#augh. sedate me. | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

blatherkatt · 6 years

Text

Title: The Mockingbird of Whitestone [Critical Role]

Chapter 1: The Visitor

Summary: Twenty years later, Vox Machina--or as much of it as can get to Whitestone at the time--reunite. It’s not their first time doing so, and they don’t plan on it being the last. It should just be another reunion.

But something completely unexpected throws everything into chaos, and leaves Vex’ahlia struggling with emotions she’d thought buried, and Percy trying to piece together the fragments of a very confusing puzzle.

Canon pairings, focusing on Perc’ahlia; warnings for minor blood in a later chapter and a whole lot of ruminating on a canonical major character death.

Rating: T

Author’s Note: so in accordance with my personal philosophy of “if you can give a species a tail why wouldn’t you” it may be noted that some of these characters have tails that wouldn’t have such according to official wotc materials. gnomes, for example. you cant stop me hahahaha

He’d had his share of broken watches, but this one was…interesting. Everything looked fine—the gears sitting strong and unbroken, yet refusing to turn, the winding tool equally pristine yet unbudging. At an easy glance, everything seemed perfectly normal, and yet, some unknown piece of the puzzle was keeping it from working. It was always something tiny in cases like these, he was sure. He drew in closer and squinted, maneuvering the tool in hand to gently lever up one of the gears, knowing with an intense certainty that it had to be something simple that he’d missed, some piece of sand that’d gotten caught in just the wrong place, or a tiny piece of gadgetry misplaced or broken or missing altogether—

A pair of hands on his shoulders pulled Percy out of his reverie. The gentle grip tugged him back, tilting his chair onto its back legs and causing him to tilt his own head back to see Vex’ahlia’s teasing smile. “Percy,” Vex said, peering down at him with a twinkle in her eye, “If you glare at that watch any harder, I’m afraid it’s going to catch fire.”

Percy snorted. Vex let the chair settle all four legs back down onto the carefully maintained stones of Whitestone’s town square. Percy looked away as Vex draped herself across his shoulders, her chin now tucked against his neck. “I’m not—glaring at it, dear, I’m just very focused. Whatever’s going wrong with the thing is subtle enough that it’s hard to pinpoint, so—“

“Darling,” she said, in a low, sweet voice by his ear that, even twenty years into their marriage, still made the hair on the back of his neck stand up, “You’re not supposed to be working, you’re supposed to be relaxing.” She pressed a kiss to his cheek and stood up, pulling away. “There’s a festival on tomorrow, our friends will be here any moment, and you’re here fussing over a watch? Really, Percy.”

She took a moment to stretch, and Percy took a moment to take in the view. The world seemed to frame a perfect backdrop for her— a light breeze stirring the loose half-cloak draped around her shoulders and the skirts of her pale blue dress. The day was bright and clear, and, despite the patches of snow still visible here and there on the ground, much of the plant life was starting to show new patches of green. The Sun Tree in particular had already sprouted enough buds and early blooms to cause a perpetual soft rain of petals in the town square, some of which drifted past Vex’ahlia, one or two catching in her hair. Not for the first time Percy found himself quietly struck by how lucky he was to have this—a moment of peace in his town, rebuilt and recovering after the harm once done to it, decades ago, and a woman he sometimes still couldn’t believe he was married to…

He shook his head. “That’s exactly why I’m fussing with the watch, dear,” he said. “They’re late, and if I don’t keep myself busy somehow, I’ll drive myself mad with impatience! I mean, really, we’ve only been planning to meet up for weeks.”

“They’ll be here,” Vex chided.

“They were supposed to be here half an hour ago. I made everyone a bloody watch but it’s apparently not enough—this is the trouble, you know, with depending on the druid for travel, because then if she’s late, so is everybody else—“

“I take it back. You were right, Percy, you should just stick with fiddling with the watch.” The affection in her voice robbed it of any sting the gentle teasing might’ve had otherwise. “Being a clockmaker’s made you so obsessed with punctuality, dear, you may really have a problem.”

He sighed, carefully putting away the watch and his tools, brushing a few errant petals off his coat. “It’s not—I just miss them, honestly. It seems they’ve all been busy with things so often lately. It’s a shame poor Tary couldn’t make it, but at the very least we can get the rest of the family all together in one place for once.” He stood up, intending to walk over her, but paused with a wince as a shooting pain lanced up one of his legs. He leaned on the table, grimacing, before standing up the rest of the way. Noting Vex’s slightly worried expression, he threw up a hurried smile, and said, “Augh, that’s a twinge. Oof.”

“Your knees again?” she asked, eyes bright with concern.

“Nothing too serious, I think, just the usual stiffness. You know, sometimes I wonder if it was the sixth or seventh dragon that did it.”

He’d hoped the joke would lighten the mood enough to soothe any worries, but Vex frowned. At the very least, she chose to change the subject rather than put up any sort of fuss. “I don’t suppose you know where the kids are?” she asked. “I saw Trissa and Leo pestering—sorry, helping—some of the traveling merchants, but I’ve no idea where the rest are.”

