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Entry tags:
Dreamsend
Title: Dreamsend
Fandom: End Roll
Character(s): Raymond, Russell, Walter
Pairing(s): None
Genre: Angst
Word Count: 1,015
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: Spoilers, suicide
Summary: Raymond bonds with Russell, somewhat unwillingly.
Notes: Good morning.
“For a place like this to show up in your dream, you must have done some pretty hard stuff, right?” Raymond asks, eyeing a drooling Cattie with some suspicion.
It’s just the two of them, so Russell is a bit more loose-lipped than usual. Raymond can’t blame him for normally being so quiet, when the wrong words could collapse his dream early. “I only did it once and it was a bad experience. Mostly I just helped push the drugs.”
“That so…” Raymond can’t picture a kid like Russell being seriously involved with drug trafficking. Then again, he has a hard time picturing him murdering people, and he knows a lot of that happened to get him on death row.
Russell nods. “There aren’t a lot of legal jobs for kids that are my age.”
“What’d you need money so badly for anyway, kid?” Raymond asks. “I usually make it a policy not to learn too much about the dreamers, it’s just easier that way, but eh - call me curious.”
Seeming to stare at something far away, Russell says, “Beer. Lots and lots of beer.”
“Mr. Walter, I thought you would be tougher than this,“ Russell says, and Raymond can see Walter instantly bristle.
“In your dream, I easily have the best offensive capabilities of anyone,” Walter says.
“But that doesn’t matter if you get knocked out before you get to use a single attack,” Russell says. “Can’t you just cheat and give yourself a little more defensive power?”
“Doesn’t work like that,” Raymond says with a shrug. “Just like your skills are based on your changing personality and memories, we’ve got our skills and - roles, I guess? - assigned to us when we go into the dream. If we want to get tougher, we’ve gotta do it the old-fashioned way.”
“So you aren’t always a gunslinger, Raymond?” Russell asks.
“Nah. This one dream I was a - hey, wait, how come he’s ‘Mr. Walter’ and I’m just ‘Raymond’?!” Raymond asks with narrowed eyes. “I’m five years older than him! There are balloons that prove it! It’s not fair!”
“It’s obviously because you’re less mature than I am,” Walter says, smirking. “Anyone can tell, even a child.”
Russell visibly considers that. “...You’re right, that’s not fair at all.”
Raymond sighs in relief. “Right? So call me Mr. Raymond from now on-”
“Let’s get going, Raymond, Walter.”
Walter looks annoyed but says nothing, so Raymond will consider that close enough to a victory.
“You’ve been in a lot of dreams before, right?” Russell asks, outside the monsters’ main nest.
Its resemblance to a woman would be uncanny if this weren’t a dream, where nothing is coincidental: as things are, Raymond is sure Russell has issues with either women in general or a specific woman. He could ask, and Russell would probably tell him, but… It’s his policy not to learn too much.
“A fair few, yes,” Walter says, calm as ever.
“I know the people in here aren’t real. So… why do I care about them so much even though I know that?” Russell asks. His lip is quivering.
Raymond glances at Walter, who nods at him in a ‘this is about feelings, you handle it’ kind of way. Raymond sighs. “People get attached really easily to stuff they know they shouldn’t. They can’t help it, it’s how they’re made, you know? And these guys have been nice to you and fought beside you, so of course you’re going to like them. That’s normal.”
“They’re just going to disappear,” Russell says, weakly. “I… I don’t want that.”
“At this point, your level of guilt is too high for there to be any alternative,” Walter says, and when Russell flinches, he hesitates before going on. “The fact that you care so much about people who are of no connection to you is promising for your rehabilitation. Try to think of it that way.”
Russell still looks unsure, so Raymond says, “It looks like you’re going to get out of here as a success. So… why don’t you call up Dreamsend Trade when you’re done and give me a ring?”
“Raymond,” Walter says sharply.
“I’m not breaking any actual rules! Just some implied ones.” Raymond knows contacting the dreamers afterward is a no go, but no one said they couldn’t contact him, right? “Besides, it’s not like he knows anybody living out there, except maybe one classmate. Success story or not, it’d be pretty sad not to have at least a couple guys you could talk to, right?”
Walter looks like he’s about to say something else, but he’s beaten to it.
“Thank you.” Russell is smiling. It’s a trembling smile tinged with sadness, but it’s something.
Raymond gives him a grin. “Any time. Let’s go clear your final dungeon.”
Three weeks later, Raymond finally rings up Dreamsend Research and asks for Walter.
“This had better not be about what I think it is,” Walter says in clipped tones.
“It’s nothing big,” Raymond says with a casualness he doesn’t completely feel. “I just haven’t gotten any calls, and you know they don’t tell us lowly peons at Dreamsend Trade anything.”
“Then why don’t you call Guidance?” Walter asks.
“Because I’d have to talk to Fairia,” Raymond says, shuddering at the very thought. “Look, just tell me if Russell made it out of there okay, alright? I know you know.”
There’s a short pause on the other end of the line. “He was technically the program’s first success.”
“I really don’t like the word ‘technically’ there,” Raymond says with a creeping feeling of dread.
“He committed suicide in his prison cell just before officials arrived to retrieve him,” Walter says. He sounds even more detached than usual.
Raymond’s quiet for a moment, processing. Despite everything, Russell hadn’t been an entirely bad kid. And even if he was, that’s still... “Guess that’s what we get for trying to make a kid feel that level of guilt.”
“Will that be all?” Walter asks, without a hint of emotion.
“Yeah. Yeah, that’s it.”
