TRP: Goatface and Rieka (Second Chances)

[Setting: A jail in some town.]

Months ago, Rieka'd been in a bar, like usual. There had
been a guy, and his friends, and the next thing she knew there had been a
fight.

She'd never fought like that before. Never used her magic to
that degree. She'd wiped the floor with them-- fatally.

And then all the fight had gone out of her just in time for
the guards to come in and find her with three dead bodies.

That was why she was in jail now. For a long, long time yet
too apparently. Rieka was vaguely aware that-- if she tried-- she was pretty
sure there were spells that could help her escape. She didn't.

It was the end of another miserable day. Rieka curled in her
area of the cell, ignoring her cellmate, and staring out the window. There was
some wolf's bane growing at the window. As she drifted off to sleep, Rieka
tried to recall if she'd seen any there before.

Jen

"Wake up," said a soft, low voice that seemed
to come from inside Rieka's mind.

Abby

Rieka jolted, and sat up. Same moss, same awful smell--
covered in vines this time which was... better? And the same fucking goat.

"What the hell man?" she said, struggling to her
feet. Vines were a lot heavier than butterflies. "What the hell. Where
have you been? D'you know where I am right now?"

Jen

"Yes," it said. "I know."

Abby

Rieka groaned. "I told you. I was gonna be useless.
Give me power and look what happens-- I end up in fucking prison with it."

Jen

The creature tilted it's head in that same, familiar
motion as if it had to think about the meaning of that.

"You can leave," it said.

Abby

Rieka shifted a bit. "I don't know how," she
said, looking off to the side.

Jen

"With my gifts." It righted its head, then let
it tilt to the other side. "A drop of blood will be enough to wish you
away."

Abby

Rieka started to say something and stopped. On some
level she was pretty sure she knew what it meant. Nah, the real issue was
something else. "Thing is I'm... pretty sure I belong here though,"
she said, crossing her arms and continuing to not meet goatface's eyes.

Jen

"No."

Abby

Rieka shook her head, gritting her teeth. Finally she
looked up, at the unnerving eyes of her patron. "Do you know what I've
done?" she asked harshly. "I've killed-- murdered people. People who
didn't deserve it. And you tell me I don't belong in prison?"

Jen

"Yes."

Abby

Rieka threw her hands up in the air. "You're a real
talkative fuck you know that?" she snapped irritably.

Jen

It did not answer.

Abby

Rieka glared for a second. And then it started to hit
her-- this was kinda funny, actually. So she snorted, and then laughed, and
then ended up bent double, cackling so hard tears were streaming down her face.

Jen

"I can help you," the creature offered,
oblivious to Rieka's ongoing laughing fit. "You need to go. You have a
task."

Abby

Rieka chocked down on her laughter. "You know I
only agreed to help you so you'd leave me alone, right?"

Jen

"You lied?"

Abby

"Well... yeah."

Jen

The creature blinked- for the first time Rieka had seen
it. "You ate my flower."

Abby

Rieka nodded slowly. "Yeah. Cause I wanted to wake
up. And you just kept asking me for help. So it was easier to just say yeah and
eat the flower, instead of arguing with you."

Jen

"The exchange needs to be made," it said, its
voice going hard.

Abby

"Look if want your flower back you can have
it," Rieka said. "Just, uh, tell me how to give it back."

Jen

"You can't."

Abby

Well. "Sucks to be you then, I guess?"

Jen

There was another stretch of silence before the creature
turned its head aside, looking into the distance. "I will help you
then," its voice echoed in Rieka's head.

Abby

Rieka groaned. "Listen, dude, it's not worth it all
right? I told you, I'm not gonna be any help to you. S'not my fault you didn't
listen."

Jen

The creature just raised a hand and drew a circle in the
air- and the dreamscape vanished.

Rieka was back in her cell but something was off... where
her awareness of her body should have been there was nothing. She floated in
mid-air, looking out of a face that turned around without her telling it to.

Rieka- her body- stepped over to the window and stood on her
toes to look outside. She examined her hands, her palms, the soft skin between
her thumb and forefinger. Then she raised one hand to her mouth and bit down.
The taste of blood filled Rieka's mouth and the next thing she knew, she was
standing outside her window.

Abby

Rieka yelped and stumbled back, bracing against the wall.
Crouched down and tried to regulate her breathing. It was fine, everything was
fine. She'd just... annoyed her patron enough that he decided to leave her
alone. And then she decided to escape. Yeah. That was all that'd happened. (No
it wasn't.)

Well. If she was out then-- maybe she oughta make the best
of it. Maybe one of the ships in port wouldn't mind taking on a new hand in
prisoner's rags. Or maybe she'd get caught and end back up in prison. Or get
killed. Rieka guessed she'd find out soon enough.

[END]