Ice powers, icy personality. Tracy felt like she was filling a stereotype just by existing. It wasn't that she didn't want to connect with people; she did, really. She just didn't know how, or if they'd accept her if she tried. After all, Tracy was not a good person. All her life, she'd been a privileged, upper-class woman who took everything her life handed her and didn't think to give anything in return. Other people were tools to her success. She'd been like a modern-day Lady Macbeth, and even though she was trying to better herself now, she knew she could never be as good, as selfless, as heroic as the people she now surrounded herself with. People like Peter or Hiro just had such intrinsically good hearts-Tracy could never be like them.
Then again, there were really only two reasons people had been good to her before: because she had money, and because they wanted to sleep with her. She supposed Nathan would have fallen into the second category-that and he'd felt sorry for her. One of the biggest things that proved Tracy was heartless deep down was that she barely missed him. She'd liked him, certainly, even after his betrayal, but whatever remorse she felt wasn't over their short-lived romance.
It hardly mattered now, though, because Nathan, the first person in a long time she'd really gotten close to, wasn't around anymore-just like Niki Sanders wasn't around anymore, so everyone had to make do with the woman who looked like her.
Tracy was... useful to the others. And more so than ever in her life, she wanted to be of use! She was genuinely happy to use her powers for the good of her friends. It was nice to be a good guy, and anyone who said otherwise didn't know what they were talking about. The problem was that, no matter how much or little her friends liked her, she'd never entirely fit in with them. Tracy lingered on the outside, afraid of rejection and unsure how to approach people, like frost edging the corners of a window. Huh-another ice metaphor. She really was living up to her abilities, wasn't she?
As time went on and the outside world got used to the existence of people with superpowers, people became less cautious, less guarded. It seemed like everyone was getting closer to each other by the day. Even though they lived in different states, some even in different countries, everybody always found a way to meet up once in a while. Tracy went to these get-togethers sometimes, but she always ended up not having much to say. She was primarily a lurker in group chats, and people always seemed a little startled when she showed up, like they'd forgotten she was coming.
Another thing that separated Tracy from everyone else was that she didn't really have any place to call home. She didn't exactly have a family, and because of her past, there were very few people she'd dealt with before who liked her. In an effort to fix this, she bought a two-story house in LA and filled it with as much furniture and as many pointless knickknacks as she could find. As it happened, her new house was just a few blocks down from the Parkman residence, which Tracy didn't realize until she posted a picture of it in the official specials group chat, which Mohinder had creatively named "superpowered individuals group chat", with the caption "What's up, LA? Get ready for Tracy Strauss! ;)" A few minutes later, Matt replied with, "Hey, that's right by my place! Why don't you drop by sometime?"
Knees drawn up, sitting on a black leather sofa she'd picked up a couple days back, Tracy smiled slightly to herself when she read the response. Her thumb hovered over the keypad on her phone, itching to type out that she'd be happy to pay Matt a visit. She didn't know him very well, but he seemed like a nice enough guy. Before she could do that, though, she received a notification from one of the apps she'd installed and forgotten to delete telling her it was time to play spider solitaire. Tracy dismissed the notification, vowing to delete the spider solitaire app as soon as possible, and put her phone away. She turned her attention to the TV, which was playing some reality show.
"Take the offer, idiots," she yelled at the TV when a couple hemmed and hawed over a beach house because it was situated half a mile from the water. "It's got a pool and a tennis court; what more do you need?!"
In the end, the couple came to the decision not to buy the house. Tracy snorted contemptuously and shut the TV off. A thin layer of frost began creeping up the remote as she did so; Tracy winced and put the remote down before it could get completely frozen. Hopefully it would still be functional afterwards, but somehow Tracy doubted it. She really would have to work more on controlling her powers; she'd gone through about six TV remotes in the past two months, and at least twenty coffee cups. Clenching and unclenching her fists, Tracy took some deep breaths until her icy touch subsided. She really needed to stop getting worked up over trivial things, but no matter what she did, she got stressed out about everything.
It wasn't until a few hours later that she remembered she hadn't replied to Matt. By now it was probably too late, but she reopened the group chat anyway and scrolled through to see what the others were posting.
