Chapter Text
Chapter 1: Dream Meets Sci-fi
Cale had a dream.
An unpleasant and scary dream that felt far too real.
Everything was fine before he went to sleep. His kids were exhausted from playing all day long and were faster asleep than he was able to cross the room. His bedsheets and pillows are fluffy and smell like lavender.
Cale even managed to swallow the bitter lemon tea Ron presented in one big gulp. All that was missing was falling asleep and just relaxing.
He doesn’t really experience nightmares on daily basis and had almost non since arriving in the new world. Just a few casual scares here and there.
‘Waking up’ in the dream felt surreal and Cale almost instantly realized that he was in a dream. Normally, this is the stage where people can influence their dreams and shift them into directions that they enjoy.
Cale looked around. Maybe he doesn’t need to change anything and can just relax in whatever his subconsciousness produced.
He was stumped when he realized where exactly he is.
Still clad in his soft and comfortable sleep wear, Cale didn’t fit in- at all- into the futuristic setting his dreamscape provided.
Large machines in various sizes and filled with questionable stuff- he can see a floating eye in one tank and in another was just hair swimming in brown liquid, why just hair?- cover the area before the walls. The floor and the walls alongside most of the room were a boring, basic gray.
A beeping tone, not dangerous or alarming, filled the background with a rhythmic sound.
All in all, a place Cale doesn’t know why he should be here.
Cale walked around the area, after he realized that his subconsciousness didn’t want to change the setting and waking up also wasn’t an option, he arrived at a door at the other end. A dark, gray metal door blocks his way. No pushing or pulling would move the object.
Sighing in frustration, Cale was contemplating on what he should do next. It’s not like he really wants to find out what exactly is further behind the door. Now that he thinks about it, he’ll just go back to sleep?
Looking around, Cale couldn’t spot any comfortable areas between all those machines. With no other option left, Cale just flopped onto the floor. It was nice and cold.
Time to sleep until either his real self gets woken up or his dreamscape gets tired of his non-actions.
Making himself as comfortable as possible, Cale drifted off to sleep. Some time must have passed and Cale would have continued to waste time by doing nothing, until the immovable metal door opened. He was sleeping directly next to the door, which sadly woke him up.
Before Cale could react, he saw long legs entering his vision. The owner of the legs didn’t see Cale just lying there and cleanly tripped over the still sleepy Cale.
One went down in shock, while the other sat up.
Cale stared into familiar blue eyes.
Of course, of course his dream has to have people present that he doesn’t even want to see in real life and now has to exist with them in his dream.
Alberu Crossman, clothed in a simple doctors garb, winced and dusted himself off. He stood up and frowned at Cale.
Cale, out of reflex, wanted to annoy the blond for always giving him problems and waking him up from his well-deserved sleep. Before he could start Alberu reached down and lifted Cale up in one fluid movement. The red-head needed a second to stand on his own legs.
“Doctor Henituse, why are you not in work clothes? Also, the floor is not a place to rest, neither is my work space. Your labor is two rooms further, why did you break into my area?”, the golden-haired man frowned at Cale, who couldn’t digest the given information.
Doctor? Area? Work?!
He’s not going to work! Are even his dreams making fun of him now?
Cale stared at dream Alberu in confusion. The man in question stared unimpressed back. A few seconds passed with neither man moving. After a while, Alberu had enough and threw Cale out.
“I don’t have time for your bullshit. Do your work, Doctor Henituse.”
Cale stood outside the gray door, which Alberu instantly closed after throwing the red-head out. An endless hallway was presented before the exasperate man. He just wants to sleep!
With no other option but to move forward, Cale walked left. Alberu talked something about two rooms over being his area, maybe he can go there and sleep? But no door in the area was opening.
Either he’s too weak or all doors are locked.
Frowning in frustration at a gray wall, Cale was just getting ready to throw himself down at the exact spot he was standing on when the unmistakable sound of a door opening reached his ears. With nothing better to do, Cale walked towards the suspicious door.
It’s not like he’ll get hurt anyways as this is all a bad dream. And yes, it’s a bad dream as anything that wants him to work is bad.
The lights started flickering, something that annoyed Cale greatly as his eyes started to hurt from all the switching between brightness and darkness. Disembodied voices started whispering.
“Let’s play hide-and-seek, heh.”
