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darrilshrugged · 7 years

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The Thin Man & The Ranger - Ch. 2

I enjoyed writing that first bit of the Vex/Percy - 1930′s murder mystery mashup that I kept going.

I had plotted out some of the fun scenes, and then realized that I actually had to put in some explanation of the plot. So this is a lot of exposition, but sets up some story, and has a few little moment to toss in.

It’s just a lot of fun to write again and play with these characters, about whom I care so much.

Enjoy if you wish, or not.

It is also posted here, if you like.

The bar where they met Lyra was in the flashier part of the Duskmeadow, among several similar establishments that created a more festive environment than one would expect for an area associated with Vax's Matron of Ravens. They slid through the crowd of lively patrons to join Lyra at a table near an open window, which allowed the cooler outside air to balance the humid warmth of the crowded establishment.

Lyra appeared even more agitated than before, rubbing at an area of the table that must have been stained or sticky. Whatever substance she was attempting to get rid of had begun to stain cuffs of the cloak she wore over her earlier outfit; the cream wool becoming a gummy brown. She continued to fidget as they sat down. They exchanged greetings again, and ordered a round of whiskeys from a prompt dwarf attendant.

"I've been thinking since we met before, and I feel really, really, bad for assuming you were here for me, and dumping all my problems on you. You probably have other important things to do here and while I'm happy to see you, and catch up on what you've been doing - you don't have to help with finding Uncle Randy and proving that he couldn't kill anyone. It's not your concern and I shouldn't have assumed - "

Vex stopped the rolling boulder of words with an raised open hand. "Lyra, we told you we would try to help. We are here already. Tell us what's happening, and if we can be helpful, we'll do what we can." Percy nodded as well, and Lyra took in a deep breath, a sip of her newly-arrived drink and filled them in on the situation.

It seems that Uncle Randy, as a trade representative to Vasselheim from Emon, had taken a leave of absence from his post a few weeks back, leaving notes for her, his only relative in the city, as well as some business associates, that he would be visiting several other settlements around Issylra, to help reset terms of trade agreements to those more favorable for the rebuilding capital of Tal'dorei.

"Is his leaving the city and traveling on his own unusual?" Percy asked as he rolled his glass in his hands, active fingers indicating his active mind.

"Yes and no. He hasn't traveled much these past few years, since coming to Vasselheim, but before that, he was a very successful traveling merchant."

"Sounds like a very patient and practical negotiator." Vex remarked, with a hint of admiration.

Lyra shrugged, her cloak falling off her shoulders and draping onto the floor, wet with mud and spilled drinks. "He does have a bit of a reputation for driving a hard bargain with other traders, and being less than friendly sometimes. I mean - I love him, and I'm sure he loves me, though he never says it - but I don't think he has many friends amongst the other trade guild members here. . ." She took another large gulp of her drink and coughed around her next words "or maybe friends at all. He can be a little temper-y".

"That's totally understandable, dear. Now this dead woman, is it possible she did something to make him lose his temper?"

“No! No. At least, I don't think so. No" Lyra had sat back, straighter now than she had been in quite a few minutes as she told them about her uncle. Vex leaned in with a more concerned tone.

"Don't get defensive, Lyra. We have to ask questions if we're going to help."

Lyra looked between their faces, Vex's open and leaned forward towards her. Percy, who nodded, and tracked his eyes to meet hers, as scanned the rest of establishment, arrayed past her shoulder. "Yes," he said, meeting her look, "Who was this woman to your uncle. A subordinate, you said?"

Lyra coughed out a laugh, a somehow unpleasant sound from the usually pleasant and upbeat, if unsure, wizard. "I don't know if Wilfrieda Wolff was every subordinate to any man, at least not for very long."

She told them, over another round of drinks, about the dwarven woman who her uncle referred to as an assistant. From the sound of things, and Lyra's own unsubtle inferences, Wilfrieda Wolff was many things: A wily negotiator, a personal assistant, a book-keeper for the guild, and possibly Uncle Randy's lover.

Lyra's descriptions and anecdotes about the woman, made it abundantly clear that she held a mix of dislike and grudging appreciation for "Ms. Wolff" as she called her. Harsh feeling or drink turning the title in to an emphatic, buzzing "Mizzz Wolff". Her depiction left them with the impression of a heady woman, skilled at working with all types of people, and relentless in pursuit of an objective.

