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An Abandoned Building
Half Hour Later
Vax'ildan's POV
"Hey Vax? Can I borrow five silver?" Grog asked prompting him to look away from his knives that he was taking the opportunity to sharpen.
They might be enchanted to return to him after he threw them but the magic did shit all to keep them sharp and blunt knives were useless. Seeing as how they couldn't afford to fuck up any more jobs he'd decided to make sure his gear was in perfect working order. From his pick set to his knives to checking his Bag of Holding so he knew what they had to work with from here on out. The first two were the quickest to do since both were on him at all times but the last one took a while longer and was fuckin' depressing. Keyleth's herbs they had plenty of since all they had to do was go into the forest every so often to pick'em but potions and stuff that didn't grow on trees were either few or were nowhere to be found. Those things cost money and that wasn't something Vox Machina had a lot of so they were shit out of luck.
"What do you need five silver for?" He asked even though he had his suspicions.
"I'm hungry." Grog replied punctuated by his stomach growling to put in its two silver on things.
Fuckin' knew it!
"You just ate this morning!" He complained like he should've known this would happen.
"But I'm hungry!" Grog complained focused on the only thing he deemed important.
He couldn't help but sigh at the one truth about Grog Strongjaw: he was Vos Machina's brute strength but with that strength came an equally great hunger. The strength needed fuel and even if it was between jobs Grog's body still consumed fuel just at a slower rate than if they were on a job. They'd tried to get him to cut back so he didn't drain their pockets too much but it never worked out. Plus since he was the team's muscle having him weak as rat would only make future jobs harder to finish and get paid for. Seeing as how survival depended on money more often then not he couldn't do anything that'd screw things up for him, his sister and the rest of Vox Machina.
"Fine! But make it last." He said reaching into his coin pouch for the silver, "We don't exactly have a lot of job prospects."
"Thanks Vax!" Grog exclaimed grabbing the money before making for the door.
Hearing the door crack as the big man slammed it behind him he honestly couldn't bring himself to care since they were essentially squatting in an abandoned building. It hadn't been stripped of everything and was clean enough that they wouldn't be stuck in a perpetual coughing and sneezing hazard. Still the more damage they did the more likely someone would clue into the fact that someone actually was living in the place. That'd bring the curious and possibly the city guard to investigate forcing Vox Machina to leave or watch their reputation plummet even more. It was already pretty low with the amount of times they screwed up or wound up causing more damage than they prevented so letting it drop more would take a bite out of their job prospects.
No one wants to hire a band of mercenaries so poor that they have to squat in abandoned buildings since that pretty much fucking says they're dirt poor and incompetent.
Ten minutes later he heard the sound of six pairs of feet approaching the door and while he recognized five of them the sixth didn't match Scanlan or Percy's footsteps at all. Worried that his sister might've found trouble he stealthily got to the side of the door that would conceal him when it opened pulling both his daggers out ready to strike if he needed to. With a little more creeking thanks to Grog's exit the door opened and much like he expected Vex, Keyleth and Pike strolled in with Trinket. However the surprise showed itself in the form of a young man of white hair with an ominous sword on his back that if Grog had been here would've definitely been seen as a new toy. The more he saw the more he wondered why his sister had brought this stranger to their temporary home without consulting the rest of the band's members.
"A bit of a fixer upper but I've seen worse." The unknown young man said in a casual tone of voice.
"Considering we're living here rent free beggars can't be choosers." Vex said making with a subtle 'fuck you if you don't like it' tone of voice, "Besides it's not like you can go anywhere else with the debt you owe me."
"I meant what I said about seeing worse." The unknown young man said in universal 'calm down' tone, "A little bit of dusting, maybe a bucket of clean water and a wash cloth and I can make this place look better."
"Good point." Vex said before walking over to the wooden bucket they'd been using as a chamber pot, "Empty this out, there's a well where you can get the water and just grab whatever rag seems handy then get to work."
He could tell right away that there was some sort of story behind all this but when the unknown young man shrugged before grabbing the bucket he decided to wait to hear it. After the door closed and he was sure that the stranger was too far away for anything said in the room to be heard he decided to speak up.
"Do we really have the silver to start hiring a cleaning staff sister?" He asked showing his disapproval of an unnecessary expenditure.
They were hard up for cash as it was without adding another mouth to feed or a salary to pay.
"Oh don't worry about that." Vex replied sounding rather smug at the moment, "He'll be working for free. He's in my debt and I decided he could pay it off by doing all the things the rest of us can't be bothered to do."
"What kind of debt?" He asked not quite able to think of one that the swordsman could owe that he couldn't pay off quickly.
"Turns out he stupidly got hit with a teleportation spell and crashed through the roof of the bath house into the room next door to ours." Vex replied sounding quite pleased with her victory, "Would've had a serious problem if we hadn't pulled his ass out of the mess he'd gotten himself into. So to repay us for our aid he's agreed to work for us until he squares his debt to me."
He KNEW that there was more to the story than his sister was telling him but he suspected that the truth wasn't too far away from what she'd just told him. The best lies after all were the ones that had a teaspoon or two of truth mixed with them since it made them easier to swallow. So he suspected that something did happen at the bath house that put the young man in her debt the rest was definitely born of his sister's imagination. Judging from how neither Keyleth or Pike were matching Vex's confident appearance the truth was likely embarrassing and possibly something that'd cause Vox Machina some trouble.
Again.
~Honestly can't we go more than a month without getting into trouble?~ He thought without giving away too much on his face.
Probably not.
"So what? Cooking, cleaning and being our pack mule?" He asked figuring those were the most likely possibilities.
"He did stipulate one or two things he wouldn't do but he was quite reasonable about my terms." Vex replied looking like she thought herself quite generous for agreeing to those concessions, "He looks strong enough and anything that'll make this place more livable is worth it."
"You do know that we'll probably be moving to someplace different before even half of this place is cleaned up?" He asked pointing out there not being much point in cleaning anything, "Abandoned buildings don't stay abandoned for very long. Someone buys them or they get knocked down so someone can build something new."
"So? Xander's indebted to me and I'll have him pay his debt off my way." Vex said not particularly caring about whether Xander's work would be pointless or not.
Sigh.
