brb, jumping off a cliff [liam]

Marisol had come to the Falls alone today. Things were getting more and more strained with Carter and Skye, and even though she knew it was her fault, she felt helpless to stop it. Bar kept telling her all she had to do was have fun with them and stop pushing them away, but Marisol was just constantly feeling blah and unhappy and couldn't bring herself to fake having fun.

I need to snap out of this, she thought. If she kept this up she was going to lose her remaining two best friends, and the worst part was she'd know it was her fault. She just needed some way to feel alive again.

Jumping off Tamar Falls had been one of her favorite activities ever she had settled. She would take Jeanine, Carter and Skye, and use her eilemaiden to ensure they hit the water softly. Even though they weren't here with her now, she thought that maybe she could get that rush of excitement again and lift her mood.

Ready Bar? she asked, holding onto him.

Ready! Bar affirmed. Jumping off the Falls always made him nervous, but he was happy that Mar was at least trying something to feel happy again.

She took a running start and leapt off the edge of the Falls.

Today was one of Liam's rare days off. Those were few and far in between as an overloridian, and whenever he got one he took full advantage of it. This morning he had slept in, and then enjoyed a picnic by himself at Hope's grave.

While he was there a fierce breeze had swept in, upsetting his hat and blowing it away. The hat had landed on a newer grave, and Liam had been saddened to see it belonged to a young girl who hadn't passed away too long ago. She was only seventeen and it pained Liam's heart when he realized she and Hope had been the same age when they died. After his picnic for one was over, Liam took one of the flowers out of the bouquet he had gathered for Hope and set it on the girl's grave, hoping silently that her family was doing okay without her.

Since then, Liam had been wandering around in the Woods of Happy, he and Kyrie taking their time. It was nice to have no where to be, and Liam always liked being around nature. Kyrie didn't mind either, and the two of them roamed in silence, taking the chance to breathe a little.

They'd been in the woods for hours when they finally happened on the Tamar Falls. The beautiful waterfall crashed down a sloping hill, it's waters eager to race around the Ramat River. A timid rainbow was just barely peaking out of the foamy bubbles at the bottom of the thundering falls. It was very picturesque, and Liam was glad they had come this far.

His peaceful day was shattered though, as a scream came from the top of Tamar. His eyes shot up the rocky ledge, and he spotted a girl speeding headfirst towards the bottom of the falls.

Without pausing for a breath, Liam lept up and shot over to where the girl was careening parallel to the racing water. He grabbed her out of the air, his arms folding over her small frame. His heart was beating a million miles per second and he and the girl landed on the opposite side of the river.

"Are you crazy?" he snapped at her, releasing her from his death grip. "You could have died!"

So much for a peaceful day.

Marisol felt the wind rush at her face and the familiar spray of the waterfall. For the few seconds she was falling, she imagined her friends' laughter from up above and things felt almost...normal again.

Then that feeling of normalcy was shattered when a strange man suddenly grabbed her out of the air. She screamed when she felt his arms wrap around her tightly from out of nowhere. When he pulled her to the other side of the river and let go, she immediately look several steps back, her heart pounding. She was squeezing Barbaro so hard she could feel it herself.

"Who are you!? What are you doing!?" she yelled, completely freaked out, before realizing what the strange man had said to her. She could have died? What the heck was he talking about!? "I can fly, you idiot, I do this all the time!"

His heart was still racing when the girl whose life he had just saved started screaming at him.

Marisol wrote:"I can fly, you idiot, I do this all the time!"

Kyrie laughed from across the bank. Liam, the superhero!

Liam ignored her. He closed his eyes and wiped a hand down his face, shaking his head. Of course she would be Cuir.

"I'm sorry," he told her, "I had no idea." Which, to be fair, he didn't. "I just saw you falling," he said, motioning to the top of the falls, "and reacted." He was an idiot.

"Well--" Marisol started, ready to yell at him again, when she managed to calm down and realize he was just a guy who had made an honest mistake. She took a deep breath. "Well you just...scared me, okay?"

Now that she didn't have a reason to feel scared, she just felt the adrenaline high one got after a scary, but ultimately harmless situation, like a rollercoaster. It was the most alive she had felt in months.

"Who are you, anyways?" she asked. Even though she hadn't really been in danger, it was actually pretty impressive how he was able to jump into action to try to save someone he didn't even know. "Do you just walk around, looking for random girls to rescue?"

Liam raised his eyes when she asked him who he was. "I don't often meet a Cuir clio who doesn't recognize me," he told her with a smile. "Maybe I shouldn't tell you."

Or maybe you should, so she doesn't go back to thinking you're a creep, Kyrie commented. She bent down to eat some grass like a good deer.

"Or maybe I should so you don't go back to thinking I'm a creep," Liam said, mimicking his daemon. "I'm Liam. And I try not to make it a habit, the saving random girls bit, I mean," he added. "Sometimes I just can't help myself."

Marisol stared at him blankly, wondering what he was talking about and why his name being Liam should mean anything to her.

Liam Pendant, silly, Bar said. The overloridian.

