would you be impressed if i told you we were dying? [charlie]

[Note: yeah, the title's appropriate with so much inappropriateness mixed in with it...I name all my threads after the song I'm listening to, and it just so happens that Streetlight Manifesto is on right now, playing "Would You Be Impressed." Sorry. =D]

Aven carried a water bottle in his left hand. He'd come to build a sandcastle, and everyone knows you need water to do that. This waterbottle used to sport a Deer Park lable, and it attracted Aven because the deer looked like Myrrh, Noblet's daemon. Thus he stole the entire thing from Braden's room, half full. It still had all the water in it. He hoped Braden didn't find out that he used the water for his sandcastle.

He sat down pleasantly, humming a song to himself and started to build his castle.

=D

Charlie was in the sand somewhere again. She hated it when her Eilemaiden (or her emotions, rather) took control. She was still in control, she just felt like she was watching things happen before her eyes, rather than live alongside the things she was watching.

Life sucked. But death sucked worse.

The sand around her body moved back and forth, not in a calming vibrating motion, but in a hectic, chaotic, confused state. It shuffled her body around, leaving anyone in the sand dunes completely oblivious to the movements going on below them. How she was breathing, she didn't know. I guess how Ughdarras people couldn't drown underwater, Adhbhar people could breathe under...sand.

I can't stand this anymore, she said, looking around at the pieces the seemed to have more control of themselves than she did. And they were pieces of sand. Wtf.

Charlie! Mae said, poking her beak at the sand. She tried to follow her clio around. It was hard for her to deal with what was going on too. As Charlie dealt with the anger and confusion, Mae had to deal with the sadness and depression. Charlie, where are you? I can't find you, Charlie. I can't go down there with you, I'll get lost. Charlie, don't go any further down, please. Charlie! Mae hopped along and alone in the sand, pecking her beak helplessly at the sand pieces.

Aven looked up from his castle, hearing the bird chriping with his excellent hearing.

He saw a little tiny bird pecking around in the sand. There was someone he hadn't seen in a little while.

"Hi Mae!" He waved excitedly, hopping up, his foot pushing the bottle over in the sand. "Where's Charlie?"

Aven? Charlie thought, her rushing thoughts stopping for a breather. Was it Aven that was talking to Mae? It had to be. Mae looked up from the sand, seeing no one other than Aven. Or was it that Arden guy? Mae looked to Ra, and yes, it was Aven. Good. Maybe Charlie should tell Aven about Arden, he should definitely know.

The sand pushed her body up, fortunately under her control. And then she realized that she was dying again. Aw, shit. How was she going to tell Aven? She wasn't. That was good. Good plan, Charlie.

"She's-" before Mae could answer, the sand separated in a shifting way, revealing Charlie sitting up. She looked at Aven as the sand settled, as if nothing was weird about this.

"Hi, Aven. Long time no see," she said. Talking to someone definitely kept her death thoughts away.

Aven smiled. "Sometimes I like to dig holes too. Usually in my backyard. Noblet, that's Lior," he said in a whispery voice, "yells at me when I do that."

He wiggled a little at her. "Ohmigawd, Charlie, did you hear?"

Charlie giggled a little at Aven. He was so adorable.

"Nope, I haven't heard," she said, a few death thoughts creeping back into her mind like stubborn pests. They never died, though she would soon.

She kept her composure, trying to stay nice and happy and calm around Aven. She hadn't seen him in quite a while, ruining their time with verbal death thoughts wouldn't be too nice of her.

"I mean did you hear I have a new brother?! He looks just like me only he's shorter and has a small daemon. And he hates it when boys kiss other boys, only I can tell that he likes other boys because I can, you know?" He said, all in one breath. He covered his hand with his mouth as if telling a secret, which he was, "Noblet says he's the milkman's, only I don't know what that means because he's the same age as me, plus we don't have a milkman."

Charlie raised her eyebrows. Ohhh. That must have been Arden.

