News travels fast in a small community, and especially fast when spread by Lapis. So it is of little surprise that Emmett Oggton and a small entourage of younger otters are waiting for Olivia's wagon in the Weaver compound, parked right outside the traveling Skeek's door.

Emmett smiles expectantly, as do the other otters, including Nene and Bebe.

Olivia glances sidelong at the Skreek riding with her on the seat of her wagon. "Oh great, it's the Stonebarrow Welcoming Committee," she says, with a touch of heavy sarcasm. "I wonder what they want? I only just got back into town!"

"Oi! Olivia!" Emmett calls, hopping and waving. "Welcome 'ome, oh daring darling… who seems to have shrunk her blouse in the wash!"

"Coul' be worse, dey no have pitchforks," Djivan points out and nods sagely. He then smirks and turns his attention to the bouncing otter and comments, "Vell, vou seem excited to see 'er again. Why is dat, hmm? You no having dirty though's about her?"

"I 'old Dowry in the 'ighest of respect," Emmett says haughtily, then blinks and corrects himself. "Olivia, I mean. Olivia."

The otter twins are already at Olivia's side of the drivers bench. "Livy! What'd you see?" asks Nene, while Bebe interrupts with, "What'd you bring us?"

Olivia slows the wagon to a stop and gives Emmett something very like the 'Evil Eye' that Natasha threatens the gypsy children with if they don't promise to behave. "Dowry? What's all this about?" Then she turns a gentler smile on the otter twins. "Well, I didn't know what you would like specifically, but I'm sure we can go through the trinkets I picked up and you can each take one thing you like!"

"Vell, she has a few buns in de oven," Djivan offers, then blinks. "Er, I mean a few real buns, no kids. Some bread ve picked up in de last town. It be held in de oven in de wagon," he explains quickly.

Olivia whacks Djivan lightly for his last comments and just shakes her head at him – but seems to expect nothing less from the gypsy.

Djivan ows! "I be fatally wounded!" he laments and then tips over in the seat.

"Trinkets!" Bebe chirps. "Buns!" Nene says. "I always wondered what Olivia's belly-button looked like," notes Emmett. "Eh, enough time for robbing 'er blind later, girls. I think Olivia has some paper-type stuff for the Mayor, that I need to be bringing over to him."

"'Er belly button isn' de nicest looking part on her," Dijvain notes quickly, opens one eye, grins, then closes his eyes again.

"Hehe, but it's a part I ain't seen before," Emmett replies to the rat, returning the wink.

Olivia gets over the 'dowry' comment for just long enough to smack her forehead with her palm and exclaim, "Oh, right! The instructions from the capitol. Hang on a sec, Emmett… " Olivia disappears into the back of the wagon for a few moments, then returns with a small bundle of papers sealed in a thick envelope. "Here you go, they must be delivered straight to the Mayor!' she says, with another stern look at the otter.

"An after dat, vou mus' come back an wash Olivia's wagon. Dat be an importan' part, ves," Djivan adds to the instructions. "An den rub her feets."

Olivia now looks over at the Skreek, startled. "What??"

Emmett sniffs at the wax seal, then catches Olivia's glance and salutes. "Right away, and so forth and suchlike!" he declares, then bounds off, with a few of the youngest otters chasing after him.

"Wash the wagon?" Nene asks, looking to Bebe. "I don't think we've got a tub that's big enough, do we?"

Zahnrad shushes Olivia and whispers, "Vell, it does need washin' no?"

Olivia grins back at Djivan and whispers, "Yeah, but I'm not sure having the otters wash it is the wisest of ideas. I don't mind sharing some of the things I bought with them, I just don't want all of it to disappear."

"Vell, lock de door on it!" Djivan points out as he sits up. "So, gonna go inside, or vat?" And at that moment, the door to Olivia's old room swings open and Gunther sticks his head out. "Yeah, I'm tired of waiting in the dark, already!" he yells.

"Squish that, it sounds like work," Bebe says. Nene then asks Olivia, "Did you meet any princes or kings or pirates? Cute, rich ones?"

Olivia starts and nearly falls off the wagon at Gunther's appearance. "Gunther Kettenrad Wingnut, what are YOU doing in MY room!?" she demands to know.

Several of the otters yelp and flee from the sight of Gunther, barking about demonic powers as they vanish.

"I picked the lock so I could catch you plotting, duh," Gunther replies. "Which reminds me, you need better security. The lock was too easy, it was boring to pick."