“Well, I think Crispin is hanging out with his friends somewhere, and Arthur was tagging along with Cassandra last I saw him. Tiff’s right over there, though,” he said, pointing towards the Sun Tree with a grin.

Vex’ahlia looked, and then bent over with a quiet “Oh, no,” buried under a laugh.

“At this point, Trinket may in fact be the most patient bear in the world,” Percy said, moving to her side, arms folded loosely. “Certainly, he’s the most fashionable.”

There, under the Sun Tree, lay the huge bear. He was, with some very obvious displeasure, allowing Percy and Vex’s three year old daughter to climb all over him as she weaved flowers and ribbons into his fur. He made no attempt to stop her—having gone through sharing his home with a toddler four times before this, he knew it was a futile endeavor—but he still turned toward the sound of Vex’s voice and let out a low, despairing moan full of the deep, existential anguish only a bear beset by an excitable toddler can ever truly know.

“She’s been at it for the better part of an hour,” Percy grinned.

“Tiffany, darling, what are you doing over there?” Vex called. “Are you making Trinket pretty for the festival?”

Tiffany perked up at her mother’s voice, seemed to seriously contemplate the question for a moment, and then nodded and said, “Yeah!”

The bear let out another soulful moan and rested his head on the pavement.

“Ohh, I know, buddy, I know, you’re so patient.” Vex giggled and leaned on Percy slightly. “Oh, gods, honestly, he could just stand up and tip her off without hurting her, I don’t know why he just takes it.”

“However will he survive the embearassment,” Percy said, receiving a swat on the arm and a laugh for his efforts.

They’d been standing side by side for a few minutes, idly chatting and occasionally tossing little Tiff a few words of encouragement, when Cassandra walked into the square and made a beeline towards them, Arthur following after with all the forced gravitas an eight year old could muster.

“They’re not here yet?” she asked, looking a bit harried. She’d been working hard on getting everything ready for the Renewal Festival, and it showed; Percy and Vex had tried to take some of the weight off her shoulders, but she’d insisted on doing the bulk of the work herself—not exactly unusual for her, really, but Percy still worried.

Vex shook her head. “Not yet, much to Percy’s chagrin.”

Cassandra pursed her lips, huffing out a frustrated breath. “Well, hopefully they get here soon. I might have a bit of a job for you all before we get too comfortable with celebrating. One of the guards just told me that someone reported seeing bluecoats in the old cemetery.”

Percy groaned. “Oh, gods, again? I thought for sure we cleared the little devils out last year.”

“They might be back,” Cassandra said. “No one’s been stung yet, and I’ve yet to confirm anything in any case, but I’d really like to avoid a repeat of last summer.”

“And us with a town full of visitors for the festival who won’t know how dangerous they are,” said Vex, folding her arms. “Thank the gods Keyleth’s coming. If anyone can convince a damn mess of hornets to move elsewhere, it’s an archdruid.”

“Might not hurt to warn people to see a cleric straight away if they are stung, just in case,” Percy said. “We very nearly had a couple folks die last year who didn’t know any better.”

“When is Aunt Keyleth and the others gonna be here?” Arthur said, demonstrating his usual complete lack of interest in ‘adult talk.’

Percy rolled his eyes fondly. “Well, they should have been here—ah, speak of the devil, finally!”

With a familiar groan of ancient wood splitting apart, the Sun Tree opened up into the familiar tunnel. It was followed by an extremely unnecessary bellow and the sound of stampeding footsteps. Vex and Percy shared a look as Arthur’s face split into a grin. Grog stampeded through, narrowly avoiding knocking Arthur over, several bags in his arms and two gnomes clinging to his shoulders, Scanlan yelling in mock terror, Pike laughing helplessly. Keyleth stepped sedately through the portal a moment later, just before it closed.

“Yeah!!” Arthur cheered, as Grog skidded to a stop. Grog threw up his arms, full as they were, and bellowed in response, accidentally dislodging Scanlan in the process.

“Ow!!” said Scanlan, full of mock ruined pride more than any real pain, as Arthur and Grog both laughed. Pike slid down and landed nimbly on her feet as Scanlan launched into an exaggerated tirade against Grog, sending Arthur into stitches.

Keyleth and Pike, however, both spotted Percy and Vex and beelined toward them, and the ensuing hugs drained out all of Percy’s frustration in an instant. Nevertheless, if only for the look of things, he adopted his most exasperated tone as he asked, “What bloody took you all so long? We were expecting you almost an hour ago!”

Pike rolled her eyes. “Sorry, we had to deal with a very serious discussion about whether or not Grog’s too old and creaky to be the team tough guy anymore. Scanlan teased him about his beard going gray, and Grog took it way too personally, and they ended up arguing until Grog insisted on proving that he’s still just as tough as ever.”

“Is that why he came running in like a bat out of the hells?” said Vex.

