#bergen_county

"Still, those were good times. I mean, remember when I first met the RV crew? Sylvi saved ME from a bully. Granted, Dirk got better..."

"He did, yeah."

She watches the screen. "Part of me wishes I could go for that, y'know?" A nod at the athletes.

"Why don't you?" Leaning over to snag a mountain dew, and gives the bottle a shake. When the flat soda fails to bubble, he gives her a gummy grin. "Just how I like it. I've... missed this. I've missed you. I... shit, Dags, I'm sorry I've been so distant."

A gesture at her horns. "Ain't fair if I do. Too risky." She bites her lip. "I miss how things were, yeah."

"I... know I screwed things up? I don't know how to fix them. But. Um. I'm glad you came over."

"You didn't screw things up. It was... it was just how things were. But I've been working to fix it. Cairrean's been helping me." His raspy whisper is earnest. "I've got issues too. I guess... everyone does, whether they show it or not."

"I..."

"I may have said it wrong."

She swallows, and twists the can around in her hands.

"Or you said what you meant, and I wasn't mature enough to accept it."

She looks down, shoulders curling.

"I wasn't being fair to you." He says, reaching over to lightly rest a clammy hand on her arm for a moment. "And I let that get in the way of our friendship."

"I don't... I don't know how to say it."

"Or how much you mean to me. Or how much I miss you."

There's a pause as he pulls his hand back, awkwardly, seemingly withdrawing. Then -it's faint, Dagmar isn't even sure she really felt it, but, a bit of glamour flickers in her passive kenning sense - and with it, some of Symon's tension seems to ease.

"But you don't want what I want... what I wanted. You don't want to be in a relationship with me. And that's okay. Even if it took some doing for me to be able to admit that. It was easier to hide from you and say, "woe is me, it is right proper sluagh for me to yearn for feelings unrequited and wither away, unloved."

"No."

"No, that's just IT."

He blinks, surprised. "Then... what?" Clearly confused.

"I want to be in a relationship with you, but what I want... what I want doesn't... it doesn't look like anything... I don't understand what it is."

"It's not like Adam, or Nadeen, or even thinking that Lupe or Masey are kinda hot."

He reaches up and presses a hand against his chest, and looks... a little lost?

"It's.. it's like finding your arm, like, you didn't know it was missing until you found it, and then.. then it's gone and now you have a hole..."

The words tumble out, raw and honest. "I trust you more than anyone I've ever met. I want to always be with you. I want to oath, so I could find you again, like Chief found Hemlock, because it... I don't want to lose you."

"And I don't know what to call that, but I don't... 'brother' isn't a big enough word. I don't have the right word. You're my Frodo. You're my Sherlock. My Patrocles. My Kay."

He starts to open his mouth, then closes it, and clutches at the small lump under his shirt. "I want... I wanted... I..."

Symon looks.... bluescreened. Static roaring in his ears.

"I love you, Symon. Even if it's not... not like how I'm supposed to, or how the movies are, or... anything."

Glamour pulses like a heartbeat from under his fingers.

A pained noise in her throat, and she half extends her hand towards the sluagh.

"I... I... Dagmar, I..." He starts to reach out, fingers extended, and then there is a... fizzle-fizzle-flare... and his hand drops, and he says in a mild, pleasant tone. "I love Cairrean."

The glamour settling down, seeping back in, a nice, low, background hum, not even really noticeable.

She bares her teeth, and reaches for the chain - snagging it and YANKING.

Symon... well, he can't YELP because he's a sluagh, but there is a choked-coughing, death-rattle wheeze as he comes with the chain around his neck.

There is a heat to it, not burning, but glamour courses through it - oh, this is a TREASURE!

Two hands on it, and she is determined to BREAK the chain.

As the metal links snap in her hands, glamour flares....

The thin gold chain holds, holds longer than it should, bolstered by the glamour that runs inside of it - but Dagmar is a dream of the mighty, and her strength cannot be denied!

With a flex of her powerful arms, the chain SNAPS, glamour FLARES, and Symon is thrown back!

Dagmar feels the oddest sensation, on one hand, glamour has washed over her, a thrilling, heart-pounding sensation, an incredible high... and at the same time, there is a splash of cold dread - even as the magic is released, a chill sinks in with the realization that she has just destroyed a piece of the dreaming, however small.

• Dagmar gains 4 glamour released from the destruction of 'Heart's Desire', an Aphrodesia treasure.
• Dagmar gains 1 temporary banality from the destruction.
• Symon appears to be unconscious.
Perception + Kenning, diff 5 - on a success, any Fae within the house will have felt the flare of glamour. It does not extend beyond their yard.

Dagmar is momentarily stunned, reeling from hot and cold. It takes a moment for her eyes to clear.

"...Symon?"

She drops the broken treasure, and pushes off to fumble towards the sluagh - sending the coffee table skidding, tipping over a can of half-empty soda and scattering popcorn. "Sy?"

The necklace slithers from her fingers to the floor, the chain snapped, and the heart-shaped pendant, even though it was untouched, is cracked open, the last few wisps of glamour drifting away like smoke from a smouldering fire that is going out.

The sluagh is limp, knocked out by the backlash? But his color is good - er, the correct shade of greyish green, and his breathing steady, if shallow. He appears unharmed, though temporarily knocked out.

She kneels down beside him, gingerly but urgently checking for injuries. "Sy, I'm sorry, I'm sorry..."

No injuries, he seems to be in a dead faint.

Footsteps from the yard "Dagmar? " Tove's voice from outside "Honey?"

"Mom?" She calls, her voice cracking. Tove had been in the studio, hadn't she?

She picks up Symon like he ways no more than a toy, gently laying him on the couch.

The door to the room swings open and Tove comes in "Honey what's.. oh my."

She moves to her daughter and Symon "what happened?"

Dagmar is buzzing with glamour - and a spike of cold. "I... I.. Sylvi said not to do it, but it..."

"I..."

She is worried for her daughter, but she puts on her most stoic "Deep breaths. " She looks over Symon "Slow and easy and deep okay?"