"Touching yer unmentionooobles I bet," Bebe whispers to Olivia, and gives the Skeek a slow, knowing nod.

"Vell, dey are fun to touch," Djivan muses and rubs his chin. "Vait a moment… "

Olivia leaves Djivan and Bebe to puzzle out the complexities of women's underwear and hops down off the seat of the wagon. Coming toward Gunther, she looks about ready to kill him. "Thanks for the total invasion of privacy, kid," she growls, then pushes past him and into the room – mostly to check if everything is still as she left it.

"Bah, you boxed it all up before you left, what's to invade?" Gunther points out as he's shoved into the room. He looks as puffed up as usual and crosses his arms in front of himself. "I see you've finally donned your attire of the … horde."

"Don't trust him," Nene says, following on Olivia's heals. "He's just the type to put booby traps in your bed and stuff," she says, then whispers into Olivia's ear, "Plus he does magic now. Makes clothes disappear in poofs of fire."

Olivia looks down at her outfit briefly and says, "Yeah, well, blame Liliana. It's all her fault!" Then she listens to the otter girl's whispering and repeats blankly, "What's this about clothes disappearing in fire?"

"Bah, you put booby traps in braziers," Gunther points out. "Some families buy those, you know. Keeps wandering hands to themselves."

Olivia glances between the two and says, "I have no idea of what you're talking about. Speak sense?"

Gunther looks Olivia up and down, then grabs one of her arms. He stares at it intently.

Olivia ows! and pulls her arm in Gunther's grip. "What are you doing?! Yeesh, you get stranger and stranger every day… " she mutters.

"Trying to decipher the messages written on your arms," Gunther explains absently. "The bananas … invade … hoogie-loogie? What kind of nonsense is this?"

"Aha! See, he's grabbing now!" Bebe accuses, pointing at Gunther. "And not proper grabs neither!"

"You're just jealous I'm not grabbing you," Gunther retorts!

Olivia blinks and looks down at her arm, as well. Then she ohs! and replies, "They're not words, they're just patterns. Liliana dyed them into my fur. Was rather insistent about it, too… "

Meanwhile, Djivan is just in his happy place. He's content to sit on the wagon and whistle. Maybe he's learned it's best to not get in between arguers, especially when two are women.

"A likely story … ahah! I GOT IT!" Gunther yells.

Olivia quirks an eyebrow at the Kadie boy. "Let's hear it. This oughta be good for a laugh," she comments dryly.

"Liliana writes coded messages on all the dancers. And when they dance together, the codes can be seen in their entirety! The recipients are in the audience taking notes. So that's how you all do it," Gunther declares.

"He's gonna make your clothes poof now," Bebe warns. "He did it to Clover's gang… it was GREAT! They all piled on him, and FWOOOM!" The otter throws her hands up in the air to indicate a big explosion.

Olivia just stares at Gunther for a few stunned moments… then she does start to laugh! Almost doubling over, she pokes her head out of her room and calls to Djivan, "Didja hear that? Apparently we all have messages tattooed on us now!"

"Vell, vou do know dat some of de designs are, uh, interesting illustrations from some o' her favorite books when dey put together in jus' the right angle, no?" Djivan comments from the wagon and grins. "Vhen Lily puts her wings together at jus' de right angle, for example, it shows two people … uhm, maybe dey're too young to here about dis."

"Blowing up clothes … that reminds me, you still have my pants," Gunther growls at Bebe.

"Do you mean you learned how to do Gypsy dances, Olivia?" Bebe asks.

Olivia stops laughing immediately and puts her arms together… just to see if Djivan is telling the truth about that or not. (Or perhaps just to see if Lili would be wicked enough to do that just to her arms.) After a few tries, she doesn't see anything lewd appear and breathes a sigh of relief!

The otter girl sticks her tongue out at Gunther and says, "Yeah, I wear them every night to bed too! So there!"

"So, I'll just have to invade your bed and get them back," Gunther retorts!

Olivia considers Bebe's question now. "Well, Liliana tried to teach me how to dance, but I could only master a few of the basic steps. I'm just not that good of a dancer," she admits.

"Guess dat's one vay to get a date," Djivan mutters to no one in particular.

As Gunther and Bebe bicker amongst themselves, Olivia walks around the room and takes the sheets off all of her furniture and folds them neatly. All of her 'paintings' were even dutifully wrapped in sheets by her Aunt Augusta and leaned against one wall, so she begins unwrapping them next.

