#rivervale_lodge

"Must be nice to have family" The boy says

"They're not my family." He scratches at an ear for a moment. "They're all kinda eachother's family, acuz' everyone's ma is someone's sister or their da is their brother. You can see the family 'semblance too, because everyone is tall and blue. ...but they let me stay with them, and I get a room, and snacks, and... it's not bad, really."

"Oh"

"I have a family, but they didn't want me. But it's okay. I don't even mind." A wag of his tail. "Because I have fun here."

"They don't hit, and they're nice? Sounds good enough but.. I still don't want you to tell"

He nods, and starts ruffling himself dry with a towel. "Brrrr! Gettin' out of the bath is the worst part, cuz' then you're going from all warm to all cold. I have extra shirts. Do you want Batman, dinosaurs, or trucks? Mr. Franklyn got me this one, it's from a truck stop. He bought it for himself but it was too small, I think." Showing off some of his favorites.

He wipes and cldeans off "I better take a truck, batman would beat me up because I been a crimemnal"

"Batman likes Catwoman, and she steals stuff. But she's nice to her cats, and she doesn't hurt anyone, really. And Poison Ivy, she was bad and tried to hurt people but that's because THEY were bad and were hurting plants, so she went to jail but he still gave her a plant friend to be company. So he probably understands." Sharing the trucker shirt with Jackie, and putting on the dinosaurs himself.

"Well. maybe, but no one likes Cowards so... " He sniffs "Do I smell better now?"

He sniff, sniff, SNIFFS, leaning in and taking deep breaths, even snuffling his hair. "Yes! And now I know your smell. I can find you again!."

"oh" A look down at himself "Okay. Sure hope I don't have to do that again THIS Month"

"Have you seen the Wizard of Oz? Dorothy made friends with a cowardly lion. And it turned out he had courage all along, but didn't know where to look. Maybe you can do a quest to find yours."

"I seen taht once, and.. maybe?" Thoughtful "Wow, me with courage, that would take a quest. But how can I quest without courage? "

"I can go with you, and be your courage. If you wanted. I never get to go on quests."

"Well, there was ONE I went on, with a monkey." And he shares that story - more or less what happened...

"WOW... talking trees? I bet you were DRY after that"

"Oh! OH! I know what to do! Oh, wait a second... um... ummm.." And Connor dives into the closet, searching through a pile of stuff.

He comes up with... a dog collar! It's rather worn, and has superheroes patterned on the vinyl, and a black plastic buckle. The stitches are a bit frayed, but it's intact. It has seen a lot of love. There's nothing special about that, but the silvery tag that dangles from the ring is something else. It gleams with glamour - a treasure! "Here, hold this for a moment..."

He does "OKAAAY"

Connor takes the tag in his hands, rubbing and polishing the it until the dust and smudges are cleared away, and it gleams, with the text 'BUDDY' on it. "Fuddle, fuddle, heads a'muddle, fuddy duddy, you look like... Buddy!" Then, he points Jackie towards the mirror... and two Connor's look back at them. One in a dinosaur shirt, and one wearing a truck stop top.

"COOL"

He gasps "I even seem to have a tail"

"See! Now you can hang out here, but no one will know it's you! So you won't get in trouble or go to jail or if anyone comes to find you and wants to take you away, they can't find you because it's not you, it's me! And we can take turns, like... secret twins." Wag wag wag!

"Buddy, you're the best! " Jack Flap says and hugs him emotionally

The hug is returned! "Just make sure you don't wait too long. It's 'sposed to help me go out around people, but I don't much like to because it might wear off if there's someone too cold around, or if I lose track of time. But there are lots of places to hide here, and no cold ones are allowed in." A stern nod.

"Understood, Buddy" The boy nods

Still they're buddies, identical buddies, I think you'll find. They walk alike they talk alike, after that bath they even smell alike! You could lose your miiind...when Buddiess.. are two of a kind!

(End scene, for now)