[GP/EP] Check-In Day

[st_oriedqueen]

Why Caroline had needed her to help with Check-In Day she hadn't bothered to say. Just, "you said you'd help," and when Regina protested she wasn't good with people, "aren't you a Queen or a Mayor or something?" complete with shooing gestures. While Regina found Caroline more exasperating the terrifying, she did have a point.

So Regina suited up--literally, gathered her files and folders, coffee mug, pens and pocketed the wooden carving of Henry/Roland Robin had made for her, then headed for the cafe. If, polished and politic and patently Busy, she didn't offer newcomers the brightest or warmest smile when they arrived, it was nevertheless confident and quite possibly reassuring.

Caroline did friendly. Regina...did knowledgeable and polite. Dot and Ignis had been asked to provide finger food on catering trays. The still-grieving Miss Pryde had been tasked with samovars of tea and coffee and ice chest of soda and beer. Caroline's welcome baskets sat on the table beside Regina's for easy access. And though she didn't when she was alone in the office, Regina spent the magic to fix her eyesight so she didn't put glasses between her and new arrivals.

Madame Mayor was in.

Comments

Re: locked to Percy, Vax, eventually Kash

[st_abby]

Vax slid arms around his twin and hugged her, tight and close, reassured that they were very nearly of a size now as ever. He held her like that, silently, hardly even noticing how dripping wet and injured she was. Holding Vex alone was all too much, and he clung to her, having all the strength in the world for all her knees might be weak. That's what they were, for each other, since always.

Tears streaked his cheeks - he never did care as much for appearances as she did, and fuck it, after all they'd been through - by the time her hushed sob and sniffle noises got through to him. He knew why he was a shitshow, but what could Vex have been through that had made her so upset?

The thought sobered him enough to unclench his throat. "I don't know where you've been or what's happened," he told her hair intently. "But I've missed you, and I'm not ever going to let you go so far from me again."

Re: locked to Percy, Vax, eventually Kash

[st_ubby]

The surge of adrenalin fear-anger-surprise-relief began to fade, and in its wake left the more physical pains it had blocked. Vex wasn't planning on letting go of her brother any time soon, but he was clinging just as much, putting pressure on a body bruised and battered by a giant tentacle. "Gent-ly, brother," she gasped softly.

Vax was here, and all right. Percy was here, and all right. And going to find Kash... who was also here? And none of them wet, at least not before hugging Vex. It was finally starting to sink in, enough for things to really not make sense.

"Look at me." Vex cupped Vax's cheek with one hand, trying to see answers in his eyes. The other hand she maneuvered stealthily into a gap along his armor intending to pinch him, hard.

Re: locked to Percy, Vax, eventually Kash

[st_abby]

Yes, he'd seen she was hurt - not that he didn't care (because of course he did), but that was hardly unusual for any of Vox Machina, either. He hurriedly eased his grip at her protest, and looked up at her at once when she'd ordered it, concern in his ga- "OW! The fuck did I do?"

Re: locked to Percy, Vax, eventually Kash

[st_ubby]

"Had to check I wasn't dreaming." Honestly, she hadn't really thought about it before she'd done it; it just sort of... happened, along with her need to reassure herself Vax was alive. At least with a resurrection there was a whole ritual that prepared you for the relief of seeing someone you loved dead and then alive. Or at least a quick save by Pike in the midst of battle. This hadn't been that at all.

"And what do you mean 'what did you do'? You fucking d-" Gods, she couldn't breathe. Why was he making her say it. And why was she the only one who could? Percy'd been too far away to see, and it'd all happened so fast. When she finally got the words out, they were barely a whisper. "You died on me."

Re: locked to Percy, Vax, eventually Kash

[st_ockandbarrel]

Percy knew that earlier in the day Kash had been lingering near the cafe, so he headed that direction when he reluctantly left the twins to their reunion. Sure enough, Kash was still brooding darkly in a corner, radiating unwelcome. It was almost impressive.

He approached and rapped on the table. "If you're not too busy, Vex'ahlia is in need of your services."

Re: locked to Percy, Vax, eventually Kash

[st_ingofthehundred]

"Seriously? What did that idiot--" Kash blinked, stood, and rubbed a hand over his mouth. "Vex'ahlia?"

His heart sped even before his brain had processed the words. But not even Percy would neglect to tell him Z was here with her.

"Where? Well?" he demanded as though he'd been waiting for hours. "Hurry up, man. I refuse to be responsible for another member of Vox Machina pledging himself to a death goddess."

