Wonderland

Participants:

caleb_icon.gif colette_icon.gif fox_icon.gif gillian_icon.gif

Scene Title Wonderland
Synopsis Fox meets one of the Lighthouse's current residents who tries to spread her own unique brand of hope in a place where it is in short supply.
Date May 25, 2010

The Lighthouse


Morning at the Lighthouse is like feeding time at the zoo, when a dozen plus hungry children are stampeding through the kitchen downstairs, vying for seats around the expansive table surrounded by chairs. The morning isn't just about an acticity so much like herding cats, it's also about the some hour of preparation that comes before breakfast.

Gillian and Brian handle the chaos of getting the littlest of children squared away, while a room adjacent to the kitchen the young woman responsible for cooking those dozen plus morning meals is slouching exhaustedly onto the sofa with a drop of her sleight weight. Colette Nichols is a fixture at the Lighthouse, hardly an adult herself, former resident, and— as most residents know — Evolved. Not everyone at the Lighthouse knows what the girl with one blind eye does, but they've heard stories of when an intruder broke in over a year ago and how she helped defend the children with bright, colorful lights. It's not something she makes public, though.

"Holy sh— er— crap…" Colette self-corrects herself with a rub of one hand over her forehead, "I can not wait to not have to do that every morning." Huffing out a sigh and running a hand through her dark hair, the teen offers an askance look over the young man sitting slack in the armchair across from her. There's a furrow of her brows as she leans back against the sofa, lifting her feet up to place mis-matched socks on the coffee table. "You not hungry, Caleb?"

There's a shriek from the kitchen of Mala and Hailey bickering over who gets to sit next to Gillian, and Colette squints one eye shut from the noise. "Okay maybe I don't blame you for waiting…" the teen adds with a grimace, lifting up her hands to fold behind her head.

For all the people here in the Lighthouse, most of them have met Colette and Colette's met all of them. Or at least, all but one; The young woman who has yet to come down to breakfast — the Lighthouse's newest resident, "Fox" — has yet to make the proverbial rounds.

Caleb looks up at Colette when she asks him if he's hungry, "No thanks Colette, i don't really feel like eating right now", he's dressed in dark blue jeans, black sneakers, a white long sleeve shirt with two blue stripes halfway down the upper arm and 42 on the chest and back, he has a couple of burns though his shirt but thisis his least burned one, right now he's trying to block out the sound of the kids.

Fox pads down the staircase in thick socks, apparently the last to arrive for breakfast. She doesn't seem to be in any particular hurry, pausing at the last step to catch a glimpse of the others already present. She bites her lip shyly, but the smell from the dining area sure is tempting.

Leaning forward when Caleb actually has something to say, Colette lifts both of her brows and offers the young man a crooked smile. "Yeah it's kind've like a bag'a screamin' weasels in there right now, right?" She snorts out a laugh, glancing into the kitchen for a moment before resting her hands on her knees, about to stand up straight before she hears the creak of the spiral staircase and notices Fox coming down. For not having peripheral vision on her right side she still seems relatively spatially aware.

Her mismatched eyes move back to Caleb as Fox is rounding the last few steps. "You want me t'get you something, just ask 'kay?" Pushing herself up to stand, Colette risesu p onto her toes and walks over to the chair Caleb's sitting in, letting a hand come to his shoulder in a gentle squeeze, making sure to offer a look of mismatched eyes down to him before her hand lifts up and she moves on a few steps towards where Fox is coming in to the living room.

"Well hey there short-stop!" Colette calls out with a crooked smile, crossing her arms over her chest and slouching her weight to one side, resting against the side of Caleb's chair. "I heard about you coming 'round, been so busy though I didn't get to say hello." Pushing away from the chair, Colette takes a few meandering steps over towards Fox, then offers out a hand. "Name's Colette…"

Caleb gives Colette a small smile before slipping back into utter emotionlessness, absentmindedly he lets elecrticity crackle across his hand and up his arm giving him a little bit of a buzz, he's usually happy to deal with the kids but isn't exactly in the best mood at the moment.

