Solitude (Karl)

[sera]

Sera was fully aware of the fact that she should be sleeping. In fact, she was consciously aware of this little detail and was consciously avoiding it as well. Sleep hadn’t come to her easily lately, so she was simply avoiding it. Nightmares were the flavor of the week it seemed, which wasn’t all that hard to believe. Especially since she had come “home.” She scoffed at the word. Home, how sad was it that her home was an insane asylum? Some days she thought she aught to be locked up like those she looked over, others she wished herself free of this place. When she was younger she dealt with it for her sisters. They were grown now though, they didn’t need her. She wished to be gone.

Oh, but she knew she’d never be rid of Black Springs. It would haunt her even if she managed to get free.

Lazily Sera stroked a delicate hand down the back of Shadow, her familiar who took the form of an Eqyptian Mau and she could feel the power that shone from him. She offered a rare smile to the familiar. He was so essential, so necessary for her. Such a good boy. He held so much energy because Sera’s tiny body couldn’t hold all the energy she accidently drew into herself everytime she cast a spell. Shadow took it from her with such ease and she owed it to him. So powerful…Sera sighed. She was too powerful and she knew it. It came with consequences of course, like her continual state of nonchalance and neutrality.

Came in handy here at least.

She shook her head and padded down the worn down wooden floors of her house, down the hall. She had been in her room moments before but sleep had tempted her. So she had to do something with her mind. Her old, warm, comfortable house was dark with night, the only sounds that of the old house settling down at night. No one lived with her. And no one dared barge in save for her sisters and one other person. She figured chances were that said person would not approve of her being up at all hours of the night but she didn’t much care. She was a grown woman who could care for herself, thank you.

Tonight found Sera much more laid back appearing than most days saw her. Her usual prim and proper attire was missing, substituted for loose black sweat pants, a black wife beater style tank top and a loose red plaid over shirt. They were remnants from her college days, something her sisters didn’t need to know about. She had an image around here, as much as she hated it.

Coming to her room, her study, she smiled a bit. The back wall, exactly opposite the door, was all windows, with no curtains. It was a hazard safety wise, but she adored sitting in the sunlight or the moonlight, didn’t matter which. One of the many willows that littered her estate sat outside the window and the moons silver glow filtered in through the window, illuminating Shadow who had left her side to leap up on the desk and take his usual spot on the upper right side of her desk. She smiled slightly and walked into the room. Once she got to the middle though, she banished the happiness in favor of…well a thought of her father. Funny how all it took was a thought of him and she had enough anger to wave her hands and light the candles that littered every available spot in the room.

Quickly as it had come, however, she banished it once more to the back of her mind, settling into neutrality. Her trick? She thought of her mother. She didn’t remember much about the woman, but she knew enough that even the mere thought of her, a gentle hand on her shoulder, a kiss on her forehead, a gently murmured voice, it was enough to settle her raging emotions into an instant calm.

Either way, the barefooted woman settled down into her comfy swivel chair, her back to the window wall and the moonlight, and settled back into the one thing that never ended around here. Paperwork. It would help if her sisters would perhaps take on a bit of their own but she didn’t even try to fight that argument again. She knew she would just take it herself anyway, convinced they wouldn’t do it right. The teens were her responsibility, somehow, so of course, she always found herself working on theirs first.

The paperwork was endless, never ending, and most times simply boring. Shrink’s reports of their patience behavior. Warden’s reports of the Invitus. Letters from concerned co-workers, parents, siblings, etc about their loved ones. It never ended. It kept coming and coming and it all started to sound the same after a while.

She had been working for a good hour when out of the corner of her eye she saw Shadow sit up from where he had been once curled in the corner of her desk. Someone was in her home. She frowned a bit, but Shadow went back to curling up on her desk, sensing no threat to his mistress. She trusted him to inform her if it was otherwise…and went right on back to her paperwork. It was a boring job but she had to do it, no one else would. And whoever it was coming into her home…well they better have a good reason for approaching the most secluded of the Blake Sisters.

Words: 955
Muse: Epical, a rarity with her
Outfit: Here!

