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Who: Wallie and everyone!
What: Various dreams.
Warnings: Angst about self-identity, probably a sexy slave girl, but really Wallie's pretty well-adjusted.

Dream 1: A happier image:

It's a grassy slope of beach near the edge of a wide, slow river that curves through jungle, a shady spot to stop, to have some lunch, to relax. A boat -- peculiarly, not the river boats of the World but a very earthly aluminum canoe, because details are sometimes fuzzy in dreams -- is pulled up on the shore.

Wallie is stretched out on the grass, smiling wide enough to split his face. With him is a young woman, brown and dark-haired and beautiful, wearing blue to match him, the blue of a seventh-rank rather than the black of the casteless, though his memory has conjured her with a slave tattoo: a long, thick line from forehead to chin. A small child who can't be much more than two runs around on the grass, naked in the warm weather and full of laughter; he, too, bears the slave tattoo on his face.

The boy wanders too close to the river -- the water is dangerous, but Wallie's there to keep watch, and he rises to go swoop in and gather him up, tickling him until the boy shrieks gleefully. The woman comes to join them, and she kisses Wallie warmly; he puts his arm around her waist and pulls her close as he moves all three of them further up the shore.

Dream 2: Who am I?

The cloudless blue sky stretches endlessly over the sun-bleached grass of the Saskatchewan prairie. Wallie looks very different here: short, thirty-six but already quite bald, his hair and beard blond. He carries a sword, but it's too big for him, and he doesn't seem to know how to use it.

Across from him stands Shonsu, huge and muscular and the very picture of beautiful masculinity. The sword in his hand is a different one from the one Wallie brought with him to the Cape: a fine blade with a griffon handle, a sapphire in the hilt.

"You think you can be me?" scoffs this apparition, and he lunges forward with the blade; Wallie parries, awkwardly, hurriedly, gasping for air.

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Dilandau finds himself on the prairie, staring out over the vast empty place. The clang of swords catches his ear and he spins around to see who could be fighting.

To him, it's a battle between Wallie and a small, obviously inferior man. He yells to the combatants,

"What's the matter, Wallie? Couldn't find someone your own size?" He's sure his heckling won't distract Wallie enough for the little man to be a threat.

Wallie looks over, and the confusion is immediately obvious to him -- understandable too, if he's honest, but at the moment it's just frustrating.

"Don't help him!" he hollers in Dilandau's direction. "He isn't--"

He gets cut off as Shonsu lunges powerfully at him, and he scrambles to get out of the way.

The yelling merely provokes a predatory grin.

"Don't worry, dream man, I know he can handle himself."

He's got no intention of interfering, since he's been wanting to watch Wallie fight against a third party for a while, so that he can fully appreciate the man's skill and have a better chance at spotting the weaknesses.

"Once you kill that one, Wallie, imagine someone a bit stronger. That's a pathetic opponent!"

"Don't call me that!" Shonsu snarls in Dilandau's direction. "This... this demon has been haunting me, and he tries to steal my face. Don't you call me by his name, little man."

Wallie takes advantage of Shonsu's momentary distraction, lunges with a strike of his own, but he lacks Shonsu's strength and grace, not to mention size, and the blow is parried easily.

"He isn't me," Wallie is desperate. "Dilandau, he isn't me--"

"Enough of your lies, Walliesmith." Shonsu strikes hard. "I don't know why the priests couldn't rid me off you, but this ends here."

Now that changes the situation considerably. His eyes dart between the man he recognises and the man who recognises him, remembering how Wallie told him about waking up on another world...

He draws his sword and approaches, but he doesn't insert himself into the battle just yet. He does find Wallie an interesting companion, but now that he can see them both clearly he finds the idea of the parasitisation somewhat sickening. If he'd been in Shonshu's place he'd be trying to kill Wallie just as fiercely.

"Hey, big man, why should I let you kill him? Are you more useful than him?"

"Let me?" Shonsu laughs. "You're as much a demon as he is, look at you."

Shonsu, or at least this version of him that Wallie's mind has summoned, dismisses Wallie for the moment, since Dilandau is very much in his face right now. "I will deal with you as I deal with him."

Wallie, meanwhile, is trying to take advantage of the situation, but his sword is really too much for him.

Dilandau bears his teeth in a feral snarl at that. The insult would be enough to make him scowl, but the dismissiveness burns. He's had enough of that lately to last a lifetime.

"So you'll fail to stop me conquering you completely, just like you failed when he took your body?" He grins just as ferally after releasing that barb and shifts into position, ready for an attack.

"I had no choice then!" Shonsu roars. "I have a chance now. I'm not helpless now. There are no sorcerers to inflict him on me."

