Taking Cover

Posted on Wed Feb 15th, 2023 @ 21:19 by Donald Johnson & Mia Misati & Ophelia Sideris & Shauna Murphy
Edited on on Wed Feb 15th, 2023 @ 22:24

Chapter: Prologue: Dawn of Avalon
Location: The Grounds, Avalon Institute
Timeline: Morning of Friday, 25th September
3387 words - 6.8 OF Standard Post Measure

"There you are."

The familiar husky brogue had a way of carrying across open spaces with seemingly little effort, a natural ability to command attention that became increasingly ironic the more you unravelled the propensities of the girl at the centre of the force. Even out of uniform, Shauna Murphy had the disposition of a prefect without any of the prior track record to warrant the responsibility. She certainly walked across the lawns at a pace that suggested she belonged wherever she deemed it appropriate to place herself at any given time. Excessive confidence and an inflated sense of entitlement aside, the flushed redhead did appear somewhat excited to have finally tracked down her intended target, an arm slipped through the younger girl's as a group of boarders hovered at a distance to watch the faculty set up for the larger onslaught of students later that morning.

Shauna had arrived early, and independently, because of course she had. In due course, she'd expect the rest of her closest circle of friends to trickle in, not many of them caught the train, but for now she was content to settle for the oddest addition to her social circle. Nobody but Shauna understood why she gave Ophelia the time of day. Perhaps it was the slightly pained expression of baffled pride that it evoked on the head mistress' face. It certainly wasn't something she'd ever sought permission for from the other girl's perspective and so, despite possibly preferring to be left alone, the younger mutant instead found herself at the mercy of a keen mind's abundant curiosity.

"Did Cavendish dismiss half the faculty?" Of the staff moving back and forward to assist, Shauna recognised very few. It was entirely in keeping with expectations that this distracted her from asking how the holidays had treated the young boarder. In all likelihood, she would never ask.

Ophelia had always been mousey, skittish even. Some of those kids less kind than even the one who'd roped her arm just now had always called her a squirrel or some other less flattering version of a rodent. Normally, she'd drown out all the fresh faces and try to manage her social anxiety inside, alone, where her senses gave her more than enough advance warning to prepare for trouble. But today she'd gambled on going unnoticed in favor of some fresh air and maybe turning a new leaf with greeting some of her so-called friends when they got off the bus. Shauna's arrival, despite the younger, shorter... physically far more average teen's gifts, caught her off-guard and she couldn't help jumping.

Her voice started at a higher pitch, nervousness bleeding through and down the stuttering tones, like a speech she was trying to give for a class without practicing first. "Sh-shauna! I didn't know you were here... No, I don't think she did. They were all really nice last year. I hope not..." She trailed off, brow knitting, and now, even if Shauna responded, she wasn't really listening. She let her senses take flight, eyes and ears, like her own version of a wizard's familiar out of one of those movies. Here she could take proper stock of who was familiar, who wasn't, all from a distance. Though she did stop suddenly in the middle of walking to do it. No warning, full slack.

"I don't recognise him." Shauna's eagle eyes scanned the swarming adults. "Or her." The abrupt stop was enough to distract her, the tiniest jolt of surprise before recognition flooded back in and extreme indulgence took its place. "Oh, stop that. Nobody's going to bother you here. If it makes you feel any better," the redhead mentioned slyly, "You're the only one who can see me at the moment." A common trick and the bane of Cavendish's life. Thus fair, the head mistress' attempts to guide the younger mutant's footsteps towards more appropriate application of her powers had been met with mixed results.

"You just haven't bothered to show up for art classes is all. But you're right about her. Smells like lavender." An offhand comment, before Ophelia's head jerked and her eyes shot to Shauna, saucer-like and shaking for just a moment. Was she talking to a ghost? She'd swear she was sober. Oh... right. She deflated even more than she already was and sighed her relief. "Do you like your... gifts? Not being seen by people? I'd use that all the time if I had it. But I see everyone instead. And smell them... The locker room is the worst."

