Still on my post RE9 au bullshit. agenda: Leon picking up Zeno like a wet stray and kick-starting a redemption arc.
Zeno insisting on calling Leon 'Handler' because that's the only title he's ever been trained to answer to.
Leon being increasingly disturbed by the increasing amount of dehumanising treatment this man thinks is normal. Leon who has to pick his battles and compromise on how he treats his charge because Zeno straight up runs Bluescreen.exe if Leon treats him like a fuckin' human being. Which means outside, Leon's answering to the title of Handler. And yes, everyone else is playfully giving him shit about it.
It's not all hopeless. Leon's chipping away at Zeno's walls slowly. One of these days he'll feel comfortable enough to call him something more casual than Handler or the occasional, rare, Mr. Kennedy.
I had an idea for how Al'styr and Dar'nel communicate.
It's quite simple.
Post-it notes.
Since one essentially IS the other at all times, the only occasion where they 'meet' face to face is in the middle of a Switch in their shared mindscape. I'm still playing around with whether or not they can see each other, via reflections or shadows and the like, but I quite like the notion that they are unable to verbally communicate. Instead, they get a 'vibe'.
Like. Ok. Say Al'styr had to deal with a particularly rude person.
Al'styr would get the 'vibe'/sense that Dar'nel is angry at this person, maybe see it in his expression reflected in the mirror. But Al wouldn't know Dar's thoughts or feelings on the situation until he Switched and wrote it down.
That guy was such a jerk. Pfft. "Don't know what *I'm* doing" My Ass -Dar
Al reads the lil post-its later on, sometimes having trouble remembering what Dar is referring to, sometimes even cracking a smile.
I concur. -Dr. J
Eventually the notes pile up so he has to burn them, destroying the evidence. The few, however, that he can't get rid of find themselves in a notebook. This notebook becomes their 'telephone' of sorts, replacing the notes.
For the moment tho, I'm amusing myself with thoughts of a small apartment absolutely plastered in post-it note arguments over the most trivial of things.
A mini bun, if you will. It got ahold of a snack while I was scrolling and I wanted to yap.
Wesker doesn't drink or smoke. Chris is absolutely sure of this. He shows distain for his and Leon's vices. It muddies the mind and his mind is his greatest weapon, or something. Personally I think he just doesn't like feeling like he's not in control of his faculties, even if it's something as low-key as a hit of nicotine. He'll indulge in a glass of wine on occasion, but it's fussy stuff with pretentious labels and a low-to-nonexistent alcohol content.
It's the reason Leon doesn't get into Wesker's allotted space in the liquor cabinet like a spaniel rummaging in garbage when they live together. 'if the ABV ain't double digits, what's the point?' Chris's European whisky has no such protection. Chris loves his imported whiskey. Leon also loves Chris's imported whiskey.
AnYWAYS there's a mission to destroy the G-virus that goes very, very wrong. But that's like, side plot to the fact Wesker is trying to convince William to join him in defecting to Chris and Leon's Totally Real Mystery Organization under the banner of S.T.A.R.S. He is. extremely unsuccessful in this endeavour. It's a whole betrayal and a half.
I haven't decided if I want it to go as dark as my original idea entails, but regardless, Wesker's getting strangled to death with his own belt by the man he once considered his closest friend while the virus keeps him alive enough to feel every second of it. And it might be the least worst thing that happens to distract William until S.T.A.R.S. gets out of the potential contamination zone. Oh yeah, did I mention Birkin successfully synthesised the G-virus into a gas. Because he did that. Real breakthrough stuff. And it's their problem now.
In Wesker's mind, this is a perfectly calculated set of risks and choices. He's doing what he does best, reading the room and manipulating every advantage he has over Birkin to attain his goal. He could choose to sacrifice S.T.A.R.S. and kill this man in a snap. This is a controlled negotiation. The personal history, the defeat, the degradation, the physical pain, doesn't matter. He can't hurt him in any way that matters.
Unfortunately, Wesker is falling victim to his own hubris again. Forgetting that he's still human and human minds don't work like that. Losing the closest thing he had to a lifelong friend and being subjected to losing control (his worst fear) in such a violent and horrific way isn't something he can just walk away from without feeling anything, even if he recovers physically in minutes.
Doesn't help that Chris and Leon hear every minute of it because they absolutely saw it coming that Wesker would try to do something sneaky behind their backs and put a second mic on him in case he disables the first one (which he does, so they're valid for that, but cutting off contact so he can plead sincerely with Birkin isn't the evil scheming they had in mind).
