ic Make No Small Plans

[Heritage]

The Harrow Estate, North Bay. Thursday, April 14th, 2022. Noon.

 

Lulu Beaumont sat cross-legged on her bed, staring down at all her acceptance letters and program materials from various colleges and universities spread out before her. Her eyes darted from letter to letter, to glossy brochure and then to pamphlet, her right leg pumping nervously the whole time. At length, she sighed, through up her hands, and rolled off the bed onto her stocking feet, and began padding towards her foster mother's home office.

 

Once she got there, she gently knocked on the open door; it was indicative of her state of mind that she was still wearing her oversized Alabama State jersey and pink sleeping pants this late in the day.

 

"Hey Megan, you got a second?" She hung on the door frame as though afraid to step inside.

Edited April 14, 2022 by Heritage

[Thevshi]

Velocity

 

"Of course Lulu, come on in." Megan Harrow responded promptly to Lulu's inquiry. The blond woman was seated behind the desk of her office, turning away from the computer screen towards one side of the desk to look at the young redhead as she stepped into the room.

 

Megan's office was something of a departure to the majority of the décor in the Harrows' North Bay home. Most of the house was decorated rather formally, with a more modern aesthetic, while avoiding being ostentatious. The furnishing in Megan's office was a more sleek and minimalist. Where the walls of Robert's study were lined with bookcases, Megan had only two, right behind her desk. And rather than being filled with books, probably no more than a third of the total space was taken by a few carefully arranged groups of books. The remainder of the space contained pieces of art or picture frames. One a shelf just over halfway up one of the book cases was dedicated solely to pictures. One was of Megan and Robert at their wedding, another was the most recent school picture of Lawrence, and the third was Lulu’s graduation picture from Claremont.

 

Megan's bright blue eyes were studying Lulu as the young woman made her way into the room. "What can I help you with?" She asked with a warm smile as she gestured to a chair on the other side of her desk.

[Heritage]

Lulu stepped into the room and had a seat, tuck her legs underneath her. "Ah'm sorry to bother you, but there's a few things ah could really need your help with, is all."

 

The young redhead took a deep breath and let it out slowly.

 

"Ah'm thinkin'...that ah would like to go to school as, uh, an open telepath. Not necessarily havin' a press conference about it, but, well, ah might not have a choice in that, ah guess."

 

Lulu got up and started to pace around Megan's office.

 

"Ah know ah want to study psychology, maybe even get mah doctorate, but ah don't want to hide my abilities. In fact, ah might want to use 'em. Like, therapeutically, if that's legal."

 

And then she stopped directly in front of her foster mother and sighed.

 

"But ah know that could cause a lot of problems, maybe even be dangerous. And that could put you and your family at risk. So...that's kind of everythin'."

Edited April 15, 2022 by Heritage

[Thevshi]

Velocity

 

Megan waved her hand dismissively as Lulu apologized about bothering her. "You know you are always welcome to talk to Robert or I about anything your concerned about." The blonde woman replied before going quite to listen to Lulu's issues.

 

When Lulu finished, Megan gave her supportive smile. "That is certainly a significant decision you are grappling with. Robert and I are happy to help you consider all the pros and cons of the decision and provide whatever other support you need to help you make it, but it is ultimately your decision. I do appreciate your concern about the impact it might have on us, and Lawrence, but we are probably in a far better position to weather any of that than many, so I do not think you need to worry too much about us."

 

"As to your academic interests and using your abilities in conjunction with that, I am afraid I do not know the full legal and ethical issues with using mental abilities in psychology. But it is certainly something we can help you research, and, if it came to it, get you legal assistance in navigating those issues."

Megan leaned back in her ergonomic chair as she turned slightly from side to side as she seemed momentarily deep in thought. "If you are wanting to be public with your abilities, we will probably want to engage a PR firm to help with managing that, possibly even getting out ahead of any possible negative press." She said. "Luckily, you also have some other connections which should be helpful on that front besides just us."

[Heritage]

Crystal-Gazer

 

"Oh, you mean like Veronica? Yeah, she would be a big help with this, wouldn't she? Ah'll have to give her a call later."

 

Lulu ran her fingers through her hair and looked down at her feet. "Thank you, for helpin' me with this. Ah'm still not used to good things happenin' in mah life."

 

She looks up at Megan and smiles, though there are tears in her eyes.

 

"Ah'm still always waitin' for the other shoe to drop, y'know? To have to pay for all the good things that've happened to me."

 

She shakes her head and places her hands over her stomach.

 

"Ah still feel that knot of fear."

[Thevshi]

Velocity

 

Megan gave a small nod as Lulu mentioned Veronica Danger. "Her family has an entire media subsidiary at their disposal, I imagine they can help point you to some good resources to help with any PR we might need. If not provide a little help with that as well."

 

When Lulu shifted the discussion to her still having uneasiness with good things happening in her life, Megan gave the young woman a sympathetic smile. The blonde woman stood up and walked over to Lulu, giving her a tight hug.

 

"You are always welcome to any help we can provide to you. As we told you when you were finishing up at Claremont, our legal responsibility for you might have been ending, but you are still part of our family."

 

Stepping back slightly, Megan focused back on Lulu as she gave her a warm smile. "As far as having to pay for the good things that have happened to you, well, I think that if you continue helping people, either as a costumed crime fighter or as a therapist, or both, I think that is more than a fair trade in return."

[Heritage]

Lulu nodded, looking thoughtful. "So, if you don't mind me askin', how many people know about your secret identity? How did you decide to tell 'em, and how did they react?"

 

As of right now, not too many people knew about Lulu's powers, outside of the Harrows, people she knew from Claremont, and some of the residents of Columbia, Alabama (including her family).

