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.

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

At least you got it sorted out now. Some folks make it all the way through life without figuring that one out.

Fusion reactors are safe when designed correctly. The Baxter Building uses decentralized redundant ones to power some of the security features.

[You know, like you do.]

[And it's an hour or so later that Laura arrives, and is indeed waved into the building, so a few minutes after that she's appearing in the elevator to the lab, stepping out...perhaps slightly nervously, her hands in the pockets of her jacket.]

...Valeria?

Able to mimic the powers.

Heck, it even looked like him.

Hi, Laura.

[Val doesn't look up from the electronics bench she's working at, one tiny hand holding a soldering iron far too large for it.]

It explains the culling reference, anyway. Not really a risk in most modern human societies.

Hi.

[She walks over quietly, coming to a stop behind the tiny child and peering over her shoulder. She wants to take the soldering iron away, but...she doesn't. ...For now.]

What are you doing?

No need. Fine like this. Appreciate consideration, though.

Communication cues in voice inflection and tone valuable in understanding. Nonverbal information from video useful as well. Clear dialogue more important than speed.

Hah! I'm forming that concrete embodiment, one snow sculpture at a time!

[Which is slightly difficult this time of year, but whatever.]

Sure, but there are better ways to do it than electrocution.

[She's just sort of professionally offended at how half-assed that sounds.]

My hobby is projecting polyhedrons of arbitrary dimension into 3-space. It has cryptographic and space travel implications.

[YOU WOULDN'T UNDERSTAND.]

[That would be a good way to burn through a lot of the goodwill her future self has accrued.]

Making a holo-emitter.

[The circuit board she's working on is small, not even two inches square, and she's using a powerful magnifying lens on an articulated arm so she can see the traces properly.]

He got his powers back and joined the X-Men, you know. [The man is never going to pick a side and stick with it, seriously.

She's mostly thinking about Skrulls, though.] ...I don't suppose you have any tissue samples?

Yeah, people in general aren't really suited to orderly thinking.

[That could have sounded horribly insulting, but Val just says it matter-of-factly.]

Oh, sweet lord. [Yes, that is a facepalm.]

I can take care of myself, Spider-Man. [Lineface.]

Kiddo, if there's any three-year-old in the multiverse who could manage by herself, it'd be you. [Heavy emphasis on the conditional clause.] It's the Tony part of the equation that's got my spider-sense twitching.

[What's this "if," pal?]

He's harmless.

[Val got her Dad's people skills, apparently.]

You aren't forming anything in snow at this latitude in April.

[Wait until she sees what Calvin considers snow "art."]

Edited 2013-05-09 16:56 (UTC)

Do you ever get bored during conversations? I used to get bored until I figured out how to run more than one thought track simultaneously.

[supergenius problems]

[Val mutters:] Throw them on a log-log plot. That'll make anything look like a straight line.

[Then, in her normal voice:] I assume there's no central database of information relating to this? [She'll just get it from Tony.]

[Hmm. She knew what that was, but...]

Why?

So I don't have to deal with being an "unaccompanied minor." [Gonna project an adult hologram, aww yeah.

She keeps going conversationally as she solders.] I had to do the hard light quantum lensing calculations all over again. I'm pretty sure Dad already solved this one, but I don't remember seeing it in his notes, and for this application, Mr. Stark's solution for his repulsor control isn't sufficiently generalizable. Fortunately his nanoetching setup is good, not that I would expect anything else.

[Laura understands...none of that...except the big about creating a fake hologram so Valeria could walk around by herself. On the one hand, the girl was obviously smart enough to handle it but...still.]

What if someone sees through your illusion?

It's not an illusion. Hard light, like the Danger Room. I'm too small to just use a standard hologram to change my skin color or what I'm wearing--it wouldn't accomplish what I want.

[With her free hand, Val calls up one of those holographic computer displays Tony uses. It's covered, and I mean covered, in insanely complex math using symbols that might actually not be from any Earth language.] The part where I have to exclude my actual body from the projection while maintaining the image was tricky.

Page 17 of 24

[video]

no subject

video

[action]

action

[action]

video;

[action]

Video

Video

video

no subject

[action]

action

no subject

video;

video;

video; LMAO DW is taking so long to load that by the time my comment showed up so did your tag

video; /golf clap

Video

Video

no subject

[action]

[action]

[action]

[action]