She was also more than free with intimating that Wilfreda, while not what she would have called classically attractive, possessed an inviting and sensual nature that she had seen used on more than her Uncle. "She has - had- this effect on people, especially men. Not magical, I'm sure, but it might as well have been sometimes. I didn't really like her - mostly how she seemed to have a close relationship with Uncle Randy, and I feel a little bad about that I guess - but she did what she had to in order to get what she needed done, and I guess I liked it sometimes that she was this small women outfoxing overconfident men?"

Both women at the table tacked their eyes to the man sitting with them, who finished another long sip of his drink. "Don't you look at me. I have long known well enough to be respectful toward, or terrified of, very capable women."

He felt his wife's hand give three quick squeezes to his own under the table. A private signal of theirs, of wordless affection and reassurance. "If this Wolff woman was as assured as she you make her sound, than possibly she had made enemies?"

Lyra's brows closed together in thought for a moment. "I'd more than bet that she made some people mad in negotiations, or making cuts at the trade guild warehouses when work was slow, but she always seemed to keep things from getting too personal, even when she was charming the actual pants off of that elf merchant that visited from Kraghammer - wait! She did have some things that got personal!"

She went on to tell them about a rough-dressed man that she had seen with Wilfrieda a couple of times near the Quad Roads area of the city. She had seen this man, a stocky human with wide, heavy features, grab Wilfrieda around the shoulders, talk with her intensely, and walk with her to the former location of the Velvet Cabaret, now an establishment with a less-than-stellar reputation in the Duskmeadow. Another time, just last week, according to Lyra, she had seen Wilfrieda and the man, and Wilfrieda had dismissed him by shoving a satchel into his chest and walking away.

Lyra denied several times that she had been following Wilfrieda, though it appeared that she sometimes did. When Wilfrieda had left the man this last time she had almost run headlong into her, and that Wilfrieda had seemed less composed than normal, although she didn't have an opinion as to the other woman's mood - she may have been scared or angry.

Lyra was continuing on that she suspected this man may be a criminal of some sort, and the Wilfrieda may have had a lawless history of her own, when things began to happen around them, all at once.

Percy had been keeping his eyes on the general area, paying special attention to the busy bar and those milling about nearby. He was aware of a dark-skinned man in most of the uniform of a Bastion of the Quad Roads approaching the table. The man's gloves and helm were absent, revealing a weak jaw with a prominent knot on the left side, as if it had been badly broken and healed poorly. It made his already ugly features even more uneven.

By the time he had made his weaving approach to them, Percy and Vex had already tensed for action; feet pulled back and flat under their chairs, ready to move. Vex's left hand slipped from her husband's toward the dagger in her boot, as his right flowed to the butt of the pistol in the cross-draw holster on his left hip. The off-duty Bastion placed one hand on Lyra's shoulder, more to steady himself than threaten the woman, and he stared across at Vex'ahlia and Percival, his eyes darkly lidded.

"I know you." He slurred, tongue either heavy with drink, or positioned oddly in his rearranged jaw. "You're friends of that criminal Goliath, the blonde fancy lad and the red-haired monster that did this to me." He gestured generally at his face. "You're gonna take me to 'em, or you'll answer questions in the oubliette".

He had barely finished his drunken threat when a meaty hand fell on his own shoulder, making him the middle part of an odd chain, with a startled Lyra the bottom. The Bastion tried to step back and turn his head, but found a large body pressed against his, and whined in discomfort from what was obviously increasing pressure on his shoulder.

''Hello there, Tjarks. You using your off-duty time bothering these friends of my mate Phillip?'' The half-orc pit-fighter gave a tusky smile to those at the table and began steering the quickly sobering bastion back into the crowd of patrons. He called back them over his shoulder as he shoved the interloper toward the front door. ''You can put your steel away, this one will bother you no more, and next round's on me.''

Vex and Percy sheathed their respective weapons, which Lyra finally noticed with some dismay. Kern returned shortly after, followed by another round of drinks. After exchanging niceties and getting an update on the successes of their friends Pike and Grog at the Crucible, they asked Lyra to describe her mystery man that she had seen with Wilfrieda Wolff. Kern thought over his drink a minute, then asked for a more detailed description of the man's clothes and mannerisms before excusing himself to "Ask a few people worth asking".

"How do you know him?" Lyra asked, confused and more than little intoxicated.

"He's fought Grog in the Crucible the first time we came to the city. They fought a second time, and maybe flirted some". Vex answered without looking at her, watching along with Percy as Kern circulated around the end of the bar, talking to a few men and women hunched over drinks.

Percy scoffed. "Grog bit most of his lip off and pummeled his groin repeatedly, if I recall."

