#goldfinchfreehold

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After some frowning at her phone screen, Sylvi says, "ARRRRGHHH!!!"

Piper looks up in surprise - she has one ear-bud in, and is looking over some sheet music. "Huh?!"

"PIPERRRRRR!!!"

"Your cousin is being a JERK!"

"Why is that a surprise?! Or do you mean Basil?"

"No, Zane, the fink. Something's going on at Darkgate, Colton's not answering my texts, but somebody else is, and nobody'll tell me what's up!"

Basil is at the lodge right now, getting spear training in with the Chief. He's innocent, and possibly impaled 😉

A pout. "You wanna crash their party?"

She leans over to peep at the texts on Sylvi's phone, if the troll will let her.

Sylvi lets her, and nods. "It feels almost like a trap, but yeah."

She considers. "Are they at a strip club?"

A blink. "They...well...no, see, he's says he's singing? So...Karaoke?"

She pouts. "Guess they wouldn't be home even if I went there."

"Ohhhh... yeah, yeah I see."

Of course, Sylvi lived in Rome for a bit.. there was more than one karoke place... and.. oh think think

"Have you ever gone to a strip club with him?" Curious now. "it can be fun, you know..."

wait, there was one Sully liked, popular with the stage crew

She is thinking about the karaoke, and Piper's question almost gets missed. "Hm? Oh...well...not exactly a strip club. More like a night club with pole dancing."

"Karaoke is fun, but I generally just watch. It's like, people work up their courage to belt it out, and having a professional sing can be discouraging, in a way..." Carrying on two trains of thought at once. "You should try it some time, it can be surprisingly hot to see your SO getting turned on..."

"Y'know...I might know where they are after all."

A blink. "You really think so? Colton and me, at a strip club?" A pause. "Don't know if he'd go for that...."

"ooo? Well, if they're not being bad, should we let the boys be boys?"

"You're not into girls at all, are you?" She looks Sylvi over, not critical, but a curious, examining look.

"I am kind of tempted to go...."

A startled blink, then, "Not really. I mean, I can see the appeal, but..." She shakes her head.

"I don't know Colton that well." She admits. "But watching someone get worked up, if you know that they know that it's all reserved for you later? Can be SUPER fun. If they're not too.... mmm, I don't want to say stick-in-the-mud, but you know... you gotta be able to let go a bit to have that kind of fun experience. Pan's good for it."

Dubious. "Wouldn't Pan kind of make you want to go too far, right there?"

She looks at her phone again and POUTS. "Oh, your cousin's gonna get it."

"I'm going up there. I might get there late, but...I'm going up there."

A sigh. "I mean, so much of it can be dependent on the player. At the core, our gift - GOD." She stamps a hoof in frustration. "It makes me so angry, you know? Not at YOU, but everyone who thinks of our Dreaming-gifted magic as a.. a... roofie button. It doesn't push a rave button, or make anyone go 'too far'. What's "too far"?! It lowers inhibitions. It breaks down reserves, gets past artificial boundaries put in place by societal shames and structures, or even personal trauma. It doesn't MAKE anyone do anything they don't WANT to do..."

"Um..." A shrug, and she points at herself. "Troll. We're strong enough to do pretty much whatever we want. A lot of times, it's our inhibitions that keep us in line. You can see the conflict, right?"

"I know... it's just... sorry. It's a raw nerve there."

"No, I get it, but...like, I'm not Jessica-level anti-Pan. I mean, she's Up Tight about it. And don't even get me started on the Chieftain."

She texts again, then stands. "Piper, if I go, you've got things here?" Indicating the freehold.

Basil comes in, grinning, but with bruises

"It's a gift." She sniffs a bit, rubbing at her nose. "It lowers banality, and it helps people, and so many want to just... act like it's something to be afraid of, or angry about.. like, what if trolls were seen by everyone as brutish bullies and told that they can't use their strength because you might break something or hurt someone, and were told to sit in a nice little corner at a freehold where you can't cause trouble?"

As quickly as the upset came on, it's fading already, leaving a bit of melancholy in it's wake - Satyr mood swings be like that.

"Ahhh... I'm sorry. Yeah, I can handle things."

"Um, you just summed up a lot of troll-sidhe interactions in one sentence." Then she looks at Basil. "What happened to you?"

And she gives the melancholy Piper a hug.

She hugs back. "You go put your troll boot right where Zane is asking for it."

"Man, the Chief said she needed to practice spear fighting, but man, she's a force... soon as she got some of the rust off, my edge was gone" He grins "She and i practiced. I think I learned more than she did.. I got one lick in to her 4 and she said she was impressed. that's crazy right?" A pauze "Wait... Piper's upset, and Zane is gonna get a boot up his ass? What'd that occult nerd do now?"

"Pfft, Baz, you've been a satyr long enough by now to know that if we get upset, just wait 5 minutes. Geez, do you have a death wish?" Eyeing the bruises.

Sylvi grins appreciatively. "Yeah, she might not be nimble, but she's a beast with spear. I've sparred with her. We should totally spar sometime. Um...you want healing, or you want to enjoy those bruises for a while?"

"Death Wish? I asaked her if I could get more lessons with her. This is a spear, my ancestors used this shit. Her and I working, I'll be the best spear man in the County... she seems ot think it's helping her too. SHe's actually a cool old lady"

"There's a joke in there that I'm not touching because you're family." She rolls her eyes.

"i'm fine. I'll hang by the fire if it's okay?" He asks both Piper and SYlvi

Suddenly curious, she texts Jonas. TXT: hey, you know anything about a boy's night out around DG?

TXT: Honestly? I don't. I'm currently on rounds for Anne Marie

TXT: Well, you SHOULD. 😉 you need to get out a bit more! 😘 Tell Mrs. Lee I said hi, and thanks for the muffins she sent to GF the other day.

"Once you're done lessoning Colton, tell him to invite Jonas along some time. He needs to get out more." A smile to Sylvi.