aigéan

CALL ME GREY | xvii | lake placid | mist

[maeragrey-blog]

MAERA GREY / WATER

maybe hearts were made to pump blood, maybe lungs were made for flood

[maeragrey-blog]

PEPPER

Dusk. The sun, like a rotten satsuma was sinking below the treetops, leaving it’s tangerine streak across the cotton wool sky. Smoke curled around Persephone’s head, dousing her in fumes as she leaned back against the dated bricks, swallowing the smoke, her fingers plucking ladders in her school tights. A stick of Malboro between her fingers and the sinking sensation that she was flirting with death was a familiar comfort to the siren of a girl, lungs blackened behind the sanctuary of the bike sheds. 

The sound of a voice behind her made her spring like a Jack-in-a-Box, Pepper’s usually collected exterior crumbling as she the cigarette slipped from her fingers, a face like thunder as she turned to the perpetrator. “ What the fuck! I thought you were the Dean! ” Her heart beat against her chest like a caged butterfly, irritation pulsating through her. “ You think it’s cute to sneak up on people like we’re in year four again? It’s not cute. Jesus. ”

“Wasn’t trying to be cute,” Grey said as she slunk into the light. She raised a lazy eyebrow, taking in the blonde stranger lounging against the back wall of the bike sheds. “I was trying to figure out who’d taken over my hiding spot,” she explained, her hip sliding out to prop herself against the same wall. 

She was silent as she slipped her cigarettes from her back pocket, taking her time putting one between her lips. Flicking her lighter, she glanced back at the girl over the top of the flame. Her hair fell perfectly around her face, and if it wasn’t for her expression, she would resemble something out of a painting. But her eyes were cold, her mouth was a hard line. It erased the softness that was surely there underneath. 

“So,” she sighed through an exhalation of smoke, “who are you?”

[maeragrey-blog]

CECE

Cece could almost feel the weight of the water pushing down around them, adding to the unease that already rested on Cece’s shoulders. The Dean’s speech had set her on edge; she’d already lost Wardlaw and the home it represented, the idea of being uprooted again made her want to scream at the unfairness of it all.

This sort of thing only ever happened to Cece. Her sisters hadn’t had to deal with it, they’d gotten to be headgirl in their last years. Cece was facing the prospect of spending her last year being dragged around various ‘safe’ places (though she wondered how safe they could really be if they had to keep their guard up at all times). Though perhaps the fact that they might get driven out of Lake Placid was a silver lining. It would at least, Cece thought, provide an escape from the Americans.

Not, of course, that they’d be able to escape if the enchantments preventing the lake from crashing down on their heads failed. Sure the administration had given them all an emergency water breathing charm but that wouldn’t exactly ward them against the impact of the water crashing down around them.

“What do you think would happen if the enchantments broke? Somehow I feel drowning would be the least of our worries.”

“Oh no, we'd all drown.” Grey said, only half-joking. "Breathing charms only last so long."

The unfamiliar girl seemed to be scanning the place for an escape route. She looked about as unhappy that she was here as Grey was. Unhappy about all all new students being here, that is. 

“Except for those of us who study water, of course,” she continued, pulling a few drops of condensation off of her cup. Grey let the water dance between her fingers for a moment before spreading it into a small swirl of mist and watching it float away.

[maeragrey-blog]

OPHELIA

A soft humming tune carried out threw the back section of the library. Tucked in a little corner where no one frequents, Ophelia had wedge herself in am empty shelf at the bottom. She popped her bubble gum often, too entranced in the story to care if she was being loud. To be honest, she was positive everyone in the front couldn’t hear a thing; they most likely had no clue she was even back there. At least thats what she had thought until she caught sight of a pair of shoes stepping in front of her. She didn’t bother to look up, only speaking after she added one last pop of her gum.

“ Was the popping  bothering you ? ”

“Not particularly,” Grey replied, having spotted the small girl stuffed into an empty bookshelf a moment earlier. She just happened to be stuffed in the bottom of the particular bookshelf Grey was looking for. Scanning the author’s last names, her finger moved from spine to spine until it stopped abruptly on Atwood, Margaret. She pulled the small book out of the crammed cluster of other novels she had yet to read.

Turning away from the girl as her hands silently traced the cover, she asked over her shoulder, “Scoping out your hiding spot? That’ll be quite important this year.”

