Something's wrong when you regret [Closed]

[theothermrgray]

Who: Dorian and BILL
Where: Dorian's mind
When: Oct. 26th, after the event
Rating: PG - PG13 for Bill's weirdness? May change later
Summary: Dorian dozes off while smoking opium. Triangles ensue.
The Story:

Dorian stared at the video from yesterday in shock. Yes, he remembered everything he did as a Lost One, but the video made those memories even more unbearable. Was he really wearing a fox pelt for a scarf?! And the hallucinations... Urgh... Those were the worst...

No better time to hit the opium, then. He was thankful the closets would give him anything he wanted, otherwise he would have spent an embarrassing amount of time trying to locate an opium den that may not exist. Sure, it was a bad habit, but he needed the calm and the escape. That was all.

Dorian blew out another puff of smoke as he settled into his fainting couch, letting the drug take hold and lull him into drowsy intoxication. The door was locked, of course. He had to make sure nobody would bother him while he's out of it... While his eyelids gently shut and his consciousness fades off into dreams.

Of course, he hadn't suspected anyone in the manor could invade those dreams.

Comments

[ghflskhu_ph]

When Dorian comes to- or rather succumbs to the opiods in his system- he'll find himself in one of Wonderland's galleries, not unlike the one he first woke up in. It looks fairly similar, the walls entirely coated with portraits and paintings of differing sizes, the logic of dream proportioning spanning the artwork from the floor all the way up to an unreachable loosely defined ceiling. Right to the left they go for miles in either direction, conveniently the same fainting couch through which he fell asleep is located against the one bare patch of wall; the only foreseeable place of rest.

One stark difference between this gallery and the real one however? Every picture frame is in the shape of a triangle its occupants yellow eyes staring conveniently down at where the sleeper happens to be standing.

...And one might almost swear he saw them move.

Yaassss

[theothermrgray]

"Nnh..."

What was this place? Dorian didn't remember falling asleep in any sort of gallery. Dorian rubbed his eye with the hand that wasn't still holding the opium pipe, quickly glancing at its smoking contents.

Was this a hallucination, or is Wonderland still playing tricks on him? He looked up at the collage of triangular pictures on the walls. Triangles, all of them. All those strange yellow eyes stared into his soul.

One of them blinked.

This is impossible, Dorian thought as he rose from the couch. He slowly walked up to the painting of the explorer in the coonskin cap- the one that blinked, and looked closer...

:3 <3

[ghflskhu_ph]

Upon further inspection the painting style of such portraits are rather impressionistic, having less detail the closer the audience is to the canvas. Still, there is something familiar about the face that-- yes, once again, has surely just blinked... It almost looks like it could be someone Dorian knows.
Someone possibly by the name of Basil.

It isn't long, should Dorian continue to stare, before the peach colored paint of the hunter's 'flesh' impossibly begins to melt off in a grotesque display, revealing the painting of a skull underneath in an expression rather reminiscient of the painting 'The Scream'

"Enjoying the GALLERY, PICTURE-PERFECT?"

Behind Dorian, now lounging on the vacant couch is a triangle. The two-dimensional polygon swirls the liquid in his martini glass.

"I'm more of an ABSTRACT GUY MYSELF, personally."

And in tune with the words, his bricks morph to reflect the shapes and styles of several well known abstract paintings before rearranging to their previous state.

"But EVERYONE's a CRITIC."

[theothermrgray]

Impressionism. A novel style originating from Paris. Dorian was quite familiar with it, for he had seen a lot of it in art exhibitions before... In fact, he knew someone who had dabbled in that style at times, and was rather talented in that regard. Someone he saw in the painting that blinked.

"...Basil?"

Scarcely a moment after the name was uttered, the painting distorted horribly before Dorian's eyes. Terror overcame him. He screamed, stumbling back and dropping his pipe, unable to trust his own senses. Was this how his friend felt that fateful night?

He nearly jumped at the sound of someone's ethereal voice. Dorian turns around, half wanting to see who was there, half wishing he could escape this nightmare.

There, on the couch, was a one-eyed triangle that looked like it had just returned from a dinner party. Dorian stared in bewilderment as the triangle briefly morphed, and spoke with such a laid-back tone in spite of not having a mouth.

"What... God, I need to quit the opium," He admits to no-one in particular. This triangle... This whole scene, it couldn't be real. His senses were too much affected for any of this to be real... Right?

[ghflskhu_ph]

"Yeah probably- certainly didn't do your MORTALITY any FAVORS but TIME AIN'T PASSING HERE!"

Sure maybe the drugs weren't a direct cause of death but it likely didn't help. Bill knew a thing or two about exploiting the things that made people paranoid; from the looks of this guy, he wasn't especially resilient to their sway.

The triangle's eye morphs to a mouth to sip from his glass before sitting back to gesture at the wall of paintings on the wall behind him, each one repeating the gruesome process of turning into fleshless faces

"Dorian Gray, wasn't it? From what I hear YOU belong in one of these."

[theothermrgray]

"... I've been told that."

Dorian didn't know what was worse: The melting paintings, the triangle man's mouth-eye, or the fact that the triangle man knew his name and... Erm... Secrets?

This couldn't be real, right? It must be a dream. It has to be. There was no other logical explanation for this scene, but... If it was really happening, then why was Wonderland probing him? Was this triangle a product of Wonderland, or did he get pulled in? Were the paintings always here? Why did the triangle insist that Dorian belonged in a painting?

So many questions swirled in his brain, yet the only one that could come out was this:

"Who... What are you?"

