ic Special Delivery

[Heritage]

Lynn leaned forward, her hands resting on top of the desk. "Look, I start people at fifteen an hour, with medical, dental and vision. I don't need to make a profit, because I'm independently wealthy; I just run this place 'cause I love, and because it gives me a chance to help out folks like you." She pointed upstairs. "I've also got a one bedroom upstairs, if you're looking to relocate."

 

She shrugged.

 

"Just sayin'."

[Shofet]

Serena fell silent, looking between the two heroes in shock.

 

"You two uh... You don't even know me, and you just... offered me jobs?" she said, sounding absolutely stunned. "And a..." She paused, then suddenly, broke out into a strange sort of giggle. The super community always had a way of surprising her. She sat there, rubbing at the moisture that had suddenly appeared in her eyes, though she wasn't sure if it was from the laughter or something else.

 

Suddenly, she felt a bit faint. She moved her hands from her eyes to nervously sweep back her hair from her face. For some reason, there was a part of her that felt like this could be some sort of cruel trick. She banished the little voice inside her head, and took a moment to just breathe, tilting her head back and inhaling the scent of books and old wood. 

 

"I, ah... Woof. Was not expecting all this when I came into here," she said. "I mean, I could bring in a résumé, let you see if I'd work out," she said to Lynn. Then she looked at Richard. "And thank you, I-I just don't think I could go out to the West Coast. I mean, my daughter's gonna be going to a, uh... Er. The special school here in Freedom and I wanna be close by."

 

She looked down at the desk. "Ah, jeez."

[Avenger Assembled]

"Yeah, our kids' education is what brought us back here too," said Richard with an easy shrug. "If your daughter's come here for school, she's come to the right spot." 

 

"Are you a full-on shapeshifter?" asked Holly of Grim, now that the conversation had moved on from boring stuff like who was going to get a job where. "Like a Grue?" She didn't sound frightened the way most kids her age in Freedom would be at the prospect, but she didn't seem much like most kids in Freedom. "I always thought they were pretty cool." 

[Heritage]

Lynn could see Serena was a bit overwhelmed, but was glad she seemed to be considering her offer. "See, that's the thing people don't realize; if you're a 'good guy', you're a good guy all the time. I swear I help more people out of costume than in. And sure, drop off you resume," she said with a shrug. "I mean, it's retail...pretty much anyone can do it. But yeah, there's paperwork and whatnot, so we need to go through that. Even if you only work part-time, I still give you benefits." A business card appeared between her flicked fingers, which she handed over to Serena. "You can just email it to me, if that's easier."

 

The changeling then turned her attention to Holly's very important question. "Nah, I'm not as versatile as a Grue; most of the changes I make are cosmetic. I used to be able to shrink down into a pixie form, like Tinker Bell, but that's a lot harder for me to do now. But I can still look like just about anyone; I can also do animals and inanimate objects, as long as they're about my size."" She placed her chin on her fist. "You like impressions? I do good impressions. Or I can make you something cool, like a unique toy or something."

[Avenger Assembled]

"I'm a little old for toys," said Holly with the polite dismissiveness of a tween. She smiled to take the sting out of her words; she was, after all, very well-brought up. "But can you make one of those headphones with cat ears?" she asked. "I like to play Fortnite and I always wanted a custom set." 

 

"Okay, but that means I get to keep anything we may have already bought you!" said Richard cheerfully. "Pink's a great color for me." 

 

"Da-ad, do you even know what Fortnite _is_?" asked a slightly-scandalized sounding Holly. 

 

"Sure, it's one of those games you kids play, with the Overwatch and such." He waved his hand as his daughter rolled her eyes. "Funny story, working for the show is actually the first time I ever had health insurance. Well, I mean, real health insurance," said Richard carefully. "My ma knew some doctors growing up but that was different." 

[Shofet]

Serena took the card readily, pulling out a beat up old brown wallet and stowing it. While she had her reservations, having a bit of extra money meant that she'd be able to make some repairs she needed quicker, maybe see about finally getting a new couch to replace her dying old one. And, you know, making rent more regularly without having to rely on her father to bail her out every now and then.

 

Now, the talk came to stuff for kids. She wondered what she would do if she could just make things. She'd probably make a nicer car than what she was driving now. And she would love to have her own dish-washer rather than having to do everything by hand. Would be cool to just magic that up.

 

Oh god, when did she become old?