[narcissiste]

Charms at Valentino Fall 2016 RTW

[maeragrey-blog]

HYE SUN

The only thing she could hear was the rapid scratching of a pen on paper. Here was her only distraction; if she believed in a safe haven, the world inside her pages would be it — even though it looked like the work of a five-year-old. She had long ago stopped caring about an elegant handwriting, or, being able to re-read what she’d written. At the ache in her wrist, Hye Sun finally returned to her surroundings, and so did her permanent scowl. “Will this lake never drown us?” she said, more out of habit than of spite. “Do I really have to take care of every destruction around here?”

It was strange, seeing Hye Sun peaceful. They weren’t friends, barely even acquaintances, but she and Anika were together enough that Grey couldn’t help but notice her. She felt a morbid camaraderie with her even from afar, their twin scowls scouring the campus. But Hye Sun’s was born of anger, shards of glass, a small fire. Grey’s radiated indifference, a cold void of don’t even think about it, but it was a connection nonetheless. 

When Hye Sun looked up, the infamous scowl made an appearance before she began talking. Grey rolled her eyes, the other girl’s macabre humor touching her in an accommodating place. 

“I’d be happy to help with that particular destruction,” she said with a small smile. “Water happens to be my specialty.”

[untrustyou]

[maeragrey-blog]

My heart feels like the sharpest razor blade I really hope this won't give me away Cause I've been drowning here for days

[maeragrey-blog]

ANIKA

Anika swallowed a smile. There was a pressure one has when they are in Maera Grey’s presence, and it is to not show any emotion. Emotions were a weakness. “No, that’s easy enough to tell.”

Grey watched Anika’s eyes. Always steady, always staring a hole straight through her. But only with her. There was something else in her eyes when she talked to other people, especially Hye Sun. She was more alive. It seemed as if she was trying to make herself smaller around Grey, and it hurt. But it wasn’t like it was unwarranted- Grey had given her plenty of reasons to feel smaller. 

She tried her hardest not to ball her hands into fists, push her fingernails straight through her palms. She wouldn’t blame Anika if she hated her. She hated herself, but that was never enough. There was always someone else to push away, push into the dark. It was a talent, her ability to make others dislike her as much as she did when she looked in the mirror.

But today she kept her hands at her sides. She unclenched her jaw, tried again.

“How are you?” she asked, and it sounded as forced coming out of her mouth as she expected it would. But it was something. 

[maeragrey-blog]

VALERIE

“Oh, I didn’t mean it like that,” Valerie backtracked quickly. The last thing she wanted was to make things more difficult between the Wardlaw and Lake Placid girls. She only thought it was i n t e r e s t i n g. “Besides,” Valerie added. “It’s not like the boys feel that way about us. I get the feeling they’re intrigued.”

It was true that having students from another school was just FASCINATING. Valerie cared a lot about all the new things they could teach her – all the different experiences they’d had. “If we’re aiming for fighting words, however, I’d argue that you’re not fighting with anybody unless you’re talking face to face. Though I’d prefer if we just grabbed some coffee and talked about our favorite television shows.”

Valerie’s enthusiasm was starting to wear on Grey’s nerves already. Maybe 10 seconds into a conversation and she was ready to shake her violently by the shoulders, get it into her head that people were not as kind as she was, as she wanted them to be.

It was probably pointless, but Grey felt the need to pound some of her cynicism into Valerie’s head. It was time for her to understand how the world worked.

“There is only one reason a teenage boy is ever intrigued with anyone,” she said coldly, stopping to face Valerie. “And as for the girls, don’t expect them to come knock on your door for a sleepover. I promise that every single one of them is looking at us, convinced that we’re not ‘real witches’. They might not have a choice in being here, but they will certainly take the opportunity to prove that they have more of right to practice magic than us.” She looked at the smaller girl, looked right into her sparkling eyes. “Don’t trust them.”

[merflk]

moodboard: ocean witches

[maeragrey-blog]

SANTI

a split second passes and a sharpness cuts through that layer of mocked humor; his cheshire grin takes the worst of the damage, bleeding out and leaving only an unsheathed stare. a girl familiar with his behavior deserves santi’s brutal authenticity.  “i think, first of all, we should probably figure out if that british fuck is even spewing an ounce of truth, and listen, we definitely don’t fucking have to worry about shit, even if there is a hex,” that grin experiences it’s final breathes as it shows for the last time, “i’m pretty sure i have an in with some of the faculty.”

