Sabri

## Background

Sabri is the child Weaver that Pashmina Myron first meets in the Dream after relocating to Rail Care, in the Five Irons district of Sayrem.

Sabri, a malnourished, scruffy-looking 12- or 13-year-old boy with brown skin, dark brown hair and eyes that are kind of a rich hazel, has to leave the apartment where he lives with his mother Hatice after it becomes clear that the Ministry of Rest is on his track and the future they have in mind for him is not the future Hatice wants for him.

When Pashmina, closely followed by Vee Lasetti, knock on the door of his apartment and calls *Pumpernickel!*, he opens the door very slowly and looks at them very suspiciously; in the little tiny bit of light glinting that just allows Pashmina to make him out, he looks to her more like 8 than 12.

According to his mother, "he is energetic and enthusiastic." Hatice also tells Pashmina:

> *I think you'll be impressed by his ability to focus at times; when he puts his mind to it he ... he gets things done.*
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## Becoming a Weaver

A training session is introduced thus:

> *That night Pashmina takes some time to train Sabri, the young weaver she has taken under her wing. We go now to the dream, the strange subconscious space shared by all the residents of Sayrem when they sleep. Here a select few known as weavers, like Pashmina, can manipulate the threads of this space to their own will.*
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Pashmina creates a protective barrier Sabri has to keep himself in to live longer and appears as her usual alias, a figure with a big peacock-blue scarf and a hood so you can't really see the face.

Sabri wants an alias, too: a thunderbird, or an escalator "cuz I escalate things, that's what my mom says.", or maybe a ... *thunderscalator*. As he is flickering—in-between different states of existence: Sabri, a shadow, a bird—Pashmina explains "it's really hard to keep your form in training, which is what we're doing and what we're wasting our time not doing."

Then Sabri stops talking and, as he tries to become "a tiny quiet bird in a tiny little cage", his brow furrows really hard; his dream form gets smaller and smaller and rounder and rounder and he's almost there when it snaps back into being full-size. He is disappointed but Pashmina reckons "it's honestly, well done; you're getting closer". Then she adds:

> *It is not an expectation of me or you to be this fast. Let's keep practicning!*
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Sure, as Sabri reminds her, Pashmina keeps telling him "that I'm in danger, and if I don't figure this out, then everyone is gonna die." Pashmina actually tells him "you will be caught and you will have a decision between death and never seeing your family again," neither of which Sabri likes.

Then Pashmina encourages Sabri to become the big, loud, energetic thunderbird he's envisioning, with all the details he can. As she recognizes the fictional creature he's imagined or encountered somewhere in descriptions of the Ozar, she starts correcting him. Without malice, she ends up actually weaving him, pulling his threads to correct them. As a result, Sabri gets pretty far, but not quite all the way there. He is not capable of of doing what it is, but he learn something from it.

Pasmina comes away frustrated and a bit disappointed, but Sabri comes away feeling really good about it despite those kinds of re-corrections because he was able to create something even if he didn't make the whole thing himself.

## Notes

1. ↑ Source for this section: ep. 2.
2. ↑ Source for both quotes: ep. 3.
3. ↑ See ep. 8. Transcript of the narration courtesy of Lauren. *Weaver* was not capitalized in this transcript.
4. ↑ As a result of a poor *Persuasion* roll.