This pretty much cemented the deal in his mind that whatever screwup happened his sister had been at the centre of it all. Whether she'd done something or just been in the room when Xander had done something he didn't know but in Emon the latter sometimes proved enough to get you thrown in a cell right alongside the real culprit. His sister probably brought Xander here after tricking him into believing that the mess at the bath house was his fault and to keep the guy from doing the same to her and the others. Only those heroic idiots belonging to the Arms of Emon wouldn't try to dump blame for something they did onto someone else. Everyone else in Emon were only looking out for themselves and were only as 'generous' as they could be without inconveniencing themselves in some way.
Keeping Xander with the group would make sure he couldn't stab them in the back and by the time his sister decided that the 'debt' had been paid whatever the mess was would be forgotten. He was sure after all that if something major had happened he would've heard something making noise outside even with how far this place was from the bath house. Anything small enough enough wouldn't be remembered for long as long as no one important had been involved. Something else would come along to get everyone's attention.
Something always did.
"Fine but he's your baggage." He groaned knowing he wouldn't be able to deny his sister without the backing of the rest of Vox Machina.
Pike and Keyleth were obviously okay with it since they hadn't taken his side when he argued with his sister. Grog would probably just want to brawl with Xander to find out how strong the guy was and probably win the big sword away from Vex's new slave. Percy would probably roll his eyes at the development but wouldn't raise a stink so long as it didn't cause trouble for him personally.
As for Scanlan…well…he'd find it fun having someone new around to mess with and trick into helping with whatever scheme or scam the gnome came up with. He'd have to keep tabs on the two if that happened both to keep them from dragging the rest of Vox Machina into a mess and to enjoy the show if the scam was amusing enough. Right or wrong didn't matter a whole lot to him so long as it didn't put him or his sister in danger and if it was fun enough to watch he just might join in on the fun.
All in all so long as Xander didn't prove to be too big of a liability the rest of Vox Machina they'd be stuck with him for the foreseeable future.
~First sign of trouble and we're cutting him loose.~ He thought with little room for argument, ~Vex'll get over it.~
One Month Later
A Wooded Area Less Than a Days Walk from Emon
Xander's POV
~Is seeing three ladies in their birthday suits really bad enough to still be in debt after a month of this?~ He thought even as he continued to look for the herbs Keyleth had shown him.
Aside from the basic cleaning and maintenance of the dump Vox Machina and he called home another of the jobs that'd been dumped on him had been herb gathering. At first he hadn't had much of a problem with it and saw the benefits to getting them from nature rather than buying them from a vendor in the marketplace. It saved them money and according to Druid Girl the herbs could be turned into potions or other medicinal applications both of which would be useful to a band of mercenaries. It'd taken a week of supervision to make sure he picked the right plants and didn't bring back weeds or worthless plants.
However it was during the second week that he discovered the real reason why the group picked their own herbs rather than purchasing them.
While he hadn't known how successful or unsuccessful the members of Vox Machina were as mercenaries he presumed from the state of their clothes and everything that they weren't flat broke. Clothes and gear suffered from wear and tear just like everything else in the world without maintenance. When the erosion of time got the upper hand both needed to be replaced and short of being a jack of all trades that meant buying them from someone. Given how old he'd learned some of the others were it'd been logical to presume that they had enough money to provide for themselves half decently.
When he'd found out the truth he had to wonder if the old Harris Luck had followed him here to this new world called Exandria.
Apparently he'd gotten indentured to a bunch of misfits and troublemakers that liked to talk big but in fact had trouble accomplishing even the simplest of jobs. Whether it was because of their inexperience, lack of power or just the fact that their personalities clashed as often as they meshed most of the jobs they signed on for ended in failure. They did occasionally do what they were hired to do but that led to the second flaw Vox Machina had and that was the fact that they often spent what money they did earn at any tavern that'd let them through the doors. Now he wasn't opposed to celebrating a job well done or some other worthy event but these guys chose to drink themselves to a degree just shy of being unable to walk at all. HELL! According to Scanlan Keyleth was a complete lightweight in the drinking department getting totally plastered and frequently puking after just one mug of ale.
~Idiots should just find a drink she can handle better.~ He thought plucking the herb out of the ground before putting it in the basket he had for the job.
Vox Machina didn't choose the most expensive ale the bars had or even the middle ground ones but they still knocked it back until their money pouches were practically empty. That's the sort of boneheaded move he'd expect from Tony back home but his bosses seemed smart enough that they should've known better than to drink themselves broke every time. He was half tempted to figure out a way to make him the holder of all their profits just so he could control when and how much was spent. He was sure that if he held the key their piggy bank they wouldn't be so pressed for silver all the time and might just be able to rent a home of their own.
Too bad he knew right off the bat that he wasn't anywhere good enough with the trickery or the sleight of hand to do it without getting caught.
Pickpocketing after all was something Vex and Vax knew how to do like pros so that route was a no go. As for using some clever phrasing to get them to let him manage their money either directly or indirectly Scanlan would probably see through his efforts from the start. The guy had a silver tongue if every there was one and probably had tons of experience talking his way out of any trouble he and Vox Machina got into.
~Best to just focus on working off the debt ASAP.~ He thought moving onto the next clump of the herb he needed to pick today, ~After that I'll find a better class of mercs to team up with.~
It wasn't that the members of Vox Machina were bad people or anything but his ultimate goal was still to find a way home. That'd require brains and resources that Vax and the others just didn't have through no fault of their own so while staying with them wouldn't be bad it wouldn't take him where he wanted to go. He'd stick with Vox Machina until he'd learned enough and had enough silver to his name to make travelling to other places a feasible option.
He even had an idea for how to make some money.
Given his status as an indentured servant it made sense that they'd take him with them on jobs and even if he didn't do anything to earn a cut of the pay there were alternatives. For one thing he could pick the monster corpses of anything that could be sold for silver and as for bandits he'd liberate whatever they had that might be worth something too. He didn't know if the others did this too but considering how they never said anything about going off to sell the spoils of their latest job he didn't think so.
~Probably have to ask Gilmore what'll sell for the most money.~ He thought while feeling a little uncomfortable.
Apparently the only thing Gilmore was in love with was beauty rather than a specific gender so when someone caught his eye the flirting began. He'd only been to the man's shop two or three times to help carry stuff but that'd been enough for him to get a pretty good grasp of the man's personality and tastes. Fortunately all the times he'd been there Vax had been present as well so he'd never become the target of the man's flirting attention. He REALLY didn't want to be one of those people who judged others just because of what got their motor running but it wasn't easy shaking off societal conditioning.