This peaked Grey’s interest. She was close enough to Lilliana that if they did get caught, she had a feeling Professor Brooks would make sure the punishment wasn’t too severe. But if Santi thought they had a way around the new rules altogether, she wanted to know. They must have something on one of the professors, that was the only explanation. 

The thought crashed into her. Everyone knew about Oliver’s scandal from a few years ago. Maybe he’d been up to his old games. It probably wasn’t her best idea to bring this up to Santi, but she was curious.

“Are there some incriminating photographs I should know about?” 

[maeragrey-blog]

AARON

he couldn’t help but smile in return – she was stubborn, certainly. unaffected by his curt remarks (though he was really just teasing her, but aaron wasn’t going to get into that), he decided that maybe she just took herself too seriously to have any fun. he wondered briefly if all the americans were like that; unequivocally bitter and prideful, two truly unflattering characteristics. 

“thank you,” he finally said, a sweet smile still on his face. “so kind of you, really. i know how hard it must be for you all to adjust to all these foreigners,” aaron paused to laugh. “but your smile is rather unbelievable.”

Grey let her exaggeration of a smile crack into something more genuine as he began to reply. When he spoke this time, it seemed more like he was trying to show her that he could keep up, which he could. He was quick, that was obvious. She didn’t mind people like him as much. They at least provided interesting conversation. 

But your smile is rather unbelievable, he finished.

The walls went up so quickly that Grey barely took a breath before she was barricaded, impenetrable, made of steel. There was a chance he wasn’t flirting, but that didn’t matter. The only thing that mattered is that he might have been. 

“Good,” she said after a moment, smile gone. Her whole body was rigid. “I’m glad you didn’t believe it. I was hoping it would shut you up.”

[attaches]

[maeragrey-blog]

OLIVER

“But the toy has delicate parts.“ There was a weight of fondness in his voice as he replied. She’d played to his vanity, and it made him accommodating. “Let’s keep each other company for awhile. There’s safety in numbers, and you can chase them away with your piercing, blue eyes.”

More out of politeness than interest, Oliver asked, “How was your break?”

Grey let a corner of her mouth rise in a dry smile. Oliver had a knack for letting the perfect words come out of his mouth, an ability to twist himself ever-so-slightly to fit the people he was around. It was a surprising comfort, his familiar wit and disarming smile.

She let her head fall backwards, a sigh pulling itself from deep inside her. Being at home was complicated for her. It was her favorite place in the world, the small blue house right on the water. Her room bathed in early morning light, the smell of the sea in every breath. Her father’s voice calling to her from his chair in the sun room, asking her to look over the newest draft of the book he was trying to finish. The record player tucked in the kitchen, the way sound carried through the house like a breeze. The feeling of sand between her toes before the sun baked it burning. The ocean. 

But this summer, something was different. For the first time in a long time, she found herself wanting someone to talk to. Her father was good conversation of course, but not quite what she was looking for. Not that she spent much of her time at Lake Placid making conversation, but the people she did talk to, she missed. She tried not to miss some of them, but she did.

“It was quiet,” she said. She wasn’t going to expand, Oliver wasn’t one of the few privy to her true personal life. But his personal life wasn’t quite as hushed as hers. Time to change the subject. “How about you? Did your mother behave?”

[maeragrey-blog]

NOLAN

This was going to take some getting used to. This school year was going to be unlike anything he had ever experienced before and he knew it. Though it was the unknown that scared him in every aspect of his life.

An eyebrow rose as he heard her response. There was nothing to worry about, at least he assumed that’s what they should inform the students. “If not the accents, then what could be on your mind?” He questioned. His shoulders tensed as he waited for a response. 

Grey fought the urge to snap. What could be on her mind? She was currently holding three months of magic so tightly in her chest that she thought she might implode. Her home had been invaded by a swarm of outsiders. She’d spent the whole summer trying not to think of some people and now they were here, in front of her. Her hands were shaking and she was having a hard time hiding it for once. She was almost out of cigarettes. 

“I like my personal space,” she said through gritted teeth, “Is that a good enough reason to be on edge for you?”

[le-flaneur-visuel-blog]

Emotion, Nobuhiko  Ōbayashi (1966)