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So you might have noticed there's a big ol' robot parked out back of the bunker at the Cooper farm. It's large and green and looks very battered.

Approach it, and one of two things happens.

Either you came during the day, and Val Bell is sitting on its head with a good book and a bowl of apples, or you came during the evening or night and it is apparently deserted. 'Apparently' being the key word.

What'll it be?

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Val does not seem worried!

She spots Sonia and waves. "Hey there!"

"Hey." She returns the wave.

"You sure that thing's safe?"

"Yeah. My brother's working on repairing it. If shit was up, he'd know."

...well, that's good enough for Sonia.

"Mind some company?"

"Nah, come on up if you want. Just try not to damage the robot or Neil will kick my ass."

The top of the mech's head is six feet wide. There is room up there for two people and a bowl of apples.

Walljump time!

(When you do a lot of your fighting in mountainous, foresty, or stairful areas, you get very good at going up very quickly.)

"Figure I oughta get t'know folks around here better. You... do the..." Gesture. "Thing."

"This thing?" she asks, picking up an apple with a thin tendril of light.

"Yeah, that's me. Valerie Bell. Glowy tentacles, cusses a lot. And you? Sonia, right?"

"Yeah. Belmont. An' Ralph." Her passenger (strapped to her back) waves an arm in the general direction of the tentacle and vocalizes.

And she takes the opportunity to squat and squint at the tendril.

She's not really into this "Magic that is not obviously either witchcraft or holy" thing. It's confusing.

Helpfully, "I'm a mutant. My world's full of 'em."

Peeer.

"...you look awful normal for that."

OH YEAH OTHER WORLDS (yes, she is still getting used to that concept. Sonia is not always quick on the uptake.)

"Must be different there. Back in Warakiya, they... y'know, look weird."

"Some mutants look weird where I'm from. Most don't."

"They're mostly also evil, so..." She is assuming that you are not, since you 1) do not ping as evil and 2) have yet to either try to eat Ralph or attack her.

Warakiya is a fairly simple place in that respect.

"You a scholar?" YOU HAVE A BOOK.

"...A huh? Nah. I just felt like reading today, 's all."

Anatol Rapoport, The Origins of Violence.

Neil would approve.

MADNESS.

"I'm learnin'," Sonia offers sheepishly.

She can almost get through Pat the Bunny!

"Yeah?"

Val's a little thrown by that, but hell, she's seen weirder things around here than illiteracy.

"Good. 'S useful."

"Yeah... here, anyhow. Dunno if it's much good t'me anywhere else."

Logically: "Anywhere there's people who write."

"Most o' the time, I ain't dealin' with folks that write, much. Or it's somethin' I don't wanna read."

It's really not in her best interests to be able to read and comprehend things like "klatuu barada nikto" or "Cthulhu ftaghn" when she could be spending her time assaulting the people who can.

"Eh. Still, you're here now, right? This way you won't have to get somebody to tell you what's on the noticeboards and shit."

Not that Val pays the slightest attention to said noticeboards, but it's the principle of the thing.

"Yeah, that was kinda... why I started learnin'." Sheep sheep!

"Hope I can get t'where I can teach Ralph, too."

Ralph is more interested in the apples. They are red! Yay red!

Shrug.

Val... is pretty much ignoring the kid.

Okay, no, he's after her apples; now she has to deal with him.

By offering him and Sonia an apple each, with tentacles.

She can't be completely un-paranoid, so Sonia plucks Ralph's apple out of the tentacle first to inspect it briefly before handing it over.

He happily gums it.

"...thanks. Uh, what's it you do, anyhow?"

"Huh? I'm a superhero, I guess."

"A wha?"

Val thinks of a good definition.

"...I find people who're doing evil things and hit them until they stop."