thisavrou_log | [open] I know it's tearing you apart

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[open] I know it's tearing you apart

Who: Wanda Maximoff and YOU!
When: Late July
Where: The Safe Space
What: Open office hours! Got something you need to get off your chest or need some assistance getting to sleep? Wanda can help...probably.
Warnings: Extremely likely mentions of horrible things, including slavery and violence.

Wanda's office has mostly returned to normal by now, aside from the bookshelf and the fountain. They still seem to serve their purpose despite being glassed, and hopefully the soft sounds of the water will have the desired effect on anyone who comes to see her.

Because after a month like this, how could she not expect people to need help coping or getting to sleep? The Caducans' attack or the Ingress accident or the outpost alone would have been bad enough, but all three in such a short period of time left ripples in the psychic current of the ship. She doesn't even need to reach to feel it. Thanks goodness her own room is shielded.

Now that her family is safe, Wanda makes sure to be around for a few more shifts than she normally would, just in case.

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[Anakin hadn't been looking for this when he instead went looking for her (and a way, perhaps, to quiet these growing concerns of needing to still be out there helping, or the worry that they might have left someone behind). Whether it's coincidence that leads him to Wanda here, or the Force making a rather pointed gesture at his state of being at present (he's well aware of how rare it is that he seeks out counsel beyond Obi-Wan, perhaps his wife, because he makes a point of it), the office grabs his attention immediately.

Or rather, the quietness of it does. Everything is still, and soft, and achingly reminiscent of the parts of the Jedi Temple he never thought he'd miss. He hasn't sought it out, hadn't even really been aware this sort of facility existed on board when he's been so distracted otherwise, but the tone is rather plain.

It's safe. Or at least it looks that way. It's the only reason he even enters in the first place. Still, he holds himself uneasily--more than even his wounding allows for--as he enters. She'd made an effort to trust him, why can't he give that in return without hesitance?]

I don't want to disturb you, I can--

[Go? What would the purpose of that be? He takes a breath, shaky and not terribly stabling, and shakes his head. This isn't how to start.]

I just wanted to check in. On you, I mean.

[It is, after all, the least he can do in the face of her selfless attempt to help him.]

[She can sense him, like a small stormcloud of not quite conflicting emotions. The Jedi might call it a minor disturbance in the Force but Wanda has no such ominous term for it. There's tea on the wall for a reason, however; one of the useful leftovers from the previous counselor.

Originally the office had been far too clinical for even Wanda to be comfortable here, so she's tried to bring in a few things to fix it: the fountain, a plant, soft things, color. How fortunate she'd received the job change in the last days of their stay on the Collective - it's easy to redecorate with an unlimited shopping spree.]

It's all right. I'm not here to sit in a room by myself.

[And maybe she should be back on the planet, but the fact remains that she's not sure she trusts herself not to snap.]

Billy and my brothers are back, and you saw what happened with some of the restraints. I could still help, but it is not the help the others want, I think.

How are you feeling?

I'm--

[He pauses, unsure of how to take that. He's not clueless, he knows what she does here in some general sense, but he hadn't come with the intent to talk about himself. Her well-being had been a priority when they'd had to part ways so awkwardly (as was any other he had a modicum of control in). But not all wounds are obvious: especially not when it comes to this shared experience he quietly wishes he could have taken from all of them. No one ever deserves this. Even career criminals see easier sentences, and it's not a thing he'd wish even on people he hated.]

I feel like I shouldn't be here. [Said as he takes a seat one of the couches, his back awkwardly straight when it hurts too much to curl in on himself as he'd like to.] On the ship, I mean.

[He turns to regard her with a quiet sadness. This may not be her burden in specific, but it might as well be. Family is family, and that he understands.]

How are your brothers?

He barrels into the room in a whirlwind, sparing a moment to drop a slow kiss on the top of her head before sprawling out on one of the sofas. Using his speed makes his knee ache, but the shackles had kept him from moving for days on end. He'd rather make up for it now than wait for his joints to heal.

No one was ever going to claim Peter was the brightest Maximoff.

He's left a pile of snack cakes on her desk, a stack of mass produced cupcakes. He's not entirely sure if she'll like them, but he's never gone wrong giving chocolate to girls before. Peter smiles at her from where he's sitting, it's tight and wonky. He slowly peels open a cake for himself, acting deliberately casual. "So this is what they've got you doing now."

And while Wanda might normally fuss and tell him to be more careful...this time, she doesn't. She knows her brother, knows that being locked up and shackled for days must have been torture even without factoring in the hard labor. If he wants to run, she's not going to actively stop him.

