16123/One Cereal (Cir-El

One Cereal (Cir-El
Date of Scene:	20 October 2023
Location:	Sundollar Coffee - Avenue of Tomorrow
Synopsis:	Meetings are had, smartassery occurs. Offers are made, and accepted.
Cast of Characters:	Cir-El, Karen Starr

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Cir-El has posed:
    Cir-El is showing remarkable, downright stunning self-control... because she has not literally paced a trench into the coffee shop floor, or bankrupted herself buying up and devouring their entire muffin supply. She is on only her second coffee of the day in fact, because if she's going to feel like she might vibrate between atoms from anxiety, she might as well load up on caffeine to really try and do it.

    And what has our young time-displaced heroine so terribly, awfully nerve-wracked? Impending alien invasion she can't warn the world of for fear of disrupting the time stream? The thought that the wrong word to the wrong person could cause some sort of butterfly effect that breaks up her parents before she is ever born?! No. No. Those are easy. Those're like... crazy time travel shenanigan superhero jazz. She can handle that.

    No, Cir-El is perched on a high stool, thick soled combat boots hooked on the rung between two legs, fidgeting with the zipper of her bolero style leather jacket over a white ribbed tanktop, very low-effort street chic with her dark blue jeans... waiting.

    For Karen Starr! Sure, a lot of people get nervous meeting Power Girl, she's a big deal. One of the biggest deals. But she's also Cir-El's kinda-sorta-aunt, and... well, it's rude not to at least meet up and say 'Hey, I'm all up in ur timeline' or whatever.

This is going to go fine. She's sure of it. Well... maybe she should have a third coffee. Make super sure.

Karen Starr has posed:
    For her part, Karen was rather surprised to get a text from a non-existent, parallel-universe niece. But then, this wouldn't be the first time her life has gotten very, very confused on the family front. And, dealing with having a not-quite-sister/not-quite-daughter has also made her a little...LITTLE...more flexible on that front, after disastrous first meeting with parallel-universe mom.

    She's at least willing to give it a fair shot.

    So, after calling into her administrative assistant to let her know that she would be taking the day off, Karen agreed to the coffee-shopping. After a fast flight to Metropolis and a costume change, she makes her arrival to the coffee shop, on foot, and in civvies. A grey fitted pantsuit with a white blouse, and low grey heels, as she looks ever-so-businessey. She doesn't use Kal's trick of glasses, because as she's said so often...most people aren't looking at her face. So instead, she comes in, and looks around.

    It honestly isn't too hard. After Jon, and Connor, you start getting an idea what you're looking for. Kal has a look. Sorting through the customers till she finds one with that dark hair and the right age gets her in the right wheelhouse. Looking for the nervous one handles the rest. So, she walks over, approaching Cir-El as she sits on her stool.

    "So, I'm guessing you're who I'm looking for?" she asks. She's an easier recognize for anyone who's met Kara, since well, they're kind of the same person. PeeGee just has a decade in age, a few inches in height, and a lot of inches...elsewhere...over her primary-universe counterpart.

Cir-El has posed:
    Cir-El offers a crooked little grin, half sheepish, half absolutely shit-eating mischievous teen as she bobs her head, sighing out. "Yeah, I'm... well, you can call me Mia I guess. Y'know, while we have coffee?" She rolls her eyes. Secret identities. So vital and yet so annoying.

    She glances down at herself and frowns slightly, "Oh yeah, I guess I should've like... sent a selfie, huh? I was going to grab one of those shirts with the symbol on the chest but uhh... it seemed kinda... cliched is all..."

    She heaves out a little sigh and tears her eyes away from thoroughly inspecting Karen's face, "That is like... /freaky/. You look more like Aunt Kara should look than /she/ does right now... I mean..." She frowns and shakes her head in a short burst of energy, "Uggh, I swear... this is why I've been keeping to punching people and avoiding... family. It's so awkward. Thankfully mom's been super busy so I haven't had to worry about /that/ meeting..."

Karen Starr has posed:
    With the time displacement poor Cir-El's going through, that's probably true. The "aunt" she knows is more her own age in this timeline, while Peeg is conveniently older. She can't help but look a little amused at that. "Well, I'm still "Aunt Kara", I suppose." she tells the younger girl, as she moves to sit.

    "Large caramel latte, please." she tells the staff, before looking back to Cir-el. "Resorting to violence. Time-honored family tradition, though more on my side than your dad's." She can't help but be amused. Of the various temporally-or-dimensionally-displaced family members she's met, with that one line Cir-El's managed to ingratiate herself, as being well...the most like Kara herself. This Kara, anyway. "And I get the avoiding family, ESPECIALLY moms. Don't worry, I can be the cool aunt." she says, amused.

