[closed] there's nothing that I'd take back

[seeingscarlet]

Who: Wanda Maximoff and YOU!
When: June 12th and on
Where: Shipside and around the Collective
What: Wanda defrosts and a bad time is had.
Warnings: Civil War spoilers, feels, light descriptions of injuries. Will update as needed.


defrosting;
Wanda opens her eyes and panics, struggling out of the tube before the door's fully open, not caring when her knees give out and send her sprawling to the ground. She's frantic and wide-eyed, barely able to pull the dress she'd been wearing earlier on before she bolts barefoot into the hallway.

She's not going a particular direction, just wherever her brain tells her is "away" despite having no reason here to run. Her thoughts are muddled and going in circles and her body feels like she's moving through syrup. Her neck hurts, but that's been a constant for a month (she guesses; there are no calendars in the Raft). That, she can deal with. She just needs to find somewhere safe and quiet and why is just getting down this hallway taking almost everything she has?

Maybe she's wandered into the kitchen or rounded a corner and almost crashed into someone. Either way, Wanda's a sight: hair soaked from the cryotube, dark circles under her eyes, and angry red burns on her neck. She's okay if she keeps moving, but if forced to stand still it's evident that she really ought to be sitting down.

And even if she knows you, even if she trusts you, there's a moment of real fear when she meets your eyes. She's not convinced this isn't all a dream or some sort of hallucination, so she just stares and waits, ready to make another attempt at bolting if this isn't as it seems.

retail therapy, part 2;
As soon as she is physically able to leave, Wanda returns to her hotel room on the Collective. The Moira is too easy to mistake for the Raft in the dark; she needs the press of many happy minds and something more than metal walls. Physically she is on the mend, and though she tires easily it's a relief to have her thoughts moving at a normal pace.

Her pride will not let her go around with her neck so obviously bandaged, so she stops back at one of the many clothing stores to find something to do about that. A scarf? Maybe that filligree collar if she can stand the reminder. Either way, she's jumpy and very, very desperate not to talk about the elephant in the room.

"Excuse me," she murmurs, head down and trying not to make an obvious break for the other side of the clothing rack.

spa day;
Every time she wakes up here is another small victory and slowly Wanda starts coming back to herself. Her smile is still a little forced today but she's not trying to run from company this time. Remaining Not Okay is not an option. There are still people she wants to protect here, and it's been quite obvious that this isn't a pleasure cruise.

Today Wanda's strategy is to try to pretend that she didn't dream a year in three days. What would she be doing otherwise? They have unlimited credit and almost anything one can imagine at their disposal, and the spa is about as far from her former circumstances as she can get. She's going over the treatment list yet again, but this time she's not scoffing at how ridiculous some of the options are.

"Have you tried the massages here?" Her shoulders are still stiff and a little sore, but there's no reason for that when she has an entire spa at her disposal, right?

magic;
It's several days before Wanda is comfortable enough to even consider reaching for the more visible aspects of her powers. The collar hadn't reacted to her telepathic abilities, but the barest hint of anything tangible would set it off. They couldn't be gentle with it; if she'd been able to get free the others wouldn't have been far behind.

She is not sure it's even worth it anymore. The captains are still kicking around ideas for the new justice system. How long will it be before they create some sort of preemptive punishment system? Or some sort of awful failsafe? Or order her to use her powers on someone when she doesn't want to?

Wanda trusts them even less now, but if she's learned anything from this entire incident, it's that protecting herself and everyone else is her job. She is (was) the strongest of the Avengers. If she was just a little better, she could have contained the explosion without having to move Rumlow at all. If she were a little stronger, she could have shaken off the dizziness just enough to help Tony or Sam catch Rhodey, if not stop Vision from shooting him in the first place.

It's still her fault, and all of Clint and Steve's pretty words can't change the reality of the situation.

But the next time Wanda reaches for the scarlet, something's clearly off. It's little more than tiny flickering balls of energy hovering close to her palms, as weak and frightened as Wanda felt before the Moira pulled her back. She should not be struggling to lift six beach stones no larger than her fist and yet she feels like she's back in Strucker's base again.

