RP:Fireflying Too Close To The Sun

Part of the The Dust Up In Cenril Arc

Summary: Alvina hears that a youth with a metal leg is causing trouble in Cenril. It can only be Emelyan. He leads them into a coffee shop and confesses he's the FireFly of Firefly Steve (The hot drug that sweeping the nation) and he's being elbowed out of the organization by Eleanor and Hudson. Emelyan warns that if Hudson continues to try and make the stuff without him, the consequences could be dire and tries to enlist Alvina's help in 'wiping Hudson memory of the formula'. Alvina goes about her intended business of fixing his leg and advises him Hudson won't listen to a word she says and she doesn't want to be involved in any of this drug lord business anymore.

Streets of Cenril

Alvina had heard a nasty rumor. One about a child with a metal leg brawling in the streets of Cenril. Since the only other person she'd ever made a leg for was not a child... Emelyan is the likely candidate. So she heads to Cenril with all her tools in tow. Asking people on the street if they knew where one might locate a rambunctious robot-like individual. She's not having much luck and hopes the sitter doesn't get worried. It's unusual for her to have so many tools on hand but the main purpose of this visit was to check on Emelyan's leg. It had been a while now since the leg had been attached. All without anesthesia, the bard recalled. She's dressed in her usual navy blue cloak and high neck dress. White boots and clinking silver bracelets. No rings of necklace, but one very odd bracelet that looked ancient. Seamless, and reflective silver band around her right fleshed wrist instead of the rosy gold of her new plated prosthetic. She's stopped again to ask a woman carrying loaves of bread of she'd seen anything suspicious.

The woman hadn't, but Alvina didn't have to wait much longer. Her inquiries had been noted, and Emelyan had friends and collegues among the pads of Cenril. It was he who found her, wearing a dirty beige shirt, goggles on his forehead, a few bronze chains on his sides, and two metal gauntlets on his fists. He'd been street brawling, alright, but this wasn't sport fighting. Not with those fists. "Alvina. Does Hudson know you're here?" He looked around, curiously. "Follow me. We can talk in this coffee shop." He'd get her off the streets, it just wasn't safe these days. And if he was right... it might get a lot less safe very soon. He'd been making friends, in case Eleanor tried something more overt than her latest hostilities. They'd have a table, and Emelyan would order a dark, bitter coffee, with no cream or sugar. "Anything for you, Alvina?" Once sat down, he'd cross his metal leg over his other one, taking off his gauntlets and placing them at his side on the bench. "Your tools suggest you came to check on the leg. It's fine, though perhaps it could use a tune up." He was perfectly capable of doing that himself, but he was... rough on the leg. Fighting, traveling in Frostmaw and the desert, voyages through the sewers and subtle mutations of his flesh put some powerful wear and tear on the leg. It held up well, though. It had been well made.

A Shady Coffee Joint

Alvina is caught off guard but Emelyan's question. How did he know Hudson? And if he knew Hudson he had to know that they were separated. Or maybe not. She can't imagine Hudson would go around bragging about how some gangster guys tried to kidnap his family. Alvina allows herself to be shuffled off into the coffee shop where she orders nothing because new mothers can't have caffeine. She looks Emelyan over carefully, making note of the gauntlets and biting her tongue. A frown creases her forehead when he mentions the leg needing a tune up. It's very dodgy and presumptuous (even if he was right and that was why she came here). Was a coffee shop a good place for such work? She'd pause and wait for his coffee to arrive before replying. "Hudson and I are no longer together." First order of business, make sure everyone knew so no one would continue to try and kidnap her or their daughters. She would have elaborated but has no idea Emelyan is part (or was part) of the drug operation. Awkwardly, she pretends to look for a tool that she can already see. "What are you doing out here and what are those gauntlets?" Her tone is sharp, very mother like, can you really blame her? She felt slighted. He was using his leg for evil!

Emelyan watched Alvina's every nervous movement. He'd done some research since a rift had grown between him and Hudson, thanks to Eleanor. It might be important information. He had no desire to catch the woman up in business, however. He liked and respected Alvina, appreciated her help when he'd lost his leg. "It comes as a surprise to me that you two are no longer together." That it did, though he guessed Hudson's work made the relationship difficult. Last thing he knew, Hudson did what he did because of his love for his family. How much had the man changed? "These are pneumatic gauntlets. Power fists, if you will, which make use of my pyrokinetic capabilities to deliver tremendous, explosive force." Kept simplistic enough that the Gods wouldn't disintegrate them. "There is something I've wanted to talk to you about, Alvina. It concerns Hudson, and something very dangerous I believe he is doing, or going to do." Emelyan might clear his head with street brawling, and he might be a druglord, but he was actually an incredibly moral individual, following his own strict codes of conduct. He did a lot of good, as much or more than he did bad, but there was a lot of potential for great evil where his drug was concerned... especially if Hudson and Eleanor tried to cut him out. They didn't know the true purpose of Firefly, and without his help making it, it would become something different. Unstable. Dangerous.

Alvina maintains her frown at his surprise. She didn't need to say it came as a surprise to her as well. Kids change you, she thought with no sparse amount of bitterness. "Why exactly do you have power fists?" Her tone is flat, disapproving. But Emelyan moves back to Hudson and Alvina shakes her head 'no'."I don't think there can be anything more dangerous or stupid than what he's doing now, if you ask me. By the way... How do you even know Hudson?"What crazy stuff was he inclined to? Was Emelyan a Firefly user? That couldn't be possible but then... He had power fists and a reputation for street brawling... Which she would have found impossible until just now too. "Even if I wanted to help, I refused contact with him until he finds.." a pause, to consider her word choice. "A better job."

