Get shortie, introduction to a mutant
Dan disliked crowds. Not only were they to hard to navigate but the sort of mall going folks one would find in such a crowd had no consideration for shorter men such as Daniel Andrews.
Normally Daniel would not even be found in such a wrenched place like the Mall. However today he had an important mission. He was picking up a present for someone, a very important someone.
Men like Daniel had little friends, few well wishers and family that often didn’t understand people like him. That was the problem, and moving away to attend university only made things worse. The problem was not that he didn’t like his family; he was just distanced from them.
No today he wasn’t shopping for a family member, rather he was shopping for a friend. Not a two legged one either. Daniel didn’t have very many of those, none he’d consider buying a birthday gift for. No this present was for Azreiel, his Siamese cat.
Azreiel was 12 in human years and has been with Dan as long as he could remember. She was more then a cat, she was his friend. He didn’t much care if people laughed because of it, in fact he didn’t much care what people thought period. She was the reason he was at the mall today, she was the reason he was heading towards the pet shop. She was turning 12 in two days.
This particular day Dan wore a green pair of loose fitting cargo pants, the sort with all sorts of zippers and buttons and pockets thrown about, and a greenish white button up shirt with the label “bum equipment” across the back written in small red lettering. His shoes, plain black runners, and his hair tied back in a neat fashion, long and to his shoulders. His glasses sat on his face, thin framed but still awkward. He was a nerd, and he made no attempt to hide that. A slender, short small framed nerd.
His head was of course in a book; a small white book that read “How to understand your cat” on the cover.
Daniel had always been a cat lover. Asides from academics, felines were his passion. There were two cats in his home at the present, and a third on the way. Because of his interest in this book, his attention was not locked on the people around him, rather centered in. Every now and then he would poke his nose out of the book as someone would bump or jolt him. Standing at only 5 feet tall even, he was somewhat of a vertically challenged individual and not easy to spot in a crowd.
It had been a long but productive day so far and Eva was sure that the café would be a huge success. She had been so happy that Taylor had agreed to become her partner that she had decided to move up the opening to a week on Monday and in order to do that she had lots to organise. So this explained why she was now in the main mall part of the Salem centre which was bustling with people seeing as it was a Saturday afternoon and that’s when New Yorkers like to shop. She would usually have avoided running errands on a Saturday but in this case she had gone to get fliers for the café printed as she had to get as much advertising in as possible before the launch.
She smiled; it was all still a bit unreal. She could not have imagined it better if she had tried, her childhood dream was coming true and what made it real was that her café that had formerly been just a shell now had a name. It was going to be called WIRED. She had asked Taylor to help her choose as it would just not have felt right otherwise. So now she had 500 fliers in her back pack that read: Wired grand opening, Monday March 17th.
There was however on thing that she still had to get in order to complete her shopping for the day. And that was to buy the centre piece for the café’s feature, now to most people that would mean a fireplace or a work of art but to Eva who sometimes saw things a bit differently from the rest of the world it meant a fish.
She had bought a large aquarium as the centre piece of the café and had bought some goldfish to put in it, some puffy ones with the big cheeks and the ones that look like their brains are trying to escape but somehow something was still missing. So she once again found herself in the pet shop which was pretty crowded. She had to dodge round parents with little children staring at the cute puppies and those who had already talked mum and dad into buying them a rabbit or a guinea pig or some such creature. Finally she reached the fish section which was blessedly empty, kids were never that fond of fish seeing as you couldn’t really pet them and they were not the most affectionate of pets.
She scanned the display aquariums marvelling at the beauty of some of the tropical fish which were far too expensive and delicate for her taste before turning her attention to the large tanks containing the gold fish. Most of them were plain or similar to the ones she already had and she did not even give them a second glance. Then something darker caught her eye and she stood on tip toe to get a better view of the dark blur. It turned out to be a relatively small black and red speckled gold fish and at once she knew that it was exactly what she had been looking for.
She had once had a gold fish like that one that had ended up living in the pond at her farm. She had won it during a night out at the fun fare with Taylor when she was 15 and this one in the pet shop looked just like it. So she went and had it fished out for her and put in one of those special plastic bags. Once she had paid she brought the bag up to eye level and peered in at the small fish. After a close inspection she felt that she come up with a satisfactory name for him, from now on he would be known as Buddy.
