[open]

[seas_open]

It's so easy when it comes to using her powers.

While it's been months since she's done any sort of con and while she has nothing particular on the horizon, it feels strange not to be stretching her wings, so to speak, at least once in awhile. This is what she is, it's part of her very makeup, and there's nothing about being a siren that April has ever felt the need to apologize for. Anyone who has an issue with it can take it up with her, though the truth is she's just as likely to laugh in their face as she is to listen to any concerns they may have.

This is the way she'd been born and no one had been there to teach her how to use her powers. She had discovered them on her own and she knows she's lucky that she figured out how to use them. Surviving the foster care system might not have turned out quite so easy if she'd been without and while she hadn't been able to save every single exploited kid she'd come across, being able to do the things she can do had certainly helped here and there. It's not something she talks about with anyone, the things she'd seen across the various home she'd been placed in, the way some of the foster parents had treated the kids in their care, the abuse of all kinds. She keeps it to herself, but she hasn't forgotten any of it.

Children unsettle her. She never knows what to do about them and she's always been certain she doesn't want any of her own, but she's also never been able to stand a bully. When she sees the little boy being picked on, it's easy enough to send out little pieces of her power that carry with them the influence she usually only holds over the men whose money she's trying to steal. This time, though, she sends them to the much bigger boy picking on the little one and it's only a few seconds before he's turning away, before he starts to walk, then picks up speed, and runs straight into a lamp post.

It's not enough to cause any lasting damage, but it's enough to hurt and she doesn't feel the slightest bit guilty about it. Especially not when the little boy's tears seem to dry up all at once and he stares at his bully for a moment before the bigger boy runs away.

With a grin, she turns away from the scene and continues her afternoon walk down the boardwalk.

[Find April anywhere on the boardwalk. Feel free to have seen as much or as little of the scene with the bullying boy as you like.]

Comments

[trinamoon]

Trina witnesses what happens from several feet away. She isn't aware that April is the one that causes the child to cry, but she does catch the smirk on her face. Children are dirty and unpredictable so she doesn't blame her. April though is something of a common figure in the recent issues of The Cove, and Trina recognizes her straightaway.

"Nice shoes," Trina says when April is close enough to hear her.

[seas_open]

April knows who she is. They've never spoken before and she doesn't know much more about her than her name and what she does for a living, but she does know who she is. April makes it her business to know who people are in this town.

"Thank you," she says with a smile. It couldn't hurt her to make friends with someone in charge of The Cove. "I got them on a great sale last week."

[trinamoon]

"Oh really?" Trina smiles at that. "This town has no good stores. I usually head into the city when I'm looking for something worth buying." April is very beautiful and dressed well which Trina finds pleasing, not threatening as some might expect, given her personality.

[seas_open]

"There's one or two that might surprise you sometimes," she says with a grin. "But I've usually stuck with heading into the city as well."

Her gaze flicks over Trina and she smiles again. "You work for The Cove, right?"

[trinamoon]

Trina's smile widens. Her ego feeds off people recognizing her, especially for her work because she lives for her work. "Not really. I'm the society editor at The Daily Siren actually," she says, leaving out the part where she feeds The Cove stories all the time. How else would they get all that gossip if they didn't have insiders?

[seas_open]

"Even better," April says, simply because she's not sure how many people would love someone who's associated with The Cove. Working for another paper probably helps Trina in a lot of ways and it's an interesting job. Not one April has ever had to pretend to do, oddly enough, given all the different things she's done.

"What does a society editor do, exactly?" she asks.

[trinamoon]

"You may have noticed the abundance of rich families around this place, I happen to have the pleasure of writing about their fancy parties and what they were wearing to said parties. Who's marrying who. Who's moving up in social circles. It's very important work," she says with an wry smile. She is good at her job, but covering Siren Cove's social scene wasn't exactly her dream job. Trina would probably be attending those same parties even if it wasn't her job, but she still always imagined herself meant for something....bigger than this weird little town.

