un: wanda | text

[whatchoice]

I asked Aurora to let the TVs work in the rec room of the apartment building, but all that is playing is old black and white movies

[ because that is what wanda asked for, sort of, but every channel is playing a different movie, all of them black and white. ]

From Earth

[ since that is a consideration now. ]

Comments

[wiccant]

( she's crying.

billy had talked to kate about wanda, earlier. knows that it's - different for her. she says you were just ten and billy imagines what it might have been like, if he had been raised by wanda alongside tommy. billy looks over his shoulder for a moment, before he's reaching forward with his free hand and wrapping it around her shoulders. holds onto her gently while she cries, because he's pretty sure she needs it: the support, having someone to lean on for a moment. )

I. . . I guess? I'm eighteen. So's Tommy, obviously.

( he's trying to offer some support. he could get into the whole, he wasn't raised by wanda thing, but she's already having a hard enough time as-is. he'd rather give her a moment first. )

I'm sorry, I know this is probably hard to process.

[whatchoice]

[ oh no.

wanda desperately tries to claw her emotions back under control, the last time grief overwhelmed her it exploded out of her and made westview. remade vision, made the twins. she hasn't even been here for a week, she can't turn the city into another westview.

billy hugs her and she gives a little nod, composing herself somewhat. ]

It's... you don't need to apologize. I'm okay. Kate told me some things.

[ chiefly that pietro is still alive for them. ]

[wiccant]

( he's not exactly sure what kate has told her, which. billy probably should have asked so he could know what he should say and what he shouldn't. his arm stays around her, letting her take a few moments to - pull herself together. it's fine, they've got - time. billy's fine here, holding onto her softly. he had read over their network thread: talking about being on the young avengers, tommy and his speed stats, the interdimensional parasite they've been on the run from that billy accidentally pulled into their side of the multiverse. the differing last names. )

I know, but it's still--a lot. You're used to a ten-year-old kid and I'm--well, I'm obviously not that.

[whatchoice]

You're much taller.

[ it's a swipe at levity and she attempts at a laugh but it doesn't fully land. maybe if there had been some time between westview and etraya it would be less of a gut punch, but at the same time... maybe it was always bound to be painful, all things considered.

she breathes in and out again, tries to grab something to talk about that won't make her want to throw up, something with a little distance. ]

How did you meet, you and Kate?

[wiccant]

So, funny story.

( a much easier topic. kate is always pleasant to talk about. or usually. and he can discuss this a lot easier than he can talk about - his existence. no need for a crisis today, right? )

I'd kind of gotten recruited onto a superhero team, called the Young Avengers. I'd just figured out I had. . . abilities. Didn't really know the extent of them at the time, it took a bit to figure out it was more reality warping than anything else. Anyway. Kate was a bridesmaid at a wedding that was being held up. My team and I bust in to help, but she ended up saving our asses while wearing what was definitely an uncomfortable dress. She decided she'd join us, and she's very, very hard to say no to.

[whatchoice]

[ young avengers sounds funny to her because she's young, but then she supposes steve and bucky were pushing 100. and tony and bruce and clint were middle-aged... okay, maybe she was just a baby. ]

She seems like a force of nature. It was Clint who recruited me.

[ it was steve who brought her and pietro in but it was clint who told her she was an avenger so she will allow him all the credit. ]

[wiccant]

She is.

( but he says it with a fondness behind his tone, because billy - well. kate's his best friend, he loves her. she's great. )

Strong, determined, brave - Kate may not have any superpowers or like.. superpowered suits or anything, but she's never needed them. Being Kate is enough for her.

[whatchoice]

[ she sounds like natasha, the avenger that didn't need any super serums or mind stones or suits funded by war profiteering. wanda appreciates that, is glad billy had someone like that to have his back. if his powers are anything like hers, a stable force is necessary so he doesn't wind up, you know, like her. ]

Some people don't need all this. [ her hand wobbles, more red energy spills out and sinks to the floor like a heavy fog. ]

Who else is on your team?

[wiccant]

Currently?

( they're not exactly a team. they'd been brought together due to extenuating circumstances, less because they'd wanted to work together. billy had been done with the hero business, but things change. )

Noh-Varr, David, America, Loki, and Teddy. Or uh - Marvel Boy, Prodigy, still America, still Loki, and Hulkling.

[whatchoice]

[ her eyebrows knit together at loki and stay furrowed because he says loki again so she hadn't misheard. sure, it's another universe so it isn't the same loki but wanda doesn't actually like loki. granted, they've never even met, but there's something about the guy that effectively gave her her powers, if you squint, which incidentally resulted in everything she's ever loved being taken away from her, that she doesn't like. is this putting both too much credit and equally as much blame on his shoulders when he might not deserve it? yes. is she going to be the bigger person about it? no, she is 5'6".

instead she scrambles to focus on something else: ] Hulkling?

[wiccant]

Chosen because he's big and green, but he's not like - Hulk's long-lost son or anything? Teddy's half kree, half skrull. He didn't know about that until just a few years ago though. But he's a shapeshifter with superstrength, so the name works.

( they've tried changing it, but couldn't think of anything else to suit. teddy's just stuck being hulkling forever, as is his lot in life. )

[whatchoice]

[ she knows all these words separately, trying to put them together takes her a moment. to be perfectly honest, it's not like she and bruce got along, she really... doesn't care for him. not in a hateful way, it's borne entirely from indifference. he exists, she supposes, as a person, and that's about as far as she gets with it.

whoops? ]

Well... green is a nice color.

[ vision is red sometimes so it's not like she is out here discriminating.

was.

vision was red sometimes. ]

[wiccant]

I mean, he does really make it work for him.

( with a sigh that says way more than billy's words do. teddy looks great in green. and great in green with his purple tank. and great without the tank at all. except teddy isn't his, not right now, but according to kate it might not be that way forever? it's Complicated. )