-- THAT BEAUTIFUL INSANITY && [lark]

The lights were so incredibly bright; brighter than she last remembered. Maybe they turned them up as it got later? Hell if she knew. Either way Lark squinted against the double halos lingering overhead in attempts to try and keep hold of her bearings. Well, whatever was left of her bearings. The night had been pretty awesome so far at least; Josh had taken Lark to a music festival in Vancouver for her birthday. Being the music junkie that she was, the girl was more than excited to make the trip and enjoy the weekend. Too bad the remainder of the evening would probably be forgotten as she sluggishly tagged along with her best friend down the street, dying of laughter. Where they were going, she hadn't a damn clue. All she knew was that her sides hurt and her eyes were watering over something she could hardly remember talking about and finding so incredibly hilarious. "Oh my god," Lark breathed, her face hurting from smiling. "I know right? It hurts Ioku, it hurts! Why do you have to be so goddamn funny, brah. You'll...you'll be the death of me one day." It would probably be more the fact that they were wandering around in a city they hardly knew while intoxicated. Yeah, that was the epitome of intelligence right there.

She nodded lazily, looking down at Josh. "Uh huh. Hoooome, hooome on the raaange...where the dicks and the--no wait. That's not right..." Ah, who cares? All that mattered was that they were going back to their hotel now and would probably crash and burn soon after hitting the beds. She shrugged it off and and burst into a fit of giggles as Josh caught himself on the light post and thanked it promptly after. "Good light post." She patted it affectionately before glancing up and down the street. This was going to be a pain in the ass, and even drunk Lark knew that.

She normally would have argued with him, said that he was crazy for thinking he was the directional god of Vancouver, but in her right state she merely agreed with him and was willing to follow. "You totally know. I trust your instincts. Just..uh..don't stick your nose to the ground or some shit because you might snort a bug and die." Like that made any sense but the train of thought was logical to her. She said this with all seriousness, a small flash of concern crossing her features. What if he did inhale a bug? He would choke, and then Lark would be so incredibly sad. And the story she would have to tell everyone else would probably be unbelievable to those not present. Soon they were off and walking again, Lark's shoes scuffing on the pavement in a lazy attempt to keep up with her friend. Eventually the lights dimmed away and the darkness encompassed them. It was nice not having to squint constantly. She stopped just as abruptly as Josh did when he came face to face with the sign; sobriety would have been rather wonderful at this point but too late for that now.

"Seriously Josh?" She asked, eyes widening a little bit as she pressed an index finger to the cold metal. "It clearly says 'Only Awesomness Beyond This Point', so they are obviously talk..talking to us. Ahh yup." The Lark had spoken. She promptly wandered out onto the beach, ignoring the sign as well and falling back with a huff. The sky sure was nice, as was the sound of the waves. Nothing beat Hawaii, though. She sat up and nodded, watching and waiting for a fire to appear. A frown creased her lips when nothing happened. "You're broken," Lark pointed out bluntly, poking him in the arm. Oh god, what if he was broken forever? That just wouldn't do! Before allowing herself to get into some state of panic, Josh suggested making a fire and she quickly forgot what it was she was worrying over. Ah, alcohol. With a wobbly view of the world the girl attempted to stand up. "Yeah, let's do it! And we should do a fire dance or some shit. Because...because that would be awesome. We can summon your Fire powers back!" Now excited about this, Lark tried to skip towards a pile of driftwood and managed to trip over a small hill of sand, faceplanting. Sand was so sandy! Gross. She spit it out and coughed. "Fuck sand! Why did it do that to me? So mean..."

It was so incredibly hard to breathe, but she did manage to spurt out the words, "So awesome, man. So awesome." It sounded like half-mumbled garble but she understood it and that was all that mattered at the moment. That, and the fact that she was hungry, and the lights above their heads were awfully bright. If only she had some sort of magical power to make them go away. Lark nearly staggered backwards as she tried to look at her best friend, a rather indignant scowl on her face. "Wait wait wait," This was hard to process! "So I have to ask you if it's okay to die? But...but what if I die suddenly. Like a heart attack or a bear mauls me to death. I can't let you know then!" Oh god, and then that would mean dying without his permission and he would be so angry at her and she did not want to make Josh angry. "You...you won't be mad at me if I die suddenly, right? I don't like it when you're mad at me." She pouted and shuffled her feet, looking like a child.

