#rivervale_lodge

"Are there unseelie Gwydion?"

"I've heard rumors, you'd have to ask the Chief. But yes I suspect a few. "

"I don't want to let down the Chief..."

"But... like... she's.." A gesture. "Intimidating."

A smile, "If makes you feel any better, you're not the only one to think so. But IF you go unseelie, I remind you, the Chief has an unseelie member of the lodge- Olgar. So she's not going to automatically kick you out or anything I don't think. "

She nods. "Hasn't kicked me out yet. But... if I swore fealty?"

"Rules are different?"

"Well, first you are Seelie, or at least you've been acting like it. Second, I think you might not be giving the Chief enough credit. Talk to her about your fears. She'll respect you the more for facing them, and her, and she can tell you the answers you want to know."

He motions her to stop and looks to one house on the street they're on.

She stops and looks.

And looks at him.

"Shades are down... not good. " He walks to the door of the house, and knocks

The door opens only a little and a venerable shaking old man peeks out, terror in his eyes- he's afraid of Vali. He's afraid of Dagmar. He's afraid of the world behind them.

"Hey." Casual-like.

"I don't know here... " the man looks up at Vali "you I... dreams. What do you want?"

"You left your key under the mat" he holds up a gleaming key, well plain to human eyes, but infused with glamour

The old man looks horrified "There was a way in? Into my home without..." he snatches it..and the glamour breaks out over the fellow... his skin grows green and his back gains a hunch, a shell like one.

"Oh.. oh.. did I win the lotto again? Darn scratchers" The turtle pooka blinks

Blink.. blink...

"How did you know?"

"Kenning, you can sense slumbering souls whether it's due to never woken, or back to sleep... if you have a knack for it. I do... also..." He eyes the man "This is the third time this month I've told you to stay away from your grand daughter, Terrance."

THe old man looks embarrassed, "She's little girl...an angel."

"She's a teenager whose gone nearly full autumn" Vali snorts "She's killing you, man. "

A frown. "Who is she?"

"Her name is Tori," Vali says "She does not, thank god, go to your school. Terrance here moved to this state to be closer to his surviving family after the flood took his old house."

"Didn't realize how cold she'd get in Jersey... BRRR" Terrance admits

"So it's new?"

"...is she having trouble being new?"

"I think it happened when she beame a teenager... pulled a Susan Pevensie " Vali sighs " It became all about make up, the material world.. she's probably been like that for awhile, but he … I'm sorry, Terrance. I don't mean to talk like you're not here."

"When she lived near me, she was only six thousand or so... " The old pooka admits, "hadn't seen her in 3000 years."

Vali says "Look, Terrance, a member of your own family is undoing you. You need to ..avoid her. And if that means avoiding them, so be it. I worry about you, man"

The turtle hangs his head "Id go to shell an back for her."

"I know" Vali says looking very sad "Just... don't see her again. Okay? You're not strong enough.. you're getting banal yourself"

And indeed, even resparked, the old grump's mein is like a colorful shadow

"I dunno... I mean..." She frowns. "She moved here and..."

"And?"

She shrugs. "Being new is hard. Girls are mean."

"Yes, well... she is, but she's destroying her grandfather's fae self" Vali sighs then looks back at the pooka "Please, come by the hold tonight"

"But we can help him without thinking she's just... nothing but bad."

"It's not that she's bad, it's that she's bad for him... poison for him" Vali says

"But she's my snuffle bong" Terrance says

"Right. But... is she okay for herself?"

"You mean, can we pull her back from banality herself?" he asks

"Right? I mean, is it really... if she's that toxic... like..." A frown. "Pretty sure I wasn't good for fae before....:

"Save her?" The old man smiles, "You can unfreeze her?"

Vali looks profoundly sad.

"I don't know."

"SHe's..pretty far gone, Terrance. Just.. avoid her, and I'll try."

A nod "Avoid the noid! " He says

Dag frowns, chewing on her cuticles again.