TRP: Aziz, Goro, Larkin, and Pride (Falling Dream)

JEN

Setting: Day 473, Amari's garden at the castle

Larkin was still fuming as she left the garden. She almost trampled off the path and into a couple rose bushes; they quickly let her know she was on the wrong track. She cursed the thorns, then Mishka, then Aziz and Pride and his whole fucking deal. She just hoped Goro would be more inclined to listen or she'd fucking explode.

LINA

Goro returned to the castle with a basket over his arm, full of the groceries he'd got in Glimmerton. A rabid, cursing Larkin in the garden caught his attention, and he changed course to head her way. "Hey Lark," he called, approaching. "Didn't know you were gonna be by today."

JEN

"Goro!" She snapped around and beelined for him. "Finally. I gotta talk to you."

LINA

He stopped in his tracks, startled. "What's going on?"

JEN

"Pride." She stepped closer so she could hiss. "Mishka, he- no, forget it, it doesn't matter. It's Pride. He's been fucking with my dreams. You need to hear this."

LINA

Goro squinted. "Uh, okay. Hang on. You know he can... see everything, right?"

JEN

"What?"

LINA

"Pride. He's got eyes everywhere."

JEN

"Mother...fucker." She dragged her hands down her face. "Goddamn. Fuck."

LINA

"But, uh. Yeah. You sure it's him fucking with you?"

JEN

"No. No, I'm not sure. It's... it's Aziz. Ostensibly. He's been showing up in my dreams, but, like... they're not real dreams. They're the other kind. He keeps calling me Nissa and saying Pride is wrong about Sam."

LINA

"Wrong how?"

JEN

"He's not the reincarnation of Nissa."

LINA

Goro stared at her for a moment.

Ah, that gave him a bad feeling. Stirred up something from an old conversation with Sam. But he couldn't think about that too hard yet, 'cause the whole story didn't make sense. "Aziz is just Pride, though. Ain't he?"

JEN

"Yeah, I guess. But listen. He... God, fuck. I might've fucked up already." She switched to Nighthand anyway, signing, Aziz says he became separate and is hiding from Pride inside... him.

LINA

Goro pointed at her hands. "Uh, I think he can still..."

JEN

"Argh!" She flung her hands out, barely missing Goro's face. "I don't know what I'm doing. Maybe I just fucking killed Aziz, maybe not. Maybe he doesn't exist and it's all Pride, which, honestly, sounds most fucking likely."

LINA

Goro crossed his arms, frowning into the distance. "I gotta ask Pride about this. Tonight, maybe. Sam wouldn't like it if I asked him."

JEN

Larkin waved a hand, looking resigned. "It probably doesn't matter at this point if he sees everything. He'll either not know about it, or it's him pretending to be Aziz to make me have a reason to help him cross the veil. Either way, I fucking doubt you'll get to hear anything useful. "

LINA

Goro snorted and shook his head. "I been trying to catch that motherfucker in a lie since I met him. Just a matter of asking the right questions, I keep thinking. Morgan said he's a liar. Mask said he's a liar. But he only ever tells me the truth."

JEN

"He's a big fucking liar for sure. It's all over his face." Larkin scowled. "I can't believe he's got Mishka hooked like he has."

LINA

Goro frowned and worried his thumbnail with his teeth. "Yeah. What about Mishka?"

JEN

"We, uh. We had an argument. About this. He doesn't believe Pride is hiding anything."

LINA

Goro's hand stilled in his mouth, and he stared again. "He doesn't?"

JEN

"No." Larkin looked back at where she'd left Mishka. "He thinks Pride is just normal fucking people. Calls me paranoid for not trusting the fucker."

LINA

"Shit."

JEN

"You didn't know?"

LINA

"We ain't talked about it much."

JEN

"Well." She scoffed. "Be glad. I spared you a really infuriating ten minutes."

