RP:Not Working As Intended

Part of the Hour of Wolves Arc

Part of the The Dust Up In Cenril Arc

Summary: Hudson invites Meri to the witch-run nail salon in Larket to discuss what she knows about the red dirt dealing in Frostmaw. He shows her his surveillance op, which Aaken set up, only to find out that someone has tampered with it. Rather than project the goings-ons of three separate corners in Frostmaw, it now shows one corner, the interior of what appears to be a dance club, and an empty room. They agree to investigate further.

The Witch-Run Nail Salon in Larket

Hudson and Meri are due to catch up on what she's learned about the red dirt operation in Frostmaw from her patrols. He's done a bit of digging himself, set up a magical surveillance operation with the assistance of Aaken. He's got three different corners magically projected, and when he's waiting on the dust cooking process he's taken to watching them. He's gotten to know the guys who work them. As best as you can know some strangers. Not that it's led him to who they work for, hey, but that's what Huds has Meri for. Maybe. Or maybe they're both in the dark. In any event, he'd sent a note to her in Rynvale, arranged a meeting at the nail salon in Larket. The kindly older woman who manages the front, Joanie, would show her to the stairs that lead upstairs to his laboratory. The door's open, and he's got a pair of alchemist's goggles on and is tinkering with some liquid suspension when she arrives.

Meri has been summoned and she would show up as requested, absolutely no reason to deny Hudson. It was high time they attempted to catch up about things anyway. So it would be to the nail salon she would go, it was not her first visit to the place but since a particular blonde witch does not work here anymore...! One less reason, Huds, one less reason. Up the stairs she goes, and as soon as Hudson is within her sights a half- smile is displayed across red lips. "Heeeey. How is it going, Hudson? Interesting look you've got going on today. No protein shake, baseball cap, and gym bags today. But goggles. Talk about a clash of the types." A beat. "You know who I met that works here? This pretty blonde number named Valrae. How is she doing? I didn't see her downstairs with everyone else. Or maybe it is her day off?" Meri, admittedly, is not pleased with the results of that 'patrol' and it had panned out just as Hudson predicted it would, a few skulls were cracked, but one never knows until they know, do they? She expresses as much, "But you don't want to talk about all that, do you? You want to hear about how you called it with that patrol with Eirik, don't you?" Her smile widens to a full grin. "Yeah, it was not covert enough. Too obvious. Ring leader of that show of course would not have seen it that way."

Hudson squeezes an eyedropper a couple more times and then, satisfied, caps the little bottle that goes with it. He glances up to see Meri, and, pushing his goggles up onto his forehead, his expression splits into an easy grin. "Everyone misjudges me as a dumb jock," he agrees, going into his ice box to retrieve two cold ones. Without asking Meri if she'd like a drink, he pries them open and passes her one. She, at this time, is asking him about Valrae. He keeps his expression blank, except for a telltale lift of his eyebrows, and after a swig from his beer he cocks his head and looks at her like she's playing a game of cat and mouse with him and they both know it. What exactly had Valrae told this chick about her gig here, and him? He lets Meri guide the conversation to the actual topic at hand. He bobs his head as she confirms his prediction. "Sucks. Here, check this out," he says, waving her over to the magic projection glass that Aaken had arranged. The image displayed is a Frostmaw street corner, with a guy loitering, hands in his pockets. Not much action, in short. He gestures with his beer at the projection. "I keep hoping I'll see some higher up guy I recognize check in," he tells her. "So far, nope. Cool, huh?" He glances at Meri. "As for Val, she doesn't work here anymore. I bet the girls downstairs have her address if you're looking for her, though."

