RP:Situation Crazy, Solution Baby

Part of the Larketian Fault Lines Arc

Summary: Hudson and Alvina consider moving out of Larket after his Nail Salon is attacked by some anti-witch Larketians. The guards aren't trying very hard to find out what happened, and seem ambivalent to anything beyond the disappearance of one of the witches. They also talk about how much Josleen has changed as a person, how Hudson is funding the Larket Resistance and Alvina will have to pick a firm side on this sooner or later.

Witch Run Nail Salon

The windows of the nail salon are gone, but broken glass is no longer lining the sidewalk and interior of the place. That's all been swept up, in wooden boxes to prevent people from cutting themselves. A glazier is on the scene and measuring new panes. The girls are outside, paint brushes in hand, applying a third coat to finally erase the words "WITCHES NOT WELCOME" and "BURN." To say the least, it's been very active since everyone's arrival. Despite their intentionally not summoning the guards, guards are on the scene, and Hudson and group mom Joanie are talking to them outside. They're asking about his employee Rachel as Alvina arrives. Yes - their concern is Rachel, who had been subject to guard brutality, not the attack on the nail salon. "I haven't seen her yet today," Joanie is saying, with the guards looking to Hudson for his validation. He nods, averting his gaze briefly. "If we see her," he says, "We'll let you know."

Alvina had only been home a day or two when she got the note from Joanie. Marge was becoming more mom than the bard but she had to rush to Larket when she heard the news. The nail salon, which she’s never seen before, is looking rather rough. It occurs to her, while she approaches Joanie and Hudson while they talk to the guard, that Alvina might not be a welcome sight here. She was friend to the Queen, who was enforcing some witch laws that the public was taking too far (Because clearly it wasn’t Josleen that hated witches). Oh also, that Valrae thing. Yikes. Was she going to be here too…? So it’s with a pinched face of false joy that she introduces herself to the guard and tries to find out what’s going on. Did she recognize him? A little but his name escaped her. There were so many guards, after all. “Hey, I just came to help with the damages.” She says, after her introduction. She looks at Joanie and Hudson, trying to read their moods with her appearance.

Alvina's appearance has a miraculous effect: the guards waste little time in leaving off questioning Hudson and Joanie, and excuse themselves. The vouching of non-witches is sufficient for them, apparently. Hudson and Joanie drop their pleasant demeanors immediately. "I like how they don't seem to investigate who vandalized the place, they're just concerned with Rachel," comments Hudson, plainly irritated now that he no longer has to maintain a facade of politeness. "They hardly wanted to speak to me, just you," says Joanie, in a tone showing stress, at the same time flashing a pained smile at Alvina. "Hi sweetheart," she says, in the way of mother hens everywhere. "I'm very nervous nobody cares about what happened," she tells Hudson. "I am fairly certain nobody but us does," he agrees. She squeezes Alvina's forearm hello and then excuses herself to oversee the other girls, who are carrying out the boxes of broken glass. Now that they're alone, Hudson drapes an arm around Alvina. It had been sweet of her to come. "People are getting really nasty in this city," he comments, pressing a kiss to her cheek. It's then that he remarks on a stoniness to her. He takes the measure of her expression. "Oh," he realizes, outloud. Her gaze is looking for Valrae, who isn't there. "It's fine, she's not here, like we talked about," he exhales. "OK? Thanks for showing up."

While Joanie and Hudson finish talking, she notices the thin line she’s standing on. Between the witches, Hudson and the Salon and the Larketian fort in the distance and the guards walking away. She was in the exact center. No further one way or another. It disturbed her, so she took a step closer to Hudson before he threw his arms around her. Alvina hated herself for the slack in her shoulders when Hudson confirmed Valrae wasn’t here. So it was done, she was fired and not helping with the cleanup. Would that make her presence still awkward for the girls she’d worked with? Would they know about Valrae and Hudson? Or why Valrae was fired? That it was Alvina’s fault? She tried not to dwell on it, Joanie was being nice enough? It was probably all in her head…even if girls have a radar for this kind of drama from a mile away. “Sorry,” She replies immediately, like she’s done something wrong. As if she’s responsible for breaking the glass, assaulting a witch and probably all the spray painting.

"Sorry for what? You didn't do all this?" Hudson throws a glance Alvina's way. He has a suspicion she's apologized for insisting Valrae be fired, but he's playing dumb to keep the peace. He doesn't know what his staff knows about him and Valrae, but he honestly isn't thinking about it. "You're so sweet to show up though," he continues. "Everyone's fine thank goodness." Except Rachel, but he hasn't seen her today, or that's what he told the guard. He lifts a hand at Joanie, directing the traffic of women carrying boxes, to get her attention. "We're going on a walk, you got this?" "Have a good time," she says, showing her teeth in her smile. If nothing else, Joanie was excellent at hiding her own stress. Hudson waits until he and Alvina are some ways away, heading in the direction of their currently deserted home, to comment. "She's like a port in the storm, I can't imagine how awful this is." He chances a glance at Alvina's expression, now that she no longer has to maintain a certain composure in front of his employees. "I don't know about this town..." he remarks quietly.

