12268/The Sagacity of Stilton

The Sagacity of Stilton
Date of Scene:	30 September 2020
Location:	Kitchen - Xavier's School
Synopsis:	Tabitha is caught by surprise when she sees Shannon's wings for the first time. She learns for the first time that she is, in fact, a mutant, and also more about the school. Much mac 'n cheese was enjoyed by all.
Cast of Characters:	Nightingale, Siphon

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Nightingale has posed:
     A good portion of the day for Shannon had been spent on the road, traveling with Sam Guthrie, Dazzler, and Jeremy to Bar Harbor in search of one Tabitha Barr. Road food was not, unfortunately, always the greatest, barring the occasional hole in the wall local eatery. Okay, well perhaps there were one or two places in Maine on the way that she had -insisted- they stop for something--/anything/--with lobster in it. However, that had gone to her toes hours ago, and now that they were back at the mansion, she was determined to fill the void.

     She's got her phone out on the counter with the volume turned up; the classic guitar strains of 'Hotel California' ring out through the room, their plaintive notes an odd foil to the oddly homey, normal tableau. Shannon's in her favorite pajamas, consisting of red tartan sweatpants, a baggy gray tank top, and floofy Old English Sheepdog slippers.

     There is also no image inducer this time, meaning her large, feathery white wings are in plain sight. But that's normal, right? Right!

     Only at Xavier's could such a thing be so.

     At the moment, Shannon's shaking what her mama gave her, the oven door clattering as she closes it and sets the timer. In a matter of minutes, an ooey, gooey, cheesy aroma begins to fill the kitchen, making up for the road food on the trip today.

Siphon has posed:
    Until today Tabitha had lived for more than sixteen years in the space of a single square mile. She spent the trip from the orphanage to Xavier's bundled up in multiple warm layers carrying her three kid's backpacks and a ripped canvas duffel with her doubleneck guitar in her lap and concentrating very hard on not panicing. She barely registered the trip except to direct the lobster crazy to the local hot dog cart. Yes, lobster hot dogs are a thing.

    The school itself hasn't fully registered in her head yet. Shortly after arriving she was shown her room and given time to settle before orientation tomorrow morning. Now she's semi-wandering to try and get a feel for the building wearing her watch cap and veil, two layers of thick flannel nightshirts, cut-off sweatpants, two pair of wool socks, and boots. All of the clothes are sized for a normal person and thus are loose and oversized on her pixie frame. Even the boots only fit because of the socks.

    The scent of baking cheese brings her to the kitchen door where she carefully opens the door to peek in, hopefully undetected. That's the plan until she spots the wings, at least. She tries to silence her gasp by clasping her hands over her mouth, but then she has to let go of the door. Instead of a graceful exit she instead pushes the door open hard enough for it to swing around to bounce off the wall.

Nightingale has posed:
     At that particular moment, Shannon is in the midst of cleaning up her mess, washing out the pans she used for cooking the pasta and the cheese sauce. The splashing and running water might have drowned out Tabitha's gasp of surprise, but there is no missing the bang of the kitchen door against the wall. Glancing back over her shoulder, she smiles at the new girl, extending one wing and waving a soapy hand; droplets of water and bubbles are flicked about in the moment.

     "Hey there! Getting settl... oh crap." The wide-eyed expression on Tabitha's face said it all. "I'm sorry if these startled you. I had to hide the wings on the trip to get you. Are you okay?"

Siphon has posed:
    The slip in concentration caused by her surprise at seeing an angel in sweatpants washing dishes means that Tabitha isn't focused on keeping herself in check. The pale skin of her uncovered hands becomes mildly luminescent and covered in a sheet of what looks to be copper glitter. The glow is enough to shine through the veil, indicating it's not just her hands. "I'm... You had to... How did you... What is this place?" TabithaEnglish.exe has experienced a fatal error. She's not in run for the hills mode, but that's mostly because she's a bit short circuited. And because she has no idea where she'd go.

Nightingale has posed:
     Oh, dear. This was a delicate situation that little had prepared Shannon for. She reaches for the nearest dish towel and dries off her hands, tucking her wings in neatly behind her so as to minimize their appearance. She settles down at one of the stools by the central island counter, one floofy be-slippered foot reaching out to nudge a second one with a slight scrape of wood across the ground.

     "I guess there's a lot to take in here," the winged teen begins, keeping her voice soft, and her tone, as soothing as she can. "This is a very good school. But you'll find that most of us here are also... gifted." She leaves off there, letting it all sink in for Tabitha for a moment or two.

Siphon has posed:
    Oh, things are sinking in but calming things aren't the majority. Shannon's calming tone and words meant to reassure butt up against Tabitha's ingrained presumptions about herself. A mental mess results. A hardwired sense of manners draws her to the stool as it's pushed out, but her movements are that of barely supressed fight or flight. When she reaches the stool she pulls it further away from Shannon but stops when she bumps up against the Rule of Never Rude. Her eyes, which are visible behind the black lace due to the absense of glow, keep darting to the wings and away.
    She does find her voice after a moment. And bless her heart she's trying to sound brave but it mostly comes out as a defeated resignation. "So... I was sent here because of my problem? This is some sort of reform school?"

