Raistlin Majere of the Red Robes (hourglass_mage) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2016-03-13 10:41:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, raistlin majere, tasslehoff burrfoot |
Who: Raistlin and Tas
What: Tas wants to have a serious conversation, Raistlin just wants to sleep
When:Early March
Where: Their apartment
Rating/Warning: Low and likely none
Status: Complete!
Tas’ dreams had given him a temporary respite from the adventure and the danger. Tas couldn’t bring himself to be too upset about that. Maybe a wedding wasn’t nearly as exciting as undead elves who could kill you with their voice, or dragons fighting one another, or Sturm and Tanis killing a dragon highlord, but he was still very ecstatic that Riverwind and Goldmoon were finally being married. He did love a good party, and the party seemed even better after all the danger they had just managed to escape.
What was less fun when he had snuck away from the wedding to eavesdrop on Raistlin and Tanis. Most of the time, one of the two would catch him every time he tried to listen in on their secret conversations. This time, they missed him though, and what he heard made Tas’ stomach drop. Raistlin and Tanis had been talking about hope, or, more specifically, that hope didn’t exist. Raistlin had compared it to a carrot at the end of a string, helping plod along a donkey, but Tas didn’t believe that was right. Especially not when the single chicken feather had fallen from the sky.
When Tas opened his eyes that morning, he smiled widely at the feather that greeted him on his pillow. He sat up, his head feeling a little heavier than normal, and carefully added the feather to a shelf above his bed so he wouldn’t lose it. He admired it for a few moments, before he remembered that he was going to go talk to Raistlin to make sure that he had hope in this world, even if he didn’t have it on Krynn.
Before he managed to make it out of his bedroom though, he noticed that there was some very long hair coming from his head. Completely forgetting about Raistlin for a moment, he quickly ran to the bathroom to admire it. It was long, and brown, hanging nearly to his waist. And it was beautiful. He had wished more than once that he had his topknot from his dreams, and he took a couple of moments to first brush it out, and then tie into a long ponytail at the top of his head, just like in the dreams. He stood admiring it for another couple of moments, excited to show Raistlin. Which reminded him again that he really needed to talk to Raistlin.
He barged into Raistlin’s room, knocking loudly because it was polite at the exact same time as he opened Raistlin’s bedroom door because he still hadn’t exactly grasped the concept of what knocking was trying to accomplish.
“Raistlin?” he called loudly. “Are you awake?”
Raistlin was actually sleeping that morning and in his bed rather than at his desk for a change. He was Dreaming of the same autumn wedding. It was a nice affair, when everything was said and done, particularly after recent events. But there was something lurking just on the horizon and Raistlin wondered if he was the only one who saw it coming with his hour-glass eyes.
No, of course he wasn’t. It was something of an empty relief that Tanis at least had the common sense to know that this was only the beginning of something much larger. His mistake, however, had been coming to Raistlin as if the mage were going to give him some sort of words of optimism. Tanis Half-Elven really should have known better. Optimism was not something Raistlin Majere dealt in. Optimism and hope were for the foolish.
Raistlin was yanked out of the dream by a pounding on his bedroom door, followed almost immediately by Tas calling him and sounding as though he were standing directly over his bed. Why hadn’t he gotten a lock on his damn door by now?
Raistlin was in no mood to deal with Tas first thing in the morning. He groaned and rolled over to face the wall and covered his head with his arms. “I wasn’t,” he grumbled into his pillow. “What do you want, Tas? Can it wait?”
“I don’t think it can, Raistlin,” Tas said, excitement bubbling in his voice. “It’s really, really important! You have to look!” he said, leaning over Raistlin and allowing his long hair to dangle over so that the ends of his hair brushed against Raistlin’s skin. Raistlin was going to be so surprised.
