Snippets of Memory - The Umbrella Academy

Let's do the Time Warp again

This story is a one-shot, part of the recollections of Rin and Klaus' younger years, both of whom appear in the story "A Bend in Space Time" (taking place over the seasons of The Umbrella Academy - links in my profile).
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Backstory: Rin is a 20-year-old punk girl born with a strange power that she uses for illegal work: she can teleport, make herself invisible or intangible. Over several nights in police custody, just over a year ago, she met a strange cellmate named Klaus... also endowed with an extremely invasive power: that of communicating with the dead.

TW: recent death of a relative - reference to drug and alcohol use - mild sexual innuendo - queerophobic altercation.

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At times, your life seems to be stuck in years of stagnation, where both time and your situation feel deadlocked. And yet, at other times, a wind of change suddenly sweeps over you, events rushing past and pulling you forward.

Looking back, it makes me smile to have believed around 2008 and 2009 that this transformative whirlwind I'd been in since Klaus entered my life was a paroxysm. Today, however, I've come to understand that change is the constant, and stillness the exception. And I realized, much later - perhaps only today - how the one who was then nimbed in narcotic vapors had triggered my metamorphosis, even if failing at carrying out his own.

I had accumulated a lot of loneliness, including in my own family unit. A feeling of being the only one of my kind: because of my power, because of an identity that I was struggling to define at every level, because of my erratic attractions and relationships. Before I met Klaus, I had this kind of punk anger, a sometimes violent resentment, without even knowing against whom or what. The kind that drove me into rebellious entrenchments and a thousand odd jobs, monetizing my power in illegal and sometimes immoral ways. Caught up in a downward spiral that might have led me closer to The City's underworld, if nothing had happened. But it happened.

Klaus entered into all this quietly, with his fucking unapologetic confidence, and that improbable sense of humor that I often seemed to be the only one to understand. Making me laugh at our darknesses, our difference as we contemplated the rest of humanity from the edge of the spectrum of possibilities. Putting every ordeal into perspective. With his gentle gaze, occasionally teasing, protective or lost, often laden with spectral shadows that I could at times dispel. With his genuine kindness behind his witty sarcasm and jibes. And - despite his constant feeling of worthlessness - with his fierce affirmation of his legitimacy to exist, just as he was.

The one that gradually infused me, and quite possibly saved me.

I truly realized that I'd taken a step forward, when I got my very first paycheck. The one from that job at Rogrigo's hardware store, which I kept for many years: until the 2019 Apocalypse - actually - and even afterwards through alternate timelines. A legally obtained salary, in stark contrast to all the odd jobs I'd done up to that point. A modest income, but for me it opened up a whole world of possibilities.

In addition to the medical expenses I had to reimburse to Lakeshore Hills Hospital, I now had to pay for my mother's funeral, which took me four years to cover completely, with Granny's paltry pension hardly contributing at all. And yet, with that very first paycheck, that's not what I got, no. Those first unashamed bucks earned, that night, I spent part of them on a treasure...

Two tickets to the screening and performance of The Rocky Horror Picture Show - on one of the most famous stages on Crescent Boulevard, The City's equivalent of Broadway - which Klaus had only dreamed about until then, from a crumpled flyer he'd picked up on the pavement.

If you've never attended it, wherever you are in this world - whether you're in the middle of an Apocalypse or not, depending on when you read this - I'll leave you with the pleasure of the surprise. All you need to know is that this theatrical version of the rock opera-movie will bring the film projected on the screen to life, right inside the theater, using minimalist equipment that you'll bring yourself. A few bottles of water will carry you through a rainstorm from which you will be able to protect yourself with an umbrella, a rice fight will throw you right in the middle of a goddamn wedding, until the overexcited gang of queer actors make you dance the Time Warp, or lasciviously simulate a few sexual positions on your willing lap. You'll be laughing out loud and finding rice in your socks or platform shoes for two days, believe me. But don't go unless you're fully open to the unexpected, because absolutely anything can happen, with your neighbor on the right, your neighbor on the left, the cast or even the technical crew. Without overstepping the mark, rest assured. After all, it's only theater, even if it ranks among the craziest artistic extremes.