Otso was kinda half-hiding behind her car. Meeting new people is scary, ok? When the flashlight lands on him he'll lift up one paw and wave a little.

She manages not to startle this time, even though, really, she has a much better reason to.

...pretty polite for a bear. Pretty polite for a ghost, too. Still, though. She flails around for some polite way out of whatever this just turned into, and comes up with: "You can't bring a bear into my house, he'll scratch up the floors."

Ohhh no that's a really fair and reasonable response.

"In that case, can we use your garage? We don't want to mess up your house, we just need to get out of the rain for a while."

Well now she feels like a jerk. But...she doesn't want a bear in her house. Nobody would. It doesn't make her a bad host who gets turned into a rabbit by vengeful faeries. But stashing them in the garage with her late husband's lumber just doesn't feel right. "Are you sure you won't get cold?"

Sophie puts on her best mysterious smile. "We don't get cold." And she'll step back into the rain, letting her shield turn it to mist around her.

Jill just has time to think she's bone-dry, isn't she, even in that little shirt-dress thing she's wearing, before her visitor starts showing off.

All right, fine, if she wants the garage she's welcome to it. She'll go unlock it (from the inside; she gets wet like anyone would), and invite her new guests in. It's full of junk and old power tools, but at least there are plenty of places to sit. She'll bring in some spare blankets, too, for the sleeping boy; she can wash them later. As she's puttering around she'll take care not to touch any of them, just in case they're less solid than they look. And she'll try to keep the humans between her and the bear, without being too obvious about it.

Once everyone's settled: "What's your name, sweetheart?"

Sophie did try to come up with a cool superhero name on the way over, but nothing really good came to mind. And anyway, she doesn't read comics; it'd be embarrassing if she called herself "Firefly", or something, and it turned out there was a famous character called that. She and Carol can figure it out together, that'll work a lot better. For now she just smiles mysteriously again. "I'm afraid I can't say. But the boy's name is Kyle Merrill."

With luck that will distract her.

No, sorry; Jill read the articles but her memory for names isn't great. "Well, I'm Jill Abbott, and it's a pleasure to meet the two, I mean the three of you." She'll give the bear a little smile and nod.

Oh look they're indoors now. Wonder why...

Otso will give her the one-paw wave again. He doesn't like the cement floor but it seems like it would take a while to drag in enough leaves and branches to make a decent bed, and anyway Jill would probably say no.

Once the garage door is shut, Sophie's heat aura warms the space up pretty quickly. Soon Jill doesn't need her coat, and Otso's fur finally starts to dry.

It turns out that wet bear smells like wet dog, only more so, with heavy notes of bark and forest loam.

Well, that sounds like a fine thing to not remark on. Moving right along: "Can I make you some coffee, dear? The stove's gas, I can light it with a match no trouble." She hesitates, then decides to go for it, "or you could boil the water yourself, like you did to the rain out there."

Sophie's had coffee twice in her life, and does not get the point of it at all. It's nice of Jill to offer, but...hey, actually, could she boil water in a kettle? Would her rain shield do that on its own, if the kettle were close to her? And if it didn't, could she persuade it to?

She shouldn't test this now. She's literally surrounded by wood, and that snowblower in the back probably has gasoline in it. She doesn't even want coffee! But, geez, it's tempting.

As you're having that last thought, Sophie, your sense of the Juice Man's location suddenly re-orients from "somewhere over there somewhere" to "lying in the blankets at your feet".

What? No. No no no no

They already DID THIS, it's OVER. She WON this fight, it...

Fine. There's still more. Of course there is. She won this fight, therefore she can win it again.

Her first impulse is to just jump on Kyle the Juice Man and choke him some more, but there's the old lady to think about. Did she notice anything?

Uh, yeah, she noticed how her cheeky question upset her guest! No asking the ghost faerie about her abilities, got it, no problem.

Nico's holding as still as possible, just on the off chance that his enemy won't notice him right away. But he'll open his eyes just a little, and try to get a sense of where he's landed.

Was this in fact a trap?

It's dark, is what it is. You're indoors, somewhere with a smell of wood and gasoline and wet fur. You're lying on the floor, wrapped in blankets. You can see your adversary sitting on a pile of 2 by 4 boards just above you, still glowing faintly. There's someone else nearby holding a flashlight, pointed in your general direction, but you can't make out much about them through the glare; maybe an elderly woman?

All right, but is he restrained, or surrounded by a circle of salt, or anything like that? Is the thief looking down on him with contemptuous triumph, delighted that he's been so foolish as to once again place himself within her power?

He doesn't expect that, but one wants to be sure about these things.

The blankets are a little confining, but not much.

As for Sophie, she's trying to look neutral for Ms. Abbot's Jill's* sake, but it's probably not working.

_{*Sophie is an adult right now, so she gets to call other adults by their first names, right?}

Um. Can the Juice Man possess Jill? Oh, duh, probably not, probably the juice was important, but it's still making Sophie really anxious to have her right there where he can see her.

"You know, some coffee would be great. Please go make some. Right now."

Well that was rude. She opens her mouth to let her guest know that she won't be pushed around, glow or no glow...and stops.

Why is the glowing girl so scared all of a sudden?

All right, yes, he's clearly been spotted. He should stop trying to hide from her, it never works.

She must have taken him to one of the houses around the hill, probably one where she has friends or allies. And yet she's trying to send the other woman away. Why? To protect her?

Well, if she wants it he should try to jam it up. "Wait!"

Jill pauses with her hand on the doorknob. Huh, the boy's not from around here. What is that accent?