Walter hangs up on him without so much as a goodbye.
Fandom: End Roll
Character(s): Raymond, Russell, Walter
Pairing(s): None
Genre: Angst
Word Count: 1,015
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: Spoilers, suicide
Summary: Raymond bonds with Russell, somewhat unwillingly.
Notes: Good morning.
“For a place like this to show up in your dream, you must have done some pretty hard stuff, right?” Raymond asks, eyeing a drooling Cattie with some suspicion.
It’s just the two of them, so Russell is a bit more loose-lipped than usual. Raymond can’t blame him for normally being so quiet, when the wrong words could collapse his dream early. “I only did it once and it was a bad experience. Mostly I just helped push the drugs.”
“That so…” Raymond can’t picture a kid like Russell being seriously involved with drug trafficking. Then again, he has a hard time picturing him murdering people, and he knows a lot of that happened to get him on death row.
Russell nods. “There aren’t a lot of legal jobs for kids that are my age.”
“What’d you need money so badly for anyway, kid?” Raymond asks. “I usually make it a policy not to learn too much about the dreamers, it’s just easier that way, but eh - call me curious.”
Seeming to stare at something far away, Russell says, “Beer. Lots and lots of beer.”
“Mr. Walter, I thought you would be tougher than this,“ Russell says, and Raymond can see Walter instantly bristle.
“In your dream, I easily have the best offensive capabilities of anyone,” Walter says.
“But that doesn’t matter if you get knocked out before you get to use a single attack,” Russell says. “Can’t you just cheat and give yourself a little more defensive power?”
“Doesn’t work like that,” Raymond says with a shrug. “Just like your skills are based on your changing personality and memories, we’ve got our skills and - roles, I guess? - assigned to us when we go into the dream. If we want to get tougher, we’ve gotta do it the old-fashioned way.”
“So you aren’t always a gunslinger, Raymond?” Russell asks.
“Nah. This one dream I was a - hey, wait, how come he’s ‘Mr. Walter’ and I’m just ‘Raymond’?!” Raymond asks with narrowed eyes. “I’m five years older than him! There are balloons that prove it! It’s not fair!”
“It’s obviously because you’re less mature than I am,” Walter says, smirking. “Anyone can tell, even a child.”
Russell visibly considers that. “...You’re right, that’s not fair at all.”
Raymond sighs in relief. “Right? So call me Mr. Raymond from now on-”
“Let’s get going, Raymond, Walter.”
Walter looks annoyed but says nothing, so Raymond will consider that close enough to a victory.
“You’ve been in a lot of dreams before, right?” Russell asks, outside the monsters’ main nest.
Its resemblance to a woman would be uncanny if this weren’t a dream, where nothing is coincidental: as things are, Raymond is sure Russell has issues with either women in general or a specific woman. He could ask, and Russell would probably tell him, but… It’s his policy not to learn too much.
“A fair few, yes,” Walter says, calm as ever.
“I know the people in here aren’t real. So… why do I care about them so much even though I know that?” Russell asks. His lip is quivering.
Raymond glances at Walter, who nods at him in a ‘this is about feelings, you handle it’ kind of way. Raymond sighs. “People get attached really easily to stuff they know they shouldn’t. They can’t help it, it’s how they’re made, you know? And these guys have been nice to you and fought beside you, so of course you’re going to like them. That’s normal.”
“They’re just going to disappear,” Russell says, weakly. “I… I don’t want that.”
“At this point, your level of guilt is too high for there to be any alternative,” Walter says, and when Russell flinches, he hesitates before going on. “The fact that you care so much about people who are of no connection to you is promising for your rehabilitation. Try to think of it that way.”
Russell still looks unsure, so Raymond says, “It looks like you’re going to get out of here as a success. So… why don’t you call up Dreamsend Trade when you’re done and give me a ring?”
“Raymond,” Walter says sharply.
“I’m not breaking any actual rules! Just some implied ones.” Raymond knows contacting the dreamers afterward is a no go, but no one said they couldn’t contact him, right? “Besides, it’s not like he knows anybody living out there, except maybe one classmate. Success story or not, it’d be pretty sad not to have at least a couple guys you could talk to, right?”
Walter looks like he’s about to say something else, but he’s beaten to it.
“Thank you.” Russell is smiling. It’s a trembling smile tinged with sadness, but it’s something.
Raymond gives him a grin. “Any time. Let’s go clear your final dungeon.”
Three weeks later, Raymond finally rings up Dreamsend Research and asks for Walter.
“This had better not be about what I think it is,” Walter says in clipped tones.
“It’s nothing big,” Raymond says with a casualness he doesn’t completely feel. “I just haven’t gotten any calls, and you know they don’t tell us lowly peons at Dreamsend Trade anything.”
“Then why don’t you call Guidance?” Walter asks.
“Because I’d have to talk to Fairia,” Raymond says, shuddering at the very thought. “Look, just tell me if Russell made it out of there okay, alright? I know you know.”
There’s a short pause on the other end of the line. “He was technically the program’s first success.”
“I really don’t like the word ‘technically’ there,” Raymond says with a creeping feeling of dread.
“He committed suicide in his prison cell just before officials arrived to retrieve him,” Walter says. He sounds even more detached than usual.
Raymond’s quiet for a moment, processing. Despite everything, Russell hadn’t been an entirely bad kid. And even if he was, that’s still... “Guess that’s what we get for trying to make a kid feel that level of guilt.”
“Will that be all?” Walter asks, without a hint of emotion.
“Yeah. Yeah, that’s it.”
Walter hangs up on him without so much as a goodbye.