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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.]

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"Is it really such a bad thing? Someone who expects you to try?" she asks, looking at Bach with her head tilted slightly. Maybe if she'd had someone like that while she was growing up, she wouldn't be the complete emotional fuck up now that she was an adult.

She doesn't like rules, but the thought that someone is out there looking out for her, wanting the best for her, that's not so bad.

"It is when you know you're going to fail. Everything that isn't connected to music isn't something I do well. But yeah, keep heaping it on." He grimaced. "Expectations being the dirty word here. Doesn't a kid need a village or something? I'm the village fool, so yah, maybe it's bad. Especially because I'm already attached to the little thing. Never get children."

"I don't know if women just get them," she points out with a laugh, but she understands his point and she's doing her damnedest to make sure that never happens to her. Children just aren't her forté.

"Come on, though, I miss your confidence," she says, giving him a nudge with her elbow. "Everything that isn't connected to music isn't something you do well? Fuck that. You can do whatever the hell you want."

"Never get impregnated, missed a word there. I'm going to teach Isaac about condoms as soon as .." He searched for a fixed point. "I don't know. When he's ten years old? Discovers what he can do? Parents are half ignoring, half obsessed by the subject, I still have to find someone sane when it comes to sex education."

Bach blew her a kiss. "You can be the confidence of this entire sad sibling gathering, keeping the bastard Flynn spine straight through whatever will happen. You'll look the best at it anyway."

"Forget what Lara is saying to you," she says. "The beauty of what we are is that we can do anything we want and no one will even know it." She doesn't use her powers often, but when she does, she does it without leaving the slightest indication that someone might be doing something they don't want to do.

"I'm not going to buy it for a second that you can't do the same things I can," she says, then grins at him. "You'd be great at it."

"Look hot while ruling the world the way I see it fit?"

He licks his teeth before answering: "I've been doing that for a while, tightly on my mother's leash but still having enough fun to forget everything else. And if I'd find -" No, Bach wasn't sure about that yet.
"The only reason why I didn't pick that up after discovering about Isaac's existence, I would still be doing it because fuck, why can we sing if we don't use it? But he needs to know that there's more than a singing voice as well. More than the eyes and the touch and everything. Maybe he's going to hate me for it." He shoots her a crooked grin. "We can make it the start of a family tradition and egg Robert's yacht some time."

April still doesn't understand. Being a siren is what has given her everything, it's the thing that's opened up the entire world to her, all the experiences, all the things she's done. Her childhood had been a disaster and she used what she can do to protect herself, protect others, and then give herself everything she thinks she deserves.

But if that's not what Bach wants to do, she can't very well force him.

"Hey, I like that yacht," she says with a laugh. "You might be on your own there."

"That's how it is and how it shall always be, spring fling."

He chuckles. "Hereby that's going to be the obnoxiously stupid nickname I'm going to use for you. As my right as very probable oldest sibling and only cock in the hen house. You get one chance to ask for another one, but it might be worse."

"How old are you?" April asks, wondering if her other sister is older. Not that it would matter much, she hasn't seen her sister since they were children, but it might be funny just to let Bach know there's another, older sibling out there somewhere.

"But, oh, let's go for a new one. I'd like to see what you can come up with," she says, looking amused.

"Thirty. My mother shaved a few years off to make my talent more amazing. How many clueless people thought that I must have looked super big for a five year old .." He grimaced. "Their fault, right? To be too believing, too trusting of their own eyes."

"Fuck." Bach gave her a thorough look. "Goldilocks, of course. Can take on loads of bears while still looking like the virgin Mary. Or am I kicking up the wrong fairy tales now?"

"Hm," April says, then smiles in amusement. "You're not the oldest. My sister, another one of your half-sisters, she'd be thirty-two now. Not that you'll ever have to meet her, so maybe she doesn't count, but she's out there somewhere."

Living a good life. The kind April knows she'll never have. The kind she doesn't think she'll ever want.

