[Closed - Caden, Coop, Les & Robert]

[seas_open]

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.

Comments

[seas_open]

He sounds so sure of it that April can't help but believe him. She may not be entirely convinced Robert can help her, not because he isn't capable but because she doesn't want to owe him anything, but there are others. Coop sounds determined and she knows Les isn't going to just stand by and let something like this happen to her. It's perhaps a little petty, but she feels good about that, knowing Les will help her regardless of her strained relationship with his girlfriend.

And knowing Coop will help, too, means a lot. She looks over at him and shrugs deeply. "With my father, you never really know what he might be willing to do," she says. "He claims he cares and wants to help, but I can't help but think if that were true, I wouldn't have spent my childhood in foster care. I don't trust his help. It feels like it comes with strings attached."

Maybe she's wrong, maybe these are just her issues at play, the lack of trust she has for most people coming back to bite her. But if there's anyone to blame for that, she thinks it might well be Robert. April doesn't like to think of her life like that, as something broken that can be blamed on the bad behaviour of her parents, but there are times when it feels fitting.

[coopdetat]

What she says about her dad isn't unfair, and Coop is sure he'd have a hell of a hard time trusting a guy who would do that to him, too. He wonders if maybe there's a way to turn the tables, find enough leverage to make Robert help, but he realizes that he doesn't even know where to start with doing something like that. He's not a conman, he's never lied to someone for material gain--except for that one time he'd tricked a friend in elementary school into giving him a Star Wars toy, but he'd ended up being forced to give it back--and this isn't the kind of world he's ever been interested in being a part of.

And yet, he's willing to be part of it now. For a friend, for someone he's come to care more deeply about than maybe he'd even realized, Coop really does want to do what needs to be done to make sure April's okay. In a way, he thinks that should be a frightening realization, to understand what lengths he'd go to for someone important to him, but it turns out that it isn't. If anything, it only makes him understand himself better. The kind of man he is, the kind of man he's always intended to be, this is all just a part of that.

"Well, maybe you'll have to figure out a way to con the conman," he says, "and maybe it won't be easy, but that's what people like me and Les and Caden are for, we'll have your back." He shouldn't speak for the others, he knows that, but Coop has to imagine that they'd never walk away from April. He's learning more and more that it's an insanely difficult thing to do.