RP:Three Hands are Better than One
Summary: Emilia runs into Alvina at the restaurant in Kelay. Their plans for a replacement hand change, based on her new Gensai powers, and Alvina convinces Emi to come over before the Annual Yule Ball in Frostmaw so they can go together.
Kelay Restaurant
Alvina was sitting in a corner booth, steaming cup of hot chocolate coiled in one fleshed hand, bent over a paperback novel. The pages are worn; this particular book must have been read and reread ten times or more. The lighting is low but warm, candle flame flickering growing shadows on the walls. Both of Alvina’s arms are bare, her gloves curled in the booth seat. Her back is towards the door, bright crimson curls pulling her from the rest of the otherwise empty establishment. She hums thoughtfully, mug pressed to her lips while her eyes keep scanning her book.
Emilia entered the establishment with a little bit of trouble pulling at the door, it was to be expected when one only sported one real hand after all. Yet, as the Genasi entered the restaurant with a glare from the staff there was no sudden drop in the temperature of the building that normally accompanied the frozen lady, only a small gust of cool air from outside that faded when the door closed. Righty was the first to spot the familiar red haired woman scampering over on solid finger tips before leaping right up onto her table, no mouth to ask permission to join, and landing with a tiny series of taps as each finger hit the table. Em was not to far behind if only to speak softly, “Sorry, the bloody thing means well. It's like an untrainable puppy.” If Alvina lifted a gaze to the Genasi she’d find that the woman sported two hands once more. Thumbs twiddling together as she held her own hands. Focus, so much focus on the magic needed to keep the regrown hand of ice animated to appear as real at the other. It was this careful mindwork that sucked the chill right back into the Frosty lady instead of engulfing the space around her.
Alvina was entranced by her book so when Righty makes it’s way up on to the table, tapping out it’s rhythmic greeting, she jumps up and spills hot chocolate into her lap. “Gods above,” She cries in surprise, calming only when she sees and processes her visitor(s). Then she laughs nervously while tugging her damp cloak away from her body. “Emilia,” She grins with affection, small dying pools of steam rising off her clothing and cooling in the air. It wasn’t hot enough to cause any burns. Just inconvenience. One of the workers rushed over to apologetically wipe down the table and couldn’t stop herself from staring at Emilia’s pet. “No, no that’s quite alright. Luna and Harper are much the same these days. Bryce less so.” However startled the bard was, she still seemed in good spirits. “Please, have a seat and join me? I just went and spoke with a consult of the craft to draft the blueprints for your…” Alvina looks down at the Gensai’s wrist to find that she was now in possession of THREE Hands; two seemingly attached and a third running amok with good intentions. “My goodness - what is this…” She gasps, leaving her cloak to cool and no doubt stick to her and everything else until it’s washed.
Emilia had grown rather used to the stares and the glares from most shops these days that once welcomed her with open arms when she was a clumsy human girl. Turning her attention over to the gusture given by the other women to share a booth with her the Genasi took a seat with some grace, some clumsiness by knocking Righty off the table. Three hands is one more than most, however no one else really had an extra hand running around on its own free will. After sitting the woman remembered to breathe, which she in this moment was glad the body did it without having to think about every motion to survive. Allowing the magic to settle into her hand the Genasi offered over the to the other woman. Without the magic flowing through it Alvina could see clearly that the hand was a regrown part only made of the very element that flowed through the tiny woman herself. Useless ice chunk without constant thought into infusing it with the magic within her. In time, surely the frosty woman would be able to master controlling a hand and remembering to breathe at the same time. “Turns out, if you ask the right folk in the Winter Wonderland you learned a few secrets about yourself that even you don’t know. The snow is a rather odd friend if any. I believe working together your blueprints and my magic might make it a bit more livable with.”
Alvina is clearly impressed. The waitress takes away her empty cup, eyeing the hand suspiciously once it’s knocked off the table. The bard, still standing, leans over the table to examine Emilia’s hand. “Huh…” She says, tilting her head this way and that. After a beat, a grin sneaks onto her lips. “You never cease to amaze me.” It’s spoken as if it’s a repeated factor in their interactions. A hand made of ice? Magic Ice? Brilliant. “Frostmaw is mysterious and magical, as always.” She chuckles, finally taking a seat and shuffling her book off to the side. Alvina herself is sporting a new feature herself! Since last they met, Alvina’s formerly gold left arm is all skin and bone - bare to the elements of the small shop and dusted with Goosebumps from the chill let in with Emilia’s entrance. The Gensai’s conclusion about a hybrid brings Alvina’s mind back to the table proper. “Oh yes! A good mechanical base that’s moved less by connected ligaments and muscles but more of magic.” She laughs nervously then. “I was concerned on -how- we’d get motion there. The nerves in the hand are so small and delicate...I was puzzled.” Her index finger digs into her temple but her good mood hasn’t soured. “I swear, it’s livelier than ever up there!” The bard referring to Frostmaw, thinking of another commission she’d taken up in the winter wasteland. “How is..Righty… taking to the new hand?”