LINA

"Shit," Goro muttered again, and chewed his nail more aggressively. "Nah, nah, see, thing is. I made that deal with Pride and all, but I still think he's up to some shit. Ain't a secret. I told him to his face I don't trust him. I ain't doing dirty business with him, or anything, I wanna be real up front. 'Cause I think it could be mutually beneficial anyway, and I really care about Sam. But make no mistake, the fucker's crooked." He spat a piece of nail off to the side and dropped his hand. "I fucking assumed Mishka knew that."

JEN

Larkin shook her head. "He does. He just thinks we're all wrong. He even fucking acknowledges Pride is a manipulating motherfucker but he thinks we're on the right side of it all. I don't... know how. It's baffling, really."

LINA

"Mmph." Goro scowled at the ground and kicked at a tuft of grass. "Fuck. Shit."

JEN

"Agreed."

LINA

"I'm gonna talk to him," Goro said. "Pride, I mean. Mishka... uh... well, I guess I gotta talk to him, too. Find out what's going on in his head."

JEN

"Yeah, I guess," she muttered. She pinched the bridge of her nose, thinking for a moment, then she sighed. "Fucking... I didn't know. Aziz, he... if it's really not Pride trying to play me, Aziz might be dead by now. He will be, if you talk to him, but..."

LINA

"But what?"

JEN

"Well, I guess it doesn't matter. If Pride sees everything, I mean. Then he knows already." Then she frowned. "I did ask Sam about it... a while ago, in fact."

LINA

Goro's eyes widened. "What'd he say?"

JEN

Larkin rolled her eyes. "Fuck you, he said. He didn't wanna believe me."

LINA

Goro nodded. "I'd've guessed as much."

JEN

"Hmm." She thought for a moment. "That was... a while ago, though. Before the last dream. Makes me wonder if he didn't talk to Pride, or... or maybe Pride didn't see, or... or, we'll, I guess the simplest explanation is that it is just fucking Pride himself. Trying to fuck with me. Get me on his side." She snorted. "He said he needed Pride to cross over to be with me. Convenient, huh?"

LINA

Goro nodded again, frowning thoughtfully. "Real damn convenient. Dunno what to make of it, though. I gotta ask him."

JEN

"Fuck me, though, if it is legit, and it kills Aziz... he offered to try and get information from Pride. Said he could know what Pride knows but it's risky."

LINA

"Can you dream at him? Aziz? Or you just gotta wait for him to contact you?"

JEN

"Wait. Of course."

LINA

"'Cause I wanna talk to him."

JEN

Larkin nodded. "Yeah. For sure. Don't know how, though."

LINA

"Only way I can think is we wait for him to dream at you again, and then you tell him to talk to me. But who fuckin' knows how long that'd be."

JEN

"What's our time limit anyway? With the whole... crossing over thing."

LINA

"There ain't one. I just been waiting on Sam for my cue."

JEN

She made a surprised sound. "He ain't ready yet? What's holding him back?"

LINA

Goro shrugged. "It's a complicated process, I guess. He's been collecting artifacts and shit that are supposed to help."

JEN

"I see... any chance you can, like, push it off a little?"

LINA

"Ehhh." He thought about it. "Dunno if I'd have a good enough excuse. One they wouldn't see straight through, I mean."

JEN

"Yeah... " Larkin made an unhappy face at the ground. "You want me to come with when you talk to Pride?"

LINA

"Sure. 'Long as you promise not to piss him off." He poked her in the ribs.

JEN

"Hey." She swatted at his hand. "I can be nice. See how fucking nice I can be."

LINA

He snickered. "Yeah, yeah. Sure thing, cuz. Sunshine and roses."

JEN

"Always."

IZZY

###

The dream palace was warm and breezy, sheer black curtains drifting around the double doors that led out onto the balcony off the sitting room. Goro and Larkin woke on the couches there, slumped against each other, surrounded by quiet instruments -- Sam wasn't present for this dream. Only Pride sat across from them, waiting for them to wake, at work on his talons with a golden-handled diamond file.

LINA

Goro sat up straight. "Evenin'."

JEN

Larkin followed suit, rubbing at her eyes a bit.

IZZY

Pride smiled politely. "It's good to see you both. Was there something you needed help with?"

