strangetrip | [GP] Arrivals and Departures

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[GP] Arrivals and Departures

As Mary made the lobby ready with baked goods, she did so with a quieter disposition than she normally did. She was well aware of man behind the check in counter sorting through room keys There were a lot people who must be gone, though she wasn't quite sure the number yet. She had, of course, already made sure Sam, Dean, River, and James were still around. It was a little selfish, but for her, those were the ones that mattered the most to her. Still, she couldn't help wonder if the hotel would be quieter now or if this was some major move on whoever was in control. If it was a move, she wondered what the move was working toward - hopefully nothing like the incursion several months ago.

She set down a basket of chocolate chip cookies and then stretched, arching her back. Maybe she should go get a drink from the bar today.

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When Percy got up and Vex wasn't in bed, he wasn't concerned. Vex often rose with the sun or before it, taking Trinket with her to hunt and roam. On those mornings, he took care of Elaina, feeding her from the supply of fake milk that they'd discovered in the kitchen stores and taking her along with him to work on something non-explosive.

Today he took Elaina to the forge with him. She was perfectly content to sit in the harness against his chest and watch with big dark eyes as he tinkered with bits of this and that. He was working to refine the design of the goggles he'd made for Vex, integrating a magnification that could be adjusted while she held Fenthras at ready.

About mid-day, Elaina began to fuss in a way that Percy knew meant both that she needed a nap and her mother. He lifted his hand to his ear, touched the earring that connected all the Vox Machina members and spoke. "Lady de Rolo, her ladyship would like your attention."

There was no reply. And time passed.

Percy frowned and touched his earring again. "Vex'ahlia?"

Again, no reply.

Percy stood and started toward the main buildings, steps quick but not panicked. She may have just been out of range, lost track of time.

"Vex, where are you?"

Vax didn't think anything much of the first call to Vex over the pearl going unanswered that afternoon. Even the second was - well, she could be miles out with Trinket, that's all. Maybe even she'd lost the pearl somehow. Could be the enchantment was coming undone, for all they knew of magic, or perhaps the Inn had produced an anti...magic... Thing? (It did play tricks like that, all the fucking time, in case you'd not noticed.)

Vax himself had spent the morning with his hands in the dirt and sweat trickling down his back come midday, rooting dutifully through the green growing things, so he hadn't noticed what was wrong for some while. Not until he'd come back to clean himself up and change, then started off to get a bite of lunch.

It was quiet in the halls and in the common areas. He did pass a couple of folks, but he realized after some minutes that it was fewer than usual. And the type of quiet was all wrong. Look, Vax knew what it was to lie in wait of something, and he knew the last undignified sounds a body gave as it succumbed to its final rest. He knew too the quiet muffle of snowfall and the drowsy stillness of an inn abed. He knew the silence of absence. For whatever reason, it dawned on him... This was that.

He stilled to a sudden stop, feeling a chill that had nothing to do with the temperature (it was fucking summer) crawl the length of his skin, a needle of ice pricking his spine. He lifted his hand and touched his black pearl earring. "...Did you catch up with Stubby yet, Percival?"

Percy flinched at the sound of Vax's question. An answer meant the earrings were still in working order. "I was about to ask you the same thing," he replied in measured tones. He pulled open the door to the lobby and felt a gust of mechanically cooled air brush over his face. It was oddly silent in the building beyond, like a library after hours or a temple in decline, its god slowly forgotten as its followers died out.

"Did your sister mention where she was planning to hunt today?" Which was short of the demand he wanted to make, that Vax'ildan use whatever closeness inherent in their twinned nature to find. his. wife.

He stopped suddenly, noticing the desk clerk shuffling keycards.

It was the 15th of the month.

"Why? I wouldn't tell her which weeds I meant to pull or which vacated room I might break into just for funsies," Vax told him in the negative, less flippant than it should have been.

Had she gone out with Elaina on her hip? ...No, there had been the bit about 'her ladyship' before, and that he'd learned was a prim nobleman's idea of a cutesy-poo nickname for his baby daughter.

"She must've taken Trinket though, yeah? He'd charge back like his fur was on fire if Vex got into more trouble than she was ready for somehow."

"Trinket's with her," Percy confirmed. He eyed the desk, then turned on his heel and took the stairs down the shops. "They were both gone when I got up."

Elaina was making distressed noises, picking up on the tension in her father's voice and the lack of mother when she wanted her. Percy absently lifted his hand to let her grasp his fingers. Her small hands clenched tightly and pulled toward her mouth.

"When was the last time you spoke to her?" He doubted that it was more recently than he had, but it was worth asking.

