howlingplayground | (no subject)

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She steps out of the office and very, very carefully, doesn't slam the door. She wants to. She wants to slam the door and then slam her foot into it, fracturing it out of its frame. But, she doesn't. Instead, she leans against the wall and slides down it, her face in her hands.

No one, no one is listening to her! Her dads are not fine. They aren't! They wouldn't just... take off and not tell her. Oh, they'd leave her behind and go spend a weekend somewhere. But they'd leave a note, a voicemail, something.

She knows that her dads are sometimes rogues, she knows that sometimes, they don't, exactly, toe the line, but they've never done wrong by her. Even though they hadn't taken her in until she was eleven, they'd become her dads in a very, very short period of time.

She has to figure something out and find out where they are. She can't just sit here and feel sorry for herself.

Feeling her foot get bumped, she looks up from her hands, not realizing that she's been crying, until she looks at her hands. "Oh, hey." She says, miserably.

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Gladio was a man of routine. Up at 5. Training. Working out. Shower and then breakfast. Breakfast was generally a protein shake, or eggs. Lots of eggs. And bacon. Today was a shake day. He was a simple guy, when it all boiled down to it. He liked order in his surroundings. He liked things to make sense. Things to be in their place.

So a girl sat on the ground crying wasn't part of his nice, orderly routine.

He also knew this girl. At least he knew her parents. And had seen her around often enough.

The fact he was able to get close enough to lightly nudge her foot with his booted one was telling. Gladio crouched when she finally looked up. "Jubilee, right? Something happen? Why're you sat here?"

Something is very wrong, but she's not sure telling the King's friend is the way to go about solving it. She's not sure that telling anyone is the way to solve it.

She doesn't want anyone to get into trouble, but her Dads are in trouble, and that's bothering enough.

She nods to his question about her name. She's surprised he knows it. She's more often called the "Princess" by her Dads. She wipes her face off, and then wipes her hands on her jeans. "I... My Dads are missing." She says, softly. "I tried to explain, they never take off without leaving me some sort of message, and I understand there are times I can't go with them, or that they're on business for the crown, or that I shouldn't worry, but they always leave me a message of some sort! Always." She's babbling and doesn't care. "They wouldn't just take off without telling me to at least stay put and not worry."

The large man's eyebrows rose a little at that. It wasn't what he'd expected. Maybe tripped and fallen, a bad breakup, something... But her dad's missing?

"I can ask around? Make sure it wasn't an official mission and they shipped off without saying anything?" Just because it didn't usually happen, didn't mean there couldn't be a first time. Maybe they hadn't had the chance to leave a note? Or had asked someone else to pass along a message but the dumbass hadn't gotten to it yet?

"How long they been gone?" Was Gladio's next question. If he knew a rough timeframe, he'd know who to ask.

Look, bad break ups don't happen to her, because she doesn't get serious about anyone. She's twenty, not thirty. She's had one serious boyfriend who turned out to be a creep and she happily burned that bridge.

She waves a hand at the door she's next to. "Their CO says they requested a week off. Which also isn't like them." Not without telling her. She is the keeper of the family calendar, because her dads fail at it.

"But they've been gone four days now, and if they requested time off, they would have told me." Jubilee knows her fathers, knows their routines almost better than they do. "I know, know something is wrong. They wouldn't just disappear without telling me. They're not those kind of Dads."

"That right..." No, that didn't sound like them at all. He didn't know them well, shared a few beers with one or both of them on occasion, but he wouldn't have called them close. Not close enough to be in the loop. But close enough to realise abnormal behaviour.

"Alright. Tell me how I can help." Gladio gentled his voice some, he could see Jubilee was upset, he needed to get past that to a more rational mind. "Where's the last time you saw them? What's the last thing they said to you?" Maybe they would work from there. Trace their footsteps. It was a start at least.

It isn't like them. Their family vacations usually consist of a beach for her, and some alone time for her Dads. With copious amounts of fishing in between. But they always plan those together and usually it's only because their CO is so pissed off that they've accrued so much time off. They don't just take off, randomly.

She takes a deep breath. She's only upset because no one is listening. But Gladio is. And that calms her more than anything.

"It was five days ago, at my gym." She teaches gymnastics part time, and works on her own abilities there as well. Her hands flex. "They were in their uniforms and headed home. They just stopped by because I forgot to get a credit card from one of them for a few house purchases that needed to be made." She wants to be doing something. Though, she supposes this that. "Dad told me not to break the bank and grumbled about breaking in a new couch. Daddy said he'd save a plate of dinner for me, since I wasn't going to make it home in time." She takes a deep breath, calming the last of her nerves. "When I got home, dinner wasn't waiting, the dishwasher hadn't been emptied and their boots weren't there. Wherever they are, they're still in their uniforms."

Five days... Thats a long time for them to have gone no contact.

Gladio moved from a crouch to kneeling down on one knee, still listening to her story, slowly nodding along. "So... somewhere between your gym and home, they went off course. You've checked the area?" He suspected she probably had, multiple times, but it was worth asking.