He continued filing his talons down.

LINA

Goro smiled back. "What, you didn't overhear?"

IZZY

"I can't possibly be expected to pay attention to all things at once," he said pleasantly.

JEN

"Suppose so." Larkin didn't join in with the smiling. "Just thought you might be keeping taps. Have an ear open for your... friends."

LINA

Goro waved a hand dismissively. "No problem, we can fill you in. But listen, I don't wanna offend you or nothing. You know I'm just a paranoid guy, yeah?"

IZZY

"You're cautious, certainly. And I respect your privacy," he added, cutting his eyes at Larkin, briefly. "No eavesdropping."

JEN

"That's good to know."

LINA

Goro continued, dropping the polite thing and turning dead serious. "And you know I care a whole lot about Sam, right? I want him to be happy."

IZZY

Pride stopped filing his talons and frowned slightly. "Yes."

LINA

"I'm here outta concern for Sam, first and foremost." Goro leaned back and crossed his arms. "Tell him, Lark." He knew she was anxious about saying anything, so he figured he'd let her decide how much to spill.

JEN

"Well," she said, making it sound almost bored. "Might be we know something about Sam that could change some things."

IZZY

His expression smoothed over, going cool. "Do you, now?"

LINA

"The thing is--" Goro held his hands out. "I really do believe you care about him. Yeah? I know what I seen with my own eyes, and it looks to me like you care about him more than... anything. But my concern is if you really, uh." He squinted off into the distance. "Have always been real upfront with him. Honest."

IZZY

Pride raised an eyebrow. "The width and breadth of our history would have been overwhelming to him, when Sakincha first met me as Sam. Certainly, I was not immediately, completely upfront."

JEN

"And did you catch up on everything you omitted?"

IZZY

He tilted his head and set the file aside. It melted into the lounge. "I'm sorry, but I don't see how the intimacies of our relationship is any of your business."

LINA

"It matters to me if you're leading my friend on, is all."

IZZY

"You believe that I care about him, but also believe that I could be ... leading him on?" The phrase seemed alien to him.

JEN

"People do a lot of things they think are the best for others, is the thing." Larkin shrugged a little. "It's normal."

LINA

Goro rolled his eyes. "I don't wanna keep beating around the bush. I wanna know what you did to help Sam remember his past lives."

IZZY

"I am not a demon of memories -- I had no way of preserving Sakincha's memories from one life to the next. I simply shared my own with him." He narrowed his eyes, slightly. "I have no interest in beating around the bush, myself. What do you believe that you know that could change things?"

JEN

"Now that's kind of tricky," Larkin said. "Let me ask one more question."

LINA

Goro's eyes widened a little at shared my own. He didn't say anything.

IZZY

Pride looked neither pleased nor impressed, but waited for Larkin to ask her question.

JEN

"Did Sam tell you what I told him about Nissa?"

IZZY

He tilted his head again, as if thinking. "About Nissa?"

JEN

"Yep."

IZZY

"I'm sorry, I'm not sure what you mean. Are you referencing the nightmares you had? Sakincha asked me about them, yes."

LINA

"What'd he say? What'd you say?"

IZZY

"He told me that Larkin had some sort of dream -- a nightmare, it seemed -- about me, after I visited her. It was when you were ill," he commented, to Goro, "or I would have gone to you, of course." He laced his fingers together, the rings joining up save for the one missing link on his ring finger. "He was quite upset. I take it Larkin was not ... tactful." He narrowed his eyes at Larkin slightly.

JEN

"I was blunt," she said. "Some people appreciate that." She waved it away and for him to go on.

IZZY

"Hm. Blunt. I see." His voice was flat.

When he spoke, he addressed Goro. "I presume, after that, Sakincha had no particular desire to go back to Larkin with follow-up message. At any rate, what I told him, and will tell you, is this -- unfortunately, I must have failed to completely sever the dream with Larkin. I was quite distracted, at the time, watching over both Sam and his friend, Irah. While your group was in the Underdark, I facilitated multiple meeting between the two of them. It can be draining. I made some sort of error, and must have inadvertently slipped Larkin into a memory of my own.