Plus he didn't swing that way.
The Xan-man liked ladies and ONLY ladies thankyouveryMUCH!
~Well that should do it for now.~ He thought after putting the last herb in the basket strapped to his back, ~Keyleth will get half and the rest I'll sell to Gilmore for whatever I can get.~
No sense getting more than he could sell or Keyleth could make use of since any extra would just rot and probably become useless. He didn't pick the entire forest dry and even left behind the younger herbs rather than pluck them out along with those fully grown. He knew better than to harvest a place dry and leave nothing to grow back what he'd taken.
He had paid some attention when Willow had gone through her environmentalist phase and wouldn't stop telling him about all the mistakes mankind was making.
Taking out the parchment that had his chore list on it he saw that the next thing he had to do was fill up two glass jugs with water from a spring not too far away. According to Keyleth it was chock full of minerals that when mixed with the herbs increased the healing properties quite a bit. They'd essentially make a poor man's healing potion that while not as effective as what was available in the shops it was good enough to be worth the effort to make.
Consulting the map on the parchment right below the list he oriented himself before heading for the spring he let his mind wander as he went. He thought about how he'd gotten dumped in a world that before only existed in the board games he used to play with Jesse, Jonathan and Andrew when he'd been younger. He remembered seeing so many different races and no one running like hell had come to Earth. If half the new races he'd seen walking past him in the streets of Emon had shown up in Sunnydale people'd either go into denial or start running like extras in a disaster movie. Buffy'd probably try to slay a few until she was convinced that they weren't demons and actually might make good friends. Willow'd probably go into total bookworm mode asking questions aplenty about this world.
He had to smile a bittersweet smile at that imagery since while it amused him to imagine what she'd do it also reminded him that she was very far away from him at the moment. His best bud was literally in another world and until he at least discovered the beginnings of a way to get back to Sunnydale she felt so far out of reach so as to be nearly invisible. Buffy, Giles, Willow, Missus S, Dawnie and Miss C…he missed them all.
He WOULD get back to them as soon as he could!
He just needed to stock up on know how, resources and connections!
Once he had all of those it'd just be a matter of time before he found some magic thingy capable of sending him home!
Seeing the trees depicted in the map he took that as a sign that he was less than ten minutes away from the spring so he decided to pick up the pace a bit. He might not have anything planned for today but that didn't mean he wanted to spend all his time doing chores when there were more productive things to be done. For one thing he needed to work on learning to use the creepy sword that only he could use thanks to some sort of magic it had. It along with the barbed whip that for some reason only came out when he willed it but otherwise stayed in the form of a weird looking rod. Therefore it was only natural that he do what he could to learn how to use them to the best of his ability since he doubted that the road home was going to be free of obstacles only combat could get him past.
He'd thought about learning some magic but decided against it when instinct told him it was a bad idea. Giles had given the Scoobies the broad strokes on the subject and how badly it could blow up in someone's face if they weren't careful enough. Sure he probably embellished a bit to scare them away from experimenting with it or carelessly touching something that could have magic in it but the core facts were true. Magic was not a toy and could be dangerous even in the hands of those people who knew how to use it. Much learning needed to be done to understand it and a lot of practicing was needed in order to become skilled in its use. When you added that to the fact that it could kill you if you're even so much as a hair off…well…he might think it's cool to be able to toss lightning but he liked living even more.
"You sure we got time for this Lorilla?" A deep woman's voice asked just within range of his hearing, "Theodred's not going to like it if we're late again."
"Relax Bryseis!" A more lighthearted and carefree woman replied presumably being Lorilla, "We got plenty of time! Besides you wouldn't be here if you didn't want to be here so relax."
"She's right. We've been working our asses off so Theodred can kiss my ass if he's got a problem with us being a little late." A gruffer woman's voice said sounding like she didn't care much for living by someone else's schedule.
"No need to be vulgar Vistra." A light, almost ghostly, woman's voice said sounding fairly balanced emotionally, "I'm sure Theodred will have no problem given how beneficial this will be. Indeed considering the state of things when we left to come here I wager he might well thank us for our foresight."
"Aye, ye might be right at that Tikre." Vistra said sounding calmer before her voice took on a playful tone, "Though I'm guessing you've got it hardest of all of us carrying those jugs all the way out here."
~So they're here for the water too?~ He thought idly before nodding, ~Makes sense. If this water's good enough for potion making Keyleth can't be the only person who knows about it.~
"I'll have you know Vistra that my burden was no greater than yours was." Tikre said with a bit of offence taken at not being able to carry some water jugs all the way here.
Understandable considering the fact that he made the trip without any fatigue or difficulty. Assuming the jugs weren't any bigger than the ones used for the water cooler back at Sunnydale High School's student lounge carrying empty ones wouldn't be much of a problem. Getting them back once they were full of water though might be a bit of an issue since empty was a lot easier to carry than full.
"Sure, sure!" Vistra said clearly not believing a word.
"You think Anla's gonna make it here in time?" Lorilla asked with a bit of interest, "Be a shame if she got here only for us all to have to head back."
"She just said she had to work out some details and she'd be right behind us." Bryseis said not sounding too worried.
~Probably nailing down the details of selling the water to a vendor or whatever they were planning on making with the water.~ He thought following his own line of logic.
"Then let's get down to business." Vistra said with enthusiasm, "We're burning daylight!"
A frown crossed his face as he realized that he didn't quite know just how big the spring was and how long it'd take to replenish itself once it'd been drained dry. If the ladies ahead of him had too many jugs they might well take every drop and he'd have to wait anywhere from a day to a week before he could fill his own container. Sure he didn't think Vex would make a big deal of him coming back without a drop of the water but he didn't like wasting an opportunity to get work out of the way. Picking up the pace a bit so he could at least fill his container before all the water got glubbed up by the ladies he pushed his way through some low hanging branches…
…only to wonder if the Harris Luck had gotten tweaked on the journey because the same thing happening twice to him couldn't be chance alone.
With all the talk he'd heard he'd been expecting a group of four women in clothes similar to what he'd seen walking about Amon with a number of water jugs in hand.
What did he get instead?
