Old Lightbulbs and New Plants (open)

The tree groaned and Kaya let out a loud sound that surprised Elisa, but somehow, it was empowering. She felt just a bit stronger as they went sprawling through the door and onto the soaked ground outside. The water seeped through her thin pants and smeared mud on her coat. As she lay on the ground, listening and waiting for something to come crashing down on her, she realized everything was moving normally. Her toes wiggled, her fingers twitched, and she could move her head side to side, shifting to look over at Kaya.

Heart pounding, adrenaline rushing through her after their near-death experience, she shifted more so that she sat facing the conservatory. It had become a pile of rubble mixed with branches and rain, the plants inside no doubt crushed by the ceiling and walls that had collapsed. Sitting in the wet grass, the sky pouring down on her, chills running down her arms and touching her bones, Elisa couldn't help but smile and start to giggle. The whole situation was ridiculous to her. She had been the perfect student, the angel of a daughter, up until this point. Something about this school incited a small fire of rebellion in her chest, and she couldn't ignore it. Now she was here with a stranger in the middle of the night standing beside the wreckage of nature's fury.

"Thanks for dragging me out of there," the girl said, her laughing coming to a stop but the grin still on her face. She let herself fall backwards so that she lay flat on the muddy ground, not caring for her blonde hair that was splayed in the mud, clinging to the dirt.

OOC: Ignoring Crys' post

"Don't sleep." Kaya smiled over at the girl before rising to her feet, looking back at the scene behind them and blinking, coughing. She rubbed her arms, almost as if to dry them with no luck. "We need to go. Are you of good...mobility?" She offered a hand, tilting her head a bit. Why did she lay down like that? Was she not getting better? Would she be paralyzed forever? The affect usually would wear off by then, though, she'd mostly used it on animals that papa would have already skinned.

Sleep? She never would've been able to sleep in this place, the ground beneath her uneven and mushy, the sky above her dark and threatening. But Elisa understood why Kaya had said what she did. The smile melted off her face as she pushed herself into a sitting position, reaching towards the other girl's hand.
"I can move, yes," she replied, gripping the hand that was offered her and combining her effort with Kaya's to pull herself into a standing position. Her hands automatically went to brush the dirt off her clothing and only succeeded in smearing mud into the pale material, something she was sure would stain.

"Let's walk," Kaya said, and said it again, her voice tired but amiable as she began to step backwards, ready to catch a once-paralyzed girl in case her muscles decided to seize up. "It's a beautiful night, beautiful night, what dorm do you live in?" She wondered if they were heading to the same building, if they could be friends over such a near-death experience. It would definitely be interesting, Kaya's favorite thing. Interesting, interesting; interesting people and events were why she moved south. She pulled her wet collar down, bringing warm palms to her pale neck and breathing a stormcloud into them.

It almost definitely wasn't a beautiful night, but Elisa agreed nonetheless. The smile on her face had finally begun to die down, and she fell in step beside Kaya, ignoring the cold that was settling into her bones, sure that she would feel it all throughout the next day. Her legs and arms were still slightly stiff from the trap and the walking helped loosen them, so she let her arms hang down at her sides in an effort to let the regular feeling return.
"The Winter dorms," she answered. She glanced over at the girl, still wondering about her after all they'd been through that night. "Where do you live?" What an odd way to put it. Live.

"Summer." It seemed they needed to diverge. Maybe it was for the best. The night was deep and it wasn't just her discomfort that was making her exhausted. Kaya stifled a yawn that turned into a sharp, silent sneeze. The lights of civilization melted around them, encircled them in an orange-yellow compass, and the dormitory buildings' steep steps rose to meet them. Kaya looked up at the summer building, the patter of the rain commonplace for the soaked girl after minutes of walking.

"Elisa, Elisa, Elisa," the girl whispered silently to herself, on butterfly breaths that were all but silent, and she gave a definitive, "Elisa." And nothing; a breath pause as she brushed her sopping bangs aside. "I do wish to see you again, and would chat, but I am an awful amount of tired."

At the dorms for students of the Summer house, Elisa paused next to Kaya. It seemed their unplanned night time adventure had come to an end. With a half smile that she quickly stifled, unsure of whether the situation called for one, she nodded to Kaya, lifting her hand in a small wave as they prepared to part ways.
"I hope to see you again, too," she said, her quiet voice almost carried away by the wind. "Goodnight, Kaya." She waited until the girl had walked through the door before turning and completing her walk back to her own dorm. It was with a shiver that she climbed into bed again and fell asleep quickly, images of falling trees and sounds of shattering glass ringing in her ears.