Yes this was definitely a good day.
She started to make her way back out of the shop back to Wired which was only a five minute walk from here. But suddenly one of the dogs barked and she turned to look at it and that’s when disaster struck. She tripped over a box of something that had been knocked off one of the shelves and not put back and subsequently fell forward. She managed to catch her balance again but not before some of the water from Buddy’s carry bag had escaped all over a stranger…
Re: Get shortie, introduction to a mutant
Before Dan knew it not only was his book soaking wet but he was also. It was such a shock that it caused him to stumble and fall slightly and then back into his read. He was not sitting soaking wet with a total watching him, also having fallen onto her rear. This event was familiar, it reminded him of high school when he first activated his powers because of a humiliating event involving high school girls, a bully and falling down. Daniel was nervous now, there was really no one looking at him save for this woman, but he didn’t know that, in his eyes everyone was watching him, laughing at him. He didn’t want to be here he just wanted to be away, or so small no body could see him! He didn’t want to be seen, let alone be seen like this, soaking wet on his tushie in a mall hallway! So of course his powers would kick in to fulfill this wish. A strong sense of emotion and concentrated thought on a particular size mixed with embarrassment often unwillingly activated his powers. And today, it indeed did.
Daniel seemingly disappeared right before this fish bowl woman, all but his clothes and book and what ever he was caring, all into a messy pile before her almost like magic, he was just gone. It happened quickly and seemingly with out cause.
Suddenly the pile moved, then again…and again. There was a small something poking around inside, perhaps he wasn’t gone after all.
“Oh crap, this isn’t good! Not now!” Dan squeaked to himself as he attempted to find the light at the end of the sleeve tunnel he was trapped in. Once he did however he wished he had not. He now found himself looking at a huge world before him, and standing quite naked in it. The huge world part he was use to, the naked part was not a good thing. Quickly he ran back and used part of his shirt sleeve to hide his unmentionables. Then the reality hit him, not only was he in public, but the woman who ran into him, and who got him all wet was stairing at him, she had seen the whole thing, this could not end good. Dan now stood at a miniscule 5 inches tall, smaller then a Barbie doll, and that’s what he looked like, a doll, a naked life like doll. The power to become bigger and smaller at will, this was his mutiant power. Just like the amazing ATOM from DC comics, the professor who worked in micro biology and had the ability to shrink himself at will. This was Dan to a key, he was a student studying micro biology and he had the amazing ability to do this, however in such public settings, it was more of a curse then a gift. He could only hope this woman was not devious, as it would take him at least a half hour to change size again.
Re: Get shortie, introduction to a mutant
The balance Eva had thought she had regained turned out to be an illusion and she ended up unceremoniously planted on her arse in the middle of the pet shop doorway. Once she had gotten over the shock of the whole thing her first thought was for buddy and to see whether or not she had dropped him. As it turned out she had not and although he was now swimming in an interestingly small amount of water he was fine. Now that she did not have to worry about her fish she turned her attention to the stranger she had accidentally soaked.
Eva took what she saw next in relatively good stead and she was sure not many people would have. As she stared at him; and before she had time to apologise, the stranger seemed to well disappear… It was kind of like one minute he was there one minute he was not and all she was looking at was a pile of clothes and a book on cats. A bemused smile tugged at her lips maybe this stranger had been a witch or in this case a wizard and by pouring water on him he had melted. Now Eva was a rather sensible girl and she did not even want to start to explain what had just happened until to her surprise the answer was handed to her on a platter.
The pile of clothes seemingly developed a strange moving lump that attempted to reach a sleeve hole in the now vacated t-shirt. When the lump finally reached its goal Eva was both shocked and on the edge of uncontrollable laughter for what she saw was beyond unimaginable. A little version of the stranger had emerged from the sleeve and if that was not surprising enough to add to things he was completely naked. Eva actually had to bite down hard one her lip so as not to laugh.
For someone who was not a mutant herself Eva was one of the most understanding people around which was lucky for this guy. This was probably because Eva’s best friend Taylor had suddenly gone from being normal to being a rather interesting shade of yellow. So once you’ve come to terms with that shrinking people were a synch. However Eva knew that not everyone shared that opinion of life and she was now keenly aware of the fact that they were in the middle of a mall and that people were starting to stare.
