...does this seem familiar to you?

Subject: Gunther

LOG FOUR
Date: 9/26
Time: 7:21 PM
Dr. Beck Remediis
(they/them)
Lead Medic of Invincible II

SUBJECT(S): Gunther B. Gunderson

SECTION: ADS

TEXT:

I bandaged up Gunther again today. That's not new. He's the only member of the crew that comes by the Med-Bay more often than Carlos does; that's what happens when you're head of the Asteroid Defense System, I suppose.

This time was different, though.

Gunther isn't one to talk about his feelings. Not about his dreams, either, whether they're the ones you have at night or the aspirations for your life. If it doesn't involve guns or explosives he isn't interested in talking about it. Makes sense for him. He's supposed to be the gun-wielding badass of the crew. Personal and mushy isn't his style so why waste his time with it?

I'd just finished checking on Mack and Celci's injuries—both are healing well and they've been listening to me about their treatment—when Gunther let himself in. He does that so many times, I've gotten used to looking up from something and seeing him there. It helps that he doesn't bother to be quiet about it either. He greeted the others before he turned his attention to me.

"Got another one."

He held up his arm and just like he said, there was another bullet wound there. It was minor, as always, because as reckless as he is, Gunther does know what he's doing around the drones. So I wasn't worried and neither was he.

Mack and Celci began to fret over him but he brushed them off. He said he'd be fine and it happens all the time; when they turned to me, I assured them it was true so they shouldn't concern themselves. Then I said we were done and grabbed the first-aid kit as the two left the room. Gunther took his usual seat and as I grabbed a wash cloth to clean the wound, he spoke up.

"Ever have weird dreams, Doc?"

What the hell is going on with the crew?

This is the third person to come to me with an injury and talk about dreams they've had. So far some details have remained the same: they feel like they may have happened before, they happen on the Invincible II, and they always interact with the Captain. I'm sure I already knew the general idea of what he'd say.

"Um, yeah. Sometimes. What makes you ask?"

He didn't make me wait long before answering. As he spoke I worked on addressing his injury.

"Been having some weird dreams myself lately. I don't know what to make of 'em."

"What happens in these dreams?"

As expected, he told me they happen on the ship. The Captain is always there. They feel too real to just be a dream. The first few dreams don't inspire any new revelations for me: in one he helps the Captain with a faulty ADS system; in another he tries to usurp the Captain because of their faulty leadership; in another he was called by Mark and the Captain to fix the faulty ADS but he glitches into Ms. Whitacre—huh, second time that's happened in one of their dreams—and a few more during the duration of the journey here.

A couple of different dreams catch his attention, and to my surprise they have nothing to do with the Invincible II. Some of them have the Captain there. One of those dreams takes place in a noir detective's office, and Gunther's name is Abe(?), and the Captain is there to see him drinking scotch as he looks over case clues. It isn't long after that when a noir detective version of Mark shows up, and the two have a stand-off. Then, not long after that, Mark and Abe turn into a couple of dogs in detective suits. That dream ends there.

Another dream that features the Captain, but not the Invincible II, is one where Abe is at a crime scene. It's a grisly one and Abe is showing the Captain, who in this dream is a rookie detective, the crime scene committed by a serial killer who looks a lot like Mark. Again? The dream seems to fall apart rather quickly as Abe shows the rookie the body and they talk to the victim's grieving widow, and the world glitches out and disappears.

Abe doesn't just appear in those dreams. According to Gunther, the Abe persona feels like he's been around for a while. Like he's existed for a lot longer than the dreams he's had over the past few months.

I don't know how to feel about that.

Before I had the chance to say anything else, Gunther continued on with his explanation of his dreams. They both follow Abe the Detective without the Captain or any of the Invincible II crew members. He said the dream that comes first is the one that follows a murder at a manor. Apparently the victim is also named Mark—what the fuck does he have to do with any of this???—and Abe tries to investigate his murder. It was one of the guests, it was just a matter of finding out who it was and why. There's a butler, a chef, Mark's ex-wife—fuck, what was her name? Something like, Selena?—her brother, I think his name was Damien, who also resembles Mark, and their mutual friend, a colonel—William, I believe—who also resembles Mark.

Something's wrong with this picture and his name is Mark.

Anyway, back to the dream: Abe goes around gathering evidence for Mark's murder and ends up in a stand-off between himself and the Colonel with their guns drawn. He doesn't remember a lot after that, but he remembers that Damien and his sister also die that day. He leaves the manor with the intent on finding the Colonel who he has evidence of killing Mark.

That leads into another dream where Abe is frantically tracking down the Colonel. After years, he finally corners William at a club and brings him back to the police station. During the interrogation, William tests Abe's knowledge of what he's been doing since that day at the manor, and it leads to the revelation that Abe died during the stand-off that day. There isn't much to the dream after that.

I'd long since finished addressing his injury and he could've left after that, but Gunther had deliberately stayed behind to unload all the dreams on me. Then, after he finished, he stood up and thanked me for my help as he walked out the door. It's been hours since then and I can still barely process all of that.

Gunther is the third crew member to tell me about having dreams so real it feels like they happened. And they always feature the Captain and especially Mark in some way. I don't get it; why are those two so important that they left intense psychological impacts on multiple crew members?

It's seeming less and less likely that those dreams are just the unconscious trying to work out some kind of underlying mental or emotional issues. I think I'll have to confront Mark and the Captain about what Mack, Celci, and Gunther have told me.

END OF LOG