“Yup,” said Keyleth. “Demanded we all hand over all our bags and that the gnomes climb on. I think he wanted to carry me, too, but there was literally no room, so he made up for it by running through.”

Vex covered her face, shaking with mirth. “Gods, I’ve missed you all,” she said.

“Oy, Percy, I think you got a bit of a limpet problem,” Grog said. He stomped over, making a big show out of every step, with Arthur clinging excitedly to the goliath’s massive foot. “This one��s got real big and reeal clingy. Gonna need a great big scraper to get this ‘un off.” Arthur was beside himself with giggles.

Percy eyed Grog. “Well, maybe if you all weren’t late, he wouldn’t be quite so clingy!”

“I came as fast as I could!” Grog whined, the bags sagging. “I ran all the way here!”

“We noticed.”

A bark of laughter echoed behind Grog. For a moment, Percy thought it was aimed at his joke, but no; Scanlan had noticed Trinket’s predicament. Trinket, devastated at his complete and total humiliation, covered his face with his paws and moaned.

Tiffany, however, was…well, normally she would have run over with Arthur, now that Percy thought about it, but she was staring intently at some distant point in the opposite direction. For just a moment, he thought he spotted a flash of movement that way himself, but before he could comment, Keyleth spoke up and the thought quickly fled his mind, only to be remembered much later.

“Tiff!” Keyleth shouted, bouncing on the balls of her feet and waving. “Tiff, hey, over here!”

Tiffany turned with a quiet “huh?” Upon spotting Keyleth, the little girl’s face split into a huge grin and she ran full force at Keyleth. “Aun’ Kiki!!”

Keyleth swooped the little girl up into her arms, chattering excitedly back and forth with her as Tiffany proceeded to say hello to the rest of her ‘aunts’ and ‘uncles’ in turn.

(For a moment, a piece of Percy that stubbornly refused to die reflected on the aunts and uncles she’d never get to meet—Percy’s own siblings who never got to meet his new, adoptive family, and also…But thoughts like that weren’t productive at times like this. Better to celebrate the family they had with them right now than spend time hating the empty spaces in the lineup. Nothing good came of dwelling on that for too long.)

Cassandra, who’d been holding back initially, stepped forward. “Sorry to interrupt, and to bother you the moment you get here, Keyleth—“

“Whahuh?” Keyleth said, having been midway through intense conversation with the three year old still in her arms about the huuuge butterfly Tiffany had seen that morning.

“We’ve, ah, possibly got an infestation of some particularly nasty hornets that Cass wants to deal with before anyone gets hurt,” said Percy. “They can be deadly, unfortunately, but the poison takes long enough to kick in that most people don’t realize the danger of getting stung until they’re sick enough that treating it becomes costly. Think you could, maybe…”

“Oh! Oh, sure, yeah, no problem,” said Keyleth, setting Tiffany down. “Lead the way, Percy!”

“If you two are headed off, then, I think I should try and find the rest of the kids,” Vex said. “Shall we meet back here?”

“Me, too, Mommy!” Tiff piped up, reaching her hands up.

“I don’t see why not. It’s a nice day out, and some of the traveling merchants and entertainers have been setting up shop early,” said Percy. “We might as well enjoy the rest of the day.”

Grog shifted uncomfortably. His arms were still full of everyone’s bags, and however much he may have liked to deny it, the silver streaks through his beard made no secret of the fact that he was starting to feel his age at least as much as Percy was. “I mean, I wouldn’t mind…stopping by the castle, just for a few minutes,” he mumbled, which, for him, meant it was still pretty loud, all things considered.

“Oh, just put the bags down, you big goof,” said Pike. Grog shrugged and, with no ceremony whatsoever, dropped everything.

Vex had seen her fair share of Renewal Festivals, but she had to admit, Whitestone’s were something very special. Granted, you only needed to endure one Whitestone winter, trapped indoors by the biting cold and heavy snows, huddling close to the fire and braving the outdoors only when no other option remained, to understand why—the entire town was desperate for the onset of spring by the time the thaws came. Still, it was always a delight; the festival wasn’t truly considered to start until tomorrow, yet already people were celebrating. Everywhere one looked, there’d be a makeshift band practicing out in front of a tavern, with a handful of people dancing along, or a pair of kids running around and laughing through the streets, perhaps someone airing out their best clothes now that it wasn’t too cold to open a window. She understood that it had previously been a much more insular celebration, of course, back when Whitestone was more isolated, but these days, with Percy and Cassandra working hard to maintain communications with and open roads to Emon and Westrun, a number of traveling merchants and performers always stopped by to help grow the celebrations even further. Many were still setting up booths and claiming their bits of the street, but some were already settled in, displaying wares or sending delicious smells through the pleasantly warm air.

