dreamscape

[grandtheftbody]

[This is subject to change at my whims, and will be slightly different for everyone who ventures into it, but this is the basic outline.]

This dreamscape begins with a dark, foggy hallway. It's hard to make out anything concrete through the mist, but it looks like an abandoned building. Shapes are dimly visible, but it's hard to pinpoint what they are. From one angle that pile of stuff looks like broken masonry - from another it looks like a body. Things change and move, faint whispers of voices drift on the breeze (or maybe it's only the sound of the building settling).

Walking down the hallway, you will come to a wooden door at the end. Though it looks old and shoddily made, it's locked securely and can't be broken down. Resting on a rickety table next to the door are three items. When picked up, they turn into nondescript keys. Unlocking the door with each key will lead you to a different set of memories, a different guide, and different questions. Once used, the key disappears.

On the table are an eyeball, a pair of shackles, and a ring.

THE EYE

This key leads you to dark, echoing hallways. The mist is gone, but the only lights that remain intact are flickering and faint. The floor is littered with broken medical and scientific equipment, shattered glass, and blood. Adult bodies are slumped here and there, their sightless eyes seeming to watch you as you walk past them.

Before you've taken more than a few steps down the hallway, a young boy will step out of the shadows to be your guide. You can speak as you walk, or walk in silence. Notably, young Mukuro's eyes are both blue.

Empty doorways lead off the hall. Peering into them will show you memories - or maybe those are nightmares. Children being tortured, abandoned, experimented upon, treated as tools. Memories of a rather unpleasant childhood. Mukuro will stand next to you and watch the same memories quietly, with an occasional laugh or comment.

He will lead you down the hall to a room at the end. There, he will sit on an abandoned, bloody exam table, ask you some questions, and give you a knife.

Will you do him a favor and cut out his eye? It's important.

THE SHACKLES

This key leads you to a dark, dank prison. A shackle appears around your neck, the chain leading into the darkness. Next to you, walking through the prison at your side, is an older Mukuro.

As you follow the chain, passing through the rooms of the prison, you'll see memories - or something like memories. Mukuro will explain that these are the memories of a future that didn't quite happen, a future that was prevented in his world, but still a possible future. One that he remembers having lived, for all that it never happened.

You can't explore the prison. You can't free yourself from the chain, but can only follow a predetermined path through the dark rooms, deeper and deeper into the depths of the prison. Finally, you'll end up in a large room full of tanks. Floating within each tank is a bound form, chained and imprisoned.

Floating in one of those tanks is you. Find yourself. Free yourself. Mukuro might help - or maybe not. Don't look too hard at the other people - things - floating in the tanks, though. You might recognize some of them.

THE MIST RING

This key leads you outside, to this building. Exploring the abandoned building will show you different memories, different scenes from Mukuro's life. They prominently feature his friends and people he cares for, and they're both memories from home and from Adstring. If you have CR with him, you might see yourself.

Unlike the other two keys, this one contains more happy memories than unpleasant ones - though sometimes it can be a little hard to tell. The building itself is almost like a labyrinth. Things shift and change, illusion and reality merging into each other until it can be very difficult to find your way, difficult to tell what's real and what isn't.

Despite that, though, and despite the broken-down nature of the building itself, the feel of this place is less oppressive, less creepy. At times, it can feel almost welcoming.

No guide accompanies you here, but by walking through the building you will eventually find Mukuro, sitting on an old couch. He looks just the way he does in Adstring. You can talk for awhile, about plenty of things, but eventually he'll ask you to make a difficult choice.

AFTER

When you complete the task set for you - helping young Mukuro (or not), making your choice, finding yourself - the setting around you will dissolve and the first door will appear again. Around it are a collection of other doors, leading to other people's dreamscapes. You can take one of them, or you can choose another key.