2023-11-22: Recovery and Revelations
- Cutscene: Recovery and Revelations
- Cast:Hannah Curie, Rochelle, Amelia, Davey, and Susanna
- Where: Damzen Orphanage
- Date: November 22, 2023
- Summary: After her harrowing encounter with an anti-magic war robot, Hannah passes out and wakes up later that night. Explanations are given, apologies offered, new promises made, and then finally, a long-overdue revelation.
Hannah groaned as she stirred awake. "What..." her throat felt dry and hoarse. Her eyes still felt itchy as tried to open them, and the world around her was blurry and out of focus. "Where...." The details of a room slowly came to her--a bedroom, she realized, as everything started to resolve, and then belated she realized she was on a bed herself. It was one of the few individual bedrooms in the orphanage, usually reserved for when someone needed to recover or recuperate without extra distractions. She was still dressed, though someone had removed her jacket and boots at some point. The room was dark, with no candle or lantern lit, and the heavy curtains covering the windows blocked any light, so she couldn't even guess at the time.
"H-how..." When did she get to a bed? The last thing she could remember...
There had been a fight. And her magic... Hannah closed her eyes again as a horrified shiver overtook her, and tried desperately to bury that thought in her mind. No, the 'last' thing had been Suzie's warm, comforting embrace. But she still couldn't remember...
There was a warm sensation in the back of her mind that she associated with her bond with Zephyr. It was always there, and its presence now was of great comfort to Hannah. It was too much effort just yet to send a full message, but luckily they never really needed words. All she had to do was reach for it and send a gentle, formless pulse of intent. It was their way of checking in with each other when they were apart.
Instantly, the answer came back. A bird chirp as clear as the ringing of a bell sounded in her mind, and within it Hannah could pick out overtones of concepts and ideas. 'Door-Protect' rang out the loudest in clear, striking tones. In equally pleasing but lesser tones were a bevy of other concepts: 'night', 'family-worried', 'friends-worried', and 'assistance-get'. The one discordant note, lesser still than all the rest, was a disdainful 'robot-contained'.
And the one thought that Zephyr did not need to express, but that came through in how it colored the harmonies of Zephyr's intent, simultaneously not part of the message and yet the entire message, was 'relief'.
Hannah closed her eyes again. She was, as ever, grateful for how he chose to look out for her. And she knew Zephyr could feel it too, through their bond.
There was a small flurry of activity outside, and eventually, the door opened. Hannah felt a gentle hand on her shoulder, along with a softly spoken, "Hannah? How are you feeling?"
Hannah opened her eyes to see Rochelle's concerned face staring down at her. The older woman was dressed in her customary skirt and blouse, her hair done up in a bun. She was holding a candle, which was now the sole source of illumination in the dark room. Hannah's eyes widened a little, and she could feel something hot and wet welling up in the corners of her eyes. Her voice cracked as she tried to speak. "Miss... Miss Rochelle..."
The older woman smiled warmly down to her, sliding her hand up to gently wipe away a tear. "Sshh... You're safe, and nobody was hurt. I know what happened was scary, and you're scared of your magic, but you are still our darling Hannah, and this is your home. You will 'always' have a place here with us for as long as you need or want one. Nothing will ever change that." Her voice was soft, gentle, and yet firm.
A relief Hannah hadn't even realized she'd needed flooded through her body. She hiccuped as she let out a relieved, shuddering sigh, and though a few tears still ran down her cheeks, the urge to cry suddenly felt far distant. "Th-thank you," she whispered. Her voice raspy, and hoarse, her throat itchy.
Rochelle smiled and leaned down to kiss Hannah's forehead. "You're welcome, dear... Now then, how are you feeling? Does anything hurt?"
Hannah took stock of her injuries. Nothing hurt, per se. Not physically. She felt utterly exhausted, to the point that she was surprised she was even awake, but if she'd spent the whole day sleeping, then sooner or later she was bound to need--
Her stomach chose that moment to rumble.
Of course.
The crest sorceress looked up to the orphanage matron and shook her head, but then lifted a hand up to touch her throat. She knew they had both heard the rumbling.
"I'm glad to hear that. Amelia and Davey are working on heating up some soup for you. That'll help soothe your throat."
Hannah blinked in mil/d surprise to hear David's name but nodded.
Rochelle reached for a tissue to dry Hannah's face. "Do you think you can sit up?"
The sorceress' small frame trembled a little as she tested her limbs and found that they would, indeed, cooperate with her. Rochelle helped as well, and soon enough she was sitting upright.
