#rivervale_lodge

"Would you? Swear it, I mean?"

"You wouldn't need to, just to get me out of the system."

"I would swear." he says "And I'm a bit surprised by that. Not because you don't deserve it, but because I'm surprised how forward I'm looking to it. Not with delusions, but with a sense of ... like I said earlier, I think I can give, and show, and doing so would give me as much as I gave. I'd like the chance to ."

"That might... the bug guy, might put you in trouble."

A look at her, "I look forward to it. But I might owe you an apology for one thing"

An eyebrow. "Yeah?"

"Well, when I beat the bugman to a pulp, it might cheat you of getting your licks in"

Another snerk. Then, after a pause. "What if I said yes?"

"To the whole thing? If... if you oathed?"

He looks surprised, "Then, we'd start getting the papers and mortal stuff out of the way first i think, then the fae side."

Chewing on that poor ragged hangnail again. A nod.

"And we keep it real, neither of us expects perfection. We hope for the best, but realize even good takes hard work. "

"Don't believe perfection is a real thing, yeah?"

"But... but with the Oath... if it could be real... then..." She shrugs.

"It could be real, but real is hard too. " He offers his hand, "You don't want me to lie to you. Right? It's gonna get scary."

"I'm not a pussy." A hesitation, and she takes his hand.

"Never thought you could be."

She takes a deep breath, and nods.

A nod back, and they shake hands.

A shaky smile - scared but... hopeful?

And a bit of one as well, "I think, bumpy ride aside, we're going to be ok."

"Maybe. Hey, you wanna go? We don't wanna be late."

"You're right" he says "Let's get the dogs and go. Oak, and Edelwiess"

The dogs rise and follow

"...kay." She walks, still wearing that delicate expression - rather as if she had been hit by a truck.

Edewiess gives her a bump as if to assure Dagmar it's okay. She's part of the pack

She pats Edie's flank and walks along.

Oak bounds and tries to play with Jaymes "Oh come on,you know i dion't..." He looks around, grabs a stick, and lobs it towards the lodge. "Fetch." A look to Dagmar "Okay,so I play with the dogs whenothers don't see. Shhh, don't tell."

A crack of a grin. "I won't" Good natured conspiracy.

"OW!" A short bellow from the Lodge, followed by confused whining.

"oh mmm"

"Shhhhh."

Mumbling in the distance.

Jaymes takes the easy pace of someone who is just arriving on a scee

scene

Frank is rubbing his head, and glaring alternately at a piece of wood in his hand, and the trees above him.

"Hi Frank."

"Oh, hello Dagmar. Jaymes." He mumbles, then pauses and looks at them both. He nods and looks away. "How's your day going?"

"Playing with the dogs again, Frank?" And then, "Pretty nice actually"

He chucks the wood into the treeline and re-examines the work he's doing; appears to be tying back roses, although one might wonder if that's often done with barbed wire.

"Okay..." Carefully. A nervous smile.

"No, these blasted roses...." with a glower at them.

"What's wrong with them?"

"Pretty sure they're possessed."

"Possessed?"

"Yeah?" She eyes the plants, absently patting Edelweiss' head.

"Yeah. I meant to get out here when it was still cold and they were sleeping but.... yeah, things happened and...." Frank indicates the ground under the bushes. There are small... corpses there. Birds, small mammals, a few lizards.

"No shit! Carnivores!" She gets closer to look.

"I gotta tell Symon..."

"Well. We think so. Not sure." He looks at her with reserve. "Symon. The sluagh kid?"