Chris is very fucking distraught and doesn't know how to handle the fact Wesker got hurt on his watch. That it was to protect them, no matter what dismissive bullshit Wesker brushes it off with. All the powers of a tyrant and he still let Birkin absolutely chew him up and spit him out in order to buy them time to disable the gas. None of this was supposed to happen. None of this did happen, last time. His feelings about Wesker getting ten times more complicated because the man in front of him isn't the same man he killed, and now, after all this meddling, might never be. Making him an ally, getting to him first, using all that future knowledge to change him like this before that godhood complex could even take root, turning one of his most empowering experiences into one of his darkest moments, might just have been crueller than just shooting him in the head the moment they met again. His Wesker would certainly think so.
Leon is a bit more calmer and calculated about it. He never had any history with Wesker, so he doesn't have the same hang-ups as Chris does. He's the one who notices the European whiskey is missing when he goes to nick some from the cabinet. He also knows who took it, no matter how much Chris insists Wesker wouldn't. He grabs a spare glass and heads to the balcony attached to Wesker's room. Finds him there with the whisky, and a pack of Chris's cigarettes. Not quite the application Umbrella had in mind when they encouraged the Wesker children to steal shit to further their own goals, but whatever.
Leon doesn't say a word about it. Just sits a comfortable distance away and pours some of that good fuckin' whisky for himself. Watching Raccoon City's nightlife together while Wesker silently chain-smokes and drinks himself into a stupor. Gets some honest words out of him, kind of like he's processing it for himself and Leon just happens to be there. "We have known each other almost all our lives. I was his best man at his wedding. He asked me to be his daughter's godfather. We were a pair, a set. There was a time I would've followed him into hell, had he asked. I asked him to join me — and he killed me. Over and over again. Just to see if he could. I wish I was angry. I wish I could hate him for it. But we are both scientists at heart. It's simply in our nature to experiment and observe."
Leon's the one who calls it quits on the drinking and gets Wesker to bed when it's obvious he can't stand up without threatening to topple over the balcony. He has NEVER been this drunk, and it shows. He's saying things he would commit murder to keep secret. Chris absolutely wouldn't be able to handle it but Leon isn't Chris and he's been on the opposite end of this scenario too many times to judge. He gets him comfortable as possible, tucks his sunglasses away in their case, and makes him drink a whole glass of water. "You'll be grateful I did this in the morning, trust me."
Wesker remembers exactly none of it when he's sober. Leon doesn't mention a damn thing, what comes from the bottle stays in the bottle, but that's not the same as forgetting.
I dreamt I was playing video games with loads of cool plot twists and horror elements. One of them was a Sonic game! I only remember there was one bit....
Shadow confronted Sonic and he was pretty upset with him, because Sonic ditched him at a place they were supposed to meet for a race. But Sonic definitely didn't make any plans for that, and after questioning Shadow, he can't quite remember when they made those plans either. It seems like he had a very convincing dream. It's unusual, but not unbelievable. He's peeved and a bit embarrassed, but Sonic's chill about it, and they go on their separate way.
Except, much later, it's revealed there's some time loop fuckery going on. In the previous instance of that day, Sonic and Shadow did make plans for that race. Shadow is remembering fragments of previous days, but he's mistaken most of them for dreams.
Me: *struggling to figure out the Strange Case: Heart vs Mind edition's plot*
My brain, about to end this bitch's whole career: hey, hey yknow, yknow that whole intro? Yknow the war and That Night That May Become a Week or a Month? Yknow, getting banished yadda yadda ya. Yeh. Yeh that. That would Make A Great Plot. Let's Not Gloss over it.
Me, furiously taking notes: Oh, yeh. Fuck. Yes it would. Okay. Well. I guess we're doing this now.
i am quite satisfied with the no love triangle of this baby, i’m high octane version, but in a parallel universe, everything would be a lot messier and about you would be nora and bradley’s song.
i like how the explosion arc is called the explosion arc because i keep on figuring out more ways for said explosion to greatly affect the lives of nearly every character. i mean it is an explosion but. explosion of character arcs, also
Do you ever have moments in writing your wip just casually plotting out stuff, and you start thinking on the details and you realize the darker implications of your ocs’ powers and/or backstory to their personalities. Like in a world where powers manifest based on their desires turned outward to fit them best, would the most dangerous and powerful likely come from bad childhoods due to poor, bad neighborhoods, broken homes, or dysfunctional families, whether as a coping mechanism, form of protection, or a simple moment of wrong time, wrong place to come in where you’re just filled with so much rage and hatred at the people and world around you. So, it could go either way in the terms of a hero world, but with how things are these days, I wouldn’t be surprised if to make more heroes, they basically make a joke out of reforming bad neighborhoods, protective services, and the foster system, and then coming by with these temptations of a better future and life if they sign on with them, and yeah, there’s a fifty fifty chance of also turning out villains, but that’s what heroes are for, aren’t they?
