> Sasha: Have nightmare

*as sasha sleeps, he begins to tremble a bit...*

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*Dark. Darker. Yet darker. The shadows... are going away? Things come into focus. How did I get back into Vanya's workshop? ...Wait, why am I back on the workbench? Why does everything look so big? Oh. Ohhh nyet. Nyet, nyet, nyet, the land of ten thousand nyets. I can't seem to move much, but I'm able to look down, and all I see is round, painted wood. ...Someone's coming. Hey! Down here! Why can't I talk? Oh bozhe, my mouth is painted on! Maybe if I just...

"<Hey! What happened?>"

The person I heard enters the room. It's Vanya! He looks... different. He's acting different, like he isn't himself. I try to move a bit, to get his attention. ...He noticed me.

"<Vanya! Did Angliya accidentally a magic thing again?>"

...No answer. He's picking up his paintbrushes... What is he doing? Wait, he's grabbing the hand mirror! ...He looked right at me, chuckled, and held the mirror up to me.

...

Zone help me. I've become an actual, literal matryoshka. Not like the one Vanya made of me a long time ago, that I took a selfie with earlier, nor like the paint job he put on my face earlier. It's me. My actual, normal appearance, illustrated on a matryoshka body. I can see the bit of face scarring from earlier when he took the lacquer off... my embroidered arm... my earrings... the necklace I had commissioned for Brenka and I... even the normal clothing I was wearing earlier.*


*"<Vanya! What in the Net is going on?!>" Silence... then a chuckle. He heard me.

"<I am fulfilling your wish, brother. You are want to become matryoshka. I am turn you into matryoshka.>" If my eyes weren't painted on, I would've blinked in confusion. That didn't sound like my brother. Okay, it did, but it was all... wrong. Like he's not in control. His voice is all monotone and zombie-like, as are his eyes. Oh nyet. He... he had an episode earlier, when he saw what I had done to myself. Is he being controlled by the voices?

I hear someone in the doorway. The second person is in shadow, yet I have a bad feeling about this. Vanya looks at him, chuckles, then turns to me. "<Hmm... You are not look right, brother. Too weird. Too modified. Too... not Russian. I am fix that.>" He's picked up the paintbrush again. He's not gonna do what I THINK he's gonna do, is he? ...He picked me up, looking me over. "<Da, Sasha, I am fix you up, make you what you are want to be.>" What I am want to be? What could he mean by--

Before I have time to parse that, Vanya dips his brush into the paint, and begins painting me. It feels a lot different from earlier, when he just painted my face. He's turning me around, putting brush strokes all over my form. I can't tell what it is he's doing, but it feels like he's... rewriting me? I try to speak again... "<Please, Vanya, what are you doing?>" My cries fall on deaf ears, as his brush works its way up my shell.*

*I still can't see what he's painting, but I've watched him before. He tends to paint the clothes of the matryoshka first, then the hair or other head covering, followed by the face. True to routine, my lower half - which I can tell is a separate piece of wood than my top half, yet is still me - is fully painted over, before he begins to work on my head. As he paints, I get an even stranger feeling. In the mirror, I saw my 'arms' crossed in front of me. But now, I can no longer feel them there. They've moved to my sides, I'm guessing based on his choice of paint colors on the brush, my only clue as to what is being done. Seeming to be satisfied with my 'clothes', he loads his brush with red paint, and begins to work on the top of my head. ...I think I know what he's doing.

"<Da, you are become beautiful now, Sasha. Actually, you are get two wish for price of one.>" "<...Vanya, what does that even mean???>" He pauses, setting me and the brush down, then retrieving the mirror again. "<You like to act like girl? I am do you one better. You are now babushka.>" ...Oh bozhe, he's right. I look just like a traditional babushka-style matryoshka design, except for my face.

Chuckling, he puts aside the mirror and resumes painting. "<I will save your face for last.>" Ok wow, he's just trying to creep me out now. That or it's a joke about how he painted my face earlier? I feel the brush draw a ring around my face, before filling in what is outside of it. The only part left of my 'original' self is my face now. "<Vanya, what happened? You said you didn't want me to be a matryoshka earlier!>" "<Da, but...>" He pauses, as the man in the shadowy doorway walks forth. The face is instantly recognizable. "<...I get special request.>"*

*"Добро пожаловать в Россия, Олександр!" Despite myself, I manage to gasp as I'm welcomed to Russia by the mystery man. That voice. I KNOW THAT VOICE. Ivan chuckles, still in that monotone voice. "<After you sent purchase money earlier, Boss wanted to come see what I had bought. He also wanted to... make special Order.>" There is an oddness to that last word. He doesn't mean...?!?

"<He will let me keep you, though. He just wants to be person that is legally own you.>" "<Da. Speaking of... Oleksandr Rusovich Braginsky: Direct Order.>" ASDFHJKLDSFARGEG`Nation awaiting orders.` "<I do not want to have you chatting up Ivan all the time, or jumping off things. So, Direct Order. You will cease speaking or moving, unless directly addressed by me or Ivan. End Order. ...Not that you will be capable of much once he finishes you, anyway. This is just... how do they say in Amerika? 'Insurance'.>" As I feel my 'command prompt' release, my worst fears are realized. Ivan's Boss is my boss again.