Emelyan smiled. "A better job? What a delightful idea." He pressed his fingers together, steepling them. "I have something to tell you, Alvina. I am the one called Firefly. I invented the drug he helps produce. It was made for more than one reason, but I've run into a problem. Hudson and Eleanor, his partner, are planning to cut me out of the business. I can understand if this wouldn't interest you in the least. However. If I'm not producing Firefly, then it shouldn't be produced. In an imperfect form, it is far more dangerous to people than it currently is, and I cannot allow people to be exposed to that danger. I suffer more than a measure of responsibility for it. I need your help. Help me, and Hudson can be removed from the business entirely, to find more... savory employ. I want to erase his memories, through alchemy, of the Firefly formula, and it alone. If you can help me do that, I can shut down the project, and end this before things get messy. Before blood starts spilling." Almost as an afterthought, he looked to his gauntlets. "And the street fighting is purely recreational. The gauntlets are weapons, not something I use at full capacity in a friendly, sporting bout." He had his share of bruises and the like. "You'd be surprised the amazing people you can meet on the streets." Especially when they were exposed to Firefly. The drug had served its true purpose, and the Cupitor Immortalis had its basis to grow.

Alvina does not want to hear this. She does not want to believe that Emelyan is involved in her would-have-been-husband's drug business. Bloody Hell; is there anyone in this world with clean hands anymore? She looks clearly uncomfortable and gets up to sit on the bench beside him, choosing to demand that he present his leg instead of answering his reply. "Let me see..." It's all she says, and she'll jerk it a bit if he tries to get any other answers out of her before she's done. The only thing that can overwrite her emotions would be her work. Engineering. Her first true love..but even now she's flickering in-between thinking about Hudson making some dangerous drug that Emelyan and Eleanor are involved with and where this bolt needs to be tightened and how much. A bit of cosmetic scuffing, no doubt due to the fighting. Would Hudson really get out of this business if she helped Emelyan? No reason why it couldn't work but... Another tool is produced, lightly buffing out a small dent. "I won't go behind his back. I'll never hear the end of it." It's tempting, oh so tempting to ask Emelyan to instead agree to remove traces of the witch Valrae so she might have his whole heart again but she doesn't. Probably because she'd accidentally blabbed to Josleen about Valrae being accused of murder. If Hudson found out she was sneaking around trying to get rid of Val...(Which was all accidental, she wasn't making a conscience effort to seek these situations out, mind you) he'd never come home. "I'll try to talk to him again but he doesn't listen to me anymore than he apparently listens to you. I told him to give this stuff but he says he can't. Won't give me a reason, won't talk to me about it." Eventually, she puts Emelyan's leg back down, surrendering it back to his control. "I don't want to be involved. I just want to be safe, my kids to be safe. Come see me in a few months so I can take a look at it again, okay? Don't make me hunt you down... it's troublesome..." The bard tries to sound matronly, but her resolve is weak. She's so tired of Hudson's drug business and what it's doing to her life. It's ruining everything...

Emelyan winced, seeing Alvina's pain, and her desperation to hide it. He had caused a lot of pain in his selfish ventures, and felt more than a few pangs of remorse. No matter how much good he did to atone, his sins continued to mount, and how would the balance look in the end? Were his plans, his grandiose designs really worth what he inflicted on the people around him? He suffered her attentions in silence, thinking. It was a while until he spoke, waiting for her to say her piece. "I'm sorry, Alvina. The last thing I want is to hurt you, or your family. It was I who dragged Hudson into this business, and I held back the truth of my designs from him. But he is going to be in great danger, and soon, if he tries to cut me out of production. More than he understands. Help me get through to him. It's time he knew the truth... if he tries to create Firefly by himself, there will be cataclysmic repercussions. I must convince him not to do it, and I'm afraid that it's already too late. Eleanor is making plans to cut me out of the business, I'm sure of it. It's better that the business die than that happen. I don't know if I can fix things once that happens. People will die. Innocent people."

Alvina stares at Emelyan, unmoved or perfectly masked to appear so. "Innocent people almost did die. Some Larket thugs tried to kidnap me and our children." If he can make out the thin scab line on her throat, it'll serve as proof that she'd been held against a knife to come along quietly. "I'm not getting involved anymore. This is Hudson's decision and I've begged and pleaded for him to reconsider and leave but he swears it's not safe. That everyone in this is crazy and they know his face. That he'll never be able to run away. So unless you can wipe the memory of everyone else involved...I don't think there's a quick cure to this." She sighs, running out of steam to keep distant. Raising two children on her own while keeping up a job is exhausting. She has refused all offerings Hudson has made to let him help financially. There's nothing she wants more than to just pretend she doesn't know what's going on. "Hudson is an idiot and he won't back down. You'll have to get someone to hold him to the ground and wipe his memories if that's what you want. Nothing I say will change things." With that, she stands, stuffing all her tools back in the back and staring hard at Emelyan. "I mean it. I want to help but Hudson won't change his mind. He's too proud. If you can find a way to get him out of this, I'll be forever in your debt but he won't bend to me anymore than he'll bend to you, it seems. Maybe Valrae would have better luck getting him to do what you want. She's always had a way with him in the past." This admission nearly breaks her down completely. Her face attempts to fold in on itself, she fights tears that don't yet exist in her eyes. "Take care of that leg. I'm so sick of this drug business I could scream..." And then she's off, out through the door of the coffee shop and back into the streets to find Mercedes. Its back to Frostmaw for her and all the trouble that tends to follow her wherever she goes.