[MINGLE] PLOT: Siren's Call

[sixthiteration]

WHERE: Anywhere
WHEN: August 25-26
OPEN TO: ALL - MINGLE
WARNINGS: Mental manipulation, drowning, death
NOTES: Details here. This post is for EVERYONE, not just the affected. Please make sure and note if your thread is locked for plot purposes.

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It began slowly.

A wisp of song or familiar sound on the breeze swept in from the lake. No source to be found, only the uneasy feeling it had been heard before as it coiled itself steadily inside the minds of the chosen. The sound was a mantra, pulsing soft at first and then louder, growing over days until it seemed to fill the skull, relentless. Come here, the lake whispered, cajoled, shouted. It is cool and quiet beneath the waves.

Come here, it presses now in time with the melody until there is nothing but to blindly follow. The water is calling.

Comments

[morphogenia]

She looks visibly relieved she doesn't have to explain that. Kamala would be oblivious to the fact literally anyone can figure out within ten seconds of seeing her that she unapologetically enjoys being alive. "Okay good because this is really out of character for me. I don't actually have a dark side. I have a 'She can be kind of a selfish, ungrateful brat' side and that's about it." She wraps her arms around herself and starts to relax a little. She can avoid water especially if Jessica is around to make her stick to that.

[underachievement]

Under normal circumstances, Jess would take the time to agree-slash-disagree, in that Kamala comes off to her as a reformed brat, who's weaponized that selfish energy to be aggressively beneficent. As long as she's known her, Kamala's primary concern has always been others, even when it was between the silent community in need and the family to whom she may not return. But Jess doesn't really know her that well. Kamala's own take on herself is harsh but it's not Jess's place to decide it's inaccurate. Right now, she's just gotta keep the kid alive and dry.

"Think about what you like about life." The multiverse's biggest ever Do as I say, Not as I do lesson is now being taught. When Jess used to try this trick, it was a much shorter list, but Kamala should have an easier time with it, and Jess just wants to keep her mind distracted. Keyed up, she's still keeping an eye out for a threat she can't see coming. "Ten things. Say them out loud."

[morphogenia]

The answer is as true as it isn't. It's impossible not to grow up when you're desperate to save kids your own age, facing off supervillains, and then the entirety of her time in Reims. She still thinks of herself as the kid who cried about being weird before she ever got powers, sassed her mom for giving her reasonable boundaries and protections as a growing girl, and forgot to keep up with her friends while trying to save other kids their age. Is she still that person? Who even knows at this point? That person wasn't even that bad to begin with, but she's her own harshest critic just like everyone else.

"Okay." It unsurprisingly doesn't take her long to come up with a list. She really does love life even if she's not where she should be from her perspective. "My family, my friends, superheroes, stories, dogs, hiking, the sun, lunch with Frank, cute animals which is totally different from dogs, and writing."

[underachievement]

"I thought that would take longer," Jess says with a weak chuckle. Superheroes. Not at all surprising except for its priority in the list, if Jess wanted to read into that. She's not going to. Sort of antithetical to what she's trying to accomplish here, getting Kamala to pry anywhere but the seams of her sanity.

"Does cute animals include that yummy-looking green thing?" That oughta rile her up.

[morphogenia]

"I'm actually a big fan of life. Everything is awesome even when it's not." Kamala admits without skipping a beat. Why else would she be so freaked out? She's in this to win this. Even in Reims she somehow found a way to appreciate things while being scared. That's not on her mind right now. What is on her mind is the idea of thinking that a valued member of the family looks yummy.

Kamala gets predictably flustered. It soon switches to indignation at the suggestion. "Jessica! Don't say she's yummy! She is a super sweet and charming girl who we are definitely not going to eat!!!"

[underachievement]

No kidding. She's not bullshitting herself either. What a life she must have back home, that it gives her the strength to thrive here. It kicks up the instinct in her to make sure Kamala returns in no worse shape than she left. Maybe she could sense that and that's what made her safe to seek out. But odds are she was just the first grown-up she ran into.

"Not right now. But in winter, after everything stops growing and we're living on two month old potatoes, who knows." She poses it so casually.

[morphogenia]

The truth is she still associates Jessica with an adult who will stand up for them even when it's terrifying and thankless job. Whether she's right or wrong almost doesn't matter. Kamala plows ahead until she's proven otherwise. You wouldn't get unconditional faith in an adult figure from the way she narrows her eyes at the other woman. "It sounds to me like you're the one who is thinking about it. You better not be plotting to eat our animal friend, Jessica! Frank may be a pushover, but even he draws the line at cute animals!"

[underachievement]

They pass by the path that exits off to Haymitch's house, leaving one domicile in the distance to be Castle Casa Jones. Jess's paranoia is starting to subside, with her not sneaking a glance at their six every other minute.

Frank draws a line at cute animals all right. He draws it all around them in a circle with himself inside. Not for the first time, Jess wonders if Kamala is aware of his identity back home and concludes that she can't be, sparing the Punisher a gale force yelling. Kamala's assessment is on point regardless: He is a pushover.

"So he already named it and gave it its own room."

[morphogenia]

"He named her Whitney and built her a place to sleep." Kamala confirms. She's obviously on board with all this. She cries every Eid over her father having to slaughter a goat. She's thrilled they can keep an animal and love it until it dies of very natural causes!!! She glances ahead at the home she can only assume is Jessica's. She tries not to look too thrilled because Jessica's house!! So exciting. She never saw it in Reims. "You really know him." Kamala tacks in. She gets the impression everyone else still thinks he's tough for some reason. Probably the muscles.

[underachievement]

She scoffs. Aretha and Whitney. Cute. Good to know there's a hutch she can crash in the next time she's shitwrecked in the middle of town.

"Unfortunately." She checks over her shoulder one last time but no one is in pursuit of them. The road feels more barren than usual, though she knows it as a lonesome road.

[morphogenia]

"If you say so. I like how totally ridiculous he is obviously." Sure moving in with him was a lot about hiding from another kidnapping scenario. Frank is the ultimate crutch for a terrified child. Time proved they actually make really good roommates even if one clearly does more than the other around the house.

It's about now that Kamala realizes just how far out they're going. The question she should have asked a really long time ago springs to mind. "Why do you always live so far away?"

[underachievement]

His total ridiculousness can be selectively endearing, in theory. They haven't spent nearly as much time around each other as they had to in Reims and back there she didn't have the patience to suffer others' levity. She can't remember anything funny ever happening there, or any occasion on which she laughed.

She shrugs to Kamala's question. There's a whole other village full of empty houses, so Jess doesn't think of herself as living far away. No farther than she lived from Trish when she dazedly walked out of her first abduction and closer than she was to the community in Reims, though not by much. "If someone comes looking for me, there're fewer people around to get caught in the crossfire." Though the utter dearth of sapient life, the deadly silent lack of foot traffic has gotten and low-key stayed on her nerves since night one.

[morphogenia]

"That makes sense." Kamala admits. She should really know better considering what went down. She hugs herself as she wonders if maybe that was insensitive to ask. No one needs a reminder how scary Jessica's villains are. She quickly finds a positive thing to comment on because even while scared out of her mind and wondering about her soul she's good at that. "Especially with your bubble! You'd knock all your neighbors down."