This seemed like a more secluded area of the beach, but what Wanda doesn't know is that it's both a great spot to collect shells from the tidal pools and one of the more obvious areas one might go to get away from the larger crowds. Oops.

wildcard;
[These are general catchall prompts meant to encompass a wide variety of plotting, but please feel free to create your own scenario!]

Note: will match prose or brackets

Comments

closed to Pietro; typos intentional

[seeingscarlet]

[She does not message Pietro immediately. The lingering drugs in her system make navigating the MID's menus incredibly difficult, but as soon as her mind starts to clear she attempts to strong a coherent text together.]

where afre you/

magic

[pleasereset]

Out collecting shells is Asriel, who's wandered a little too far from the rest of his family on a mission to find the coolest and most unique-looking shells. He sees Wanda a little further away, opens his mouth to call out to her...

...and then notices the floating stones.

Curiosity piqued, he tries to get closer without interrupting. It was magic - that part wasn't unusual. But it was a bit weird to see a human using it. Then again, humans can do all kinds of things, so maybe Asriel shouldn't find it as surprising.

"That's some really neat magic. Are you making them float?"

[seeingscarlet]

Normally, she wouldn't have dropped them at the intrusion, but Wanda very nearly jumps out of her skin. Maybe she should have actually gone into one of the seaside caves if she really wanted privacy.

It's not magic (magic would be useful; true magic would have kept everyone safe), but trying to explain that is more than Wanda feels up to at the moment. She does look almost ashamed at being caught, but the fact that Asriel isn't humanoid at all helps calm her nerves a little.

"I was trying to. It should be easy."

[pleasereset]

Whoops, did he scare her? He lowers his head a little, feeling a little guilty. He glances at the dropped stones.

"Is it hard to lift them? I'm just learning how to do magic, so mine's not very strong yet."

He tried using stronger magic. It resulted in part of the cargo bay catching on fire and people accidentally getting burned. He hasn't practiced much since then.

[realitywarped]

Despite all his flouncing, Loki's gotten used to being in the kitchens. And he still is baking for the cafe, late at night when there's no-one else around, a fact that makes a very obvious lie of his stated intention to quit; if he'd intended to make it clear he wasn't poisoning anyone, he'd have stayed away entirely.

He's just putting the last tray of cookies in when he hears the doors open, frowns a little at the steps he hears. They don't sound very certain, and after making sure his timer is set he turns to see exactly what or who just wandered in, curiosity turning to concern and even a little anger.

"Wanda?"

He crosses the kitchen quickly, cataloguing all the things wrong. As soon as he's close enough, he reaches for her wrists, holding them lightly, the most obvious sign of concern he's willing to give.

"You look like Hel. What happened?"

There's a very definite unspoken question under the otherwise harsh-sounding statement: who does he need to hunt down for this?

[seeingscarlet]

Wanda has never once looked at Loki like she was actually afraid of him but this time she does. She flinches when he touches her, muscles taut as a wire, but stays rooted at the spot. Is he really here, or did she dream all of this?

But the cookies smell good, and she can't ever remember smelling anything in a dream. Wanda still does not relax, but she turns her palms over to hold Loki's wrists in turn. It's a vital lifeline right now even though her grip is lighter still than his. Anything to prove that this isn't a very vivid drug-induced hallucination.

"Am I back? Is this real?" Her voice is a little raspy with disuse, quiet though it sounds booming to her ears. She tenses again, but the pain she's expecting for speaking doesn't come.

Maybe it is fortunate she's run into Loki first. She's never been in his head so she can't just extrapolate an imaginary conversation the way she could with Pietro or Steve or even Billy. Ironically, she can trust him more than the others right now.

[that_cost]

Charlie had liked Wanda when she met her. She'd helped her out greatly when she arrived, heart thumping in her chest and her power had been itching under her skin, wanting out. So when she spots Wanda on the beach, having a hard time with her powers, Charlie's cautious to walk over.