"It's actually fairly interesting." He unlaced his fingers and leaned forward to tap his claws in sequence on the surface of the coffee table between them. A facsimile of Larkin's spiked brass knuckles emerged. "These once belonged to Sakincha, when he was Nissa. I must have noticed them, subconsciously, and it caused the mental pathway that I was dreaming with Larkin on to split into thoughts of a memory of Nissa. It likely wasn't a pleasant one," he admitted. "I apologize for the experience. Beyond that, however, I have no explanation other than simple, ordinary dreams on Larkin's part. I no longer have any connection to her, and have not contacted her since. It isn't to be unexpected, though -- she glimpsed an unshielded part of my mind, and I am, after all, a demon of nightmares as well as dreams." He smiled slightly. "I do my best to make the dreams pleasant, but my every thought and memory aren't for public viewing."

LINA

Goro narrowed his eyes, thinking for a while.

"How did you know Sam was Nissa?"

IZZY

"I followed her soul," he said simply. "I watched, as I am wont to do."

JEN

Larkin didn't look impressed with the explanation. "And how does one... follow a soul?" She asked, not even pretending to buy it.

IZZY

He smiled thinly. "You're a thief, no? How does one follow a mark through a crowd?"

LINA

Goro shook his head and frowned. "Ain't the same."

JEN

"Nah. Unless you can fucking see souls."

IZZY

"And ... Goro, have I not proven I can look into your soul?" he asked, more gently. "Do you doubt my abilities?"

LINA

That did give Goro pause. He shrugged. "Yeah. I doubt everything."

IZZY

"Then I'm unsure how to reassure you. Is this all you came to me about?"

JEN

"Well, it's hardly nothing," Larkin said. "You potentially having made a mistake... my recurring dreams. You know, dreams don't usually happen again and again. At some point it becomes... odd."

LINA

Goro frowned and bit the inside of his cheek.

IZZY

"Dreams frequently reoccur, I'm afraid," he said mildly. "Particularly unpleasant and unwanted ones. I could help you, but I doubt you desire my help."

JEN

"You're right."

LINA

"And you really think Sam is Nissa," Goro said. "You didn't lie to him, or mislead him, or nothing."

IZZY

"No. I am quite sure."

JEN

"Hey, I want to know something different."

IZZY

"What?"

JEN

"What happened to Aziz? After Nissa died?"

IZZY

"I recalled the portion of myself that had been 'him'. There was no need for it to stay on the mortal plane any longer. He died, in a manner of speaking," he mused, "and returned to me, his creator, to be re-assimilated."

LINA

Goro raised an eyebrow and looked at Larkin out of the corner of his eye.

JEN

"Interesting," she said. "So you were separate, once?"

IZZY

"Hm. In the way that a finger is separate from an arm."

JEN

She nodded as if she agreed.

IZZY

"Does this sate your curiosity?" he asked politely.

JEN

"I guess."

LINA

Goro went on frowning. He didn't know why he'd expected anything different, to be honest. He was starting to wonder if maybe Pride wasn't malicious at all, just fuckin' delusional. He really seemed to believe all his shit.

"I think that'll be all," he said weakly.

IZZY

"Very well," Pride said pleasantly. He raised his talons. "As always, good to talk with you."

He snapped his fingers.

Then there was the odd sensation of falling, as if in a dream right before waking, but Larkin and Goro did not wake up.

They kept falling, suspended in the crepuscular sky that was always visible outside the dream palace, dotted by stars and with an indistinct horizon. A shadow loomed over them -- the palace itself, twisting and unbound by the physical laws of the real world, growing further away steadily, though they never seemed to slip under the horizon.

Aziz dropped with them, grabbing Larkin desperately. "What are you doing?" he hissed. "Are you trying to get me killed? Nis -- Larkin, please." Then he seemed to realize Goro was there as well, and did a double take. "What -- what are -- you're not -- wake up!"

Goro did not wake up. They continued falling.