Tas’s hair brushing his skin sent a wave of gooseflesh over Raistlin’s bare shoulders and down his back. Even if he wanted to go back to sleep, he wasn’t going to be able to now. He cracked open his eyes and moved his arms enough to look up at his roommate. Sure enough, the face peering down at him, framed by thick dark hair, looked more like the Kender from the dreams than the human Raistlin had moved into the apartment with. His brows furrowed together. For a moment he wondered if he really was awake. The thought was quickly pushed aside, however. He wasn’t seeing Tas in varying states of death and decay.
“Is that what you woke me up to see?” Raistlin asked. He reached up to push Tas away and get his hair off his shoulders before sitting up. “Congratulations.” He yawned, “You’re going to clog up our drain.”
“It sure is!” Tas said, unperturbed by the fact that Raistlin didn’t seem very excited. He hadn’t even realized that he missed it when he was awake, but now he couldn’t picture life without it again. “We can get one of those hair catcher things things that we can put in the drain if you want! I think I’ve seen them around. I could get one this afternoon.” He gazed at his topknot and stroked it lovingly.
Raistlin sighed and shook his head. “That really could have waited,” he grumbled. He squinted at his bedside table and the clock there. It was still far too early in the morning to deal with Tas’s excitement over his latest dream gift, especially considering the only thing that Raistlin had received had been a dead lizard. There could have been worse things to receive, of course, but he was starting to wonder what it was he was going to have to do to get his damn spellbook. He also didn’t want to be reminded of the physical changes that could happen to him. And if they were happening to Tas it really was only a matter of time.
“If that was all, go back to bed,” Raistlin told him, “Or let me go back to bed. This is the first morning in a while I don’t have to be anywhere.”
Tas admired his hair for a moment longer, until Raistlin requested Tas leave him alone. Then Tas blinked, and his eyebrows furrowed together. There was something else… “Oh yeah!” Tas said cheerfully. “There was something else!” he said, pulling the chair from Raistlin’s desk so he could sit down. Serious conversations should be made sitting. At least, that’s what Tas said given how often people on TV told other people to sit down before the talked to them. “I wanted to talk to you about the talk you had with Tanis at Goldmoon and Riverwind’s wedding. Have you dreamed that far yet? I can tell you what you said, if you haven’t!”
Raistlin let out a patient sigh when Tas dragged over the chair and plunked himself down in it like he was getting ready to have some Super Serious conversation with him. Raistlin hadn’t even gotten pants on yet that morning, the last thing he wanted to do was have any kind of conversation, especially a serious one about their Dreams. However, he knew if he didn’t talk with Tas now, he would have no peace until he did.
He rubbed his eyes. “Yes, I was dreaming about the Plainsman’s wedding before you barged in here to show off your new hairdo,” he said patiently. “And I know what I said to Tanis, you don’t need to repeat it.” He paused and peered over his hands at Tas, cold blue eyes narrowed in accusation. “Wait. How do you know what I said to Tanis?”
Tas’s face donned a look of complete innocence. “Oh, I dropped something in the bushes and was looking for it when you and Tanis started talking,” he said. “So I listened to the whole thing.” He decided it was probably best not to mention that he’d followed Raistlin and Tanis, and hadn’t dropped anything at all.
“But good! I’m glad you dreamed about it! That saves time. You don’t actually believe the things you told him, do you? About hope not being real and all of that?”
Raistlin narrowed his eyes to cold blue slits. He believed Tas had dropped something in the bushes as much as he believed pigs could fly. But, honestly, he shouldn’t have been surprised. Seeing Tanis and Raistlin talking conspiringly away from the party would have piqued anyone’s interest, if they were paying attention.
“Curiosity killed the Kender, you know,” he said in warning. “I don’t recommend you make a habit of that, Tas.” And left the issue of Tas’s spying at that. It wasn’t as if the Tas of Orange County had any control over the Tas of Krynn, anyway.
