#rivervale_lodge

"Exactly. I didn't do anything in particular."

A blink. "Yes, you did."

"That was all May."

Vali smiles at something and pours a drink

"But...that's it. You found a way to help her find the stuff inside herself and make it into something new."

A frustrated noise.

"I didn't. May just... did it. You know. You've seen it."

"Yeah, I've seen it. And she does it when she has somebody to share ideas with. And she does it most when she's sharing ideas with you."

She scrunches up her face.

"I don't see how that helps getting her back to happy dreams. I've never... directed them. I think you're giving too much credit here."

"It's not like I have Dreamers at school, or I'd have figured out Chelsea or someone..."

"Wait wait wait..." Sylvi waves things away a bit. "Too much stuff. So...okay." She takes a seat. "Whenever I've seen May spark up around you, it's because you two are having a conversation, and she's coming up with some fun idea, and you add on to it, and she adds on more, and then..." she makes a sparkling gesture with her fingers "...she lights up. And the chimera start. So, she doesn't only do it with you, but you have helped her do it."

"As for the nightmares...I mean, if she's less worried about stuff because somebody's listening to her without judging her, then that's gonna help fight the nightmares."

Vali actually gets each girl their favorite drink and sets them down before the girls but otherwise stays out of their way

"Maybe?"

"I can't see her go back on those pills."

"Thanks, Mountain."

"Oh, hell no. No pills. And no way she can stay in that accounting major. She's got to get back into screenwriting."

"She doesn't need to be a film major to write, but yeah."

"You're welcome" Vali says from his desk

"Exactly. So. The thing with not musing at school? I think...I mean..." she hesitates, then continues carefully "...you were kind of avoiding anything that even smelled a little like musing. Like her script. So maybe that's why you didn't figure out the other stuff? You were working hard on not seeing it?"

She chews on her lip. "Maybe?"

An exhale. "Sometimes it feels like parts of me are going to be messed up forever."

Vali looks over the notes Sylvi gave him

Sylvi bites her lip a moment. Then she says, "Maybe. But even messed up stuff is still stuff. You can still work with it, right?"

"And messed up or not, I'm telling you -- you have what May needs. I've seen it."

"I..." She frowns.

"Maybe you should do it?"

A blink. "Me? Why? I've never made May sparkle."

"We only have a week."

"So? Listen, you're looking at this like you have to learn a whole new sport or something. What I'm saying is: just get her talking, and encourage her when she comes up with fun stuff. It's worked before, right?"

"I mean...if you want me to be there, too, I can do that. But May's your dreamer, whether you know it or not."

A sip, a flip of a page and he copies some of the notes

She rubs the base of her horns.

"I don't want to fuck it up again."

"Oh, and...y'know, something else: You know how when you and she and Lupe start talking about things that might go wrong, and then you all go, 'But they'll never stand up against the Amazons!' and stuff like that? Maybe that's part of how she was able to fight off nightmares before?"

A sigh and a sympathetic half-grin. "I hear you. But the only way you fucked it up before was by avoiding doing anything. So...don't do that."

"Listen, when that treasure goes away, she's going to have some nightmares again. Might want to warn her that that can happen when somebody's going off meds or something like that. Anyway, hopefully she'll talk with you about them. So...have a plan. What'll you say?"

"Um."

"God, this would be so much easier if I could enchant her and just explain."

Sip

"Yeah, but that's kind of a risk, too, right? I mean..." She looks over to Vali. "Mountain? Would it be okay to enchant May right now? Would it be safe?"

"normally, I would say no. There's a chance she'd be so startled she might dream up a nightmare on the spot. HOWEVER... she's been enchanted before if I recall? And we are , as Dame Dagmar points out, on a time table. Yes, she can enchant her, but not alone. I want two other changelings with her to fight any threat or help calm her down if May freaks.. Also It needs to be no Sons of Adam or Daughters of Eve around save her."

"With those provisos. I will not only permit it, it'll be on my head should the Chief or anyone else have a problem with it." A sip

"Okay. So. We can do that. But...would it help?" she asks Dagmar. "I mean, it's not like she's really going to remember after the fact. Not clearly."

"No, but - subconsciously, when she's asleep?"

"Dagmar's right, mortals, depending on how banal they are, retain some knowing... vague, dreamlike. Depends on how cold they are. May is not as unbanal as she used to be... but off the pills she might still have a few memories."

"Oh, good point. Like...give her something to draw on for defense when the nightmares show up. You know...okay. I'm in."

'Try to make it enjoyable... pleasant, yadda yadda." Vali adds "Which I suppose you both already guessed but for the record and all that"

"So, yeah...but we also need to warn her to get ready for the nightmares, and convince her she can fight them and make them go away."