[video]

[smarterthandad]

[Somebody's kid got hold of an omnicomm...or at least that's the logical assumption, until the small human girl in the video starts speaking.]

Hi, I'm Valeria Richards. Since everything's still a mess from the latest supervillain attack, I'm going to be picking up some of Mr. Brainy's [yes she absolutely just called him that] workload to help stuff get back to what passes for normal.

[Did she check with Brainy before announcing this? Well, unless he shows up to contradict her, can you prove she didn't?

Val recognizes that being betrayed, discovering you have a kid you never knew about, and then being assimilated by your evil borg queen great-grandchild is going to knock anyone for a loop and she really is trying to help. It's just that her social skills are questionable at best when the scenario isn't "lying to get out of trouble."]

I'm not entirely up to speed on this reality's physics yet, so don't ask me to alter any universal constants before next week sometime. [Unless she has the best poker face known to science, that does not appear to be a joke.] Anything else, no problem.

Comments

[bringinghopewithme]

Hi Valeria. I'm the Easter Bunny. Good onya for helping out.

[If she's smart enough to believe she can be of help to Brainy, then what the heck, she probably is. One glance in the lab told Bunny everything Brainy was up to - even the branches of science he's familiar with - are way above his head, but that doesn't mean it's above a precocious enough child's head.]

[smarterthandad]

[She raises one eyebrow.]

The Easter Bunny.

[It's not skepticism, not exactly. More like she doesn't know why he thinks she'd care.]

[bringinghopewithme]

[Two can play at this game of eyebrows.] Did I stutter?

[smarterthandad]

[Sigh.]

Is there something I can help you with?

[She did offer, after all.]

[bringinghopewithme]

Just one thing. How old are ya?

[In the meantime, her too-cool-for-this demeanor isn't lost on him. One might think this sort of dismissal would cut him in some way.

But kids moving on from him is nothing new. It's not even anything tragic to him. Kids growing up is a fact of reality. His power may be bound up in their Believing, but not here. And one child's lost belief isn't inherently tragic or hurtful. It's not his business to convince her of anything.

It IS his business to make sure she's not left out when the rest of the space station's kids get his Sunday rounds of candy, though. Disbelievers don't get left out.]

Other'n that, nothing. But I'll keep you in mind if I need a genius.

[smarterthandad]

I'm three.

[Despite her parents' best efforts, Val never really got more than a few months of childhood. Circumstance and her own exploding intelligence conspired to remove anything that could be called innocence early on.]

[bringinghopewithme]

Right. Got it.

[Three is so young for that level of assumed responsibility and his figurative hackles have officially been raised over this child and her small amount of implied backstory. She might get more than three Sundays of Easter gifts because of it.]

You know how to reach me if you've ever got a candy emergency.

[Or any other emergency, but she doesn't have to be at that level of trust with a stranger, even if the stranger is him.]

[smarterthandad]

[Okay, "candy emergency" is pretty funny, and Val loosens up slightly.]

There's never enough candy.

[Not strictly true, but she's not cutting off a potential candy supplier.]

[bringinghopewithme]

[He chuckles a bit over that.] The Tooth Fairy'd have my guts for garters if I agreed with ya, so -

Just don't tell her I did.

[smarterthandad]

I'm not going to be losing teeth for several years, so there's no reason to involve any other tutelary spirits.

[Val.

But yeah she absolutely believes in magic, so why not weird holiday mascots? Sure.]