ic Family Matters (IC)

[Huckleberry]

Kord Dormitories, Fifth Floor

Claremont Academy, Freedom City, New Jersey

Wednesday, September 6, 2023

 

The first week of school at Claremont Academy was proving to be a whirlwind. At least that’s what sixteen-year-old Rosalind Sommaripa, sometimes known as the high-flying superhero Starshine, would have told you. Class had been out for a half-hour, and the no-nonsense teenager was taking a brief break in her dorm room to gather her thoughts and refine her plan for the rest of the week . . . again.

 

Her reverie was interrupted by a knock at the door, which turned out to not be fully closed and swung open, revealing her green-dreadlocked dorm mate Consuelo, hovering just above the floor. “Oh, hey, uh, Rosie . . . Do you think this might be a good time, now to, uh, . . . I mean do you think it would work out, if you had time, to, like, fly over to my mom’s house with me and explain to her that I really am enrolled at Claremont?”

 

Spoiler

@Tiffany Korta: Go ahead and take a moment to describe your character and what they are thinking and doing to start out your post, if you'd like.

 

[Tiffany Korta]

Starshine

Rosalind was normally a morning person, but she’d been burning the midnight oil to get a good head start on her studies. So a little bleary-eyed she’d answered the door in an oversized Freedom League T-shirt her hair a massive of red fuzz. She’d realised a smidge too late quite what a mess she must have looked like right now, still it was too late now and besides people had seen her look much rougher here.

 

“Oh right good morning Consuelo, and Rosalind please…” she tried to lean nonchalantly revealing the Bracelet that she couldn’t help but wear, despite many attempts Rosie was probably going to stick “Will need me a few minutes to get ready, but now’s a good a time as any!”

[Huckleberry]

Rot

 

“Oh yeah, awesome! Oh yeah, sweet!” If Consuelo is trying to hide her enthusiasm, she’s really bad at it. “Nice, yeah, no rush. I’ll just be outside, like by your window, whenever you’re ready to go. Uh, my mom’s place is just in the Southside, so it’s like, not that far, really.”

 

Consuelo’s door can be heard to open and close, and then there’s the sound of one of the stiff old windows of Kord Dormitory being grudgingly muscled open, accompanied by some muffled cursing. A minute later, she can be heard to call out, but it sounds like she’s a window or two down from Rosalind’s room. “Hey, I’m here. . . I . .. Oh, sorry Carmen, uh wrong room, yeah, I get it, sheesh!”

 

After a few more moments, Consuelo pops up in front of Rosalind’s window, apparently having finally found the right one.

[Huckleberry]

GM

 

It's a great day for flying. Beautiful, sunny, not too much wind. Rosalind and Consuelo fly high up in the air to avoid traffic and get a better view. The Wading and South Rivers glitter as they spill into the Great Bay. As Rosalind flies over Highway 4, Consuelo does her best to keep up, but can't quite manage. "Hey, wait up Rosie, I mean Rosalind! Uh, my mom's place is out by the landfill."

 

Consuelo starts flying due west, on a course that would take the pair directly over the airport. 

 

 

[Tiffany Korta]

Starshine

Starshine tried, with various degrees of success, not to show off too often but she figured in this one very specific circumstance it was worth it to get Rot’s attention. So with a quick check that they were clear of obstacles, she began to fly facing Consuelo just slightly above the other teen's speed.

 

“I know it took me a while to work it out but sometimes you need to consider the activity of Freedom itself. We need to take a slight detour so we don’t spook Carter and Kendra, the hawks that keep the runways clear of birds…” She’d remembered a school trip, which seemed like a thousand years ago, where she was very excited to meet the birds of prey.

 

She took her bearings a gestured emphatically in one direction

 

“If we go that way we’ll only add a few minutes with the added bonus of not causing a kerfuffle with the winged beasties!”

[Huckleberry]

GM

 

Consuelo looks at Rosalind like she thinks she might be getting fooled with. "Uh, yeah, I guess it's a pretty good idea to avoid the airport, now that you mention it. . . . Are you serious about those birds, or are you just messing with me?"

 

Circumnavigating the airport, a cloud of smoke appears to be obscuring the Lincoln neighborhood. It looks like you can pinpoint the source. Flying by to investigate looks possible, but it would take you a little further away from where Consuelo indicated her mom's place was. 

[Tiffany Korta]

Starshine

“On my honor as Junior Leaguer #252!” she gave a little salute along with a huge grin

 

Her point made she made a roll to fly alongside trying better to match her speed with Consuelo, before noticing the cloud over Lincoln. She pointed it out to her teenage companion.