"Five days is a long time. Tell me what you've done, and we can look into things you've not been able to. Like me leaning on their CO to get their ass moving." And he would, if he needed to. If a couple of the Guard are missing then something needed to be done to find them. So first he'd try and find out of they were doing something covert. It could all just be a big mistake. But if not... they needed to find them.

"That's the thing. Their bikes made it home, unless they were on foot, which they might have been." She admits. Sighing. "If they were on foot, I don't know where they could've gone, or what they could've done." She hates it. Her Dads are missing, and that's not good, for anyone. Their tempers are... well, legendary.

"I've checked all the usual haunts, all the bars and a few hotels that they frequent when they want to have time away from me." Jubilee says. "I've checked all the hospitals, and called the few contacts they have. No one has heard from them. I've tried their phones, but they roll straight to voicemail." She takes a deep breath. "And their CO just said that they could just want a vacation without me - which, they might? But they'd tell me about it."

She sighs. "I have a few more I can call, but I'm not supposed to unless I'm dying. But... this might count."

"If their bikes are home, they made it home. So something pulled them away after." Gladio thought about it while listening to the rest. Old haunts were out of the question then. Hospitals too. It didn't leave much else... unless they'd left the protection of the Crown City all together.

"Could someone close have called? Anyone of these 'unless I'm dying' folks be someone who had that power over your dads? 'Cause maybe it's time to make those calls." Gladio would definitely say that this counted as an emergency. And if it turned out that the two really HAD just left for some time away, all this mess would be on their head, not Jubilees.

"They could have been on foot. They walk sometimes." She doesn't know why and never bothered to ask.

She shakes her head. "No. Even if someone called, they'd leave me a message, voicemail something. They've done that before - had to leave unexpectedly, and then called me later. Four days of silence? That's not them." She's insistent because she knows her Dads.

"I haven't called, because they aren't... well, Dad and Daddy weren't always good guys. I mean, they were but they didn't keep good company. But even if one of those guys called, calling in a favor, they would've told me."

"Never say never, kiddo. This could be the exception to the rule. Can't rule that out. But its looking likely something happened. So if you can contact those people and ask around, it'll help." Once they'd chased down all those leads, there was only one other option.

"... There's a chance they're outside the city. If you're not finding them here, they could be all the way to Galdin at this point." Five days in any direction, though if they were on foot it would limit that distance considerably.

She sighs. "I can." She pulls out a plain phone, not hers - hers is sparkly - because she doesn't have those numbers on her phone.

"And if they're outside the city, they would've taken their bikes. Why go on foot?" She shakes her head. None of this makes sense. "Any help you can offer I'd appreciate."

She leans her head back. "Daddy used to train me to track him. I'm used to that, but four, five day head start? I don't even know where to start with it."

"Maybe they had no other choice?" Gladio offered. If they hadn't left word with Jubilee and hadn't contacted her since, clearly there was a lack of consent happening here. So if they weren't outside of the city and were still inside, they could be held somewhere. But what bothered him was if they were being held hostage, where was blackmail? Where was the ransom? Where was the lording over them that they'd captured two Crownsguard?

"I'll help any way I can. We start with those phone calls." After that, retracing their steps again. Maybe he could get ahold of their phone records, find out if they received any calls before or after they disappeared.

Jubilee doesn't want to think about that, she doesn't want to face the fact that someone might have taken her Dads, and that means... Yeah, it's up to her to go get them, because no one else will.

She takes a deep breath, stands up and pushes a button on the phone. There's only a couple of numbers programmed into it. She gets someone on the line. "It's the Princess. Have you seen or heard from them?" She doesn't have to say much. Just what her Dads taught her.

"Nope." Click. Well, some of their 'friends' are not friendly at all and she knew that.

Another call gets the same result as does the third. She shakes her head. "None of them have seen or heard from them. Meaning, you might be right." There's one call left to make, but she's not comfortable doing that here. That's a call for the house. "If you can lean on their CO, I'd appreciate it." Stuff the feelings of worry down. She can collapse later. Now, it's time to help her Dads.

He waited and watch as she made her calls and frowned when it seemed like each call was met with a negative. Gladio sighed and looked unhappy with these new predicament. He'd honestly hoped that someone might have been able to give them answers. Without they were still stuck on square one with no direction to go in.

Gladio pushed himself up to his feet and then held out a hand for Jubilee.

"I'll do that. I'll try and get what I can outta them. Gimme a day. Go home, try and get some sleep. I'll come by tomorrow with anything I've learned." And time off to lend her as much help as he could give.

She nods. She needs a day to make some arrangements for the cat, and to figure out what she's going to do. There are a few more calls she can make, but she's worried about what to do when that day is over. Where does she even start?

And if it comes to the fact that they forgot or something equally stupid? She's going to have Words with them, and they're going to find out how many swear words, in how many languages she actually knows.

"I appreciate it." She pulls out a card and writes her address on the back of it. The front is embossed and prettily made up with Jubilee's name, and one of her job titles: artist. "If you need me, my cell's on there, as well."

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