[karl]

It was a quiet sort of night, calm except for the scattered sounds of owls and other creatures echoing in the cold night air. The snow crunched under the feet of the man walking to the secluded barn house. His hazel eyes with golden specks in them were clouded a little, more in tiredness from the hour then from anything else although the snow certainly didn't help, but despite this his steps were strong and quite quick as he headed towards the house. On his shoulder sat a bird that normally would be sleeping at this hour, this dark hour of cold snow and cold earth but was gripping Karl's shoulder in a grip necessary to keep itself from falling, just enough to not fall without clawing the hell out of Karl's shoulder for although the red tailed hawk familiar could do it quite easily the familiar would likely rather not hurt her master.

Once Karl reached the door, he stopped to pet Sunna, almost as though to thank her for being with him at such a ridiculous hour but also in order to steady himself. Not only with unconsciously drawing power from the quite warm familiar that stored some of his fire but also to steady himself emotionally. He was worried that his friend would not particularly be happy to see him. Yes... Friend was an odd word to use when it came to Sera the leader of the witches and wizards but friend was as close as defining the relationship between the two. They weren't quite couple material but since Karl worked as Sera's bodyguard they could be friendly and close. But then, perhaps that was how he saw it rather than how she saw it.

Either was, he was obligated to her service and that was why he was here, he was checking up on her. If he left Sera to her own devices, she would never call on him even if her house collapsed on her and she had too little energy to get herself from out of the collapsed house. Not only that but the hermit woman also would not leave the house anytime more than with meetings and it wasn't exactly healthy for her. Sure... Sera didn't want to go outside often, likely for the same reason why Karl did his best to stick with people he already knew and small groups, but it wasn't good for anyone's sanity to do what Sera did. So since Karl could defend himself and had no problem with the fact he was sometimes annoying the most powerful witch in Black Springs, he held himself to the task of making sure she was alright.

Of course, he also came to bodyguard her as he was suppose to. It may seem like an oddly useless job for the man to have but Sera didn't like using her powers and Karl didn't really blame her. Plus... Why use a machete to do what a switchblade could do? She had control but she had a greater amount of power than he did so she needed to do things bigger scale. He didn't so he was better suited to making sure things that weren't suppose to burst into flames didn't. Anyways... He knocked lightly on the door of her room after trekking into the house and warming up a bit. "I'm checking up on you." Karl told her quietly "Everything alright?" He didn't enter the room, not until she invited him in but he had opened the door. He kept a light smile on his face but his emotions were kept more on the warm end.

[sera]

Sera heard the other person approaching her current hide out. Not that she was literally hiding away in her own house ,that would be ridiculous. Not to mention slightly redundant. As it was, her house sat on the far back end of her property and was further obscured by her willow trees. Grown herself as simple as breathing, earth was her natural ability after all. Oh how disappointed Daddy had been when she had only been born with one ability while she had two witch parents… Disappointed enough to fiddle with her to give her all four. No witch should ever be cursed with all four elements. It only hindered Sera in the end.

Sacrificing the ability to love, feel, get angry, smile…all that for the sake of controlling herself.

All that for power.

Safe to say Sera did not approve of what her father had done to her. She frowned slightly and pushed the thought away from herself. She was too close to anger and that was dangerous. That would trigger something she didn’t need. She quite liked her house. She had just had part of it rebuilt after the fire the last time she had gotten angry. Instead she tugged down her black tank top over her navel piercing that she preferred to keep to herself, and crossed her right ankle over her left to hide the question mark shaped tattoo on her left ankle. She wasn’t sure who was approaching, but if it was a friend as Shadow had indicated it was all the more reason to hide away her wild half. She preferred that be her own little secret for a little while longer at least.

She went back to the report of the death angel child who kept biting people. Three hundred years old but trapped with the mind of a five year old. So sad. She didn’t actually bring herself to feel one way or the other as she read…and it took her a moment to look up from her work when a voice spoke to her. She knew that voice. A soft sigh ghosted past her lips. Must he always check up on her? She was a grown adult who could handle her own affairs, even if she didn’t sleep much, rarely left her house and was prone to forgetting to eat from time to time. Ugh she took such horrible care of her body, but ruling this place had taken over her agenda as of late. So perhaps it was a good thing she was being checked up on, but you would never catch her admitting to that.

