RP:An 'In-Tents' Confrontation

Part of the Larketian Fault Lines Arc

Summary: Pilar is giving out food and water to the Larketians living in tents where the Towering Tenements once stood when the royal couple show up to do the same. Things turn sour quickly when the residents, angry that their homes have taken a backseat to Macon's mother's estate, start throwing food at Macon and Josleen. Pilar takes the people's side, scolding the couple for their skewed priorities. The couple scoff at her and leave, with Josleen beginning to feel unwell again.

Towering Tenements

Pilar 's duties as a healer were done, but she hadn't yet left Larket. There were still people in need. So many people in need. She arrived at the site of the tenements, wearing her dirty work clothes, a jug of water in one arm and dragging a borrowed wagon behind her, piled with food. She began to make rounds of the camp, giving out bread and meat and cheese and water. It ground her gears to think of that rich old bat getting her estate rebuilt while these poor folks were living in tents, sleeping in the dirt, starving. And some morons had trashed it, meaning it had to be rebuilt AGAIN, so these people had to wait even LONGER to have homes again.

Macon is decked out in the full Rage suite (except for the crown, which is still up in Frostmaw, and is replaced with the new marble crown of Larket.) He and Josleen move through the city with a contingent of six Kingsguard, a throwback to wartime when the Rage Knight was traveling with such an entourage at all times. Their destination is the construction site that was once the towering tenements. The King does his pointing thing where appropriate during the short journey from Fort to the temporary encampment, making a few citizens’ days. The Royals are not oblivious to the plight of the Larketians here and have come, as they always do following the quake, with care packages of their own that the royal guard will start to distribute once the King and Queen are on the scene.

Josleen believed visiting the Towering Tenements was a necessary risk. Pros: Show the people the royals remember their plight and care. Cons: Many residents will be upset that they still do not have homes, and that Augusta Jauzon will move from the castle to an estate before they have a roof over their heads. Still, the King and Queen agreed a visit is better than no visit. As Macon points, Josleen waves. She greets few residents by name, but waves to all, including the nameless. Gigi trots alongside his two-legged parents. He wags his tail and sniffs crotches and butts to say Hello! Josleen makes it a point, like last time, to personally hand out feminine care and infant care products. She dressed down for the occasional, which by Josleen standards means the dress costs half the average month rent in Larket, instead of double.

Pilar was helping someone feed their elderly father when the King and Queen arrived. Many of the people avert their eyes, only lifting them to give thanks for the gifts that have been brought. Pilar felt her stomach clench. She had not heard good things about Macon... 'twisted' was the word [name redacted] had used. Still, when the couple drew closer, she bowed low, keeping her eyes down, and saying not a word. How dare they show up here in all that obnoxious regalia, while the people here had naught but the rags on their backs? Pilar swallowed the lump in her throat.

Macon makes sure to visit with the faces that look like they are happy to see him and The Queen while he hands out some small parcels himself. He stops to chat about reconstruction efforts elsewhere in the city, his participation in the charity brawl at the Red Ogre site (He would have won if it weren’t for this and that), and the sinkhole that has appeared to the east. He takes suggestions for the name of the new Red Ogre Inn and is told by at least one guy that Kreekitaka has been seen in the city recently. Should they be worried about dinosaurs? ‘No. Of course not.’ The scattered dissent from the residents of the camp is avoided and ignored for now.

Josleen and Macon drift apart to better distribute the royal radiance. Josleen’s path takes her close to Pilar, whom she recognizes from their time together as medics in Hildegarde’s army. “Pilar! What a pleasant surprise!” She air-cheek kisses the woman in work clothes. “I didn’t know you were in town. Did you come to volunteer? Come.” She gestures for Pilar to follow. “You should come meet King Macon. He’s wonderful.” If Pilar stands, Josleen will snake her arm through Pilar’s. If the vampire gets the sense she is partially being used as a prop (watch the Queen go arm-in-arm with a woman in work clothes; the royals, they’re just like us!), she’d be correct, in part.