"It would be a deal more tedious if I had no control over it." Shauna sounded unperturbed. Unlike some who found themselves with the ability to fade away from other's visual range, the young mutant had discovered quite early on a particular aptitude for being selective with her targets. Right now, her friend could see her perfectly. As far as the rest of those gathered were concerned, however, Ophelia was having a lovely chat to thin air. Shauna would never have admitted to it outright but the fact that very few would have questioned that about the girl did add some appeal to her company. "As it stands, they're very useful, particularly when you're surrounded by people who want to dictate terms." She meant adults, of course. Anyone within the mutant's social circles knew how closely she'd been counting down the days until her 18th birthday.

"I don't think I'd ever stop hiding." She adds timidly, continuing her walk and turning once she's within a certain proximity of the crowd to move parallel to it, keep her distance and watch. The thought that she looked like she was talking to herself didn't even really occur to her, much less as a bad thing. A ward of the state, rescued from an institution? Word got out, rumors started, but "talking to herself" was hardly the worst of it, and so she didn't really mind the accusation. "Always telling you when to go to bed, what's appropriate to wear in public, what's real and what's not... what do they know? You'd tell me if you weren't real, right, Shauna?"

She looked almost expectantly at her friend next to her, more sideways than head on, needing to tuck some hair behind her ear to not block sight entirely, long and unruly as it was even after she'd begrudgingly cleaned up for all the ceremony today.

"I think you'd be able to figure it out." One thing about Shauna, and it was sometimes enigmatically different to what people expected of her, was that she didn't begrudge others their powers. Hers proved particularly useful, if not downright amusing, but they didn't tend to define what the mutant wanted out of life. Through her mother's contacts, she was learning of a technological boom expected to reshape the way humanity did things and that held far more interest as a career prospect. Shauna really didn't seem to mind that Ophelia's extra-sensory prowess gave her an advantage over tracking down the visually obscure, though it possibly went some way to explaining why she kept the girl in her good books. "Besides, I'm just biding my time whilst I scope out this new talent." Her blue eyes darted as a hunter's might across the available prey.

DJ stepped outside wearing blue jeans a black turtleneck and a smoke gray sport coat, he put on his sunglasses as he stood in front of the area where the busses of students would soon arrive. His orders from Claire were to get the kids inside without incident, where the experienced teachers would get them to their destination. His job was simple, get kids inside the building.

As he scanned the grounds around the entrance he spotted a girl talking to herself, she must be lost or nervous, he thought to himself, or maybe she's just shy. He walked towards the young girl and said in his natural Southern drawl, "Howdy, I'm DJ, the new music teacher. Do you need help getting into the building?"

Ophelia looked up at the new arrival, caught somewhere between surprise at his appearance (though she truly had noticed him before the door had even closed behind him coming outside), and fascination with his outfit. She sniffed at the air, glancing briefly at Shauna. "He's a new one. I wonder what that fabric blend is..."

She cleared her throat, returning to DJ with a smile and another useless tucking of her messy hair behind one ear. For all the evidence presented, she certainly acted as if she hadn't talked to herself out loud just then. "Hello, Mr. DJ. Is that like the DJ at a club? Because you teach music? I enjoy music, but my piano playing is rusty... Can you teach me guitar instead?"

DJ chuckled at the rapid fire questions, if all students started with this kind of enthusiasm here, it would be a fun year. "DJ, is my initials, I'm not a radio shock jock, or a club DJ. As far as lessons go we can work on both instruments if you like. I'm not going to teach just the classics, we will work on some newer stuff too. Everyone learns Bach or Beethoven, not everyone learns Guns and Roses or Queen.:

Whilst the pair spoke, Shauna had detangled herself from Ophelia to moving with carefully placed footsteps around a wide enough circumference to avoid the teacher's potential to note the slight change in air flow. A wary glance in Cavendish's direction ensured the head mistress wasn't taking an active interest, having previously had more than enough to say about Shauna's tendency to test where people's breaking points were. It was hard to feel overly apologetic about that in the current climate. Having been raised by adults who more or less treated her like one herself, the concept of automatic respect and deference was entirely lost on the redheaded mutant. Teachers, much like students, had to earn her trust. Cavendish, at least according to her parents, had a bleeding heart's tendency to give people the benefit of the doubt far too easily.