Fox turns her head to face Colette, perhaps slightly startled, and immediately takes notice of her eyes. "Hi," she says at length, then takes the final step to reach the ground floor. "I'm Fox," she announces as she reaches for the proffered hand. "I was the last to get a shower and the water was cold, so I was waiting for it to heat up again," she explains. "I guess it'll take me a while to get used to living with so many other people." She slips her sweater's sleeves over her hands to keep them warm, while absently rubbing one socked foot over the other.

"Well, we know your power ain't warming up cold water," Colette jokingly notes with a soft smile, gently squeezing Fox's hand, but then she doesn't really let go. Colette takes a step back, gingerly tugging Fox to follow her as she does. "Table's kind've crowded right now in the kitchen, but there ain't a rule saying you can't eat on the couch at the coffee table, if you don't make a mess n'stuff." A quick look is afforded to Caleb, but for the moment Colette is content to lead the much younger girl over to the sofa, walking backwards as she does.

"It's usually first come first serve when I cook a big breakfast, the bacon an' stuff goes pretty quick. But you're new, so… I can probably whip you something up, or slap some hands and steal off'a plates to get what you want. I dunno if you met Lance yet, but he totally steals extra food, don't let'em trick you." Once she's nearby to the sofa, her hand gently disengages, but Colette keeps walking backwards for a few steps, just in line to offer an askance look to Caleb.

"This here's Caleb," Colette notes with a nod of her head towards the teen, "if you haven't met'em yet. He's not always this much of a sourpuss, or this much of a dangerous electrical thing." Those last over-emphasized words are subtle chastisement for no taser-hands in the house.

With everyone distracted by a newcomer to the Lighthouse, few seemed to have noticed Gillian taking her leave from the table, leaving Hailey and Mala to themselves. What they'd been bickering about is a source of contention for Gillian too— Hailey's brand new puppy, Hazel.

The tiny dog won't move from the girl's lap even at dinner, had spent the night in the girl's dorm, and seems to be quick on being the most pampered thing in the whole Lighthouse. But in Gillian's mind, it's still a dog. And a child of one of the dogs that killed one of her kids, and mauled her.

When she returns, she grabs some of the more portable breakfast bits from the kitchen, as she looks around at those not trying to crowd around the table. "Sounds like I need to make a run today…" She sounds a little stressed, whatever it is must be important.

Caleb sighs and stops with the elecricity, on the upside at least she didn't send him into the kitchen, "Hey", he offers the kid and a smirk at Colette for the sourpuss comment, then leans back in his chair.

Fox meekly allows herself to be dragged along to the sofa, and glances to the dining area en route. "It does seem…crowded, yes," she readily agrees, then looks down to the coffee table, considering it versus the alternative. "No, I won't make a mess," she promises. "I think I met Lance already, but it's a lot of names and faces to memorize all at once and I'm not sure which one he was," she admits. "I'm pretty hungry though, so…I'll eat anything you've got ready, please don't trouble yourself just over me." She gives a little smile to Caleb with another shy "Hello," her eyes then widening upon noticing the crackling electricity in his hand.

"I'll get you something," Colette offers in a quiet reassurance to Fox, lifting a hand to run thorugh Fox's hair to brush a lock of hair from her forehead. It's a gesture designed to distract the younger teen from the worry that Caleb's sparking fingertips might otherwise inspire, even if just a fleeting one before turning towards Gillian on her way in.

"Can't sneak out on me," Colette says in a playfully chastising tone, like a parent might to a child about to run off with friends, "I've got eyes in the back of my head!" Striding on socked toes across the floor, Colette circles around the coffee table and then down to what Gillian's carrying. There's a subtle nod over her shoulder to Fox, and the teen's expression shows a sympathetic smile. Gillian and Colette both know what it's like to be the weird new outsider somewhere, it doesn't take much expression to convey the notion to the older woman.

"So, Sparky!" Colette diverts from Gillian, headed to Caleb again to tag-team the outcasts of breakfast. "What's got you all sulkified? The sun is out after like woahman forever. C'mon, at least pretend to me smiley so I don't have to worry n'stuff." Colette walks over to Caleb's chair, leaning over it from behind and crossing her arms on the top of the overstuffed relincer's back. "New girl could probably use a friend, you know…" Colette says in a hushed tone of voice to Caleb, offering a look over to Fox.

