#rivervale_lodge

"I guess...."

"But I don't feel like a bunch of other people. I feel like me, but blue.

His lip twists in a smile, "And that's probably how it should be. You are a different person now. Fresh start."

"I wish I was a different person." A sigh.

"What's wrong with who you are now?" He asks

She shrugs. "I mean, I didn't stop being who I was when I became Dagmar. Right? So I'm still Sam, too."

"So,w hat's wrong with being Sam?"

A grunt and a shrug.

He waits.

She waits right back, sullen and taciturn.

And waits

It doesn't seem like he's got anywhere to go.

"Who are you when you aren't Jaymes-the-troll?"

"Probably just James."

"Like, do you have a job?"

A pause, "this going somewhere?"

"So you don't, huh?"

"If you can be just a troll, why do I have to still be Sam?"

A sigh "I'm working at a convience store The others don't know."

"You ashamed of it?"

"I suppose I shouldn't be. Honest work, part time, grayeyard shifts. Money is money. they don't ask many questions but I don't want Frank feeling sorry for me."

"Pity sucks, yeah."

"Like - people pity you, then they use it to puff themselves up, y'know? Ohhhh, you poor thing. Like - by pitying you, they show off how good they got it."

"At least if somebody slugs you, they're bein' honest about it. Pity's more dressin' up that they realize you're beneath them. Easy to pity and then pat yourself on the back for being soooooo good and virtuous."

"Huh" He says

"You know, you're right, and wrong."

"Well, don't let'm pity you. Nothin' wrong with working at a store."

"I hate pity, but that's because it wounds my pride- I know Frank and Brekke well enough to know they'd never use that as an excuse to lord it over me. They.. mm hard to explain. "

"It... yeah. It makes you feel small."

"And I think you have a point, I have nothing to be ashamed of, and because I don't, I shouldn't let any pity that does come up bother me." A nod, "Thanks, Dagmar, I think you helped me realize I should trust them."

"Well, they both seem... maybe okay, yeah."

"Now... It turns out, I have nothing to be ashamed being James the Store Clerk. What do you have to be ashamed of being Sam?"

She shutters, looking away. A shrug. "Sam's not a store clerk. Don't have a job yet. Maybe when I'm fifteen."

She chews on a hangnail - most of her nails are a ragged mess, actually. Bad habit.