Lyra couldn't tell if it was a good thing or not, when Rosario glazed over Avery's outburst. It didn't feel great, the way she ignored his question (why would they make it up? Rosario knew Lyra wasn't going to make up this kinda thing, right? Rosario knew Lyra wasn't out to mess with her, right?) but at the same time, it coulda been way worse.
"'Nother weird thing is," Lyra decided to carry on down the whole secrecy path, rather than doubling back to plead to Rosario I'm not lying to you, why would I lie to you?? "Even though the girls are like, closing ranks, Archer's not. He sent me another song, couple of days ago. S'like nothing's changed, there. You'd think if he was onto us, he woulda closed me out too."
She'd scoured the song for secret messages, too. Googled the lyrics and read over them multiple times. Checked out different people's interpretations of the words in case anything in any blog anywhere linked back to anything cultlike or supernatural or anything weird. Yeah everyone knows this is a classic brainwashing song or like... Lyra didn't know... This is based off the song the Pied Piper used to lure all those kids into the mountains?
There was a kind of lure about them, really. The songs Archer sent her were all really fucking good. Guitar intros gripping her in a way that made her want to wrap her arms around her own instrument and play it, the vocals sung or shouted or rapped with a passion that was almost impossible not to sing-shout-rap along with herself, outros that made her wanna go back to the beginning and listen again. They were the kinds of songs that made her want to throw this house-building dream to the wind and join a band instead and make everyone’s blood sing with how sick she could bend. She didn't genuinely think there was anything magic and Pied Pipery about it, he just really knew music and liked sharing it, she figured.
Also, none of it seemed to suggest he was weird about her hanging out with Avery, even after the two of them had kinda played tug-o-war with her at the end of the party. Maybe she was being naïve and Archer was just using it as a way to keep the lines of communication open between them but... Lyra kinda liked it too much to question it too hard. It meant something to her, that other people were thinking about her when she wasn't around, enough to send her music that reminded them of her. She'd listened to the UFO song Avery had sent her multiple times, too. Why would she want that to stop?