RP:Pompous Brew IPA .. Say What

Part of the Larketian Fault Lines Arc

Part of the The Dust Up In Cenril Arc

Summary: Hudson meets with Meri to drink beers and discuss business but they end up talking about Rachelle, a woman Meri knows who has been tortured by Muzo as part of his witch experiments. Meri suggests feeding the information to the Resistance, and Hudson readily agrees.

The Witch-Run Nail Salon in Larket

Hudson had had Joanie arrange a meeting for himself and Meri. It's not a fancy affair, they're just grabbing beers above the nail salon, in the lab. Hudson wants to see how it's doing, how Meri's adjusting to her queendom, and to check on the product. He'd hired a guy who'd given him massive nerd vibes, but looks can be deceiving, case in point, himself. Joanie had accompanied Hudson on his way here, on the pretense of going through his schedule but probably mostly wanting to catch up with her flock of Larket nail salon witches. "You are in charge of dinner and gymnastics later so easy on the beer," she reminds him, as they step inside. Hudson tempers an amused reaction. "I would argue that beer is necessary to endure child gymnastics lessons but your point is taken," he replies, his tone dry, as he leaves her to her catching up and heads upstairs to meet Meri, six pack (the cleverly named "Pompous Brew IPA") in hand.

The request to meet up with Hudson is nothing abnormal in Meri's world. These meetings occur on a regular basis and this was not the first time she has been to the lab above the salon. This was the first time that she made it to the joint prior to Hudson. So! Meri does what any individual does when they at a location (even one they have been to a few times) and have been left alone while waiting for a meeting to start....she snoops around a bit, harmlessly. Her snooping consists of looking through this microscope, what is in that drawer, the heck is this clear liquid in this bottle, oh that vial of purple gunk looks crazy. By the time Hudson arrives, Meri has that tube of..she does not even know what, held within grasp of her hand and she is trying to wriggle the top off so she can do one of the many things they teach you -not- to do in your high school chemistry class. She is going to try and smell the weird looking purple stuff. Emphasis on try, Hudson opens the door and gives Meri a bit of a start. It is a perfectly normal reaction when one is caught being a bit of a snoop! Her hold on the glass tube slips and shatters on the floor, leaving Meri to look even more guilty than before. "Hiiiii..." she says with tone of voice that is meant to imply she hopes that what she just dropped was not expensive. Or corrosive. Or anything that will cause an explosion (though it probably would have exploded upon shattering, eh?).

Hudson evidently catches Meri by surprise, and he watches, as if in slow motion, a vial of purple reagent fall to the floor and shatter. Hudson's gaze flicks between Meri, now saying hi with great sheepishness, and the colorful splatter on the floor. He squats down in front of it, sniffs the air experimentally, and then grimaces. He gets to his feet and shoos Meri away from it, toward the infamous couch. "That's flammable, if we spill beer on it we might blow up," he remarks casually, handing her the six pack so that he can fish around in the lab drawers for a bottle opener. He finds it and joins her, opening their beers, hers first out of reflexive gentlemanry. If gentlemanry is a word. Whatever, the point is that it's not a gallant gesture, more like the obvious evidence that he's been trained by a wife to open a woman's beer first. "I'll get Joanie to clean it up later," he tells Meri, once they've their beverages. "How's it going here otherwise? Lab looks clean, I guess the new guy is working hard."

The temptation to test this is great and causes Meri to stare at the floor for several minutes while weighing the pros and cons of dumping beer on the spilled goo. Pros: this smells like bull and it's always fun to call that out. Cons: Even if it is bull, Joanie would have to clean up the mess. Or probably have to get Meri the stuff to clean up the mess herself? Either way, the additional mess would be worse because one was an accident and the other...Also amongst the cons includes some vague justification that Hudson may not be yanking her chain and what a waste of alcohol. Cons do outweigh the pros in this case and so Meri opts to drink her beer rather than pouring any amount out to see if there is truth to the explosiveness of what she has spilled. "I mean I can clean it up..." Provided it won't really explode or anything, and she's pointed in the direction of a rag, broom and dustpan. There is a bit of a shrug, "Yeah, I mean things are good here...As good as it gets in Larket lately." Meri settles against a counter, trying to be mindful so as to not have any other mishaps. "Say, have you heard of any recent happenings with our favorite royal family and a certain obsession they have?"