She has a new toy with her, but she's not using it. She's looking for space to use it, but a friend in need is vastly more important. So she walks over, clearing her throat to get Wanda's attention.

"Wanda, are you okay?"

[seeingscarlet]

Wanda jumps and for a brief second the red light in her hands goes out completely. The stones drop about three inches before the energy returns and catches them again. They spin lazily, as if Wanda hasn't actually been startled into dropping things in a very long time.

"I-I'm all right." Lies. She's not and she knows it, but Wanda doesn't know Leigh well enough to say anything. Slowly, the stones come to rest on the sand. She can't deny what just happened but that doesn't mean she's going to put on a show of just how shaken she really is.

"Are you feeling better?"

retail therapy is the best therapy

[gentlemenpreferblondes]

It's dangerous idea to give a material girl like J limitless amount of credits to spend at a resort like this. Shopping has always been one of her favourite ways to reduce stress, distracting herself from whatever's causing her the distress, especially now that singing isn't an option anymore.

But overall, J's doing fine, much better than a week ago at least, as she's learning how to adjust to her new situation and disability. While writing texts and such with her MID wasn't the same as talking but it was still something and the more she used it as a method of communication the less forced did it feel. And there were even few clerks in stores around the BF3 who had learned to take her 'condition' into consideration whenever she visited their shops.

J notices it when Wanda enters the clothing shop and strides right towards the accessory aisle, taking note of the rather agitated state of hers. With their last encounter still fresh in memory J first decides to ignore the other woman and turn back to look at the necklaces that are hanged on the wall. But then she catches a quick sight of the bandage wrapped around Wanda's throat and frowns. She's had her fair share of different kind of injuries around her neck, from something as mundane as love bites to bruises with more gruesome nature, and knows how tricky those can be to hide.

Before Wanda has time to pick anything for herself J's already handing her a scarf, one that she believes to look good on her.

[seeingscarlet]

Wanda knows nothing of J's predicament, just that they don't really get along but she did pretty much sacrifice herself to save Peter. So she's civil when she takes the scarf, though she tries not to look J in the eye. The things J said to her last time still haven't wedged under her skin to a place where they hurt but she's not certainly not what Wanda would consider a safe haven.

"Thank you. It's pretty." And it does manage to cover the rather serious-looking bandages wrapped around her neck without being too warm for this weather. "Is this better?"

J already saw it, so no point in pretending the bandages don't exist...

spa time, pt. 2

[imahologram]

"A few times," Leia answers, giving Wanda a little smile. "They have one where they use hot stones on you--it's not as bad as it sounds."

She's not sure she wants to try it today, but she's not sure what exactly she wants. (This is the problem with having such luxury at their fingertips for weeks at a time: it's easy for the options to blend together into a banal lump.)

It occurs to her that she hasn't seen Wanda around for a while--which is probably her own fault. She's been so preoccupied that she hasn't seen much of anyone besides Han in the last few days; it's been easier to escape into the spa or find less crowded areas of the beach. "How have you been?"

[seeingscarlet]

Wanda's scarf is currently hiding any obvious sign of injury - thank goodness. Leia seems like the kind of person it would be difficult to be evasive with.

"I went home in my sleep, woke up in one the tubes in the medbay. It's been...confusing." That's one way to put it. Nearly a year of memories in each place and an enormous difference in outcome. She is trying not to be so jumpy, tries to tell herself there's no need for it here, but being under such heavy scrutiny for a year elsewhere doesn't help.

retail therapy

[carltoaction]

Much in the same way as she is, Carl is trying not to draw anymore attention to the bandage over where there had once been an eye for him. At least not anymore than necessary. So in his shopping around for new clothes, he had been keeping his head down and hat tilted forward slightly in favor of shadowing his bandages. He been going about shopping quietly, hoping no one would come by to ask him if he needed help or anything.