JEN

Larkin took hold of him reflexively before twisting and reaching, trying to grab Goro.

LINA

"Fuck's goin' on," Goro yelled.

IZZY

"You're not supposed to be here!" Aziz snapped. "Don't -- don't draw attention to yourself!"

The stars around them grew brighter, making the sky seem to dim.

Aziz looked back to Larkin. "Did I -- do something wrong? I -- I want to help you, please, please don't tell him about me."

JEN

"Fuck," she said, then louder, "Shit! Fuck! I didn't, alright, but I can't trust you. How can I trust you?"

IZZY

"So you trust him?" Aziz cried.

JEN

"No!"

LINA

"Why are we falling?" Goro yelled.

IZZY

Aziz waved a hand at Goro furiously and didn't otherwise acknowledge him.

"Then why go to him? Again?" he demanded.

The sky was getting darker, and the stars brighter.

JEN

Larkin shot a glance at Goro before answering. "See what he'd say. Figure him out. You. Whatever."

LINA

"Answer the goddamn question about how she can trust you!" Goro said to Aziz.

IZZY

"I can't prove it if --" he glanced around at the darkening sky fearfully -- "if you fucking get me killed first!" He made a frustrated sound. "Listen -- he only watches Sam and Mishka unless he has any reason to watch someone else. Just -- just don't talk to them, and --."

Larkin and Goro both woke up, abruptly, with the sense they'd only just avoided hitting the ground.

JEN

"Shit," Larkin said, blinking the jolt away. "Shit. Shit. I talked to Mishka. What if he, Pride, fucking--"

LINA

"What if he what?"

JEN

"Kills Aziz," she hissed. "What if he kills him and we miss a chance to get some real taps on him."

LINA

Goro shrugged. "I wasn't a fan of the guy."

JEN

"You know, if he's for real I don't want him to die just to spite fucking Pride. Honestly."

LINA

"Nah, me neither, but uh... hey, I got a thought. Why don't you let me borrow your brass knuckles for a bit? Maybe they're the reason he thinks you're Nissa."

JEN

Larkin frowned at that but did dig into her pockets and brought them out. "You can try," she said. "I just fucking doubt it."

LINA

"Aziz ever tell you why he thinks Pride's wrong about Sam? Thinks he's leading him on on purpose, or what?"

JEN

"Nah. He said Pride's just plain mistaken." She snorted. "Imagine."

LINA

Goro shook his head for a while. "Yeah. I got fuckin' nothing, unless the brass knuckles turn out to make a difference. Think we just oughta go ahead with the plan. Help Pride cross over, then you can help Aziz."

JEN

She grumbled a bit. "I guess."

LINA

Goro snorted. "Don't talk to Sam and Mishka. Yeah right, pal."

JEN

"It's really odd, right? That I talked to Sam already and he's still alive? I wonder why."

LINA

"Yeah. Ask him what's up with that next time. 'Less he comes to me instead, 'cause I got the knuckles."

JEN

"I really hope he does," Larkin said. "Freaks me the fuck out to think he could be right."

LINA

"Yeah. I mean... it's your past life on the line, and all, but you really think it makes much of a difference if it's true? Sam and Pride are all in love and shit. Even if someone convinced Pride he got the wrong guy, I don't think he'd just stop caring about Sam. And it ain't like you're gonna pack up and elope with Aziz either."

JEN

"Guess not, but he better stop stalking me then."

LINA

Goro narrowed his eyes. "You want me to make him leave you alone?"

JEN

She laughed. "What, you gonna chase away my suitor? Look out for your little cousin?"

LINA

"I fuckin' will."

JEN

"Charming." Larkin winked. "It's fine, though. For now. We'll see if it gets worse."

LINA

Goro nodded, satisfied.

[end]

TRP: Aziz, Goro, Larkin, and Pride (Falling Dream). Day 473. Larkin tells Goro about the Aziz/Nissa business. They confront Pride about it; Pride insists Larkin's dreams are meaningless and he knows for certain Sam is Nissa. They slip into a dream with Aziz after.