Nightmares about (Her)
Do you ever think about how people would possibly have had nightmares about Maligula?
and then do you ever wonder about difference for the psychic 7s’ nightmares on her? like as Maligula-- something they fought? and of course, the absolute pit of dread and horror that yeah, they are fighting their friend Lucy?
And given how funky mindscapes and dreamscapes can get with brain transitions, getting a mix of nightmares of both overlapped with one another?
(Other people know Maligula. Just Maligula. No more than a monster in history, but her friends know she wasn’t just that. A nightmare of which is the reality of their situation)
Helmut obviously, we’ve seen and probably had so many that it completely overwrote who Lucy is to him when trying to remember. Every time he tries to feel out, to sense things as a brain, he is just the remembers the feeling of drowning -- then overwhelmed by in the lack of senses. The last he could ever remember of her was a terrifying force full of malice (with terrifying eyes and a otherworldly dark silhouette, very different from the Feast of the Senses constructs), washing away any of his songs with a malevolent laugh and the rush of water. Down and down, drenched and drowned.
How terrible it is, that who he remembers as another kind and fun loving soul, to be the one who sent him to the depths -- frozen yet in a loop of wondering if his efforts was in vane, if his husband was safe. As a brain, it is had been increasingly difficult to tell if he still remembers something, or if he is having a nightmare. A conclusion for that dilemma, given how the reality of it, of course, was that because Maligula was both.
Bob losing the thought of Lucy, because his husband is gone, drowned in an icy tomb. Another important person, another loss. It seems that every flower of relationships he has would inevitably wither. Then the alcohol, poorly coping and a sort of self-punishment what with it being the water of his level. Any reflections on its surface would only reveal him -- just him, all alone. Thread as he might try, he still slowly drowns in grief, a downward slope in contrast to the cliff of Grulovia. Maligula, Lucy, he doesn’t think of her anymore if he could help it. It hurts to remember that she is both the cause and another person he cared about that he has lost.
Cassie and Compton seeing Lucy warped as Maligula, twisted into someone they can’t recognize, and someone who they aren’t strong enough to stand against. Watching as they hurt the rest of their friends and delivers a torrent of water to their faces, their efforts easily ignored despite how much they work together. A looming large figure that haunts and clung to them as a reminder of their failure. One stuck in the past, the other overwhelmed in the present. It is a similarity I’ve seen for both their boss battle figures to be critical of what they could do/have done that they could have made this better. One thinking she should’ve stopped the ideas that made this happen and put them on a cornet, the other thinking how he couldn’t do anything to more to help and overwhelmed to a point he stays on his own zone.
Otto watching the friend he invited for the purpose of helping them with their road of discovery, turned to a person who uses her immense power do harm and everything non-psychic feared psychics would do. He thinks of Maligula and thinks of the death at her hands. His hands grow cold as he remembers how the product of his own specialty essentially caused the demise of others. He thinks about how he wanted to make dreams and yet there is a nightmare every time he thinks of Lucy, not as herself but as Maligula. Everything after had that story attached, and he did the best he could after the storm. Still, whenever he tells tales of Psychonauts, He doesn’t like to think of that name.
Ford fractured and getting nightmares of just Maligula and his battle with her pre-pn2 release. Water hitting him as he fought her in the real world mixing with his fight the mental world (because, for most of his years, he wouldn’t remember he went into Lucy’s head. He buried that and all he remembers is the fight). The waves strike bluntly and too much pressure forces against him, and yet oddly, a part of him observes, that they were never being sharp nor forceful enough to be the cause of his fractures and how he broke apart (something is missing, something(?) very important is missing but this is all he remembers(?))
And then whenever he recalls everything, sleeping at his sanctuary where he could have dreams of happy times with Lucy, a gentle dream or perhaps a memory of her playing with her powers. But then there is gush of water everywhere, and hands made out of water grab and cover Lucy, her precious smile transforming to a malicious grin. And the fight starts.
(Or perhaps, it starts just like the time she left. Of long days waiting for her to reply, to come back, to be with all of you safe and sound.-- Only to hear her words shift, to be delivered the news of disaster, to be called to see her again finally yet she is not Lucy you knew)
He startles awake crying at those ones, finding himself at his trailer as he snaps his eyes open. He blinks his disorientation away and forgets why he has tears in his eyes.
(And then a young boy comes into camp, and somehow, he feels something familiar is about to happen again)
Ah, and then you have to remember Ford must’ve been the one who saw Lucy as Maligula the longest, because he had to fight further even when rest of the psychic 6. First to subdue her in Grulovia (with the accumulative help of others), then He had to push back Maligula in her own mindscape (alone). It is her own realm, and even though she had her powers suppressed with the cuff, the mindscape still had plenty of water and shifting physics that is difficult to navigate. And then he had to fight her again in pn2, to which I definitely have a fic wip for it. This time though, she has all the water around her for her to control (A ginormous lady the size of a dam, with tidal waves of water coming at him) One could wonder how it felt like to have that fight again. He is more scared of this than any other height he’d have to jump out of.
and then of course Lucy, who could have very much had nightmares during her time as Marona/Nona, fearing the water curse and what that monster has done to her country. Fearing that one day the hand would take the only family she has left. There are few nightmares of her drowning but it seems distance, like she wasn’t the one who drowned. And then there are times, where water engulfs her and yet everyone else seems to die.
The water drowns them and she doesn’t know why she can hear herself laugh.
The block unravels more and she’d have nightmares of what she has done as Maligula. The guilt of harming others, of killing people, of losing herself that she harms even the ones she loves and hold dear in her heart.
It definitely would feel awful when they get nightmares of Maligula, and even more so of Lucy.
Let's be real, Maligula was terrifying. If they did not have the personal connection, the fight and confrontation with her is certainly not something they had ever thought they'd face. But they do have a connection and wanted to help, but couldn't and they all can't help but blame themselves.
(Imagine even post-pn2 they have nightmares after the reappearance of Maligula. It would certainly kick up a return of feeling bad from that sort of confrontation. Like woah nearly getting drowned in a giant water tornado would NOT feel great.
It’s all out of their control what their head dreams up but you have to feel bad that you get bad dreams of the people you love. Ford gets them even as he sleep by Lucy side, and for a moment he sees Maligula and teleports out -- before remembering that’s all in the past now and she is fine. Doesn’t stop him hands from shaking and maybe berating himself even more for being afraid. He blames himself the most still.)