Somewhere amongst them, she knew, were two of her children, but so far, even with Tiffany and Trinket’s help, they’d yet to spot them. Of course, Tiffany was too distracted by just about everything, constantly pointing and cooing from her perch on Trinket’s back, to really be helping. Vex’ahlia kept her eyes and ears open, nodding along with her daughter’s babbling without really listening, looking instead for Trissa and Leo—they’d be together, no doubt, as they always were, and probably up to trouble. At thirteen and twelve respectively, they were the closest of the children in age as well as just being generally attached at the hip, ever reminiscent of…

Well, they were very close, in any case.

After a bit of searching, finally, she spotted the pair amongst a trio of tabaxi. Two were lounging on the opposite side of the street from her children, apparently taking a break from practicing for some sort of act and enjoying a kettle of tea between them. The third was a younger girl with golden tabby markings who couldn’t have been much older than Crispin’s sixteen. She had all of Trissa and Leo’s rapt attention, shuffling and carefully twirling and twisting a set of cards between her fingers. One of the older tabaxi, a brown one with faint spots and tufted ears, called out a word of encouragement. The other one was more reddish in color, a little older and a lot surlier, grumbling into his cup and getting an elbow to the ribs for whatever harsh comment he’d made.

Vex stood back and watched the girl perform for a moment, amused and curious. The girl was explaining the meaning of the cards to her enraptured audience, twirling each one with a flourish before tucking it back into the deck. She stumbled in her delivery, however, upon glancing up and spotting Trinket. The other two Tabaxi were similarly startled, the older one climbing up onto his chair in surprise.

“Oh, he’s harmless, don’t worry,” said Vex to the adults, and then, turning to the girl, added, “Please don’t stop on my account.” She smiled her most winning smile. “I’ll have to take my children away in just a moment here, I’m afraid, but we can spare a few more minutes.”

“Aww, mooom,” Leo groaned, at the same instant that Trissa cried, “What? Why?”

“Because our guests are here, Trissa. We’re going to need to track down Crispin, too, Arthur’s already with them.”

“O-oh, I didn’t mean to—We’re just, just messing around,” the tabaxi girl stammered, her prior confidence vanished. “You can—I won’t keep them.”

“But Mom, she says she can tell the future with her cards, and I wanna see her do it!” said Leo.

“Yeah, they’re really weird, one’s got a fiend on it and—“

“They’re, they don’t…telling the future’s not exactly what I said,” the girl said.

Vex sighed and rolled her eyes to look at the adult tabaxi, the more good-natured of whom shrugged with a smile. Turning back to the girl, she said, “Well, like I said, we have a few minutes. Why don’t you give me a reading?”

The girl blinked. “O-oh, uh, really?” she asked, her ears twitching back nervously as she looked toward the other two.

“Go for it, Patch!” called the brown tabaxi.

“’S two copper,” grumbled the older one. “No freebies.”

Vex raised an eyebrow. “That’s a bit cheaper than I expected,” she said, handing over the money. A few copper was a small cost to perhaps encourage an aspiring performer to continue on her path. She doubted there was any real fortune telling happening, but there was still an art to her craft, one that Vex could appreciate.

Patch flicked her ears back in embarrassment. “I’m, um, I’m very new at this. This is—it’s the first time they’re letting me perform for money.”

“Don’t tell her that!” the old one scowled.

“Shit, shit, sorry Saph, I forgot—“

“Don’t worry about it, Patch! Saph, shut the hell up and let her perform, you old curmudgeon, she can do this.” The brown one grinned and raised his cup, eyes shining.

“Hey, everyone’s got to start somewhere,” Vex said, kneeling down on the blanket Patch had acting as a cushion. “So, where do we start?”

Patch swallowed, her fingers making the cards dance apparently without her notice. “Well, um, you…you ask me some question, and the cards will…tell me the answer, sort of.” She swallowed, struggling to regain her composure. “So, miss, um…”

“Lady Vex’ahlia,” Vex said, and smiled a little bit more upon hearing one of the two grown tabaxi erupt into a choking cough at the title. They really must be from well out of town if the bear hadn’t been a dead giveaway as to just who she was.

Patch’s eyes widened a bit. “Right, then, L-Lady Vex’ahlia,” she said, “What questions do you have for, um, for the cards?”

Vex tapped her lip, acting like she was considering it in detail. “Well, there’s not much I have going on right now, but…how about this: Can you give me a general feel for how this festival’s going to go this year? We’d really like for it to be a good one, but we’ve already had some hiccups. Nothing too serious, yet. Is anything else…unexpected coming our way?”

There, an easy question for a first-timer to come up with an answer for, Vex thought. Could be interesting to see how she’d respond.

Patch nodded, and then turned back to the cards, now shuffling them in earnest. This seemed to be what she was most comfortable with, the movement of the cards themselves, flashing and shifting in intricate patterns. The effect was slightly spoiled when, in the process of drawing one, she nearly dropped it, but she recovered with a slightly awkward grin, and laid out three cards, face down.

