seas_open | [Closed - Caden, Coop, Les & Robert]

Whatever is responsible for this, April doesn't notice when it happens.

She and Caden have been back in town for a few days now and she knows he'll need to go back again in the next little while, but she plans on staying here. Not because she hadn't enjoyed her time in California, but given how much she's banked on Coop's generosity when it comes to her job -- the first legitimate job she's ever had and currently her only source of income -- she really thinks it's a good idea she stay and actually work a little.

She's unpacked, she's settled back in her apartment, and she spends a few days just settling back into town. It's a strange thing to feel, settled in any way, but she does. And she isn't entirely sure what she thinks of it, whether she likes it or hates it, but she's allowing herself to exist in this state, to give it a chance instead of rebuffing it as soon as she feels something out of the ordinary.

Whenever she uses her powers in Siren Cove, she does it almost without thinking. There are times she uses them to get what she wants, times when she's irritated and makes someone do something for her, but none of it is truly harmful in any way. Though it seems someone disagrees.

She's in a coffee shop, she's in a hurry, and she needs to get to the front of the line quickly, so she taps the guy in front of her on the shoulder, gives him a smile and asks him in a gentle, melodic voice if he'd mind letting her go ahead of him. In response he only rolls his eyes and turns away from her.

For the rest of the day she tries it on everyone she meets. She asks people easy favours, she suggests things for them to do, and while some people help her just out of the kindness of their heart, most just ignore her suggestions, and that's never happened to her before. She has never met anyone immune to her powers.

By the end of the day she's so furious she's trembling and she stands near the boardwalk, unsure of what to do or where to go. She needs to see Caden, she needs to tell him something is wrong, but she needs to see her father, too. Maybe he'll be able to track down whoever is responsible for this.

Staring out at the ocean, her jaw clenched tight enough to hurt, April finds the only thing she wants to do is scream.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Robert liked to think that he had a special connection with his children. It was entirely possible that most of it was based on their pure hatred of him but all the same there was a connection. What brought him to April today though was just dumb luck. He just happened to see her at the boardwalk and the rage in her is almost palpable.

It immediately upset him that someone had done something to his daughter to make her feel like that. He knew that the person who had hurt her the most was himself but the nice thing about having few morals is you could pick and choose which ones you wanted to listen to.

When he got closer he noticed that something was wrong. Something seemed very... off about her.

"April?" he called out. "April, what's the matter."

"My powers are gone," she says, her voice flat. There are other people on the boardwalk, humans and witches and probably other sirens, but she doesn't care who hears her at this point. If the entire world ends up finding out she's a siren, she doesn't care, as long as she gets her powers back.

"I can't do any of what I'm supposed to be able to do," she tells him. She hasn't tried to change form, but she already feels it. She already knows it won't work. "Someone did something to me."

That was not good. The ability to take a Siren's song, or whatever it was that you wanted to call a Siren's abilities, was big time magic. Anywhere outside of Siren Cove that would limit the number of people that could do that. Here though? Here there were lots of people who could do it or had connections to people that could.

"You made someone very, very angry," Robert said. It was probably no surprise to April. It was the nature of who they were and what they did. But someone had taken his daughter's song and that was not alright. "But I promise we'll get it back, April."

Tentatively he reached out t place a hand on her shoulder before he thought better of it. He wasn't entirely sure it would be welcome.

"I make a lot of people very, very angry," she answers. "It's sort of what I do." It's not exactly her job description, but she knows part of what she does when she cons men with a lot of money is piss them off once she's gone. The men, their families, their wives. She does her best to avoid men with children so they never have to bear the brunt of her damage, but she's under no illusions about what she does.

"But I haven't done a job in over a year," she says. "It has to be older than that if it's revenge for a job." And the number of people she's conned is countless, a long list she won't ever remember all the names on.

"I'll look through what information I have about your past work and see if anyone sticks out," Robert said. He maybe be a controlling asshole but apparently that might come in handy this time. There might be clues in some of the tabs he'd kept on her as to who might have done this to her. Even then, it might not be for a job, he was sure that April could upset people even without work being involved.

"When did you notice your powers missing? When was the last time you used them?"

The fact that he knows so much about her work should piss her off and there's still a little corner of her mind that flickers with irritation. It's something she's going to remember, something she might use against him later, but for the moment she realizes she doesn't really have many options and she doesn't have a lot of help. Robert already knows who she is and what she does, none of this is going to be a surprise to him.

None of this is going to be a disappointment to him.

"Yesterday," she says. "I use them all the time for little things. I got a free coffee yesterday afternoon." With someone else she might be worried they'll judge her for that use of her power and she's sure Lara wouldn't particularly like it, but she doesn't think her father will care one way or the other.

"Do you remember coming in contact with anyone or anything that seemed unusual?"

Cons, by nature, were incredibly observant people. That's how they plied their trade and how they stayed one step ahead of everyone else. It was unlikely that someone just shouted down a curse on April in the middle of the street but there might have been something she had noticed.

"And I know you might not like the idea but you need to consult an expert on magic. Spells always leave traces, someone might be able to backtrack it to the source."

She's usually very watchful, keeping a close eye on anything that might appear out of the ordinary, but nothing over the course of the past week or so stands out. She hasn't even been back in Siren Cove for very long and she doesn't imagine anything from California really matters. For someone to have traveled back with them seems a little extreme, but she supposes it's not impossible.

"Les can help," she says, thinking nothing of offering him without even asking first. He'll help her, she's sure he will. "He knows a hell of a lot more bout magic than you might expect."

"I expect he knows a great deal," Robert said, though it was entirely possible Les did know more than he might expect. It wouldn't be the first time Les had surprised him, although it would be nice of it were a pleasant surprise this time. If April was sure he could help though then Robert trusted her judgement.

"I imagine you'd like to keep what's happened to as small a number of people as possible?" he asked. Really though, he doubted anyone would suspect that Robert wanted to return the abilities of a siren if he started asking around who could remove them.

"That's a safe thing to assume," she agrees. Not that many people even know she's a siren at all and she doesn't want this to be their introduction to the idea. The people she's told are people she thinks she can trust and she wants to keep this information limited to them. "I'll tell Caden and Coop mostly likely. And Les."

But although she doesn't say it, her voice makes it clear she doesn't want it extending any further than that.

"Anyone that I ask will just assume I'm trying to find the way of removing the Siren ability of someone else," Robert reassured her. He's glad that she has people she feels comfortable telling though because he knows how easy it is to keep people away. From what he knows of April it would be especially easy for her to do so. Hopefully it's just not desperation that is making her do that.

For a moment she hesitates and then she says, "Thanks." He doesn't have to help her and she knows their relationship is still strained at times. Most of the time she isn't sure what she wants or expects out of him and she's sure he knows it. Their relationship just doesn't make sense and she isn't sure if there's a way it ever will.

But maybe they can make it work for them somehow anyway.

"You know I'm always happy to help," Robert said. That certainly hadn't always been true but it was now. If that meant that April took advantage of him because of it then so be it. It was the least he could do for her after all these years. If that's what it took for her to be safe, or as safe as she could be, then he was going to do that.

[Closed - Caden, Coop, Les & Robert]

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