Of course, what he meant was something more like I care about Vex, and I don't want her to die, and I definitely don't want to call on Vesh again with a side of it's weird, isn't it weird? that the twins and my wife have such similar names? Percy probably knew him well enough by now to guess the first part. It would take Z to hear the second.

Re: locked to Percy, Vax, eventually Kash

[st_ockandbarrel]

Percy raised his eyebrows behind his glasses like he was entirely calm and collected in spite of the fact that his girlfriend had just shown up looking like ten miles of the Abyssal plane after not seeing her for months.

"In the lobby. Vax is with her."

Re: locked to Percy, Vax, eventually Kash

[st_ingofthehundred]

Not fooled in the slightest by Percy's playing it cool (after all, he'd seen him when Vex died the first time), Kash rolled his eyes, muttered something piquant about the de Rolos of Whitestone under his breath, and plowed through the cafe into the lobby.

He arrived in time to hear died on me and his blood froze. "Who died? How long ago? Where??" The questions spilled from his lips even as his gaze swept over Vex, diagnosing her condition. Battered, in need of substantial healing. "Is anyone besides you hurt?"

Re: locked to Percy, Vax, eventually Kash

[st_ubby]

She couldn't say it. She'd barely managed to force the word out the once. But she looked at Kash, blinked in confusion which did nothing for the tears silently running down her cheeks, and looked back at her brother as close to an answer as she could give.

"But... you brought him back? I..."

This was all too fucking much. Was she shaking? She couldn't tell anymore. "I believe I need a drink. A very large. Very strong. Drink. Possibly several. Please."

Re: locked to Percy, Vax, eventually Kash

[st_abby]

It had taken Vax a minute to hear what Vex had said, expression half stunned, brows half furrowed - to really take it in - and by then Kash had made his way there, with Percy in tow. What she was saying, it only made sense to him if she'd showed up at a different time from him, as Percy had done. Either Percy had been holding out on that little bit of information (it was Percy), or she'd come from even later.

It was the timing that he doubted, moreso than the idea of his dying itself. That wasn't difficult at all.

Vax'ildan took her gently by the shoulders, picking up her chin to make her look him in the eyes. "Right now," he reminded her softly, "I'm here, you're here - even those two," he nodded in the direction of the others without looking away. "And we're all alive." The figuring-out of all the rest could happen when she wasn't shaking like a fucking leaf under his hands.

Vax took the broom from Vex's hold carefully, and used his hand on her shoulder to steer her to a chair off to one side where she could sit and collect herself while Kash did his thing.

Re: locked to Percy, Vax, eventually Kash

[st_ockandbarrel]

Percy followed and when Kash seemed to have Vex's attention, he gripped Vax's shoulder. "I didn't know," he said, answering the unasked. "And if it was Raishan, I don't know why she's wet."

Percy hated not having answers. Knowledge had been his only advantage for so long.

"She's safe for now, at least."

Re: locked to Percy, Vax, eventually Kash

[st_ingofthehundred]

"I'm a healer not a bartender."

If ordinarily such a statement from Kash would have been a snarl, now it was positively gentle as he began an examination of her wounds. Because if, in battle, he dispensed magical healing like the machine in the stairwell did beverages, when they had the time, he preferred to be a true healer rather than a combat medic. That meant assessing damage and pain, being aware of lingering psychic trauma from injuries that his patient might not. Little known to lay folk, it was entirely possible for a patient to psychically refuse magically healing if they couldn't let go of the injury.

That wouldn't be a problem with Vex'ahlia, as much as it might be with her brother who carried his guilt like stab wounds. No, she'd feel it in dreams or memories, and if Kash would never be her chosen confidante, it was still good to know.

As he reached for his symbol, Kash glanced around. Too many people in the lobby. Way too many. But Vex wasn't going to move without Vax and Hot Dog was too delirious for his legs to work. So.

Quietly as he could, which wasn't quiet at all, considering the way the spell worked, Kash chanted the words of Heal and used gesture to direct the Life energy toward the worst of her wounds. After, for good measure, he cast a Cure Wounds, repeating the incantation three times in quick succession to strengthen the spell.

Less than a minute later, she had only scrapes and mild bruises that would give her mind a place to fix the trauma of the encounter. And Kash let the words he'd been sitting on spill out in an urgent, pained rush, "Z? Is she... okay?" Since if she was here, she'd have found him already.

