#rivervale_lodge

It's early in the morning when Connor trots out to the sparring field. Dragging behind him is one of the heavy wooden practice lances, which he then spends a good few moments trying to figure out how to get over the fence with, rather than walking around to the gate. Finally he rolls it underneath the bottom rung, then nimbly climbs up and over himself.

"Avast, ye blaggard." He attempts, a little uncertainty in his tone, as he heaves the handle up on to his shoulder and attempts a swing at one of the practice dummies.

WHIFF. Lances are made for jousting, not swinging, and not only does he catch only air, but goes into a spin that tumbles lance and boy in a heap. "Meant to do that." He remarks to no one in particular.

He stands and dusts himself off a little, and then heaves up the lance to try again. This time he rests it on a shoulder and takes a wobbly running start at the dummy - CONNECTION! The tip clonks into the dummy, and the impact knocks Connor back on his rump in a tumble that he continues with a few somersaults. "All part of the plan." Rubbing at a scraped knee.

The pooka circles the dummy, lance dragging behind him to leave trails in the dirt. A thought, and he kneels and grabs a handful of the dust and gravel, and flings it at the dummy. "Pocket sand! SHH-SHA!" A quick skip of his feet, and he hopscotches behind the dummy, leaving the lance to clatter to the ground where he was, and gives it a good POKE in the 'ribs' area with a fingertip. "Got you. I win!"

His victory is demonstrated further as he decorates the dummy with crayons he has in one of his many pockets - big black/purple circles around the face where eyes should be, and X's in the middle there, and a down-turned squiggle for a mouth. And then miscellaneous other doodles join it, coloring up the dummy nicely. A scribble here, a star there... is that a duck? Why not?

Connor's victory and artistry completed, he drags the lance back off to tuck it away, and goes looking for Victory Pancakes.

-----

Sally Mae comes in and gets to work on the kitchen. She's running a bit later than she likes.

Kerri's there, putting away clean dishes. She looks over at the kinain. "I didn't think you had classes today."

"Depends on how you define it" she says, "I'm tutoring someone in math"

"And sorry, I know you were counting on me to be here earlier"

"Well, not a crisis this time, fortunately. Can you start on the onions? We'll need six of them, diced."

She gets to work and starts dicing them.

"Right away." She says "how are things here?"

"No news today, that I'm aware of. You know we're likely to have somebody coming to do a sort of 'welfare review' on Connor soon. I just wish we could get a solid date on that...." she sighs as she sets to work on a haunch of meat with a cleaver. Troll strength and sharp steel make for fine chops.

The onions fortunately aren't stern stuff so regular dicing works fine, "Yes. Does seem to be a lot of that sort of thing in the wings. You must be very proud of Sylvi for her part in taking that indoctrination camp down. "

"Well, I'm proud of all of them," Kerri says, the egalitarian...but yes, there's a bit of a proud grin that she can't quite contain. "Of course, I also want to shake them for getting that close to Dauntain, but..." A sigh. "They're not babies anymore."

"Well, more like Autumn people than Dauntain but yes... they're...well WE are wilders" a chuckle that does dim, "New on Eden's situation? Last I heard there was talk of stealing her from her folks, and Professor Wayburton was giving them temporary zaps if need be to make them 'forget' they had a daughter"

A nod. "We're all still chewing on how to remedy that. It's not fair to the girl to pull her away from her school and her friends, to make her start over somewhere else...but it's going to be a challenge whenever it's time for parent-teacher meetings, or if issues come up. Still...once we decide which way to go with it, I have every confidence that Anne Marie can muster the right paperwork to make the school officials decide they don't need to make much effort."

"If you don't mind me saying, the Chieftain ought to give that boggan a medal at this rate."

"You have that right." Another THUNK with the cleaver. "Anne Marie is a resource that...well, we simply wouldn't be able to do half of what we do without her. I like to think she knows we appreciate her for that...but you know, the Chieftain is so rarely inclined to make speeches that it's possible the recognition hasn't been made very publicly. I'll nudge her about that. Good eye, Sally Mae."

"Thanks. " A smile, and she looks for a moment like she'd like to say something else, then "Hearth... I know you have to get this ready so we don't have much time to chat, but .. how did you know how to approach me when I was hung up on..well, maybe being a baby factory and so on? I mean.. how did you know which way was best so easily?"

A final THUNK, and then the cleaver is set aside. At the question, Kerri looks at her with a bit of surprise. "Hmm. Well...let me think about that. It was a while ago." She stacks the chops on a platter that gets set by the stove, then starts heating a large iron pan. "I suppose...perhaps it's because I know what it's like to have somebody else decide what you're good for in this world, whether you like it or not."

"Sometimes I forget even kithain go through things like that. Kinain have..well, it's hard to imagine for us the same troubles."

Confused. "Not sure I follow that last part."

