Velveteen/Velma Martinez

Form: [Memories are in the form of a small chocolate horse. One use.]

( It tasted like charcoal, but it was the first time anyone had cared enough to try, and so I ate every bite. )

Form: Comes in the form of a dollhouse chair, about 2" tall. You know you must attempt to sit in it to obtain your memory.

( Final count and analysis of the security recordings would show that there had been exactly nine hundred and two leprechauns within the confines of the Jolly Roger Casino when Velveteen cried havoc and let slip the dolls of war. )

What Joy Learned

This is another memory that shows Joy exactly how strong she can be without Aather's powercap. Context -- she has the memory after this -- might let her figure out that the tired feeling she has means she's keeping a second human alive on her powers, and she's still able to animate nearly 3,000 toys and direct them against a variety of threats. (This does take her full concentration, and she probably isn't thinking about individual toys as much as overall tactics: the toys have to have a high degree of autonomy for Velveteen to manage even a hundredth of those numbers.)

This also shows the peculiar overlap of anima powers and empathy. At the Oregon border, Vel sent all the toys that had homes home and took the abandoned ones in. In Vegas she can tell which ones 'belong' to someone invested enough in them that taking them would be wrong: she does animate souvenirs bought by tourists, but not ones belonging to kids.

I could write an essay on how I suspect a lot of Velveteen's powers are bounded by a mythology created when she-as-Velma was young, which is why she focuses on toys and the connection between them and their owners/playmates. Had she grown up in a culture where animuses (animi ?) had another form -- necromancers, makers of golems, roboticists -- her powers would likely have a different expression, since we know from canon she can control corpses, animate snowmen, and steal robotic automatons from their creators. Instead she has armies of GI Joes with My Little Pony air support.

(Canon also hints that Vel might be up there in 'most powerful current superheroes', but The Super Patriots Inc. constantly trained and treated her as a support hero partially so she wouldn't realize this, and partially because of spoilers.)

Memory form is a card. Trade with someone else to view their memory—then trade back to view yours. Single exchange use only.

( You seriously have no plan beyond ‘let’s go and hit them until the candy comes out.’ Because not all of them contain candy. Candy is not a default filling. )

So this fills in some information, as well as letting Joy know that, unless the Darkness grabbed her at exactly the wrong time, the problem was Dealt With.

Also she has an army. (Sadly, she does not have a Hulk, but neither does the other side.)

Form: A loaf of bread (0/1)

( Maybe one relationship in a thousand between a powered and a non-powered individual will work out happily. Relationships between superheroes, on the other hand, may be fraught with evil twins, crossover events, worlds in need of saving, and the occasional archenemy at the wedding, but they are, on the whole, permanent things.  )

I also find it hilarious that I'm doing a write-up about Velma's love of blueberry breakfast foods right after a game where Barnaby mentions he prefers blueberries to strawberries to her. Clearly this is a sign.

Form: Wind-up horse statuette.

( Victoria answered the door. She was Victoria because she was out of uniform, although the only real difference between her street clothes and her superhero attire was in the number and size of the guns that she was carrying.  )

Memory: Finding the Phantom Doll
Earned: Professor Endboss's Robot Game
Form: A water gun (2/3 uses)

Velveteen (who had long since run out of any cookies to toss, and was now reduced to tossing the memory of cookies that had been eaten years before) was on the verge of suggesting that they turn around when one of the Princess’s songbirds came flying out of a cloud bank, wings beating frantically as it tried to stay aloft. It looked exhausted. Velveteen understood the feeling.
-- Velveteen Versus Jolly Roger

( The charts provided by Dame Fortuna had been long on symbolism, low on actual directions. )

Effects
+ Knowledge of magical realms and pocket dimensions, which need things like intent and believing in oneself to find them.

The directions to the Phantom Doll probably would have worked over any coastline, with any star, because that's the difference between straight-out magic in Vel's world and all the other kinds of unlikely powers. Jolly Roger and Princess (and the seasonal heroes like Jackie, to some extent), are powered by belief in the concepts of their powers. There's a reason that Princess has a business arrangement with Disney: the more little girls want to be fairy-tale princesses and have a fixed idea of what one of those is, the more power Princess has.

This is probably useful knowledge in Aather, since the Personae seem to work in similar manners.

+ ... Knowledge of Victory Anna will probably help with future encounters with Professor Endboss, since, you know, mad scientist gadgeteer. Torrey prefers rayguns to robots, though.
-- Hell with flying. Hell with it.

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. )

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

Memory: The (nearly) endless Halloween take 22
Earned: Day 224 (Apples to Apples)
Form: An orange

( It was Halloween morning, and for some reason she couldn't quite identify or name—'couldn't put her finger on,' as David always said, usually while looking mournfully at his own massive claws—Velveteen was uneasy. )

Effects
... What the hell is up with me and holidays?
+ A lot more prone to unease when things get weird.

Memory: Escape from the Holiday Special
Earned: Day 221 (Three of Three's Balance Game)
Form: Memories come in the form of brass feathers. Spin the quill between your hands/paws/tentacles to receive the memory. (2/3 uses left)

( They were only fifteen minutes into the filming of the eighth annual United Junior Super Patriots Christmas Extravaganza, and Velveteen already felt like screaming. )

Effects
- Deference to authority.
- Like of dressing up if it involves looking adorable.
+ Curiosity about her life.
+ Friendship and teamwork.