#anywhere

"Well...I don't know...but maybe. And I'll ask the Baron about previous emissaries, and what he knows about the Pu'gwi."

"Excellent. Are you...feeling better? That girl, this Dika-Hannah? She was clearly lonely, but I noticed she wasn't alone in that" Floppsy says "Holidays, even holidays that weren't your favorite, are different, aren't they?"

"Yeah. I guess a surprise discovery helps. But it was always fun to see one of my friends get Really Big Eyes when I enchanted her...." A shrug. "But this year is just different."

"Of course it is, and it may not even be as good, but that's part of the journey, isn't it? We take one path this year that we didn't the last, and we learn which lands we like best so when we return? Ever year folks talk about a terrible vacation? Years later they'll compare good or even average vacations to it. Now I'm not saying this is a bad vacation. But...it's different, and it might be, and you'll treasure it IN a way, because of that"

"Oh, Flopsy, I'm not saying this is a bad vacation at all! And you're totally right...it's all memories that I'm gathering up. I'm just...a little moody because I don't know anybody here really." A pause. "Didn't. Huh. I guess I do, now." She gives him a bit of a grin.

The rabbit winks

"Okay, Mr. Ears." She rumples him a bit. "You want to come down to the party, or would you rather I just bring you back some carrots?"

"I'll go with you," he says "Woldn't want you to feel alone" he leans into the rumple. "Might hang back a bit from the music. My volume setting is differeent, but I don't mind hanging around nearby. "

"Okay." She checks her appearance to make sure she's neat and dressed according to whatever code was established for the party. "Let's go make a fashionably-late entrance."

And they go down. She's not made that many FRIENDS here, but she's knowing them, and that's not bad. the Aesin, a sluagh boy, and others her age are there as well as older crowds... maybe she'll make alliances here that have nothing to do with the Nunnehi

Snowy Joe is older than her, a wilder sluagh boy who somehow has become a trusted assistant to the Baron. Ironically, he seems to sigh at every court function, mutter about sidhe, and yet...she suspects he's incredibly loyal to the Baron. He mutters something as she comes down to the party but she can't make it out.

She pauses by him. "Excuse me? I didn't hear you." A polite smile, though she realizes it might not have been a mutter intended for her ears at all.

"well, i said hello. i said welcome to the party it's not too late to run. and i muttered something about honky tonk hell...the baron likes country western music. maybe i shouldn't have helped him reclaim it from the varich? sure, they're genocidal jerks, but their music tends towards classical"

She grins. "My uncle Frank, our Lodge's Mountain, he's a long-haul trucker, and sometimes he listens to country-western. It isn't all awful. I didn't realize you helped Baron Idris reclaim the hold, Snowy Joe."

"yeah, well, after he lost it to that varich bitch...mix of combat and trickery, he realized he had let his people down. He smuggled the sluagh out when he found out varich thought 'purge' was a documentary when it came to sluagh. stupid cowboy formed an underground railroad of sorts for us. He also stuck by the nunnehi when the varich didn't recognize those treaties. you know how irritating it is to discover that someone was a knothead and you admire the hell out of them anyway? i'm too young for ulcers"

"Life can be troubling that way," she agrees, and looks around the party, curious about how many other sluagh might be there...of course she knows she might not actually spot them all.

She only sees one other, a girl closer to her age than snowy who has painted her face in a day of the dead design and wears an outfit like a wandering padre like a western. She has ear plugs in and is eatting..well, best not to look. The Aesin seems to have forgotten his usual grumpiness and is dancing with a satyress, not bad on his feet. A beautiful lady sidhe, one she does not recognize, dances wit h the baron ,but there is fondness there, affection, mroe than any romance.

"Who is that, dancing with the Baron?"

"You mean the one too young for him but too old for me?" Snowy mutters "Dame Darcia Hawkwillow, knight errant of House Gwydion. She visits. from what I understand, she's a cousin or something ,but I"m not sure if by mortal blood or in the dreaming, but they're not an item...more like good friends." A pause, "Kind a shame, a lack of inbreeding destroys some of my theories about the shining host" dryly

"I'm getting the feeling that the only reason you helped the Baron is because better-him-than-Aesin, and not because of any fondness for sidhe in general," Sylvi murmurs low enough for his ears but no others.

very deadpan

"Better him than Varich you mean? yes, that's why i did it. not because of any personal fondness. also, i don't pet puppies or feed stray dogs."