"Nah, this is what being the boss is. You can spill things, other people will clean. I'll have the girls down stairs get it later," says Hudson, evidently not all that disturbed by an allegedly flammable substance sitting on the lab's tile floor. He sinks into the couch, which Meri is probably intelligently avoiding, and drinks from his beer. He cocks an eyebrow at her question, considers her. "I thought maybe the Crown had softened up on witches, we had a good talk at the big boxing match," he muses. He turns on the couch to better face her, plants an elbow on the back of it. "I guess they still got that machine going..." he adds, conscious that the papers hadn't reported on its destruction. He trusts Meri, but there's some information you keep to the smallest circle of trust possible. The fact that his wife had intentionally sabotaged the machine is that type of information. Mostly because it concerns his wife, if the risk were his alone he might be inclined to share with the class. But he'll go to the mat for her, even when things are not so great, which is putting it kindly.

Meri could understand those sentiments, swap out a name and she could relate quite easily indeed. In this situation she was not fishing for information about any one particular person, so Alvina's secret his safe. With that in mind, Meri is not just going to up and name Cal in this adventure either. "Oh I don't know if they have softened all that much...." There is a pause, straight silence and beer forgone because she does not need the alcohol muddling her thoughts as she gives her answer right about now. "I have it on pretty good authority they were torturing an innocent woman. It's my understanding that her name is Rachelle and you can probably find her down in the Kelay area, working at the restaurant.

Meri could understand those sentiments, swap out a name and she could relate quite easily indeed. In this situation she was not fishing for information about any one particular person, so Alvina's secret his safe. With that in mind, Meri is not just going to up and name Cal in this adventure either. "Oh I don't know if they have softened all that much...." There is a pause, straight silence and beer forgone because she does not need the alcohol muddling her thoughts as she gives her answer right about now. "I have it on pretty good authority an innocent woman was being tortured in Larket. It was a pretty gruesome scene from what I understand. That snake had her opened up and was keeping her alive...I mean maybe he was just acting on his own accord buuut...." Meri is skeptical, her expression does not hide it. And now that she was content with the story as presented, she rewards herself with some of that beer. There were more details that Meri could provide, like who this unfortunate woman was, but she wanted to ease into the subject and feel out Hudson's reaction to all of this. He did say he was just at a boxing match and they seemed to have softened...

Hudson's face morphs into the expression of a man mulling over this news. 'The Crown being aggressive? Hm.' He doesn't remember what Meri knows about his involvement with the Resistance, he suspects not much, perhaps only a casual support because he's a 'small business owner' who employs witches. It's better that way, again it's about mitigating risk. But his careful expression of 'man thinking' turns black at the news that a woman was opened up and tortured. Yes, Hudson can be shocked by such things, in his mind only organized crime is allowed to be so disgusting. The government's supposed to fight with one hand pinned behind its back: what gives? He swallows the mouthful of beer he's got in his mouth and his gaze snaps to Meri. "That is messed up," he says. He wonders if Valrae and her friends in the Resistance know. Only one way to find out. "How many people know about that, Meri?" he asks the blond woman. "Why aren't there riots in the streets?"

