[open dreamdive] no longer human

[thesettingsun]

WHO: You!
WHERE: Shuji's subconscious.
WHEN: August 18.
WHAT: Dreamdiving!
WARNINGS: Depends on how the dive goes, but a likely one is suicide.

[Maybe you weren't even in line of sight of Shuji. Just about everyone has a reason to be out and about on a Saruday afternoon, and nobody wants their day interrupted by the ground falling out from under them. Maybe you don't even instantly recognize that the library entrance you fall into would be part of Shuji's subconscious and not anybody else's.

This is how things ended up for you today, unfortunately. Might as well take a look around and see if you can't spot the man himself.

Locations are in top-levels added as divers enter them.]

Comments

[manufactured]

[...you know what, this is fine. he doesn't trust it, but this is fine.]

Not quite how I'd word it, but it's been an interesting experience, I'll give you that much.

[thesettingsun]

That's fair. No one really likes being dumped somewhere against their will... Blame Retrospec, as usual.

[manufactured]

Oh, of course.

[He'll start his usual pacing around the room as he continues to address Shuji; there's not much to mess with in here that immediately catches his attention, so he'll refrain from touching anything, but that bookshelf over there... Anything that he would find worthwhile on it, given what he's looking for?]

Your boyfriend seems to be a charming person.

[thesettingsun]

[All of the books on the shelf have blank bindings... except for one that says 'Shuji Tsushima'.

Shuji doesn't notice where he's looking in particular.]

Of course he is! I could spend all day with him ♥

[manufactured]

I got that impression, yes.

[Bingo.

So can he get anywhere near it, or will this get hostile...]

I have something to tell you, by the way. Once we're out of here. It isn't particularly my place to say just yet, unfortunately, but sometime soon it will be.

[thesettingsun]

[He can get closer to it, but Shuji's definitely paying attention to his movements now, and his expression isn't so sweet.]

So you're telling me you have something important to tell me but you won't let me know what it is? That's cruel. ...Well, I suppose that's not surprising from you.

[manufactured]

[He'll stop for now, without trying to take it; he folds his arms, the gesture actually reasonably casual, despite the fact that - well, wow rude?]

Is that so...?

[thesettingsun]

Don't take it too personally. We can't help being like our past selves, it's not your fault.

[Shuji's smiling, but he's definitely still focused on Wesker and when he might move.]

[manufactured]

[Ah, that's. All right, that explains it.]

You would know, I'm assuming.

[thesettingsun]

Things are easier when you come to terms with it.

[Never mind how recently he's been adamantly against this viewpoint.]

[manufactured]

I certainly can't argue that any. Interestingly enough, Shuji never did pass judgement on me for my past life's actions, however harsh I may have been on myself about them.

[Not you. Shuji.

He's very, very familiar with past lives being shitlords to people; this isn't as blatant as his own or Jaeger's, but it's... The cracks are telling, assuming he's correct.

If not, he can apologize to Shuji later.]

[thesettingsun]

...You figured that one out fast.

[Dazai's smile widens.]

I'm not wrong. He can struggle if he wants, but he's still a degraded copy of me, at best.

[manufactured]

[...He's going to owe Shuji about six thousand apologies after this.]

Well, you certainly do seem to have more of a spine, for better or worse.

I assume you believe it's an inevitability as well. That things are shifting back to the way things are supposed to be - one day you'll take your proper place, and that will be the end of the entire annoying ordeal...?

[thesettingsun]

[Honestly, Shuji can't even argue the spine part. But Shuji doesn't make the kind of wild-eyed expression Dazai's making right now either.]

Of course I do. All he's doing by pathetically crying about how he'll never turn into me is making it worse for himself.

[manufactured]

Naturally. I've already come to terms with that inevitability, far moreso than I care to divulge to most people.

I see no harm in telling you, however. After all, if you're anything like the others, you don't seem terribly inclined to leave the room we're in.

[He shifts a little, though he's still not moving to try to grab that book.]

Tell me, what's keeping you here? Do you know?

[thesettingsun]

[Blandly:] He's very good at compartmentalizing. I'll give him that much.

[manufactured]

[That gets a soft noise that might almost be a laugh out of him.]

Fair enough.

[Mm...]

So what is it you're hoping to get out of this, through curiosity?

[thesettingsun]

[look sometimes compartmentalizing is figurative and sometimes it is literal]

You're an intelligent man. Why don't you guess? I've practically told you already.

[manufactured]

Please. The end goal here is fairly obvious.

[Come now.]

However, I've no idea how you're planning on actually achieving it. Outside of being overly protective of that bookshelf, that is, but I imagine that even you know that's a stalling tactic and not any sort of actually productive move.

[thesettingsun]

Don't you know, doctor? The longer someone's in a coma, the less likely it is that they'll ever wake up.

[So all he has to do is stall.]

[manufactured]

...Good to see that base logic isn't your strong point, seeing as you don't seem to be considering what will happen to you, in that case. But you get points for moxie.

tw: suicide mention

[thesettingsun]

Oh, I don't have any attachment to living. If I was in charge again I'd probably end up the same way as last time. Maybe try something more efficient than drowning...

[Dazai says this fairly casually.]

I just don't want an inferior copy of me to be living when I'm not.

[manufactured]

[Mm.]

That's fair. Though I do have to question why you're doing this if you believe that things are changing in your favor. Even Retrospec seems to agree that we are the people we once were, and all of their interference seems to be aimed toward causing a paradigm shift within our souls as well as rebuilding our worlds.

If that much is true, "Shuji" will cease to exist anyway, won't he? It seems to me, then, that it would be to your benefit to keep both of you alive for the time being, such that you can emerge again to do whatever it is you choose to do.

[thesettingsun]

It's taking too long! And he's so irritating! You don't have to share his life, you don't know how much of a pain he is every! Single! Day!

[Dazai's complaining is breaking his concentration. Now might be a good time to move.]

[manufactured]

[...Are his powers still intact here, because if they are that's going to be simple enough; he acknowledges that it's possible they aren't because Shuji didn't really know about them, but either way -

fuck it we're going for that book

because goddamn dazai is obnoxious]