 

“I’m sure the local heroes can deal with it, but if we’ve got the time we could maybe do a quick fly pass?” she kept her tone neutral, one of the big lessons they taught you at Claremont was you couldn’t, and shouldn’t, try and deal with every issue. It was a big city and lots of heroes out there to help the citizens.

 

[Huckleberry]

GM

 

"Uh, okay, yeah, I guess other people are probably handling it maybe.  . . " The air quality decreases as the two fly lower towards Consuelo’s neighborhood. Rosalind is glad for her aviator goggles, but now she almost wishes she had some kind of mask for the smoke. Visibility isn't too great, either.

 

"So, just to warn you, my mom can kind of be a lot. And her current boyfriend, if he's still around, is a real jerk too. I'll try to handle her, but just thought I'd give you a heads-up. . . ."

 

Buildings loom up out of the smoke like strange ruins, rather than the everyday apartment buildings and storefronts that they really are. It all looks kind of surreal to Starshine, but Consuelo appears to have some concept to navigate by, at least. "Um, I think that's, like the Commodore Electric building . . . . yeah, we're almost there."

 

A few more twists and turns through the smokey urban canyons and Consuelo flies down to the ground in front of a grungy-looking apartment complex. "Well, this is it." 

 

Rosalind's dorm mate slowly floats across the parking lot and up a short set of crumbly concrete steps with a rusty steel railing. "Oh crap, I don't have a key!" Consuelo knocks on the glass of the sliding door, and there is a little crunching sound. "What the?" she says, clearly surprised.

 

Suddenly, the curtain is pushed aside, and an angry-looking man glares out. He opens the door and steps out a little bit, holding a pistol. His scowl deepens and he sneers: "You."

[Tiffany Korta]

Starshine

Without thinking Starshine put herself between her friend and the gun, her aura glowing brightly. She’d been told that she should be able to take a bullet, but she didn’t particularly want to test the theory.

 

 

“Sir I don’t think that’s a very good idea, please put down the gun so we can talk about this.” she put her arms out to show that she wasn’t going to cause any harm.

 

 

 

The Bracelet gave confused warbling sounds, as an intelligent weapon it was still amazed by someone who chose conciliation over conflict.

[Huckleberry]

GM

 

The armed man looks a bit scared, but then that fear seems to transform into more anger on his face. "We can talk about it just fine with me still holding the gun, Sparkles. What kind of freak are you supposed to be anyway? One freeloading mutant freak wasn't enough? Now we've got two?" The man tilts his jaw up and gives a bit of a sneer, looking at Rosalind with eyes opened extra wide.

 

"Oh my God, Darrel, just get the hell out of the way." Consuelo floats right at where he's blocking the doorway, faint black waves emanating off her. Darrel blanches and scoots back, nearly tripping in his haste and putting a lot of effort into keeping his gun as far from Consuelo as he can, like he's worried she's going to ruin it. "Mom, you home? Mom? Come on in Rosalind. Don't pay any attention to Darrel. He's a complete idiot." 

 

Inside, the apartment proves to be quite tiny. There's a queen-sized bed (unmade), a couch (covered in food wrappers and magazines), a table (piled in unopened letters and long forgotten, half-eaten meals), a TV (set to some soap and blaring at high volume), and a little kitchen area all in the same space. Saying it smelled unpleasant would be generous. "Darrel, where's mom?" But a flushed toilet answers Consuelo's question.

 

Maria Nunez opens the bathroom door. She's a large woman, bedecked in a not-very-clean pink bathrobe with at least two dryer sheets clung to it. Half of her hair is in curlers. Despite being in the act of opening the bathroom door, she is somehow also simultaneously drawing a pull on a cigarette and feverishly scrolling on her phone. She doesn't actually look up, but she manages to give the impression of glaring at Consuelo through her vocal tone alone. "So. You aren't dead. So nice of you to tell me. I swear you will put me in an early grave, Suelo. I guess you came back because you need something. Can somebody please tell me what I did to deserve all of this?" And somehow this last statement seems to put the blame of not just her absence, but everything that might be unsatisfactory in Maria's life squarely at the fault of Consuelo.

 

It's only then that she looks up and sees Rosalind glowing by the entrance. "What? What's going on?" Maria asks in total confusion, as if the prospect of Consuelo brining a friend over is so improbable as to be the least likely explanation for what she is observing.

[Tiffany Korta]

Starshine

Rosalind’s family wasn’t particularly well off, but they were incredibly house-proud and had kept things spotless even when they had nothing. But she was trying really hard not to judge, Shamong wasn’t Freedom City and she’d never had to grow up in these circumstances.