So balancing her fish in one hand she began to gather the pile of clothes together gently so as not to squish the small lump inside. She smiled at the people that had stopped. “I’m such a cluts really, my boyfriend had just had these cleaned and now there soaking.”She pulled a face as if to indicate that her boyfriend would be displeased and stared pointedly at the loiterers until they moved on. They she picked up the book rather awkwardly for her arms were already pretty full and shrugged her back pack into a more comfortable position and started off towards Wired.
“It ok, I’ve got you I’m taking you back to my place so that you can dry off.”
It was weird talking to a bunch of clothes but right now it was the best she could do. The walk to the café took about 10 minutes for she was walking slowly so as not the make her charge travel sick. When she arrived in front of the glass door of the café she had to put down the bundle so she could get the keys out of her bag. Wired still had only a white sign with no name and the door was still just plain glass. But she had made sure that Taylor would come round some time next week to paint things.
Re: Get shortie, introduction to a mutant
Asides from being slightly cramped and confined, Dan was quite comfortable. However he was more then a bit nervous. This had never happened before, he had never been discovered at this small size, not by a total stranger anyhow. This left him more then a little scared. Daniel had no idea what this woman was going to do with him, part of him did not want to stick around to find out. However he only had to stall her for about 20 more minutes and he could return to normal, nice happy but still short normal.
Time passes slowly as the repetitive motions of his captor’s movements began to turn knots in his stomach. Darkness surrounded him and all he could hear were the various city noises and the sound of her feet hitting the pavement. He didn’t bother to speak, she wouldn’t hear him from here likely anyhow. For the most part Dan sat in silence contemplating how he would explain himself to her, and how he would escape if things were to turn ugly.
Things changed quickly as Dan felt his world shift once more. Taking a moment to catch his bearings he no longer felt everything shaking and moving, she must have stopped. Daniel took this moment to poke his head once more out from the shirt to see where he was finally. At first he was confused, all he saw was the ground, cement, he must have been on a sidewalk. However then he looked to his right and noticed a large figure apparently unlocking a door. It was the stranger. ‘God she’s huge’ Dan thought to himself as he looked around his area. He could sneak away easily enough but something inside was telling him not to. Besides that he was naked and he had no idea where he was, like it or not this girl was his best shot right now. Dan shrugged and snuck back into his sleeve as she bent down to pick the shirt bearing him back up.
Daniel had grown to use his powers for his own benefit, To study things on a smaller level, to escape from dangerous situations, to spy on others, and to gather information. He had thought about becoming a spy perhaps, but science was his passion. His Idol was the amazing Atom. A Comic book character who used a special suit and his mutant powers to shrink down to atomic level and study micro biology. Dan was aware of the potential of such a gift, he could work on micro robotics, biology, he was a gift to his field. But his powers had limitations. He could not shrink smaller then 4 inches, or grow taller then his base height. He didn’t have good control yet so what ever height he was reduced to was still random, and he had this problem, random energy spasms that resulted in such events. But he was working on such things, what he needed was training. Other mutants, who could help him, work with him. Funding was also a problem. His research was limited to a student’s budget and that was not a whole lot.
Daniel let out a sigh as things around him moved about and he was powerless to stop them. He could only pray this woman was kind. However strong on his mind was how to cover this up, how to escape and how to buy himself much needed time.
Re: Get shortie, introduction to a mutant
Once Eva had finally gotten the door to Wired open she bent down and picked up her package again. This was not small feat as she was still struggling with the helpless Buddy in her other hand. She stepped inside the now nearly finished café and headed towards one of the tables that was not reserved for computer use and put the pile of clothes down. She also set down the book and headed towards the aquarium into which she dropped the new star attraction. She peered in through the side and smiled. Buddy was the perfect contrast to all those weird looking fish and she was sure Taylor would love him.
Now that she was sure that the fish was ok she decided that she better do something about her guest. She figured that it would be best to take him upstairs into somewhere more private so that he could recover from his embarrassing ordeal. So she once again scooped up the clothes, but not the book and headed for the small room behind the bar through which she could get to the apartment upstairs.
It was a nice place with a small open plan kitchen and living area, two bedrooms and a shared bathroom. Not must by some people’s standards but a palace compared to her last place. She headed to the guest room, which might one day become Taylor’s and set the clothes down in such a way that their occupant could crawl out easily. By putting him here she was hoping that he would be able to return to normal without having to feel embarrassed.
