The last thing Roz expected to find when she opened her eyes was her teenage bedroom at the Sanctum. For a moment she was very confused, and half wondering if she was still dreaming. But there was her mugwort plant from Prigany, her head girl pin on her desk, and her homework from high school.
She sat up the same time Phoebe jumped onto the bed right beside her. “Hey girl.” Roz said affectionately, reaching out to pet her. She didn’t know what was going on, but she knew she could likely blame Vallo.
Rolling out of bed, Roz pulled open her closet, sighing as she took in her teenage wardrobe. “Great.” Absolutely nothing she owned at this age really matched the style of what she wore now. Forgoing that, she grabbed her robe, her slippers, and then headed out to find who was in the Sanctum, starting with Dr. Strange, Phoebe following behind her.
She didn’t look that much older. Maybe in her early twenties now, but even then you might not notice unless you really knew her face. Of course, she was far older than that. Several decades really, but thanks to magic she had barely aged at all. It had been a strange feeling when she had finally started to notice her lack of normal aging, but now she was used to it.
“Doctor Strange?” She called, “You here?” She was pretty sure it was still fairly early in the morning, but maybe he would be up by now. So she was going to check the kitchen first.
Indeed, Stephen was here. It was just another day, really - just another day in Vallo which honestly should have been his first clue that something was going to go absolutely bugshit insane. But for a moment, he was in the kitchen brewing a pot of coffee and making something resembling breakfast - he needed a cup, just one, for a little morning fuel; medical research called for such things, and besides, he had plenty of tea at the shop. New blends, blends that smelled like a bouquet, soothing drops of lemon and honey or maybe a chamomile composed of the beauty of crushed daisies - it was always a fun part to his schedule.
He heard Rosalind calling for him as he was slicing a banana to go on top of his peanut butter toast breakfast to-go (he planned to just wrap it up in a nakin and then portal to L-Corp to start the morning research grind) and he called back. “Yeah, in here - “
Then he turned and saw her come in. And dropped the butter knife he was holding, hands shakier than usual.
The sudden shock of it hit him like the nip of an autumn afternoon. “...Rosalind??” Her face was different - because yes, he knew her face. “What - the hell?”
Roz winced when the knife hit the floor. Whoops, she probably should have anticipated that. She reached out her hand, the knife flying hilt first into her hands, and then walked it over to the counter with a smile.
“I’m not exactly sure.” she admitted with a casual shrug. “I’m assuming the answer is Vallo. When I went to sleep last night I was...not here. Or even in time?” She didn’t want to get into too many details regarding when she was from. Or where she was either since she doubted Dr. Strange wanted to hear about that.
Shoving her hands into the pockets of her robes, she looked around the familiar kitchen with a smile. “I think I’ve travelled back in time?”
Someone very much accustomed to traveling through the timelines, forward and back - someone who held the very essence of time itself in his hand and lived to tell the tale - should have been used to a sentence like that. But it still baffled Stephen - how had he not seen this coming? Did his future self see this coming?
It was a twisted spiraling staircase of a puzzle - and he was briefly debating whether it was worth attempting to suss out, or if he should just go with it.
Probably ‘go with it’ seemed to be the better solution. Rosalind seemed okay - a little older, and clearly she’d swapped places (or merged?) with her present self, but she wasn’t in shambles and seemed healthy and hadn’t walked into the kitchen to report that in the future, they were all dead. Or vanished. So it was something. “But you remember me - so...I’m still with you?” he asked, swallowing, as he set the knife in the sink and abandoned the banana toast project for a moment. “Here, let’s...sit. I can pour some coffee for us.”
Coffee sounded good, so she sat. She functioned off coffee these days, if she didn’t get enough she was pretty sure her brain would short circuit and stop working entirely. Roz made herself comfortable in the familiar kitchen chair, pulling her robe tightly around her to get cozy.