 

So instead she tried to radiate confidence, which she didn’t have, and friendliness, which she luckily had in spades.

 

“No Ma’am, not that that’s a bad thing obviously…” she added just loud enough for Consuelo  to hear “… I’m just a normal kid from New Jersey that got luckily”

 

Normally at Claremont she softened her accent, a lot of the less local students would struggle to understand her, but now she allowed her thick New Jersey accent to shine through.

 

“My name is Starshine and it’s a pleasure to meet you, Mz Nunez, I have the pleasure of being a good colleague of your daughter!” no need to lie about that one.

[Huckleberry]

GM

 

Hearing and seeing Starshine's friendly and innocent demeanor, quite a bit of tension eases out of Maria's posture. Maybe she was worried she was in some kind of trouble?

 

"So Rosalind is my classmate from Claremont Academy, mom. I'm going to Claremont now. I got, uh, a special scholarship to go. And it's a boarding school, so I'm staying there now." Consuelo seems like she's taking it slow for her mom, trying to give it time to sink in. 

 

"What do you mean? What do you mean? I am your parent. You can't just do these things! You have to ask! I can't afford for you to do this!" Maria's face is becoming slightly red, and her voice is turning a little throaty with her upset.

 

"That's right. . . ." begins Maria's boyfriend. "Shut up,  Darrel!" Both Consuelo and Maria yell at once, silencing the man. 

 

"Mom, I already tried to talk to you about this before, but you were, uh, tired . . . ." Maria's scowl deepens as Consuelo says this, and you get the feeling that "tired" might not be a completely honest description of what Maria was. "And anyway, everything's paid for. It's all taken care of with the, uh, scholarship."

 

"Ha!" Consuelo’s mother laughs with mocking defiance. "What do you know about money, little niña? You live in a fantasy world. There are all sorts of expenses you would never even think of. Do you even have any idea the cost of clothing you go through with your condition?" And Maria glares at her daughter with a disappointed squint.

 

"Mom! I said everything is paid for. Like, everything. Meals, clothing, medical insurance. I even get an allowance to pay for anything else I need."

 

Consuelo’s mother nods slowly, as if Consuelo had finally admitted the treachery she had committed against her. "I see. I see. Now I know why you have kept this from me so long, wicked little Suelo. Here I am, bills piling high, unable to work, living in absolute desperation. And what help do I get from my one and only child? The daughter that I have poured every ounce of sacrifice and pain into year after merciless, unthankful year? What support, what appreciation? No. My daughter does none of these things. Instead of giving just a little help to her poor, exhausted mother, my daughter keeps secrets. She gets money for free, for doing nothing, and does she help at all? Winter comes, I may be put out on the street. But oh, no, my daughter hides money and spends it on who knows? Makeup, movies, video games?"

 

Consuelo’s mouth goes tight and she nods slowly, a look of bitter resignation on her face.

 

Just then, Rosalind gets a text from her mom. <<Arg! Freezer lost power! Everything is spoiled. Nothing to cook for your dad's birthday. Can you come over and help?>> About two seconds later, a call comes in, from her mom. "Hey, Rosalind, sweetie. Argh, is awful! Did you get my text? Well, I went to go get the rack of lamb out of the freezer, you know, the lamb I get from Nico's, anyway, I go to take it out of the freezer 36 hours before, like I always do, because it's such a big cut of meat. And I go and open up the big chest freezer, you know, the one that we got from your great aunt Daphne, and, oh Rosalind, the smell, I'm telling you it was like a smell you've never smelled before! The odor! The stench! And everything, every little thing in that whole great freezer. The chicken, the lamb, the pork, even the goat, everything was spoiled, rancid, putrid, and swimming in this foul slurry of blood and stink. It's terrible, Rosalind . . . Can you fly over and help? It's a mess! I don't know how I'm going to get this cleaned up and, oh! There's nothing to cook now, absolutely nothing to cook!" Sometimes when her mom is on a tear, Rosalind isn't quite sure how she manages to take a breath. 

[Tiffany Korta]

Starshine

Things were going great, she actually sounded like a real superhero and something. And it seemed to be doing some good, they were speaking at least. Of course, such perfection was never going to last and she’d subtly looked at her cell as the conversation reached something resembling an important point.

 

“Erm I have a small family drama…” she leaned in to whisper into her friend's ear “...nothing important but I might have to leave in a hurry.” she was genuinely sorry that this was happening right now
 

 

“Mom this is a really bad time…” as with further bad timing she couldn’t really ignore the call “Give me a few minutes and I’ll call you back, I can probably pick something up in the city…” she whispered loudly into the phone trying not to distribute the others.

