3881/G.I.R.L. Recruitment Drive: Brainstorm

G.I.R.L. Recruitment Drive: Brainstorm
Date of Scene:	21 October 2020
Location:	Valeria's Room - Four Freedoms Plaza
Synopsis:	Nadia pays a visit to Valeria at home. A belt is worked on, recent events discussed, and Valeria joins G.I.R.L.!
Cast of Characters:	Valeria Richards, Nadia Pym-van Dyne

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Valeria Richards has posed:
Life goes on at Four Freedoms. People come, and go. And Valeria Richards continues work on her long-standing project. Once it's complete, it will mimic her mother's force field powers. However, it has had some difficulties...

Bypassing some of those difficulties is what she is in the midst of. The leather jacket she had 'borrowed' on a permanent basis from her boyfriend, Jason, is hanging off the back of a rolling chair (which is slightly cracked thanks to a minor... issue with Viv a few weeks back). Val herself is in 'uniform', unstable molecules wrapping her body and protecting her skin from the slight electrical flares coming from the crystals she's working with.

She is allowed guests, despite her propensity to be almost constantly grounded for one infraction or another, and Nadia would be on the list of those allowed in through the living quarters, a blue light on the floor guiding the way to Val's suite (eww, you //do not// want to risk walking into Frankie's. Boys... ugh).

Nadia Pym-van Dyne has posed:
There is an old fashioned knock on the door to Valeria's room before Nadia pokes her head inside, "Hellooo? Val are you in here? They said you were in here." She peers around before eventually spotting Valeria working with her crystals and making her way inside.

Nadia seems to be in good spirits, one wouldn't even suspect she went through two weeks of psychological torture unless they knew it happened. In fact she seems if anything in better spirits than before she left, like a weight has at least been temporarily lifted from her shoulders.

She is wearing her Wasp Armor, minus the helmet, if for no other reason than she probably flew here, and that would be a more than a little impractical in the skirts she normally favors.

Valeria Richards has posed:
"Hey Nadia!" Valeria greets her with a quick glance, then returns to her work. "Give me a moment... stupid... tiny..." She frowns. "Hey! Can you be tiny for me for a second? I'm having some problems seating this //just right//. It's a matter of micrometers and it's just..." she gestures to the crystal giving her a hard time.

Nadia Pym-van Dyne has posed:
"Yeah, sure!" Nadia is happy to help. As she crosses the intervening space her bio-mechanical wings sprout from the plate in the center of her back facilitating travel as she reduces in size and buzzes quickly across the room to perch on Valeria's should should at perhaps four inches tall. "So, what do you need me to do?"

Valeria Richards has posed:
"The crystal is ALMOST in place, but it seems like there is a little gap between the prongs and the crystal itself. Just... shove it enough to make full contact, without going too far the other way." Seems simple enough. Is, really, until you're looking at the matter of such tiny amounts of space.

Nadia Pym-van Dyne has posed:
When you need tiny and precise, who better than an expert in tiny and precise. "Okay, that should be easy enough." Nadia replies, flitting off of Valeria's shoulder. The ability to become microscopic at will making minute adjustments infinitely easier.

By the time she lands next to the small crystal she is even smaller still. It's a lucky thing she is wearing her suit to protect her from stray electric sparks that might be little more than a static shock at normal size but can pose a more serious threat when one is small enough to barely be visible.

Approaching the crystal, Nadia reaches out and carefully shoves it into position, making certain that it makes full contact with all of the prongs and is in a stable alignment.

Once that task is complete with a buzzing of her wings she flits off again and reappears at full size standing next to Valeria, "So your forcefield tech involves energy transfers through crystals?" She asks curiously, "It looks really interesting!"

Valeria Richards has posed:
Valeria nods. "I've been having a nightmare getting pure, natural, unoccluded crystals in the right size... so I'm using these smaller ones, but they are a lot harder to work with." She hmms to herself, then runs a quick test and...

A small, 20 cm cube force field appears on the desk. Success!

"Yes! It worked! Thanks, Nadia." She grins at the other girl. "So, I'm sure you're not here to poke at crystals with me. What's up? How are you feeling now that you're back?"

Nadia Pym-van Dyne has posed:
Nadia grins and gives a thumbs up when it works, "That is so cool!" she says as her eyes fixate on the cute of force for a moment.

"Right, focus." She tells herself remembering why she came, it is just so easy to get distracted by cool SCIENCE!, especially at Valeria's house.

