Critters in the Cellar

Posted on Sat Feb 11th, 2023 @ 23:19 by Claire Cavendish & Rebecca McMillen

Chapter: Prologue: Dawn of Avalon
Location: Avalon Institute
Timeline: Tuesday, 29th of September, 1992
4110 words - 8.2 OF Standard Post Measure

Ever since the press conference Claire had been running from one meeting to the other, and by now even the ones with the faculty and students were starting to feel like she was threading water, trying to keep from going under. The days had been too long, and the nights too short. Even now the kids that were ambushed by the Sentinel still had trouble sleeping. The faculty was doing everything it could to make them feel safe. Secure. But the buzzards of the tabloids weren't helping. Breaking into the institute's walls. Triggering alarms. This was the first night where it had been quiet. The spotlight was starting to move away from Avalon. It was only a matter of time before the media had latched on to something else.

So the Avalon's head mistress did what she always did in these situations. She stood in the cellar, a dark place with wine racks neatly positioned against the wall, filled top to bottom with 25 year old bottles of whisky. Her hand traced the cold glass of the bottles, neatly racked. Clinking softly as they turned in the racks. It's something you were supposed to do with wine, but the purple woman didn't like wine. She liked whisky. She slid one of the older vintages from its safe spot against the wall when suddenly she saw something move in the corner of her eye.

Getting here was rough. Getting in would be rougher. Would have been.

Rebecca's only difficulty was trying to figure out a way to make introductions. Hi, I decided to let myself in... didn't seem to have that friendly of a ring to it. These people were like her, they wanted to help, they wanted to keep others safe. So in theory, she should have just walked up to the front door, introduced herself, and called it a day.

But she didn't. She couldn't afford to have that many eyes on her. That many cameras. That many outsiders looking. Bringing that kind of heat down on this place, while it was still wounded, would only endanger the people here and endanger their mission. So she did the next best thing: She snuck in. And anywhere a rat could get in, Rebecca could get in.

"I didn't mean to sneak." she said, standing and moving into the dim light. "I saw a way in and took it. I saw this was a safe place, but I didn't think you needed more publicity at the moment. I didn't want to ruin the peace." she offered. "My name's Rebecca." a thin tail slid out from its hiding place, slowly swaying behind the woman. "I heard this was a safe place." this time when she said it, the meaning was a little more precise.

Claire's heart pounded in her chest, and there was a moment where she needed to suppress her reflex to shimmer into invisibility, which took so much concentration the bottle in her hand started to slip. She was just able to recover in time, though and held on to the thing by the neck. The woman across from her had just appeared, as if out of thin air. What was also disconcerting was the fact she had been able to get in to the institute without triggering any kind of alarm. It was something that she'd have to address, but it didn't seem the most pressing matter. Clearly she hadn't made her way in by conventional means.

The shocked expression on the purple woman's face was replaced with a warm smile. "Hi Rebecca," she walked closer and extended a hand in greeting, "my name's Claire Cavendish." She wondered exactly what it was about her presence or arrival there that would've ruined the peace, but again it was a question for later. "It's pretty cold and dark down here, want to come up with me? Warm up by the fire?"

Rebecca took the offered hand in greeting with a soft smile forming on her features. As she came into the slightly better light it was clear she was a mess. Dirty, scuffed, but hard to believe under all that was a woman. "It's nice to meet you Miss Cavendish. I wish it were under slightly better circumstances, but all in all, not terrible." she managed to find some humor in the situation. Her accent was easily identified as British, and if she kept talking could probably be narrowed down to which block. At the purple woman's offer to get out of this cellar, she gave a nod, "Oh that'd be lovely, please thank you. Though, don't let me stop you from picking out a bottle. Not a fan of the stuff myself."

"Fire sounds lovely." she added after a moment's pause, allowing Claire to regain her offered hand.

Claire had wanted to say something about the fact that it would leave more for her to enjoy, but it already wasn't a great look on the head mistress that she was planning on drinking alone in the dead of night. She showed the bottle that she had nearly dropped when spotting the young woman and wiggled it a bit. "Sorted." She turned to come shoulder to shoulder with the newcomer and slid an arm around her shoulders. From the way she looked it was obvious it had been a while since she had been among others. "Perhaps we should look to get you cleaned up first, what do you say? Nice hot bath? Good ol' cuppa."

Sorted. That brought a smile to her features, and as Claire slid an arm around her, the tension just seemed to melt away from the woman. The reality set in. "Oh those sound absolutely fantastic, please. I hate to break into your home and be all 'Hello, can I borrow a cup?'." Something touched Claire along the waist. Oh it was a tail of some form, thin and long and slightly fuzzy. Like a mouse tail of a sort.

