#bergen_county

"I'll buy the one you're wearing. If you'll sell it."

"Sure finne... whatever.." She takes it off and asks 'You want it gift wrapped?"

Burn out

"Yeah, please."

It's done.. and she takes the money with a grunt muttering

Dirk pulls him away "Another bite?"

He takes the wrapped necklace. "Yeah. I'm gonna see if maybe it left some stink on the necklace if she was wearing it. Maybe Quetz can trace it."

"Unless you got an idea?" Not sarcastic, actually, he looks at Dirk curiously.

"Willowhispering the wound maybe" He ponders "But we'd have to knock Drake or restingn bitch face jeweler out"

"What about the necklace? Maybe it saw something."

He looks impressed - but Dirk sometimes does show good ideas. It's street smarts.

"Maybe.. hey, if it was on her nneck at the ttime ..yeah"

"Here." He heads to a secluded corner of the cafeteria, and carefully opens the wrapper without touching it. "Try not to get your smell on it in case we still want to try a tracker.

"Huh.. when's the last time you took a shower" to be fair, probably not that long ago. Anne Marie doesnn't let eitherr of them go too long. Anyway, he says "Whisper to me some questions and I'll like , repeat em"

and he bunks "I'm a fucking monster, I'll go for your throat. You're a necklace, so we got that in common. Let's chat"

It flickers

And is ready

He ponders. "You're parasitic in nature, you need a neck to hang around to live as you're intended. Another parasite visited your host. What sort of creature was it? A bloodsucker - spider, mosquito - a hornet or thing with a stinger... or something else?"

To Dirk, he mutters, "Mosquitos are loners. Wasps and like - they have hives."

Dirk nods , the light coming on as his bro explains, then he repeats the question as exactly as he can

"SYMBIOTE thank you, I give a benefit of beautification in exchange for the neck" the whisper comes back haughty annd offended "It definitely looked like a mosquito closest, though larger "

“Symbiote. Sorry.” Reminding himself that politeness costs nothing… “was there more than one of those things around? A swarm, or a loner?”

Dirk whispers the same question, maybe less eloquent

It answers "One is all I knew, but I only sense things close to the neck"

Symon frowns, thoughtfully. Finally he asks, “how many times did it visit, to get her as drained as she was? Unless you have a better question…”

Dirk shrugs andn tries the same, then asks it

"Twelve times, one more annnd it will finish her"

And then.. the cantrip wears out

“Ugh. Well. What do you think? Should we dump it in the lodge to deal with?”

"I figure we find it, and kill it"

“Why’s it our problem?”

Symon looks like he regrets it even as he said it.

"Because we're Rivervalers, you douchenozzle, because I'm the peacemaker, and because Dagmar would look at you like this, if she found out you let dreamers get ruined" He makes 'a disappointed brow' gesture

“No, yeah. I know. I know.”

"Sides, if we catch it and kill it, maybe you can add it's wings to your creepy ass collectionn or somethin"

“I guess that's something. Let’s get Quetz and see if he can track it down. Are you ready for a fight? Maybe it's just a wild critter. But maybe it's taking glamour back to a maker. Like that bug guy.”

"Shit.. yeah, I'm always down for a brawl"

“Meet back up here at close? We can hide while they lock up and then not worry About if we need to go somewhere off limits.”

"Sounds like a plan..." A nod

He takes his shirts and the necklace. “Cool.”

“I’m gonna stop by the lodge. Let Dagmar know.”

"Yeah, do that. She migh want in on this." Dirk nods "Also she's almost as tough as me"

“And she’s got the flyswatter”

"Yeah yeah power in names, big brain talk.. ooo pillar of the mountain lore... blah blah.. go tell her" A pause "And.. " Mutter "Thanks"

“S’cool. That Drake- he a friend? Your dreamer?”

"I mused him... yeah" A frown "DIdn't wannt a friend but.. I like em enough"

“Cool. I don’t work well with mundanes much, you know? Online a little, but it’s tough. It’s cool that you can.” A nod.

"Well, I'm not exactly social but with him I got lucky. See you later."

He nods, and heads out.

And a Dagmar is sought out