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

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.

[Val's not bothered and just watches Kanaya's transformation.]

And your species has a reproductive strategy where parental involvement is minimal?

[Everything is second to Science.]

[ she doesn't really transform, there's not enough stress for that. so she still looks just as brown and human, she's just letting her glow out to play for a bit. ]

In the way you know it, maybe, but that doesn't mean we were left unattended. As I said, being caught without your guardian could spell death if one wasn't careful.

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

I'm aware, as that was the very point I was making.

[ though wait, there's something interesting. ] Your use of "most" is, however, curious.

Sloppy generalizations are a bad idea. A few cultures still practice infanticide. They're statistical outliers, but they exist. It's a rational response to sharply limited resources.

I made no statement to betray such a generalization, either. I've only had opportunity to see a limited range of human culture thus far.

They all evolve from us being a fundamentally social animal with high parental investment in offspring, but diverge widely from that point.

Mm. And it's perhaps the parental investment that makes the difference, then. Anyone under a certain age requires guardianship, and I hear biological imperative can be a very strong motivator on the point.

[Lord knows someone would have drowned Val in a bathtub by now if not for that evolutionary predisposition to find kids cute.]

The cultural taboos against harming children tend to be strong, as well.

[Who takes shameless advantage of that? Val takes shameless advantage of that.]

[ kanaya's found no such advantage extended to teenagers. but, of course, many of her problems have come from her peers more often than adults. ]

But not absolute, either. It isn't something you should take for granted.

There aren't many guarantees in life. Even entropy can decrease if you know what you're doing.

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