"But, I guess, hi. I broke into your house. Can I borrow a cup?" she followed up the moment, and took a few steps shoulder to shoulder with Claire before she paused, "Maybe you should lead this dance?"

"When a door is always open, it's impossible to break in." Claire pulled the mousy woman a bit closer and then mentally reprimanded herself for thinking of her as mousy. It was probably something she had heard her entire life. "You are welcome here Becks." She led the way out of the cellar and only stepped away from her when they needed to go up the stairs.

It wasn't a long walk back to her personal quarters, which had an an suite bathroom with a bathtub. It was a luxury permitted to her to have one of those, but she barely made use of it. "Alright, here's a towel and a washcloth." She looked at the woman and just knew she would drown in her clothes, but it was all she had. "I didn't see you carry any luggage, so you can borrow my pyjamas. We'll find you something clean and fresh to wear in the morning." It wasn't the first time they had a straggler come to the institute, and they were actually prepared. None of that was in her personal room though and seeing the circumstances she had felt it was friendlier to keep her close for the night. "Would you like your tea while you take a bath, or after?"

"That's a very pretty saying. I like it." she walked with Claire up through the halls of the building. Becks.... a much better nickname than she had before. She claimed the towel and cloth with a smile, "Yeah I prefer to travel light. Especially when, ummm... " she paused, hesitating a little, "My, well that is to say my.... well, What I can do, doesn't work on luggage so..." she tried to reclaim the moment by motioning to the empty space next to her, "Gotta travel light. Clothes on my back, shoes on my feet. As for the tea, I guess after works. Not taking a tea bath here." she giggled a bit.

"Thank you." she said softly after a moment. "I'm gonna say it a lot."

"In that case I will keep telling you that it's no problem." Claire smiled and stepped backwards away from the bathroom, she felt this wasn't the most appropriate time to talk all about the woman's abilities, it was something they could get to when she'd feel a bit more human, clean, refreshed. "I'll leave you to it, if you need anything just yell. I'll boil the kettle in the meantime." With that she pulled the door closed behind her and went about her business in her small kitchenette.

With that settled, Rebecca made her way into the lavish bathroom. "Won't be but a mo'..." she assured, as she literally scampered in. Scamper. Such an odd word to apply to a person, but it was the best word. The door closed, and Rebecca was once again alone. Well, alone was a stretch, but it was just her.

Pants were always an issue. She had to ruin each pair to make room for her tail. Such a damn nuisance, but nothing compared to the moments in her life because of it. She started the water in the tub, oh sweet lord the TUB! It was huge! She was tempted to just turn it into some Olympic swimming pool, but no, no no. She'd let the water fill, but for the moment she turned to look at herself in the mirror. Dirty, unkempt, she was a mess. Getting here wasn't easy, but nothing in life was ever handed to her. Nothing good anyway. She breathed a little easier. She was here, she was safe.

Pants were always an issue, but slightly lower on that list were shoes. Oh what she'd give for normal feet. Normal pants. Normal life. Why was she different? What did she do to deserve this? She shook her head, wiping away what tears were starting to form. No. This wasn't the time to mope. She had passed a milestone, time to keep that momentum.

As for the tub, it was a good soak. She needed it. She REALLY needed it. Drying off and draining the tub, Rebecca emerged from the life of luxury that was that washroom in pajamas that were, as expected, hilariously oversized for the woman. She made due as best she could, holding them up or just tying a knot off to tighten up the literal loose ends. "Miss Cav..... Claire?"

Leaving the woman to her own devices and boiling the kettle Claire was roused from her ruminations over a reread of Nietzsche's later work, spurred on to do so by the arrival of Phoebe and more insight into to intricacies of her powers. She neatly put the page marker in between the pages and got up, "Yes?" She hadn't really kept track of time and wondered exactly what her help was needed for when her eyes landed on the wiry woman that made her clothes look like bed sheets. "Come. Sit." She motioned for the other chair in front of the fire before taking her seat again.

Rebecca gave a nod and made her way over to the offered chair, but before actually approaching she saw the next thing on her to-do list: The kettle. She made her way to the attached mini-kitchen and prepared herself a cup of tea before moving over to join the ot---

To join Claire at the fire. She sat, lowering herself slowly and just relaxing... as though this was the first time in a long time that she could just do something as simple as SIT and be comfortable. She stretched, hands up legs out feet out, and just relaxed. Cleaner, refreshed, and now armed with the healing power of tea, she could finally relax.

Then she sheepishly hid her feet under the chair. Perhaps the second indication that this woman was something more. The tail was a mark. So were those feet. They weren't human feet, no. Longer digits, four toes instead of five. Cute little painted claws instead of nails: Those were the paws of a rat.