Pilar looked up at Josleen nervously. "I, um... Hello, Your Highness... Yes, I've just been um, doing what I can to help." She didn't fight as Josleen makes herself appear closer to her than they really are. Pilar's eyes flicker over to Macon as Josleen leads her towards him. She was tense, nervous. She didn't know Josleen well, had always thought her nice enough, but lately, Pilar wasn't impressed with her governance. But maybe the Queen didn't have a lot of pull? Maybe it was all Macon's decisions? As they drew closer to the King, the vampire cast her eyes downward again.

Macon laughs once, loud, like “-Hah-!” when he is treated to a really terrible Kreekitaka impression by one of the Larketians gathered around him. The King pats the comedian on the shoulder while Josleen and Pilar gain his attention. He parts the small crowd he has accumulated so that The Queen can make the introduction she desires. If it is mentioned that she comes from Frostmaw that information will earn an eye twitch, but eventually Macon is prompted to say, “Ah! The Healer’s guild. Of course.” The guild leader is a ‘loyal’ Larketian, so he is always happy to meet a member, especially one that has been toiling through the recovery effort aiding his people. The King thanks Pilar for all that she has done thus far since the quake and asks if there is anything she is in need of to assist with her work here. Maybe he is not -so- twisted, [Redacted].

Josleen indeed informs Macon that Pilar helped Frostmaw as a medic. Therefore, she doesn’t need to say, he need not worry that she is responsible for Larketian deaths (just patching up giants who may have contributed to Larketian deaths, but that’s a flowchart that induces migraines). Once Pilar has answered Macon’s question, Josleen asks, “Where are you staying in Larket?”

Pilar could hardly look up at Macon. She kept her head bowed, out of respect--no, not respect, fear. Powerful authority figures (that she didn't know) made her nervous. She only glanced up at him when he asked if she there was anything she needed. "N-no, there's just... No, I'm fine." There was nothing SHE needed. But the people... The people needed their homes. She swallowed again, barely looking at Josleen. "Um... I'm... not. I've been staying in Kelay."

Macon raises a brow at the timid vampire while she answers, barely looking his way. “Well let Us know if you think of anything.” Information from those on the ground is invaluable in allocating limited relief supplies.The King looks back and forth between Pilar and Josleen, somewhat questioningly towards the latter and seems like he is about to separate from the two of them again to return to the receptive parts of the camp. He does not get far however, before a stale piece of bread is thrown, along with an insult, his way and strikes him on the right cheek (face). The Rage Knight growls and glares a slate glare in the direction the tossed food came from. A mix of gasps and additional dissent rises up from those that saw the crusty bread hit its mark. The general topic of the rumble is the same as Pilar’s concern, Augusta Jauzon’s new home is coming along much quicker than the replacement of the apartments here.

Josleen glances at Macon over Pilar’s bowed head and shrugs, shaking her head helplessly. She has no idea why Pilar is behaving this way. The vampire has always been shy, but not so meek. Like Macon, she’s about to leave Pilar too in favor of mingling with Larketians. She doesn’t see the bread hit Macon, but she can hear his tell-tale growl, and discern from the gasps and rumbling of the crowd that things have taken a sour turn. She braces herself for the onslaught of Macon’s rage aura, but none is forthcoming. Muzo’s treatment must have worked. She looks at Macon, then the crowd. Though tempted to say something, she does not, as she’s conscious that may look like King Macon hiding behind his shrill woman who must defend him. Instead she looks at a guard, expecting him to say something, but guards aren’t trained to use their words. The guard nods as if he understood Josleen’s order, but he didn’t. He bullies his way through the crowd in the direction from which the bread was launched. “Out of the way! Who did it!” The Tenement residents don’t give up the perp and instead a slice of overripe, sun-baked cheese is thrown at the guard from his right, then an egg, also at the guard. Two more guards jump into the crowd, forcibly pushing any who resist their approach. Josleen purses her lips and belatedly says to the guards, “It’s likely just children, whose crimes are best punished by the swift, stiff hand of their parents, not the cuffs of the Crown.” She looks to the King to see if he agrees with her merciful approach. As she looks away from the crowd, a fistful of porridge lands smack in her hair, at the back of her head.

