#rivervale_lodge

He slips in, closing the door most of the way but leaving it open a touch, for propriety, and takes an awkward perch on a chair/leans against a dresser, giving her some space as he breaches the sanctity of Teen Girl Room. “I, uh. Heard about Kelby. I wanted to say I’m sorry. About your friend. I didn’t really know her, outside of festivals, but she seemed nice.”

A tired half-grin. "Yeah. She was. Thanks." Then a shrug. "Sorry, I just...I don't know what to say about it. She...it shouldn't have happened. I mean, I know it happened when she was being a hero, but..." she trails off, then, "....anyway...I just don't know what to say."

A single rabbit ear rises up behind a pillow

“I know it means about as much as a fart in a hurricane.” He says bluntly. “I mean, platitudes, and all. It’s nice that people care, but the words kinda lose meaning after hearing them so often.” A sharp eye glances at the ear, but doesn’t remark on it. His hand reaches to lightly brush the black band worn on his upper arm- nearly invisible, black against black sleeve. “And I didn’t come to make you make awkward small talk about it. I know that’s hard too.” A gums at his lip. “Sorry, I don’t mean to sound... callous. Or project.”

Both ears up, checking perhaps for cat sounds.

Sylvi looks at the arm band then gives him a questioning look.

"I...I'm sorry, Symon, I guess I'm awful. I don't remember who you lost."

He shakes his head. “It’s not important. I mean, really. We weren’t close, it’s just a family thing. Like I was a bad son if I don’t get reminded for a year that someone I barely knew and never saw is gone.” “And nothing I can do about that”. He clears his throat a bit, more a visual indicator of movement rather than audible.

“But I’m here about Kelby... and something that maybe we CAN do for her.”

"Do for her? But...wait...what do you mean?" Sylvi frowns and leans forward a bit more to listen.

“She had a mace... family heirloom, it was, and fair important to them as I understand. It went missing in the fracas of the battle, and is still out there where they fought.” His eyes shine a bit through his trailing curtain of greasy locks as he describes this. “No one has been able to go back to look... if they even plan to. Too much hubbub with dealing with the survivors and rescued folk.... we scarce escaped refugees at our home, but Father wouldn’t have understood. But... that means it’s still out there... if it hasn’t been looted by anyone else yet.”

He's got her undivided attention now. "How do you know this?"

He blinks at her. “I drink and know things.” A beat. “Well, more that I’m in the business of knowing things. But it sounds cooler the way Tyrion said it.” (OOC, D said it’s something he might have picked up in his sluaghy lurkings. Or perhaps smother gossip? Didn’t clarify)

She doesn't smile at the joke. She's frowning, brow furrowed. "She lost it in the battle...." A slow nod. "So it's somewhere that isn't obvious, either, since it's still where it got dropped. Okay...okay..." The strategy part of her brain is trying to plan.

"oh dear" Floppsy says noticing the troll brow knit

He continues, “If you wanted... we could go find it. Dirk knows the way, and between your hare and my shadowcat, we can be a stealth team if needed.” A pause. “I mentioned it to some of the grumps already... they didn’t like it, but didn’t try to forbid it either.” A wrinkle of his forehead, as though that bit is a mite concerning in itself.

A pause, and she looks at the phone that's sitting next to her on her bed, then back to Symon. "I want to have Colton there, too, or at least ask him if he can come with us."

"Ah, that sounded awfully certain" the rabbit says with a touch of worry "I can help hide you, certainly, but have you considered the number of antacids your mother will be consuming?"

He doesn’t hesitate in nodding. “I don’t know him well, but I’d trust anyone you said to bring as worth their salt.” A brooding, thoughtful moment. “Dags should go, too. Kelby was her friend. But I know there’s wisdom in avoiding the trods and such before she’s sained...” a frown.

Sylvi shakes her head. "It's too dangerous to get Dagmar involved, not yet. Not so close to her saining. That's like begging the Dreaming to...to take another one of us. You know, like the cop in the movie who's just a week away from retiring."