[Huckleberry]

GM

 

"Oh, could you really do that, sweetheart?" Rossalind's mother asks. "I just need you to pick up a few things. I'll need a pork shoulder from Georgio's, a pound of manouri, a pound of kasseri . . . Oh, and a leg of lamb of course. Are you writing this down, Rosalind?"

 

Beyond the onslaught of her mom's shipping list, Starshine is vaguely aware of Consuelo and her mother Maria continuing to talk. Maria is looking victorious and condescending, with her hands on her hips. Consuelo is looking sullen and defeated and is pulling her wallet out of her jacket and taking some bills out. 

 

Rossalind's mom's list goes on and gets me elaborate, but finally she wraps up. "And that should be it, I think. Oh, and the leg of lamb! Did I say that already? Anyway, when do you think you can be here, honey?"

 

Maria has taken the money from Consuelo, tucked it into her bathrobe, and has gone back into the bathroom for some reason. Consuelo meanwhile is looking up at the ceiling and slowly shaking her head. Darrel appears to be pretending to look at a gun magazine. 

Edited January 14 by Huckleberry
First post was accident

[Tiffany Korta]

Starshine

Rosalind spent a few minutes listening to her mom, trying to keep an eye on everything going down with everyone else.

 

“Love you mom, gotta go!” she looked at her bracelet and added “Did you get that all?” in response the alien artefact gave a confused sound.

 

Called finished she looked up, quickly figuring out she’d missed something, something probably important.

 

“What did I miss?”

[Huckleberry]

Rot

 

Consuelo flaps her lips as she blows air out of her mouth and raises both hands up. "Oh, nothing much. My mom just guilt tripped me and then fleeced me for my stipend money. Maybe you'll get a case of Natty Ice out of it, Darrel."

 

She shakes her head and yells. "Rah!" She looks around the room and shakes her head again. "Let's get out of here. What was that phone call all about?"

[Tiffany Korta]

Starshine

Rosalind wanted to get all indigent and lecture the mom about using her daughter as a source of cash, but she reminded herself that she didn’t know the whole situation and it could always be much more complicated than she thought. So she settled for an evil glare before turning her attention to her friend.

 

“My mum is having a kitchen disaster and I need to pick up some emergency supplies, we’ll have enough for a plus one if you have some time to help out?” she gave a genuine friendly smile, beside her Gran kept asking why she never bought friends around.

[Huckleberry]

"That would be awesome. Let's go make some groceries." Without another word, Consuelo opens the door and leaves the apartment. 

 

Outside, it's still quite hazy, and visibility and breathing conditions remain bad. Gaining some elevation, Rosalind and Consuelo can identify the source of the smoke. Looks like there was extensive burning at a palette factory. The fire department is still wetting it down. It seems like they have it under control now, apparently with some help. A flying figure can just be seen departing the site and flying back towards the city center, although exactly who it was can't be scrutinized through the residual smoke.

 

Things clear up a bit as the two young heroes make progress toward Georgio's market. With the return to sunny weather, Consuelo's sour mood seems to brighten too. "Maybe I shouldn't have given that money to my mom. But she always has this way of making me feel so guilty. Oh well. So what are we picking up again?"

 

The parking lot to Georgio's is pretty packed. But that's hardly surprising. The place is Freedom City's go-to for Greek specialty foods. Honestly, the place can be pretty hectic, with a couple dozen aggressive shoppers jostling each other in the cramped space.

 

Several shoppers exit, clearly in a hurry. Then several more exit, actually running. Then a few more burst through the main doors running and screaming. But that's not the worst of it. A pale blue ray streaks out of the still open door, striking one of the fleeing patrons and freezing them like a statue!

 

Consuelo looks at Roslind with a grimace. "Aw jeez! exactly what kind of place is this again?"

[Tiffany Korta]

Starshine

“My Gran left her entire family behind to come to America, whilst pregnant with my Mom. You can't choose your family, but you can choose whether to interact with them as she likes to say. Well, she tend to say it in Greek so it’s more Δεν μπορείτε να επιλέξετε την οικογένειά σας, αλλά μπορείτε να επιλέξετε αν θα αλληλεπιδράσετε μαζί τους.” she grinned hoping the humour meant her words didn’t sound to preachy.

 

 

She knew how lucky she was to have such a good, if a little weird, family and Rosalind wasn’t one to try and press her opinion onto others. Helpfully something was going on at the shop to distract from the conversation.

 

 

“It gets pretty heated when a sale’s on, those old grannies can be ruthless when money is involved, but I think this is something else. Shall we go and take a look?”

