[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

[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.

[seas_open]

"At least if you know how to track the burning buildings, you know where the firefighters are," April points out, but the truth is that she doesn't read much in the paper one way or the other. Siren Cove might have a good chunk of her family and she might actually like some of the people in it, but she still treats this place as nothing more than a temporary home. It's a place to stay for a little while.

"Have you lived here all your life?" she asks curiously.

[trinamoon]

"Aside from a brief stint in Boston for college. Unfortunately," she says with a smile, adjusting the strap of her purse over her shoulder. She gives April a look. "People seem to get stuck here. Even me," she admits then gives April a gesture. "So how did you get to Siren Cove? Made a wrong a turn?"

Even though she knows that April is related to several of the Flynn family.

[seas_open]

"More or less," April says, her voice dry before she gives a laugh and a shrug. "Apparently half my family I didn't even know existed lives here, so there has to be something at work."

Then she smiles and tilts her head. "But I have a feeling you already knew that, didn't you?"

[trinamoon]

She can't help but chuckle at that, caught in her true intentions for stopping April to chat. She shrugs a little but it's with a genuine smile playing across her lips. "Well...you might be newer to town, but you manage to account for a huge number of my page clicks," she tells her, not exactly apologetic, but then she views her work in a practical sense. It's her job.

"Between your father and that mess with Corrine and now you're dating a New York Times bestselling author, I have to admit I know a lot about you," she says. "But really, most importantly, I thought all your fashion choices last year were impeccable."

[seas_open]

"Well, thank you. I do like to be noticed," April answers with a grin and she's really not at all bothered by the idea that there are people in this town interested in her ridiculous family drama. She's here under her real name, none of her aliases should follow her to Siren Cove, and as long as she's not being investigated for illegal activity and her money is safe, she doesn't care what people want to read or say about her.

"It is all really over the top dramatic, isn't it?" she asks, looking more amused than anything. "I guess if that's what people want to read..."

[trinamoon]

"Well, you gotta admit that whole thing with Leslie Parker and Will Cabot was practically made for trashy supermarket covers. Sisters into the same fellow?" She is grinning too because she can. She had held Will Cabot in her arms and been there for him after Corrine Flynn broke his heart, she can comment if she likes.

"Little old ladies were all in a tizzy," she says but then looks at April happy to hear that April doesn't mind. She liked that. "It's best to be in the headlines than not, I think. Especially in this town. If you can standout in Siren Cove, you're really nobody."

"And everyone secretly wants to be noticed..."

[seas_open]

"Really should've fucked Will when I had the chance," she says with a sigh, though she's mostly joking. "Wouldn't that have made the whole thing just a little bit more interesting?"

And she's an awful person, but she has to admit she kind of likes the idea of having had both Corrine's men before her. It's petty, it's terrible, but April has never claimed to be anything else.

[trinamoon]

For a moment, surprises passes over Trina's face before she can school it back into amusement. She didn't know that Will knew April; he never mentioned it to her. Trina isn't jealous---she isn't the type---but if she'd known, she totally would've tipped of The Cove for them to work that angle into the story. Hey, there is always time for a special report.

"I love it," Trina admits shaking her head. This small little town had enough gossip to feed an entire city of millions she thought. "Keeps me entertained." Which was good. She didn't put nearly as much energy into her own romantic entanglements as she did other people's.

"So you and that author fellow? Caden," she says. "Is that legit? Or is that just...for fun?" April had moved on kind of quickly from what she saw. Not that Leslie Parker was anything special to not get over kind of quickly.

[seas_open]

"Can't it be both?" April asks, looking amused, though she knows that isn't really a fair response. Not to Caden. She does like him, she likes being around him and spending time with him, but she's had so many years of so many bad things happening that the idea of settling into a relationship with anyone is daunting. Having to define it to herself is difficult enough, but having to define it to someone else is beyond what she can hope for at the moment.

"We're seeing where things take us," she says. "We both got dumped by Les, after all."

That rumour had definitely been in the paper, too, but she doesn't know how many people believed it. And here she is, admitting it was true, that the three of them had been together in a way.

[trinamoon]

"Mm," Trina hums musing over April's confirmation of that little triangle. It was all very twisted. Literally twisted. That relationship map would look like a spider's web. "Yes. That was one misstep you made last year. I'll admit." Not that Trina cared much about Caden one way or the other. But at least he had talent and money. She didn't know what Leslie Parker had besides a bad reputation.

"But eventually every girl remembers she needs a new pair of shoes," she says with a smile. She has decided she likes April, and it may be that she likes April just because she is sure they both agree that Corrine they could take or leave. For different reasons obviously. But still.

[seas_open]

Her own feelings over what happened with Les are still incredibly conflicted. She wants to be angry with him, but the reality is that she cared for him -- cares for him still -- more than she's cared for anyone in a long time. It isn't as though she expected some happily ever after, because that's just not something she believes it, but she had thought, for a little while, that he might be one who would stay.

It hurts to be wrong about that. It even stings a little to have anyone think of him as a misstep. But she isn't about to let that show, not when it's possible Trina might be a good ally to have in the future.

"Well, you know, sometimes slumming it pays off," she says. "Strictly in the bedroom, granted, but a girl's gotta have some fun, right?"

[trinamoon]

"Even still," Trina says arching an eyebrow with a smirk. Leslie Parker? Still didn't seem worth it to Trina. Not when a beautiful woman like April, sophisticated and sexy, could get anybody she wanted. Why slum it, as she said. Trina didn't get it, but it hardly matters now. April came to her senses. "But Caden seems a good choice. I heard about his movie. That's not bad. Maybe you can talk him into letting me do some press."

She snaps open the gold card holder from her bag and holds out her card. "You seem like the type who may need a reporter on your speed dial," she says smiling. "Or we can just go shoe shopping."

[seas_open]

She's used to this, people offering their cards, their time, their interest, but she's used to it from men and they're usually after her instead of her boyfriend. Still, this is fun in itself, and she takes the card with a smile. "I'll pass it along to Caden. See if I can't get you a scoop or two."

Maybe he'll be willing to do an interview with Trina and maybe that will garner April some kind of favour in return. She likes it when people owe her.

[trinamoon]

"Fabulous," Trina says with a nod and a smile. She doesn't have a lot of friends, and she's not thinking April will be one. However, she does like the idea of making an alliance with her. She needs as many of those as she can get. "Well, I must be off," she says checking the time on her smartphone. "Work awaits as always. By the way, I'm running Will Cabot's mayor campaign. I'd love to see you and Caden at our next fundraiser."

She tosses her phone back in her purse and smiles as she starts to move along. "I'm glad we talked," she says in lieu of a proper goodbye.