"Must've been-" Not today. Yesterday? Or before? Vax hadn't seen Vex, but she'd called him over the telephones and told him to come into the shop to look at the new swimming garments. Something about a black pair that would suit him, and that they should have a party by the pool over summer, maybe swimming lessons if anyone still didn't know how, and how there were tiny floating pouches of a babe's size, and did he remember when they had starting learning to swim, and when should they start Elaina? It had been wholly mundane stuff, nothing unusual about it. "Yesterday. You have seen her since?"

He turned, too, forgetting lunch entirely to get headed hastily back in the direction of his room.

Edited 2019-07-17 14:58 (UTC)

Vex was not in the shop. Percy hadn't expected her to be, either on an 'everything is normal' level or the level of dread that was slowly infusing his body. He'd come here because it was easier than walking up to the counter and asking the shade that pretended to be a person where his wife was.

Because it was easier than going back to his room and looking for signs that she was still here, that all bits of her hadn't been erased.

"I saw her last night." Of course he had. They'd fallen asleep together, skin to skin. Once, she'd curled up when she slept, body curved protectively about itself. Now, she slept holding onto him, possessive in the way that he loved so much.

"I'm getting my armor now. I'll go looking outside, with my wings." It shouldn't take long. He was being paranoid, probably. Vex would probably smirk and roll her eyes, cutting them both with a wry quip for all the fuss later tonight. That's what Vax really wanted to believe. What he needed to believe. "You keep looking for her inside."

Percy stepped behind the counter where the never used cash machine sat. There were a few things of Vex's there, bits and bobs that she'd picked up since arriving at the inn. Her goggles were there. If she'd gone hunting, she'd have taken her broom. If she'd taken the broom, she'd have the goggles.

"Vax."

It was not agreement.

"You should come to the lobby instead."

He knew that tone in Percy's voice. It was the same as he used ordering servants about Whitestone, or telling the rest of Vox Machina exactly what they should do about something. That 'I know I'm right, so let's get this done, shall we?' tone. Fuck all if Vax was in a mood for it just now.

"Well someone's got to watch Elaina. If you're so set to come with me, maybe Corbie can take her."

Elaina couldn't hear her uncle but she gave a wail as if she could. Percy wrapped his arm over her protectively.

Once, he'd left his only family behind while she bled out. Once, he'd thought himself alone with only ghosts and vengeance.

"I'll meet you in the bar."

Vax breathed an Elvish curse, but he'd already dropped his fingers from his pearl. Percy would only stop him going if he knew something. But if it was Vex, if she was there, found, all put right, he would've just come out with it. Whatever it was, he wasn't going to want to hear it.

Twenty minutes later, wearing his black armor, nevermind the summer heat, Vax found where Percy had holed up in the bar. He came on as quiet and sober as a shadow, watching the other man from the doorway for a few long minutes before he approached.

He'd fed Elaina and now she slept with her face smashed against his chest. A dark damp spot of drool stained the front of his shirt, and he could feel each quick breath she took.

The goggles dangled from the fingers of his left hand, while the right spun a glass of amber liquid around and around on the polished wood of the bar. He wasn't drinking it. The rest of the bottle was there, still full. His gaze was on the goggles, as though they'd give up the location of their owner if only he hit upon the right incantation. Made the right deal.

Even if Vax hadn't been the stealthiest motherfucker on the gods damned planet, it was doubtful that Percy would have noticed he was being watched. As it was, it took Vax appearing at his side before he finally looked away from the goggles.

"The most obvious path is to ask the desk clerk."

The most obvious path?

Vax didn't sit with him. He leaned over the table, fingers curling into fists, all-over tense as wire cables. One of them should bloody get out there, to see if Vex had fallen and hit her head on a rock or got bit by a snake or if invaders had taken a dimension door in to snatch her or gods knew what else might've happened. His voice bristled with impatience and agitation and more than a fine edge of fear. "What are you even talking about?! It's not like they keep track of everyone's comings and goings-"

He stopped himself short, breath gone out of him like he'd been winded with a sucker punch. His eyes dropped to the goggles.

Vax had meant that the shades that attended them didn't report every move they made, and probably wouldn't even if they could. But they did keep some records, actually. Check-Ins. And Check-Outs.

"It's the fifteenth of the month."

If she was out there, bleeding, hurt...it would still be better than what he feared.

It was logical, he knew as Percy said it. But it didn't make any fucking sense.

"She has an infant here," Vax soft-hissed. "Even this place can't be so cruel as that."

