In Jump City, there are problems.
Constant, continuous problems.
Mostly, they're pretty life-threatening, but there are some that people deal with on a daily basis. Muggings, thieves, jaywalkers. The usual stuff.
However...
There are huge distinctions between problems that you have to solve for yourself, the problems that you take to the police, and the problems that are handled by the Teen Titans.
Rose liked to go to the bookstore on Sundays. She was studying at the local university to be a teacher, and therefore had a lot of interest in not only books, but the children that she would read to. Every Sunday she would wake early, go for a run, fix herself a quick, healthy breakfast and then pack a small knapsack to take on the road with her. The knapsack included a journal, her favorite pen, vegetables and hummus, a bike lock, wallet and cell phone.
Rose had a routine. A lovely, constant routine as constant as the disasters that tended to waft through her city as if it were just another Sunday.
She hopped on her bike and let it coast downhill on a busy road. Rose's red hair billowed out behind her in the breeze. She waved happily at the flower shop owner who was misting her lillies outside. She barely glanced at the coffee shop where her ex boyfriend worked as a barista, hoping he wouldn't see her, even though he probably did. He knew her routine, after all. Rose laughed at the pomeranian who yipped at her as she flew by, like he did every Sunday morning, and eventually she made it to the bottom of the hill.
Perfectly placed at the bottom was the bookstore. It was nestled on a street corner near the park, so the air around it was rich with the smell of trees and flowers. It was summer, and the perfect season for an education student on summer break to volunteer to read to children.
"Rose!" An older gentleman greeted her kindly. "You're here early."
She nodded. "The wind was pushing me down the hill today."
"Yes, it's a little chilly out here."
She frowned. "It's seventy degrees, Nate."
"Well," He chuckled. "I'm old. Even this weather is too cold for me these days."
Rose hopped off of her bike and gently chained it to the old fashioned posts outside the bookstore. It was a good thing she wore soft shorts underneath her sun dress.
"If it's so unbearable, why don't you move?"
The old bookstore owner smiled wistfully. Nate was pale with a full head of white hair who usually wore tweed jackets and carried around a black umbrella no matter what the weather called for.
"No, I couldn't leave this city. Too many fond memories."
Rose tried not to laugh. "Fond memories? Like the time a tidal wave almost took out the city? Or the time that three buildings blew up in one afternoon?"
Nate merely chuckled again. "You're new. You'll understand someday."
He led her inside, the bell tinkled gently in the rising light and he started some coffee. It was barely ten in the morning.
She thanked him and set her knapsack in the back room where Nate kept an old sofa, space heater and a rusty brown cat named Quill.
Rose was 'new', people liked to say. She'd moved here for graduate school and had completed her first year. So, this was her first summer as a citizen of Jump City. In the colder months she'd endured plenty of scares. Buildings had exploded. Tidal waves almost took out the coast. There was one time when there were reports of stores whose items had gone haywire or auto dealerships whose cars went missing. Sure, things would usually be fixed/replaced and people would go on with their lives, but the giant "T" that loomed on the horizon, the one she could see from her bedroom window, was almost ominous for someone who was… 'new'.
Quill hopped up into her lap and purred, but she gently set him next to her on the couch.
"I can't stay back here, I have to go read to the kids." She cooed at the animal. He bristled when he heard the first screams of small children echoing through the small building.
"I know, but don't worry." She scratched under his bell collar and kissed him on the head. "They can't get you back here."
She left Quill to lay out in front of the space heater and entered the loud 'reading room' in the back of the store.
Rose had probably read "The Cat in the Hat" over thirteen times in the last three Sundays, and was honestly so tired of it she thought she would burst. Her reading room demographic was very, very young, and therefore her reading list was pretty short. Just once she'd like to discuss Harry Potter with a bunch of middle schoolers, or Pride and Prejudice with some high schoolers. Except, for some reason, those age groups never wanted to be read to anymore.
So, there she was, helping Nate close up the shop around 5pm and stowing her journal back into her bag. She wrote in it every time there was a lull in reading duties, or if the shop was running pretty slow. She wrote about her life, the people she met, the books she wanted to read or stories she was writing herself.
Except, right now, all that was running through her mind was "The Cat in the Hat".
"Nate," She rubbed her eyes wearily. "Give me literally anything else to think about."
He chuckled, the way that he always did, and patted her on the shoulder. "Sorry, dear. I can't think of anything. I'm running late as it is, though, so you'll have to scoot."
He pulled out the shop keys and scurried out the door, gesturing that she should follow.
"Late? For what?"
He grinned. "Story night, at the pub down the road."
"Story night?"
He nodded. "Its new, like yourself."
She rolled her eyes. Rose was tired of being called 'new'.
"At Mulligan's on Sunday and Friday nights, folks have started a group called 'Story Night'. It's where we discuss all the things that go on in our city. Keeps people more up to date than the news."
She watched as Nate locked up the shop.
"What kind of stories? True stories?"
He shrugged. "Sometimes. Sometimes folks talk about the things in their neighborhood that have been destroyed, cats saved, sightings of the Teen Titans and the like."
"Sightings?" Rose laughed. "I thought that they were such a common occurrence around here."
"Not as much as you'd think." He rebutted. Nate shouldered his umbrella, the one he never went without, and started walking down the road.
