Redefinition (RP for starspangledcap)
*OOC -- Yes, finally.
Tony didn't make up his mind right away.
After he heard Sally's speech at the awards banquet, after he met the girl and her mother at the reception, he knew he would have to talk to Steve. But nothing had changed, really; the cirumstances that made their meeting in person a foolish risk were the same as ever. Tony ( Read more... )
Tony didn't make up his mind right away.
After he heard Sally's speech at the awards banquet, after he met the girl and her mother at the reception, he knew he would have to talk to Steve. But nothing had changed, really; the cirumstances that made their meeting in person a foolish risk were the same as ever. Tony ( Read more... )
"The Socratic method obviously isn't working here, so bear with me for a minute while I try to explain. A palimpsest is -- well, it's a term from archaeology or -- something people run across when they're deciphering ancient scrolls. Before there was paper, the things people used to write on -- parchments, papyri, stone tablets -- they weren't cheap or easy to come by. So sometimes if you wrote something and didn't want it or wanted to get rid of it, you'd just scrape away and write overtop of what was already there. But, over time, in the aging process, the old text would resurface. So scholars start to look at the writing that's on the surface, but it turns out that what's more interesting is what's underneath."
He stopped, reached up a hand to scratch behind his collar. "This is supposed to be a sort of a metaphor. Are you with me so far?"
Reply
"Yes," he said. "It's a blank slate that isn't."
Reply
"I've given a lot of thought to Wanda's little habit of realigning the world -- writing over history, so to speak. And I don't mean just recently. Since the first time it happened. I didn't remember that, afterwards, but -- well, some people did." Just as well not to mention Peter Parker, at the moment. "I spent some time trying to figure it out and something never actually sat right with me, but I couldn't put my finger on it. But then today --"
He cleared his throat. "I'd been assuming that we were dealing with a standard issue alternate universe. Chaos theory says one thing changes -- a butterfuly flaps his wings, Magneto takes over the world, a real estate developer from Bedford Falls was never born, and the dominoes fall from there.
"But Wanda's worlds don't hold up to that kind of analysis. Chaos doesn't work that way. It's not that the changes are too random; it's that they're not random enough. And so I think I figured it out. Wanda wasn't juggling probabilities. She was writing a story."
Reply
Reply
" But for whatever reason, the second time it happened, there were the two of us, and there was Sally. And Sally. Look, please don't think I'm crazy, but after meeting her today, I really think -- I think you and I and Wanda, working together -- I think we invented her."
Reply
Steve didn't remember anything about Wanda's first world, so he didn't address Tony's first statement. But from what he could tell, that world had been created from surface thoughts - the desires they'd always consciously assumed they'd wanted, easily accessible to a telepath as strong as Xavier. This second world, on the other hand, was created from the desires they'd never dared articulate - hidden desires that only a Phoenix could find, but desires that, nevertheless, were even more cherished.
If anything, that second world had been the first choice.
Reply
"No way. Just like -- well, take Jean. She and Wanda had this long, complicated relationship in the other world, but a lot of their history resembled things that had happened with Jean and Scott. Maybe what Wanda and Jean had was real, but what was in this world happened first. Version 2.0, if you will, was Wanda's invention of a story based on the first story. So -- we come back to this world, and Wanda brings Sally back with us; puts her back in Minnesota where we found her, brings her mother back to life, and it seems like she's growing up in this world. But -- this is Sally 2.0. The one we had was the original. At least --"
Tony sat back on the sofa and shrugged. "Like I said. It's a theory."
Reply
He tried not to sound too hopeful.
Reply
He shrugged. "I'm saying all that came together, and we invented that world, and Sally was part of it. And I'm saying she's real now and that, beneath the surface, she's the same girl we raised." He coughed. "As our daughter. Now. You know what this means?"
Reply
But Steve still didn't know what sort of caveat Tony was about to make. "What does it mean?" he asked, trying his best to sound simply curious.
Reply
He cleared his throat again. Steve looked so damn happy, and for a moment Tony didn't want to say the next part. He had a feeling Steve wouldn't like it.
So he moved closer, put his hand on the edge of the couch, in the general direction of Steve's shoulder, but not close enough to touch. "Especially because, in the current circumstances -- considering what else we know about Sally -- it's kind of embarrassing we've both overlooked this part."
Reply
Reply
And now Tony's hand moved, and he was touching Steve's shoulder, looking straight into those bright blue eyes.
"Sally Stetins is a power."
Reply
"We don't know that for sure. Just because she had powers in the other world doesn't mean she has them here - Madame Hydra hasn't been there to activate them."
"And even if she does-" Steve's eyes turned cold. Could Tony really be thinking of treating their daughter like he'd treated his friends during the war? "She's not a vigilante. She doesn't have to register, under the modified SHRA."
Reply
Reply
Reply
Leave a comment