He turned his attention to the crux of their conversation, raising a brow. “You do realize that I am not that man, correct?” He could not stress that enough. He shared plenty of complaints, issues and desires of his dream counterpart and liked the general concept of people as much as he liked the mildew in their bathroom, but he at least recognized the importance to maintain the personal relationships he had now and had no desire to sabotage them out of some kind of desire to screw with them and prove some kind of superiority over them. Raistlin of Orange County did not like Raistlin of Krynn and was convinced if the two should ever actually meet, they would hate each other.
Believing he had stressed the point well enough, Raistlin shook his head. “I’m neither an optimist or a pessimist. I neither cling to hope or dispute the need for it.”
“I’m not sure if I can stop dream me from listening in the bushes,” Tas said. “But I’ll try!” He made no promises about not eavesdropping in this world though. He didn’t want to miss anything exciting.
Tas let out a heavy sigh of relief and slumped in Raistlin’s chair, far more relaxed. “Oh, well that’s good!” Tas said. “I was really worried there for a while, because I was thinking ‘what’s the point of trying to do anything if you don’t have hope,’ and then this feather came out of the sky, and I think it’s a chicken feather even though there weren’t any chickens around, but there were chicken feathers all over the place when Fizban died so I thought ‘maybe this means that I should bring hope to people’ and then I woke up with the feather here and I thought ‘I can start by bringing hope to Raistlin if he doesn’t have any!’ I’m glad you do though.”
“There were...what?” Raistlin stared at him, the issue of Tas’s spying ways long forgotten. He was aware of the death of the bungling-like-a-fox wizard of the white robes, but this was the first he had heard about chicken feathers being present when he’d died. Raistlin wasn’t sure what to make of it other than Fizban had attempted a spell and it had backfired magnificently. Even that seemed odd, even for the old man. He also had no idea how a rogue chicken feather had prompted Tas to the conclusion that he needed to bring hope to people. Even as far as Kender Logic went, that was a stretch. Did he think the old man’s ghost had dropped it on him as some kind of sign. It was possible, Raistlin supposed, but why a feather of all things? What did it mean?!
Raistlin sat staring at Tas in utter confusion for several moments attempting to make heads and tails of the situation and found himself coming up woefully short. “Uh, yes, Tas.” He said at last. “I promise you I’m not hopeless. I just prefer to make my own way rather than just praying things will work in my favor.” He hoped he sounded more confident than he felt. “Is that all then? Can I get up and get some coffee?” Since going back to sleep with a full brain was completely out of the question.
“Chicken feathers!” Tas repeated helpfully. “At least, I think they are. They sure look like it. Maybe you can take a look at the one that came from my dreams later and let me know for sure!” Raistlin being the smartest person Tas knew in two different worlds, it seemed to make sense that he’d also obviously be an expert on identifying feathers.
Tas nodded at Raistlin. “Of course you can go and get some coffee. I can make us breakfast while I’m at it. Maybe not eggs though. What do you think? Is it in bad taste to eat eggs when I got a chicken feather from the dreams, or do you think it’s a sign that we should definitely have eggs?”
Raistlin wouldn’t have been able to tell a chicken feather from a pigeon feather just by looking at it, but if Tas insisted on showing him, he could probably research it to be sure. “If you’d like me to, I suppose I can take a look.” He said as he got out of bed. “If it came from your dreams though, it’s probably exactly what you think it is.” Raistlin was pretty sure the dried up mummified lizard sitting on his desk was exactly what he thought it was.
Once out of his warm bed, he shivered a little bit. Their apartment was terrible at retaining heat. Raistlin pulled on a pair of loose fitting pants, finding them to fit a little looser than he remembered and a t-shirt. He frowned a little at Tas. “If you got a pet chicken, maybe it’d be in bad taste, but just a feather? I think you’ll be fine serving eggs, if that’s what you want to make. Sometimes a feather is just-” He stopped himself and shook his head. The feather represented hope to Tas and after the conversation they just had, it was better to let him continue thinking that for now. “You’ll be fine.”