RP:The Old Jos and the New

Part of the Larketian Fault Lines Arc

Summary: Pilar is sent on behalf of the Eyrie to make arrangements for the new Larketian Outpost. The meeting with Josleen starts out well, if a bit tense, but escalates into an argument over politics.

The Queen's Tearoom

Pilar did not want to do this. When she was first given the task of organizing an event for the Eyrie Outpost groundbreaking, she was nervous but took the job willingly. But now she had to meet with the Queen of Larket to get things straightened out. After their last meeting, she wasn't too thrilled with the prospect of seeing Josleen again. But she had a job to do, so to Larket she went. She had no idea what the process to see the Larketian queen was. She made her way to the castle and was stopped at the door by a pair of guards. When she asked to see the queen, they laughed. Who did this scrawny brat think she was? Pilar was insistent, however, telling them she had a meeting with the queen and producing a letter to prove it. The guards relented, but not without the warning that she had better not be wasting their (or the queen's) time. One of them left their post to escort Pilar to Josleen, wherever she was.

Josleen has repurposed an elegant tearoom into her personal office. The tearoom is across the hall from the King's more traditional office, and chosen specifically for its proximity to him. The newlyweds have grown increasingly attached since the wedding, in part thanks to people like Pilar, who in their criticism of the King and Queen have forced them to band together in order to resist and respond. The castle chamberlain asks Pilar to wait in a seat just inside the tearoom, but at a distance from the Queen herself. Golden and purple damask curtains frame tall windows that bathe the Queen in sunlight as she lounges in her crushed velvet chaise.  Above an unused desk hangs a portrait of King Macon and Queen Josleen, side by side, staring back at the viewer, hands clasped in each other's, poodle between their feet. The poodle in the portrait is slimmer than the one who rests in the gold-threaded dogbed near Josleen's chaise. The Queen lays sidelong in a dress that the hoi polloi would wear to a wedding. She and her handmaiden debate the qualities of sketches from hopeful painters who wish to paint the next royal portrait. Josleen debates between an artist who captures Macon's dignified nose and another who better uses light and depth in her work. Hmm, decisions decisions. She eventually opts for the second artist and the handmaiden leaves to execute the Queen's decision. Josleen beckons Pilar come forward to sit in a couch across the coffeetable from her. She smiles cordially and nothing in her expression betrays her distaste for Pilar, adquired during their last encounter. "Good afternoon, Pilar. I wasn't expecting you. What brings you here?"

Pilar was dressed in a dark blue halter dress, though she dressed it up a bit why wearing a white sweater to match her sandals. Her silver leg was clearly visible, and Josleen might recognize Alvina's handiwork. Pilar took a seat away from the queen, eyes down, though they snapped up and glanced around for a clock when Josleen said she wasn't expected. "Um... You should have gotten a letter... I'm here representing the Eyrie..." Maybe the commander had forgotten to give her name in the notice. Oops.

Josleen may have ignored a letter from Pilar. Whoops. Downsides to yelling at monarchs, especially in public. Mention of The Eyrie, however, does soften Josleen's position. Anything related to Frostmaw, The Eyrie, and Queen Hildegarde gets a pass from Hildegarde's Thane. "Ah, yes. Is this about the outpost? We had agreed on building it in the Eternal Forest. Will you be hiring local construction workers, or bringing them in from Frostmaw? We prefer you hire locally."

Pilar nodded. "Yes, of course, that's what we were planning on. I just wanted to talk about the, um, exact details." Pilar shuffled through her papers. "This is a map with a few potential places marked down." Pilar would have offered it to the queen, but she was too far away. Plus, they probably didn't want her too close anyway. She looked to the guard. "Um, could you...?" The guard sighed, but delivered the paper to Josleen. "Thank you. Um, if you could look that over, and give any opinions you have...?" The map had three spots picked out. One that was right next door to the Chapel of Pleasure, one near the stables, and another to the south.

Josleen had beckoned Pilar come closer to sit across a coffee table from her, and insists yet again when the distance makes the meeting difficult. She takes the map from the guard and looks over the locations. She turns up her nose at all of them. "No, no, all of these are too close to the new youth center, and too close to the fort. Here." She takes a quill from the table and draws a new 'x' north east of the Chapel of Pleasure, some distance south of a known monster's den, far enough away to not be too dangerous, but close enough to not be prime real estate.

Pilar was nervous about being in such close proximity to the queen, but came closer. She looked at the chosen spot and nodded. "Okay, that... that looks good." She didn't really feel that way, but wasn't going to argue about something like this. "There was something else, too. We were hoping to plan a, an event to, uh, mark the occasion. An air show, showing off our most skilled flyers and, um, some outside talent. There were going to be cash prizes for the best three. We were also thinking we'd get a few local vendors there to, maybe, sell their wares? Does that all sound okay to you, Jo-- Your Grace?"