Lark blinked at Josh, taking in his insult without really understanding much of it. She thought she was a damn good singer--at least drunk. He's just tone deaf. She gave the man an excuse that he didn't actually need, but it helped justify the reason behind his comment. "And you suck at singing too." Lark shot back with an indignant huff. Not that he had sung anything, really, but it would do for now. She replaced the frown with a smile and nodded, giving the lamp an appreciative glance before looking at her best friend again. "Aww, that's so sweet! Like...like a lampbromance. Or something. Fuck if I know." Words were hard. Even the word 'lampbromance' made her fumble a little bit and she could have sworn it made her spit more than normal. Either way she was incredibly amused by this and could not help but laugh out loud, drawing the attention of a few sober passerby's who could only shake their heads in silent shame. A look of relief washed over her face as he reassured her he did not need the ground; there was no way in hell she was going to give someone CPR with a bug lodged in their throat. Ew, ew, ew. Even so, it took her an extra moment before she realized something. "Hey!" She looked legitimately angry. "How the fuck did you come with a built in compass? I want one too! Why are you all special and shit." That was not even fair! And where could you even get one of those? She had to know. Oh, Josh would be getting a boat load of questions on this matter later...if she could find the means to remember this conversation an hour from now.

"That's because I have super reading powers. You have your dinky built in compass, and I can read. Simple as that." Lark boasted, crossing her arms and wearing a cocky smile on her face. It dissipated a second later as she realized oh, beach. Easily distracted, much?

She inclined her head at him and shook her head with a very serious expression on her face. "Oh yeah? Well fuck you too, brah. Fuck. You. Too." What were they even talking about? Uhh. Hell if she knew. All she knew was that she was flustered about his comment, even though that did not last for long. Her emotions were like a crazy rollercoaster; one minute she was happy, the next freaked out, the next frustrated, and then it reverted to happy again. She crossed her arms. "Yes you do, don't lie," The girl accused, pointing a finger at him. "You can't keep shit like that from me, Josh. I know everything, like a fucking ninja or something." With a black outfit and a katana and everything. Now her mind was focused on how awesome it would be to have the skills of a ninja. This did not help when she tripped in the sand. "Just you wait, it'll get you too! The sand will exact its revenge on anyone who steps on it. And trust me, it tastes awful." It crunched between her teeth and made weird noises. Her eyes drifted towards the water when he told it to shut up, amused but not saying anything.

Instantly her gaze was drawn to Josh as he got up to grab a piece of driftwood; Lark stayed where she was. There was no way the sand was going to trip her up this time! She would beat the system. "I dunno," She mumbled, pressing a finger to her lips in thought. "Maybe...maybe we can use a magic wand. Oh oh oh! Or we can bash two rocks together. That usually works." Like on those survival shows, only they knew what they were doing and were probably sober. Damn. "Ughhh I want a fire! Why can't it just make itself." That would be convenient.

Even drunk, Lark knew that her best friend was intelligent but she could not help but feel that a bear was still a great possibility. Sobriety probably would have been a wonderful help tonight but that was not even an option anymore. She would wake up in the morning with hardly any recollection of the night before. So long as they did not do anything really stupid they should be fine. "You don't know that, they could be anywhere." Her voice grew quiet as she shifted her gaze around them, just watching and waiting for a bear to come out of the shadows and attack. Never mind the fact that they were in the middle of the city; bears were still a great possibility in her mind! Lark observed him for a long moment, still looking hesitant about him getting mad at her for an accidental death. Despite her temper, she still hated having those she cared about getting upset over things she said or did. "Fiiiiine. Fine fine. I'm not...not going to die. I'm gonna fucking live forever, like Superman or some shit." Because he was awesome, and had a bad ass suit.

She growled, eyes narrowing. His last comment was not completely lost on her. "And you don't know me either," Lark countered calmly. "You suck at singing, and I don't. Simple as that!" She threw her hands up into the air and waved them around dramatically, the anger she felt dissipating after a few moments. Amusing how, without liquor, there probably wouldn't even be confrontation. Silly drunk people.

"I'll yell about whatever I want to," She replied defiantly, lifting her chin and stalking off ahead of him with a childish stomp to her step. "You're just jealous. Bitches are always jealous of my awesomness. You'll come to terms with it eventually." Everyone did, why couldn't Josh do that sooner? It was annoying as fuck and it made her frustrated that she had to try and convince him that she was just as good if not better than he was. In her subconscious she always admired her best friend and looked up to him; he really was someone Lark found to be quite epic. Right now, though, she didn't care and wanted to argue because reasons. Lark flared her nostrils and crossed her arms. "Fine, I'll find my own damn hotel. And if I can't find it and I wind up sleeping on the street, it's all your fault Ioku. All your fault." To wake up in a street gutter did not exactly sound ideal and Lark wanted to avoid that if at all possible. She trusted Josh to get her back to the hotel safe and sound, even though her words said otherwise.