The official specials group chat was always kind of empty compared to the one Peter and Claire had started that only had them, Matt, Hiro, and Ando called "total eclipse if the heart" in which they mostly posted memes and fandom junk. Most recently, Hiro and Ando had taken to spamming the chat with pictures from various conventions they'd attended. Tracy had joined that group chat as well, after getting permission from the chat's founders.
"What? Of course you can join," Peter had said, maybe just a little too quickly and a with a bit too much enthusiasm. "We'd love to have you!"
"Just as long as you don't let Mohinder or any of our parents in," Claire had added, grimacing and rubbing her neck. "Especially not my dad."
Tracy had laughed despite herself; she owed a great deal to Noah Bennet, but he definitely had gone a bit overboard by putting Claire on safe mode after she made a somewhat inappropriate joke in the chat.
With Noah and Angela talking about their Company days, Mohinder mostly talking about his job and his father's research, and Sylar lurking in the chat and occasionally posting something that sounded vaguely ominous, it was understandable why the second chat was favoured. However, that didn't mean people in the official chat couldn't have fun every now and then. It was also nice to check in with Micah Sanders from time to time (he used the group chat on a fairly regular basis). He was Tracy's closest living relative, after all...
-From the Superpowered Individuals group chat-
profsuresh_official: weekly reminder to let me know if you meet anyone else with powers, and invite them into this chat! :)
p_petrelli: oh ok *invites 1,000 bad guys onto the group chat*
superhiro101: it's a good thing we didn't have this chat back when I was in the feudal era, or you'd probably be getting messages from Adam Monroe right now
xxxsylar666xxx: speaking of which... hello friends
clairebear: ASDHFKGNS Hiro look what you've done... you've summoned him
xxxsylar666xxx: nobody summons me. I come and go as I please
companyman_hrg: get out of here Sylar
goth_grandma: honestly, Peter, I don't see why you put up with that man.
p_petrelli: -\('~')/-
profsuresh_official: say, Angela, love your new username! :)
goth_grandma: thank you, dear.
clairebear: don't give her too much credit, I picked it out for her lol
REBEL: hey gamers what's going on in this thread?
Even though she was used to seeing him in the chat, Tracy's heart still sped up upon seeing her nephew's username. This was her chance to invite him to drop by her new house. She could definitely use some company.
tracy_the_ice_queen: not much is happening right now haha
REBEL: ya'll are hella boring
clairebear: oh mood
p_petrelli: FYI Micah we have another chat called total eclipse of the heart that's a lot more fun
superhiro101: I'm in it so you know it's gotta be good :3
officerparkman: hey sorry to jump in but does anyone have any good parenting tips
companyman_hrg: sure Matt! What's troubling you?
p_petrelli: hey here's a good one: try to have your son killed
superhiro101: try to prevent your kid from saving the world and make him be a businessman like you
profsuresh_official: conduct unethical experiments on people with powers
tracy_the_ice_queen: kill one of your daughters
clairebear: erase your wife's memories
xxxsylar666xxx: kill your wife
companyman_hrg: ya'll are so bitter... smh
clairebear: uhhhh no offence dad but you highkey deserve it
goth_grandma: at least no one's pointing any fingers at me :).
p_petrelli: oh right I forgot one... lie to people and manipulate them
xxxsylar666xxx: yeah don't think I've forgotten about that time you told me I was your son :(
officerparkman: put your son's adopted daughter in a psychic coma
crimson_arc_69: wow you all have awful parents
superhiro101: put your son on dream-trial for altering the timeline
companyman_hrg: ok can we please stop now
clairebear: nah :p
REBEL: jfc you folks all had it so bad
REBEL: I'm lucky my mom was so cool
Tracy had never met Niki in person, but from what she'd heard, she'd been a remarkable woman. It made Tracy feel even worse about her luxurious life; Niki had probably been a much better person, and yet she had suffered so much. It wasn't fair-especially not to Micah. The poor kid was an orphan, and the family he was staying with now weren't in the best financial situation. Sometimes Tracy wondered if Micah would like to live with her, but... no. There was no way. As far as she could tell, he saw her as a quasi-mother, but not exactly a relative. Besides, she wouldn't want him to have to look at her on a daily basis and constantly be reminded of someone he'd lost. It was better to check in on him from afar, and try to support the Dawsons when she could.
