Winter Solstice [Log]

[vernal_miss]

Date: December 19th through 22nd
Characters: Nel, family, and anyone about in Moss Manor
Notes: Feel free to tag at any point in time through the days, including if anyone in the family takes it upon themselves to try to wake her Friday (21st)


Entering into the final week of school before winter break, Nel is full of excitement with an abundance of holiday cheer. Except, despite the weather holding relatively clear, the usually active girl has been avoiding going outside as much as possible both at home and school. When she must, she bundles up far more than any child would willingly do without their own aversion. Ever since the day the whole of Mossgate thinned the poppies, she's noticed that when she's outdoors during the times when the temperature has slipped into a chill then she starts to get drowsy. The effect comes on faster and faster as the week progresses, so that she barely makes it out the walk at the house before she's longing for her bed merely trying to walk to school in the morning. By midweek, she has to rest on the way leaning against walls or trees to close her eyes for well...what she thinks is only a minute. A gentle nudge would get her back on her way to try to hurry before she ends up late.

The second to last day is when it begins to creep into the indoors. Her teacher has to wake her several times during the lessons, and that gets a note from the teacher brought home to her mums that must be signed and returned. Worsening further still in the evening, Nel dozes off right in the middle of dinner sitting leaning on one arm and her head sagging towards her plate even as her other hand holds to her utensil stubbornly.

Come Friday morning on what should be her last day at school, Nel is lost in a sleep far deeper than anyone can reach.

Then as though nothing has happened, late in the morning on Saturday, she rouses on her own with a sudden deeper breath drawn into her chest, and a tiny note of sound in her throat as she breathes out. Brown eyes flutter open only to close against the light with a hard blink, and she reaches to rub at the lingering heaviness holding to them.

Comments

[catted]

Mary looks up from the teacher's note with a faint frown. Not because she's going to scold Nel, but because this furthers her worry. Nel has been tired a lot recently, but falling asleep multiple days during class isn't just uncharacteristic, combined with everything else that she has observed... and she can't figure out what it is. She can only see her daughter's life energy... doing something. She has not enough frame of reference to interpret it, but it's a kind of diminishing, going dormant.

No, she does not like it.

Normally, she would try to get Nel seen by some kind of specialist now, but since she's almost certain that it is an echo, she can't risk that.

She signs the note and puts it down on the table. "So you just fell asleep?"

[vernal_miss]

She brought home a teacher's note. A teacher's note!

The child was mortified enough when her classmates laughed and started teasing her for dozing off multiple times in school today alone, including at some rather peculiar moments. Nel had not even been able to bring herself to peek at the words written on the paper after her teacher had put it into her backpack to carry. Presenting it to her mother to read, she stares down at her feet as her mother reads it over with both hands wringing at a thick lock of her hair as she stands and waits. She hears the use of the pen to sign it and the items placed down. Only when her mother speaks does she finally look up to see the faint frown.

Expectations of a scolding start to diminish as she sees the bothered expression. Hands easing up on her hair, she nods her head, "...a few times. Sorry, Mum. I really was trying to listen and work, then I'd close my eyes for a second and suddenly I was being woken back up." Or in one case feeling the jarring startle of a mid-fall towards the floor.

[catted]

"This is getting out of hand," she quietly complains to herself before reaching out and pulling Nel onto her lap. "Did you feel any more awake after getting up? Did you sleep badly at all last night?"

[vernal_miss]

Beckoned forward by the reach of her mother’s hands, Nel assists in pulling herself up into her mother’s lap. She sinks in her posture as she sits, not quite letting herself sag fully against her mother yet as she focuses on answering the questions. A slow shake of her head accompanies her words, “Not really… I didn’t wake up last night any, and I felt okay at breakfast but as soon as that was done I wanted to go back to bed.”

Stubbornness is keeping her awake more than anything. Nel knows feeling this tired isn’t right and it has been hindering her activities.

[catted]

"And it's been getting worse and worse..." she more states and observes than asks. Or, in other words, her daughter's state has been getting more and more troubling. "Have you been using your ability to grow plants or do something with them recently?"