There was no disputing the fact that Josh could read, and even Lark knew that he was capable of it, but right now that did not matter. She was the epic reader tonight! There was a scowl on her face as she glanced at her friend, not feeling the least bit intimidated. She had known him for a long time, which helped. "Dick." Was all Lark said on that matter. Her words were so eloquent this evening, as were her arguing skills. They always seemed so friendly to one another when intoxicated. She stared him down with an intent (but glazed over) expression, jaw locked. Why were they even arguing about this? At this point, Lark did not even care. "I'm not gonna make you do shit. I know you always do what you want." And she did too, but that was beside the point. The dude was over six feet tall and could be a formidable opponent, so trying to make the man do anything could potentially end in disaster. Anyone with intelligence knew that. "I know everythinggggg," Lark teased, rolling her head back with a laugh. When she was done having her moment, she eyed her friend, then glanced down at the sand with a thoughtful frown. "You're just gonna stare at the sand the whole time?" She asked, tilting her head. "What about when we leave? There won't be any sand and then what?" She had to know!

There was a fairly disappointed expression on Lark's face. "So that's his middle name. Freaking. Harry Freaking Potter. That's actually a pretty sweet name, huh? I wanna change my middle name now." Marie was so boring and plain and...ugh. Maybe something new? That would require a bit of thought and thinking hurt and she just wanted to get this fire going sometime soon. She nodded slowly, absorbing Josh's words before managing to make some sort of reply. The words were in her head, it was merely putting them out in the open that was the hard part. "It sucks ass. Stupid fire. Burst into flames!" Lark demanded, glaring at the drift wood for a long time before slumping into the sand with a sigh. "I hate it, Josh. It's not nice." The wood wasn't nice, the fire wasn't nice, and the sand wasn't nice. So many mean things. Lark flicked her wrist and attempted to get the fire going, now determined to make this work. There was a tiny flame, but it was too small to have done anything. One moment it was there, the next it was gone. Damn. "Ughhh I'm broken too! What the fuck. What is my life."

There was a snide part of her that wanted to come up with some epic response to his disgruntlement towards Vancouver, but by the time she thought of anything remotely useful it flitted in and out of her subconscious as quick as the breeze that brushed by. 'Your face is obnoxious' seemed like a wonderful come back; however it was probably for the best that it was just a fleeting thought. She merely shrugged and looked upwards towards the sky, unable to really see much of anything past the halos that were the street lamps lining the road. That was definitely obnoxious, she agreed, and made some sort of hum in her throat as a delayed confirmation to his words. "Then why did you come?" Lark asked innocently, voice light and airy as she stepped. They did not have to travel outside of the Hollow to have their fun; she was perfectly content to get wasted back home too. The music festival had been a hell of a lot of fun, though. "Well, duh," Lark replied, rolling her eyes. "Of course superman is immortal. And he's invincible, except to Kryptonite which everyone already knows." Her inner comic book loving self was coming out, but she didn't care. It was Josh. She trusted him with all of her quirks even if she did not say anything aloud.

"You have everything to be jealous of. You just don't wanna admit it." Her index finger waggled limply in his directly before falling back at her side, the conversation completely lost on her. What were they talking about again? All she knew was that Josh should be jealous, though jealous about what she did not know. She furrowed her eyebrows together and looked indignant, but did not say anything on the matter. I'm not being stupid! The thought existed in her head, it lingered long enough for her to say something, but her brain could not process it into words at a quick enough pace either way. Arguments were not even valid during times of intoxication, so at least in the long run it did not even matter.

