[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

[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]

[thesettingsun]

[They're not here because Shuji didn't really know about them, alas. Wesker can grab the book, but Dazai will still have the opportunity to summon his scythe out of nowhere before Wesker can get much further than that.]

Put that down.

[manufactured]

[where the fuck is john when you need him goddamn

you know what, he literally just got memories yesterday that reminded him of how easily humans die, so just...give him a moment to stare down the scythe and try to sort out a course of action]

...Scythes are such improbable weapons; I really don't understand why Jaeger uses them, either.

[...wesker

for fuck's sake.]

Bear in mind, again, if he stays alive then so do you. And you have the opportunity to take over once he inevitably dies off.

I see no reason to not assist both of you now. If you have a valid reason for why I shouldn't, then I'll hear it. I understand that he's obnoxious, but surely you have more patience than that - you can feel the shift happening already, can't you?

[thesettingsun]

[Also compartmentalized, unfortunately.

Valid reason why Wesker should not try to assist both of them: Dazai swinging his scythe at Wesker. Not pulling that attack at all - Dazai most definitely does not care if Wesker gets seriously hurt or dies.

He is the least patient person in the universe.]

[manufactured]

[Things that do not rely on powers: martial arts training. General ability to fucking move. Scythes aren't the fastest of weapons and you know what, he fucking tried reason and reason isn't working so this is why right now, we fucking leave.

It's not like Dazai can follow, after all.]

[thesettingsun]

[Wesker ollies the fuck out. Dazai glares at him from the doorway, but he cannot, in fact, follow. All he can do is spit words after him.]

I don't know why you're doing this, it's not as if you care.

[manufactured]

[...Good. Just. Stay there, you ungrateful little shit.]

Whether it's in my nature - or within my capacity - to care or not is irrelevant. The point is that I choose to be a good person while I still can.

[Off to go find John, then. Hopefully he hasn't moved.]

[thesettingsun]

[John is still where he was! Everything looks pretty normal... except one of the lamps in the lounge is gone, but. Besides that.]

You got it! Ready to wrap this up?

[manufactured]

[...Did. Did someone just walk out with a lamp. Why.]

Quite ready, actually. I would tell you to give my regards to -

[...he still doesn't know the shitlord's name.]

...To the other one, but somehow I don't think he wants to hear it right now. He's swinging a weapon around in there, as fair warning.

[thesettingsun]

[That would probably be better than straight-up breaking it, which is what actually happened, but still.]

If I could leave this room I'd tell him to choke on his own scythe.

[So it's probably better that he can't!

That said, John will take the ink and open up that book. He mutters some nonsense phrases - Wesker hears him say 'gobbledygook' in there - before the book starts to glow and the ink disappears.

After a flash of light, Wesker will find himself somewhere else.]