One by one, she flipped each over, muttering to herself, “So, that’s…uhm, something, some big change or something to do with fate, hoo boy, that’s always interesting….and that’s…a person, maybe a stranger, maybe not…Um. Hm. That’s. That’s a really weird set of three, to get, um.” She tapped a finger against her chin. “So. I think what the cards have to say to that, is that you’ll have….some sort of. Fateful encounter with…with an unexpected visitor? To your festival. Someone’s coming that you didn’t expect, and it’ll…it’ll be interesting?”

One of the tabaxi, probably the surly one, slapped a hand to their head and groaned. Vex refused to look back and see.

“A fateful encounter with an unexpected visitor, that’s exciting,” Vex said. “Do the cards say if this is to be a friendly visitor, or someone I should be worried about?”

“Friend,” said Patch, her voice suddenly very certain. “Definitely a friend.” She blinked, and shrunk a bit, as if surprised by her own burst of confidence. “I mean,” she said, “I don’t…the cards don’t. Actually specify, but I get the feeling it’s, um, going to be a friend.”

“That’s a relief,” said Vex. “Well, that was wonderful, young Patch!” She pressed a gold piece into the girl’s hand, giving her a wink and a grin as she stood up. “You’re very good with those cards, I’m sure that with a bit more practice you’ll have the confidence to really do well.” Patch nodded her head in an astonished gratitude, holding the coin close to her chest.

“Th-thank you,” she said, as Vex gestured for her children to get up as well.

“Thank you for the reading,” said Vex in return. “Who knows, maybe this means Tary’ll be able to make it, after all! We were so disappointed to learn he couldn’t come—heaven knows how he’d get here without Keyleth’s help, but stranger things have happened…”

“Feh,” huffed old Saph. Then, turning in his seat, he hesitated. “What the fuck?” he spat, looking around. “Where’s the teapot?”

“What do you mean, ‘where’s the teapot’? It’s right where you left it, you daft—wait, what the hell, it was just there a second ago…” The brown one began glancing around, too, ducking under the table and rising a moment later scratching his head.

“I wouldn’t ask where it is if it was where I left it, Kite,” scowled Saph. “I’m tellin’ you, it’s gone! I bet one o’ you damn kids took it, hand it over!”

“Saph, stop—I’m sorry, my Lady, he’s been—we’ve been traveling a while, and he’s grouchy on a good day, your kids seem wonderful and I’m sure they’d never—“

Vex held up a hand. “It’s alright, thank you for that. I’m sure they wouldn’t dream of taking your nice tea pot, right?” She cast a stern eye on all three of her children. Trissa and Leo adopted expressions of pure innocence, but Tiffany surprised her by pointing toward an alley behind the two tabaxi men.

“It was the funny shadow person who did it, Mama!” she said, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. “Didn’t you see?”

“Sure it was, kiddo,” said Saph, slouching angrily back in his seat.

“Funny shadow person?” Vex said. “What do you mean, Tiff, dear? You saw a shadow take the pot?”

Tiffany nodded. “Yeah! They’ve been doing all sorts of other stuff, too! I keep seeing them running around! They took the teapot just now, and before they were running around an’ got scared by Aun’ Kiki bringing everyone through the Sun Tree.”

“Scared?”

“Yeah, cuz they ran off and hid!”

A dark shape, running into the shadows just out of view, so soon after she’d been promised an unexpected visitor and a twist of fate…She stamped the thought down, quickly. Thinking like that would only lead to unnecessary heartache. It was just the juxtaposition of a small child’s imagination and a strangely fitting fortune, that was all.

Right?

“Well, if we see them again, we’ll have to let them know that they’re welcome,” she said, kissing her daughter gently on the nose. “And that it’s not nice to take teapots.”

Tiffany giggled.

They moved on, Trissa and Leo growing more excited to see the rest of Vox Machina as they went. Finding Crispin proved easier and considerably more uneventful; he’d just been hanging out with a few other teens from town, and complained loudly at having to leave to deal with weird family stuff. Vex ignored it; she knew he was just as excited to see his adoptive aunts and uncles as any of the younger kids.

(Most of their five children had the de Rolo’s brown hair, but Crispin’s was jet black, and he wore it long. In a ponytail, usually, but, still, he looked just enough like Vex’s brother that sometimes Vex grew very…thoughtful.

It was nothing. She was just on edge. Maybe getting that fortune had been a mistake.)

Trissa and Leo bolted out to greet the rest of the team when they arrived back at the square, while Crispin begrudgingly accepted a hug from Pike. Vex smiled for a moment, but it faded when she saw Keyleth and Percy returning as well, Keyleth running for her things with a grim expression.

“What’s going on?” she asked, rushing over.

“Nothing, dear, just—look, Keyleth already dealt with it, I’m fine.” He sighed and gave her a very weary look. “The report about the bluecoats was right, and one of the little bastards got me on the hand. Keyleth managed to convince the rest to leave, but it was less of a conversation and more zapping the damn nest to smithereens.”

“I’m really sorry,” Keyleth called. “Those things are really mean, though, geez.”