“A failure, this one…”
“We can’t catch it!”
“Why is it so fast?!”
“Help!”
Cale ignored them all and proceeded with walking towards the only lit area- the lights stopped their party mode a few seconds ago and went completely out-, which appears to be the door that had opened itself on its own.
Sounds of things shattering resonated and people screamed.
Cale peered into the room and was stunned with what he saw.
‘Such a cliché.’, he thought.
The room was double the size of Dream Alberu’s work room, however, only a few machines were present. Many levels of robust glass walls or what was left of them were placed in secured distances around a large tank in the middle of the room.
He can see some people in white coats lying on the floor.
The tank in the middle annoyed him a bit more than the rest.
It was at the height two adults stacked on top of each other and at least double that in wideness. Some green liquid bubbled inside the tank. Various cameras and other equipment was zoomed in at the oversized aquarium.
What bothered Cale the most is the giant hole it sports and nothing except the slimy liquid was inside it, which left Cale with two options.
One, the people here were experimenting with mass or liquids and the green slime breached the capacity of the tank, which is why it exploded.
Improbable, but not impossible.
Two, which is sadly more likely, something was inside the tank and wasn’t impressed with whatever the white-cloaked people were doing. It reacted by doing a Houdini with a bit more destruction than necessary.
Cale planned on quickly backstepping, acting like was never there and had absolutely no idea what happened, but his dream had other plans.
“Doctor Henituse, you are here! Hurry up and come here!”, one downed individual shakily stood up and somehow managed to spot Cale instantly. With no other option, Cale reluctantly walked inside the messy room.
Cale frowned when he realized the green liquid smelled like lemons, a horrendous travesty already. He really doesn’t want to know what it’s made of. Walking around the liquid in a bigger than necessary circle, Cale arrived in front of person.
At a closer inspection, that face was familiar as well. Choi Han, in all of his messy glory, beamed at Cale, like he just found an answer to all of his questions. The swordmaster-turned-whatever looked still as scruffy and handsome as always, although, the white coat just didn’t fit with Choi Han’s normal appeal.
Choi Han in white is like Ron without lemonade.
“…”
Cale frowned at the sheepish Choi Han, the cursed green liquid and whoever decided to break out of their confines.
“Doctor Cale Henituse-nim”, Cale grimaced at Choi Han’s way of addressing him, “Test Subject #555 has escaped. We have sent an armed squad after it. Status is currently unknown.”, Choi Han faithfully reported his findings to a disinterested Cale.
Cale looked left and right, hoping that some kind of non-divine intervention will swoop in and save him. No reaction came and Cale sighed.
He won’t be able to peaceful sleep anyways- he needs to have a few words with his own subconsciousness- and just decided to find whatever had escaped. Let him be done and sleep after.
Choi Han offered him a spare work coat, which the red-head declined.
Walking side-by-side they left the destroyed room.
Cale in his sleepwear stood out like a sore thumb, but the sleepy man didn’t care. With Choi Han in the lead all door are suddenly open and people are walking by. It now truly looked like a functioning lab instead of the hunted house Cale had to experience earlier on.
The swordsman lead him to a staircase and Cale was already giving his best impression of ‘I don’t want to climb up stairs’, when Choi Han did something completely different. Walking past the stairs, Choi Han waved Cale over and touched an unremarkable spot on the gray wall.
Touched sounded nice, yet it didn’t actually describe the action.
The black-haired man punched the spot on the wall and completely obliterating a part of the cement wall along the way. Smiling in satisfaction, Choi Han turned to Cale.
“We should take a shortcut.”, he then proceeded to walk through the newly created hole in the wall.
Cale doubts that this is a legitimate shortcut, especially since confused and fearful faces greeted them.
‘Now, there is a short cut.’, Cale thinks and, just to make sure, walked behind Choi Han in a safe distance.
After taking a few more ‘shortcuts’ and leaving a above average trail of destruction behind, they arrived at Choi Han’s destination.
Many familiar faces greet him.
Standing in a circle and waving various reports around, the usual culprits were in a state of chaos.
Rosalyn and both of her brothers stood a bit further to the side. Alberu also arrived, through the door Cale presumes, and with him were Antonio and Valentino. Both are looking as confused as Cale, which means they have absolutely no idea why they are here as well.