 

"My Mia isn't interested in toys much either. For her sixteenth birthday, I've been saving up to get Mia her first tat. She's been begging me forever, so I'm finally caving. She wants a Bosnian flag like mine," she said, gesturing to her arm. "Maybe not a full sleeve though, those can be expensive."

 

 

[Heritage]

"I said 'or something', Little Miss Thang," Lynn playfully groused as she waggled her head back and forth, then she grimaced. "Electronics, though-" She sucked air in between her teeth. "If you have a set of earbuds on you, I could shape something around them, but I can't do metal, sweetie. Just plain ol' cat ears are easy, though." The changeling drew an arc in the air with her finger, conjuring a pink and blue cat ears headband directly onto Holly's head. Then, as an afterthought, she smirked and conjured an identical set on Richard's head.

 

Then she turned to Serena. "My kids begged me to let them get tats, but Conservative Jews don't do that, so..." She shrugged. "But once they figured out shifting, they went nuts, so it all worked out in the end. Here-" Lynn held her arms up in the air, and two simply beautiful sleeves of ink scrolled up out of her T-shirt; the colors were bold, the designs based on classic Japanese paintings of waves. "See, once you can do it on your own, it's less exciting. Still pretty cool, though." She looked at her own handiwork and whistled slightly. "Ooh, those turned out nice."

[Avenger Assembled]

"Thanks; these are neat!" commented Holly as she took off the cat ears, fiddling with them as she tried to figure out the secret of their  construction. "I can probably fit these on the headset I already have if I glue on some Velcro..." With a smile, she perched the cat ears back on her head, grinning broader as her dad met her eyes, cat ears still on his head, and winked with confidence. 

 

"Kids can surprise you like that," said Richard thoughtfully in response to the grownup conversation. "I'm adopted into the tribe myself. Funny how that works." After a moment, he did take off the cat ears. "Sixteen's a big year. Geez, I remember when I was sixteen..." He shook his head, looking down at the cat ears in his hands, then grinned slightly. "Maybe that's why we worry about them so much, because we know what it was like when we were their age." 

[Shofet]

Serena quirked her mouth at the sight of the new tats on Lynn's arm. It didn't seem right to get them without the pain. That was half the part! Oh, but oh well. Not like she wasn't 'cheating' at a bajillion things with her own powers.

 

"Yeah, my dad wasn't super happy with my tats either. He's uh, 'Muslim'" she said, making air quotes. "But you'd never know with how he pounds PBR. Honestly, I think if he set foot in a mosque, he'd combust. Still, he's learned to live with them."

 

"And yeah. Mia's way better than I was at 16. Crap, I had been a supervillain for a year by that point... Still, she started shoplifting recently and it's not like I wanna go to bat for Sephora or whatever but... I dunno. I see her even making one of the mistakes I had and I freak out."

 

She stopped as her phone buzzed. Pulling it up, her eyes flicked over the screen, and she smirked.

 

"That's her now."

 

She made a silly face, sticking her tongue out and crossing her eyes, and then snapped a picture before typing something out and sending it.

 

"She wants to go to this concert down in Philly, which her father already said no to so of course she's asking me, because she thinks I'm stupid. Typical teenager."

Edited June 25, 2019 by Shofet

[Avenger Assembled]

"Wellll, you weren't really a supervillain," offered Richard without really thinking about it. He blinked, took a moment to process what he'd said, then did what he usually did - he went faster. "Er, I mean, I know you guys fought the Freedom League, but that's just because there wasn't really any game in town after 1993, not the way there is today. I mean, it wasn't like you were in the..." 

 

"I'm telling Mom," Holly said with a smirk. 

 

"Your mother and I are a team," said Richard firmly, fidgeting slightly in his chair despite that. "And your mother knows the importance of tactical analysis." 

[Shofet]

Serena responded quickly. "Hey! We were totally supervillains! We didn't just fight the Freedom League. There were others. Did a lot in two years. We stole super-tech, we robbed banks, and heck, we once fused an entire lot of squad cars to the pavement. We even managed to make a super-kid quit, once!"

 

She stopped. "Actually, that's kind of awful. We wedgied her and hung her from a street light by her underwear. She cried," she said as she looked off into the distance. "I hope she's okay. And not angry. She's probably angry. I'd be angry."

 

"Yeah I'm not proud of that one."

[Avenger Assembled]

"That's more like super-bullying than super-villainy," said Richard with a thin smile. 