Emilia smiled at the other woman, those frosty blue lips almost never smiling anymore. It was good to sit in company of another she knew without having to sit on the other side of the room like a misfit. The new sporting of the arm of the other was noted without words spoken even if the gears in her mind were spinning off the hook. The question at hand was noted with an easy answer given by none other than Righty with a jumping and hoping in excitement. Seems he was most happy to have a sibling hand, if it kept him from being strapped down in an attempt to be apart of the body again. “I believe that Righty is happy with the new hand idea. It beats a few other things that we have tried. I find that sitting naked in the snow listening to its song has found me answers to some things I have been searching for since the day I died. More so than any book can possibly offer me in this search for answers on something that I don’t think really exist. I have also learned a few other tricks that someday I would love to show you.” There was a pause as the lady turned the questions over, “How are the littles? I have not seen them in ages or that crazy Husband of yours.”
Alvina rests her elbows on the table’s edge, propping her chin up with interlaced fingers. Righty’s reappearance is less startling. She watches with amusement at it’s confirmation of joy at this development. “Live your best life, Righty.” She chuckles before her emerald eyes flick back to Emilia’s face. The other woman goes on about how she’d come across these new skills and Alvina listens intently. The bard didn’t know, actually, that Emilia had died. Maybe that was the curse of becoming a Gensai. She didn’t really know though. It felt rude to ask about history when most people sport bad pasts, herself included. Alvina didn’t like to rehash her mistakes or missteps. Had Alvina died technically? She doesn’t know that either. She wasn’t a vampire so maybe not! “That sounds really peaceful and therapeutic too. I wish I could sit in the library naked and absorb all the information it had to offer.” Maybe not naked in the winter, she froze so quickly. Less so now but still. “Oh, and the children are fine. We went to a Carnival birthday party a couple days ago and Bryce decided to bite another kid. Ugh I think he might be teething…” As always, Alvina feels bad for talking about the children. She wants to ask about Emilia’s but…she didn’t know if it was a sore subject to bring up. “And Hudson is… well Hudson, eternally a teenager trapped in a man’s body. One of these days, we should grab him and all go out to lunch.” Alvina pauses, letting her eyes fall back to the table. “Is there anything else going on in Ms. Emilia’s life?” This seems like a safe question with no large requirement for an answer. Emilia could say anything as light or deep as she wished without Alvina feeling like she’s putting the woman in a tight spot. That’s the last thing she wanted.
Emilia seemed perhaps more at peace that in the past many visits the two had shared with one another, yet always a pleasure to spend time with the other woman. As she started to talk about the idea of her son teething came up the the Genasi began to idly draw a circle on the table with her finger, crafting something out of ice. “I forget to go to that. I tend to be terrible at attending public gathers these days. Perhaps now that winter is coming me being around won’t be so terrible upon others. I can easily blame the natural cold,” She said with an honest gest. It was probably the woman’s hardest bit to swallow was having to separate her once social self away from the world for their own benefit, unless it happened to be winter or in Frostmaw. A chuckle, “I don’t think Hudson would like it if you were sitting naked in a library unless it was empty and locked with many locks to keep others from looking at you.” A soft smile of frozen blue lips, “At least now that he is married he isn’t trying to hit on me while drunk, but a sober lunch sounds nice.” Memories, oh the memories of life before she knew nothing else but the chill of ice and death, which in the long thought was always who she had been, so what was real and what was false memories were such a blur of lies and magic. Blinking, “I have learned to shift shapes, which is rather useful, but just as controlling a magic hand is still being worked on. I have invested time in taking a trip with some people on a boat, which is terrifying,” a Genasi afraid of water? Yup, that hadn’t changed. Lifting her hand from the table she offered the woman a frozen looking carrot of ice, hard yet soft in a way, “For Bryce, it won’t melt or break and will soothe those gums of his as teeth break through.” Enchanted teether.