A group of four women of four different races in various states of undress with one sporting a nice head of snow white hair and unless he was mistaken she was Tikre considering the large rack she was sporting. Oddly enough a part of his mind couldn't help but determine that for a woman of her build and height they were perfectly proportioned enough to make him consider plastic surgery involvement. Another part of his mind was labelling the races of the ladies present ranging from Dwarf to Gnome to Tiefling to the one that looked human but he didn't think she was.
All this happened within the space of three seconds but that was long enough for him to commit the sight to memory.
It didn't last much longer than that though but not for a reason he could be proud of.
No.
Instead a smokey whirlwind sensation came from within him and when he actually saw some smoke enter the real world from within him he was all 'what the fuck' with lack of comprehension. It was only when the smoke began to condense together and take form that things started to come together. Little by little definition was added until before him was a female form with mini-wings from the waist up and a trail of smoke connecting the apparition to him from the waist down. This was shocking enough but once the face fully formed he didn't even need a second to recognize who it was and THIS was what had him averting his eyes from the quartet of local ladies.
"ALEXANDER LAVELLE HARRIS!" The black apparition of Willow Rosenberg bellowed, "You look away RIGHT NOW mister!"
"I'm looking away, looking away RIGHT NOW!" He declared turning completely away from the women to emphasize his obedience.
"But you still looked!" Willow said the light blue markings on her black form seeming to rise in luminescence to match her emotional state, "I thought me and Buffy taught you better than that!"
"It wasn't like I had any warning!" He exclaimed defensively trying to calm Willow down, "This was just supposed to be a spring where I was supposed to get some water! I thought they were here to get some too! I didn't know people bathed here too!"
"You were given a map! How could you not know?" Willow asked her stern lecturer expression still in place.
"Maybe because it wasn't labelled as anything other than 'spring'?" He asked rhetorically getting angry that certain details were left out.
To prove this he held out the parchment where his 'shopping list' was written and the map showing him where he had to go was drawn. The smokey wispy Willow grabbed it from his hand before scrutinizing it like she sometimes would a practice test she'd drawn up for him after he'd finished with it. It was as she did this that he noticed her fingers and thumb instead of ending humanly instead had little talons sticking out of them that looked like they were capable of damage if she tried hard enough. Fortunately for him with every second that passed his best bud calmed down more and more since she no doubt was unable to find any information to incriminate him with.
"Guess this really was dumb luck." Willow said sounding quite calm and understanding, "Still you're marching away from here RIGHT NOW. You can come back later for the water. MUCH LATER!"
"Youbetcha!" He said fully prepared to leave rather than risk getting into more trouble.
"Not so fast!" Came Vistra's Gruff voice freezing him in his tracks.
He skilfully resisted the impulse to turn to face the one speaking to him and thus avoided digging himself even deeper.
"Yeah?" He asked preparing to carefully navigate what was to come.
"I think we're the ones that get to decide if ya can leave not yer familiar." Vistra said making it clear she wouldn't accept any other point of view.
Familiar? He supposed from the point of view of someone who lived in this world that was what Willow probably looked like. It was as good a definition as any at least until he managed to talk to her in private about what'd happened to her and what she might've learned on her own.
"Um, well, you heard what happened." He said hoping the ladies could be reasonable, "It's just a case of some bad map drawing and a lack of information. I'm sure we can all treat it like the accident it was and let it go just this once, right? I'll even ask Vex and Vax what spots to avoid from here on out so this doesn't happen EVER again."
"Vax? Vex?" Lorilla asked sounding like she wanted confirmation for suspicions.
"Yeah. They're members of a mercenary group I've been working for for the last month." He replied while not being too free with details, "Coming out here to pick herbs and get spring water are two of the jobs they wanted me to do."
"Let me see that parchment." Lorilla said only mildly sounding like an order.
"Willow?" He said as a way of telling his ghostly friend to pass the Dwarf the parchment.
Hearing the sounds of parchment moving in the air followed by the crunch of someone grabbing it he waited to find out if he'd be able to escape unscathed.
"I thought so." Lorilla said with a growl of long standing disdain, "You're living with Vox Machina aren't you?"
"He's with that group of disgraces?" Bryseis asked sounding like she had a pretty low opinion of the group.
Not one of malicious contempt but rather exasperated contempt.
"Yeah. I recognize Keyleth's handwriting from the times Vox Machina had to sign official statements for whatever mess they got into." Lorilla replied sounding like she had mostly the same opinion, "But that's just for the list of things that needed to be picked up. It's the map though that really gets him off the hook. Take a look."
Another flutter of parchment and some hand crunching let him know that his list had changed hands.
"Hmmmm…this does look familiar…" Bryseis muttered while scrutinizing the parchment, "…I think it was a few months ago…yeah a big rash of fake treasure maps…the culprit turned out to be…"
"One Scanlan Shorthalt." Lorilla said helping her friend connect the dots.
This didn't trigger a verbal response from but the number of growls and groans did let him know that none of the ladies had good opinions of the Gnome member of Vox Machina. Not surprising since the guy made no effort to hide his intent of bedding everyone in Tal'Dorei whether they were man or woman regardless of species. While he'd like to think that Scanlan actually only meant all the ladies he hadn't quite been able to convince himself men weren't also on that list.
When you add to that the fact that the Gnome was a smooth taker and bonafide con man and he had quite a few traits that'd give people reason to dislike him.
"Guess we really can't blame Alexander since that perverted Gnome likely intended for him to stumble upon us or some other unfortunate bathers." Vistra growled sounding like she'd been on the receiving end of Scanlan's antics or at least was a witness to them.
"You should get a map from Apothecary Thia at her store in the market." Tikre advised no longer sounding mad at him, "So long as you don't plan on starting up a rival business she should be able to tell you the best places to go for herbs and spring water."
"Sounds like a good idea." He said making a mental note to devise an appropriate means of payback against Scanlan for setting him up like this.
Knowing the Gnome he definitely would know all the popular bathing areas for the ladies so there was no possibility of the guy failing to properly label this location.
Not unless he did so intentionally for the laughs or some other purpose.
He did NOT appreciate being set up to piss people off!
The Path Back to the City of Emon
A Short While Later
Willow's POV
"So…how long have you been around?" Xander asked looking uncomfortable at the possibilities.
"I think I've been there since we got here, wherever here is, but I've only been able to see and hear for the last week or so." She replied looking at her new form with detached interest, "Todays the first time I actually managed to come out like this."