Claire was never one to be taken aback by the physical manifestations of mutations. She had seen the reactions of people when they first met her. Even if they tried to suppress it. That wasn't to say she could never be surprised. She had noticed the tail as it embraced her down in the cellar and the feet added to the aesthetic. "When did you first hear about Avalon?"

To her credit, Rebecca didn't really have a negative reaction to Claire's appearance, for a number of reasons. First, and most important, purple was definitely her color. Second, she had seen her on the news. Third, you don't question the physical appearance of the person who's house you kinda sorta maybe broke into.

"I saw your bit on the tele." she offered. "After those so called Sherwood Rangers made their bit." another bit between sips. "Finding the place wasn't that hard. I just didn't want to draw so much attention after the conference. They really tore you up on there, which is why I didn't want to use the front door."

"It's ok." Claire smiled and took her own sip, though it clearly wasn't tea in her glass tumbler. "If you don't mind me asking, how did you get in without triggering the alarm?" Perhaps it would shed a bit of a light on her abilities, Claire didn't want to assume anything and having someone open up about their gifts was always a good way to show them how she and Avalon were different from the rest of the world when it came to those kinds of things.

Rebecca put her tea down. D... did Claire say the wrong thing? Was it something she said or... No, no Rebecca was just getting ready. She stood up, but she gave Claire the 'just a moment' motion, "Don't worry, I'm not running." she offered, "And you didn't offend. Just, well I owe you this much for breaking in." she said, a gentle smile on her features.

"The rats showed me how to get in." she started, "I ... I can talk to rats. Mice too." she offered. "And, they showed me how to go about getting in. As to HOW I got in... well..." she paused, focused. Took a breath, held it, let it out. "Claire. Promise me I'm safe here."

Claire wondered what her trepidation was all about, but also knew there was enough trauma within these walls to keep a whole army of psychiatrists busy for the next half century. She put her own glass down and looked at Rebecca as she stood right in front of her. "Of course. Yes. I promise you are safe here." Though she wasn't quite sure how the rats and mice felt about that, William had a pretty strict no-vermin policy and one of the students could shape shift into a cat and wasn't always in full control of their feline instincts.

That was good enough. Rebecca took a moment to get into the mindset. Shifting like this took the right kind of thinking. A pause, and then it started. At first, nothing seemed to happen. Small changes have small visuals. Whatever she was doing, it wasn't obvious, it wasn't flashy, it wasn't... and then it was a drastic enough change to be seen: Rebecca was shorter.

While those loaner pajamas were still just as big on her as they were before, they continued to be too big for her as they, and her, continued to dwindle. Either the process was slow, or she was taking her time to demonstrate. This journey started with her being around 170 centimeters in height. She was about 140 now. 135. 130. 125. Like some odd hourglass or countdown, the woman just kept getting smaller. Smaller. Smaller.

The only show of surprise was a slight quirked eyebrow on the features of the head mistress. Claire sat in silence waiting to see how far this would go, just in genuine curiosity.

The blonde was almost melting away at this point. 120, 110, 100 centimeters tall. She gave a bit of a nod, and then the process sped up. Seems the slow decline into obscurity was for show. 80. 60. 40. She was quickly approaching the size of a doll, and then below. Smaller, smaller, smaller.... and then she stopped.

Rebecca stood on the floor in front of the chair, in front of the fire, in front of Claire. She was five centimeters tall. Still dressed in the overflowing pajamas that were loaned to her.

"So yeah..." she had to yell, in an adorably squeaky voice.

Claire gave a smile leaning over a bit to get a better look at her. "That's amazing." She didn't know what the right response would be. It seemed like the woman had some trust issues around her abilities. "That's way cooler than mine." She hoped that she'd make the right bet in assuming that she'd never received many compliments for her abilities. Perhaps even chided for not being normal, or worse. "Well that explains why you had no difficulty getting in unseen." She leaned back into her seat, hoping to invite her back to normal size by that simple gesture of giving her room to do so without having to worry of bumping into her.

The process of returning to the normal-scale world was just as quick as leaving it, and soon Rebecca had joined Claire at a more reasonable scale before reclaiming her cup of tea and sitting down again. "Sorry about the inquisition. Just, I just met you and I was worried you were gonna scoop me up or something. If I'm... I really can't... " she paused, "If something's holding me back or if I'm inside something I can't grow back. I don't have any, I don't know, momentum? So if I was tiny and you put a cup over me, I'd have to knock the cup over first before I could hit the one seventy mark again." she admitted.

"So, I was a little worried you'd just kinda, I dunno, snatch me up or something. Thanks for not." a smile. "And, thank you. I got teased a LOT in school because of it. Mostly from my sisters. I..." she brushed some hair behind her ear. "Thanks for thinking it's cool. I ... I guess it is."