She still looked genuinely concerned about the sand coming after Josh, even though his logic made more sense than hers. Fuck logic. Lark was not even sure which way was up at this point. "Uhhh..." Processing words was hard. "Well, maybe it'll come to life and suck you in. And then you won't even stand a fucking chance, brah. It's like the Bermuda Triangle, only in sand form." Instead of disappearing at sea you would just get sucked under the sand and never be heard from again. That would make for a really interesting horror movie. Cheap and probably not scary to a better portion of the population but hey, most horror movies seemed to end up like that. For a moment Lark allowed herself to come up with an epic plot to said movie, the name not even an issue at this point. She lost her train of thought soon after when Josh spoke again. She pouted. "Ugh, I almost had something there and you made me lose it," Now it sounded almost as though Lark were whining, but at the same time came across as more angry than anything. "It was going to be aweeesome. And don't trust the laundromat," She glanced at him with a rather fearful expression on her face. "They'll put itch powder in your clothes if you aren't nice to them." That happened to Frank once and it caused the girl to burst out into a fit of giggles at the thought. Looking back it was a bit horrific but that was years ago. Now she could have cared less and felt that the man deserved every ounce of bad luck that sauntered his way.

There was no real explanation as to why she was aggravated that Josh was content with his middle name, but there was really no questioning it. Instead she huffed a big sigh and a grunt before saying, "Well, I'm glad someone does. Marie sounds so blaaand. Doesn't it? It's as boring as the name Norman." Normal Norman. That sounded so gross and icky and ugh. Now Lark was determined to fuck with her middle name just so she could avoid being a Norman. She crossed her arms. "Oh yeah? Well...well..." Her words trailed away slowly, nothing epic coming to mind. Fuck arguments. Fuck being angry. Fuck everything. She played with the sand for a moment before feeling the heat of the fire and the light momentarily blinding her, causing her to fall back on the sand and stare at it fearfully. "Holy fuck! That..was so cool! How did you do it!? You fixed the broken!" This was so amazing, she could not even comprehend it fully. After watching it for a minute, she crawled over to it and simply stared into the flames. "Hey, hey Josh." She said it softly, thoughtfully. "I just wanted to say that you're the most awesomely awesome person. Made of awesome. It's been one of the best birthdays of all ti--" She stopped as an unfamiliar sound reached her ears, and a new set of lights appeared from the road. Blue and red. At first it didn't register, then she looked to her best friend. "Look! Maybe they came to take us back to our hotel!"

At Josh's request, Lark promptly stood stock still and passed him a proper salute before throwing her arm back down at her side; it was her way of letting him know that she understood his 'orders'. Did stuff like this actually go on in the Hollow though? The city was fairly decent in size but due to the location they did not get festivals like this one on a frequent basis. Or did they? I should look that up later. Not that she would remember, and if she did it would be a miracle. At his comment, the girl looked at him with a scowl of her own. "I didn't fucking treat anyone like they were stupid," She shot back with a grumble, shoulders tense. What was a simple conversation about super heroes turned a bit sour, both of them now angry for one reason or another. Tempers were so lovely. Lark felt the slight difference in temperature but did not even make note of it aloud. She just continued to glare at her best friend and hoped he could feel her gaze burning into the side of his head.

She diverted her eyes to the sand beneath her and observed it as though seeing it in a new light. So far it had yet to suck her under and into some other dimension. That was good at least. To test this theory, Lark reached out and pressed her hand into the tiny grains and winced. Nothing. Hm. She pulled her hand away and merely looked contemplative. "It is not!" Lark looked affronted. "I know you had to have heard about those ships disappearing. That can't be a coincidence. It just can't be." Normally she would have agreed with her best friend, said that the Bermuda Triangle did not exist and if it did then there was probably some sort of logical explanation behind it. Not tonight. The alcohol was coursing freely in her veins now. Josh asked the question about the laundromats and the girl soon forgot her worries about the Triangle. Her memory was about the span of a goldfish. "Not...not to me directly no. But it happened to my dad one time. He was mad that they stained one of his uhhh...one of those suit things. And they got mad back and put itch powder in it." At this point Frank did not really cause Lark to change her expression or attitude, considering the memory was rather simple and her attention was in ten different directions. Her face lit up a little. "Can I watch you punch them? It would be funny shit. Not the..the itch powder part but the whole 'you breaking their nose' thing." She would die laughing. No regrets.

She tilted her head to the side and blinked. "It is? Holy fuck am I related to her?" That would be creepy. Not necessarily in a bad way, but more like one of those instances where you feel the world is slowly shrinking and you're related to more people than you first realized. "Norman. That would be a weird name for a girl. That would be like naming you Cindy or something." And suddenly the image of Josh in a dress flashed in her mind and the girl burst out laughing, though she never said what it was that made her laugh in the first place. Instead she wiped her face and took a deep breath. "You're definitely not a girl." She stated firmly, nodding.