For his part, Wallie's just amazed that Dildandau being a smartass is to his advantage. At least it seems to be for the moment. He could strike Shonsu down now, but... well, Wallie's never been that person.

"I had no choice either," Wallie protests, though he's trying to angle himself defensively. "I had nothing to do with it."

His grin slides off his face.

"I hate Sorcerers." Once again he finds himself understanding the larger man's rage. That would be him, if he ever found a chance to escape from the Sorcerers. However, he knows deep down to his bones that killing them would never set him free. They may be men, but they're powerful in ways a rogue warrior could ever be.

Not even two rogue warriors could say for certain they'd win and Dilandau doesn't wish to find out what the punishment would be for disobedience.

"I hate them, but I'm not stronger than them. You aren't either, big man. Your parasite's one of them. I'd have better luck if they appear by keeping their project alive than I would you."

His gaze flickers over to Wallie, who's frankly a pathetic sight at the moment.

"You'll remember this if more of your kind come, Wallie?"

Wallie could protest that he isn't a sorcerer, that he isn't a parasite, but depending on the definition you use... maybe he is. And that's... that stings, somewhat.

"My kind is human," he says. "As far as I know this has never happened to anyone."

He sounds defeated. He doesn't think, really, that Shonsu is conscious in his mind -- if anything, he hopes not. But this is a dream, and in the way of dreams it makes sense when it wouldn't awake.

"I'm not about to be leading an invasion of body snatchers, if that's what you're suggesting."

His tone is resigned, but Shonsu narrows his eyes. "Or I just kill you and get my body back."

There's nothing but scorn in his voice. Wallie doesn't have the heart to argue.

Edited 2013-06-29 01:29 (UTC)

Dilandau shoots Wallie a narrow look, though only briefly as he doesn't want to lose his focus on Shonshu.

"Only certain kinds of humans want to take up that profession."

There's nothing but a sullen contempt for that thought.

He steps in closer, shrinking the gap between him and the pair. The thought of turning his blade on Shonshu makes him feel dirty, but so does the thought of cutting down someone he's found so agreeable. This is no longer going to be a battle he'd take great pleasure from fighting.

Later, Wallie will want to talk to Dilandau about all of this, to straighten things out, to explain these things that are difficult to go into with Shonsu, or his ghost, or his echo, standing there and glowering. What happened to Shonsu was not his fault, not remotely, but this image of Shonsu will never see it that way.

Shonsu now turns his glare on Dilandau. "Do you defend this demon? You're a demon yourself, by the look of you."

His pink eyes burn at that before he contorts his face into a very unpleasant smile.

"You don't want your body back, big man, if you don't like being around demons."

Just for that insult, Dilandau has no hesitation any more about attacking. He leaps forward with a shriek, cutting at the larger man.

A fire lights in Shonsu's eyes, and moves to strike at this little man who dares attack him; he has no substance, though, and Dilandau's sword passes right through him as he evaporates.

Wallie gives a sigh, his face in his hands. His features seem to be shifting strangely between his own and Shonsu's, and the sword he carries is the griffon-headed sword Shonsu had had a moment or two earlier. It's good to hold that again, even if it is just a dream.

"I need to wake up," he murmurs.

Dilandau chops his sword into the grass with a yell, not caring about how he might damage the blade on a hidden rock. Now that he's got nowhere to direct all the adrenaline pumping for the fight he's close to waking himself up with the sheer frustration of it all.

He whirls on Wallie and approaches, fists clenched.

"Yes, you do need to wake up so I can back to my own head." And what better way to help than to throw a punch at him?

Wallie gives a startled shout, and backs up with his hands up. Fortunately, this is enough to startle him out of sleep, and the dream dissolves abruptly. The next thing he knows, he's awake in his bed.

The Hulk grabs Shonsu by his arm, pulling it until he almost has to stand on his tiptoes in order to stay on the ground. Bruce eyes the two of them, watching them both as he stumbles away from them and toward Wallie, reaching for him.

"Are you okay?"

Behind him, the Hulk is staring hard at Shonsu.

Edited 2013-06-25 05:20 (UTC)

Shonsu struggles, glaring fiercely up at the Hulk and making choked, angry noises. Wallie, for his part, is gasping, clutching his sword helplessly and staring at Bruce in disbelief. Bruce knows. If anyone would know, would recognise this situation for what it was, it would be Bruce.

"I'm fine," he manages. "I'll just--"

"You won't be fine, demon, when I'm through with you," Shonsu howls. "I won't let you take me over."

The Hulk narrows his eyes, looking between Shonsu and Wallie, and then at Bruce, and back at Shonsu. Does the Hulk hate Banner? Yes. Does he want to smash his head in? That's an interesting question. He doesn't, however, let up on Shonsu, and instead he gives him a little shake.