Right as they finished, a knock came at the door. Hannah smiled to herself as Rochelle got up to answer it. Zephyr was the first to charge through, swooping past Rochelle to land on Hannah's lap. He give the sorceress an excited chirp, and Hannah smiled as she reached up to rub gently under his beak.
Watching the brief reunion from the doorway with Rochelle was David and Amelia, the latter of whom was carrying a tray with a bowl, some bread, and a few cookies. Rochelle and Amelia were smiling at the sight, but David was frowning slightly, as if he were trying to figure something out.
David looked up to Amelia and Rochelle and quietly asked, "She really is awake. How did Zephyr know?"
Amelia grasped for an answer, but Rochelle had one immediately. The older woman placed a gentle hand on David's shoulder and simply said, "Why don't you ask Hannah about that?" David nodded and followed Amelia into the room.
Rochelle turned to Hannah. "I need to go talk to Susanna. Are you okay with Amelia and David here?" She got a nod and a thumbs up from Hannah in reply. "Okay." She smiled to Amelia, "Come get us if you need anything."
"I got this," assured Amelia. "You go on and do what you need to."
The orphanage matron stepped outside and closed the door, leaving the candle behind for the others. Amelia stepped up to the bed. "Zephyr, I know you're excited to see Hannah, but I need to put this tray down."
Zephyr chirped at her and took off, winging over to sit on the arm of a chair David had settled into. David looked at the bird curiously, and Zephyr stared back with a quizzical cant of his head.
Steaming hot vapors wafted up into Hannah's nose as Amelia set the tray across her lap. The scent of a medley of vegetables flowed into her, and she started to feel invigorated from that alone. The crest sorceress reached out immediately for the cookies, but the other girl batted her hand away. Hannah pouted at her, but Amelia crossed her arms. "Nah-uh. I ain't a big ol' softy like Susanna is. Soup first, then dessert."
Still pouting, Hannah reached for the soup and gently started to eat. The warm liquid soothed her throat, and after a few spoonfuls she was finally able to clear her throat and talk without rasping. "Thanks for the soup, Amelia. And..." She glanced between the beastfolk girl and the younger boy. "... sorry if I kept y'all up worryin' about me."
"Hannah, hun," said Amelia, placing a hand gently on the recovering girl's arm. "It's okay to focus on yourself every once in a while. It ain't an inconvenience for us to spend some energy on someone we care about."
The room was silent for a moment as Hannah took that in as she stared at her bowl of soup. Finally, she looked up to Amelia and smiled. Her voice was softer but more relaxed. "You sounded positively like Miss Rochelle there. I think doin' this really suits you."
The weasel girl stammered for a moment before mentally recovering. "W-well, thank you kindly. Now, eat," she added with a firmer tone. The other girl nodded and resumed eating.
After a few more moments, Hannah looked up to David, who was still watching her quietly. She offered him a tired smile. "Hey, David. You okay?"
David drew back, startled. "Me!? Hannah, I should be asking that of 'you'. I saw what that robot did to you, if..." He looked to his feet. "If I hadn't been there..."
There was so much to unpack there. Hannah shook her head. "No, David," she said firmly. "That wasn't your fault. It was mine."
A moment of silence hung in the air. Shock registered on David's face, but he found the words to speak again after a moment. "What? No, but, 'I' was the one helpin' to fix it up. If I hadn't--"
Hannah shook her head again. "No, David. If I'd been around... if I'd kept teachin' you like I promised... I could've taught you what to look for. How to identify different types of robots. Instead I... well, I ran away from my problems. Well, I ran off to try'n fix them on my own instead of askin' for help." She sighed. "If I ain't been so stubborn... I'm sorry."
It took David several attempts to form his next question. "... what do you mean, you ran away?"
Amelia cut in. "Davey, maybe we should revisit this in the morning--" Hannah's head shaking caught her attention, and she looked to her friend. "You sure, hun?"
"It's important," Hannah insisted. She looked to David. "My magic..." Her voice wavered for a moment, but she pressed on. "... my magic has... problems. It goes out of control sometimes, and I have a hard time controlling it. That's why I left Sielje, why I ran away from home. I was afraid... of hurtin' the people I care about. I thought..." Hannah stared down at her lap. "... I could just figure out how to fix it and come right back, but... the longer it took, the more ashamed I felt to come back."
She looked up to David once more. "What happened earlier wasn't because of the Witchbuster. I ain't ever had a reaction that strong before, but... it didn't start with the Witchbuster. And it ain't your fault. That's... what I was tryin' to tell you about earlier." She had attempted to talk to David, to explain, but he had reacted angrily and stormed off.