Alvina nods. “It’s hard to keep track of all the things happening at one time. I kind of understand.” What she can’t imagine is fearing complaint or danger to people around her because she’s radiating (bad choice of words?) cold. “You should definitely come to the Yule ball Frostmaw holds every year if nothing else. It’s always a hoot. Hildegarde took wishes last year and got all dressed up. She even got that angry saber cat to dress up too.” Alvina laughs but rolls her eyes about Hudson not wanted her to be in a library naked. “I think he wouldn’t mind if it was with a woman!” Because that’s the male fantasy right? While they speak, Alvina glances at Emilia’s twirling finger. She does blink when Emilia mentions a fear of water. “People on a boat?” She inquires, tilting her head before receiving the frozen gift. It’s cool to the touch but pleasantly so. Especially after having hot chocolate on her! “Aww Emilia, you shouldn’t have.” She beams, reaching her hand across the table to try and touch the Gensai’s nonmagic’d arm or wrist. Alvina’s own skin radiates a higher than normal human temperature so she wouldn’t be frozen immediately if there’s such a danger.
Emilia smiled at the other woman. Gosh, it had been a long time since the frozen one had smiled so much in one sitting, it was nice to say the least. The extra warmth in the touch was greeted with a gentle pat from her other hand, “Either you have a fever my dear, or something else has changed with you…” She whispered before sliding the woman her hand back across the table. It was a strange thing to feel the faintest bit of heat from another, it was a rare thing since the woman herself was cold to the bone, literally, and almost fully numb to the world around her. Yet, being a healer had helped the woman to feel again, if only somewhat that came in the differences in people around her. Feeling for a fever without giving one frostbite for one thing and to tell when she has burnt her hand on a hot pan before it reached a third degree or worse state. Small things at a time. “I found that when the triplets were teething those came in handy. I suppose if they worked for a half dragons, they should work for other little ones too.” Ah, there she spoke of those offspring of hers, yet it was in such a stoic tone, as if they were just characters from a storybook at the library. A lighter note, “Yule ball? That seems like a crowded place. It also seems like something I would have to find a dress for and then attempt to brush through curls that haven’t seen a comb in many months. A lot of work for something so scary.”
Alvina laughs nervously. “Ah ha ha well…a lot of things have changed.” It’s cryptic but she doesn’t finish that thought. Instead, she leans into Emilia’s hand and holds for a long minute. Physical contact is Alvina’s way of supporting and gaining her own reassurances. It’s how she translates feelings and friendships. Maybe this touch could send the story to Emilia without needing cumbersome words to do so. The bard herself can’t decode how her companion speaks of her children. With a distance, possibly born from self preservation. Maybe that was the only way the Gensai could survive without them. Three children. Alvina’s heart aches to think about it, but Emilia is smiling and it soothes Alvina enough to not linger there either. When the topic shifts to talk of the Yule ball, Alvina feels better. A lighter topic. A safe topic. “It is crowded but there’s no cause to get overly fancy. It’s just fun to watch people twirl about. More fun, honestly, to see what -everyone else- has worn. I don’t like complicated outfits or hairstyles personally. Have to dress up for Cenril business but otherwise, eh. Really though, you should come. It’d be nice. Hudson will be there. A good chance to corner that man into some conversation. Please, for Sven’s sake, I can’t manage him half the time alone.” Another laugh parts her lips and here she’ll draw her hands back. The cold didn’t bite at her skin but it would, eventually. She wasn’t impervious to all chill. “Plus, there’s this avian I met recently - odd fellow, but he’s simultaneously energetic and stoic. Been spending quite a bit of time in Frostmaw, he says. I’d be interested to see if he came.” She appears thoughtful, her tone harbors nothing but friendly amusement at the prospect of running into that character. “And if you want, I can help you with your hair. Luna and Harper are IMPOSSIBLE. I can’t do anything, they won’t sit still long enough. It could be fun.” She suggests.
Emilia raised a brow at the prolonged exposure to her frozen skin, few had managed that in the time since she turned to ice, but there as she pulled away the Genasi gave a wink, “Sometimes being with the right one turns you into who you truly are at the core of it all.” A simple answer that the Genasi had a good if not almost positive confirmation of the fever she felt in the other, but there was also a look in those faintly colored eyes that suggested she’d not tell a soul of the unspoken words between the ladies. “Twirling is a danger, I trip over my own two feet. The last ball I did attend in Larket I believe it was myself and another whom is just as two left footed as I made a good tumble and failed at dancing ever so much. Seems small people with tall winged people in a crowd do make for some trouble,” a gentle laugh. The genasi tugged at her curls, it would take the poor redhead days to detangle it by the state of those poor white locks that drug on the ground in desperate cry for a trim as well, “Little ones sit still when you give them a snack to occupy them, most of the time,” Em added with some persona advice. It was the topic of the stoic avian that triggered possibly the biggest smile Alvina might ever see on those frozen lips, the Genasi knew this man with the simplest of descriptions given. “Alright, if you think you can tame wild curls, I shall make an attempt to tame little ones hair with an old trick. And just for you, I shall extend an invite to a very close winged friend of mine to see if he could accompany me there.” The lady did not go on to add that it was the same man the other spoke of, but perhaps she would guess it. Em would also not go on that it was highly unlikely that he’d let her wander off to something that could be dangerous to her without his watchful eye.