[seas_open]

April laughs at that, thinking of Will and his marriage to her Corrine. Trina probably wrote about that. She probably wrote about the divorce before anyone else even knew it was happening. "Well, they are all very important," she says, looking amused. "It's a good thing someone's making sure the rest of us less important people know what the rich folks are doing."

Not that she doesn't have a giant nest egg all her own. That's her little secret, though, and maybe one day she'll tell Caden, but she doesn't want that sort of thing in the paper.

[trinamoon]

"It's a good gig," Trina admits with a smile. Despite her declining infatuation with working for a small town paper like The Daily Siren, there was nothing wrong with having a job that required you to attend a bunch of fancy social engagements. "And the things I write about are more entertaining than reading another boring report on whatever building got burned down this week, don't you agree?" If one were to just read her stuff they might almost think this place is normal.

[writtenby_caden]

Caden is coming to meet April for lunch on the boardwalk, and he's running a bit late. A phone call with his manager ran a little long, and she's kind of impossible to get off of phone once she gets going. Caden is needed in LA soon for a few production meetings on the movie, for which he's officially a producer. It's all sort of surreal, and while it's been in the works for a while, everything seems to be going into production all at once and it's kind of overwhelming.

He's checking his watch and then looks up to see April. She's staring intently at something and smiling to herself, and Caden follows her gaze over to a couple of kids. One is bullying the other, which makes Caden frown, but then the bully seems to get his just desserts. Caden raises an eyebrow when his face connects with the pole, but he seems like the only thing really injured is his pride.

The bully runs right past Caden, and April is watching the other boy and looking entirely too pleased with herself. It isn't hard to guess what happened, and he comes up behind her and bends his knees so that he can hook his chin over her shoulder, turning his head to smirk at her with an amused light in his eyes. "Look at that, April Ross is a big ol' softie."

[seas_open]

"Please. I despise all grubby little children equally," she answers flippantly, but it doesn't bother her so much that Caden has no only caught her in the act, but has figured out exactly what it is she's been doing. If there's anyone she thinks she might one day be able to tell about the things she'd seen growing up, it's him. And he isn't pushing her toward it, which makes it easier still to imagine.

"I didn't do anything but give him a gentle nudge in the wrong direction," she tells him with a little smirk of her own. "He'll get over it."

[writtenby_caden]

"Mmhmm," Caden says skeptically, grinning and kissing her cheek before straightening up. What she did was sweet, in an April sort of way, but Caden doesn't tease her about it too badly. Really, he's more curious about how her powers work, and he makes a mental note to ask her about it later.

"So," he starts, looking a bit excited as he takes her hand, "do you want to have lunch with a hotshot movie producer?"

It's his way of breaking the news, because while he was always going to be a consultant and heavily involved with the film, the producer credit is new. He still isn't sure exactly what a producer does really, but he trusts his manager and he's excited about it.

[seas_open]

"I don't know, is he as good looking as you?" she shoots back with a grin, but her smile grows following her teasing statement and she takes a step back to look at Caden for a moment. "You look the same, you know. I figured Hollywood fame might change you, but you haven't changed a bit."

She isn't entirely sure what it means to be a movie producer, but he looks like he's excited about it and that's really all April cares about. If Caden's happy with whatever role they're offering him, then she's happy for him.

"So when did this happen?" she asks, falling into step beside him again. "Just today?"

[writtenby_caden]

"Well, you know. Give it time. I'm sure I'll become a raging dick in no time." He laughs and reaches down to take her hand, threading their fingers together as they walk. "Yeah, actually. I was always on board as a consultant, because I wanted to have a big say in how they treated my book, but now I'm officially a producer. I don't think much changes other than the fancy title, really."

They arrive at one of the nicer restaurants on the boardwalk, some fancy seafood place, and Caden asks for a table on the water. They're seated quickly and Caden glances at the cocktail menu, looking over the top of it at April. "Do you want to come see the set with with me? Could be fun."

[seas_open]

"Where is it?" she asks in return, because her immediate response is that she'd very much like to come. The idea of just getting away for awhile, going somewhere with Caden, it's appealing.

But there are still two warrants out for her arrest in two different states and she needs to be careful about that. She can't just go wherever she wants, no matter how badly she might want to, and she hopes it's somewhere other than Arizona or Alabama. They don't seem like film states, but she can never be quite sure.

