recolle | [OPEN] There is a dream inside a dream

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[OPEN] There is a dream inside a dream

WHO: Albert Wesker, whomever chooses to join him (presumably you!)
WHERE: Various
WHEN: Throughout October
WHAT: Nightmares and fog, featuring reunions with "friends."
WARNINGS: Violence, murder, child abuse, a basement full of corpses, medical experimentation, tentacles just goddamn everywhere, body horror, a veritable ball of leeches, other delightful things one would expect from the Resident Evil villain's memories? There is a blanket warning for "this is gonna suck" over this whole thing, though the child abuse warning is only relevant for those who pursue the Spencer prompt; the rest are clear of that sort of thing.

[NIGHTMARE – OSWELL E. SPENCER]
( cw: violence, murder, child abuse, a basement full of corpses )

[The mansion you find yourself in is large.

It seems like it used to be opulent once. You're standing in a foyer that held some sense of grandeur to it but now seems to have fallen into disrepair, and the long arching staircase greeting you dead-center is crumbling in several places. The massive chandelier which once hung above the center of the room seems to have crashed down at some point long ago, lying broken on the glossy marble floor, all shattered crystal and twisted metal and lengths of chain; it seems a bit of a visual nonsequitur – nothing overly important outside of the fact that there was a chandelier hanging in this room, and something sent it crashing down – but as you walk past it, you can see slight movememt beneath it out of the corner of your eye, something tense and slow and pained, almost as though there's something pinned down underneath it.

You probably don't want to know what's pinned down underneath it.

Watch your step as you're moving upstairs, though it does seem you want to move upstairs; you don't know why, seeing as everything is in disrepair and that includes the staircase itself and the exposed hallways leading in either direction off of it, but sometimes dreams are just like that. Aren't they? You move and you move and there's no real reason behind any of it – it's all a little nonsensical, a little surreal, and it seems this one isn't going to be any different.

A door down one of those hallways is lying slightly ajar; pressing on it will get it to swing open easily. However, if you reach out to do so, a voice can be heard from inside; it seems to belong to a man, though it's high-pitched and cracked and withered with age, but either way the words that are spoken seem to be aimed, somehow, at you.]

...You came back...

[Proceed?]

[NIGHTMARE – WILLIAM BIRKIN]
( cw: medical experimentation )

[It feels almost like it's the end of the world.

The place you're in is dark, all steel and concrete, with the oppressive air of something that's far underground; maybe a bunker, maybe a facility of some sort, definitely somewhere that you aren't supposed to be. The hallway you're in is long, dimly-lit with fluorescent lights that seem to flicker and dance in and out of existence despite how strong the walls in this place seem to be.

It's silent. And then, suddenly it's not.

The sound starts up quiet but soon builds immensely, a sharp wail, a moan, undercut with a chilling rasp that sounds almost like a death rattle. A series of loud banging noises that may or may not be restraints against a metal table. All of it emanates from somewhere just around a bend in the hallway, behind a door that's just out of sight from where you're standing but comes quickly into view if you move toward it.

Before you can open it, the sound starts up again, the screech, the keening noise, something that sounds undeniably like death; there are voices, too, beneath it, a pair of people speaking without paying any mind to the cacophony that surely must be happening near them.

If you listen long enough before opening the door, it sounds almost like whomever is making those ungodly sounds is screaming for their mother.]

[NIGHTMARE – EXCELLA GIONNE]
( cw: violence, some degree of body horror, tentacles just goddamn everywhere )

[The stars above are beautiful, constellations in full view; it's almost enough to make you disregard how very cold it is tonight. There's the soft sway of a ship's movement beneath your feet as it cuts through choppy seas, the metallic sound of a tanker's deck reverberating underneath your every step; despite the amount of work it must require to keep a massive ship like this running smoothly at sea, there don't seem to be any actual people on board – it seems that you're alone, and you're empty-handed, and the only indication of whom this ship might belong to is a logo that's present here and there on the metal walls you pass that ultimately doesn't seem to mean anything.

