per ardua ad astra

Darlene almost faltered when she got a better look at the woman. She was pretty, and that thought made all of the colour drain from Darlene’s face. Under the other’s stare, Darlene dropped her gaze, eyes discreetly going to the side as if to see if anyone else was watching her; as if she was all of a sudden conscious of her surroundings and how she acted. The black wood rosary beads hidden beneath her cardigan suddenly felt heavier, and she shifted her weight from one foot to the other. Girls can think that other girls are pretty. That doesn’t mean a thing. Darlene managed to look back up at the woman eventually, and when she did, her cheeks tinged pink. “A map?” Darlene frowned a little. “I can’t read maps. And why would I need one? They’re for boys, men, not girls.” She hugged her bedsheets to her chest when the woman held out a hand for her to shake, and stood there staring at it. “Darlene Sadler.” Her lips thinned. “You’re not the one who is goin’ to be showing me around, are you?” It seemed a stupid question, considering the woman was already here to at least welcome Darlene into her new bedroom. Darlene glanced inside before adding. “I mean, around the… whole… place. There are a… lot of’ – sinful people around here. I don’t really want to be around them.”

Alix’s mouth opened at Darlene’s words, like she was going to say something but didn’t quite know how to. Which she didn’t, really, but Alix rarely knew what to say in any given situation. “I... I’m not sure how it is where you’re from, but you can read maps here if you want to. Everyone can. It’s pretty easy once you get the hang of it. Maybe I can help you? I’m not that good at it myself but we can figure it out together.” She swallowed and smiled, eventually letting her hand drop from the space between them once she realized Darlene wasn’t going to shake it. She was odd, Alix decided, though she didn’t let the kind smile waver on her face. Wherever she had come from and what she was used to was obviously very different from the academy -- and the whole reason Alix was there was to help her get to grips with that. She hadn’t been told where Darlene came from, or even anything about her apart from her name and room number, and wondered if it would be rude to ask questions. “It’s nice to meet you, Darlene.” At that moment she remembered the girl was probably wanting to get into her new room, and she stepped back further inside, so as to let her pass. “I -- I am going to be showing you around, yes.” At first Alix frowned, wondering if she’d done something wrong -- until Darlene said something more and she realized it wasn’t anything to do with her at all. “Oh, well... we don’t have to see the whole place today. Just the main places. So you know where you’re going when you need to eat or want to speak with someone. Then maybe tomorrow we can look around other places, if you feel like it.” She hesitated, wondering if the brunette had a problem with other people in general (what was that sinner comment about?), and took a small step closer to her. “If you’re worried about, y’know, other people being around then we can take the tour in between classes. Then everywhere will be empty.”

For the past two months, Darlene Sadler, daughter of John Sadler, had been isolated from the rest of the inhabitants at Morgana Academy. Nobody knew of her, except for several of the adults that periodically came to check on her, to talk to her, to teach her about this life. She remembered their names. Grace Walker was Darlene’s most frequent visitor. Vera Keneally her least. The latter had come once or twice. The first time was to inspect her health, but when asked to remove her clothing so that her body could be examined for any irregularities, Darlene had vehemently refused. You will do no such thing, she’d said, and had been prepared to fight. But the small woman had only looked at her, then calmly nodded her demission. Darlene knew that her body would be marked with old wounds from beatings, both from others and from herself. She didn’t want anyone seeing those; not out of any shame, but because the markings would raise only more questions of which she was not willing to answer. Not yet, at least. She needed to make up a believable story.

Alix had been eager to help with pretty much anything since arriving at the academy, and that had included some things she wished she hadn’t agreed to. Night patrols were definitely high on the list of things she didn’t like, and covering for some of the senior classes hadn’t been that pleasant either -- she was too nervous to really have any authority and most of the students knew that. The fact that she was a human didn’t help in some cases, though admittedly her fears about being hated for not having some kind of ability had been largely put to rest. So in the midst of the multiple things Alix had dreaded being asked to do again, helping a new student to settle in was perhaps a blessing in disguise. She hadn’t been told much about Darlene Sadler, except for that she might have trouble getting used to things and need a bit of guidance, and Alix was confident she’d be able to help with those things. 

