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 Posted: Tue Jun 09, 2015 10:09 pm
For him, life was slowly returning to the chaos he considered normal. Finn was on the mend, his own wounds were healing, and he was being kept busy with the infirmary, as well as helping around here and there. Burying himself in his work was the best course of action for him as it kept him busy, but it also meant that at night, when his head hit the pillow, that was it. He was out like a light, falling into a deep sleep. Never for long, but well enough for him to function.
Tonight was no different. He barely had time to listen to Finn's breathing even out - a habit he had prior to the outbreak - when sleep enveloped him, dragging him down into its depths.
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Posted: Tue Jun 09, 2015 10:21 pm
"Hello."
It was a little girl that immediately greeted Ripley, before anything else. She curtsied, wearing a cute blue dress with a white apron. She had no discernible face. "Hello there. I have a small request. Would you like to listen to it before you go any further?"
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Posted: Tue Jun 09, 2015 10:55 pm
His eyes flew open at the sound of the voice, and all at once he was moving. He sat up like a shot, almost immediately looking in the direction of the voice. While he could see the blue of her dress and the white of what he assumed was an apron, he had a hard time deciding whether or not her obscured face was due to his lack of glasses…or her entire lack of visage. It disturbed him somehow, moreso than the knowledge that there was a small child in his room. That had happened before, after all. This was the second small child to find their way in his presence, and already that was more than enough. At least she didn't seem as creepy as the masked child, missing face aside.
"…Hi." He managed after a moment. A request, before he went further? Warning bells were already going off, but as he glanced at the place where there should be a slumbering form beside him, he realized he had already made a decision. He tried to find his glasses, before he answered: "What makes you think I'm going anywhere?" Well, it was less of an answer and more of a question, but still important. "But I will hear you out, at least." There was no harm in listening, right?
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Posted: Tue Jun 09, 2015 11:03 pm
"Oh that's good!" she said it with a flat sort of voice, almost robotic, "you're much nicer than the last person that was here. You are dreaming after all. Sometimes, you could go to ten impossible places at once, if you focus hard enough!"
She paused, and began to hover. Two doors formed beneath her, more shadows then doors. "I think you have someone who would like to talk to you very much, but they are very, very hurt right now and will probably hurt you back. If you speak to them, I think you have a small chance to save everyone else, but if you decide not to, I don't blame you either! I will help you escape if you wish to avoid this altogether. To the right is the door that is most familiar, to the left is the door that is least familiar."
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Posted: Tue Jun 09, 2015 11:15 pm
Ripley almost couldn't help the face he made at being considered nice, but at least he recovered quickly. There were plenty out there that were considerably worse than he was, he was sure of it. Actually, he was pretty sure his own division lead was one of them. It was a small consolation.
"I…suppose." He pondered her dream comment, and tried to remember one that he had control of. None came to mind. Then, the girl was hovering, and Ripley wasn't entirely sure how he knew that - or why the shadows had twisted more into focus. Perhaps the dreamscape recognized his need for glasses or proper eyesight, but he wasn't about to waste his energy checking which it was. There were doors now, and an explanation, so he couldn't allow his mind to wander too far.
"…The masked kid?" He guessed, considering he hadn't quite met anyone else in a dream scape who had even a minute interest in him. Maybe swearing around him had piqued his interest? He fell silent as he considered the little girl and her choice, and looked away just long enough to glance at the slumbering form beside him, or what he assumed was still as such. "Is that your request? You want me to speak to this someone?"
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Posted: Tue Jun 09, 2015 11:50 pm
She nodded, a little slowly, and somehow, faceless, managed to look sheepish. Embarrassed about something.
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Posted: Tue Jun 09, 2015 11:56 pm
"Is there more to it than that?" He probed further, somehow rather suspicious of this faceless little girl that decided to haunt his dreams.
zoobey i think this is my greatest work to date
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Posted: Wed Jun 10, 2015 10:36 pm
"Yes," she finally admitted. She didn't look comfortable being probed. "I'm afraid you're already infected."
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Posted: Wed Jun 10, 2015 10:49 pm
"Infected?" Ripley repeated, perhaps not as surprised as he probably should have been. There was too much evidence to back it up. "Like the others? With the green or red eyes?" She didn't seem comfortable, but then again, neither was he with this whole dream invasion thing. His gaze dropped to the doors again, looking between them and finding himself mildly concerned at how familiar they were. "Earlier. You said there was a small chance I could save everyone else…does that include me?"
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Posted: Fri Jun 12, 2015 10:28 pm
She thought about Ripleys question, and then nodded, very slowly. "It has never been done before, but I believe if you try there is at least a chance to cure yourself. Your infection runs deep. He chose you."
The door, the infected door began to shake, and a terrible howl came from within.
She didn't wait, without letting Ripley ask another question, she simply let the door open, as immediately long, thorny tendrils whipped out, and seized him, pulling him into the door. It closed behind him and there was only darkness.
