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

Entry tags:

[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.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[...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?]

I've tried it before; you'll die before you get to the bottom of the stairs.

[...]

I've been doing this regularly for about a month now. In the name of full disclosure.

[Just saying.

That said, though, it looks like there's some sort of panel on the wall behind you, near the door that used to get out on the deck in the first place; it's long and recessed into the wall, looking like it probably contains...something useful, possibly a weapon of some sort. Unfortunately, it looks both closed and locked, without an immediately visible way to get it open.

But at least it's something.]

A month now... I'm sorry, Albert.

[It's not like it's his fault and it's not like there's anything he could have done about it even if he'd known, but that's still a long time to deal with a reoccurring nightmare like this.

That said, he's not giving up and he's going to check this place out again for anything he might have missed before - and what do you know, that's definitely something he missed.]

Oh, look! What's this...?

[He'll try to get it open anyway, but of course it won't open. Of course.]

You don't happen to know how to open this thing, do you?

If I did, I'd tell you.

[I mean, that's definitely new, but - ]

Just...focus on trying not to die for now. We'll figure it out.

[God, there's more of that black...whatnot that seems to be at least vaguely sentient, try to not get hit by it- ]

Ja, of course we will!

[He's not exactly all that fast or agile, but he does manage to avoid the disgusting black stuff as he studies the area again. Surely there's something here? Heading back downstairs is out of the question, so that only leaves this place...

But Wesker's right, he needs to focus. If he doesn't, he'll die. So Jaeger returns his attention to the thing. Shooting it probably won't do any good even if he could hit it. So now what?]

[That black shit is actually all levels of disgusting? It moves. It's more or less what you'd get if you crossed leeches with tube worms and painted the whole thing black, so you might want to keep those away from you, especially since they seem to seek out people. Um.]

[Ewww??? Oh my god that's nasty. Jaeger's quick to transform his weapon into its scythe form to take out some of the disgusting black stuff, though admittedly he doesn't have a great weapon for fighting this. Maybe his sword would be better...?? He'll try that too. He's not going to be able to keep this shit off of him forever.]

[Thankfully, the shit dies pretty easily, given that it's not straight-up attached to the mass of...what used to be Excella over there; weirdly, it dissipates into odd black spores that are reminiscent of the monsters we were fighting at the end of July, and it also -

...

It...leaves stuff? Like, we are talking straight-up defeat-terrorworms-get-ammo logistics here.]

...Oh. Right. Because that makes sense.

[Wesker, don't be an ungrateful asshole- ]

[But does it leave ammo for Jaeger's weapon too or is it just ammo for Wesker's?]

Don't complain, this is useful! Perhaps defeating enough of it will drop a weapon or some way into that compartment!

[that's not how it works, jaeger.]

[alas, wesker has no idea what sort of ammo your rifle takes, but crossbow bolts are a thing so as long as you don't mind things based on his assumptions right now then it's for both]

I'm hardly complaining, I'm just not entirely sure how destroying whatever these are equals out to obtaining ammunition -

[...Just. He's going back to shooting at her because why the fuck is everything like this.]

[It'll probably be fine!!]

It doesn't make any sense, but I'm not going to complain! You keep trying to pin her down, I'll take care of anything here!

[It's not going to get them very far, probably, but Wesker's aim is better than his is, so maybe they'll last for a little bit longer. The black stuff is super gross, but at least he can fight it.]

[He'll continue firing shots, but he's more than slightly distracted by his thoughts and it shows; just the same, he's not going to try to focus more than he already is, just because...well, Chris and (...that woman. Ava? Eva. Sheva, her name had been Sheva) Sheva had managed to open that compartment somehow, and furthermore he gets the idea that this was his damn ship, his and Excella's, if anyone would know how to open he should but as far as his memories go he's useless for this sort of thing, the only logical thing is...

Shit. They've missed something, haven't they- ]

...I have a suggestion, and you're going to hate it.

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject