nextgenerationmarvel | Am I crazy, Doc?

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Am I crazy, Doc?

Dawn double-checked the piece of paper and confirmed the address. Even by Greenwich Village standards, the building was an art deco nightmare come to life. But this was the place. The address had been given to her by Sophia Strange following the demon invasion, along with an offer to help sort out whatever she might be dealing with.

Dawn had put off going, for a variety of reasons, some of them life related, some of them fear related. Whatever was going on with her wasn't going away, no matter how hard she tried to ignore it. Dreams nearly every night, instincts at war with each other, and, perhaps worst of all, the strangest feeling of impending dread whenever she looked at certain people, as though something terrible was going to happen to them.

Considering what had happened, she probably wasn't insane. Which, in its way, was a good thing. On the other hand, it meant that whatever was happening to her was far more real and probably far more terrible.

Either option was far from good.

She used the ominous door knocker to knock and hoped she knew what she was getting herself into.

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The door swung open, revealing Sofia Strange standing barefoot, dressed in leggings and a ridiculously oversized, flowy tunic. Her expression brightened when she saw Dawn there, and the enormous bowl of wasabi peas that she'd been snacking on magically rose out of her arms and hovered behind her. "Dawn Roberts!" she exclaimed. "I've been expecting you." Except that she hadn't. But it was one of those mysterious, mood-setting cliched things that Sorceresses Supreme were supposed to say, right?

"C'mon in, blondie," she stepped back and the doors opened further on their own. "Dad's out of town and I'm going cray-cray for company. I mean, besides my why-hasn't-she-retired-already Nanny Vesper, but she's knocked out because afternoon absinthe."

Dawn managed a slightly worried grin. "Enter freely and of my own will?" she asked, half jokingly, as she headed inside.

"Sorry to just drop in like this. But I was in the area and..." Vague gestures.

"You can leave freely and of your own will too," Sofia laughed. "Just don't take any sparkly pretties that you see leaving around without my say-so. You might unleash something evil. Or something sexy. Or something evil and sexy..." Sofia paused, considering that option for a moment before continuing, "Besides, you've got enough to deal with enough as it is." A trio of wasabi peas floated out of the bowl and flew right into Sofia's mouth, forcing her to stop speaking for a moment. "And don't apologize. My casa is your casa and stuff. Besides, better you than that weird-ass living mummy guy who stopped by two days ago." Sofia led Dawn into a room with bookshelves that reached up to high ceilings, filled with lots of antique-but-comfortable looking furniture. The library. Which looked as though it shouldn't have fit into the Sanctum from outside, but somehow, it did.

Ah, magic.

"Want a snack?" There was a table laden with junk food, and a bucket filled with ice and assorted drinks. Sofia was clearly spending a lot of time here.

"Definitely not touching anything," Dawn agreed. "I've seen enough horror movies to know what happens."

She grabbed a diet coke from the ice bucket. "Thanks," she said."

"Diet, huh?" Sofia asked. "Intriguing choice." She plopped down into an overly plush armchair, whose arms then moved to cuddle her.

It was her easy chair.

"So what's on your mind? I know you're not here because you're seeking a love potion. You'd want to check out Venus for that."

Dawn tried not to have a nervous breakdown as she watched the chair, and took a seat of her own.

"Wait, that's a real person?"

She shook her head. That could wait. "Back when all the... stuff, was going on, you called me Valkyrie. And... I mean, I've got a magic sword. And can pick up a car now or worse. And fight like someone who knows what they're doing. And I get... a voice, in my head. And dreams and memories that I know aren't mine..." Dawn trailed off for a second.

"I'm either losing my mind or something is actually happening to me and I don't know which is worse."

"Oh, yeah. Really nice woman. Just call first. She likes to be naked a lot, and you might not want to walk right into that," Sofia replied off-handedly. "I'd vote for the something happening to you part being better than the losing your mind bit. Losing your mind can open you up for a lot of unpleasant stuff. Becoming Valkyrie...that's a far better deal, don't you think? Powers, a cool sword. Have you transformed into Brunnhilde yet, or is this instance of Valkyrie-dom different, I wonder." She stared Dawn down for a second. "Because usually there's a transformation. Not a full-on magical girl sequence, but usually a marked change. Like She-Hulk, but with less clothing ripping and certainly less near-orgasmic groaning."

Dawn took in a deep breath, eventually letting it out.

"Well... I get a clothing change out of the deal?" she said. She stood. "Watch."

In one motion, she drew her sword from from scabbard on her back, both of them springing into visibility. When she did, her clothing was instantly transformed.

"Oh hey! See, physical proof that you're not going crazy." Sofia gently tapped the arm of her chair and it released its hold on her. Sofia stood up and walked up to Dawn, circling her for a moment. "How exactly did this happen to you, Dawn?"