As you make your way to the bow of the ship, a voice sounds out – distorted, unrecognizable for all the static obscuring it as the ship's public-address system relays it through the night air; the words are difficult to make out, but you can surely hear a few.

"But it's too late for you...you won't live to see – "
"Sorry, Excella, but it seems – "
"...One last task for you."
"Farewell, old friend."

In the distance, a woman screams. And something massive seems to connect, then, hard enough to rock the ship, to dip it down hard from the center.

Perhaps you move forward to the bow of the ship to find the source of the screaming – after all, it sounds as though she's really suffering, wherever she is. Or perhaps you choose to stay put to see what happens; there's no sense in rushing into a dangerous situation. Or perhaps you do the reasonable-person thing and try to run from it all, because whatever just happened on deck is large enough to fuck with the boat and that probably isn't anything you want a part of.

Either way, it doesn't really matter; you're going to be intercepted by Wesker, grabbing your arm or...wherever's immediately available like an unreasonable person and pulling you in a different direction entirely, up a metal flight of stairs to a higher deck.]

We can't stay here.

[His words are sharp, rushed despite the fact that he doesn't seem to be doing much with his face; things are...not going well, clearly.]

[FOG – SERGEI VLADIMIR]
( cw: violence, body horror everywhere, a veritable ball of leeches )

[It probably isn't the wisest decision, being out late at night in the fog like this; just the same, at this point...well, this seems like a far better option than sleeping, given the dreams that have been plaguing Wesker's sleep.

This, incidentally, was a highly incorrect assumption.

If you're out tonight in any of the business districts – anyplace that the buildings tower high above, anyplace that has high walls and streets winding below them, you may find yourself grabbed and pulled over toward someone, your back pressed hard against one of those high walls, and when Wesker speaks from where he's got ahold of you his words seem calm enough but there's an undeniable sense of pressure behind them when he speaks.]

If you're armed, draw your weapon. And keep your gaze high. It's not safe here.

[...So that's something that's happening tonight.]

[ANYTHING ELSE?]

[Feel free to hit either my plotting comment or come find me at

InstantEternity if you want to plot something out with me; I'm here for anything and everything, and if there's something specific that you want for the sake of either getting memory regains for you or just...going on an adventure, I'm willing to custom-tailor nightmares and experiences for you! Resident Evil runs a large and fairly messed-up gamut, so pretty much anything is fair game.]

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[He nods at that, he knows it's not what Wesker wants to hear, but it's good enough for now. With that, he takes the lead, exiting the room. He's not supposed to hesitate or look back and he knows if something happens to Wesker he's not going to be able to do that, but he's doing his best not to do that now.

(It's sort of funny how when you're not supposed to do something that's all you want to do.)

The bend in the hallway and the stairs leading up aren't that far away and once he sees them, he breaks into a run, as ordered. How are you doing, Wesker? And just as importantly, how's our friend the tentacle monster doing?]

[Don't worry, he's breaking into a sprint right behind you and keeping pace once he's there; the reason why will soon become immediately obvious as about halfway up the stairwell, you can hear something that's undeniably the metal walls of the ship being ripped into lower down, just a few feet away, where you just were.]

Don't look.

[Wesker's words are both immediate and urgent.]

I'm still behind you, don't look and don't slow down.

[Because he knows what's back there - the solid black mass shot through with large channels of blood and other organic matte that he really doesn't want to think about, the thick, writhing appendage that's going to try to trip them up at the first opportunity it gets. What's waiting if you fall here. How quickly one can be absorbed into it.

The sound is loud, all twisting metal and the sharp screech of something solid and heavy being dragged across the opening, the hard slam that follows from it hitting the opposite wall, the way the ship lurches and the entire thing groans like it's about to buckle in some fundamental way - just the same, keep moving, this thing is going to move fast once it gets its bearings for the stairwell and we don't want to be in it when it does.]