Curious, Rose grabbed her bike and followed him.
"Well, wait, have you ever told a story?"
He paused on the road and thought for a moment.
"No, but if you're coming, maybe I will tonight."
Curious about what stories old Nate may have from living in Jump City his whole life, Rose couldn't help but to push her bike a little faster to keep up with him.
When they arrived at Mulligan's, Rose was shocked to see a guy from her graduate program there. She remembered his name was something like Michael or Mike and that he'd lived around here since childhood. Just like Nate.
Nate, by the way, was leading her over to a table and people began to quiet down. For a moment she was wondering why they were staring at her, but then realized they were waiting for Nate to start speaking.
"I thought you said that 'people' had started a group?" She hissed under her breath as folks filtered in and sat down with their beers.
"I'm old, but I'm still 'people'." Nate smiled over his mulled mead. "Alright, everybody, come on and sit down. I want you to meet Rose!"
She blushed in the dim, pub lighting and accepted a glass of white wine graciously. It was given to her by a woman who seemed to own the place because she refused Rose's money.
"Hey, I'm Babs." The older woman winked at her. "Welcome to Mulligan's. Never seen you before."
Rose nodded and sipped her wine. "I'm newly twenty-two and not really a drinker." She confessed. After a year of trying it, she still didn't like the taste, but the wine wasn't bad.
The other members of the "Story Night Club" greeted her as well, but Mike or Michael just nodded at her as if to say "hey, I know you already". She smiled at him and settled in next to Nate, who seemed to be the ringleader of this outfit.
"Alright, alright now." He smiled at them all, pointing his umbrella for emphasis. "Who's going to start? The weekends are always busy with weird stuff, so what's happened since Friday?"
A middle-aged police officer stood up and went to sit on a strategically placed barstool that faced all of them. He introduced himself as Ted and tipped his hat at Rose, the newbie.
"I got a story for you all." He began, ominously. "It happened yesterday morning…"
Someone sipped their beer loudly in the silence that followed.
"So, me and my partner Jim were in the cruiser, driving around looking for wandering drunks from Friday night. We turned the corner on Wayne Ave and saw some people running the opposite direction. Of course, we didn't know what to think. Then, this massive purple and green monster comes barreling out past the bank-"
"-and eats the back end of a parked bus!" Cried another member of the Story Night Club. He looked like he was around Rose's age, barely old enough to drink and wearing the local community college's symbol on his hoodie. "I saw that, too!"
The cop smirked. "Yeah, well guess what happened next?"
They all smiled and waited.
"Well," Ted continued, "Jake's right, the bus was half eaten. Good thing that everyone evacuated beforehand. Must've seen the big nasty thing coming and headed for cover. Anyway, so the bus is being eaten by this thing and then what do I see?"
They all waited.
"Flashes of green lights. Shooting from all over the sky!"
The patrons of the bar started to smile knowingly. Rose tilted her head and waited.
'Suddenly, from the sky, zoomed in Starfire!" The chief exclaimed as if it he'd seen his favorite celebrity. "She swooped in and pounded the sucker! Starbolt, eye lazer, boom, FLASH!" Ted waved his arms for emphasis. "It was amazing!"
Nate laughed. "Don't let your wife hear you speaking like that!"
"Nah," Ted pshhed him. "Dirty old man, she's way younger than me."
"I don't know," Jake the community college student commented. "Does it count in Alien Years?"
No one had any idea, but Ted still shook his head vehemently to show that his amazement was completely innocent all the same.
"Still, it was the coolest thing I'd ever seen. I mean, I've seen Beast Boy before, but she was something else. Eventually, the monster exploded and she carted this sleeping guy who'd been inside it away." He picked up his beer and cheers'd the patrons of the bar. "The End."
The rest of the stories of the night went like that. They'd talked about missing cars that appeared overnight in driveways, trash that was mysteriously eaten before the garbage truck came and electric currents that zapped out a whole street's power. Regardless of what he'd said though, Nate didn't share that evening, the rest of the bar was pressuring him to talk, but instead he smirked at them all and called it a night.
Rose and the others left the bar around ten in the evening. Shivering in the cooler summer night's air, Rose dreaded the idea of walking her bike all the way up the hill in her sundress. She should've thought of that earlier, but now it was too late. She bent down to unlock the bike.
"Hey," Said a soft voice from behind her. "Need a walking buddy?"
Rose turned her head to see Mike or Michael watching her, hesitating outside the bar. He shifted shyly on his feet.
"Huh?" She shivered. She finally got the lock undone and straightened to face him.
"It's, uh…" He looked around at the quiet side street that they were on. Only a few people were walking through the park "You know, it's kind of… unsafe."
"For a girl alone, you mean?" She asked, a small smile on her face.
"Heh, yeah…" He was worried he'd offended her, but she was touched.
"Yeah, sure thanks. Michael, right?"
His face lit up a little. "Mike, yeah."
Rose blushed a little, but it was hard to see in the darkness. "Okay, yeah. Thanks-uh, again."
The two of them walked away from the pub and up the hill together. Her bike clicked gently in the night.
Hey guys, I hope you liked the intro to this new story idea I had! I wondered what it would be like to experience the lives of those who live in Jump City, rather than just the superheroes. I'll be following the stories of a few different, interconnected characters to see where they take me! I hope you'll enjoy them as well.