RE: [IC][Story] Channeling Mana
03-21-2021, 11:06 PM (This post was last modified: 03-21-2021, 11:06 PM by Labster.)
03-21-2021, 11:06 PM (This post was last modified: 03-21-2021, 11:06 PM by Labster.)
Chapter 4
A Home Visit
As hard as she tried, Rita Madsen always found herself getting involved with the problem kids. If she could be honest with herself, she'd know that she couldn't help herself. Even with the bizarre twist of fate that led her here, it took her less than a month to find herself back in a teaching job, trying to teach another cohort of students.
Alice Carroll was one of those kids who just got under her skin. Not that there weren't a lot of those students for Rita. Sure, there were plenty of kids in a continuation school that had problems at school and at home, but Alice, well, she just didn't add up. Alice was smart enough, possessing of a good deal of poise, highly observant, and entirely uninterested in getting an education. Sure, she had a bit of the snotty attitude common in teenagers, but under normal circumstances a girl like Alice might be an overachiever.
So Rita began to consider the usual problems in her home life. The missed week of school, shortly after enrolling was a bit odd. Tardy on her first day back. Alice claimed to be in some sort of apprenticeship for gondoliers, which was far more important than school. Farfetched as that was, one time Alice even claimed to be a Martian.
So, she decided that today was home visit day. Despite Rita's years of experience with these kinds of interventions, she never knew exactly what to expect. Abusive or impoverished families were of course the trope, but more often she had run into overbearing parents or anti-vaxxers or deeply religious families.
After consulting the school's records, she found her way to an apartment building near the Venice Pier. It still looked a little run-down, but it had obviously been painted recently in white with vivid blue trim. This close to the beach, paint never lasted all that long in the salt air before peeling.
She walked into the foyer past the mailboxes, and up the stairs to the first floor. At the end of the hall, she saw a man in an aloha shirt up a ladder, changing a light bulb in the hallway between apartments. This was a lucky break, she thought. Always good to have an outside point of view. "Hey, are you the building super?"
"Yeah!" Brent Laabs answered.
"I'm looking to talk to Alice Carroll's guardian. Can you tell me which room?"
"Athena? Number two, right next to my office. But I don't think anyone's there; I saw them head down to the canals a few minutes ago."
"Ah, well. If you're right next door, I'm sure you see them a lot. Everything going well for Alice and Athena?"
"Well enough, I guess." Brent started checking out the woman in front of him. She was the kind of woman you couldn't help but check out, dressed in a brown leather jacket over a plaid shirt and form-fitting faded jeans. Climbing down the ladder, he noticed that the woman was nearly as tall as he was, at least in her soft leather boots. "Considering where they've come from, pretty well."
"Where is that, exactly?" Rita inquired.
"Oh, I'm not really sure." Of course he did know, but to explain it to normies was another thing altogether. Honestly, he had been distracted by the pretty, milfy woman. "Who are you, may I ask?"
"Oh, I'm sorry. I'm Alice's teacher, Rita."
He returned the formality, "And I'm Brent, the manager of this complex."
She spoke English with the barest hint of an accent, not quite American, too low pitched to be Queen's English. "I'm just curious, since Alice has missed a lot of school, what she's been up to lately."
"Well, there was something of a desert vacation with her coworkers recently. But I doubt they're going to do it again soon, now that the business is reopened."
Rita's sense that something didn't add up just got stronger. Glancing at one of the open apartments, still undergoing renovation, it was a nicer place than she could afford on a teacher's salary. If they can afford to live here and take vacations, why did Alice need to work?
"Athena is her coworker?"
"Yep."
"I see. Thank you for your time."
"No problem."
She walked down the hallway to number two, and knocked the door perfunctorily. After thirty seconds without hearing anything, she turned back towards the stairwell in the middle of the building, where she was met by the building manager once again.
It was just enough time that Brent finally put it together. Sure, she looked a little different than on TV, but the faint smell of cigarettes on her clothing, the charismatic self-confidence, and the meddling in her students' lives made it all pretty damn likely. "Rita, you're friends with Hjørdis, right?"