Oblivious to the ways in which she hurt others, it didn’t register in her mind that what she said may have been… less than kind; unfair, too, but then Zelda was prone to judging anyone — human or mutant — about three seconds after meeting them. The only thing Zelda could really focus on, at this point, was her efforts to draw the woman’s attention away from asking questions that could stick her into deeper shit: why are you here, of all places? For instance. Zelda stared at the woman, relentless, even as the woman appeared to grow uncomfortable under the watchful eye of a mutant. She had known some of the kidnapped students. Tales of their time spent in those facilities had drawn even Zelda’s sympathy; Zelda’s compassion. She wasn’t heartless, nor cruel, perhaps inadvertently mean to those who weren’t her friends, but good natured all the same. Even she knew when to stop. Sometimes. Rarely. At least with the facility business!

“Yeah, well... what if they took you by surprise and it was a very heavy torch, and they hit you over the head with it before you even knew they were there? Then you’d probably be knocked out and wouldn’t be able to defend yourself with, uh, Cyclops eye beams. Maybe not if you were made of silver because... I think something a little heavier would need to be used for that. And maybe the person wouldn’t have a torch. Maybe they’d have a brick, or a baseball bat or something big and lethal like that. You don’t know, so... you just have to be careful. That’s all I’m trying to say.” A pretty lengthy way of saying it. Way to go, Alix. She walked next to the girl towards the end of the hallway, letting her go a step or so in front in case they were taking any turns, but apparently they were just heading towards the exit. She nodded, once, though she didn’t think the girl was looking at her, and realised then that she didn’t even know who she was. “So, what’s your name? I didn’t even ask, so... yeah. I’m Alix, by the way.” If they weren’t walking, and if she didn’t think it would have been a bit odd, she might have offered her hand to shake. 

Grace quickly blinked away previous alarm, staring at Alix with raised brows as the human woman explained, albeit frantically, that her kitchen was on fire. “Jesus Christ.” Grace murmured, and tugged on her bathrobe’s ties to tighten it around her body a little more. Saying nothing more, Grace disappeared back into her apartment’s hallway to grab her own fire extinguisher, and her door keys so that she might get back inside afterwards, before returning to Alix. “Make way for the Gay.” She ushered, already pulling the pin from the extinguisher. She needn’t ask where the woman lived because that, right then, was obvious. Alix was no doubt following after Grace as she made her way through the woman’s hallways, grateful that the layout for the apartments were the same, and into the kitchen. A pan, very much on fire, spewed smoke, and Grace leant back on her bare heels a moment. Lips pressing into a firm line, she aimed the extinguisher and squeezed its handle, sweeping the nozzle from side to side as it sprayed. It didn’t take long for the fire to go out, and what was left was a very smokey, smelly kitchen. Grace placed her forearm over her mouth as she coughed. “I’m going to need another shower.” Grace wafted the air in front of her face before turning to look back at Alix, arms gesturing in the direction of the foamed mess. “Ta-da. Anything else? Any DIY? You’ll have to wait for me to put my plaid shirt on for that. And some pants.”

When Grace disappeared back into her own apartment with little much else said, Alix was fearful that she might have just decided to go back to bed. Luckily the woman appeared again a few seconds later, carrying a fire extinguisher and a set of keys, and if Alix hadn’t been so worried about burning the school down she might have laughed at what Grace said then. She trailed behind the older woman, chewing on the nails of her right hand and pausing in the doorway of the kitchen to watch as the fire was put out. Once the flames were gone most of her nerves died down, though it took her a second to look from the blackened smokey mess her kitchen now was to Grace’s face. “I -- thank you.” She might have hugged the woman if she knew her a little better. “I’m so sorry for disturbing you and everything, I just didn’t really know what to do. My fire extinguisher is empty for some reason and I thought it was just me, y’know, not being able to use it or something, but then I figured out that it was just empty. And ‘cause I’d spent so long doing that the fire just got worse and... I’m really sorry. And very grateful.” Alix paused for a moment for breath, running a hand through her hair and giving Grace and apologetic smile. “I’d offer you tea or something but, uh, it looks like my kitchen is out of commission for a while.”

