bunny_ears | Memory #6: First Power Manifestation

Memory: First Power Manifestation
Earned: Jabberwock's Game
Form: A looking glass (7/7 uses)

Velma's powers actually manifested for the first time at seven-sixteen in the morning on a Saturday when her father was in jail on yet another minor assault charge, and her mother was sleeping off the drinking binge to end all drinking binges. Velma was six, and not yet allowed to use the kitchen on her own, no matter how hungry she happened to be. The Power Rangers were on TV, fighting a bad guy who could talk to lizards and make them attack people for him, which was wicked cool. After that would come the latest episode of The Super Patriots, where cartoons made from really real superheroes fought bad guys way worse than evil lizards. It was all totally enthralling, and Velma didn't want to miss a second.

In retrospect, it probably isn't all that surprising that she didn't notice when a stuffed bear brought her a bowl of cereal and some hot toast. She was, after all, six, and at six, everything seems entirely normal, even breakfast-by-bear. Velma and her teddy bear watched cartoons until Mommy woke up hungover and mean, and smacked Velma around for going in the kitchen without permission. That was the only time Velma tried to tell her mother she had superpowers -- at least until the ill-fated field trip that would eventually tell the world. She couldn't sit down for a week after the spanking she got for that one.

-- Velveteen vs. the Flashback Sequence

What Joy Learned
So, Joy finds out that she did have a more normal childhood before being sold away to the Super Patriots Inc. Problem was, it kind of sucked. Six year old Velma probably knew from TV that some parents weren't in and out of jail, or regularly too hung-over to care for their kids, but this was part of her reality. She certainly knew not to wake her mother up for breakfast.

So, she accidentally brought her teddy bear to life and subconsciously directed it to make breakfast... which is pretty impressive considering she was six and 'cereal and toast' was about at the limit of what she could cook herself, and she wasn't paying attention to supervise.

And then learned that hung-over parents really don't believe you when you try to convince them that you didn't set foot in the kitchen all morning. And that superpowers, when first manifested, aren't that reliable, and Mommy doesn't care anyway.

As an adult, Joy can appreciate that her parents weren't that good, even if discovering you can be like the superheros on the TV (which I'm head-canoning as sinking in after the 'toys don't do that' lecture) is pretty damn cool for a six year old whose life kind of sucks.

Effects
... So even my 'normal childhood' was pretty sucky. Hell.