70. [DREAM/DREAM/DREAM/DREAM]

[foolishwren]

<sub>[So while the rest of Johto alternately panics, cries, or rushes around trying to capture as many of the soulstealing insects as possible, there are dozens of souls floating around in that dream limbo, drifting in and out of each other's slumbering thoughts and visions. Whether it's nightmarish flashbacks or just those dreams where you're at school taking a really hard test, and then Dracula shows up, and then everybody's naked ... anything is possible when it comes to what people see in their sleep.]

[But what appears in the darkness in this particular spot in the spaceless, shifting mass of dreaming souls... is a door.]

[It's old, and covered with boards and bolts, rusted near-through in some places. The lock is broken-- mangled and half-melted and wrenched out of the keyhole. The only thing on it that doesn't look ancient is a scrap of torn notebook-paper that's taped up on it at roughly eye-level. It reads only a single phrase:]</sub>

Fear of blood tends to create fear for the flesh.

<sub>[More importantly, though... the door is ajar. Through the gap come the scents of rust and metal-- and something organic, fleshy-- and a low, deep hum of industrial machinery. It's not a door that anyone in their right mind would want to go through. ... But for anyone who may have stumbled this far into the dreams of their fellow lost souls, either in flight from some other nightmare or just pure, wandering curiosity... there's just no other place to go but through the door.]




[Go on. Open it. After all.... it's only a dream.]</sub>

[ooc: SORRY THIS TOOK SO LONG, GUYS. Thanks for being patient! If you commented on that planning post, there's something spooky planned for your character to do here so please feel free to tag or not tag as it pleases you!]

~*~

[ooc: This is the IC post for what was announced over here! Even if you didn't comment there, feel free to participate! I'm still happy to whip up Silent Hill scenarios for folks!]

Comments

[philanthrotaku.livejournal.com]

...

Are you sure you're alright? Because, er...you don't seem all that sane right now.

[He approached, trying to figure out just what the hell Heather hoped to accomplish by this.]

[foolishwren]

_{[She pauses long enough to give him a LOOK over her shoulder.]}

If I weren't sane, I'd be beating YOU with this thing. Just be patient. Christ.

<sub>[Returning her attentions to the wall, she cranks the pipe back, then gives it one last powerful whack. That's the one that does it-- the feeble plaster crumbles away at last, to reveal a hollow area that must have been built over.]

[Grinning a satisfied grin, Heather sets the pipe aside and reaches in without hesitation-- she's done this a thousand times before.]</sub>

[philanthrotaku.livejournal.com]

Hey, I'm perfectly patient! I just find a good reason to worry when someone turns around and starts beating a wall like it's totally normal!

[Sigh.]

What's in there, anyway?

[foolishwren]

Well, get used to it... there's a lot of things that don't make sense around here.

_{[She fishes around for a second or two, then locates whatever she was looking for and withdraws, turning around and holding her prize up with a grin.]}

Silencer.

_{[... A very... familiar silencer...]}

[philanthrotaku.livejournal.com]

...

[Hang on a second. Something wasn't right here.]

...Heather, can I see that for a second?

[foolishwren]

_{[She blinks at him, but then holds it out. Why not?]}

You know. To go on a handgun. Makes the shots quieter.

[philanthrotaku.livejournal.com]

I know what it is, Heather.

[How many times had he worked on Snake's weapons since they'd started working together? How many pistols had he spent hours repairing and modifying?]

[Hal Emmerich was no expert on weaponry. But what he did know were the components to things he had worked on.]

...can't be. This is...Snake's silencer.

[foolishwren]

_{[... Wat.]}

... What?

No, it's not! It's mine-- I found it in that wall, back on the night when-- ... I found it in that wall! I've had it ever since!

_{[She tilts her head, brows furrowed at Otacon.]}

Isn't it possible he just has the same brand or something?

[philanthrotaku.livejournal.com]

I know it sounds crazy, but...

[He was definitely familiar with this one in particular. The weight of it, the few faint scratches and imperfections on the exterior--Otacon was one hundred percent sure he was right.]

I know Snake's weaponry as well as I know the inner components of your average toaster. And I'm absolutely certain this is the same one he has back home.

[foolishwren]

_{[Heather pauses, blinks... then folds her arms. She sounds a little mad, but the truth is just that she's really, really confused.]}

HOW could it be the same one?

I never MET Snake before I got to Johto!

[philanthrotaku.livejournal.com]

H-hey, I don't understand this any more than you do! It doesn't make sense, but there's n-no way I'm wrong.

[foolishwren]

_{[She shakes her head and points to the hole she just smashed in the wall.]}

Two years ago, my life went to hell and, among all kinds of other what-the-fuck things, I broke that wall open and pulled out this silencer. It's been in my possession ever since!

How the hell would something of Snake's gotten in there?

Before I even CAME to Johto and met all've you?

[philanthrotaku.livejournal.com]

...

[Confused, he turned his attention to the wall the silencer came from.]

I'm not...I'm not wrong, but you've got a point...it doesn't make sense.

[foolishwren]

_{[Look in the hole, Otacon... you know you want to...]}

Damn straight it doesn't make sense!

Plus, I don't see his INITIALS on it anywhere...

[philanthrotaku.livejournal.com]

You know I'm not crazy, Heather--I know this silencer. I've worked on Snake's weapons enough to recognize every scratch, flaw, and whatever else on just about anything he's used. There's no way this isn't the same one.

[Sighing, he knelt down to take a closer look at the hole; there must have been some reason it had been in there, right?]

[foolishwren]

<sub>[Heather scoffs and folds her arms, still not convinced.]

[But the hole... should reveal an answer.]

[In the form of a pair of dangling legs.]</sub>

[philanthrotaku.livejournal.com]

Wh-what the hell--?! H-H-Heather, there's--th-there's somebody...I-I...!

[foolishwren]

Yeah, there's a body in there.

So what?

_{[... She never looked too closely.]}