Another early morning, one of which had been accompanied by a sleepless night. But Fergus didn’t struggle to remain focused, as used to staying awake for days on end as he was. He sat in the cafeteria on his own, as per the norm, watching students and teachers come and go with their trays of food or their coffees, though early risers appeared few and far between this morning. Most mornings here, actually. Fergus was reminded of Moscow, of his home, more specifically of the years before his brothers, his family, were all murdered. As boys, they were up at four each morning, and not a minute sooner – lest they cared little for a beating. It was different here. The teachers were lax where the students were concerned, not that Fergus wished to see them experience the same kind of schooling he’d had. This worked just fine. He was just taking a final sip of his coffee when some poor sod seemingly tripped on nothing and sent their tray flying. A couple students sat nearby giggled at the sight. Fergus barely reacted save for how half his body, and an arm, poked out to catch the person, stopping them from falling flat onto their face. “Steady ther’. They trip you or are ye’ just clumsy?”

In the relatively short time Alix had been at the academy, she hadn’t tended to spend a lot of time in the cafeteria. The kitchen in her own small apartment had been able to take care of all her needs for food and drink, except last night she’d managed to set it on fire, and the only thing still working was one toaster slot out of four. She’d hoped to have woken up in the morning and find the whole thing magically fixed (it wasn’t so far-fetched, really, in a school full of mutants) but everything was just as charred and vaguely smokey as it had been the night before. So for breakfast she’d taken herself off to the cafeteria, still half asleep, and managed not to accidentally walk into anyone the whole time she was getting her food. Most of the properly cooked breakfast foods didn’t look all that appetizing, but there was toast and it was hard to mess that up, so that was what she got along with a cup of tea to balance on a tray. In hindsight, she thought, it would have just been easier to carry the plate and cup in both hands rather than attempt a balancing act. 

Grace rushed to tie her robe over her pyjamas, hurriedly walking towards her front door. The incessant knocking persisted, as did the shouting of her name. She was only mildly annoyed as she yanked open the door, but it dissipated once she met the person’s eyes. “What–” She cut off when she smelt smoke in the distance. “Is something burning? What’s going on?”

Alix’s cooking skills were usually pretty good -- nothing amazing but she could make herself dinner without burning the place down. Except for tonight, apparently. The day had been long and she’d dozed off on the sofa after putting dinner in the oven, and had woken up to the smell of burning and her fire alarm going off. Five minutes later after she’d managed to stop the beeping, she realized the small extinguisher attached to the wall was faulty, and had promptly ran out of her apartment to try and find help.

Zelda narrowed her eyes almost immediately after realising that the woman was one of the human volunteers, and she took an obvious step back. With everything that’d gone down in the past few weeks, she didn’t particularly trust anyone who wasn’t a mutant. Her eye twitched at the unwanted remembrance of the needle some asshole had stuck into it. It wasn’t as pink as it had been, more of her blue had returned in the last few days, but it was still obvious enough to notice if she looked in a mirror. She watched the woman a little closer all of a sudden, with no attempts at keeping her distrust hidden. “Actually, you’re not supposed to be here. You know, being a human and all that, but okay, you do you.” Zelda considered retreating; walking back the way she’d come from, but she knew it would only lead to a dead end. The only exit out of this building was behind the woman, much to Zelda’s misfortune. 