[It's amazing how much faster you are when you're actually terrified that you're going to die. Jaeger's finding this out the hard way today, and the most he can really manage in response to Wesker's words is a nod. He doesn't look and he doesn't slow down, because if he does either then they're both dead. He's not going to be responsible for Wesker's death, even in a dream.

It feels like these stairs go on forever, but maybe that's just the stress of the situation. Then again, this is a dream, so who knows. The moment he reaches the door he'll throw it open. So what's the deck looking like here?]

[The deck is extremely high up - there's a bit more of a structure behind them, but not much; it seems as though this is as far as we're capable of getting from the inside. The area Jaeger finds himself standing on overlooks the midsection of the ship, with the main deck about four very, very large stories below.

And originating from the deck below...well. It's extremely obvious that Jaeger's initial assumption was right.

She's definitely more monster than person at this point.

The creature is massive, made up entirely of thick appendages stretching upwards and extending well up above Jaeger's immediate line of sight, ending several dozens of feet overhead; they end in bright, bioluminescent bulbs, four of them sliding in and out of view, occasionally being covered over by a writhing mass of tentacles for the sake of protection before it all retracts again, revealing the orange glowing structures for a brief while before they vanish again.

Again, the entire thing is shot through with blood and rot, tremendous channels of it shooting through the creature's body - if it can be said to have one, it's really just a twisted collection of tentacles and appendages and bulbs, there's nothing about it anatomically that's recognizable as belonging to a creature that belongs anywhere on this planet, much less right in front of people and wrapped around the fore deck and bow of a ship.

Jaeger's crossbow is definitely not going to be enough. Wesker's gun is definitely not going to be enough.

And they are both very, very screwed.]

That is Excella.

[Jaeger's quiet for a moment, frozen to the spot while he tries to process what he's seeing. He's seen some weird shit in his dreams, but none of that compares to what he's looking at right now. He's never seen anything as massive or terrifying and even if he had seen something that could compare, it certainly wouldn't have prepared him for this.

So this is the sort of thing Wesker's been remembering. He should probably be having some kind of reaction, but he keeps looking over the writhing mass and his brain is just refusing to process that this is genuinely what he's staring at.]

...We are so screwed.

[His hands are definitely shaking now.]

[Wesker's hands just tighten on his own weapon; he isn't shaking but he's gone very, very still.]

We can either fight, or end this very quickly. If I die, it ends.

I'm not going to force you into a fight this futile unless it's absolutely what you want.

Don't—

[That sort of bursts out of him before he can stop it and for a moment he struggles to find the words he needs.]

No, no, I'm not going to ask you to— I'll fight. I... I can do this.

[He doesn't think he can and he's gone very pale, but Jaeger's not about to let Wesker die like that just to put an end to this like that. Yes, they're going to die, but it's better to fight, isn't it?

(Is it really?)]

[He's quiet for a moment at that; he's keeping his gaze locked on Excella, but...]

...That was unfair. I... My apologies, I won't ask you something like that again.

[He doesn't have much time to dwell on it, however - that thing is going to move and when it does, it's to send one of those appendages arcing into the air and use it to shoot a massive amount of black...matter at them where they're standing on the deck. Wesker reaches out and grabs Jaeger by instinct, jerking him away from it.]

You won't die if it touches you, but any damage you experience from that is going to stack very, very quickly.

Good, that's...

[He doesn't have time to finish that thought because suddenly Wesker's pulling him away and he's quick to follow the other man. The black matter that's been left there looks absolutely disgusting, but he's more worried by what Wesker's saying.]

So don't get hit, got it. I take it we aim at the bulb-things?

[He's still not confident, but he's recovering a bit and he sounds a bit more like his usual self.]

That would be the idea.

