[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

[living_proof]

You know, I was having a perfectly fine day before all this. I'm not saying it was interesting or exciting, but it was fine. Now, after the last 20 minutes, I just want it to be over.

I plunk myself onto the sand and push the wet hair from my face. "You nearly drowned," I point out, shooting a damp-eyed gaze over to Major. "That isn't funny. I— We just got you back."

[majorlyugh]

"I .. didn't mean for it to be funny," Major mumbles, mostly to himself but loud enough for Liv to hear. "I didn't mean to .. I don't know what happened." He sits next to her, attempting to brush off some of the sand from his back. It's a futile attempt, but he tries anyway, giving up after a handful of brushes. "I .. heard .. something. I heard something, and it brought me .. here. Like .. It was like I was hypnotized. Like you know that scene, in Phantom of the Opera, where he pulls her through the mirror? That's .. That's exactly what it felt like." He looks out to the lake, pointing at it. "Only instead of a mirror, it was that."

He pauses for a moment, opening his mouth to say something, then closing it again, then opening it again before finally revealing:

"Now that you're here, Liv, I .. don't have any plans to leave. I mean, we can't help it, it just happens, but .. even if I did or do leave, you've gotta know it won't be by choice."

[living_proof]

So little about this place has anything to do with what anybody here chooses. This certainly wasn't a choice — No one who ended up in the water today was there because they felt like a swim. But the gesture is still a potent one, still punches me right in my soft spot, and my face crumples a moment before I give in and pull Major into a fierce hug.

I've had way too many people I care about die, and something like this— There's no possibility of predicting it, preventing it. All you can do is react and hope for the best, and I really don't do well with that.

"I love you, okay?" I wrench out. Things are complicated, but that's nothing new between Major and me. You have to be able to tell someone you love them in a moment like this.

[majorlyugh]

Major's entire being softens and relaxes at her touch. She has that way about her, especially when it comes to him. No matter how complicated things got, and they did get complicated, often triple or quadruple complicated, she's always been able to reach him in ways others haven't. She brings out the softest side of him, the good that's still left in him, even after everything he's done. She reminds him of the man he used to be, the man who went with his heart and wanted to do good things to change the world. She reminds him of the man who wanted to marry her and had only been three months away from fulfilling that dream.

Not .. that any of that matters now. Not only because of their being in the village instead of Seattle, but also .. y'know. The boyfriend.

"I love you, too," he replies, voice gentle. He reaches up to smooth the hair on the back of her head. It's a force of habit. It feels weird, as it always does when they're in situations like this, to keep the hug familiar but still so .. distant. "I told you once that Major loved you like no other. None of that's changed. Not for good ol' Major, at least."

[living_proof]

Everything about Major is familiar, the good and the bad, and anybody who's ever found themselves getting back together with an ex can tell you how intoxicating that familiarity can be. In times like this one, where the world's turned all upside down, it's the easiest thing in the world to fall back into it. There's been more than once that Major and I have been guilty of this. Not all of the times we got back together, but definitely some.

I shift back, nose skimming the edge of his jaw, and then hesitate barely inches away, my gaze lifting to his eyes and then dropping instinctively to his lips. He's so close and warm and it would be so easy... No constantly holding myself back, no feeling like he's giving something up by being with me, no waiting for that inevitable other shoe to drop.

My lips part, and I pull in a wavering breath.

Heart lurching in my chest, I tip my glance away to the sand and nudge myself further back, to a safe distance. Life isn't easy. Hasn't been easy for me for a long time, and maybe that's part of the allure. But going for easy? That's not fair to anybody.

[majorlyugh]

Major won't make the first move, if there are any moves to be made. He's unattached, free as the wind. She's the one with the romantic obligations, and he won't be the one to force her to abandon them. The temptation is still there, of course, whether he closes the gap between them or not, but he wills himself to stay put, stay still.

He can feel her breath on his face, he can feel the warmth radiating off of her through the cold of the water still lingering on them.

And when she does what he expects her to do, his gaze flitters to the ground with resigned understanding and agreement. She's done the right thing, he knows that. He does his best to ignore the sinking disappointment that froths in his heart at the distance she's put between them.

Arms back down at his sides, he raises his gaze to scan her face.

"It'd be just like us, wouldn't it? That we'd be both be dragged here, able to be together, and yet .. not be able to be together? We must've pissed off a hell of a lot of people in our past lives or something."

[living_proof]

The way he's phrased that remark is telling — As if it's some kind of cosmic force making this choice for both of us, as if it's beyond either of our control when really it's just beyond his. I have a choice. I made it when I first stumbled across Major in the woods and again now, and knowing the two of us, I'll probably have to make it again. But I made it: I could have broken it off with Bucky and I didn't. Can't, because I love him.

...oh crap.

Yep, didn't really realize that until this moment right here. If you would like to know whether it's painful being a bad romance novel cliche, the answer is yes.

"We've always made it work, even when we were just friends," I point out, because I just don't have the heart to shatter the little illusion he's got going there. Ravi would probably tell me I should, and he'd be right, but... It's Major. I can't explain it any better than that. He falls under a different set of rules.

[majorlyugh]

"Yeah," Major agrees, though the lingering disappointment in his voice is more telling than what he manages to say. The truth of the matter is that, as he is right now and with the memories he still carries around in his head, he'd be at her side at the first hint of her wanting him there. As friends, as more, as something in between. It didn't really matter to him. She'd been too big a part of his life for him to ever be willing to let it go, or not fight for it, if it ever came to that.

But he's also not going to push her to the kind of resolution he wants deep down. He's not that type of guy. Still, if she ever sent out his Bat Signal, there'd be no question of whether he'd answer it.

"Yeah, you're right," he finally tacks on, this time sound a bit more bolstered by the thought. "Even if we weren't in such a tiny village, it'd be pret-ty hard to get rid of me."

[living_proof]

"You're like a bad penny," I allow with a soft smile, grateful for the decided change in tone even if I know Major well enough to know it's forced. I hate this; I've always hated this, every time it's happened. But it is what it is. What we are.

He's not really wrong. We never manage to stay away from each other even when we know we have to be apart.

"I should go," I say, glancing down the shoreline. "Some of these people might need medical help."

It's true, the evidence laid out plainly in the people retching and crying against the sand. And if it's an excuse, too, it's not one either of us didn't see coming.