#baronyofthesilverwolf

.....

As Gladiola happily introduces her new friend around, an old friend is pounding on the door to Thistle's workroom.

When there is no answer there, Art searches around, and finally finds her. At least, he recognizes her FEET, or rather her outlandishly painted sneakers with the rainbow laces, sticking out on a rolling cart from underneath the carriage she is currently tinkering with in Wudlig's workshop - big headset cans blast her favorite tunes into her ears as she bangs at something with her Second Favorite Wrench.

"Thistle!" The sidhe lordling calls.

"Thistle?"

Hands cupped around his mouth "THISTLE!"

One brightly-painted sneaker toe is tapping in time to the song.

Hands close around her ankles and she is pulled out from under the vehicle, lights suddenly shining on her face!

Wudlig says "WORKING HERE" at whoever is yelling whatever as he heads towards his shop with a box of parts. There's no such thing as 'spare' for nockers. Just redundancies and frills.

"GAH!"

She looks up into the face of a grinning sidhe!

Despite the grease smeared across one cheek, he can watch her spirals shift between orange, pink, and settle somewhere in a bright coral. "Hey."

"Sorry! You didn't hear me. Hi! Did you miss me?" An impish grin.

Wudlig says "Hey Art. Good to see you." He moves past them and double checks his partner's work to make sure she didn't furk anything up

She pushes her goggles up to her forehead. She's beaming, but trying to look nonchalant. "Oh, y'know, been workin'..."

"Fornax missed you."

"I missed the little monster too." He waves to Wudlig. "Hey, what does this do?" He reaches towards a shiny silver button.

"CAREFUL... this device is going to revolutionize dream dance rescue"

He pulls his hand back. "Dream dances? That DOES make sense... or rather, it makes things make less sense?"

"A way to get to chrysalids BEFORE they destroy a Library."

"YUP. Though, from what I hear, part of that was Gladiola's fault. Trolls can be a bit ham handed" Wudlig says applying some more things to the vehicle forming.

"Oh, Thistle! I had a vision!"

"That's why I'm here!"

"A vision? No shit. What's up?" She clambers up to her feet, shaking out one limb at a time.

"You allowed to tell about them? " Wudlig may not realize he's shooting their chances of learning valued intell in the foot. I mean, isn't TECHNICALLY correct the best kind of correct?

"I am not quite sure. I saw a butterfly, and it was eaten by a pumpkin."

"Oh, yeah - chrysalid, carriage. That's the goal. Eaten seems a little harsh..."

"A .. pumpkin" Wudlig blinks

"It was definitely eaten. There was shrieking. The butterfly had a sword?"

She grimaces. "Okay, so we need to make sure this is a friendly carriage..."

He shakes his head. "Wudlig, trust me, I KNOW. But Lady Aisling - that was one of my mentors - she says that if foretelling the future was easy, then the future would not be worth waiting for? Or... something like that. She went on and on."

"A pumpkin. Dueling pumpkins. It was... uncertain. I thought maybe it was about a cooking contest, something for Marigold. I've been learning more about extrapolating hidden connections."

"Maybe someone else is making carriages?"

A frown. "But that would mean a carriage here, that ain't ours, because ours is county-limited. What'd somebody else want with our chrysalids?"

"New blood, muscle? And at least at the dance lots of furking glamour, like buttloads" He fiddles with the detector "You sure you got this calibrated right?"

"Ain't like we can do a clinical test, POTO."

The light that Wudlig is poking at flashes. Once, twice, then goes dark. As he pokes it again, it starts to swirl, flashing like a siren.

"POTO? Isn't that a mundane bird that looks like a muppet?"

"Woof?"

"No, not you." Art pats the dog.

"Phantom of the opera, but, y'know, less of a mouthful."

"Aw, no, maybe? We should follow this!"

"We got Purple with a vision and it's goin' off. I call that time for a live trial!"

"Hey, what's this..." As it flashes "I think.. I thiNk we GOT ONE!"

"Are you sure it's not in test mode?" Art asks, but he looks excited. "Will it really locate a chrysalid? Incredible! Revolutionary!"

"C'mon, let's try it!" She grabs Art's hand to pull him in.

And they gather in "LIFE is a test Arty"

"Yipe!" He is pulled in, and scooches over, making room for Wudlig. "Don't I know it!"

Thistle is grinning like a maniac. "This is gonna be great!"

And off they go... "Activating veil, compensate with the detector if need be! Regulate the glamo meter!"

The carriage zooms along, careening around corners and at one point trying to go straight through a fence - it appears that zeroing in on the location was programmed as a higher priority than safe traffic pathing, mmm, might need to adjust that. Luckily it was just wood and though the homeowner might be shocked, it only scratches the paint a little on the Contraption.

Art calls over to the Nockers, "Does this thing have a name?!"

"We haven't agreed on that yet, but it SHOULD be the Dream Dance Detecto-driver."

"GLAMO METER fits on the the schemetic and notes easier"