· OPEN ·

[carmesi]

Who: wanda maximoff and YOU
When: days prior to event
Where: around town, flophouse
Summary: doing a little exploring, some housekeeping, meeting people
Warnings: none atm!

A. GOOD HARBOR BEACH

[so they can't use magic.

ever since she came to learn to use her powers, magic was like second nature to her—it just didn't feel right to not be able to have the swathes of red fulfill whatever she commanded it to do.

now, she's been here for a few hours in quiet contemplation, until she got the urge to hop her way towards salt island, using the land bridge formed because of the low tide. this, however, she did not realize was because of the tides. now, annoyance has her squatting on the edge of salt island, hugging her arms around her knees, waiting for the tide to lower again. if only she could do magic without restriction, she would fly back to the beach, or even will down the tide.

hopefully no one shows up to witness her current problem. and yes, she would rather wait for the tide to lower than to swim, thanks.]

B. BONNIE'S FLOPHOUSE

[what bonnie wants in exchange of not having to pay rent is, actually, pretty sensible. wanda has no problems with that, and although she would rather just have a place of her own—she can't exactly twirl her fingers and have it happen—the flophouse is growing on her. even with all the little flaws it has.

not really wanting to worry about the cleaning or repairing, she sets about in helping with the cooking. it's a little bit of a relaxing, mindless activity, and although she has little to work with, wanda can think of a couple of dishes from her home that could feed plenty.

soon, the smell of food wafts throughout the floors of the building. as wanda's finishing up and setting plates down for anyone who would like to come down into communal area to get themselves some early supper. it's not much, really, but she's managed a pot of beef and onion stew and several stuffed cabbages filled with minced meat and rice. she reclines against the counter with a bowl of soup in her hand, and keeping an eye out for anyone who ventures in.

easy way to meet the neighbors, right?]

C. MIDNIGHT CINEMA

[the cinema does catch her attention almost immediately. the architecture of the place is rather difficult to ignore, and there is some kind of allure to it. and though it seems inviting and wanda has seen people go inside, she doesn't know if she wants to go in.

when is the last time she even saw a movie?

as if changing her mind halfway through her walking up the path to the entrance, wanda abruptly turns around to head back into the street—]

Sorry.

[—and walks right into someone.]

I didn't see you.

Comments

[sorser]

[People used to say he was funny — now Wong just looks at him like he’s the driest, most un-funny man in the universe when he tries to be clever. Wanda’s minute appreciation is recognized with a hidden dash of satisfaction, even if the comment was throw-away at best, and Stephen crosses his arms and gives a shrug of his shoulders.]

Currently? There are a few options. One, we wait. I assume that’s what you were doing.

[He motions out to the shore.]

Then there are the options that I’m guessing you’re avoiding: swimming—my vote for that is no, by the way—, or using our abilities to cross with half the effort.

[A beat.]

But with a few more consequences than we’re used to.

[carmesi]

[she stays quiet as he relays their options—considerations she had already minded at some point prior to conversing with him. the man seems to like to hear himself talk, but at least it's not in a way where he says more than what's needed to be heard.

precise and to the point; wanda could do with that. with a tired gesture, she sets her arms down at her sides and turns to stephen.]

Terror and murder aren't exactly prospects I want to test out.

[sorser]

[Frank and to the point. At that, Stephen frowns, unwilling to joke about this particular subject.]

Neither do I. Which is why I don’t make this proposition lightly.

[Do no harm. It’s tenet he’s stretched and bent a few times for the sake of his work, his safety, the safety of so many others — but never out of flippant disregard or utter uncaring. To even say it’s out of practicality is insufficient to Stephen; without urgency, making this sort of decision seems cold and callous. But the line is never clear-cut. It’s all shades of grey instead of the heroic, shining ease of black-and-white idealism.]

You’ve been given the same briefing as me, haven’t you? On paper, we have a vague idea of what we’re dealing with, and to assume that we can work at half our efficacy by stifling our own potential is… naive. At some point, whether I want to or not, I’m going to have to use my magic. That’s just the reality.

[He doesn’t like it one bit. Beyond the idea of terrorizing those who don’t deserve it, being tied in a lopsided not-exactly-symbiotic loop with an entity reeks too much of Dormammu and the functioning his Dark Dimension.]

And if there are any surprises, and any unexpected consequences, I would rather learn about them sooner than later. Using a basic spell with minimal magical output.

[Another glance towards the shore. No murder involved for something so trivial, surely.]

A portal to get us both across.