Oh. Then, out loud: "Oh!" Oh god. The overloridian. Not just any overloridian, but her overloridian. She had called her overloridian an idiot. "Ohmygod! I'm sorry I called you an idiot! I didn't mean it!" she exclaimed, putting her hands to her face. He didn't seem mad, but still!

Liam's smile lit up his whole face. "Don't worry about it," he told her with a slight laugh. She was cute when she was embarrassed, her face all red. "I've heard worse."

It didn't matter how fairly you tried to rule, some clio just didn't agree with anything. He'd had to learn early on that he couldn't make everyone happy.

"It's nice to even the playing field, though. I'm sorry I insulted your flying skills by pulling you out of the air, you're sorry you called me an idiot... it all evens out. You think I'd know your name by now, but I don't seem to have caught it?"

Marisol was relieved when Liam smiled and laughed. He had a really cute smile, too. Was it weird to think that? She laughed too, still a little nervous to be in the presence of such an important person. "I'm Marisol," she replied. "Marisol Eligius. This is Barbaro."

"Hi!" Bar greeted.

"We were just jumping off the Falls for fun," she explained, even though he had almost certainly figured that out. "We do it all the time."

Liam nodded at her daemon and jerked his head in the direction of his own who was still grazing on the other side of the river. "The deer is Kyrie," he told the pair. Kyrie looked up in acknowledgement and then returned to her grass. "She says hi," he explained. They wouldn't have been able to hear her over the crashing falls.

"Hmmm... Eligius," Liam wondered out loud. "Any relation to Alecis?" A Cuir overloridian in the past had shared Marisol's last name. She'd been before either of their times, of course.

"Uh, no," Marisol said slowly. Her extended family life was a complicated one. She decided just to say the same thing she told everyone who asked about her last name: "Rowan Eligius was my great-grandfather. I'm actually related to a few overloridians distantly." She had never met any of them before, though, which was why she had been so stunned to meet a real overloridian.

"That's not a big deal though," she went on. Some people seemed to think that because she had some great grandparents and a third cousin or something who were overloridians, that she had some sort of power or something. "I never knew any of 'em. I'm just normal." She paused, before realizing the implications of what she just said. "Uh, not that you're not normal! Just...um...you know what I mean."

She wanted to cover her face again.

"Ah, a Dian," Liam mused, politely ignoring Marisol's embarrassment. He thought of Tamar, who was the current Dian overloridian.

"Was the falls-diving what made you choose Cuir, then?" he asked. He couldn't help asking the Cuirs he met why they had chosen his eilemaiden. No matter what he did he brought his overloridian work with him. He needed to get out more.

"Well, I just really wanted to be able to fly," Marisol said. As soon as she said it, she felt like it sounded kind of childish. "I mean, you know, flying is useful and stuff...for getting places..." And that made her sound boring. "But fun, too." Oh god, why was she so awkward?

"What about you?" she asked quickly, trying to move on from her mess of an answer. Then she realized Liam obviously hadn't chosen to be Cuir. Why did being around this guy suddenly turn her into a tongue-tied idiot?! Oh, right, because he was incredibly attractive, rich, famous and powerful. That was why.

"I mean, were you happy you got Cuir?" she amended.

Liam had tried to ignore her struggles earlier, but as she got tied up over herself again he couldn't help but laugh. She was getting that adorable red color to her face again.

"Flying is fun," he agreed. "And I always wanted to be Cuir, growing up," he told her truthfully. He left out the part about spending the last several years of his life wishing he could have been anything but Cuir.

"I do love the clouds. I'd say that has to be one of the best parts. Do you live in Cuir?"

Marisol blushed when he laughed, but he didn't do it in a mocking way. Plus, she had to admit that she probably did sound pretty ridiculous. He was really nice about it though, and just continued the conversation like she hadn't totally botched it. What a nice person he was, on top of everything else.

"No, I live at the school," she said, regaining her composure. "I'm actually kinda sorta supposed to be there right now, heh."

Liam grimaced (this sounds mean, but I can't find a better word for it) at Marisol. "Aw, man, Marisol," he teased, "you're putting me in a pretty tough spot. Didn't I just say I was the overloridian?"

He winked at her. "Sometimes you just gotta take a personal day, am I right? In fact, that's what I'm doing right now."

He bent down and then laid in the grass, spreading his arms out as far as they could on either side of him. "Taking a day off from the real world and relaxing."

He had never gotten to attend Redfern, but he was sure the work was stressful. Any work was stressful. That's why they called it work.

"Just can't do it too often," he added, feeling like a bad role model.

Kyrie picked her head up and watched the clio on the other side of the river. She hadn't expected the conversation to last as long as it had--with Liam, they never did. But here he was, getting along great. Maybe there was hope for him after all.

Liam wrote:"Just can't do it too often,"

"Heheh, right, of course not," Marisol said quickly. Truth be told, she had been skipping a lot of school lately. She just hadn't been able to focus in class anyways, and some days she couldn't even get herself out of bed.

She sat down next to him, cross-legged. Despite her nervous awkwardness, this felt kind of...nice. Maybe she did just have to get out of the school environment for a while, away from everyone who knew her and had known Jeanine, and just have a normal conversation with someone. Sure she had had that month off, but that was immediately after the accident, when all her feelings were still fresh, and she had spent the whole time grief-stricken and guilt-ridden.