“Right, you are now in the guest room of my apartment. I’m going to leave now and let you recover when your ready I’ll be in the next room.”
And with that she turned and headed for the door but just as she reached it she added. “Oh and I’m Eva by the way.”
She went out and closed the door. She decided that she would make herself a hot chocolate and wait to see what kind of a person came through that door
Re: Get shortie, introduction to a mutant
Dan was relieved to be alone, he slowly crawled out of the sleeve he was hiding in and took a long look at his surroundings. He was in a bedroom, a ginormus bedroom. He smiles slightly and then took a seat on the cumphie bed he was placed on. True he was still worried, but this woman seemed nice, and if she had any plans of hurting him she would have done it by now, surly she could be trusted. But what he really worried about was how he would explain things to her after?
Dan sat on the bed for a good ten minuts before he was able to return to normal. Once at his full and tall height of 4 feet 10 inches, he quickly put his clothes back on and walked over to the mirror to fix his hair and his glasses….his glasses…they weren’t here! Dan seemed frantic as he looked on the bed and on the floor, they were nowhere, they must be with the woman, or back at the mall? Dan frowned, his vision was ok, but very near sighted, but with out the glasses he looked much less nerd like, but still there were signs.
Daniel made his way out of the room after about fifteen minuts, and began to walk around the house somewhat lost like, looking for the stranger who had brought him here. Here seemed like some sort of internet café or something. He made his way to the kitchen and found her sitting at the table drinking something.
“Um….hello….Eva I take it?”
This was the first time Dan had been able to see her from a normal point of view, and she was a lot less intimidating from this angle.
Daniel made his way to the kitchen counter and leaned against it somewhat nervous like as he watched her curiously, to see what she would say now that things were somewhat normal.
“Thanks for…um….well for covering for me, I’m not sure how I would have handled that alone…and…that normally doesn’t happen…I mean I normally have a lot more control over my powers…sudden shock, embarrassment sometimes does that to me…I’ve just recently fell across them and I’m still not sure exactly how they work..”
Dan ran his hand over the back of his neck as he nervously went on.
“I’m…not a dangerous mutant… your…not going to tell anyone are you? I’d really rather you not…”
Re: Get shortie, introduction to a mutant
After about fifteen minutes and a half a cup of rather warm hot chocolate the stranger from the mall reappeared fully clothed from her guest bedroom. He was still rather on the short side although now it was not quite as dramatic as before. He supported a rather unstylish hair cut and looked a little daunted by her which she supposed was normal as only minutes ago she could have squashed him like a bug.
“Um….hello….Eva I take it?”
She smiled; at least he had been paying enough attention to remember her name. Now she thought about it anyone could be a mutant, they seemed to come in all shapes and sizes all the way from her over excited best friend to this unremarkable boy from the pet store. She was actually starting to feel left out from this whole cool power thing although she did not like the idea of shrinking much. She stared at the boy that was now leaning over her kitchen counter at her in an expectant fashion.
“Thanks for…um….well for covering for me, I’m not sure how I would have handled that alone…and…that normally doesn’t happen…I mean I normally have a lot more control over my powers…sudden shock, embarrassment sometimes does that to me…I’ve just recently fell across them and I’m still not sure exactly how they work..”
She blushed slightly when he thanked her for helping him, if she had not poured fish water on him he would probably not have ended up in that rather awkward situation. Still it had happened and there was no going back now so she accepted his unnecessary apology and listened to his explanation of why he had been unable to recover his normal size straight away. It seemed to her that at first powers were no fun at all and that they seemed to embarrass people more than anything else. But she had been to that institute place that helped people cope with them so as to make the most of them; by the sound of things this stranger could benefit from a bit of guidance.
“I’m…not a dangerous mutant… your…not going to tell anyone are you? I’d really rather you not…”
So that’s what had this guy acting so weird he thought that she was someone that would give him in to the mutant haters or worse yet the government. She sighed, had she actually given this guy a reason to believe that of her? She didn’t think so but it was clear now that she had to clear things up and explain to him that she was no threat to him.