When a woman's voice interrupts all that though, he frowns slightly at the corners before hiding his expression with a neutral one and looking over to her mildly, head initially just half to the side to look at her with his eye until he spies the bandage on her and fully turns it in curiosity. He was not expecting to see someone trying to hide something, like him. But there it was.

He blinks, even just with the one eye, straight away. "You need something?" He says hesitantly, but definitely a little more helpfully than he'd been to anyone else he didn't know all day.

[seeingscarlet]

Wanda looks up, sees the bandage, and immediately drops her gaze to floor. She is not as psychically open now as she had been, but even so Wanda shuts the doors of her mind even farther. It looks fresh. Maybe it's selfish, but Wanda really doesn't want to feel that, too.

"I'm just looking." She reaches past him - hence the excuse me - for this. It's almost perfect: flexible, not bulky like a scarf, and not too reminiscent of the collar that did this to her in the first place. The bandages will show through, of course, but there's no blood. She can hope that it's taken as one piece, right? Nothing's attacked them here.

Magic

[howtocarryit]

If Sam Wilson knows about anything it's regret. Regret and blame. He still puts what happened to Riley on his shoulders when he has bad nights or even just bad all around days. You watch someone get shot out of the sky and when you can't do a damn thing about it you take the blame. You sit it on your shoulders and you wear it like an albatross. Your own private punishment that you get to flog yourself with. He hasn't been here long, but he's been here long enough to know Tony Stark is here and Steve is giving speeches to the ship like it's his job.

He's running right now. Running and pushing himself. You might even say he's punishing himself. Going and going. Steve isn't here to intrude and make it into a race which means that Sam can let himself get lost in his head and run over everything in his life. Every little event from the war. Every little thing. You don't just get out over being a soldier. You just learn to stuff it all into a bag and you teach yourself how you're supposed to lug it around. It's all about managing.

Sam's heard she's here. Not caught up with her yet. He runs up and comes to a stop in the sand. He pants and struggles to take a breath. Once he gets one in he squints as he draws closer. Moves himself towards her. "Can you do that with snow balls too? Cause I'm pretty sure you could win a snow ball fight with Steve that way." He would pay actual cash money to watch her do that.

[seeingscarlet]

Wanda hasn't seen Sam in weeks (?) but she's heard him. She knew he was here before she'd fallen into cryo, but finding someone on a giant vacation planet isn't easy.

Fortunately he doesn't look like he just spent a month (?) in an underwater prison three cells down. She certainly can't run like that in her current condition. "I don't promise a fair fight. Someone else learned that last week."

Last week. Technically true but it doesn't feel like it with this extra year of memories rattling around in her head. And while she is capable of doing it now, but it almost feels like some terrible abuse of power. What she can do is dangerous. Is it really right for her to use it so casually?

Is it even right for her to use it again at all?

Catchall from the 12th onward?

[hellsbel]

Learning that Wanda was in cryo had been unsettling. Bel's own stint had lasted two weeks, with no explanation and no apparent side-effects. Still, it was melancholic to see Wanda cold and unmoving behind the glass, especially when frost had begun to obscure the view.

Though having taken lodgings down in the Collective, a delightful perk of the ship's general shore leave, Bel is still on and off the Moira frequently, not least to quietly fill Wanda in on what's happened during the day. Her mind might not have been awake enough to hear, but one never knew. So it's not an accident when Bel steps off the transporter, checks the MID map, and starts in delight, setting off at a run for -- not medbay, thank God, but she's moving fast, so... wherever she'll be when she stops.

:3

[seeingscarlet]

Wanda's been treated by this point and is mostly coherent, though the bandages around her neck are a dead giveaway that something's wrong. She's made it back to her room to change and grab a few things and her current goal is to get as far away from the too-sterile walls of the Moira as possible. It would be so easy to just find somewhere to curl up and rest here, and Wanda knows she needs it, but it's not worth the panic and disorientation of thinking she might be back on the Raft. A complete change of scenery is necessary.

And the hotels of the Collective can certainly provide what she needs.