Then she laughs and says, "No, I think that one works."

"Shit, seriously? And she's Robert's as well? How did he ev-" Stupid question, men didn't need any time to dump their sperm anywhere. Bach was going to use condoms for the rest of his life.

"Hey, I should stop greying then."

"Robert and my mother were married for years," April tells him, which she knows Corrine hates, though it doesn't make any sense to her. It's not like him having lived with them makes what he did any more or less shitty. "He lived with us until I was two. Angela was six. I expect she has more memories of him living with us than I do, but I haven't seen her since I was six, so we probably won't be having any family reunions any time soon."

"Fucking hell. Shit. I mean, not for your mom but ..well maybe for your mom, I don't know but -"
Why even go through all of that trouble when still leaving everyone in the end? Or did this simply spoke volumes about Bach and her womb trap?
"Guess we're really good at the sibling thing. Why not, for such a long time?"

"We were split up in foster care," April says with a shrug. "Last I heard she got adopted. I didn't. Finding her never seemed like the sort of thing either of us would want."

She wonders, though, if her sister knows what she is. If she's ever used it. She wonders what she's done with her life. Not enough to go looking, but every now and then April thinks about her.

"They split up siblings?" And Bach thought he had had it awfully with his biological mother around. "That's rough. But you don't miss her, don't eh.. You're not much of the family feelings, are you? Easier not to have a connection with anyone.."

April shrugs and says, "They must some of the time. They split us up." She has no idea why or if it's very common, but it had happened to the two of them. She wonders if things would have been different, if she would be different if they had stayed together, but it's really not worth dwelling on.

"Family, I've learned, abandons you, prefers getting high to raising you and fucks your boyfriend," she says with a laugh. "So, yes, I prefer staying out of it if I can help it."

"I'm sure the boyfriend part won't happen with us, you definitely don't fall for my type. Or maybe you do, but I don't for yours. And that breaking up thing.." Isn't right, but what is right in this world?

"Anyway. You're doing fine?"

"Wonderful, as always," she answers, her voice breezy. For once, it's relatively close to the truth. She and Les seems to be mending their bridges and while she's not sure the same will ever be true of her relationship with Corrine, she hasn't completely ruled it out. She and Caden are doing well, she hasn't run from him yet or fucked it up entirely.

She also hasn't worked in six months and she doesn't know how to tell him what she does for a living, but that will come in time.

"Making this place work for me anyway," she says. "For the time being."

"You almost make me believe life could be better." He nods. "Good enough, let's keep the pretense up that not all of the Flynn bastards are absolute fuckwads." Bach points at himself. "I know you're not going to take offense, but even if - I will carry the majority of fuckwad being, no questions asked."

"You just have to keep it a secret when you're being a fuckwad," April says, still smiling sweetly. "That way nobody finds out and you continue on looking just as good as you always have."

Which, in her case, has always been relatively good. But she lies a lot.

"Teach me your ways, princess. Or just take me away from here, the people outside Siren Cove never seem to take so much offense of anything I do. Or just like to listen to me better."

It's shit to ask, but Bach's going to do it anyway. "Can I come find you if I ..need to?"

She's surprised by the request, but she tries not to show it as she nods. "Yeah," she says. "Of course." Not because they're family, but because she cares about Bach. She likes him. Whatever else they are, it's secondary to that.

"I mean, I'm not always the most supportive, compassionate person, so if you're looking for hand holding, I might not be your best bet," she adds with a smile. "But I can kick your ass into shape if that's what you need."

"I can get a hug every night, every week from a grown up. I'm not going to need the soft stuff from the chick that can send people to war by smiling sweetly."

"Things are just so without ..a light at the end of the tunnel? I'm stuck in the fucking chorus, some ass kicking might prevent me from moping too much. And my favorite ass kicker is softly in love, she would lift a finger at me." Bach reconsidered. "Except for her middle one if she'd ever hear me say she was in love."

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