“Don’t worry your safe with me. As it turns out my best friend is now and interesting shade of yellow, so I’m ok with people suddenly turning into Tom Thumb. I think I might even be able to help you with your whole uncontrollable power thing. You see my friend Taylor, is in this institute not far from here that helps mutants acclimatise to their powers.”
Re: Get shortie, introduction to a mutant
She was rather attractive, and much less threatening now, however Daniel was more interested in what she had to say then who or what she was.
He had never really put much thought into developing his powers, into learning to be more than he was, perhaps even growing to have dominance over his powers and some day becoming like his mentor, the amazing Atom.
"So you’re saying this is like a ...mutant school?"
Daniel was a scholar himself, he had two books out and another on the way, he was considered a young genius in the field of Micro Biology and was earning a name for himself all over the board. Another dream of his was to become as smart as the legendary Dr Hank McCoy.
"Tell me more, I'm curious. What exactly is it they do here? I mean training mutants to become more powerful, isn’t that kind of like giving them a license to kill?"
Daniel wasn't against this school, but he wanted to make sure he was getting himself into something that was on the right track. There were stories of mutant armies, brotherhoods that trained mutants to kill humans, as if training them for some looming war. Dan wanted no part of that, but he did want to use his powers to better himself, and perhaps help a few people along the way.
He trusted this girl, she had given him enough reason to so far, and she was nice enough. Could this school thing be as legit as her?
"You seem to have a soft spot for Mutants. That’s kind of rare these days. There are a lot of dangerous ones, but there are a lot of good ones too, like your friend no doubt. Powers as diverse as the people that hold them. I sometimes wonder if any two mutants have the same power. I’ve only ever heard of one man who could do what I can, and he was a comic book figure at that."
Daniel shrugged and laughed a little before going on.
“You mentioned your yellow friend, what is his power?”
Re: Get shortie, introduction to a mutant"So you’re saying this is like a ...mutant school?"
She took in a breath and thought about it, she did not want to give this boy any false impressions that might lead him into something he did not want. But from what she had seen of the Xavier’s institute a mutant school was exactly what it was. It had looked to her like a normal high school with bustling corridors and noisy lunch rooms. The fact that its students were mutants only involved certain extra “training” classes judging from what Taylor had said.
"Tell me more, I'm curious. What exactly is it they do here? I mean training mutants to become more powerful, isn’t that kind of like giving them a license to kill?"
Strangely enough she smiled at this comment; she had never thought of the way such a simple thing as a school could be used as a training base for an army. It could be possible but from what she had seen none of the people there had seemed like extremists and she trusted that Taylor had more sense than to join a terrorist group. No her gut did not give her the impression that anything dodgy was going on there. Besides there was no better way to find out what was going on there than to visit the place. And if they were assembling an army she did not think that they would have let her in or out so easily.
"You seem to have a soft spot for Mutants. That’s kind of rare these days. There are a lot of dangerous ones, but there are a lot of good ones too, like your friend no doubt. Powers are as diverse as the people that hold them. I sometimes wonder if any two mutants have the same power. I’ve only ever heard of one man who could do what I can, and he was a comic book figure at that."
She watched him laugh at his own comment which was very true, she could not think of anybody more different than Taylor and the shy Polish girl she had met in the entrance hall of the institute. She was shy and retiring and he was eccentric and sometimes too much to handle. She did not know enough about mutants to know whether or not it was possible to have the same powers as someone else. So she just stayed quiet and waited to see what he would say next.
“You mentioned your yellow friend, what is his power?”
She laughed slightly as she remembered the rather awkward way she had broached the subject with her friend. She had not known what to expect but she did remember hoping that his mutation involved more than just being yellow. It had turned out that it had, Taylor could apparently control electricity, which she was not sure she approved of. She did not even want to imagine what kind of an explosive combination her friend’s over excitability and electricity would produce.
“He’s an electricity mutant, which is a rather scary thought as he is also hyperactive.”
She went to a drawer in the living room and produced a piece of paper and a pen on which she proceeded to scribble the address to the institute. She walked back across the room and handed it to the stranger.
“Here you go it’s the address to the institute; that way you can go check it out for yourself.”
OOC: this is going to be my last post for over a month so I have hopefully given your char enough info so that you can easily move on to a thread in the institute. We can finish this one later of you like I just don’t want to hold you up unnecessarily.
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