It had been SO weird after she'd gotten enough of her head together to think and try to figure out what was going on. Even then though she found herself with no small mountain of questions ranging from how had she turned into some sort of smokey winged genie thing to why she was in some limbo with runic cobblestones that formed pathways. She'd waited for awhile to see if someone or something showed up to explain what was going on but when nothing happened she'd tried to find her way out on her own. Sadly there were no signs or anything really that'd let her know whether she was making progress or just going in circles but with little else to do she'd focused on the task at hand.
She didn't know how long it was but eventually she came upon a mass of light and like most people presumed that it was the way out of the limbo she was in. Rushing towards it she'd gotten a rude awakening when rather than pass through the light into open air she bounced off of it like a vampire that hadn't been invited into someone's home. She'd tried multiple times to break through only to fail so instead she'd tried to peer through the light to see what was on the other side.
It'd taken hours or more but eventually she began to see more than the white glaring light but as usual it added more questions to her sizeable pile. It was like she was seeing through the eyes of someone else and soon after their ears as well though somewhat muffled but what was clear was that outside the limbo was some sort of fantasy based world. She saw elves, dwarves and other races that previously she'd only ever seen in some of the books she liked to read after founding the Scoobies.
When faced with the fact that vampires, demons and probably Warlocks lived in your town she found it comforting to read about simpler fantasy worlds where good and evil were clearly defined with good always triumphing in the end.
It also didn't hurt imagining Xander as the lead male protagonist and her as his love interest.
With no way to control what was looked at and the sense of hearing muffled she'd done her best to make do with what she had and learn. Whoever she was borrowing sensory input from had a small collection of friends ranging from elves to a small man that she didn't think was a dwarf to a grey skinned man with a big axe. There were others he interacted with but they were more like acquaintances rather than friends. As for what the person did it looked to be mostly chores and manual labour making her wonder if the person was a servant of some sort but she couldn't be sure.
It wasn't until earlier today that the person looked just right at a reflective surface but what she saw did much to relieve the tension she'd been feeling.
It was XANDER! She was looking through Xander's eyes and hearing at least a little of what he was hearing!
With this knowledge she'd started trying to figure out how to communicate with him since getting to the outside world seemed to be impossible for her at the moment. With the motivation of reconnecting with her best friend she had found new motivation and had gone through possible methods almost as swiftly as she could think them up. So distracted had she been by her efforts that she'd almost missed Xander coming upon a group of women obviously intending to bathe in spring water. When she did notice she didn't act immediately because she'd put her trust in Xander and that he'd do the right thing by looking away.
Then one second passed.
Two seconds passed.
It was at this point that she realized that Xander was staring at them.
Staring at them like a GUY!
At that point any thoughts of a carefully thought out method of entering into the outside world left her and instead a steamrolling resolve to stop what her friend was doing and give him the lecture of his life surged forth. As it turned out that was the key to her desire to leave the void and within seconds she was in the open air even if she was still connected to Xander by a tail trail of smokey essence.
"Really…well…that's good." Xander said likely realizing how much she knew versus how much he could still keep under wraps, "It'll be nice having someone from back home to talk to. You having any trouble keeping your Smokey the Ghost form going?"
"Not really. I feel like there's something of a drain but I could probably keep it up for at least a few hours before I'd be completely tired out." She replied after getting a feel for her energy level.
"Good to know." He said as glad as she was she wouldn't disappear anytime soon, "It'll make explaining things to the others easier."
"Others?" She asked figuring he probably meant the 'friends' she'd seen before.
"They're a group of mercs called Vox Machina and I kinda owe them a debt." He replied matter of factly, "I'm working it off doing odd jobs for them."
"And this Scanlan Shorthalt is one of them?" She asked with a disapproving frown.
She might not know all the facts but there were only certain types of guys that provoked that kind of response from women and perverts were usually at the top of the list. The fact that the guy had sent Xander to a known bathing spot without warning him only made her opinion of Mister Shorthalt worse.
"Scanlan is without a doubt a smooth talking perverted egotist but other than that he's not a bad guy." He replied not sounding too concerned, "He's got serious skill as a bard and pretty good business sense. He just needs a little 'incentive' to be on his best behaviour sometimes."
"So basically like a jock but twice as bad?" She asked knowing Xander wouldn't be saying things like this if Scanlan had zero redeeming qualities.
"Pretty much." He replied after a moment's consideration.
"And the rest?" She asked remembering the others.
"The elves are Vex, Vax and Keyleth." He replied satisfying her curiosity, "The big guy is Grog and the two Gnomes are Stanlan and Pike."
"And the white haired guy in the dark coat?" She asked remembering the last member of Xander's group of friends.
"That'd be Percy. A little aloof and stuck up but the guy can't help how he was raised probably." He replied with a smirk, "Born and bred aristocrat if I've ever seen one."
That definitely meshed with what she'd observed prior to today and she could totally see Buffy going for someone like Percy if Angel wasn't around.
Come to think of it she could see just about every girl with the courage for it at Sunnydale High School making a go at Percy.
"Sounds like a colourful bunch." She said interested in meeting these people in person rather than watching them through Xander's eyes.
"You have NO idea." He said with amusement, "Being with them is like riding one big roller coaster with way too many ups and downs."
"They go on that many jobs?" She asked not having seen anything prior to gaining access to her best friend's sense of sight.
"Go on jobs, screw them up somehow, get drunk at any tavern that'll have'em and sometimes trash the place if a fight breaks out." He replied with smiling exasperation, "If they could just find a way to mesh and work together they'd probably be as good as any mercenary band out there."
"Sounds like one of those movies where a bunch of random delinquents get thrown together and argue like hell at first before something manages to bring them together." She said remembering a few films like that.
"You're not far off." He said ruefully as they got closer to Emon, "Your guess is as good as mine about what that 'something' could be."
"I guess you're right." She said agreeing that figuring out what could bring such a dysfunctional group together wouldn't be easy.
From there she asked him about the world they now found themselves in as well as if he'd found any leads on getting them back home. Unfortunately it turned out that Xander was still too new to this world and would need more time before they could work on finding people to help them get back to Sunnydale. She guessed it was to be expected seeing as how Xander had only been there a month. Depending on how large the world was and how common dimensional travel was they could be here for quite some time.
~At least it won't be boring here.~ She thought deciding to look on the positive side of things, ~A whole new world with entirely different rules and more sentient races than back home each with its own culture and histories.~
This could be like the road trip Xander, Jesse and her had planned to go on after graduating from high school!
