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| Details |
| Author: | Athena |
| Summary: | Jo reaches out to Nish to tell her that Tadget has gone missing, and the two try to figure out what they know about the gnome's slippery, death-faking, disappearing ways. 2k-ish words. |
| Rating: | T for Teen |
Arc: PTSD
Logging started on 07/16/2021
Nish enters HQ without knocking, breezing in, flipping her hair a little as she immediately calls out, "Hey, you in here yet?"
“Yeah, I'm in here.” Jo answers. She's holding a mug of ale, half empty.
“Oh, good. I did not want to just have to like, linger in the doorway or something in case one of the others was here.”
“Nope, just me. Thanks for coming. How are you?”
Nish hops onto a chair, swinging her legs. Her body language is subdued, for Nish, although she smiles at Jo sweetly. "Oh, I'm fine. But your note sounded a bit like, I don't know, sort of super official Lieutenant-y. I'm not in any trouble am I?"
“Oh no. Not at all.” Jo takes a long sip of ale “It's just. I just wanted to tell you something.”
Nish looks around the HQ. "And…you wanted to do it here? If this is about going up to the bridge and gliders, ummm, maybe we should, uhhhh, move locations?"
“You remember how Tadget like, let everyone think she was dead, and you grieved her and everything? But really she just ran off?”
“Wait. What.” Nish's face falls from its usual smile and she frowns, actually frowns. “Yeeesss I remember that. Whyyyyyyy?”
Jocoza's lips tremble a little bit, as she says, "Uh, maybe I shouldn't have led with that…But she's not dead. At least as of like, Tuesday or Wednesday.”
Nish's eyes narrow. "You. Have. Got. To. Be. Kidding. Me."
“I don't know where she is. But she's.” Jo waves her hand, maybe like some woodland animal scampering off.
“Oh my GOSH, TADDY BEAR. I swear.” She tosses back her hair in a huff “Un -—- believable. So, what was it this time then, huh? Faked her death with like, giant spiders and some ketchup?!?” Nish gets up and starts pacing back and forth.
“Do you, uh… do you have any tips on what might cause her to spontaneously like, arrange for the transfer of all her property and disappear into the wilderness?”
Nish looks over at Jo. "Wait, she did what?" Nish walks over and looks over at Jo. "She left a paper trail?"
“I haven't really looked at the paperwork really closely.”
“You have it on you?”
Jocoza sighs, and sets aside her mug of ale. "Yeah, I mean. I could leave it in her apartment. 'Cause it's mine now, I guess. But yeah.” Jocoza reaches into her bag, and pulls out the documents, showing them to Nish.
Nish holds out a hand for them.
Jocoza hands them over. "So like, her apartment and all her money, I guess."
Nish sighs and reads through them at a glance, looking more serious than Jo's ever seen her before, her eyes flitting back and forth, snagging on what seem to be certain words. “Uh huh. Yeah. Well. At least this time she wasn't just cutting and running with a convenient disaster. She planned this one.” she lets out a string of curse words in what appears to be orcish
“She did say that.”
“Oh my gosh. I'm going to kill her if she's dead, I swear.”
“That she should've planned it better, last time, but it was like spontaneous…”
Nish sighs and hands back the paperwork. "Yeah. She was very sloppy, and whoever did the paperwork for her through Gnomeregan left off a bunch of little weird things they shouldn't have, like school records. I mean. Allegedly. Or whatever.”
[Jocoza]: “I guess you helped fix that?”
Nish waves a hand in the air. "Well, not that it matters now! Since apparently she was just going to disappear the second she could!"
“Why would she even bother to build up a life here? If she was just going to cut and run?” Jocoza sighs, and picks the ale back up. "That's not fair. Probably. I don't know. I'm sure whatever it is, she thought I wouldn't understand. And you. And Finn. And Ivri. And everyone who cared about her.”
Nish holds up a hand and ticks off reasons on her fingers. "She got in trouble with goblins. She got in trouble with the Horde. She got in trouble with SI:7. She got in trouble with getting pregnant with Mekkatorque. Lots of reasons someone just runs scared like that.”
Jocoza laughs. “I don't think she was with Mekkatorque. And she quit SI:7. Just like she quit Cobalt. Nobody came after me for her stuff, so I don't think it's goblins.”
“Well, if she quit for some reason, and thought that she knew something she shouldn't and was going to blab….”
“Like, we have a theory, if you want to hear it.”
Nish sighs and jumps on the chair, waving a hand in the air in a classic Give It To Me gesture. "Yah, what's the theory? Or, hypothesis, really, assuming you don't actually have all the evidence you need."
“Do you know, like, the circumstances? Of the first time?”
“Besides the fact that she did it and people were looking for her that she didn't want to find her, noooope.” Nish fiddles with the edges of her shirt, pouting a little.
“This all kinda happened right after a Boopsie Sparkfly applied to Cobalt. Who is, by the way, hired. She seemed nice. Front-line fighter type. Not complicated.”
Nish tilts her head to one side. "Oh my gosh, that name sounds so familiar. Wait, did she say anything about kneecaps?”
“Wait, what? You know her?”
“Oh, I ran into some Boopsie Somethingsomething out in Loch Modan a few weeks ago. Super pretty, very interested in wrecking trogg kneecaps, sweaty in all the right ways.” She sighs a little fondly.
“I.. don't remember any kneecaps. But yeah, Loch Modan, killing troggs.”
“What does she have to do with Tad – with Springblade or whatever we're calling her now.”
