selfmotivations | [ somarium ] voicemail

[ She leaves the truck, bringing the supplies out with her.

She looks around the desert. ] Who knows, maybe you'll be able to see your home soon enough.

[ Although not in the best of circumstances. ]

[a small laugh.]

Maybe. Though I have to admit, I'll miss this place.

[he's going to move around back to the bed of the truck, taking off the cover and unlocking the hatch. well they have to eat somewhere and the cab is empty. there's even a blanket already there, though usually he just uses it to cover anything that might be in the cab. once he clears it off and takes the supplies from her, he holds out a hand to help her up.]

[ Being helped up, and now that things are set up, she wonders if they should just skip to the wine. This is going to be some heavy information. She doesn't know where to start. She's been keeping a good face with having just heard Nocturne wants them dead, but the stress is beginning to chip away at her. ]

I certainly won't.

[ Well. That was a little harsh. She catches a quick look back at him. ] That is--... I won't miss most of it.

[ Some things she will miss. Some people she will miss. ]

[hah.]

Nah, I know what you mean.

[well he'll pour the glasses first and honestly he won't mind if they dip right into it.]

So. Pleasantries first or do you want to jump right in?

[he'll let her take the lead on this. let her set the pace.]

[ She looks at her glass for a moment, swirling it once.

She gon' jump right to it. ] They're going to kill us.

[good thing he wasn't drinking yet otherwise he might have done a spittake. he does look at her sharply.]

What do you mean?

....Their plan is that when they don't need us anymore, they're going to dispose of us.

[ Then as an aside: ] I haven't been threatened directly. [ Not yet?? ] But this is what I discovered.

Did you hear how they plan on doing that?

When... when they decide to invade other worlds. That is when they plan on doing so.

As for how? [ A shrug. ] I can only imagine. [ She looks at him again. ] The things I've worked on this past wee-- the things I've seen... Alvin, I don't know if you saw what Lacie Baskerville had become, but I believe that could be just the beginning if Nocturne is left unchecked.

No I didn't. [he was focused more on Jude and things.] What happened? What exactly have they been making you do?

Lacie was being used as a live experiment for a special potent formula of nightmare energy. She turned into what they call a "Night Terror". This isn't a project I worked on.

Instead of a being like a nightwalker where it's difficult to tell who is the unfortunate individual to be used as a base, a Night Terror more resembles their physical self. First noctaere, then nightwalkers, and now this-- this could imply they're refining their formula to produce a kind of being that looks exactly like a person's normal self, but in reality is a nightmare monster underneath. [ Quite a good idea, if they want more undetectable monsters. But speculation aside-- ] Anyway, they're extremely powerful and more destructive. The downside is that these Night Terrors appear to be more prototype than anything else, and their control is unstable.

[ She looks down at her hands. ] As for me, I... have been promoted [ said dryly. ] to experimenting on Noctaere as well as the unfortunate individuals who are being used as their base.

[he's silent for a moment, taking it all in. in some ways it did make sense, and he remembers how those Nightwalkers were like some kind of freak experiment.]

How involved have you been in those...experiments?

[he understands if she had to actually do something. he's had his hands dirty on things he didn't necessarily agree to. but he has to know how deep she is in this now.]

[ .... ]

Very involved.

[a long exhale as he leans back. yep, time for a deep swallow of wine.]

So you know how those things are made?

[ Here, here. ] Basically, a lot of nightmare energy. Sometimes I question if those of us who are doing this research are protected. Nightmare energy isn't fully understood. It could be how radiation research was in its early days: we'll all be seeing effects upon ourselves depending on the dosages exposed.

Given what's in store for us, I think that will be the least of your worries. But I hope not. You already have a lot going on in that body of yours. We don't need it to start mutating into something I'll have to shoot later.

[he had been staring out ahead while he had been speaking, and he still doesn't look at her, instead going down to his glass.]

Did you learn anything about the virus or a cure? Or anything that could help Jude?

Sadly, no. [ Silence for a moment. ] But it's beginning to look more as if nightmare energy would be the go-to substance as it lasts longer than dream energy. However, I suspect it would be used as a treatment, not a cure.

The only other possible option I can pursue is their mixed dream energy injections. If there is some sort of university miracle cure in another world and that dream energy was collected and condensed, perhaps something could be made of that.

[again he's silent, letting those words sink in.]

So is it an actual virus or is it dream—or nightmare—energy based?

Dream energy based. The injections contained part pure dream energy of Hypnosia, and part dream energy that mimics the signature wavelength of dream energy of another world. For the one that Jude received, that signature must have mimicked the dream energy from my world in particular.

...Although, I'm not sure if that makes this all well and good. I've seen now through others than most of the effects of that injection have not lasted over a week. However, I doubt the damage done by these effects vanishes after that week is up. If someone were given fire powers after receiving an injection and burned a house down, after a week that ability would no longer be there but the house would still be ashes.

Hmm... Well if that's the case, rather than looking at it like the actual virus, why not something that would affect the dream energy? Kind of like how they used purified dream energy for medicine back in those research books we found a while ago.

[back when the whole Nightwalker incident began.]

I'll see what I can find.

[ Though she falls silent after that. This is all weighing on her mind. She knows she has to find that cure or something, but now that it's been confirmed they'd killed them, even if it's just potentially, this increases her risk. Not that she didn't assume her life was threatened while already working for them, but she likes to work with confirmation more than speculation. ]

[he looks at her for a moment.]

The longer you stay in there, the more dangerous it is.

[and then he looks out again.]

Personally I'd rather you quit now while I have you out here.

[and then he finishes his glass and rather than refilling it he's getting a beer. he'll top hers off though if she wants.]

[ Yep, her glass was nearly empty. But no complaints here. ] I doubt you would be saying that a week ago.

[ With how upset he was about Jude. And Jude is still sick, technically dying. ]

Nah, I still would have. In fact I didn't like the idea of sending you on this little "espionage" mission, but greater good trumps personal opinion I guess.

[ Really? All she's done so far is greater evil. She doesn't seem comforted by his words. ] I'll be fine so long as I'm careful.

[ But she's thinking to get some information she might have to be a bit more reckless. ]

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