"Yeah, this is one time I can go out and not have to wear three layers of clothes and goggles," Gillian says with a laugh, looking around at the three young people one at a time, before focusing a bit on Fox. The new kid. The one she hates to leave here, even if it's for something important— like saving a life. "If you're worried you have to leave, Caleb, there's plenty of time. Half the city is still spotty with power, so until you figure out where you're going, more than enough room on our couches— and you can hang out with Fox, too."

Being the new kid sucks, but there's worse places to be a new kid, she's sure. She tries to eat her toast quickly, indicating she'll be departing before too long.

Caleb gets to his feet and goes into his bag and pulls out a pair of rainbow coloured gloves, he walks over to Fox and holds them out, "Here, you'll stretch out your sleeves if you keep doing that", he gives her a smile, ok, he's not letting her braid his hair but he's trying.

Fox glances upward when her hair is ruffled, and with the promise of food, she turns to her side and curls up on one end of the sofa, but continues to watch Colette and Gillian for a bit. "Is there any hot chocolate?", she thinks to ask as she links up her sweater's sleeves and clasps opposite forearms. Her attention returns to Caleb when he offers the gloves, and she reaches up to accept them, and tries them on. "Thanks," she says, but before he can move away, she blurts out, "Um, do you, like, get electrocuted when you wash your hands or take a bath?". Then she bites her lower lip cutely and looks down to her lap, regretting having asked that.

Flashing a faint smile to the pair, Colette nods her head once, then slowly takes a step back and away from the armchair and towards the kitchen. She's only gone long enough to wrangle some food from the table, as well as some of the extra food off of Lance's plate he was going to feed to the dogs. Eventually she disappears from the dining room entirely, hiding off somewhere deeper in the kitchen, right up until her path takes her back by the table and into line of sight of everyone in the living room.

"Alright one of you take one of these plates before I kill myself or something." Carrying a steaming mug in each hand and balancing a small plate of scrambled eggs, toast and sausage on each arm Colette is trapped in a precarious balancing act, wavering near the coffee table as she grimaces awkwardly. That plan was not thought through all the way — waitresses make it look so easy!

"Where're you headed anyway?" Colette asks of Gillian, realizing only then nothing was really planned for today. "I gotta' go see McRae this afternoon, so I'll be gone for a few hours. Magnes should be here but— you know how he is with flying off randomly."

Fox jumps up to accept the plates from Colette, setting them down on the coffee table one at a time. "Thank you!", she says with a little smile before crouching down on the floor in the space between the coffee table and sofa to begin eating. She still has those knit gloves on.

"Brian'll be here no matter what, and Doyle, and I'm sure Caleb can handle a lot of it, too, but— I have to go help someone out. A favor. Pretty important one." Gillian has that secretive sound that the kids ar least are used to. Something's going on there! The new kid won't know what it is, nor, probably, would Caleb. "I'm not sure if I'll be home tonight. It depends on how it goes, but I'll get back as soon as I can. Not going to Las Vegas this time, I promise."

Caleb raises an eyebrow at Fox's question a few weeks ago he would have ignored the question but he's more comfortable with his ability now, "No i don't i'm getting some active control over it now, i wouldn't get shocked unless i chose to discharge elecrticity", with that he zips up his bag again and sits back down.

"Rainbow gloves?" Colette asks over to Caleb with a crooked smile and one brow raised. Not that she's one to say anything, but the visual itself gives her enough pause to grin inappropriately. "They're uh," Colette rolls her shoulders and offers a lopsided smile, "they're cute," she says with a faint hint of a teasing tone, giving a shake of her head and wry smile before coming to settle down on the sofa beside Fox, laying out a mug of — exactly what she asked for — hot cocoa out in front of her, and sliding the other to Caleb's side of the table.

"A little bird sent me a letter today," Colette notes to Gillian with a nod of her head, "looks like me, Magnes, Tash and Sable are going to be taking off for a new job this week. I haven't decided when yet, probably towards the end? I dunno how much we'll be here after that, but… I just wanted to let you know, so you won't be caught too short-handed without us. I know there's way more kids here than before now."

