#bergen_county

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"Okay,, Les is upstairs nursing a black eye trying to hide it from us," Mrs. Novak tells her husband, "Egon is out running with that Layne girl... " A beat , "how many kids do we have again?" Half joking, but she has had a long day.

"Three!" Mr. Novak says "I remember because you told me if we had a fourth you'd have me surgically altered, so I keep count," Her husband reminds her.

"Oh yeah!" THAT does remind her, she looks around "Where the heck is Amity?"

Her husband thinks about it, "I really have no idea."

"Huh," Vanessa Novak ponders this, "Our kid could be in trouble, but then... she might be fine." / Karel pulls out a coin, and flips it, it lands and he tells his wife "I got heads." / "Oh, she's fine then," And the Nocker goes back to her coffee and schematics.

There is a rustling behind them, and a kid is at the counter, eating from a box of pecan sandies.

It is not, oddly enough, one of THEIR kids.

Crunch crunch, he goes, and his tail wags.

"That better not be number four," Vanessa eyes her husband.

The pooka blinks, and checks his fingers. "No, I'm pretty sure I'm at least 17, as things 'r reckoned."

He looks around 8-10, in that range.

Karel looks alarmed and pops up "HEY, Champ. I couldn't help but notice I have no idea who you are. I'm Mr. Novak, this is my lovely wife Mrs. Novak, you okay? They starving you where you come from? " His surprise shifts to good humor, "Want me to turn Bluey on the TV?"

"I followed that one home" Pointing up. "After he got whalloped GOOD. I made sure he made it in." Tail wag. "That's worth..." He ponders, and takes just one more. "Three cookies."

"You can't keep me though," Apologetically, "I don't have all my shots."

Karel nods sagely, "Well, when you get a shot, don't waste it. Hamilton said that." / "And it ended so well for him," Nessa calls out. / "Ahem," Mr. Novak says "I'll see what we can do it in cookie supplies." He reaches to a shelf. It used to be a top shelf, but with wilder redcap and a daughter that can fly it became futile. So they had another device made. The cookie jar has a steam punk style lid, he pulls it out. There are an assortment of cookies in it. As his hand goes on the lid ... the Cookie Jar speaks!

"WHAT ARE YOU CALLED?" It asks. / "Karel Novak aka Dad, aka dazzle hands," He answers. / "WHAT IS YOUR QUEST?" It demands/ "To get some cookies." He replies/ "WHAT is the Air speed velocity of an unladen pidge?" / "African, or Europeon?" He asks back. / Then the lid of the cookie jar pops off, and he offers the jar to the boy "Take three."

Connor takes three! A sniff, “ not chocolate I hope, I don’t like to support the Nestlé conglomerate.”

"The chocolate chips are home made because our recipe is better," He does do a lot of cooking around here and while no match for Kerri, he does all right, "There is also a peanut butter flavored one, and a sugar cookie....and ... I have no idea what the yellow one is? Banana or lemon I guess."

Most homes have screens in their windows - after all, who wants flies or mosquitoes in their home?

Or... is that a pigeon?

The bird swoops in and flaps over to land on the back of a chair. But... but there is a BOY. Not Les or Egon! "Coo-oo-oo!?"

"Hey honey, got your favorite here too." The Piskey grump holds out a __________ cookie for the bird, "This is... actually I don't think I caught his name."

The pooka brightens up and takes three peanut butter cookies.

“ oh hello!” he looks at the Bird, and promptly crumble some peanut butter cookie crumbs onto the counter where she sits. “ welcome to my humble abode..”

She pecks politely at the crumbs. Then, the bird hops down to the floor, and a moment later a little girl crawls out from under the table. The smear of sticky red jam and white powder on her cheeks is totally not suspicious.

“ I am a bird dog after all” he says. Then belatedly remembered to point at her. “A pointer, see? But I don’t have the rank to appoint her. That would be my pops. Not here though. Only if she goes to the frozen North. But not all the way up to the frozen north, because then she’d be back in chieftain territory again.”

"...Hi."

A nocker grump peeks in and looks at her daughter "You okay? Alive? Healthy?"

"Nope, dead. Went vampire hunting in the brambles and I was staked right in the heart!" She clasps her hands over her chest and sways dramatically.

A beat. "Oh, maybe then I am un-dead?"

"Would the day a vampire died be their un-birthday?"

"Are you a were-dog?" To Connor, now.

"Don't joke about that, furking children of lilth are BAD news. We're talking stranger danger on a BIG level," Nessa replies "Well, DO joke I guess, but still you know what I mean. Glad you're okay."

She also neatly takes three of the yellow (banana!) cookies.

She looks over the whiteboard with the marker on it that says "4 days without incident with Kids" and realizes she may need to wipe it back to zero again, seeing as Les at least got into some trouble.

"Vampires aren't so scary." Connor says, "They just grumble and growl and say YEEEEEEEEEEEER OUT!" He flings a thumb back.

She offers one out to the new pook. "Trade? I'm Emily."

"I'm not scared of vampires at all." A hint of a wobble in her voice.

"No, I'm pretty sure your name is Connor." He shakes his head and shakes her hand. "Paw?"

"Claw!"

He blinks and shakes. "A new member." Then he shoots furtive glances at Nessa and Novak and holds a finger to his lips.

Clearly, something SEKRIT here."

Karel notice the wobble and his brow knits in fatherly concern for a moment but then he decides maybe this Connor guy , if he read that lie right, is good for his daughter in the short term "Amity, if you want to talk to me your or your mom you know we are here. In the mean time, I'm gonna get you kids some sweet tea, Lemonaid or Grape Koolaid." He looks to Connor "Preferences?"

Eyebrows lift?

Amity may recall Jack Flap mentioned the Shadowpaw soceity (Shadowhoof too) and their mysterious leader!

"I don't think being squeezed is actually very helpful to lemons, is it? No grapes are involved in koolaid AND is it certifiably cold, so it's made the not-grapes cool. I think?"

"S'tasty though."

"I hate the purple flavor. But hospitatlity means accepting it with a smile."

"Sweet tea?" He looks baffled. "You don't SMELL like a tea-drinker. And they are not very sweet."

"Are too!" Defensively. "Tea drinkers at the playground, at least."

Each gets their own glass, and Karel slips into the next room with his wife rejoining his wife and whispering something. / His wife nods as they give the kids space.

"No, they are sour! Like old meat."