It didn't snap back.
Lucas noticed that first.
After something like yesterday, he expected a swing in the other direction. Either people doubled down and got louder, sharper, more defensive, or they overcorrected and went soft, overly cautious, afraid to push anything at all.
Neither happened.
The morning carried a strange kind of restraint. Not hesitation. Not exactly confidence either. More like everyone had agreed, without saying it out loud, to take half a step back and look at what they were doing before committing to it.
It showed in small things.
A conversation near the stairwell paused when someone realized they were talking over each other. One of them stopped, made a quick gesture to continue, and actually waited. That didn't used to happen.
In the dining hall, the usual clusters were there, but looser. People drifted between tables instead of locking themselves into the same seats with the same groups. No big declarations. Just movement.