Just as Tracy had feared, her TV remote was broken beyond repair. She'd have to put an order in for a replacement, but in the meantime, she was out of luck for wasting her time watching television. That meant Tracy was out of excuses for staying in the house all day. She could only sit cross-legged on her bed playing spider solitaire for so long, after all. What Tracy really needed to do was make some friends in LA so she'd have an excuse to go out more-or possibly get a boyfriend, but for some reason that wasn't so appealing to her lately. In the meantime, though, she was starting to go stir-crazy, and she was in dire need of some stress relief.
It was a damp, drizzly day outside, which Tracy appreciated. When she stepped outside in her sleeveless top and skirt, she shivered, the hairs on her arms standing on end. It felt kind of satisfying to feel the cold. It proved she was still human.
After a few moments of standing out on the porch, Tracy drew in a breath and let herself melt into the rainwater. It was always a relaxing experience, to be one with the water and to flow freely down the streets without being seen. To some, having no physical form must have been disconcerting, but for Tracy, it meant nobody could trap her in one place.
She still recoiled whenever she got too close to something hot. She tried to avoid cooking things in the oven; when she did, she'd let it sit and get cool for a few minutes before taking it out. Tracy didn't mind that her food got cold. She liked cooler temperatures. However, her aversion to heat was definitely yet another reason why people didn't hang out with her too often.
When she emerged a few hours later at a park, Tracy was breathing more easily and her heart rate had slowed. Rubbing her hands up and down her arms, Tracy tilted her head back and opened her mouth to taste the rainwater. Part of her wanted to flow upwards into the sky and live as a cloud. It'd be pretty lonely up there, but maybe being alone would be better than being surrounded by people whose affection for her was impossible to prove.
Tracy didn't expect anyone to be out and about besides her when it was so rainy out. She was pleasantly surprised to be wrong. Sitting on a park bench wearing a bright orange raincoat was a woman with honey-blonde curls. The woman had her knees drawn up to her chest and she was visibility trembling. Feeling a spark of concern for this stranger-maybe she was becoming nicer than she'd thought-Tracy approached her.
Upon getting within five feet of the woman, Tracy could feel heat radiating off her in waves. Raindrops sizzled in the air around her, creating a sort of haze around her body. Tracy shrunk back from the heat, suddenly apprehensive. Fire and water didn't mix, and neither did fire and ice. The woman on the bench drew in a shaky breath and reached for a pack of cigarettes in her lap. As Tracy watched, hanging back, the woman placed a cigarette between her lips and, without a match in sight, lit it. The tiny flame on the end of the cigarette was instantly extinguished by the downpour, but the woman kept her finger pressed to it, and the fire kept reappearing every time the rain put it out.
One thing was clear: this woman had some sort of fire powers. Biting back her fear-she wasn't weak to fire anymore anyway-Tracy addressed the stranger. "Hi there, are you okay?"
The woman on the bench flinched at Tracy's voice. Dropping her hand and letting her cigarette go out, she glanced up from behind the hood of her raincoat. "Oh, I've felt better," she said. "What about you, though? You must be freezing."
Tracy chuckled. "You could say that." Placing her hand on the park bench, she channelled her abilities. A thin frost began spreading across the polished wood. She retracted her hand in a hurry once the demonstration was made-no sense in destroying a perfectly good park bench.
She'd been concentrating on using her powers in a controlled way, so she hadn't noticed the other woman's reaction until she glanced back at her and their eyes met in mutual understanding. They held each other's gazes for a long moment, during which the hairs on the back of Tracy's neck pickled. It felt almost like a connection was being formed. Finally, the woman on the bench lowered her hood, revealing an oddly familiar face. Tracy didn't know just where she'd seen that face before, but she knew she had at some point. Before she could ask if they had met, though, the question was answered.
"What's your name, sweetie?" the woman said in a somewhat southern-sounding accent. "I'm Meredith."