Not that Hannah could blame him in the least.
David shifted forward in his chair. "But... you saved us. You saved 'me'. How can I ever... um..." He started at his feet awkwardly. "... You c'n call me Davey, if you want..."
Hannah shook her head. "I'm glad you ain't harmed at all, but... I ain't gonna call you Davey. Not yet."
That brought David to a stunned silence. "What... but... I'm sayin'..."
Putting her spoon down for a moment, Hannah tore off a piece of bread to dip it into the soup broth. "If you can look me in the eye and tell me, honestly and truly, you ain't still upset about me stayin' away for so long, not even a teeny tiny little bit... I'll call you Davey." She looked into David's eyes, expectantly.
David looked back to Hannah, drew in a breath to talk, and then suddenly glanced away. "I... am still a tiny bit upset..." he admitted. "Sorry."
Hannah bit into the bread as she waited, finally nodding as he expressed his feelings. "That's fine. I... well, I hurt and upset a lot of people, and... and I should own that. I know I made promises to you, n' broke 'em, and you have every right to be upset. I... I shouldn't be able to just... buy back your good will with one big act. 'Specially not for doin' something I'd have done regardless." She smiled at David. "I didn't save you 'cause I wanted you to not be mad at me anymore. I saved you 'cause I care about'cha. And that ain't ever gonna change."
"But..." David shifted uncomfortably in his seat. "... then now what?"
Hannah thought about it for a moment. "Let me earn back your forgiveness."
David frowned. "But you just said..."
"Earn, not buy. I... wanna be around more. Can't promise I'll be here all the time, 'cause I still do gotta figure out what's wrong with my magic, n'... well, I'm tryin' to go back to Sielje, but... I'd like to keep my promise to teach you stuff. Been all around, seen lots of interestin' things I could teach you about... That is.. If you'll have me."
"Of course!" David brightened for a moment, but then his smile faltered. "... You 'sure' you ain't gonna be runnin' off on us again?"
"Promise. 'Sides, not sure I could anymore, even if I wanted to--which I don't. Got too many people keepin' an eye on me now. I ain't... exactly livin' in Klein Manor tryin' to live the high life. Eleanor is one of my best friends, and... well, after we ran into each other again, she wanted to keep me close." Hannah looked to her soup, and quietly admitted, "... she thought I'd died."
"... Oh. I... I had no idea."
Hannah resumed eating her soup. "Well, now you do."
A less tense silence filled the air as Amelia, Zephyr, and David watched Hannah eat. Eventually, David broke the silence. "Hey, Hannah? Can... I ask you a question?"
"Sure. Ask me anythin' you want. I think I owe you that much, at least."
David looked to Zephyr again. "Um... Zephyr seemed to know you were awake, but he was in the other room with us the whole time watchin' the door. How'd he know? N' for that matter, he seemed to recognize the robot was dangerous and was tryin' to get everyone away, even 'fore you showed up. I know Zephyr's kinda smart, but...."
Zephyr looked up to David and chirped softly.
"Oh, well..." Hannah set her spoon down again. "Zephyr n' me are connected empathically. That's how he knew I was awake, 'cause I reached out to check in with him when I woke up. And how he knew about the robot. Because 'I' knew about the robot."
"So all those times you were pretendin' to talk to him..."
Hannah nodded. "Yep. I was actually talkin' to him."
"Wow..." David looked to Zephyr with newfound admiration, while the red-tailed hawk puffed his chest up proudly. "So... what all can the two of you do? And what've you been doin' all these past few years?"
"Well..." Hannah started to launch into some tales of her exploits as a drifter as she continued working on her soup. Zephyr helped her with some of the details, of course, and even Amelia seemed fascinated to hear more.
Rochelle slipped out of the room and took a deep, steadying breath. The rest of the orphanage was still and quiet. The few helpers the orphanage could afford had retired or left for the night, the children had long been sent to bed, and there were only a few candles for illumination. She made her way back to the common room, where the small group had stayed up waiting to hear word on Hannah's condition.
Susanna was pacing back and forth, tail lashing softly. She stopped when Rochelle entered. "Chelly, how's she doin'?"
Sitting heavily on a worn couch with mismatching couch covers, Rochelle sighted. She closed her eyes and took a moment to compose herself. "Hannah's not injured. She's exhausted and understandably hungry. I'd want an actual doctor to look her over, but... physically I think she's fine and will recover."
"But..." prompted Susanna.
Rochelle opened her eyes to look at Susanna. The normally steady gaze she wore for everyone else in the orphanage was softened now, worry creasing her brow. "She's scared. Of what happened, of herself, how other people might view her. We can provide a safe, reassuring environment for her here in the orphanage, and work on the rest of the town, but... long-term she'll need more than that."
