WHO Jester Lavorre & Fjord Stone WHERE Xhorhaus WHEN Beginning of the Snowglobe Plot WHEN Jester and Fjord react to the disappearance of Caleb and band together to try to find him. WARNINGS None aside from potential earworms.
The panic in Vallo had been slow at first. A missing person here or there that Jester knew in passing. It was always sad, but she couldn’t help but to be glad it wasn’t her people. They’d had too much loss as of late, surely Vallo could give them a break. But then the panic had rapidly grown. More people missing, no notifications. Names of people who were friends. Jester, having been so sure that this time they’d be safe, slowly felt the fear and dread creeping up from the place she’d forced it into hiding. And then, Caleb. Essek had delivered the news and, though they had no indication from the DOA that he was gone, Jester trusted Essek to be thorough in his search for the other wizard.
Jester couldn’t let the panic consume her, though. She would deal with the feeling of losing Caleb as soon as she could, but there was something she had to do first. Grabbing her backpack, Jester tore out of the Nook nearly forgetting to lock it up behind her. And before she would let herself stop to check any more messages she ran to find Fjord. No text, or net communication, or Sending would do--she needed to see him in person to be sure that he wasn’t gone, too.
It didn’t take her long to find him. She hadn’t stopped running since she’d left the shop, much to the chagrin of cars and pedestrians that had gotten in her way, and she’d thankfully had an idea of where he might be. In one moment, she was barreling toward him and, in the next, her arms were around his neck holding him close. “You’re still here,” she said, simultaneously relieved and heartbroken that the same wasn’t true for all of their friends. “If I don’t let go, the Vallo magic can’t take you, too.”
"I'm here, Jes. I'm here," answered Fjord, wrapping his arms around her, too. It had been a crazy morning, people being reported missing, no notifications, no idea of when they disappeared. At least no one checked in that they were still here and then disappeared, so it must've happened sometime in the night. He freed a hand and caressed her cheek. "I'm not going anywhere."
He'd woken up early and gone down to the dock to work on the Ball Eater, which made him miss some of the earliest notifications, but it didn't take long for his phone to 'blow up.' He'd made it back to the Xhorhaus in time to get the news from Essek that Caleb was missing and had literally pulled out his phone to call Jester when she barreled in. The relief was clearly evident on his face, but the lines of concern were there, too.
Jester knew that that was not a promise Fjord could make, but she appreciated it, anyway. She knew too well how easy it was to wake up and find him gone. He was here now, though, and she was willing to take comfort in that fact. She leaned into his touch, closing her eyes as she took a moment to appreciate the realness of him, and the relief at having the evidence of such. She could have gone to Essek, maybe even should have done so considering the loss of both Caleb and Verin, but she’d needed Fjord and she was willing to let herself be selfish for just a little while longer.
“I’m going to tie tiny anchors at your ankles when you’re not looking to keep you firmly planted in this world,” she said, opening her eyes and tilting her chin up to look at him. “Have there been any other reported disappearances since Essek messaged?” She almost hated to ask.
"If anyone could work out tiny dimensional anchors… but not that I'm aware of." In truth, he'd been more concerned with his own group of friends than the island at large, but only at first. Anyone missing needed to be found, or at least given a bit of closure, but he felt he was allowed to have priorities. Especially since they'd already lost so many of the Mighty Nein as it was.
"Do we need to grab everyone and put them in a room so that you can watch over them? Where's Kiri?" asked Fjord, glancing towards the door for Jester's usual shadow.
Jester nodded, taking some comfort from the answer, though she knew that it didn’t necessarily mean that no one else was gone rather than around. She bounced on her feet, her nervous energy needing some sort of outlet. “Hopefully we’ll know the extent of it sooner rather than later. Everyone’s on alert now, so I’m sure we’re all trying to account for our people.”
She let out a small breath and replied, “Kiri’s with Vax and Vex and Velora right now. They should be heading to the Xhorhaus where, yes, we need to lock them all in to make sure they can’t go anywhere. You distract them while I trap all the exits.”
"Let's do it, then." He knew she wasn't completely serious, but right now wasn't a time to call out unlikely plans. Fjord didn't know what to think of this whole situation - were they under some kind of attack? Some kind of interdimensional kidnapping? There were enough people showing up and thinking they were kidnapped even here, so it wasn't out of the question. That aside, any of those choices were better than some kind of permanent loss.
"Should we see if there's anything we can do to help find them?"
