#rutgers

"But you can only be at one place, so it needs to be the right place."

Another smirk. "Yeah. The one thing I'm no good at is sticking to a decision. Oh, but I'm really good at hurting people."

Brow, again.

"So, you are upset you hurt Colton?"

She nods. "Among others."

"Who else is bugging you? Because if it is, you just gotta.. make it square, yeah?"

She shakes her head. "Technically, I already have. I mean, I think I have. Doesn't mean I didn't cause the hurt in the first place, though. Like...okay, I hurt Nadeen when I left DarkGate and wasn't sharing the house with her anymore...I hurt the people at the theater who were expecting me to be there...heck, I hurt you when I went up to DarkGate in the first place, right? There's more, but..." a shrug "...it goes back a ways."

"Okay. So... so, I mean, my baggage is mine. You didn't set out to hurt me."

"And when I tried to hold elections for Goldfinch to give somebody else a chance to lead, Piper was convinced I was trying to abandon Goldfinch, and that wasn't what I meant at all, but apparently that's...what I do. Right? Or, like, what people expect of me."

"And Nadeen is plenty happy now. And you haven't left Goldfinch."

"But... but you are looking for something, and maybe you don't know what it is."

Wry, "Thanks, but just because it ended up okay doesn't mean people are wrong about me."

She plucks at the carpet again. "Yeah."

Dagmar’s phone buzzes! A call! A call!

"Oh... I gotta..."

Bloop. Speaker! "Hey kiddo."

“DAAAAAGMAAAAAAR!”

Somewhere upstairs, Symon winces.

"Connor!" An apologetic smile at Sylvi.

“It’s TURRIBLE!”

"What's terrible?"

“You’ll never guess what’s happened!”

"I won't! Tell me!"

Sylvi grins a bit, listening in.

“Nothing!” A heaved sigh. “Nothing at ALL!”

"Nothing? Brown Dog didn't do anything?"

A bit of a chuckle. "That kid..."

"Hey, do you wanna say hi to Sylvi?"

“Brown dog? I would never rat terrier on a friend!” Stubborn and loyal!

"Hey, Connor!" she calls so he can hear.

“Hi to Sylvi! Tell me about your adventures! Sylvi and Dagmar, against the wild world! The daring duo! And, uh, Symon is there too! Bluuuuh!” A dramatic TeeVee vampire noise.

"The wild world is wild and woolly, it's true!" she declares. "And the people downstairs from us have WINGS!" A wink to Dagmar.

"They do!"

It's hard not to get cheered by pooka banter.

At least a little.

It does help.

"Speaking of, I'm gonna head down there and visit them for a moment." She mouths extra spicy? to Dagmar.

“Wings!” He starts on a tangent about Spark’s latest antics.

("Scarlet knight?") She mouths back. SPicy but not TOO hot.

A nod, and as Connor is carrying the narrative, Sylvi makes a quiet exit to obtain some food. Wings make many things better. At least for a while.

“But that’s all. What about you? Did you do any Vanquishing lately? What’s it like there? Tell me!” Connor is very excited to hear all about Rutgers.

"Well, it's not home..."

“Nothing is HOME. But some places are worth visiting.”

“and you can’t vanquish the puts at home. You have to shoot them there.” He reasons, reasonably.

"...Yeah, maybe. It's pretty here. There's lot of trees."

“Oh, boy! Did you already say hi to all of them?”

She can envision his tail wagging!

"Not all - there's too many! When you visit, you'll have to help."