Was this okay? Was it okay to be feeling kind of content? Her friend was still dead. Part of the reason she couldn't move on was because she felt like she deserved to feel unhappy. It was why she was having such a hard time with Carter and Skye, who both wanted to move on and feel better.

She sighed. These kinds of thoughts just always found a way to creep back into her head, even when she had been feeling kind of okay for the first time in months.

"Is it hard being an overloridian?" she asked, trying to get her mind off Jeanine and back onto the conversation with Liam. She picked at the grass absent-mindedly. "I mean, I can barely handle school sometimes, let alone running a whole eilemaiden."

Liam thought for a moment. His go to answer was always, "It's not that bad." But if he was honest, it was definitely the hardest thing he had ever done.

"You know, it's really the stress that gets you," he told her. "When I allow myself a day off here or there it helps a lot."

He left out the boring details of trying to make sure everyone was happy, trying to establish trade among the other eilemaiden while keeping the economy stable, making choices about policies and laws that could either make or break Cuir.

"Yeah, stress pretty much covers it. And learning how to let things go. Once you find out how to deal with that, the rest is smooth sailing. Most of the time, at least."

He closed his eyes and let the sun shine on his face.

Marisol looked down. "How do you deal with it?" she asked. She knew their situations were totally different, but being able to deal with stress and let things go were things that Marisol hadn't been doing very well lately. Maybe she could learn something from Liam. "Do you have friends you talk to?"

Kyrie snorted.

"A therapist," Liam admitted, though he wasn't sure why. It wasn't like it was a secret, but it also wasn't something he went around telling strangers.

Sure, he had a lot of clio he considered friends that he could talk to if he wanted, but for some reason Liam didn't have anyone he just really clicked with. None of his friends knew that much about him, and Liam liked it that way. He would rather be alone than be surrounded by clio he wasn't sure even liked him for him. He'd left that behind when Hope was buried into the ground.

And it wasn't as bad as it sounded--having to pay someone to listen to your problems. It was nice having someone listen to you talk about your troubles and not truly expecting them to care. Sometimes that was what it took to realize you weren't as bad as you thought. Friends and family glossed things over. Therapists didn't.

Marisol blinked in surprise. She hadn't been expecting that answer at all. For some reason the idea of an overloridian going to a therapist was just strange. But then again, why should it be? He was just a person, just like her.

That means if it works for him it might work for you too, Bar pointed out.

Marisol's knee-jerk reaction was to get mad at Bar for such a suggestion. Her, need a therapist? What could some random clio tell her about her own feelings that she didn't already know? But...but maybe he was right. If even an overloridian could admit he needed help, why couldn't she?

"Oh. Does--does that work, then, going to a therapist?" she asked, trying to sound all casual. "It's helpful?"

"Better than you'd expect," Liam replied truthfully. He'd been wary of going at first, but after he'd attended a few sessions he felt a lot better about himself and his situation. Therapy tended to have a social stigma around it, but he wasn't sure why. Talking to friends about your problems didn't.

Her interest caught Liam's attention, but he didn't mention it. She obviously didn't want to talk about it, and he wasn't one to pry. He had enough of that in his life to know how it felt.

They sat for a few moments in silence, and Liam suspected she was mulling over the new information on therapy. But he'd come out here for a bit of fresh air and fun, and it seemed like she had, too. He felt bad for giving her a deep topic to think about, especially on her personal day from school.

"You know, I've never jumped off the falls," he told her, opening his eyes and sitting up. He rested back on his hands.

Marisol was deep in thought about the prospect of going to therapy. She was also thinking about Skye and Carter, and how she should apologize to them. Like, really apologize. Maybe tell them about the therapy idea so they knew she would be trying to work on things. Her heart began to sink as she thought of all the tough conversations ahead of her.

But then Liam mention never jumping off the Falls, she perked back up momentarily. "Never?" she asked in disbelief. "But...but you're Cuir! It's practically a right of passage! You have to do it."

She jumped up and grabbed his arm, trying to get him up with her. "Come on!"

There was nothing like being there for someone's first Falls jump. It was exciting enough to let Marisol push thoughts of the past and the future out of her head for a few short moments and focus on the present.

Liam smiled and let himself be pulled away by an excited Marisol. Liam floated Kyrie over to their side of the river, and then they started to climb the hill that lead to the head of the falls.

Soon the four were at the top of the falls, looking over the drop and watching as the rushing water crashed down the cliff. "You do this often?" he asked. Even though he knew they could fly, it still seemed a little dangerous. Especially for school aged clio who hadn't completely harnessed their power yet.

Liam never would have even thought to do this.

"Yeah!" Marisol replied. She noticed Liam's dubious look. "I can jump with you if you're scared." It came out sounding like she was teasing, but the offer was sincere. Even for a Cuir it could be hard to take the plunge, and Marisol had had to talk lots of hesitant clio into it before. Sometimes it was easier to do it with a friend. She held out her hand to him and smiled.