Dream One 🔥 Unhappy Memories

[disdelusioned]

Sender: Diluc Ragnvindr
To: Everyone
Subject: Passive dream recording
Warnings: spoilers for Genshin Impact character stories and webtoon; cw: blood, violence, and death

[The beginning events of the dream happen quickly. A large purple drake descends on a cart and wagon, leaving naught but carnage in its wake. A man with more than a passing resemblence to Diluc emerges from from the wagon, standing against the drake and attacking it with a great and terrible power. Within moments, the beast is ensnared with dark chains. A few moments later, it breaks free and retreats, and the man collapses.

It's at this point that Diluc himself becomes visible in the dream, huddled over the man's body and covered with blood that's not his own. He's younger, a late adolescent, and calls the man "father" as he cries out in grief. The rain starts pouring down, though it does little to wash the stains of red away.

Nearby, a flamboyantly dressed man regards him cooly.]

"You know, Master Diluc, I can't help but wonder if your anger about all this might be a bit misplaced."

[Slowly, Diluc's gaze rises from his father's corpse to look up at him. His expression almost immediately shifts into a sharp glare. The man continues to speak, totally unfazed.]

"You blame the Fatui and the Knights - and me by association - but have you stopped to consider that perhaps it's our dearest father that betrayed you first? You honestly don't believe he accepted this Delusion at the point of a sword or under the duress of a threat, do you?"

[Diluc is on his feet in an instant, grabbing a sword that by all rights shouldn't be there and charging him.]

Take that back!

[He's stopped after only a handful of steps by the same great and terrible power that stopped the drake's advance, this time piercing him through from behind.

At that point, the dream ends as its dreamer wakes up with a start.]

Comments

[hearthwarming]

[ Ori feels as though her stomach's dropped at the sight of the purple drake, and she can't help but wonder for a moment if she's seeing another of her own nightmares— until she's faced with the grief of a young man who looks so very much like Diluc. It's then that she realizes that, this time, she's seeing a nightmare of his - but she can't interact with it the same way that he had with hers, and all she can do is watch as her heart twists and aches in her chest.

Although it takes her a while to collect herself and think on how to proceed, it's not very long after he's awoken that, dream lanterns aglow as she clutches her own, Ori's voice quietly resonates through a telepathic connection. ]

Diluc - it's Ori, I... I'm here if you need anything.

[ She wants to make sure he has space, but she also wants him to know that she's here. He doesn't need to shoulder this on his own, if she can help it. But she also knows all too well, herself, that old habits die hard. ]

[shithogs]

[For a long while, she considers not saying anything. She and the dreamer have no established friendship, or at least what passes for it as far as Kainé is concerned, and she could move on without it ever making a difference for either of them— but the dream itself resonates with her.

Grief. Anger. The desire for violence, for revenge, and the pain of being cut down before either can be achieved.

Eventually, she decides to ask a single question, one she thinks she already knows the answer to, given the visceral nature of the dream itself.]

Is this a memory?

[burnbrighter]

[ Thoma has heard rumors from the merchants around Ritou, especially those in the wine business, about how Master Crepus met his end, but as is the way with rumors, most get twisted up in the retelling. Details change or get left out.

But not a single one of them have mentioned a Fatui Delusion. And he can’t help but feel that it’s by design.

The nightmare ends abruptly and Thoma jerks out of it, hand over his own chest as if he were the one to get run through instead of Diluc. Hell. He can’t imagine what the other man must be feeling – though knowing Diluc he’s probably showing it as little as possible. He also probably isn’t going back to sleep anytime soon.

That doesn’t stop Thoma from bundling up and heading out, and a short while later, there’s a knock on Diluc’s door. ]

Diluc? It’s Thoma.

sender: Barok van Zieks

[discourtesies]

[It's a horribly traumatic thing to witness. As familiar with dead bodies as van Zieks is, even when it comes to those he knows, to watch the process is another thing entirely, and nothing he'd wish upon anyone, much less someone he's come to respect.

It's partly that respect that makes him hesitate to remark upon such a sensitive dream. Even without that, Barok struggles to think he has any right to involve himself in the personal struggles of even some of his closer acquaintances.

And yet...

Misplaced anger defined him for the past decade, and he can't ignore the idea. About an hour later, he writes:]

Mr Ragnvindr,

I wonder if you may be amenable to discussing the dream that was broadcast earlier this evening. Pray understand that I do not suggest this lightly — I well understand the difficulty of speaking of such matters. Naturally, I would not ask for an immediate reply, nor for you to accept a guest or invitation at this hour, but if it should please you to do so, I am likely to remain awake for some time and shall await your response.

[Then he signs it, like an actual letter. Freaking Victorians.]