Several step backwards allowed her a feasible entry point, with just enough distance to mask her sudden materialisation as a simple, yet highly unobtrusive, arrival. "Ophelia, darling," Shauna purred. "Are you playing with your food again?"

The girl's eyes lit up when DJ mentioned learning more modern music. Was this about to be the best year ever? Sure seemed like it. "I would love all of that, Mr. DJ! I'll be the best new student you've ever had! Have you taught before? I--" Shauna's sudden (re?)appearance caught her off guard. Was the girl still invisible to everyone else? Was she messing with Ophelia or just making a proper entrance now? Far as the smaller girl knew, Shauna still hadn't settled if she was real to begin with. Or maybe this Shauna was real and the previous one had been a figment! So many options.

Choice paralysis threatened a fidgeting Ophelia, mouth opening for words that didn't come several times before DJ seemed to at least acknowledge Shauna's presence with his eyes. Okay, dodged that bullet. "We have plenty of food in the pantry, Shauna. Why would we resort to cannibalism?" But alas, another profound question gone unanswered as another familiar face approached, Ophelia smiling bashfully at Mia.

Having observed from a slight distance so far, Mia had watched and waited to see just how much of an interest Shauna and Ophelia were going to take in their new music teacher. Bouncing along with exaggerated enthusiasm, she pushed herself in between her two friends.

"Anyong!" she grinned, eyes studying DJ's reaction carefully. "Welcome to Avalon! We'd be really happy to show you the way, sir..."

"And there is our Energizer bunny." It was likely no accident that Shauna's reference dipped into American pop culture. An arm draped over Mia's shoulder allowed her to draw the girl in for a peck on the cheek. "You got prettier, stop it."

"Ugh, you stop it." Mia feigned offense with a limp swat of her hand. "Could you be any more cute. Speaking of..." She drew the word out as her eyes turned back to DJ. "Where you from, seonsaengnim?"

"I'm from the States," DJ began, "But I've lived in the UK off an on depending on where I went with my work. To answer your question, yes I have taught before, and my current objective is to get you girls inside. When you have your walk through later to see where your classes are we can discuss music and whatever you wish."

Ophelia looks at DJ with no hidden amount of confusion before leaning closer to Mia and Shauna, using a stage whisper. "I thought we were gonna show him the castle? I already know where my room is, same as every year... Did they move our rooms around when I was asleep?" Her eyes go wide, regarding Mia more so then. She would ask Shauna, but she only just got here, and Ophelia still hadn't quite ditched the idea that Shauna was a figment of her imagination, so the choice was obvious. Squinting her eyes, she looked at DJ again, smiling as if anything she'd done had been subtle or unnoticed by him. "Are you sure we can't wait out here for our friends?"

"Of course we can," Shauna answered for the teacher, and though her response was so clearly in direct opposition to an instruction from an authority figure, the girl's tone wasn't exactly defiant. In order to be truly disobedient, you had to acknowledge the existence of a valid directive in the first place. Shauna barely seemed to register that at teacher was trying to achieve anything at all. "It's not as if Cavendish isn't going to haul us all out here to wave balloons anyway."

"The busses will be here soon, and the last thing we need is students thinking they can go anywhere they wish on the campus. I will ask nicely one more time," DJ said firmly, "Please wait inside, we are trying to minimize chaos, and no I don't think room assignments changed but again you can confirm that INSIDE," he said with a heavy emphasis on the last word.

That bit got a wide-eyed look from Ophelia, her hands tucking into her overly long sleeves. She once more dipped toward the two girls next to her, using her usual whisper that was still pretty audible. "He used emphasis on that last word. I think he means it. But don't worry, I'll check the room assignments, I'm pretty sure we're still in the same ones." Something on the air made her nose twitch, wrinkle, and the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end about then. Not that she had seemed to be joking before, but now she quieted to something a little more... anxious. Her smaller frame slid in next to DJ and her half-covered fingers coiled around the outside of his hand while her eyes went elsewhere. "I hope they get home soon, I think a storm is coming."