[vernal_miss]

Mutely nodding in agreement at her mother's assessment, Nel is able to answer the question about using her magic without delay, "Only to make the catnip grow back. It was really easy last week, but it took longer yesterday." Longer to muster up the energy and focus it properly. She managed it without dropping dead asleep afterwards, but the struggle with it has not happened previously.

Reaching one hand up to her chest, she frowns as she presents another detail, "And my warm spot is gone."

[catted]

She tilts her daughter's face up to look at her. "Don't try to help any plant again, okay?

Not before this hasn't gotten better." She looks at her daughter's chest and nods slowly. "You... look different." She'd been trying to figure out how to work with this weird new layer of perception for a while now in silence, trying to make heads or tails of what to do with it.

But now... she cannot see what she used to see where that heat was. There's less somehow. "It diminished, the spot."

[blueskying]

Sky stops by to sit with his granddaughter on Friday. He already knows that physically there's nothing wrong with her, and perhaps it's arrogant to wonder if he could pick up on anything more. And, indeed, nothing he senses feels wrong, not that he's sure what 'wrong' feels like in this context anyway. Somehow it eases his mind, reminds him of his other responsibilities.

Anyone stopping in could see him by the bedside, working out details for next Sunday's service, which will be honoring the solstice, and frowning and looking back at the child.

"Be still and know that day and night, be still and know that dark and light, are one holy circle," he quotes, and even though he's not quite singing it, having set the words to music so often the first still and then one have a certain weight, and holy has four syllables.

[scarsolderthanyou]

Sam is here, too. He's retired; he has nothing really important to do besides fret about his grandchildren. He wanders in and out of Nel's room, and happens to wander in when Sky is half-singing. "You going to do that for your sermon, too, or is that just for Nel there?"

For reference, he's all gray today, none of the concealing foundation or anything else. Why bother, when it's all family?

[blueskying]

For his part, Sky has lived much longer with one hand than he'd done with two; he's not quite as comfortable about it as one born without a limb, but among family he'll sometimes leave off his prosthetic. The two he's most comfortable with do still pinch and ache sometimes, especially when his joints suggest rain or snow are coming, so just now the last quarter of his right sweater sleeve is empty.

"Oh, it's in the program. We sing it in a round every year. Come see sometime," he says absently, though Sky is always mannerly and doesn't press people to attend his services. "I was just thinking that this is solstice, the longest night in the year. She's been getting more and more lethargic in the lead-up... I know it sounds odd, but I wonder if they're related."

His faith is a distant offshoot of Christianity that takes from some other traditions. There's a lot of neopaganism there, the sun and gods or spirits of the earth dying and being reborn at just this time of year.

[scarsolderthanyou]

"If it is related to that at all, then it's probably a numbers thing," Sam says grimly. Part of that is a relief-- they're not supposed to understand that shit. Part of that is fear-- because how can he help his granddaughter if he can't figure out what the problem is? "It's not like regular humans respond to the seasons this drastically."

[blueskying]

Sky agrees, "Yeah, typically it's along the lines of seasonal depression. If this is seasonal, then... tomorrow she should wake up."

He presses his lips together. "If not it might be time to take her out of the area and see if anything happens. If it's a matter of, well, any of this, that should fix it."

If it's some kind of medical condition, though...

[scarsolderthanyou]

"There is that, taking her outside ought to clear whatever it is up... even if none of us taking her will remember what's going on when we get there. I suppose we could have somebody not numbered do it," Sam muses.

wake up thread??

[fairfeste]

Feste has been worried about Nel's fatigue along with everyone else, so when it gets to be a bit late they head into her room, sitting on the edge of her bed and gently shaking her shoulder. "Hey Nel. Come on, time to get up. You'll miss school if you keep this up."

When she doesn't stir at all, they grown and try again. "Nel...? Nel!" Why isn't this working??

Yes <3

[vernal_miss]

Any other time, that weight next to her on her bed, the soft shake of her shoulder, and the sound of a familiar urging would get some sort of reaction, but this morning...nothing. The second shake of her shoulder will make it clear that there is no muscle tone to her frame, Nel laying limp as a ragdoll half on her stomach and half on her side with her face tucked away behind an arm and one of her favorite plush toys. It’s odd that even her hand has no grasp on her toy. Usually she clings to them stubbornly from the moment she slips into sleep until she wakes. Trying to part her from one usually disturbs her.