"Have you known this place to bring us anything good without taking it again?" Percy pushed back from the table, and rose. He wore working clothes, a simple pair of pants and linen shirt with the sleeves rolled to his elbows. Yet somehow, it was possible to detect the line of a coat, the weight of two guns, one at his hip, the other at his back. It was there like a shadow, like smoke that curled around him.

"Perhaps I'm wrong."

Percy never said that and meant anything other than 'but I'm not.'

Percy didn't need to speak the final words for Vax to know exactly what he meant. Vax was cut to the quick by how readily the other man seemed to have accepted this. Had he truly decided Vex'ahlia was gone already? And he was just...going to let that be?

"It doesn't matter if you're correct. It wouldn't be fucking right!" His voice wavered. A part of him was as primally terrified as he'd once been seeing his sister's death-still body on the floor of an underwater tomb. The other part was keeping the first in check with the numbing fortitude of uncertainty. If Vex was hurt or captured out there, panic wouldn't save her. Action would.

Vax fled for the door, neither asking for Percy's company nor expecting it. He didn't want to hear any more morbid theories. "I'm off to find Vex. If I have to turn over every inch of the soil with my bare hands, I will."

Percy could have chased him but he'd never have caught up. Vax moved like the wind when he wanted to. Instead, he snatched up the glass from the table and drained it, squared his shoulders and walked out to the lobby.

"Lord de Rolo," the shade at the desk greeted him pleasantly. "I see Lady Vex'ahlia has checked out. Will you be wanting a room change or fresh towels?"

Percy considered shooting the thing. It would have scared Elaina.

Instead he turned on his heel and went to build a better gun.

He hadn't thought about not seeing Curnen or Mack. They were usually busy doing stuff, but when he sent them both a journal message and there wasn't an answer, Miguel knew that something was wrong.

Since there hadn't been a battle like the last time his friends went missing, he just thought it was the inn sending them back to their homes. Miguel was sad for himself, but happy for them. It just meant that there was hope that he'd see his family again. Not that he ever doubted that.

He sat in the lobby with the guitar on his lap and sang his Papa Hector's song for his missing friends, Remember Me

Ever since Jane learned that she wasn't pregnant, there had been a tug. Not that she wanted kids right now, her life was complicated at best, but she did think that maybe some day.

So when she entered the lobby and heard Miguel's lullaby, she paused to listen to the words. It really was lovely. There was both sadness and a kind of hope in the remembrance. Jane made a detour to the bakery area and grabbed a couple of pieces of cake before returning and sitting down next to Miguel waiting for him to finish.

Miguel smiled at Jane when she first appeared. She was nice and laughed when Dante was being silly. His smile grew though when she came back with the cake.

When the last notes faded, he closed his eyes and said a silent goodbye to his friends and in Curnen's case - family. Miguel opened them again and greeted Jane. "Hola!

She handed him a plate with a fork and small piece of cake when he set his guitar aside. "Hi. That was a really nice song. Did you have friends leave?" Jane was fortunate, all the ones that she cared about were still at the inn.

He took a bite of the chocolate cake and chewed before answering Jane. One of the things he liked about the adults at the inn was that they treated him like an adult. Well, not an adult, but not like a kid either. Jane and Dean were the best, besides Curnan and Lillith for treating him like family or a friend.

"Mack and Curnen." Miguel nodded. "I'm going to miss them a lot even though I know they are here." He pointed to his heart.

Jane hoped that Miguel kept that core of innocence with him always.

"I like that thought." She took a bite of her chocolate cake, too. After a bit she added, "I have a feeling they both will remember you, too even if they don't know why something is familiar."

She wasn't sure if they would remember being at the inn or not, but Jane knew all too well that sometimes things will trip a memory even if they were forgotten.

Miguel nodded, "that's how it was with my Papa Hector. I didn't know him before I met him in the Land of the Dead but after that I remembered everything."

He just wished he could have brought Chicharrón back from fading away forever.

Despite only knowing things in a magical inn, it still fascinated Jane that others lives were so ... magical outside of this place.

"So you remembered everything? That's good to know." She settled comfortably near him, leaning against the wall. "Been keeping busy? Before today, I mean."

Jane wasn't sure exactly what the kids did around the inn, not that she had much to do either.

"Yep." Miguel began and felt a little bittersweet tug at his heart because it felt like when he told Curnen about his days when he saw her.

"Dante and I play at the beach almost everyday." It was still very much a treat even though he'd been there more than a year. "Then I was ---" He paused because he was about to say that he was writing something for Curnen but he was still going to write it. It was because of her and Scanlan that he had much more confidence in his music.

"Then I am writing a song." He finished with a bright, proud smile toward Jane.

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[GP] Arrivals and Departures

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Miguel - OTA

Miguel & Jane

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