Pilar gasped when the bread flew through the air to strike the King. Fear for the fate of the bread-thrower gripped her heart and Josleen seemingly sending a guard to rough up the perpetrator earns a murmured "N-no, stop..." She looked at the Queen, shock and disappointment on her features. It took her far too long to call back her attack dogs. More food was thrown, and Pilar lifted an arm as porridge splattered across her sleeve. Abject terror reaches the vampire's face. The last time she'd been faced with an angry mob, it didn't go well. "Stop! Stop! Everyone stop!" She looked desperately to Josleen. "Don't hurt them!"

Macon is indeed enjoying a temporary respite from that uncontrollable inherited Rage Aura of his thanks to the secret treatment from the scientist Muzo, and good thing too. Surely when he sees that porridge splatter onto his wife he would normally have put out a wicked pulse of that maddening magic that might even become amplified by his Queen’s own strange, infuriating infection. Instead the Furious feedback loop is stopped before it can even get started and Macon is barking at his men to return to him. The Rage Knight is in agreement with the bard and the vampire that beating these unfortunate Larketians into submission is not the proper solution here. He corrals the Kingsguard to surround the royal pairing and incidentally Pilar while grabbing the most senior of the group by the collar of his breastplate and explaining, loudly, that if anything else hits Josleen it will not end well for this group of royal guardsmen.

Josleen glares in the direction of the porridge trajectory as she falls into the protective circle of the Royal Guard and the King. She rakes the porridge out of her onto the ground then pulls a kerchief from her purse and cleans her sticky locks of hair. She notes the way that Macon's natural, unaltered rage rattles one guard, but only the one. On the upside: neither the guard nor crowd are enraged enough to escalate this situation. "Let's just go," she says to Macon and Pilar alike. The convoy presumably starts moving, unless Macon stops it. Either way, Josleen speaks specifically to Pilar. "It's difficult to rule, especially after a crisis. I don't envy the King. Nothing is ever enough for these people. He's done everything he can, and yet..." She gestures helplessly at the crowd. "I hope no one has been rude to you during your service here."

Pilar shrank away from the guards, but didn't have much room to move elsewhere, and so while she didn't like it, she was stuck as a part of the royal entourage. As she was ushered away, she looked at Josleen in disbelief. "I... Are you serious?" She stopped walking, a guard barreling into her. She didn't move. That vampire strength, yo. Pilar stammered, as if trying to wrap her head around the sheer stupidity of Josleen's statement. When she finally found her words, she found her anger, too. "'These people' have been living in tents for WEEKS while a single woman gets to live in a castle while a mansion is built for her! And you say he has done everything he can for them?!"

Macon, The King of Larket does not appreciate being discussed like he is not standing right here, even when he isn’t -actually- standing right here. Everyone should talk about The Rage Knight as if he is standing over their shoulder. When Pilar snaps at Josleen Macon tilts his head, irritated, and stops in his retreat, though no one comes barrelling into him. When The King stops, so does the kingsguard. Clearly this vampire doesn’t understand the weight of the crown, especially this one. Marble? Impractical. He has no need to explain himself to this woman, who is not even a Larketian, mind you. He decides against instigating a debate in this venue where the audience might not be favorable towards him and instead just delivers a cold, stone glare at the vampire speaking to the Queen.

Josleen stops when Macon does, and likewise no one knocks into her. She glares at Pilar and lifts her chin so that she's looking down her nose at the rude vampire (from the monarchs' perspective). "Yes, he has. You don't know or understand all the factors that go into each decision." Aware of the crowd, the bard performs for them and her husband alike. "And frankly you are not Larketian and we owe you no explanation." Fact check: Macon perhaps does not feel he owes even Larketians an explanation, but Josleen occupies a gray space between Macon and Pilar's opposing opinions. "But for the sake of your personal enrichment, allow me to explain this decision. Are you aware of the caravan raids that have affected Larket's imports?" The Queen's bluff weaves facts and lies seamlessly. "Some of the material our contractors need were looted from the supply caravans. The same materials which would go into building these good people's homes. But we have enough for smaller projects, such as a singular home. And should we tell the contractors not to build? To be unemployed and twiddle their thumbs, just to satisfy your priorities?" This story has a ring of 'truthiness'. The raids are fact. Materials have been stolen. And yet there's enough bull crap padded into her story's foundation to smell suspect. "In the meantime, we have provided tents, food, clothes, and other care items to the people. We're all in this together. There is only one entity to blame here: the earthquake. The last thing Larket needs now is this divisiveness."