Whilst Ophelia did her usual trick of capitulating to the loudest voice in the room, Shauna had taken her time to pause and size up the latest challenge. The girl had long ago perfected an expression that wasn't quite disdain, didn't really resemble arrogance, and yet was just as open and confronting in its sheer strength of confidence as both combined. Telling her to do something on the basis of 'because I said so' had about the same effectiveness as it did with a toddler but without the ensuing tantrum. Instead, she simply permitted a break in her scrutiny to hitch her eyebrows slightly and remarked, "The head mistress must have changed her procedure this year." Several unblinking moments of direct eye contact followed. "Normally she encourages us to join the welcoming committee."

DJ was a little surprised at the girl's ability to sense the storm and hold his hand, he squeezed her hand reassuringly, "We'll be inside before the storm hits," he said looking towards the horizon for signs of a storm before responding to the other girl. "The headmistress would like the welcoming committee inside, if you don't start moving that way you're gonna spend your free time polishing the brass instruments your first week here, and I really don't think that's how you want to spend your spare time."

"Calm down," Shauna cautioned, linking arms with Mia and leaving Ophelia to fawn over her new favourite teacher as the pair stepped ahead and started moving towards the front door. "I don't think I want to go anywhere near your instruments, thanks." A glance shared between the two older girls dissolved into a snort of laughter from the redhead and a grimace that indicated she had very intentionally interpreted the threat as something untoward. Still, she was moving, and more or less in the direction she'd been told to.

DJ ignored Shauna's last comment and watched them slowly move toward where he had been trying to get them to go all along. "If this was how the school year was starting it would be an extremely long year," he thought to himself. His train of thought was interrupted by an overhead alarm and announcement calling all students inside the facility.

Blissfully unaware of Shauna's little game with their new professor, that game of cat and mouse she was fond of, Ophelia's senses were almost entirely absent. Her hand squeezed itself in DJ's, but it was not for comfort (not at the moment anyway), rather a physical anchor for a girl who wasn't entirely present. She had practiced her gifts extensively since coming to the school, but that feeling never got old. Her sight, her hearing, soaring on some ethereal wind away from her physical location and following this thunder that rattled her nerves.

"That's no storm. It's big. Why is it purple? Mr. Johnston is coming. And the bus. But it's all moving too fast. Something is wr--" The alarms cut her off, but more drowned out her quieted, staccato statements. The girl herself didn't hear a thing, or didn't seem to react if she did. She just held DJ's hand. Her anchor.

DJ was a bit unnerved at the grip Ophelia had on him especially when she began to speak, "There's a purple robot? what are you talking about?" He asked cautiously as he tried to lead her towards the safety of the building.

"She's telling you to get a move on," Shauna called out without looking back. Leaning towards Mia, the older mutant murmured something to her friend and then spun around, ensuring her next few footsteps were taken backwards. "And when Ophelia tells you that something is coming, something she describes as wrong, then you really better take cover, sir." An unwavering stare levelled itself at the music teacher once more, but this time, there wasn't any amusement in Shauna's eyes. Holding out her hand, she beckoned to the young girl by his side. "Come on, 'Lia, we'll be okay inside."

The youngest of the trio of girls came back to her physical self about half-way through the back and forth. Her eyes trailed between DJ and Shauna. One the authority figure that was her anchor in the here and now, the other a defacto authority that had been in her life off and on for a few years now. "You see her too?" Her only words to DJ out of the whole exchange with a hopeful look on her features.

She didn't wait for a response though, squeezing his hand in thanks with a brief, "Thank you for being my rock," uttered as if practiced time and again before she slipped away to take Shauna's hand and follow the older girl inside. "We should go inside, Shauna, it's not safe out here."

"You're welcome," DJ replied still unsure what was happening with the child, I need to talk kto someone about her when this is over he thought to himself as he ushered the children to the building.