"I don't know. That is hard for me to answer. I am not in the girl's head, you know? She seemed rather..." What was a good description? Shaken up? Upset? Evidently Meri is going to let that sentence go unfinished, finding a completely new way of wording it instead. "I mean she just went through a traumatic experience. I am not sure telling her story to get the citizens of Larket going again has fallen high on her priority list. And doing something that might cause her trouble isn't exactly high on mine..." Red lips are pursed together in thoughtful consideration. Rather than sit stationary, Meri finds her feet and paces slowly across the room while thinking outloud to Hudson. "But maybe it would be good for you to talk to her, or at least to point a certain other blonde in her general direction." Not that Hudson communicates with she who shall not be named lest Hudson skeeve out, right? Right. "Or what is the name of that kid she is around a decent chunk?" Tychus. Meri is very non-descriptively trying to suggest Rachelle speak with Tychus. "I'm not saying that there should probably not be riots in the streets of Larket because of this...but I am saying that maybe she should at least be on board and prepped for it, so there is no surprises."

Hudson and Meri are experiencing the awkwardness of being on the same side but being too cautious to say so. He's about to fold when Meri does. He rubs his face. He's thinking about the man he'd seen with Valrae on the night of the protest at the gymnasium. His private intel had confirmed that the guy was Resistance, not that he'd needed it, Val had admitted everything to him. He likes this suggestion a lot, it's far better than him leaking something Meri has told him in confidence. "Yeah, I agree," he says, adding, "maybe those people can help her out," like he doesn't know what sort of conversation will result. His gaze flicks to Meri over the mouthpiece of his beer. He thinks they're on the same page. "Man... I have to wonder if the Queen knows," he says, shaking his head, disturbed that Josleen might. How can she stand it? Then again, how can he stand the knowledge that Valrae had hexed her and the young prince in her belly? Because he's got to, he rationalizes quickly, because the balance in the Valrae-Hudson ledger still shows a large account payable from him to her. Maybe Josleen feels that way too. Damn, though: no one expects such levels of savagery from pretty faces. He drinks. "I can send a note, arrange a meeting," he says, glancing back to Meri. He supposes she could have told Valrae herself but wanted a head-check. He appreciates it. What grisly stuff.

What Hudson does with this information, that's for him to decide, but there was the hope that a certain amount of trust existed between them. Maybe not enough to rat out their significant others/spouses in any recent witch-related-dealings that they have been in, but it was still there. If Hudson wants to leak information, it would be safe to assume that so long as Rachelle was not somehow put into another dangerous situation unwillingly. "So her name is Rachelle and she can probably be reached in the Kelay area. I believe she works at that restaurant in Kelay? Her father is definitely a merchant in that area. So I am not sure how she managed to get all caught up in being nabbed by that snake? But she is definitely not a witch, nor does she even live in Larket." Not that Meri condones the actual torture of witches within Larket either, but it does make it seem like things are escalating to another level? Provided Meri has all of her facts straight. "No idea how much of this the Queen does or does not know..."

Hudson nods, he'll ask his people to look into it, the restaurant, her connection to Kelay. The wheels are turning in his head already. More than likely she's easily spooked, so the easiest way to do it is to rent out the restaurant for the night, spring one on her. Not very polite maybe, though. He should stop backseat Resistancing and let Valrae and her little friend handle it. "Unbelievable this is happening," he says to Meri, setting aside the topic of Josleen's awareness. Because he's starting to get the sneaking suspicion that she probably is aware. Just like Alvina's aware of some things. Wives tend to know, or at the very least they know enough to not ask to know more. "Election in Cenril's soon, so once we get Fitz in, gonna try to, I don't know, start a refugee program." His eyes widen briefly. "...That and figure out where the hell everyone vanished to. What a mess these last few months have been, I don't know about you."

"Don't even get me started on some of the crazy things that I have seen lately..." Some of which could be attributed to the breaking of a certain jar, others just wild antics with the Khatalians. Needless to say, Meri had a story or two but it does not seem that she is going to elaborate. It's probably for the better. As there was that risk that one of those wild happenings could be something related to Khitti and then a tear-fest was at risk of occurring. Hudson likely does not want to deal with that, not from Meri. Mostly because her name was Meri and not Alvina. "I think that a refugee camp would be good, if there is something I can do to help with that. Just let me know? And I know you and Cal did not exactly hit it off last time, but I am sure he would be willing to help too. He is a storm mage which he employs in his work as the Royal Botanist often by you know...spelling up some rain when it's time to water plants. I am sure he could water people too..." And any gardens those people might want to set up. "Some with the people vanishing, but I am less sure how I would be able to help with that."

