You know the thing about train wrecks? Riadne walking in on Hero/Vaal and later telling Tomix about it.
Riadne sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose as she eyed the stairs leading to the upper cabins, not at all in the mood to climb them. Letting her hand fall from her face, Riadne caught sight of a nearby pirate working with some ropes and made her way toward them. Sighing again, Riadne asked, “Have you seen Vaal today? I can’t seem to find him.”
Without looking up the pirate snorted and replied, “Blessedly no, m’ready ta toss tha’ slackard overboard if ‘e pinches me bum again.” The pirate looked up. “What ya want tha’ drunk for?
Riadne pinched her nose again and said, “Izaac wanted to ask him a few things about the Void, but his experiments are at a volatile stage, so I volunteered to find Vaal for him.” Making a disgusted noise, Riadne turned back to the stairs and continued, “I suppose this means I’ll need to drag him out of his cabin.”“Aye, he’n the hero went up some time ago,” the pirate said as they turned back to their ropes. Riadne waved her hand in thanks and started up the stairs, grumbling all the way.
Reaching the upper platform, Riadne walked to the large wooden door and slammed her fist into it, shouting, “Vaal are you in there?”There was a pause punctuated with a low moan before Vaal said, “Go away,” in and aggravated tone, voice muffled as if his face was buried in a pillow. Riadne crossed her arms and let out a slow breath. “Izaac wants to talk to you,” she replied.“Mm’busy,"came the muffled response."Busy with what, exactly?” Riadne snapped “He’s dealing with unstable void energy,” she said, stretching the truth a bit in her aggravation. She actually had no idea what Izaac was doing in his lab.A barely comprehensible “None’a yer business,” was all Riadne got in reply.
Her nostrils flared and she grabbed the door handle, yelling, “That’s it you ass, I’m coming in!” as she flung the door open and prepared to march in, but a previously unheard third voice yelling, “Don’t!” stopped her.As she stood frozen in the door way, Riadne realized several things. Vaal was not alone in his room, the hero was in Vaal’s room, neither was wearing pants and Vaal’s face had not been pressed into a pillow. For a moment she simply took in the sight of a less-unattractive-than-she-had-previously-thought chaosweaver and steadily reddening hero, before Vaal raised an eyebrow at Riadne, said, “I told you I was busy,” and promptly returned to what he was doing before she interrupted.Riadne screeched, her trance broken, and flew out of the room, slamming the door behind her. A deep laugh chased her down the stairs, until it was cut short by an indignant squawk.***Tomix found her a few hours later in the mess hall, slumped on a table tucked in the corner of the room with a glass of strong brandy gripped in her hand. He cautiously slid in the seat across from her and in a soft voice said, “Riadne?” The arachnomancer groaned in response and looked up blearily, as Tomix continued, “You ran here, stole someone’s drink, downed it, grabbed the bottle and hid in the corner. Did something happen?”Riadne groaned and popped herself up on her elbows. She swirled her drink idly as she said, “You know the thing about train wrecks? They are terrible for the people that come across them too.” When Tomix looked confused, she continued, “I just walked in on Vaal and the hero,” punctuating her sentence with a gulp of her drink.“Oh,” Tomix said, faintly red in the face, “Why do you think I didn’t put their rooms down with the rest of us?” refusing to meet her eyes. Riadne looked at him with wide eyes, before flopping back down on the table with a groan deciding she wasn’t going to be looking for Vaal again anytime soon.
