#rivervale_lodge

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A new day at Rivervale, and Sylvi awakens, the glamour of the fire having burned away the banality. She had dreams, and not ones she expected. They began as nightmares yes, but then something, or someone...protected her. Drove the nightmares away.

She blinks a bit, and stretches, momentarily disoriented before she remembers that she was balefire-bound last night.

Mackerel, Siv's cat, leaps up on her lap.

you have to do that fast just as two leggers are about to stand up, otherwise they make the lap go away

Laps are elusive things!

"Oof. Hey, cat. I was just going to...oh...fine." She lies back down on the cot again, but she looks around for Flopsy. He's usually somewhere nearby when she sleeps.

Flopsy is indeed nearby, "Feeling better I take it?" ears up, cautious about the feline but not spooked yeet

A long, comfortable sigh, and she reaches out to scritch between his ears. "Tons better. I slept."

"You needed it," Flopsy says enjoys the skritch "And I'm glad."//Mackerel enjoys the lap, light kneading

Mackerel gets some petting, too. "Yeah," she says to Flopsy. "I think I was feeling pretty crummy last night. But...new day."

Dogs barking? Not a 'stranger bark' they know whoever it is

Then she sighs. "Mac, I gotta get up." She tries to nudge the cat off her lap gently.

No.

Cat does not move.

Indeed, she nestled in.

Flopsy sighs "Felines."

a knock at the door

"Mac! C'mon...." Then there's the knock, and she's forced to wrap the cat up in the quilt as she flips it over and forces herself out of bed.

Betrayal!

Flopsy laughs

Kerri comes out of the kitchen. "Ah, you're up. Good." A bit businesslike, but with a small smile. Then she heads to answer the door, opening it to the cold air outside.

It's Colton, he threw on a thin jacket, isn't reallly dressed proper for the weather but doesn't seem much to care

Kerri looks surprised. "Squire Colton? Come in! You need to dress more warmly the next time you visit this part of Concordia in winter." She ushers him in and shuts the door.

Sylvi stands there, eyes wide, in her pajamas. "Um. Hi."

"Yes I... thank you, Hearth. I wanted to see... is SYlvi..." And he sees her, and relief floods his features "Hi."

The glass armed lad moves towards her, " Are you okay? Dirk and I talked and he said something about a rescue and the Jersey Devil and a grump who was invisible to other grumps ....and you had to end it.. i mean, he said in Capeese but... are you okay?"

She watches him approach with decidedly mixed emotions, her feet rooted to the spot. "I...yeah...I'm okay. It was bad, but...yeah. I got to sleep by the balefire, so...um...that helped...." she trails off lamely. "You came to check on me." It's half-question, half-statement.

Kerri, meanwhile, has picked up Sylvi's bathrobe. "Honey, put this on, it's cold." And you're in your pajamas in front of your boyfriend is the unspoken implication. "Put your slippers on, too."

"Of course, I..."A blush "Im sorry, I kind of came in here like a crazed waterbuffalo in a charge didn't I?"

"It's just... of course I came to check on you. I asked Dirk if you were hurt..and he said 'like she's walking so' and other things that were not helpful."

Sylvi sighs. "Of course he did."

Kerri offers, "Do you want something to eat or drink, Colton? I was just going to fix Sleeping Beauty some breakfast. After she tidies up her cot."

"I'm fine, thank you, Hearth Kerri" he says still focused on Sylvi "I know you've quested and won pennons but...I ...well, our last talk was kind of... I didn't want that to be the last thing we said, you know?"

"All right. Breakfast in a bit, Sylvi," Kerri nods, and unobtrusively makes her way back to the kitchen to let the kids have a bit of time to talk.

"Thanks, Mom," Sylvi says quietly, but she's also mostly focused on Colton. When Kerri's gone, she hugs her arms about herself and looks down. "Yeah...I know. I was kind of thinking about that, too." She shifts awkwardly. "I just...don't know what to say."

He hugs her "I know, it's ,, I Mean, we each feel how we feel about it but..." Yup, very ardent hug. Probably a good thing mom got her that robe "I don't want ...that to be all you and I had on any last time"

A fractional tension, but her arms slip around him, and then she's holding him close. "I really missed you."

"Me too. I mean, I missed you too. I.. you know what I mean" He kisses her, "You are okay though? I mean... I remember the first time I killed another changeling chimericaly. It was.. well even when its a bad person some part of it feels wrong doesn't it?"

She returns the kiss, but then looks at him in surprise. "The first time? You've done that a lot? I...I've only ever killed chimerae before."

"Not a lot, but some yes." He says "Remember, my old liege used ot use me like a pitbull in a dog fight"

She frowns. "I hate that. I hate that he made you do that. I hate...well, just about everything I've ever heard about him."

"Well, that's only because he was a horrible evil jerkwad" He says somberly

then he says "I don't mention it much because I don't want you feeling too sorry for me. I'm very lucky. New Arm. Great liege . Fantastic girlfriend "

A wry grin. "Thanks for that. I wasn't sure if you still thought so."

"Well, I still think a dance with a guy counts as a date, but maybe I shouldn't expect you to read my brain like that and just know, which, you know, is normally what girls do to guys I hear. Expect telepathy."

"Instead, i expected you to know ..just know and that wasn't fair of me"

A sigh

"You're...you're not wrong." She sighs too. "Colton, this whole being-a-cheerleader thing...I think it must be like the being-a-noble thing. Sometimes I'm expected to do stuff because of my position, but it's not what I want to do. And a lot of it is fake. But...I'm good at the actual cheerleading, and I...I inspire people when I do it. And I want to keep doing it. But I can't keep doing it if I don't keep up some kind of image, and part of that image is going to dances, and part of going to dances AND keeping up the image is having an attractive date. I...I guess I panicked, a little."

He ponders