[phone calls OTA] Technical Difficulties

[st_abby]

He'd passed by the alien, gleaming thing in his room a hundred times by now, or nearly must've done, and hardly stopped to examine it. It was strange, but so were most other things in this place. A shiny, awkward looking device attached to the wall by means of a long cable, set on one of the little tables that seemed to litter these rooms. It had neat rows of square buttons with numbers etched on, and a handle, so Vax'ildan had supposed it was meant to work some feature of the room in a way he could scarcely imagine. He didn't want to break it, but eventually the boredom and curiosity got the better of him, much like with the door locks. It would probably fix itself, if it came to that.

After the first few moments spent listening to the monotonous warble that came from the handle, Vax'ildan reached to jab a finger into a button. When it beeped but did no more, he pushed another. And a third...

OOC Note: If you would like a thread with Vax, please leave a top-level comment to this post and he will reply! No need to pre-arrange, but as one does when learning new technology, he may disconnect the call etc. accidentally or your character may tell him to leave them alone in very few words if they so choose - most of these threads are likely to be short.

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[st_illunsmeared]

Fresh out of a bath, draped in her favorite silk peignoir set, Phryne had only just reclined on the couch with a glass of champagne and a fruit and cheese plate Dot had brought up for her. Alone, feet up when the phone rang, she smiled to herself, and let it ring once before picking it up.

"Hello, darling," she purred at the caller who could only be Jack. "Tell me, what are you wearing?"

[st_abby]

"...Well, I..." The voice that stammered with a note of humor in it at the other end was decidedly not Jack, more youthful and with an altogether different sort of accent. "Full leather armor and cloak?"

[st_illunsmeared]

Phryne stifled a laugh at the confusion and humor in the voice that was definitively not her dear Inspector's. Of course, the lack of a familiar voice didn't stop Phryne from flirting. It rarely did. "Costume play. How delightful. Shall I be a damsel in distress or a Queen to be paid court? A witch to be tamed?"

[st_abby]

Vax was relatively certain by now he didn't know this woman already. He always appreciated a well-crafted flirt, for the artistry of it if not in actual pursuit. Which was all good fun, unless, well...

"This isn't one of those adult entertainment services where I'll end up owing you a great deal of money at the end, is it? I really haven't got any here."

[st_illunsmeared]

"A what?" The question startled her out of the flirt, but didn't pull rich warmth out of her voice. Fortunately, she wasn't offended, but rather amused. "I don't know whether to be flattered or horrified, darling. I'm quite happy to flirt with you but I'm not interested in being paid for it."

[st_abby]

He felt it would have been ruder not to ask. Vax wasn't trying to belittle someone's hard-earned livelihood.

"You sound perfectly lovely," he hastened to offer the sweet voice. "It's just that where I come from, I would've had to work a good deal harder than poking some buttons that do I-don't-know-what to have a woman flirt with me." And 'lady favors,' as Grog had taken to calling them, weren't usually free. "You've not even seen me yet. I'm actually awfully ugly."

[st_illunsmeared]

"As I've made a point to acquaint myself with the look of everyone in the Inn, I don't believe you." She'd already ruled out the men that she knew, and those that she didn't were uniformly attractive. "But supposing it were true, it would hardly matter. I'm not in the habit of choosing my flirts on looks alone. I've known beautiful faces to have abhorrent personalities."

[st_abby]

Vax smiled, and decided then he was probably going to like her.

"Pretty people are the worst," he agreed readily enough. He was, of course, talking out of his ass on a lark. But he had certainly met his share of insufferable beauties. "That's why you've not met me before. I've taken to hiding away in my room and talking to strangers through my phones."

He wasn't using the plural ironically. He just didn't know better yet.

[st_illunsmeared]

"Have you?" Phryne played along, enjoying the lark, as much as she might have the flirt--admittedly that was more true because Jack had finally taken her to bed. "You poor dear. We can't have you living in isolation like that."

She paused and then more brightly, as though she'd just had the idea, said, "Why don't you throw on a scarf and hurry over? I'll order up some tea and pastry and we'll flirt without looking at each other. I'll even put on veil."

[st_abby]

"Fresh out of scarves, I'm afraid. It's not as if I had a chance to pack all seventeen cloaks and the rest for the trip."

He found something else curious in what she'd said. "Can you really have meals brought to the rooms here?" He wondered if that was a feature of the servant spirits that he'd not discovered yet, or if Ignis himself would really be expected to travel the stairwells and winding halls, across the grounds and amongst multiple buildings, just so some idiot who'd rather not be bothered with clothes could go on continuing to be lazy.

[st_illunsmeared]

All seventeen cloaks? The words tugged at her mind, connected with a memory and the voice suddenly slotted into place. Phryne quirked a sly little grin, pleased with her sleuthing, and that Vax'ildan proved to be as interesting as he looked.

"All the more reason to come to my room, Vax'ildan. I'm sure I have a stray scarf," she replied, smile evident in her voice. "And you'll see I can have food brought to my room, although whether or not I'll tell you how I accomplished it rather depends." On what, she hadn't decided, but Phryne didn't doubt she'd think of something. She always did.

[st_abby]

Vax wasn't surprised that she had recognized him. There weren't so many of them, and they all needed to make use of the common areas. He hadn't placed her yet, though he likely would once he saw her face. He was surprised that she knew his name.

"So much for anonymity," he said lightly. "How did you figure out my name?"

[st_illunsmeared]

"A lady never gives away her secrets," Phryne replied lightly, teasing, but then told him, "I've spent a great deal of time observing people and learning things they didn't wish me to know. Since you haven't made any effort to hide your name, learning it was a simple matter. Applying it to your voice, the insight of a moment connected to the word cloak."

[st_abby]

"That's really clever," he admitted. "It's true, cloaks aren't exactly the fashion around here. Well done, fair lady. I'm not quite as clever as you - I still haven't got your name figured out yet."

[st_illunsmeared]

Although not a woman who needed praise, Phryne nevertheless basked in compliments, especially compliments on her mind. Why shouldn't she? After all, she had earned them. It put a touch of that earlier purr back in her voice when she replied, "Haven't you? The Honourable Miss Phryne Fisher. But you may dispense with the formalities and call me 'Phryne'."

[st_abby]

"Phryne," he tried it pleasantly. "Clever and Honorable. Now I'd really like to meet you, though I still feel you're getting the short end of the bargain."

[st_illunsmeared]

"Darling," she purred playfully again. "Why don't you let me be the judge of that?"

[st_abby]

She could probably hear his wry grin. She flirted like Vex bargained - natural as anything. He could appreciate it without reading too much into it. "You'll have to give me a where and a when."

[st_illunsmeared]

"Where depends on when, but now is convenient. If it is for you as well, my room is the Austrian Suite," she told him and proceeded to explain where it was. She did rather hope he would come now, since it would give her something to do that wasn't wait impatiently for Jack. "If not, then I may require a more formal engagement. A dinner date, perhaps." She teased, of course. Her dinners and evenings were booked for the foreseeable future.

[st_abby]

"I do have the very important business of calling strangers uninvited," he suggested. "But it can wait. I'll be right over."

Though Vax had sorted out the most basic function of the machine, he was still thinking of it more like communicating through his pearl earring than as an instrument of polite correspondence. Not that he'd ever been accused of having good manners before. He didn't think to say goodbye before hanging up.