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(open) rough seas will be calm
WHO: Jaeger (eventually) and you!
WHERE: Dreamscapes.
WHEN: 8/25.
WHAT: Dreamdives!
WARNINGS: Suicidal implications, threads are warned accordingly.
[You find yourself on a grassy plain. It's nighttime, and while this whole thing is probably incredibly surreal, the scenery is at least peaceful. You can see a dark building ahead of you.
If you look behind you, you'll notice that there's a large, thick forest. Listening for a moment will tell you that there's plenty of wildlife there, and it doesn't sound happy to see you. It's probably not a good idea to head that direction. But hey, if you really want to, there's nothing stopping you.
If you choose to approach the building, you'll hear the distant sound of waves crashing, but otherwise all is silent. It would almost be serene, if not for the ominous look of the building. It appears to be a very large manor. There are plenty of lights on inside despite the late hour, which gives you a little more light to see the building itself. For some reason there are massive chains decorating the left side of the building that don't actually seem to be there for any specific purpose, and above that are flags for... some reason. The whole thing is kind of an experience, and the gloomy atmosphere and isolated nature of the house probably aren't doing much to make you feel at ease.
Since the manor is most likely where you're headed, you might want to get a bit closer to the front door to check it out. Be careful, though - you won't be able to get too close without two guards spotting you. They're dressed in yellow uniforms complete with masks that hide the upper halves of their faces. They don't exactly look friendly; one of them has a crossbow in hand and the other has some kind of large daggers that look like they're attached to the back of his hands.
You'll find that there's a solid wall around the perimeter of the manor; you can hide here for a moment if you'd like. Climbing over the wall seems to be out of the question given the height of it and the spikes on top.
How do you want to proceed?]
WHERE: Dreamscapes.
WHEN: 8/25.
WHAT: Dreamdives!
WARNINGS: Suicidal implications, threads are warned accordingly.
[You find yourself on a grassy plain. It's nighttime, and while this whole thing is probably incredibly surreal, the scenery is at least peaceful. You can see a dark building ahead of you.
If you look behind you, you'll notice that there's a large, thick forest. Listening for a moment will tell you that there's plenty of wildlife there, and it doesn't sound happy to see you. It's probably not a good idea to head that direction. But hey, if you really want to, there's nothing stopping you.
If you choose to approach the building, you'll hear the distant sound of waves crashing, but otherwise all is silent. It would almost be serene, if not for the ominous look of the building. It appears to be a very large manor. There are plenty of lights on inside despite the late hour, which gives you a little more light to see the building itself. For some reason there are massive chains decorating the left side of the building that don't actually seem to be there for any specific purpose, and above that are flags for... some reason. The whole thing is kind of an experience, and the gloomy atmosphere and isolated nature of the house probably aren't doing much to make you feel at ease.
Since the manor is most likely where you're headed, you might want to get a bit closer to the front door to check it out. Be careful, though - you won't be able to get too close without two guards spotting you. They're dressed in yellow uniforms complete with masks that hide the upper halves of their faces. They don't exactly look friendly; one of them has a crossbow in hand and the other has some kind of large daggers that look like they're attached to the back of his hands.
You'll find that there's a solid wall around the perimeter of the manor; you can hide here for a moment if you'd like. Climbing over the wall seems to be out of the question given the height of it and the spikes on top.
How do you want to proceed?]
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[...]
Do you plan on shooting me? Because you really should put that away, otherwise.
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[It is. So flat.]
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[Not that he's lowering the rifle, but he does at least sound sort of sincere...? It's Yeager, don't expect anything to sound genuinely sincere here.]
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Assuming, that is, that you don't mind discussion.
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Very well, what do you want to talk about?
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Perhaps you have no strong feelings one way or another regarding things, but that's not what I'm referring to. If that were purely the case, you wouldn't be interfering.
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But here I am, and here you are, so I suppose there's no point in playing around any longer.
[He shrugs again.]
I'm not here to fight you, and I'm not here to criticize you. Honestly, you're doing a surprisingly good job of keeping him sane and stable given everything he's been experiencing. My concerns aren't with you.
My concerns are with him. He's told you more than he's ever told anyone else, so thankfully I don't have to bother giving you any new information. You already know about his troubled past, and even my troubled past. It was a bit rude of him to share all of that...
[He doesn't seem too bothered by it, though, and moves on quickly enough.]
He's going to hurt you, you know. Perhaps not intentionally, but you know the sort of person he is. You know the sort of person I am. We're not all that far apart, after all, and it seems like that gap is growing smaller and smaller with each passing day. How long will it be until he does something that hurts you?