Cir-El has posed:
    Cir-El sighs and groans softly, pinching the bridge of her nose and nodding, lifting her own coffee... black, and worlds better than her mom's homemade stuff... if only because Lois always claimed coffee wasn't for enjoying, it was for /work/.

    She shakes her head slowly with a crooked little grin, "I mean, hey, on the plus side, you're like... technically paid ahead on birthday gifts, right? Like you can't owe me one if I'm not even /born/ yet." She snorts softly and nods, "And hey, Aunt Kara and you were big inspirations! I mean, Dad's... a lot to live up to. Even now. And oh come on, Kara's pretty cool..." She glances side to side and drops her voice to a stage whisper, "But yeah, you're totally cooler. Don't tell her I said that!"

Shehe shakes her head and puffs out a breath, "Oh, I'm avoiding mom because like... that woman was a force of nature when she /retired/. Now? She'd probably find some way to interrogate me and figure out all her future articles that /didn't/ win awards so she could try to pre-emptively rewrite them. I'm more surprised she hasn't been kidnapped since I got back here."

Karen Starr has posed:
    Karen accepts her latte as it's brought to her, and smiles at Cir-El's statement. "Mmm...there is that. On the other hand, what /do/ I get you for your birthday?" She sips her latte, then clarifies. "I don't want to know what I ACTUALLY got you. But what are you into? You have almost twenty years of knowing me, and I have exactly zero of knowing you."

    She can't help but preen just a little at the stage whisper. She IS the cool aunt, dammit. Supergirl can be a little too...goody-goody. Power Girl has a little more spice.

    Her eyes narrow just slightly in thought at the last bit. "Mmm. And there's not ANY hesitation because "what if mom doesn't accept me because she doesn't even know me"?" Her tone is dubious. "I've already been through that with Alura. I know how it can hit." She thinks a moment, and then offers.

    "Look, most of the time I'm up in New York. Starrware's there, and...it can just be a little more comfortable to give my...sister...some space. It gets awkward otherwise." She hopes Cir-El picks up that "sister" in this case means alternate-reality self. Zor-El, not Zor-L. "If you ever need a place to vent, or just...to get away from it some. You're welcome anytime. I have a fabulously comfy couch."

Cir-El has posed:
    Dark eyebrows perk as Cir-El tilts her head and murmurs thoughtfully, "I mean, does it count as a surprise if I tell you what I want? I mean, I think vinyl's still a thing here.... like, records? Not clothing. We do not need to hasten the Vinyl clothing wave of 2030."

    She holds her composure for a solid ten seconds before she's biting back a giggle, which just turns it into an even more undignified snort, "I mean, it's... really, like, whatever you come up with is going to be cool. Plus, I only knew /a/ you! And my memory's a little... spotty since coming back in time. Do not recommend combining time travel with a concussion. I'm pretty sure it makes both of them less fun."

    Cir-El sighs and frowns, nodding her head slowly, "I mean, sure there's like... a mountain of that. A mountain range. Like... a Mount Rushmore of 'What if mom doesn't like me? Or doesn't believe me? What if she asks how her cooking was?' but like..." She shrugs and trails off, "I can't just... avoid her because I'm afraid things are going to get all weird. Shit, things /are/ weird, so... at least then if it all went sideways it'd have already screwed up and I wouldn't have the uncertainty weighing on me."

    She bobs her head with a crooked little grin, "Hey, I get it. I mean, I was feeling /super/ awkward just being another 'Supergirl' around her... I can get how that'd be even more awkward for you. I mean, on the plus side if I keep taking trips up to NYC, no one's going to confuse you and me, right? Like, different hair, different costumes. Different statures."

    She narrows her eyes to slits and hisses out, "Wait, free access to my /cool aunt's/ comfy couch in a city with kickass pizza? Oh, c'mon, you can't just give me that. I gotta earn it somehow. Intern at Starrware or something. Honestly, this is... like... my chance, isn't it? I don't have all the pressures of 'back home' where I wanted to live up to dad's example and mom's example and... I mean, honestly? I was never all that into the news... but how do you tell two world famous reporters you kinda want to do graphic design?"

    She clicks her tongue softly and sighs out, "I do need to meet up with... your mom again. We've met a couple times but it was uhh... hectic. And she's kind of intimidating. Like, in a principle way. She's like... capital K Kryptonian and stuff, right?"

Karen Starr has posed:
    "I would like to think you're just yanking my chain, what with the vinyl clothing thing. But tastes can be HORRIBLE. I am NOT getting vinyl custom-tailored, though." The line about time-travelling with a concussion just sounds SO much like her. "Are you sure you're not me?" she asks with a wry quip.

