Profession

Opportunities

"Thanks for coming, Buttercup." Grandma Alex let me go and kissed my cheek before handing me one of the mochas from the Barnraising in the Valkyrie building.  I sank down in the comfortable velvet visitor chair across her desk and took a sip.

"I love seeing you," I said after savoring my drink. "It was nice to get your call."

"Steve says that preparations for the retrospective are going well; he's thrilled with your work, as usual. What do you think?"

"It was so amazing to be there and see every piece of his work together. You can really see how solidly his vision and technique developed, it's fun to see his flights of fancy. I really felt privileged to be there while they were discussing which pieces to show; and they're going to have the clothes on the manikins next week, which is when I'll shoot them for the catalog which is just awaiting the images. Then two weeks at the printers, then the exhibition opens. I'm looking forward to that." Grandma smiled at me.

"He likes to boast about having seen your potential right away and he feels proud that he was able to nurture your talent. It's meant a great deal to him that you still enjoy shooting his work and wearing it, even though he's not the most avant garde designer out there."

"I thought he was throwing me  a bone when I started shooting his collection," I said mildly. "I thought I did a good job, and it was nice that he was so indulgent." Grandma shook her head at me over her triple espresso.

"One of Steve's most important abilities, which was honed by the serum because it magnified everything about him, is his ability to recognize talent. He doesn't like family drama and wasn't about to make a scene by inserting himself against your father, but he enjoyed giving you a place to hone your skills. Both he and Bucky understand your need to be as self-made a person as it's possible for someone in the family to be.  And you do have an extraordinary degree of talent. In the beginning, the more of a connection you felt with your subject, the better your work, but with your study and work, you don't need that to produce your best work. But being around Steve is one of the safest places I know, and I think your mutual affection really helped. Your success there fed your confidence in your work and yourself. It was something you really needed. You have such an eye for people, getting them to reveal themselves to you." I flushed a little.

"It's true, Uncle Steve always made it known to me that he was in my corner, and he never had to use any of the work I did for him. It was a real confidence builder to see it used in public." I sipped the still-hot mocha. Grandma smiled.

"I'm glad to hear that the exhibition is shaping up so well," she said mildly. "But I didn't actually ask you here to talk about that, I know you're busy with all your projects. What I want to talk about is future-facing." I looked at her, really looked at her, and for the first time I could see age on her. A lot of people resorted to surgeons to erase or at least dramatically mitigate the passage of time, but if it wasn't a topical treatment, Grandma didn't bother. As a result, her skin was softer and looser, crinkled around the corners of her eyes, permanent bags under her eyes from late nights at work, with her family, when she was heroing as Valkyrie. Streaks of snowy white threaded through her dark hair. I frowned. Her life expectancy was realistically about 120, given her use of modern medicine, so she still had fifty, sixty good years left. "There's nothing wrong with me, Buttercup," she said, accurately guessing where my mind went. "But at the same time, I think it's time to slow down, preparatory to making some changes." Eira got up, stretched mightily, and padded over to Grandma for skritches.

"I've been going, going, going, for hundreds of years. Doing different things, keeping boredom at bay, but nevertheless, I've been going full throttle since my first life. I slowed down a bit toward the end, but I ramped right up again in Valhalla, and I've never really taken my foot off the gas. This time, I want more time with my husband, where we can just be together, chasing our joint interests, having fun. And Serena's gone, Aslyn left when Alan retired and they settled in Spain, as you know, which is lovely but which also means that I don't get to see my friend much. Dagny has decided to retire; she inherited Serena's cabin upstate and wants to get that fixed up to her specifications."