She instead pointed her pen at one of the few people in her life she could call a friend. ”If you are here to tell me to go to bed, you might as well leave” A wonderful greating from the slightly sleep deprived leader of the witches around here. But she continued with something a little less inhospitable. ”If you are going to be reasonable you can come in” she said, finally looking up from her papers with something that resembled a faint smile, she couldn’t feel it though, the happy. That would trigger air, and air would either blow out her lovely candles which were her only source of light, or they would make the flames get worse which she also didn’t want. Happy was for when it was safe to be happy.

Ugh, if her father wasn’t dead she would have killed him herself right that moment.

Shadow stretched, rubbing against her and taking the excess bits of power that always floated about the woman before he leapt from her desk to greet the man in the doorway. He was much more sociable than she was. Shadow that is, though Karl fit that bill as well. Actually, anyone that left their house to speak to people was someone more sociable than Sera was. She knew it and never tried to deny it. Such was life.

With an aggravated sigh, she pinched the bridge of her nose and pushed the papers away from herself. The type was beginning to blur together, she needed to stop for now. She wouldn’t sleep, but she needed to stop this work, it was tedious. ”Why are you up at the gods-forsaken hour anyway?” She asked this with actual curiousity, it happened from time to time. She would allow an emotion or two to leak. Very few ever saw it though. With ease, she lifted herself from her chair and pulled another mountain of reports from the couch that sat on the wall to the right of her window wall, to allow him to sit if he so chose.

And then she went right back to her desk, leaning back against it. Shadow leapt up to stand beside her as she waited with infinite patience that she had taught herself over the years for the answer to her questions.

Words: 845
Muse: Epic

[karl]

Karl shook his head at her comment, smiling a bit more and picking up a slight wind for a moment before he went back to a bit calmer mostly to not blow out the candles. "I wouldn't think of trying to get you to bed." Karl told her "You have your reasons." At the invite, he did come in. He looked for a spot to sit down until he finally found a chair and sat down in it. His familiar Sunna rested on the top of the chair. The hawk's golden brown eyes, remarkably similar to Karl's eyes, watched Shadow a bit warily. Although Sunna knew Shadow would not cause her harm after a long time, she was wary of cats, specially when it was night time. The hawk couldn't move very well at night, that was one of the reason the red tailed hawk kept very close to Karl rather than venture around the room. She was practically blind in the moonlight.

Karl smiled back, accepting that the small smile Sera gave was about as much as she could give without setting something off. Although he had a fair number of triggers from having two elements, he was thankful that he had less to control. He couldn't imagine trying to control four elements, let alone having to not feel emotion most of the time. He normally wouldn't have to keep even happiness at bay today but he was tired himself so feeling happiness could cause him today of all days to bring up a storm as surely as if he had felt irritation. But he still was better than Sera, still able to keep that quiet sincere smile. He felt guilty at times for being happy about that but he was.

Once Karl was seated, he then petted Shadow. He just liked sitting down and he figured since Sera had not said he shouldn't pet the cat, he would. When she asked why he was up, he blinked a bit at the sound of curiosity in her voice before shrugging it off. "I couldn't sleep." Karl admitted " I've been either waking up from horrific nightmares I can't remember or waking up with tears in my eyes. Since both disturb me, it's been getting far too hard to go to sleep so if I can't sleep I wander a bit." He wasn't an insomniac, he did sleep often enough. But he had moments when he dreamt about the memories he didn't remember. It was in those points he had nightmares and dreams.

[sera]

”Ah, so the man learns” she said softly and with ever so faint amusement as she leaned up against her desk, stroking her familiar absentmindedly and allowing him to take from her all the energy she could not hold. It was annoying on more than one occasion really that she could not manage to hold all that her powers seemed to think she should be able to hold. She shook her head, mostly to shake off the amusement. She did not believe she needed a protector of any sort. In fact, Ms. Sera Blake was powerful enough to take care of herself and her quarter of the town if she so chose. No, it wasn’t in that request that she had accepted the offer of Karl as her bodyguard. It was because Sera was stuck in her ways and would often forget the simple things needed to survive.

Which was why she had allowed Vira and Sam to talk her into saying yes. Mostly because she hated to upset her older sister. It was an unappealing prospect for far more than one reason, mostly because her older sister was far too strong and far too unstable. Upsetting her was not wise. Sera would have to remind herself to visit her sister in the morning, or rather, in a few hours. It had been too long, and she liked to check and make sure the oldest Blake sister wasn’t doing too much damage to herself. She knew Sam kept a close eye on her, but all the same…

But back to the present.

