#fenixtj

"Tomorrow should be fine, let me check with Dame Mitra and the rest." She sips pensively. "You think we're old?"

"No, we're...trolls. Our wilders are more..level headed" A firm nod, but she looks troubled.

Jessica echoes both the nod and the expression.

"I suppose it was dangerously grumpish of me to pooh pooh the idea of a quest"

Jessica can't help but chuckle. "Duff keeps telling me I need to get out and relax more. Pay more attention to him, I think he means."

"Ha, wouldn't be surprised, fellows can be attentive, but they can also be needy. Not that that it's always unpleasant, their playing tempter so they can have you again" Wistful, "mmm tell you what. Let's go on a small adventure while I'm here. Maybe one won't show up, but if it does, you and I handle it. But have to be done with it or it goes on hold when my three days is up?"

"Can you -put- an adventure on hold?"

"That's why I said an adventure, not a quest. A quest a goal, often a need. Adventures are less urgent? I Hope? Look, I came here banished and told to relax. Now you've got me wondering if there's fae botox. I think finding a bit of trouble isn't too un reasonable a plan?"

Jessica chuckles. "Oh, finding trouble isn't a problem at all."

"you know a place?" She raises a brow "Good troll girl like you" A grin

A bit of a blush, which had receded. "Well, I know Duff. And Necropsis. And Tweak, for that matter. And Diego, even....."

"And, you know. 'Tis the season." Sip.

"Oh yeah, got it nipping at my heels. I sometimes think I set something loose that first time I decided to do the winter dance willingly. It serves me well, but my point of view from that side is..rather primal"

"You went... willingly?"

"Consider it an act of wilder rebellion you know, before I hagged" smirk and sip "Yeah, it felt a bit silly, but I chanting the unseelie code like a mantra helped. But the biggest part was probably.. well, following temptation through a kind of meditation. For me it was like, finding a weak eddy or soft current in a stream, and taking a few steps that way. Then that current gets stronger.... and then you... swim with it. Let it carry you. I could probably do it right now if I tried." She admits "Zara put me up to it , suggested it, but I made up my own mind. It taught me a lot about myself. In some ways I'm less scared of who I am now."

"Wow." Jessica doesn't seem to know if she should be impressed or upset.

"my winter side is..savage, primal. Hunt, mate, eat... I mean, I don't go entirely jungle girl and speak like Tarzan, I have my brains, but the world like that is more at its core for me. When I came out of it the first time I was alarmed, at what I'd done, and worse, that I'd enjoyed it so. But... it explained a lot to me too. Why I express my Seelie side the way I do. Why I can't quite pull away from the farm and don't want to. It..." A deep breath "If my Unseelie side were different, even if I never went Unseelie, I would express myself differently. I wouldn't be Clem."

A low mutter, "I do have a disturbing tendency to show my midriff when feeling the unseelie side. I joke it's like a rattler giving warning"

Jessica looks into her Coke. "Sounds like Dad's description of himself. Maybe... maybe me too." Quietly.

"Well, there's as many facets to the unseelie side as there are the Seelie. My Seelie side tells me to organize folks 'get er done' as it were, take charge because I have a vision for all of us and they're my people to help...makes me bossy I'm told. " she nods "I cop to it. You strike me, as seelie, more a sensible no nonsense kind of lady, good troll sense and you use it. Your unseelie side? not sure, haven't seen you enough. Might be where some of your own determination comes from, not that we as a kith ever lack. Your dad? I've seen bits of him Unseelie, and yes, his soul is much like mine there. I..remember… him slipping, in the dreaming. To protect..."A pause "A lie? No, not a lie...but something precious. It was fierce, and dangerous. He's not as good at controlling his inner savage as I am I don't think."

"I don't think he's ever willingly gone Unseelie. Liam."

"Oh right, houses" She says "Still seem odd to me, though I understand them a bit better. You've never willingly gone unseelie? Mmm. What was with that unseelie energy I saw about you?"

"Like I said, I guess. Tis the season."

Clem looks her over, "Nothing more than that then?"

A shrug. "Not that I know of."

"huh. Okay" she says Then back to the subject "look, if you want to try to will yourself unseelie, just once, I can show you methods that worked for me...but don't blame me if you end up in a tree with your midriff exposed"

Jessica shakes her head. "Thanks but no."

"Don't blame you, can be hard to cork it in the first time you do it willingly, but it does happen." She says "now, about this bath. I use it, we go to the beach the next day, and you say it qualifies as an adventure?"

"I didn't say -that-." Jessica clarifies. "But yes, I think an adventure could be good."

"Fine, but one condition, we both use the tub, and then go out in nice swim wear the next day"

"Um... Clem..." Hesitant and confused ".... I'm not... that is, I don't mind if you use it but ... Um, we're good friends and all but....."

"What?" Confusion then she laughs "Ah, oh you think I meant you and I... no, lord no, world of no. "

This girl is never going to get the purple out....

A soft cough "no. I am neither into women, nor am I a satyress. I meant we go out and look fabulous together tomorrow and while I know you're loyal to Duff, we do the girl thing. Wow the guys, smile, and move on. I've been a tomboy most of my life, so trust me when I say a two piece is probably more frightening to me than a dragon"

Jessica looks absolutely flummoxed. "What... how... ??"

"Um... um.... ok." She finishes her Coke. "Ok. Tomorrow? Right. You, um, you ready to head back?"

"To the hold, sure, lead on." She says "I'll even let you pick the subject of conversation. I can bore you with news on pumpkins..oh dreaming help us so many pumpkins"

"Pumpkins... pumpkins, fine, what about pumpkins?" Jessica rinses out the glasses and leaves them next to the sink, locking up behind them as they head down to the street and back to Fenix. It might even be that she appears to pay even a morsel of attention to... pumpkins.

PUmpkins come in many types it turns out, and so... Jessica learns about pumpkins

(end scene)