[fairfeste]

Oooh this is worrying. Feste has the sense to check to make sure she's breathing before they jump up and lean out the bedroom door-- "Mum! Mum!!!"

[vernal_miss]

A hand to her side will reveal that she is breathing, but the rhythmic process has dwindled. Her breathing is shallow as she sleeps, which alone would be of no concern, and startlingly slow. A child her age should be breathing twice as fast at rest as each inhale starts a solid six seconds apart with delays between breaths.

The raised voice of her eldest sibling calling for their mother receives no response.

[catted]

There is no reaction only for a moment, and then the sound of quick steps can be heard outside before Mary Ann comes in.

"What is it?"

[fairfeste]

"Nel's not waking up. At all." The fact their voice is raised and nothing is changing should indicate that this is for real. "She's still breathing, but..."

Saturday? since nobody seems to have hit the waking up part yet

[scarsolderthanyou]

When Nel didn't wake up, Sam came over, and stayed the night. For those not in the know, it's a bit odd, because he's not wearing his cover-up and scarf inside, he's just gray all over-- for those in the know, they might not care very much. He wanders around the house, listening for sounds coming from Nel's room, trying not to growl or snap at people, and otherwise just being nervous and unhappy. Is this a sickness? She doesn't smell sick. He's pretty sure he knows what sick smells like now. Is it a numbered thing? What numbered thing could cause her to fall asleep? Will it take a numbered thing to wake her up?

He's leaning on her doorframe Saturday morning, having not gotten much sleep himself over the night. He doesn't sleep all that well these days anyway, less in an unfamiliar house with this worry hanging over him. So he's the one there when Nel breathes in suddenly, and he fixes his attention on her immediately, waiting for the signs she's actually awake and this isn't some awful new thing.

Yes perfect

[vernal_miss]

The clumsy rubbing of her hand at her eye gives way to far more activity as her next breath is punctuated by a soft coughing to clear her airway. While her family had seen to moving her position every so often, her body still aches and her joints feel stiff. So as she breathes easier and her mind staggers into awareness, she pushes to roll to a new position on her back with a quiet groan and bends one knee up against the covers that had kept her warm.

Coming closer to her, Sam will be able to see that the color of her skin has improved with the pallor gone and a faint flush to her cheeks as she fights her way awake.

[scarsolderthanyou]

"Nel." Sam pushes off from the doorframe and hurries over to her bedside, dropping to one knee beside it once he gets there. He's going to regret that when he has to get up again and his knee protests, but it was better than jostling her. "Nel, honey. Are you awake?"

[vernal_miss]

Vaguely noticing the sound of footsteps approaching, she better recognizes the voice that follows from right beside her. Brown eyes peeking cautiously against the light to look over at him, she responds with a somnolent overcast to her own voice, “...Grandpa?” Confusion sets in as she tries to reason when he had come to the house. Nel half remembers going to bed right after dinner, struggling to make it through cleaning up enough to settle in for the night. Maybe after that.

She blinks her eyes closed a little too long, but visibly startles herself back awake with a quick inhale. After that her eyes start focusing better and open further, “...is it time for school?” Still too disconnected, she hasn’t realized the late hour of the morning, and has no memory of her day spent away in sleep.

[scarsolderthanyou]

"Baby, it's Saturday," he answers as gently as he can, reaching over to feel her forehead and cheek with the back of his hand for any sign of fever, chill, or sweat. "You slept through school yesterday."

[vernal_miss]

That touch at her face would bring reassurance her body temperature has normalized after dropping low through the solstice. There is no rebound fever or sweating, simply a healthy warmth normal for someone still in bed unlike the coolness her slowed state had brought.

“Saturday...?” she repeats, another slow blink following as that usually means a chance to sleep in - only for her eyes to snap open as she processes the second half of what he told her. Her brow furrows, perturbed by the notion, and she pushes with her bent leg to roll towards her grandfather and push up on an elbow with visible effort, “Whut? Why didn’t someone wake me up?” Her family has been rousing her lately to keep her from being tardy, so she does not understand why that would have stopped.