Ah but then she had moved so Karl could sit, and indeed he did, and she shifted to lean against her desk. A simple thought was all it took to call Shadow back to her, she could see that he was upsetting Sunna and she didn’t wish to upset another familiar. It tended to get messy. Shifting her seat to one of a crosslegged one on top of her desk, stroking Shadow who now sat by her side as usual. The familiar rarely left her side, even to go and greet another. She needed him too much. Over the past 6 years that it had been since she had called him to her first, she had grown very dependant on him, needed him in fact. And he knew it, smug little cat. She waited patiently for the answer to her question and nodded when she received it.

”Ah nightmares…” she said softly. It was the same reason that Sera had been avoiding sleep these past few days. Nightmares were the bane of her existence, and they got worse since she had been back here. She wouldn’t usually share such a fact however, instead she decided to focus on what it was that he had said, it allowed her to push off her own problems for the time being, which was something she very much so liked to do. ”Can turn even the strongest man to weep.” she said, quoting…something. She didn’t rightly remember any more. Oh well. ”No shame in them though” she commented further, smiling speaking. Funny how she sounded like a hypocrite however, seeing as she had plenty of shame in her own nightmares.

Enough that she had been refusing to sleep, though Shadow and her old creaky house kept her company and what more did a girl need? He said he wandered, probably better to keep one awake in truth, she would do it herself if it didn’t mean she’d have to be sociable. No matter when one slept, there would be another up and about seeing as both night and day dwellers lived in this place. Sera didn’t always wish to deal with those that she would bump into, and she didn’t want to risk her emotions running wild and causing her to do something she’d regret. Besides, it meant she could get through the mountains of paperwork she always ended up responsible for.

She reached back behind her and pulled out the file she had been looking at, the one of the boy in the young form but ages old that had a biting problem, she held it out. ”This one vexes me. Adult for his age? Teen for his temperament? Or child for his problem” Yes, she was trying to get off topic, but in truth this one would bother her for some time. And another opinion was always valuable in her “line of work.”

Words: 771
Muse: Not as amazing as before but still good!

[karl]

Karl knew he wasn't necessary as a bodyguard but he was grateful to work under Sera. So he made sure to be useful in any way he could which included making sure she cared for herself. He saw that Sera had called away Shadow and nodded thanks before he petted Sunna carefully. Even as a familiar, Sunna wasn't a pet, but she was a bit shaken by dealing with the night when she could barely see enough that he used his energy transfer to calm her. His fire energy when he used it with his familiar was generally quite soothing and the hawk appreciated it. The wind energy, meanwhile, was more useful but it wasn't the sort of element that he needed to give Sunna at this point time. Otherwise he would. He was drawing on the emotion from one of his dreams to do it, a bit of anger but directed at something he couldn't protect.

What couldn't he protect? He couldn't remember but it bothered him a bit. Enough that Sunna had been getting some wind energy in the process too. But Sunna didn't mind, she understood. The hawk had only been with him for about a year or so but she was very patient. She seemed to have a patience that was comforting to him... Maybe he was just putting the feelings he had towards someone he couldn't remember on her. Still... He did care about the hawk in his own way. She was another side of himself to some degree magic wise. But he thought a bit too much on it.

At her comment about them, he nodded. "Very true but they frustrate me and frustration tends to lead to gale winds outside my house." Karl commented "That or I'll set my room on fire. Again. They get pretty bad because they are on something I can't quite remember, because of the amnesia." Sera was a neutral observer and a friend of his so he didn't mind revealing this to her. Besides, he knew she probably had her own problems with nightmares. After all... she was up at this hour and there was also the fact that no one particularly wanted to live in this city if they had a choice in the matter. Nothing against... Actually, everything against the city but Karl was too polite to say that out loud.

Karl looked at the form she gave him. "I'd say teenager for temperament but child because of problem. However, of the two I'd say teenager." He told her "It'd likely make the patient less likely to hate the city which is nice."