There was a time as recently as two months ago when Josleen would have assured Pilar that she could still call her 'Jos', but over the course of those two months the King and Queen of Larket have received much populist criticism from the likes of Pilar and people like her. Pilar chose her side, and Josleen is content to redraw lines and honorifics. 'Your Grace' will do, and indeed it does take a lot of grace to be so cordial and polite to a woman she knows would cheer her downfall. "Yes, that sounds like quite an occasion. Do you have a timeline for the outposts construction, and a date for this event?"

"The timeline is rough right now. We were thinking it could be completed in about a month? We have to crunch the numbers, meet with contractors, and such before we have a better idea. But the groundbreaking is scheduled for May 13th, at the moment." Pilar was also struggling to maintain her professionalism. It's not that she wanted harm to come to Josleen, far from it. She just wanted her to change the way she was ruling. Put more focus on the people. But Pilar said none of these things, even as thoughts of that poor murdered witch tried to poke their way into her mind. She was here for the Eyrie, and the Eyrie alone.

Josleen hesitates at the date. "I'll have to confirm the date with my husband, the King. His birthday falls around then and he may wish to hold an event that weekend. I'm sure we'll find a time that suits." She smiles dismissively. "Is there anything else?"

  Pilar hesitated. She gathered up her papers, not looking at Josleen, while she thought about what she wanted to say. Finally, she spoke. "Maybe... Maybe a public event for his birthday would be a... bad idea. With all this tension in the city... What if another innocent gets hurt?"

  Josleen arches a brow in the same way Macon does when his judgment is questioned. "We did not start the riot at the last public event. The protesters did. If you want to protect the innocent, then your quarrel is with them."

"No, but you let a murderer walk free," Pilar hissed back. "And why do you think there are protestors at all? It's because you are treating innocent people like criminals!" Pilar stood, her papers in hand. "Power has made you cruel, Josleen. Or were you always a hateful bigot? You're just like the elves who murdered my family. You're just like Balgruuf."

Josleen scowls at Pilar's insults. "Innocent people are not being treated like criminals! You mistake law and order for oppression because you are weak!" she snaps. Gigi jerks his head upwards to look between his mother and her guest, trembling with rage borrowd from the Queen's own rage aura infection. He snarls at her target, Pilar, just like Josleen does, before her expression composes itself serenely. Poised and with a more cordial tone she says, and with a little condescension as if explaining politics to a child, "Witches are likely behind the earthquake. They have untold power, and we have no idea who they are or what they want. That unsettles Larketians more than a list of names. My husband cannot concern himself with the criticism of idealists until he has ensured the safety of all Larketians, including those idealists themselves. And you forget that I served Queen Hildegarde in the war against Balgruuf. I know what atrocities he committed, and to compare that to a list of names is... well... perhaps emotional on your part." She gestures towards the door. "If that'll be all..."

  Pilar scowled right back, "You... you heartless puta!" Josleen might not know Grancevalian, but there was no mistaking that word for anything but an insult, "Witches are no more dangerous than any other mage! Or lycans! Or vampires! But you are targeting them, and only them! I've seen this before, with my people. First it's lists. Then it's ghettoes. Then mass murder. And I already know Larketian royalty has no problem with mass murder." She spat on the carpet and turned on her heel to leave.

  Mass murder? Words escape the Queen. What an absurd accusation, but perhaps this has less to do with Larket and more to do with Pilar's troubled past, which may perhaps be the source of this angst. When Pilar spits, a guard blocks her exit and looks to his Queen for orders on how to handle this disrespect. Josleen lifts a hand with every intention to dismiss the guard and let Pilar go, but she hesitates and considers her options. Pilar isn't wrong when she says Josleen has changed, though her explanation as to why and how Josleen has changed misses the mark. It isn't power that has changed her so quickly, but it is her husband, Macon, a King crowned by the force of his own will, whose big claims about what will be and what he will accomplish have all proven true, including his marriage to her. His record is spotless, and she's starting to believe in the efficacy of his methods. So, what would Macon do? Old Josleen would take the high road, believing herself to be a woman of integrity, while ignorant to the fact that others would see her as a sucker. Screw that. "Floria," she says to her maid, "could you fetch our guest a bucket water, soap, and a brush to scrub the carpet?" She sends the guard a hard glance that communicates her desire he not let Pilar escape.

  Pilar looked at Josleen, then at the floor, then scoffed. "Clean it yourself, Your Grace. Or are you above getting your hands dirty, now that you're rich and powerful? You're not better than anyone else. If anything, you're worse. You're a disgrace to Larket, and to Frostmaw." She then turned to the guard. "I would very much like to leave. Please don't make me use force." When the guard inevitably didn't move, Pilar would use all her vampire strength to attempt to shoulder past him. The strength that had once carried much of Hildegarde's weight, when the dragon fell ill. Strength that had carried grown men, and would easily move this one, should he be but mortal.