She turns to face Valeria more fully, "So, I had this idea awhile back," As she talks, she pulls out a small cube, which upon pushing a button on the top begins projecting holographic images around the room related to what she's saying. "When I was thinking about when you look at most of the big SCIENCE! heroes it's like your dad, my dad, Tony, Dr. Banner. They're pretty much all men, I mean there's some like Dr. Morse or your mom, but they always seem to be in the background. Like S.H.I.E.L.D. apparently keeps a list of the smartest people in the world and I heard the first woman doesn't show up until number twenty seven, which seems kind of ridiculous. We both know there are way more intelligent girls and women out there than that. I think they're just not looking for them and the ones who are out there need more heroic models to inspire them that they can do even greater things in STEM. So I came up with the idea to create a high profile lab that can do high profile amazing things, help cultivate talent, change the world for the better and give young women and girls something to aspire to. Genius In action Research Laboratories or G.I.R.L."

She takes a breath, "That was the initial idea, but then a lot of things happened like the Brainiac invasion, like the Warworld invasion, so many high tech threats and while different teams like the Avengers and the Justice League have their science types there is no real super science collective to really meet these super science challenges head on and coordinate them. I think G.I.R.L. can do that too. Protect the world and change it for the better while showing that SCIENCE! isn't just a boys club. /And/ I want you to join me and be part of it! You're like the smartest person I know and the first person I thought to ask."

Valeria Richards has posed:
Val blinks. "...really, twenty-seven?" She looks insulted. "What //idiot// made //that// list?" She huffs. "But it sounds good to me. I'm all about reminding the so-called geniuses of where they really stand."

Nadia Pym-van Dyne has posed:
"Yeah, it seems really off. Like, I don't really care about the ranking and who is where that much, but twenty seven, that can't be right." Nadia nods in agreement, "When I was in Russia, I learned where my mother was buried under a different name. After visiting her grave I decided I've been chasing the past too much to try to figure out who I am and make up for lost time instead of embracing those who are right in front of me. I decided to move forward, and getting this off the ground is the best way I could think of."

When Valeria agrees Nadia practically bounces up and down, "You're in?! That's great! This is going to be so cool! We'll show the world!" She raises a fist towards the ceiling dramatically, perhaps Doom has rubbed off on her a bit.

Valeria Richards has posed:
Doom has //definitely// rubbed off on Valeria. "Yes, we will. And they'll realize how idiotic they were for ignoring us all this time." She pauses. "I'm sorry about your mother, but I suspected that would be the case. You can't trust those people, they all lie." She frowns. "I'm just glad you're back now."

Nadia Pym-van Dyne has posed:
Nadia sighs, "Yes, they all lie. That's the problem. It's impossible to know what is true with them, lies within lies within lies. Sometimes the truth /is/ their best lie. Which is why I'm trying to break with all of it and look forward, not back."

She smiles, "While I am sure my mother was an amazing woman, I'll never really know her. I have amazing people around me down though," Valeria is clearly included in that, "And I want to know them more. Janet, who is really the closest thing to a real living mom I've had also agreed to adopt me as long as it wasn't some sort of plot to get her and my Dad back together again. But I checked and in New York two unmarried people can adopt the same person, so now I have living parents and a really long name." She laughs at that, "Oh and I'm a U.S. citizen now so hopefully it will be harder for them to try these things again." 'Hopefully', after the actions of the US State Department in all of this, she doesn't have the highest faith in the government to protect here, even if she is a citizen now.

Valeria Richards has posed:
"If all else fails," Valeria points out dryly, "There's always Latveria. They'd appreciate you, at least." She goes back to tinkering with the belt, now that the one section is completed. "But I'm glad all the paperwork is straightened out. It shouldn't have been a problem in the first place, but idiots are in charge and you know how they muck things up."

Nadia Pym-van Dyne has posed:
Nadia nods her head, peering over Valeria's shoulder at the belt tinkering. "Yeah, it doesn't help they've probably been infiltrated." She shrugs it off though like that is a problem for another day. "Hopefully we can have a shared G.I.R.L. lab set up soon. I need to talk to Janet about it. I mean we all have our own lab spaces of course, but a shared space where we can all collaborate together. Anyway, I should probably leave you to your work, I really want to look at it when it is finished though!"

Valeria Richards has posed:
Val grins. "Hopefully soon, we'll be able to test it in action!" She nods about the lab space. "Maybe dad might help, too. We'll see. But I'm looking forward to SCIENCE!"