[sera]

Sera was quite comfortable with her perch on top of her desk. It was wood after all, and anything wooden was earth. Earth being her natural element…this was why there were no carpets in her house. She did not carry a gun, or a knife or any sort of weapon. If someone assaulted her in her house she could easily grow thorn vines from the floor to eliminate the problem. And if they made her angry, they were good as barbequed. No one fucked with the infamous Sera Blake often anyway. The only sane Blade sister if you asked her. As for when she was out, she could handle herself or often times found herself in the company of one of her sisters or Karl. It didn’t make her in much danger, not ever.

She nodded a bit, listening to one of the few people she considered anything that could be counted as a friend speak. She nodded again, getting what he was saying, being that often times Sera found herself with the same problem if her emotions got out of control, which rarely happened if she was careful, but when it came to nightmares one often couldn’t be careful could they? She nodded again, feeling like some form of bobble head doll when it came to this little matter. His amnesia. She remembered this much, he had told her of it before. Personally, if Sera could she would give him his memories and take his amnesia, she had more use for it. To forget her horrific childhood would be a wonder to her, thank you. Too bad the world didn’t always decide to do what it’s inhabitants considered to be fair.

She thought carefully before she answered her, weighing her words as carefully as she always did. Distractedly she rubbed her temples, it wasn’t easy for her to focus when she had gotten so little sleep, but Sera always pressed on to work no matter what was getting at her and this was no exception. She rarely made friends because she was so poor at being sympathetic.

”I can understand that…Sounds frustrating” she finally commented, not much emotion but then again when did Sera put emotion into anything? The elemental master was not allowed to feel without dire consequences for everyone around her. It was a sad but true fact, she wished she could go back to being eighteen when all she could feel was the earth.

At least her control over that was phenomenal.

But it was then that she decided to change the topic if possible because it took the subject off of the possibility of him asking why exactly she herself was up. She had pulled out a file and handed it to the other person who was up in this godforsaken town. His comment shocked her to laugh, actually laugh, because she hadn’t been expecting it and she was too tired for her guard to be as high as it usually was. It caused a gentle wind to ruffle around her, pulling at her clothes and ruffling her hair, caressing her skin before she managed to calm the happiness and cause the wind to disappear. One or two of her candles had blown out and rather than using her power once more, which she considered to simply be over kill, she stood and lit the blown out candles with another one of the lit ones before placing them back.

She answered him as she relit her candles, peering over her shoulder to look at him as she did. ”Someone liking the city…what a novel concept” she said, the amusement still lingering in her eyes, a rare sight but she wasn’t willing to crush it down, not just yet. Let her be happy for a moment, she felt it rarely enough.

[karl]

He always felt guilty about his amnesia. It was because of his amnesia he couldn't move on. Somewhere in his head was a section of his past he forgot. It wasn't that he forgot it that made him feel guilty, it was more saying it to Sera. He was pretty certain she wished she could forget everything and just vanish somewhere. He wouldn't wish it on her because he knew how insecure it made a person but he did feel guilty bringing it up because she probably had one or two or many memories she wouldn't mind gone. Even though there was the possibility she would remember it eventually. Amnesia wasn't permanent and it showed in how he got nightmares about the suppressed memories as well as the fact he actually did remember some of his past. Mostly, this was stuff involving his job as a cop.

He had one memory of a woman with light hair. He didn't have a face to the memory, it was blurry, but he remembered her laugh. He rubbed his forehead as his head suddenly ached from trying to recall even that memory. The wind outside became sharper and Sunna combed his hair with her beak from where she was. He gave her a smile. "I'm ok Sunna, thanks." He told the bird, although grateful she had gotten the run off of magic and kept things from breaking into sera's house. That would be bad conduct.

When his comment actually startled a laugh out of her, he jumped and looked up a bit wide eyed. He hadn't quite expected his comment would make her laugh but it had. Not only that but it made her cause a slight wing that blew out two of the candles. He would've lit them but she seemed to want to use the candle to and he would let her have her stubbornness. He appreciated that his friend was happy although her comment was something he needed to say something about. "I actually like this city." Karl admitted "Although more because my friends are here and my parents are not but it counts. But it would probably help make the city nicer if some of the citizens were happy. But I know that is difficult to near impossible." Karl shrugged.

[sera]

Sera waved off the guilt she saw on his face. They both knew she had issues. They both knew that he did as well. Why spoil the mood by dwelling on it? Sera was emotionless, yes, for the sake of her power. And to do this she had to be careful what she allowed to go on around her. She couldn’t get upset, not unless they wanted to go for a swim that is. So there would be nothing to dwell on that was depressing if Sera was to have her way. And it was her house, her rules. Or at least, that was how Sera behaved.

