[For Vax] Return to Sender, backdated to May 17

[st_ingofthehundred]

Z's glasses in his hands, Kash sat on the black and silver couch trying yet again to Send to her. For the past day and a half, he'd done nothing but sleep, eat trail rations, and use Sending spells. Yeah, Sending failed between dimensions once in awhile, but it should've worked by now. The only reason it wouldn't... he couldn't let himself think that, especially since Vex hadn't answered yet either.

"Come on, Z," he muttered as he cast the spell again and then waited. And waited.

And waited.

Fuck.

He set her glasses down on his thigh, rubbed his eyes with the heel of his hands. Two more casts before he'd have to rest eight hours to try again and he wasn't tired. Desperate, but not tired.

Eyes closed, he let his mind slide over mental images of Vox Machina. The Sending would be strongest where is mind held the clearest image. His interest in Keyleth having long since subsided, his mind vacillated between the twins. Vex yesterday, so fine, he'd try Vax today.

25 words.

Trapped in pocket dimension. Can't reach Z. He wavered over whether to mention Vex, but decided Vax would flip out over Vex and not say anything helpful if he even reached him. Get Allura and Gilmore on finding me. This place is freaking weird. Is Raishan dead yet?

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[st_abby]

It was like having a thought, but it wasn't his thought, and it sounded (did thoughts have sounds, really?) familiar. It sounded like...

Vax almost thought he was dreaming the voice in his head, though he'd been very much awake.

...Shit. It felt real. And if it was, he reminded himself, mind scrabbling for what little he knew about magic from Kiki and the Scan-man, he had to make use of it before it faded.

Cashew?! He was glad, if it was, but why... His heart couldn't help but give a twist in his chest. Why couldn't it be- If you're at the pink inn, stay right the fuck where you are. I will find you. Percy's here, can explain better. Is Vex-

Vax kept right on thinking, as fast as his feet could move to get him to the front desk in the lobby. He didn't realize he'd run out of words, but he'd gather what had happened when Kashaw didn't reply at once. Not everything could be phones.

[st_ingofthehundred]

Is Vex

With you, Kash added without a second's thought. Should he cast again and answer or would Vax find him soon? Was Vax actually here? And if he was, he and Percy, why them and not--

It could be worse. Even if Vax insisted on calling him Cashew, it could be much worse. And if de Rolo was here, too, that had tripled his chance of finding a way out in time to fix whatever mess Z (and probably Vex'halia) had gotten herself into.

No, he decided. No, he wouldn't Send. Just in case he needed the magic for something else. Or if Vax turned out to be in some other pink inn. (It was too ugly for there to be only one. Then again, there probably had to be a nice green one for balance.)

He tucked Z's glasses into a hidden pocket. Not hiding them. Just. Not sharing them.

[st_abby]

Vax'ildan was in the lobby and interrogating Darryl in short order. He did spare a thought for Percy - but it was his habit to scout ahead, after all, so he thought he'd wait just long enough to find out what was what for sure before he called Percy by earring.

"Hey, D. Have we got a new arrival, name of Kashaw?"

The unnervingly indistinct fellow seemed to give a nod. "Kashaw Vesh has checked into room 197, the Crystal Room."

Vax stared. "...You mean to tell me I ran all this way and he's on the same floor as mine?!"

Darryl's form wavered barely around the edges, though no more or less than usual. "Perhaps you would like fresh towels to-"

"No, no," Vax hurried him along, impatient. "Stuff your towels. ...Is there a room for Vex'ahlia?"

"There are no guests by that name."

"What about-"

************

Some fifteen minutes later, there came a knock on Kash's door.

[st_ingofthehundred]

By the time he heard the knock, Kash had almost given up and Sent another message. It felt strange and dumb to have heart-pounding anxiety over seeing anyone when he'd spent ten of the last twelve years without caring who he saw.

He stalked the door like he might stab whoever was on the other side when he opened it, but it was like some barely heard but annoying as fuck ringing in his ears bled away at it actually being Vax. And the stomach irritation that had been brewing settled some too. If this was what having friends felt like... life was fucking simpler without them. But he wouldn't trade it for a minute.

"Hot Dog, in the flesh." The lift in his voice and quirk of his lips almost suggested he was happy to see him.

[st_abby]

Vax'ildan allowed himself a moment to simply stare, to meet Kashaw's mismatched eyes with his own, something relieved and thankful but still a touch melancholy reflected back at the cleric. Neither of them was who they would've wanted most. But anyone familiar in this bizarre place was no small treasure.

"It really is you," Vax marveled back, breaking into a wider smile as his gaze traveled to track some of the story behind Kash's arrival. From the rinsed bloodstains and tears of the man's under-armor clothes to the armor itself arranged on the couch, the spear leaning at the wall close at hand, the black-and-white-and-red-all-over of the room clashing with the pink shirt and trousers discarded across the bed...

