New Fanfic: While You Were Sleeping - Part One
Hello guys. I've finally got livejournal to co-operate with me, and so I bring you a surprise from greenygal and I, your oft absent mods.
Since we started this comm with a fanfic posted in chapters, we thought it might be nice to celebrate the fifth anniversary in the same way. This fic has four chapters, and I'll be posting them one per day for the next four days. I hope you enjoy, and thanks to you all for making this such a cool little community :-).
While You Were Sleeping
By Blinky the Tree Frog and Greenygal
Author’s Notes:
This fic has taken an embarrassingly long time to complete. Seriously.
It was actually started in 2007, and most of the dialogue, plus a good amount of description of the actions, was written then. We patted ourselves on the back and agreed that it looked promising, and promptly forgot about it for a year or so. Then we found it again and in a brief spurt of productivity, we cleaned up and added the narration to the start of it. Then we both got distracted by other fandoms and I went overseas for a year and a half and it once more sat abandoned. Over the next few years, we would occasionally pick it up and get nostalgic, and add some more to it, but it stayed sadly unfinished until I looked at the date and went, “Hey, the comm’s birthday is coming up! Would this not be a perfect time to, I don’t know, finish off that fic and finally post it?”
And lo, we became productive, and the result is before you!
Is it worth four years of waiting? Probably not, to be fair. But we really hope you like it anyway :-).
Behold, “While You Were Sleeping”, in which Trickster wakes up and has a few very important questions...
***
When I woke up, my first reaction was confusion. Now, waking up confused is not actually that uncommon. I mean, the whole ‘transitioning from dreams to reality’ thing can often lead to some serious disorientation. You’re coasting along in your happy, illogical dream world, then boom! Why are the zombies suddenly gone? Were you really just sailing on a pirate ship? What happened to the hippopotamus that was reciting poetry to you?
So saying I woke up confused, while true, really doesn’t get across the mind-boggling what-the-hellness of my awakening. I’m not sure it’s possible to get across the what-the-hellness of this particular awakening, but hey, I like a challenge, so let’s give it a go.
The first few moments were what I can only describe as really, really ghastly. A mess of hazy images pounded through my head, pain and blood and darkness and horror and I remember distantly thinking “Oh god, this must have been one miserable nightmare,” and then I managed to wrench my eyes open and things just got way more disturbing. The first thing I noticed was the smell, which was a particularly revolting blend of too-sweet incense and the sharp tang of a butcher store. Then I felt the floor, hard and wooden beneath me, and I had a flare of panic as I realized that I had no idea how I’d gotten on the floor, or what the smell was, or why the room seemed to only be lit by the eerie flickering lights of candles, or why the hell I was naked….
I sat up, trying desperately not to look too panicked. At the best of times, not knowing what’s going on irritates me, and this was just taking things to an alarming new level in incomprehensible weirdness. The room was dim and filled with a smoky haze. There were marks all over the bare floor, circles and sigils and worrying symbols. There were objects scattered around, globes and rocks and feathers, and…was that a dead goat? What the hell….
“There’s some clothes over here if you want to get dressed. I’m not looking.”
Despite myself, I jumped at the voice and twisted around. A tiny voice in my head yelped, “Please tell me that wasn’t who it sounded like…” but no, of course it was. “Piper?”
He avoided looking at me, which I suppose was good of him considering my no-doubt hot and alluring nakedness. “Here.” He tossed a T-shirt and jeans in my general direction, and I instinctively grabbed them away from several of the candles and avoided making the situation even more horrible and insane by adding a raging inferno to the mix. Then I pulled the clothes on, because if there’s anything worse than being confused, it’s being confused while naked.
“You can turn around,” I said, rather calmly, I thought.
He turned around obediently, pale face blinking at me in the dim light with an expression that even I couldn’t decipher. “You’re okay?”
There was an unnerving undercurrent of desperation in his voice that made me almost hesitate before yelling at him. But come on, what was I expected to do? This was beyond creepy, it was insane. He should be thankful that I managed to keep my voice as low as I did. “What did you do to me?”
In the candlelight I couldn’t see his expression as well as I would have liked, but I thought he looked much less perturbed than you’d expect under the circumstances. He certainly looked less perturbed than I did at the moment, which was just not right. But all he said was, “What I did is less important a question than where you’ve been,” which really completely failed to answer any of the thousands of questions I had at the moment and in fact just added a new one.
But fine. I’d play along. “Where have I been then?”
“Dead.”
I already had my mouth open to deliver a scathing reply to his answer, but I have to admit this derailed my thoughts. Because seriously, what? That was clearly not the truth. That was clearly ridiculous and…
And something dark rattled in the back of my brain. Pain and blood and darkness and horror. There had been…I’d been on a train and there’d been…blood? A bullet? There’d… Wait a second.
I blinked down at my wrist, which was bare. That wasn’t…Was that right? Patchy bits of memory were pushing their way to the forefront of my mind, and they weren’t exactly making me feel any better about the situation.