"That was probably... a few months back," Dawn said. "You remember the Parkside Strangler? The serial killer who was strangling all those three women in Central Park? Well, you're looking at victim number four. Sort of. Late night, stupid thing, short cut through the park..."

She frowned. "I'm... pretty sure I was dead. Or something. But I almost remember... a woman's voice, and the smell of some kind of battlefield, and the sound of swords against each other. But then... I wasn't dead anymore. And I beat the shit out of the guy."

She frowned some more. "Managed to keep my name out of the papers, thankfully. But the dreams that night...

Snow. And a battlefield. Swords and spears and shields and screams and things like... I don't know. Trolls? Demons? Nothing I'd ever seen before. More like a memory. But not mine. Whoever's memory it was... it was the memory of them dying."

She replaced the sword in its scabbard. "My clothes don't change back unless I want them to," she said, and making it so. "But this sword... it was on my nightstand when I woke up the next morning."

"Probably the dreams and memories of the Valkyrie who bonded with you," Sofia replied. "The voice that you hear - is it one voice, or multiple? And what sort of things do you hear from the voice or voices?" This was all pertinent information, of course. Partially because Sofia had realized during the conversation that Hela also sometimes had Valkyrior of her own. She hoped that Dawn wasn't one of them.

"Just one voice," Dawn said. "When I hear it, usually anyway, it's like a little voice telling me what to do, how to fight. And the rest of me just follows through. If I end up trying to think about it, it stops working."

"So it's guiding you. Training you. Helping you." She was silent for a moment, thoughtful. "Do you ever...do you remember your dreams?"

"Just... bits and pieces," Dawn said. "Mostly battles. Or maybe the same battle. I... don't think it went well."

"Probably not if you're harbouring the spirit of the fallen Valkyrie within you." Pause. "You haven't, like, grown wings of fire or something have you, under duress?" After all, she wanted to explore all avenues, see how this merger happened, and the sort of nature - or supernature - it was. "Not that I'm saying that's going to happen. I'm just trying to understand." Another pause. "You don't want the voice expelled do you?"

Dawn shook her head. "Definitely haven't done that. Pretty sure I'd remember if I had."

She looked a little crestfallen. "No chance of an exorcism then?"

"I mean, we could try it? But do you really want to, Dawn?" Sofia sat back down in her seat and cuddled up. "Look at this. You've been given power, an opportunity to make a difference. Why not go for it, see where it takes you?"

Dawn frowned. "Look, before this, I'd never even seen a super-hero before, except on TV. Not Spider-Man, not Iron Man, not even Nighthawk. And now, suddenly, I'm supposed to be one? I mean, I nearly froze up and got myself killed fighting demons..."

"True, but look at it this way," Sofia said dryly. "Death? In our world? About as permanent as a full stomach between meals of delicious yum."

The look that crossed Dawn's face suggested that that was not exactly the most reassuring thing she'd heard.

"So, what," she began, "you're saying this happened... for a reason?"

"Doesn't everything?" Sofia asked. "I mean, even the smallest, most insignificant thing? Down the road, you find out there's a reason for it." Sofia walked over to one of the many bookshelves in the room and started rifling through titles, her eyes darting here and there. "Besides, the soul of a Valkyrie bonding to you or residing within you or whatever? Not usually an accidental thing. It's like Mjolnir. You have to be worthy." She turned and tossed Dawn a book about Valkyrie lore. "Like it or not, blondie, you were chosen."

She shook her head, even as she took the book. "I'm no warrior. I'm a librarian."

"I know," Sofia said. "Which, by the way, if you ever have the time? This place could use some serious librarian-ing up," she grinned. "Having said that though? Yes, you're smart, wise, all of that good stuff. Which is a good thing for a host of a Valkyrie. I mean, you're not an Amazon, all blood and brawn and breasts. You're of nobler stock, wise, worthy enough to see and perhaps even choose who might die and live. You're not just built for war and slaughter. There's a lot more to it than that."

The librarian-ing up perked Dawn up just a little bit. Because books? Those were her thing.

"Wait... Amazons are real?"

"Amazons, sirens, rakshasa, kitsunetsuki, all of that and more actually exist," Sofia said in a tone similar to that of someone reading off a grocery list containing bread, milk, eggs, and butter. "The world isn't quite what everyone thinks it is, even with all of us who run around in colourful costumes."

Dawn felt her left eye start to twitch. "...Everything but the kitchen sink, huh?"

"Actually, those old Victorian-style homes? Be careful. The original kitchen sinks aren't all you'd like them to be."

"...Okay, now I know you're joking."

Sofia just grinned at Dawn. "Am I?"

"I really hope so. Or else a lot of houses in the city are turning into something out of Ghostbusters."

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Am I crazy, Doc?

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