#rivervale_lodge

"He is!"

"You're a dog rover, though.."

"Red rover red rover let Connor come over?" Brow

"Oh, yes! Thank you!" He beams at Lupe. And his tail wags a mile a minute.

Lupita chuckles

Dag covertly sniffs at the "lemonade"

It smells lemony... but looks - cloudy. Eeesh. How much sugar did he put IN? You can nearly eat it with a spoon.

"Ohhh, it's lemonade SYRUP. Connor, I'mma get some water - okay?"

"Isn't that the guy from Unfortunate Events?"

"Oh geez"

"I think so. Symon'd know."

Dag heads into the kitchen, filling up a pitcher of water. Splash of "lemonade", then top off with water, stir... it might be drinkable!

"I think I'll stick with soda." A look at the time "Oh I gotta go. "

"Oh. Take cookies with you then. Sorry that I was late." He offers her several of the sugar cookies wrapped in a napkin.

"Seeya Lupe. Hey - no school monday, so, like, come over?"

She takes one, but after the 'lemonade' will check them out later "Thanks, Connor. " Then to Dagmar "Totally. See you monday" And out she goes

"See you sooooon!" He calls out, not at all ominously, and crunches his cookie. "Thanks for fixing the lemony snicket, Dagmar. You're a hero."

"It was nice of you to bring out snacks, Connor."

He nods to her. "It's proper hospitality, doncha know. Brogan's been teaching me a bit, and Mrs. Kerri too."

"Oh, man, Keri's the best, yeah."

He edges closer to look at the papers on the table. "Tell me about what school is like?"

"Well.. some parts are okay, like shop and gym..."

"Yeah?" He slides onto a chair, listening in.

"This school.. well, this is the longest I've ever been in th'same one. I've got more friends than I usually do. So that's nice."

"And some parts are boring - you got to read stuff, or do math, and you feel dumb."

"I've been to lotsa different places but never to a school. I watch 'em on teevee though and it looks fun, except when there are Mean Girls or the Teacher yells. Do you get whapped with a ruler if you get 'em wrong?" His ears prick at the mention of feeling dumb. "I bet whoever teaches it didn't get it on their first day neither. And give 'em a sword and they'd trip on their own feets."

"They don't hit you with rulers anymore. They lock you up in a room with nothing but a desk."

"Ohhhhh. I'd ruther be hit with a ruler." He tugs at his ears fretfully. "They can't do that to MY friend. I'll come sneak in and make a ruckus so you can escape if they try it."

"Well, I haven't gotten in trouble in a long while."

"I can help if you wanna find some!" He grins. "Just not where you'll be locked in a cold room."

"Seelie Dagmar follows the rules, yeah?"

"...mostly..."

"What does Unseelie Dagmar do?" He sounds curious, though his tail droops a little. "When I'm not silly, I just feel bad. Like... I'm small, and not any good, and should go to the doghouse in the rain. And not even the nice badda-badda on the rooftops when you're warm inside, but the cold and drippy one that gets right into your bones."

"Unseelie Dagmar fights a lot. She won't give anything up. "

He tilts his head to the other side. "Is that bad?"

"Well... sometimes not. But... it's hard to trust people. If you relax, folks might think you're weak and take something from you."

"When I'm like that, I think I'm so smart. How much a sucker seelie-me is for hoping for something better than fighting all the time."

The boy gives this a bit of thought. "Sometimes that's not wrong, though. If they think they're a bigger dog, then they're gonna take your bone. Or try to. Not here..." He is quick to amend. "But other places. And maybe sometimes it's better to hide and not try to start a tussle. I guess it 'pends on who you need to be at the time. ...I don't think you're a sucker, though."

She nods. "Unseelie is tough. And Unseelie survives. But... it ain't nice."

He reaches over to snag another cookie. "Maybe keepin' it bottled up makes it all build up, like a Dr. Pepper that gets all shook up and then 'splodes. If it was out more, maybe it wouldn't be so... so much. Like the Rover, he's not bad at all. Well he is, but he's bad in the RIGHT directions. And Dirk, 'cept I'm not supposed to tell him he's doing good because he'll think I'm pullin' his tail, except I don't because he doesn't even HAVE one. But maybe if we go to the land where Boggans get wings..."

"Imagine Dirk with, like a fluffy bunny tail.."

"And, like, Gwydion are seelie. And everybody got mad when I went Unseelie early before Samhain. Maybe if I'd been a Varich instead..."

"Oh, but then I couldn't be best friends with Symon, and THAT would suck."

"Are all Falcons seelie all the time? Or just tradition?" He asks curiously, after he finishes giggling at the mental picture of Dirk the Bunny Rabbit. "And Nadeen is unseelie but she is always nice to me. And Symon acts like he doesn't like childlings, but I'm pretty sure it's just his way. He gave me some bones he had leftover once. Not for chewing on because it was an OLD bone, but he let me have it and I buried it in my favorite spots."

"Um. I think if you're unseelie too long they kick you out..."

He shakes his head. "That's not nice. Would Varich kick out Nadeen if she was seelie? See, it's all too complicated."

"Well, Nadeen was born Varich, and she's sidhe, so I think it's more ingrained."

"Ingrained... so it's like, she was bread that way?" He cannot resist it, though he tried - only for a moment, but he tried!