Pilar glared back at Josleen. She hated the way the queen looked at her. Like she was better than her. She had been looked at in that way too many times in her life. She might have let Josleen's explanation slide, but for that look, and that condescending tone. "I know about the raids. It made my job healing your people very hard. But if you have enough materials for a MANSION, you have enough for apartments. That is assuming you are telling the whole truth, and I don't think you are." Gasps from the spectators. What gall, to accuse a queen of lying! To her face! "I think you either don't want to admit you made a bad decision, or you don't want to admit that you don't care about the poor and downtrod." There was sadness on Pilar's face now. "Please... Let it be the first one. I don't want to believe the woman who helped me learn to heal is gone."

Macon is at least a little impressed with how Josleen spins the truth to his and her benefit. For a brief moment one might be able to catch a sincere look of adoration on his face aimed towards his queen before Pilar’s rebuttal wipes it away. The target of the vampire’s words has taken a turn and now they seem mostly aimed at Josleen and carry a more personal tone than the ones directed at his choices as King of Larket. He seeks to redirect the bile as best he can, either back towards himself or… “I make no decisions concerning Larket lightly,” he growls out in a tone that is incredulous towards anyone being able to think otherwise. “Healing the wounded is one thing, but rebuilding a city is not somethin’ tha’ can be done overnight. We are doing all tha’ we can with wha’ we are given. My people will ‘ave ‘ohms again as soon as I can make it so. Instead of questioning us and inciting unrest, if the Larketians are truly your primary concern, perhaps your energy would be better spent petitioning the dragon queen t’send more aid. Or do you believe that Frostmaw is sparing all tha’ she can t’her Thane’s Kingdom?” He maintains a stone face after pointing out what he perceives as a hypocrisy, and gets the entourage moving again as he takes a step in the direction they were heading previously, away from the construction site and the shanty town.

Josleen lifts her eyes in a half-roll and inhales deeply at Pilar's rebuttal. It's an expression which says, 'You know nothing of construction.' But she doesn't say anything, as Macon interjects. The King gets the last word and Josleen falls in line with the exiting entourage. However, as she begins to move, she suddenly feels light headed. Her paces shorten and slow and she takes a deep breath as if steeling herself against some invisible pain. She forces a grimace-laced smile through the pain, forces her head up and shoulders back, and takes Macon's arm, ostensibly as a show of affection, but in truth for support. To preemptively dismiss the King's concern, her head shakes subtly. The vocal Queen suffers from too much discomfort to say any parting words to Pilar, thus making her exit appear even more rude. She does her absolute best to appear fine.

Pilar seethed. "Of course Hildegarde is! She cares about people!" Unlike you, she wanted to add, but she bit her tongue. It was a bit much. As the couple left her behind, she shouted, "You can't walk away from this! Your people will remember!" Or maybe not. People were fickle, after all. She would remember, though. She then noticed the audience they'd had, and her cheeks burned. She started down the street, towards the city exit.

Macon sneers at both the spoken and unspoken words from Pilar. She is delusional if she thinks Frostmaw is exerting itself with its full effort to assist The Hard City rebuild. The Furious King confirms what he thought previously, he had no need to argue with the vampire, and probably shouldn’t have in the first place. There would be no convincing her. He is bad. Hildegarde is good. In Frostmaw these are undeniable facts of the universe. Besides his unwillingness to shout at the exiting woman, The Rage Knight has a more pressing concern, the weakened Queen on his arm. He shoots her a questioning, somewhat concerned look. ‘What’s wrong?’ Is the unspoken question. Has she been ‘poisoned’ again?