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The further in you go, the thicker the calcification becomes.

The crystals on the walls are difficult to make out now, having been encased entirely by thick white growths encompassing the walls like spider veins, like roots; their energy, however, can still be felt if you wander too close to the walls, or if you spend too long recovering yourself after something sufficiently stressful has come into your line of view. This may be more for a problem for some of you than it is for others; some of you are holding up surprisingly well, all things considered.

It isn't a failing on your part, when it hits you.

It's hard to say precisely what "it" is - a sudden fatigue, a seizure, an abrupt swirling of the world beneath your feet; all you know is that you're here, and then you aren't anywhere, and it takes a moment to place what brought the feeling on, or even what the feeling itself is. It will come to you eventually, however, once your eyes refocus and the cavern comes into view again for you properly - it feels like that first week you were here. Like reawakening after a long stint asleep; like being disoriented after realizing that you're not where you should be.

The difference this time is that you are, for all intents and purposes, still where you should be.

You don't seem to have gone anywhere; it doesn't feel like you've lost that much time, even, if you've lost any at all. But the fact of the matter is that something feels different, and it feels wrong, and placing how proves to be difficult.

There's a bend in the path, and suddenly it becomes all too clear.

You aren't supposed to be here, are you?

This place can be anything and everything - the hallway in the upper floor of your house, the bar you frequent, that place where all your comrades are buried. What matters is that it's somewhere you weren't sure you would see again, but the fact of it is that you're seeing it here, and you're seeing it now, and perhaps some of the others with you are seeing it too. Perhaps there are others here, those that have been on your mind for the past few days; perhaps you're all alone outside of whomever is questionably fortunate enough to be experiencing this with you.

Whatever you're seeing, however, something remains present in your mind, driving you onward and encouraging you to move through this, and quickly.

You don't belong here.

You need to leave.

[OOC: Welcome to the first half of our week 5 event! For this portion of the event, the hallucinations you've experienced up until now have become far more thoroughly immersive, and can be seen or experienced by others in something akin to a shared dream-state. These visions are likely to delict something from your world that you would find familiar and would have some sort of attachment to, whether that attachment is positive or negative. Monsters or other people from your world can be present here and interacted with, to deal with as you see fit; fighting them or speaking to them are both fair game. Conversely, your personal experience may be exploring or revisiting an area of your world that may or may not be how you remember it...

Please note that the mods will not be NPCing any characters in your visions or answering questions specific to the environments that you create. However, you are free to create as you see fit; time and space have very little meaning here, and your only limitations to your character's personal illusion/dreamscapes are your own creativity. Feel free to post any prompts you may want to play with, and to tag out to others to experience whatever they want to show you. (However, it is worth noting that any physical items you find in the visions will not remain in their possession afterwards.) As always, if you have any more questions about how works, let us know!]

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You think so?

[As though it's something he'd never really considered; it's...weird, sort of.]

I guess they considered me too dangerous to put in the block with the rest. I don't know; I never really asked. I had restraints on all the time, so it's not like I could do much.

I imagine that must have been why, yes, but even so it shouldn't have taken them ten years.

[Obviously it worked out well enough in that Kimbley was able to escape, but at the same time, goddamn. How incompetent were the people in charge.]

So whatever experiment they tried enhanced your alchemy and you were able to escape. What happened next?

I met someone that took me in. He was also in the process of escaping from this place; I guess he was a friend of mine. Never treated me badly, anyway.

He was also wanted by the state for whatever reason; I was offered a full pardon and reinstatement to the military if I stabbed him in the back, so I did. The guy we buried in the field is the one that made the offer.

[It occurs to him, vaguely, that he's still present-tensing Archer. He doesn't know what to do with that.]

[He's noticed that too, but he isn't going to say anything about it.]

I can certainly see why you agreed to that. It made things easier, ja? I certainly wouldn't want to return to a place like this.

I don't know if I really cared anymore. It didn't matter where I was or what I was doing; being put back in the military sounded like as good an idea as any. Maybe they'd let me see battle again; that would've been ideal.

So that's why you came when offered this opportunity, ja? Because it sounded like as good an idea as any?

[Not that he's judging or anything, because that's totally fair.]

I've already reached the highest point in my life. Nothing is going to beat out what I experienced during the war. The things I did, and the things I was allowed to do while we were out there... Can you really see me living a normal life? Taking some kind of peacetime desk job, settling down with a wife and kids? Can you even see me living to be thirty? Because I can't.

I'm here because it doesn't matter if I die. That's all.

I can't see you living a normal life, no. You're the sort of person who does best on a battlefield, ja? Trying to imagine you without that is a little strange.

[There are a lot of people like that in the guilds, people like Clint and Tison, or maybe even Zagi. But imagining any of them in a world without monsters to fight is nearly impossible; so maybe he doesn't understand exactly, but he can at least see where Kimbley's coming from.]

So what will you do if we somehow do survive all of this?

I'm pretty sure we were all dead the second we came in here. This is going to kill us eventually, and there isn't much to be done about it.

I don't have a lot of argument with that.

[And from the sound of it, he doesn't.]

I don't know, though. Maybe I'll take advantage of their time-based bullshit and go spend some time with Archer before we both die. He's a crazy bastard, it might be worth it.