OOC: SOrry, it didn't send

((Ack, I meant Varich, Stupid type-y fingers....))

A slight shrug. "That's fair. Your kithmate there...does she come from Mexico?"

"oh her? that's Yancy. she likes country western. claims it's the song of ignorance and want and thus dickens with a drawl"

"ANd no, she's not from Mexico"

Sylvi's trying to commit the names to memory. She doesn't have her notebook on her, and if she did it wouldn't be good manners to sit in a corner jotting down things she's heard. "I thought, with the Day of the Dead outfit, she might be."

"I think she just likes the skull paint. Talk to her if you like. "

"I may." A pause. "There are so many interesting people here. I met a Pu'gwi a little while ago, outside the 'hold."

"you met one of the Pu'gwi?" For a moment he looks envious, "was she as gross as tales say? are we talking dawn of the living dead level looks?"

Sylvi bites her lip and pauses a moment before replying. "Definitely unnerving. Very. But she sings, and her voice...wow."

"yeah yeah, pretty song. did she appear to be in a state of frozen decay, or did any of the flesh actually slough off while you talked to her?

She frowns at him. "Yes. She looked...horrible. But if you want me to describe in detail, I won't. I think she may be a good person, and it wouldn't be fair to talk about her like that."

"why are you assuming talking about someone's hideousness is an insult? you know how damn common pretty people are in our world? " He glances at some of the sidhe, "Hell, Gulbrand is the ugliest sidhe I've ever met and he still manages 'cute'. ANd even the non sidhe aren't exactly hideous. I mean, I had hopes when I heard you were coming, but nope, you're pretty too. I mean ,compared to the Gwydion lady you're the one with the nice personality, but on a general ranking you're attractive"

A dubious, "Thanks." Then she sighs. "Dika-Hannah's appearance excludes her from a life she wants to explore. It's not something she's proud of. It makes her sad."

"Mmm wonder if ther'es something in their kith that makes appearance altering magic not work for them? otherwise they'd probably all study chicanery or metamorphsis. " Joe rallies to the challenge of it, "Chicanery might work better, it fools others, more than altering the body. More a crap shoot, could have someone in a crowd break into a blood curdling scream while others just see a pretty girl. Heh.. okay, volume aside that could be kind of cool"

"I was kind of wondering that myself. If maybe there'd be some way I could help her see the stuff she wants to see, like Central Park and the Statue of Liberty. I sure don't have that kind of skill yet, but...well, anyway, yeah, I don't know if something would undermine a cantrip like that."

"the dreaming usually finds a way, often involving great sacrifice and annoyance for something that isn't quite what you wanted but by now you're too tired to argue. It's like if hope and frustration had a love child with extra toes"

She gives him a look and a half-grin. "You sound like a sluagh I used to know, at Firnost."

" i went there once. felt like a yokel talking to the cool kids, but you do what you have to do to make your shoulder angel shut the hell up" A sigh

"Shoulder angel? So it was kind of a do-the-right-thing visit?"

"i...." A pause "did not say that" uncomfortable

"Mm-hm." A carefully controlled grin and an undercurrent of gotcha. "Well, I'm going to get something to drink." She moves away from Joe's post at the bottom of the stairs and into the room, seeking out the refreshments.

Those are plentiful, though the variety isn't as large as would be in Hemlock's holding. Hot Coco, beer, some wine but nothing fancy, soda, coffee and tea.

She briefly considers just one glass of wine...would anybody here mind?...but settles on a soda instead.

she takes her first sip and...

'do you have intentions on on snowy joe?' a whisper behind her

A blink and she turns to see who has asked.

It's Yancy. The sluagh girl, closer to her age, well, the skull face art makes it hard to be sure what she looks like, prounced almost too sharp cheekbones