She's So Mean

Stopping as the other boy did, Juliet watched him with curious and almost fearful eyes. The slight calm that the boy's presences had been giving her - the steady but calming reason that he had been speaking to her in, was falling into something strange and the minimal safety he was giving her was gone. Flinching as the wand was held in her direction it too her mind a moment to realize that it wasn't being pointed at her in a threatening manner. Slowly she reached out and took it, switching it to her left hand so her dominate one could hold her own wand.

The distance that Noah put between them wasn't enough as his features slipped away and the ones that were still haunting the back of her mind took his place. Eyes wide and face paling Juliet jumped back, stumbling all the way until she almost fell off into the street.

"Just-just-" her wand was held out but she managed to keep from firing a spell at the boy, or girl, or whatever he-she-was. Maybe it was his-her-their words, or maybe it was just something about her mind. "Don't move."

Once the useless order was out, Juliet tried to take some calming breaths, trying to piece together what she was being told.

"So. What you-you're saying is... the same You-here..." Juliet frowned trying to put everything together. "The same?"

::Noah::


His own form, again, Noah didn't move except to drop his gaze in shame. He drew in a slow breath. "This is Liddy's job," he remarked, instead of answering directly. A rueful laugh escaped his lips, although had he looked up, a sheen of tears would have been visible in his eyes. "Feeling the hurtful things, I mean. Like shame... rejection. It's her job. She is second; she came because K-K-" He stammered as Liddy exerted enough control to keep him from speaking Kendera's name.

"Because our primary couldn't."

Noah's gaze had fixed upon a cobblestone, so intently, he was as though nothing else existed to him. His tone remained even, off-hand, as he continued.

"Liddy feels, and she defends. Our primary never could," he said. "I am third. I am called Noah. I'm the optimist. I hope. I have fun. I laugh. It was my idea to tell you the whole truth, though. You'll have to forgive for not being so good at Liddy's job, though she'd probably be much less sensitive."

His gaze did rise then, though he made not another movement. "Fourth... Fourth is anger and loathing and violence. She is everything ugly about us, wrapped up in our innocence. She's the child we never were wreaking the vengeance we could never have, and she doesn't care who she exercises it upon."

And suddenly, Noah did move, but only to cover his face with both hands and hunch in on himself. Somehow, he had grown small, although he hadn't changed form. He was still taller and broader than any of the others. A shudder spread across his shoulders, the sound of a ragged breath being drawn a moment later.

"God, Liddy, how do you do this all the time?" he implored, unaware he had voiced the question aloud. Liddy snapped at him to get a hold of himself and the boy nodded shakily in response. He dragged his hands away from his face.

"We aren't the same," Noah finally concluded, brown eyes settling on a vacant storefront, "but we started out that way - and we're very sorry."