Darkness, and first masks. Hundreds of masks around him, all shapes and sizes. They floated, they warped, they distorted and turned to grotesque faces, missing teeth, noses, eyes, they turned to faces bloated and withered. They masks began to gather around Ripley.
"Who am I?" The question came as a cacophony of sounds from the mask, echoing too loudly, almost ear-splitting.
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Posted: Sat Jun 13, 2015 8:21 pm
It was probably for the best that she left him to the door; he had a lot more questions. So many questions.
Panic seized his heart and froze his mind as the thorny tendrils whipped out of the howling door, and the darkness that followed offered only a moment's reprieve. The masks came first, surrounding him, distorting him, preventing him from seeing past them far enough to even attempt to find an exit - though he knew there wouldn't be. The panic was still there, gripping his heart, but he still attempted to will himself into a calm. His hands clenched into tight fists at his sides, straining to resist trembling.
The question hurt. Loud and piercing enough to make him flinch. He was a moment away from covering his ears when it stopped asking its question, but -
"I don't know. We've never been properly introduced." He answered, his voice strained as if he wasn't entirely sure sarcasm was a good response, but leaving himself little choice because there really was nothing else he could say. He had no idea who was behind the mask - or masks - and at this point, couldn't even hazard a guess. His sarcasm was a terrible shield.
"But…perhaps we could figure it out?"
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Posted: Sun Jun 14, 2015 9:09 pm
The masks shifted, and then turned into a crudely drawn version of a face. Ripley's face.
All the masks stared right at him. "Am I you?"
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Posted: Sun Jun 14, 2015 10:21 pm
"…" Ripley paused, staring at the crude portrait of himself. It was rather off-putting, in a stance way. "…Well…technically…Your mask is showing what I believe is an image of me, but you are not me."
He hoped.
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Posted: Thu Jul 02, 2015 10:35 pm
"No," the masks agreed, looming closer. Tendrils began to seep out of them, branches, each reaching towards Ripley, to his arms, his neck, his body, "we are not you yet."
At some point, the sensation of being entangled turned to one of drowning, as if felt that everything was pulling Ripley down and he couldn't move, or think, or breathe, as a dark void, a blackness, emptiness whole and complete swept over him.
He couldn't move.
He was contained as tiny branches swept over him, prickling every exposed nerve, digging into him deeper and deeper. They pulled out memories, his most important memories, sifting through him. He couldn't help as they pried key moments open. Enoh love Select five quick memories and write them as drabbles. They should be "important" ones. Ripley will not forget them, but they will also be used for ???
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Posted: Mon Jul 06, 2015 6:09 pm
"Why would you even want to-" Too late, he realized the branches were reaching for him. The feeling of drowning rushed up to meet him moments later. His lungs burned, and after a deep panic came a strange and empty calm. Somehow, he had lost himself. Hollow. Empty.
Not a second later came the pain. The prodding of little branches poking at his nerves, digging into his person, burying their little hooks into…
~*~*~
"WHAT?!" Shrieked a female voice, loud and squeaky with offended disbelief. The sheer pitch of her voice was probably the only reason she had even been heard over the sudden roar of laughter from the others around her. With another frustrated scream, she slammed a hand of white cards on the table hard enough to upend her half filled glass of beer. "You little s**t!" She cried, lifting her cards and throwing them at him. He made no effort to catch them or to save himself from their assault: all he could do was laugh until tears formed in his eyes.
~*~*~
The hiss and crackle of glowing orange tendrils raging through the window, the heat from a seemingly waving door in front of him, and the searing pain against his palms -
~*~*~
The steady, agonizing beep of medical equipment, and empty feeling so vast he was sure he would never resurface. A sympathetic doctor, giving him two choices.
~*~*~
"-Put your seatbelt on!" He demanded, his usually calm voice startlingly urgent.
"Oh my God, It's on!" The blonde in the driver's seat huffed, as the car lurched into a faster speed.
Ripley gripped the handle by the door, and pressed his foot to the mat as if it would slow them down. It didn't.
~*~*~
"Christmas." The other man repeated, slowly. Ripley waited patiently for him to figure it out, and watched the cogs behind his only remaining eye work to process what he had just been told. There was a lengthy pause, before he breathed out a single noise, surprised but understanding: "Oh." The pause that followed wasn't reassuring, and he felt that well of uncertainty bubble within him; it had only been an acknowledgement. Everything else was still in the air.
"The zombie mission. I know, so romantic." Finn's voice bubbled into a strange laugh, and Ripley stared at him, watching the way his hand ran through his hair. "But I'm betting you already guessed as much."
Ripley felt himself swallow hard before he nodded, slowly. "I did." He heard himself say. "It was the first time you shut me out."
It was funny to him, in that moment, how backwards they really were.
~*~*~
In the present, Ripley tried to fight the branches that bound him, but no matter how hard he struggled, he never once felt himself move.
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