Jester appreciated how much Fjord was willing to humor her, though she thought maybe tying them all down would be slightly more effective than booby trapping the doors. Not by much, but she was desperate. She felt like she was missing something, though. Some answer, some solution that she was missing because she was too worried, or too scared, or too focused on protecting what they had left. She’d had no answers or solutions thus far for people she loved disappearing into thin air and, though this time felt different somehow, it was hard not to wonder if any attempts to figure it out would render more of the same…nothing.
But she was nothing if not eternally optimistic. She knew it was likely that there were no more answers for this than there were for previous disappearances, and it was likely that they’d have to process this loss and keep going the way they always had, but just because it was likely didn’t mean she didn’t want to try to accomplish the unlikely. How many impossible things had she been able to accomplish with the Mighty Nein already?
She nodded, touching Fjord’s cheek in return. “We definitely should. And then we can talk about Vallo-magic-proofing the Xhorhaus.”
"We'd be the envy of all Vallo if we could manage that," mused Fjord, knowing how random the magic here seemed to be. It was funny in a somber way that he thought he knew chaos magic pretty well before showing up in this place. Or at least whatever passed for it back home, hell their entire lives had been mostly chaos.
Taking Jester's hand, he started to guide her towards the DOA before speaking over his shoulder. "This isn't over, Jes. This whole place is going to need your optimism. We'll get through this."
Jester laced her fingers through Fjord’s, grateful once again for the continued assurance that he was there and that he was there with her. She tried not to think about the fact that her unique brand of optimism hadn’t been exceedingly helpful in finding Mollymauk or Fjord when they’d left, and it hadn’t brought Beau or Yasha back yet. She liked to think she’d willed Fjord’s return into existence, but she was pretty sure she’d had no control over it at all. She was aware that her emotions were all over the place. How could they not be?
“Just make sure we get through this together, okay?” she replied, drawing closer to him as they made their way. “I think this one’s going to take all of us.”
"I'm here, whatever you need," answered Fjord, welcoming her closer presence. She was right, though, they'd all have to do their parts, if there were even parts to play. But she was the only one of them that essentially made someone into a god, so as far as he was concerned there wasn't anything she couldn't do if she put her mind to it.
"Have you tried a Sending? I can help you count the words. Maybe they just got warped to something like the Happy Fun Ball…?"
Jester stopped walking, jaw going slack as her eyes widened. “I didn’t! I thought about Sending to you but I wanted to actually see you in person and I didn’t even think about Sending to Caleb. We have to try it. It could work!” She clapped her hands together, an ember of hope sparking in her eyes. Could it work? It didn’t work sending back home, but she was assuming that had a lot to do with time even more so than space. If they weren’t at home, maybe it would work now.
“Hold up your fingers. Let’s try this.”
Fjord immediately held up his hands, fingers spread out to start ticking down the words as she spoke. It had become kind of part of the ritual for them, though also admittedly to help Jester keep her excited rambling contained to twenty-five words. But she'd once said the spell supposedly worked across dimensions, so he had high hopes. He'd never asked if she tried sending to Beau or Yasha, Veth or Cad. And it didn't seem like a good idea to ask about that now.
"Ready when you are."
There was a hint of a smile at the way Fjord was always at the ready to indulge her. But then she cleared her throat, brow creasing as she thought about what to say. She only had twenty-five words, after all. She had to use them all.
And then, “Hi, Caleb, it’s me, Jester. Oh my gosh, we already miss you so much and we don’t know if you went home or if you’re somewhere else where I can reach you. Where are you? Are you safe? Is Essek’s brother with you? Are you--”
She stopped, glancing up at Fjord. “Wait, no, that was--” She hesitated waiting for a response to whatever had gotten through. “Let’s try again. Maybe it cut off and he didn’t understand the message. ”
Folding in his fingers as Jester spoke, which was a bit of a challenge to keep up, he tried to gesture that she was out of words somewhere around "if you're somewhere" but he, too, ended up waiting to see if she got a response.
"Ran outta room there, Jes, but we can do another if you want. He knows you, though, so any message at all should get a response, even if you just hummed a doo-da-doo song. "
Jester hesitated, knowing he was right. She could have sent him anything and Caleb would have responded if he could. That didn’t mean she was ready to give up. “Let’s try one more, okay? Just in case. Maybe it’s just delayed.” She rolled her shoulders, and shook out her arms as if preparing for intense physical exertion and then--
“HEY, I just messaged you and this is crazy, but you are missing, so respond to me maybe,” she sang. And because Fjord still had fingers left when she was done, she added, “And Essek probably misses your cute tush.”