"I, I don't know what the rules are. I showed you my, ummm, talent? I .. I don't like using the word Trick for what I can do. My sisters made me do tricks, and I just... I don't like using the word Trick." she seemed pretty stern on that note. "I mean, you don't HAVE to share, I mean I'm in your house, drinking your tea, wearing your pajamas. I .. I shared because I wanted you to know how I did it. How I got in. I wanted you to feel safe, like you're helping me."

"Also you have a few rats in the cellar. They're very nice, though." she sipped her tea, "I'll ask them to leave in the morning."

Claire sat patiently as Rebecca worked through some of her things right in front of her. It wasn't uncommon for people to finally let go of some tightly held stress and worries in front of her, often being one of the first that would invite them openly and without prejudice. It also explained her worries, "It must be scary to be down at that size and feeling trapped." The thing for her was sunlight, or any kind of UV light really. It burnt her skin if she tried to go invisible and it was similar jumping face first into a wall if she tried to teleport into it. "We call them abilities. Powers or gifts are also acceptable alternatives." She'd always been very conscientious of what she called the things she and people like her could do.

"As for mine." She slowly started to disappear, the dim light of her room making it easy to melt away in the shimmering fire contained within the hearth. Even when she slowed it down for demonstration purposes it only took a few seconds for her to be completely invisible. She left the glass in her hand visible, to at least give the other girl the sense that she was still there. Then she came back into the visible spectrum. "I can also teleport, but it's a bit messy in enclosed spaces. I tend to bump into things." Momentum really was something she had to get more control over.

Her new mousey friend gave a nod. Abilities. Gifts. She liked the term Ability. Gift..... gift would take some getting used to. Power. Now that sounded exciting. Phenomenal cosmic power.

As Claire demonstrated her capacity, Rebecca blinked. "Wh... whaaaaa. Okay, okay okay THAT is wicked." she offered to the floating glass, then she came back to this side of visible. "I wish I could do that. There were SO many times I wished I could just, you know... poof. Vanish." she illustrated the poof part with her free hand.

"Now, as for it being scary to be around all of you giants, oh yeah. I've gotten used to it, but it's still a bit to process. You're like, I dunno, fifty? Sixty? Sixty meters tall to me. That's why I don't make fun of people for being shorter than me." she smiled, amused at the personal joke. Nevermind that she was a little taller than Claire... currently. "I mean the upside is if I really really want to let myself go I can enjoy one cookie all day." she giggled, feeling comfortable about her capacity for the first time in too long. "But what you can do is pretty wicked."

If Claire had a quid for every time she had heard a mutant, or even someone without abilities, say they envied her powers of invisibility she doubted that she needed the anonymous benefactor to fund the school. It had always been a past time in mutant communities to compare abilities, misery loves company after all. "Thank you." She gave a warm smile and took another sip of her whisky. "Most of the things I do have nothing to do with my mutant abilities though. We provide a warm home, purpose, and guidance to mutants, and there's always a bed free for strangers. Even if they do sneak into my whisky cellar at night. Would you like that? A nice warm bed for the night?"

Rebecca gave a nod, "Well, I'm no freeloader. If you need help around the place, I'd certainly be willing to help. BUT..." she motioned with her tea, "If you're about to say that my warm bed for the night is in a dollhouse, or a sock drawer.... I'm gonna hit you." she had a smirk on her features. Perhaps she was joking.

It took Claire a moment to register the comment as a joke, and she wondered how true it had been for her situation before coming to Avalon. It was abundantly clear that she'd not had the supportive, warm, environment back home that Claire tried to give everyone that came through the gates (or the basement window) at Avalon. "I didn't take you for a freeloader. For tonight you are my guest. Then tomorrow morning we'll see what the dawn brings." She got up from her chair to lead Rebecca in the direction of guest quarters. It was the quickest solution at the moment, and the shortest trek. "And I can assure you, our rooms and beds are quite spacious, even at full size."

Rebecca followed her the short distance to the guest quarters. "Oh wow... oh wow no no this is.. this is..." she looked around again, then faced Claire, "This is for me? I mean, tonight sure. And yes in the morning, we can figure out how I can help." she seemed eager to pay back the best thing to happen to her in quite some time.

The room was nothing extravagant, it certainly wasn't anywhere close to the apartment that Claire herself resided in, but if the expectation was a room in a dollhouse, this was certainly a huge quarters. It had a desk, a small adjoining bathroom with a toilet, sink and mirror and a single bed against the far wall. "It's empty, you can stay here as long as you need. Lay down. Rest." She reached out to touch the woman's shoulder and gave a gentle squeeze of encouragement. "You're safe here."