Alvina forces a smile as they pass Joanie and feels guiltier for showing up and taking Hudson away in the middle of this crisis. “Shouldn’t we stay and help?” She asks, but Hudson waves her off. Something is on his mind. When a criminal is telling you they don’t know about this town, it’s time to pay attention, so Alvina does. They’d had that conversation about witches, how it’s not right for them to be persecuted like this. “Have you tried talking to Josleen?” She asked, careful on how she navigated herself in these waters. “Surely she’d listen to us, we’re her friends, aren’t we?” Alvina hadn’t personally –seen- Josleen since she delivered the magic glass that Aaken had given her to help identify the cause of the fire at her birthday party. Maybe she didn’t know, Alvina told herself with ignorant optimism. Maybe Josleen didn’t know how bad everyone was reacting to the witch concerns. People were dumb and scared, beating witches to death for no reason. She remembered Hannah, and felt even worse. “Maybe we should do something…” She sighed; feeling like this was the start of some big war between her and Jos. One Josleen was bound to win.

Hudson smiles as if Alvina had missed the point of something. "I'm the boss," he reminds her. "And they're almost done, just a matter of the glazier doing his work," he adds, reaching for her hand. He snorts at the idea of talking to Josleen. He likewise thinks about Hanna being beaten to death. "I don't know about that, given what's happening, I'm thinking if we show our hand she could... become an ex-friend," he says. He looks into Alvina's face and sees optimism where there shouldn't be any. Surely their friend couldn't be sanctioning this. Right, except by all accounts she was. "I am doing something," he reminds her. "There's people who work in the resistance, advocating democracy. I give them money... I don't know what they do with it. But," his chest fills with a sigh, "maybe it's not enough, because I guess I'm also worried about the safety of the nail salon girls now. And... I find it weird that the crown is trying to single out witches to make them do hard labor too. Doesn't really make sense, the marketing is a little... summer campy, except... well what is that?"

Alvina hadn’t heard about any summer camp stuff. What was Hudson talking about? “Clarification for the cheap seats?” She asks, looking around. “It sounds a bit like you think Josleen wants you to shut down the nail salon so your employees will go work…at this camp?” It’s so hard to pin this face to Josleen. This, mad queen out to get the witches thing. Did Alvina start it, by complaining to Josleen about Hudson’s affair? A bolt of guilt runs through her. “Huds…” She sighed carefully, “Do you think it’s my fault?” She’s asking him honestly. Does he think Josleen is cracking down on witches because Alvina said some hurtful stuff about Valrae? Surely Josleen wouldn’t do that. Maybe? Alvina couldn’t say for sure anymore. It’s too much credit to give herself, certainly she doesn’t want it but if there’s a chance it’ll eat Alvina alive from the inside out. She’ll have to join the resistance and take up banners against her best friend? It’s too much to think about…but she has to. Because Hudson is funding the resistance now, somehow. “If you give them money, you should maybe know what they do with it.” Alvina is not privy to criminal thinking and does not understand that sometimes knowing less is better. Especially when working –against- the crown. “Maybe we should start to create more jobs for witches…so they won’t have to go to these… summer camps?”

"The Eyrie outpost in Larket is being built with witch labor - since besides me they're all unemployed - and they're supposed to live onsite," explains Hudson. He waves with his hand in a There you go gesture when Alvina muses that Josleen's trying to shut down his establishment too, to herd everyone in one place. "That is some business hardship I'm having, just because I employ witches. And the guards didn't really care about what happened," he reminds her. They're silent, letting the implication fester between them: maybe the guards had a hand in trashing the nail salon. When Alvina speaks up, Hudson looks at her with surprise. His mind hadn't even gone there. "No? Because this is just crazy," comes his immediate response. He knows what she means, of course, but this is too far away from it. He decides not to add that Josleen too once had an indiscretion in a relationship, that she'd be lobbing stones from a glass house, but maybe that is so far beyond the point, which is that she's crazy. Or close to it. Not the Jos they knew. "It's gotta be her husband, she wasn't like this before him," he says, to make Alvina feel better. Because it's still her best friend, at the end of the day. He grunts at the idea of tracking down where the money goes. It could pass for assent or indifference (it's skepticism, really). "Gotta keep plausible deniability," he says, stopping as they've come up to their home, where they used to live, together. They can see into the windows, in need of a wash, the furnishings covered in dust cloths. "That, and maybe another city - maybe Hildegarde - tells them they've got to stop," he says. They're silent, looking at the house together. He's thinking about their last argument that had led to their separation. He's also thinking about their daughters. "I don't know if I want to raise the girls here anymore."

