great hero.
- Honorary Uncle: Nightmare is this to Susie, or as she calls him, Onkel Albtraum (Uncle Nightmare in German).
- I Have You Now, My Pretty: The wizard Dark Mind once abducted and tortured the goddess Nova to get her to grant his wish. Although this is never shown, his behavior towards Nova is very creepy.
- Indentured Servitude: Galacta Knight agrees to save Dreamland from destruction if Bikaia will be her indentured servant for seven years. However, she does also allow Bikaia to leave the agreement whenever he desires.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Dedede
- Lineage Comes from the Father: Played with Bikaia's lineage. Bikaia's royal blood comes from his father, but when Bikaia meets Galacta Knight, she seems far more interesting in Bikaia's chambermaid mother than his princely father. Galacta Knight also speculates that Bikaia's Copy ability comes from his mother.
- Long-Lost Relative: Kirby and Meta Knight are half-brothers with Nightmare as their shared father.
- Love Is a Weakness: Nightmare tries to raise Meta Knight to believe this, but it instead of making Meta Knight shun all affection, it led to him constantly craving affection and feeling guilty for accepting it. This may also be where Meta Knight's fear of being clingy stems from as well as his awkwardness around Dedede's mother, Delilah.
- MacGuffin Super-Person: Meta Knight was literally bred to be the admin for Star Dream.
- Made a Slave: Bikaia, by Necrodeus
- Magic Knight: Galacta Knight.
- Manipulative Bastard: Possessed Nightmare towards Meta Knight and Kirby
- Meaningful Appearance: Bandanna Dee has a beauty mark on his cheek, which King Bikaia says indicates that Bandanna Dee has a "gallant" personality.
- Mind Rape: Dark Nebula's modus operandi.
- Missing Mom: Meta Knight doesn't even know his mother's name, and his father isn't forthcoming with information about her. In chapter 17, Dark, Meta Knight's mirror-double, transforms himself into her, so Meta Knight can see what she looked like.
- Mood Whiplash: Once Nightmare wakes up from his Dark Nebula induced coma, he has a surprisingly sweet and heart wrenching reunion with Susie, Meta Knight, and Kirby...and then tells Susie that he is going to ruin her father.
- Mythology Gag: The Bad Future mentioned above is not so different from how Kirby: Triple Deluxe turned out to be, save for the fact Sectonia killed Meta Knight, which doesn't happen in the game.
- No Periods, Period: Averted. Bandanna Dee's 'monthly migraines' and tampons are mentioned.
- Oblivious to Love: Meta Knight
- Parental Favoritism: Nightmare seems to favor Meta Knight over Kirby, but he doesn't treat either of his children especially well.
- Parental Substitute: Delilah for Meta Knight. While Meta Knight is bothered by his attachment to her, he still admits that Delilah has taken very good care of him and does genuinely care for him, and in Crown Jewel of Dreamland, Delilah admits that she would've taken Meta Knight in as a teenage runaway and raised him herself if the idea hadn't made him uncomfortable.
- She also takes in Bandanna Dee after his parents disown him for coming out as a transgender man.
- Pet the Dog: While being an unquestionably abusive parent, sometimes, Nightmare does seem to legitimately care about Meta Knight. When Meta Knight is injured from a situation Nightmare placed him in, Nightmare does seem legitimately upset about it and promises to be a better parent. He seems to be trying to keep his promise, although it's likely part of his gambit as Manipulative Bastard, too.
- Power Copying: Kirby, by touch, being that he can't exactly eat people in a situation like this.
- Pretty Boy: Meta Knight.
- Reincarnation: Kirby is King Bikaia, Meta Knight is Galacta Knight, Dedede is Nova, and Bandanna Dee is Landia.
- Later, Fluff is revealed to be Bikaia's wife, Queen Elise.
- Royal Bastard: King Bikaia was the result of his father, the king, having an affair with a chambermaid. In a rare case for a character like this, Bikaia ends up on the throne.
- Royal Brat: Dedede starts out as one, but changes because of his friendship with Meta Knight.
- Royal Rapier: Like in canon, Sectonia duel-wields rapiers.
- Royals Who Actually Do Something: Sectonia and Dedede qualify.
- Self-Made Orphan: Dark beheads his mother and helps kill his father, although for very justifiable reasons.
- Sheltered Aristocrat: Both Dedede and Sectonia initially have shades of this.
- Sibling Yin-Yang: Kirby and Meta Knight.
- Star-Crossed Lovers: Sectonia and Taranza. Both are madly in love (and Everyone Can See It), but Sectonia's mother would never let them date officially.
- Talking Weapon: Galaxia.
- Team Mom: Delilah.
- The Chessmaster: Galacta Knight's bargain with Bikaia is actually part her plan to mentor and put Bikaia on the throne as the next king of Dreamland.
- The Chooser of the One: Galacta Knight to Bikaia. Bikaia is fourth in line for the throne, and Galacta Knight uses her foresight and planning to put Bikaia on the throne with the help of the goddess Nova.
- The Evil Prince: Bikaia's brothers.
- Took a Level in Kindness: Seemingly the goddess Nova, as she's needlessly cruel to Bikaia the first time they meet, but later seems, at least, to consider him a trustworthy ally.
- Traumatic Haircut: During one of their fights, Nightmare hacks Meta Knight's long hair off with a kitchen knife.
