RP:Nail Salon Under Attack

Part of the Larketian Fault Lines Arc

Summary: The witch-run nail salon in Larket is vandalized -- windows are smashed, and anti-witch slurs are painted on its exterior walls. Hudson and his employees rush to clean up the situation, and find an ally in Pilar.

The Witch-Run Nail Salon in Larket

Joanie headed to work, same as any other day, trying to ignore the stares and whispers. The witch-phobia had been building the last several weeks, but nothing had happened to her or her people... Until today. As she turned the corner and her salon came into view, she gasped. Someone had trashed the place but good. The windows had been shattered, an effigy in a pointy black hat was hung by a noose from the door, and words and phrases like "burn" and "witches not welcome" were painted all over the walls. To say it was upsetting was an understatement! Joanie had no idea what to do, until Devonne showed up. She told the young witch to run to Hudson and get him there immediately, then resumed staring at the mess. Becky, Katrina, and Lauren arrived one by one and joined Joanie in staring.

Devonne dispatches a messenger owl with the message. Hudson usually commutes to the nail salon from his bachelor pad in Cenril or Alvina's place in Frostmaw (though even then, sometimes with a pit stop at his apartment). Today, it's the former. He opens his door, still in his bathrobe, to receive this urgent note that's been couriered to him on an urgent basis. He's not expecting bad news, and while this doesn't rank among the type of news he fears, it causes him to begin releasing a stream of muttered curses whilst heading back inside to change into clothes. He books it to the nail salon in Larket after that, finding a number of his employees, all of whom are witches (he's pretty much the only person who still employs them) loitering in a state of great distress outside of the establishment. "Did you call the guards?" he asks Joanie, who pulls him aside and reveals that she hasn't because of his Actual Business (i.e., the one that isn't painting nails). It's quickly discovered that the vandalism is mostly an outdoors thing only - the inside looks clean, as it should. The lab door is locked. As Hudson and Joanie traipse around the premises and take stock of the damage, the rest of the girls begin to slowly clean up what they can. They start by lowering the effigy.

The scene had started to draw stares from passersby, but at this early hour there aren't a lot, nor are there many that linger to watch. As the girls outside, joined shortly by Devonne, began trying to wash the paint off, Becky suddenly said, "Wait, where's Rachel?" The girls stopped and looked around, all realizing that the normally-punctual Rachel was nowhere to be seen. Lauren stopped and went inside to inform Joanie and Hudson. Joanie frowned and sent her back outside before looking to Hudson. "I have a bad feeling," she said. "I'm going to her house." As she stepped outside though, Rachel finally arrived. Limping, with a black eye and bloody, possibly broken nose. There were tears streaming down her face.

"She could just be hungover," says Hudson, likewise having the sensation of a bad feeling taking root inside of him. He doesn't have to wait long for it to develop, like a hideous Polaroid picture, this whole scene really, the more he sees the more he doesn't like. Rachel's appearance, visible through the shattered salon windows, scuppers his mood even further. He feels an itch break out over the skin of his forearms, the telltale prickle of a werewolf rage. "Rachel," he says, following in Joanie's tracks. His other employees are there first, though, and hustle her inside, huddling around her. They'll be more useful to her than he is, after all, they have healing abilities. Only Hudson and Joanie remain outside, briefly between them debating the merits of reporting this vandalism to the guards. They conclude that it should be, because it obviously happened, and people should know. Joanie leaves Hudson outside to conceal the product he keeps in the lab. He smokes an herbal cigarette, sits on the stoop, over the word BURN.

Oh, if only Rachel had heard them, she could have stopped Joanie. Alas, Joanie went off to fetch a guard, and Rachel stayed behind to receive treatment from her injuries. She continued crying silently as her co-workers administered aid, unable or unwillingly to speak. Once she was better and had calmed down, she and the girls went outside. "Hudson, where'd Joanie go?" Katrina asked. It was around this time that Pilar happened by. She was searching for people to potentially offer services at the Eyrie groundbreaking ceremony, and she wondered if the nail witches maybe had other skills. All thought of that fled her mind when she saw the mess, however. "Dioses mios..." she whispered, and hurried over. "Hudson!" she called. Far as she knew, he and Alvina were still broken up, but as Alvina hadn't shared the cause, she was giving Hudson the benefit of the doubt.

"To get the guards," says Hudson, to Katrina, the words coming out in a cloud of smoke. He's funneling the rest into the wind as Pilar calls out to him. Smoking provides a bit of relief from his lycan rage, his face is less clouded by it when he rises to his feet to meet her. He looks merely beleaguered, beaten down, as any small business owner would. "Hey, Pilar," he says, thinking it's just rotten luck that she's been present for the home invasion and now this. He makes eye contact, gestures with his cigarette-wielding hand at the smashed up salon. There are no words, it's obvious what's happened. Katrina cuts into their non-conversation: "No, Joanie can't get the guards! They're the ones who hurt Rachel!" Leaving no room for reply, she sprints after the direction in which Joanie had vanished. Hudson mutters a word that rhymes with duck, and looks at Pilar, feeling his arms break out again in an inferno of itching. "Well, I'm the only guy in town who still employs witches," he says with false gaiety, wearing a grim smile that suggests he's just barely got a handle on it. "Maybe you shouldn't be seen hanging around here," he adds.