"That's how Grog flirts, darling."

"Remind me never to flirt with Grog."

"If you start, I may be the one pummeling your groin."

Percy slipped his hand back into hers. "I love you too, dearest."

By the time Kern came back to them, a few minutes later, Lyra had hit her tipping point, and had gone from tipsy to drunk. She looked as she was trying to follow the conversation, then dropped her head to the sticky table. Kern told Percy and Vex that the description matched a somewhat-known small-time hustler known as Relli. He was known to fence stolen goods, and sometimes go in on a blackmail scheme, but from what Kern had gathered, wasn't much of a danger, unless cornered or truly desperate.

Kern said that he would continue to ask around for them, if they wanted, and they accepted, letting them know the location of the inn where they were staying, and if they could not be found, to leave a message for them or for Lyra at the Slayer's Take guildhall. They parted with handshakes all around, except for Lyra, who Percy half-walked, half-carried to the Take, and left in the care of the attendant on duty.

The Lord and Lady of Whitestone then strolled slowly back to their rooms, full of love and drink. Neither wanted to admit to the other the hint of guilt they felt; that working on a problem like this together was as much, if not more, fun than any quiet honeymoon they could imagine.

#percahlia #perc'ahlia #percival fredrickstein von musel klossowski de rolo iii #vex'ahlia #fanfic #critical role

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darrilshrugged · 7 years

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The Thin Man & the Ranger

So I said a few weeks ago that I liked the idea of a Vex & Percy detective story in the mold of Dashiell Hammet’s the Thin Man novella and the fun detective comedies of the 1930′s.

I though having it the idea out of my head would be helpful. I now have about 4000 words of it. So here is some.

Again, haven’t written much or shared writing in a long damn time, so if you have some tips, or notice something, please let me know.

*Spoilers through Episode 95*

During the break from adventuring, but after they have married, Vex and Percy jump at a chance at some time alone outside of Whitestone. Their hopes of a quiet honeymoon in Vasselheim is interrupted by a friends’s request to help solve a murder and our heroes reluctantly get involved.

Maybe, just maybe, for once in their lives, the person calling out was for someone other than them.

Things had been going so smoothly. Their secret was still safe among the necessary few, still theirs. Now a chance for a few days away had allowed them a semblance of a honeymoon, where they could be newlyweds away from any prying eyes, or potential improprieties (Cassandra had tried to make a point about public displays of intimate affection by city nobility, but Vex had been lost to a laughing fit at the use of the term ‘canoodling’ in scolding tone).

“Oh, it’s you! Thank the gods that you found me!”

Years spent together, as allies in battle, then close friends, and then lovers, had led to remarkable simpatico in combat and tense social interactions. A side-eyed glance at one another, hands griping slightly tighter, they continued to walk one of the garden paths weaving in and around the Birthheart.

“Maybe mistaking us for someone else?” she murmurs, hopeful.

“Mmm. The other couple, walking with a brown bear.”

Nope.

“Vex! Percy!”

Vex, though several drinks in on the day, recognized the high-pitched voice immediately, and Percival, from the brief stiffening of his shoulders, shortly after. They stopped and turned, again clinching hands as the human woman rushed to catch them up the path’s incline.

She had bunched and pulled up some on the front of her skirt with one hand to allow her to walk more quickly after them. When she saw that they had stopped and turned, she raised that hand along with her other in an odd, but friendly, double-wave that matched the slightly manic grin on her face.

Her next step caught in her now-free skirt and she stumbled, colliding with an elven man walking in the other direction, before landing partially on her right side with a light puff of dirt and grass, her red hair flopping onto the ground around her head.

As one seemingly accustomed to such incidents, she popped back up and began to smooth herself out, casting a glance back at the man she had bumped. He had moved on down the path, but continued to glance back at the woman every few steps, to see if she was alright.

“Rude!” she said, none-to-quietly, and then started to address them, still a good 15 feet up the path “That man ran into me, and almost knocked me completely down! I should report him to the Bastions, if I had the time!” She then seemed to immediately reconsider and called down the path toward the elven man “Sorry! I’m sorry, sir!”

“Lyra, it’s lovely to see you!” Vex said, a substantial percentage of the brightness in her voice and smile forced, but not enough for the awkward woman to notice.

“You two, too!” The red-headed woman, now as composed as she was capable of ever being, responded sunnily. “I knew that when I asked Vanessa and Murtin to send out word for help that they would do everything that they could to find the best out there, but I never thought that they would get Vox Machina to come help! But of course you did, you’re the best! And you even knew to find me here, of all places! I’m sure you’ll know exactly what to do….”