Not wanting to stress him out, she went right to answer questions. “Yes, don’t worry. You’re still here. You just have...more gray?” she didn’t know how to put it lightly. He was older now. The two of them didn’t not age the same way, and so while Roz remained relatively the same, he aged like he was meant to. It was weird to see, but Roz had learned to accept it.
There were other secrets about him she could tell, but she wasn’t going to. At least not yet. If Roz had arrived here, it likely meant that there were probably other people impacted. Maybe others from the future as well. She would find out soon enough when she bothered to check the network.
“I’m not entirely sure what’s happening, or how widespread this is. I haven’t checked the network.” She wasn’t even sure if she would be able to remember the phone for her password. Hopefully she had her fingerprints set up on it at this point. “But I was supposed to be in court this morning. Instead I found myself staring down my teenage wardrobe.”
Coffee, the elixir of life - Stephen poured them both cups since everything was done percolating, and he even remembered to shut off the coffee pot in his frazzled ‘what is time’ state of mind (though even if he hadn’t, the Sanctum wouldn’t have burned down - it was one of those ‘turn off automatically after a certain amount of time’ devices). Then he brought over cream and sugar - he was pretty sure he knew how Rosalind took her coffee - before sitting down at the table and trying to get a grip.
“Well, if there are answers to be found no doubt the network will have them,” he replied with wit dry as a bleached white femur bone lost in the desert. It was possible he was going to get plenty of use out of the time stone - or maybe future Stephen already traveled the path where this happened.
And he wasn’t surprised he was (more) grey - it was a relief to know Vallo hadn’t killed him yet, at any rate.
“Court?” Stephen perked up at that. “On the employment side, I take it, and not because you’re a delinquent? Here I thought I was a better guardian than that.” He was teasing. Really.
The smell of coffee in itself was enough to help make her feel more conscious, but as soon as her cup was in front of her and ready to go, she took a drink, savoring the flavor and warmth. Coffee had got it through so many late nights the past several years, Roz couldn't remember how she focused without it.
“That or just more questions.” Perhaps the answer was just going to be ‘Vallo’ like she said and they would have to wait it out until they were sent back to their right time.
It would be fun to play that up for a second, the delinquent bit, given how her future in law had started with her brush with Vorerra. But she skipped that option with a shake of her head. “Court as in employment.” she confirmed. “I’m a lawyer these days.” she said with a bit of pride in her voice. “I had court at 9am this morning. But hopefully that will still be waiting for me when I get sent back.”
“It should,” Stephen confirmed. “I don’t want to say that all the rules of time travel are the same across the multiverse, but - when you get back it will only be like five seconds have passed.” He was pretty confident in that assessment, anyway - if he knew one thing, it was how time flowed, because he’d seen it all in that regard. He’d felt it, when he held the infinity stone in his hand.
Sometimes time surged on ahead like a storm swell, not stopping and not abating. Other instances it moved slow as smoke off a pile of shit - an ooze of it, crawling along. Everything depended on the mechanics of the universe and how the puzzle pieces all fit together. Whatever this was it too, like everything else, was probably supposed to happen.
But right, back to Rosalind and her grown-up self. He smiled, a genuine warmth in his blue eyes. “That doesn’t surprise me at all,” he replied fondly. “Fighting for the little people, huh?” “I hope so. Any more than a couple of hours and I’m going to be very late.” It was a day she could not afford to miss. But there was no point in worrying about that now. There was nothing she could do about it here, decades in the past.
Roz offered a grin, shrugging her shoulders. “Kind if. I started off as a major law firm. It gave me the training and experience I needed. I joined a grassroots foundation just a year ago to starting helping the ‘little guy.’” Leaning back in her seat, she took another sip of coffee, sighing in content. “It’s been an interesting career change, but the right one.” she finally felt like she was in a position to be able to help the people that society wouldn’t.
“Anyway, I guess since I don’t have court this morning, my day is now wide open. Though you should probably call teenage me out of school.”