Satisfied, Ivan's b-- er, MY boss motions to Ivan to continue the work. He nods, picking up the brush yet again. I feel red circles being painted on my cheeks. "<I will not alter face much. I am still want to see it is you, brother.>" Oh goodie, he's not completely reformatting me, then. "<Two more step, and you are ready for shelf.>" Two more? Oh bozhe... wait, what's the other one?*

*Confirming my theory about the first step, Ivan picks up a large brush, dipping it into something clear, and beginning to paint me with it. Blin... He didn't want to lacquer me earlier, but now that I have a wooden shell of a 'body', he seems more than happy to. As he works, I feel something else. Something worse. The parts of me that have been lacquered... I can't feel them anymore. Like they're frozen. ...Well, da, I did just get Ordered to not move, but I at least still had feeling in my body...

I try to say "<Vanya, please...>"... but nothing happens. The lacquer brush reaches my face, and all goes shiny and numb. I suppose I didn't think about this earlier, considering I was, y'know, smart enough to not lacquer MY OWN EYES... but now that it's been done, it's like looking through wavy glass. The room looks distorted to me now. Satisfied, Ivan sets me aside on the workbench.

"<While we are wait for first coat to dry, I do other step now.>" Other step? What does he mean by that? As if he could hear my thoughts somehow, he elaborates. "<Da, I do not normally sign my matryoshki. But, you are special case. And you brought me perfect tool for it!>" Perfect tool? Sign his matryoshki? Oh nyet. The engraver.

My theory is promptly confirmed, as Ivan flips me onto my head and holds me under the device. "<Is already have correct settings. Spasibo, brother.>" Knowing what is coming next, I mentally brace for impact as the carving needle makes contact with my base, permanently engraving words into my wooden body. Ivan chuckles and looks me over once it finishes. "<Made in Ukraina? Nyet. You have been remade, in Rossiya.>"*

*This has gone too far. Orders or not, there has to be something I can do! As Ivan begins giving me my second coat of lacquer, I mentally shout any sort of command I can think of. Computer, End Program! Code: Earth! Return to the Past Now! Would You Kindly make this shit stop! SaloMan, Jack Out! PortHack, CD Sys, RM Asterisk, ForkBomb! It cannot end now! Sasha! Stay determined...

...

```
* But nobody came.
```

Ivan finishes his work, and sets me on the workbench to dry. I feel my last bits of sense of touch fading into nothingness. I am no longer human. I am matryoshka. Matryoshka with the spirit of a Nation. ...Wait... Spirit... SOUL...?

```
* You try to reach your SAVE File.
* Nothing happens.
* You try to call out.
* But nobody was there to reply.
* In a panic, you will your Life Points to zero.
* Your SOUL shudders...
* Your SOUL has been sealed in lacquer, and cannot break.
* SAVE privileges lost: Overridden by nearby SOUL with higher Determination.
```

Ivan's/my boss steps back into the room, pleased with the work. "<Da, you have done well. Put him on the shelf, finalize things, and follow me. Oleksandr is merely the first, but he came willingly, so maybe this will not be as hard.>" As my mind reels trying to figure out what he means by THAT, Vanya and our boss speak simultaniously, in that creepy monotone voice. "<All will be one with Russia.>"*

*NYET NYET NYET NYET NYET NYET NYET NYET THIS CANNOT BE HAPPENING
I ONLY CAME OVER TO SPEND TIME WITH MY BROTHER AND DO FUN THINGS
NOT TO BECOME THE FIRST ASSIMILATED OBLAST OF THE NEW SOVIET UNION

Wait, what is he doing now? ...He's picked me up, and is taking me somewhere. Looks like a shelf... with a lot of matryoshka-sized holes in it... and a large sign.

"Свои Друзья".

That... that's my 'My Friends' display from my living room! Except... I have my friends' flags in it, not matryoshki... Before I can think further, Ivan sets me in the center spot of the display. "<You are all become one with me again. Except this time... you will not abandon me, brother.>" If I could still cry, I would... not from my fate, but his words... the same ones from earlier... If my SOUL wasn't sealed together permanently right now, it would've shattered - which I'd actually kinda like, since it would force me to LOAD my last SAV--

Ivan just raised his hand, and flicked it downward, like in Sword Art Online. What is he...?

```
IVAN - LV 5 - ????:??

Kyiv - Sasha's Guest Room

[Save] [Load] [Reset]
```

Oh no. That window. I KNOW that window.

```
IVAN - LV 6 - ????:??

Moscow - Ivan's Workshop

G̸̴͝am̸͘e͞ ́͜͡s̢͟ąv̕e̛d̶͝.͏̧͏
```

NYEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE*

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*sasha wakes up in the bed next to ivan, screaming "NYEEEET" so loud it can probably he heard all the way in Crimea.*