Alvina wonders if that’s true. If she’d been more ruthless than she wanted to admit and being with Hudson had just forced it to bloom out into the open. It’s bittersweet, she knows she isn’t rotten but she doesn’t think Hudson’s rotten either. He does bad things for his family, to provide and keep them safe. And, she guessed, because the wolf aspect of him enjoys it too. So they make peace with it. Alvina had, until recently, buried it in blatant denial. Refused to look at the bad. Liked going along with the idea that he was a nightclub owner and real estate developer. Still, all their history brought her to the undeniable conclusion that she loved him. That she’d personally ripe apart anyone who tried to hurt him, which said a lot since Alvina was NOT a violent person by any stretch of the imagination. But..he only killed wicked people, right? Like Valrae’s brother. Or had Valrae killed him? She can’t remember anymore. Her face had gone blank, turned inward to sort through Emilia’s reply. When Emilia moves on to saying she’s clumsy, Alvina imagines her tripping all over the ballroom and it lifts her spirits. “I happen to be pretty good with hair cuts.” She mused, albeit with tempered restraint. Emilia’s broad smile inspires a re-emergence of Alvina’s own. Oh did she know him?! “I will do my very best, you have my word.” She smiles wide enough to close her eyes and holds up her palm towards the Gensai; a promise. “A winged friend?” Alvina smirks, reading something there that she wouldn’t remark on. She tries not to gush at how adorable Emilia had looked upon this man’s mention. “I can’t wait to meet him.” She adds, feigning obliviousness. “Here, you have our address right?” Alvina tugs free a card from her satchel with the Landon Estate address in bold letters. Hudson’s business card. “I believe it’s a couple months away still but let’s plan to meet up the week before for a trial run and then the night of. Sounds fair?”
Emilia reached and accepted the card from the other woman as she could not remember off hand if she did or did not know where the family lived. The Genasi knew far too many people anymore to try and single out any place off the top of her head, at least in this moment. The card was tucked into her pocket before she nodded, “I believe that we can do a trial run a week prior to this ball that is indeed sometime away. That is as long as your family is fine with letting a monster into the doors.” Granted it was a theme for the Genasi using that word to describe herself. What she was wasn’t human anymore that was for a fact. “Don’t you go getting any funny ideas now about my winged friend. We are simply friends that tend to cause trouble in the world together when we are not gardening in the greenhouse or doing our own things.”
Alvina gives Emilia a playfully scolding stare. “Not a monster - just a lady with long hair and three hands.” It’s funny to say but it doesn’t make her think of Emi as anymore of a monster because...she isn’t. Maybe she isn’t human but that doesn’t make her lesser. She is just a soul finding connections with other souls. What’s so wrong or monstrous about that? The bard puts both her hands up when Emilia warns her not to get any ideas. “I haven’t! I won’t!” but she had and she did and that’s just how it is! Friends that tend to cause trouble in the world together. Who did that sound like? “That’s a perfectly respectable friendship.” She agrees, slyly looking towards the wall. “I’m excited to meet him and excited to attend the ball together. We could even paint Righty’s nails if it’d like to go too?” She’s joking, mostly. The waitress finally gets around to bringing over Alvina’s check and she pulls out the necessary coins to pay the bill and then some. “Promise you’ll come?” She furrows her brows, folding her hands together over her heart. “Promise?”
Emilia raised her one still attached hand that belonged to her and nodded, “So long as there is no massive event that happens in the same time frame that calls upon my duty as a leading healer of the land then, yes I promise to not only come over to have a girls day of hair and whatever else you are secretly planning in that head of yours for this day prior to the ball, and that under the same notion no calling for a major healer is happening on the day of this ball I shall come to it with you and even attempt to keep your husband and tiny ones in check. Even if I have to freeze Hudson in spot place on the ballroom floor.” There was a gentle smile to her lips as she nodded, it was the best promise she could offer with her job.
Alvina smirked and moved to stand, waiting patiently by the table in case Emilia was heading out the same way she was. “I’ll accept that very thorough promise.” She nods, punctuating the sentiment. “And don’t worry, I rarely have crazy ideas.” This is false; she always has crazy ideas. Do not trust her. “It’s a date! Don’t forget!” Alvina waves to both the Gensai and Righty (enchanted hand extraordinaire) and bid them both a fond farewell.
Emilia waved along with Righty at the departing Alvina from the little place. It seems the pair we now set up for a date...when was the last time the Genasi actually attend such a date with anyone? Who knows, but I guess it is never the wrong to start doing so again.