“I guess we can call her whatever. Lodestone. Springblade. She's not here, anyway.”
Nish makes a scoffing sound. "I know, right? UNLESS SHE IS. AND IF YOU'RE LISTENING TADDY BEAR, I SWEAR, I'M SUPER MAD RIGHT NOW."
“But yeah, so, Finn says she's one of the people Tadget was getting away from, at the fall.”
“Finn?” She pauses and seems to be making calculations in her head. “Ohhhhhhh. So his name was Finn. Nice. So, Boopsie is after Tad?”
“What? I miss something? Um, I don't think so. I think she was mixed up with her brother, but the Boopsie I met didn't like him much.”
“Wait, this has something to do with Timmet? Nobody likes Timmet.”
“But like, when Timmet came in and tried to join the company, Tadget didn't run.”
“Oh my gooossshhh. He was here? Gross.”
“Did I never mention that? I guess we haven't talked much.” Jo takes another sip of ale. Jocoza giggles. “She gave me his name, so I'd know to keep clear of him.”
Nish sighs and flips back her hair a little. "Yeah, I had some, uh, stuff I needed to take care of in Kalimdor. It was such a bummer. Anyway. Speaking of bummers, when was Timmet here?"
Jocoza blinks. “Um. Like a few weeks ago, I guess?”
“I'm just wondering when Tad might have started putting the contingency plan in place. Paperwork like massive money transfers and power of attorney and property stuff is not best done quickly.”
“You think she started planning then? And just waited for Sparkfly to show up to run?”
“Not saying she wouldn't do it, or couldn't like, totally do it if she wanted to, but if she suspected she might need it? Yeah, Tad always liked to have the upper hand.” Nish sighs harshly, and stabs her fingers in a sigil motion, summoning a drink of clear liquid that fizzes almost violently.
“She had, here, already. I was keeping her informed, before interviews, ever since you… no offense.”
Nish waves a hand at that. "None taken. I could have blown her cover in the wrong place, honestly." Nish sips her drink through a sparkly straw she takes out of a pouch, her face Very Pouty.
“Anyway, I'm gonna send her a letter tomorrow. It's not gonna help, but at least we should know if she's still alive.”
“Right. And you think she ran because of…Boopsie? I mean, I met the girl, and let me just say now, I would boop that all morning, take a break for lunch, and boop that all evening, but, like, criminal mastermind that girl is not. I'm pretty sure Taddy Bear could take Boopsie in a fight. And probably in other ways if she wanted.”
“And if she like, didn't want to. I could've dealt with it.”
Nish fingers the piercings in her ears, and flutters her lashes just a little. "And, well, I would have helped. That would have been barely a little bummer of a waste of a good boop, but, you know, if she were like, evil or something, whatever." “So, okay – wait. Did you say you're sending a letter? I thought you didn't know where she was?”
“Yeah, this Kirin Tor guy I know is gonna help.”
Nish takes a long, hard pull of her drink, and burps a little. “Oooo, Kirin Tor. Oh my gosh, wait, like some sort of locator thing for the letter? Sympathetic magic stuff?” Nish taps her lips a little. "Who's gonna focus it? You?"
Jocoza perks up a bit, for the first time. "Yeah, basically. He's pretty good at that. That and illusions. But I don't think he really knew Tadget, so yeah. That's why I sent the note, at first. 'Cause I needed her name. But I got it from the other guy.”
“Hmmmm….well. If you need another, call me. I can add to that. She was like, my whole world for three damn years, and then she just keeps going off and like, not-dying on me. So rude.” She takes another long drink. “Like, oh my gosh, I don't need to be her best friend or anything, but is it too much to ask that she just stop running off and faking her death or whatever this is this time?”
“If you're around to help, that'd be great.” Jo smiles. “I think I have the material stuff down, but I only knew her a few months"
Nish sighs and waves a hand around a little woozily. "Yeah, yah, I'll help." She mutters something about helping a bear right into a jar of honey. It doesn't quite make sense, and her words are a little less clearly enunciated than they were a few minutes ago.
Jocoza pauses to think. "I think the emotions ought to be good, though. She was good at… causing emotions"
“Oh, yeah, she's REALLY emotions at causing goods.” Nish frowns a little and tries again. “She's really good at causing. Emotions. That thing.”
Jocoza giggles. "What are you even drinking?"
Nish looks at her drink. It's empty. "I…it's a thing from…taurens. They drink it. It's…" Nish giggles. “I don't remember the name! Hah! Like Tad! It's got a name and some people don't know it!” Nish giggles at Jocoza.
Jocoza giggles at Nish.
Nish stands up and puts the glass on the table.
“Yeah, though, that's pretty much it. I just thought you ought to know.”
“I'm going to go take a nap. Call me when you're making the letter go zoomies to Taddy Bear. I'll help. I'll cause HER some emotions. So many emotions.” Nish holds up a hand with all four fingers. "THIS MANY EMOTIONS."
“Uh, if you're like. Asleep. Is there anything I should put in the letter?”
Nish makes sure Jo can see the hand.
“From you? And you can't like.” Jo sighs. “It can't be a punch. I dunno how to send a punch.”
“Tell her that if she's out there throwing up, I've got a towel and a bucket and I'm tired of her thinking I won't care that she's hurting.” Her eyes go a little bright with tears for a second before she sniffs and tosses back her hair. “Whatever. I'm over it. Call me when you're doing the thing.” She giggles. “I said that already! Hah!”
“G'night!”
Nish blinks up the stairs and out the doors.