Nightingale has posed:
     Sometimes, when the fertilizer hit the fan, a cup of tea could do wonders to help set things to rights. Mindful of Tabitha's tense posture, and the way she pulls the stool farther away, Shannon smiles, holding very still. "I don't know much about what happened to you before. What do you mean, your problem? And... would you like a bit of tea?"

     Thankfully for Tabitha's sake, the oven timer goes off just at that moment. The healer-in-training slides off of her stool, her slippers shuffling along the floor as she hurries over to the oven. With a flourish--and a healthy respect for the oven, in the form of mitts on her hands--she opens up the oven door, pulling out the pan of mac 'n cheese. The dish towel serves as an impromptu cooling rack, upon which the gooey goodness rests.

     At least some things were, one would hope, normal.

Siphon has posed:
    A combination of factors, mostly hunger and hardwired manners, get Tabitha to nod at the offer for tea as she climbs up onto the stool. Really, she has to climb because the average 2.5 foot kitchen stool is gut high on her. In her tragically oversized PJs she looks much younger than she is. As the mac 'n cheese is being set on the counter, she holds up her hands and flips them over a few times to display the copper glitter.

    "Isn't it obvious? It was bad enough when I was just the weird chalk skin kid. Now I've got this, and my eyes have gone crazy, and Katr..." her voice cracks in a most unlovely way as she cuts herself off at the end. Then she sort of deflates and goes quiet again.

    

Nightingale has posed:
     "Your eyes are beautiful," Shannon offers, her voice hushed. The crack in Tabitha's voice, the hesitation, the way she can't seem to bring herself to speak a certain name, they all tug at the girl's heart. She stops in her tracks to listen, her brows furrowing and her heart breaking for her new friend. "Go on, if you want. It's okay." She neither pulls away, nor draws closer, allowing Tabitha to express herself in her own way, at her own pace.

Siphon has posed:
    It takes Tabitha a few minutes to talk more, and her voice stays quiet although her tone is sharp. "I only lived because this," she holds up a hand and stares at the copper glitter, "kept the fire away. Or rather, it kept pulling it into me. But then it wasn't fire anymore, it was just more of this."
    There is a soft rumble from her stomach, audible because it's louder than her voice. She glances over at the mac 'n cheese but looks down again. Her hands rest on the counter and when she does finally look up it's to shift her gaze between them and Shannon. Specifically her wings. "What am I? What is this place?"

Nightingale has posed:
     A smile of mild amusement tugs the corners of Shannon's lips upwards, one brow flicking slightly. "I'd say you're hungry is what you are," she replies, turning to get a serving spoon, a couple of bowls, and forks. As she's filling up one bowl for Tabitha, she considers for a moment how to tell the young woman of just what she is.

     "There are a lot of different ways to say what you and I both are," she offers. "Gifted. Special. Blessed. A common way to say it would be... mutant." A fork is nestled in amongst the pile of cheesy pasta, the bowl set down in front of Tabitha. The aroma is homey, familiar, and altogether rather enticing, tempting one's appetite with its siren's song. "I like to think of it as the Divine isn't quite done being creative with us here on Earth just yet."

     Shannon retrieves her own bowl of the good stuff, and it seems tea has been temporarily put aside, for the more base imperative of satisfying two rather hearty appetites, her own stomach grumbling. The glance to her wings is not lost upon her, and she smiles. "It's okay if you want to look at them. I don't mind."

Siphon has posed:
    When the bowl is placed before her, Tabitha is careful not to touch it. Instead she touches only the fork, using it to maneuver the bowl awkwardly before scooping some up. She removes her veil and sets it carefully to one side before eating. As she's eating the bite, the rising steam and meltiness of the cheese goes away in an eyeblink once the food touches her lips.
    "Dammit all." She puts the forkfull of now half-frozen pasta back into the bowl and closes her eyes in concentration. The copper glitter and faint glow slowly sink into her skin. A breath later she tenatively pokes a finger against the bowl. When it stays hot she pulls it to herself and takes several quick bites.

    She is listening to Shannon as she eats. Her expression a mix of thoughtfulness and careful neutrality. "So like you all said back at the Big House about having gifts. You meant things like this, and those?" A nod to the wings, which she does take a longer look at.

Nightingale has posed:
     Shannon is a little less shy about eating her own mac 'n cheese, digging into the bowl's contents with gusto. "Mmhmm. And not everyone's gifts are always so visible. You've got that glittery effect, and... well, it looks like you absorb different kinds of energy? Is that about right? Seems like a pretty neat gift to me."

     One wing is extended slowly in Tabitha's general direction, as if to help her satisfy her curiosity about them. The reach of that feathery limb is considerable, and it looks as if they could well indeed keep her aloft should she choose. She holds still to allow Tabitha to actually touch the feathers if she wants, or even to simply look a bit more closely.