    "If you want an intern gig at Starrware, it's yours." Karen says with precisely NO hesitation. "We can cover for each other some. It helps. I have no idea how Clark keeps his job, with having to run off and do things. It helps a lot to have a CEO willing to cover your butt. And besides..." she takes a sip of the latte again. "New York doesn't have a Supergirl." Plus, yeah, no one would ever confuse Mia for Karen, or vice-versa. "Clark would get it. He's Mr. Perfect. He'll understand no matter what you want to do. Your mom...she'd probably understand. But she'd probably also give you some shit about it. Besides, New York blows Metropolis out of the water on the art scene." Metro is very tech. Very city of the future. Not very culture. And Big Belly Burger does NOT compare to New York pizza.

    "If Clark is Mr. Perfect, she's Miss Perfect. You would not believe the hate-bomb I dropped on her when she tried to make Mommy Dearest with me at first. It was..." She runs her fingers through her short hair. She has a temper. And issues. She knows it. "It was legendary. And bad. Legendarily bad. But we're in a better place now. Yeah, she is. I am too. I mean, Clark may have been born there, but he was raised here. The Karas were both born and raised there."

Cir-El has posed:
    Cir-El sighs heavily and shakes her head, "I mean, okay, it wasn't really vinyl. But it may as well have been. All stupidly tight and glossy and bright colors and... I mean, I wore sunglasses all the time and it /wasn't/ to look cool for once. Because I'm pretty good at looking cool."

    One eyebrow perks, Cir-El looks at Aunt Karen, looks down at herself... up and down a few more times, "Listen, I know I've got growing up to do, but like... how young do you think I am? I don't think I'm going to undergo a sudden and shocking /growth spurt/... but if I do, you're totally helping me buy a new wardrobe."

    She bobs her head and sighs out, "It's true really. I mean, for one thing? Super thin smash burgers are the best burgers... and... our entire family has heat vision. You just need a decent slab of aluminum and a spatula and bam, you are in homemade burger business."

    She nods and grins crookedly, sighing out, "Yeah, I know, like... honestly? Them being so great is... how do you rebel against authority when your parental authority is like 'Oh, you want an undercut? Okay, do you need money for the barber? Oh, you want to pierce your ears? Well, don't forget you have to sit around in the red sun room for a day first!' like... oh my god, it's so hard to misbehave when your parents accept anything short of like... plotting world domination! And that's boring /nerd/ rebellion! I'd expect like... the Fantastic Four's kids to do that stuff."

One eyebrow perks and Cir-El makes a show of looking around, "Well, I mean... the Earth's in one piece, so at least you guys... worked it out? And I mean... okay, like, you've /adapted/ though, you... talking with you is like just being /people/, I don't feel like I'm going to sit down for dinner and find some array of Kryptonian cutlery and use the wrong soup spoon or something... does... does Krypton have spoons?"

Karen Starr has posed:
    "Oh no. There IS no answer that's right on an age-guess." Karen says, amused. "Especially because you're at that age where you WANT to be older, not younger. But I'll throw myself on that grenade and guess...eighteen? Nineteen? And yeah, I have Janet Van Dyne on speed dial. Trust me, if you end up remotely in my situation, I have you covered."

    Another latte sip. "We have something in common on that. In my universe, Kal and Lois basically raised me once I got to Earth. Kara-here doesn't have that. But you and I have A LOT more in common than you think, I'm betting." Honestly, while Kara Zor-El is her counterpart by universe, her upbringing shares FAR more with Cir-El than with Kara. "So I sympathize, especially because I'm temper girl, and you can probably guess how that went with them. Such understandings. All of them."

    "We worked it out. Eventually. I got over my issues. And yes, we had spoons. Almost every culture I've ever met had spoons. Kryptonian food was shit compared to Earth food, though."

Cir-El has posed:
    Cir-El snap-points and grins, "Got it right! Nineteen... I mean... I guess? I mean like, technically I'm not born yet but also like... March is past this year since I got here so I'm /still/ a year older than I was and..." She rolls her eyes, "Time travel. Ugggggh."

    Coffee is sipped for her part as well as she listens in and nods solemnly. She grins crookedly, "Okay, so like... you're my aunt, but also from another universe, but /also/ kind of a big sister? I think we can roll with that. And... yeah, I dunno, I didn't inherit /all/ of dad's saintly patience and... I mean, mom's patient with us kids, but... like, I think it's because she doesn't realize just what a temper /she/ has!"

    She nods solemnly, hands clasping around her coffee. "I mean, Kryptonian tech is all crystals and stuff, so I figured Kryptonian cuisine is like 'Here is your designated nutrient paste' or 'Here are the dinner tablets.', which... yeah, New York Pizza. Way better. Even those sketchy street dogs Kara likes have their charms... I mean, the fact that you can find some /dude/ just selling them on a street corner at two in the morning after a concert lets out is pretty convenient."