Stephen snorted a laugh. This was weird (what wasn’t though, honestly? Especially around here?) but he thought he’d just roll with it - seemed like there was no other choice, and he’d been in Vallo long enough to know that once a thing took hold of the Outlanders specifically (funny how this shit never seemed to really affect the locals much) that you had to basically just go limp and wait for it to drop you; fighting your way out of it didn’t always work out well.
It depended, he supposed.
“And to think teenage you isn’t even here to revel in the getting out of school victory,” he sighed. “I’ll do that though.” He didn’t want Rosalind to get in trouble or dinged for playing hooky or whatever.
Plus he’d check the network, as stated - that was probably the best course of action, when oddities began cropping up. At the very least, a lot of them tended to commiserate together which helped. Sometimes. “I’m proud of you, by the way,” he added - since he wasn’t sure how long this would last, or what would come next. Maybe it would only go on for an hour. Maybe more.
“And - I love you.” Watoomb, he was having an emotion over here - but it was the truth and he always would feel that way. Rosalind had been the first taste of the parental life, what it felt like to be willing to lay down and die for your kid. She wasn’t his own, but she was special to him. Stephen didn’t think he’d ever forget her, even if time and space ripped them apart.
“Please, teenage me loves school.” she says with a dismissive hand wave. “If I’m remembering me correctly at this age, school is a full on distraction.” Between the things that had gone at home, trying to catch up as a witch, ignoring the fact that most of her loved ones from home were not here. Yes, school kept her focused. Plus, Roz had always been a bit of a nerd.
There it was, the Papa Strange sentiment that came around once in a while. He liked to pretend he didn’t have those emotions, but it was pretty obvious to...well, probably anyone who knew him.
Roz reached across the table to put her hand over his, squeezing it too. “I love you too, Papa Strange.” she was still smiling, and added a wink for good measure. “Now, and as a teenager.”
And she did, he was her family. If she never saw her parents again, at least she still had a father-figure in her life. One she could rely on, and one she didn’t have to feel unsure about due to religion and potential corruption.
It was true, Rosalind really was a nerd. One that Stephen adored - and he had such a surprisingly soft expression on his face, a smile that was all affection and fondness. It didn’t make him look so severe, or cold as ice - as he tended to do. Plus Papa Strange melted the dusty mass that was supposed to be his heart, anyway.
“Well, what are your plans for today?” he asked, patting Rosalind’s hand. “I guess...hang out in the past?” Maybe he’d see if Geliara would buy that he was taking her on a magical sabbatical for specialized learning - because who knew how long this would go on.
That was a good question, to which she shrugged her shoulders as she sat back in her chair. “I don’t really know. Maybe go pick up some clothes so I have something that doesn’t belong to a seventeen year old.” Because as cute as she thought her wardrobe was when she was a teenager, it was for a teeenager. Past that, she wasn’t sure.
“Anything you could use some help with?” She asked, tilting her head in curiosity. “All of my responsibilities are a few decades in the future so I guess I’m taking suggestions.”
Stephen gave it some thought - he thought that maybe giving Rosalind her old job back of being in charge of the library might not be as exciting? Though she always did a good job. Still, he’d like to spend some time with her and get to know this future version of...herself.
“Do you want to come to the tea shop with me?” he asked. “I have some new blends I’m working on. Could use input.”
This was honestly the weirdest day, but he’d take it. Mostly because there was so much that was liable to be worse (he had a whole list) and he didn’t want to check off any of those boxes.
Something, anything to do would be greatly appreciated. “Tea shop has potential. Let's make sure Vallo hasn’t descended into chaos first. I can’t imagine I’m the only one who has been impacted.” Otherwise she’d be happy to give input on tea blends.
Roz looked down at her mug, still part way full, and still hot. “After coffee though.” she added as a second thing, taking another drink. “The chaos can wait until after coffee.”
“Tall order, but - we’ll see,” Stephen chuckled. “Definitely after coffee though.” Because he was almost certain that Vallo had already fallen into a pit of chaos and calamity - him and Rosalind were currently that ‘this is fine’ meme while everything was on fire around them, but you know what?