#goldfinchfreehold

"Oh, but I don't want to interrupt. You guys were talking court stuff. I can wait! And pffft, geez Sylvi, it's YOUR freehold. I ain't waltzing in and kicking you out of the only room with snacks." A grin.

"I don't think Hemlock is on the docket. And by damn, Lucia earned that spot."

Sylvi rolls her eyes. "Please."

"It's YOUR studio!"

A chuckle. "Tell you what. I'm going to go clean up the studio, and if you have time when I get back - otherwise I'll chat you up later, Dagmar?"

And she slips off. "Get all the icy talk out of the way! Brr!"

"Okay?"

Sylvi shakes her head in amusement. "Wonder what that's all about."

She shrugs. "Not sure. I don't think I have special Vali insight."

"Anyway...look, you're going to do fine. And you're going to do it Dagmar style, not Sylvi style or Lucia style. And you get to decide what that looks like. I really think it would take a LOT of mistakes for you to give people a bad impression of Rivervale."

"Maybe I..." She frowns. "I... I don't know if that's what I'm worried about, exactly."

"Okay." Sylvi just listens then.

"I'm a Gwydion?"

"A Gwydion Knight."

She nods. "Yeah, you are."

She seems to be waiting for where the problem is.

A frown.

"I don't ... I'm here."

"There's Chief, but she's - I mean, she was a knight, before, but she's also a living legend. But there's a whole... house, and they're mostly sidhe, and I don't..."

"I know I'm Gwydion enough for Brekke."

"You're worried if you'll be Gwydion enough for anybody else?"

She rubs the back of her neck.

"Kinda? I... Chief's opinion is the one that matters the most. I know that."

"Okay...look...check your spurs. You got spurs or something at your knighting, right? Check 'em."

Brow.

"They manifested at my saining. Same with my armor turnin' colors."

"Okay. Take a look at them. If you'd rather focus on that downstairs, we can do that."

"...Okay?"

((Okay for downstairs or for checking spurs?))

((Both?))

Squinty-face.

Sylvi grabs one more cookie and leads the way to the freehold proper.

As they walk, sparkles gather at her heels. By the time they are downstairs, her Yule Jordans are bearing golden spurs.

((LOVE IT!))

Sylvi goes to the balefire spotlight and opens the flange just a bit so it can glow brighter. Then she turns to look at Dagmar. "How do they look to you?" Nodding towards the spurs.

"...Nice?"

"Are they dented or bent or chipped or tarnished?"

"No?"

"So what does that mean?"

"That... I'm a knight, I guess?"

"I sained with the title. I don't actually... I'm not sure when I became a Gwydion. What life."

"Doesn't matter. The point is, the Dreaming gave you those because you're a Gwydion knight, and they're staying nice and badass because the Dreaming thinks you're Doing Gwydion Knight Right. So the way I see it, if you're good enough for the Dreaming, fuck anybody who says you're not."

"I... I get what you're sayin'."

"That's one thing I do kind of envy about having a title and a house -- you get a clear indication of when you're doing things right or if you screwed up. You don't have to guess. But...not a big enough selling point for me."

"But you're a knight of House Gwydion. That means, no matter what others think, House Gwydion has made room for Dagmar to do things her way, so you darn well better."

A small smile. Less glowy than one of her Symon-smiles, perhaps, but genuine.

"Okay."

"Okay." A grin. Then, "Hey, you can stick around down here if you want, but I have to head back up to do some kind of banal stuff..." she whispers "...pay bills."

"Grossssssssss. I'm gonna look and see if Piper's free, maybe."

"Sounds like a plan." She goes back to the spotlight and narrows the flanges again, giving the metal housing a fond pat before heading back upstairs.