She's on her way to the transporter, so Bel won't actually need to go that far before running into her. Almost literally, actually, and Wanda's got a deer in the headlights expression that is not at all at home on her face. Usually if she's this upset-looking, there's an obvious (and bad for everyone) reason for it.

"Bel! I'm sorry." And if they let her slip away she'll be gone. She does not want to explain why she needs those bandages, thank you very much. Of course, she's also not really expecting to get that past Bel. They're more observant than they always let on.

Defrosting

[visionarie]

When Wanda wakes from her cryosleep, she'll find Vision hovering ten feet in the air across the room. His eyes are closed and he looks seemingly asleep when the sound of her cryotube suddenly opening has him opening his eyes and hovering down to check on her.

"Wanda." He steps on the ground, a visible crease furrowing his brows. "Please calm down. You are safe."

[seeingscarlet]

Safe is, unfortunately, the last thing she feels.

There was a time when Vision's presence would calm her, but now she's not really sure how she feels about him. Did he know what they did to her? Did he care? Or did he help?

She's too disoriented to even think of looking in his head and all she can do is back right against the glass of the cryotube and start edging away. Where are her clothes? She can't very well go wandering through the halls in only her underwear. "Nowhere is safe."

defrosting

[hyperkinesia]

When she rounds one of the corners it's Bruce she almost runs into. He's not nearly as startled as she is, but he still tries to step aside, ready to apologize when his eyes land on the person who he almost bumped into, a hand lifted and halfway ready to help, but frozen somewhere in-between.

"Wanda," his voice is more surprise than anything, whatever discomfort forgotten as his eyes focus on the signs of exhaustion on her face, the clear disorientation, the bright red marks on her neck. Instead of the uneasiness he tends to show around her, he looks worried more than anything. "What happened?"

[seeingscarlet]

Wanda is hoping to find a safe place or a safe person. And while Bruce maybe doesn't mean her harm, he certainly doesn't like her - not exactly the first person she'd want to find in this state.

But Bruce and Ross are so connected that if there's any chance that Ross might be here (and she is having trouble distinguishing where 'here' is), she can't let them near each other. "Not safe," she says, voice hoarse with disuse. Her eyes won't quite stay focused either. If it weren't for the injuries, it might very well look like she's simply falling asleep on her feet. "You have to go. If Ross finds you..."

magic

[chaostic]

While Wanda's spot on the beach isn't very secluded, Loki isn't just a casual passerby. He knows her aura from the first time she used her powers on his mind, and it's impossible to notice how much weaker that aura feels. His wanderings deviate because of that very fact thinking she might have managed to hurt herself even with the calmness of the Collectives. For some reason, he cares despite himself. He cares regardless of how much he shouldn't but why shouldn't he show her kindness that same as she showed him.

"I'm not so sure you need telekinesis to collect seashells," As if he is one to talk when he so publically uses his own magic as if it were an extension of his own hands. His power comes as second nature but Wanda seems skeptical of hers if the weakness in her aura is anything to go by.

"You look like you're overextending yourself."

[seeingscarlet]

In the eight months Wanda's been trapped on the Moira, she'd come into her powers very differently than she did at home. Here, no one was particularly afraid of the abilities they knew about, and the darker side of Wanda's powers are still a closely-guarded secret. Here, she'd learned to use telekinesis for the most trivial of things, like cleaning up the mess hall without actually having to touch a single dirty dish.

Now...she's not sure what she should be doing.

The difference should be even more apparent to someone like Loki. Normally, when all is well, her fingertips glow with power and sometimes it's very obvious moving under her skin. Today there's literally nothing but the wisps under her palms. The bandages are mostly hidden under a lace choker and by this point it's the only other visible sign that anything bad might have happened.

"They're only rocks." Tiny ones at that. It should barely take more than a thread of thought and yet...

maaaagic!

[skelepun]

"Getting a little practice in?"

The voice comes from behind her, though no footsteps or rustling preceded it. A dip in air pressure, maybe, or an electric crackle of atomic particles realigning, but no more warning than that. Sans has his hands tucked in his pockets, a picture of ease.

"Need some help?"