[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/VUG4JR5.png[/img][/center]

[b]Outside of Araceli's Apartment
Pacific Point, California, USA[/b]

[i][color=cyan]Next time I'm getting this delivered[/color][/i]

With a flat, square box wedged in beneath her arms, Araceli anxiously kept trying to jab a small key into the door handle in front of her. The intoxicating bouquet of freshly baked pizza wafted into her nostrils, and the blue haired woman could feel her mouth begging to drool. Saving a few bucks to get this as a carryout seemed like a good idea at the time, until she had to realize that she had to walk the whole way back, its aroma taunting her the entire time.

After struggling for a few seconds, the key finally clicked, and Araceli twisted it sideways. After pushing her wrist forward, she barged her shoulder forward to completely open the door, barreling into her own apartment. Rushing inside, the blue haired woman's eyes darted around the not-quite familiar sight of her home. The sun was starting to set, but there was plenty of natural light that she didn't feel it was necessary to turn the lights on. Instead, she aimed her sights directly to her couch, her mouth salivating with desire. 

Araceli plopped the box she was holding onto a small wooden table in front of her, nearly ready to tear the thing open. Googling food joints near her apartment recommended this small, somewhat out of the way pizza place known as the Luigi Brothers; it had nearly perfect, raving reviews of it being the best pizza you can get in the entire West Coast. Some people refused to buy there, though. Not because of the quality, for the most part, but for a strange conspiracy theory Araceli couldn't understand. Apparently, Luigi Brothers only opened shortly after the Game Genie incident in Pacific Point, and that the "Luigi" that ran it was one of the escaped video game characters. Some even posit the entire staff is made up of these rogue game characters, attempting to integrate themselves in human society. It apparently attracted the attention of the Hounds of Humanity back in their heyday, but nothing could be definitely proven.

The rocker darkly chuckled as her mind jumped towards the Hounds. She was always kind of used to getting some trolls on her music uploads about her ancestry, but the amount of harassment she got for simply being powered has dramatically upticked in the past few months. Many of these commenters would identify as, or at least praise, the Hounds, and would taunt that they would get her head on a spike one day. She never took them seriously; everyone puffs up smoke on the internet to look tough, and Araceli could tell when the idiots were just trying to scare her. After all, it's not like she was no stranger to legitimate threats-

Araceli immediately opened the box, to distract herself from having to remember [i]that[/i] day. Thankfully, the rush of aromas did the trick, and all her mind could process was the pizza in front of her. Araceli got a vegetarian pizza, loaded with peppers, onions, olives, and, from what nearly everyone raved about online, the mushrooms. No one knew for certain where they sourced the mushrooms for, but they were allegedly out of this world. Perhaps even literally so, according to some of the rumors. But, Araceli couldn't care by this point, all she could focus on was just finally taking a bite of this pie.

Araceli's eyes bulged in excitement as she finally took her first bite. The sensation in her mouth, she could only describe as being a flavor explosion. The mushrooms, the mushrooms in particular, it was just.... incomprehensibly good. By far, this was the best food she ever had north of the Rio Grande, and even then it would be a hard comparison to some of the restaurants of her childhood in Monterrey. Araceli knew her plans to save part of the pizza for tomorrow was suddenly in doubt, as finished up the first slice.

Before she devoured the rest of the pizza, however, Araceli grabbed her phone to check the time. It was a little after six, which was plenty of enough time to enjoy a few more slices, but she needed to focus on the evening. The other day, Araceli was able to score her first gig in Pacific Point, and tonight was the night she was due to make her Californian debut! It was down in some seedy nightclub down near the pier, Logan's, if she remembered the name correctly. It was a nightclub that specialized in superhero clientele, and the idea of having live entertainment from a superpowered musician appealed the owners greatly. Not exactly the most prestigious debut, but everyone has to start small. Plus, its money that wasn't from her parents, and god knows she didn't really want to touch the blood money involved in that arrangement if she didn't have to.

[hr]

[b]Logan's
Pacific Point, California, USA[/b]

Impressing superheroes was a lot of work. When you have people who can already fly, shoot laser beams out of their eyes, and run faster than the sound barrier, just throwing out random jolts of electricity from your fingertips and teleporting around bare wire isn't [i]as[/i] impressive in comparison. The coordination to casually use her powers while not missing a beat in her songs could be described as a superpower in itself, and Araceli hoped that if nothing else, the other capes in the nightclub could at least appreciate the skill behind attempting these stunts, if nothing else.

Thankfully, Araceli has always prided herself as a musician first, and a showwoman second. The blue haired woman poured her heart out in rocking out on the guitar, allowing the instrument to do most of the emotional speaking for her. The influences of alt-metal and punk were quite evident in her composition. She was loud, aggressive, and unapologetic with her riffs, creating an abundance of energy that kept the whole of Logan's grooving. Araceli especially gave it her all in the solos, which she had plenty of fun testing the absolute limits of her set-up, trying to dazzle the clientele with fast, technical playing. It was, admittingly, weird to be playing with recordings of a bass and drumline, rather than having her friends be providing the backup instrumentation, but, finding a bunch of other stand ins just for one gig in a nightclub on this short of a notice was too much of a tall order. Better to just use recordings and play along with it.

Ever since going solo, Araceli knew she had to start singing herself: instrumentals in contemporary music were the rare exception. She was the one who would [i]write[/i] the lyrics in the first place, back with her band in Mexico, so it wasn't like she didn't know the material, or had a basic competency to it. However, she definitely did not feel as comfortable with it as she did with her guitar playing, but she tried as hard as possible to make sure that was not communicated throughout the concert. The fact that she was largely singing in Spanish, as she was far more comfortable in her native tongue, most likely helped Araceli mask her singing in an aura of mystery to the mostly English-speaking nightclub. 

That being said, Araceli was overall extremely happy with herself. The crowd was undeniably energetic, matching the electrical abilities of the rocker. There was little doubt in her mind that she'll be invited to play back another time, if other bars and nightclubs don't try to poach her first. If things went as smoothly as this, she'll be getting her studio album soon enough. Just had to stick it out long enough to get there.

When her set finished, last call had already came and went. It was past midnight, and most of the patrons were already flowing out of Logan's. Some to go home, but perhaps more to go engage in superhero-or-villainy, hyped by the soundtrack Araceli gave them. At only 18, Araceli was legally too young to even be engaging in such drinking up north, but the bartender just winked at her as she approached the bar, and slid her a shot of rum, for the road. He claimed she deserved something for the show she put on. 

Quickly downing the shot, Araceli slowly started to walk out, equipment in hand. One of the last patrons in the bar, a woman in a winged blue mask, patted Araceli on the back as she left, and offered to help her carry any of it home with her. Araceli politely declined, but stopped to chat with her for a few minutes. Reisen was her name, and Araceli could tell she was absolutely enthralled with her performance.

[color=cyan]"Check out my Soundcloud,"[/color] Araceli winked, as she finally walked out of the door.

The walk back to her apartment was uneventful. Although there were still cars driving around, and Araceli was by no means the only pedestrian walking about, Pacific Point was definitely much quieter now than it was when Araceli was walking to Logan's. The slob she was, Areceli only managed to leave one slice of that pizza in the fridge before heading out, and she knew she wanted it as soon as she got home. It was the only thing that was on her mind as she was strolling through the shoreline. 

That is, until, she noticed a knife pointed at her neck.