Something Seraphine: The Avant-Garde
Something was still all nervous and jittery from the âexperienceâ, knees all wobbly as she leaned heavily upon the drinks table. But she was trying to hide it. She was fragile and her emotions felt potentially explosive, but she concealed it all with a optimistic smile. Harvey had followed her, expressing his concern in his own Harvey-ish way. "Here. Calm down." He had offered as he poured her a shot, taking two of his own. "And please for the love of god, quit apologizing."
See? He did care. It was all just a misunderstanding. âOh yes, sorry about that,â she apologized for her apologetic nature, eyes darting downward, though she already felt herself cooling down. As far as she was concerned, it had never happened. The memory of everything would remain, but any emotional ties to the event would dissolve quickly into the back of her mind. It didnât REALLY matter.
âHmm,â she sighed as she delicately sipped from her teacup. Unlike most girls her age, she was quite well-adjusted to the taste of hard alcohol. She had started drinking very young, and not wanting to appear like what was commonly known as a âwussâ, would always take her shots without chasers, which would receive cheers and claps on the back from her friends. If you were cheered and clapped on the back, the best description of positive reinforcement from peer pressures there really was, wouldnât whiskey taste less bitter to you too? The alcohol ended up being one of the sweetest tasting beverages around, drenched in the feelings of warmth and good memories.
It wasnât that difficult for her now. The whiskey, unlike beer, made its presence known as it slid quickly down her throat. Yet, she still absent-mindedly sipped it. Luckily, it was chilled, so the burn was significantly reduced. In a placebo effect, she felt calmer already. Harvey had taken three shots at this point, not uncommon for the group she used to hang out with, her old friends, her old memories. So she grinned up at him. âA man only drinks that much when he wants to kiss a girl or kill a man. Which is it?" she had lowered her voice, attempting to match the inflection of one of her favorite characters from one of her favorite films of all time that had come out just this summer, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. âUnlessâŠyou want to kill the woman you want to kissâŠâ she mused, suddenly alarmed, brow furrowing as she slurped more liquidly quite loudly.
Harvey seemed antsy, and Something yearned to help, yet she felt trapped in her unseemly body. He admitted to needing a light while his hand slipped seamlessly to the small of her back. At this point, after their raunchy dance, she was familiar with his touch. She did not shy from it or really react in any sort of way. Eager to please, she quickly muttered in her high little voice, âOh yes, of course, anything,â while she flicked her thumb against her forefinger, producing a small flame.
But Harvey stepped away from her toward Seph. Their conversations seemedâŠvery involved. There seemed to be⊠a lot of history between them. Something stood there with the little ball of flame; it wavered and threatened to go out as she puckered her lips, unsure of what to do. She protected it with her other hand from the wind, and it glowed.
But before she could get too upset about her inability to make a decision as to what to do (which would have inevitably happened), a warm presence distracted her. âArtemis!â she chimed, repeating his name, her eyes crinkling as she smiled, using her flame to light her own cigarette before allowing it to go out. âItâs Something,â extending her hand and half bowing to one knee. Was she about to be knighted? Possibly. She had only met him briefly, but he was someone she liked. He possessed a relaxed, mature, and familiar kind of aura. She felt just about anyone could feel comfortable and at home around him. âI remember you.â
âSandwich? Dinner and a show rightâ as he offered her a finger sandwich, she immediately just about clawed them from the plate, grabbing several, and stuffed in her mouth. âAlways!â she cried out, lids drooping in the simple ecstasy of eating. The ones she was unable to currently fit in her mouth, she loaded into the bottom of her tshirt, using it as a make shift basket. It was like feeding a velociraptor in Jurassic Park. Nothing remained, and the plate was lucky to get out alive from her ravenous appetite. âIâm not quite sure what to do about them,â she continued, motioning towards what could have been a loverâs quarrel. âI feel like I should do somethingâŠbut⊠Iâm not quite su-â
And just as she was confessing this deep need to Artemis, Persephone threw a drink into Harveyâs face and threatened to bite his dick off. After a quick snort and the near death experience of having food hit the back wall of your throat, Somethingâs jaw dropped, revealing the partially chewed contents of her mouth. She had slowly began chewing again, almost as if the food were a way to soothe the uncertainty of the situation, when Artemis lightened the mood. âIf she finds itâŠâ Again, Something took something the wrong way. Her reaction was to empathetic towards Harvey, so she misinterpreted Artemisâ insult. She grinned at him, eyes sparkling mischievously beneath the veneer of tsk-tsking she gave. âIâm sure sheâd find it eventually! I mean, buttons are hard sometimes to work withâŠâ She had thought he meant to make fun of Sephâs clumsiness about human customsâŠshe wasâŠpotentially an idiot.
Something moved toward Harvey, shoving the last of the sandwiches in her mouth to free up the hand that wasnât busy with her teacup. The teacup he had found for her. She sure owed him a lot, obviously. So she would give him all of her sympathies to the best of her ability. Her hand found his back as she stood beside him, facing the direction that Seph ran off in wolf form, and patted him gently a few times. âI wouldnât-â she began, unknowing of what to say, âworry too much about thatâŠâ She handed her lit cigarette to Harvey, figuring heâd need it now more than ever.
Both Artemis and Aaron offered their light teasing, though she was sure it was only in attempts to lighten the mood rather than thinly disguised passive aggressive jabs. I meanâŠwho could hate Harvey. He was the coolest of cool. The coolest cat. So Something laughed at their jokes, eyes bright as she looked to Harveyâs expression for reassurance that he was ok. That everything was ok.
Xylea pretty much removed all traces of the disaster when she gusted him dry. Somethingâs hair stirred floated up, stick straight out again. Exactly the bed head she had patted down beforehand in desperate attempts to seem presentable in public. But she wouldnât notice what a ragamuffin she now appeared. Xylea had darting away on a mission. Something yearned to run after her, but Something wasnât much of an extrovert. So instead, she smiled after her wistfully. âSee?â Something smiled at the small crowd of people, âItâs like it never happened!â She finished to contents of her teacup loudly.