All Night, But Not All Right

Posted on Thu Nov 30th, 2023 @ 7:48 by Claire Cavendish & Sarah Bright

Chapter: All Hallow's Eve
Location: Library
Timeline: Early morning after the attack, November 1st
2856 words - 5.7 OF Standard Post Measure

Sarah could not have said what hour it was, but the moonlight streaming in through the skylights suggested some very early hour of the morning; an hour that normally saw very few awake, Such was not the case tonight, however, which may have contributed to her uncertainty. The library was busy, filled with as many students as any study hall Sarah had supervised, and was uncharacteristically louder.

A group of five students talked loudly over their tabletop roleplaying game, their dice clattering against the hardwood table as they battled imaginary foes. Normally Sarah did not allow the students to play their game in the library, even though she'd been told it was the perfect setting for the game. But the kids were simply too loud, caught up in their fantasy characters and heroics, and the library had to be a place reserved primarily for peaceful study. But tonight Sarah allowed them their fantasies. In truth she was amazed at how resilient the spirit of imagination of a kid could be.

At the moment Sarah was not feeling particularly resilient about much of anything. After the attack, while the other faculty members regrouped and secured the school grounds, she'd run to her room to hide and spent what felt like forever crying in the shower. One moment she'd been enjoying a nice holiday themed party, and the next she was drowning at the bottom of a lake. Then hostile mutants attacked the school, and Sarah... well, she'd almost killed one of them. She managed to convince herself that if she'd done nothing then some of the students might've gotten hurt, but it was a hollow conviction entertained by an equally hollowed woman.

The tears had not lasted for long though. The hot shower had been nice to wash away some of the nights chaos, but it was still water, and much too similar to the cold grip of the lake. She hadn't even bothered trying to sleep. Instead, she'd gotten dressed, in her usual attire, and decided to busy herself in the library until someone came around to tell her what the fuck was going on. And when she got there, Sarah saw that quite a few of the students were thinking the same thing.

"Here, roll your dice on this, please." Sarah said to the group of role players as she set down an atlas on the tabletop, which was one of the larger sized books in the library. Not all the students there were so energetic, and many seemed to be dozing contentedly , wrapped up in their blankets on the floor, or tucked into the handful of comfy Victorian wingback reading chairs. The clattering of dice on the hardwood tabletop seemed to be waking some of them up, though hearing only the normal chatter related to games brought them quickly back to their sleep. There was safety in numbers, and the other students must've figured that the D&D nerds wouldn't be playing their game if it wasn't safe.

A feeling of safety is just what the Head Mistress was looking to convey to all of the staff and students. Something she had been unsuccesful at with regards to their new librarian on account of the fact that she had trouble locating her. Until she heard about several missing students being holed up in the library. It was a bit of a relief actually, allowed her to focus on other pressing matters and circle back around to those who had found safety with each other in what had to be one of the oldest portions of the castle. Some of the books at the very least were truly old.

With some hesitance Claire made her way into what was mostly a study hall. Sounds of shouts put her on alert for the moment it took her to realise it was excited shouts rather than panicked ones. It had been abundantly clear why Robin Hood had come around to the institute, what was still a big question is why he had left when he had, and why as far as they could ascertain there had been no follow-up.

"Miss Bright." The purple Cavendish drew the attention of the librarian in hushed tones as she was making her way back to her desk.

Still on the lookout for trouble, Sarah had spotted the headmistress as soon as she'd entered, but for some reason chose to act like she didn't notice. Yes, it probably made her seem oblivious and continually ineffectual, but for some reason it was important to Sarah that she look calm, and unperturbed by recent events. And who knows, maybe she was actually pulling that off. She was no longer the dripping wet, shoeless, and half-dead ragamuffin that Claire had seen last (and might've still been expecting). She was freshly groomed and dressed in one of her usual outfits, this time a green sweater, paired with a complementing pleated, plaid skirt in lighter shades. One would think that after almost being drowned by her heavy, leather costume boots Sarah would have opted for more forgiving shoes, but no... she'd gone straight for the heels. Yes they were a bit loud, and not very comfortable, but they required a constant state of focus that felt like a welcome distraction from recent events.