"It is better than being in everyone's heads looking for trouble." The odd thing is, she doesn't even remember what prompted her to actually apply for a job transfer. The first Ingress malfunction hurt and scrambled her memories, but as far as she was aware, it wasn't the best job ever - far from it - but she didn't mind working with Bel and Thor.

Still, whatever prompted this, being able to actually use her powers to directly help people is much better.

She reaches for the cake, more careful in how she peels it open to hopefully avoid getting frosting on herself. "How do you feel?"

"Now you get to go in looking at their feelings," he jests, chocolate smeared at the corners of his smile. Peter prefers this for her. She gets to be safe inside a nice room working nice hours instead of doing something more likely to get her hurt. He thinks its better not to say that part out loud. Wanting to keep her wrapped up out of trouble is what started his messes in the first place. "You'll probably be pretty good at this, I'm not all that surprised you're here."

Maybe it's projection, but he thinks she'd be the easiest person on the ship for the crew to talk to.

"Better." Peter answers after a moment. It's mostly true. His bruises have faded, he's gotten back to his regular diet of more calories than any one human should need. Outside of his knee, he's physically doing fine. "What about you? How's Wanda doing?"

"And no one will try to make me use my powers on someone to hurt them. I don't think I would be asked to do more than make someone sleep." She thinks it must have come down to that, after the captains started talking about stricter policies. She'd been afraid of them preemptively doing something to people like her to seal their abilities or forcing her to be much more invasive in what she did do...and not having control over when and how she uses her powers makes Wanda nervous.

But hopefully it really won't be a problem anymore.

"I'm all right. No more glass." She takes a bite of the cupcake and doesn't do much better than Peter at keeping it from getting everywhere. "I would feel better if we could stop...all of this, but I'm glad we found everyone." And as much as she hates it, there are very good reasons the captains are going to great lengths to keep the Moira from being noticed. They're in no shape for the kind of heroics they pulled on Ceta to save the sky whales.

"Have they been? Asking you to hurt people?" He looks up sharply, expression dropping into something concerned and upset. "The fight on the ship, did they make you do it?"

He's still seated but his body tenses in preparation to leave. If she was used, he's got words for the Captains, for anyone who was put in charge.

"And there weren't any effects from it?" He's not sure how the glass really effected anyone on board. He'd seen it, sure, but that's not the same as experiencing it. "You have to take a win when you can. You saved people Wanda. Me and Billy and Pietro, we'll all here. You did that. That's a good day, I think."

When Asriel slinks into Wanda's office, he's cleaned himself up since the last time Wanda saw him. But the Outpost has still left its mark on him, in the form of bandages wrapped around his feet, hands, and neck. After all, his wounds were still pretty fresh. It made walking around too much difficult, and it made holding things just as difficult too.

While he's stuck close to his family or the Medbay out of fear of being taken back, it's left him with a lot of trouble sleeping. Nowhere felt all that safe to him, and it wasn't unusual now for him to wake up in the middle of the night uselessly clawing at his neck or snout. Shadows that reminded him of the tall, vicious man who bought him kept him wide-awake. And it definitely shows in the bags under Asriel's eyes.

So when he hears about the "Safe Space", maybe it was worth checking it out? It had "safe" in the name, after all. Asriel doesn't realize who the office belongs to at first, too focused on working up enough courage to enter.

The door creaks open.

"Um, excuse me..."

Edited 2016-07-29 06:52 (UTC)

Wanda hasn't seen Asriel since bringing him back to safety, though he's definitely been on her list of people to check on once everything stops being metaphorically on fire. Unsurprisingly, he still looks like he's in pretty bad shape and Wanda finds herself wishing she'd found the person who did this to him. Vision had told her you couldn't force someone to change, but this time her anger's gone beyond that. She just wants them all to suffer.

But today that's not her job. She can only try to heal what was left behind.

"Asriel." Wanda manages a smile and motions for one of the squishy chairs to drift closer to that side of the room. "I thought you would still be in the medbay."

The voice is familiar, and honestly a relief. Sleepy as he is, he perks up when he sees her. When she motions to the squishy chairs, Asriel heads in that direction. His steps are slower and more careful than usual - his feet are bandaged, but it still hurts some to walk.

But he climbs up on one and tries curling up a little on it. He give a shy and nervous smile at her question.

"I got let out a couple days ago, and I've been staying in bed. But I can't fall asleep, and when I do I just keep waking up."

He takes in his surroundings, observing her office with a childlike curiosity.

"So um... this place is really safe, right?"

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[open] I know it's tearing you apart

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