Returning to her pacing, Susanna huffed. "Well of course. I didn't drag her back home just to have... those blasted miners spreadin' rumors and gossipmongerin' 'bout her." She slammed her fist into her palm. "And I'll keep knockin' heads together until I get 'em to stop." She paused her pacing once more when she noticed Rochelle smiling at her. "... What?"
"Just admiring how you've changed," replied Rochelle. "I still remember a time when you insisted you couldn't tie yourself down in one place too long, that there were too many important things to do, hooligans to rough up, and so on." She smiled a little bit more. "How you didn't think you were fit to look after kids." She broke into a subdued and lightly teasing grin. "And honestly I think you were worried about your tough girl reputation taking a hit. And yet now you're ready to 'throw hands' the minute somebody speaks ill of Hannah."
Susanna could never resist that smile of Rochelle's, and she glanced aside as her cheeks flushed. "H-hey now... I'm just... tryin' to be a good big sister, th-that's all..."
Rochelle laughed softly. "Of course. I must just be misreading things. That's why you rushed off to Klein to read Hannah the riot act. Sisterly concern?"
"I--I, well..." The beastfolk woman sighed, her ears and tail dropping before she let herself drop onto the couch with a small impact. She stared at the ceiling. After a long moment she admitted, "... guess I 'have' become a bit of a homebody, ain't I?" She groaned and covered her face with a hand. "What happened to me?"
Reaching out, Rochelle offered Susanna's arm a comforting pat. "You grew up. That's not such a bad thing."
Susanna snorted softly. "Sneaks up on you, don't it?"
There was a long silence then, and the only motion was the flicker of a candle.
"She needs answers," said Rochelle after a time.
Susanna shook her head. "No. We talked about this. She deserves to put all that behind her."
"That was back when there didn't seem to be issues caused by it. I'd call this a pretty significant issue, wouldn't you?"
"We don't know, necessarily...." hedged the beastwoman.
Rochelle sat up so she could look to Susanna directly. "It's not fair to hide this from her. It's about her life, she deserves to know about it. If you don't tell her, I will. But I think it'd be better coming from you."
Susanna grunted discontentedly. "... She's not gonna be happy we hid it from her."
"She'll understand, Suze, if you explain. If it turns out not to be connected, then it's not connected. But you shouldn't deprive her of the chance to gain clarity. Can you honestly tell me that burdening her with these issues for the rest of her life is worth sparing her some agony about her origins? She has us and her friends to support her through that."
There was a long silence as Susanna mulled it over. "... You know what I'm gonna haveta do after I tell her, don't you?"
Rochelle smiled. "I know. We'll keep the hearth lit for you."
"Well... suppose there's nothin' for it, then..."
A moment later, the door to Hannah's room opened, and Susanna was there, wearing a grim expression. "Hey, Kitten. How you feeling?"
Hannah's tray was empty by this point, and Amelia had moved it out of the way while the three siblings caught up. The sorceress looked up to Susanna and smiled weakly. "Hey... I'm feelin' better now that I've eaten. Still really tired, though..."
Susanna stepped into the room with a nod. "Then sounds to me like you should be gettin' back to rest." She reached down to gently shake David's shoulder. The youn boy had started to doze off. "Davey, hun... time to go to bed. You've been up late enough. Amelia, could you help him to his room?"
Amelia read the expression on Susanna's face and nodded. The older woman wanted her to clear out. "Certainly." She picked up the tray to take with her. "C'mon, David." She looked to Hannah with a warm smile. "We'll catch up more later, okay?"
David yawned and pushed himself up, waving to Hannah. "Hope you feel better." Together, Amelia and David left the room, closing the door behind them.
Hannah waved goodbye to both of them, and then looked up to Susanna. "Ain't you gonna tell me to get to sleep, too?"
Heaving a long, weary sigh, Susanna sat down on the bed, giving Hannah's leg a reassuring pat. "I am, and...well, I should let this wait so you can get to sleep, but... Feels only proper I tell you now."
Concern growing on her face, Hannah waited silently for Susanna to say what she needed to say.
The feline beastfolk looked Hannah in the eye. "Look, I don't know if this will be upsettin' or not, but... I want you to know we didn't intend to keep secrets to hurt you, and this ain't gonna change the fact that you have a place here, alright?"
Hannah nodded silently, unsure of how to respond.
"Kitten... it's time I told you the truth about how Miss Armitage and I found you. The 'whole' truth."