Fox pauses her eating to look over and up at Gillian, hopeful that she won't be gone long. She's her first contact in this strange world of evolved people, and by extension, the one she trusts the most with her questions. But she reminds herself that there are others that need Gillian's attention too, and sighs, telling herself to be patient. Then to Caleb's response, she simply nods since she still has some egg in her mouth and doesn't want to seem too rude. When Colette brings the hot cocoa, she chews faster and swallows, then reaches for her mug to take a sip. "Mmmm!", she intones, some color coming into her pale cheeks. There's nothing quite like hot cocoa on a cold day!

"Maybe Doyle can have the extra bedroom so he doesn't have to fatman sprawl on the couch anymore," Gillian says with a grin, seeming to take this in stride as much as she can. There's still a few people staying here, including Caleb and Doyle and others, though it'll be less full than it'd been and more requiring of her attention soon enough. "Make sure you let Magnes come back to teach the science and math classes, so the kids don't get dumb while he's gone." There's not much else she can say about it.

Now that the weather is clear, the warm happy home no longer needs to shelter quite so many people… "We'll be fine. I better go talk to Doyle and Brian before I go, so I can make sure they can handle it."

Caleb rolls his eyes at Colette, "Yes what about them?", he begins playing with his ability again, forgeting he's just been told off for it.

"Be safe out there, okay?" The worried tone that Colette offers Gillian isn't unwarranted, after the last time Gillian went out on her own. Far be it from Colette to play the part of the overprotective parent, but the young woman has been on edge about people going outside alone ever since what happened a few weeks ago. Letting her mismatched eyes linger on Gillian a moment longer, Colette breathes out a sigh and turns to look over at Caleb.

Trying to lighten the mood, she lifts up her own hands and creates similar arcs of neon-blue 'electricity' between her fingers. However Colette's electricity doesn't make a sound, just looks similar to what Caleb creates, until it turns hot pink, then neon green and then each individual arc bends like a pipe-cleaner before blossoming tiny flowers on the end that then flap their petals and turn into luminous butterflies of neon green light that flutter away silently from her fingertips.

"I like colors," is Colette's answer about the gloves, as if the butterflies of light were a prime example. They reach a few feet up in the air, then pop and sprinkle down as harmless little motes of violet light like buzzing fireflies before winking out entirely.

"Also, no electricity in the house," Colette affirms flatly after the fact, one brow raised as if she were actually more than a few months older than Caleb.

"I won't be alone. I'm meeting up with some people," Gillian assures, as she dusts her hands off over a nearby trash can. "And I don't want to get mauled again, believe me." As she says that, she cautiously looks toward the Huskies. It's warm enough now they can haunt the outdoors, and they probably will the next time she's here for a full day. No more indoor huskies! But instead spawn of devil dogs can live indoors. Gillian will never win…

With nothing else, she moves to pull a Brian aside, to talk about her plans to save the man who saved the world.

Fox notices Colette's light show in the corner of her eye and slowly pulls the mug of cocoa away from her lips, turning her head to watch it, with a confused and bewildered expression. "What…what was all of that just now?", she asks, glancing up for some sign of a projector in the ceiling.

"We're all a little special here, Foxie." There's a smile from Colette at the wonder in the younger girl's reaction, "The Lighthouse isn't just about… being somewhere, or being alone. You aren't ever alone, you've got all sorts of people here lookin' out for you, and a lot've great things happening everywhere if you just look hard enough." Wrinkling her nose, Colette plants a hand firmly atop Caleb's head and ruffles his hair before stepping away with a static pop of electricity from his hair to her index finger.

Bringing that finger up to her mouth, Colette purses her lips and squints down at Caleb, then looks over to Fox. She closes her other hand, turns it palm up and lets her fingers spread to reveal a blue-winged butterfly that slowly beats its wings. "This place is as much a home as you make it," Colette admits, snapping her fingers and sending the butterfly scattering as blue motes of firefly-like light.

"It isn't all magic," she adds, looking to the kitchen and the pile of dity dishes that the kids finishing their meals are leaving behind, "but you know," her mismatched eyes look back over to Caleb, then over to Fox. "There's a little magic somewhere."

"If y'look hard enough."


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