"Miss Cavendish." Sarah replied just as succinctly, trying not to let the awkwardness of what she was feeling bleed through her processional facade. As far as the librarian knew none of the students had been outside of the building during the attack, or knew about her evening after being teleported away from the party. Of course Claire certainly did. It was difficult to notice at first, but the room did noticeably quiet. The D&D kids were still playing, but it went without saying that every student awake was interested in what the Headmistress had to say.

Claire made her way up to stand next to the librarian and gave a warm smile. "Thank you." Her voice was in hushed tones as they looked out over the kids that slowly returned their attention to their game and reading. When there was no response other than a puzzled look the head teacher added; "for giving them a place to feel safe."

Sarah was touched by Claire's gratitude, but her appreciation was mixed in with a handful of other emotions and expressions that were probably hard to accurately read. Amusement? Embarrassment? Endearment? All of that mixed in with a touch of fear perhaps?

"They came here to make sure I was safe." Sarah said very quietly, looking down at a small pile of books on waiting to be reshelved... a job that would've waited for tomorrow, but in that moment strongly tempted the librarian. With a subtle point of her finger she indicated the students playing their tabletop D&D game. They had been there playing when she arrived at the library, and had been relieved to see that she was okay. Even though she'd told them to scram numerous times for loudly playing their games, something in the air had made her feel compelled to let them play. Only after watching them for a while did Sarah notice that they weren't just playing. They all sat facing one another, yes, but they were also watching every corner, every entrance, and window of the room. And they weren't just watching each other's backs. The "dungeon master" sat facing where most of the other students slept, and she occasionally peered over her privacy screen toward them as she conducted the game. They talked a lot, sometimes loudly, but they only talked one at a time, and never over one another. They were watching the area far better than she could alone.

"They're good kids." Claire nodded in appreciation of that fact. "I came here to offer my sincere apologies for dumping you in the water, and subsequently in the middle of a fight." She still wasn't facing the room as she spoke. "That must've been terrifying, especially without any abilities to defend oneself." Still not making eye contact as she made that comment, hoping she could pry something loose about her status as a mutant. She had denied being one in their initial contacts, as well as during their first face to face meetings. There was something about her though, it just didn't feel like she'd be sticking around with them were it not for some deep rooted reason within herself. None of the other information the head teacher knew about the librarian accounted for that.

Sarah found herself having difficulty making eye contact with Claire also, so she didn't quite notice the headmistress having her own shoegaze moment. She felt like the headmistress was subtly interrogating her, and would have probably gotten a different impression had she bothered to look up. "It's okay..." She began, not sounding very shaken, and considering continuing on with her denials of having any abilities at all. But logic suggested that that might not be such a great idea. The school had just been attacked by other mutants, and continuing to be evasive would only make it harder to fit in when and if it was discovered that she wasn't being entirely truthful.

"I wasn't lying when I told you I don't have an x-gene." Sarah offered, finally looking up a bit. "But that doesn't mean I can't defend myself. I'm just not very good at it. I'm not proud that I hurt that woman, but she came here to pick a fight and put these kids in danger." The librarian did her best to keep her voice cool and collected, and made it sound as if she were talking about her rationale for restricting a student's borrowing privileges over late books, and not the fact that she'd almost stopped someone's heart.

"Don't apologise for standing your ground and defending what you believe in. Sometimes that's all we have." It felt a bit stilted coming from someone like Claire, but she knew like no other what it meant to bend the knee. She'd worked hard for the ability to rise up against the tide of mutaphobia. She just never expected to have to stand up against what should probably be considered their own people. "There are quite a few people here that might be able to help you finding more confidence and control over your abilities. Exactly how did you hurt her?"

Sarah looked decidedly uncomfortable. She'd never offered an explanation of her abilities to anyone, and though her parents had been able to infer much on their own, they'd never seemed inclined to press her for answers. She'd long assumed that they didn't really want to know--more or less the same reaction to her sexuality.

"People... their bodies, I mean, talk to me. And I can talk to them. I can tell how they're feeling. Not emotions, but physically. And if I concentrate hard enough, or if I'm angry enough, I can make them feel however I want them to feel." She paused for a moment, and visibly swallowed. "That woman with the staff... I could feel she was on a power high. Her heart felt like it was beating two hundred times a minute. And whatever she was doing, it was affecting me too. I made her feel like she was about to have a heart attack... something I don't think I'd normally be able to do."