Re: locked to Percy, Vax, eventually Kash

[st_ubby]

Vex had some healing spells, she even had some she could've called on now if she hadn't been so focused on getting back to her brother, but they were a bandage, good in a pinch or until they could get back to a cleric. Kash was healer, and she let the healing energy wash over her, grateful for all of it.

Once he was done, she was flashing him a smile when he asked about Zahra.

"She isn't with you?" Like that, Vex was back to worried about the friends she hadn't found here yet, and how much worse would it be for Kash worrying about Zahra. She pulled him into a hug, expecting he'd grumble about the affection and getting wet, but if he had to ask about Zahra, he needed a hug.

"Last we saw you both was Emon, after the Thordak battle. And she was fine, darling. Perfect. Not a scratch on her... for some reason."

Re: locked to Percy, Vax, eventually Kash

[st_abby]

Vax'ildan took Percy's reassurance for what it seemed to be, sharing a nod with him before watching Kashaw heal his sister. No sooner had the cleric restored her than she was smiling and fretting and reassuring everyone else in turn. He was a bit surprised she'd gone so far as to hug Kash, but the deft grasping to regain her composure was Vex all over.

"So you remember when we got around to gutting Thordak," he raised his voice for Vex. "Which is the last thing I remember doing before I showed up here. And Percy remembers facing off with Raishan." He glanced back at Percy, to see if he had that right. But where would that put Vex, compared to them?

Re: locked to Percy, Vax, eventually Kash

[st_ockandbarrel]

"I remember Raishan knocking me out." Percy clarified. "Then I was here."

He reached up to take off his glasses and clean them, then belatedly remembered that he was wearing only a grimy undershirt and equally dirty trousers, both covered in soot and sweat from his tinkering in front of a fireplace. He adjusted the glasses instead and cleared his throat.

Re: locked to Percy, Vax, eventually Kash

[st_ingofthehundred]

As Vex reached for him, Kash began to grumble but the sounds stopped before they reached his lips. She'd told him one of the two things he most needed to know. The first that Z was here, she couldn't give him. But that she'd been all right after Thordak (he'd healed her, of course he had, because somehow he'd been there and here at the same time), she could. So instead of pushing her away, he kissed her cheek briefly in gratitude.

"Of course she's perfect. And fine. You numbskulls haven't been around to get her killed." Obligatory grumbling only, which certainly Vex would know, since he squeezed her arm gently as he did move away.

The others could've been talking about Keyleth table-dancing for all he knew. Z was okay. (No way she'd gotten herself killed without Vox Machina's help.) Now, if he could just stop feeling like he was either going to cry or vomit.

Re: locked to Percy, Vax, eventually Kash

[st_ubby]

"She did slightly more than knock you out, darling." Vex was only just recovering from watching her brother die; she didn't the reminder of Percy's guts splattered along the floor. With zero thought to where they were or who was around, she grasped the hem of his undershirt and lifted it, chasing the memory away with the sight of him whole and well, a little sweaty and sooty. Later, Vex.

Instead she slipped an arm around his waist, reached out with the other for her brother, and looked over the three of them.

"Too soon, Kashaw. No jokes about getting people killed. And no getting killed. Any of you. You," she glared at Kash, "Because I'm not explaining to Zahra how I let it happen. And the two of you, because even once is too many times for me to see that. Let alone twice, Percival.

"Now, is someone going to show me where we can get a drink, or am I going to have to find it myself?"

Re: locked to Percy, Vax, eventually Kash

[st_abby]

Vax sighed silently at - well, all of them. Kashaw's perfunctory complaints, as if he wasn't lonesome and terrified of what might've become of Z, fooling no one. Percy's... Did he really not know what he looked like, both filthy and gleaming, practically naked without a longcoat and array of firearms, or was he just being sly about it? And Vex, as bold and as beautiful as always. Vex. Gods be praised.

"Oh good. Drinks. It's been so long since we've sat down for a few rounds," he stabbed a hard look at either of the men whilst his sister's attention was elsewhere. There were things, most things, that Vex ought to know about. He didn't believe 'Their Birthday' was one of them. And not now, of all times. "Prepare yourself for the shortest bar crawl you've ever had," he announced, before leading them to the cafe.

Re: locked to Percy, Vax, eventually Kash

[st_ockandbarrel]

Vex's hand on his skin and then her arm around his waist was sufficiently distracting that Percy nearly missed Vax's glare. Well, too bad. Perhaps he'd not missed his girlfriend as much as Vax had missed his twin, but he still had rather missed her.

