strangetrip | [GP] Check-In Day: Tol and Smols

Caroline's see you around had turned out to be more like I won't see you if I can help it, and Sam had more or less accepted that was how it had to be for the time being. That didn't mean he wouldn't try to be around when he knew she would, just to say hi. Which meant that being around on Check-In Days was just plain smart.

Today, he happened to be reading a history of Asphodel Station, trying to understand this place that they'd found themselves connected to. So, if Caroline had come through, he actually hadn't seen her. He did see Regina when she came through to get her usual chicken Caesar salad, mostly because she stopped beside him and looked down at the book he was reading.

"That doesn't have an enchantment on it," she said, in a way he assumed was a question about its provenance. The implication there was that if it was from the library, it would have one of Illyana's enchantments on it.

"No," Sam answered her. "It's from the station. A history."

Regina frowned and crossed her arms. "How are you reading it?"

Sam shrugged. "I don't know. Psychic paper or something? It seems to be English."

Her gaze scoured the page and lit on the header which read, The Field of Flowers: Volume 1, Asphodel. "When you're done with it--"

"Yeah, I'll leave it in your office."

She nodded, walked off, and then turned back to offer, "Thank you," and continued on her way.

Sam shrugged. If she wanted to tangle with Illyana over the proper procedures for new books, he wasn't going to get in the middle of it. He was just an acquisition agent, nothing more. And today he wasn't even that. He was just a guy reading a book, waiting to see if anyone new showed up today.

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Vax reluctantly eased himself back. He didn't have to ask to know that what Scanlan meant was, where's the rest of Vox Machina? "A number of us are living in this place now. Vex with Trinket. Percy. Pike. Kashaw and Zahra, and Zahra's cousin Lillith."

"No sign of big man Grog," Vax rose to stand again, so he could take a stool at the bar. "Or Kiki," he added more quietly.

"But at the moment, most everyone is visiting an Otherworld that's open... Okay, there's a lot to explain," he admitted almost apologetically. "And usually I'd say we should sit down together and drink all the drinks so I could explain it properly and give you the tour of the place. But to be honest, I've got something of a crisis to get back to over there, and I don't know if it can wait."

Edited 2018-03-08 15:15 (UTC)

Sam returned just then with a glass of vegan wine (imagine his surprise that a 90s era hotel had it) and a bottle of Nut Brown Ale for Vax who he'd heard rather than seen.

"Yeah, we hadn't even gotten to the 'you are here' part of 'Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego'?" he pitched in, noting with relief that whatever was going on with Pike didn't seem to extend to Vax. Showing up here was shit enough, but when the people who loved you didn't (or in Mom's case didn't know you), then it sucked out loud.

The last words caught up with Sam even as he finished the thought. "Crisis? What's going on?" Because even if he'd teased her about it, Molly had gotten it mostly right when she called him Don Quixote.

"Alright. Okay." It wasn't exactly a knew feeling to suddenly have to help someone with a problem, even one of their own and even if he was tired, he was ready to help. "What do you need? Where are we going? Who's in trouble? Did you stab the wrong person again?"

The look on Vax's face was serious, but the corner of his lips did twitch towards a smile at Scanlan for readily offering his services. "I didn't stab anybody, which I feel was probably a mistake by the way." He hadn't because Steph hadn't wanted him to. And at the end of the day those guards had just been doing their jobs, so he understood why, even if he didn't entirely agree with it.

He glanced back at Sam and took the offered beer gladly. "Steph got arrested over there. And what really confuses me about it is that I have absolutely no idea why. We were at one of their healer's clinics, their doctor stuck me with some kind of light knife for a 'sample,' she yelled at him for the assault, and the next thing we know there's guards escorting her away. We didn't do anything!"

As soon as Vax said it was Steph who was the problem, Sam was on-board to help. They weren't close at all, but there was a bond there between him and Steph and Snow that went back to the first day.

And as soon as it was decided (in his mind), he started listening closely to the 'fact pattern'. "Sounds like a cultural conflict of some kind. Women not being allowed to raise their voices to men or authorities, or something. I'm not a lawyer or anything, but I studied law. Maybe I can figure out what she did 'wrong' if I can talk to them."

Scanlan listened and nodded and even nodded to Sam's words, but then suddenly came out with "And who, exactly, is 'Steph'? Is that - is that short for something or is that it? Steph." It sounded weird to him, kind of like some sort of cold you could catch.

The question shouldn't have startled Vax at all, but it still did, a little. But also... He thought he could do better than he'd done with Zahra this time.

Vax went quiet for a beat, looking down at his hand around his beer. "Well, Scanlan... 'Steph' is short for 'Stephanie,' Stephanie Brown." He lifted his beer for a sip. "Steph is my girlfriend, or something like it."

He nodded before Vax's words really settled in and then confusion crossed his face. "You're girlfriend? What about --" He paused, then lifted up his hands. "You know what? Fine. Your girlfriend." He was definitely going to ask, but right now, with the failure of saying his good friend still so fresh on his mind, Scanlan wasn't going to push where Vax was getting his fun right now. And he was still trying to suss out the whole 'in a different world' thing.

"Okay. So what do you want? Should we go get her? Spring her out of jail? I can set the place on fire."

"Easier said than done," Sam observed. "The entire place is made of metal. You could set some of the inhabitants on fire, I guess. But if Steph wanted to be broken out, I'm pretty sure --" Sam tipped his chin toward Vax in acknowledgment. He didn't know very much about the guy, but he did know he had a way of suddenly appearing without tripping Sam's awareness. Not many people could do that. "Vax could've done that himself."

If Steph wanted to break out, she could probably bloody well manage on her own. But she'd rather sit in a cell at their mercy than go against their laws. He couldn't tell if he was distraught or proud of her for it. ...Both. Both was good.

"Breakouts and fire can be our backup," Vax promised Scanlan, more than a little grateful that he wouldn't have to stop and explain the whole Stephanie situation right this moment. "Steph would rather we try the legal system first." He hadn't seen Regina since he'd come back, and he knew she was probably planning to be on the station for the better part of the next few days at least. it suddenly felt like a long shot that he'd catch up with her in a hurry. But a new plan was already scrabbling together-

"If you know law," Vax gestured at Sam, "and this guy knows how to convince people of utter bullshit with all his charm," he shifted his gesture to Scanlan. ...No, not Scanlan. Burt Reynolds. "The two of you might be exactly who she needs to talk her out of this trouble."

He clued in pretty quickly.

"Alright. I can do that." Scanlan paused. "Should I change, first?" Said the Gnome covered in blood and dirt.

He really wished he could cast seeming.

"You're probably not going to have much luck finding clothes in the shops," Sam pointed out, and then realized they hadn't gotten very far in the explanation, so he added, "Pike's the only other gnome here."

He thought about it a beat and then added, "Sora might have something that fit."

This seemed overly complicated and whoever Sora was, he had a feeling he was not a halfing or viking and so, no. Nope. No children clothes please.

"You know what. Nevermind. This gives me an idea anyways." His shoulders straightened a bit, game-face on. "Let's go help your girlfriend."

[GP] Check-In Day: Tol and Smols

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