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His temptation is to lie about it, but in the end...in the end, honesty seems more warranted than nice words and reassurances.]
If he hurts me, it will be because he didn't think. Because he didn't consider the outcome of his actions, or because he thought he was doing right by me and he was mistaken, or because he fell back into old habits of being capricious and self-centered and he didn't realize that I would be affected until everything was already said and done. Perhaps it will be something we can talk through, and everything will be fine after we've spent some time distancing ourselves from it. Perhaps it will be unforgivable and ties will be severed. Perhaps it will be a bad decision made at the worst possible time and one of us will die.
These are all things that I've considered. I don't deny the possibility - the very high likelihood - that he'll hurt me.
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He's like that - he certainly didn't retain any of my ability to plan things through properly. He's still self-centered and flighty and he has plenty of difficulty staying rational or calm when he really needs to, but I can't say that he's entirely careless. He tries, sometimes. Results vary wildly, but he's at least reached a point in his life where he realizes he needs to change.
[It's sort of a grudging admittance, like he doesn't really want to say anything even remotely positive here.]
Knowing all of that... Why do you continue to stay with him? It would be far easier just to leave.
[There's nothing pointed behind the question, he's not seeking a specific answer or trying to angle it in any way, he's just curious.]
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I'm well aware of what it's like to be alone, you know. To truly have no one to rely on but yourself, to have no one that can possibly understand, and to have no one that you can trust to not destroy you at their nearest possible convenience. I won't say I was lonely then; I won't even say I disliked it all that much. It was simply the way things were, and if I had to I fully believe I could go back to living that way again. It's part of who I was, and as such it's part of who I am now.
But while I do acknowledge that he may hurt me - that he may turn out to be the sort that will destroy me one day - the fact of the matter is that I trust him not to. If that trust is ill-founded, then that's my mistake, and I'll pay for it when the time comes... But for now, I'm willing to place a bet on the notion that it won't happen, or if it does, it's something that we'll be able to reconcile.
It would be easier to leave, and to live out the rest of my life alone. But I don't want to do that.
[He pauses for a moment.]
If I pass you something for a moment, can I ask you to do nothing to harm it? You don't have to do anything with it, simply don't destroy it.
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It's good to see you've put some thought into it. He can certainly be a pain, but it's not very often he goes out of his way to try to hurt anyone now.
[Again, he doesn't like admitting it, but he's not going to lie about it either.]
...You found something of his, didn't you? Very well, hand it over. I won't destroy it.
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I don't know if you'll receive the same sort of feelings I do when I hold that here, but it's something I trust him with. It's a piece of my soul.
He's been protecting it for me.
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Honestly, I shouldn't even be surprised he's managed to shove his emotions in there. He has entirely too many of them. What a pain.
[He'll take it anyway, and his expression softens a bit when he does. He's quick to put it in his jacket pocket.]
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I'm surprised you didn't immediately just shove it back in my direction, if it disgusts you so much.
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[He sounds so put out. He's not actually pouting, but it's pretty damn close.]
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[His hand goes to his pocket without him realizing, and when he does he sighs.]
...Most of his decisions are terrible, anyway.
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[...You are trying so hard, Yeager, what the hell.]
I suppose the question of the hour is what you want to happen now.
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Well, if you were expecting something long and drawn out, I'm afraid you'll be disappointed. My purpose here is twofold: to warn you and to protect him. A job I never would have accepted on my own, mind you.
[He shrugs before continuing.]
He has just as much faith in you as you have in him, so it's not a matter of believing he'll be hurt by you. Ultimately what it comes down to is that he has a lot of problems he's never fully realized he has, and he doesn't know how to handle any of them because he never tried. He's scared, worried, and even angry because he doesn't live up to his own incredibly high expectations.
Bluntly put: he's a mess.
I'm not going to tell you that you should stay with him or that you should help him. I still believe it would be better for you if you left. But if you do plan on staying...
[He pauses here and after a moment his gaze shifts toward the door.]
...Well, someone needs to talk some sense into him, should he ever start getting the idea to follow the same path I did. Will you be willing to do that?
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[...]
Either of you.
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[He shrugs at that and then reaches into his pocket to take out the heart stone again.
There isn't any physical cue to let you know that there's been a shift, but one moment Yeager goes from looking mostly indifferent to staring at the heart stone and just being... mildly confused.]
...Albert?
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[He settles a little at that; there's no physical cue, but he can tell, okay.]
Are you all right?
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