"Oh, of course, ages," Percy drawled, his hand covering Vex's quite casually, then using the grip to tug her up from the sofa. He smiled at her. "You'll like the bar. It's free."

Re: locked to Percy, Vax, eventually Kash

[st_ingofthehundred]

With Vex getting her hands all over Percy, Kash was in dire need of somewhere else to look. As it happened, that meant Vax. He expected Vax to be sharing his nope, not seeing this feeling about the moment, so the glare took him by surprise. Probably, that was to Vax's advantage. If he hadn't been surprised by it, he wouldn't have thought about it, and if he hadn't thought about it, his reflex reaction would've been something like Vax doesn't want me kissing his sister or possibly that it was time to make himself scarce.

But since he happened to be looking, listening, and trying to think about anything but Z, he drew an all together different conclusion. "Sober as monks," Kash agreed with Percy, without a hint of sarcasm (except the monk part) and then decided distracting Vex from the obvious lies was in order. "Hey, is the bear with you?" Clumsy if he wasn't, but if he was, it might save Vax's bacon for a little longer.

Re: locked to Percy, Vax, eventually Kash

[st_ubby]

Trinket! How had Vex not thought about Trinket? A hand came up to the black jewel hanging from her neck. "He... bamfed into the my necklace during the fight." That happened if he went unconscious, and was how Vex didn't worry quite as much putting her sweet Trinket into combat, since Raven's Slumber would keep him from dying until she could take care of him.

What if whatever magic brought her here hadn't brought Trinket too? No, it had to have. He was in the jewel, the jewel was around her neck, he had to be here.
Vex held out the necklace and black energy poured from it, coalescing into the shape of a knocked out brown bear on the carpet in front of them. "Oh buddy."

Re: locked to Percy, Vax, eventually Kash

[st_ingofthehundred]

Kash turned as the energy poured out of her locket, expecting to see Trinket shaking himself off and giving a little grunt. Seeing him slumped on the carpet gave him a nasty jolt. Yeah, it felt good to know what he needed to do. It just sucked that he had to do it.

He dropped into a crouch beside Trinket and immediately spoke the cantrip to stabilize him. One eye opened and Kash gave him a pat on the shoulder. "Just hang in there," he murmured, mostly to himself, and did a quick hands-on evaluation. It mattered less with animals, but he still liked to know what he was healing in case it didn't stick.

"What the hell were you fighting?" he asked Vex when he found several singed spots in his wet fur where he'd clearly been hit by lightning. That, on top of the wet and Trinket being pulped said it had been epically nasty.

Of course it had. Vox Machina didn't do anything small.

So Kash didn't either. One more time he pulled out the symbol he generally kept hidden and spoke the incantation of the Heal spell. Without consciously calling on Vesh, he reached out for Life energy and poured more into the bear, to make sure he got everything. The golden light that glowed around his hands battled the peculiar black light at its edges, snapping and crackling with tension, but it was no contest. Life won.

Re: locked to Percy, Vax, eventually Kash

[st_ubby]

Trinket came to, on alert and bracing himself for the second it took to see he didn't have to fight, he didn't hurt, he wasn't swimming, Vex was right there and other people he liked too (but not as much as Vex). With a happy rumble, he licked a big, slurpy kiss up Kash's face for making him all better, and leaned into Vex.

"There's my brave Trinket," Vex cooed, scritching behind his ear. "All better now. And that nasty kraken's not going to bother us here."

Then to the guys, since kraken was bad but probably not enough of an explanation, "Keyleth's aramente. So you know, not killing a kraken is much trickier than killing one. I hope."

Re: locked to Percy, Vax, eventually Kash

[st_abby]

Vax smiled at Trinket and his sister, ready to grapple the bear hello and let him slobber his Uncle all over, but for what Vex was saying about how she'd ended up facing a giant squid-beast-thing.

"Her aramente," recognition began to kindle. Love and pride and longing fought for control of his expression as he thought of the dangers Keyleth - and subsequently they, as her friends - had faced during the challenges that would complete her training as the leader of her tribe. "Did she... I mean, there were obviously problems along the way," he acknowledged, given how he was apparently dead. "But did she do it, do you know?"

Re: locked to Percy, Vax, eventually Kash

[st_ubby]

Walking into a bar or not, Vex's arm around Percy made it easy to 'borrow' the flask she knew he carried, and she took a long swallow instead of answering right away.

Trinket lumbered along with the group, as always willing to follow Vex anywhere.

"I don't... We were just trying to get out of the water plane al- that is, in one piece. But you were there, you and Percy both... only now you're here?"