“And she already—“ Vex started.

“I cast a spell to neutralize any poison, don’t worry,” Keyleth said. “At least, Percy said that’s what was needed? It just looked like an ordinary wasp sting, though.”

“That’s what’s so nasty about bluecoats,” Percy grumbled. “They don’t look bad on the first day, and sometimes people shake off the poison with no trouble, but by the time you know you’ve failed to do so, it’s already gotten bad enough that treating it’s going to be really bloody expensive, so it’s best to be overcautious.” He shook his hand and hissed in a breath. “That, and it hurts way more than a bee sting should be allowed to, augh.”

“I’ve got something that could help with that in here somewhere, hold on,” Keyleth said, tugging a smaller bag out from within her larger one. “Shoot,” she said a moment later, “I’m nearly out, I forgot to restock my herb kit.”

“Well, what do you need, darling?” said Vex. “There’s a storehouse not too far from here. It’s…really, any herbs we have in there are going to probably be more for cooking than medicine, and they’ll be dried out to last through the winter, but it’s worth checking, at least.”

“Really, it’s fine, I don’t need—” Percy started, but Vex shushed him.

Keyleth blew an exasperated raspberry. “I can make do, I guess,” she said. “Dried won’t be as strong, but should still get the job done. I’ve got enough here for the one sting, at least.” She rattled off a few herb names, and Vex nodded, hurrying off.

It was as good an excuse as any to get away for a moment. She was still feeling…off. That thought that had popped into mind, when Tiffany mentioned someone slinking around in the shadows, still wouldn’t leave her mind, despite her best efforts. It…Couldn’t possibly be who she thought it was, there was no way. But…the tabaxi girl had seemed so certain, when she’d said that there would be a friend here, just for a moment, and, who knew, maybe he was stealing teapots and slinking around as one of his old jokes, preparing for some dramatic entrance, the old show-off…

She paused, mere feet away from the storehouse door, staring at the ground.

Or, more accurately, at the pair of raven feathers laying on the stones.

Which. Was perfectly explained away by the fact that the city was lousy with ravens, of course. Nothing to be surprised about. But…Now that she stopped, she realized that she could hear someone moving about in the storehouse. Despite every perfectly reasonable explanation for the list of small things that happened today that she was likely reading too much into, hope rose within her, cautiously whispering that, maybe…

Maybe he’d found a way back, somehow? Stranger things had happened, right?

Taking a deep breath, unable to fight the smile off her face, she pulled the door open, her brother’s name on her lips—

It wasn’t Vax.

There was someone in the storeroom, certainly, but they were wholly unfamiliar. Even with their back turned, she could see that much; they were small, most of their frame hidden behind a cloak, but she could see a short, tufted tail peaking out from under it, even in the darkness, and a pair of large, tattered ears. The intruder flicked their hooded head toward her the moment the door was swung open, but in the deep shadows of the storeroom juxtaposed by the harsh light from outside, all she could make out initially of the face was a pair of huge, somewhat wide-set, bulging yellow eyes, with no visible iris and slitted red pupils. They had been rummaging in one of the crates in the storeroom, and were still holding up the lid with one hand.

It wasn’t Vax. It couldn’t be him. Judging on the height alone, nevermind the odd eyes and huge ears, it wasn’t even anything that could reasonably be called a half-elf. Her heart sank, and she forgot herself for a moment, distracted by her own sharp sorrow. She didn’t notice straight away as the intruder’s posture changed, stiffening and drawing inward, like an animal preparing to leap, didn’t notice the tattered ears sweeping back, barely registered that they were slowly setting down the lid of the crate, something clutched tightly in one hand.

“You—“ She paused, collecting herself. It wasn’t Vax. Of course it wasn’t Vax, he’d been—he’d been dead for twenty years, it had been silly to think—“You shouldn’t be in here. This is…”

She trailed off again, as her eyes adjusted to the difficult lighting. The creature was stepping more into the shadows, but the movement allowed just enough light to touch their face for Vex to pick out flat features accented by a set of jutting, uneven, sharp teeth. The realization of what she was talking to hit like a lightning bolt.

Reaching instinctively for a bow she didn’t have, she cursed, and slammed the door shut, hearing the body of the creature reach it a moment later. Struggling, she held the door shut as best she could, and reached for her earring, shouting so that even without it, guards would hear, so that people would know to find their children and run for cover—

“Goblins!”

#critical role #vex'ahlia #percival de rolo #perc'ahlia #longpost//#vox machina #fanfic #fanfiction #katt does a writing #whitestonemockingbirdfic #it might be more because this is me were talking about #but if i manage to stick to my outline this'll be seven chapters #AYYO BACK IN THE SEAT THO

79 notes · View notes

iamsarsa · 7 years

Text

unfinished drabbles

there’s three here? none of them finished so excuse the roughness. They’re all mostly centered on All Might & Sayu. Two of the three are angst-y so you know.