"Right. And?"
"How long have you been in this universe?"
"I beg your pardon?"
"You know, when did you suddenly find yourself in Los Angeles instead of Denmark? When did you show up here?"
She had something of an indignant look on her face at this kind of personal questioning, but softened it once the meaning of the question sunk in. "September. Can you tell me what the hell is going on?"
"Ouch. That's a long time. You didn't get any help from Heaven?"
"No?" Rita gave it about ten seconds not to turn into evangelism.
"I'm sorry. Basically there's a crisis going on in the universe that I can't even start to understand, but the short of is that people from alternate universes are all appearing here, on this Earth."
"Uh huh."
"Most everyone is has appeared is from some sort of fictional story, at least from my perspective. I recognized you from your TV show. All of the people in this complex are from TV, so to speak."
"So I'm supposed to believe that you know who I am from a TV show?" Rita's credulity was clearly stretched.
Brent missed the cue, "Right. Alice is like you, but from an animated show called Aria. She's actually a fully-trained Venetian gondolier, but, like, from a Venice replica built on Mars."
"Oh yes, I'm teaching a cartoon Martian, that explains everything." Her tone shifted from sarcastically enlightened to outraged, "Seriously, if you don't know anything, don't just feed me a line of bullshit, okay?" She let that sink in a second, and started walking back to her old beater of a car.
"Hey! If you don't believe me, watch Rita on Netflix!" She heard, but she didn't react.
The conversation did bother Rita. It was easy to explain most of what the building superintendent had said -- perhaps she had mentioned Hjørdis during class, and the fictional universe thing sounded dumb from the get-go. But knowing that she had just appeared overnight in a foreign country was something she didn't talk about. Sure, he could have a friend at the Danish consulate (as useless as they were), but really, that apartment manager was just weird.
When she got home to the one-room apartment she shared with Hjørdis and her husband Uffe, she got to work grading papers. But she remained a little bit preoccupied with Alice and what Brent had said until later that night, when the ground shook.
A Home Visit
As hard as she tried, Rita Madsen always found herself getting involved with the problem kids. If she could be honest with herself, she'd know that she couldn't help herself. Even with the bizarre twist of fate that led her here, it took her less than a month to find herself back in a teaching job, trying to teach another cohort of students.
Alice Carroll was one of those kids who just got under her skin. Not that there weren't a lot of those students for Rita. Sure, there were plenty of kids in a continuation school that had problems at school and at home, but Alice, well, she just didn't add up. Alice was smart enough, possessing of a good deal of poise, highly observant, and entirely uninterested in getting an education. Sure, she had a bit of the snotty attitude common in teenagers, but under normal circumstances a girl like Alice might be an overachiever.
So Rita began to consider the usual problems in her home life. The missed week of school, shortly after enrolling was a bit odd. Tardy on her first day back. Alice claimed to be in some sort of apprenticeship for gondoliers, which was far more important than school. Farfetched as that was, one time Alice even claimed to be a Martian.
So, she decided that today was home visit day. Despite Rita's years of experience with these kinds of interventions, she never knew exactly what to expect. Abusive or impoverished families were of course the trope, but more often she had run into overbearing parents or anti-vaxxers or deeply religious families.
After consulting the school's records, she found her way to an apartment building near the Venice Pier. It still looked a little run-down, but it had obviously been painted recently in white with vivid blue trim. This close to the beach, paint never lasted all that long in the salt air before peeling.
She walked into the foyer past the mailboxes, and up the stairs to the first floor. At the end of the hall, she saw a man in an aloha shirt up a ladder, changing a light bulb in the hallway between apartments. This was a lucky break, she thought. Always good to have an outside point of view. "Hey, are you the building super?"
"Yeah!" Brent Laabs answered.
"I'm looking to talk to Alice Carroll's guardian. Can you tell me which room?"