Karen Starr has posed:
    "Time travel is a pain. To be avoided whenever possible. And yeah, that whole thing fits. It gets complicated with superheroes in general, Kryptonians in specific, and you and I in extra-specific. In my world, Kal and Lois were older than they are here. So they were in their forties when I landed on Earth as a teenager. It was a very mom-dad vibe. And let me tell you, having your baby cousin as your dad may not be time travel, but it's a head trip." Karen sips her latte again, almost gone now.

    "And you're pretty much right. It was all engineered for maximum health and nutrition. Taste never even entered the equation. As for street dogs at two AM...I'll just say that it's a good thing we're immune to food poisoning."

    She looks curious. "So...are you like us, with powers? I mean, Kal's your dad, but with a human mom, that could skew things? Connor gets a little weird on powers." She hadn't even thought till now about the actual biological issues of a Kryptonian/Human child. "Jon would probably be closest to you in powers, I guess?"

Cir-El has posed:
    Cir-El doesn't quite recoil at Karen's upbringing... but it's /close/ as she nods, "Yeah, I mean... gotta say, something reassuring about being stranded in time and finding out I still don't have /the/ most complicated family dynamics... no wonder you're my favorite relative!"

    She flashes a broad almost teasing grin, just daring Karen to consider whether she's joking or being all too sincere under a mask of humor. She nods and sighs out, leaning back on her stool, arms stretching up above her head slowly, back arching as she groans out softly. "Oh, yeah, I mean... I'm probably not /identical/ to a pure Kryptonian, so like... if we ever get in a bench press contest, I won't be surprised if you win. You'd totally win now too, I'm... still soaking up the sun as it were."

    She sighs and shakes her head slowly, "I can barely fly right now, but I /can/ fly again... for like five months all I could do was jump really high. Do you have any idea how /embarrassing/ it is to have to run around everywhere when your costume has a cape?! It's why I've been thinking of coming up with a new costume. And... I haven't actually met Jon yet! I mean, I guess we should get together, like... we're pretty dang similar after all."

Karen Starr has posed:
    Karen grins back, finishing her latte. "You're a smartass. I like that. It's nice trying to find someone in our family who isn't trying to aspire to the Most Perfect Person Ever award. And you have my sympathies, on the jumping. I can always throw you if you want to get some extra speed." she says, deadpan.

    "So, still want that intern gig? Or would you rather look for something here in Metropolis, closer to Clark and Lois?" she asks. "You won't hurt my feelings if you pick Metropolis. I'll just think you have bad taste." A wry grin quirks her lips at her comment.

Cir-El has posed:
    Cir-El grins even broader and perks her eyebrows up, "Hey, I'm a /lotta/ things! Smartassery is just one of my many facets. I also draw! ...Admittedly I'm still practicing, but hey. Gotta have a hobby that doesn't involve... I dunno, punching asteroids."

    She stares levelly at Karen and narrows her eyes, "I'm pretty sure that 'Throw someone at your enemy' movie is trademarked and/or copywritten... of course that means doing it is /more/ rebellious. We'll have to practice it sometime."

    She rolls her eyes and shakes her head swiftly, "Nah, I mean, it's not like I can't zip over here to meet them if I need to, I think I'd like some personal space. You know, not really make a /thing/ of the whole awkward 'Hey, I'm one of your future kids' thing... plus, I mean, at this rate they're going to need a new house or an apartment building if we keep showing up."

    She smirks and crosses her arms, clicking her tongue sharply, "Oh, that's it. I'm totally crashing at your place. You're going to have to give me lessons on all this /retro/ coolness you're about. I mean, I don't want to make your head spin with my awesome futuristic ways, Aunt Karen."

Karen Starr has posed:
    "Sounds like a plan." Karen says. "Get your things together, and when you're ready, fly on over. You can crash on that couch till we get you a place. I hear Starrware's boss is great and might advance you your first month's pay so you can get a place of your own if you want it. I mean...it's a comfy couch. But it's still just a couch." Karen offers to you. "But YOU get to explain it all to Kal and Lois. While I will be safely in New York waiting for you, eating my delicious, delicious pizza."

    She stands at that. "And THAT means I have to get back home to clean said couch. I mean, I'm pretty sure you don't want a couple pairs of pantyhose and a pizza box where you're gonna be crashing. You've got my number; call me, text me, if you need anything. Or just stop on by. Be nice to have someone in the family who actually wants to see me other than just to solve a problem." She slides her empty cup in the trash. "See you soon, Mia." she offers.