#bergen_county

"Thanks for the ride, Eden." Dagmar pays the pooka as she and the rest step back onto home turf.

Symon snickers. "That was a riot. Oh. Poor choice of words?" Not sounding in the least repentant.

"Well, coulda been. I'm glad you spotted the assholes."

"I've gotten good at seeing their kind. See, there's a trick to it. You look at their shoes - normal protesters just have sneakers or whatever. These fucks had military-grade shit-kickers. And you can see the outline of armbands on some of their arms. Sure sign of a hidden SS or 88 or something."

"Hunh."

"Lucky you were there. Thanks for coming, I know it ain't your scene."

"You were there, you think I'm gonna let you have all the fun alone?" He scoffs, but looks pleased at the remark anyways.

"And I won't brag on you. Pinky swear."

"You'd better not. You get one pass. ONE." A grin over at her and he does crook a little finger in the air.

She crooks her finger with his.

He snickers. "Christ, it's like a harpy eagle grabbing a minnow. Gimme back my finger before you snap it off."

"Yeah, yeah." Grin, release. "I just... man, everything's so jacked. I want to make a difference."

"Dirk certainly had fun. Glad he came along."

"I don't know who he had that aggression stored up for, but glad it didn't come out on me."

"Hey, Nazis are totally acceptable punching bags.:

"He said he was leaving teeth on my pillow for a necklace. I hope not, my pillowcase will get all crusty."

"Shut up, you'd love a tooth necklace."

"Everyone knows, civilized folk leave teeth UNDER the pillow for fairies."

"well, fair."

"Better this then him keeping them. I never should have let him know that the sound of him crunchin' up stuff that shouldn't break bugged me. But bones snapping like that - it's like, nails on a chalkboard. Small bones, like fingers, sure, snick snick snick, but a femur crunching... ugh."

Wince.

"Yeah, I bet." They scuff down the road, towards the Lee house.

"See?"

A toothless grin. "And it bugs me because it's not one I can USE."

"What a waste, yeah! Hey, you ever see, like, in europe, they make whole churches outta bones?"

"I've HEARD of it. I'd like to see it some day. That might be too far for Gerd to flicker, though. I'd be afraid of ending up three quarters of the way and over the Atlantic. Lucky for me, I can fly coach and spindle in the tiny seats. You gotta spring for economy legroom."

"Never actually been on a plane..."

"But yeah, I heard about it from Gerd."

Thoughtful. "I guess there's that goth overlap there. I was on one when I was a baby, but I don't remember it. When we came over from Korea. They were lucky - I'm told I was quiet even as a baby, so I wasn't that screaming thing folk want to yeet out a window on a 30 hour flight."

"Ooo, yeah. Nothing against CJ, but jeez, nothing wrong with his lungs for sure."

"One of these days I'll come meet him in person. ...maybe when he's sleeping. Or has started grade school."

"He's not so bad. He doesn't cry all the time."

"He looks at things, like, so hard."

"See, that's creepy too. That's MY look." A grin. "Maybe you'll have a slug in the family line, wouldn't that be something?"

"Maybe! Wouldn't be so bad."

"Nah, not that bad at all." They walk on a bit, and Symon glances over. "Maybe Tove can come by some time and ask Ann Marie to baby sit." Thoughtful, something on his mind.

"Yeah?" A bit of eyebrow creep.

He frowns a bit, and it takes a moment to talk. Luckily, Dagmar is patient. "I think she'd like a baby. Like, her own. But she doesn't say boo about it. I don't now if maybe... " He greys a little at the sensitive topic. "Either she -can't-, or if she thinks that she's too important, too needed by other folk to dedicate the time to something so selfish." His head shakes. "But I think she'd like to look after him a bit, all in all. And if she thought it was a favor to Tove, she'd jump at it, I bet."

Dagmar nods. "I can probably make that happen."

"She's not -wrong-. Folk do need her. They rely on her. Maybe too much. Jonas helps, but she just... it's like, her passion. And this town I think might fall apart if she ever took a runner, y'know?"

"Oof, yeah. I know."

"You and Sylvi got that in common - your moms are sorta everyone's moms."

The crowds and protest ahead...seems peaceful. Signs. Sloagans.

"Hunh... didn't know there was one in town."

Odd, they heard about one in teaneck

Symon frowns, and slips his mask back up around his ears. Moving closer to Dagmar, as he's harder to hear through the muffled fabric.

And he scans the crowd. Looking for anyone that seems out of place - looking to start trouble. Oddly, if someone else did the same, he'd probably stand out amongst the others.

THe crowd isn't large... but their accents aren't local

Dagmar still has her shield-sign - a lid from a rubbermaid tote, padded with foam on the inside, painted on the out with "JUSTICE"

Brow-furrow, and she approaches the group.