[carmesi]

[she likes that stephen can put into words what she feels about the use of magic that has become so much a part of herself. she could do without her magic, though it would take time and effort to get used to it, but she rather be able to do so without restraint, without being shackled to what she can or cannot do.

wanda had recently come to terms with her own powers, so this much is just a little frustrating. like when agatha used runes to lock her magic away, except there were no chains, only a pendulum with a curved knife in her mind, swinging down towards her neck should she try.

the response she gives to his consideration is simple:]

I do not wish to live in fear of using my powers.

[—so, she agrees.]

And if it'll get us off this island without having to wait for the tide, even better.

[sorser]

[Ah, reasonable. Points to her for being so. Besides, Stephen truly doesn’t want to wait here until the tide recedes — even if the truth of the matter is that he would have waited if necessary, if she was flagrantly against his magic, because he certainly wasn’t about to leave her here on her own.

He’s not that rude these days, mind you.]

Perfect, neither do I. [To both of those statements.

Stephen clasps his hands together and then reaches out to summon the familiar sight of a portal, carving through the space before them and opening up on a whorl of sparking light. Through it, they’d be able to see the shoreline, circumventing the high tide altogether. No one but them, apparently, are foolish enough to be stuck out here, so he’s been granted the gift of inconspicuousness, too.]

Nothing new and shocking to see, at least.

[And nothing feels inherently different.]

After you. I’m two steps behind.

[carmesi]

[she peers over at the portal that he's opened up, and into it, glancing at the beach's shore with a small amount of suspicion. it does look normal enough. she wishes to ask how he feels, as she turns her attention back towards him, if the use of magic is causing him any kind of distress—but then he urges her to step through first.]

I'm starting to feel like a magician's assistant.

[it's a joke!

but after a moment of hesitation, she steps right on through, deliberately, and finds that her shoes press into soft sand rather than rocky soil formations of the island.

so far so good...?

wanda turns back to see the doctor step through, too.]

cw: many, many spiders

[sorser]

Yes, you’re hilarious.

[He says dryly, but not particularly offended. Maybe she is? He hardly knows her, and their harrowed time spent trying to deal with Thanos had not exactly granted them the privilege to know each other — barely time to know any of those he brought into the battlefield like a swarm, a larger variation of the single portal they’re witness to now.

He waits for her to pass through, and as he said, he follows soon after. His boots sink into the sand of the shore, and he can hear the water whispering just behind him.

Success, all told. He feels no different, not any weaker, not much affected. Things are all very much the same as they ought to be, except—

There is a faint… itching. The sensation of pinpricked crawling, quite suddenly, the sound of chitinous and chittering little limbs of something moving across his clothes, he skin of his face. Moving across his eyelid to obscure just what the issue is, but Stephen doesn’t need logic to parse it out. The very primal part of his brain informs him of an unfortunate truth: there are now an inordinate amount of small, angry spiders spilling across his body.

So, technically, he’s dealt with much worse. Really, spiders are mundane compared to dying ad nauseam to Dormammu, or what lies beyond the pale of the multiverse, or war mongers from space coming to wreck the planet. Even so, Stephen does not appreciate the multitude of eight-legged creatures crawling over him for no reason. He gives a startled shout as the portal snaps closed behind him, and his instinct is the same as anyone else: brush them off of his face, his clothes, as much as he can.]

[carmesi]

[it's almost comical, the way her face pinches; a prominent frown, a question on half-parted lips, searching eyes as to why stephen is moving about so haphazardly after stepping through the portal. is this a side effect to using magic?

to dance like the village idiot and have no control over it?

such thoughts are abandoned as she pinpoints the arachnids moving on the man, crawling with their tiny legs seemingly with some purpose.

wanda looks down at her hands, thinking maybe she's imagining that she is itching just from seeing him, and has the horrifying realization that the same spiders are crawling all over her.

she joins him in the startled shouting and attempts to shake them off, the task seeming moot, the spiders seeming infinite.]

Enough—!

[in a moment of annoyance, her stance goes rigid and she swallows herself up in red swathes of magic, disintegrating the spiders on her; just as easily, she twirls her fingers towards the doctor and bathes him in enough red to spare him of the pests.

it all goes away when she wills it, and she sends a hard look his way (she's frazzled, is all).]

I thought you said you didn't pull rabbits out of hats.

[sorser]

[Her voice cuts through the air, and the scarlet red of her powers envelop his vision without preamble. Stephen feels the energy radiate close to the surface of his own body, and just as soon as they’ve appeared, they’re blessedly gone — zapped away. Dissipated by red.

Impressive, but nothing he believes was ever beyond the scope of her abilities.

Stephen straightens, looking at her just shy of disbelief. Confusion bordering his own degree of frazzled.]