"Oh. That's. Not nothing." Claire needed a moment to process that. Giving someone a heart attack with a thought seemed like a very nasty kind of ability to have, especially in times where you had less control, she remembered shimmering out of view when she was super embarrassed during her teens and didn't want to imagine the same sort of reflex but with someone else suffering the consequences. "You protected us though, they came looking for a fight and found us ready to defend." It hadn't felt like it at the time but they had stood their ground and with all of their abilities they'd been able to chase away the Rangers before worse came to worst. "How are you feeling now?"

Sarah was not using her powers at that moment, but going off of Claire's momentary pause, she could imagine feeling the other woman's heart skip a beat, if she had. In her own mind, it really was kind of nothing. She'd made that woman feel like she was having a heart attack, but that was the keyword--feel. The heart was the hardest-working part of the body. And she very much doubted that there was anything she could do with her powers to convince it to take the day off work.

As for how Sarah was feeling, she wasn't even sure how to explain. Actually it was simple, she felt like crap, but she just didn't want to say it. Her feet hurt from having to run around barefoot after almost drowning in the lake, and she still had some of that lake water in her lungs. A normal person's body would've put them through uncontrollable coughing spasms until they got every last trace of it up. That, and they would talk with a noticeable raspy wheeze. Sarah's body was a bit more stubborn; that, or maybe stoic and dignified, as she would've liked to believe. She could suppress the impulse to cough, but only if she didn't inhale too deeply. Her powers were feeding off of the core of British stoicism that had been ingrained in her during her boarding school days. 'Keep calm and carry on," as the proverb went. In general that inner deception was more harmful than anything, and Sarah had struggled with it for years.

"I'm okay, but I don't think I'd be able to manage the same trick if they decided to try their luck aga--"

"CRITICAL!" One of the students seated at the table shrieked aloud as he thumped the table excitedly. roughly breaking the comfortable quiet. His fellow gamers shushed him rather loudly, but the damage had already been done, with many of the slumbering students waking and seeming rather annoyed.

Sarah, barely holding it together to begin with, did not react well to the sudden outburst. Her voice broke with a pitiful, frightened squeak, as she almost jumped out of her shoes. Almost teetering off of her heels, she dropped her handful of books with a loud clatter and then clutched onto a bookshelf for dear life to steady herself. Her eyes glowed with ire as she steadied herself, likely because she'd been made to look like a literal pushover in front of her employer, but there were also subtle hints that this may not have been the the night's first outburst. She seemed poised to round on the offending students, and perhaps unleash some of the stress that was quietly boiling-over, if her eyes were any indication. This of course put Claire right into the awkward and perhaps difficult position of quickly deciding whether to bear witness or preemptively intervene.

"Alright everyone, lights out." The head mistress declared in her most authoritative voice. She stepped forward and put a hand on the shoulder of the student calling out their high roll with glee. She wasn't mad, but with everyone there on edge and the librarian clearly also on her last leg it was time to enforce some sort of normalcy.

The DM gave a single nod and started to pack up the stuff in front of them, knowing when to fold. The student that had cried out ecstatically was now slumped into his chair, another encouraging pat on his shoulder meant to convey that regardless of what just happened Claire had always been there to shut things down. Seeing that nobody was protesting she made her way back over to Sarah.

"Perhaps it's time for you to retire to your quarters as well. I'll make sure nobody disturbs the books here."

Sarah nodded, taking a deep breath. Would she really have lost her cool? What would she have said? It was a good thing Claire had come when she did. Part of her wanted nothing more than to heed the headmistress' words. Part of Sarah's abilities meant that she never felt tired, but she knew she was exhausted. But the latter bit of what Claire said got her thinking, and the sounds of a storm front moving in reminded her of the one they'd just weathered. Nothing had disturbed the books up in the library, but what about the ones down in storage? She'd had the most valuable ones moved down there for safekeeping. Had any of the intruders gotten down there? Sarah knew she wouldn't be able to find any true rest until she checked.

"Good night then, and thanks." Sarah said, feigning a yawn before moving to retrieve her messenger bag from beside her desk. Why didn't she just say what she intended to do? The little white lie paled before the one she'd just fessed up to, so why not? She was having trouble processing just how overwhelming tonight had been. Hopefully tomorrow would be better.