Pilar frowned, her own rage boiling. There were few things that could make her this angry. Seeing people treated the way HER people treated was one of them. As Katrina ran off, Pilar said, "I don't care who sees me here. I'll stand with anyone who gets bullied. I'll fight for them." She looked to the witches. "Which of you is Rachel? Please, tell me what happened." Rachel, shifting her weight nervously, said, "I-I was just minding my business, walking to work, when a pair of guards came up to me. They accused me of casting a curse on my neighbors and said I had to come with them. I refused, and that's when they started hitting me and tried to drag me away. I... I used a small hex on them, made their hands break out in boils, and ran." Rachel looked on the verge of tears again. "Oh gods, they're gonna send me to jail, aren't they..." Becky and Devonne hugged her and Lauren chewed her bottom lip, fiddling with her crystal pendant.

Hudson lifts his eyebrows at Pilar as she swears fealty to the oppressed. He takes a hit off of his cigarette and then sighs it out, clenching his free hand in a fist. "Easy saying that too loudly," he cautions her. His employees have crept out of the salon, with dustbins and brooms and wooden boxes to hold the broken shards of glass. Rachel is patched up as best as a quick magic job can do, and she gets pulled into the orbit of his conversation with Pilar conversation. Hudson's expression is dark, shuttered, as she recounts what had happened. Ridiculous, all of it, Hudson can hardly believe this is reality. "Do you have somewhere you can stay for a few days?" he asks Rachel, his gaze slicing to Pilar a beat later to take the measure of her empathy for the situation. Rachel nods. Hudson drops the herbal cigarette to the ground and grinds it out. "Alright, well, they're gonna come here. Go pack some things and go, Becky go help her." They don't linger, though Devonne and Lauren do, looking like cagey tigers at Pilar. Hudson sighs. "She's fine, a friend of the family, you can trust her," he says, hoping it's true.

Pilar listened to Rachel's story with growing anger. She said nothing, but her jaw was set and her hands balled into fists. She took a deep breath and sighed, then looked to the two remaining witches. "I'm gitana, what you might know better as a gypsy. I've lived through this kind of thing before." Well, 'lived' was generous. She had died to hatred, was only there now because of a bottle of vampire blood. "I swear, I'll do what I can to help."

"There are some people, witches and allies, who meet at an abandoned warehouse on Tuesdays," offers Devonne, blushing as soon as she's said it, for both Hudson and Lauren have given her a cautioning look. "At least that's what I heard," she stammers to correct the invitation. The words are out there, twisting with promise, for a beat. "We should be cleaning up," Lauren wastes little time in herding them away to join Katrina, now returned, in cleaning up the damage. Joanie is likewise back, and she pulls at Hudson's elbow. "I sent a calm note to Alvina so she doesn't find out from the paper and worry," she says, offering Pilar the pleasant smile of a competent older woman who knows she is managing and organizing circles around Hudson. (A theme, with the women in his life.) "Oh, good idea, thanks," Hudson realizes outloud. Joanie doesn't dismiss herself, but she offers Pilar that same pleasant smile again before turning the weight of her gaze on Hudson. "I'm very sorry to pull you away, but we have to talk about security."

Pilar considered Devonne's words, thoughts of that young man from weeks ago floating in her mind. Tychus... He'd tried to recruit her for... something. Was this it? When Katrina and Joanie returned, and the others resumed picking up, Pilar said, "Um... One last thing, before you go. I, uh, I'm organizing the groundbreaking ceremony for the Eyrie outpost. If, if you guys want to, to come and set up stalls for... I don't know, face-painting, or anything, you're welcome to." She shuffled her feet. "Just, a, just a thought." She wandered over to the other witches. "Need a hand?"

Hudson notes that Joanie's trying to peel him away, but his gaze swings back to Pilar at the invitation. "Maybe not a bad idea," he sighs, scraping up a smile for her. "I think Alvina and I are gonna go, too, so see you there probably. Anyway." He holds direct eye contact with Pilar, like they're in something that goes beyond his easy demeanor as casual sports dude who owns a nail salon (lol WUT). "Thanks for being a friend today. Good seeing you." And with that, he lets Joanie lead him away, to congress upstairs about the changes that need to take place to make the establishment safe for them. The girls cleaning up bits of glass turn to Pilar, shy optimism written on their faces. They part to make room for her. "Careful. I'll get you some gloves," says Lauren.