I don’t, and I don’t make spiders appear out of thin air, either. You know that.

[Do you remember spiders the first time through the portal, Wanda?

Stephen shakes out his arms and hands, unable to banish the feeling of little legs crawling all over him.]

As I said, there are consequences here that were aren’t used to. I think we’ve just discovered one.

[carmesi]

Where are my spiders, then?

[despite all that growth she's gone through, it seems that there is still an ounce of her fierce spirit treading about just like so many years ago when she was but another rioter in sokovia.

but there is no reason to get mad at the doctor, she figures, and just sighs and rubs at her eyes with her fingers. she really doesn't want any more spiders.

wanda lets her hand hit her leg, a little exasperated.]

I used my magic and nothing happened. [not that she can tell] Why did yours end up with spiders?

[(it's not the magic, it's the item that's been cursed.)]

[sorser]

I guess you’re just not that lucky. [He fires right back, but with less vitriol and more exasperation.] That said, I’m guessing it has something to do with the nature of the spell. Or the sling ring itself.

[A final dusting off of his sleeves, for good measure.]

Could have been worse. We could have been deposited straight into the sea. [His point being that at least to worked, and at least this little experiment was a success in learning exactly what oddities might have transpired with the use of magic.

Speaking of—]

As for you… you might find it prudent to test yours out in a more controlled way, whenever you feel comfortable doing it. Nothing big, nothing world-changing. Just enough to test the waters so you’re not caught up in any eight-legged surprises, either.

Question for you, though.

[carmesi]

[wanda calms down enough to take a deep breath and a few steps back, brushing at her arms to rid herself of the leftover feeling of spiders crawling all over. sure, the experiment worked; wanda was even compelled to use her own magic in the process.

she turns back to face the doctor as he advises her about testing hers out in a controlled way. 'nothing world-changing'? her jaw locks and her mouth twists into a scowl—did he know about what she had done prior to coming here?

it might just be the way he phrases things.

her tone is moderate when you speaks up again, letting all the tension steer clear from it.]

I'm listening.

[sorser]

[Chalk it up to word choice, little else. But there’s no missing the way her features go taut for just a moment, before relinquishing back into its normal look — Stephen looks quizzical, which is fitting for the question he has.]

That’s the second time you’ve referred to your powers as your magic. I’m guessing this is a new development?

[Psionic powers, energy manipulation. He recalls that much. But magic? That’s something altogether different, and therefore it is worthy of piquing his—]

Asking out of a professional interest, of course.

[carmesi]

[the doctor is (unsurprisingly) detail-focused, and it seems that nothing really escapes him. her defenses are up once again at the question—uncertain, really—at whether she should answer, and if she were to, what kind of answer it should be at all.]

Professional interest.

[wanda repeats calmly.]

...yes. [she says after a moment, crossing her arms. clearly, she is not willing to have this conversation at this point in time.] I had an insightful lesson before coming here.

[thanks, agatha.]

[sorser]

Yes. [It hadn’t been framed as a question, but it’s implied by its deadpan nature — that or Stephen is offering an explanation simply because he can, simply because she doesn’t know any better.] Professional interest. Magic is entwined with my work, so there’s no getting around it.

[And it’s an excuse to indulge his curiosity, stoked a little more when she crosses her arms. Classic defensive posture.]

Sounds like there’s a story behind that lesson. Do I get to hear it?

[carmesi]

[there's no getting around it, he says — and yet wanda feels compelled to not really indulge in what magic means and is to her, even now.]

No.

[the doctor is not someone who has gained her trust. to be fair, it's a little hard to manage that with wanda. nevertheless, the events of westview are still too close to her heart, to the point where acceptance of the matters will make grief an easy hurdle to step over.

besides, she's got no one to answer to.]

I appreciate your help, but it came at a cost too high to just share the lesson for free.

[sorser]

[Is this supposed to discourage him from wanting to know? Because it’s achieving the opposite, intermingling with the vaguest hints of concern and a plain ol’ busy body predilection. One might say he’d make a noisier neighbor than Agatha herself, but when it comes to magic, he can’t help himself.

And yet he respects Wanda just enough not to die on this particular hill of not-knowing. Mostly because he can always try again later, because it’s not like they’re going anywhere anytime soon.]

…Okay. [Likely there is an issue of trust here, which. Fair. But one would think defeating Thanos together would earn a nugget of it.] That isn’t very reassuring to hear, you know. A “cost too high” and magic don’t go well together, and believe me, I’ve seen it before.