Meri observes what Hudson is doing but let's face it, it's over her head. The beer though? That is something she knows, understands and readily accepts. To suspect Meri of playing a game of cat and mouse was not entirely unrealistic, she's not above it. She also had no real gain in that particular subject. The blank expression that comes from the werewolf coupled with the lifted brow are quite telling. "I wouldn't say dumb is one of the descriptive words I have used for you. So..." Not that Meri gabs about Hudson to everyone, mind you. A few selects. Eleanor. Lita. Valrae. What do they say! Oh my! 'Check this out' she would and she knew well what she was looking at, in terms of where it came from. Meri had the chance of meeting with Aaken on more than one occasion, thus the lack of surprise when she sees the moving projection. There is a sip from her beer as Meri really studies the details of the man's face, shaking her head faintly as no recognition comes to mind. For a woman who was possibly just playing cat and mouse, these thoughts flow fairly freely. "Well you have one face on one corner. That's better than what I got. So, I presume you probably had a few projections done up but this was the only promising one? And are you going to keep this going? If you are, you might want to consider keeping a map of results. Short of paying the snake for more projections, about the only thing to be done is to get back out there and lurk around for this guy to see if he can't be followed?" As an afterthought. "I really hate the cold."

The corner of Hudson's mouth tugs upward in a smile at the mention of the 'snake.' So they've that guy in common. "Not a bad idea," he says, in response to her suggestions. "Check this out, though," he touches the glass to magically toggle the image, except the expression on his face suggests something's gone wrong. Instead of a second corner, they're looking at the inside of some sort of bar. There are people milling about, men in collared shirts open at the neck and women in Hot Girl Dresses (you know, the ones). "What," says Hudson, deadpan, and touches the glass to toggle once more. The next image is just an empty room. "What the," he repeats, and toggles back to the first corner. "The other two projections are supposed to be the two other main corners they deal out of," he tells Meri, toggling through the entire set of three once more. Yep, DA CLUB is still there, as is the mysterious empty room. A crease has manifested itself in his brow, and after a swig off of his beer, he voices the thought they're no doubt both harboring out loud: "Someone's been messing with my surveillance... What the heck?"

A brow is lifted when Hudson touches the glass and the image shifts and the look that Hudson gets when Meri sees the last two images conveys that she shares Hudson's confusion. Her confusion stems from a different place, as she is not entirely sure what good those images will do either of them. Hudson's words help the pieces of the puzzle to fall into place. Red lips twitch up into a smirk and a dry chuckle is loosed, neither of which are actually born from amusement. It was darker than that. "Ah, Huds. Looks like you are not one or two steps ahead of the game like you were hoping to be. Seems like someone has gotten the drop on you." Of course Meri was still lacking in many details, but those musing are also voiced out loud for Hudson. "So how long have you had this projection? Did they tamper with it before they were delivered? Or did you at least see the other two images before they were tampered with?" A pause while Meri collects her thoughts and brings beer to lips again, tipping it back for another hearty sip. "Hopefully you don't have a rat in your employment."

Hudson is making annoyed growl-like noises in the base of his throat. "I've had this projection set up for a week or something. Used to show three corners, not... one corner, a night club, and an empty room," he explains to Meri, as he leaves the image on the night club. He studies it, trying to place the location. "I dunno, it was just me and Snake man who knew about the projection, so I'm thinking the corner boys noticed his set up or something," he peers closer to the image, and then changes it to the empty room, as if that might help them further contextualize what they're seeing. He flips the projection back to the club again. "Well I don't recognize either of these places," he tells Meri, rubbing the flat of his palm along his face. "My guess is Frostmaw somewhere, ugh..." He grimaces, drinks from his beer and allows a brisk silence to settle comfortably around them. He punctures it in short order: "It seems like a trap kinda but I want to know."

Meri's eyes grow wide as an understanding of Hudson's little set up finally comes to Meri. This may be different than the projections she was seeing. "Oh. Damn. So this is almost like..." Meri is struggling with the concept of a 'live feed' here, Hudson, but those are likely the words that she is looking for. "I thought he like..." Recorded. That might be the word she is looking for. "And then you could like watch it over and over again. But just like..they were short? But like if someone actually walked through that room? That would be happening right now?" Or had her mind run a little too far with what she is seeing? Meri tries to push her surprise to the back burner. "Anyway, yup. It is a trap." A beat, a drink from the beer. "I don't know either of those places also. I find it hard to believe that only found two out of three of the setups. Do we really assume they don't know about the last one and did not leave that one up on purpose?" Meri shrugs. "That last one feels like a bit of a threat to me. They are teasing you with where they can be found." You can find me in DA CLUB. "And with where you might end up if you keep trying to find them. But if you kind of want to know then I am game. You probably should not go waltzing into traps alone. So where do you want to start nosing around then, bossman?"