[It's good that Jaeger seems to be calming down slightly, as unconfident though he sounds; we can - ...okay, we absolutely can't do this but at the very least we can put up a shred of resistance, and Wesker is quick to train that laser sight on one of those bulbous structures and start shooting.

...Do you have any idea how to aim that crossbow of yours.]

[Does he look like he's ever used a crossbow before?? Of course he doesn't. But he's used a gun before and surely that will help!

...Unsurprisingly, the recoil sends the first shot flying wide from the target he's aiming for. Jaeger doesn't seem deterred by that though and he starts trying to line up a second one. He doesn't have a choice, really - it's either the crossbow or the rifle and that's six and a half feet of rifle he doesn't know how to use. The crossbow seems at least a little safer an option for now.]

[...Okay. Yeah. We're gonna die.

That said, he'll turn his attention to the...crap that's on the deck with them and let Jaeger try to figure himself out on the...decidedly harder-to-miss targets that are glowing and also like ten feet in radius; this stuff on deck is disgusting on so many levels and he'd prefer not to focus on it, but dear god that shit crawls, it's like Birkin's fucking leech only it's managing to be even more disgusting, and he'd prefer to not have that shit coming at their legs- ]

...You have my apologies for dragging you into this, by the way.

[He hasn't really stopped sounding blank from earlier; there's been urgency here and there, but otherwise everything's been sort of muted. This isn't really an exception to that.]

[Oh god it crawls?? Please keep that away from him, he already has enough nightmares, thanks. He doesn't need to add "crawling black goop" to the list.

Jaeger turns a bit when Wesker speaks up, but he fires off another shot before responding. This one goes wide too, but he's trying his damn best to figure out how to use this thing.]

You don't need to apologize to me! It's not as though this is your fault!

[It's Retrospec's fault, just like everything that's been happening here.

...He's not going to ask about the blankness, but he's definitely noticed it. It's strange and it's putting him on edge, but now isn't the time to get caught up on that. He fires another shot and this one... once again misses. He's doing great today.]

I'd argue that this is actually entirely my fault -

[You could have come in on something saner than the literal goddamn tower of tentacles, he created the damn thing to begin with, he can't just get over this shit-

and he's going to be cut off by that thing taking an actual strike at the deck. It's damn near impossible to avoid, the massive fucking tentacle coming at you is probably going to hit you, but thankfully people are durable and this is a dream and it shouldn't straight-up kill either of us, so at least there's. that no really this is going to fucking hurt, be prepared for this to suck.]

[Well, it's not like Jaeger's regained his ability to jump six feet from a standing position, so yeah, that's absolutely going to hit him and knock him over. His weapon clatters away, just out of reach, but holy shit he needs a moment to catch his breath and try not to fucking scream. He's not going to give that thing (it used to be a person) the satisfaction of knowing just how badly it hurt him but holy shit he's in so much pain.

Jaeger forces himself up to scramble for his weapon though, because he knows he's dead if he doesn't have that. He manages to grab it and fires off another shot, though this one doesn't hit the mark either. Useless, useless, useless...]

[It's...honestly for the best that Jaeger doesn't fucking scream, for a lot of reasons; that said, Wesker is likewise down - he managed to keep his grip on his gun, but that's about the best that can be said for it and it's going to take him a moment to get up.

Part of the reason is because his entire body is resisting movement; part of it is just...god, it would be for the better to just end it now and he knows it - even if Jaeger doesn't want to see that it's for the best, isn't it? Honestly, he's going to see it either way; just...

He'll get to his feet, though he isn't firing; he's shaking a bit where he's still holding that gun - he should put a stop to this, just end it, it'd be infinitely better for both of them and maybe then he won't have to see Jaeger die, either...

He's gone very still again. That's probably not good.]

[Another shot goes wide and Jaeger lets out a frustrated breath. The pain certainly isn't helping with his aiming, but even before he was hit he couldn't shoot this damn thing. How did his memory make it look so easy?