Edited April 21, 2022 by Heritage

[Thevshi]

Velocity

 

Megan walked back around to her chair to sit down as Lulu asked her follow up questions. The blonde woman gave Lulu a smile as she began he reply. "Well, the short answer is far more than knew my secret identity when I was your age."

 

"As you know, my parents and siblings all know, as does Robert's mother and sister. Many of the members of the Freedom League know, as do some of my old teammates on the Interceptors, in particular Grimalkin, my oldest and closest friend and one of the first people to know. A few of the parents from the Nicholson school, ones that are also active heroes. There have been a few others here and there, namely Headmistress Summers, another teenage hero I dated briefly around the end of my Senior year in high school and a UNISON agent."

 

"As for my decision to tell various people about my secret identity, well that is no real easy answer and varies from person to person, but all are generally tied to initial, at times misguided, decision to create the identify of Velocity and to zealously guard it. When I gained my powers early in high school, I was already something of a ball of energy and my new powers just seemed to dial that up to a hundred. Just using my powers to get my homework and chores done in moments was just not enough of an outlet, so it was not long before I had my first Velocity costume and was zipping around doing good in North Bay in Kingston. That was incredibly freeing, both in allowing me to operate at my full potential and not force myself to operate at 'normal' speeds and also just get away from my self-inflicted overachieving routine. So, I originally decided to keep my identity and power secret from my parents for selfish reasons, I did not want them to do anything to stop me from being Velocity."

 

"Later, as I ended up dealing with more serious and dangerous events, I convinced myself that keeping my secret was necessary to protect my family and friends. But as I never went to Claremont, it was not easy to constantly keep a double life and regularly lie to everyone I cared about. I can tell you that double life was a significant factor in the chain of failed relationships I had through high school. So, when I meet Grimalkin, despite the fact we butted heads at first it was not long before I shared the secret with her as it was such a relief to have someone to openly talk about things with, particularly someone my own age. Around that time I also shared it with some of my new teammates on the Freedom League."

 

"But I continued to keep the secret from my family and friends, in part continuing to hold to the idea that it was somehow protecting them and also as it was just sort of second nature to keep that going at that point. The double life continued to be something of an issue through college, and very nearly ended Robert and I's relationship. It was only due to the machinations Collapse and the Stopwatch that Robert learned I was Velocity and we got back together."

 

"I finally made the decision to tell my parents and siblings after Robert and I brought Lawrence back to the timeline. At that point was sort of necessary to explain why they suddenly had a six year old grandson or nephew, but I had also had plenty of time to think it all over and discuss it with Robert during Lawrence's first six years in the Null Time. My parents generally had the strongest reaction, feeling rather disappointed I had not trusted them enough with something so important much, much earlier (like when I was sneaking out at night as a teenager to fight crime in the city)." Megan then gave a small smile as she added. "But those feelings were certainly blunted by Lawrence."

 

Megan then stopped a moment as her smiled widened. "Well, that was probably a bit too long winded, but as I said, my Velocity identity has something of a complicated history."

[Heritage]

Lulu nodded along as Megan went into a great deal of detail about the ups and downs of her superhero career, and the complication her secret identity brought along with it. When her foster mother finished, the telepath sighed and smiled.

 

"Wow. Thank you for sharin' all that." She chuckled ruefully. "Y'know, it never occurred to me that as much as mah life was fu- uh, messed up by mah family knowin' about mah powers, in a weird way it spared me from havin' to keep it a secret from them. 'Course, there was a whole lotta downside to that situation..."

 

"As much as ah appreciate you tellin' me all that, and believe me, ah am thankful you did, but-" Lulu struggled to pick her next words carefully. "Bein' a speedster is...well, it's kinda cool, know what ah mean? Folks in general ain't so scared of speedsters, although ah think that's just 'cause they never think about the true implications of that power. 'Cause if they did? Whoa!"

 

She laughed nervously, then frowned and shook her head

 

"But anyway, what ah mean is...telepathy scares people. And it should, because in the hands of a sick sumbitch, it is downright horrifyin'." The redhead grimaced. "And a cute girl who can run fast ain't nearly as terrifyin' as a white trash telepath from a family of crooks." 

[Thevshi]

Velocity

 

Megan gave a small smile as Lulu mentioned that people often did not seem overly frightened of speedsters, particular one that might seem as harmless and wholesome as a young woman speedster. "Being underestimated has been something I have capitalized on for some time. Taking on a rather flighty, somewhat airheaded demeanor certainly helps sell that."

 

The blonde woman's expression quickly become more serious as Lulu once again turned to her own abilities and her past.

 

"Telepathy and other mental powers can be very dangerous if abused, but there are a great number of abilities that can, even if mental powers can be more insidious and unnerving to most. But you need to stop letting your past and your family define you or hold you back. You have grown and changed in so many ways in the years since you came to live with us." Megan paused a moment before another small smile came to her face.

 

"You know who you might benefit from talking with? Paige Cline, also known as Hologram. Not only does she have abilities similar to yours, but she has a public identity, and comes from a family with a much more significant criminal history than yours. I think she can help provide you some valuable insight into the pros and cons of what you are considering, as well as help you see how you can chart your own path forward."

[Heritage]

Crystal-Gazer

 

Lulu's eyes went wide at Megan's suggestion, and she was instantly excited. "Oh my God, do you know her? Ah mean, I've read all about her, of course, and seen her on TV a bunch. Ah know she lives in Freedom, right, 'cause ah...well, we've sensed each other, 'cause telepathy, duh, but we've just sorta waved at each other 'cross the back fence, if you know what ah mean. Ha!"

 

Her face flushed at the thought of meeting one of the world's most famous psionics, and she slapped the tops of her thighs three times.

 

"Woo, yeah, let's do it!"