Hudson is now realizing that maybe he should have explained. Meri's got the gist of it, though, the words are tumbling out of her mouth and he's drinking his beer and nodding to encourage her along. "Ah yeah, I should have explained, I thought it was self explanatory, we're creeping on these locations in real time. These aren't memories." He taps his fingers along the neck of the bottle as she echoes his guess that they'd be walking into a trap. And then she offers to join him in investigating said trap. He slowly lifts his eyebrows, making eye contact. "Bossman," he chuckles into another drink from his beer. A pause, here. "You don't have to come with," he says after a beat to her, waiting for her to pull away. Like they're playing a game of chicken here. "Seriously," he doubles down on it, "I got people, I'm just gonna poke around, no need seeing as how this is totally... I mean you said it, a bit of a threat. You're welcome to come, but otherwise I'm big bad wolf enough to check it out on my lonesome."

Red lips part to say something to Hudson, maybe some sort of insistence that she come along? Whatever she had to say was a knee-jerk reaction to his words and she thinks better of it. After a slight pause to rethink her approach to her point, she leads with. "It is clearly the work of the same artist but what I have seen from him was not like this." The beer that Meri holds within her hand is unexplainably let go in a slow release to make it clear that this was far too intentional to be a case of butterfingers. The beer does not go crashing to the floor, shattering and making a mess for Hudson to clean up. Or for him to make Meri clean up because how rude of her. It stays stationary in the air right in front of Meri, levitating plainly for Hudson to see. "Look, this is your gig. That's fine. I get that. Do you. You want to bring your guys? I'm not here to tell you what to do." A breath is taken and slowly released, she was trying not to bristle too hard here. "You said people mistake you for some dumb jock? Maybe I'm not just some chick. If I didn't think I could hang with the big bad wolf, I wouldn't have offered. But you run with whoever you are comfortable running with, Huds."

Hudson's eyes widen as Meri drops the beer, and he out of impulse his arm jerks as he reaches for it, only to find that he's too slow and it's not falling anyway. His hand closes around the bottle, and then releases it to find that it remains. The sense of party foul alarm has faded from his expression, and he swings a look at Meri like she's been keeping secrets. That's one way to secure an invite. "Cool party trick," he tells her, somewhat sheepishly, aware that he'd done her the same disservice of underestimating her. He reaches for his own beer, stationary and on a countertop, and drains the last of it in the awkward silence that follows. The glass bottle makes a clinking sound as he sets it down again, as if definitively. He cocks his head at Meri, amusement simmering between them now. "OK, you're in," he pronounces her, "let's check it out tomorrow night. Meet at corner number one? That work?"

Meri keeps secrets, yes. Guilty as charged and with not even the slightest amount of remorse on her face. At least they have established that she is not some entirely helpless chick. "It is more like a card I keep tucked up my sleeve, just in case I am dealt a bad hand." It does stand to reason that a sober Meri probably makes for a better psion but alas. Evidence shows she does not care for her beer is drained as well, quickly because there was really only about a quarter of the thing left. It took the woman only a couple of gulps, and then her own beer is set right next to Hudson's. "Tomorrow night then," Meri confirms. "I will see you then. And I will show myself out. If one is going to knowingly walk into a trap, preparations should be made." Last time they met up , Hudson had proclaimed them friends and tried to do the whole hug and kiss on the cheek thing. These gestures are received in a very hit or miss fashion. Today Meri takes a more middle of the road approach, Hudson is going to get a fistbump as a goodbye before Meri departs.