With this idea firmly in mind her mood was all smiles and determined to enjoy every moment in this world before they found a way back to Sunnydale.
The stories they'd have to tell!
The 'Temporary' Home of Vox Machina
An Hour or So Later
Pike Trickfoot's POV
~Sigh…it sure would be nice if we could actually afford a place of our own like other mercenary bands.~ She thought even as she prayed to the small alter dedicated to the Everlight.
While the size of the alter didn't make someone more or less important in the eyes of the Everlight she couldn't help but feel as though she should do more for her goddess Sarenrae. Unfortunately none of them had the silver to rent a place never mind actually own it forcing them to choose between living in abandoned buildings or camping outside Emon. While none of them were unfamiliar with the latter given the jobs they took on all of them preferred a solid roof over their heads. Nevertheless because they didn't have a permanent place to live she'd been forced to make her alter to the Everlight something she could put together and taken apart easily. That meant the bare minimum parts and pieces to say nothing of being light enough that she could carry it herself since she couldn't ask any of the others to do it for her.
She'd considered perhaps leaving Vox Machina and finding another group to be a part of that'd be more helpful to her calling as a cleric of the Everlight but could never quite do it. As rowdy and uncouth as the lot of them were they were also fun to be with whether it was on a job or just drinking in a bar. No two days were exactly alike and while the bad days could be pretty bad the good days were likewise pretty good. Each of them had something about them that she liked and those good things were enough for her to stick with them.
As for the newest addition to their group she actually thought that Xander was the most normal one of them all. Sure he'd dropped in out of nowhere and was completely clueless about things he should've learned while growing up but he had a good heart. He hadn't once tried to slip free of the debt he owed to Vex, Keyleth and her plus he didn't seem to attract trouble like Scanlan and Grog often did. He'd even made a good suggestion that if they ever got a job killing monsters they should harvest any body part or organ that could be sold for money. It was a fact that many potions, medicines and poisons didn't appear out of thin air but needed to be made utilizing a variety of ingredients.
The others had looked thoughtful about the idea but she had a feeling that they'd have to see an example of the sort of pay day they'd get before they adopted the practice as a group.
Hearing the sound of someone coming into their current 'home' though to be honest it was more like a camp she finished up with her praying before putting the candles out. She didn't think it was Grog and she knew Scanlan was fast asleep from another night of making the rounds at every brothel in Emon. She couldn't keep herself from mentally growling at the Gnome's habits but at the same time she knew it was pointless to try to change the bard. As for Vex and Vax they were out checking the various job boards around Emon looking for something Vox Machina could do that'd lighten the debt of the group a bit. Percy on the other hand was hard at work in his room though she didn't know what he was doing other than it involved metalwork.
Crossing off the possibilities she figured it could only be Xander returning from the list of chores Vex had assigned him for the day.
Personally she thought that Xander had already paid back the debt for what he'd done but Vex insisted that she was the one to decide that. Given that the half-elf ranger had been the one to specify the debt and the means of repaying it she was willing to keep quiet on the matter at least until Vex asked him to do something unreasonable.
It was then that something happened that she hadn't experienced in many years, not since her early days as a cleric of the Everlight. In those days she'd learned to perform the most basic of spells but she also had a habit of slipping into them without it being intentional. Sometimes it was something happening around her that lit the spell within while other times her own thoughts as well as emotions triggered them. Her mentor had told her that this was normal for one so new to their Calling and that with time as well as further training she would learn proper control. It'd been years since she'd had a slip up…
…but now the spell referred to by young clerics as 'detect good and evil' rose from within her and it didn't take her long to figure out why.
The presence that she'd deduced was likely Xander had changed from what it'd been earlier this morning and it was enough to gain a grip on her attention. However the spell seemed…confused?…as it tried to classify the presence getting ever closer to the room she'd chosen for herself. Normally when she cast this spell it was quick to classify the one it was directed as either evil or good but in this case whatever criteria was being used failed to conclusively classify Vex's indentured servant.
~Is that even possible?~ She thought before edging closer to the door to the room and focusing on her sense of hearing.
She could count on one hand the number of times that she'd cast a spell that failed to do what it'd been designed to do without failure or flaw. Even then the cause was usually magic or means used to counteract her spell but Xander had never shown any sign of being adept at magic much less countering the spells of a cleric of the Everlight.
Questions, questions and more questions.
"So this is where you live now?" A girl's voice asked though with a quality to it that did not match any voice belonging to any race she'd encountered.
"Pretty much. It's a bit of a fixer upper but Vex and the others have SOME standards." Xander replied trying to put a positive spin on the place for the girl, "If it looks too much like crap none of them would even go inside never mind sleep in it."
"Guess it's a good thing I don't have much of a sense of smell in this form." The girl said with a bit of snark that'd do Percy proud.
"It only really gets bad when they get their hands on enough ale to play a drinking game." Xander said no doubt referring to the one a little over two weeks ago, "Keyleth can't really handle her ale and the rest can get up to some pretty depraved shit when they're drunk."
While she couldn't remember what they'd all done when they'd gotten carried away she could recall the times when they'd been sober enough for memory to remain mostly unclouded. Her commitment to the Everlight was strong enough that she was mostly certain she never crossed any lines that'd cause her goddess to cast her out. As for the others…well…Grog was too simple to do anything really bad and the rest tended to pass out before any of their intoxicated plans could be carried out.
Most of the time.
It was just a good thing that the people that tended to be on the receiving end of the drunken plans didn't want news to spread either.
"Have you…?" The girl asked with some uncertainty.
"Nope. You know I can't touch the stuff after Tony and Jessica showed how much they love the booze." Xander said with less subtle signs of disgust in his voice, "I just sample the bar food and try whatever non-alcoholic stuff they have. Also try to keep them from getting into too much trouble."
"How's that going?" The girl asked with a bit of optimism.
"…it's a work in progress." Xander replied no doubt trying to keep it from sounding like outright defeat.
~He's not failing completely.~ She thought recalling vaguely how Xander had managed to talk Grog out of gutting someone two bars back, ~He just needs to work his way up to the rest. Maybe I can give him a few pointers.~
She'd been a member of Vox Machina for longer and had gotten to know each member pretty well with every job they'd gone on together. You didn't do that and not pick up a few things about how they thought, what they liked and what things about them to avoid. If it kept them from getting banned from another bar she had no problem sharing what she knew with Xander.