"Oh my God! I met him at the beach a while ago," she said. "I thought he was you, actually. I thought you were playing a game with me." She laughed a little at her stupidity. "But then I saw his daemon and I knew it wasn't you."

She almost puked up her death thoughts. Gross. Stupid cockroaches.

God, dying was making her have such weird thoughts. She didn't like it much. She recovered quickly, but was afraid Aven could tell if something was wrong. If he could tell this guy liked boys, why wouldn't he be able to see that she was dying?

Maybe she was good at acting.

Aven laughed. "He looks just like me, I told you!"

True, Aven couldn't tell Charlie was dying, but he did know something was wrong. The last time they had been with sand, he and Charlie had built a sandcastle together. This time, Aven was pretty sure his just blew up behind him, and the rest of the sand wasn't doing too well either.

"What's wrong?" He asked instinctively.

Charlie blinked. Damn, he was good.

"I'm dying," she said bluntly. She didn't know how else to break it to him. She liked Aven a lot, she always had fun with him. She didn't want to drag it out to be any longer than that. She was dying, it was simple as that.

The way she said it might've seemed a little weird, though, considering she said it as if she was itchy or something. Like it could be fixed, or like it wasn't going to be anytime soon. She said it plainly, but it was death.

Althought in her head she was starting to blow up again. Ugh.

Aven had never heard of someone so young dying before. Lucas' grandparents had died, but they were old. It was different. He cocked his head and frowned at her.

"You mean like...Mario?" He asked, referring to Mario Bros. And how he had thirteen some odd crazy lives. "And...you'll come back right?"

He felt his head start to pound with fear. "...Why? You'll come back...right?"

Charlie frowned when Aven frowned. He was so contagious.

"No, I'm not coming back." Who was Mario? Eh, whatever. Maybe it was some guy from Solas. "I'm going for good. Gone." Ouch, that one hurt. She didn't like saying these things aloud, especially not to other people. She didn't want their pity, she just wanted to have some fun. She wanted to do some really amazing things before she was gone. Maybe she could ask Aven to do something with her soon. Maybe they could go skydiving.

Unfortunately neither of them were Cuir. u.u Dammit.

Aven, by now, was shaking inside with self pity. He was so sad! This never happened!

Similarly, his emotions got the best of him as he hugged her. The electricity in his body traveled to her and made her hair stick up. He leaned away, feeling the flow of the electric current, and noticed what he'd done.

He started to feel better. "Charlie...your hair!" He covered his mouth, laughing a little. "It's all sticky-uppy!"

Charlie got goosebumps as the electricity from his body transferred to hers. She could see the strands start to stand up around her face as he pulled away. As he started to laugh a little, she did too, and as she did she could feel it all around her head.

"You're such a goof," she said, giggling a bit. When it came to being around other people, she was really good at being happy and fun still. Maybe it was because that was all she wanted to do.

"Aven, we should go do something fun and exciting, something I would never do. What's daring and fun?"

Aven laughed. He thought about what she said.

"Let's get tattoos." He said, excitedly, "And then go ride rollercoasters!"

(...lol. I can't think of anything!)

"Yeah," Charlie said, excited that she was doing something worth doing. Laying around in the sand wasn't making her feel any better. "Let's go now! Maybe we can stay out 'til the wee hours of the morning together! Can I stay in Solas? I've never done that before."

The sand under their feet grouped together and separated itself from the other sand, floating in the air a few inches. She was gonna take them to where they needed to go: not the sand dunes.

"Yeah!" He said excitedly. Suddenly, he hoped Noblet wouldn't have Rowan over. Aven knew Rowan used to be with Charlie...That could be difficult. But he wouldnt go back on his word. "You can stay in my room so we don't bother Noblet." He grabbed her hand. "Let's go!"

Charlie smiled when Aven held her hand. She was so glad that she had someone to be here with her, someone who wouldn't bring her down right now.

The little square of sand that they stood on raced forward through the sand dunes. They were well on their way to an exciting adventure, she hoped. :]