“Lyra, we -” Percival was attempting shake off his own light inebriation, and to slow down the avalanche of words.

No such luck. “Yes! It’s good to see you too, Percy!” She moved to hug him, while never stopping talking, and kneed her way through Percival and Vex’s gripped hands, stumbling against him and now speaking directly into the taller man’s neck and shoulder.

She never stopped talking. He would be more amused if he weren’t visibly put out at the distraction from their anonymous walk. He lightly nudged her back to a comfortable interpersonal distance and she continued speaking.

“He’s been gone for weeks, and now supposedly he’s come back without saying anything to me or anyone? And now there’s a dead body and they say it’s his fault? I don’t believe it! Not because I don’t want to believe it, but because I don’t think it could possibly be true!”

Vex gave up on disengaging herself from this encounter with quick social niceties. “What’s this about a body? And who is ‘he’ you are talking about? Aldor?”

“Aldor?” Lyra spun around, looking for the mentioned man. “Oh, I thought you were saying that he was here. I haven’t been able to catch him in – Oh, no! Aldor is fine; he hasn’t killed anyone who didn’t need killing.”

“Then who is dead?” Percy was trying to steer her.

“That awful assistant of his, Wilfrieda Wolff! I never liked her.” About now, it seems that she began to realize that they had no idea what she had been talking about, and the excitement on her face at seeing them began to shift to concern. Her eyes moved back and forth between their faces. “You don’t know what’s going on? You aren’t here to help me and Uncle Randy?”

“No, we weren’t –“ Vex began, and adjusted on the fly as Lyra reacted to her first word, “but we are here, now. Why don’t we meet you for a drink in a few minutes and you can fill us in on the whole situation?”

“But we could really use your help now!”

Percy, gods bless him, jumped in with his calming, know-it-all tone “We plan to see if we can be of any service. We just need to take Trinket back to the inn, and we will join you shortly. Where is a suitable establishment?”

They agreed to meet in an hour’s time at a place known to them, but not as public as the Slayer’s Take guild hall. Percy and Vex, along with Trinket, continued their loop that would bring them back to their spacious rooms at the small inn they had checked into that morning. (Vex’ahlia had penned their names into the register as ‘Mrs. and Mr. de Rolo’, and they had both been so delighted by being able to do so that they had shepherded Trinket out onto the room’s terrace as soon as they had entered).

They again held hands as they walked, not saying much to each other about the interruption to their time together. Percy broke the comfortable quiet as the inn came into view.

“Wife?”

“Yes, my darling husband?”

“We are here to enjoy ourselves, eat and drink too much and throw ourselves at one another, not get mixed up in someone else’s adventure, correct?”

“Yes, Percy, we are here for our time of rapture and romance, not to solve murder puzzles.” She paused “But we will not leave a friend in need.”

He squeezed her hand. “Oh, I agree and love you for it. I just wanted it on the record before we end up drawn into something awful.”

That drew a smile “Noted. We will try our best not to get too deeply involved. And gods help anyone that tries to get between us and this time to ourselves.”

#perc'ahlia #percahlia #percival fredrickstein von musel klossowski de rolo iii #vex'ahlia #critical role

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darrilshrugged · 7 years

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hi im not dead but i fell into perc’ahlia hell and it’s really nice down here.

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darrilshrugged · 7 years

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When Vax comes back (again)

Have wanted to start writing again, and all the wonderful Critter writers inspire me (and make me nervous/jealous/excited). It felt great to write for the first time in ages, and I would welcome all feedback. Please be gentle!

**Spoilers for episode 112**

Found myself thinking a lot about what it may be like for some of the others to have Vax die again and reappear, as he does at the end of the episode. Enjoy, or not, it felt good to get it out of my head and onto a page.

It’s different when he comes back this time. Pike is again the first one he sees, she’s sitting by his things, shaking and brushing (dust? No, not dust, ashes) out of his armor and boots. She sees him, and the grim look on her face brightens for a moment, then it flattens again. He knows it’s not because he’s naked again, she’s seen all there is to see by now.

He approaches and crouches, and she hands him his undergarments. “Hi Vax, I’m going to wash these out for you.” Her voice lacks some of the sunniness it often projects. She doesn’t look at him again, scooping up his armor and boots and walks towards the pond, where he can hear and see the others.

He sits on the edge of the clearing, back against a tree. He watches Pike speak with them, and gesture back towards him. Vex and Keyleth stand up and turn. He can’t describe the looks on their faces.