“Yeah. It sucks, though.” A faint, somewhat disturbing, squelching sound as he sucks at his lower lip, thinking. “When do you think we should go? My impulse would be quickly, to avoid someone else looting it, but... time moves weird in the Dream. We might go tomorrow and find the battlefield grown over with a generation of new forest. Or the next generation of fae Quests for it and they arrive in a fresh battlefield still swarming with carrion crows.”

“That is to say... maybe we could wait for Dagmar. But, I’d take your call on it. I’m just the ideas guy.” A pause. “ I mean, if you even were interested. No pressure.”

"Not before Carnivale, but...right after if we can. Like, the next day." She thinks. "You said you talked to some of the grumps. Which ones?"

"Ah, the next day is the day of the funeral" Flopsy reminds "You'll miss it"

Though with the way time can move in the dreaming, as Symon pointed out, they might not miss it at all

He whispers under his breath as he taps his fingers against a scrawny thigh, thinking aloud, then lifts his gaze back up at her. “Vali is the stealthiest, if you wanted one along. He didn’t seem too opposed to the idea. “Or at least, maybe he could...” a vague finger wiggle “Foresee for us how it might work out.”

Sylvi frowns and looks out the window. "They did all kinds of scrying before the quest. Nobody saw that Kelby was going to...."

“If everything bad that could happen was seen before every quest, few would ever go.. or he Dreaming would find new ways to react. Da’am chooses its own path.” He says, his raspy whisper as gentled as he can.

"Trolls would still go," she says with certainty. "Heroes of many kiths would still go. But at least we'd know to say goodbye, first."

He twists his skinny fingers together, gazing out the window. “Maybe a fate weaver might be found to tilt the odds in our favor.”

He nods to that.

Flopsy says "Tilting the odds in our favor. Maybe it's because I am not a troll, but I like the sound of that"

“Trolls need to protect, though. How could they let their loved ones go to their deaths if such fate was certain? It would be an endless brawl of “No, me”.”

"Maybe. Or maybe that would be tempting the Dreaming to smack us down. But yeah...if we can nudge things our way, that would be good."

“The Hear-, mm, Your mum, she ah..., didn’t like the idea at all. I ran into her, and Vali, before I made it up here.”

"You told her?" She thinks. "Yeah...she wouldn't like it. She knows what I've gotta do."

“She asked why I was here. It would be shitty to lie about it.” Especially, he doesn’t have to say, when Sylvi is sure to tell her parents in any case.

...which may show how much Symon doesn't know about Sylvi, but that's neither here nor there. "So...yeah...I'm going to her funeral, but if we're all there, then maybe we leave directly from there to the Dreaming."

"Unless you wanted to do it Carnivale night " Floppy says "You almost have to."

"Almost have to?"

"I..well, I can scavage myself, and it seems to me that Symonn is right" the rabbit admits "Others may come looking, and once the holiday ends, they may make time. Already no doubt word from freed nockers and the like is getting out. Some will always see it as... well, when lions fall, jackals feast"

He looks a bit perplexed at that, and... his cheeks color a little, a darker grey, at the mention of jackals.

The look Sylvi gives Symon after that is focused and serious. "Right. Carnivale night."

“So, you’re in? I haven’t talked to Dirk, but I feel confident he’d be game. And Colton... anyone else? I do feel that smaller is stealthier... but you have more practical experience than I.” A rare admission.

"Your cat will be there?" floppsy asks "Can you convince her to be ah.. a team player?"

"Maybe...someone from the Farm should go. Maybe Teesha. Out of respect for family."

“Lovecraft is her own cat. But she knows how to stick with the party tactics.”

A bit of thought. "I don't think Bertand should go, but I should tell him it's going to happen, anyway."

The rabbit looks relieved at the reassurance.

A slow nod, placing the name with a bit of effort. “He and Kelby were close, right? Haven’t met him yet.” Thinking. “Jimmy might be good for a quick snatch and grab, but he’s a bit of a wild card, I don’t know him well.” Concentrating with all the effort he would put into building that perfect attack deck.

“And don’t know if he even knew her.” He shakes his head, negating as soon as mentioned.