     "I did mention healing back in Maine. That's one of my other gifts. If someone is injured, I can touch them and absorb their injuries as if they were my own. It's... a difficult gift to live with. I've needed--and still need--quite a bit of help learning to deal with it. That's something I've been fortunate enough to find here at the school. It's something you could find, too, if you want."

Siphon has posed:
    Once the problem of frozen food is dealt with Tabitha devours the mac 'n cheese. She nods about her ability. "Yeah. Pretty much anything that I can think of. Heat, light, electricity. A few days ago, when it was really bad I tried to punch through the wall. The hit just sort of... stopped and the glow reacted like it does with other things. Just a little bit. I mean I'm not exactly strong, but I guess it absorbed that, too."

    She doesn't touch the wings since she clearly paranoid about what her touch can do, but she does admire them. "They're beautiful." Then she listens to the information about Shannon's healing and frowns. "But then what happens after you have someone's injuries?"

Nightingale has posed:
     "So your gift absorbs kinetic energy as well." Shannon munches thoughtfully on her mac 'n cheese, blushing a little bit at the compliment to her wings. "Thanks," she replies, smiling perhaps a bit more shyly than one might expect. "And yes, they do actually let me fly. You won't believe the number of times I hear that question."

     She sighs softly, and looks down at her own hands now, gone quiet and pensive for a few moments. "I heal much faster than normal, so... it may take me a few days but I heal up. Of course, that also kicks up my appetite, because my body's going through fuel at a heck of a rate in the process. I won't get into the number of times I've wound up in the medbay or Dr. McCoy's office last year because I find it hard to say no to using my gift, when I see someone suffering."

     Smiling somewhat, she continues on. "Pretty early on, Josh Foley did help me find an alternate way of using my gift. It's also served well as a diagnostic tool. Instead of allowing a healing to take place, it's like... well, it's connecting with someone, as if I was going to heal them, but just taking a look at what's got them hurt instead. Sort of like a living CT scan or MRI. But it's all in here instead of on a monitor." She taps the side of her head with the end of her fork, and smiles a bit more.

     "So you see, it -is- possible to learn to work with your gifts. But you still can't escape math tesets." The last is spoken with a giggle, and a good humor understood by students the world over for the usually dreaded subject. "I'd ask the teachers to see if there's anyone particularly suited to helping you with your gift. There's Dr. McCoy, he's pretty freaking brilliant. There's always Miss Frost, or the Professor. I might even suggest talking to Mr. LeBeau, his gift deals with energy, just in a bit of a different way. But maybe he could offer some insight."

Siphon has posed:
    "Okay, that is cool." This at being told that Shannon can fly. "The rest of it... I'm not sure about. It does make me think, though." Tabitha hops off the stool so she can go around to serve herself up another bowl of mac, then returns to her seat. "I've never really been hurt growing up. Or rather when I have been hurt, it's never lasted for very long. I could be the lunchroom entertainment for some bullies and the black eyes would be gone by morning."

    She offers Shannon a small smile and shrugs, "So you maybe don't have to worry about needing to do that for me." The math test joke gets the deserved groan but she also listens to the list of teachers. "So... this stuff really is just normal here?" She glances meaningfully at her veil.

Nightingale has posed:
     "Very normal," Shannon confirms, and grins. "You wouldn't believe the range of gifts I've seen here. Anything from telepaths, to magnetism, telekinetics, technopaths, healers, enhanced strength, shapeshifting, weather control... it's all pretty amazing if you think about it. Someone Up There ain't done with us yet."

     A more companionable silence reigns for a few minutes, as at least one of the girls is rather intent upon making short work of her mac 'n cheese. "It's fairly likely that some of the teachers may want to test out your abilities, to get an idea of what their limits are, and find ways to help you work with them. That's pretty normal around here, too. As for healing you?" A wry smile turns into a light chuckle. "I won't hesitate if it's needed. So try not to get hurt."

Siphon has posed:
    Tabitha seems less than thrilled about the idea of being tested, but it's offset by the widened eyes at hearing how many different things the people here can do. "That is going to take a lot of getting used to." Her second bowl is polished off. Literally as she runs her finger around the bowl to scrape up every trace. Then she hops down and goes over to the sink to wash up after herself. She lets the water run a bit until it's steaming before starting.

    While she works she ponders. "So this really is a whole school, and all the rest. Did Ms. Cynthia know about the other stuff? Or Mister Nate?" The questions aren't exactly directed at Shannon. More like she's asking the steam rising from the sink that she has to stand tippy-toe to really reach into.

Nightingale has posed:
     "I have no way of knowing how much they knew." Shannon's wings rustle behind her as she shrugs, soon finishing off her own bowl of cheesy goodness. But her smile is decidedly wider than before, as she sees that Tabitha appears to be in better spirits. "Look. Nobody's promising a bed of roses here, or sunshine and rainbows. But I do know if you ask for help, then the people here will bend over backwards to help you out."