Vax laughed to himself, unspeakably glad to find Kashaw's salty stubbornness intact if nothing else. He knew how little the man cared for free physical affection, and ignored it, reaching up to give Kashaw's shoulder a welcoming squeeze. "So you've been through orientation already, I see. Who was it got you to the front desk?"

[st_ingofthehundred]

Perhaps uncharacteristically, Kash didn't resist the gesture from Vax. Z had all but broken him of the habit of flinching from unexpected touch when there wasn't anyone in the room but them or friends. He shrugged under the hand, offering up an eye roll with it.

"Chirpy blonde named Caroline tried, witch called Joanna gave me what for about no one having planar travel spells for sale, nosy brunette called Rey frog-marched me to the desk. Took the half-here girl called River to make enough sense to get me here," he recited, his usual caustic tone only somewhat moderated by the listener being more or less a friend.

"Who all's here? You, de Rolo, anyone else? What's the plan..." A hint of humor actually sparkled in his eyes at that. "I shudder to ask." Vax was not exactly known for his plans.

[st_abby]

"You've met the first of your new neighbors," Vax mused, letting the man go again. "The plan is to get well used to this place. I don't know if you've heard yet, but there isn't far to go around here. Not often, that is."

He sighed. "I had hoped that your message spells would get through to Gilmore or Allura or Keyleth or someone equipped to help us back home. But if you're wasting them saying hello to me..."

[st_ingofthehundred]

Kash gave Vax an incredulous look. "Get used to the place? You're shitting me. Raishan's still out there somewhere. My girlfriend and your sister aren't answering my Sending, and you want me to get used to this place?"

He stepped back to let Vax into the room with a sweeping gesture that would've been martial if he'd held his spear. "Besides, have you seen this? If it isn't red or shiny, it's fuzzy!" as if that was the worst insult of all.

[st_abby]

Vax held his tongue to let Kash have his outburst. He understood the indignation perfectly fine, sure. He just didn't know what to do about it, any better than he'd done for himself, or they'd managed between him and Percy.

"Don't forget pink," Vax reminded, stepping into the room to lift the offensive tank top from the bed and toss it at Kashaw.

[st_ingofthehundred]

As Vax stepped into the room and picked up the tank, the strange lights in their bulbs and decorative sconces flickered and turned pink. "As if I could." He caught the peculiar pink "tank" and held it up to examine it again. "Do people actually wear this sort of thing here?"

[st_abby]

Vax stopped to watch the flickering lights, thinking for a moment Kash must have a ghost in his room like he had Maggie before he realized that had been the cleric. Magic was amazing. And magic made things weird. He'd probably never get over amazement at it, even after having known so many casters, seen what so many could do. Always made him feel small in comparison.

"People wear the clothes they've got available to wear. That's what you came in with," Vax nodded at Kash's own blood-stained, torn clothes. "And then what this place provides. So... Pink, mostly. Like the decor, it's all part of the same sick joke."

[st_ingofthehundred]

"Why didn't I learn Prestidigitation when I had the chance?" Kash almost literally moaned. "I'm not sure if the pink is more offensive or the sleevelessness. It looks like a woman's undergarment without the any of the good bits."

He sighed and tossed it back down on the bed, then rubbed his forehead beneath the leather cord. "Showers might make up for it. Maybe."

[st_abby]

Presto-digit-ation? Vax thought that might be the fuss-budget tidying spell Tibs was always using. In which case, he had a good sense of why it might not really suit Kash.

"Showers with hot water," he agreed earnestly. "The lighting is useful. We prisoners get free food and fresh linens. It's comfortable, if damned maddening."

[st_ingofthehundred]

"So you think this is a prison?" Kash mused aloud and the nodded. "It makes more sense than anything else. I was thinking teleportation incident or overpowered banishment spell." Which it still could be, since they had to get here somehow. "Who's behind it, you figure? Raishan would probably rather have us where she can play with her food. Hotis?"

[st_abby]

Vax couldn't help the slight twinge that went through him at the last, but he could at least cover it better than the next man. "An illusion is the sort of thing a rakshasa might go in for," he admitted, "but it's an awful lot of trouble with too many odd players for it to be him acting alone."

He gave a philosophical shrug. "Maybe we're being chosen to serve time in this place, or maybe it's some sort of trap. It's possible it's even accidental somehow. But we're shut up together with no clear way out, all the same."

[st_ingofthehundred]

"You have to admit, it could give the Velvet Cabaret a run for its money," Kash answered with another look around and then shrugged. "There are worse places to be trapped until our friends figure this out. How's the drink? Because I could seriously use a few."

Or more than a few. A dozen. So many that he couldn't remember what he was trying not to remember. If nothing else, it would make getting eight hours rest less of a chore.