Alix swallowed, feeling something of a sharp sting in her chest at the girl’s words. She’d expected something like that. Not all mutants were going to be happy about having humans helping out, especially since quite a lot of humans wanted them dead. And even though Alix knew she wasn’t like that, that she wouldn’t wish harm on these people just for some abilities they happened to be born with, they didn’t know that about her. It was natural for them to be suspicious, a little wary, maybe even a bit hostile. Right? It didn’t really mean anything. She’d be the same if she was in their shoes, she was sure of it. Besides that was hardly the worst thing anyone was bound to say to her during her time at the academy. Alix didn’t say anything, just averted her eyes for a moment and tightened her grip on the flashlight. 

At the startling light being forced in his face, James stumbled back and put his hands up in defense. It probably looked like a strange sight: him stalking around the darkened hallways after lights out so, he couldn’t blame the stranger for her alarmed response. “Uh, yeah. Probably.” He confessed, pausing, “I was just… taking a walk.” James explained, knowing full well that probably sounded pretty suspicious but it was the truth. It had been a couple of months since returning from his stint at the Facility and he was, for the most part, better. They gave him pills for his insomnia (that Scarlett had once tried to steal for reasons he didn’t want to be involved in) and for the most part, his hallucinations had died down. For the most part. Today hadn’t been like most days.

Even if Alix wanted to make herself look and sound like an authority figure, she couldn’t. Someone had once told her that she always had this look of a deer caught in headlights, and she babbled far too much for anyone to take her seriously. That, she supposed, was part of the reason why people tended to laugh when she told them she wanted to be an astrophysicist. Either way she had been worried about actually bumping into a student out after curfew, because she doubted any of them were going to listen to her if she told them to go back to their dorm -- partly because of her lack of authority and partly because she was a human. She’d expected anyone she found to just laugh at her and continue on their merry way, but this boy (that she’d accidentally almost blinded with the flashlight) seemed genuinely apologetic and not exactly the type to be out breaking rules. 

Zelda stuck the joint between her lips and fumbled around in the dark for her lighter. It was in one of her pockets, she swore it, yet the more she patted her jeans, then her jumper, the quicker she came to realise that she hadn’t picked it up off of Marielle’s bedside cabinet before leaving. She cursed to herself, and quietly, because the doors in this place were surprisingly thin, and with it being so late and so silent, it would have been easy for someone to hear her outside. She considered going back for her lighter, but decided against it. This was the second time Zelda had slept with Marielle and she didn’t think the woman would be okay with her showing up ten seconds after her leaving, as if needy of something. No, she thought, it would be better to just wait and ask for it in the morning, after class, when they were alone. Again. 

“I didn’t -- I wasn’t jumping anywhere.” That was true. She’d just been walking, humming to herself; there’d been no intention of scaring anyone. “And I don’t know what ‘going Dagny’ means either.” She vaguely recalled the name, probably from overhearing a conversation someone else was having, but that was about it. Alix squinted as she looked at the girl’s face, not recognizing it from any of her previous encounters with students, and eventually decided that she hadn’t met this person yet. It took her a few seconds to realize that shining a bright light in someone else’s face probably wasn’t the best thing to do, and she quickly attempted to angle the flashlight up instead, to create a little more light between the two of them. Her heart had slowed down and no longer felt like it was going to burst out of her chest and run away down the hall, though her legs still felt a little shaky from the scare. Alix decided then that she was simply going to refuse any more night patrols given to her, no matter what. Teaching she could do. Organizing filing cabinets was a breeze. Even a little bit of cleaning wasn’t so bad. But she was too much of a jumpy person and far too affected by horror movies to be walking around alone at night, especially in a school full of mutants. “I’m a teacher.” That’s not true, Alix. “Sort of. I’m... I came here to help and I’m helping by teaching. And patrolling. So I’m supposed to be here.” Alix tried to make her voice sound a little less friendly and a little more stern, though really it just ended up sounding uncertain. “And you should already be in bed because it’s an hour past curfew. So... now I have to escort you back to your room. And I hope you... learn something... from this experience.” She paused, wanted to smash her head against the nearest wall because of how stupid she sounded, and swallowed her pride for what she said next. “But seeing as I don’t actually know which way the dorms are, you are going to have to lead the way.”