"Ah, sorry" She goes onto the next task "Onions are done. I mean, I was technically in a land of wonder at the farm, and I was still a family member, but there was a sense of ...being at the kids table no matter how old I got for awhile. Like I needed to be coddled because I was frail... compared to true troll cousins"

"Carrots," she hands over a bunch. Then, "Hmm. Coddled, and groomed for breeding. Tricky footing there." She adds the onions to the pan to brown. "Not sure I can say this without insulting you, Sally Mae, but...well, how well do you think you would have managed if you'd been expected to do what your full-kith family could do? Would it have been fair to hold you to true-troll standards and expectations?"

"Oh, probably not. Besides, I didn't want it. Clem was the workhorse, I was the pampered pony. In fact, she called me that once, but then I WAS acting like it. " Thoughtful "But some of the boys , kinaian I mean, they're proud, and they work really hard to keep up with their true troll cousins. They DO want to be warriors and more... some of them have earned it. Sometimes, being a kinain, it feels like you have to work twice as hard to go half as far in the Kithain society. I ..." A deep breath "I guess I recently got to thinking about it. I've been so welcome here, treated so well here, that I forgot some of the others and how they struggled. And that's in a family environment"

About half-way through that, Kerri turns to look at her, and she listens to the rest with a somewhat bemused expression. "Why do I get the sense this is working around to a specific, local issue?"

"Because I'm terrible at this?" amused "And I don't mean the carrots. Sorry, Hearth- I find myself stuck between trust given and answers needed."

"Ah. Okay...if it's a matter of a trust given, then I won't ask you to change your approach. Though if you want to switch into hypotheticals now, that's fine by me." Amused, she adds the first chops to the browned onions. "And put those carrots in a pot with water when you're done chopping."

"Will do." A concentrated chopping "Let's just say that, hypothetically, I worry someone is drowning ... and that someone might take the life guard with him or her. But I don[t' want either to drown so I find myself diving into the pool and I'm trying to figure out which shore to go to."

"Mm." Kerri tends to the cooking for a minute, thinking. "There's a reason lifeguards rescue swimmers in very specific ways. They limit the swimmer's movement, so the swimmer can't take the life guard down. That's an important safety precaution, even if the swimmer doesn't recognize it as such at the time."

"Niagra falls and barrel comes to mind. This drowning victim either wants to go over the falls, or never see water again... hypothetically"

A sharp look...then she turns a chop. "That's an attitude destined to end in tragedy, either way." She frowns.

"Oh I dare say the drowning victim has ..some right to be upset... hypoethically, he or she has been discouraged from certain parts of the pool ... and it seems everyone has decided to use sticks to do it, assuming others would use carrots, but no one does."

"So...you're saying...an abundance of boundaries, with insufficient rewards to make those boundaries bearable?" She sighs. "It would be so much easier if h-... certain drowning victims weren't perpetually tormented with the sight of olympic swimmers, I suppose. But that doesn't seem to be what the Dreaming has in mind."

A look to Sally Mae. "How much time have you spent unenchanted, Sally Mae?"

"enough" she says.

Then "Sorry, that probably sounds defensive. But usually when a kithain asks that they mean theyre worried about dreamstruck and about to cut you off"

"No, sorry, no. That's not what I was going to suggest. You've had enough time living with being kinain to know how to manage Glamour. No, I mean...what's it like? For you, what's it like to be unenchanted?" Genuine curiosity.

She laughs, "Well, that varies by strength of blood and other gifts, and ultimately? How much winter has a grip on your soul. For me? It's ...like trying to remember where I put my car keys, but my car keys are all the details. I remember going out shopping ...but I don't remember it was at a fae market. I remember meeting some handsome man who flirted, but I might think 'he was on the hairy side' rather remember he was a satyr. It's like the mists I guess- I am still mortal. I know my family is special... and that I should talk to them if I need help remembering, but that was drilled into me early."

Kerri nods and puts some chops aside to keep warm while adding new ones to the pan. "You've been fortunate in a number of ways, there. You learned early, and your family is the source of the secret. You can turn to the people you should be able to turn to." A sigh. " Hypothetically ...what would be the best way to help a kinain who did not have those advantages? Your opinion."

"Hypoethically? I'd suggest that the next time he went to the... hypothetical lodge, no one lectured him. THey just go about their world, talk and chat and have a good time"

"Now, that doesn't mean that the drowned victim is right about all he or she gets is lectures, nor the life guard.... but it does rob both of the statement 'always'..."

A curious look. "Some kinain ask to learn, are curious about our world. How can we teach what we're being asked to teach without being accused of lecturing?"

"Hmm..."

"let's just say, generalizations are abounding.. hypothetically."

She moves the chops around the pan. "Hypothetically, perhaps we're being accused of something that isn't our fault."

"Yes. In this hypothosis I would lean that way myself.... but the life guard seems to think that everyone has taken a turn at using the stick and not the carrot. Now me? I think hypotheically some coordination so folks know what each other are doing for the drowning victim is good, but.. .HYPOthetically, the life guard feels like they've betrayed the victim saying ANYTHING and..." She sighs finishing the carrots "I'm lucky to be discussing hypotheticals and still might be considered a 'narc'"

"Coordination..." Kerri says thoughtfully.