InsaneJournal

I’ll have to crawl under a rock later
Who: Esmeralda, Kitty, NPC!Members of the Court
What: Musical shenanigans
When: During musical plot
Where: Court of Miracles
Warnings: Low
Status: Log | Complete

Between Madellaine’s use of musical insults or...whatever it was she was doing, then what had happened at Grantaire’s when she’d gone to check on him and the network, Esmeralda’s question had been answered that whatever was making people sing was indeed an Orange County thing. There was plenty going on and Esmeralda had offered to go get groceries to get out but somehow Madellaine had gotten in the way.

“A boy like that, he killed your brother.”

Now what was she on? Quirking a brow as she moved to one of the benches and picked up Djali.

“I don’t have a brother….”

“Forget the boy and find another. One of your own kind, stick to your own kind!”

Pinching the bridge of her nose, Esmeralda let out a slow breath. It would pass. And Madellaine had been more confusing because of her pregnancy. Just let it go.

The last time Orange County had made people sing, Kitty had embarrasingly confessed her feelings to Gaz only to be rejected in Rock Opera form. It made her wary about hanging out with any friends, but she had decided to check up on a few of them and see how they were doing.

And okay maybe she was hoping to hear Esmeralda sing. She hadn't expected to walk into ... whatever she'd just walked into. "Am I interrupting something?"

Why was this happening? And why her? Because Madellaine wasn’t stopping. And she really had no idea what she was even talking...singing? About? Well okay she had an idea because of how judgemental Madellaine currently was but still.

“A boy like that wants one thing only and when he’s done he’ll leave you lonely! He’ll murder your love, he murdered mine!”

Okay this was getting absurd.

“Jehan is right over there.” Pointing to Madellaine’s husband who thankfully came to take Madellaine downstairs, Esmeralda looked over to Kitty and shook her head at the question.

“Just Madellaine deciding to…” What was the word she wanted… “give opinions through song.”

"I have a smart comment about boys," Kitty said. In that Madellaine wasn't entirely wrong about them. "She doesn’t approve of someone?”

Or was this a dream thing?

“Oh really?” Quirking a brow, Esmeralda then just shrugged at the comment about Madellaine not approving of someone. “She means well I suppose,” Even if she’d said Esmeralda brought about bad luck in the height of a mood swing, or how could she expect anything when she led people on and she should settle down, “Just a lot of thoughts since we found out she is pregnant. Her lyrics also make no sense.”

"It sounds like she doesn't approve of your choice in dates." Kitty observed, that small little hopeful part of her hoping for that there were no such thing.

She'd generally accepted that her and Esmeralda weren't going to be more than friends, but it was in that same way it had been with Gaz; moved on but she'd be down for it if it happened.

“Which is why her lyrics make no sense. There are no dates.” Esmeralda had never put thought into it. Always moving, never being in one place, it wasn’t like it had made much sense and now? Well. She had died twice which did make one re-evaluate things but even that… “And the only male gadje I spend time with outside of work is Grantaire who is more like a brother to me.”

“At least she’s stopped singing,” Kitty said, eyeing the woman warily and suddenly very afraid of what might come out of her mouth. A power ballad? Something about dragons? “Okay if I start singing you’re welcome to gag me.”

“For now. Hopefully any singing she does now will be to Jehan and not us.” Shaking her head some, Esmeralda turned her attention back to Kitty, “I will keep that in mind. What about you, what brings you here today?” Not that she minded, it was good seeing friends, strange happenings or not. But Kitty hadn’t mentioned stopping by to see if she’d be around so Esmeralda was curious.

“I was wondering how you were doing with the latest crazy.” Kitty replied. She gave a little shrug of her shoulder. “And I was kind of curious to see if you’d gotten affected by it or not. Curiosity got the cat.”

“Fair enough.” After all, who wouldn’t want to see if their friends had been affected by the musical atmosphere that seemed to have taken over Orange County. “So far, no singing out of me.” That at least wasn’t planned. She sang to herself plenty but not in this particular manner. “Just have seen others sing. Have you? Been affected I mean?”

“Not this time.” Kitty shook her head. “I mean last time it was horribly embarrassing but nothing life-threatening. Embarrassing is probably better.”

She paced around Esmeralda, then hopped on onto a table and it wasn't entirely clear when she started singing if she was singing to Esmeralda, herself, or some combination of the both of them. "

Left in the darkness
Here on your own
Woke up a memory
Feeding the pain
You cannot deny it
There's nothing to say
It's all that you need to fire away

Oh damn, the war is coming
Oh damn, you feel you want it
Oh damn, just bring it on today

You can't live without the fire
It's the heat that makes you strong
'Cause you're born to live and fight it all away
You can't hide what lies inside you
It's the only thing you've known
You'll embrace it and never walk away
Don't walk away"


Kitty didn’t know if this was better or worse than some kind of heartbroken love ballad or not.

“Yes, embarrassing is always better than life threatening.” Because while people might feel like they could die of embarrassment, that didn’t mean they actually could. And given the things that Orange County could throw at them and tended to throw at them, Esmeralda figured embarrassment was a definite better alternative.

And… Kitty was jumping onto the table, which had Esmeralda lean back with a quirked brow as Djali looked up and stuck his tongue out before going back to dozing on the young woman’s lap.

And… Esmeralda had no idea what Kitty was singing about. She’d been able to translate Grantaire’s singing and where the conversation was going but that had been more...lines versus full on verses.

“Right… I think you might want to rethink the not being affected this time.” So when in doubt, go to the immediate thing instead of trying to make sense of the lyrics. If more happened, it may be easier to figure out what Kitty was trying to say and respond but for now? Commenting on the fact that apparently Kitty wasn’t as unaffected as she thought.

"Raised in this madness
You're on your own
It makes you fearless
Nothing to lose"

At least Kitty wasn't table dancing, and she just gave Esmeralda a sheepish look.

"Dreams are a joke here
They get in your way
That's what what you need to fight day by day."

Okay, Esmeralda was still lost. She had a feeling that this was tying back to the hike and the whole… taking time for herself and the failed conversation on that front. But for the life of her, she was still confused so all she could do was shrug in confusion at Kitty.

Kitty stood there awkwardly, then hopped down from the table and hugged herself. At least Last time she’d understood where it was coming from, but this time it was a lot less clear to her. Only that maybe both of them were fighters and the fire they’d been through had made them stronger.

“Sorry, I don’t know where that came from.” It could have been worse, she could have sung All By Myself.

“No need to be sorry, promise.” After all, she’d been getting an earful (literally) from Madellaine, not to mention the conversation with Grantaire. True that had been easier to figure out but it wasn’t as if this was the first time Esmeralda had ended up with someone singing to (at?) her. True she wasn’t sure the purpose or message, but still not the first time.

Everyone here probably thought she was a loon. Which normally wasn’t necessarily a bad thing, but she didn’t want to be ostracized. She liked the people here, not just Esmeralda. Historically speaking, they were generally on the same side. “I’ll have to crawl under a rock later.”

Given the fact that Madellaine had been affected by the spontaneous singing and the others had been out in the city, it wasn’t like they were unaware of what was going on. So being ostracised was the last thing that would happen just because Orange County went strange again. No harm was done after all. “I would say you really don’t need to do that, but it’s your decision so long as you don’t decide to live there.”

Yes, she was teasing. But also just reiterating that it really wasn’t as bad as Kitty might think it was.

“Well, it would have to be a really nice rock,” Kitty replied. “Two bedrooms, a nice view, maybe some big windows to look out of.”

“Oh yes, that makes all the difference.”