#rivervale_lodge

She huffs, frustrated. "It's not my place to say what you do, Vali. I'm not Storm."

"And I'm not anywhere near what Brekke or Olgar are."

Tiffany snorts at something "The Chief did not walk on water, she was just tall enough to WADE across the see of Golly Gee"

"Like you've not read the whole damn series of things she did?" She jabs a finger at the bookshelves.

"I had to take a lot of liberites with tweaking that for sake of the right of ignorance," Vali adds as his books are turned into evidence "And what Tiffany means is, the Chief has made mistakes. She's even pissed off Tiffany once or twice."

Tiffany nods at that much

"I hardly think the Chief is perfect. I know that."

"I'm not some little kid blinded by hero worship. She's my liege, she's still my liege."

"And she's a damn fine person worthy of respect, but back to the fact you're not Storm. You're not. But You're one of the most faithful and dedicated members of this lodge, and you've bled for it. If Tig or Lut came up to me and said 'Vali I'm worried' I would be a dick, and a s tupid one, to ignore their concerns. Lastly, I value your opinions period. Now, do I worry that she reminds you of Cairrean too much and there might be some transfer there? A little. But I've also heard the snark from Rowan for myself and your read is not off there. Gerd was vague, didn't want to snitch I suspect, but apparently she wasn't as offended as you. That doesn't mean Rowan wasn't offensive. It means Gerd may have missed it. " A shrug "I'm still piecing what happened there together and am about to pull rank on Gerd as mountain and MAKE her sit down with details. She'll possibly drop me in the lake but that's still my right." Wistful "Honestly she hasn't dropped anyone in the lake for years . I think it's a bluff now. Not the point. My point was that we will ALL make mistakes and that doesn't mean we're unworthy. Hell, I sure did. First year as a teacher I tried to be every student's friend rather than you know, their teacher. I lost Piper sticking in school because of my fuck up."

She rubs her face. "I know I'm needed here." There's an edge there, something unhappy.

"You're WANTED here, and we can be selfish like that, but I am trying to find a few more trolls so that noone of us, not me, not Kerri, not Olgar and not anyone else, is trapped here. Not you either. " He wishes he could tell her of what he's seen, "Numbers mean flexability, one reason I'm to get them is so no one is so 'needed' that they can't know joy as well as duty"

Tiffany AHEMS and tries troll talk ("Cabbages Roll Westward for Winter")

Vali is unsure what to make of that

"Mug Jessica for veggies?" He asks

His wife throws up her hands "Men."

"This is home. It's everything I ever wanted. And I'll defend it. You know that."

"I've SEEN that." he nods "But that doesn't mean you are locked into being just that. We're allowed other dreams even when we get all what we wanted. Except for me and the redhead, my wife tells me I'm not allowed that."

"I think Scott Grimes would just break your heart, honey" Tiffany flutters her lashes

Vali snerks at his wife's rejoinder.

She shrugs, looking down ather coffee.

"Do you feel trapped, Dagmar? Do you want more?" Tiffany says with concern, all jokes aside

"...yeah." Softly, almost ashamed.

The pooka pats her shoulder again

"And that's okay" Vali says "Boon me in this: That is okay." Truth

She huffs, closing her eyes.

" I know. I'm a bit of an ass how much I enjoy doing that to Gwydions sometimes" Truth! "But if it helps you, worth it. Actually... I..." A thought "Pardon the change of the subject, but woudl you be offended if I told you about a plan we elders have been discussing? It's still a duty, but it.. it actually takes you out of Bergen. Not yet. Closer to Yule. "

"And the goal is not to get you 'out of Bergen' it's something we need done"

A wary look, one eyebrow raised. But - she is looking up.

"You know we have an emissary program right? Sylvi took a turn on it, Gerd has done it and been doing it? Well, Gerd needs time to focus on Hearth learning from Kerri and Sally Mae. In short, there's an opening coming up for some Emmisary work. THere are like three locations we're looking at. Frankly, it's your turn if you want it to go to one. It wouldn't be long, a week tops before you either came back here or moved to the next one"

She chews on her lower lip, considering it - trying to gauge if she's being placated.

"Ask me , boon me" he notices her uncertainty and wants to reassure

Tiffany lurches forward, though he was talking to Dagmar "Is this just to make Dagmar FEEL better?"

"NO," Vali blurts surprised

"Is it just to get her out of the way for your own Nefarious PLANS?" Tiffany pursues with Dogged (See what we did there) energy

"NO... and I don't know what my nefarious plans will be around Yule" He adds

All true so far

"I'm really sorry, Vali." A little twist of her mouth. "About..." A vague gesture. "But yeah, you want me to be emissary somewhere, I'll do it. I can do the lodge proud."

"AND, did you steal the vanilla wafers I had hidden behind the sewing equipment and then lie to me about not knowing what I was talking about?"

"You're Damn right I did" he says in his best Jack Nicholson

Tiffany wags dangerously, then looks to Dagmar "Had to throw that last one in. "

"I had to marry a pooka" Vali mutters, then says "Good. Thank you, Dagmar. One of the locations will be Star Bear Barony, since you'd be visiting your liege now and then anyway we thought it would be on the list. But there are two others."

She nods. "Be nice to see how Chief is doing."

"Somewhere Gwydion?" Curious and wistful.

"Baron Snowmantle is a Gwydion, and yeah, one of the other locations is too.. though the Chief has some say on that"

"Of course. Chieftain Kerri's got to build political connections, alliances, all that."

"And keep ones we have going. Hope you didn't have your heart set on the Farmhold, while you can visit on your own, Sally Mae is handling go betweens there and we don't want to offend her by acting like a 'kinian' can't do it, as it's her family"

A nose wrinkle at the mention of Farmhold.

"I think we're okay with the DeBukes, yeah."

Vali notices the nose wrinkle, but doees not comment on it. Instead he says "You asked somewhere Gwydion? Wanting more falcon company?"

She shrugs. "I.. I dunno. I mean, Chief's Gwydion, and so's the Count."