It takes him a moment to notice that Wesker isn't moving and it takes him a moment longer to realize that he's probably not moving because he's waiting for that thing to kill him. It would be easiest to end it now and he desperately wants to wake up and forget all about this, but...

Jaeger forces himself to his feet and moves to grab Wesker's arm. His grip is tight and he yanks on the other man's arm to try to get him to move.]

Come on, don't just stand there! Don't...

[But he can't find the words he needs and he leaves it at that. Come on, Wesker. Please.]

[He does move a bit at that, though it isn't terribly far and really only as much as Jaeger forces him to; he's shaking his head a bit, trying to find words himself, but - ]

...deserve this, I deserve this, don't try to interfere-

[It's. strange and rushed and still unfathomably blank, and he doesn't seem to know where else to go from there so he just...stops.]

[As terrifying as this hideous monster is (and it's easier to think of it as a monster than it is to consider that this was once a person) it has absolutely nothing on the terror that comes from hearing those words. Is this what Wesker's been thinking this whole time? That he deserves to die over and over and over again in these nightmares? They never had a chance against this thing, did they? Even if he could shoot worth a damn and even if Wesker had something strong enough to kill this thing, they'd never manage it, because he doesn't deserve to win against it.

There's no denying that Jaeger's terrified, but he doesn't let go of Wesker's arm. He does stop pulling him though, instead just sort of standing there, awkwardly holding onto the man's arm.]

You don't. Listen to me, Albert. You don't deserve this. You're a different person now, you're not the same man who did this. Please, we need to move.

Where, there isn't... There's nowhere to go, we're going to die here.

[He sounds vaguely incredulous, really; there isn't anything to be done about this, as far as he knows, as far as he can tell, and that's...it's all right with him, in some perverse way. It's why he hasn't been afraid this whole time, why he can just talk Jaeger through this, because he knows how it goes and how this is going to end and whatever Jaeger says, it's what he deserves.]

...It doesn't matter. Whether I'm a different person or not now doesn't matter, you've heard what they're all saying. You believe it yourself, don't you?

[It's reconstruction, not reincarnation; it's just a matter of time. Right?]

I don't know what I believe.

[That isn't quite what he wanted to say, but it's out there now and he's not sure where to go from there.]

I don't want to be that person and I don't want you to be this person but... it seems like there isn't any other option. But... I'm still me and you're still you. We're terrified of being these people and that has to count for something. I'd be worried if you weren't concerned about being this man.

[He tugs on Wesker's arm again, a little less desperate this time.]

I'm not giving up, not yet. I may be terrified of what will happen in the future, but for right now I can focus on this. You don't really want to die, do you? You don't want to see me die either, right? Then let's change it. Let's find another way. There has to be something you haven't tried before.

[He's quiet for a long moment at that; his breathing is still jagged and the pain is finally registering in his system despite all the adrenaline, but- ]

...In my memories, I saw a pair of people kill her. I know it's possible, but...

[But hell if he knows how to access that at the moment.

He's quiet again; he shakes his head eventually.]

You're going to hate me someday, you know. It's inevitable.

But for now... For now we can fight.

[That gets him to smile, though the expression is wry and subdued.]

If I do, it'll only be because I stopped fighting. And I don't know if you've noticed, but I'm very fond of fighting.

[He finally lets go of Wesker's arm and slowly turns back toward what used to be Excella.]

Now then! How did they kill her?

...Something that I have no earthly clue how to access, to be blunt.

[He doesn't move to fire at her just yet, but at least he seems slightly more put-together, despite his words.]

It involves lasers of some sort - I'm just not sure how they managed to access that particular system.

I suppose heading back downstairs to get another look at those control panels is out of the question...

[He looks around to see if there's anywhere else to go. There isn't, is there? So how the hell are we supposed to do this...? Is there anything else to note about the deck here?]

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