"Athena? Number two, right next to my office. But I don't think anyone's there; I saw them head down to the canals a few minutes ago."
"Ah, well. If you're right next door, I'm sure you see them a lot. Everything going well for Alice and Athena?"
"Well enough, I guess." Brent started checking out the woman in front of him. She was the kind of woman you couldn't help but check out, dressed in a brown leather jacket over a plaid shirt and form-fitting faded jeans. Climbing down the ladder, he noticed that the woman was nearly as tall as he was, at least in her soft leather boots. "Considering where they've come from, pretty well."
"Where is that, exactly?" Rita inquired.
"Oh, I'm not really sure." Of course he did know, but to explain it to normies was another thing altogether. Honestly, he had been distracted by the pretty, milfy woman. "Who are you, may I ask?"
"Oh, I'm sorry. I'm Alice's teacher, Rita."
He returned the formality, "And I'm Brent, the manager of this complex."
She spoke English with the barest hint of an accent, not quite American, too low pitched to be Queen's English. "I'm just curious, since Alice has missed a lot of school, what she's been up to lately."
"Well, there was something of a desert vacation with her coworkers recently. But I doubt they're going to do it again soon, now that the business is reopened."
Rita's sense that something didn't add up just got stronger. Glancing at one of the open apartments, still undergoing renovation, it was a nicer place than she could afford on a teacher's salary. If they can afford to live here and take vacations, why did Alice need to work?
"Athena is her coworker?"
"Yep."
"I see. Thank you for your time."
"No problem."
She walked down the hallway to number two, and knocked the door perfunctorily. After thirty seconds without hearing anything, she turned back towards the stairwell in the middle of the building, where she was met by the building manager once again.
It was just enough time that Brent finally put it together. Sure, she looked a little different than on TV, but the faint smell of cigarettes on her clothing, the charismatic self-confidence, and the meddling in her students' lives made it all pretty damn likely. "Rita, you're friends with Hjørdis, right?"
"Right. And?"
"How long have you been in this universe?"
"I beg your pardon?"
"You know, when did you suddenly find yourself in Los Angeles instead of Denmark? When did you show up here?"
She had something of an indignant look on her face at this kind of personal questioning, but softened it once the meaning of the question sunk in. "September. Can you tell me what the hell is going on?"
"Ouch. That's a long time. You didn't get any help from Heaven?"
"No?" Rita gave it about ten seconds not to turn into evangelism.
"I'm sorry. Basically there's a crisis going on in the universe that I can't even start to understand, but the short of is that people from alternate universes are all appearing here, on this Earth."
"Uh huh."
"Most everyone is has appeared is from some sort of fictional story, at least from my perspective. I recognized you from your TV show. All of the people in this complex are from TV, so to speak."
"So I'm supposed to believe that you know who I am from a TV show?" Rita's credulity was clearly stretched.
Brent missed the cue, "Right. Alice is like you, but from an animated show called Aria. She's actually a fully-trained Venetian gondolier, but, like, from a Venice replica built on Mars."
"Oh yes, I'm teaching a cartoon Martian, that explains everything." Her tone shifted from sarcastically enlightened to outraged, "Seriously, if you don't know anything, don't just feed me a line of bullshit, okay?" She let that sink in a second, and started walking back to her old beater of a car.
"Hey! If you don't believe me, watch Rita on Netflix!" She heard, but she didn't react.
The conversation did bother Rita. It was easy to explain most of what the building superintendent had said -- perhaps she had mentioned Hjørdis during class, and the fictional universe thing sounded dumb from the get-go. But knowing that she had just appeared overnight in a foreign country was something she didn't talk about. Sure, he could have a friend at the Danish consulate (as useless as they were), but really, that apartment manager was just weird.
When she got home to the one-room apartment she shared with Hjørdis and her husband Uffe, she got to work grading papers. But she remained a little bit preoccupied with Alice and what Brent had said until later that night, when the ground shook.
"Kitto daijoubu da yo." - Sakura Kinomoto