First one takes place during the Sports Festival, Second one takes places during Stain’s apprehending. Third takes place in the hospital after Sayu’s fight with Stain.

-----

"This is... so, damn dull,” Sayuri sighed, letting herself fall back against the roof, putting her hands behind her head as she stared up at the clear sky. Her assigned security detail was stiflingly boring - she almost wished that she was back on the field performing again despite her embarrassment at having to relive her idol days for the sake of fans.

"And to top it all off, I’m... so freakin’ hungry!" Her stomach had been growling for the past thirty minutes, and she knew she wouldn't have the time to go and grab any sort of snack or food. She hadn't had the time to make a lunch for either her or Toshinori, and they both had just assumed they'd be able to grab food at the festival. Of course for him, he was just there to support the first years and to make appearances as All Might, so grabbing food for him wasn’t an issue. Sayu however had found herself unable to get away from her duties to go and grab even a single stick of yakitori. As soon as she had finished her performance on the field and after a few quick autographs signed - she made her way to her assigned security detail without hesitation. No rest for a Hero, after all.

She let out a dejected sigh now, glancing down at the food stalls longingly. The smells had somehow become stronger, the hungrier she got and she let out a groan of frustration as her stomach grumbled and her mouth watered.

"What am I gonna do... I can't be expected to fight on any empty stomach, right? Maybe I can sneak down for just a quick bite, the other heroes here will be fine and besides what can happen in like 5 minutes?" She had begun to mutter to herself, and hadn't noticed the looming shadow that had suddenly cast itself over her.

"I'll tell you what you're going to do... you're going to stop worrying! For I am-AUGH!"

She took no time in twisting her body to aim a kick at whoever had opted to sneak up behind her. It connected easily, nearly sending the large man across the roof and she turned to look at her would-be attacker, letting out a sudden shriek of realization and tripping over herself to kneel beside him.

"Shit! Tosh- All Might! Dammit, honey! Why the hell would you sneak up on me?! What are you even doing up here?" She knelt beside the larger Hero, wrapping her arms around his broad shoulders and peppering his face with kisses, "You idiot! You scared me, you're lucky I didn't use my full strength!"

"A-ah... it's, alright! I'm... I'm oka-urk!" All Might's words cut off as steam released from his body and he shrunk down to his normal state, blood leaking from his mouth. He glanced up at Sayuri, wincing at the worried expression now on her face. His plan of surprising his sweetie had somehow backfired, and now he had her worried again. Not exactly what he had envisioned in any sense.

"You were saying?" His wife replied, glowering over him with worry written on her face and annoyance dripping from her words, "You really need to be more careful. How in the hell did you not dodge that anyway? You had the clear advantage, I had no idea you had snuck up on me."

He sat up, rubbing the back of his head and wiping the blood from his chin and offering up his best dazzling smile, "Because it was you of course, Sayu. My guard is always down around you...! How could I ever retaliate against my angel of a wife?”

"Cute... endearing even, but I'd rather not injure my already grievously injured husband. So next time, please dodge." She sighed, shaking her head before helping him to sit up and allowing him to envelop her in his arms for a hug where he placed a soft kiss on her forehead when she moved her head to look up at him, "But really, why are you here? You should be with the other teachers, shouldn't you? Not getting knocked out by your own wife, and what if someone sees us, I mean I know people are busy with the festival but still...”

He cut her worried words with a soft pat on her head before replying, "There's currently a break so the students can regroup themselves, so I thought it'd be okay if I snuck off to see how you were doing. I doubt anyone of note will see us up on the roof darling, and anyway, I knew you'd be hungry by now, so I thought I'd bring you something to eat!”

"You brought me food!?" She turned her body to face him, throwing her arms around his neck and kissing him, her anger suddenly dissipating at the mention of food, "This is why you're the best husband ever, sweetie!"

"Yeah, I brought you one of everything... extras of your favorite too. They didn't seem to think it was all that weird that All Might bought nearly an entire stalls worth of yakitori. Heh, if only they knew how insatiable your appetite is. Anyway... it's all in those baskets, hopefully it didn't get all mixed up when I got knocked down." He pointed out the baskets he had brought with him that were sitting on their sides, but thankfully seemed to be in one piece.

She closed her eyes, and he watched as the two baskets drifted over to where the two sat, settling down in front of them. He wasn't particularly hungry himself, and instead decided to wrap his arms around his wife, propping his chin ontop of her head to watch her eat. Despite their very obvious size difference, him being 7'2" no matter what form he was in and her being a comparatively diminutive even 5', she seemed to always fit perfectly in his arms. "Here," She had offered up a stick of yakitori, her arm reaching back towards him so the meat was right in front of his mouth, "Do not tell me you're not hungry, you need to eat, Toshinori." He winced at the sound of his real name, and leaned forward to take a bit of the offered yakitori, and he felt her head shift as she nodded in approval. "You haven't been worried about me, have you? There's really no need to be I'm fin-urk..." He stopped as he felt her elbow dig into him and instead leaned over to kiss her on the cheek rather than finish his sentence.