Ah but then he had startled her to laughter. And she had startled him by her laughter. The whole thing was enough to make her reluctant to let go of the emotion, hence why it stayed shining in her eyes even after the wind had died because she had tampered down the emotion to the point that it wouldn’t agitate her abilities if she was careful about it. She had learned in college, when she had been away from this place, how to achieve that little trick. How to feel enough to feel but how to make sure it was small enough that it wouldn’t cause the elements to go wild around her and hurt someone. She never bothered around here, there was no point. She never knew when some patient would startle the emotion too high. So she kept it all to herself, keeping it gone. But she doubted Karl would startle her into emotion again.

She would be on the watch for it now anyway.

Sera shrugged a bit at his comment. ”I would rather be free of this place. Free of my father’s influence, though I suppose that’s not possible” she sighed softly and then pushed off the emotion once more. She was good at keeping her emotions tucked away, better when she wasn’t with someone who’s company she enjoyed to be honest. Even her sisters tested her control. She did mean what she said though. She slept better when she was not in this town, regardless of the fact that she had only been gone two years out of her whole life, it was the principle of the matter and nothing more to be fully truthful.

The world outside was simply nicer. No one was insane.

She nodded a little at the second part of his comment, walking back to her desk and once again perching cross legged on top of it. ”Some are happy” she commented idly. It was true, some of the patients here were happy, oddly enough. She couldn’t understand it. But it was true, they could be happy. It was the people that were here against their will that were less happy than others. But the sisters didn’t think it was healthy to let powerful beings such as the supernaturals that inhabited this place go free knowing they were crazy. It was a harsh rule but it was one that all four stuck by. Besides, if Vira was stuck here, it seemed only fair. ”It is better than a traditional asylum, at least here they have a town where they can at least pretend to be normal” she pointed out, pointing with the pen she had picked up at some point while she had been seated on her desk.

[karl]

Karl was a little pleased and fascinated by the show of emotion that Sera continually kept in her eye. It was rare he saw this sort of emotion but he had seen glimpses she could do what he did by feeling only lightly the emotion. But he assumed that she simply didn't trust that she would be able to keep the emotion down at that sort of level all the time so she reflected all emotional feeling she could have rather than letting herself feel it. The fact she was able to feel it right now though made Karl feel proud of himself and unwilling to test her emotion too much into the range where she had to go back to being fully emotionless again. As her friend, he hoped she could at least be capable of having that small sign of emotion.

When she mentioned that she would rather be free of this place and free of her father's influence, he sighed as well. "I wish you were too, in fact, I would rather you be able to enjoy this place as your own and be able to manage it as you like rather than it having such negative connotations thanks to your father." Karl told her calmly "But that isn't going to happen so I wish at some point in time you could be free from this place." Even if it may or may not be able to happen until death, he still hoped for it. He didn't like for her to be unhappy. She was his friend and although he could not love her in a romantic way, the mysterious woman from his memory held all that emotion, he still cared for her a great deal in a friend way.

"Yes but it would be nice if there were more who were happy." Karl commented with a sigh. "And it's true that it is better than a traditional asylum in some ways but at other times you can't really pretend it isn't an asylum." Karl remembered seeing one person being dragged kicked and screaming by three nulls to the winged district. That had been a bit horrific.

[sera]

It was easy as breathing for the leader of the South Side of this town turned asylum to quell the emotions that were stirred up in her. This was why she didn’t often allow them to manifest, they would get too strong and she would be left to worry about whether or not she would be able to control the elements that would come into play by this stirring. Often the answer was yes, but this was not always the case and burning down her house, or flooding out her town, or calling up a twister…these were not things she wished to do, not today…not tonight either. She simply wanted to be calm. She saw no need to worry that her earth abilities would betray her, she had been able to control those efficiently since she was thirteen. Those came when she called them, and not the other way around. She could control that part of herself.

At least one out of four was better than none at all.

She found herself getting lost in thought but that was quite alright, the man with her knew of her habits and she doubted he would get too agitated by her sudden lapse of silence. It was often enough with her, she simply needed to relax and meditate a lot. It was the only way for her to maintain her state of emotionlessness. How else could anyone expect her to shut away the pieces of herself like she had so many years ago?

