Selkie Cove, Tuesday Afternoon

[poison_pretty]

Sometimes, being in town got to feeling claustrophobic. Too many people with too many loyalties, all crowded together, dancing on eggshells while they pretended one thing and felt another...It all got so tiresome after awhile. After awhile, Karla felt on edge, jumpy; and needed to retreat somewhere to gather herself again. The park in town was a

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[hurricaneanna]

There was a pale, dark-haired, barefoot girl in a white dress perched on a rock, seemingly lost in her own thoughts, though she was startled out of them when the singing started.

Anna thought about simply disappearing, but then she wasn't sure if she'd been spotted or not, and while she was wondering whether or not that mattered as far as disappearing went, she realized she recognized Karla from some resistance meeting or other.

"It's overrated, you know," she said. "Dying, I mean."

So if Karla hadn't noticed her before she probably did now.

[poison_pretty]

Karla started, yes. Picking up psychic scents didn't quite work the same way with Anna. She whirled around, ready to fight, until she recognized the other female. The ghost girl from the dorms, yes.

At her commentary, Karla had to offer a slightly sardonic smile. "Even I'm not that melodramatic," she said. "Of course, I was raised to expect people to die for me, not the other way around." She wrinkled her nose. "And for better reasons than that."

She moved closer and sat on a rock across from Anna's. "I'd apologize if singing that was tactless in front of you, except, believe me, it wasn't by choice."

[hurricaneanna]

"I know," Anna said. "There's been a lot of that going around today." She gave Karla a wry sort of half-smile and explained, "I see a lot more people than see me."

[poison_pretty]

Which made Anna incredibly useful--well, that and the volcano of power Karla could sense within her, when she focused. If, you know, Karla could get a bead on just where Anna's loyalties lay. As far as she could tell, the ghost was one of the few who were entirely neutral. Which was better than being on the Pink Side, at least.

"No singing for you?" she asked. "Does Fandom whimsy not affect you?"

She wasn't going to dance around Anna's 'condition.' The other girl was dead and knew it. No reason to try and play delicate.

[archparakeet]

Radio read and his class finished for the day, Warren needed to breathe.

No, he needed to fly. Which was almost the same thing, even though the wind didn't slip between his feathers the way that it used to. There wasn't that old, familiar rustle of down against down. Instead, there was just that oddly cold, hollow noise that came from steel sliding against steel, of razorblade windchimes slicing neatly through the wind.

And music.

"Without you, the breeze warms, the girl smiles, the cloud moves.
Without you, the tides change, the boys run, the oceans crash.
The crowds roar, the days soar, the babies cry, without you.
The moon glows, the river flows, but I die, without you."

There was nobody around. Nobody to hear as his voice carried away on the wind. He had to watch himself down on the ground, but, even if he had nothing else in the world, up in the sky with nobody aiming to blow him out of the air, he was in charge.

[poison_pretty]

"The world revives...Colors renew..."

Oh look! Fandom had apparently decided that it was time for another verse! Karla was just going to sing while looking Very Put Upon. Because singing against her will was stupid. And singing this...soppy, wistful love song was even worse.

There would be no dying. There would be no pining. She was better than that, thank you.

[archparakeet]

"But I know blue, only blue, lonely blue, within me blue..."

Warren wrinkled his nose at that line. For several reasons, really. For one thing, that verse seemed to have come out of nowhere, stealing itself from his lips with very little leading into it, as though he was only singing half a song.

For another? Well, the other part was kind of obvious, perhaps.

He wheeled around overhead, directing himself toward Selkie Cove. Another place that was quiet. Another place where he could stop and think undisturbed, while trying to stop all of this incessant singing.

"Without you..."

[poison_pretty]

Karla was almost expecting it, by the time Warren's voice came to her ears. Of course they were winging a duet. Of course they were. Her shoulders hunched against her will as his tenor reached her ears and she tried not to think of the duet they'd been singing last time the island was playing tricks. There was no reason to, after all. That was then and this was now and neither of them were the same person they'd been before.

Quite literally, for one of them.

"Without you, the hand gropes, the ear hears, the pulse beats." She turned around while singing it, looking up to meet his eyes. Let him be the one to turn away, to hide. Karla wasn't afraid to face him, ridiculous song or not.

[broken_empath]

As luck would have it, Raven was seeking solace as well, away from detention and the school and everyone else so she could try to focus and stop the battle in her head. And, well, to be alone in case she started singing again so no one else could hear her saying things she'd rather not.

Such as:

Now I will tell you what I've done for you -
Fifty thousand tears I've cried.
Screaming, deceiving and bleeding for you -
And you still won't hear me.
Going under
Don't want your hand this time - I'll save myself.
Maybe I'll wake up for once
Not tormented daily defeated by you
Just when I thought I'd reached the bottom

I'm dying again

I'm going under
Drowning in you
I'm falling forever
I've got to break through
I'm going under

Blurring and stirring - the truth and the lies.
So I don't know what's real and what's not
Always confusing the thoughts in my head
So I can't trust myself anymore

I'm dying again

A familiar emotional signature broke her from the song, and she smiled sharply. Oh, this would cheer her up. "Karlaaaaaaaaaa."

[poison_pretty]

"Kiss kiss." Karla smiled to see her old friend, but it wasn't a nice smile. There was pity in it, and sadness, but also a cold, sharp-edged malice. This wasn't the girl she'd known, however briefly. This was a puppet that wore pink clothes and the other girl's face. "Someone let the pretty songbird out of her pink cage?"

[broken_empath]

"I can go wherever I wish," Raven said, choosing to ignore the songbird comment, preferring to believe that Karla hadn't heard her singing at all. She also tried to ignore the pity. She'd had enough of that today.

"I am free. Unlike you, who has to skulk in the shadows. Or your friends in detention. Is there anyone to whom I should give your greetings? Dinah? Sookie?"

[poison_pretty]

"Only a bird that's forgotten her freedom sees nothing amiss with bars," Karla chided, breezing past Raven's offer. She'd rather her friends had the kindness of being ignored by the empath, not deliberately sought out. "So, carrion-eater, what brings you by? Tired of picking at the people discarded by your betters?"