 

 

[Huckleberry]

It's pandemonium in the parking lot as the the two teens fly toward the front doors of Georgio's. Curses thrown about in English and Greek both as shoppers frantically struggle against their doom to cram into their cars. One of lady with an enormous rope of smoked sausages draped across her trunk like a bandolier spots the two descending supers and yells: "She's in there!" Before slamming the door on her aged Tercel and revving up the engine.

 

Rosalind and Consuelo are close enough to see the person frozen mid-escape in the parking lot is just that. The perhaps-sixty-year-old man in jeans and a green plaid flannel appears flash-frozen, with a thin rime of frost all around.

 

"Arrhgh!" A yell of frustration rumbles out of the grocery followed by another pale blue beam, which paralyzes a panicked-looking lady gradually exiting the store with the aid of a walker.

 

The doors open again and an agitated matron with an unapologetically out-of-date hairdo and corrective lense frames steps through. She is also covered in frost, but quite able to move. She gets a surprised look as she spots Rosalind and Consuelo coming to a landing. "Eh? You kids just scram! Please? I got enough trouble already!"

 

Little motes of frost swirl around both hands of the old lady as she sizes up the two teens. She seems hesitant, not quite sure what to do next. 

[Tiffany Korta]

Starshine

<”Are you okay ma’am?”> she tried Greek first considering the shop and area <”If you can stop doing that then we might be able to help”>

(switching to English if she didn’t respond).

 

 

Realising that this probably didn’t help that Consuelo didn’t understand Greek at all she added for her benefit.

 

 

”I might be wrong here, but I don’t think she’s responsible for all this, at least on purpose. Let’s see if we can talk her down before trouble starts.. well I guess before it gets worse!”

[Huckleberry]

"O chália!" And the starch seems to go out of the old woman. "Ba! There's no way I could have caught them all anyway. My knees! You would not believe the pain in my knees!" The old lady puts her hand to her forehead and sighs. 

 

Then she turns and starts shambling back toward the grocery, stopping short and turning to look back at the teens with an irritated expression. "Well, are you girls coming in or not? It's a total mess in here."

 

Consuelo looks at Rosalind quizzically. "Uh, yeah, but, uh, like, what's going on here?"

 

The old lady sighs. "You just come in. Then you'll see."

[Tiffany Korta]

Starshine

Rosalind gave a little shrug, she'd seen some weird things in her Claremont years but this was a new one on her

 

"I guess we better go find out what's going in there, I don't think she's a threat but maybe some villain is behind all this?"

 

Not seeing another option she started towards the store, waiting for Consuelo to catch up before stepping inside.

[Huckleberry]

As she steps through the door into the grocery, Rosalind notes that Georgio's is uncharacteristically quiet for late afternoon. So quiet in fact that the clicking of the old lady's heels almost sounds like gunshots, and the normally negligible hum of the refrigerator units sounds more like the roar of jet engines.

 

No hustle. No bustle. No chit. No chat.

 

Throwing one arm up in surrender, the old woman calls out: "as you can see, it's a total disaster."

 

It does look pretty bad. At least a dozen shoppers appear to be flash frozen into statues. A frosty young woman and child look like they are stopped peacefully shopping, the girl just turning towards her mom to beg for some candy. But they are the exception. Just about every aisle has one, two, or more people frozen in terror-stricken flight. Rosalind even sees old Georgio behind the butcher counter iced still in a frozen look of surprise.

 

"Watch the glass." The smell of dill and vinegar and an assortment of dull green lumps amongst the floor's glass shards seems to suggest a very large pickle jar dropped in haste. There are actually quite a few dropped items deposited at random, as well as what once must have been an impressive display of canned grape leaves scattered about a good quarter of the floor space.

 

"Uh, m'am?" Consuelo asks, "did you do this?"

 

The old matron turns to regard the teens, and is quiet for a little while. Sheepishly, she notices the little crystals of ice still whirling about her hands. The ice swirls dissappear, and the frost coating her here and there quickly starts to melt away.

 

She answers softly through gritted teeth. "Yes." 

 

 

[Tiffany Korta]

Starshine

With a growing sense that she probably screwed this all up, though always good to assume the best in her book. As subtly as she could she gestured for Consuelo to move away from the woman, even to help the others or go get help from others. Then she floated so she was in the eye line of this woman, glowing brightly to try and keep her attention on just her for now.

 

"Could you maybe tell me why you've done all this ma'am?"  stay polite and act as if this was all natural and maybe they could get out of this without resorting to becoming popsicles!