Hudson shoots a knowing look in Meri's direction. Strange times are those in which it seems fairly ho-hum to take out a rival criminal organization. Man, it had almost seemed like therapy to him. He's got his own unfortunate catalog of unhappy events that he'll keep to himself. The two seem to fall silent at the same time, locked in contemplation, until Meri breaks it, mentioning Cal. Hudson nods into another drink from his beer. Hudson doesn't remember the vibe between himself and Cal, but he has a vague sense that he and Cal were on opposite ends of the man-spectrum and he trusts Meri's recollection. He should make a better effort. "Think I was having an off day, your man seemed cool. At the end of the day the only important thing is you like him," he says to Meri, offering the blonde a casual smile. "I don't want to get him in trouble with the Crown but any help he wants to offer is great. Reminds me. Fitz's wife, Uma, is a witch, by the way, works in agriculture. Modifies plants, I guess, she's uh, why we have seedless grapes. Plenty of room for collaboration there." A beat. "I want to talk to Lionel - not Hildegarde," for perhaps Josleen is a blind spot, "about Frostmaw's stance on this witch stuff, but maybe not just yet. After the election, I think." He lifts an eyebrow, silently querying Meri's view on the notion.

Cal and Hudson were definitely on the opposite ends of. E man-spectrum, but Meri was not interested in pointing fingers. As far as she was concerned, any awkwardness was probably stemmed from misinterpretation of a miscommunication. "Well as long as we don't go singing it to the world that Cal is helping, if he is willing, then how will the Crown know? We'll have to sit down and work out the details with him when that time comes." Tattooed shoulders rise and fall in a lazy shrug, they would cross that bridge when it was time. Mention if Lionel, Hildegarde, Frostmaw and their stance on witches is given a moment of thoughtful silence. While Meri is silent she is also appraising her beer that is starting not nearly as icy cold as it was when she cracked it open. "Well. I am not sure how Lionel would receive such a conversation. I can't imagine that such a talk would be ill-received? He is not the sort of person to stand for innocent people suffering." Maybe Valrae and Josleen are starting to become more even-scored with their misdealings but plenty of other innocents, witch or not, have suffered. "I don't think timing matters so much in such a conversation? But that is your call. I am sure ultimately if he feels he needs to that he will speak with Hildegarde on whatever their formal stance as a region is on the matter though..."

Hudson nurses his beer while Meri muses over Lionel's political viewpoints. "You'd think that but then Frostmaw is where it is," he points out. "It's hard to police another city when you've got problems of your own. And the two Queens are tight," he reasons. "I doubt Hildegarde and Lionel know the full story, probably along the lines of something like, there is this dangerous population that we're dealing with." He scratches his jaw, considers the issue of timing. "You might be right. Let's think on it." He drinks the rest of his beer, poses the bottle on a nearby end table. He stands. That's his cue. "Alright, well, I gotta go make chicken nuggets," he tells Meri, because that explains everything.

Meri finds herself shrugging as Hudson shoots some of his own speculation right back at her, but the both of them could only do that much. Speculate. "Yeah. Right. No need to be rushing into any of these decisions." As they both were well aware, if either said too much about any subject to the wrong person that could invite a whole world of trouble that neither of them really are inclined to deal with. I mean sure, they could, but it's easier to just not, right? Mention of chicken nuggets is met with a smirk. "Go on, pops. Dad-duty calls." Meri does not feel inclined to say what she'll be up to. It doesn't involve chicken nuggets. That feels like bragging. Either way, both Meri and Hudson will be showing themselves out...and Meri would leave that mess for Joanie to clean up. Poor Joanie. Note to self though: come back, 'borrow' some of that liquid, spill beer on it outdoors, see what happens. Yes. Ahem. Scene.