after being free from her cryogenic prison ( and just generally learning how to truly care for herself; because it’s the first time she’s ever really been free, out from under someone’s control ) val becomes a mercenary. of sorts. eventually.
given that she’s been controlled, one way or another, for as long as she can remember, val does take the time to learn more about herself and about the new world around her. for a while her “home” consists of motel after motel, sometimes a nice spot a ways off the road even under the stars; she’s a bit of a wanderer, though she wanders with a purpose. val thinks of it as reconnaissance, learning better how to blend in with society... that and she doesn’t have a place where she belongs, no ties that bind her in one singular place. there isn’t much to her name, not at all, and what she does have is stolen... though only from those that she viewed as “bad”; her own system of morals, free of influencing, developed further as more time passed. the nice and new motorcycle———stolen from a man she saw walking out of a bar assaulting a woman ( of course, she broke his arm and a few ribs too ). two guns and more than enough ammunition———she actually witnessed an armed robbery and took out the two men... and stole their weapons and all the ammo they had on them ( and then some... after she broke into their getaway car for it ). her favorite backpack is probably the only thing she didn’t steal, but actually just found it in the lost and found of a 24-hour diner, along with a disposable camera, a bunch of pens and pencils, and an old ipod touch with only one working earbud and a bunch of music she’s never heard.
val is a creature of survival. she does what’s necessary to survive, and considering money is practically necessary logic dictated that she had to pick up a job. her skills aren’t conventional, and while she did wait tables for about two months, a normal job was not going to cut it. it was pure chance that she made “friends” with a retired war dog at the range. mason greenaway was the owner of the range, and well he never saw one person come through that could hit the dead center of a target long-range on even their best day; it was quite a shock when val came through and did it twice in a row from 800 yards away. turns out mason was an army man turned private paramilitary contractor. he didn’t really see her as much else than a girl with incredible skill who was a bit lost in life. mason took her under his wing, in a sense; he gave her a place to live for a while, even had her help at the range for a few weeks; during that time, he made a few calls, got her a few gigs lined up should she want them. it was the closest thing she’s had to a real father figure, and still is; even after her reputation grew and she was able to line up her own jobs, every once in a while she sends little odds and ends from her travels to that run down cabin in south dakota for the “crazy old man” that calls it home.