I looked up at Piper with some urgency. “There were people after us! And there was… On our wrists!” I waved mine for emphasis. “What happened to--”
He shook his head. “They’re gone. It’s…” A barely perceptible shudder. “It’s gone. It’s over.”
Just like that? “They were trying to kill me!”
“They succeeded, James.”
I stopped with the wrist waving at this, and suddenly I felt very queasy. “They… I was dead.”
“Yes.”
What are you supposed to say to that? “Oh.” My brain continued to flail at the idea rather than do anything to help. “I’ve never been dead before,” I managed, which in retrospect was a pretty ridiculous thing to say, but you try coming up with something witty in the same circumstances.
Piper’s closed expression twisted abruptly. “Just don’t do it again, for god’s--! For, for...” And then the ire faded as quickly as it had come. “This wasn’t-- Just don’t.”
This? What in god’s name did this involve? “This? What the hell was this?”
“I’m not…I’m really not going to go into all the details right now, James.”
Okay, no way. “I’m just trying to under--”
“You don’t need to understand, okay? It’s done now. It’s done; you’re here…” He turned jerkily and produced some tissues from a nearby table. “Here, wipe the goat’s blood off your forehead.”
Wipe the…? Oh, eww. I hastily grabbed the tissues. I was the Trickster. I was not panicking. I was not panicking. “I don’t need to understand why I woke up naked from being dead, with goat’s blood on my forehead?!” The shrill tone was not a panicking tone. It was an urgent tone. A perfectly legitimate urgent tone!
“It’s not…”
“It is goat’s blood! You said it was goat’s blood! And you said I was dead!”
He directed a frown at me. “It’s not important right now. You just woke up and already you’re… There are more important things than the goat!”
I opened my mouth to retort something at that but then it occurred to me that I’d just woken up naked from being dead and standing next to me was a guy (a friend?) who had just used the sentence, ‘There are more important things than the goat!’ and I just had to stop for a moment. Even by my standards this was getting particularly surreal.
He seemed to mistake this for agreement, for some reason. He really couldn’t be paying attention. “Like time.”
“Time?” I was right about the attention thing, actually. He looked…vague. And god, he was really thin. What the hell had--?
“You’re going to have to deal with some lost time. It’s been about a year and a half.”
Wait, what? “A year and a half,” I repeated blankly. I’ve really been dead for…man. “A...year and a half,” I said again, this time as acknowledgment. “I…was there a funeral?”
At this question he at least raised an eyebrow, which was something. “I wasn’t in a position to provide one. Sorry.”
No funeral. I wasn’t sure whether I was disappointed or relieved. Still…. “I always kind of envisioned an open casket and a crowd of...well, Rogues, probably. I guess it’s a moot point, now?” There was silence for a few seconds at that, and then I couldn’t stop myself from asking. “So...it was quick?”
“It doesn’t matter.” Piper turned around sharply and started blowing out candles haphazardly. “It’s not like it’s relevant anymore, is it? You’re taking morbid curiosity to really weird places. Just... just be...” He hesitated, then stopped, putting a hand to his face, which at any other time I might have taken as a warning sign.
I had a right to be distracted, though. Dammit, this conversation was ridiculous. I wanted to know what the hell was going on, and Piper had so far managed to spend the first few minutes of my new life not telling me anything much at all. “I died, Piper. And now it’s a year and a half later and you’re standing here with a dead goat telling me that you did something you won’t talk about to bring me back and I’d really like a little information here.”
“Yeah, like you’d talk to me if, if....” And then he stopped. “I have to sit down.” Except he didn’t so much ‘sit’ as let his legs buckle under him, leaving him on his knees.
Alarm bells rang in my head. I jumped forward and pulled him around to face me, and was mildly worried that he actually let me. And then I looked at him, really looked at him close up. Jesus. What had he been doing to himself? This close the dimness couldn’t hide the skeletal thinness and the hollows under his eyes. He looked like a freaking zombie. “You know, you look terrible. I thought I was the dead one.”
“It’s just.... I think that it might have...taken something. I don’t know. I’m really tired. I haven’t slept for...” He blinked at me vaguely, apparently trying to count. “...a while.”
Hadn’t slept for a while. Right. This was just getting better and better. “Terrific. You couldn’t take a nap before you decided to perform an unholy mystical resurrection ritual? With candles? And...things? And what do you mean taken something?” My voice scaled up a little on the last two words, because dammit, that is not a good phrase to hear when you’re talking about unholy mystic rituals and Piper should know that. Why the hell would he risk this…? And for me, of all people? Had the world gone insane while I was… resting in peace? Had it even been peaceful? I couldn’t remember any demonic tortures, which was reassuring. But I couldn’t remember anything else, either. All that time I spent trying to keep out of Neron’s clutches, and I still had no idea if it had actually worked…
Piper stared at the ground, pointedly avoiding my face. “I don’t know. I had to...there was...he’s kind of a spirit. Or a god. I don’t know. He didn’t tell me...a lot of things.” His voice was detectably desperate now, the bland calmness of before finally giving way to something that was really just as worrying. Especially considering what he was saying. A god? No no no, Piper, no gods.... “He thought it was funny. He laughed a lot. But he did help. I think. I don’t know whether this, any of this... whether I needed it or it was just him. Maybe he took something from me so you could... I mean, it must take energy, right? To make someone...to bring someone.... Maybe I’m just tired. I’m not making sense.”
