dylan (ex_conflicti118) wrote in shadows_rpg, @ 2018-08-20 13:42:00 |
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Entry tags: | #november 2017, charlie, charlie x dylan |
Who: Charlie & Dylan
When: Monday, November 6
Where: School
Status: Complete
Dylan had absent Wednesday onward last week after things on Halloween went awry. In his opinion, the gash he had sustained to his forearm wasn’t the worst injury he’d ever had. He likely would have pressed onward were it not for Luis’ insistence, as supported by the attending physician at the ER who had stitched him up, that he take a few days off to recover and administer proper wound care. With occasional reminders.
So it happened that he hadn’t seen Sadie in several days and he would not see her again, he had learned Sunday evening. Shock came with the news, followed by sadness as it settled in; they were not specifically close outside of work, but considering the amount of time that went into that during the school year, it added up between drinks and the occasional post-work drink and Dylan enjoyed her company. Had enjoyed.
He arrived early on Monday morning, stopping into the teachers’ lounge. It was empty save for him at the moment, so he started to go through the process of starting the first pot of coffee for the day, since he’d likely need it and other people would likely show up soon enough. His expression meanwhile remained pensive. Between the Lucas girl’s disappearance, the events on Halloween, and Sadie’s passing, it was impossible to not feel some sense of foreboding.
It had been a rough morning after news spread of Sadie Gaines's death. The mood was somber in school and Charlie was feeling a little depleted, emotionally. She felt for Sadie's friends and family, and the kids who had been in Sadie's classes and liked her. Charlie was beginning to realize how easily anyone in this town could disappear, or lose their life. She began to question why she ever came back and had the vague thoughts of convincing her mom to move out of town with her. But Pippa Harris was a Point Pleasant lifer. She had been born and raised here, as had her own parents, and Charlie was fairly certain a meteor could be heading for this tiny little town and Pippa would dig her heels in her front yard stubbornly.
Besides, it felt wrong to run, though there was nothing much Charlie could do while she was here other than work and be there for the people who needed her, if there were people who actually needed her. Exhausted now, Charlie walked into the lounge to grab a cup of coffee. She gave Dylan a tired smile. "Morning." She couldn't say good morning, because it wasn't good at all. "How are you doing?"
Dylan looked up at the sound of the door, then smiled, exhausted at the edges, when he saw it was Charlie. “Morning,” he said in return, then considered her question. Sometimes the answer was a less troubling one to give, but it felt wrong to simply stick to a polite rejoinder in light of everything. So he went with what was at least true. “It’s been a rough week, given Halloween, then the news yesterday. So well as could be expected. How about you?” He presumed that she had already heard about Sadie, or he at least hoped she had, since it wasn’t the sort of news he wanted to have to break.
"About the same," Charlie admitted. She found her coffee mug in the cabinet. She had heard about Sadie from her mother, and then a sort of phone chain between a lot of the teachers began. It was a small town, so it was practically impossible not to know what was happening. "It feels strange even being here today, but I know the school can't shut down..." Charlie walked over to the coffee machine and glanced at Dylan. "I know Halloween was a bit insane too. Did you manage to get through the night unscathed?"
Dylan leaned, somewhat tiredly, against the counter next to the coffee machine while it burbled along. “I know what you mean. Everything continues on, but it feels... odd--melancholy--to know she won’t be here today.” He rubbed the back of his neck and sighed, giving Charlie a small, wry, smile as he met her gaze. “Not entirely, but nothing too bad. I ended up with a cut on my arm that needed stitches.” He gestured vaguely at his injured arm; the bandage protecting the sutures was covered by the sleeve of shirts, but just to indicate where. “I hope you didn’t encounter any trouble with it?”
It definitely felt odd and Charlie felt a dull pang in her chest. The pang wasn't as intense as it had been when Joanna died, obviously, but she was not fond of the feeling that death brought. Even if she hadn't been terribly close with Sadie, they had been colleagues and it was such a strange sensation to know they wouldn't be sharing lunch in this room again. Sadie had only been a year older than Charlie too. If that wasn't a kick in the ass, she didn't know what was. Charlie began to pour her coffee and she glanced over at Dylan, her brows drawn together in concern. "I'm sorry to hear that. I would try to cheer you up by assuring that women dig scars, but that's probably the least of your worries." She attempted a small and managed a very faint one. "As for me, I managed to get through the night all right. I had plenty of trick or treaters but after awhile, it felt as though everyone preferred to just run amok in the streets than come by for candy. It probably speaks volumes that I wasn't even that surprised by what had happened."
The sadness that came in light of Sadie’s passing was an ache that Dylan suppressed with the kind of practice that unfortunately seemed to come with years of living in Point Pleasant. He knew it was one that many would likely be feeling and there were certainly people who had been closer to Sadie, but they had worked together for years and she was some years younger than he was, which always somehow made it worse. Not that he was looking to go anytime soon, but rather more the arbitrary nature of fate that made it unfair. Glancing at Charlie, his lips quirked at her comment. “It’s quite alright. I mostly didn’t expect the Main Street Festival to end with a visit to the ER,” he said drily. “But I am glad you had a quieter night, relatively speaking. From what we could tell, quite a few people seemed to lose their minds at once? Which was bizarre, but at the rate things go here, sometimes it feels like the quiet weeks are more surprising than the strange ones.”