His voice brought her back to the here and now, however. She lifted her gaze from her beautiful Eqyptian Mau who was asleep next to her, a testament to how calm she was if Shadow would allow himself to fall asleep. It took her a moment to remember what they had been talking about, seeing as she had gone off on such a mental tangent for a while there. She shook her head a bit. Free of her father? Even when she had left this place she was not free of this man, he still managed to enter her thoughts because the man was everywhere. Evil bastard that he was. ”Better to manage it like my father had and hate it, then do it my own way and find I am my father’s daughter” she said with a faint smile that had no form of emotions behind it at all, it was an empty gesture.

Because that was truly her fear. She would rather die than be like that man. She worried every day that either she or her sisters would end up like him. Only she and Addy were ever in true danger of that though….though Kitty could be too, if she turned her anger a certain way. Vira would be just like him if she weren’t mad…Sera sighed, the sadness there but she pushed it down until it didn’t exist once more. She thought on this too often.

Sera shrugged a bit when he said you couldn’t always pretend it wasn’t an asylum. This was true, but when you had a town full of people who were insane and those that managed them…how could you always pretend? Things got out of hand, such was the way of life and it wasn’t sad, it was simply true. This place was as close to a town as any asylum had ever gotten to before and they held that claim to fame near and dear. Not that it was literal fame of course, they made sure of that. It was only through the word of mouth that people knew this town even existed, such had it been when her father was alive, such would it be now.

She realized she had lapsed into silence again and sighed, a silent apology on her lips that she would never voice because Sera made a point not to apologize for anything if she could help it. She did what she did, other people could deal. ”We do our best with what we have. What more can we do?” she asked, though it wasn’t truly a question. She didn’t feel like deal with it’s answer, not tonight of all nights. She would rather sleep, but she wouldn’t allow sleep to come at the same time.

Such was the contradiction that Sera Blake embodied.

Word: 743
Comments: My muse was eaten, sorry

[karl]

Karl sighed, the wind blowing lightly and ruffling his hair with the gesture, letting that emotion show just enough to be able to influence the wind. "That is the single most semi depressing statement I have ever heard you say. " He commented "Although that is very true, it's an unfortunate thought. " He remembered his parents, they were still around but he tried not to think of them because they tend to make him angry. Why? Because they controlled his life, he loved them and all, but at the same time he disliked them. Part of it was simply because he didn't like being controlled but the other half of it is that he felt they had unjustly taken something away from him. He didn't like the idea of parental influence making a person as bad as their parents were.

Although he worried about the thought a great deal, he couldn't imagine how it was like being the child of a person who single handedly is reviled in the town. And not only the town, Mr. Blake wasn't really that liked.He had a feeling she went through these thoughts but it was one thing to think it and another to hear his friend saying she was afraid. It made him tempted to hug her but he didn't want to do that and possibly break the boundary between emotion and control. Not to mention... He couldn't get that light haired woman from his flashbacks out of his head. The possibility was there to like Sera in a romantic way but... Just as it was there, it was also just that, a possibility because that little bit of memory he had chained him. He didn't know his relation to the woman, what if he dated someone he was interested in and discovered he actually had a child somewhere he didn't know about?

It didn't help that he didn't trust his parents. A lot of things he flashbacked on he knew he didn't have. Almost as though his parents wanted him to keep his amnesia and how they acted wasn't much better. Besides... They wanted him to be together with Sera, it was quite obvious, he didn't want to go by their rules. Karl could be a bit stubborn on some points and this was a big one. He didn't want to obey his parents on matters such as these... While he was thinking the thought pattern there was a sharp bit of wind outside from his irritation and the air around Karl seemed to heat up. It got to the point where Sunna needed to press her claws sharply into him enough to draw blood. He let out a hissed breath then realized what he was doing and suppressed his emotion again.

"I'm sorry... " He told Sera "I got in a bad thought pattern... " He took out some bandages and started applying them to the injury Sunna caused. Fortunately, having to deal with an injury made a person stop thinking about negative thoughts in favor of making sure they stopped bleeding. While he cleaned the injury and put the bandage on, he listened to Sera talk. He nodded in agreement at her statement. "That is all we can do."