Deciding that she'd learned all she could from the spoken word alone she walked over to the door and opened it so she could see for herself who Xander was talking to. While they strictly speaking didn't own the building they were currently living out of it was an unspoken rule that they couldn't just invite anyone here without at least mentioning it to the others. They were living here illegally after all and it'd only do their group's reputation more harm if word got out that they were living in such a place. Their less than stellar performances on past jobs had earned them a poor reputation as it was without the people of Emon finding out that they were illegally squatting in an abandoned building that probably belonged to someone else.
"Xander? That you?" She asked in order to cover for the fact that some eavesdropping had been taking place.
When the door finished opening what she found was not what she'd been expecting.
When she'd initially heard the two speak she was expecting something along the lines of some young girl that worked in the marketplace or that Xander had met while gathering herbs. It wasn't that big a stretch for something like that to happen and if the girl was pretty enough Xander might've been attracted enough to show her where he lived.
Instead what she saw was some ethereal being primarily black in colour but with light blue markings that seemed to serve some purpose other than being decorative. It was as if someone took a girl's shadow, raised it off the ground and granted it full dimensions while adding what looked like small wings. At first she thought she might be dealing with a possessing demon but when she began to employ the spell to detect evil she felt nothing. While it was true that you needed to fully perform the spell in order to get the full range of benefits from it you could still learn something as you brought the magic forth. In the past when she'd used the spell on someone who was possessed by a demon the unholy energies were quickly apparent since demons radiated them a lot like body odour.
In this case nothing.
Waiting until the spell was fully in effect she expected to feel something now since some of the smarter demons according to her teachers could consciously suppress their energies in order to avoid detection. However instead of the expected demon energies she actually felt something that shocked her enough to drop the spell.
It was a soul!
A HUMAN soul!
"What the fuck Xander?!" She exclaimed taking two steps back, "Why do you have a human soul tied to yours?!"
"Not sure. We were both out and about during the festival back home." Xander replied before gesturing to the human soul, "This is Willow by the way. My best friend for as long as I can remember. Willow? This is Pike Trickfoot of Vox Machina."
"Hi." Willow said with a shy wave while looking a little uncomfortable.
"I think you should be a little more serious about this Xander." She said trying to figure out how a botched teleportation spell could've somehow separated a girl's spirit from her body and tie it to someone else's, "I'm no expert but pulling a human soul out of someone's body and attaching it to someone else's isn't something to just glance at."
"I know it's serious but it's not like I can do a lot about it." Xander said a half serious expression on his face, "I don't know anything about magic and I've already looked at some maps but Sunnydale isn't on any of them. So either we're the village that the world forgot about or it's not anywhere on Exandria."
That…that didn't seem possible but then again she'd never known Xander to lie about something like this either. The guy could joke, goof off and sometimes do something that'd get a laugh out of the rest of them but he hadn't lied to them yet. She just couldn't fathom the level of magic that'd be needed to send both Xander and Willow to Exandria or make it possible for Willow to exist in spiritual form attached to Xander like this.
It made her think she should try praying to her goddess later to see if the Everlight had any answers to provide on the matter.
"Can she…go invisible?" She asked imagining that if too many people started to ask questions things might get complicated, "She kinda stands out like that and I don't think anyone's seen anything like her before. She's gonna get noticed."
Sure she knew that depending on when Willow had manifested plenty of people had likely already seen her but she was trying to stay positive. If someone from the Alabaster Lyceum found out they'd have both teachers and students after them to say nothing of the Council of Tal'Dorei. While not everything out of the ordinary reached the ears of the Council or Sovereign Uriel she was pretty sure that a shadow ghost floating alongside someone was interesting gossip.
Willow and Xander looked at each other for a moment before the former flew about like a ghost before aiming to go through the latter. Instead of passing right through like a normal ghost would've Willow vanished in a puff of black smoke that disappeared quickly soon after. The whole process didn't take that long so if it needed to be done in a hurry none of them would have to worry about spotting Willow.
Not unless something held the girl spirit up or blocked her from vanishing.
"Cool." Xander said sounding mildly pleased.
"What's cool?" She asked kinda used to some of the words he used.
"Not sure what changed but now I can hear and talk to Willow with my mind even if she's not out in front of me." He replied with a familiar lopsided grin.
"Huh. That is pretty nice." She said imagining what it'd be like to have a companion like Willow herself, "We're probably going to have to tell the others about Willow once they're all back. Better they find out in here that out on the street someplace."
Xander nodded in agreement before a considering look manifested on his face.
"Can we tell Scanlan right now?" Xander asked in a tone that had her wary.
"I guess so but why?" She asked knowing that the lecherous Gnome was in the building.
"Because he needs to learn that it's not nice to leave out certain details." He replied a grin forming on him that reminded her of Vex plotting payback on some guy.
Knowing Scanlan though he probably deserved what he had coming so she started leading the way.
What came next was equal parts hilarious and disgusting.
Turns out a person could shit their pants if you scared them enough.
Approaching the Temporary Home of Vox Machina
Vax's POV
"Is this really the best we can do?" Vex asked looking at the directions on the job posting in her hand, "I can just feel the poverty in this paper and that's before I look at the reward listed."
"Yes it is unless you want us to die horrible deaths." He replied knowing his sister could be a bit picky about jobs, "After all that job investigating a possible Mind Flayer lair certainly offered enough silver to be to your liking except for one little thing."
"The whole knocking you out and dragging you someplace to suck out your brain bit." She said her expressed disgust going up a notch, "Sigh…no amount of silver is worth risking that."
Nodding his head a part of him could understand why Vex was less than happy about the job they'd decided to take but wanting to do something better and being able to were two very different things. For a long time he and his sister had only had each other to depend upon for jobs and many of them focused more on their ability deceive or move about unseen than combat. Most of the jobs that'd been feasible for two half-elves of moderate skill were also possible for a great many others so finding one untouched on a job board was generally reason enough to be wary. The one or two times that he and his sister had tried to take on a more difficult job they'd either been turned away from the one who'd posted it or they found out they'd bit off more than they could chew.
When that happened they abandoned the job since coin was useless if you're dead.