Vex makes it a few steps before breaking into a run, throwing herself into an awkward pile with him at the base of the tree. She doesn’t say anything, just holds him and shakes for a long moment. When she pulls away from him to kiss his forehead, right up near the hairline, he can feel the tears against his scalp. She rocks back into a kneeling position, drawing one of her hands down his arm until it locks his hand in hers. She looks at his face, and croaks out a short “I’m so glad you’re back”. She then turns as she stands and walks back toward the pool, shoulders betraying her continued, quiet, crying.

Before he can call out to her to come back, that he’s alright, no harm done at all, Keyleth has sat down next to him.

“Vax.”, she twists to put her arms around him and kisses him, pulling hard against him. The kiss is pressure and accompanied by more tears, but not passion. He feels, more than he hears her suck in a large breath as she removes her lips from his. She slides her head to the side of his face, pressing into the hollow between his neck and shoulder.

She cries for a minute, maybe two. She doesn’t respond to his words, or laugh at his morose humor about what just happened. She slows her crying, kisses her way back across his cheek to his mouth, gives him another long kiss, and leaves him without saying anything else.

She walks towards the others, Vex and Percy closest as they too part from an embrace. Percy is wearing only his breeches, and looks like he has been in the water, although fresher moisture on his chest may be Vex’s tears. Percy picks up a pile of his own clothes, while Vex and Keyleth join hands and walk towards the rest of their friends.

He’s left alone again. He was gone again for a few hours, and it seems like something changed in this time. He’s trying to let it come to him. Then he realizes.

“It’s worse for them, you know. Every time it’s worse.”

Percy. Although he had reached the same conclusion the thought doesn’t come from within him. Percy is sitting against another tree, a few feet away, with his undershirt now on, and his other clothes arranged in front of him. Percy isn’t looking at his clothes or Vax, but at the backs of Vex and Keyleth, as they walk and weave a bit together, now shoulder to shoulder, heads leaned toward one another.

He nods, and Percy maybe catches his assent out of the corner of his eye, maybe he doesn’t. Either way, he speaks again.

“I credit the choice you made when your God gave you the chance to return to us. I would like to think that I would have done the same, but you actually did, and that is … admirable. Nevertheless, it is tearing them apart.”

He says nothing in response.

Percy continues. “Each time you could not come back, or come back less you than you were the time before. And even when you do come back, it is another reminder that there is a definite possibility that today is your last, either way. They are happy that you are back, and relieved … and then reminded of how this has happened before and will again, and it all crashes down like waves. They’re exhausted from grieving over you, and you are not even gone yet”.

He begins to say something, to let Percy hear that he understands, but the man continues on.

“I love them, as much as I am capable of doing so, and I know you know that. I am going to do everything I can to get them through losing you, should we survive”. He hears Percy clear his throat, choking down emotions, trying to keep a level voice. His own view is loosely focused on the backs of his assembled family, resting a few hundred yards away.

“It’s not your fault, Vaxil’dan, for playing out the hand you – we - have been dealt. It is the result of many good and bad choices we have made separately and together. What you have done has given me more than I could ever hope to deserve, more than any man has ever deserved, and I will do my best to make the most of your sacrifices. For you, for her“, another clearing of the throat, “and for Keyleth”.

“But we cannot pretend that what has happened has not happened, and that this is something any of us are equipped to deal with. They love you, and know that you love them, and that you never meant to hurt them in this way. Give a few minutes to let them work through this bout of grief, and then we can act like this is all normal.”

After a time, he responds with a chuckle around tears of his own. “I think we passed normal quite a long fucking time ago, Percival. Thank you for your words, all of them. Many of them were my own thoughts – expressed in a more flowery way, I don’t know – it, it helps to know that you understand that I never meant for this second chance to hurt them or any of you, to put you all through hell!”

Percy has stood and begun to dress, and has come a step or two closer. Looking now, he can see that Percy’s cheeks are damp as well. The taller man leans down and extends his arms to his friend, in a familiar gesture of aid. They lock hands around wrists and Percy pulls him to his feet. Though his tears are fresh, and his eyes red, there is a familiar twist to his mouth, the one he gets when he’s decided to try to be clever.

“Well then, old friend, it’s a good thing we’ve been to hell before. Let’s see if we can come up with a terrible plan to get us all back out again.”

#critical role #vax'ildan #vex'ahlia #percival fredrickstein von musel klossowski de rolo iii #vox machina

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