  Josleen isn't provoked into responding to Pilar's endless torrent of insults. Pilar spits on Josleen's carpet and -Josleen's- the disgrace? The Queen scoff-laughs at the word 'disgrace'. Please, leave jokes to the comedians. The guard senses resistance and tries his best to stand his ground, but simply cannot in the face of Pilar's superior strength. He's shoved, and as he sidesteps to catch his balance he draws his sword and hollers to alert other guards in the hall that a vampire is resisting arrest. Pilar wasn't really being arrested, but the code is easier to shout than a lengthy explanation of what has actually transpired. Josleen springs to her feet to intervene before this escalates further. She darts across the carpet and spit to grab Pilar's arm and yank her back into the room by force. Meanwhile, a spellblade who stands sentry before the King's office springs into action, whispering an incantation to enfeeble the undead onto his cudgel which he then swings at Pilar's head. The blunt and enchanted weapon, if it makes contact, would weaken the vampire significantly.

  If a guard couldn't stop Pilar, what hope did Josleen have? The queen would be pulled along with the vampire... and right into the cudgel's path. Pilar's eyes widened. Angry as she was at Josleen, she still didn't wish the queen harm. With little time to react, she spun around, so Josleen was standing where she'd been, and the cudgel made contact with Pilar's skull. The vampire dropped to the floor, ears ringing and vision blurred.

  Josleen had lunged at Pilar specifically to prevent her from being whacked. She knew how fast the Larketian guard respond, their reflexes faster than her command to call them off. "Let her be!" she's shouting as that cudgel is coming down. Thankfully for Pilar, the guard saw the Queen in the trajectory of his weapon, and he tried as best he could to recall his arm that was already mid-swing. Thus, Pilar is hit, but not quite with the full brunt of the guard's intended attack. Josleen releases Pilar and jumps back to avoid becoming further collateral damage and sends a glare to the original guard, the one in her room, who said the vampire was resisting arrest. As she crouches near the vampire's head she says to Floria, "Help me move her onto the couch in my office." Then to Pilar, "Pilar, can you hear me? How's your head?" The maid and Queen help Pilar to her feet, and if she's well enough to walk, but still dazed, guide her into the tearoom and onto Josleen's chaise to rest and recover, which thankfully for vampires is a quick process.

  Pilar groaned. "It hurts... But I'll be okay." She allowed the women to help her up and guide her to the couch. As she was resting, she looked to Josleen. Her anger had dissipated some. Josleen hadn't set the guard on her, not intentionally, and had helped her, after all. Maybe some of the old Jos was still in there. "I'm sorry... for yelling at you. And..." she jerked to head to where she spat, "for that. I just got so angry. I don't want to watch what happened to my people... my family... happen again."

  Josleen sits on the couch where Pilar sat moments ago as Pilar lays where the Queen usually lounges. Her lips are set in a straight line as she listens to Pilar's apology. "And I don't want another, preventable natural disaster. These two things are not mutually exclusive." She looks as if she wants to continue but instead shakes her head and leans back in her seat, waiting until Pilar is well enough to go. Pilar turned so quickly on Josleen, and in a way Josleen let it happen because she has new allegiances to contend with. The guard who hit Pilar enters the tearoom and bows to the Queen then looks to Pilar and says "I apologize for what happened. My mistake."  

Pilar sighed. 'You should spend your time finding the witches actually responsible, not persecuting all of them,' she wanted to say, but she stayed silent. Josleen was blinded by hatred and distrust. These things couldn't be argued away. She would return to Frostmaw and speak with Hildegarde. Maybe SHE could get through to Jos. In the meantime, she would avoid Larket as much as possible. Her eyes went to the guard. "It's fine." She didn't really feel like it was fine, but she was tired of fighting right now. So tired.

  Josleen increasingly feels like her rank makes it difficult for her to maintain friendships, save with other monarchs such as Hildegarde who may understand how difficult it is to lead. The number of people in her corner dwindles, even as the total power of those left in her corner grows. Ironically, Pilar's acerbic take on Josleen only pushes her further in Macon's arms. Still, she can be a good hostess, and so she asks Pilar, "Do you need anything?" Once that is handled, Josleen busies herself with reading an article in The Herald, one with a heavily anti-witch bias. Normally the bard would engage with her guest, but by now she's exhausted her will and energy to pretend.

  "I'm fine," Pilar said. She didn't want to be here any longer than necessary. She pushed herself off the couch and made her way to the door. "Goodbye Josleen. And... be careful, okay?" It was only a matter of time before burning effigies turned to real attempts on the lives of the monarchy. Pilar walked through the fort, thoughts spinning in her head. Right now, though, she wanted... needed... blood. She mounted her couatl and soared off towards Frostmaw. In her room, there was a bottle with her name on it.