------

It was that feeling, all over again... that intense bloodlust... the murderous rage that made her blood run cold. She could hear herself screaming, she could see Toshi's body in front of her again, that moment playing itself out in front of her yet again. Looming over his crumpled and broken body, the man of her nightmares getting ready to strike over and over again against the battered love of her life. This wasn’t happening again, it couldn’t be.. could it? And yet, she could see it right in front her eyes once more. "Power Angel? Power Ange e...el..." People were calling her name but they sounded so distant, so far away... their words seemed to melt into oblivion as she felt herself push her body up, running towards the scene unfolding in front of her. She couldn’t this happen again, she couldn’t let him get hurt again due to her own failings, her own existence becoming the very distraction that led to his blood being spilled. "I won't... won't let you... I WON'T LET YOU HURT HIM!" She let out a scream, hurling herself towards the man, feeling her fist connect with his face, grabbing the scarf around his neck to gain a grip to pummel him further. She could only see red, her ears buzzing unpleasantly as she screamed, feeling blood and bile beginning their ascent up her throat. Her strength was waning, she knew that... but she had to stop, had too, otherwise... otherwise... "Sayuri! Sayu! You've got to stop! Listen to me, dammit!" Stop? How could she stop when this monster was killing Toshi in front of her all over again? She felt her body shudder and shake with the sobs wracking her body as someone pulled her away from the target of her hatred and she collapsed against the ground, still screaming and struggling.

"Endeavor, keep her down until medics arrive to sedate her! You two, stop gawking and grab her legs, she's stronger than she looks!"

"LET ME GO... PLEASE... HE'S KILLING HIM, YOU HAVE TO LET ME GO. TOSHI... TOSHINORI!" Pain wracked her body as she felt her body slam into concrete and she finally felt the sick taste of blood and vomit pass her lips. Strong arms kept her down, and she felt flames lick at her back and she cursed at herself for allowing weakness to take over her. Blackness threatened to overcome her vision and she struggled to keep her eyes open. "P-Please... you have to stop-stop him...All...All For One..." She let out one last sob as she felt her body become numb as the darkness finally overtook her sight and she felt herself slip away at last... one last thought rising up...

Please don’t leave me.

-----

When she woke up, she felt a familiar comforting presence resting on top of her and her eyes fluttered open - seeing the familiar frizzy blonde head nestled onto her lap. "T...Toshi..." She managed to croak out his name, lifting an arm littered with IVs to place on top of his head. Tears spilled out in relief at seeing him in front of her, still alive, that skinny body breathing steadily on her lap, his hair the same mess it always was. She could barely remember what had happened, but she did remember the fear... the sudden flashback of that night - how she felt uncontrollable in the face of the memory that had unfurled before her eyes. In front of her Toshinori stirred at her words, the grip he had on her other hand tightening as he sat up. Realizing she was awake and staring at him (with tears running down her face no less), he leaned forward instantly, embracing her tightly as she began to sob, his hands moving to cradle her head against his chest. "Oh Sayu, honey... I rushed here as soon as Gran Torino called me. I should've been there. I'm sorry, I'm so sorry." His voice cracked as he placed reassuring kisses on her face, and she turned herself so he'd catch her lips. He willingly obliged her as she brought her hands up to tangle in his hair, pressing his lips firmly against her - and he could feel the streaks of tears running down her face. When she pulled away, he could feel she was trembling - shivering as though she were cold and unable to ever become warm again and it made his heart sink that she had still had the fear running through her veins. So he wrapped his arms around her body (had she always felt so frail?) and pulled her up to be embraced by his arms. "Sshh... sshh... it's alright. I'm here, honey." He felt her body slowly still, and finally he heard her simply sniffling rather than outright sobbing, “I’m alive, I’m alive... okay? Nobody hurt me, I was all the way in Tokyo, I wasn’t there that night. You’re safe too.” Slowly, he felt her body begin to still, and her sobs turned to tiny sniffles as her hands relaxed their hold on his shirt. "I'm sorry..." She finally whispered, her voice dull and lifeless, “I’m sorry, I-” "For what?" He leaned back, bringing a hand up to cup her face, "You saved the students, and for what it matters, you dealt the finishing blow to the Hero Killer to allow him to be apprehended. You did well, my angel...” "But I-" She shook her head, "I lost control... when he, when he got up - that bloodlust it. I don’t know who stopped me but if they hadn’t... Toshi I-” She choked on his name and tears threatened to spill out once more. All Might leaned down to kiss her again, lifting her chin up so she could look into his eyes properly, "Don't. Don't think about it Sayu. Please, you'll just upset yourself again, I can't..." He rested his head against hers, using his thumb to wipe away a stray tear as he took his own deep breaths to calm himself, "I can't bear to think you're hurting... It-I... I hate it when you're the one person I can't save. Seems to be happening a lot more lately. I can't seem to keep up...”

2 notes · View notes