#earthrunes

Then she returns to her seat at the bedside. "Something will be here soon."

Octo gets right on it.

While Shaillimar doesn't react at first, when Octo comes in with a piping hot plate of some of the best food, "Baroness, here is the..." The skunk points at the boggan. The boggan not being a Fiona, turns right back around "Perhaps another time then."

"No, wait...I will take it. Thank you, Octo." She retrieves the tray, then shuts the door as the boggan goes out. A gentle glare at the pooka. "You know he wouldn't want you doing that." She sets the tray down somewhere close enough that the smells can waft to the pooka's nose.

She now knows what a skunk's wince looks like as she mentions the Baron's wishes. A glance to the corpse, then a sigh, and the skunk rolls off the opposite of the bed with a thump.

She doesn't look his way, but busies herself with the tray, boggan-like, for a few moments to grant him a modicum of privacy.

A bedraggled pooka with two legs and a wrinkled jester outfit in need of a wash arises.

When he stands, she turns to look at him. "Oh, Shallimar....I'm so sorry."

"it doesn't matter," He says glumly "happens every day and done. Wash rinse repeat."

His glamour seems dimmed despite being ina hold.

"The passing of such a good lord does not happen everyday, no. And you have done well to keep vigil. I am...I should have relieved you sooner so that you could rest a bit."

"oh i would have popped right off then," He says and pats her hand though, "In truth Baroness, for I allways speak it- you lack the army that could move me. He..." The pooka reaches into his outfit finding a pocket and pulls forth a photo, offering it to her to look at "in 6 minutes this self destructs."

She takes the photo carefully and looks at it.

It's a photo of a laughing boy in a black and Silver T shirt at a birthday party at a Chuck E Cheeses with a an older more dignified man suffering quietly despite looking like a complete fish out of water watching over a howling mob of nosey childlings, LOUD music, and blaring lights. The man is clearly a younger version of the baron. And the boy? the laughing one with a rat earred baseball cap from the restaurant? Well, not hard to guess.

She smiles. "That's a wonderful photo. I had no idea you'd known the Baron so long. He raised you, then?"

And she offers the small treasure back to him.

A nod, "Raised me? Well, Dreaming knows I tempted him to hurl me into a ceiling fan more than once. You see, I was a very wealthy fellow. Dined off all the finest garbage cans...a run away boy and all...well, when I heard pooka were fantastic warriors, and I saw this grand hold. I walked up and applied for postion of head thane right away."

A curious grin. "Did he accept you right away? Or did that take some convincing?"

"How to put this delicately? I was informed he was a busy man who needed a jester as much as Baldur needed mistle toe and others assured me the man laughed about as frequently as the Devil snowmobiled."

That gets a bit of a laugh, though a subdued one. "That doesn't surprise me. He frequently needed rescuing from his own seriousness, didn't he? How did you convince him?"

"My skilled planning and forethought. There was a Kardashian who visited, wore a great hoop skirt and a very small mind. She gave everything here a bad yelp review. It was only when the lady began to besmirch the Baron's vasaals that the lord began to reach for the lightning bolts though. Well, I was a small lad, but an even smaller Pole Kitten, like a hotwheel. I may have helped myself into the chamber of her hoop, and just as she gave speech, made sound unlike a divine wind shattering... and then cut loose in my animal form. Now, the musk of my delight has grown stronger with age, but even then, it was..noticable, but twas the hoop that caught it alll and... there she was in a crowd of other nobles and...from her did rise... AMBIANCE."

She looks at him with shock, and has to cover her mouth with a hand to stifle her laughter....which turns into a small giggle fit. "You didn't!"

"Noooo" A chuckle "she did it, that was the point."

Another bout of covered giggles before she gets them under control. "Oh, Shallimar...may I never deserve your wrath."

A weak smile, "I dare say no other has ever sought to get into a lady's pants for such a reason as I did."

She winces, but controls the giggles this time and catches her breath. "Ohhh....come now. Eat a bit. And...if you would let me do so, I would like you to have a bit of time to yourself, to rest and refresh."

"I can have another come and sit with him for a few hours, until you return."

"I..." A pause, "thank you, Baroness. I.. you and I have so much in common... though I am a much better dancer. I think I would like to make you laugh some time inappropriately." He gets his food and begins to eat then nods "I suppose I'll shower after this. Improve the smell of the water thereby"

"Of course. Here...I hope you do not mind if I sit with you as you eat, and then I will take over the vigil while I may."

He sniffs, "Youseem cootie free, my lady"

A smile

"I will take that as a compliment." A gentle smile and wink.

And the jester dines, and mentions a few more stories about when the baron...

(End Scene)

--------------

"It's all been so busy" Delores says "That I forget we only really got to know the fae of the city once."

"And I fear Cora has the advantage of me...."

"She seems to think that I am the real heir, not just, well... and for right now, it's probably best to keep it that way."

She's rented a car for their use, "Well, by we I mean you and to a lesser degree Coradel. She didn't get out as much as she wanted to either though. She was quite cooped up at times because she was unsained."

Delores looks at her "Hoping for something bigger?"

"Things will be better now, absolutely."

"Bigger?" She blinks and shakes her head. "No. But... I don't know if I'm the best choice for always. I'm older than she is."

"And Liam, which she says doesn't matter..."

"But I don't want to be some outsider swooping in, you know?"

The car starts up, "Well, it does matter, but just because ...say, to use an imperfect match, a poor black man might face more obstacles than a middle class white fellow doesn't mean that when an oppurtunity arises that's good for him, the young black man should refuse it does it? I mean, yes, you're Liam, and yes that may have problems for some...but isn't getting closer , and in an honorable way, to overcoming that a GOOD thing?"

"Maybe."

Delores drives "And I don't know how to say this, but you're hardly the only outsider. Dame Jennette and the others who came in Pennons? they're now equal to the knights that were there for years"

"You just don't strike me as the sort to abuse that or rub it in their faces so I think better you than some upstart who got all egotistical."

"Well. I hope to... earn it, I guess? Give back?"

"I'm very glad that Caitir can have a place here. I think she's already making friends.... and Colton and Sir Sergei seem to be hitting it off."