#rivervale_lodge

Then she adds "or that's how it seemed to me, and how I FEEL about it. "

"Yeah, well, fine, I'm the bad guy. Not like I'm the authority on anything here."

"God damnit" A frown "Don't DO that. I never said you were the bad guy. I never meant you were the bad guy. Don't put words in my mouth when I'm trying to understand. I might be wrong, I might be missing something, but don't say I said things I didn't say just so you can safely dismiss my worries."

A breath "is it possible our unseelie legacies are in play? Samhain so soon? We don't always handle them well. Used to make Aunt Brekke miserable"

She grumbles.

"Chief Brekke used to start to hate herself, you.. you get territorial. And Uncle Vali starts to think he's INSUFFERABLY Clever. Worse than usual I mean." She does not mention her own shadowery side

"Nothing wrong with being Unseelie. Symon almost always is."

"Symon understands it, like Olgar, he knows how to channel it. We don't always, as we're more regularly seelie. That's why I thought it was a factor here." A pause "Are you mad at me for being so open with Rowan?"

Jaw-jut. Pause. Nod.

Gerd ponders "Well, that.. that is fair. Adelaide is a friend, and to me it's like saying 'I have a referral from someone you trust'. It would be like if a new comer mentioned Symon to you, it might open doors. " A nod "I would never endanger the lodge deliberately, but Obviously I could accidentally. " She does not think she did, but well, there you go, "I thought maybe by answering some questions we'd get a few answers in turn. I wanted to learn more about them."

"I don't like them." Decisively.

"Well, to quote a wise troll: You didn't have to like them, you just had to be civil." Gerd says "And you didn't stay that way. Which is why I got confused. I think with you, you're such the .. IDEAL troll, that sometimes I put you on a bit of a pedestal and you're tall enough. That may not be fair to you. I can be a bit selfish. I feel like I failed both a guest and one of my favorite lodge sisters and I failed my Uncle. I didn't resolve it in a thirty minute span where we all learn a valuable life lesson. I blame those stupid after school special reruns Vali showed me when I was a kid"

She shakes salt over the roasted seeds. "I'm not perfect, Gerd. And far from an ideal troll."

"You're DEFINITELY not PErfect, but you're very much the ideal troll. Seriously, in the first year here you started to form up to this 'holy crap it's Brekke 2.0' thing. We soon learned no, she's Dagmar Beta test, but she's still a bad ass gwydion knight animal loving warrioress who looks like Xena and Captain America had a love child or something. You fight for truth, justice, and the trollish way, you protect the weak, and stand up for the downtrodden. And you do it almost on automatic"

Snort. "And I have a hell of a temper, and no social graces, and more issues than the National Geographic."

"Join the club on the magazine collection, like the CHeshire Cat says, we're ALL a little mad here. And you're a Gwydion, Temper is given, and you have Social graces they're just a little.. under cooked?" A smile, then she sobers "Look, if Rowan sticks around, can you be civil with them? "

"Yeah. I'll figure it out."

"Right, and w'ell figure them out. I think this might be a job for your boyfriend when he gets the time if you think he's up to it. Charm folks are sneaky, we need sneaky on ourside. Could Symon help?"

"Already on it."

Gerd swats at stray narrative Chimera "Shoo" then she goes on with Dagmar "You did? Of course you did. GOOD. I don't think they're a menace and might even need us more than they think, but the words 'trust but verify' do come to mind, and Symon the Denier is very good at verifying"

A rueful huff. "He's the smarter half."

"If you were a moron he'd never have fallen in love. He's got standards, high ones actually. And so do you. He's the SNEAKIER half to be sure."

"My Guile." Fond.

"He is. And I trust him to get to the bottom of this. And I trust my Uncle to have ways to look in on things"

"Between them we'll figure more about Rowan. We'll not mention the BIG treasures, though the Cauldron is going to be noticed. Furking huge as my boyfriend would say"

"And we'll protect Klump, and the Sky Wolves."

"Klump, good point. Good thing not many know about his secrets" Meaning the anchor "As for the skywolves, they protect themselves pretty well but we'll keep an eye out. "

"I'll be civil, though."

"Cool. Thanks. Even if they aren't. And if they aren't I'll do a better job of trying to check them."

"And not let them run all over me. Mmm I could call Adeilaide"

"Please just..." She frowns. "You don't need to tell her about my outburst, do you? Bad enough I'm getting it from Vali."

"Why would I tell Adelaide about that? No, Rowan mentioned Adelaide so I will mention them to her in turn, see what i turn up. No talk about outbursts. " She assures, then says "Sorry if Vali is on your back about this. I didn't mean to pile on. Well, I did but not too much. I think the only other one who knows about your outburst is maybe Olgar and.. oh dear, Lucia might. She's a boggan. I'll give her a call to change names to protect the innoccent"

"Please don't." Another frown.

"Okay. I won't. No call to Lucia. Can I still call Adelaide to see what she'll tell me about Rowan?"

"Yeah. I just would prefer to not make this a continuing thing."

"Fair. I'll respect that"

"Thanks."

"Hey, HOw IS your sneakier half? I don't see him much"

"Studying, a lot. He's got comps coming up."

"Let him know if you two need a freind who can flicker flash you two together for a bit I can try. 90% of the time it works all the time"

"The drive isn't too bad."

"Okay, that's cool" A nod "Offer is up. Think of it as my attempt to help you guys make up for lost time"

"We're doing good. Got a quest coming up. We decided to wait for fall break."

"Smart. Ylva will handle the horses, of course. And I got hearth back up . Want me to take some of your patrols? I CAN just walk.. I don't have to fly and flash everwyhere"

"That would help, yeah."

"I'll check it with the Storm and let him know"

She gets to cleaing up a bit more in the kitchen "Nice work o nthe seeds"

"Kerri taught me how."

She pinches a few and crunches "Taught yyou well then. Oh, Ylva says Bucky is coming around more easily. Says Lady O is teaching him to trust. " A pause "Star apparently is still not sure about the new stallion though. She ever gonna forgive him for not being Stormwake?"

Dagmar may have already noticed this, but the fact Ylva did too is a good sign