Work Text:
Vox Machina Taking In A Child Would Include
- okay so obviously the first reaction is that no one wants to take this child with them
- like they care about the safety and wellbeing of the child and they live super dangerous lives so the first response is very much "we have to take this child home"
this is especially true for Vax but I'll get to that in a minute- but then there are problems with that - the child has no home to go through (or at least not a safe one) and no one local seems to be able to take them
- their either too poor for an extra mouth to feed, or the local towns don't have a proper infrastructure for child care and fostering, or they're labourers/farmers who talk about the child as an extra (free) labourer rather than a child
- they actually nearly do leave the child at a farm that seems nice, until pike starts asking about school or other opportunities and the family are like "that doesn't matter, they'll work the farm" and it's not even really meant in a mean way - lots of people in this area do grow up without any kind of formal education and working farmland
- but it's different being a person born into that life, and VM actively choosing that life for the child you know? They feel more responsibility and more weight in that decision
- So in the end they're like "okay, the child stays until we can find the right home"
we all know how that goes- there's an argument about what counts as "the right home" and what that looks like but eventually they just settle on "we'll know it when we see it"
- so, now they have a child
- Percy isn't exactly bad with children, but he also hasn't spent any significant time in their company since he was a child so be basically just talks to the child like they're an adult
- It's actually very educational, but the other VM members do have to remind him occasionally that a child is probably not interested in the finer details of diplomatic trade treaties
- Pike is awesome with the child, although she's constantly worried that she isn't
- Scanlan is super soft anytime pike is spending time with the child
- like super soft
- He is actually shockingly good with the child - everyone in VM avoided Scanlan having unsupervised conversations with the child because they assumed he would say something inappropriate but actually he's great at making them laugh and encouraging them and at noticing when they're hungry/tired/have been walking too long etc
- Grog thinks he's great with them, but actually is a little dangerous
- it's not intentional or due to carelessness, obviously, he just doesn't really understand the breakable-ness of human children
- he really cares about learning though, and never makes the same mistake twice
- Keyleth is actually a little like Percy - she's better at trying to pitch what she's saying to a child level, but she tends to ramble a little and get into specifics
- she's also kind of the opposite of Grog in that she's overly cautious about what the child can and should do
- Vex is great with the child - tells good stories, plays good games, teaches skills at the right level
Catch percy staring- Trinket absolutely loves the child and basically adopts them as a cub
- The biggest problem really is Vax
- He's never, ever cruel to the child, but he is distant and strict
- there's no point getting attached he says because they're only going to drop them off at the next village anyway
- all attempts to play, talk, teach, etc are passed off onto the other VM members and no amount of cajoling or coaxing can get him to join in
- in fact the more they push it the more annoyed he gets about it and eventually snaps at them and storms off
- so of course vex goes after him
- "Are you going to tell me what your problem is?"
- "you shouldn't all be getting so attached to that child. we have no right."
- "the child is with us for now. What, you want to ignore them like father ignored us?"
- "you want them to grow up with the dangers we did?!"
- Which is the crux of the matter really - Vax knows that if he starts to care for the child he will want them with him forever - he always wants the people he loves most with him
- but he also knows exactly what its like to grow up in dangerous circumstances and how much better off the child will be if they find them a stable home
- and vex gets is, all of VM do really, but they also get that you can't choose the circumstances of your life and for whatever reason or by whatever series of coincidences, this child is with them now and they can at least provide the care and support that they can
- which at least mollifies Vax a bit
- and then the issue is that it's been so long now
- they initially agreed to care for them until they find them a permanent home - which they expected to take maybe a couple of months max
- but as time stretches on, and they take on missions to make money, which delays finding a home even further
- until finally one day they do find the home
- And there's nothing wrong with it, at all
and they do try to find something wrong with it- and they're just about to hand the child over because none of them feel like they can say no, and at least none of them feel like they can say it first
- but the child turns back to them, tears in their eyes - they understand what's happening, of course, VM explained it in plenty of detail, but they don't really understand why
- being with VM was the safest they've ever felt, so why would going somewhere else be good for them?
- then the tears turn to a tantrum
- but this is the tantrum of a child who has spent the last several months learning turn of phrase from scanlan, logic from percy, and stomping their feet from grog
- it is a force to be reckoned with
- VM look at each other, then at the would-be adoptees
- "Yeah, sorry, they're ours"