Fergus actually laughed, but it was stunted, and ended up sounding more like an approving grunt. The noise actually embarrassed him a bit, and his eyes lifted elsewhere as he ran a hand through his hair, or lack thereof. He’d shaved it all off the night before leaving for the academy, and now sported a buzzcut, except for the part of his head that remained hairless because of a scar. One of his brothers had hit him with a blunt hatchet once, not on purpose, and fortunately not with much strength either, else the weapon would have decapitated half of Fergus’ face. That was the day he was relieved to have such a thick skull. Damn lucky, too. “Yeah, seems almost mad, don’t it? Askin’ humans to help protect –  whatever they called.” He paused a moment, clearly thinking about something before blinking himself back into the present. At which point, he turned to look at her again. “Maybe they’ll use you fer’ teachin’. No’ me though. I’m no good with kids, they don’t like me. Especially the little ‘uns.” He wasn’t sure why children didn’t like him. Perhaps they were scared. He didn’t exactly look approachable. “How did you uh, find out about this place? Or I mean, decide te’– help…”

“I don’t know, I guess they could use all the help they can get. Not a lot of people are very... accepting of them.” That annoyed Alix. She had been subject to a lot of bullying during high school just because she was quiet, and smart, and a little bit awkward. It had made her fairly miserable at the time and that was just because of a few teenagers picking on her in class -- she couldn’t imagine what it felt like to have the whole world hate you for something you can’t help. And in her mind it didn’t make so much sense. If mutants wanted to hurt people or take over the world, why would they have waited until everyone knew they existed to start? The logical choice would have been going for it when nobody knew about them and wouldn’t be able to prepare. When Fergus spoke again she looked up at him, nodding. “Probably. I wonder how they’ll take to having a human teacher?” In normal circumstances it wasn’t a profession Alix could see herself in. She wasn’t the type of person that could take control and make people listen to her. “Maybe they’re just a little scared of the tattoos? You have... a lot of them.” Way to state the obvious, Alix. “I mean a lot of kids probably haven’t seen that many tattoos on a person before. And you’re pretty tall. That’s... probably it.” Might be a good idea to stop talking now. Alix cleared her throat, swaying a little on her feet before answering his next question. “I heard about it on the news. About the school, anyway. Then I looked a little more into it and saw they were looking for people to help, even if you’re human. And I just kinda thought -- if I’m not studying what I want to be studying right now, I might as well be doing something important in the mean time.”

Fergus wasn’t one hundred percent sure how he’d gotten tangled up in all of this. He’d stalked a man that had needed punishing, and then – THIS. If he’d known that the job would force him to stumble upon the world of mutants then perhaps he wouldn’t have taken it at all; been more wary of those he decided were deserving of execution. As it happened, the man he’d been tailing for weeks had led him straight to a facility, of sorts, and now this man was dead. Thanks to Fergus. A woman named Morgana had shown up not long after Fergus had blown the man’s brains out, asking if he would come to New Hampshire to help kill more men like that one; and Fergus had obliged. But now that he was here, he was nervous; suspicious. He watched those around him with steady eyes. A small grimace had carved into his features as he waited for the receptionist to get back, fingers curling around the papers he’d spent a couple hours filling out. 

Before Alix could get an answer from the stranger, the receptionist had returned to the desk, making her question moot. She’d been about to apologize and turn away but the name that was called out made her pause; she recognized it, and when the man looked over his shoulder, she realized who it was. Of all the people Alix might have guessed she’d run into, Fergus had never been particularly high on the list. She hadn’t know him that well when they both lived in NYC -- they only really talked when he went into the shop to buy flowers, and those couple of times when they’d ended up sat together in the bar, and she’d been fairly certain about not seeing him again after leaving town. Her mouth hung open for a second or two, making her look like a fish out of water, and it wasn’t until he stepped back to allow her to approach the desk that she managed to close it and swallow. A smile flickered across her face as she stepped forward and handed over the file, being told then that she had to wait a few minutes for it all to be processed and a place found for her to stay.