#anywhere

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Lupita gawks at Dagmar "Let me get this straight...these bastards were enslaving folks to dig up some great spirit's BONES?"

"Yeah - like... you know in Guardians of the Galaxy, how they were mining that big dead alien?"

"So there's magic in it, but he wasn't even really dead, just.. uh.. dormant? Well, dead now..."

"That is creepy crasy shit.. and I know creepy crazy. You should see a bane spirit... gah"

"I've seen nocnitsa? They can be messed up."

"I haven't seen any Nervosa, but I bet they're even more so..."

"I don't know exactly what those are, but they sound bad"

"With the bane, they come in all types. the one i was shown was corruption bane sort of? It...it's horrible, because it makes you want to be horrible too.. like being a monster is liberating or something..when actually it just chains you more"

"Noctnitsa are... nightmares, turned real. Usually whatever you fear the most, but it's not just a dream."

"That sounds gross. Did you kill it?"

"More importantly, I refused it... remember that wyrm I told you about? Ours are not cool dragons...our Wyrm is our big bad..gone insane god kind of thing... well, that's not exactly it, but if you let it taint you... you start to serve it. So as a philodox and a judge I need to learn how to resist. It's weird shit. But then, I've been telling folks bigger than me to go screw themselves for a while, Maybe it was good training. Once I rejected it and attacked it, Rails joined in. Honestly he did most of the killing"

"But you did SOME!" Loyal and proud.

"Yeah" Pleased, "I got lick in"

"And yeah, I have to work on being stoic. Duty is everything."

"Huh. Sounds strict. "

"I mean, we have missions and purposes too but what kind of duties do you have?"

"Well.. okay, so.. I have to protect, like, all kinds of stuff.."

"I have to protect other ones like me - doubly so, because we're the strongest. And then there's, like, relatives? Not changelings, but, like, parents or siblings?"

"Kinfolk"

she does not say that in a folksy way

"Kin, yeah! And plus we have to protect regular people from.. um.. like, there's the part of the world that is good, and magic, and, well.. like... fosters dreams, and hope, and the idea that things can be better..."

"But there's this OTHER force, and it strips people of hope and wants everything to be grey and dead forever."

"So we try to stop that. Stop the thing that kills souls even if the body is still living."

"Sounds a bit like the clash between Wyld and Wyrm"

She ponders "So... are you guys..>" SHe sighs "don't laugh. Are you guys arranged in packs of some sort? "

"Well... sometimes? I don't have a motley, but some do."

"motley? weird name. Okay. Sounds like you guys are less formal in some ways? Me, I'm going to undergo this big ass test with a bunch of other cubs I barely know... see if we survive it and after that we're a pack"

"You BETTER survive it!" Fiercely

"We're less formal than the nobles - they have to do a big test. Me, I have a ceremony. Jaymes and Brekke are working out to see if you can come."

"Hey, if I have to stand a half mile away with an airhorn you'll hear me" SHe says firmly

"Well, I'm hoping. We might have to ask Rails?"

"Ah, Rails will probably allow it. He's not a complete dick"

"He just plays one on TV."

"HA!"

"I'd change the channel some days"

"Yeah, I bet. Everybody at the lodge is pretty decent."

"I wouldn't give it up for nuthin"

A pat on the shoulder "Cool. You know, I'm glad you got your famila so tight. It's like a pain, but also a strength ?"

"I dunno about pain... it... I never really felt like I belonged anywhere before, you know?"

"Maybe not quite the same way you do, but I can imagine" SHe says

"I mean, it's not the brady bunch. We don't always get along. But... but I don't feel like if I screw up that, like... I mean, I have screwed up, but they just forgave me."

"They probably screw up too. Show me someone whose shit doesn't stink, and I'll show you someone who has secretly swapped their shit with a fake. Heck, even Sylvi farts"

Blink.. blink... and then she laughs.

A grin

"She does!"

"Little high pitched squeeks I bet"

Dag/Sam is snickering

A smile back "Point is, nobody is perfect. Of COURSE they can forgive you"

"I.. well, I guess that just... just isn't always true? But it is with them."