Bruce gives Shonsu an uncertain look, and then tries to steady Wallie.

"A little internal struggle?"

"Something like that."

Wallie grabs holds of Bruce's arm, staring at Shonsu and the face he's become so used to seeing in the mirror. That face definitely looks different without Wallie's expressions behind it.

"He doesn't exist," Wallie says through gritted teeth. "He doesn't. He can't."

"You stole my life," is Shonsu's snarl, and he flails uselessly at the Hulk, trying to get a swipe at him with his sword. "Put me down, you monster. Let me kill him."

See, now, he might've had the Hulk's sympathy when he started going on about Wallie stealing his life. And he does still have some, which is why instead of spiking him into the ground, the Hulk picks him up a little more and then lets him drop to the ground.

"He exists. You pretend he doesn't." The Hulk has some experience with this whole idea, and he glares hard at Bruce, some murderous intent creeping into his eyes.

Bruce is afraid for a few seconds, but then that fear takes a backseat to his hatred and anger, and he glares back, his jaw setting.

"Come on, Wallie. It'll be okay."

Shonsu picks himself off the ground, gritting his teeth against the pain, eyes narrowed at the Hulk. A monster, possibly another demon, but an ally? Maybe. Maybe. He trusts no one here.

"He existed," Wallie protests. "He doesn't anymore. That wasn't my doing. Bruce, it isn't like the two of you."

If it comes down to a fight, Wallie and Bruce have a definite disadvantage. He hopes that won't be the case. He never knew Shonsu, can only judge him from what others who knew him told him, but everything he's heard speaks of a cruel, arrogant man, corrupt and with little regard for other people. He's not a person Wallie would ever want to have on his side.

"Excuses," Shonsu spits.

"I had nothing to do with what happened to you!" Wallie is less angry, more desperate. "You failed. I didn't force my way in, I inherited you."

Bruce might know that he's at a disadvantage, but he can't find... He's not afraid of him hurting him. He'll still stand up to the Hulk, no backing down.

While the Hulk increasingly doesn't trust Wallie, he knows that he's describing the situation right. That doesn't convince the Hulk whose side he should be on in this fight, one way or the other, but he is sympathetic to the big guy over there, the real Tattoo Face, not Fake Tattoo Face over there.

"You don't let him share the space."

Shonsu gives a grin, a toothy and none-too-friendly expression. "I like that idea. Give me a chance at command for a while. You might not be man enough to take your pleasure among these women, Walliesmith, but there's one or two I wouldn't mind seeing to."

Wallie's heart sinks; truthfully he feels a bit sick at the idea. Perhaps it's hypocritical of him, because he has no ill will for the sort of existence Bruce and the Hulk manage, but he trusts Shonsu far less than he trusts the Hulk. A broken gazebo is one thing; gazebos can be repaired. Death or rape is far more permanent.

"No," Wallie says. Not even if he could, he wants to say. He looks at the Hulk, rather than Shonsu, while he's talking. "Anything left of you is already in my mind."

And he hates saying that, hates sharing some aspect of himself with a man such as Shonsu, in so many ways Wallie's complete opposite. He knows it's true. He can feel those urges, the stabs of knowledge and impulse and emotion without the context of emotion. No consciousness, but an echo of him.

"If you and Bruce were one person," he tells the Hulk, "distinct but thinking as one -- that is what we are. He's not a person, he's a ghost, but he's in me."

Shonsu just gives a wordless snarl.

Bruce and the Hulk understand what Shonsu means at the same time, their eyes narrowing and looking sharply at him as one. The Hulk's sympathies ebb; he's not a monster, that's the point, and what Shonsu describes is not okay. That's a kind of violence that gets close to what Banner watched as a child, his father beating his mother, and that's the quickest way to get the Hulk to turn on you.

"That must be incredibly uncomfortable," Bruce says, not backing down from Shonsu. He can growl all he wants. Bruce faces scarier things in the mirror.

"I can't think of anyone who would want to have him inside of them."

"I sure don't."

Wallie's glare is no match for the ferocity of Shonsu's, but he doesn't break eye contact either. Shonsu is his own demon, but he's not one to be cowed by his personal demons, either.

"But he won't hurt anyone this way, either." Wallie flings down the sword he can't handle anyway, and he strides forward to Shonsu. Shonsu's lip curls as Wallie extends a hand.

"I don't like you," Wallie says. "You've hurt too many people, and I won't let you hurt more. What's left of you lives on in me, and that's all you get. It's more than you deserve, I think, but I have no say in this."

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