milliways_bar | (no subject)

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How has Val spent her morning? Let's use some math to address this question, Snow + Mountains + Val von Doom = Snowboarding!

After several hours of shredding snow, Val comes in the back door flushed from the exercise. She sits at the bar and orders coffee, oatmeal and a bagel.

She gets these plus a note.

Feel free to interrupt if you don't mind the tears of joy.

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He's fine with them, but he might not recognize them as such right away.

"Val? Are you okay?"

"I'm awesome," she replies with a big grin in case Enzo doesn't believe her.

And it's a real grin. Which means, if she's crying, something must be awesome indeed.

"What's processing?"

"I got a letter from home!" she practically squeals. "Well the closest I have any way."

"You did? But... I thought you, like, didn't exist anymore. No offense, I mean, that's awesome, I'm just confused."

"It's okay," Val replies with a smile and a hug. "I took a chance a couple of weeks ago and wrote a note to Valeria Richards just in case she came here. She's the girl whose timeline was created when mine ended. Well she came here and she wants to talk! I've got a...sister I guess would be the best word."

"Alphanumeric!"

Hug!

"I wonder if alternate timeline versions count as clones..."

"I'm not sure but I think I'm happier calling her my sister. It's easier to explain. That is a good question though, do we share the same DNA?"

"Well... how did she happen again?"

"Well basically Mr. Fantastic had to use the Ultimate Nullifier to save the universe. I was caught in its field and was erased. Val reality is what took my place. Or so it seems. As far as I know no ones really done many tests on what happened. My uncle Ben says Mr. Fantastic has been looking for my reality for some number of years now but hasn't found it."

"What's... the Ultimate Nullifier?"

"It's the universe's most devastating weapon, well my old universe at least. It has the ability to completely eliminate any target the wielder chooses, even entire timelines. You have to be very careful using it cause it can erase the user or those around them."

Val offers a wry grin and a little hand wave at that last bit.

So it is, in fact, exactly what it sounds like. Great.

"And he had to use it to save the universe?"

"It was a little confusing, see there was this cosmic entity named Abraxas and..." Val replies and goes into a brief and concise explanation that eludes her narrator at the moment. "And so then I woke up here. My uncle Ben says when the dust settled back home, I was gone and my mom was pregnant again with Valeria Richards."

"But... with a different husband?"

Val lets out an awkward little laugh.

"Not really. I was raised by Victor von Doom but I suspect my biological father is Reed Richards. I'd need a genetic test to be sure. Take a seat this may take a while. You see, my apparent death isn't the only confusing thing about me. You want some code cola?"

Well, at least the awkward answer saves even more potentially awkward questions.

"Sure, thanks."

"Okay I'll try the short version and we can expand from there. I think I've already told you my family is a group of super heroes but I don't think I mentioned my brother. He can reshape reality to pretty large degrees. Back when my mom was first pregnant with me, there were some problems with radiation as I was conceived in another dimension called the Negative Zone. The background radiation there is drastically different and it caused enough problems that my mother miscarried, or so they thought at the time. It turns out my brother used his powers to shift me to another reality where I could be born. He didn't realize he was doing this at the time but he was being guided by this person named Roma who fights to protect the Multi-verse."

Val breaks to take a sip of soda and see if Enzo is understanding or at least following her.

Enzo's jaw is sort of sagging.

He's... probably following? Sort of? Just keep going, and he'll join in when he knows the words.

"So I was born in this other reality and raised there. I grew up thinking of Victor von Doom as my father when Reed Richards was really my dad...sort of. I've just decided to call them both my dad cause I can't turn my back on the guy who raised me.

"Anyway, when I was about twelve I started developing my powers and discovered I could freeze time and space to make force fields as my mom does. I can also move myself through time as space as well but I don't have a lot of control over it. I woke up one morning when I was fourteen only to discover I had moved myself back in time to my original reality. The one where my mom miscarried. It was a bit hard on everyone.

"Later on when Abraxas came to destroy reality, Roma told us what really happened with my birth."

Enzo nods, trying to keep track.

"What... what about your other dad? The one who raised you? Does he know what happened?"

"Oh I'm sorry, I thought we've already talked about this. The reality I grew up in is gone now. See that guy Abraxas was destroying realities and the only way we could stop him was this device called the Ultimate Nullifier. It's a tricky device to use cause it not just a gun. It, well, reads the user's intentions. So you have to really focus on what you want to accomplish. When Dr. Richards used it I got caught in the field and my reality was erased. Now there's a little girl named Valeria Richards in the reality I should have been born to and I'm here."

Val takes another sip of her soda. She a little paler than before she started this story but she's gotten better at telling it. Someday she'll be able to tell it without any problem right?

"Oh," says Enzo weakly. "Right. You... told me some of that, at least. I think I got mixed up."

He's not sure what to say, because he knows exactly how she feels. Gestures of sympathy are sometimes harder when you know just how inadequate they really are.

Val smiles and give Enzo's arm a squeeze.

"That's okay. I lived it and it still confuses me. You should read the comic books! I don't know if it's because they had two different writers doing the story or what but it's even more confusing."

(deleted comment)

[OOC:I'm pretty sure this is the first time.]

Enzo brightens a tad. "There are comics about you, too?"

"Not really. They're about my family and I'm only in about 10 of them," Val replies. "I'm sure Bar can give you the issues if you're curious."

"Cool, I'll have a look! And I can show you some of the comics about me and my family."

And, he resolves, he will show her one chronicling Bob's first arrival in Mainframe, and the destruction of the Twin City. It'll be easier than telling it.

"I'd like that," Val replies. "Oh hey, I got a couple of gifts for you. Do you remember that magic car I was talking about? Well it occurred to me I have the story in a digital file. I have a digital model of the car as well from when I was trying to fix the one I found downstairs."

"Oh, yeah! I got your note about that. The story, I mean."

"It's a pretty fun book and since you seemed interested when I mentioned it I thought I'd share. Just don't take too much of it literally. Not much within it is truly how user space is."

"Just a story, gotcha. We can use the digitizing laser's computer to convert the file, if you can load it in."

"We can go now if you'd like?"

"Sure! C'mon, it's upstairs."

"Okay," Val says grabbing her bagel and the note from her younger self.

[OOC: Good fade?]

[OOC: Sure!]

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