Cale really wants to know if Ron ‘accidently’ drugged his tea before he went to sleep, or what is his brain up to? Is it broken? Did all the chaos and insanity finally shatter his last strand of rationality?
Moving on.
“How could the test subject escape? We secured the parameters!”
“What do I know? The more important problem is catching it again. We sealed the facility. It should still be somewhere in the building.”, Prince John (or Doctor John?) voiced his part. Most agreed with what the man said.
“That’s right, we need to build a stronger container.”
Some weren’t as understanding.
“We should destroy it. It escaped too many times and we aren’t able to contain it properly. The best course of action of would be to eliminate it completely.”, Alberu voiced. His face displayed a friendly smile, but Cale knows better.
The blond is annoyed and probably thinks this is a waste of time anyways.
Suddenly, all eyes were on him.
“Doctor Henituse, what do you think? It’s your creation, no matter how useless and broken it is.” Cale really didn’t want to be here. What did his dream self do? He created whatever was running amok in the facility?
What would he even create?
Logically thinking a threat should be eliminated. Permanently if possible. That way it won’t come back and annoy them. Just catching it will probably start another escape sequence anyway.
He agreed with the elimination. The weirded-out glances from his ‘colleges’ went ignored.
Cale sighed.
He misses the chatty children at his side. It’s kind of boring and lonely.
Walking through the hallways after an hour-long meeting where they decided on which course of action should be followed, Cale received the express mission of seeking out Doctor Eruhaben (Obviously) and receiving a container with the capture liquid. The liquid in question is the slimy-green substance that the previous tank was filled with.
It’s applied as a combination of anesthesia, paralyses and even poison. In the real world, only Hong would be able to create such a monstrosity but here ‘Doctor Eruhaben’ is responsible for it.
Cale won’t question on how it actually works and why the fuck it’s green. He just goes with the flow and hopes the nightmare will soon end. While walking he ignored the random children laughing, screams and terrified sobs that spawned every few steps he takes.
Arriving at the laboratory of Eruhaben, Cale met the man quite literally in the door frame. They walked into each other.
After separating their limbs once again, Cale got debriefed by a serious looking Eruhaben, who was missing his elven traits. The red-head was partially distracted by an Eruhaben without pointy ears than actually listening to whatever his dream came up with to explain the grotesque green liquid.
Receiving the container- it’s lighter than he expected it to be- Cale turned around to walk out when the not-dragon-elf-whatever stopped him.
“Take this too. The department under Doctor Crossman created these talisman for a situation if the containment liquid fails.”, the golden-haired man gave him a stack of fancy looking paper. The were as golden as Alberu’s hair, which would normally fit quiet well.
Cale took them without looking. He didn’t really care about the contents of whatever was written on them. Probably just some jumbled random words he picked up in his old world while walking by some fortune tellers.
Cale would rather trust some fortune cookies than what those people cooked up. He remembers the glorious time where his cookies told him some nice sentences.
“I see money in your future…it is not yours though.”
It didn’t lie and Cale made sure to change its ownership.
While reminiscing about his money-filled past, Cale arrived at his destination.
At this point, the color of the whole facility changed to a more ominous dark gray slash black which made walking a struggle as he could neither see walls, doors or even whether the floor will change to stairs.
The disembodied sounds also took on a more and more sinister tint.
It reminds Cale of sci-fi movies he once watched. Now only an alien is missing.
Shaking his head at the absurd thought, Cale continued walking into the darkness, because of course the base is now empty and devoid of people.
Something moved in front of him. He couldn’t make out what it is and would have mistaken it as Raon for it has some kind of black scale like armor, but after walking a bit further, Cale was able to make out details.
The thing was taller than Cale with a least a meter in height. Black skin and bones cover its sickly but strong frame. A long, boney tail drags on the floor and for a head it had something that looked like an overcooked black bean with teeth.
Cale can recognize its origin from pop culture he consumed in his previous years.
That is a xenomorph and definitely an alien.
Great.
Just great.
Maybe it will ignore him?
Cale tried to walk past the sci-fi-horror without success. Hearing his footsteps, the alien turned it giant head towards him. Drool dropped onto the floor and Cale made a mental note to not walk over there as he will slip on the slimy substance.
It came near him, sniffing and examining the red-head. Just when Cale had enough it opened its mouth.