It felt like she had this same conversation with Luis a few days back and it was interesting to Charlie, how many people felt the same way she did about this town. The quiet days were so far and few in between, and yet she yearned for them. "I read some bizarre explanation in the paper when it came out," she told Dylan. "But I find it difficult to accept that someone laced that much candy with drugs, and as far as I know, not everyone ate the candy. PCP? I would love to question the Mayor, if I ever saw the damn man." She smiled faintly and reached for the creamer to add to her coffee. "I'm sorry you ended up in the ER, but I'm glad to see you're doing all right. I get a bit nervous anytime I hear my phone ring these days. I'm always expecting bad news. That can’t be terribly healthy, I know."
“Thank you,” Dylan said, offering Charlie a small smile at her words. “I know what you mean though. My thoughts tend to jump to the worst anytime I get an unexpected message, so anytime it isn’t anything spelling doom it’s a bit of a relief,” Dylan said, moving to get his coffee mug to pour himself a cup now that Charlie had hers. “If only avoiding the news were enough to make it not true. I must admit I find the PCP angle as easy to believe as the EPA report about the fog some weeks ago. Neither Luis nor I had any of the candy, admittedly, but everything seemed to go sideways at once that it’s hard to imagine so many people having the same reaction at the same time from drugs.” Trying to figure out what happened wasn’t occupying all of Dylan’s thoughts, since there were too many unexplained weird occurrences about the town as it was, but mass candy drugging sounded more like an urban legend than an acceptable explanation. “Have you received much else in the way of bad news lately?” he asked with with some concern, if there was anything beyond what they had already discussed.
Charlie rolled her eyes, which told Dylan what she really thought of those bogus reports. "I feel like they have ready to go excuses for the weird things that happen in this town. Anything that's unexplained can easily be dismissed a drug related, or pollution, or some chemical in the water." Sipping her coffee, Charlie shook her head. "I don't buy it. Not that my opinion means much of anything. I think most people will accept whatever excuse they're given because it's better than the alternative of not knowing. I can't say I've been given bad news personally. Obviously I worry about the students, several were out on Halloween night and got hurt, or got into trouble. Then Sadie..." Charlie trailed off, her throat tight for a moment before she continued. "The daughter of a friend of mine went missing a couple weeks ago. It's just been a rough month or so. What about you? How's life beyond the headlines?"
Trying to apply logic to the stranger aspects of Point Pleasant was an effort in futility. It had always seemed to be that way, but Dylan could understand the impulse to try to reason through what happened, but it was harder to after all his years living there. He smiled at the roll of Charlie’s eyes, since he was inclined to agree with her in this case. “Rationalizing is often easier than leaving things a mystery. The unknown can feel much worse, even if the explanation is somewhat ridiculous.” He took a sip of coffee, giving her a sympathetic look. “Amelia, right? How is Gavin holding up?” The news of her disappearance had been unmissable; Dylan knew Gavin by virtue of going to his pub over the years, so he hardly felt like that was enough basis to check in on him personally, but it was hard to not feel for what he was going through. “I found out a childhood friend passed away some months ago, which--we didn’t stay in touch and I hadn’t seen her in some twenty years, but it was still an unpleasant surprise.” He smiled faintly. “But beyond that and what else we’ve talked about, life’s going well. Mercifully less exciting, but good.”
"I'm sorry to hear that," Charlie murmured. And she was. Death was never easy. Death was the ultimate unknown with no explanation, ridiculous or not. And it was just so damn permanent. "Gavin is doing as well as can be expected, considering. I'm not sure this is something one ever gets through, you know? It's a constant pain." She still had hope that Amelia would turn up, although admittedly that hope seemed to diminish with every day that passed with no news. "For a slightly lighter topic," she continued with a small smile, "how are your classes going so far this year? It's already November but it feels like the school year has been dragging. I'm not sure if it's because of the students or just life in general."
“Thank you,” Dylan said quietly, to acknowledge her sympathy. That kind of information, even as vague as it was, wasn’t the sort of thing he had an easy time sharing, but Laura had been on his mind lately ever since speaking with her son. “Yes, that sort of thing is never going to be easy,” he said in agreement. He knew too well how unfortunately random who returned and who didn’t could be in Point Pleasant. Gladly taking the shift in topic, he sipped some of his coffee. “The combination of both life and students tend to be most likely. Classes have been going… interestingly at times, given some of nationwide news that comes out politically these days.” To put it somewhat mildly. “But for the most part, well. How are you finding yours to be?”
Charlie hummed as she sipped a bit more coffee, because she could relate to the 'interesting' aspect of the school environment these days. "About the same," she said. "With so much going on I think the students have a hard time focusing on actual school work. The sad part is, I've had some trouble concentrating myself so I can't get too frustrated with them." She sighed, aware that she needed to get back to her classroom. "A few of us were talking this morning about going out for a drink on Wednesday after the memorial for Sadie in the gym. Sort of a farewell without all of the students. You should come with us, if you're not busy."
Dylan nodded. “Sometimes keeping your head above water is hard enough to manage. Though if there’s ever anything I can help with, do let me know,” he offered, quite sincerely. There were some matters he had to handle himself, but he could always make time in whatever way he could assist. Drinking more of his coffee, he briefly considered her invitation. Luis had still been checking in on him, but that wasn’t on any particular schedule or anything. “Yes, I should be free then, so I’d be happy to join you.” Glancing at the clock, Dylan sighed under his breath. “I ought to get going now, though, to get a few things done before the day begins.”
Charlie nodded, appreciating the offer. It felt like these days it necessary to be there for each other. They had lost one of their own, someone who had a family and people who loved her. It was difficult to process. But a lot of things had been difficult to process lately. She nodded and smiled a bit forlornly at the clock. "It's that time of day. But I'll see you soon." She needed to get back to her class and get things ready to go as well. At least teaching would help keep her mind off of things. At least for a little while.