[ghflskhu_ph]

"And THERE IT IS- always the FIRST THING asked! A full ETERNITY of countless TIMELINES, REALITIES and UNIVERSES yet no AMOUNT of CREATIVE EVOLUTION ever breaks that cycle. It's 'Who/what are you?' Placing right before 'WHAT?', 'WHAT IS IT YOU WANT?!' and 'STAY BACK DEMON!' Yeesh. Would it kill someone to ask 'WHERE did you get that SNAZZY BOWTIE?' every ONCE in a WHILE?"

What? It's a legitimate frustration for an elder being to have! Bill spins his cane-- wherever he suddenly pulled it from, and stamps it hard on the ground, turning to face Dorian a little more clearly.

"Name's Bill Cipher. I go by many titles, but the SIMPLEST for SOMEONE of YOUR TIMES to UNDERSTAND would be the EYE OF PROVIDENCE- boys back in the States were so enamored they put my image on their currency! I ALONE am PRIVY to the PATHWAYS of PURE KNOWLEDGE that make up the BULK of what you know as the FUTURE, the PAST and BUILDING BLOCKS to REALITY ITSELF. What you PERCEIVE as DREAMS I can SLIP INTO and CONTROL however I PLEASE!"

He blinks-- or is that a wink?

"DRUG-INDUCED- or not."

[theothermrgray]

Wow, rude. It's not like nobody's seen a talking triangle with demonic powers before.

"The Eye of Providence..."

The Eye of Providence, now, that's more recognizable. Dorian might have fancied the masonic symbols for a short while in his frivolous past, but the conspiracies surrounding the group became increasingly too silly to take seriously.

Now that symbol was talking to him about knowledge and reality and alternate universes like it was discussing the weather. At least it had the decency to give itself a proper name.

"Mr. Cipher...? Forgive me for being rude. It's actually quite a rare thing to encounter a being such as yourself."

He's still frightened and confused, but he figured he should be polite to the abomination.

"Are you implying you're in my dream?"

[ghflskhu_ph]

“HMPH.” The triangle nearly looks bored by the apology, perhaps too many arguments with Ford is starting to make complacency lose its appeal.

“I’m MORE than IMPLYING it, PRINCE CHARMING."

And just like that, Bill is gone. Or is he?

“I can be ELLLLSEWHERE too-“

His voice bounces off the walls, and next thing Dorian knows the triangle is inside the paintings, running back and forth from one to another without ever leaving the frame, subtly popping to sit on Dorian’s shoulder, replacing the eyes of a few if the paintings with his own and eventually snapping back into EXISTENCE RIGHT in front of HIS FACE.

“But your DREAMS are the EASIEST REALM for our TWO DIFFERING states to MEET. Hohhh man, I can only IMAGINE what it must have been like for someone like YOU to WAKE UP in WONDERLAND- but I'm more than a RARE SIGHT, I'm ONE OF A KIND, PAL!"

[theothermrgray]

Prince Charming.

The last person who called him that was out for his blood. The one before that, an old flame that had long gone out. How on earth did this thing have the gall to call him by that horrible name?

Dorian's offense turns to frightened bemusement as the disembodied voice echoes through the halls... As the triangular form flows through the canvases, popping in and out of reality, abruptly appearing on his shoulder and right in front of him.

At this point, it is quite clear that Dorian got the point.

"... That you are. I suspect you could... I don't know, even manipulate yourself in dreams?"

[ghflskhu_ph]

Bill could have only laugh at that-- and he does- shaking with the mirth midair.

"I prefer manipulating other people, but you got it SMART STUFF-- I mean, what do you call what is happening right now?"

He glances at the opium.

"You don’t ALWAYS have TWO DIMENSIONAL NIGHTMARES do ya? If that's the case, I gotta step up my game!"

[theothermrgray]

He follows the triangle's gaze to the useless, discarded opium pipe on the floor... Yes, this must all be a hallucination. How else would he explain it?

"Well, if you mean literal two dimensional nightmares, then no. However, given Wonderland's strangeness, it wouldn't be out of the ordinary to start dreaming about things that should not exist."

He's not quite sure how well he's able to rationalize this dream, but it is a dream. He doesn't have to rationalize anything in a dream.

"Why, were you planning to transform into something less..." Not to be offensive, but, "...abstract? I'm just curious now."

[ghflskhu_ph]

“WHOA, WHOA! HARDLY! What kind of a QUESTION is THAT, PORTRAITURE?”

Too late, offense is taken. HE is perfect the way he is, thank you. If you don’t like the way he looks, perhaps Dorian will prefer the way he looks now, as he begins to expand, growing larger and larger; a shapeless black mass of multiple eyes, flickering throughout the rapidly shifting form.

“How about I TRANSFORM YOU into SOMETHING INSTEAD?!”

... It's probably not going to be a more preferable form.

“WHAT DID YOU HAVE IN MIND?”

[theothermrgray]

Bill didn't have to shout. Or distort reality. Or- GAH!

Dorian shrieks as the demon slowly encompasses the whole room and turn it into a living nightmare. Oh god, he did NOT want his form to be toyed with if this thing could turn into whatever that is.

"Nothing!" He nearly begs in a fit of terror, "Nothing! You were fine as you were!" Please have mercy on him.

[ghflskhu_ph]

"AW SHUCKS, PAL, you MEAN THAT?"

Some people fish for compliments-- others put a gun to your head and demand them. The transformation stops nearly instantly, shrinking back into a predesignated form.

Bill holds out hand to the terrified man, ready to yank him back to his feet if necessary, should he have cowered to the point of falling down. SIGH It's a BORING form to be sure, but the human guise he has worn several events now should bring this Victorian wimp out of his daze. Fully human apart from one eye perpetually leaking what could only be described as inky black smoke, Bill stares down the other individual.

"NOW, DORIAN GRAY, why don't you FILL ME IN on your IMPRESSIONS of WONDERLAND so FAR?"

Bill's going to have to keep an eye on this one.