#bergen_county

Jonas wakes up screaming.

Pale and shaking.

He looks about, glad to be back in his room. He hadn't had such an intense nightamre in awhile. He looks about. He sees no Chimera. Good. Good. At least he kept it to himself.

Piper darts awake at the screams, falling out of bed to thump on her rump. "Holy shit?! What is it?!"

"I.... just a nightmare" He says "I'm sorry, didn't mean to wake... are you ok?" He sees she's fallen out of bed.

She rubs her tail / tailbone. "A nightmare? Was it something from that stuff you faced in the dreaming?" Sympathetic, though still confused and sleepy. "I'm fine. Do you want, uh, a cup of warm milk?" Trying to remember how her moms treated nightmares.

He moves to her and helps her up, still a bit shaken but more concerned for a woman he loves in her condition getting knocked out of bed, "No no I'm fine. I just... " he thinks about it "No, this was nothing like my quest. I was in a mall, old decripet. There were devil worshiping cultists. I was locked in. I wasn't strong or magical... just helpless. And when I killed one, he turned into a zombie. "

BLINK. "Have you been watching late nite horror movies? Ugh."

She settles back into bed with him, stroking his hair. At least Siv is at the lodge tonight, so she should be getting a decent night's sleep.

He doesn't fight the comfort , it does relax him "No. Not a fan of those movies. You know me, I prefer my Snob Watching" a smile as he uses a term the girls have used.

Turner Classic Movies, Master Piece Theatre, though he does love nature documentaries

She checks the time...

Must be about midnight, little after

And stifles a yawn. "Do you think you can get back to sleep? Or we can put a movie on, something calming."

"I'll get back to sleep. If I can't I'll be quiet. You go back to bed." He resolves to take himself to the oversized sofa if he needs to.

"mmm, okay." She's concerned... but also tired. It's just a dream, after all, as silly as that sounds to a Fae. Snuggled close to Jonas, Piper drifts back off.

And this time, if he has dreams, at least Jonas doesn't wake up screaming.

*******

And elsewhere in Bergen, May sleeps soundly, blissfully, without chemicals in her blood stream or dark designs plaguing her imagination

**********

And elsewhere, when she should be asleep, Mother Nips The Heel leads her pack against foes that make that nightmare look tame. The other two packs are 'purer' than hers. Gets on one side, Silver fang on the other!

And it is quite clear to her, that their pack has been kept out out of the loop of the plans of their so called betters! Because of that, they've nearly lost Concrete Lullaby. If she had been told of the true objective, she would have realized there was twice the number of foes that they expected!

The goal is worthy, but if her Galliard and friend dies, she swears she'll rip the throat of that Silver fang out herself!

Assuming, of course, she lives herself.

***********

At King's Convenience, West Store..., night shift, Jaymes sees the two youths 'meandering' about. He notices the gun one is trying to hide in his waist band. He sighs and waits.

Sure enough, one grabs a random object he doesn't really need, and tosses it on the counter, waiting for Jaymes to open the register

Jaymes does, with his left hand. His right hand however reaches over as soon as the guy tries to yank his gun out. REACH is a troll thing. Jaymes hand locks around the would be gunman's fingers and says "Before this goes any further. Do you want to BUY the stick of gum, maybe your buddy pays for it. Or do you want me to use your hand to shoot your own dick off? I'd rather the former. Less messy. Either way when this is done, I'm taking that gun away from you." The big man gives a warning look "You could get hurt with that thing there" A squeeze, very slight over the gunman's hand.

The guys buy a stick of gum. Jaymes empties the bullets from the gun and makes a note to dispose of it later.

***********