#i should clarify the scoundrel doesn't have anything to do with seeking (that's the scientist's problem)

[thegreatyin]

Do the Scoundrel's dreams have lots of cardgame motifs and the presence of a monkey

oh absolutely.

the scoundrel's nightmares are like. it is seated at a poker table. this is everything they've ever wanted. this is everything they've ever waited for. this is what their life has been building towards. they have no purpose or reason for existing other than this. its opponent lays down a dead man's hand. the opponent is a monkey. it is wretched and foolish and they are better than it could ever hope to be. it looks down. the cards are blank. they shuffle and draw and their hand comes up covered in blood holding an overripe fruit. the monkey looks them in the eyes and asks if they're worthy of this. they don't know. there's sun in their eyes and roses growing in their throat and they have absolutely no idea. there is a hollowness in its chest and they keep scratching at it and they come up empty and there is only stardust and they look up at the ceiling and they can't recognize their face in the mirror anymore. it picks at its skin. it comes up empty. this is everything they've ever wanted.

and it is seated at a poker table. there is no opponent. they sit alone in a field of flowers and their only prize is a single bloodstained fig and it is wretched and foolish and they are no better than they started.

and they sit there awhile. picking at the flowers. picking at their skin. staring at the stars. they feel hungry. it is peaceful. they feel hungry. they never let go of the fruit.

and then they wake up, drink seven bottles of wine, bully the doomed scientist, hold a railway board meeting to enact several hundred dozen labor law violations, break into a building, break out of jail for reasons entirely totally definitely unrelated to breaking into said building, and end their afternoon by diving directly into the nearest reflective surface to continue hunting birds for sport