I agree. I'll be shocked if we do manage to make it through this.

[...]

But I'm starting to think that maybe I really am hoping that they'll figure out some way to get us through this mess.

Well, if we're talking ridiculous hypothetical situations, perhaps you can come to Terca Lumireis and blow up all the monsters you want.

[He laughs a bit at that, though it's not as derisive as it could have been.]

This whole thing really must be bothering you.

You would not believe the week I've been having.

[He suffers so much, Kimbley. So much.]

You're trying to take me home with you like I'm some kind of stray dog. I'd probably believe you.

I've been constantly reminded of a past I've tried very hard to escape from for the past ten years. The Shimmer has decided to show me every single person who has ever had some importance to me, regardless of how dead they may or may not be. I didn't even have the chance to kill the one I'd want dead. And to top it all off, the Shimmer felt the need to insist that death was worse than that horrible tree.

[...it's not actually the tree that's bothering him all that much but that was the start of all this nonsense and he's still mad about it.]

...You were really fucked up by the whole tree thing.

[He's kind of quiet for a moment. Just considering.]

I'm going to guess that whatever you're dealing with is one of those worse-than-death things.

[That corridor is long, and occasionally there are bends; what's noticeable about it, however, is that there are no people - no guards, no inmates, no sign that anyone else has ever been here at all.]

It is.

[He doesn't like it. There's no one else here and that seems wrong, but this is Kimbley's vision and maybe the Shimmer chose too leave this place empty for a reason. Maybe there's a boss battle waiting up ahead, or maybe the whole point is simply to make them talk.]

Dying isn't all that bad. Coming back is much worse.

[...]

...I'd be pretty fucking pissed off if I died and something felt the need to not leave it that way, yeah.

[His empathy is still pretty nonexistent, but he's trying.]

We aren't even permitted to try it, as far as alchemy goes. By the laws and by the world itself. Most people who try to raise the dead end up losing body parts at best, dying at worst. I'm probably one of the people who could get closest to succeeding with my particular talents, and I wouldn't even try that. So I have a hard time imagining anyone actually willingly trying that, because it's such a big deal not to where I'm from.

That's as it should be. We don't have any laws in place for this sort of thing, because as far as I'm aware, it wasn't attempted before.

Alexei - the Commandant of the Imperial Knights - experimented with blastia on the corpses of his fallen knights. He was only successful in bringing back two. One of them remained with him to serve as a Captain, while the other fled to the guilds.

[It's easier to talk about it like that, to keep the separation in place.]

Not that it particularly mattered. Alexei insisted I work for him - he threatened the orphanage I was funding and my daughters. My plan was to die protecting him, but I was given this offer and decided it sounded interesting enough.

I certainly wasn't expecting to have to confront any of this.

[why couldn't his issues stayed packed nice and neatly over there where he didn't have to look at them!!!!]

...I don't even know where to start with any of what you just said.

[AT LEAST HE'S HONEST.]

He sounds like he's got problems, though. Alexei.

[to...put it gently.]

So are you hoping we all make it out of here in one piece, then? Despite dying being the original plan.

See? That's precisely why I never wanted to start.

[It's horrible. Sorry, Kimbley??]

In some ways I am, yes. Don't get me wrong, I'm perfectly fine with dying again. I suppose I would prefer to die elsewhere, because apparently sometimes the dead don't stay dead here.

[thanks wesker!!!]

But if it's possible, I want to leave. I... There are still some things I'd like to do back home.

[...Well, that's where he's drawing the line today, he's not going to be sappy in front of Kimbley!!]

No, it's... I don't mind that you told me? I'm just bad at doing anything that even halfway involves comforting people.

[He tried.]

It's good that you've got stuff, though. I guess. I think it's likely that we'll die here, but I'm also kind of hoping we won't just because I want to kick the Shimmer's ass at this point.

Oh, agreed. It has done nothing but talk about how it shouldn't die and deserves to live for just existing and ruining everything it touches and frankly, I'm sick of dealing with it. The sooner we destroy it, the better.

[...]

I don't expect you to comfort me or anything of the sort, but thank you for listening. It's been dreadful trying to deal with that and seeing the Shimmer reflect so much of it.

But this place - this doesn't seem to bother you all that much. You aren't troubled by it?

...A lot of what's going on here has been messing with my head. Wesker was... There was a reason I left with you instead of dealing with him. Finding Archer screwed me up in ways I wasn't expecting. I don't...really feel right, physically, and I'm not sure if it's changes or just the weird stuff this place has been doing to our heads.

But this? I can handle this. It's kind of putting me somewhere not-great in terms of thoughts, but I'll be all right.

Ah, because this is familiar and something you're used to, ja?

[It's something you've experienced and you know how to handle, even though it sucked. That much makes sense, at least.]

I do appreciate that you accompanied me that day, regardless of why you wanted to leave. As for your friend... I can understand that. Sometimes you unexpectedly find someone's death difficult to deal with.

...It is really pointless trying to insist that we weren't friends, isn't it.

[YOU PEOPLE DON'T EVER BELIEVE HIM, WHAT THE HELL.]

It hit kind of weirdly, I guess. He's one of the few people that actually gets what it is that I want and what I'm about, you know?

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scythegun - 2020-08-21 22:37 (UTC) - Expand

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