Alvina is 90% sure she doesn’t want to move the girls back here either and places all the blame for this witch nonsense on Macon’s shoulders. He wasn’t cute and he was kind of a jerk. Why was Josleen with him? What happened to that one guy? Weren’t Hudson and Alvina going to set her up with someone before this? Everything he’s saying makes sense. Will Hildegarde tell Josleen to stop? Alvina trusted that the dragoness would. But would Josleen –listen-? When they approach the house, she starts to think about their argument too. About Hudson smashing his fist into a wall, breaking something glass. It cuts her, to remember him like that. To remember that part of their lives. “It’s such a beautiful house…” She remarks, sad for the future it had in someone’s heart. “but I think I agree…If this was about werewolves, I…wouldn’t hesitate. So I can’t hesitate now either. It’s just hard…to go against Josleen.” Alvina loved her dearly. “Where will we go now? Do you want to move up to Frostmaw with me?” She asked, curiously. It didn’t make sense for his business but they worked in two different places. Alvina was a little lost, but Hudson seemed to have some kind of plan.

Hudson looks down, nodding as Alvina comments on the house being beautiful. It had been expensive, it had better be! "Yeah," he agrees, about everything she's said about moving and Josleen. He balks at her suggestion to move to Frostmaw, though. "I dunno, the weather sucks balls," he says, which about covers it. "Maybe back to Cenril. Maybe I'll just... buy another house. In my mum's neighborhood." A single, bitter laugh follows that statement. He rubs his scratchy jawline. "I think I'm losing the concept of money. We could burn this house down for fun if we felt like it. I don't love Frostmaw but we could buy a house there too." He gestures at the unmowed lawn of their McMansion. "A fancy house or apartment in every major city. Like ridiculous people. ...And I still can't stop our friend the literal Queen from doing whatever it is that she's doing. Bad stuff."

Alvina looked at Hudson’s profile, frowning. He was becoming a powerful force in this community, and still he couldn’t stand against Josleen alone. “Maybe we should talk to Hildegarde. Maybe she already knows.” To Hudson’s comment about Frostmaw’s weather, she nods. No argument there. She couldn’t stand always being bundled up. “She’s a literal Queen. You’d have to be a literal King to deal with her.” Macon was every bit a nightmare she’d hoped to avoid. “Wasn’t Josleen on the run from Macon, when she was with that one guy?” She couldn’t remember his name, she’d only met him like twice maybe. “Maybe he’s got some mind control thing going on? Is it possible?” Probably not. Josleen was strong willed and wouldn’t play pet to any man’s manipulation. “Don’t burn the house down, that doesn’t solve anything.” She looked on to the dusty windows. “We don’t need houses in every city. We just need a place to live.” With that, she leans against him, rubbing her hand against his back. He looked stressed, absolutely puzzled and at odds with what he wanted to do. “We can move back to Cenril if you want…” And hopefully never see Ethan or Lila again if they are lucky. "I don't care where I am, as long as I'm with you."

Hudson nods along with the suggestion of taking it to Hildegarde, thinking that maybe she's right, although he wonders if it's premature. (Except when does it go too far, and won't it be too late then?) He looks at her as she muses about Josleen's history with Macon. "Yeah.. I dunno, Kelo colluded with the drow, though," he is less ready to accept her theory of what's happening. "It's all just weird," is his conclusive view of Josleen's sudden flirtation with what appears to be... evil? He's frustrated because he can't reconcile it with the Josleen he knows, and because he can't do anything to stop its effects. It's not just Valrae, all of his employees are good people. They don't deserve whatever's going on, he hardly believes this is the end of it. He puts an arm around Alvina as she leans against him. He turns to kiss the top of her head. "I feel the same way, babe," he says, speaking into her hair. "You want a ride back to Frostmaw, or you playing hooky?"

Alvina looks up at Hudson, oh yeah Kelo was that guy’s name. Wasn’t he some big war hero? It never made sense to her that he colluded with the drow. Plus, she’d know a drow. Nymh. Seemed nice enough. She hadn’t seen him in quite some time….hmmm… “I can play hooky if you like?” She offered, “But really the girls are calling Marge ‘mom’ more than they are calling me. I feel second place, it’s no fun. I know you can’t leave with everything going on but maybe we should set up a date? To look at houses? Together…this time?” She suggests, not that she hasn’t liked the houses he’d picked out but she’d really like a say in the next one. It felt like a normal conversation two adults have instead of two people considering the future of the towns they live in. Alvina is wondering how Jos will take the news that they might be moving out of Larket…Hopefully fine. Maybe the only madness Jos was suffering from was baby madness, and maybe she’d calm down if she got pregnant. That must be what most disastrous men think about their crazy women. Situation: Crazy. Solution: Baby.

Hudson drags out an ambiguous 'hhmmmm' noise at the base of his throat at this detail about Marge and the girls. He decides not to point out that she'd decided to be a working mother. "You're their mom, stoppppp ittttt," he says, kissing the top of her head repeatedly. His hand at her back drops to squeeze her backside. It's over as soon as it happens, he knows he'll be swatted. "Uh, I mean... Yeah, we can look together," he keeps his face straight, "although I kind of am not into us using mommy daddy time to look at houses? I feel like we got better things to do? What? I'm just saying, like play Yahtzee and stuff..."

Alvina squints at him, not the least bit amused with his antics. Okay, maybe she likes him...but just a little. "Shut up and take me home."