[writtenby_caden]

"Los Angeles, actually. It's set in New Orleans, but I guess that's why they call it movie magic." He laughs a little and smiles up at the waitress, asking for some oysters to start them off with, and then a little more time with the menu. April seems into the idea, and that makes Caden smile. He'd love to have her there with him. "So, are you in? A buddy of mine has a place in Malibu he said I could use."

[seas_open]

California is safe, though only recently and only thanks to Robert, which she doesn't say. Instead she only nods and smiles. "That sounds pretty amazing, actually. I haven't spent much time in California."

And that much is true. She's not prepared yet to tell him the reasons why, but she's getting closer. She hasn't taken a job in months now, hasn't even looked, and that's something unusual, too.

[bachjones]

"You went soft on him."

Bach only caught the last of the attack, something crashing into the boy's song like adding an electric guitar to a classical symphony. Not that he minded, he trusted April to not do the unnecessary when it came to kids. Hell, the times he wanted to dump children that even dared to look at Isaac the wrong way ..he was right up there with giving the small ones a little bit of help.

Of course, if Isaac would have been around he would have told him about how we don't sing for such things, but he was just dropped off at a friends' place (his, not Bach's. Bach was so pleased). Bach was completely free.

[seas_open]

"Probably, but I'd have a lot of explaining to do if he broke his jaw," she answers, grinning over at Bach with her eyebrow arched. In general she'd never been too pleased to learn about all this family she apparently had scattered across the country, but Bach in particular had been a blow.

But now she feels a little bit like she's adjusted. Now it seems like Bach might be the only one she doesn't really mind being related to.

"Not that anything I do will teach him a lesson," she adds.

[bachjones]

"I would have gone with something more mental to make him worry about a fright at every corner but .. Probably because I don't want to risk hurting my hands. Still the breadwinners of the family. Hi, April."

Maybe one day he'd stop noticing how incredibly beautiful this woman was. "Were you protecting a friend I'd just turning into a regular superhero?"

[seas_open]

"Hi," she says with a laugh, then shrugs at his question and tries not to let it show how it resonates with her. She's far from a superhero, she's far from any kind of hero, but she just can't deal with a bully. There's been too much of that in other places in her life and she doesn't want to tell Bach about being in foster care or what it was like. There are lines she still has, ones she's unable to cross. It's still hard to talk to people, even if they are family.

"I just don't like little asshole kids," she says. "You know those ones who have clearly never once had anyone tell them no? I hate seeing that shit."

[bachjones]

"World's full of it. My mother might have created a monster, but at least she still told me about boundaries. All that be your kid's friend bullshit and to let them roam free bla bla, not in my book. Kids don't have a clue about thinking ahead, that's why a parent needs to be the guide line."

He rolls his eyes. "This is me listening in at kindie. Don't even want to know how much worse it's going to be when we move to a real school."

[seas_open]

"Hey, at least you're listening," she says with a laugh and a roll of one shoulder. "I'm willing to bet that's a fair sight better than what a lot of parents do."

She should ask about Isaac, she thinks, but the thought of Bach with a child is still a strange one to her, and she isn't even sure why. Maybe it's just the idea of someone she's related to having a kid that does it, but there's just something about it that makes her want to back off a little. Like if she acts too interested, she'll be expected to have one next.

[bachjones]

"To other parents? So much. Although the ones that act like they know everything bug the fuck out of me. you're working around something tiny that needs to learn everything about anything, while getting to know its own body and mind and you think you're like this God because you pushed it o- oh fuck, I can only talk children. Save me, April."

He scrambles for another subject. "You still unsure if you're going to root yourself in this soil?"

[seas_open]

"I'm always unsure about rooting myself anywhere," she answers with a laugh, though she's closer to staying here than she's ever been anywhere else. She's had cons that have taken her long than this, but she isn't working anything illegal here. Her only job is with Coop and it's a legitimate salary instead of skimming money off the top. She would never be able to steal from him.

"What? Is this place really home for you?"