Kobold Plot

[vyvyan]

The back door is slammed open and Vyvyan strides in.

He's not happy.

For one thing, this is the second time he's been robbed here in just a couple of months*. The second thing is that this time, they actually took something important. And thirdly, they also walked off with the studs off his face. Okay, so he was able to reset and they came back, but that's just taking the piss!

"LISTEN UP!" he yells to the bar at large. "I WANT MY STUFF BACK, NOW, OR SOMEONE IS GETTING THEIR TEETH KICKED IN!"


[*As far as he knows anyway. The first 'robber' turned out to be the AU version of himself, but he never did get to the bottom of that.]

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[iprotectyou]

An armorless Baze is seated at a table nearby, using a handheld pneumatic graver to carve designs out of an aluminum trigger housing he forged himself. He has a sweating pitcher of ice water and two glasses, one of which is full and he's taking drinks from periodically.

"Someone stole from you, too? What did they take?" Baze says, glancing up from his project to blink at Vyvyan.

[vyvyan]

Vyvyan is looking for Things to Throw. Waitrats, recognising the signs, are busy providing stage props.

"A tin box, marked 'Toenail clippings'. I had something important in there."

Judging by the smell emanating from the recently reset Vyvyan, the thief is brave.

[iprotectyou]

"Oh, yeah? What was it?" Baze says, calmly etching a flourish into the soft metal.

[vyvyan]

"My passport." Vyvyan says. "And plane tickets."

He smashes a strategically placed stage plate on the table in fury.

[iprotectyou]

"Why would someone steal that? They've got no use for it unless they look like you, and live in your world," Baze points out, raising an eyebrow at the plate smashing.

[vyvyan]

"Well they took the studs on my face too!" Vyvyan says. "I had to reset to get them back."

He looks for something else to smash. "I'll tell you why. It's because they think I'm some worthless punk and it's okay to treat me like shit. And I'm tired of it! I got my head cut in half by a monster a few weeks back trying to protect this place and nobody gave a crap!"

[iprotectyou]

Welp. Baze doesn't know how to deescalate this situation. He sets his pneumatic graver down on the table and holds up his empty hands, palms out.

"I'm sorry that happened, Vyvyan. I would have cared if I knew. I suspect other people would, too."

[vyvyan]

"I doubt it. I looked for Alana but she was gone. Nobody else cares. You just want me to stop breaking stuff!"

When he resets, he's at his worst. He's being a little bit unreasonable and he knows it. But he quite likes Baze. He's pretty sure it was Baze that bought him food. And just a little bit of that penetrates into his agitated state.

"Baze, I need my passport back." he says. "I've been saving for those tickets for months. If I don't get them back, I miss my flight, and I have to start over."

[iprotectyou]

"Well, someone stole them here, so you have time to recover them," Baze says gently, placing his hands palm-down on the table. He pushes the chair opposite him out with a foot, indicating that Vyvyan is welcome to sit.

"Where are you flying to?"

[vyvyan]

"France." Vyvyan says.

He does sit. Baze seems to be having a calming effect on him.

"Then back to London. And then America."

[iprotectyou]

"Why are you going to all of these places?" Baze asks, pleased that Vyvyan actually sat--and isn't breaking stuff anymore. The stench is horrendous, though, making Baze's eyes water.

[vyvyan]

"Because they'll track me to France to see what I do." Vyvyan says. "When they find out it's nothing but take a holiday, and I come back without prompting, they'll relax. And that's when I'll leg it."

[iprotectyou]

"Who's they?" Baze says, cocking his head to the side. He looks even more like a giant, lost puppy without armor.

[vyvyan]

"I don't know. They made me like I am." Vyvyan says. "I'm a mistake."

[iprotectyou]

"You were a normal young man before they interfered?" Baze says, holding judgement on whether Vyvyan is a mistake or not.

[vyvyan]

"I didn't have powers. I was a street kid most of the time." Vyvyan says.

[iprotectyou]

"And you don't know who these people are who changed you?" Baze says, his brow creased.

[vyvyan]

Vyv shakes his head.

"I only found out recently that there were gaps in my memory."

[iprotectyou]

"Oh," Baze says, wondering how he only just realized that.

"Well, hopefully the people tracking you won't think to track you to America, wherever that is."

[vyvyan]

He forgot.

"Far. And a lot bigger than France." Vyvyan says.

[iprotectyou]

"What if they track you there?" Baze says, engraving another groove.

"Do you know how they're tracking you?"

[vyvyan]

Vyvyan shakes his head.

"If they track me they'll probably kill me again." he says.

[iprotectyou]

"Again? You mean it doesn't stick?" Baze says, raising his brows.

[vyvyan]

"It hasn't stuck yet." Vyvyan says. "But that doesn't mean it won't ever."

[iprotectyou]

"Are you like Wilford, then, and just reset or whatever?" Baze says, resisting the urge to scratch his beard, as he'd have to wash his hands again.

"But not everyone in your world evades permanent death like that, right?"