Josh obviously had a talent for creating fire from sand. When his fist hit the ground a second time to show Lark what it was that had caused the initial flame, she looked as eager as a child. "Holy shit holy shit that's so awesome," She clapped her hands. "You're so talented. I wish I could do that." It really did not take much to excite her, especially when it came to something that looked so magical. She giggled and leaned in to meet him halfway in their awkward hug, about to say something when those obnoxious lights distracted her. Why now? They were having their fun on the beach. She blinked several times, slowly, before trying to stand up. "Like I said, maybe they wanna take us back to our hotel! Maybe we sent off some sort of radar or some shit that let them know we were lostttt." Lark fell back a little bit, staggering before waving at the police. "Hi! Hey! We're over heeeere!" She was unaware of the potential trouble they were in. When they approached she could only smile at them in a goofy, drunk fashion before looking at her best friend. One of them had their handcuffs ready, the other looked rather upset. "Do you realize that you're trespassing?" He asked calmly, lifting his chin. Lark ticked her head to the side and thought about it for a moment. "Uhhh...no? I didn't see anywhere that said we couldn't be here. Right Josh?" Well, the night seemed to be going pretty well.

Lark did not quite look convinced by her friend's words; how did he know that scientists had the answer to everything? Logic was a bit skewed right now due to the alcohol so in her mind her thought processes made sense and thus it was possible for ships to magically disappear in the ocean and leave no trace. Thus, his comments were frustrating. "Whaaatever," She blew him off and waved a limp hand in his direction to dismiss the conversation. Just like he believed that there was no way for them to disappear, other people believed that it was possible. Like he said, people believed what they wanted to believe.

She was completely unaware of the fact that mentioning Frank aroused a surge of anger in Josh; the alcohol left her a little loose-lipped and her train of thought tended to come out in spurts when she decided to open her mouth. Fortunately the situation was not dark or negative, nor did it involve harming his daughter in any way, so that also prevented Lark from giving it much thought. Josh's outburst did cause her to draw her head away from him and rub her ear dramatically. "Good god," She mumbled under her breath. "No need to yell." Not that she was much better. She always tended to get overexcited and raise her voice a lot when under the influence. She dropped her hand and nodded at him, continuing the conversation like normal. "Yeeep, pretty much. Dad was so angry. You should've seen him yelling and threatening them...said they would wind up buying him a new wardrobe if they kept their shit up." Pissing off a Fire elemental was probably not the wisest idea, and no matter how bitter Lark felt towards her father she had to admit that he was in the right on that one. She shook her head to agree with Josh. It definitely wasn't right. You can't mess up someone's clothing and then get mad when they displayed their upset over it. How professional was that? "You have? That's bad ass," She commented airily, as though discussing what they had for lunch that day. There were no broken noses on her part that she could thoroughly remember but she had had enough fights to make it possible.

"We'll uhh..." Damn, why did he have to ask that question? Now that required coming up with some epic answer and nothing was coming to mind. Alcohol tended to slow down her thought processes down a significant amount. "We can use a washing machine. Yep. And I'll wash all of our clothes." She sprawled her hands out and looked up at the sky for emphasis. Doing laundry normally would not excite her but hey, she was not really all there anyway.

There was a child-like light in her eyes as Lark observed her best friend, a smile creeping across her face. Related? That would be ten times better than claiming relation to Frank and Paula any day. "Really? That would be so awesome. I've always wanted you to be my older brother." Not that she didn't already consider him as such already but an official title would be nice. She was no where near as close with anyone else. Josh was practically family. The only family she had. Nell and Pacey came up close in the list, and of course Ashton but he had a separate category altogether. Her emotions about family were obviously disturbed by the cops and she ignored her friend's attempt to try and stop her from calling them over. They were already on their way to confront them as it was so it would not have done any good. The officer did not look pleased at all, eyes narrowed. "The sign says 'no trespassing'," He pointed out, drawing his finger in the direction of said sign. "If you weren't wasted you might have been able to figure it out." For whatever reason this made Lark angry and she tossed her hands onto her hips, scowling. Josh's making acquaintance with the sand hardly went noticed. "We can be drunk if we wanna be. I don't see a law that says we can't be. So. There." The officer grumbled to himself, kicked sand on the fire to douse it, and snagged Lark by the arm. The other one attempting to haul Josh to his feet. "Come on, let's go." They did not cuff them but seemed intent on putting them in the back of the cop car. Lark whined. "We just wanna go to our hotellll."