Memory #3: Fight with Sparkle Bright
Feb. 24th, 2013 12:07 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bunny_earsMemory: Fight with Sparkle Bright
Earned: Day 223 (Goldie's Date Auction)
Form: Come in the form of a tube of lip gloss in your team's color. There's enough for about 10 applications, but after the first 5 the memory starts to fade. (4/5 remaining)
So, this memory happens when Vel is around 17. She is going into the locker room when she runs into Sparkle Bright. Vel greets her as a friend, and then gets worried when Sparkle Bright doesn't greet her back.
Sparkle Bright blows up at the fact Vel used a nickname ('Sparky') and tells Vel that she doesn't want to be called a nickname by 'a hero that isn't in my power class'. Vel is even more confused by this, and actually calls Sparkle Bright by her real name (Yelena).
And Sparkle Bright hits her with a red light whip. Vel probably could have dodged it, were it not for the sheer 'WTF' of 'my best friend hit me hard enough to shove me against the wall'. Vel did manage to roll with the blow enough to not be seriously injured.
Vel is still confused. Sparkle Bright accuses Vel of using her to stay in the spotlight, and calls her a two-bit hero with useless powers, and tells her to stay away from her. And then Sparks hits Vel again with a burst of black light, hard enough to knock her out.
What Joy Learns
So, this is Joy's first significant memory, and her first Neg Sig. It will... probably have a slightly lessened effect, since she remembers she and Sparkle Bright were friends as kids, but not five years of being best friends and roommates in a dangerous job with creepy handlers.
First off, there's a lot of things neither Vel at the time nor Joy will know, that Vel only figures out later (after talking to an alternate universe Sparkle Bright, where this incident was the branching point). One thing Joy won't notice that Vel could have, but didn't, was the color of Sparkle Bright's light whips. (She used red this time, and then black (superhero physics, go figure).) Sparks' powers are mood related. The color scheme is eccentric, but the easiest to understand is black is pretty much sadness and dispair. (Sparkle Bright really believes the things she's accusing Vel of and feels betrayed by her best friend.) Joy may be able to put this together later, once she remembers that bit about Sparkle Bright's powers, but I doubt she will unless she revisits the memory, or someone else asks.
But let's get to what Vel does get. She gets Sparkle Bright's real name (Yelena), and her own code name: Velveteen. Joy won't get the full mechanics of code names versus real names, but she knows that calling Sparkle Bright Yelena while they were both in costume is a Big Deal, a reminder that they are (were?) close. She gets that she and Sparks were close... except something happened and now Sparks hates her guts. And Vel has no idea what that was; there was no guilt or understanding in that memory. As far as Vel knows, she did nothing to deserve her best friend beating her into unconsciousness.
She'll get a limited amount of context: they're training to be superheros together. Joy might also pick up that the insults Sparks used were about her power set being weaker than Sparkle Bright's. Velveteen is publicly rated as a support heroine (class 2 of 5, where stronger supers have a higher number). Velveteen's actual class is 4, but this is classified information (even she doesn't know this), because the Super Patriots Inc. has a policy of not telling their animus employees (and presumably other types of heros with versatile power sets) their true strength. Vel will pick up that this is a sensitive subject for her. Without Joy's access to powers, she has no way of confirming this without memories. On the other hand, a lot of Aather is set up to keep the unpowered on an even keel, and she also has teammates like Sieh who lost their powers.
Effects
- Security about powers/identity.
+ Hurt and confusion regarding friendship
o Unlock: code name.
Earned: Day 223 (Goldie's Date Auction)
Form: Come in the form of a tube of lip gloss in your team's color. There's enough for about 10 applications, but after the first 5 the memory starts to fade. (4/5 remaining)
"DON'T CALL ME THAT!" The whip this time was barely red at all, just a lash of pure, furious black, catching Velveteen in the side of the head and slamming her back against the wall. In the moments before she lost consciousness, she saw Sparkle Bright stalking towards her, hands balled tightly into fists. "I thought you were different," she hissed. "Now I see that you're just another two-bit hero with useless powers, trying to exploit me to stay in the spotlight. You stay away from me, Velveteen, and I might do you the same favor. You got that?"
-- From Velveteen vs. the Old Flame
So, this memory happens when Vel is around 17. She is going into the locker room when she runs into Sparkle Bright. Vel greets her as a friend, and then gets worried when Sparkle Bright doesn't greet her back.
Sparkle Bright blows up at the fact Vel used a nickname ('Sparky') and tells Vel that she doesn't want to be called a nickname by 'a hero that isn't in my power class'. Vel is even more confused by this, and actually calls Sparkle Bright by her real name (Yelena).
And Sparkle Bright hits her with a red light whip. Vel probably could have dodged it, were it not for the sheer 'WTF' of 'my best friend hit me hard enough to shove me against the wall'. Vel did manage to roll with the blow enough to not be seriously injured.
Vel is still confused. Sparkle Bright accuses Vel of using her to stay in the spotlight, and calls her a two-bit hero with useless powers, and tells her to stay away from her. And then Sparks hits Vel again with a burst of black light, hard enough to knock her out.
What Joy Learns
So, this is Joy's first significant memory, and her first Neg Sig. It will... probably have a slightly lessened effect, since she remembers she and Sparkle Bright were friends as kids, but not five years of being best friends and roommates in a dangerous job with creepy handlers.
First off, there's a lot of things neither Vel at the time nor Joy will know, that Vel only figures out later (after talking to an alternate universe Sparkle Bright, where this incident was the branching point). One thing Joy won't notice that Vel could have, but didn't, was the color of Sparkle Bright's light whips. (She used red this time, and then black (superhero physics, go figure).) Sparks' powers are mood related. The color scheme is eccentric, but the easiest to understand is black is pretty much sadness and dispair. (Sparkle Bright really believes the things she's accusing Vel of and feels betrayed by her best friend.) Joy may be able to put this together later, once she remembers that bit about Sparkle Bright's powers, but I doubt she will unless she revisits the memory, or someone else asks.
But let's get to what Vel does get. She gets Sparkle Bright's real name (Yelena), and her own code name: Velveteen. Joy won't get the full mechanics of code names versus real names, but she knows that calling Sparkle Bright Yelena while they were both in costume is a Big Deal, a reminder that they are (were?) close. She gets that she and Sparks were close... except something happened and now Sparks hates her guts. And Vel has no idea what that was; there was no guilt or understanding in that memory. As far as Vel knows, she did nothing to deserve her best friend beating her into unconsciousness.
She'll get a limited amount of context: they're training to be superheros together. Joy might also pick up that the insults Sparks used were about her power set being weaker than Sparkle Bright's. Velveteen is publicly rated as a support heroine (class 2 of 5, where stronger supers have a higher number). Velveteen's actual class is 4, but this is classified information (even she doesn't know this), because the Super Patriots Inc. has a policy of not telling their animus employees (and presumably other types of heros with versatile power sets) their true strength. Vel will pick up that this is a sensitive subject for her. Without Joy's access to powers, she has no way of confirming this without memories. On the other hand, a lot of Aather is set up to keep the unpowered on an even keel, and she also has teammates like Sieh who lost their powers.
Effects
- Security about powers/identity.
+ Hurt and confusion regarding friendship
o Unlock: code name.