"I dare you to," Bebe says to Gunther, then says to Olivia, "Just a few steps? I guess that'll be enough, not that you need to perform or anything."

Gunther marches right over to Bebe and taps his foot expectantly. "Dare accepted," he says flatly. "Don't forget who helps maintain a lot of the stuff out that way. I have access to plans for everything."

Olivia grins at the otter girl as she works. "Yeah, I was so wretched at it that Lili didn't even want me near the troupe when they performed!"

"She said I ruined the 'flow' of the whole routine… whatever that means," Olivia adds.

"Bah, vou're exagerating. Vou jus' didn' want to perform. Vour ears kept getting red," Djivan calls out as he climbs down finally. "She said vou needed more practice to get into de flow, not dat vou ruined it. And dat vou jus needed more practice firs' before vou had to vorry about others around vou."

"Plus, I don' tink vou vould be comfortable wit' de nude practices," Djivan points out as he saunters over. "Personally, I like dem." He grins.

Bebe just grins. "I hope you're a really good swimmer then, Gunther. I sleep on a barge."

"I work at a dam, I have to swim down to fix stuff. What do you think?" Gunther points out, grinning.

"I'll practice with you, Livia," Nene volunteers, and goes into a serious of gyrations that only an Otter or a Naga could do.

Bebe crosses her arms against her chest, and says, "You still have to find the right barge. And escape afterwards."

"Easy, and easy," Gunther says, ticking off on his fingers and grinning.

Olivia hrms at Djivan's commentary… especially that last part! "Yeah, well, if I perform in the nude, it's for select audiences only. And in private!" Then she watches Nene slink and slither around her room. "Heh, you look good enough to perform Lili's dances, for sure! Ask her for lessons sometime."

"Mebbe I will!" Nene says, holding her chin up high. "What're you gonna do now though, Livia? I mean, you've been out and about and stuff… and we're just the same old boring town as always."

"Boring? dis place rain fish. How can it be boring?" Djivan points out. "Plus ve be stayin' in de area for a bit anyway. I sure we can make t'ings exciting."

Then Olivia thinks for a minute and says to Gunther, "By the way, speaking of traps and such… you wouldn't be interested in doing a job for me sometime soon, wouldja? Something you're highly qualified for?"

"Eh, and what would that be?" Gunther asks, canting his head to look at Olivia.

Nene slinks up alongside Djivan and looks at him with big wide eyes. "Oh? How exciting?" she asks.

"I'm sure ve coul' make dose nightly parties at de boathous' seem like countin' sand," Djivan remarks with a grin and a wink.

"Oh, arranging for some extra security in a place that probably needs it," the Skeek says vaguely, waving one hand about. "We can discuss the details after Nene and Bebe pick out their gifts and head home?"

Gunther smirks at that. "Well, I might be convinced in helping with that," he answers, then suddenly puts an arm around Bebe's shoulders.

The otter girls forget everything else at the mention of gifts… and since they're the only ones that stuck around, they'll get the best picks!

Olivia smiles broadly back at the Kadie boy. "Then I can pass along some things I picked up in Justininople as payment," she says. "There were some Titanians selling the most interesting tools in a market there… 'trick hammers,' they said they were. If you bang something hard enough with them, they explode. I had the most entertaining time watching them throw samples at poles and seeing splinters go everywhere in a huge bang and a cloud of purple smoke… "

Gunther ooooos. "Okay, that I'll want," he admits. He then grins evilly and intones, "Watch as I swap one of Zahnrad's hammers with a trick hammer. Let's see if he notices… "

Olivia rubs her hands together almost evilly. "Thought you might like those," she says. Then to the otter girls, she calls, "C'mon, let's go see what else I brought! Then Gunther and I can talk boring business stuff."
Gunther releases Bebe. Whether he was holding her out of affection or plotting a headlock is anyone's guess. So, he occupies himself by climbing onto the roof of the cabin and proceede to peer about intently.

"Yay! Loot that we haven't seen before!" the twins chime, and bound for the wagon on all fours.

Olivia follows the twins to her wagon at a more sedate pace… since they have to wait for her to unlock the back door, anyway! "I know I have a bit of jewelry," she shouts after them, "and some bottled scents, too. Nothing very fancy, all the really good stuff was too expensive. Anyway, I'll let you choose!"

"We love you Olivia!" the otters chirp.