Oh, you think? I stared at him, and when I opened my mouth I realized I had no damn idea what I was about to say. What have you done? I closed my mouth again and tried desperately for a little restraint. “You...you do look really tired. Long day of not sleeping and, ah, talking to gods, and bringing back the dead, it probably takes it out of you. You just need eight hours in a decent bed and...” And then I just ran out of flippant, and before I could take it back the question spilled out. “Why? Why would you...?” I waved an arm, encompassing the goat and the candles and the god and not knowing when the last time you’ve slept was and… Why the hell? Why the hell?
Piper squeezed his eyes shut and turned his head away from me. “It was too much.”
“What was too much?” I knew I should stop yelling, but... “What happened?”
“Everything. Was too much. You don't even know what I... so much kept happening and I tried to... I wanted to... He did these things to you and he didn't even care about you, and then I--I thought I would die but... then there was after, and I couldn't...” He shook his head and I felt cold. Too much of what? Who did what to me? What the hell could have caused this?
Okay. Okay. I really, really wanted answers here, but Piper honestly looked like he was about three steps from collapse, and I suspected I should probably have some concern for the guy who’d apparently just brought me back to life. He needed sleep. Get him to bed. Scream at him about this whole thing when he wakes up. It wasn’t like his answers were going to make much sense when he was this close to losing it, anyway. Carefully, I asked, “Is there anything you need to do now? Closing ceremonies?”
He blinked at the change of topic and looked up blearily. “Close... no. Don’t think so. It’s all done. See?”
I took another look at the mess in the basement, but I managed to withhold comment. “Right. All done. So you don’t need to do anything else, and it would maybe be a good idea if you got some sleep. All right?”
Piper looked vaguely panicked at this. “I... don’t know. This doesn’t even seem that real. Did I fall asleep?”
Jesus, he was losing his grip more by the second. Adrenaline rush fading? I fought off an impulse to tell him yes. Not funny, even by my standards. Instead I took a firm grip on one of his wrists, and helped him up. “You’re not asleep. I’m not dead. Everything else is up for negotiation, say in about ten hours.”
He blinked at me vaguely. “Right. I’m sorry.” He accepted help in being pulled up. “I really think I need to rest.”
“Yeah, I think you might,” I agreed, in a generous understatement. I carefully started steering him towards the stairs. Mostly for distraction, I asked “You don’t have any gods up there, right? Or livestock?”
Piper walked unsteadily, leaning on me a little. “Not any more. Livestock’s gone and gods never stick around. S’annoying.”
“Yeah, well, I’d rather do without them. Who needs the pressure?” I pulled the door open and walked out of what I guessed was the basement and into…a house.
“It was the only way,” Piper protested weakly as he followed me.
The house was of a relatively good size, and looked like a decent enough place, if somewhat cluttered. Okay, very cluttered. There were tech gadgets and alarming-looking possibly-mystical objects strewn all over the place. A card house sitting precariously in the corner; lines of dominos threading through various places in the room and I didn’t even wanna guess what that was about. The whole display looked like something that would fall apart with a few good stomps or a good huff and puff, which, when I thought about it, reflected its owner disturbingly well. Wonderful.
I helped Piper weave his way to another set of stairs and tried not to stare worriedly around the room. I could even see a few of my own tech gadgets amongst the mess, which I supposed I shouldn’t feel annoyed about because it wasn’t like I’d been using them myself. “Nice inventory. Guess the maid took a year and a half off, though.”
“I wouldn’t be able to find things if I cleaned it up. S’easier that way.”
“Personally I’d rather not have the death rays where I’m going to trip over them, but whatever works for you.”
“Death ray’s in the spare room.” It was genuinely difficult to tell whether he was joking about this, which was more than disconcerting.
The bedroom was also piled with potential death machines and crap. So was the bed, which really didn’t bode well. “Man, you really haven’t been sleeping,” I said, and allowed myself a private moment to be appalled that I was just brought back from the dead by someone suffering from intense sleep deprivation. I was probably lucky that I hadn’t come back as a chihuahua. “Is any of this stuff dangerous?”
“Probably,” said Piper and started pushing it off the bed with alarming unconcern. “I slept on the couch some. I think.” His legs buckled a little again and he sat down in the cleared spot and looked vaguely at the rest of it as if he didn’t quite know what he was doing.
I resisted the urge to just back out the doorway and wait for the thump. He brought you back from the dead. A little gratitude was probably in order. I sighed and cleared the remaining junk off the bed, less cavalierly than Piper had. Feeling particularly magnanimous, I even pulled Piper off the bed long enough to pull the covers back.
Piper didn’t really seem to notice my good deeds, however. His eyes slid closed as soon as his head hit the pillow and he was practically snoring seconds later.
“Sweet dreams,” I murmured. I felt a little lonely, all of a sudden.
***
Stay tuned tomorrow for Part Two!