“Hide-and-Seek is fun. But you left me. You always leave me! Stay with me.”, the xenomorph-like-creature talked with a high-pitched voice. It sent shivers down his spine.
“No, thank you.”
“Why! Why! WHY!”, it shrieked. It’s tail swung around, leaving deep gashes on the floor.
Cale secretly took out a talisman- a detective wasn’t needed to tell him that whatever escaped is the thing before him- and nailed the creature on the head. The golden paper glows for a few seconds and the creature shrieks in pain.
It jumped back and before fleeing, it left him some parting words.
“You always leave me. It’s your fault that I’m this way! I can’t survive anymore…”
Naturally, after it left and the area restored itself, people ran out of rooms and swarmed the tired red-head.
“Doctor Henituse! Are you alright? Did the test subject escape?”
“Doctor Henituse!”
Soon all ‘doctors’ were collected and the met again in one of the conference rooms. Grim expressions cover their faces.
Alberu was the first to break the uncomfortable silence.
“It got stronger. We didn’t expect Test Subject #555 to gain this level of awareness. But if the words from Doctor Henituse can be trusted”, Cale rolled his eyes at the comment from Dream Alberu, “it appears as if the subject is at its end. Maybe one last attempt before it will perish. We should give it the last push and just be done with it.”
This time, no one protested and Cale was sent out again to play bait.
Choi Han and the others follow him from a certain distance and armed with the green slime and the golden talisman. He has a stack of the shiny papers as well.
Walking without aim- his feet started to hurt- Cale arrived in a giant room with a glass front. From the spacious room he can look outside for the first time and contrary to his expectation to see the space or some planets and stuff, Cale saw still some kind of space but it wasn’t filled with stars.
A tasty looking chocolate cake flew by and in the distance Cale was able to make out a sun lounger floating around. The red-head was getting suspicious.
The familiar sounds of a tail dragging announced the arrival of Test Subject #555.
It’s sickly frame appeared even more damaged and frail in better light. The creature looked lonely and hungry, like it was neglected for many years. Cale was feeling bad for it.
“You really don’t want me. You will leave me? You…”, the creature was crying big and ugly tears. Cale didn’t know what to say, he just wants this nightmare to end and either wake up or get actual sleep.
He’s tired damn it and just wants to slack off.
Choi Han and the others sprang out of their hiding places, armed with talisman and the slime they started their attack on the indifferent creature. Cale watched as it was cloaked with the talisman and the green liquid was emptied onto of the creature.
The creature spared Cale one last gaze and fell unmoving onto the floor.
Choi Han moved to Cale’s side and happily shared some news.
“We did it, sir. We finally got rid of it. It will never bother us again.” Cale just nodded.
“But Doctor Cale Henituse-nim, why aren’t you protesting? It was your creation?”, Choi Han asked confused.
Cale didn’t know what his dream self had been up to, so, he gave a short answer.
“Sometimes, we have to say goodbye.” Choi Han nodded at Cale’s wisdom.
His next words shocked Cale and he turned around in disbelief.
“Sir, that is completely true. Just a shame, you worked on it for years and even gave it a nickname. What was it? Ah, right. You called it slacker life. Poor creature, but now it shall rest in peace forever.”
What?!
That thing is called slacker life!
“What?”, Cale repeated like a broken record.
“Hm? Sir, are you alright?”
“What was this project? Tell me!”, Choi Han stared at Cale in shock after the red-head got louder.
“Sir? We in the ‘We love work’- facility are focused on working in general and creating work situations. Your idea to create something that does the opposite sounded ludicrous and ended in a failure anyways. Luckily, our lemon tea jelly and money checks were able to keep it in check.”
“Lemon tea? Money? My money? What?”, Cale didn’t know what to think anymore.
This is a nightmare! He just…he just killed his slacker life? No!
Cale teary eyes looked at Choi Han, begging him to deny the previous words. Choi Han mistook his expression as something different.
“We are really grateful that you, Doctor Henituse, had agreed to share your money to create these talisman. Your sacrifice to taste all those lemon jellies until we created the perfect one is naturally appreciated as well.”
Cale just stared in shock and finally fainted.
Gasping in fright, Cale sat up and only calmed down when he recognized his own bed room. Sighing in relief at finally being awake, the red-head hugged his children and tried to enter this time a peaceful sleep.