capeandcowl | [video]

[There is a blue-eyed child looking at you. She can't be more than three. She is, however, wearing a very grown-up expression of dissatisfaction. And some kind of superhero outfit with a big "6" on the chest.

Ordinarily, Val would be cagier about immediately going public in a strange place, but, well, she has A Problem. When she speaks, it's with fully adult syntax and no hint of a lisp or any other childish speech impediment.]

Hi. I'm Valeria Richards. Assuming no alternate timeline stuff--not a safe assumption, I know, but sometimes you gotta live dangerously--it looks like there are a few people out there who're friends of my parents. You've got a couple of hours to come get me before they [she turns the phone to show a pair of what are presumably social workers, looking simultaneously put-upon and patient] try to stick me in foster care and things get sketchy.

[Anyone who knows Val will know that's more for the prospective foster parents' protection than hers. No one wants her turning some unfortunate family's appliances into her robot escape army.]

...'Bye.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Somehow, I never considered that there might be no age limit on her targets.

I'm in excess of ten standard deviations above the mean intelligence for my species.

[Val would be willing to do the math to figure out just exactly how many stddev "smartest person the universe" is, but I'm not.]

A willing mind in the body of a toddler is still just as fragile as its housing. I would recommend care during your stay here, it can be dangerous at times.

That said, you do seem remarkably well-spoken. [ she was at least a year or two older before she started studying dictionaries herself. ]

Who said I was willing?

[Not reacting so well to some random teenager coming over all "Mom" on her.]

Not you, your mind. You claim a superior intellect, one that bends to your will.

What's this dualism stuff? My intellect is me.

[Just ignore all the magic crap that goes down, Val. Your Dad sure does.]

[ oh, she hasn't even begun to get into weird magic and the logical reaches necessary to understand it. ]

No, it's only a part. Your totality is far more, and the intellect is simply one component. That isn't necessarily a dualism, simply the observation that one of these components may have developed at a greater rate than typical, but the others are still young.

Yeah, I know I can't raid the freezer without standing on a chair, thanks.

And you're probably smart enough to know that it would hardly end there.

Are you going somewhere with this?

[Sassiest toddler arm-fold.]

Maybe I had been, before someone saw fit to so thoroughly derail the discussion.

Everywhere's dangerous. Tell me something I don't know.

[She needs a nap. And an adult.

Unfortunately she's just getting Tony Stark.]

And most in ways specific to the native setting, under new dynamics than whatever other you came from. But mouthiness isn't a suitable method of survivability. [ like she has any room to talk. ]

"Mouthiness?" Seriously? Are you somebody's 80 year old aunt?

[Even most supervillains just call her some variation on "impudent."]

Hyperbole is hardly the refuge of reasonable thinking. It does us both a disservice.

How often does this supercilious thing work for you? Just asking.

I could just as easily ask that very question of you. But you've been just thrown into an unfamiliar situation, where I have had far more time to establish what works for me. So, it would hardly be fair to submit you to such an interrogation, now wouldn't it?

It works great for me, thanks.

[Mostly because everyone back home knows her parents.]

Likewise. But as you go forward, you will have to hope it remains in such a beneficial state.

It's not like I can't back it up.

[People put up with Reed because he really is that smart.]

I should hope so. You'll need to be able to, if you intend to survive without the assistance of a guardian. The good fortune of this world is you at least won't be culled on sight, but it isn't likely to make any allowances despite your meager age.

"Culled?"

[She knows what the word means, but what the hell, Kanaya?]

As I said, you're lucky to come from this world rather than mine. We'd have more difficulty avoiding that fate for you in similar circumstances there.

[yeah well your world sucks so there]

...You're not human.

[Val's squinting at the screen, not accusatory, but with the air of someone who's put something together.]

[ it starts softly at first, but it's hard to miss, even in that light. she's seemingly begun glowing. ]

I'm not. The current facade is merely an involuntary deception.

video;

smarterthandad - 2013-05-07 03:15 (UTC) - Expand

glowsferatu - 2013-05-07 07:14 (UTC) - Expand

smarterthandad - 2013-05-09 05:19 (UTC) - Expand

glowsferatu - 2013-05-11 06:08 (UTC) - Expand

smarterthandad - 2013-05-13 22:03 (UTC) - Expand

glowsferatu - 2013-05-14 06:47 (UTC) - Expand

smarterthandad - 2013-05-16 01:20 (UTC) - Expand

glowsferatu - 2013-05-16 06:58 (UTC) - Expand

smarterthandad - 2013-05-16 18:53 (UTC) - Expand

glowsferatu - 2013-05-17 17:31 (UTC) - Expand

smarterthandad - 2013-05-21 06:08 (UTC) - Expand

glowsferatu - 2013-05-21 07:26 (UTC) - Expand

smarterthandad - 2013-05-22 06:01 (UTC) - Expand

glowsferatu - 2013-05-23 19:48 (UTC) - Expand

smarterthandad - 2013-05-25 19:14 (UTC) - Expand

glowsferatu - 2013-05-26 00:36 (UTC) - Expand

smarterthandad - 2013-05-28 03:01 (UTC) - Expand

glowsferatu - 2013-05-28 17:15 (UTC) - Expand

smarterthandad - 2013-05-30 15:23 (UTC) - Expand

glowsferatu - 2013-05-30 20:56 (UTC) - Expand

smarterthandad - 2013-05-31 04:37 (UTC) - Expand

glowsferatu - 2013-06-01 17:51 (UTC) - Expand

smarterthandad - 2013-06-06 00:56 (UTC) - Expand

glowsferatu - 2013-06-06 06:26 (UTC) - Expand