 

"Centuria relocated back to Salt Lake City, where she-" said Holly as she sipped the hot chocolate she'd retrieved while nobody was looking. "But, uh, that's none of my business," at her father's look. Father and daughter looked at each other, brows furrowing for a moment, and Holly sat down her mug with a deep sigh and an annoyed huff. "I'm sorry I picked up on the thoughts you were broadcasting," she said, blushing a little in her cheeks. "With the telepathic brain center I was born with," she went on, obviously much more annoyed with her father than any of the other grownups in the room. 

 

"We should probably get going anyway," said Richard, starting to stand up. 

 

[Shofet]

Serena's eyebrows flew up at the mention of Centuria's name, and she turned to them.

 

"Uh, actually, if you happen to ever get in contact with her, or uh, whatever, but... Like, let her know Revolt is sorry? That she was a stupid kid and she's grown up and is very, very sorry."

 

She paused. "...Like I said, if you ever get in contact." She chewed her lip. She wondered if the woman even wanted her apology at this point. It had to be something she wouldn't wanna think about, if it was traumatic enough to make her quit. But by the same token, maybe the apology would heal things a little bit. She hoped that the woman had moved on a little bit. 

[Avenger Assembled]

"You'd be better off having that conversation yourself," said Richard, reaching into his shirt front pocket for his sunglasses. "Trust me. The only way to deal with guilt for what you've done is to find the person you hurt and try and make it right." He snapped the sunglasses open and put them on, his tone suggesting ample experience with Serena's situation. Maybe there were some similarities about being a bad guy, in whatever decade you did it in. 

 

"Thanks for the candy," Holly offered to Grim, before turning to Serena. "Your daughter sounds nice," she said, obviously still mad at her dad but trying to be polite even so. "Maybe I'll see her in school this year." 

[Heritage]

As the others started talking, Lynn had actually fallen silent, her eyes unfocused; from time to time her lips moved slightly, or she would jerk her head a bit. Finally as Richard and Holly made ready to depart, she snapped out of it.  "I'm sorry! Telepathic phone call with the EC office!" She rose from her seat and shook Richard's hand, and gave Holly a friendly wink and a wave. As they left, the shopkeeper resumed her seat.

 

"So I was just in contact with my better half, as it were, and she gave you a clean bill of health: no criminal record as an adult, no crimes committed in your costumed persona that lead to death or permanent injury, etc." Then she shrugged. "Now, is she happy that I want to hire another ex-con; no, but we agreed that I run my store and she runs her store, so..." She drummed her hands on her armrests. "So yeah, drop off your resume when you get a chance, and we can get this party started, alright?"

[Shofet]

Serena smiled at Holly as she and her father went to go. "I'm sure she'd get along great with you," she said. "She's a real sweet-heart on the inside. And hey, if you wanna get her to open up, just ask her about uhhh... Minecraft, music or cooking youtube. She likes that stuff."

 

She gave the girl a thumbs as she went, before turning to look at Lynn.

 

"And... good. Thank you. I really do appreciate you taking this chance on me, especially given who I was. You're not gonna regret it." She sat there awkwardly for a moment, looking around, before sighing. "I should probably head out myself unless there's something else you wanna talk about. I had a long day and kinda need a shower and to eat dinner." She pulled out her cellphone, looking at the time. "Probably just gonna pick up Wendy's or something."

 

She moved to stand. "Again, thank you."

[Heritage]

Lynn shrugged a very Jewish shrug. "It's all good." She started to get out of her chair, then stopped. "He's right, you know. About the power of atonement? I should know; we've got a whole holiday all about it." She came out from behind the desk and stretched, and for just a fleeting second, the changeling seemed much older, like a grandmother with creaky bones. But then it was gone, and she looked like a teenager in her enthusiasm as she scampered over to the glass pastry case.

 

"Oh wait, let me give you something to go with your coffee! Do you like cinnamon rolls? Ours our great!" She deftly fished out a roll the size of a softball, and put it in a cardboard box. "There you go! Enjoy it now, or take it home to share with your girl. Put it in the microwave for 20 seconds, and you'll plotz!"

[Shofet]

Serena stared at Lynn for a moment, before her face split into a smile and she laughed. The woman seemed a bit eccentric, but at this point Serena was pretty used to eccentric. Even enjoyed it. She took the cinnamon roll gratefully. She figured that Mia would enjoy it, so she decided she'd bring it home along with dinner. Seemed like a nice treat.

 

"Well, if we're using other languages, then... Hvala!" she said. "...That's thanks, in Bosniak."

 

She smiled, and then headed out the door with a smile still on her face. It seemed like things were looking up.