[carmesi]

[he's not a bully, unlike other men who find themselves in a position of power either by strength or simply because they're older than her. wanda appreciates that, and it shows in the smile that she conveys, tight as it may be otherwise.

lectures, though, are not something she wants to subscribe to.]

I know. [casually; the way she would have reacted to tony stark years back would be with muted obedience, an understanding that she wasn't a favorite and needed to 'behave'—with strange, she gets to flex a little on the confidence and strength she developed while with steve and natasha.] And even knowing that, I don't need you worrying about something that I have got under control.

[scuffing the sand with her boots, she steps away a little, the breeze that picks up making her pull the cardigan tighter around her as she crosses her arms. she turns her torso to face him, steps slowing to a halt.]

Besides, could just have been a really expensive Masterclass.

[sorser]

It’s my job to worry.

[Which isn’t inherently true. The consequence of his job, rather, is that worry always comes beating at the proverbial door — tamped down only by stubbornness, and a resolution to do well enough that there is ultimately no reason to worry all. (If only it were so simple.)

However, again… he can ask later. Maybe now isn’t the time or place, out here on the shore, with the feeling of spiders still a ghostly sensation crawling up and down his spine.

He steps forward in the sand, striding close enough to keep by her side if they walk.]

You took a Masterclass and I had to travel all the way to Nepal? I’m not sure who got the short end of the stick there.

[He nearly sighs.]

Where are you staying?

[carmesi]

[wanda would say something along the lines that worry breeds fear — see what it did to men like stark. even if, ultimately, he had been right. she chooses to ignore that thought.

she deems, though, that the way people tackle different things befall the kind of person they are. wanda cannot imagine herself worrying so much, but perhaps that has to do with the fact that so much of her emotional headspace is already occupied with emotions that are otherwise louder and would not allow room for nervousness to settle.

at least, it seems, stephen has decided not to go on the route of pushing for answers.]

Nepal sounds nice. [she smiles briefly, eyeing him for a moment before returning her eyes on the sand before her.] I'm staying at Bonnie's. The other option felt too much like the Avenger's HQ.

[stifling—]

You're also from 2023, right?

[sorser]

Then we’re headed in the same direction. I’m staying at Bonnie’s, too.

[And not exactly for the same reasons, but same enough. He isn’t much into the Avengers HQ aesthetic, but he isn’t against it — however, he is uncomfortable with the idea of a curfew, and all the other rules that come along with living there. Bonnie had presented some degree of freedom, even if the space granted was a little… shoebox-y.]

And yes, 2023 sounds about right. Worried that our timelines have gotten all tangled up?

[carmesi]

[oh, great.]

Neighbors.

[that was muttered with as much enthusiasm as one would expect. however, she pushes past that as they step now onto concrete proper, away from the beach.]

I leave the worrying to you. [he'd said—] ...it's just good to know someone from home is here too, and that they aren't from the past.

[a little vulnerability, but she deems it alright. a lot of shared trauma or whatever.]

[sorser]

Don’t sound too excited.

[No real offense taken. And besides, Stephen doesn’t make for a bad neighbor, if you’re okay with a weird sorcerer guy doing weird sorcerer things in the middle of the night.

Which is limited in this world, anyway.]

Yes. All that having to explain things to someone before the blip? Too much trouble.

[It’s only half a joke; he would hate to have to do that, to delve into the tragedy before the victory.]

But even if we’re from the same year, it doesn’t guarantee the case will be the same for whoever else might show up. And that will be the real mess to untangle.

[carmesi]

Sounds like something you'd do well, Doctor Strange.

[not that she's being lazy or anything, but dealing with people? it's not exactly her forte. especially when there's the grand old possibility that whoever shows up isn't someone who is particularly fond of her.

she imagines that stephen, much like tony, has a certain kind of... authoritative quality to himself that she doesn't otherwise have.]

But we might just be so lucky to be the only ones from home coming.

[as they approach the area where the streets come anew and the buildings take precedence over the beach and the salty breeze, wanda stops and turns to look at him.]

...out of — professional curiosity. Were you doing anything with your magic before coming here?

[sorser]

[Aha. She obviously doesn’t know him that well. Stephen deals with people better than he did in the past, but dealing with people still isn’t his forte.

But that’s okay. She can think it’s true for a little while longer.

He pauses his step when she does, looking at her, recognizing the more familiar sensation of pavement beneath his feet instead of sand.]

I’m always doing something with my magic.

[That’s just his reality. Even compared to the other sorcerers, the experienced ones, he had always wanted to learn more. Faster, fervently. Stubbornly.]

So I’m assuming you’re asking if I was doing anything big with my magic?