It hadn't been until Vox Machina began to come together through chance encounters that they'd been able to take on more dangerous and lucrative jobs.
Too bad it hadn't gotten rid of their money problems or gotten them enough silver to even RENT a place of their own. At best it was letting them keep themselves looking mostly respectable, helped maintain their gear and occasionally enjoy a night at a local tavern. Both he and Vex had considered leaving the group to join one that paid better but after surveying a few possibilities decided against it. The potential groups either had personality traits that neither he or his sister would work well with or had signs that they'd be like their father's side of the family. Neither would lead to being hired on or make being part of those groups bearable. For the time being Vox Machina was as good a place to be as anywhere else and employers tended to be more optimistic about hiring them based on appearances alone.
~Speaking of optimism…~ he thought before asking, "How much do you think we'll be able to get with Xander's latest haul? Enough for a night at Dhara's?"
"Maybe. Depends on if there's anything special about any of it." She replied glancing at him due to the shift in topic, "If it's just plain stuff then no."
"Still it's nice to have a way of salvaging a bad job even if it doesn't make us much silver." He said revealing the reasons for his change of topic, "You made a smart move roping Xander into our little band. Would've been more impressive if it'd been the reason for it."
"What makes you think it wasn't what I had in mind the entire time?" She asked him doing a good job of being convincing, "His gear was obviously custom, he was in decent shape and obviously in the same line of work given how was dropped right in front of me. The fact that he's so clueless about Tal'Dorei makes it pretty obvious his village is in the middle of nowhere. You don't get quality gear without spending a good amount of coin so I figured finding out how Xander made his could be useful."
"And if it didn't?" He asked not entirely believing his sister's reasons.
"Then I'd have kicked him out by the end of the week." She replied without missing a beat, "There's no room in Vox Machina for dead weight. If he couldn't provide coin by harvesting useful odds and ends from our jobs we'd have no reason to keep him around."
The survivor in him agreed that keeping someone who couldn't contribute anything with Vox Machina would be a bad move. With funds being limited they couldn't afford to feed and give a roof to just anyone who wanted to join up. They had to be smart about it and so far adding Xander to their group was proving to be a good idea. The guy might not be the answer to all of their financial problems but thanks to him they were doing better than before with their coin purses being a little heavier as a result of his efforts.
Then of course there was the potential of what might happen if they could find someone who could actually teach Xander how to use his custom sword. It was huge, it was sharp and enchanted so that only Xander could wield it (despite many tries by Grog to pick it up) so if it could be used during a fight it'd up what Vox Machina could take on. Grog had been their source of muscle for awhile but the guy was a bit simple and liked to take the direct approach with just about everything. Most of the time the big guy's Goliath body could keep him alive but the rest of the time it was only Pike's goddess granted healing powers that kept Grog alive. If they had another source of muscle, one that actually thought, they might actually manage to keep Grog from getting sidelined like he sometimes was.
~Now who could teach him how to use that big sword of his?~ He asked himself searching for people he knew who wielded similar weapons.
It couldn't be anyone more than a few hours from Emon and it couldn't be anyone who had a beef with Vox Machina since they'd probably make sure Xander learned the wrong things. It also couldn't be anyone who'd ask too much for the lessons because they didn't exactly have the silver to pay for such things. So who could they…
The name popped into his mind as he and his sister turned the corner but it'd be a little tricky to pull off considering who he was thinking of.
Siegfried.
A member of the Arms of Emon.
The soldier definitely wielded a sword of comparable size to Xander's even if it was a bit too shiny for his liking and the man's reputation said he knew how to use it. The only problem was that the guy had an ego almost as big as his sword and only kept it in check when he had a practical reason to. Word around the tavern was that the guy had his eye on Captain Jarrett's position but couldn't find an opening for proposing a change in ranks. The few attempts that'd been made in the past had barely avoided getting the blonde man demoted but it definitely hadn't deterred the swordsman from future attempts. He'd have to ask around to a few members of the Arms to make sure Siegfried had genuine skill as well as an aptitude for teaching but if both turned out to be genuine the the idea had potential.
~Will probably have to appeal to his ego.~ He thought as the beginnings of a scheme began to form in his mind, ~Maybe make him think that teaching Xander might help him get promoted.~
He'd of course need to persuade Siegfried to train Xander away from the Arms of Emon and on the sly for everything to work out okay. After all he didn't want Xander to get recruited officially into the Arms of Emon since that'd mean that Vox Machina would wind up losing something rather than gaining something. However if they made sure that the teaching happened away from as many eyes and ears as possible then when the time came Xander could tell Siegfried to go fuck a duck without any repercussions. After all what could Siegfried do by that point? Complain to his superiors? Try to harass the group and get them shut down so he could walk away with Xander? Threaten to do something to Vox Machina if Xander didn't enlist?
~Actually…those could actually happen if I'm not careful.~ He thought with a frown, ~Worded right and with enough people to help him he could do some of them well enough.~
"Something on your mind brother?" Vex asked noticing his frown as they turned the final corner to where Vox Machina was staying.
"Just a bit of planning to do Stubby." He replied deciding not to elaborate for the moment, "If it works out we might be able to go from killing goblins to killing Orcs."
"Really? That would be nice." She said sounding interested, "Tell me—what the FUCK!?"
Following his sister's gaze to find out what'd set her off he found himself thinking what she said when he found the most likely source.
Hanging out of one of the windows of the place they were living in was a wet bedsheet with a rather obvious brown stain roughly in the middle. If that wasn't bad enough a few members of a band of mercs calling themselves the 'Murder Hobos' banging on the door looking like they'd been a little too close to the window when the chamber pot got emptied. He didn't know how long things had been going on but he did know that if it didn't end soon one of the city patrols was bound to show up.
NOT what they wanted.
"This needs to be handled with subtlety and guile." Vex whispered to him, "A fight'll only bring the Arms here faster."
"No problem sister." He said putting on his best 'I am the friend you never knew you had' face on, "I'll have them smiling and on their way in a minute."
That confidence lasted until the door opened and Grog stepped out looking a little put out with his axe n hand. Thinking about what time of day it was and the big guy's habits he couldn't help but groan at what was probably going to happen.
"SOMEone disturbed Grogs beauty sleep." Vex said with a resigned tone of voice, "Still think you can end this without a fight?"
"Only one way to find out." He said walking forward at a fast pace.
Time to see if he was really as good as he thought he was.